cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Charge densities, bond orders and delocalization energies of the pentalene dianion and the heptalene dication

Abstract The molecular orbitals, charge densities, bond orders and vertical stabilization energies for the pentalene dianion and the heptalene dication have been calculated by a semi-empirical, self-consistent field method and by the Huckel method. The vertical stabilization energies of the two ions are comparable to the vertical stabilization energies of hydrocarbon ions of known stability. It is noted that the electronic properties of these closed shell ions cannot be predicted simply by the addition or removal of the appropriate orbital from the set of orbitals of the neutral molecule since a significant reorganization of some of the lower orbitals occurs.
The clinical microbiology laboratory: Utilization and cost-effectiveness

Abstract Utilization of the microbiology laboratory is subject to limitations posed by the diversity of microbial agents causing infection, multiple and often poorly accessible sites of infection, contamination of specimens with indigenous flora, and failure of communication between clinician and microbiologist. Cost constraints increasingly limit the extent of microbiologic services available on-site and lead to decentralization of laboratory services and possible loss of qualIty control. Increased attention Is being paid to process control of cultures, rapid screening and diagnostic tests as culture substitutes, and limitations on antibiotic susceptibility testing.
A simple dual-RAMP algorithm for resource constraint project scheduling

A Relaxation Adaptive Memory Programming (RAMP) algorithm is developed to solve large-scale resource constrained project scheduling problems (RCPSP). The RAMP algorithm presented here takes advantage of a cross-parametric relaxation and extends a recent approach that casts the relaxed problem as a minimum cut problem. Computational results on a classical set of benchmark problems show that even a relatively simple implementation of the RAMP algorithm can find optimal or near-optimal solutions for a large set of those instances.
Teaching and practicing cost-awareness in the intensive care unit: A TARGET to aim for

Intensive care is one of the main contributors to rising inpatient hospital costs due to frequent use of expensive diagnostics and therapies. With successful track records of team- and protocol-based care, intensive care units are ideal sites to take the lead in reducing overuse and misuse of diagnostic tests and prescribing. We offer a framework for practicing and teaching cost-awareness in the intensive care unit based on the acronym TARGET. The components of the care are as follows: Talk to patients about their preferences for care, Ask for outside tests, avoid Routine and/or Repeated tests, prescribe Generic medications, Educate about costs, and Transfuse appropriately.
Psychometric properties of Spanish-language adult dental fear measures

Background It would be useful to have psychometrically-sound measures of dental fear for Hispanics, who comprise the largest ethnic minority in the United States. We report on the psychometric properties of Spanish-language versions of two common adult measures of dental fear (Modified Dental Anxiety Scale, MDAS; Dental Fear Survey, DFS), as well as a measure of fear of dental injections (Needle Survey, NS).
Do Parent–Adolescent Discrepancies in Family Functioning Increase the Risk of Hispanic Adolescent HIV Risk Behaviors?

In the family-based prevention science literature, family functioning, defined as positive parenting, parental involvement, family cohesion, family communication, parental monitoring of peers, and parent–adolescent communication, has been shown to ameliorate HIV risk behaviors in Hispanic youth. However, the majority of studies have relied solely on parent or adolescent reports and we know very little about parent–adolescent family functioning discrepancies. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine whether and to what extent parent–adolescent discrepancies in family functioning increased the risk of HIV risk behaviors, including substance use and sexual risk behaviors, and whether these associations vary as a function of acculturation and youth gender. A total of 746 Hispanic 8th grade youth and their primary caregivers were included in the study. Structural equation modeling findings indicate that parent–adolescent family functioning discrepancies are associated with an increased risk of Hispanic adolescent HIV risk behaviors, including lifetime and past 90-day alcohol and illicit drug use, and early sex initiation. In addition, study findings indicate that results vary by acculturation and youth gender. Findings are discussed in the context of existing family-based research and practice in preventing and reducing HIV risk behaviors among Hispanic youth and their families.
Brazilian Abolitionism, Its Historiography, and the Uses of Political History*

Explanations of the Abolitionist movement's success in Brazil (1888) have, since the 1960s and 1970s, emphasised the movement's material context, its class nature, and the agency of the captives. These analyses have misunderstood and gradually ignored the movement's formal political history. Even the central role of urban political mobilisation is generally neglected; when it is addressed, it is crippled by lack of informed analysis of its articulation with formal politics and political history. It is time to recover the relationship between Afro-Brazilian agency and the politics of the elite. In this article this is illustrated by analysing two conjunctures critical to the Abolitionist movement: the rise and fall of the reformist Dantas cabinet in 1884–85, and the relationship between the reactionary Cotegipe cabinet (1885–88), the radicalisation of the movement, and the desperate reformism that led to the Golden Law of 13 May 1888.
Social functions of psychological interpretations.

