cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A net reproductive number for periodic matrix models

We give a definition of a net reproductive number R 0 for periodic matrix models of the type used to describe the dynamics of a structured population with periodic parameters. The definition is based on the familiar method of studying a periodic map by means of its (period-length) composite. This composite has an additive decomposition that permits a generalization of the Cushing–Zhou definition of R 0 in the autonomous case. The value of R 0 determines whether the population goes extinct (R 0 1). We discuss the biological interpretation of this definition and derive formulas for R 0 for two cases: scalar periodic maps of arbitrary period and periodic Leslie models of period 2. We illustrate the use of the definition by means of several examples and by applications to case studies found in the literature. We also make some comparisons of this definition of R 0 with another definition given recently by Bacaer.
Half-cell potentials of the Ca/Ca2+ couple in thiocyanate-liquid-ammonia solutions

Abstract The emf of the cells Ca/Ca(C)2+ | Pb(0·1N)2+/Pb, with liquid NH3 and liquid NH3 containing 20 mol-% KSCN or NH4SCN, as solvents, was measured at −34°C. In the thiocyanate solutions no metallic solution of calcium is formed and the calcium potential follows the Nerst dependence on concentration with n = 2. The emf measurements indicated that the standard oxidation potential of calcium in liquid NH3 on the lead scale is ECa,Ca2+ ≥ +2·185 V (at −34°C).
iTell: supporting retrospective storytelling with digital photos

Digital photographs capture moments in time. Often these moments represent a much larger experience. Storytelling is often used to elicit these experiences from images in an attempt to communicate them to others. In this work, we focus on supporting the creation of narratives using digital images to share personal experiences. In previous work [11], we learned story development, process management and collaboration were activities essential to navigating the process of digital narrative composition. In this work, we detail our design and evaluation of iTell - a digital narrative composition tool. We employ a design process based on providing supports intended to help novice storytellers engage in the composition process like experts. We discuss our experience with our design approach and explore implications of our design decisions.
Empire for Liberty: A History of American Imperialism from Benjamin Franklin to Paul Wolfowitz

Richard H. Immerman. Empire for Liberty: A History of American Imperialism from Benjamin Franklin to Paul Wolfowitz. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010. In his classic critique of US d...
Prologned anuria following a single injection of a bismuth preparation

Summary 1. A case of anuria of eight days' duration following intramuscular administration of 0.5 c.c. Thiobismol is presented. 2. Therapy was limited to intravenous fluids and the use of “BAL” forany detoxifying action it might have. 3. After eight days of anuria, urine output was resestablished. 4. Blood nonprotein nitrogen rose to 240 mg. Per 100 c.c. during the periodof anuria and fell gradually to normal over a period of about ten days. 5. No apparent permanent renal injury was sustained.
Use of Diisobutylene Fuel in a Single Cylinder Engine: Effects of Equivalence Ratio on Exhaust Composition

This study describes the variations in the chemical composition of the exhaust at various equivalence ratios (air-fuel ratios) when pure diisobutylene (2,4,4-trimethyl-l-pentene) is used as a fuel in a Labeco single cylinder engine. The exhaust hydrocarbon products from diisobutylene consist of two types: those which decrease as the equivalence ratio is increased: methane, ethylene, acetylene, diisobutylene; and those which exhibit a maximum near an equivalence ratio of 1, then decrease: propylene, propadiene, isobutyl-ene, ethane, 2-methyl-l-butene. The combustion of diisobutylene produces two olefins in low yield which are not observed in the combustion of isooctane fuel. These are 2,4-dimethyl-l,3-pentadiene, probably derived from pyrolytic decomposition of C7-alkyl radicals, and 3,5,5-trimethyl-2-hexene, probably arising from methyl radical addition to the alpha carbon of the parent fuel molecule. Comparison of the photochemical reactivity of dissobutylene exhaust to that of isooctane at a fuel-lean c...
Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Electrolyte Solutions in Ambient and Supercritical Water. 1. Ion Solvation

Free energies of solvation for Cl-, OH-, Na+, HCl, and H2O are calculated at ambient conditions and several supercritical water (SCW) states using molecular dynamics−free energy perturbation computer simulation. From ambient to SCW, the magnitude of reductions in the coordination number, number of hydrogen bonds, and other specific interactions are in the opposite order of the solute−water interaction energies, which are, from strongest to weakest, Na+ > OH- > Cl- > H2O > HCl. This trend also applies to the magnitude of the solvation free energy, although the changes for Na+ are very small, from ambient conditions all the way to 673 K and 0.087 g/cm3. Bivalent cations exhibit a well-defined second shell that remains at supercritical conditions. Modest discrepancies are observed between simulation and experiment both for the local density of water about Sr2+ and for the free energy of solvation of NaCl, illustrating the challenges to both theory and experiment.
Principles for organizational change in human service agencies

