cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mutation of three amino acids in the disulfide-ring of a CNP based chimeric natriuretic peptide alters its vascular properties

Clinical background C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) is a 22-amino-acid peptide produced mainly in the endothelium with potent cardiac unloading and blood pressure lowering actions, but minimal renal actions. Based on our previous knowledge, we recently fused a 6 aa sequence from BNP to the C-terminus and a 5 aa sequence from ANP to the N-terminus of CNP. This novel hybrid peptide, CBA-NP, has cardiac unloading actions and mild hypotensive effects similar to CNP. Importantly however, the N and C terminus alterations resulted in potent renal excretory actions. Here we test the hypothesis that the 3 aa GSM15–17 in the disulfidering mediate the vascular and hypotensive actions of CBANP. We therefore mutated GSM 15–17 to REA15–17, which we named ABC-NP and compared its in vivo and in vitro actions to CBA-NP.
Legally Charged: Embeddedness and Profit in Large Law Firm Legal Billings

We examine how forms of a firm's embedding in market relationships affect the size of its spreads – i.e., the difference between the selling price and production costs of its goods and services. Building on Harrison White's work on the relational underpinning of market behavior, we argue that the embeddedness of market transactions in social structures furnishes actors with private information and informal governance benefits that shape spreads by adding unique value to transactions and by revealing the price sensitivity of clients. We propose arguments about how a firm's embedded client relationships, interlock ties, and status influence the size of its spreads. Using longitudinal data on the economic and sociological characteristics of law firms that represent the Fortune 200 corporations and top 250 financial firms in America, we find that social structure has significant effects on spreads and that the effects change in scale and direction, depending on the form of embeddedness.
Developing the BIO Questionnaire: A Bilingual Parent Report Tool for Prekindergarten English Learners of Latino Heritage

With the increasing number of preschool-age children of Latino heritage entering U.S. schools comes a growing need to accurately determine children's individual needs and identify potential disabilities, beginning with the screening process. Unfortunately, teachers face many challenges when screening English language learners. Often, parents have important information that can contribute to teachers’ understanding of children's development, but there are limited tools available to collect information from parents. The Formulario Familiar Bilingue de Informacion Formulario y Observacion/Family Bilingual Information & Observation (BIO) Questionnaire is a new parent report tool that can be used to collect information from parents of Latino heritage concerning their child's language development history, current language usage, and exposure to Spanish and English. A multiphase research study was conducted to collect formative data and to establish construct validity for the questionnaire. Results from a focus ...
Chemokine receptors as important regulators of pathogenesis during arboviral encephalitis

The central nervous system (CNS) is a highly complex network comprised of long-lived neurons and glial cells. Accordingly, numerous mechanisms have evolved to tightly regulate the initiation of inflammatory responses within the brain. Under neuroinflammatory conditions, as in the case of viral encephalitides, the infiltration of leukocytes is often required for efficient viral clearance and recovery. The orchestration of leukocyte migration into the inflamed CNS is largely coordinated by chemokines, a large family of chemotactic cytokines, and their receptors. In this review, we will summarize our current understanding of how chemokines promote protection or pathogenesis during arbovirus induced encephalitis, focusing on neurotropic flavivirus and alphaviruses. Furthermore, we will highlight the latest developments in chemokine and chemokine receptor based drugs that could have potential as therapeutics and have been shown to play a pivotal role in shaping the outcome of disease.
Teacher Resilience in Urban Schools: The Importance of Technical Knowledge, Professional Community, and Leadership Opportunities

Improving teacher retention and resiliency are key educational problems. In this article, we share findings from case studies of six educators who, for over 200 combined years, worked in urban, high-poverty schools and highlight what teachers need to remain in such contexts. We argue that developing professional resilience is a process built on the interplay between individuals and their supportive contexts. In-depth interviews with these six educators reveal how connections with educator networks such as the National Writing Project (NWP) helped teachers develop into durable and reflective practitioners by providing them technical expertise, cultural support, and opportunities to develop as leaders.
Communication-resource-aware adaptive watermarking for multimedia authentication in wireless multimedia sensor networks

Efficient multimedia and specifically image authentication is critical and in demand to protect data vulnerability in wireless multimedia sensor networks (WMSN). This is to prevent malicious intruders from modifying and forging image contents over a network. Watermarking technique has been widely used to assert an image data authentication over wired networks; however, resource constraints (e.g. processing power, communication energy) in small sensors and the state of error-prone wireless channels result in fundamental challenges for developing efficient watermarking schemes in WMSN. These challenges include how to embed/protect/extract watermark efficiently and robustly in low-cost sensors and how to transmit authenticated image and multimedia with high energy efficiency. In this paper, we propose a communication-resource-aware and adaptive watermarking scheme for multimedia authentication in WMSN. Our contribution is two folds. First, the transmission quality for the watermark as well as watermarked multimedia authenticity by embedding watermark with adaptive coding redundancies, and by unequally allocating network resources to protect the image and multimedia packets with the watermark information. Second, communication energy efficiency and real time performance are achieved with the watermark being adaptive to the network condition and the processing delay reduced due to the exploited inter-frame correlation. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the proposed adaptive watermarking system can achieve considerable gains in terms of energy saving, image transmission quality and multimedia authentication performance.
Particle-bed model for multicomponent adsorption-based separations: application to pressure swing adsorption