As residential treatment programs for the mentally ill shift from a custodial orientation to a therapeutic one, they will rely increasingly on staff who are adept in the use of psychological interpretations. Staff who are so trained and who make use of these interpretations pose special problems for the maintenance of the social system. The social functions of psychological interpretations are discussed, as are some of the unique problems encountered in the residential treatment of children.
Low-grade malignant perineurioma (perineurial sarcoma) of soft tissue: a potential diagnostic pitfall on fine needle aspiration

A case of low-grade malignant perineurioma presenting as a mass in the thigh is described. The patient was a 76-year-old woman with an enlarging painful mass on her right lateral thigh over the past 2 months. Thorough clinical and radiological studies did not reveal any evidence of tumor elsewhere. The patient underwent fine needle aspiration of the mass, which revealed pleomorphic spindle cells in small clusters or dispersed as single cells within myxoid stroma, cytologically consistent with a high-grade sarcoma. At surgery, the tumor was found to be entirely confined within the muscle. Grossly, the tumor measured 6.5 cm in greatest diameter and showed a gray-white fleshy cut surface that was well circumscribed but unencapsulated. Histologic examination showed a highly cellular spindle cell proliferation embedded within myxoid stroma. The tumor cells showed mild to moderate nuclear pleomorphism with minimal mitotic activity. No evidence of hemorrhage or necrosis was noted. The tumor irregularly invaded the surrounding skeletal muscle. Immunohistochemical studies showed weak membranous positivity for epithelial membrane antigen and focal cytoplasmic positivity for CD34; stains for smooth muscle actin, cytokeratin AE1/AE3, desmin, CD56, H-caldesmon, calponin, and S-100 protein were negative. Electron microscopy showed cells with thin, elongated cytoplasmic processes extending along connective tissue in a parallel, onion-like arrangement and prominent subplasmalemmal pinocytotic activity. The marked pleomorphism displayed on fine needle aspiration observed in this case can lead to a mistaken diagnosis of high-grade sarcoma resulting in unnecessarily aggressive management.
A study of reversibly inactivated lipases for use in a morphine-triggered naltrexone delivery system.

A key component of an implant that can be triggered by external morphine to release naltrexone is an inactivated enzyme that can be activated by morphine and which can then rapidly remove a protective coating surrounding a bioerodible polymer containing dispersed naltrexone. In this article we describe a lipase that has been conjugated with O3-carboxymethylmorphine, morphine-β-3-glucuronide and O3-carboxypropylmorphine. The enzyme conjugate was then inactivated by complexation with affinity-purified goat polyclonal antimorphine antibodies. Antibody lipase interactions were measured by pH Stat and ELISA techniques. Affinity constants of the antibodies determined by radioimmunoassay using tritium-labeled morphine were 4.10 × 106, 3.18 × 106 and 3.38 × 107, respectively. While a concentration of 10−5 M morphine was required to restore lipase activity, it is likely that a combination of correct morphine tether and correct affinity-purified antibody can increase sensitivity to the desired 10−8−10−9 M morphine level. Thus, a functioning device can almost certainly be constructed. However, it is unlikely that reactivation times of 1–2 h necessary for clinical usefulness in treatment of narcotic addiction can be achieved. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Africana Studies and Economics: In Search of a New Progressive Partnership

The scope and meaning of terms like African American Studies, Black Studies, and Africana Studies have evolved continually since the field was established in schools, colleges, and universities in the late 1960s. Discourse about the economic conditions of people of African descent has always constituted an important dimension of the Black intellectual tradition that Africana Studies seeks to preserve and extend. Significant barriers exist, however, to collaboration between economists and Africana Studies specialists. Opportunities to collaborate across the disciplines arise in addressing issues such as hyper-unemployment, pervasive poverty, environmental racism, Black land loss, and the plight of Black farmers. The author suggests that efforts by Africana Studies specialists to understand many of the current dynamics could be enhanced through collaboration with those economists attempting to develop the subfield of stratification economics.
Membrane in a reactor: A functional perspective

Membrane reactors have found utility in a broad range of applications including biochemical, chemical, environmental, and petrochemical systems. The variety of membrane separation processes, the novel characteristics of membrane structures, and the geometrical advantages offered by the membrane modules have been employed to enhance and assist reaction schemes to attain higher performance levels compared to conventional approaches. In these, membranes perform a wide variety of functions, often more than one function in a given context. An understanding of these various membrane functions will be quite useful in future development and commercialization of membrane reactors. This overview develops a functional perspective for membranes in a variety of reaction processes. Various functions of the membranes in a reactor can be categorized according to the essential role of the membranes. They can be employed to introduce/separate/purify reactant(s) and products, to provide the surface for reactions, to provide...
Simulation and analysis of the multipath environment of Mars

