cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Structural Dependency Aware Service Chain Mapping for Network Function Virtualization

Network Function Virtualization (NFV) has emerged as an attractive technology solution to improve the efficiency and flexibility of network services through a technique called Service Chain mapping. A Network Service may be composed of several components (sub-services) and a subset of the physical network nodes may be able to provide each of the individual sub-services. The goal of the Service Chain Mapping problem is to select a physical network node to get the individual sub-services executed and making sure that results from execution of one sub-service flows smoothly to the physical node selected for execution of the next sub-service. Recently, there is increasing awareness in the research community that there exists significant dependency between network nodes. In order to seamlessly deal with failures, provisions are made for redundant services (and sub-services). However, unless the Service Chain mapping is carried out carefully, both the primary and the backup service providers may be unavailable due to the failure of one single physical node. Even if the backup service provider is available, the increased delay to access the backup node may be unacceptably high. Recognizing the importance of structural dependency, researchers have recently started studying dependency-aware Service Chain mapping. In this paper, we draw attention to some of the shortcomings of a recently proposed metric for measuring structural dependency. In addition, we introduce a notion of utility of a path for data transfer from a source node u to a destination node v, to provide a dynamic programming based algorithm for mapping a service chain on a physical network which ensures that the loss of utility due to failure of physical network nodes is minimized.
Iris Immunology and Wound Healing

The immunology and wound healing of the iris has not been described well in the past and deserve more attention. The iris has specific characteristics when discussing its immune response and its healing process in physiologic and pathologic conditions.
Genomic Approaches to Drug Resistance in Malaria.

Although the last two decades have seen a substantial decline in malaria incidence and mortality due to the use of insecticide-treated bed nets and artemisinin combination therapy, the threat of dr...
Cutaneous metastatic seeding as a sequela of nephrostomy catheter placement.

Abstract Urothelial carcinoma and nephrolithiasis are a common cause of obstructive uropathy which can be relieved by percutaneous nephrostomy catheter placement. A rare, but known complication of this procedure is iatrogenic seeding of tumor cells along the nephrostomy tract. We describe a case of 68-year-old-female with cutaneous metastasis of high-grade urothelial carcinoma with seeding of tumor cells along the percutaneous nephrostomy catheter tract 8 months after the removal of the catheter. Given its severity, interventional radiologists should be mindful of the number of percutaneous access attempts, exchanges, and catheter manipulations in patients with urothelial carcinoma due to the risk of metastatic seeding along the percutaneous tract or to nearby tissues.
Emergent Plasmapheresis for Hyperammonemia in a Re-do Double Lung Transplant Patient

Hyperammonemia after lung transplant is a severe complication that can result in cerebral herniation. It is associated with up to 70% mortality in patients who have had solid organ transplantation. We describe a rare case in which hyperammonemia was emergently and successfully treated with plasmapheresis in a re-do double lung transplant patient who developed shocked liver.
Leo Panitch, 1945-2020 in memoriam

Leo Panitch, Canadian Research Professor Emeritus (York University) passed away on December 19, 2020 from complications related to COVID-19 that he contracted while being treated in the hospital fo...
Improving Collegiate Financial Literacy via Financial Education Seminars

This paper overviews a personal finance program (PFP) developed for seniors at a private liberal arts university targeted at improving financial literacy. We provide an overview of the program, including details about the recruitment process, program structure, and curriculum. Using a multi-variate framework, we empirically examine the program’s effectiveness at improving students’ financial knowledge and confidence in their financial futures, and our findings demonstrate that financial knowledge and confidence improve relative to a control group. Additionally, women (minorities) narrow their financial knowledge and confidence gaps considerably when compared to men (whites) and the control group.
A Review of Psychosocial Protective and Risk Factors for the Mental Well-Being of Rural LGBTQ+ Adolescents:

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning/queer, and other gender diverse (LGBTQ+) adolescents face daunting hardships within the rural contexts they navigate (e.g., community, school), and ...
Depressive Symptoms Moderate the Relationship among Physical Capacity, Balance Self-Efficacy, and Participation in People after Stroke.