ABSTRACT Human service agencies are facing profound changes as a result of variations in current societal political, social and environmental forces. This paper provides a review of the literature on organizational change in an effort to determine which strategies are most successful in facilitating this process and achieving desired results within agencies. Models, methods and approaches are discussed. Five principles to increase success in organizational change are proposed: (1) develop a system for continuous discussion and feedback for entities likely to be impacted by the change including those within the organization and ones at the outside constituency levels; (2) prepare the organization for change; (3) ensure that there are methods, processes and resources available to provide education and training regarding new technologies, policy changes and the change process itself; (4) using employee participation, develop a system to recognize and reward employees for achieving targeted results and organi...
THE FREQUENCY OF ARITHMETIC FACTS IN ELEMENTARY TEXTS: ADDITION AND MULTIPLICATION IN GRADES 1-6

We tabulated the frequency with which simple addition and multiplication facts occur in elementary school arithmetic texts for grades 1-6. The results indicated a strong "small-fact bias" in both addition and multiplication. "Large" facts, with operands larger than 5, occurred up to half as frequently as those with operands in the 2-5 range. As was also found in an earlier tabulation for grades K-3, facts with operands of 0 and 1 occurred relatively infrequently; the ostensible exceptions to this pattern, high frequencies for combinations like 1 + 2 and 1 x 3, were caused by the small-fact bias in multicolumn problems. The small-fact bias in the presentation of basic arithmetic, at least to the degree observed here, probably works against a basic pedagogical goal, mastery of simple arithmetic. It may also provide a partial explanation of the widely reported problem size or problem difficulty effect, that children's and adults' responses to larger basic facts are both slower and more error prone than their solutions to smaller facts. Theoretical and practical implications of the small-fact bias are discussed briefly. It is a common observation that elementary school students have difficulty learning and mastering their large number facts, combinations with relatively large, single-digit operands such as 7 + 6 and 8 x 9. This difficulty is apparent in casual classroom observation, in testing situations, and certainly in later arithmetic instruction when multicolumn addition and multiplication are taught. In the laboratory, the difficulty is most clearly observed when subjects are tested in a reaction time (RT) task, asked either to produce the answer to a given fact or to judge an answer as true or false. The effect is referred to as the problem size or problem difficulty effect: As the operands in a basic fact problem increase, so do the individual's RTs and errors. It is by far the most commonly obtained result in the literature on children's and adults' mental arithmetic performance. It characterizes both RT performance and error rates across the entire developmental span, from kindergartners and
Age-related autoantibody production in a nonhuman primate model.

Autoantibody production increases with ageing. However, the pathological significance of this increase as well as the corresponding underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. To further our understanding of the role that ageing plays in the development of autoantibody responses, we used a novel nonhuman primate model consisting of healthy baboons of ages representing the entire lifespan of this animal species. Results from this study indicate that production of antinuclear antibodies, anticell extract antibodies and natural autoantibodies gradually and significantly increases from young age to old age without a corresponding increase in neither serum immunoglobulin concentration nor in levels of selected markers of immune dysregulation (sTNF-RI, sTNF-RII, IL-2 sRα and IFN-γ). Therefore, in the baboon model, autoantibodies may be produced in absence of recognizable pathological conditions of the ageing immune system.
Ballistic recovery in III-V nanowire transistors

In recent years, a great deal of attention has been focused on the development of quantum wire transistors as a means of extending Moore’s law. Here the authors present results of fully three-dimensional, self-consistent quantum mechanical device simulations of InAs trigate nanowire transistor. The effects of inelastic scattering have been included as real-space self-energy terms. They find that the position of dopant atoms in these devices can lead to a reduction in the amount of scattering the carriers experience. They find that the combination of deeply buried dopant atoms and the high energy localization of polar optical phonon processes allow devices to recover their ballistic behavior even in the presence of strong inelastic phonon processes.
The mechanical properties of simple epithelial keratins 8 and 18: discriminating between interfacial and bulk elasticities

Abstract The abundance and cytoplasmic organization of keratin filaments enables them to contribute to the maintenance of structural integrity in epithelial tissues. Co-polymers of the type II keratin 8 and type I keratin 18 form the major intermediate filament network in simple epithelia. We investigated the mechanical properties of K8–K18 filament suspensions using rheological assays in conjunction with light and electron microscopy. Suspensions of K8–K18 filaments behave like a viscoelastic solid under standard assembly conditions. Bulk elasticity is weakly dependent on deformation frequency but is very sensitive to the concentration ( G ′ ∼ C 1.5 ) and size of individual keratin polymers, in agreement with recent models of semiflexible-polymer physics. K8–K18 filaments can self-organize to form a bundled network that exhibits gel-like mechanical properties. In all cases the mechanical properties of the suspensions correlate with the structural features of individual polymers, as seen under light and electron microscopy. Importantly, these bulk viscoelastic properties of K8–K18 filaments are revealed only when interfacial elastic effects are minimized by the application of phospholipids at the air–liquid interface. Suspensions of K5–K14 and vimentin filaments also exhibit interfacial elasticity, which distorts the interpretation of the viscoelastic moduli as determined by standard rheometry. The potential for modulation of mechanical properties through self-organization may be a general property of keratin polymers and contribute to their organization and function in vivo.
Parathyroid hormone receptors and stimulation of renal cyclic 3', 5' AMP in vitro: physiological relevance?