NASA's long-term goals for the exploration of Mars include the use of rovers and sensors which intercommunicate through proximity wireless networks. Elements of the network have a short transmission range, low power requirements, low cost, and a relatively short-life span. The performance of any such wireless network depends fundamentally on the radio frequency (RF) environment. In wireless communication systems, communication engineers are generally concerned with two main radio channel issues: link budget and multipath. We have already reported results concerning the link budget at selected sites on Mars. These results were based on a 2.4 GHz proximity wireless network and simulated RF coverage patterns using high-resolution (11 m/pixel) DEMs of the Gusev Crater and Meridiani Planum regions. This paper presents our current research results regarding the multipath environment at the same selected sites on Mars. Our simulations compute the PDP between an access point and a node taking into account environmental parameters including terrain. With these PDPs, we are able to predict and analyze delay spread statistics which could be used in designing wireless network receivers for use on Mars' surface
A Reservation-based Extended Transaction Protocol for Coordination of Web Services

Web services can be used to automate business activities that span multiple enterprises over the Internet. Such business activities require a coordination protocol to reach consistent results among the participants in the business activity. In the current state of the art, either classical distributed transactions or extended transactions with compensating transactions are used. However, classical distributed transactions lock data in the databases of different enterprises for unacceptable durations or involve repeated retries, and compensating transactions can lead to inconsistencies in the databases of the different enterprises. In this article, we describe a novel reservation protocol that can be used to coordinate the tasks of a business activity. Instead of resorting to compensating transactions, the reservation protocol employs an explicit reservation phase and an explicit confirmation and cancellation phase. We show how our reservation protocol maps to the Web services coordination specification, and describe our implementation of the reservation protocol. We compare the performance of the reservation protocol with that of the two-phase commit protocol and optimistic two-phase commit protocol. We also compare the probability of inconsistency for the reservation protocol with that for compensating transactions.
Angiographic evolution of coronary artery morphology in unstable angina.

As previously reported in acute presentations of unstable angina, an identifiable characteristic coronary artery lesion has been found in about 70% of cases at coronary arteriography. This takes the form of an eccentrically placed convex stenosis with a narrow neck due to one or more overhanging edges or irregular, scalloped borders, or both. To study the evolution of lesions responsible for unstable angina, coronary artery anatomy and morphology on angiography were evaluated in patients with stable angina progressing to unstable angina, Group I comprised 25 patients with a history of stable angina who were restudied after an acute episode of unstable angina and Group II comprised 21 patients with little or no change in symptoms between catheterizations. Progression of coronary disease occurred in 19 (76%) of 25 patients in Group I compared with 7 (33%) of 21 in Group II (p The eccentric lesion was seen in 71% of all lesions with progression to'less than 100% occlusion in Group 1, but it was not seen in any Group II vessel with progression. Therefore, progression of disease is very common in acute presentations of unstable angina and most lesions progress from previously insignificant stenoses. An eccentric lesion with a narrow neck due to one or more overhanging edges or irregular, scalloped borders, or both, is the most common configuration of coronary lesions in this type of progression and it appears to be a major cause of unstable angina.
UNITARY CLOSED LOOPS IN REGGEIZED FEYNMAN THEORY.

We use the factorized tree graphs of the generalized Veneziano model to construct, through the tree theorem, all graphs with one closed loop. While unitary in the sense of perturbation theory, the loops contain a new "particle counting" divergence related to the very large number of daughters in the trees.
Regulation of human PDE5A2 intronic promoter by cAMP and cGMP: identification of a critical Sp1-binding site.

PDE5A gene encodes type 5 phosphodiesterase (PDE5), the principal cGMP-catalyzing enzyme in the penis and the primary target of sildenafil (Viagra). We have previously reported the isolation of three alternatively spliced PDE5A isoforms in humans. We also reported the identification of three corresponding alternative first exons and an intronic promoter in the human PDE5A gene. The intronic promoter is situated upstream from the PDE5A2-specific first exon but downstream from the PDE5A1- and A3-specific first exons. In the current study we showed that the intronic promoter could be upregulated by either cAMP or cGMP. In order to identify possible regulatory elements in the promoter, we created deletion and base-substitution mutants targeting one AP2- and four Sp1-binding sequences. Loss of function of these mutants to bind to the respective transcription factors was verified by DNase I footprint analysis, and changes in promoter function were analyzed with a luciferase reporter system. Mutation of the AP2-binding sequence and deletion of the 3'-most Sp1-binding site (within the exon) had little effects on the basal or the cyclic nucleotide-inducible promoter functions. Mutation of the 5'-most Sp1-binding site had much more severe effects on the basal and the cyclic nucleotide-inducible promoter functions. Mutation of a neighboring site that contains two overlapping Sp1-binding sequences completely nullified the basal and cyclic nucleotide-inducible promoter activities. Thus, the PDE5A2 intronic promoter depends on the overlapping Sp1-binding site for basal and cyclic nucleotide-inducible functions.
Let Freedom Ring! Let Peace Reign!

