cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evolution of Gene Expression in the Drosophila Olfactory System

Host plant shifts by phytophagous insects play a key role in insect evolution and plant ecology. Such shifts often involve major behavioral changes as the insects must acquire an attraction and/or lose the repulsion to the new host plant's odor and taste. The evolution of chemotactic behavior may be due, in part, to gene expression changes in the peripheral sensory system. To test this hypothesis, we compared gene expression in the olfactory organs of Drosophila sechellia, a narrow ecological specialist that feeds on the fruit of Morinda citrifolia, with its close relatives Drosophila simulans and Drosophila melanogaster, which feed on a wide variety of decaying plant matter. Using whole-genome microarrays and quantitative polymerase chain reaction, we surveyed the entire repertoire of Drosophila odorant receptors (ORs) and odorant-binding proteins (OBPs) expressed in the antennae. We found that the evolution of OR and OBP expression was accelerated in D. sechellia compared both with the genome average in that species and with the rate of OR and OBP evolution in the other species. However, some of the gene expression changes that correlate with D. sechellia’s increased sensitivity to Morinda odorants may predate its divergence from D. simulans. Interspecific divergence of olfactory gene expression cannot be fully explained by changes in the relative abundance of different sensilla as some ORs and OBPs have evolved independently of other genes expressed in the same sensilla. A number of OR and OBP genes are upregulated in D. sechellia compared with its generalist relatives. These genes include Or22a, which likely responds to a key odorant of M. citrifolia, and several genes that are yet to be characterized in detail. Increased expression of these genes in D. sechellia may have contributed to the evolution of its unique chemotactic behavior.
Power, Quiescence, and Pollution: The Suppression of Environmental Grievances

The number of communities dealing with industrial pollution in the United States has increased dramatically over the past three decades. Environmental campaigns have consequentially emerged and so ...
A two-layer neural peak detector

Investigation of a single-layer peak detector based on the Hopfield-Tank architecture revealed that the network cannot be implemented in hardware using existing VLSI technology once the network exceeds approximately 150 neurons. It is shown that using a two-layer scheme reduces the number of neuron interconnections and thus makes hardware implementation of large networks feasible. >
Magical Moments in Movement: Antioch University New England Dance/Movement Therapy and Counseling Students Quest in the Real World

The aim of this article is to highlight dance/movement therapy students’ learning process as they integrate and apply dance/movement therapy concepts. Three current students present vignettes on how they were able to use dance/movement therapy principles and techniques after their first year of dance/movement therapy graduate studies. The vignettes illustrate dance/movement therapy and Kestenberg Movement Profile approaches that are applied as students test out their new knowledge in real world settings with a child with autism, an infant, and parents of a three-year-old. Woven through the students’ stories are dance/movement therapy intervention techniques, successful approaches to communicating with nonverbal infants and prevention techniques to guide parents through difficult developmental phases.
Pollen and anther development in Nelumbo (Nelumbonaceae)

The Nelumbonaceae are a small family of aquatic angiosperms comprising Nelumbo nucifera and Nelumbo lutea. Historically, the genus has been considered to be closely related to Nymphaeales, however new systematic work has allied Nelumbo with lower eudicots, particularly Platanus. In recent years, studies of pollen development have contributed greatly to the understanding of phylogenetic relationships, but little has been known about these events in Nelumbo. In this paper, pollen and anther development are morphologically described for the first time in N. lutea. A comprehensive ontogenetic sequence is documented, including the sporogenous tissue, microspore mother cell, tetrad, free spore, and mature pollen grain stages. The deposition of a microspore mother cell coat and callose wall, the co-occurrence of both tetrahedral and tetragonal tetrads, the formation of a primexine in tetrads, and primexine persistence into the late free spore stage are shown. The majority of exine development occurs during the free spore stage with the deposition of a tectate-columellate ectexine, a lamellate endexine, and an unusual granular layer below and intermixed with the endexine lamellae. A two-layered intine forms rapidly during the earliest mature pollen stage. Major events of anther development documented include the degradation of a secretory-type tapetum during the free spore stage and the rapid formation of U-shaped endothecial thickenings in the mature pollen grain stage. The majority of mature pollen grains are tricolpate, however less common monosulcate and diaperturate grains also develop. Co-occurring aperture types in Nelumbo have been suggested to be an important transition in angiosperm aperture number. However, aperture variability in Nelumbo may be correlated with the lateness of aperture ontogeny in the genus, which occurs in the early free spore stage. This character, as well as other details of pollen and anther ontogeny in Nelumbo, are compared to those of Nymphaeales and Platanus in an effort to provide additional insight into systematic and phylogenetic relationships. Although Nelumbo is similar to both groups in several characters, the ontogenetic sequence of the genus is different in many ways.
Factors related to quality-of-life pattern changes in recipients of implantable defibrillators.

