cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Automated incline detection for assistive powered wheelchairs

This work presents an algorithm for automated real-time ramp detection using 3D point cloud data in the context of shared-control powered wheelchairs. Limitations in the interfaces available to those with severe motor impairments can make basic maneuvering tasks with powered wheelchairs difficult. Although a significant amount of work has been done on obstacle detection and avoidance, much less attention has been given to algorithms for the safe and reliable detection of ramps and inclines; even though navigating these structures is an important part of urban life. We provide an algorithmic solution for accurately detecting traversable inclines for applications with powered wheelchairs using the Point Cloud Library (PCL) within the Robotics Operating System (ROS) framework. All algorithms are implemented first in simulation and later evaluated on data obtained from indoor and outdoor urban environments. We measure the performance of our algorithm with systematic testing on several different ramp structures, observed from varied viewpoints. Results show that our algorithm is successful in detecting the orientation, slope, and width of traversable ramps with up to 100% accuracy and an average detection accuracy of 88%.
Field Validation of Supercritical CO2 Reactivity with Basalts

Continued global use of fossil fuels places a premium on developing technology solutions to minimize increases in atmospheric CO2 levels. CO2 storage in reactive basalts might be one of these solutions by permanently converting injected gaseous CO2 into solid carbonates. Herein, we report results from a field demonstration in which ∼1000 metric tons of CO2 was injected into a natural basalt formation in eastern Washington state. Following post-injection monitoring for 2 years, cores were obtained from within the injection zone and subjected to detailed physical and chemical analysis. Nodules found in vesicles throughout the cores were identified as the carbonate mineral, ankerite Ca[Fe,Mg,Mn](CO3)2. Carbon isotope analysis showed the nodules are chemically distinct compared with natural carbonates present in the basalt and in clear correlation with the isotopic signature of the injected CO2. These findings provide field validation of rapid mineralization rates observed from years of laboratory testing wit...
Torsional-strain considerations in enzymology: Some applications to proteases and ensuing mechanistic consequences

Abstract A stereoxplicit analysis of amide torsional strain reveals two distinct rehybridization modes, each of which correlates with a unique hydrolysis mechanism. These may be characterized as anti distortion of cis (Z) substitutents (yielding trans addition of HOR) and syn distortion of trans (E) substituents (correlating with cis addition). The latter mechanism is known to apply in the cases of the serine proteases, and supporting evidence for torsional activation is sought in crystallographic structures of trypsin with its inhibitors as well as from kinetic data. A contrast is made with the mechanism of carboxypeptidase A, which operates on the former principle. For this enzyme it is demonstrated that an unusual minor-protonation state is most probably the catalytically active species, a conclusion with some important ramifications. A general comparison of the torsional strain hypothesis is made with a recently propounded theory concerning stereoelectronic control of cleavage of hemiorthoamide tetrahedral intermediates. When these approaches to enzyme mechanism are used in tandem, a unique comprehension is achievable.
Chung–Yau Invariants and Graphs with Symmetric Hitting Times

The Chung–Yau graph invariants were originated from Chung–Yau's work on discrete Green's function. We show how they could be used to derive new explicit formulas and estimates for hitting times of random walks. We also apply them to study graphs with symmetric hitting times.
Color Characters for White Hot String Bits

The state space of a generic string bit model is spanned by $N\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}N$ matrix creation operators acting on a vacuum state. Such creation operators transform in the adjoint representation of the color group $U(N)$ [or $SU(N)$ if the matrices are traceless]. We consider a system of $b$ species of bosonic bits and $f$ species of fermionic bits. The string, emerging in the $N\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\infty}$ limit, identifies ${P}^{+}=mM\sqrt{2}$ where $M$ is the bit number operator and ${P}^{\ensuremath{-}}=H\sqrt{2}$ where $H$ is the system Hamiltonian. We study the thermal properties of this string bit system in the case $H=0$, which can be considered the tensionless string limit: the only dynamics is restricting physical states to color singlets. Then the thermal partition function $\mathrm{Tr}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\beta}mM}$ can be identified, putting $x={e}^{\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\beta}m}$, with a generating function ${\ensuremath{\chi}}_{0}^{bf}(x)$, for which the coefficient of ${x}^{n}$ in its expansion about $x=0$ is the number of color singlets with bit number $M=n$. This function is a purely group theoretic object, which is well studied in the literature. We show that at $N=\ensuremath{\infty}$ this system displays a Hagedorn divergence at $x=1/(b+f)$ with ultimate temperature ${T}_{H}=m/\mathrm{ln}(b+f)$. The corresponding function for finite $N$ is perfectly finite for $0lxl1$, so the $N=\ensuremath{\infty}$ system exhibits a phase transition at temperature ${T}_{H}$ which is absent for any finite $N$. We demonstrate that the low temperature phase is unstable above ${T}_{H}$. The lowest-order $1/N$ asymptotic correction, for $x\ensuremath{\rightarrow}1$ in the high temperature phase, is computed for large $N$. Remarkably, this is related to the number of labeled Eulerian digraphs with $N$ nodes. Systematic methods to extend our results to higher orders in $1/N$ are described.
Point-of-Sale Tobacco Advertising and Display Bans: Policy Evaluation Study in Five Russian Cities.