I grew up in the 1950s in what seemed like a peaceful White community in the Southern United States. I took certain kinds of segregation for granted, but I rankled when I heard hateful words expres...
Marketing Without Consent: Consumer Choice and Costs, Privacy, and Public Policy

Abstract Most of the privacy debate pertains to personal information being collected and disseminated in databases without consumer consent or perhaps even knowledge. The author asserts that a more important issue is how these databases are used to impose marketing costs on consumers without their consent. All marketers realize it is costly to communicate to potential consumers, but they often forget that consumers bear some marketing communications costs as well. The author suggests that economic efficiency would be enhanced by requiring marketers to internalize at least some of the consumer costs, particularly those likely to be borne involuntarily. Current regulations address only some costs for some media and often limit rather than enhance consumer choice. The author presents new public policy recommendations to improve efficiency and consumer choice.
A treatment of internally constrained elastic–plastic materials

Abstract A treatment of internally constrained elastic–plastic materials is presented in the context of the Lagrangian strain-space formulation of the theory of finitely deforming elastic–plastic materials. A general type of internal constraint, represented by a smooth scalar-valued function of Lagrangian strain and a list of plastic variables, is considered. At fixed values of the plastic variables, the constraint equation determines a smooth hypersurface (the constraint manifold) imbedded in six-dimensional strain space. This manifold moves about and changes its shape as the deformation progresses. Adopting an approach introduced by Casey and Krishnaswamy for thermoelastic materials, the imbedded elasticity of elastic–plastic materials and the internal constraint are used to induce an equivalence relation on the set of unconstrained elastic–plastic materials. A unique constrained elastic–plastic material is then associated with each equivalence class of unconstrained materials, and a characterization of the constrained material is obtained from the properties of the corresponding unconstrained ones.
Chronic eosinophilic pneumonia in a one-year-old child.

Although the literature well describes chronic eosinophilic pneumonia in the adult, there are no reports of this entity in the pediatric age group. We describe a child with chronic eosinophilic pneumonia, emphasizing the specific radiologic features, common conditions in the differential diagnosis, and dramatic response to corticosteroid administration, which is a unique feature of this entity.
Three-dimensional canard-wing shape optimization in aircraft cruise and maneuver environments

This paper demonstrates a numerical technique for canard-wing shape optimization at two operating conditions. For purposes of simplicity, a mean surface wing paneling code is employed for the aerodynamic calculations. The optimization procedures are based on the method of feasible directions. The shape functions for describing the thickness, camber, and twist are based on polynomial representations. The primary design requirements imposed restrictions on the canard and wing volumes and on the lift coefficients at the operating conditions. Results indicate that significant improvements in minimum drag and lift-to-drag ratio are possible with reasonable aircraft geometries. Calculations were done for supersonic speeds with Mach numbers ranging from 1 to 6. Planforms were mainly of a delta shape with aspect ratio of 1.
A Profile of Learning Disabled Twelfth-Graders in Regular Classes

Of the 26,147 twelfth-graders on whom survey data from the national High School and Beyond study were complete, 439 (1.7%) identified themselves as having specific learning disabilities. Comparisons between the data on these students and those on their nonimpaired peers showed that the learning disabled group (a) was older, (b) included a disproportionately high number of minority members, and (c) reported significantly more other handicapping conditions. Likewise, the learning disabled students scored significantly lower on all measures of academic achievement tested and on most indices of self-esteem and motivation. They also reported more serious trouble with the law. Parity was only uncovered on such variables as amount of television viewing and school-based extracurricular activities. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Detecting covert communication on Android

Using covert channels, malicious applications on Android-based smartphones are able to subvert the permission system and share data in a potentially untraceable manner. These channels are easy to exploit today, and have enough bandwidth to transmit sensitive information in real-time between collaborating applications. In this paper, we define and implement an application layer covert communications detector that does not require special permission from the user. We quantify the effect our detector has on channel capacities for malicious applications that wish to remain stealthy. Lastly, we evaluate the robustness of the volume and vibration channels on the Android emulator, HTC G1, and Motorola Droid, as well as characterize the effects of background noise on data loss and transfer rates.
The adsorption kinetics of nitrogen on rhenium