Few would challenge the concept that parathyroid hormone (PTH) action on the kidney, at least in part, depends upon the ability of the hormone to stimulate increased production of intracellular cyclic 3′, 5′ adenosine monophosphate (cyclic AMP) by activating membrane bound adenylate cyclase.
Genetic and biochemical analysis of development in Toxoplasma gondii

Toxoplasma gondii has recently come under intense study as a model for intracellular parasitism because it has a number of properties that facilitate experimental manipulation. Attention is now being turned towards understanding the developmental biology of this complex parasite. The differentiation between the two asexual stages, the rapidly growing tachyzoites and the more slowly dividing, encysted bradyzoites, is of particular interest. Progression from the former to the latter is influenced by the host's immune response. This paper describes current progress on a number of research fronts, all aimed at understanding the triggers that push the tachyzoite–bradyzoite equilibrium in one or other direction and the changes that occur in gene expression (and ultimately metabolism and function). Chief among the techniques used for these studies are genetics and molecular genetics. Recent progress in these areas is described.
Control synthesis for an impulse turbine: The Bradley Lake project

The synthesis of a viable control strategy for the multiple-jet impulse turbines utilized in the Bradley Lake hydroelectric project in Alaska is discussed. Digital simulation is used to assess modifications to various control schemes. Control is locally stable, but unstable to large perturbations. A strategy is developed which achieves global stability of the system. The new control is primarily based on enhancing deflector contributions to control. >
Effects of branched-chain amino acids on nitrogen metabolism in patients with cirrhosis.

This study was conducted to determine whether an amino acid solution enriched with branched-chain amino acids altered protein catabolic rates and plasma ammonia in patients with cirrhosis. Nine stable subjects were given two peripheral intravenous infusions: a standard amino acid solution (solution A) and a branched-chain-enriched solution containing 97% more leucine (solution B). Each solution was given for separate 9-day (group 1, n = 6) or 3-day (group 2, n = 3) periods. Amino acid solutions delivered 0.7 gm protein kg−1 day−1. Diets provided an additional 0.3 gm protein plus maintenance calories. Protein turnover was assessed by a primed continuous infusion of [1-14C] leucine in six patients (three patients in group 1 and three patients in group 2). Nitrogen balance and urinary 3-methyl histidine excretion were determined in group 1 patients. Compared with solution A, solution B increased leucine flux and leucine oxidation but had no significant effect on protein synthesis or catabolism based on the plasma specific activity of either leucine or α-ketoisocaproic acid. The additional leucine infused with solution B was quantitatively oxidized. Nitrogen balance did not differ with the two solutions and there was also no difference in the urinary excretion of 3-methyl histidine, suggesting that muscle protein catabolism was unchanged. Plasma ammonia concentration decreased significantly during the infusion of solution B and was associated with a slight fall in plasma glucagon concentration. The results indicated that a branched-chain-enriched amino acid solution did not alter protein synthesis or catabolism although it did lower the plasma ammonia when compared with a standard amino acid formula in stable cirrhotic patients.(HEPATOLOGY 1990;11:942-950.).
5 Public Administration and Organization Studies

Abstract The study of public organizations has withered over time in mainstream organization studies research, as scholars in the field have migrated to business schools. This is so even though government organizations are an important part of the universe of organizations—the largest organizations in the world are agencies of the U.S. government. At the same time, the study of public administration, once in the mainstream of organization studies, has moved into a ghetto, separate and unequal. Centered in business schools, mainstream organization research became isomorphic to its environment—coming to focus on performance issues, which are what firms care about. Since separation, the dominant current in public administration has become isomorphic with its environment. In this case, however, this meant the field moved backward from the central reformist concern of its founders with improving government performance, and developed instead a focus on managing constraints (i.e., avoiding bad things, such as co...
Distribution-based restoration of DCT coefficients

Although it is established that the distribution of the discrete cosine transform coefficients can be modeled, it is not known how this knowledge can best be applied to improve the JPEG compression algorithms. We studied this problem by making modifications to both the JPEG baseline encoder and decoder separately. Experimental results show that modifications to the decoder alone do not reduce any compression losses. However, if the encoder is also modified, the losses can be reduced, but only marginally.
How do small firms possibly survive? A comparison study of marketing skills and logistics infrastructure of small and large wholesalers☆

