cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of a proposed drift reduction technology high-speed wind tunnel testing protocol.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated the development of protocols for for measuring spray drift reduction technologies (DRTs) related to the application of agricultural protection chemicals. The DRT Program is an EPA-led initiative program to “achieve improved environmental and human health protection through drift reduction by accelerating the acceptance and use of improved and cost-effective application technologies.” The first step in implementing the DRT program is to develop a set of protocols, standard operating procedures, and data quality assurance steps so that the results from any trials or research conducted are scientifically valid and repeatable. A protocol for measuring spray droplet spectra via laser diffraction equipment in a high speed wind tunnel (air velocities >160 kph (100 mph)) was tested. Following the proposed protocol, five reference nozzles were evaluated with spray solutions of deionized water, water + 9 % isopropanol, and water + 0.25 % of a nonionic surfactant. Each of the nozzle and spray solution combinations were evaluated in 160, 193, and 225 kph (100, 120, and 140 mph) airstreams, as well as under static (0 kph) conditions. The results of these atomization studies showed that there were significant differences in droplet spectra between the spray solutions and from the different air velocities. Based on the time to complete the tests, the author suggest using a ±5 % standard deviation values as criteria for accepting atomization tests results.
Co-solvent mediated fiber diameter and fiber morphology control in electrospinning of sol–gel formulations

Understanding the hydrolysis, condensation and solvent evaporation processes in precursor sols for electrospun ultrafine fibers permits good control over fiber diameter and morphology in a reproducible manner. The (CH3CH2CH2O)4Ti/AcOH/Poly(n-Vinyl Pyrrolidone)/Ethanol sol–gel system is used to illustrate this principle. Four different co-solvents (ether, DMF, DMSO and formamide) were also used to establish their impact on fiber diameter. Among other physical properties of solvents, the relative volatility of the solvent mixtures used in this study was found to influence the morphology of the electrospun fibers by affecting the stability and range of existence of the electrified jet.
Ligand Exchange Dynamics in Aqueous Solution Studied with 2DIR Spectroscopy

We have used time-resolved multidimensional vibrational spectroscopy, generally termed 2DIR spectroscopy, to study the equilibrium dynamics of ligand exchange in an aqueous solution containing 3.4 M Mg(ClO4)2 and 1.2 M NaSCN. The sensitivity of the CN stretching frequency of thiocyanate (SCN−) to contact ion pair formation with Mg2+ ions generates distinct spectroscopic signatures for the MgNCS+ contact ion pair and the free SCN−. We have utilized 2DIR spectroscopy to successfully resolve the interconversion between these thiocyanate configurations and measured the MgNCS+ contact ion pair dissociation time constant to be 52 ± 10 ps. We attribute the observed dynamics to perchlorate−thiocyanate anion exchange in the first solvation shell of the Mg2+ cation. Magnesium ions in this concentrated ionic solution will be coordinated by water molecules, as well as perchlorate and thiocyanate ions. While prior studies have observed microsecond residence times for water ligands in the first coordination sphere of M...
For the ABM

Like Rathjens, Brennan is for negotiating with the Russians. Beyond that, their disagreements are basic. Brennan thinks that the Safeguard system, which he is in favor of seeing deployed, is insufficiently substantial. He favors the deployment of considerably more massive defensive systems that, unlike Safeguard, would be designed to save lives instead of the retaliatory missiles that hold other human lives as hostages for our own. He thinks that both we and the Russians should deploy such massive, life-saving systems in preference to any further escalation of offensive forces by either side. It is in our common interest, he stresses, to limit damage on both sides should war occur?and war, he emphasizes, can indeed happen; we've just been lucky so far. Brennan thinks that ABM is a protective umbrella that we can well afford, and that the choice to be made in allocating our resources is not between defensive missile systems and other national priorities, but between such systems and offensive ones?a proposition he thinks the Russians would agree to, to judge from their historic preoccupation with defense over offense. His truly novel assertion, however, is that appropriate defensive systems might also provide the political-psychological umbrella under which the people of both nations could feel reasonably secure while negotiated reductions in offensive force levels were taking place.
Rapid effects of neurotrophic factors on calcium homeostasis in rat visceral afferent neurons

Neurotrophic factors maintain and modulate neuron function in adults. We tested the hypothesis that neurotrophic factors rapidly alter intracellular calcium concentrations, thereby affecting neuron excitability. The majority of rat nodose neurons express TrkA, TrkB and TrkC receptor after 1 day in culture. Addition of nerve growth factor, brain derived neurotrophic factor or glial derived neurotrophic factor increased cytosolic calcium in about one third of the neurons within less than 10 min. This increase was due to calcium release from intracellular stores and could be blocked by the tyrosine kinase inhibitor K252a. The rapid effect of neurotrophic factors suggests a role of these molecules in the early response after inflammation as potential mediators for sensitization of afferent neurons.
Thermal conductivity of graphite in the basal plane