Abstract The adsorption of room temperature nitrogen on atomically clean polycrystalline rhenium has been studied. The sticking coefficients at zero coverage were found to be 0.060, 0.009, and 0.007 at rhenium surface temperatures of 205, 300, and 373 °K respectively. These values are between one and two orders of magnitude smaller than those in the nitrogentungsten system. The dependence of the sticking coefficient upon surface coverage and temperature could be accounted for by assuming an intermediate state weakly bound to an adsorption site. These sites were assumed to be uniformly distributed over the surface. Their concentration was found to be less than 1 10 of the number of substrate-rhenium atoms/cm2. The binding energies of the intermediate state and the permanently adsorbed state were in the ratio of about 1:20 for both the nitrogen-rhenium and nitrogen-tungsten systems. In view of this similarity, it is difficult to account for the large difference in sticking probabilities unless one assumes that tungsten absorbs energy from the intermediate binding state much more efficiently than does the rhenium.
Modeling a 5 kWe planar solid oxide fuel cell based system operating on JP-8 fuel and a comparison with tubular cell based system for auxiliary and mobile power applications

Abstract A steady state planar solid oxide fuel cell (P-SOFC) based system operating on desulfurized JP-8 fuel was modeled using Aspen Plus simulation software for auxiliary and mobile power applications. An onboard autothermal reformer (ATR) employed to reform the desulfurized JP-8 fuel was coupled with the P-SOFC stack to provide for H 2 and CO as fuel, minimizing the cost and complexity associated with hydrogen storage. Characterization of the ATR reformer was conducted by varying the steam to carbon ratio (H 2 O/C) from 0.1 to 1.0 at different ATR operating temperatures (700–800 °C) while maintaining the P-SOFC stack temperature at 850 °C. A fraction of the anode recycle was used as the steam and heat source for autothermal reforming of the JP-8 fuel, intending to make the system lighter and compact for mobile applications. System modeling revealed a maximum net AC efficiency of 37.1% at 700 °C and 29.2% at 800 °C ATR operating temperatures, respectively. Parametric analyses with respect to fuel utilization factor ( U f ) and current density ( j ) were conducted to determine optimum operating conditions. Finally, the P-SOFC based system was compared with a previously published [1] tubular solid oxide fuel cell based (T-SOFC) system to identify the relative advantages over one another.
Evidence for a free-living life stage of the blue crab parasitic dinoflagelate, Hematodinium sp.

Hematodinium sp. is a parasitic dinoflagellate reported to cause disease and death in a variety of crustacean species including the blue crab (Callinectes sapidus). However, because of difficulties in the culture of Hematodinium sp. associated with blue crabs, little is known about its life cycle or mode of transmission. Here, we report the first detection of this organism outside of a metazoan host and provide evidence that this life stage can act as an infective agent. Observations of dinospores in crab hemolymph samples suggest that dinospores may be responsible for waterborne disease transmission. Additionally, we developed and validated a quantitative Real Time PCR assay for the detection of Hematodinium sp. inside and outside of a host organism that will be useful for future investigations of Hematodinium biology and Hematodinium sp.-infection etiology. Based on the observations of a free-living form of Hematodinium sp. and the association of this parasite with a widespread epizootic in blue crab populations, we propose that Hematodinium sp. be considered a Harmful Algal Bloom species.
Changes in beliefs identify unblinding in randomized controlled trials: a method to meet CONSORT guidelines

Abstract Double-blinded trials are often considered the gold standard for research, but significant bias may result from unblinding of participants and investigators. Although the CONSORT guidelines discuss the importance of reporting “evidence that blinding was successful”, it is unclear what constitutes appropriate evidence. Among studies reporting methods to evaluate blinding effectiveness, many have compared groups with respect to the proportions correctly identifying their intervention at the end of the trial. Instead, we reasoned that participants' beliefs, and not their correctness, are more directly associated with potential bias, especially in relation to self-reported health outcomes. During the Water Evaluation Trial performed in northern California in 1999, we investigated blinding effectiveness by sequential interrogation of participants about their “blinded” intervention assignment (active or placebo). Irrespective of group, participants showed a strong tendency to believe they had been assigned to the active intervention; this translated into a statistically significant intergroup difference in the correctness of participants' beliefs, even at the start of the trial before unblinding had a chance to occur. In addition, many participants (31%) changed their belief during the trial, suggesting that assessment of belief at a single time does not capture unblinding. Sequential measures based on either two or all eight questionnaires identified significant group-related differences in belief patterns that were not identified by the single, cross-sectional measure. In view of the relative insensitivity of cross-sectional measures, the minimal additional information in more than two assessments of beliefs and the risk of modifying participants' beliefs by repeated questioning, we conclude that the optimal means of assessing unblinding is an intergroup comparison of the change in beliefs (and not their correctness) between the start and end of a randomized controlled trial.
Approximating k-cuts using network strength as a Lagrangean relaxation