Abstract A generalized nonisothermal particle-bed model for multicomponent adsorption-based separations is developed in this study. The multicomponent mass transport is described by the D’Arcy’s law in the adsorbent bed and by the dusty-gas model in the adsorbent particles. No restrictions are imposed on the number of species in the multicomponent mixture. Appropriate boundary conditions are formulated for all the basic steps in an adsorptive separation scheme. The model is solved by a combination of the collocation and the subdomain methods of weighted residuals. A four-step pressure swing adsorption process for production of oxygen-enriched product from air using zeolite 5A as an adsorbent is employed as a model system for the application of the particle-bed model. The model is tested under various conditions of operations, and its predictions are discussed in the context of past analytical results and experimental observations. The results show that nonisothermal pressure swing adsorption processes approach their cyclic steady states very slowly because of the slow build up of the temperature profiles. It is also found that the external heat transport limitations at the outer surface of the adsorbent particles have no effect on the nonisothermal operation of the adsorbent beds, and it is thus concluded that a single energy equation for the macroscopic variation of the temperature in the bed would suffice in almost all practical applications. The particle-bed model is found to be superior to the lumped-parameter models for the case of strong intraparticle mass transport limitations.
Validity Evidence for the Test of Silent Reading Efficiency and Comprehension (TOSREC)

An essential component of a response to intervention (RTI) framework is a screening process that is both accurate and efficient. The purpose of this study was to analyze the validity evidence for t...
Self-awareness without awareness? Implicit self-focused attention and behavioral self-regulation.

Objective self-awareness theory contends that focusing attention on the self initiates an automatic comparison of self to standards. To gain evidence for automatic self–standard comparison processes, two experiments manipulated attention to self with subliminal first-name priming. People completed a computer-based parity task after being instructed that the standard was to be fast or to be accurate. Subliminal first-name priming increased behavioral adherence to the explicit standard. When told to be fast, self-focused people made more mistakes and had faster response times; when told to be accurate, self-focused people made fewer mistakes. A manipulation of conscious self-awareness (via a mirror) had the same self-regulatory effects. The findings suggest that comparing self to standards can occur automatically and that it is attention to self, not awareness of the self per se, that evokes self-evaluation.
Corona from a Water Drop

Studies with a water drop point in a point-to-plane gap have yielded important results. Such a point has a very low secondary electron emission coefficient, and for the first time a large difference in positive and negative intermittent onset potentials in air, due to this, has been observed. The luminosity obtained with a negative drop point and the complex oscillograph pulses on both polarities have been accounted for by considering positive corona from charged droplets leaving the water point and assuming that true negative corona from a water surface is impossible. The space charge weakening of the field about a positive point, long assumed to explain the disappearance of the pre-onset streamers, is here confirmed by the reappearance of a stable drop point well above the initial potential required for disruption of the water surface.
The repulsion algorithm, a new multistart method for global optimization

This paper proposes a new multistart algorithm to find the global minimum of constrained problems. This algorithm, which in this paper is called the repulsion algorithm, efficiently selects initial design points for local searches. A Bayesian approach provides the stopping rules. The method uses information from the previous sampling points and the corresponding sequences generated by local searches to select new initial points. This approach increases the probability of finding all local minima with fewer local searches. Numerical example problems show that compared with traditional multistart methods, the repulsion algorithm reduces significantly the number of local searches required to find the global minimum.
Arrhythmias and vagus nerve stimulation

Enhancing vagal tone by delivering electrical stimulation to the vagal nerves (VNS) is emerging as a promising novel therapy in heart failure. In addition, VNS is already an FDA-approved therapy for refractory epilepsy and depression. Besides its well-known negative chronotropic, inotropic, and dromotropic effects, VNS has profound effects on cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmogenesis. This review summarizes current knowledge about the complex relationship between VNS and cardiac arrhythmias. Specifically, the focus is on VNS capability to become a therapeutic strategy along with important electrophysiological alterations that may constitute a potential arrhythmogenic substrate and become a clinical concern.
The application of SIMOPT2: RICE to evaluate profit and yield-risk in upland-rice production☆