Abstract Theoretical expressions are derived for the phonon thermal conductivity of single crystals of graphite in the basal plane at room and at elevated temperatures. The phonons are treated by a two-dimensional Debye model in the frequency range from 4 to 46 THz. Mean free paths are calculated for anharmonic three-phonon interactions, scattering by point defects and scattering by grain boundaries. The calculated intrinsic thermal conductivity of 19.1 W/cm/K at 300 K agrees with existing data on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite. The spectral distribution of the intrinsic phonon heat current has a maximum at 4 THz and decreases with increasing frequency, making the thermal conductivity sensitive to grain size. Estimates are given for the reduction in conductivity by vacancies and Frenkel pairs, and for grain boundary and point defects in combination. Observed reductions due to neutron irradiation are discussed in terms of Frenkel pairs or residual vacancies. Thermal conductivity reductions are estimated in terms of observed fragmentation of basal planes as a result of prolonged electron irradiation.
High Gradient Acceleration of Electrons in a Laser-driven Dielectric Accelerator

We report the first observation of high-gradient acceleration of electrons in a lithographically fabricated micron-scale dielectric optical accelerator driven by a mode-locked Ti:sapphire laser.
Axial bonding in alkylcobalamins: DFT analysis of the inverse versus normal trans influence.

Density functional theory has been applied to study the origin of the inverse and normal trans influence in alkylcobalamins. In order to cover the X-ray structural data available for alkylcobalamins with a variety of axial substituents, geometries of 28 related corrin-containing models have been optimized and analyzed. The BP86/6-31G(d) level of theory was applied which showed good reliability in reproducing the axial bond lengths. Comparison of experimental and calculated data allowed to conclude that the inverse trans influence is not a general feature of cobalamins, as it appeared from the experimental data analysis alone. Inverse trans influence is observed for the series of R groups with increasing bulk and electron donating ability. For the series of R groups having similar medium bulk, but differing significantly in the electron donating ability, normal trans influence was found. Finally, it was determined, that the axial bond lengths correlate well but differently in the two series of R groups wit...
Embedded tutorial - Emerging memory technologies: What it means for computer system designers

Summary form only given. As conventional memory technologies such as DRAM run into the scaling wall, architects and system designers are forced to look at alternative technologies for building future computer systems. Several emerging Non-Volatile Memory (NVM) technologies such as PCM, STT-RAM, and Memristors have the potential to boost memory capacity in a scalable and power-efficient manner. However, these technologies are not drop-in replacements and will require novel solutions to enable their deployment. Even the prime candidates among these technologies have their own set of challenges such as higher read latency (than DRAM), much higher write latency, and limited write endurance. In this talk, I will discuss some of our recent work that addresses these challenges. Our first solution is hybrid memory system that combines emerging memory technologies with a small DRAM buffer, thereby obtaining the latency of DRAM in the common case, and the higher capacity of emerging technologies. Such a hybrid memory system allows combining technologies that have latency higher than DRAM without having significant impact on read latency. Second, we target the problem of limited write endurance, which is common to many of the emerging memory technologies. This problem is exacerbated by non-uniformity in write traffic to memory, causing frequently written lines to fail much earlier than others thereby reducing system lifetime significantly. Unfortunately, existing wear-leveling techniques require large storage tables and indirection, resulting insignificant area and latency overheads. We propose Start-Gap, a simple and effective wear-leveling technique that incurs an overhead of only few bytes and still provides lifetime close to ideal wear leveling. Finally, I will discuss the performance impact of high write latency, as most of the emerging memory technologies tend to have write latency much higher than the read latency. While a higher write latency can typically be tolerated using buffers, once the write request is scheduled for service to a bank, it can still cause increased latency for later arriving read requests to the same bank. To avoid this latency penalty caused by contention from slow write operations, we propose write cancellation and write pausing as a means to tolerate slow writes.
Role of Clinical Diagnosis and Medication Use in Effects of Maternal Depression on Infant-Directed Speech

Infant-directed (ID) speech was recorded from mothers as they interacted with their 4- to 12-month-old infants. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that two variables, age of the mother and mother's diagnosed depression, independently accounted for significant proportions of the variance in the extent of change in fundamental frequency (ΔF0). Specifically, depressed mothers produced ID speech with smaller ΔF0 than did nondepressed mothers, and older mothers produced ID speech with larger ΔF0 than did younger mothers. Mothers who were taking antidepressant medication and who were diagnosed as being in at least partial remission produced ID speech with mean ΔF0 values that were comparable to those of nondepressed mothers. These results demonstrate explicit associations between major depressive disorder and an acoustic attribute of ID speech that is highly salient to young infants.
Does metal adsorption onto bacterial surfaces inhibit or enhance aqueous metal transport? Column and batch reactor experiments on Cd–Bacillus subtilis–quartz systems

