cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Three-dimensional periodic graphene nanostructures

Graphene is a basic building block for many known and emerging carbon-based materials whose properties largely depend on the way how graphene is structured at the nanoscale. Synthesis of novel three-dimensional (3D) nanostructures of graphene would be an important advance for fundamental research and various applications. In this paper, we discuss the possibility of fabricating complex 3D graphene nanostructures by growing graphene on pre-synthesized nanostructured metal templates by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and then etching away the metal. In the proof-of-concept experiments, we study this idea using two types of metal nanostructures, inverse opals and slanted nanopillar arrays grown by a glancing angle deposition (GLAD) technique. Due to the elevated temperatures used in typical CVD growth, nanostructures can be easily damaged during the growth process. Therefore, we systematically study the roles of different parameters, such as the composition, morphology and crystallinity of a nanostructured metal, as well as the CVD growth temperature and different carbon sources to grow graphene on metal nanostructures and at the same time preserve their integrity. In particular, we show that nanostructures with large crystalline domains can withstand high temperature CVD, whereas polycrystalline nanostructures, such as nanopillars grown by GLAD, suffer damage even at the low growth temperature of 500 °C. In the case of such thermally sensitive nanostructures, a careful selection of a highly reactive carbon source that could form graphene at lower temperatures becomes crucial. Furthermore, the selection of a metal is also important, as cobalt nanostructures are shown to be more resistant to thermal damage than their nickel counterparts. Finally, we could successfully remove the nanostructured metal templates to form free-standing graphene-based inverse opals and hollow graphene nanopillars. The findings presented in this paper could facilitate synthesis of other 3D graphene nanostructures.
Recursive evaluation of padé approximants for matrix sequences

An algorithm is described for calculating the existing Pade approximants to any sequence A0, A1,... of s × t-matrices. As an application the algorithm gives a new way for finding the minimal polynomial of any square matrix A and the inverse of the characteristic matrix xl - A.
Inhibitor of DNA polymerase in sera of tumour-bearing mice.

WE have previously reported the existence of several DNA polymerases in the murine myeloma line, MOPC-21 (refs 1 and 2). Two of these polymerases, which we refer to as R-1 and R-2, are capable of synthesising poly(dT) on a poly(rA)·oligo(dT)12–18 template. In this report, we show that the R-1 polymerase shares immunological determinants with the ‘reverse transcriptase’ of the Rauscher murine leukaemia virus (MLV). In addition, we show that mice inoculated with the MOPC-21 myeloma tumour line or the Rauscher-virus-induced MCDV-12 tumour line contain a non-immunoglobulin factor in their sera which specifically inactivates the R-1 polymerase.
A low-power digital camera-on-a-chip implemented in CMOS active pixel approach

The advent of high performance imaging in CMOS technology using active pixel sensors has enabled ultra-low power, miniature, integrated, single-chip camera systems. We report the first fully digital, programmable, 5-wire, large format (512/spl times/512) digital-camera-on-a-chip that integrates the imager array, control logic, ADC, and bias generation on the same chip. The VLSI chip runs off a single (3.3 V) power supply, consumes only 8 mW at video rates, is capable of electronic panning, and produces high quality images with 78 dB dynamic range.
Risk moderation of parent and child outcomes in a preventive intervention: A test and replication.

Family risk-related variations in proximal parent and young adolescent outcomes of a universal family-focused preventive intervention were examined using a cumulative index of risk incorporating sociodemographic characteristics and social-emotional adjustment measures. Results of an initial investigation involving 209 families of young adolescents suggested that intervention efficacy was largely unrelated to cumulative family risk. These findings were replicated with a second sample of 428 families. Implications for future intervention applications and outcome research are discussed.
Testing the Hydrological Landscape Unit Classification System and Other Terrain Analysis Measures for Predicting Low-Flow Nitrate and Chloride in Watersheds

Elevated nitrate concentrations in streamwater are a major environmental management problem. While land use exerts a large control on stream nitrate, hydrology often plays an equally important role. To date, predictions of low-flow nitrate in ungauged watersheds have been poor because of the difficulty in describing the uniqueness of watershed hydrology over large areas. Clearly, hydrologic response varies depending on the states and stocks of water, flow pathways, and residence times. How to capture the dominant hydrological controls that combine with land use to define streamwater nitrate concentration is a major research challenge. This paper tests the new Hydrologic Landscape Regions (HLRs) watershed classification scheme of Wolock and others (Environmental Management 34:S71-S88, 2004) to address the question: Can HLRs be used as a way to predict low-flow nitrate? We also test a number of other indexes including inverse-distance weighting of land use and the well-known topographic index (TI) to address the question: How do other terrain and land use measures compare to HLR in terms of their ability to predict low-flow nitrate concentration? We test this for 76 watersheds in western Oregon using the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program and Regional Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program data. We found that HLRs did not significantly improve nitrate predictions beyond the standard TI and land-use metrics. Using TI and inverse-distance weighting did not improve nitrate predictions; the best models were the percentage land use—elevation models. We did, however, see an improvement of chloride predictions using HLRs, TI, and inverse-distance weighting; adding HLRs and TI significantly improved model predictions and the best models used inverse-distance weighting and elevation. One interesting result of this study is elevation consistently predicted nitrate better than TI or the hydrologic classification scheme.
Information extraction as a basis for high-precision text classification