Abstract The extent to which farmers are willing to adopt high-yielding technologies depends upon the economic environment of the farm and their perception of risk in this environment. The simulation-dualcriteria optimization technique for upland-rice production (SIMOPT2: RICE) is presented as a decision support tool for maximizing profit and minimizing yield risk simultaneously in upland-rice production, subject to the constraints imposed on the three decision variables, namely, sowing date, fertilizer treatment and plant population. SIMOPT2: RICE consists of the CERES (Crop Estimation through Resources and Environmental Synthesis)-Rice (upland) simulation model and a dualcriteria optimization module. The optimization module consists of the Pareto optimization which identifies those technologies that are noninferior in the Pareto optimal sense, and the min-max optimization which identifies the Pareto optimal technology that is the ‘best compromise’ between profit and yield risk, when both objective functions are equally weighted.
Complex Evolutionary History of the Aeromonas veronii Group Revealed by Host Interaction and DNA Sequence Data

Aeromonas veronii biovar sobria, Aeromonas veronii biovar veronii, and Aeromonas allosaccharophila are a closely related group of organisms, the Aeromonas veronii Group, that inhabit a wide range of host animals as a symbiont or pathogen. In this study, the ability of various strains to colonize the medicinal leech as a model for beneficial symbiosis and to kill wax worm larvae as a model for virulence was determined. Isolates cultured from the leech out-competed other strains in the leech model, while most strains were virulent in the wax worms. Three housekeeping genes, recA, dnaJ and gyrB, the gene encoding chitinase, chiA, and four loci associated with the type three secretion system, ascV, ascFG, aexT, and aexU were sequenced. The phylogenetic reconstruction failed to produce one consensus tree that was compatible with most of the individual genes. The Approximately Unbiased test and the Genetic Algorithm for Recombination Detection both provided further support for differing evolutionary histories among this group of genes. Two contrasting tests detected recombination within aexU, ascFG, ascV, dnaJ, and gyrB but not in aexT or chiA. Quartet decomposition analysis indicated a complex recent evolutionary history for these strains with a high frequency of horizontal gene transfer between several but not among all strains. In this study we demonstrate that at least for some strains, horizontal gene transfer occurs at a sufficient frequency to blur the signal from vertically inherited genes, despite strains being adapted to distinct niches. Simply increasing the number of genes included in the analysis is unlikely to overcome this challenge in organisms that occupy multiple niches and can exchange DNA between strains specialized to different niches. Instead, the detection of genes critical in the adaptation to specific niches may help to reveal the physiological specialization of these strains.
From research to policy: using evidence from impact evaluations to inform development policy

Recent years have seen a tremendous growth in impact evaluations of development policies, and an increasing trend towards considering rigorous evidence while making policy decisions. But there is much greater scope for incorporating results from impact evaluations into policy decisions, even in the presence of political and administrative constraints. We discuss how evidence is currently incorporated into policymaking, the constraints on greater adoption of evidence-based policy, and suggest specific ways that stronger policy–research partnerships can help overcome these constraints. Recognising that there are many different channels to influence policy, we provide examples from the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab's (J-PAL's) policy outreach work in the hope that this paper can help in greater sharing of best practices from the impact evaluation field on how best to use evidence to inform policy.
Quantum reflection pole method for determination of quasibound states in semiconductor heterostructures

The quantum reflection pole method (QRPM) is introduced for determining quasibound state eigenenergies and their lifetimes in symmetric, asymmetric, biased, and unbiased quantum heterostructures. In the QRPM the single-band effective-mass Schrodinger equation is solved without using complex arithmetic. Calculations are much simpler to perform than with previous methods. Further, results are found to be in excellent agreement with other rigorous techniques.
Effects of luteinizing hormone on peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ in the rat ovary before and after the gonadotropin surge

We have shown previously that mRNA for peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma) is expressed in granulosa cells and downregulated by the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge. The current studies were undertaken to test the hypothesis that LH stimulates a decrease in the expression of PPARgamma, as well as its activity, in granulosa cells. Ovaries were collected from immature rats 0 and 48 h after they received pregnant mares' serum gonadotropin (PMSG), and 4 and 24 h after administration of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), and used for protein isolation or processed for immunolocalization of PPARgamma. The amount of phosphorylated PPARgamma was measured by immunoblot analysis to determine how LH affects the phosphorylation status, and therefore the activity, of PPARgamma. Granulosa cells were also collected from immature rats 48 h after PMSG. Cells were cultured with LH in the absence and presence of H89 and cycloheximide to investigate the role of PKA and protein synthesis in the LH-mediated decline in mRNA for PPARgamma respectively. Protein corresponding to PPARgamma was localized to nuclei of granulosa cells 0 and 48 h after PMSG. Expression was greatly reduced by 4 h after hCG, with expression in mural granulosa cells lost before that in cumulus cells. The amount of phosphorylated PPARgamma did not change during the periovulatory period. Blocking PKA activity had no effect on levels of mRNA for PPARgamma. However, levels of mRNA for PPARgamma were significantly increased in cells treated with cycloheximide (P < 0.05, ANOVA followed by Tukey's HSD). These data suggest that PPARgamma is tightly regulated in the ovary and that its expression is the primary mechanism by which LH influences the activity of PPARgamma. In addition, protein synthesis may be involved in modulating levels of PPARgamma in granulosa cells.
Computational environments for coupling multiphase flow, transport, and mechanics in porous media