Objective Previously it was found that balance self-efficacy mediated the relationship between physical capacity and participation after stroke. The effect of other factors that influence participation, such as depression, on this relationship has not been explored. We therefore examined the effect of symptoms of depression on the mediated relationship between physical capacity and participation by balance self-efficacy in individuals after stroke. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 282 persons with chronic stroke (>6 months) were classified as having either low or high Geriatric Depression Scale scores. We used a multiple group structural equation model to test moderated mediation by comparing a constrained model (indicating no effect of depression on the mediation) and an unconstrained model (indicating an effect of depression on the mediation). The models were compared using a Chi-squared difference test. Results The Chi-squared difference test suggested that the unconstrained model was a better fit, indicating that depressive symptoms moderated the mediated relationship between physical capacity and participation (χ2(3, N = 282) = 9.0). In the Low Depression group, a significant indirect effect indicated that balance self-efficacy did mediate the relationship between physical capacity and participation. There was not a significant indirect effect in the High Depression group. Conclusion The results suggest the relationship between physical capacity and participation appears to be mediated by balance self-efficacy in individuals after stroke with low reports of depressive symptoms but in those with high reports of depressive symptoms, physical capacity and balance self-efficacy are unrelated to participation. Impact Targeting balance self-efficacy to improve post stroke participation may only be beneficial for individuals with low reports of depression. In individuals after stroke with high reports of depression, treatment should include and emphasize the treatment of those depressive symptoms. Additional work further examining these complex relationships is warranted.
Environmental Catastrophe and the Direction of Invention: Evidence from the American Dust Bowl

This paper investigates how innovation responded to and shaped the economic impact of the American Dust Bowl, an environmental catastrophe that led to widespread soil erosion on the US Plains during the 1930s. Combining data on county-level erosion, the historical geography of crop production, and crop-specific innovation, I document that the crisis led to a major shift in agricultural technology development toward more Dust Bowl-exposed crops and, within crops, toward bio-chemical and planting technologies that could directly mitigate environmental distress. County-level exposure to Dust Bowl-induced innovation significantly dampened the effect of land erosion on agricultural land values and revenue. These results highlight the role of crises in shaping the direction of innovation and the importance of endogenous technological progress as an adaptive force in the face of disasters.
The DE language

DE is an occurrence-oriented description language that permits the hierarchical definition of finite-state machines in the style of a hardware description language. Using ACL2 we have formally defined the DE language. Recognizers for the language are defined. The semantics of the DE language is given by a simulator that, given the current inputs and current state for a module, will compute the module's current outputs and the next state. Our purpose in defining DE is to make the specification of a circuit description as clear as the finite-state languages often used by state-machine exploration algorithms.
Economic Consequences of Late Effects

Late effects of cancer treatment can have economic consequences on patients and their families. The reduction in employment opportunities is directly related to the type of cancer and treatment received. Patients undergoing combinations of surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy experience far greater employment opportunities when compared to those patients surviving after having only single modality therapy. Employment status also can be influenced by social support provided by governments with patient’s living in countries with more liberal social support not feeling as much pressure when compared to patients living in countries with very little support. In addition to reduced employment potential, survivors with late effects of cancer therapy will also require additional treatment to treat the late effects thereby increasing the cost of care. This too is also dependent upon type of cancer and treatment received.
Water Movement through Membrane Channels

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews the findings from water permeability studies on both unmodified and channel-modified planar lipid bilayers, with particular emphasis on the latter. It discusses their implications for water transport across plasma membranes. The only direct data on water transport through biological-like channels come from studies on the channels formed in planar lipid bilayer membranes by gramicidin A and the polyene antibiotics nystatin and amphotericin B. From the water permeability coefficients for single nystatin or gramicidin A channels, one can estimate the number of channels required in plasma membranes to account for their water permeability. The general conclusion is that there are too few channels in most plasma membranes to represent a significant pathway for water movement, and, therefore, by implication, the major route for water transport across most plasma membranes is through their lipid bilayers. The interesting topic of water-ion interaction within channels is also highlighted in the chapter.
Reduced energy consumption and improved accuracy for distributed speech recognition in wireless environments

The central theme of this dissertation is the study of a multimedia client for pervasive wireless multimedia applications. Speech recognition is considered as one such application, where the computational demands have hindered its use on wireless mobile devices. Our analysis considers distributed speech recognition on hardware platforms with PDA-like functionality (i.e. wireless LAN networking, high-quality audio input/output, a low-power general-purpose processing core, and limited amounts of flash and working memory). We focus on quality of service for the end-user (i.e. ASR accuracy and delay) and reduced energy consumption with increased battery lifetimes. We investigate quality of service and energy trade-offs in this context. We present software optimizations on a speech recognition front-end that can reduce the energy consumption by over 80% compared to the original implementation. A power on/off scheduling algorithm for the wireless interface is presented. This scheduling of the wireless interface can increase the battery lifetime by an order of magnitude. We study the effects of wireless networking and fading channel characteristics on distributed speech recognition using Bluetooth and IEEE 802.11b networks. When viewed as a whole, the optimized distributed speech recognition system can reduce the total energy consumption by over 95% compared to a client-side ASR implementation. We present an interleaving and loss concealment algorithm to increase the robustness of distributed speech recognition in a burst error channel. This improvement allows a decreased reliance on error protection overhead, which can provide reductions in transmit energy of up to 46% on a Bluetooth wireless network. The findings presented in this dissertation stress the importance of energy-aware design and optimization at all levels for battery-powered wireless devices.
Bioavailability and Bioequivalence: An FDA Regulatory Overview