We describe an approach to text classification that represents a compromise between traditional word-based techniques and in-depth natural language processing. Our approach uses a natural language processing task called “information extraction” as a basis for high-precision text classification. We present three algorithms that use varying amounts of extracted information to classify texts. The relevancy signatures algorithm uses linguistic phrases; the augmented relevancy signatures algorithm uses phrases and local context; and the case-based text classification algorithm uses larger pieces of context. Relevant phrases and contexts are acquired automatically using a training corpus. We evaluate the algorithms on the basis of two test sets from the MUC-4 corpus. All three algorithms achieved high precision on both test sets, with the augmented relevancy signatures algorithm and the case-based algorithm reaching 100% precision with over 60% recall on one set. Additionally, we compare the algorithms on a larger collection of 1700 texts and describe an automated method for empirically deriving appropriate threshold values. The results suggest that information extraction techniques can support high-precision text classification and, in general, that using more extracted information improves performance. As a practical matter, we also explain how the text classification system can be easily ported across domains.
Revisiting Wittgenstein's puzzle: hierarchical encoding and comparison facilitate learning of probabilistic relational categories.

Kittur et al. (2004, 2006) and Jung & Hummel (2011, in press) showed that people have great difficulty learning relation-based categories with a probabilistic (i.e., family resemblance) structure, in which no single relation is shared by all members of a category. Yet acquisition of such categories is not strictly impossible: In all these studies, roughly half the participants eventually learned to criterion. What are these participants doing that the other half are not? We hypothesized that successful participants were those who divided the nominal categories into two or more sub-categories, each of which individually had a deterministic structure. We report three experiments testing this hypothesis: Explicitly presenting participants with hierarchical (category and sub-category) structures facilitated the acquisition of otherwise probabilistic relational categories, but only when participants learned the subordinate-level (i.e., deterministic) categories prior to learning the nominal (i.e., probabilistic) categories and only when they were permitted to view multiple exemplars of the same category simultaneously. These findings suggest that one way to learn natural relational categories with a probabilistic structure (e.g., Wittgenstein’s, 1953, category game, or even mother) is by learning deterministic subordinate-level concepts first and connecting them together under a common concept or label. They also add to the literature suggesting that comparison of multiple exemplars plays an instrumental role in relational learning.
A Type III restriction-modification system in Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri.

The sequenced genome of Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri revealed the presence of a Type III restriction–modification system (MmyCI). The methyltransferase (modification) subunit of MmyCI (M.MmyCI) was shown to recognize the sequence 5′-TGAG-3′ and methylate the adenine. The coding region of the methyltransferase gene contains 12 consecutive AG dinucleotide repeats that result in a translational termination at a TAA codon immediately beyond the repeat region. This strain does not have MmyCI activity. A clone was found with 10 AG repeats such that the gene is in frame, and this strain has MmyCI activity, suggesting that the expression of the MmyCI methyltransferase may be phase variable.
Anticipatory Loss and Early Mastectomy for Young Female BRCA1/2 Mutation Carriers

Young women who carry BRCA1/2 mutations face difficult decisions in managing their hereditary breast/ovarian cancer risk. Through this National Cancer Institute study, we sought to understand the process by which some young women choose risk-reducing bilateral mastectomy (RRBM) instead of alternative risk-management options. Data indicate that electing to undergo RRBM, although difficult, is experienced as a way to sidestep potentially devastating outcomes, such as stressful and costly high-risk screening, chemotherapy or radiation, or putting loved ones through the challenges of a cancer diagnosis. The decision to pursue RRBM is often the product of screening fatigue, encouragement from loved ones, and/or a sense of urgency to put one’s high-risk period behind one. By understanding how young carriers make decisions about surgical risk reduction, providers can better guide, counsel, and support patients in the important tasks surrounding this life-changing medical decision, thereby helping to increase the...
Soybean Isoflavones Suppress Basophil Degranulation in Vitro in Subjects with Food Allergy