Cost-effective management of remediation of contamination sites andcarbon sequestration in deep saline aquifers is driving development of a new generationof subsurface simulators. The central challenge is to minimize costs ofcleanup and/or maximize economic benefit from an environment whose propertiesare only poorly known and in which a variety of complex chemical and physicalphenomena take place. In order to address this challenge a robust reservoirsimulator comprised of coupled programs that together account for multicomponent,multiscale, multiphase flow and transport through porous media and throughwells and that incorporate uncertainty and include robust solvers is required. Thecoupled programs must be able to treat different physical processes occurring simultaneouslyin different parts of the domain, and for computational accuracyand efficiency, should also accomodate multiple numerical schemes. In addition,this problem solving environment or framework must have parameter estimationand optimal control capabilities. We present a "wish list" for simulator capabilitiesas well as describe the methodology employed in the IPARS software beingdeveloped at The University of Texas at Austin. This work also involves a closecooperation on middleware for multiphysics couplings and interactive steeringwith Parashar at Rutgers University.
Mechanical ventilation strategies for lung protection

Robust data suggest that both maximal and tidal overdistension of lung regions can produce both direct lung injury and a release of inflammatory mediators into the circulation. Animal data also suggest that additional injury results from repetitive alveolar recruitment-derecruitment. Ventilator management strategies aimed at limiting maximal distension (and optimising recruitment) are called lung-protective strategies. Because minute ventilation can be compromised by these strategies, gas exchange may suffer in a trade-off for this protection. Recent clinical trial results showing mortality benefits of lung protection, however, provide strong evidence that this trade-off is worthwhile.
Cardiac output and stroke volume estimation using a hybrid of three Windkessel models

Cardiac output (CO) and stroke volume (SV) are the key hemodynamic parameters to be monitored and assessed in ambulatory and critically ill patients. The purpose of this study was to introduce and validate a new algorithm to continuously estimate, within a proportionality constant, CO and SV by means of mathematical analysis of peripheral arterial blood pressure (ABP) waveforms. The algorithm combines three variants of the Windkessel model. Input parameters to the algorithm are the end-diastolic pressure, mean arterial pressures, inter-beat interval, and the time interval from end-diastolic to peak systolic pressure. The SV estimates from the three variants of the Windkessel model were weighted and integrated to provide beat-to-beat SV estimation. In order to validate the new algorithm, the estimated CO and SV were compared to those obtained through surgically implanted Transonic™ aortic flow probes placed around the aortic roots of six Yorkshire swine. Overall, estimation errors in CO and SV derived from radial ABP were 10.1% and 14.5% respectively, and 12.7% and 16.5% from femoral ABP. The new algorithm demonstrated statistically significant improvement in SV estimation compared with previous methods.
Changes in ovarian function in mature beef cows grazing endophyte infected tall fescue.

The objective was to examine follicular and luteal development and function in mature, lactating beef cows grazing endophyte free (E-) or endophyte infected (E+) tall fescue during the early postpartum period. Angus, Hereford, and Angus x Hereford cows were exposed to pasture for 37-39 days before synchronized estrus. Serum concentrations of prolactin were evaluated during the luteal phase before the synchronized estrus. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for one estrous cycle ovaries were monitored by transrectal ultrasonography and blood was collected for determination of serum concentrations of progesterone and estradiol in cows that responded to synchronization. Signs of fescue toxicosis in E+ cows included decreased serum concentrations of prolactin (84.9+/-13.6 pg/ml versus 32.3+/-12.0 pg/ml; P 10 mm) follicles were similar (P > 0.05) between treatments, but number of class 2 (6-9 mm) follicles was reduced in E+ cows for most of the cycle (days 10 through 20; P 0.05) among treatment groups. Even though follicular dynamics (diameter of the largest follicle and number of class 2 follicles) were altered in cows grazing E+ tall fescue, follicular function was apparently not affected by ergot alkaloids.
GABAergic regulation of the central nucleus of the amygdala: implications for sleep control