Background: The tobacco industry uses point-of-sale (POS) advertising, promotion, and product display to increase consumption of its products among current users, to attract new consumers, and to encourage former customers to resume tobacco use. As part of a comprehensive tobacco control effort, Russia—having one of the highest tobacco use prevalence rates in the world—enacted legislation that banned tobacco POS advertising, effective November 15, 2013, and banned the display of tobacco and the sale of cigarettes in kiosks, effective June 1, 2014. Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the implementation of the national law by assessing the state of POS advertising, promotion, and product display, and sales in kiosks across Russia. Methods: Two waves of observations were conducted to measure compliance with the POS restrictions: wave 1 took place in April-May 2014 after the advertising ban was in effect and again in August-September 2014 after the display ban and elimination of tobacco sales in kiosks came into effect. Observations were conducted by local trained staff that traveled to 5 populous cities in different regions of Russia (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Ekaterinburg, and Novosibirsk). Staff followed a published POS evaluation protocol and used mobile phones to collect data. Observations were conducted in a roughly equal number of supermarket chains, convenience stores, and kiosks. Observed items included advertising at POS, product displays, and cigarette sales in kiosks. Results: Observations were made in 780 venues in wave 1 and in 779 revisited venues in wave 2. In wave 1, approximately a third of supermarkets and convenience stores (34.2%, 184/538) were advertising cigarettes using light boxes, and over half of observed venues (54.3%, 292/538) had signage such as banners or shelf liners that used colors or images related to cigarette brands. Product displays were common in wave 1. In wave 2, compliance with advertising restrictions was very good: there were virtually no light boxes (1.0%, 5/489); banners or shelf liners were observed in 30.5% (149/489) of supermarkets/convenience stores; approximately 7.4% (36/489) of venues were still displaying products in a powerwall. In wave 2, 41.3% (100/242) of kiosks continued to sell tobacco. Conclusions: Russia’s compliance with POS bans was excellent. Remaining compliance issues are largely with the use of cigarette brand colors or images used in banners or shelf liners; this type of infraction is more difficult to enforce as inspectors need to be deeply familiar with tobacco industry products and marketing practices. A sizable proportion of kiosks continue to sell tobacco post restrictions. [JMIR Public Health Surveill 2017;3(3):e52]
Predictors of antipsychotic polypharmacy in an acute-care teaching hospital

Introduction: Antipsychotic polypharmacy increases the risk of adverse reactions, interactions, and cost. Data for the use of antipsychotic polypharmacy are limited. The Joint Commission’s Hospital Based Inpatient Psychiatric Services (HBIPS) recently established a set of quality measures evaluating inpatient psychiatric care, including the rate of antipsychotic polypharmacy at discharge.Methods: A retrospective medical record review was approved by the Institutional Review Board. Admission records were used to identify patients 18 years or older who were discharged from an inpatient psychiatric unit from January 1, 2012 to June 30, 2012. Exclusion criteria included patients not discharged on antipsychotics, pregnancy, length of stay not more than three days, elopement or failing to return from leave, or those who expired. Patients were divided into two groups: those discharged on antipsychotic monotherapy or antipsychotic polypharmacy. The objective of this study was to determine the association between patient-specific factors and the presence of antipsychotic polypharmacy at discharge. A secondary objective was determining if appropriate justification for antipsychotic polypharmacy at discharge was documented.Results: Of 901 inpatient psychiatric admissions, 442 patients were included. There were 362 patients discharged on antipsychotic monotherapy and 80 patients discharged on antipsychotic polypharmacy. Five characteristics were significantly associated with antipsychotic polypharmacy at discharge: Medicare insurance (OR 2.156, 95% CI 1.279-3.636), psychotic disorders (OR 3.665, 95% CI 1.999-6.789), greater than one antipsychotic on admission (OR 27.179, 95% CI 13.895-53.668), quetiapine at discharge (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.355-3.901), and paliperidone at discharge (OR 2.415, 95% CI 1.38-4.219). Of the 80 patients discharged on antipsychotic polypharmacy, 83.7% did not have appropriate justification for the polypharmacy documented.Conclusions: The patient-specific factors of Medicare, psychotic disorders, greater than one antipsychotic on admission, and quetiapine and paliperidone were significantly associated with antipsychotic polypharmacy at discharge. For patients discharged on multiple antipsychotics, supporting documentation was infrequent.
Parental and Pediatricians' Perception of Need for Subspecialty Training in Pediatric Emergency Medicine for Delivering Emergency Care to Pediatric Patients.