S U N D A Y 431 Soybean Isoflavones Suppress Basophil Degranulation in Vitro in Subjects with Food Allergy Mohanapriya Kamalakannan, MS, Matthew Stadler, Hugh A. Sampson, MD, FAAAAI, Madhan Masilamani, PhD; Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY. RATIONALE: Soybean isoflavones, genistein and daidzein, are well known for their anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. We have recently shown that dietary isoflavones suppress anaphylactic reactions in murine models of peanut allergy. Here we tested the effect of isoflavones on human basophil degranulation in vitroin whole blood samples from subjects with food allergy. METHODS: Whole blood (250mL) from healthy controls (n53), and peanut allergic (n55) and milk allergic (n57) subjects were pre-incubated with 100mM each of genistein+daidzein for 30 min followed by culture with peanut or milk extracts respectively +/100mM genistein+daidzein for 30 min, as well as control stimulations such as anti-IgE, fMLP or medium alone. Degranulation was stopped by adding 20mM EDTA and stained for anti-CD63 and basophil-specific markers followed by flow cytometric analysis. Basophil degranulationwasmeasured by percent foldchange in CD63cells in the basophil gate. Phosphorylation of signal transduction molecules such as Erk, Syk and p38-MAP kinase in basophils was tested by flow cytometry. RESULTS: Isoflavones suppressed human basophil degranulation induced by anti-IgE cross-linking in a dose-dependent fashion. Basophil degranulation from peanut and milk allergic subjects was suppressed in vitro by allergen+isoflavone treatment when compared to allergen-treatment alone (mean % fold change5 217 vs 313 for peanut; 581 vs 949 for milk, respectively). Erk phosphorylation was also suppressed in isoflavone-treated basophils. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the in vitro data and our published results in peanut allergy in murine models, isoflavones may provide a novel treatment option for food allergy.
Tangible, Dynamic Holographic Images

Good holograms are bewitching. They command our eyes to their images, to search the marvelous realness of surfaces, textures, and minute detail for some aberration, some visual clue that will dissuade us from seeing as real what we know is not. Yet while they seem to assemble the very molecules of physical matter for us to ponder, they also present a conundrum: The objects they render appear frozen, lifeless, and confounding to our fingertips.
The Landscape Ecology of Tropical Secondary Forest in Montane Costa Rica

Multinomial logistic models of land use/land cover in montane Costa Rica and landscape pattern analysis showed that relative to agriculture, secondary forest occurred closer to old-growth forest, further from roads, in forest reserves, and at higher elevations. Collinearity between explanatory variables yielded simple multivariate models; proportion of surrounding old growth predicted secondary forest most accurately. An old-growth matrix [mean patch size (MPS) 24.5 ha], located mainly within protected areas, dominated elevations greater than 2500 m. A matrix of agriculture (MPS 23.5 ha), with smaller patches (approximately 9 ha) of secondary forest and old growth, dominated elevations from 1500 to 2500 m. Combining secondary forest with old growth decreased forest patch number and increased MPS from 7.3 to 37.1 ha. I concluded that: (a) secondary forest pattern is nonrandom, so ancillary data will aid its mapping with satellite imagery. The variables elevation, agriculture distance, road distance, and population density distinguished secondary forest from old growth with 74% accuracy; (b) socioeconomic and biological forces probably interact to create these secondary forest patterns; and (c) the strong association between secondary forest and old growth supports the concept that tropical forest recovery depends on the landscape structure of remnant forest.
Tension-free vaginal tape: outcomes among women with primary versus recurrent stress urinary incontinence.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the outcomes of tension-free vaginal tape in the treatment of primary versus recurrent genuine stress urinary incontinence. METHODS: A retrospective, multicenter study of 245 consecutive women who were treated with tension-free vaginal tape for genuine stress urinary incontinence (157 for primary and 88 for recurrent genuine stress urinary incontinence) over a 27-month period was performed. Concurrent surgical repairs were performed as required. Subjective and objective outcome data were assessed from routine postoperative visits. Office and hospital records were reviewed to determine patient characteristics, intraoperative findings, and surgical outcomes. RESULTS: Women with recurrent genuine stress urinary incontinence were older (mean age 64.6 versus 59.4 years, P = .004) than those with primary incontinence; they were less likely to have an intact uterus (22.7% versus 66.9%, P < .001), and were more likely to have intrinsic sphincter deficiency (70.5% versus 47.1%, P < .001). The mean duration of follow-up was 38 (±16) weeks. Cure rates among patients with recurrent versus primary genuine stress urinary incontinence were similar (85% and 87%, respectively, P = .23). Complication rates were similarly low in both groups (4.5% versus 7.6% for recurrent and primary genuine stress urinary incontinence, respectively, P = .35). Postoperative voiding dysfunction occurred at low rates in both groups. CONCLUSION: Tension-free vaginal tape is a highly effective treatment among patients with recurrent stress incontinence, with outcomes comparable with those among patients with primary incontinence.
The determination of bromide, chloride and lead in airborne particulate matter by stripping voltammetry