Abstract Most wholesalers are small family-owned firms that frequently lack marketing skills and an infrastructure capable of setting into practice state-of-the-art marketing distribution systems. They are much more consumed with daily activities and credit and collection functions than they are with developing marketing skills and logistics networks. The purpose of this exploratory study is to identify the elements of marketing skills and logistics that are associated with the performance of small and large wholesalers, and to compare and contrast these variables. Data were collected from 4500 small and large wholesalers in Hyogo and Osaka prefectures in Japan. Multiple regression analysis of this study found that the factors of supplier's financial assistance and buyer's services to wholesalers explained the performance of small wholesalers, and the factors of supplier's service to wholesalers and buyer's service to wholesalers explained the performance of large wholesalers. Multivariate analysis of variance and multiple discriminant analysis revealed that large and small wholesalers differed with respect to supplier's services to wholesalers, the supplier's financial assistance, and the wholesaler's intra logistics activities. Implications are discussed.
Mapping tobacco industry strategies in South East Asia for action planning and surveillance

Objective: To develop a comprehensive conceptual framework of tobacco industry tactics in four countries in South East Asia for the purpose of: (1) generating consensus on key areas of importance and feasibility for regional and cross country tobacco industry monitoring and surveillance; (2) developing measures to track and monitor the effects of the tobacco industry and to design counterstrategies; and (3) building capacity to improve tobacco control planning in the participating countries. Design: A structured conceptualisation methodology known as concept mapping was used. The process included brainstorming, sorting and rating of statements describing industry activities. Statistical analyses used multidimensional scaling and cluster analysis. Interpretation of the maps was participatory, using regional tobacco control researchers, practitioners, and policy makers during a face to face meeting. Participants: 31 participants in this study come from the four countries represented in the project along with six people from the Johns Hopkins Blomberg School of Public Health. Conclusions: The map shows eight clusters of industry activities within the four countries. These were arranged into four general sectors: economics, politics, public relations and deception. For project design purposes, the map indicates areas of importance and feasibility for monitoring tobacco industry activities and serves as a basis for an initial discussion about action planning. Furthermore, the development of the map used a consensus building process across different stakeholders or stakeholder agencies and is critical when developing regional, cross border strategies for tracking and surveillance.
Why events are a bad idea (for high-concurrency servers)

Event-based programming has been highly touted in recent years as the best way to write highly concurrent applications. Having worked on several of these systems, we now believe this approach to be a mistake. Specifically, we believe that threads can achieve all of the strengths of events, including support for high concurrency, low overhead, and a simple concurrency model. Moreover, we argue that threads allow a simpler and more natural programming style. We examine the claimed strengths of events over threads and show that the weaknesses of threads are artifacts of specific threading implementations and not inherent to the threading paradigm. As evidence, we present a user-level thread package that scales to 100,000 threads and achieves excellent performance in a web server. We also refine the duality argument of Lauer and Needham, which implies that good implementations of thread systems and event systems will have similar performance. Finally, we argue that compiler support for thread systems is a fruitful area for future research. It is a mistake to attempt high concurrency without help from the compiler, and we discuss several enhancements that are enabled by relatively simple compiler changes.
Growth of InN on Ge substrate by molecular beam epitaxy

Abstract InN epitaxial growth on a (1 1 1)-oriented, Ga-doped germanium substrate using molecular beam epitaxy is described. X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy investigations have shown that the InN epitaxial layer consists of a wurtzite structure, which has the epitaxial relationship of (0 0 0 1) InN ∥(1 1 1) Ge . Transmission electron microscopy shows an intermediate layer at the interface between the InN/Ge substrate. Consistent with recent reports implying a narrow bandgap of InN [Phys. Stat Sol. B 229 (2002) R1, Appl. Phys. Lett. 80 (2002) 3967], a strong photoluminescence with peak energy of 0.69 eV at 15 K was observed for this InN epilayer, in contrast to the peak energy of 0.71 eV for Ga-doped Ge under the same measurement conditions.
Parametric representation of preferences

Abstract A preference is invariant with respect to a set of transformations if the ranking of acts is unaffected by reshuffling the states under these transformations. For example, transformations may correspond to the set of finite permutations, or the shift in a dynamic choice model. Our main result is that any invariant preference must be parametric: there is a unique sufficient set of parameters such that the preference ranks acts according to their expected utility given the parameters. Parameters are characterized in terms of objective frequencies, and can thus be interpreted as objective probabilities. By contrast, uncertainty about parameters is subjective. The preferences for which the above results hold are only required to be reflexive, transitive, monotone, continuous, and mixture linear.
Operator properties of T and K(T)