Abstract In this study, we investigate the effects of bacteria on metal transport through mineral-filled columns, and how the effect varies with pH and mineralogy. We measured Bacillus subtilis and aqueous Cd transport through quartz and Fe-coated quartz columns as a function of pH, using a separation technique to determine the absolute concentrations of aqueous and bacterially bound Cd in the effluent. Experimental results indicate that under certain conditions, bacteria enhance Cd transport through the columns. In these cases, the migration of Cd through the column is facilitated by Cd adsorption onto bacterial surfaces, and by transport of the bacteria. However, under other conditions, the transport of bacteria is inhibited, causing a retardation in Cd mobility. Under these conditions, the bacteria are immobile due to bacterial adsorption onto mineral surfaces and/or straining by the sand matrix. In separate experiments, we test whether a surface complexation modeling approach can be used to account for metal adsorption in complex systems such as these that contain both bacterial and mineral surfaces. We performed batch adsorption experiments with aqueous Cd, B. subtilis , and quartz, quantifying metal and bacterial adsorption as a function of pH. We use these experiments as a rigorous test and extension of the surface complexation approach to more realistic geologic systems than have been studied previously. The experimental results show that thermodynamic stability constants, determined from binary systems, can be used to successfully quantify the distribution of Cd between the aqueous phase and the bacterial and mineral surfaces, and can be used to estimate the distribution of mass in systems not directly studied in the laboratory. The column results indicate that modeling of contaminant transport in bacteria-bearing systems requires not only accurate flow models, but also chemical speciation models that quantify the role of bacterial adsorption under a range of subsurface conditions. Surface complexation modeling offers a means to account for the adsorption chemistry in these complex systems.
Partial forwarding vs. partial participation for dynamic window resizing in P2P streaming

Widely deployed peer-to-peer (P2P) live streaming systems have become a great challenge for Internet Service Providers as they consume a huge amount of bandwidth. Inspired by the fact that different users in a P2P live streaming system may watch the same channel with different window sizes which have different resolution demands, we consider the design of a P2P live-video streaming system. The design utilizes this fact to reduce the bandwidth consumption but still achieve satisfactory streaming quality. We advocate adaptive streaming: a peer's streaming rate is commensurate with its window size. In order to maintain satisfactory streaming quality even in the case when users dynamically change their window sizes, small-window users contribute part of their bandwidth to help large-window users. We propose the general design goals, and then model and formulate the design as an optimization problem. In order to design simple and efficient systems for dynamic window resizing, we study two schemes which represent two different design philosophies: a well-balanced and more distributed method and a supernode-based method. Specifically, a scheme called partial forwarding scheme (PFS) and another scheme called partial participation scheme (PPS). Our packet-level simulation results show that both PFS and PPS are easy to implement, and achieve good performance with appropriate parameter settings. Further, we also discuss their advantages and disadvantages, and demonstrate which scheme should be used in specific scenarios.
Fabrication of Extended Conjugation Length Polymers within Diacetylene Monolayers on Au Surfaces: Influence of UV Exposure Time

The effective conjugation length of the delocalized polymer backbone is one of the key factors in designing monolayer polymers for sensor or nonlinear optical applications. In this manuscript, the photopolymerization behavior of self-assembled diacetylene-containing disulfide monolayers is assessed on gold surfaces. Formation of the long conjugation length, so-called blue form, of the polydiacetylene backbone structure is exclusively monitored using resonance Raman spectroscopy as a function of UV exposure time. In these studies, initial formation of the blue polymer form is followed by an irreversible loss with prolonged exposure. This behavior mirrors the chromatic phase transition to shorter conjugation lengths exhibited for multilayer Langmuir−Blodgett films upon extended UV exposure. Although the exact nature of this phase transition remains elusive, most theories focus on factors affecting the alignment of the polymer backbone and influencing the effective conjugation length. Three such factors are ...
It's Not That Crystal Clear

An add-on test was ordered for a patient's serum sample. Upon its retrieval from a refrigerator, the sample appeared as a milky white suspension with no visible aggregates or gel-like structures. When the sample was warmed to 37 °C, the color and the appearance of the sample did not revert to those of normal serum. …
Distribution of intraventricularly administered antiamyloid‐beta peptide (Aβ) antibody in the mouse brain

There is considerable interest in utilizing the intracerebroventricular (icv) route of administration of antibodies in the brain for various studies and for the therapy of malignancies, but very little is known about the anatomic extent of distribution of the antibody in brain after injection into the third ventricle. To explore the potential for icv administration of antiamyloid-beta peptide (Aβ) in reducing Aβ toxicity in brain in Alzheimer's disease, we first mapped the time course and path of transit of horseradish peroxidase (HRP)-labeled antibody. The results show that, after a single injection into the mouse third venticle, the HRP-labeled antibody is localized within the microvasculature, first that of the corticohippocampal region close to the site of injection at 3 hr. By 24 hr, the antibody is distributed throughout the hippocampus and frontoparietal cortex close to the injection site, as well as in the deep and outer cerebral cortex and cerebellar cortex remote from the injection site. The injected antibody is almost entirely removed by 4 days. Therefore, the antibody had diffused throughout all the brain by 24 hr, showing the feasibility of small quantities of anti-Aβ antibody infused into the third ventricle to reach extracellular epitopes throughout the brain parenchyma rapidly. J. Neurosci. Res. 66:231–235, 2001. Published 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Cardiovascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis: a step forward.