Abstract Cathodic and anodic stripping voltammetry are proposed for the simultaneous determination of chloride, bromide and lead in atmospheric particulate matter. Particulate matter collected on Nucleopore membrane filters with high-volume pumps is digested in a dilute nitric acid wash at elevated temperature and pressure for 1 h. The sample is then removed to the electrochemical cell and analyzed directly for chloride and bromide by cathodic stripping and for lead by anodic stripping. The total amount of halide is first determined and then, by changing the deposition potential, the amount of bromide only is determined. The chloride is found indirectly by difference. Analysis time for the three elements is approximately 20 min beginning with a prepared sample.
Auditory Brainstem Recovery Processes From Birth to Adulthood

Two treatments-by-subjects with repeated measures experiments were performed to determine maturational changes in the recovery processes along the classical auditory pathway. Subjects ranged in age from birth to adulthood. Brainstem evoked potentials (BEPs) recorded from the surface of the scalp were obtained at stimulus presentation rates of 10–40/sec for all subjects. In addition, some newborns and adults received repetition rates of 50–80/sec. The amplitude and latency of selected BEP components which reflect discrete levels of brainstem integration, were measured. At stimulus rates of 10–40/sec strong age and rate effects evinced but significant interactions emerged only for those waves representative of rostral brainstem activity. A test of trend revealed that the newborns, in comparison with all other age groups, displayed slower recovery to increasing rates of stimulation (10–40/sec). The differential response of the individual BEP components conforms to the known caudo-rostral maturation of the brainstem. Stimulus rates above 50/sec (50–80/sec) produced a relatively uniform depression (refractoriness) in the early BEP components irrespective of age. Only potentials generated in rostral structures continued to covary with rate of stimulation. These studies indicate that in the human brainstem the mechanisms responsible for neuronal recovery are essentially mature in the neonatal period.
A fast computer algorithm for the generation of disjoint cubes for completely and incompletely specified Boolean functions

An algorithm is presented that generates an array of disjoint cubes describing completely and incompletely specified Boolean functions. A peculiar feature of the algorithm, which speeds up its execution, is that in comparison to known algorithms it minimizes the number of usages of cube calculus operations. Pointer structures and array allocations of the C language are effectively used in its implementation. >
Regulated secretion of a serine protease that activates an extracellular matrix-degrading metalloprotease during fertilization in Chlamydomonas.

During fertilization in the biflagellated alga, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, gametes of opposite mating types adhere to each other via agglutinin molecules located on their flagellar surfaces, generating a sexual signal that induces several cellular responses including cell wall release. This cell contact-generated signal is mediated by cAMP and release of the wall, which is devoid of cellulose and contains several hydroxyproline-rich glycoproteins, is due to the activation of a metalloprotease, lysin. Although we originally assumed that lysin would be stored intracellularly in a compartment structurally separate from its substrate, recently we showed that lysin is stored in the periplasm as an inactive, higher relative molecular mass precursor, prolysin (Buchanan, M.J., S. H. Imam, W. A. Eskue, and W. J. Snell. 1989. J. Cell Biol. 108:199-207). Here we show that conversion of prolysin to lysin is due to a cellular, nonperiplasmic enzyme that has the properties of a serine protease. Release of this serine protease into the periplasm is induced by incubation of gametes in dibutyryl cAMP. This may be one of the few examples of regulated secretion of a protease in a eucaryotic microorganism and a novel example of regulated secretion in a plant system.
A Branch and Bound Algorithm to Scale Alignment of Large Ontologies

Increasingly, ontologies are being developed and exposed on the Web to support a variety of applications, including biological knowledge sharing, enhanced search and discovery, and decision support. This proliferation of new Web knowledge sources is resulting in a growing need for integration and enrichment of these sources. Automated and semi-automated solutions to aligning ontologies are emerging that address this growing need with very promising results. However, only very recently, solutions for scalability of ontology alignment have begun to emerge. The goal of this research is to investigate scalability issues in alignment of large-scale ontologies. We present an alignment algorithm that bounds processing by selecting optimal subtrees to align and show that this significantly improves efficiency without major reduction in precision. We apply the algorithm in conjunction with our approach that includes modeling ontology alignment in a Support Vector Machine.
The cytology and microbiology of persistent paranasal sinus secretions after endoscopic sinus surgery: a controlled study.