Bioavailability and/or bioequivalence studies play a key role in the drug development period for both new drug products and their generic equivalents. For both, these studies are also important in the postapproval period in the presence of certain manufacturing changes. Like many regulatory studies, the assessment of bioavailability and bioequivalence can generally be achieved by considering the following three questions. What is the primary question of the study? What are the tests that can be used to address the question? What degree of confidence is needed for the test outcome? This article reviews the regulatory science of bioavailability and bioequivalence and provides FDA's recommendations for drug sponsors who intend to establish bioavailability and/or demonstrate bioequivalence for their pharmaceutical products during the developmental process or after approval.
MicroRNA-130a associates with ribosomal protein L11 to suppress c-Myc expression in response to UV irradiation.

// Yuhuang Li 1 , Kishore B. Challagundla 1 , Xiao-Xin Sun 1 , Qinghong Zhang 2 , Mu-Shui Dai 1 1 Departments of Molecular & Medical Genetics, School of Medicine and the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA 2 Department of Dermatology, University of Colorado, Denver, Aurora, CO 80045, USA Correspondence to: Mu-Shui Dai, e-mail: daim@ohsu.edu Keywords: miR-130a, L11, c-Myc, microRNA, UV irradiation Received: September 17, 2014 Accepted: November 08, 2014 Published: December 31, 2014 ABSTRACT The oncoprotein c-Myc is essential for cell growth and proliferation while its deregulated overexpression is associated with most human cancers. Thus tightly regulated levels and activity of c-Myc are critical for maintaining normal cell homeostasis. c-Myc is down-regulated in response to several types of stress, including UV-induced DNA damage. Yet, mechanism underlying UV-induced c-Myc reduction is not completely understood. Here we report that L11 promotes miR-130a targeting of c-myc mRNA to repress c-Myc expression in response to UV irradiation. miR-130a targets the 3’-untranslated region (UTR) of c-myc mRNA. Overexpression of miR-130a promotes the Ago2 binding to c-myc mRNA, significantly reduces the levels of both c-Myc protein and mRNA and inhibits cell proliferation. UV treatment markedly promotes the binding of L11 to miR-130a, c-myc mRNA as well as Ago2 in cells. Inhibiting miR-130a significantly suppresses UV-mediated c-Myc reduction. We further show that L11 is relocalized from the nucleolus to the cytoplasm where it associates with c-myc mRNA upon UV treatment. Together, these results reveal a novel mechanism underlying c-Myc down-regulation in response to UV-mediated DNA damage, wherein L11 promotes miR-130a-loaded miRISC to target c-myc mRNA.
Measuring productivity dynamics with endogenous choice of technology and capacity utilization: an application to automobile assembly

During the 1980s, all Japanese automobile producers opened assembly plants in North America. Industry analysts and previous research claim that these transplants are more productive than incumbent plants and that they produce with a substantially different production process. We compare the two production processes by estimating a model that allows for heterogeneity in technology and productivity. We treat both types of heterogeneity as intrinsically unobservable. In the model, plants choose technology before production starts. They condition subsequent input decisions on this choice. Maximum likelihood estimation is used to estimate the unconditional distribution of the technology choice, output, and inputs. The model is applied to a sample of automobile assembly plants. We control for capacity utilization, unobserved productivity differences, and price effects. The results indicate that there exist two distinct technologies. In particular, the more recent technology uses labor less intensively and it has a higher elasticity of substitution between labor and capital. Hicks-neutral productivity growth is estimated to be lower, while capital-biased (labor-saving) productivity growth is estimated significantly higher, for the new technology. Using the estimation results, we decompose industry-wide productivity growth in plant-level changes and composition effects, for both technologies separately. Plant-level productivity growth is further decomposed to reveal the importance of capital-biased productivity growth, increase in capital-labor ratio, and returns to scale.
Modeling Dynamically Impacted Ceramic Material Experiments

A number of new experimental techniques were developed to simplify the process of calibrating ceramic constitutive models. Current ceramic model calibration techniques for the Johnson-Holmquist One (JH1) model require theuse of complicated penetration experiments to tune the damage evolution to a specific experiment. Application of these ceramic models to different experiments often illustrates discrepancies in the results. This paper will illustrate the use of data from these new experimental methods to simplify the calibration process for hot-pressed silicon carbide (SiC), and thus more accurately capture the behavior of different ceramic materials. Dynamic sphere impacts as well as kinetic energy rod penetration rate study programs have been established. Comparison of the experimental data with the corresponding simulation results will highlight areas for improvement in ceramic modeling. Specifically, the macroscopic behavior the constitutive model attempts to encompass and its relation to relevant static and dynamic properties.
Energie-„Dissipation“ in der Strahlenchemie