The quality of pediatric emergency care may depend on the competence of the emergency department physicians. It is important to know whether parents and general pediatricians associate the quality of pediatric emergency care with the pediatric emergency medicine (PEM) training of the emergency department physicians. We designed the study to determine parental and pediatricians’ opinion and expectation in regard to this question. Most of the surveyed parents’ and pediatricians’ recognize the importance of PEM training and believed that physicians trained in PEM can provide better emergency care for children. However, 53.8% of parents, especially Spanish speaking and with Medicaid/no insurance coverage, believe that the emergency care provided for their children by general pediatricians and PEM physicians is equivalent. The results of our study could be utilized by accredited PEM planners in the creation of strategies to ensure the quality of emergency care for children population.
Targeted Modeling of Markovian Agents

In the previous chapter, we introduced an algorithm Joma that in the presence of Markovian agents in the population, provably achieves a joint return very close to the SW maximizing joint return by exploiting the Markovian agents maximally, in efficient sample complexity. We assume that Joma has some prior knowledge of the possible set of features \(\mathcal{F}\) upon which the Markovian agents may base their policies, but not the exact set.
ODEs with General Transport-Like Actuator Dynamics

In this chapter we start the development of feedback laws that compensate actuator (or sensor) dynamics of a more complex type than the pure delay. Having dealt with the pure delay, i.e., the transport PDE in Chapter 2, in this chapter we expand our scope to general first-order hyperbolic PDEs in one dimension.
IDENTIFICATION OF NONLINEAR COMPARTMENTAL SYSTEMS WITH AN APPLICATION TO THE MODELLING OF THE ENZYME CYTOCHROME P-450

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the identification of nonlinear compartmental systems with an application to the modeling of the enzyme cytochrome P-450. It focuses on the importance of the identification problem by presenting a specific example. This example is a preliminary model of the kinetics of the cytochrome P-450 enzyme. Assuming that the system is analyzed by an input u into compartment one and the third compartment is considered as output, the system can then be described by the presented differential equations. The chapter discusses the behavior of the nonlinear terms that appear in presented equations and presents the derivation of a linear system that is a good approximation to these equations for certain values of σ. The chapter also describes the identification of the model parameters.
DynMDL: A Parallel Trajectory Segmentation Algorithm

The purpose of trajectory segmentation algorithms is to replace an input trajectory by a sub-trajectory with fewer points than the input, but that is also a good approximation to the original trajectory. As such, trajectory segmentation is an essential pre-processing step for trajectory mining algorithms, such as clustering. Among the segmentation strategies that are commonly used for trajectory clustering is Minimum Description Length (MDL)-based segmentation, which consists in finding a sub-trajectory such that the sum of its distance to the input trajectory and its overall length is minimum. However, there are no efficient algorithms for optimal MDL-based segmentation; there are only approximate algorithms. In this work we fill this gap by proposing a parallel multicore algorithm for MDL-based trajectory segmentation. We use three real-life datasets to show that our algorithm achieves optimal MDL, and compare its performance against Traclus, the state-of-the-art approximate Description Length (DL) segmentation algorithm.
ION Emission Energetics From a Positively Biased Hollow Cathode Contactor

A mission concept is under development which involves firing a spacecraft-mounted electron beam from Earth's magnetosphere to connect distant magnetic field lines in real time [1]. To prevent excessive spacecraft charging and consequent beam return, the spacecraft must be neutralized in the tenuous plasma environment of the magnetosphere. Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations suggest neutralization can be accomplished by emitting a neutral plasma with the electron beam. Interpretation of these simulations also led to an ion emission model in which ion current is emitted from a quasineutral plasma as defined by the space charge limit [2], [3].
Maternal dependency and childrearing attitudes among mothers of adolescent females.

This study investigated the childrearing attitudes of 964 black and white mothers of adolescent females from low middle and high-income families. Subscales from the Parent Attitude Research Inventory (PARI) measured fostering dependence excluding outside influences loyalty to parents encouraging independence and mothers dependency. Analyses of covariance indicated that black and rural mothers were more dependent personally. Black mothers and low income mothers were more likely to encourage the development of dependency and loyalty to parents in their adolescent daughters. Black mothers promoted the development of dependency and independence simultaneously perhaps as a means of maintaining close interdependent relationships within the black community and independence in the mainstream culture. No significant differences were found between mothers of older and younger adolescent girls.
Multi-Port DC Microgrids: Online Parameter Adaptation in Model Predictive Control

This paper investigates control of multi-port DC microgrids with a fast transient response and online parameter adaptation. This DC microgrid can handle connection and disconnection of several energy generation units (e.g., fuel cell or photovoltaic units) and battery energy storage units to provide a DC load. To control several unidirectional and bidirectional converters of this microgrid, a scalable model predictive control (MPC) with online parameter adaptation capability is proposed. This adaptive model predictive control (AMPC), which provides fast MPC control for both inner and outer control loops, obviates the need to have a good knowledge about system parameters (as required by conventional MPC controllers). The estimated values of system parameters are deployed in the MPC controllers to ensure fast transient response of the system. This controller increases the scalability of the system to add or remove new power units with unknown parameters. Simulation case studies validate the proposed controller structure.
Generalized Approximate Message Passing For Noisy 1-Bit Compressed Sensing With Side-Information