Purpose of review The present review highlights the recent findings on cardiovascular disease in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and outlines the current concepts and prospects of cardiovascular disease detection and management in RA. Recent findings Over the past year the knowledge of cardiovascular disease in RA has been augmented by a number of studies further explicating the interplay between RA and cardiovascular risk factors and highlighting the impact of inflammatory measures, immune mediators and other markers as early determinants of cardiovascular disease in RA. Other studies reported potential beneficial effects on cardiovascular outcomes for some antirheumatic medications. Summary Knowledge of the increased burden of cardiovascular disease in RA is substantial and is continuously growing. Early detection, control and management of cardiovascular disease in RA appear to be a rapidly advancing field of research. However, much more work is needed to develop effective interventions to reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in RA patients. More studies are needed to identify specific biomarkers for cardiovascular disease in RA and to develop cardiovascular risk scoring tools and evidence-based algorithms to promote more effective cardiovascular prevention and management of cardiovascular disease in RA.
Computational aspects of optimal schedules with power control and multiple bitrates selection in multihop wireless networks

A significant amount of research on optimal scheduling has focused on the case where links can transmit with only a single bit-rate and a single transmission power. This paper develops techniques to accommodate multiple bit-rates and multiple transmission powers as well as a continuum of transmission powers. Optimizing over a large number of bit-rates and transmission powers typically increases the computed throughput at the expense of increasing the computation time. This paper examines the trade-off between computed throughput and computation time, with emphasis on the case when the relationship between bit-rate and SINR is the same as it is for 802.11a/g. One finding of this paper is a progression of Pareto optimal schemes that increases the computed capacity. A second finding is that optimizing over two transmission powers and two or three bit-rates achieves nearly the same throughput as optimizing over a continuum of transmission powers and all supported bit-rates. However, optimizing over a continuum of transmission powers and all supported bit-rates is far more computationally complex than optimizing over two transmission powers and a few bit-rates.
Dopamine and 5-HT turnover are increased by the mGlu2/3 receptor agonist LY379268 in rat medial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens and striatum.

We have shown, using in vivo microdialysis sampling, that systemic administration of the selective group II metabotropic (mGlu) receptor agonist LY379268, like the atypical antipsychotic clozapine, increased extracellular levels of dopamine, dopamine metabolites DOPAC and HVA, and the major 5-HT metabolite 5-HIAA, in rat medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Here, we have compared the effects of LY379268 with clozapine as well as risperidone on ex vivo tissue levels of dopamine, DOPAC, HVA, 5-HT and 5-HIAA in multiple brain regions. One to two hours following administration of LY379268, mPFC tissue levels of DOPAC, HVA and 5-HIAA were increased in a dose-dependent manner. Increases evoked by LY379268 (10 mg/kg s.c.) at the 2 h point were 189, 245 and 139% of basal levels, respectively. These effects were reversed within 4 h of administration. Clozapine (10 mg/kg s.c.) and risperidone (1 mg/kg s. c.) also increased levels of the dopamine metabolites to a similar extent but were without significant effect on tissue levels of 5-HIAA. LY379268 (10 mg/kg s.c.) also increased tissue levels of DOPAC, HVA and 5-HIAA by 169, 221 and 134% of basal levels in nucleus accumbens, respectively, and by 131, 179 and 132% of basal levels in striatum, respectively. These data show that activation of mGlu2/3 receptors can increase the turnover of dopamine and 5-HT in the areas of the brain implicated in the actions of atypical antipsychotics.
Intra-articular injections of hydrocortisone prednisolone, and their tertiary-butylacetate derivatives in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis.

Abstract 1. 1. Seven hundred ninety intra-articular injections of F, FTBA, ΔF, and ΔFTBA were compared in 80 patients with rheumatoid arthritis or osteoarthritis. 2. 2. Dosages varied from 5 to 100 mg. with 25 mg. the most frequently administered dose. 3. 3. No significant difference in response to the four steroids could be demonstrated when 25 mg. doses were compared. 4. 4. Fifteen, 20, and 100 mg. doses of ΔF and ΔFTBA and larger than 25 mg. doses of F and FTBA were limited in number, but produced the same improvement as the 25 mg. dose. 5. 5. Seventy-five per cent of joints with rheumatoid arthritis and 84 per cent with osteoarthritis showed satisfactory improvement. 6. 6. Duration of improvement averaged 2 to 3 weeks.
The Nature of the Township-Village Enterprise