Abstract Given an undirected, edge-weighted connected graph, the k-cut problem is to partition the vertex set into k non-empty connected components so as to minimize the total weight of edges whose end points are in different components. We present a combinatorial polynomial-time 2-approximation algorithm for the k-cut problem. We use a Lagrangean relaxation (also suggested by Barahona [F. Barahona, On the k-cut problem, Operations Research Letters 26 (2000) 99–105]) to reduce the problem to the attack problem, for which a polynomial time algorithm was provided by Cunningham [W. Cunningham, Optimal attack and reinforcement of a network, Journal of the ACM 32(3) (1985) 549–561]. We prove several structural results of the relaxation, and use these results to develop an approximation algorithm. We provide analytical comparisons of our algorithm and lower bound with two others: Saran and Vazirani [H. Saran, V. Vazirani, Finding k-cuts within twice the optimal, SIAM Journal of Computing 24(1) (1995) 101–108] and Naor and Rabani [J. Naor, Y. Rabani, Tree packing and approximating k-cuts. In: Proceedings of the 12th Annual ACM-SIAM Symposium on Discrete Algorithms, 2001, pp. 26–27]. We also provide computational results comparing the performance of our algorithm on random graphs with respect to the lower bound provided by the attack problem as well as an alternate 2-approximation algorithm provided by Saran and Vazirani [Cited above].
Extracellular matrix bioscaffolds for orthopaedic applications. A comparative histologic study.

S.F. Badylak and J.E. Valentin reply: With regard to the letter by Dr. Kenneth James, Vice President of TEI Biosciences, we appreciate the opportunity to respond to the issues that were raised. First, our article clearly states that TissueMend is not chemically crosslinked (see Discussion, page 2685: “… TissueMend does not include chemical crosslinking as a processing step.”). The article also states (Table I) that processing methods are “proprietary.” The article further describes the morphologic response to the implanted material as being a “typical response to a nonresorbable …
IAPP aggregation and cellular toxicity are inhibited by 1,2,3,4,6-penta-O-galloyl-β-d-glucose

AbstractThe polyphenol, 1,2,3,4,6-penta-O-galloyl-β-d-glucose (PGG) has been found to exhibit a host of positive pharmacologic activities, including anti-cancer and anti-diabetic. Little is known about the mode of action of PGG in yielding these positive activities. We show here that PGG is a potent inhibitor of IAPP (islet amyloid polypeptide, amylin) aggregation. Preventing the initial aggregation event of IAPP is one strategy for slowing, and possibly preventing, the toxic effects of IAPP oligomeric intermediates. Equal molar ratios of PGG to IAPP substantially reduced the ability of IAPP to bind thioflavin T. Atomic force microscopy revealed that PGG prevented amyloid-based fiber formation under rigorous conditions conducive to forming IAPP aggregates. PGG was also found to protect PC12 rat cells from toxic IAPP. PGG was compared to the known amyloid inhibitors (and structural relatives); tannic acid and gallic acid. In every test, PGG was far superior to tannic and gallic acids at inhibiting amyloid ...
Theoretical and experimental analysis of imaging gradients in DTI

A comprehensive, analytical framework for MR- DTI is constructed in a linear algebra setup. The expressions describing the effects of imaging gradients show formulation ambiguities. Center-symmetric gradient schemes use no cross terms (NoCroT) in the calculations resulting, at least in theory, in the alleviation of the issue. When three estimation methods, all gradients, NoCroT and diffusion gradients only are compared based on experimental results it is observed that the full inclusion of imaging gradients can be detrimental and there is slight improvement with NoCroT over diffusion gradients only. It is concluded that design of new diffusion gradient schemes via optimization is necessary to decouple to the maximum extent the effects of imaging gradients.
Recognition of Hand-Printed Characters on Mobile Devices

The usage of mobile devices has increased dramatically in recent years. These devices allow a variety of user input such as touch-screen hand gestures, motion, camera, and audio recording. More recently, many apps are allowing the user to print characters using their fingers, followed by the identification and recognition of the characters the user is printing. There are many challenges presented when implementing algorithms performing this character recognition - a small screen along with limited dexterity by using only one finger - results in a less than optimal letter drawn by the user. This paper explores the challenges of performing this character identification and presents a novel scale/rotational invariant algorithm applied to the recognition of these hand-drawn letters. The results of the algorithm are compared to those obtained using a popular Optical Character Recognition (OCR) application, Tesseract, that is often integrated with iPhone Apps for this purpose. The applications for this research are many, but one primary area of interest to the author is an evaluation test for finger dexterity of Occupational Therapy patients. The algorithm is implemented as a fully functional app developed for Apple's best-selling smart phone, the iPhone.
Influence of productivity variations on long-term atmospheric CO2