Im Englischen hat das Wort „Dissipation“ einen doppelten Sinn. Es bedeutet sowohl „Verlust“ als auch „Streuung“. Gerade diese Doppeldeutigkeit mochte ich im Titel dieses Vortrages ausgedruckt wissen; unglucklicherweise gibt es kein einzelnes deutsches Wort mit dieser doppelten Bedeutung.
Tragedy, Farce or Legal Mobilization? The Danish Cartoons in Court in France and Canada

Why would anyone prosecute the Danish Cartoons? Even as North Americans and Europeans debated whether the cartoons should have been commissioned by the Jyllands Posten or republished elsewhere, most agreed that prosecutions were totally out of line in a liberal Western state. And, yet, there were prosecutions in both France and Canada. While each prosecution ultimately failed from a legal perspective, both cases also operated on the level of symbolic politics. Here the results were mixed. While the Muslim groups that sued Charlie Hebdo won a partial victory when a French court conceded that the turban cartoon was, standing alone, offensive to Muslims, the Canadian Human Rights prosecution against Ezra Levant ended with the entire system of human rights proceedings on trial. This paper tells the story of these two cases.
Exposing middle school girls to programming via creative tools

This paper explores design concepts and principles to engage middle school girls in learning preliminary programming concepts through different media and interaction techniques. Creating a greeting card and creating a personal avatar for an Instant Messenger (IM) were two approaches that were examined. Findings suggest that an IM avatar creation tool, with guiding principles including partial manipulation of code, immediate feedback, engaging content, reinforcement exercises, and transition from concrete to abstract examples, may interest girls to start learning programming concepts.
Effective Use of Tables and Figures in Abstracts, Presentations, and Papers

In some situations, tables, graphs, and figures can present certain types of information (including complicated relationships and sequences of events) more clearly and in less space than the same information would require in sentence form. However, do not use tables, graphs, and figures for small amounts of data that could be conveyed clearly and succinctly in a sentence. Also, do not reiterate in sentences the data that are shown in a table, graph, or figure: the point of creating a table or graph or figure is to eliminate that type of sentence from your manuscript. In building a data table you must balance the necessity that the table be complete with the equally important necessity that it not be too complex. Sometimes it is helpful to break a large table into several smaller ones to allow the reader to identify important information easily, but, conversely, it is a common mistake of novice authors to split up into several tables data that belong in one table. In almost all cases, only one table or graph or figure should be included in an abstract, and then only if it can convey essential information in less space and in a more easily interpretable way than the sentence form. For a poster, in almost all instances you should use only one typeface and one font in a table, graph, or figure. In general, do not use bold, italics, or color unless you are presenting a great deal of data and you need to highlight certain data values and you are certain that using bold, italics, or color will improve readability, which is rare. Do not include identical information in a table and a graph/figure. In reporting a clinical trial you will need to include a patient flow chart that identifies the number of patients initially screened for the study, the number of patients who were excluded (and why) after initial screening or in the final analysis, and how many patients entered, exited early, and completed each arm of the study. A treatment protocol should also be described with a flow chart. In preparing a graph the most common error is to include a line that suggests an unsubstantiated extrapolation between or beyond the data points. In selecting the graph's axes, avoid truncating, enlarging, or compressing the axes in ways that might make the graph confusing or misleading. To prepare clear, accurate, easily interpretable tables, graphs, and figures, rely on the rules described in authoritative guides such as the Council of Science Editors' Scientific Style and Format and the American Medical Association's Manual of Style.
Reproduction in the Wolverine, Gulo gulo

The reproductive habits of the wolverine, largest of the terrestrial mustelids, have remained largely unknown. In the American literature there are scattered statements indicating that the young are born in the spring and that the number of young at birth is from two to four (Seton, 1927). Seton also states that mating takes place in March and the young are born in June. These statements, which are only partially correct, have come largely from woodsmen who have made no detailed study of the species. Mohr (1938, 1939) states that breeding occurred between July 17 and 22, 1915, in a pair of captive European wolverines kept at the Copenhagen Zoo and the female gave birth to a litter on February 17, 1916. The same female produced another litter on February 24, 1917 after breeding the previous summer. She suggests that the European wolverine has a gestation period of about nine months. Recently Rausch (1953) has concluded that the American and European wolverines belong to the same species ( Guio guio ). The above evidence and the known occurrence of delayed implantation with the accompanying long periods of gestation in several mustelids suggest that this species should be more thoroughly investigated. The collection of Alaskan mammals carried on under the direction of the junior author since January, 1949, is an important activity of the Animal-borne Disease Branch of the Arctic Health Research Center. The material thus far obtained has been utilized for studies of diseases and helminth parasites, and has provided information of interest to mammalogists. In the course of these collections Rausch obtained several wolverines in 1949 and 1950 and some female reproductive tracts were sent to Wright for study. In species in which breeding occurs in mid-summer and the young are born the following spring, the reproductive tracts of those females …
Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing with coding and transmitter antenna diversity