Abstract The township-village enterprise (TVE) in China is owned by local citizens and controlled by the township-village government (TVG). The TVE′s residual benefits are shared among citizens and TVG officials. This ownership structure can be viewed as the solution to the central government′s problem of improving citizens′ welfare subject to the constraints that the current political system be preserved and that local agents be provided with incentives. The control right is given to the TVG because ordinary citizens cannot provide security and access to resources that are critical for the success of the TVE. Nominal ownership is given to the citizens to guarantee that most benefits will be retained locally. To prevent the TVG from abusing its power, explicit distributional rules are made by the center. J. Comp. Econom., December 1994, 19 (3), pp. 434-452. Department of Finance and Industrial Relations Center, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455.
Experimental Demonstration of the Fitness Consequences of an Introduced Parasite of Darwin's Finches

Background Introduced parasites are a particular threat to small populations of hosts living on islands because extinction can occur before hosts have a chance to evolve effective defenses. An experimental approach in which parasite abundance is manipulated in the field can be the most informative means of assessing a parasite's impact on the host. The parasitic fly Philornis downsi, recently introduced to the Galapagos Islands, feeds on nestling Darwin's finches and other land birds. Several correlational studies, and one experimental study of mixed species over several years, reported that the flies reduce host fitness. Here we report the results of a larger scale experimental study of a single species at a single site over a single breeding season.
On bubble cavitation and dissolution

Abstract The equilibrium equations of a bubble-droplet system are derived under more general conditions than previously reported. The stability of such a bubble-droplet system is examined via a diffusion argument. It is shown that the bubble-droplet system possesses not only a dissolution limit, known previously, but also a cavitation limit. Results of diffusion consideration supports that of thermodynamic analysis which demonstrated that both limits exist for a system without a droplet. Thus, the results of this paper further confirms the earlierconclusion that a bubble can remain in a state of stable equilibrium in a finite system under certain circumstances. Applications of the results require that a system boundary be identified such that little or no net mass transfer occurs across the boundary.
Some recent advances in poliomyelitis.

T HE separation of poliomyelitis viruses into different immunologic types has recently been studied systematically by a number of workers. 1~' b, o, '~ At the present writing three different immunologic types have been described. Although it is not known how many more exist, it is suspected on the basis of thirty-nine representative strains already classified, that the number of additional typcs may not be large. The multiplicity of types has a vital bearing on problems of epidemiology and immunology including that of possible prevention by means of vaccination. In the absence of a simple, speeifie "glassware" serologic test for poliomyelitis, the differentiation of types has been approached by three experimental methods: (i) second attack rates in paralyzed convalescent monkeys, (2) reciprocal vaccination-immunity, and (3) sermn neutralization tests. Agreement in results obtained by these three methods has been reported. 2 The first method depends on the failure, observed some time ago, to reinfeet with homologous virus monkeys paralyzed and convalescent from a first attaek. On the other hand, seeond attacks are successfully produced in the same animals injected with heterologous virus. Among the disadvantages of this method would seem to be: (A) that the second attack rate with heterologous virus is about 50 per cent and always less than the normal control attack rate, 1~ and therefore a large number of monkeys is required to render the results si~gnifieant, and (B) that the second attack in a convalescent monkey With residual paralysis is sometimes difficult to evaluate. ~ The second method, reciprocal Vaccination-immunity, is based on the demonstration of active immunity induced in monkeys following intramuscular injection of active virus. Thus monkeys which are given repeated intramuscular injections of strain A will resist intracerebral ehMlenge with strain A but will respond in all-or-none fashion to subsequent challenge with strain B depending on whether or not strain B belongs to the same type as strain A. The third method is the serum neutralization test which is carried out by adding virus to serum of vaccinatedimmune monkeys and then inoculating the mixture intraeerebrally into monkeys.2, a Immune serum will neutralize homologous virus, e.g., monkeys will not be paralyzed. Contrariwise, the same immune serum mixed with heterologous virus will not protect monkeys. Because monkeys must be used in each test all three methods of type differentiation are cumbersome and time-consuming. Nevertheless, it would appear from the work already accomplished, that
ON INERTIAL COUPLING IN DYNAMIC EQUATIONS OF COMPONENTS IN A MIXTURE

Abstract The existence and uniqueness of partition of the inertial coupling terms in the momentum and energy equations of a component in a mixture have been derived when disparate mass velocities and static temperatures exist. Evidences based on one dimensional analyses include reducing to the case of a dilute suspension, exhibiting consistently hyperbolic nature of both the mixture and the component equations, and giving real characteristics of the system equations.
Treatment of disfluency: Future trends