Objective: To determine the cellular composition and influence of microbiology on persistent paranasal sinus secretions after endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS). Methods: Persistent sinus secretions from a consecutive series of patients after ESS were studied with cytopathology and cultures for aerobic, anaerobic, and fungal organisms. A control group consisting of patients without persistent secretions after ESS was also studied. Epithelial, neutrophil, and eosinophil cell presence was semiquantitatively assessed on a 4-point scale and compared between control and diseased groups. Cellular composition was then stratified and analyzed according to the presence of microorganisms. Results: A total of 50 diseased and 24 control patients were studied. Both diseased and control patients demonstrated sloughed epithelial cells in secretions (53.1% and 66.7%, respectively, P = .131). The diseased group exhibited significantly higher eosinophilic or eosinophilic/neutrophilic cellularity than the controls (P = .048). The average neutrophil infiltration score was 0.82 versus 0.54 for the controls (P = .104). For the diseased group, the mean eosinophil score was 1.56 versus 0.96 in the control group (P = .035). Pathogenic bacteria were identified in 64% of the diseased group patients versus 54.2% in controls (P = .454). Only two fungal cultures were positive (diseased group). Microbiological analysis indicated that in the absence of bacteria, diseased group patients mainly manifested an eosinophilic presence, whereas in the presence of bacteria, the neutrophil response was enhanced in diseased patients and eosinophil response was enhanced in controls. Conclusions: Persistent sinus secretions after ESS are primarily driven by an eosinophilic presence. Patients without inflammatory exudate after ESS respond to bacteria with increased eosinophilia, whereas hypersecretory patients demonstrate both increased neutrophil and eosinophil presence.
Latent state trait modeling of children's cortisol at two points of the diurnal cycle.

Summary One challenge in examining stable individual differences in basal activity of the HPA axis is controlling for internally or externally based situational factors that lead to day-to-day variation in ambulatory cortisol. Disturbed basal activity is of particular interest in studies with children, for whom a dysregulated HPA axis may play an etiologic role in emotional or health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine whether trait vs. situationally specific sources of variation can be identified at different points of the diurnal cycle in children and if so, whether state and trait components vary according to time of measurement. Early morning and late evening salivary cortisol was collected from 164 children aged 7 to 11 years. Samples were collected 30 min after wakeup and 30 min before bedtime on 3 weekdays. State, trait, and error components of cortisol levels were assessed using a latent state trait model. Possible influences of sampling day and outlier treatment on parameter estimates were examined. The results showed that a latent trait factor superimposed on state residuals and measurement error was identified for both early morning and late evening cortisol. Model fit was excellent and criteria for invariance tests were met. Trait factors accounted for 41% and 57% of the variance in morning and evening cortisol, respectively. These findings suggest cortisol attributed to trait factors can be identified and are of substantial magnitude at both the peak and nadir of the diurnal cycle. Latent state trait modeling is a potentially useful tool in understanding the role of stable
Casing Political Consumerism

In this article, we consider some of the ways in which the literature on political consumerism distinguishes this type of activism from social movements of the past. We then use three old and three recent U.S. examples of mobilization focused on food to highlight variations across cases—old and new—in how consumption-based identities are politicized and in how these movements are organized. We recommend using these variations in analytical properties, rather than broadly defined temporal periods, as the starting point for sorting and comparing cases of political consumerism.
An Approximation Approach to Network Information Theory

This monograph illustrates a novel approach, which is based on changing the focus to seek approximate solutions accompanied by universal guarantees on the gap to optimality, in order to enable progress on several key open problems in network information theory. We seek universal guarantees that are independent of problem parameters, but perhaps dependent on the problem structure. At the heart of this approach is the development of simple, deterministic models that capture the main features of information sources and communication channels, and are utilized to approximate more complex models. The program advocated in this monograph is to use first seek solutions for the simplified deterministic model and use the insights and the solution of the simplified model to connect it to the original problem. The goal of this deterministic-approximation approach is to obtain universal approximate characterizations of the original channel capacity region and source coding rate regions. The translation of the insights from the deterministic framework to the original problem might need non-trivial steps either in the coding scheme or in the outer bounds. The applications of this deterministic approximation approach are demonstrated in four central problems, namely unicast/multicast relay networks, interference channels, multiple descriptions source coding, and joint source-channel coding over networks. For each of these problems, it is illustrated how the proposed approach can be utilized to approximate the solution and draw engineering insights. Throughout the monograph, many extensions and future directions are addressed, and several open problems are presented in each chapter. The monograph is concluded by illustrating other deterministic models that can be utilized to obtain tighter approximation results, and discussing some recent developments on utilization of deterministic models in multi-flow multi-hop wireless networks.
Synthesis and spectroscopic properties of β,β'-dibenzo-3,5,8-triaryl-BODIPYs.