Evidence from ice cores1 and deep-sea sediments2 shows that atmospheric CO2 concentration has varied by up to 40% over the past few hundred thousand years. As most of the exchangeable carbon resides in the deep sea, large changes in the atmosphere must have their source here. The distribution of carbon in the ocean is linked to biological productivity, the sinking and degradation of organic matter and calcium carbonate, and ocean circulation3. Carbon-cycle models predict different (and sometimes conflicting) shifts in productivity, and estimates of past productivity constrain the range of possible solutions. Here I use planktonic foraminifera species data in modern and ice-age Atlantic sediments to assess spatial patterns of changes in productivity. Ice-age export productivity was higher than at present by nearly 40% for the whole Atlantic, and by 90% under the Equator. These changes, if extrapolated to the global ocean, support models in which a significant portion of CO2 changes are driven by variations in biological productivity.
The significance of femoral fractures in children

This study was undertaken to determine the clinical circumstances of femoral fractures in children. The study was a retrospective investigation of 117 consecutive patients with femoral fractures admitted to The Children's Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, from December 1975 to September 1979. Of the 117 patients, 41 had associated injuries. No patient whose only injury consisted of a closed-single femur fracture had evidence of shock. Of 24 children under 2 years of age, 19 sustained injury in an abusive incident. Of 27 children 5 to 6 years of age, 18 sustained injury in an auto-pedestrian accident. Closed-single femur fractures in children do not produce shock. Children who are less than 2 years of age are likely to have sustained injury through abuse.
Determinants of the Choice of Open Source Software License

In this paper, we examine how the motivations and attitudes of open source software (OSS) developers affect their preference among the three common OSS license types-Strong-Copyleft, Weak-Copyleft, and Non-Copyleft. Despite the importance of the license type and developers to OSS projects, there is little understanding in open source literature of the license choice from a developer's perspective. The results from our empirical study of OSS developers reveal that the intrinsic motivation of challenge (problem solving) is associated with the developers' preference for licenses with moderate restrictions, while the extrinsic motivation of status (through peer recognition) is associated with developers' preference for licenses with least restrictions. We also find that when choosing an OSS license, a developer's attitude toward the software redistribution rights conflicts with his or her attitude toward preserving the social benefits of open source. A major implication of our findings is that OSS managers who want to attract a limited number of highly skilled programmers to their open source project should choose a restrictive OSS license. Similarly, managers of software projects for social programs could attract more developers by choosing a restrictive OSS license.
A centroid-based sampling strategy for kriging global modeling and optimization

A new sampling strategy is presented for kriging-based global modeling. The strategy is used within a kriging/response surface (RSM) algorithm for solving NLP containing black-box models. Black-box models describe systems lacking the closed-form equations necessary for conventional gradient-based optimization. System optima can be alternatively found by building iteratively updated kriging models, and then refining local solutions using RSM. The application of the new sampling strategy results in accurate global model generation at lower sampling expense relative to a strategy using randomized and heuristic-based sampling for initial and subsequent model construction, respectively. The new strategy relies on construction of an initial kriging model built using sampling data obtained at the feasible region's convex polytope vertices and centroid. Updated models are constructed using additional sampling information obtained at Delaunay triangulation centroids. The new sampling algorithm is applied within the kriging-RSM framework to several numerical examples and case studies to demonstrate proof of concept. © 2009 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2010
Comparative properties of recombinant human and bovine matrix metalloproteinase-20

Abstract Introduction Matrix metalloproteinase-20 (MMP-20) is a predominant enzyme for the progressive processing of enamel extracellular matrix protein components (primarily amelogenin) during the early stages of enamel formation. So far, the recombinant porcine, mouse and bovine MMP-20 have been cloned and used extensively in the researches of tooth enamel development. The homology of these MMP-20s to human MMP-20 is approximately 80%. The effect of sequence differences on the properties of these enzymes is poorly understood even though they have been used to hydrolyse amelogenins from different species. Objective Our goal is to compare the characteristics between recombinant human MMP-20 (rhMMP-20) and bovine MMP-20 (rbMMP-20). Design rhMMP-20 and rbMMP-20 were parallelly expressed, purified and activated. The SDS-PAGE, zymography and quenched peptide assay were used for characterization and comparisons. Results Both proteases were activated by autocatalysis in a similar pattern of fragmentation. Dynamically, rbMMP-20 autoactivated faster and digested a fluorescence-quenched peptide Mca-PLGL-Dpa-AR, a non-amelogenin substrate, more efficiently than rhMMP-20. However, rhMMP-20 showed higher enzymatic activity for a human amelogenin substrate and in addition, it created an extra cleavage site at its C-terminus. Conclusions The differences in their catalytic properties and substrate specificities may be attributed to the sequence divergence of MMP-20 between species, especially in the hinge region.
The Aberrations of the Concave Grating at Large Angles of Incidence

Mack, Stehn and Edlen have treated the aberrations of a concave grating at large angles of incidence for the case in which both slit and plate are on the Rowland circle. The present paper shows that, by allowing minor departures from this position, it is possible to reduce the aberration to one-fourth of the value found by them. This increases the optimum grating size and maximum resolving power by a factor of 212. Certain conditions are discussed under which an even greater increase in the size of the grating is desirable.
Input/Output Characteristics of Scalable Parallel Applications