Let V be an n-dimensional inner product space over C ,a nd letH be a subgroup of the symmetric group on {1 ,...,m }. Suppose χ : H → C is an irreducible character (not necessarily linear). Let V m χ (H ) denote the symmetry class of tensors over V associated with H and χ and let K(T ) ∈ End(V m χ (H )) be the induced operator of T ∈ End(V ). It is known that if T is normal, unitary, positive (semi-)definite, Hermitian, then K(T ) has the corresponding property. Furthermore, if T1 = ξT 2 for some ξ ∈ C with ξ m = 1, then K(T1) = K(T2). The converse of these statements are not valid in general. Necessary and sufficient conditions on χ and the operators T,T 1 ,T 2 ensuring the validity of the converses of the above statements are given. These extend the results of those on linear characters by Li and Zaharia.
Short-Term Estrogen Replacement Effects on Insulin Sensitivity and Glucose Tolerance in At-Risk Cats for Feline Diabetes Mellitus

Male domestic cats that are neutered and overweight are at an increased risk for developing a type-2-like diabetes mellitus. Beneficial effects of 17β-estradiol (E2) on glucose homeostasis may be lost with neutering and thereby account for increased diabetes risk. To evaluate this, adult male neutered overweight cats (n=6) were given daily E2 (1.0 μg/kg) or vehicle (Vh; ethanol, 1.0μL/kg) in a single crossover trial of 14-day periods with a 7-day washout. The E2 and Vh were voluntarily ingested on food. The E2 dosage was determined in a pre-trial to significantly and transiently reduce food intake with no measurable change in plasma E2 concentration. During treatments, physical activity was assessed with collar-mounted accelerometers on days 9-11, and tests of intravenous insulin tolerance and intravenous glucose tolerance were conducted on days 13 and 14, respectively. Over the 14 days, E2 compared to Vh treatment reduced (p=0.03) food intake (- 22%) but not enough to significantly reduce body weight; activity counts were not significantly changed. With E2 compared to Vh treatment, the late-phase plasma insulin response of the glucose tolerance test was less (p=0.03) by 31%, while glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity indexes were not significantly changed. The results indicate that oral E2 at a dosage that moderately affects food intake may reduce insulin requirement for achieving glucose homeostasis in neutered male cats. Further investigation is needed to identify the mechanism underlying the E2 effect.
Heterogeneous Visual Features Fusion via Sparse Multimodal Machine

To better understand, search, and classify image and video information, many visual feature descriptors have been proposed to describe elementary visual characteristics, such as the shape, the color, the texture, etc. How to integrate these heterogeneous visual features and identify the important ones from them for specific vision tasks has become an increasingly critical problem. In this paper, We propose a novel Sparse Multimodal Learning (SMML) approach to integrate such heterogeneous features by using the joint structured sparsity regularizations to learn the feature importance of for the vision tasks from both group-wise and individual point of views. A new optimization algorithm is also introduced to solve the non-smooth objective with rigorously proved global convergence. We applied our SMML method to five broadly used object categorization and scene understanding image data sets for both single-label and multi-label image classification tasks. For each data set we integrate six different types of popularly used image features. Compared to existing scene and object categorization methods using either single modality or multi-modalities of features, our approach always achieves better performances measured.
Prediction of friction-related power losses of hypoid gear pairs

AbstractA model to predict friction-related mechanical efficiency losses of hypoid gear pairs is proposed in this study. The model includes a gear contact model, a friction prediction model, and a mechanical efficiency formulation. The friction model uses a friction coefficient formula obtained by applying multiple linear regression analysis to a large number of elastohydrodynamic lubrication analyses covering typical ranges of key parameters associated with surface roughness, geometry, load, kinematics, and the lubricant. Formulations regarding the kinematic and geometric properties of the hypoid gear contact are presented. The load and friction coefficient distribution predictions are used to compute instantaneous torque/power losses and the mechanical efficiency of a hypoid gear pair at any given position. Results of a parametric study are presented at the end to highlight the influence of key operating conditions, surface finish, and lubricant properties on mechanical efficiency losses of hypoid gears.
Towards Distributed Dynamic Web Service Composition

The creation of a custom-built composite Web service given a set of available services involves identifying which services to use, the order in which they should be executed, and how to orchestrate the flow of control and data through the sequence(s). Automating such a task is a computationally intensive effort better distributed between multiple agents. We present a client-server framework within which the efforts of composition creation and management are shared by the central registry and client making the request. Additionally, we present a composition algorithm that addresses apart of the task
Relative effects of time for speciation and tropical niche conservatism on the latitudinal diversity gradient of phyllostomid bats

Determinants of contemporary patterns of diversity, particularly those spanning extensive latitudinal gradients, are some of the most intensely debated issues in ecology. Recently, focus has shifted from a contemporary environmental perspective to a historical one in an attempt to better understand the construction of latitudinal gradients. Although the vast majority of research on historical mechanisms has focused on tropical niche conservatism (TNC), other historical scenarios could produce similar latitudinal gradients. Herein, I formalize predictions to distinguish between two such historical processes—namely time for speciation (TFS) and TNC—and test relative support based on diversity gradients of New World bats. TFS and TNC are distinctly spatial and environmental mechanisms, respectively. Nonetheless, because of the way that environmental characteristics vary spatially, these two mechanisms are hard to distinguish. Evidence provided herein suggests that TNC has had a more important effect than TFS in determining diversity gradients of New World bats. Indeed, relative effects of different historical mechanisms, as well as relative effects of historical and contemporary environmental determinants, are probably context-dependent. Future research should move away from attempting to identify the mechanism with primacy and instead attempt to understand the particular contexts in which different mechanisms have greater influence on diversity gradients.
Crystal structure and functional analysis of MiD49, a receptor for the mitochondrial fission protein Drp1.