A series of β,β′-bicyclo-3,5-diaryl-BODIPYs were synthesized from the corresponding β,β′-bicyclo-3,5-diiodo-BODIPYs (1a,b) via Pd(0)-mediated Suzuki cross-coupling reactions in 82–92% yields. Subsequent aromatization with DDQ afforded the corresponding β,β′-dibenzo-aryl-BODIPYs, which showed red-shifted absorptions and emissions in the near-IR range. The dibenzo-appended BODIPYs showed characteristic 1H-, 13C-, 11B- and 19F-NMR shifts, and nearly planar conformations by X-ray crystallography.
Repair of Complete Atrioventricular Canal: 15 Years' Experience

Corrective surgery for complete atrioven-tricular canal was performed over a 15-year period on 72 patients, 49 of whom had Down's syndrome: 46 were without major associated cardiac anomalies and 15 had previously undergone pulmonary artery banding. The pressures in the right and left ventricles equilibrated in 77% of the patients. The early mortality rate was 18% and the late mortality 7%. At follow-up 4% of the patients had severe mitral incompetence and 6% had severe tricuspid incompetence. The mean reduction of pulmonary artery pressure was 40 mmHg. The mean peak systolic pressure ratio between pulmonary artery and aorta was 0.73 before repair and had fallen to 0.38 at follow-up catheterization, when 88% of the patients were asymptomatic. Early repair in the first year of life is nowadays preferred in order to avoid progressive pulmonary vascular disease. Although the alternative of first-stage pulmonary artery banding gave lower (13%) mortality at the corrective operation, it cannot be recommended if ...
Evaluation of a photoelectric clot timer in the performance of prothrombin time.

Prothrombin time determinations performed on the Electra 600 were compared with those performed on the Lancer Coagulyzer (both instruments are automatic photoelectric clot-sensing devices). The coefficient of correlation between the two methods were excellent, 0.9124, and the reproducibility of either method was very good. When normal plasma samples were diluted with pooled aluminum hydroxide-adsorbed plasma and prothrombin time determinations were performed by both methods at different concentrations of prothrombin complex factors, the Electra 600 consistently described a less negative slope than those seen with the Coagulyzer. Both machines were easy to master, use and maintain.
From Turf to Table: Grass Seed to Edible Grains in the Willamette Valley

Western Oregon's Willamette Valley has a rich history of agricultural production and, like an increasing number of regions globally, a growing local food movement. Recent declines in grass seed markets and an increased consumer interest in local grains have raised the possibility of a transition from grass seed land to edible grain production for local markets. We used geographic information systems (GIS) to determine if the Willamette Valley population's dietary grain needs could be met if current grass seed land were converted to production of soft white winter wheat. In order to explore transitional obstacles and opportunities, we conducted interviews with local farmers, a wholesaler, an agriculture extension worker, and seed developers. The GIS analysis indicated that such a transition could exceed the recommended grain needs of the region's 2008 population. The interviews revealed technical and cultural aspects of transitioning from grass seed production to wheat and other edible crops, identifying insufficient infrastructure (storage, processing, distribution, and market outlets) as the primary barrier to producing for local markets. This combination of GIS analysis (predictive of the food-producing capacity of a region) with in-depth contextual information and practical insights from farmers' voices provides a robust model for planners seeking to analyze and address local food system challenges and possibilities. Our research, while focusing on the Willamette Valley's transition toward a more locally based food system, explores the potential steps for any region looking to transition from nonedible to edible crop production for local consumption.
Objective reconstruction of harmonious development of China's regional higher education

China's west regional higher education is transformational from elite mode to masses mode and future development objective should be oriented by masses.Feasible and effective methods should be taken in such aspects as promoting education quality,using two methods,cultivating specific talents,cultivating local brands and emphasizing applied education.
The Impact of Dabancheng Wind Farm Integration on Power Quality of Xinjiang Power Grid

Large amount of wind power integration into power system brings great influence on the power quality.The voltage deviation,voltage fluctuation,flicker,harmonics and frequency deviation are main aspects of power quality problems.Firstly,the reason causing the power quality problems is analyzed.Secondly,taking a real power system with several wind farms for an example,the voltage deviation,voltage fluctuation,flicker severity and harmonics due to wind farm are calculated based on the IEC standards and national standards.Then,the voltage deviation,flicker severity and harmonic current emission under continuous operation are calculated.The frequency deviation after the wind farm being cut off is analyzed.
SIMON Says, Break the Area Records for Symmetric Key Block Ciphers on FPGAs.

While AES is extensively in use in a number of applications, its area cost limits its deployment in resource constrained platforms. In this paper, we have implemented SIMON, a recent promising low-cost alternative of AES on reconfigurable platforms. The Feistel network, the construction of the round function and the key generation of SIMON, enables bit-serial hardware architectures which can significantly reduce the cost. Moreover, encryption and decryption can be done using the same hardware. The results show that with an equivalent security level, SIMON is 86% smaller than AES, 70% smaller than PRESENT (a standardized low-cost AES alternative), and its smallest hardware architecture only costs 36 slices (72 LUTs, 30 registers). To our best knowledge, this work sets the new area records as we propose the hardware architecture of the smallest block cipher ever published on FPGAs at 128-bit level of security. Therefore, SIMON is a strong alternative to AES for low-cost FPGA based applications.
Development of embryonic rat eyes in organ culture: I. Effect of glutamine on normal and abnormal development in a chemically denned medium