We consider the problem of sparse signal reconstruction from noisy 1-bit compressed measurements when the receiver has access to side information. We assume that compressed measurements are corrupted by additive white Gaussian noise before quantization and sign-flip error after quantization. A generalized approximate message passing-based algorithm for signal reconstruction from noisy 1-bit compressed measurements is proposed and then, it is extended to the case when side information is available. We show that 1-bit compressed measurements based signal reconstruction is quite sensitive to noise and the reconstruction performance can be greatly improved by exploiting available side information at the receiver.
A High Efficiency Low Noise VTOL/ESTOL Concept Using CoFLow Jet Airfoil

This paper proposes a novel air vehicle concept that has the VTOL and ESTOL capability naturally combined together using CoFlow Jet(CFJ) active flow control airfoil. The CFJ-VTOL system is an integrated system with propellers mounted above the CFJ wing suction surface. Different from the conventional VTOL systems that rely solely on the propellers completely facing upward to generate the vertical lift, the propellers of the CFJ-VTOL system faces forward and upward and only generate a part of the total lift. An important function of the propellers is to pull flow to the CFJ airfoil at static condition. The CFJ airfoil then generates very high lift coefficient at extraordinarily high angle of attack(e.g. > 70°) with a much lower power consumption rate than the propellers. In other words, the CFJ-VTOL makes use of the CFJ wing to generate substantial or even the majority of the lift at vertical takeoff and landing, whereas the wings of conventional VTOL aircraft generate no lift at takeoff and landing even though they produce all the lift at cruise. Such an integrated CFJ-VTOL system has the potential to reduce the power loading by 20% or more at the VTOL phase. For the same lift coefficient, the disk loading is significantly reduced with a benefit to decrease the noise. Furthermore, the upper wing mounted propeller is shield by the wing to mitigate downward radiating noise of the propeller. The maximum injection jet Mach number is 0.3 - 0.4, is at fairly low level for jet noise. The CFJ-VTOL system hence is also potentially much quieter than the conventional VTOL. The resultant force of the propeller-CFJ airfoil system at the static condition is controlled by the airfoil orientation angle. By rotating the same propeller-CFJ airfoil system forward, the system can generate both very high lift and thrust for ESTOL, which further reduces the power consumption and noise level compared with the VTOL system. The same system can be potentially used either for VTOL or ESTOL depending on the situation with significantly reduced takeoff/landing power and noise. This paper presents the numerical results evidencing the advantages by 2D CFJ-VTOL airfoil and 3D wing simulations.
Tethered Aerial Visual Assistance.

In this paper, an autonomous tethered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is developed into a visual assistant in a marsupial co-robots team, collaborating with a tele-operated Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) for robot operations in unstructured or confined environments. These environments pose extreme challenges to the remote tele-operator due to the lack of sufficient situational awareness, mostly caused by the unstructuredness and confinement, stationary and limited field-of-view and lack of depth perception from the robot's onboard cameras. To overcome these problems, a secondary tele-operated robot is used in current practices, who acts as a visual assistant and provides external viewpoints to overcome the perceptual limitations of the primary robot's onboard sensors. However, a second tele-operated robot requires extra manpower and teamwork demand between primary and secondary operators. The manually chosen viewpoints tend to be subjective and sub-optimal. Considering these intricacies, we develop an autonomous tethered aerial visual assistant in place of the secondary tele-operated robot and operator, to reduce human robot ratio from 2:2 to 1:2. Using a fundamental viewpoint quality theory, a formal risk reasoning framework, and a newly developed tethered motion suite, our visual assistant is able to autonomously navigate to good-quality viewpoints in a risk-aware manner through unstructured or confined spaces with a tether. The developed marsupial co-robots team could improve tele-operation efficiency in nuclear operations, bomb squad, disaster robots, and other domains with novel tasks or highly occluded environments, by reducing manpower and teamwork demand, and achieving better visual assistance quality with trustworthy risk-aware motion.
Superatom Paramagnetism in Au102(SR)441–/0/1+/2+ Oxidation States

Gold nanoclusters show distinctive magnetic properties and electronic structure. Nanoclusters of sufficiently small size restructure geometrically to stabilize electronically (e.g., a Jahn–Teller e...
Proneurotrophins Induce Apoptotic Neuronal Death After Controlled Cortical Impact Injury in Adult Mice