Mitochondrial fission requires recruitment of dynamin-related protein 1 (Drp1) to the mitochondrial surface, where assembly leads to activation of its GTP-dependent scission function. MiD49 and MiD51 are two receptors on the mitochondrial outer membrane that can recruit Drp1 to facilitate mitochondrial fission. Structural studies indicated that MiD51 has a variant nucleotidyl transferase fold that binds an ADP co-factor essential for activation of Drp1 function. MiD49 shares sequence homology with MiD51 and regulates Drp1 function. However, it is unknown if MiD49 binds an analogous co-factor. Because MiD49 does not readily crystallize, we used structural predictions and biochemical screening to identify a surface entropy reduction mutant that facilitated crystallization. Using molecular replacement, we determined the atomic structure of MiD49 to 2.4 A. Like MiD51, MiD49 contains a nucleotidyl transferase domain; however, the electron density provides no evidence for a small-molecule ligand. Structural changes in the putative nucleotide-binding pocket make MiD49 incompatible with an extended ligand like ADP, and critical nucleotide-binding residues found in MiD51 are not conserved. MiD49 contains a surface loop that physically interacts with Drp1 and is necessary for Drp1 recruitment to the mitochondrial surface. Our results suggest a structural basis for the differential regulation of MiD51- versus MiD49-mediated fission.
Advances in phase-only signal processing

The problem of estimating the frequencies of two sinusoids in white Gaussian noise using only the sequence of phase angles of the complex-valued data is addressed. The authors extend the single sinusoid results of Tretter (1985), Kay (1989), Lang and Musicus (1989), and Lovell et al. (1991) to two sinusoids. A computationally simple estimation scheme is proposed, which uses only phase data to estimate the frequencies, and uses envelope data to resolve the inherent ambiguity. A computer simulation was performed to compare the estimation performance of the scheme with weighted phase averaging and with Cramer-Rao lower bounds. >
Further Tests on Ocean Wave Forces on Sphere

Wave force coefficients have been obtained for a 28.8-in diam sphere. The work was done at a test site in 37 ft of water offshore from Honolulu. The peak flow velocities encountered during the tests were usually in the 2-fps to 3-fps range. The highest measured flow speed was 4.6 fps. Thus, the maximum-particle-velocity Reynolds numbers involved are in the range of 5 x 10\u5 to 11 x 10\u5. These values, coupled with high turbulence levels in the flow because of the cycling of the sphere.s wake, assure that the data obtained are for transcritical situations. Tight statistical distributions of drag and inertia coefficients were found. However, it was felt most useful to consider a maximum total force coefficient, and this had the variation shown later in this note.
The experiences of short-term humanitarian aid workers in Haiti

A small group of humanitarian aid workers travelled to Port-au-Prince, Haiti six months after the 2010 earthquake to assist in recovery efforts at an orphanage. This study explores the experiences of these workers and how they coped with the challenges in Port-au-Prince. Participants kept a journal to record their daily experiences. A phenomenological methodology was used to analyse the data in this study. Themes included relationships and connections, faith/perspective, care of self and others, purpose, and perspective. Researchers concluded relief workers need more preparation and support during and after humanitarian trips as experiences significantly impact workers perspective of themselves and others.
Success-Driven Skill Inferences and Financial Crises

This paper develops a theory of financial crises that explains why crises should be expected to follow periods of sustained banking profitability. When there is some probability that outcomes are purely exogenous and some probability that they are driven by the talent/skill of the agents managing the assets that are associated with these outcomes, periods of sustained profitability for banks cause all agents - banks as well as those who monitor and fund banks - to revise upward their estimates ofthe skill of bankers to manage risks. All agents consequently become sanguine about the consequences of bank risk-taking, and banks invest in increasingly riskier assets. Further, as the number of banks entering this market grows, the liquidity of highly risky assets improves, making it more attractive for others to enter the market. The economy thus ends up with a large number of financial institutions investing in very risky assets that are traded in highly liquid markets. Subsequently, if it is revealed in some period that loan repayment probabilities are exogenous rather than skill dependent, investors rush to withdraw funds, market liquidity dries up, and a crisis ensues. The model also explains why the economy may not recover even after the friction that precipitated the crisis has dissipated. Empirical predictions and policy implications of the analysis are discussed. The analysis suggests that the majority of regulations put in place in response to the crises of the last few decades, including the recent financial crisis, may do little to prevent future crises.
Hydrogel coated mesh decreases tissue reaction resulting from polypropylene mesh implant: implication in hernia repair