Abstract Factors impeding the development of innovative stuttering treatment programs in the United States are described. The United States clinicians' obsession with employing learning paradigms to explain and treat stuttering is suggested as a major factor impeding the development of more effective treatment strategies. The perpetuation of the “frequency fallacy,” which suggests that disfluency counts are the single most valid measure of stuttering is one result of this fixation on learning models. The fear of early intervention is another. Future trends are discussed with respect to the adoption of more meaningful therapy goals, an increasing emphasis on early intervention, an awareness of the significance of metalinguistic skills to early intervention, the value of commercially produced therapy programs, an increased awareness of the limitation of short-term intensive treatment programs, the recognition of the life-long chronic stutterer, and the development of support systems for the adult stutterer.
Function of extra-ocular photoreceptors in bathypelagic cephalopods

The photosensitive vesicles of four species of bathypelagic cephalopods are examined. In species of Bathyteuthis the vesicles appear to function in the detection of bioluminescent light from organisms located outside the visual field. In Galiteuthis phyllura the vesicles may function both in detecting bioluminescent light and down-welling surface light. In Vampyroteuthis infernalis the vesicles appear to detect light originating within the mantle cavity.
Residential Mobility and Local Civic Engagement in Japan and the United States Divergent Paths to School

What drives differences across countries in levels of civic engagement? Both the United States and Japan have been described as having high levels of civic engagement, but a variety of measures show that the type of involvement that is most common varies. Americans join and contribute to national political groups, but membership in PTAs and volunteer firefighting units is low and declining. Japanese participate at a much lower level in national advocacy organizations, but they join local neighborhood associations at very high rates, participate extensively in PTAs, and volunteer to clean up neighborhood parks. This article seeks to unravel why Japanese have such high rates of local civic engagement by examining how parents and volunteers have mobilized to maintain high rates of walking to and from school during a period in which walk-to-school rates have plummeted in the United States. The higher rate of Japanese local engagement in this area, I argue, is motivated by housing markets that limit residential mobility to much lower levels than in the United States. High cost of residential "exit" in Japan drives citizens to exercise "voice" to maintain the safety and walkability of their neighborhoods. Language: en
Using Assessment as a Tool to Improve Learning: an IFLA Workshop

Three librarians from Rutgers University Libraries collaborated on the program �Using Assessment as a Tool to Improve Learning� at the 69th IFLA General Conference and Council in Berlin, Germany in 2003. The workshop was designed to provide participants with an expanded understanding of assessment, and experience with using it effectively as a tool to facilitate improved learning. The presenters framed the workshop with a pre-workshop assessment and post-workshop assessment. The responses from the pre-workshop assessment supported the workshop�s design, provided an initial understanding of the individual participants� contexts and experiences, and formed the basis for the workshop�s small group activities. The post-workshop assessments offered valuable suggestions for future programs. The article shares the essence of the workshop in the words of the facilitators, each of whom focused on assessment at a different level. The three modes discussed are teacher/ instructor, learner/student, and programmatic/institutional.
Limiting correlation lenght solutions in stochastic radiative transfer

Abstract The problem of particle transport through a Markovian stochastic mixture of two immiscible materials is considered. In the special case of rod geometry, both small and large correlation lenght limiting solutions are explicitly constructed. The analysis is general in the sense that independent fluctuations are allowed in both the single scatter albedo and the particle mean free path. These results are used to provide two new closures for a low order ensemble averaging of the stochastic equation of transfer. Numerical comparisons with Monte Carlo benchmark results are given to assess the accuracy of the proposed closures.
A concept-based interactive biomedical image retrieval approach using visualness and spatial information

This paper presents a novel approach to biomedical image retrieval by mapping image regions to local concepts and represent images in a weighted entropy-based concept feature space. The term concept refers to perceptually distinguishable visual patches that are identiﬁed locally in image regions and can be mapped to a glossary of imaging terms. Further, the visual signiﬁcance (e.g., visualness) of concepts is measured as Shannon entropy of pixel values in image patches and is used to reﬁne the feature vector. Moreover, the system can assist user in interactively select a Region-Of-Interest (ROI) and search for similar image ROIs. Further, a spatial veriﬁcation step is used as a post-processing step to improve retrieval results based on location information. The hypothesis that such approaches would improve biomedical image retrieval, is validated through experiments on a data set of 450 lung CT images extracted from journal articles from four diﬀerent collections.
Infraspecific Variation in the White Perch, Roccus americanus (Gmelin)'

A study of the variation pattern inRoccus americanus was made to determine whether various populations differed and if so on what level. The results were compared with that of the striped bass,R. saxatilis, which occurs sympatrically over a part of the range. Counts of fin rays and scales and measurements of various body parts were made on over 1,400 specimens. The data are presented as frequency distributions.
Hostages in the Carolingian world (714–840)

The medieval hostage (obses) was a form of personal surety, a person deprived of liberty by a second person in order to guarantee an undertaking by a third person. Although they were used in private transactions, they normally appear in the early medieval sources in the context of relations between political entities. Close to seventy distinct hostage episodes are recorded in greater Francia and the Italian Peninsula in the period 714–840. Drawing on this evidence, as well as on the few surviving normative sources that refer to hostages, the present article develops a definition of hostages in the Carolingian period, examines the situations in which they were used, and argues that they must be seen as more than a simple means for securing agreements. In particular, grants of hostages might involve individuals beyond the trio of creditor–debtor–hostage, and they could transcend their immediate guaranteeing function to serve symbolic and political ends. The proper context for the study of hostages emerges as not legal but social and political relations.
Descartes and the pineal gland in animals: a frequent misinterpretation.