Previous studies on the differentiation of whole embryonic eyes in culture have been carried out mainly in the chick (Strangeways & Fell, 1926; Dorris, 1938; Harrison & Berry, 1959) and in one case in the rat (Tansley, 1933). Early postnatal intact eyes of rats and mice were cultured by Lucas & Trowell (1958), while more recently intact and trypsinized early eye rudiments (9 and 10 days) of mouse embryos have been grown in various modified organ culture systems (Muthukkaruppan, 1965). In all these experiments the media employed were either entirely biological or chemically defined media supplemented with biological media. Also, with the exception of the work done by Muthukkaruppan (1965), eye differentiation was well advanced at the start of the culture period. The present study was designed to test the feasibility of observing early embryonic rat eye development in organ culture with a totally defined medium.
Measure on a σ-Algebra

A function whose domain is a collection of sets is called a set function. A measure is a nonnegative extended real-valued set function satisfying some further conditions. The domain of a measure is a subcollection of the power set \(\wp (X)\) of a given set X. It is advisable to require that the empty set \(\varnothing \) and the whole set X itself belong to the domain, and to assign the minimum (zero) for the value of the function at the empty set. It is also convenient to require additivity in the following sense. Assume that every finite union of sets in the domain is again a set in the domain. This indicates that the domain might be an algebra. Then assume that the value of the function at any finite union of disjoint sets in the domain equals the sum of the values of the function at each set. Actually, this leads to a possible definition of a concept of measure (measures defined on an algebra will be considered in Chapter 8). However, such an approach lacks an important feature that is needed to build up a useful theory, namely, countable additivity. That is, it is required that the notion of additivity also holds for countably infinite unions of disjoint sets, and so countably infinite unions of sets are supposed to be in the domain of a measure. This compels the domain to be a \(\sigma\)-algebra.
Biophilia: Need for Contact with Nature

This chapter discusses the opposite of the city, nature, and an intermediary and mistaken step: suburbs—and discusses why they are not a great solution. It also introduces the concept of “fake nature.”
Vitamin D Status, Genetics, and Diabetes Risk

Abstract There has been an alarming increase in both autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D) and in insulin-resistance type 2 diabetes (T2D), implying changes in environmental factors without significant change in genetic background. The sequential natural histories of both T1D and T2D point toward early opportunities for intervention before the disease becomes established. Timely preventions have become urgent considerations because maintaining glucose homeostasis and preventing long-term complications is often unsuccessful. Consequently, modulation of the immune process in T1D and insulin resistance and β-cell failure in T2D has been considered. Correction of vitamin D deficiency has a potential role in both approaches because it not only has a role in the pathogenesis of T1D but also in the metabolism of insulin resistance and β-cell function. Widespread deficiency in diabetes-susceptible populations has led to further studies on genetic association with the respective pathways. There is accumulating evidence to support the hypothesis that vitamin D supplementation may be helpful for genetically predisposed individuals to prevent diabetes onset. However, effects may depend on the stage of progression toward diabetes onset. The purpose of this review is to summarize evidence for genetic influences on vitamin D metabolism and their association with diabetes.
Scientific Expeditions to Antarctica

Antarctica, including adjacent islands, is a unique setting for the archaeology of science because much of the continent’s sites were created at research stations established by many countries. It is suggested that research stations can be treated as a set of regional data amenable to locational analyses. The limited amount of professional archaeology accomplished so far underscores the potential of site-specific studies to furnish information about actual behavior that cannot be gleaned from other sources. The contributions of site-specific studies are illustrated by the East Base station, established by the USA before World War II, and partially excavated. The chapter also calls attention to opportunities for comparative studies on technological variation and change in measuring instruments and transportation modes.
The fallacy of the average: on the ubiquity, utility and continuing novelty of Jensen's inequality

Biologists often cope with variation in physiological, environmental and ecological processes by measuring how living systems perform under average conditions. However, performance at average conditions is seldom equal to average performance across a range of conditions. This basic property of nonlinear averaging - known as 'Jensen's inequality' or 'the fallacy of the average' - has important implications for all of biology. For instance, a burgeoning awareness of Jensen's inequality has improved our ability to predict how plants and animals will respond to a warmer and more variable future climate. But for many biologists, the fallacy of the average is still a novel concept. Here, I highlight the importance of Jensen's inequality, provide a simple graphical approach to understanding its effects, and explore its consequences at atomic, molecular, organismal and ecological levels.
Capturing Planned Protests from Open Source Indicators