Rapid increases in computing and communication performance are exacerbating the long-standing problem of performance-limited input/output. Indeed, for many otherwise scalable parallel applications. input/output is emerging as a major performance bottleneck. The design of scalable input/output systems depends critically on the input/output requirements and access patterns for this emerging class of large-scale parallel applications. However, hard data on the behavior of such applications is only now becoming available. In this paper, we describe the input-output requirements of three scalable parallel applications (electron scattering, terrain rendering, and quantum chemistry, on the Intel Paragon XP/S. As part of an ongoing parallel input/output characterization effort, we used instrumented versions of the application codes to capture and analyze input/output volume, request size distributions, and temporal request structure. Because complete traces of individual application input/output requests were captured, in-depth, off-line analyses were possible. In addition, we conducted informal interviews of the application developers to understand the relation between the codes' current and desired input/output structure. The results of our studies show a wide variety of temporal and spatial access patterns, including highly read-intensive and write-intensive phases, extremely large and extremely small request sizes, and both sequential and highly irregular access patterns. We conclude with a discussion of the broad spectrum of access patterns and their profound implications for parallel file caching and prefetching schemes.
Phrase structure grammars generating context-free languages

For a phrase structure grammar G an algebraic approach is used for representing the structural derivations of the grammar. This representation yields the canonical derivations of elements of L ( G ). It is shown that if all “rightcanonical” derivations of all elements of L(G) are such that the number of “nonrightmost” derivations between “rightmost” derivations is bounded, then L ( G ) is context-free.
A 4ns laser customized PLA with pre-program capability

A CML programmable logic array customized by an automated laser system will be discussed. Up to 2252 aluminum links are vaporized to obtain the desired pattern. Access time is typically 4ns. Added circuitry allows 100% test coverage of all "stuck-at" faults in the unprogrammed state.
Surface diffusion, surface free energy, and grain-boundary free energy of uranium dioxide

Abstract Measurements of the growth kinetics of grain-boundary grooves were made on stoichiometric UO 2 annealed in a helium atmosphere at 1660–1940°C. Vaporphase diffusion (vapor transport) was found to be the dominant mass-transport mechanism. Analysis of the results shows that mass-transfer methods are not applicable to measurements of surface diffusivity of UO 2 at temperatures ⪢ 1660°C, but are useful in obtaining fundamental information on the surface and grain-boundary free energies. A survey of the published data on surface diffusion obtained at 1200–1700°C using grain-boundary and scratch-decay techniques revealed that the activation energy Q s is about 0.9 of the heat of evaporation, and the Arrhenius preexponential factor D 0 is about 10 6 –10 8 cm 2 /sec. As has been demonstrated, these values require a small correction to account for the contribution of vapor transport. The published surface-diffusion coefficients were corrected using mass-transport theories and the results are discussed.
Phosporic acid-modified amino bonded stationary phase for high-performance liquid chromatographic chemical class separation

Abstract A new stationary phase for high-performance liquid chromatography was produced by reacting a conventional amino bonded phase with phosphoric acid. Characterization of the modified amino phase indicated that ammonium phosphate salt groups and “free” phosphoric acid were present on the stationary phase surface. The column's capability for separating complex sample mixtures into chemical classes was tested using model compounds representing those typically found in fossil fuels. A solvent gradient program was developed which effectively separated hydrocarbon standards into aliphatic, non-polar aromatic, neutral/acidic polar aromatic, and basic polar aromatic classes.
Citizen-Administrator Connections: Impacts on Public Facility-Siting Decision Making

As public administrators attempt to decide where to site public facilities, they often conduct activities designed to encourage citizen participation. It frequently is not clear that public involvement is enhanced through those activities. Perhaps one of the reasons those activities are less successful than they might be is that administrators and citizens enter into them without a very thorough understanding of their own motivations, much less the motivations of others. More important for the connection that citizens and administrators make during these activities, they may not understand the dynamics that are set in motion when their own motivations interact with those of others involved in the activity. After discussing the importance of this topic for public administration theory, this article speculates about the dynamics that are likely to be set in motion when a variety of citizens' motivations connect with a variety of administrators' motivations. It concludes that progress in the important projec...
The inhibition of cartilage matrix production by glutamylaminoacetonitrile in vitro.

Abstract A compound having a unique action on growing cartilage is described. This in glutamylamino-acetonitrile (GAAN). It is shown to produce its effect by acting as a competitive inhibitor of glutamine in the formation of glucosamine-6-phosphate and thus of cartilage matrix. It differs from other known glutamine inhibitors in that it does not prevent mitosis.