Rene Descartes presented a number of reasons for his choice of the pineal gland as a logical place for the soul to interact with the physical machinery of the body. It is often stated that one of his reasons was that he believed animals do not have pineal glands, whereas humans alone possess a soul and this small structure. This is a misinterpretation of Descartes. The philosopher knew that barnyard and other animals possess pineal glands, having seen this with his own eyes. His point was that the pineal is unique in humans only because of a special function - acting as the seat for the rational soul.
Regulation of Phosphatidylglycerophosphate Synthase by Inositol in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Is Not at the Level of PGS1 mRNA Abundance

Phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase catalyzes the committed step in the synthesis of the mitochondrial phospholipid cardiolipin. We showed previously that phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase activity in Saccharomyces cerevisiae is increased in conditions favoring mitochondrial development and during growth in the absence of inositol. Interestingly, the regulatory effects of inositol were not altered in ino2, ino4, or opi1 mutants suggesting that regulation in response to inositol is not at the level of gene transcription. We report here that steady state mRNA levels of the PGS1 gene, which encodes phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase, were not altered by inositol or choline. Growth in the presence of the inositol-depleting drug valproate led to an increase in phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase activity unaccompanied by increased PGS1 mRNA. PGS1 mRNA abundance was not decreased in ino2 or ino4 mutants and was unaffected in an opi1 mutant. Therefore, regulation of phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase by inositol is not mediated at the level of mRNA abundance and does not require the INO2-INO4-OPI1 regulatory circuit. PGS1 was increased in glycerol/ethanol compared with glucose media and was maximally expressed as cells entered the stationary phase. Deletion of the mitochondrial genome did not affect PGS1 expression. Thus, whereas inositol controls phosphatidylglycerophosphate synthase activity, regulation of PGS1 expression occurs primarily in response to mitochondrial development cues.
Evidence for the Wrinkled Continuous Laminar Wave Concept of Turbulent Burning

Several investigators have attempted to explain and evaluate turbulent burning rates by assuming the turbulent flame brush to be a zone traversed by a wrinkled continuous laminar flame front. Others have argued that the brush consists of a distributed reaction zone characterized by turbulent energy transport and diffusion of active species. A third point of view is that of visualizing the brush as a region containing disconnected flamelets of varying chemical composition. The purpose of the present paper is to state the case for the wrinkled wave concept and to place limits on the regime of its applicability. Experiments indicate that the distributed reaction zone model applies to conditions of incomplete burning within the flame brush. It is suggested that the transition from wrinkled wave to distributed reaction zone corresponds to the breakdown of full turbulent flames through the incidence of "holes." New photometric evidence is presented.
Self quenching of chlorosome chlorophylls in water and hexanol-saturated water

The optical properties of a methyl ester homolog of bacteriochlorophylld (BChldM) and bacteriochlorophyllc (BChlc) in H2O, hexanol-saturated H2O and methanol were studied by absorption, fluorescence emission, and circular dichroism (CD). In H2O, BChldM spontaneously forms an aggregate similar to that formed in hexane, with absorption maximum at 730 nm and fluorescence emission at 748 nm. For the pigment sample in hexanol-saturated H2O, while the absorption peaks at 661 nm, only slightly red-shifted compared to the monomer, the fluorescence emission is highly quenched. When diluted 2–3 fold with H2O, the absorption returns to around 720 nm, characteristic of an aggregate. The CD spectrum of the H2O aggregate exhibits a derivative-shaped feature with positive and negative peaks, while the amplitude is lower than that of chlorosomes. The Fourier transform infrared spectra of BChldM aggregates in H2O and hexane were measured. A 1644 cm−1 band, indicative of a bonded 131-keto group, is detected for both samples. A marker band for 5-coordinated Mg was observed at 1611 cm−1 for the two samples as well. To study the kinetic behavior of the samples, both single-photon counting (SPC) fluorescence and transient absorption difference spectroscopic measurements were performed. For BChldM in hexanol-saturated H2O, a fast decay component with a lifetime of 10 to 14 ps was detected using the two different techniques. The fast decay could be explained by the concentration quenching phenomenon due to a high local pigment concentration. For the pigment sample in H2O, SPC gave a 16 ps component, whereas global analysis of transient absorption data generated two fast components: 3.5 and 26 ps. The difference may arise from the different excitation intensities. With a much higher excitation in the latter measurements, other quenching processes, e.g. annihilation, might be introduced, giving the 3.5 ps component. Finally, atomic force microscopy was used to examine the ultrastructure of BChldM in H2O and hexanol-saturated H2O. Pigment clusters with diameters ranging from 15 to 45 nm were observed in both samples.
Geometrical detector considerations in laser sensing applications