Abstract It is becoming established that the amygdala has a strong influence on arousal state, with most evidence indicating a role in the regulation of rapid eye movement sleep (REM). Electrically activating the central nucleus of the amygdala (CNA) can increase subsequent REM and enhance REM-related phenomena. However, drugs that may be inhibitory to CNA have been typically reported to reduce REM. This suggests that enhancing activity in CNA could promote REM, and that inhibiting activity in CNA could suppress REM. We reversibly inactivated CNA using the GABAA agonist, muscimol, or blocked GABAergic inhibition with the GABAA antagonist, bicuculline, and examined the effects on sleep and wakefulness. Rats (90-day-old male Sprague–Dawley) were implanted with electrodes for recording EEG and EMG. Cannulae were aimed into CNA for microinjecting muscimol (0.001, 0.3 and 1.0 μM/0.2 μl saline) or bicuculline (56 and 333 pM/0.2 μl saline). Each animal received bilateral microinjections of muscimol, bicuculine or saline alone followed by 6-h sleep recordings. Microinjections of low concentrations of muscimol into CNA produced relatively selective decreases in total REM and number of REM episodes that lasted up to 6 h. In contrast, microinjections of bicuculline into CNA produced significant increases in REM. There were no significant reductions in NREM or wakefulness. These findings demonstrate that inactivating CNA can produce a relatively selective suppression of REM. The possible role that spontaneous activity in CNA may play in REM initiation and/or maintenance is discussed.
The value of information about central bankers' preferences

Abstract I study the value to society of information about central bankers' preferences for inflation relative to output stabilization. I find that the value to society of information is only positive if bankers are “very” conservative. The reason is the following. More information has two effects. On the one hand it allows the public to make more accurate predictions, reducing surprise inflation and consequently the expected variance of output; on the other hand, information increases the expected variability of inflation. The latter effect dominates the former when bankers are not “sufficiently” conservative.
Effects of Oxygen Incorporation on the Physical Properties of Amorphous Metal Thin Films

Incorporated oxygen is known to affect amorphous metal thin film (AMTF) mechanical properties, but comparatively little is known about how it affects their structural characteristics and electrical transport properties. In this study, AMTFs are produced by using sputter deposition. Chemical composition, average interatomic spacing, surface roughness, and electrical transport properties are examined using electron probe microanalysis (EPMA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM), spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE), and variable-temperature resistivity. ZrCuAlNi amorphous metal thin films exhibit a temperature dependence that is characteristic of d-electron conduction and electrical resistivity that increases substantially with increasing oxygen content. TiAl and ZrCuB are found to be sp-electron conductors with electrical resistivity that decreases with increasing oxygen content. The surface roughness of all films increases with oxygen content, whereas interatomic spacing is relatively insens...
How can teacher education change the downhill trend of science education

(1992). How can teacher education change the downhill trend of science education? Journal of Science Teacher Education: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 21-26.
The acetylation and enzymatic degradation of starch films

The preparation of films from starch and their degradation by amylase enzymes is described. Starch acetate was prepared by acetylation of starch with a pyridine/acetic anhydride mixture. The resulting polymer was cast into films from solutions of 90% formic acid. A series of films with a range of acetyl content were then exposed to buffered amylase solutions and the retained tensile strength measured. It was found that with a sufficient acetyl content the wet strength of the films was maintained in the aqueous solutions, but that the acetyl content was sufficiently low enough to permit degradation by a mixture of alpha and beta amylases within a period of 1 h. These films could be useful as membranes in bioreactors, which could be degraded at will by the addition of enzymes to the system. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Contact-angle studies of microscopic mercury droplets on glass

Abstract A new method has been described at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant for calculating the contact angles of microscopic mercuery droplets within a sealed glass cell under partial vacuum. The sine of the contact angle of a small pendant droplet was found to be equal to the ratio of the diameter of the circular base (as observed by a microscope through the upper glass surface and then photographed) to the maximum diameter of the same droplet photographed separately. Because the droplets studied were typically about 0.02 cm in diameter, their shapes were very nearly spherical sections and the simple calculation of the contact angle required no correction for gravitational distortion.
Neurog1 Genetic Inducible Fate Mapping (GIFM) Reveals the Existence of Complex Spatiotemporal Cyto-Architectures in the Developing Cerebellum

Neurog1 is a pro-neural basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor expressed in progenitor cells located in the ventricular zone and subsequently the presumptive white matter tracts of the developing mouse cerebellum. We used genetic inducible fate mapping (GIFM) with a transgenic Neurog1-CreER allele to characterize the contributions of Neurog1 lineages to cerebellar circuit formation in mice. GIFM reveals Neurog1-expressing progenitors are fate-mapped to become Purkinje cells and all GABAergic interneuron cell types of the cerebellar cortex but not glia. The spatiotemporal sequence of GIFM is unique to each neuronal cell type. GIFM on embryonic days (E) 10.5 to E12.5 labels Purkinje cells with different medial-lateral settling patterns depending on the day of tamoxifen delivery. GIFM on E11.5 to P7 labels interneurons and the timing of tamoxifen administration correlates with the final inside-to-outside resting position of GABAergic interneurons in the cerebellar cortex. Proliferative status and long-term BrdU retention of GIFM lineages reveals Purkinje cells express Neurog1 around the time they become post-mitotic. In contrast, GIFM labels mitotic and post-mitotic interneurons. Neurog1-CreER GIFM reveals a correlation between the timing of Neurog1 expression and the spatial organization of GABAergic neurons in the cerebellar cortex with possible implications for cerebellar circuit assembly.
Regulation of protein kinase C gene expression by retinoic acid in B16 mouse melanoma cells