The p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75NTR) can regulate multiple cellular functions including proliferation, survival, and apoptotic cell death. The p75NTR is widely expressed in the developing brain and is downregulated as the nervous system matures, with only a few neuronal subpopulations retaining expression into adulthood. However, p75NTR expression is induced following damage to the adult brain, including after traumatic brain injury, which is a leading cause of mortality and disability worldwide. A major consequence of traumatic brain injury is the progressive neuronal loss that continues secondary to the initial trauma, which ultimately contributes to cognitive decline. Understanding mechanisms governing this progressive neuronal death is key to developing targeted therapeutic strategies to provide neuroprotection and salvage cognitive function. In this study, we demonstrate that a cortical impact injury to the sensorimotor cortex elicits p75NTR expression in apoptotic neurons in the injury penumbra, confirming previous studies. To establish whether preventing p75NTR induction or blocking the ligands would reduce the extent of secondary neuronal cell death, we used a noninvasive intranasal strategy to deliver either siRNA to block the induction of p75NTR, or function-blocking antibodies to the ligands pro-nerve growth factor and pro-brain-derived neurotrophic factor. We demonstrate that either preventing the induction of p75NTR or blocking the proneurotrophin ligands provides neuroprotection and preserves sensorimotor function.
Naked mole‐rats are extremely resistant to post‐traumatic osteoarthritis

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent disabling disease, affecting quality of life and contributing to morbidity, particularly during aging. Current treatments for OA are limited to palliation: pain management and surgery for end-stage disease. Innovative approaches and animal models are needed to develop curative treatments for OA. Here, we investigated the naked mole-rat (NMR) as a potential model of OA resistance. NMR is a small rodent with the maximum lifespan of over 30 years, resistant to a wide range of age-related diseases. NMR tissues accumulate large quantities of unique, very high molecular weight, hyaluronan (HA). HA is a major component of cartilage and synovial fluid. Importantly, both HA molecular weight and cartilage stiffness decline with age and progression of OA. As increased polymer length is known to result in stiffer material, we hypothesized that NMR high molecular weight HA contributes to stiffer cartilage. Our analysis of biomechanical properties of NMR cartilage revealed that it is significantly stiffer than mouse cartilage. Furthermore, NMR chondrocytes were highly resistant to traumatic damage. In vivo experiments using an injury-induced model of OA revealed that NMRs were highly resistant to OA. While similarly treated mice developed severe cartilage degeneration, NMRs did not show any signs of OA. Our study shows that NMRs are remarkably resistant to OA, and this resistance is likely conferred by high molecular weight HA. This work suggests that NMR is a useful model to study OA resistance and NMR high molecular weight HA may hold therapeutic potential for OA treatment.
Competition and the Price Gap Between High and Low Rated Sellers

This paper seeks to quantify the difference in prices between products sold by high and low reputation sellers, and how that difference is related to the degree of competition they face. While past empirical work has found that high reputation sellers can often charge more for their products than low reputation sellers, theory predicts that this difference decreases when the competitive landscape becomes fierce. Accordingly, I find that on Amazon.com, 5–star sellers charge up to 5.2% more than 4.5 star sellers when there are few sellers selling the same product. However, as the number of sellers increases, the price difference between 5–star sellers’ listings and those of 4.5 star sellers disappears.
Engineering (Bio)Materials through Shrinkage and Expansion

Although various (bio)fabrication technologies have achieved revolutionary progress in the past decades, engineered constructs still fall short of expectations owing to their inability to attain precisely designable functions. Shrinkable and expandable (bio)materials feature unique characteristics leading to size-/shape-shifting and thus have exhibited a strong potential to equip current engineering technologies with promoted capacities toward applications in biomedicine. In this progress report, the advances of size-/shape-shifting (bio)materials enabled by various stimuli, are evaluated; furthermore, representative biomedical applications associated with size-/shape-shifting (bio)materials are also exemplified. Toward the future, the combination of size-/shape-shifting (bio)materials and 3D/4D fabrication technologies presents a wide range of possibilities for further development of intricate functional architectures.
Economics of Artificial Intelligence in Cybersecurity

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are increasingly being used for strengthening cybersecurity. According to market research firm Research and Markets, AI in cybersecurity market was $8.6 billion in 2019, which will each $101.8 billion in 2030 (https://tinyurl.com/4nbvu7nh). AI and ML have made it possible to detect cyber-threats faster and with a higher accuracy than human teams and stop cyberattacks quickly (https://tinyurl.com/uu6s36zw).
Distribution of yoghurts in the South Bohemian market in retailing shops

Consumption of consumer milk per 1 person in Czech Republic reduces in the last 8 years, however, consumption of milk products, including yoghurts, increases. This market is interesting for producers and present yearly about 70 mil. litres of yoghurts. After 1990, especially imported durable products were presented and appeared at our market, but the consumers early returned to the Czech products, with traditional taste and live bacteriological elements. The market research was done in 8 shops.
Characterization of the Functional Heterologous Desensitization of Hypothalamic 5-HT1A Receptors after 5-HT2AReceptor Activation