In this paper we consider transmitter diversity for a OFDM system. In a OFDM system, each of the sub-carriers experience a different fade, and depending on the coherence band-width, several adjacent sub-carriers may be in a deep fade. If the channel is also varying slowly, these sub-carriers will be in a fade for a long time. To avoid the waste of band-width and errors on the affected sub-carriers, transmitter diversity can be used with the OFDM system so that the sub-carriers over the 'bad' part of the spectrum can still be utilized. OFDM systems which use FFT based demodulation at the receiver are especially unsuitable for Doppler and delay spread channels. In such channels OFDM system performance degrades due to the loss in orthogonality of the sub-carriers and the consequential increase in inter-carrier interference (ICI). Hence, we conclude that an FFT based receiver is not suitable for wireless channels, and we propose the use of multiple demodulators at the receiver, each operating over an individual sub-carrier band. This increases the complexity, however, such an increase is necessary for a wireless channel. In this paper we show how the full band-width available to the system can be utilized using multiple transmitting antennas.© (1995) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
The imaginary part of the helicity nonflip C = −1 exchange amplitudes in elastic scattering between 6 and 14 GeV☆

Abstract Using accurate data on the differential cross sections for elastic scattering of particles and antiparticles on protons from 6 to 14 GeV, the projection of the C = −1 exchange amplitude onto the dominant diffractive amplitude is measured. Strong peripherality in impact parameter space is observed for all the measured amplitudes with peak values scaling with the interaction radius. The zero of the imaginary part of the C = −1 exchange amplitude in K ± p scattering moves to smaller t values as the energy increases from 6 to 14 GeV. The p ± p exchange amplitude is more peripheral than the π ± p and K ± p counterparts and an unexpected energy dependence is observed.
Patients who leave a pediatric emergency department without treatment

We describe a population of 296 patients (1.1% of 27,230 pediatric emergency department visits) who left a pediatric ED without treatment during a 12-month period. Most occurred on weekends (n=120; 41%), registered between 4 PM and midnight (n=174; 59%), were on public aid (n=161; 54%), had no known source of health care (n=187; 64%), and waited less than three hours before leaving (n=187; 63%). Most were not seriously ill; 12 children (4%) had urgent or emergency problems. Minor trauma was the most common reason for the visit. Two hundred twenty-three (75%) were contacted by telephone two days later. A long waiting time was the most commonly cited reason for leaving (137/231; 59%). One hundred sixteen patients (52%) did not seek other medical care; 36 (16%) went to another hospital ED. Forty-eight hours after leaving without treatment, 112 patients (50%) were well, 65 (29%) had improved, 34 (15%) were unchanged, two (
Airborne Dust Capture And Induced Airflow Of Various Spray Nozzle Designs

Water spray characteristics, including droplet size and velocity, airborne dust capture potential, and induced airflow quantity for various spray nozzle designs were evaluated to provide basic information for improving spray applications. Water droplet size and velocity characteristics were initially measured by a Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer (PDPA) for hollow cone, full cone, flat fan, and air atomized spray nozzles at similar operating parameters. Airflow inducement and dust capture experiments were also conducted under the same operating parameters to examine any salient features of the spray nozzle type, droplet characteristics, induced airflow, and airborne dust capture. Test results indicate that there are trade offs between airflow inducement and dust capture efficiency. A spray nozzle with a wider discharge angle was observed to induce more airflow, but at reduced dust capture efficiencies. Increasing spray nozzle fluid pressure(s) generally reduced water droplet sizes with concurrent increases...
Hydrogen production with nickel powder cathode catalysts in microbial electrolysis cells

Abstract Although platinum is commonly used as catalyst on the cathode in microbial electrolysis cells (MEC), non-precious metal alternatives are needed to reduce costs. Cathodes were constructed using a nickel powder (0.5–1 μm) and their performance was compared to conventional electrodes containing Pt (0.002 μm) in MECs and electrochemical tests. The MEC performance in terms of coulombic efficiency, cathodic, hydrogen and energy recoveries were similar using Ni or Pt cathodes, although the maximum hydrogen production rate (Q) was slightly lower for Ni (Q = 1.2–1.3 m3 H2/m3/d; 0.6 V applied) than Pt (1.6 m3 H2/m3/d). Nickel dissolution was minimized by replacing medium in the reactor under anoxic conditions. The stability of the Ni particles was confirmed by examining the cathodes after 12 MEC cycles using scanning electron microscopy and linear sweep voltammetry. Analysis of the anodic communities in these reactors revealed dominant populations of Geobacter sulfurreduces and Pelobacter propionicus. These results demonstrate that nickel powder can be used as a viable alternative to Pt in MECs, allowing large scale production of cathodes with similar performance to systems that use precious metal catalysts.
Resistance of California ground squirrels (Spermophilus Beecheyi) to the venom of the northern Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus Viridis Oreganus): A study of adaptive variation