Abstract We have previously shown that the retinoic acid (RA)-induced growth arrest and differentiation of B16 mouse melanoma cells is accompanied by a large increase in the amount and activity of protein kinase C (PKC). Since PKC is a multigene family, we investigated which isoforms were expressed in control and RA-treated B16 melanoma cells, and characterized the manner by which RA regulates PKC gene expression. We found that RA treatment of B16 cells resulted in an increase in PKCα mRNA beginning at 4–8 h and reached a maximum of 10- to 12-fold over control levels by 48 h. There was also a small amount of PKCγ mRNA, present only in 48-h RA-treated cells, but no PKCβ mRNA was detected. The effect of RA on PKCα mRNA induction was not direct since the induction was abolished when cycloheximide was included in the incubation medium. Nuclear run-on experiments showed that the RA-induced increase in PKCα steady-state mRNA was not entirely due to an increase in transcriptional activity, as the increase in PKCα transcription was only 2- to 3-fold over control, which is not enough to account for the 10- to 15-fold increase in steady state levels. There was also no change in PKCα mRNA stability in RA-treated B16 cells compared to untreated cells. The 10.9-kb PKCα message in both control and RA-treated cells was less stable than the 3.8-kb PKCα message. Therefore, we propose that the major level of control of PKCα mRNA levels by RA is post-transcriptional, either RNA processing or transport out of the nucleus.
A b = 1.0 toroidal beta ray spectrometer

Abstract A 38 gap toroidal spectrometer has been designed for the study of short period beta emitters. The spectrometer is portable, yet capable of focusing 10 MeV elecrtrons. It has 1.4% transmission and 2.2% resolution for a 4 mm diameter source. Unlike other toroidal spectrometers with b > 0.6, its transmission is nearly equal to its gathering power. Its performance can be explained by the azimuthal focusing effect of the coil geometry. The same effect may also account for the high luminosity of b = 0.6 toroidal spectrometers.
In-situ IR and spectroscopic ellipsometric analysis of growth process and structural properties of Ti1−xNbxO2 thin films by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition

The formation process of Ti1−xNbxO2 films with the Nb concentration up to 38 at.% by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) using titanium tetraisopropoxide (TTIP) and pentaethoxy niobium (PEN) as precursors has been characterized by In-situ Fourier transform IR (FTIR) spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry. In-situ FTIR data suggested that there was no gas phase decomposition of TTIP near the substrate surface under typical growth conditions. Post-deposition analysis of In-situ ellipsometric data allowed simultaneous determination of film thickness, growth rate, and refractive index of the films. Growth mode and surface roughness were also obtained in the post-deposition analysis. The growth process of Ti1−xNbxO2 films can be divided into three stages: nucleation and coalescence, the homogeneous growth, and the surface roughness evolution. Increase of the growth temperature appears to increase the initial island size, and decrease the outer rough surface layer. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy revealed that the oxidation state of Ti and Nb is 4+. The structure of the Ti1−xNbxO2 films strongly depends on the growth temperature but not on the Nb concentration. The Ti1−xNbxO2 films deposited at 400°C are pure anatase, and at 800°C are pure rutile, but show a mixture of anatase and rutile at the temperature range from 550°C to 800°C. Such a phase change in the films results in a large range of refractive index for the Ti1−xNbxO2 films.
A proposal for the reduction of domestic price variability during the phase-in period of trade liberalization

Abstract Countries replacing existing trade barriers with a fixed tariff may find that domestic price variability rises to politically unacceptable levels. This paper shows how the tariff-reduction formula can be modified to delay the transmission of world price variability. The importance of this modification is demonstrated by a simple two-country, one-commodity simulation model. The simulation results show that tariffication of existing EC variable levies/export subsidies would dramatically increase price variability within the European Community and that the transmission of this variability can be delayed by slightly altering the adjustment formula.
Sensory input and circadian effects upon cage activity in two species of cebid monkey

Day and night measures of cage activity in the diurnal squirrel monkey and the nocturnal owl monkey were obtained under various sensory input conditions. Significant activity differences obtained between the species, due to the circadian factor and due to illumination and sound factors. The circadian and illumination variables produced opposite effects from one species to the other. The overall species effect was not significant.
The effect of alpha-ecdysone and phenobarbital on the alpha-ecdysone 20-monooxygenase of house fly larva.