Desensitization of 5-HT1A receptors could be involved in the long-term therapeutic effect of anxiolytic and antidepressant drugs. Pretreatment of rats with the 5-HT2A/2C agonist DOI induces an attenuation of hypothalamic 5-HT1Areceptor–Gz-protein signaling, measured as the ACTH and oxytocin responses to an injection of the 5-HT1A agonist 8-OH-DPAT. We characterized this functional heterologous desensitization of 5-HT1A receptors in rats and examined some of the mechanisms that are involved. A time course experiment revealed that DOI produces a delayed and reversible reduction of the ACTH and oxytocin responses to an 8-OH-DPAT challenge. The maximal desensitization occurred at 2 hr, and it disappeared 24 hr after DOI injection. The desensitization was dose-dependent, and it shifted the oxytocin and ACTH dose–response curves of 8-OH-DPAT to the right (increased ED50) with no change in their maximal responses ( E max). The 5-HT2A receptor antagonist MDL 100,907 prevented the DOI-induced desensitization, indicating that 5-HT2Areceptors mediate the effect of DOI. Analysis of the components of the 5-HT1A receptor–Gz-protein signaling system showed that DOI did not alter the level of membrane-associated Gz-proteins in the hypothalamus. Additionally, DOI did not alter the binding of [3H]8-OH-DPAT or the inhibition by GTPγS of [3H]8-OH-DPAT binding in the hypothalamus. In conclusion, the activation of 5-HT2Areceptors induces a transient functional desensitization of 5-HT1A receptor signaling in the hypothalamus, which may occur distal to the 5-HT1A receptor–Gz-protein interface.
Impact of baseline profile on intrusion detection in mobile ad hoc networks

Dynamic topology and limited resources are major limitations that make intrusion detection in mobile ad hoc network (MANET) a difficult task. In recent years, several anomaly detection techniques were proposed to detect malicious nodes using static and dynamic baseline profiles, which depict normal MANET behaviors. In this research, we investigated different baseline profile methods and conducted a set of experiments to evaluate their effectiveness and efficiency for anomaly detection in MANETs using C-means clustering technique. The results indicated that a static baseline profile delivers similar results to other baseline profile methods. However, it requires the least resource usage while a dynamic baseline profile method requires the most resource usage of all the baseline models.
Globalized Freight Transport: Intermodality, E-Commerce, Logistics and Sustainability

The drive for seamlessness in freight transport is the subject of Leinbach and Capineri's Globalized Freight Transport: Intermodality, E-Commerce, Logistics and Sustainability. The hope is that fre...
Positronium time-of-flight spectroscopy of dissimilar metals.

Positronium velocity distributions using the time-of-flight technique have been determined for positronium emitted from clean, well-annealed, single-crystal samples of Al(111), Cu(100), Ni(100), and Au(100). The positronium energy distribution had a similar shape for all samples and was consistent with the hypothesis that positronium formation leaves behind a single electron hole in the conduction band of the metal. This was verified by explicit calculation for Ni, the first d-band metal to be studied by this technique.
A novel approach to a bifunctional photosensitizer for tumor imaging and phototherapy.

Optical imaging has attracted a great attention for studying molecular recognitions because minute fluorescent tracers can be detected in homogeneous and heterogeneous media with existing laboratory instruments. In our preliminary study, a clinically relevant photosensitizer (HPPH, a chlorophyll-a analog) was linked with a cyanine dye (with required photophysical characteristics but limited tumor selectivity), and the resulting conjugate was found to be an efficient tumor imaging (fluorescence imaging) and photosensitizing agent. Compared to HPPH, the presence of the cyanine dye moiety in the conjugate produced a significantly higher uptake in tumor than skin. At a therapeutic/imaging dose, the conjugate did not show any significant skin phototoxicity, a major drawback associated with most of the porphyrin-based photosensitizers. These results suggest that tumor-avid porphyrin-based compounds can be used as “vehicles” to deliver the desired fluorescent agent(s) to tumor. The development of tumor imaging o...
Order parameter relaxation and excess conductivity of current-carrying superconductors

The dependence of the conductivity of long, ''one-dimensional'' samples of superconducting tin on a large bias current I has been measured using a small superposed rf current in the frequency range 10--1000 MHz. From our data we find that the order parameter relaxation time tau/sub R/ is given by tau/sub R/0.23=(plus-or-minus0.03) (1-(T/T/sub c/))/sup -1/2/ nsec for temperature T/T/sub c/>0.9. We also find evidence fo an anomalous excess conductivity in the presence of I. For frequencies below 1000 MHz, the excess conductivity can be described by sigma/sub e/x=(t-italic*/..mu../sub 0/lambda/sup 2/)(q/q/sub m/)/sup 2/, where lambda is the experimentally determined superconducting penetration depth, q/q/sub m/ is the momentum of the supercurrent I/I/sub c/, and I/sub c/ is the Ginzburg-Landau critical current. The value of t* is about 3 x 10/sup -11/ sec for 0.9less-than-tildeT/T/sub c/less-than-tilde0.97, and decreases to zero at T/sub c/.
The regulation of dietary supplements.