Purpose Use of polypropylene mesh (PPM) in hernia repair is associated with tissue reactivity. We examined, in a rat model, a novel non-biodegradable hydrogel coated PPM which may allow for decreased inflammation and a decreased foreign body reaction.
Effect of Microsomal Enzyme Inducers on the Biliary Excretion of an Exogenous Load of Bilirubin in Newborn Rats

SummaryThe biliary excretion of administered unconjugated bilirubin in the newborn rat was demonstrated to be immature. Newborn rats were treated with microsomal enzyme inducers to determine whether they would enhance the overall hepatic excretory system responsible for the biliary excretion of bilirubin. 1-, 6-, 11-, 16-, 21-, or 26-day-old rats were pretreated for 4 days with phenobarbital, pregnenolone-16 α-carboni-trile, spironolactone, or 3-methylcholan-threne. On the fifth day, [3H]bilirubin was administered (30 mg/kg). Twenty minutes later the amount of bilirubin excreted into the intestine was determined. Spironolactone and pregnenolone-16 α-carbonitrile enhanced the biliary excretion of bilirubin but phenobarbital and 3-methylcholanthrene were without effect.The author wishes to acknowledge the technical assistance of Judson Maillie, Celeste Soutee, and Jean Fahrbach.
Studies on inorganic salt metabolism.

Studies on inorganic salt metabolism in dogs and rats which have been in progress in this laboratory during the past two years indicate that a bone condition comparable in all essential respects to that seen in rachitic children may be produced in young puppies on a diet, which, as far as we have been able to determine, is adequate in respect to protein, fat, carbohydrate, inorganic salts and vitamins but possesses a high potential alkalinity; while parallel experiments with the same diets on rats have invariably resulted in normal bone development.Our basal diet consisted of bread, cooked lean beef, skimmed milk powder, butter fat and fresh orange juice made into a mush with distilled water. To this was added a salt mixture, the composition of which was based on ash analyses of cow's milk, except that the phosphorus was omitted and different proportions of calcium were used. The phosphorus content of the diets was varied by adding dibasic potassium phosphate to the above salt mixture, and the degree of a...
Enterovirus Déjà Vu

More than 90 human enterovirus serotypes have now been identified in three distinct waves of discovery. The three poliovirus serotypes were first isolated from nonhuman primates in the course of painstaking experiments performed during the first half of the 20th century. The use of small laboratory animals and the advent of cell culture in midcentury led to the description of 61 more enteroviruses that we know as coxsackieviruses, echoviruses, and the “newer” enteroviruses. The application of polymerase chain reaction and genomic sequencing has recently permitted characterization of approximately 30 previously unidentified enterovirus serotypes and undoubtedly will uncover more. Enterovirus 71 . . .
Starting Places: Studying How Students Understand History

Who are our students, and what and how do they think about history? Every teacher surely has his or her own answer, grounded in the institution and the place where she or he teaches. For the most part, our answers are probably impressionistic. Our sense of our students grows out of their insights in class, their writing, and our conversations with them and with our colleagues. It comes, too, from the statistics that our institutions generate and disseminate about the student body or entering freshman class. Perhaps it springs as well from the seemingly ubiquitous national studies and surveys of what col lege students know (or do not know), or the annual reports about the world according to eighteen-year-old college freshmen (as if we all taught at colleges and universities where most freshmen were matriculating straight from high school).1 In the 2006 "Textbooks and Teaching" section of the Journal of American History, the contributing editors Gary J. Kornblith and Carol Lasser highlighted recent work in the scholarship of teaching and learning, the self-conscious study of classroom practice.2 Ana lyzing what we do as teachers and why we do it might usefully begin with understanding what our students bring to the history classroom. What do our students imagine when they consider the American past, or the study of history more broadly? And how might we answer those questions as historians, applying to teaching the same sorts of analysis that we bring to our historical scholarship? The section that follows offers three attempts to address those challenges. Each of the essays draws upon a more rigorous examination than is provided by general impressions, institutional data, or pop-culture reference points. Each asks a specific set of questions about students' historical understanding. And each uses a different tool to study a particu lar "focus group": a survey of four thousand high school students and adults; a question naire to a single U.S. history survey class; and a study of students and faculty within one large history department.
Measuring thermal behavior in smaller insects: a case study in Drosophila melanogaster demonstrates effects of sex, geographic origin, and rearing temperature on adult behavior.