We have studied the influence of the geometrical interaction of different detectors with the impinging optical/laser received beam for a wide range of laser sensing applications. Although different techniques apply, it is found that similar aspects of geometrical physics plays a role in direct detection of a range-resolved large M(sup 2) OPO atmospheric Lidar, heterodyne multi-detector reception of atmospheric turbulence distorted coherent lidar type laser sensing, and the distribution and summation of laser induced fluorescence signals after being spectrally resolved with a spectrometer and detected by a column summing CCD detector. In each of these systems, the focused received light is spatially and spectrally distributed due to several factors including Field-of-View considerations, laser beam quality/divergence, multi-detector aspects, and hardware and software summation (coherent and non-coherent) of multi-element or spatially integrated signals. This invited talk will present some of our recent results in these areas and show the similarities in the detector spatial and temporal summation techniques of these different laser sensing systems.
The role of consumers' network positions on information-seeking behavior of experts and novices: A power perspective

Abstract Results from two studies demonstrate that depending on consumers’ network positions (peripheral or central), experts and novices behave differently when seeking information about their networks or products related to those networks. Experts in central network positions (vs. peripheral) seek more network-related information, while novices in the same positions seek more product-related information. In contrast, experts in peripheral network positions (vs. central) seek more product-related information, while peripheral novices seek more network-related information. Findings also suggest that desire for power (social or personal) mediates these relationships. Given the importance of social networks in consumer decision making, this research demonstrates the influence and importance of consumer's network position on information-seeking behavior of experts and novices.
Biosynthesis of guinea pig erythrocyte triglycosylceramide by bone marrow β-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase☆

Abstract A β-N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases (Ga1NAcT) that catalyzes the synthesis of a triglycosylceramide, GanglioTricer (Ga1NAcβ-Ga1β1-4G1c-cer), from lactosylceramide and UDP-Ga1NAc was isolated from guinea pig bone marrow. The enzyme was present in the supernatant solution obtained after homogenization of guinea pig bone marrow 12,000 × g pellet with 0.32 M sucrose containing 0.6% Triton X-100 and centrifugation at 129,000 × g. The enzyme that catalyzed the transfer of Ga1NAc to a tetraglycosylceramide (Lac-nTet-cer) was found in a membrane-bound fraction. The K m values were 0.5 mM and 0.7 mM for the lactosylceramide and Lac-nTet-cer, respectively. 97.0% of the terminal [ 14 C]Ga1NAc was cleaved by the action of pure β-hexosaminidase from [ 14 C]triglycosylceramide.
Long-term potentiation of perforant path synapses in hippocampll CA1 in vitro

This paper reports a study of long-term potentiation (LTP) of perforant path synapses in CA1. Using rat hippocampal slices with CA3 and the dentate gyrus removed, stimulation of the perforant path evoked a population excitatory postsynaptic potential (pEPSP) that was negative-going in s. lacunosum-moleculare of CA1. High-frequency conditioning stimulation of the perforant pathway induced LTP of the perforant path pEPSP in slices disinhibited by the GABAA receptor antagonist bicuculline methiodide (20 microM). Conditioning of the perforant pathway in normal medium, however, failed to induce LTP. Potentiation of the perforant path pEPSP in the presence of bicuculline lasted at least 1 h, was specific to the tetanized pathway, and based on a threshold property, appeared associative in nature.
Inhibition of mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase by nitric oxide-mediated S-nitrosylation

Mitochondrial aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH2) is responsible for the metabolism of acetaldehyde and other toxic lipid aldehydes. Despite many reports about the inhibition of ALDH2 by toxic chemicals, it is unknown whether nitric oxide (NO) can alter the ALDH2 activity in intact cells or in vivo animals. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of NO on ALDH2 activity in H4IIE-C3 rat hepatoma cells. NO donors such as S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO), S-nitroso-N-acetylpenicillamine, and 3-morpholinosydnonimine significantly increased the nitrite concentration while they inhibited the ALDH2 activity. Addition of GSH-ethylester (GSH-EE) completely blocked the GSNO-mediated ALDH2 inhibition and increased nitrite concentration. To directly demonstrate the NO-mediated S-nitrosylation and inactivation, ALDH2 was immunopurified from control or GSNO-treated cells and subjected to immunoblot analysis. The anti-nitrosocysteine antibody recognized the immunopurified ALDH2 only from the GSNO-treated samples. All these results indicate that S-nitrosylation of ALDH2 in intact cells leads to reversible inhibition of ALDH2 activity.