N. S. Poran, R. G. Coss and E. Benjamini. Resistance of California ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyi) to the venom of the northern Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis oreganus): a study of adaptive variation. Toxicon25, 767 – 777, 1987.—Recent studies have documented natural resistance to snake venom in a number of diverse mammalian species. The present paper documents for the first time variation in such resistance within one single species, the California ground squirrel (Spermophilus beecheyi). This species is a frequent prey of the northern Pacific rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis oreganus) in certain habitats. Venom resistance was tested directly in two populations of ground squirrels by injection of 1 – 40 mg/kg venom doses. One population was obtained from a habitat with a high rattlesnake density; the other population came from a rattlesnake-free habitat. Dramatic differences in the response to venom between these populations were manifested, based on a variety of criteria, such as mortality, necrosis and healing time. Resistance to venom was also examined by ld50 tests in groups of mice pre-injected with ground squirrel sera from three rattlesnake-adapted California populations and a non-adapted Arctic population (S. parryii) from snake-free central Alaska. The California ground squirrel sera were 3.3 – 5.3 times more effective in the in vivo neutralization of venom than the sera from Arctic ground squirrels. Moreover, the level of protection by the sera as reflected by the ld50 values was highly correlated (P < 0.005) with the level of in vitro squirrel serum - venom binding as quantified by radioimmunoassay (RIA). A subsequent RIA revealed that binding levels of sera from 14 California ground squirrel populations correlated significantly (P < 0.025) with local rattlesnake densities; i.e. sera pools from populations sympatric with rattlesnakes exhibited the highest binding, whereas populations living in habitats where rattlesnakes are rare or absent typically exhibited the lowest binding levels, several of which approximated the Arctic control. Taken together, these results demonstrate intraspecific variation that is probably the result of differential natural selection due to northern Pacific rattlesnakes. This intraspecific variation should be taken into consideration when testing for natural resistance in wild-caught species.
Consumer willingness-to-pay for biopower: Results from focus groups

To find out whether consumers are willing to pay a surcharge for biopower, the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries hosted consumer focus groups at four locations in Alabama. Results showed that consumers were willing to pay a premium in line with the costs, but that most did not have much prior information about green energy options.
Salt concentration dependence of the compensated Arrhenius equation for alcohol-based electrolytes

Abstract It has been previously shown that the temperature-dependent conductivity of dilute, organic liquid electrolytes is non-Arrhenius due to the temperature dependence of the dielectric constant contained in the exponential prefactor. Scaling the temperature-dependent conductivities to conductivities at a reference temperature removes the dielectric constant dependence; the log of the scaled conductivities is then linearly dependent on the inverse temperature. Previous applications of this analysis focused on 0.0055 M solutions of tetrabutylammonium triflate (TbaTf) dissolved in linear alcohols and linear ketones. This work expands the scope of this analysis to a range of salt concentrations and different salts in propanol solutions. The energy of activation in TbaTf-propanol solutions obtained by the analysis described above varied in a smooth but nonlinear fashion from 32.6 ± 0.3 kJ mol −1 at 4.30 × 10 −5 M to 39.4 ± 0.3 kJ mol −1 at 5.50 × 10 −3 M. An examination of the temperature dependence of six salts in propanol suggests that choice of the cation has a larger effect on the activation energy than the choice of the anion.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF EXCHANGE RATE APPRECIATION AND AGGREGATE ECONOMIC ACTIVITY: THEORY AND EVIDENCE FROM MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRIES

The paper examines the effects of exchange rate depreciation on real output and price in a sample of 11 developing countries in the Middle East. The theoretical model decomposes movements in the exchange rate into anticipated and unanticipated components. Unanticipated currency fluctuations determine aggregate demand through exports, imports, and the demand for domestic currency, and determine aggregate supply through the cost of imported intermediate goods. The evidence indicates that the supply channel attributed to anticipated exchange rate appreciation results in limited effects on output growth and price inflation. Consistent with theory's predictions, unanticipated appreciation of the exchange rate appears more significant with varying effects on output growth and price inflation across developing countries.
New insights into mechanisms of resistance to microtubule inhibitors

Mechanisms to explain tumor cell resistance to drugs that target the microtubule cytoskeleton have relied on the assumption that the drugs act either to suppress microtubule dynamics or to perturb the balance between assembled and nonassembled tubulin. Recently, however, it was found that these drugs also alter the stability of microtubule attachment to centrosomes, and do so at the same concentrations that are needed to inhibit cell division. Based on this new information, a new model is presented that explains resistance resulting from a variety of molecular changes that have been reported in the literature. The improved understanding of drug action and resistance has important implications for chemotherapy with these agents.
Marine resource development in Belize