Purpose To discuss the regulatory history of dietary supplements, define the term dietary supplement, clarify ingredient and nutrition information labeling, and discuss safety issues and implications for practice. Data Sources Review of primary and secondary sources, including both Internet sites and journal articles. Conclusions In the United States, 6 out of every 10 people use dietary supplements. For decades, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protected the public from mislabeled and unsafe products by regulating as foods those dietary supplements that included only essential nutrients. The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 included herbs as dietary supplements. When the Dietary Supplement and Health and Education Act (DSHEA) of 1994 was passed, the FDA lost its regulatory power. The DSHEA expanded the definition of dietary supplements beyond essential nutrients. Dietary supplements are no longer considered food additives, which makes them exempt from prescreening or any safety and efficacy studies before they are released to the public. Under the DSHEA, the FDA may take action if a product poses a direct health threat and only after adverse health effects have already occurred. Implications for Practice A good understanding of the regulatory procedures for dietary supplements will aid nurse practitioners (NPs) in patient education regarding these products. Patients should be advised to choose supplements that are made by nationally known food and drug manufacturers that belong to trade groups. NPs and patients can contact the manufacturer directly and can access government Internet sites for more product information.
The rise and fall of pineal N‐acetyltransferase in vitro: Neural regulation in the developing rat

In rats, the pineal gland has a rhythm in the activity of the enzyme, N-acetyltransferase (NAT), which is thought responsible for daily cycles of melatonin synthesis. Neonatal rat pineal glands, but not those of adult rats, have a single cycle that is observed in vitro during the first day of organ culture. The neural regulation of the cycle was investigated using neonatal rats with adult rats used for comparison. Prior treatment of rat pups with constant light did not abolish the cycle in vitro though it did abolish the in vivo rhythm. Removal of the superior cervical ganglia did not abolish the in vivo rhythm that was measured the first day after surgery, but ablation of the ganglia did abolish the rhythm if several days or more elapsed after surgery. Extirpation of the superior cervical ganglia abolished the in vitro NAT cycle in pup pineal glands as did the pharmacological equivalent, injection of 6-hydroxydopamine. Propranolol, a beta blocking agent, prevented the occurrence of the cycle in vitro.
The expanding scope of DNA sequencing

In just seven years, next-generation technologies have reduced the cost and increased the speed of DNA sequencing by four orders of magnitude, and experiments requiring many millions of sequencing reads are now routine. In research, sequencing is being applied not only to assemble genomes and to investigate the genetic basis of human disease, but also to explore myriad phenomena in organismic and cellular biology. In the clinic, the utility of sequence data is being intensively evaluated in diverse contexts, including reproductive medicine, oncology and infectious disease. A recurrent theme in the development of new sequencing applications is the creative 'recombination' of existing experimental building blocks. However, there remain many potentially high-impact applications of next-generation DNA sequencing that are not yet fully realized.
A generic model for reuseable lexicons: the genelex project

Genelex (oct. 90 - oct.94) est un projet EUREKA avec pour objectifs : (1) la definition d'un modele generique de lexiques, (2) le developpement d'outils logiciels pour la gestion de lexiques, (3) l'application du modele et des outils aux dictionnaires, (4) la constitution de dictionnaires electroniques
Comparison of two radiolabeled quinuclidinyl benzilate ligands for the characterization of the human peripheral lung muscarinic receptor.

Abstract Quinuclidinyl benzilate, a muscarinic antagonist, has previously been used in its tritiated form ([ 3 H]-QNB) to study the lung muscarinic receptor. We investigated whether a newer iodinated form of QNB ([ 125 I]-QNB) of higher specific activity would be an appropriate ligand to study the human peripheral lung muscarinic receptor. Both the tritiated and iodinated ligands bound specifically to human lung at 23°C. At 37°C the specific binding of [ 3 H]-QNB increased slightly, but no specific binding of [ 125 I]-QNB was found. The data from multiple equilibrium binding experiments covering a wide range of radiolabeled QNB concentrations were combined and analyzed using the computer modeling program, LIGAND. The tritiated QNB identified a single affinity human lung binding site with a Kd of 46 ± 9 pM and a receptor concentration of 34 ± 3 fmol/mg protein. The iodinated QNB identified a single higher affinity human lung binding site (Kd = 0.27 ± 0.32 pM) of much smaller quantity (0.62 ± 0.06 fmol/mg protein). Competition studies comparing the binding of unlabeled QNB relative to labeled QNB indicated that unlabeled QNB had the same Kd as that measured for [ 3 H]-QNB, but a 5 log greater Kd than that measured for [ 125 I]-QNB. Other muscarinic receptor agonists and antagonists competed with [ 3 H]-QNB, but not [ 125 I]-QNB for binding to muscarinic receptors with the expected magnitude and rank order of potency. We conclude that of the 2 radiolabeled forms of QNB available, only the tritiated form should be used to study the human peripheral lung muscarinic receptor.
TH‐C‐BRC‐07: Automated Identification of Surface Marker Positions to Maximize Tumor Tracking Accuracy