The NADPH-dependent cytochrome P-450 20-monooxygenation of α-ecdysone is catalyzed both by mitochondria and microsomes isolated from Musca domestica , L. larvae, but about 50% of the activity is associated with mitochondria and 37% with microsomes. The mitochondrial activity is increased by pretreatment with α-ecdysone with a concomitant decrease in Km values. This effect is not observed in microsomes. Induction with phenobarbital represses the mitochondrial 20-monooxygenase but does not change the microsomal activity, although a large increase in cytochrome P-450 is observed in the latter fraction. It is concluded that only the mitochondrial 20-monooxygenase appears to be regulated by α-ecdysone which suggests that mitochondrial cytochrome P-450 forms are involved in the moulting phenomenon; whereas, microsomal cytochrome P-450 activity may be of a nonspecific nature and not relevant to development.
Implicit relationship prototypes: Investigating five theories of the cognitive organization of social relationships

Abstract Categorical approaches have been fruitfully applied to many domains of social cognition. However the domain of social relationships has yet to receive such attention, despite a number of prominent categorical theories of the elementary forms of relationship. This article reports a study comparing the mappings of five disparate theories of basic categories of relationship onto subjects' implicit organizations of their own relationships, elicited by free sorting and similarity rating tasks, and explores the interrelations among these theories. The theories compared were Fiske's theory of relational models, Foa and Foa's theory of resource exchange, Parsons' theory of role expectations, Mills and Clark's theory of communal and exchange relationships, and MacCrimmon and Messick's theory of social motives or orientations. Categories from the five theories were found to form several discrete clusters. The first three theories were superior predictors of implicit groupings, and six of their categories correspond most closely to the observed groupings. Implications are drawn about the organization and basic level of relational prototypes, about the omissions and strengths of the respective theories, and about the optimal structure of an empirically informed typology of elementary implicit relational forms.
Diamond gradient index "moth-eye" antireflection surfaces for LWIR windows

An optical surface can be microscopically textured in a pattern with physical features whose dimensions are below that of the operational wavelength to produce a physical gradient in the effective optical index of refraction. The performance of such 'moth-eye' surface features, typically cones or pyramids, can be predicted based on dielectric mixture models by use of the optical properties of the base material and air. The performances of LWIR antireflective moth- eye surfaces formed in silicon, germanium and diamond are consistent with theoretical predictions.© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Transactional predication: high-performance concurrent sets and maps for STM

Concurrent collection classes are widely used in multi-threaded programming, but they provide atomicity only for a fixed set of operations. Software transactional memory (STM) provides a convenient and powerful programming model for composing atomic operations, but concurrent collection algorithms that allow their operations to be composed using STM are significantly slower than their non-composable alternatives. We introduce transactional predication, a method for building transactional maps and sets on top of an underlying non-composable concurrent map. We factor the work of most collection operations into two parts: a portion that does not need atomicity or isolation, and a single transactional memory access. The result approximates semantic conflict detection using the STM's structural conflict detection mechanism. The separation also allows extra optimizations when the collection is used outside a transaction. We perform an experimental evaluation that shows that predication has better performance than existing transactional collection algorithms across a range of workloads.
Noninvasive 1H/13C magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging of the intratumoral distribution of temozolomide

Among the primary reasons for failure of anticancer chemotherapy are insufficient drug delivery to the tumor because of inadequate tumor vascularization and/or the antivascular effects of chemotherapy. Thus, determining the spatial intratumoral distribution of anticancer agents by noninvasive methods such as MRI/MRSI is important for monitoring cancer chemotherapy. We therefore studied the distribution of the 13C-labeled anticancer agent temozolomide ([13C]TMZ) in MCF-7 tumor-bearing mice using 1H/13C MRSI. In phantom studies inverse 13C detection with heteronuclear multiple quantum coherence (HMQC) provided a 2.3-fold gain in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) over direct nuclear overhauser effect (NOE)-enhanced 13C-MRS. This enabled detection of [13C]TMZ in the micromolar range. Three-dimensional (3D) maps of drug distribution with a nominal 2.5-mm isotropic resolution were obtained following intraperitoneal administration of [13C]TMZ, for a total dose of 200 mg/kg. The status of the blood supply of tumors was assessed by gadolinium (Gd)-enhanced dynamic MRI. Nonuniform distributions of the drug and the contrast agent were detected in the tumors. Although carbon-13 MRSI has an inherently low sensitivity for detection, the novel technique described here demonstrates the feasibility of studying the delivery of 13C-labeled drugs and contrast uptake during the course of chemotherapy. Magn Reson Med, 2006. © 2006 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Growth, reproduction, mortality, and pathologic changes in rats fed gamma-irradiated potatoes☆