Civil unrest events (protests, strikes, and “occupy” events) are common occurrences in both democracies and authoritarian regimes. The study of civil unrest is a key topic for political scientists as it helps capture an important mechanism by which citizenry express themselves. In countries where civil unrest is lawful, qualitative analysis has revealed that more than 75 percent of the protests are planned, organized, or announced in advance; therefore detecting references to future planned events in relevant news and social media is a direct way to develop a protest forecasting system. We report on a system for doing that in this article. It uses a combination of keyphrase learning to identify what to look for, probabilistic soft logic to reason about location occurrences in extracted results, and time normalization to resolve future time mentions. We illustrate the application of our system to 10 countries in Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Results demonstrate our successes in capturing significant societal unrest in these countries with an average lead time of 4.08 days. We also study the selective superiorities of news media versus social media (Twitter, Facebook) to identify relevant trade-offs.
X-Ray Lasers in Biology: Structure and Dynamics

Abstract The recent invention of the X-ray laser (XFEL), with its high spatial coherence and ability to outrun radiation damage, has provided unprecedented new opportunities for structural biology. Here, we review the challenges and advances which have occurred over the past 7 years since the first beamtimes, provide their historical context, and describe the underlying principles of the new techniques used and the XFEL. The main focus is on the achievements and prospects for imaging protein dynamics at near-atomic spatial resolution under physiological and controlled chemical conditions, in the correct thermal bath, and a summary of the many approaches to this aim. Radiation damage, comparisons of XFEL and synchrotron work, single-particle diffraction, fast solution scattering, pump-probe studies on photosensitive proteins, mixing jets, caged molecules, pH jump, and other reaction initiation methods, and the thermodynamics of molecular machines are all discussed, in addition to data analysis methods for all the instrumental modes. The ability of the XFEL to separate chemical reaction effects in dynamical imaging from radiation-induced effects (by minimizing these), while imaging at the physiological temperatures required for molecular machines, is highlighted.
Collaboration in scholarly communication: Opportunities to normalize open access

As most librarians are well aware, open access and scholarly communication have been and will continue to be hot button issues. But what is a librarian’s role within the library? What about out in the greater world of scholarly communication? How do we ensure the changes we wish to see? To answer these, we must look at scholarly communication from a more holistic approach. It cannot simply be the job or responsibility of one group, or, even worse, one person on a campus. Scholarly communication is a multifaceted issue that should be addressed through education, outreach, recognition, and fiscal support. With so many lingering questions and doubts from faculty and students, librarians must continue to educate, collaborate, and highlight in ways we have not tried before. At the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries, through collaboration and communication, we have made great progress toward reaching these goals.
Structure and Function of the Transmembrane Domain of NsaS, an Antibiotic Sensing Histidine Kinase in Staphylococcus aureus

NsaS is one of four intramembrane histidine kinases (HKs) in Staphylococcus aureus that mediate the pathogen’s response to membrane active antimicrobials and human innate immunity. We describe the first integrative structural study of NsaS using a combination of solution state NMR spectroscopy, chemical-cross-linking, molecular modeling and dynamics. Three key structural features emerge: First, NsaS has a short N-terminal amphiphilic helix that anchors its transmembrane (TM) bundle into the inner leaflet of the membrane such that it might sense neighboring proteins or membrane deformations. Second, the transmembrane domain of NsaS is a 4-helix bundle with significant dynamics and structural deformations at the membrane interface. Third, the intracellular linker connecting the TM domain to the cytoplasmic catalytic domains of NsaS is a marginally stable helical dimer, with one state likely to be a coiled-coil. Data from chemical shifts, heteronuclear NOE, H/D exchange measurements and molecular modeling su...
‘Methodologically Sound’ Under the ‘Big Tent’: An Ongoing Conversation

This essay synthesizes ongoing conversations as it explores the third and arguably most complicated of Peter Felten’s “Principles of Good Practice in SoTL,” “methodologically sound.”
Impact of Statin Therapy on Outcomes in Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Patients

IMPACT OF STATIN THERAPY ON OUTCOMES IN ANEURYSMAL SUBARACHNOID HEMORRHAGE PATIENTS By Abdulkhaliq Jassem Alsalman, M.S. A Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Major Director: Dr. Gretchen Brophy Professor of Pharmacy and Neurosurgery There is conflicting data on the effects of statins on cerebral vasospasm and clinical outcomes in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) patients. In this retrospective cohort study, patients were divided into those who received pravastatin (PRAV group) 40mg/d and those who did not (NP group). Data were analyzed using multivariate logistic xv regression. Eighty-one patients met inclusion criteria. There was a statistically significant decreased in the incidence of vasospasm in the PRAV group; however, this association did not retain significance after adjusting for WFNS, race, elevated WBC, and clipping (59% PRAV vs. 88% NP, p=0.08). There was no statistically significant difference in proportion of severe radiological vasospasm or mortality between groups. However, there was a trend towards a decreased mean length of stay (P=0.06) and a significantly higher proportion of survivors discharged to home in the PRAV group (P<0.0001). In conclusion, there was a trend towards a decrease in the incidence of vasospasm in the aSAH receiving pravastatin, but this trend did not achieve statistical significance after adjusting for potential confounders. Pravastatin was associated with other favorable clinical outcomes.