Purpose: Using markers at patient body surface to predict the tumor location is a widely used approach in lungcancerradiotherapy with respiratory gating. The purpose of this work is to identify a sparse set of locations on the patient's external surface, which are most correlated with the tumor motion and hence can be used for tumor location predication effectively. Methods: Thoracic 4DCT scans with 10 phases are used for the study. For each phase, points on external surface (except for patient's back) are segmented and the correspondence of the points between phases is established via deformable image registration of the corresponding CTimages. It is assumed that there is a linear relationship between the selected surface points and the tumor locations. The selection of the sparse locations on external surface and the linear dependence of these points to internal tumor motion are represented by a prediction matrix. Such a matrix is determined by solving an optimization problem, where the objective function contains a sparsity term about the number of surface points chosen. Bregman iteration is used to solve the optimization problem. To test our algorithm on realistic patient cases, we first solve our problem using the 9 out of 10 phases of the 4DCT images to identify surface points that are most correlated with the tumor locations and the prediction matrix. The 10th phase is then used to test the accuracy of the prediction. Results: The method is tested on 6 patient data. The average prediction error is under 1 mm. The number of locations selected on patient's external surface is under 7 in average. Conclusions: Our method can automatically select sparse locations on patient's external surface and estimates a correlation matrix of these locations with internal tumor motions based on 4DCT.
Internet social support for parents: the state of science.

TOPIC: Parents of emotionally disturbed young children have expressed the need for more social support but societal constraints limit their ability to obtain adequate social support. PURPOSE: This paper discusses what is currently known about coping, social support and Internet social support. It proposes the use of electronic social support to meet the needs of parents of emotionally disturbed children. SOURCE: Review of literature. CONCLUSIONS: Electronic forms of social support have the potential to meet the identified needs of parents for more social support.
Factors predicting placement of urban American Indian/Alaskan Natives into out-of-home care

Abstract American Indian/Alaskan Native children have disproportionately been placed into out-of-home care compared to White children in the child welfare system. What were the factors that child protective services (CPS) workers considered when deciding to remove a child from the home? Utilizing data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, this study examined out-of-home care factors for 2215 urban American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) and White children. In the urban sample, children from White families were younger and were more likely to be investigated for lack of supervision, while AI/AN families were investigated for physical neglect. In the placement regression models, urban AI/AN children came from homes where caregivers had greater alcohol, drug and mental health problems. Decisions by CPS workers to place AI/AN children may have been influenced by racial bias. A CPS system that acknowledges culture and race may reduce overrepresentation in placement. Efforts to work with AI/AN families prior to a child's removal may prove to be beneficial and less expensive.
The task-interspersal procedure has relative effects for teaching object labeling to preschool children with autism or developmental/language delay1

(1) Is the task-interspersal procedure an effective instructional strategy for children with autism or developmental/language delay? (2) Under what conditions are interspersal and high-probability ...
Space–Time Method for Detonation Problems with Finite-rate Chemical Kinetics

The space–time conservation element and solution element (CE/SE) method originally developed for non-reacting flows is extended to accommodate finite-rate chemical kinetics for multi-component systems. The model directly treats the complete conservation equations of mass, momentum, energy, and species concentrations. A subtime-step integration technique is established to handle the stiff chemical source terms in the formulation. In addition, a local grid refinement algorithm within the framework of the CE/SE method is incorporated to enhance the flow resolution in areas of interest. The capability and accuracy of the resultant scheme are validated against several detonation problems, including shock-induced detonation with detailed chemical kinetics and multi-dimensional detonation initiation and propagation.
Asian Americans and European Americans’ stigma levels in response to biological and social explanations of depression

Mental illness stigma is prevalent among Asian Americans, and it is a key barrier that prevents them from seeking psychological services. Limited studies have experimentally examined how Asian Americans respond to biological and social explanations of mental illness. Understanding how to educate and communicate about mental illness effectively is crucial in increasing service utilization among Asian Americans. To assess how genetic, neurobiological, and social explanations for the onset of depression affects Asian American and European American’s mental illness stigma. 231 Asian Americans and 206 European Americans read about an individual with major depression and were randomly assigned to be informed that the cause was either genetic, neurobiological, social, or unknown. Various stigma outcomes, including social distance, fear, and depression duration were assessed. Consistent with prior research, Asian Americans had higher baseline levels of stigma compared to European Americans. Greater social essentialist beliefs predicted positive stigma outcomes for Asian Americans, such as a greater willingness to be near, help, and hire someone with depression, but genetic essentialist beliefs predicted negative stigma outcomes, such as fear. In addition, a social explanation for the etiology of depression led to lower stigma outcomes for Asian Americans; it decreased their fear of someone with depression and increased the perception that depression is treatable. For European Americans, both genetic and social essentialist beliefs predicted a greater perception of depression treatability. Although genetics do play a role in the development of depression, emphasizing a social explanation for the origin of depression may help reduce stigma for Asian Americans.