Abstract Marine resource development has increased its importance for most of the world's coastal nations. This is especially true for developing coastal states that are now looking to the sea to help provide new sources of food and income. Belize is an example of such a developing state with certain features that make it particularly interesting for study.
Graduation Rates at Historically Black Colleges and Universities: An Underperforming Performance Measure for Determining Institutional Funding Policies

Abstract Historically Black Colleges and Universities have been in existence in the United States since the mid-1800s. Currently there are 105, which include private and public institutions, with most being four-year programs. In this study, we compare graduation rates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities to predominately White institutions and analyze the use of graduation rates as a performance measure for determining funding policies. The study design consists of 10 Historically Black Colleges and Universities and 10 predominately White institutions, selected and matched by purposive sampling based on variables of student body population size, geographical location, public or private institution charter type, and student body socioeconomic factors. Results suggest that Historically Black Colleges and Universities have lower overall graduation rates than matched predominately White institutions. However, these institutions perform equally well when exclusively considering graduation rates of ...
Standing on the Shoulders of Libraries: A Holistic and Rhetorical Approach to Teaching Google Scholar

In order to understand better and explain the practices of Google Scholar, this essay takes a rhetorical and holistic look at the search technology, language, and sociopolitical implications of the Google Scholar interface as well as the connection between Google Scholar and the actions of the Google Corporation. The relationship between Google Scholar and the academic library is also explored. In addition, the essay offers ways to encourage students to undertake this kind of critique in the information literacy classroom.
Signatures of the nematic ordering transitions in the thermal conductivity of d -wave superconductors

We study experimental signatures of the Ising nematic quantum phase transition in $d$-wave superconductors, associated with the change of lattice symmetry from tetragonal to orthorhombic in the superconducting state. The characteristic feature of this transition is that the ratio between the Fermi velocity ${v}_{F}$ and gap velocity ${v}_{\ensuremath{\Delta}}$ flows to a maximally anisotropic fixed point; i.e., the renormalization-group fixed point is situated at ${({v}_{\ensuremath{\Delta}}/{v}_{F})}^{\ensuremath{\ast}}=0$. Our main point is that the logarithmic approach to this fixed point has visible signatures in the thermal transport. The analysis of the quasiparticle contribution to the thermal transport is carried out in the framework of a kinetic approach, which shows that the thermal conductivity is enhanced near the nematic critical point. Another aspect of our study is the interplay of dilute disorder and electronic interactions in the measured thermal transport coefficients.
XYLEM INTERMIXED WITH PHLOEM1, a leucine-rich repeat receptor-like kinase required for stem growth and vascular development in Arabidopsis thaliana

The regulation of cell specification in plants is particularly important in vascular development. The vascular system is comprised two differentiated tissue types, the xylem and phloem, which form conductive elements for the transport of water, nutrients and signaling molecules. A meristematic layer, the procambium, is located between these two differentiated cell types and divides to initiate vascular growth. We report the identification of a receptor-like kinase (RLK) that is expressed in the vasculature. Histochemical analyses of mutants in this kinase display an aberrant accumulation of highly lignified cells, typical of xylem or fiber cells, within the phloem. In addition, phloem cells are sometimes located adjacent to xylem cells in these mutants. We, therefore, named this RLK XYLEM INTERMIXED WITH PHLOEM 1 (XIP1). Analyses of longitudinal profiles of xip1 mutant stems show malformed cell files, indicating defects in oriented cell divisions or cell morphology. We propose that XIP1 prevents ectopic lignification in phloem cells and is necessary to maintain the organization of cell files or cell morphology in conductive elements.
The scattering phase shift due to bragg resonance in one-dimensional fluctuation reflectometry

An explicit integral representation is derived for the tangent of the phase shift due to one-dimensional (1D) scattering of an S-polarized, O-mode, electromagnetic field from a localized wavepacket sitting on top of an inhomogeneous plasma. A Green function technique is used in the derivation together with the Born approximation. The integral representation is evaluated using asymptotic techniques and Bragg resonance is seen to be the dominant mechanism producing the phase shifts due to fluctuations with wavelengths that are short compared to the Airy length. By suitably normalizing the governing differential equation, we have identified the two dominant parameters that control the approximations in our analysis. These are delta n/n0 and kf. The first is the magnitude of the maximum density fluctuation multiplied by the square of the dimensionless length scale that characterizes both the background plasma density profile (with scalelength L) and the incoming microwave field (with vacuum wavenumber k0): delta n/n0 identical to ( delta n/n0)*(k0L)23/. The second is the fluctuation wavenumber normalized to k0 and scaled by the similarly normalized Airy wavenumber: kf identical to (kf/k0)*(k0L)13/. The Born approximation is expected to be valid as long as delta n/n0 1.
Entropic benefit of a cross-link in protein association.