Abstract For two years a colony of albino rats was fed diets one-third of which consisted of potatoes which received, for sprout-inhibition purposes, a dose of up to 40 kilorads of irradiation from reactor fuel elements. There were no effects of the irradiation treatment on growth, reproductive performances through four generations, hematology, nor on pathologic changes of these rats. The higher mortality of first-generation males and second-generation females fed the diets containing irradiated potatoes is not believed to be attributable to the irradiation treatment per se. Irradiation was not a factor in the unusually high incidence of a necrotizing arteritis resembling “peri-arteritis nodosa” in the first- and second-generation animals.
Interaction of infiltrated colloidal PbS nanocrystals with high Q/V silicon photonic bandgap nanocavities for near-infrared enhanced spontaneous emissions

We study the interaction of silicon photonic crystal nanocavities with infiltrated colloidal PbS nanocrystals as a viable and efficient source for achieving indistinguishable and single photons. Nanocrystal-nanocavity coupling is predicted at near-infrared wavelengths, suggesting the possibility towards exciting silicon-based nanophotonic lasers, and novel efficient sources for fiber and silicon-based quantum information networks and systems. Two effective designs for nanocrystal-nanocavity coupling are illustrated that exhibit moderate to high cavity quality factors, and ultra-small modal volumes for spontaneous emission enhancements. It is shown that in principle our system can approach the observation of strong exciton-cavity coupling in a solid-state implementation at room temperature.
Efficient anonymous message submission

In online surveys, many people are not willing to provide true answers due to privacy concerns. Thus, anonymity is important for online message collection. Existing solutions let each member blindly shuffle the submitted messages by using the IND-CCA2 secure cryptosystem. In the end, all messages are randomly shuffled and no one knows the message order. However, the heavy computational overhead and linear communication rounds make it only useful for small groups. In this paper, we propose an efficient anonymous message submission protocol aimed at a practical group size. Our protocol is based on a simplified secret sharing scheme and a symmetric key cryptosystem. We propose a novel method to let all members secretly aggregate their messages into a message vector such that a member knows nothing about other members' message positions.We provide a theoretical proof showing that our protocol is anonymous under malicious attacks. We then conduct a thorough analysis of our protocol, showing that our protocol is computationally more efficient than existing solutions and results in a constant communication rounds with a high probability.
A Rare Kind of Light at the End of a Rare Kind of Tunnel: Trauma of a Life-Altering, Chronic, Degenerative Disease and Its Redemption

Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, degenerative neurological disease that traumatizes and retraumatizes victims. As a result of the absence of a human perpetrator and collectivity of experience, this trauma tends to be highly internalized. The trajectory of the disease ultimately results in absolute disillusionment in all systems that sustain life. While recovery might not be possible in the face of a degenerative, chronic illness, the patient may be able to find redemption by focusing on greater truths and little joys, which in turn could place him or her on a higher plane.
Prediction of coarse particle movement with adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems

The use of a neuro-fuzzy approach is proposed to model the dynamics of entrainment of a coarse particle by rolling. It is hypothesized that near-bed turbulent flow structures of different magnitude and duration or frequency and energy content are responsible for the particle displacement. A number of Adaptive Neuro-Fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS) architectures are proposed and developed to link the hydrodynamic forcing exerted on a solid particle to its response, and model the underlying nonlinear dynamics of the system. ANFIS combines the advantages of fuzzy inference (If-Then) rules with the power of learning and adaptation of the neural networks. The model components and forecasting procedure are discussed in detail. To demonstrate the model's applicability for near-threshold flow conditions an example is provided, where flow velocity and particle displacement data from flume experiments are used as input and output for the training and testing of the ANFIS models. In particular, a Laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) is employed to obtain long records of local streamwise velocity components upstream of a mobile exposed particle. These measurements are acquired synchronously with the time history of the particle's position detected by a setup including a He-Ne laser and a photodetector. The representation of the input signal in the time and frequency domain is implemented and the best performing models are found capable of reproducing the complex dynamics of particle response. Following a trial and error approach the different models are compared in terms of their efficiency and forecast accuracy using a number of performance indices. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Precipitation from homogeneous solution by photochemical action: determination of thorium.

Abstract Thorium was precipitated from homogeneous solution by photochemical reduction of periodate to iodate in a solution containing thorium and perchloric acid, by means of a 2537 A low-pressure mercury vapour lamp. For weighing, the precipitate was redissolved, precipitated once as thorium hydroxide, and finally as thorium oxalate, which was ignited to thorium dioxide. Quantitative results were obtained in the range 35–180 mg of thorium.