ABSTRACTMeasuring thermal behavior in smaller insects is particularly challenging. In this study, we describe a new horizontal thermal gradient apparatus designed to study adult thermal behavior in small insects and apply it using D. melanogaster as a model and case study. Specifically, we used this apparatus and associated methodology to examine the effects of sex, geographic origin, and developmental rearing temperature on temperature preferences exhibited by adults in a controlled laboratory environment. The thermal gradient established by the apparatus was stable over diurnal and calendar time. Furthermore, the distribution of adult flies across thermal habitats within the apparatus remained stable following the period of acclimation, as evidenced by the high degree of repeatability across both biological and technical replicates. Our data demonstrate significant and predictable variation in temperature preference for all 3 assayed variables. Behaviorally, females were more sensitive than males to hig...
Sensory and decision-related activity propagate in a cortical feedback loop during touch perception

The brain transforms physical sensory stimuli into meaningful perceptions. In animals making choices about sensory stimuli, neuronal activity in successive cortical stages reflects a progression from sensation to decision. Feedforward and feedback pathways connecting cortical areas are critical for this transformation. However, the computational functions of these pathways are poorly understood because pathway-specific activity has rarely been monitored during a perceptual task. Using cellular-resolution, pathway-specific imaging, we measured neuronal activity across primary (S1) and secondary (S2) somatosensory cortices of mice performing a tactile detection task. S1 encoded the stimulus better than S2, while S2 activity more strongly reflected perceptual choice. S1 neurons projecting to S2 fed forward activity that predicted choice. Activity encoding touch and choice propagated in an S1-S2 loop along feedforward and feedback axons. Our results suggest that sensory inputs converge into a perceptual outcome as feedforward computations are reinforced in a feedback loop.
Sensor integration for classification

In the problem of sensor integration, an important issue is to estimate the joint PDF of the measurements of sensors. However in practice, we may not have enough training data to have a good estimate. In this paper, we have constructed the joint PDF using an exponential family for classification. This method only requires the PDF under a reference hypothesis. Its performance has shown to be as good as the estimated maximum a posteriori probability classifier which requires more information. This shows a wide application of our method in classification because less information is needed than existing methods.
Past, Present, and Future of Engineering under Uncertainty: Safety Assessment and Management

The author’s perspective of engineering under uncertainty is presented. In the first part of this chapter, past, present, and future trends of reliability assessment methods, applicable to many branches of engineering, are presented. The discussions cover the cases for both explicit and implicit limit state functions. Finite element-based reliability evaluation methods for large structures satisfying underlying physics are emphasized. The necessity of estimating risks for both strength and serviceability limit states is documented. Concept of several energy dissipation mechanisms recently introduced to improve performance and reduce risk during seismic excitations can be explicitly incorporated in the formulation. Reliability evaluation of very large structures requiring over several hours of continuous running of a computer for one deterministic evaluation is briefly presented. Since major sources of uncertainty cannot be completely eliminated from the analysis and design of an engineering system, the risk needs to be managed appropriately. Risk management in the context of decision analysis framework is also briefly presented. In discussing future directions, the use of artificial neural networks and soft computing, incorporation of cognitive sources of uncertainty, developing necessary computer programs, and education-related issues are discussed.
In Vivo Monitoring of Amino Acid Biomarkers from Inguinal Adipose Tissue Using Online Microdialysis-Capillary Electrophoresis.

We have developed an online, high-throughput, microdialysis-capillary electrophoresis (MD-CE) assay for measuring the in vivo dynamics of amino acid biomarkers of metabolism in adipose tissue. Microdialysis probes were implanted into the inguinal adipose tissue depot of C57BL6 mice. The probe location and integrity were verified following each experiment, demonstrating our ability to accurately target the inguinal adipose tissue depot without damaging the probe. The relative concentrations of small molecule bioamines were measured in adipose tissue every 22 s. Arginine, lysine, isoleucine, leucine, methionine, phenylalanine, valine, GABA, glutamine, alanine, glycine and taurine were separated and detected at concentrations significantly higher than the assay LOD. The relative abundances of these analytes were found to be reproducible between mice. The capability of the online MD-CE assay to record dynamic, in vivo changes was assessed by administering an insulin stimulation via tail vein injection. Valine...
Chocolate consumption, manufacturing and quality in western Europe and the United States

In this article we examine why chocolate consumption patterns and understandings of quality vary significantly between the United States and Western Europe on the one hand, and among western Europe...
A Microcomputer Based Adaptive Control System for the Artificial Heart

Abstract The development of a microcomputer based adaptive control system for the total artificial heart is discussed. This system, which results from a joint research program of the University of Houston and the Texas Heart Institute, duplicates many of the functions of the control system of the natural heart by detecting the P-wave on the atrium, by triggering the beginning of systole aftera time delay, and by adjusting the duration and intensity of the systole of the artificial pump. Resultsfrom both in vivo and in vitro experiments which demonstrate the detection of the P-wave, synchronization of the artificial heart are presented. An adaptivecontrol algorithm for the pneumatic drive pressures for the total artificial heart is given and simulation results are presented.