We introduce a method to estimate the loss of configurational entropy upon insertion of a cross-link to a dimeric system. First, a clear distinction is established between the loss of entropy upon tethering and binding, two quantities that are often considered to be equivalent. By comparing the probability distribution of the center-to-center distances for untethered and cross-linked versions, we are able to calculate the loss of translational entropy upon cross-linking. The distribution function for the untethered helices is calculated from the probability that a given helix is closer to its partner than to all other helices, the “Nearest Neighbor” method. This method requires no assumptions about the nature of the solvent, and hence resolves difficulties normally associated with calculations for systems in liquids. Analysis of the restriction of angular freedom upon tethering indicates that the loss of rotational entropy is negligible. The method is applied in the context of the folding of a ten turn helical coiled coil with the tether modeled as a Gaussian chain or a flexible amino acid chain. After correcting for loop closure entropy in the docked state, we estimate the introduction of a six-residue tether in the coiled coil results in an effective concentration of the chain to be about 4 or 100 mM, depending upon whether the helices are denatured or pre-folded prior to their association. Thus, tethering results in significant stabilization for systems with millimolar or stronger dissociation constants. Proteins 2002;48:341–351. © 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Fracture mechanics approach to penetration of surface crevasses on glaciers

Abstract In linear elastic fracture mechanics, the stress intensity factor is used to describe elastic stresses near the tip of a crack. Crack growth occurs when the stress intensity factor is larger than a critical value, the fracture toughness, which is a material parameter that applies to cracks of any size. For surface crevasses on glaciers, the net stress intensity factor can be calculated by superimposing the effects of a tensile stress, the weight of the ice, and water pressure if the crevasse is filled with water. The analysis is applied to individual and multiple crevasses to investigate the important factors determining crevasse depth. The model indicates that a single crevasse can only exist if the tensile stress is larger than 30–80 kPa, depending on the fracture toughness of glacier ice. Multiple crevasses result in a decrease in stress intensity factor for any crevasse, thus reducing their depth (all other factors being equal). Consequently, in a field of crevasses, a larger tensile stress is needed compared to an individual crevasse, to allow crevasse formation. Further, a water-filled crevasse or field of crevasses can reach the bottom of a glacier provided that the water level is about 15 m below the surface, or higher, and the tensile stress is larger than ∼150 kPa. Compared to earlier studies, it is shown that accounting for the finite thickness of the glacier has a small effect on the calculated stress intensity factor only if the ratio of crevasse depth to ice thickness is larger than ∼0.3. However, such deep crevasses can only exist if filled with water, in which case the crevasse may penetrate the ice completely and the small error introduced by approximating the glacier as a semi-infinite plane is unimportant. It is more important to account for the lower density of the upper firn layers: this effect increases the maximum depth of crevasses by almost a factor of two compared to the solution of Weertman (1973) [Weertman, J., 1973. Can a water-filled crevasse reach the bottom surface of a glacier? IASH Publ. 95, 139–145.].
3DIC system design impact, challenge and solutions

In last few decades, the semiconductor industry has advanced as Moore's law predicted. With the introduction of 3D IC, it has extended the Moore's law into another dimension.The 3DIC vast interconnecting capabilities and ultra-short die to die distance can be fully explored for high bandwidth, low power applications. These 3D IC's are capable of enhancing overall chip performance and achieving high density heterogeneous system integration by utilizing through-silicon-vias (TSV), multiple die can be 3D stacked and/or stitching through Interposer into 3DIC platform. With the 3DIC memory family become standard last year, this also made a full computer system within 3DIC.Here we shall introduce one of test vehicles using TSMC CoWoS(tm) platform and using one of the JEDEC standard WideIO DRAM. We shall use it as example to explore 3DIC system advantages, design for test challenges and proposed solutions. Also we shall share a brief lesson learned from this Test Vehicle as well as some suggestions for future considerations.
A mouse model of hemolytic disease of the newborn

In this issue of Blood, Stowell et al describe a novel mouse model of hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN) that recapitulates many of the key features of human disease.1 Recently, this same group of researchers described a transgenic mouse that expresses the human KEL2 (Chellano) red cell surface protein from the Kell system on red cells, and subsequently demonstrated that Kell differences on transfused blood induce antibody responses and hemolytic transfusion reactions similar to those seen in patients. In this latest report, Stowell et al demonstrate that similar to some patients, Kell differences between mother and father can lead to maternal antibody generation and hemolytic disease in utero. In so doing, they provide experimental confirmation of a long sought after animal model of HDFN.