Purpose The implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) has proven life-saving, yet it is important to understand its psychological effects on recipients. This study examined longitudinal changes in patterns of quality-of-life (QOL) scores in the first 3 months after an implant, and determined what variables tested as predictors of patterns. Methods This longitudinal, prospective, descriptive, correlational survey study followed 80 ICD patients, with data collection at a baseline preinsertion, and 1 and 3 months after implant. Results Findings revealed eight patterns of QOL change that were recoded into 3 groups: no change (44.7%), worse (20.7%), and improved (34.2%). No significant difference was evident in groups according to age at implant, gender, education, ejection fraction, number of device discharges, and comorbidities. State anxiety was significantly higher for the worsening group. Conclusion This finding supports the practice of identifying and supporting patients with anxiety, which correlates with a worsening QOL.
Relationship between scratch hardness and yield strength of elastic perfectly plastic materials using finite element analysis

With thin solid film usage expanding in numerous technologies, reliable measurements of material properties such as yield strength become important. However, for thin solid films the measurement of yield strength is not readily available, and an alternative method to obtain this property is to measure hardness and convert it to yield strength. Tabor suggested dividing hardness by ∼3 to obtain yield strength, which has been used extensively, despite its shortcomings. Since the pioneering work of Tabor, researchers have performed numerical and experimental studies to investigate the relationships between hardness, yield strength, and elastic modulus, using the indentation technique. In this study, finite element analysis was performed to simulate the nanoscratch technique. Specifically, the nanoscratch finite element analysis was used to validate a previously developed analytical scratch hardness model. A full-factorial design-of-experiments was performed to determine the significant variables for the ratio of calculated scratch hardness to yield strength and a simple analytical prediction model for the ratio of hardness to yield strength was proposed.
Medical and Surgical Management of Male Infertility

This article is the review of the book "Medical & Surgical Management of Male Infertility" edited by Botros RMB Rizk, Nabil Aziz, Ashok Agarwal and Edmund Sabanegh Jr. This book (hardcover) was published by Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishing, New Delhi.London.Philadelphia.Panama on September 2013 (1st edition). The contents of the book and its relevance to medical education are discussed in this invited review.
Mass Preferences on Shared Representation and the Composition of Legislative Districts

Scholars of redistricting often discuss “communities of interest” as a guideline for drawing districts, but scholarship offers little guidance on how citizens construe communities and interests in ...
A Peptide Uncoupling BDNF Receptor TrkB from Phospholipase Cγ1 Prevents Epilepsy Induced by Status Epilepticus

The BDNF receptor tyrosine kinase, TrkB, underlies nervous system function in both health and disease. Excessive activation of TrkB caused by status epilepticus promotes development of temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE), revealing TrkB as a therapeutic target for prevention of TLE. To circumvent undesirable consequences of global inhibition of TrkB signaling, we implemented a novel strategy aimed at selective inhibition of the TrkB-activated signaling pathway responsible for TLE. Our studies of a mouse model reveal that phospholipase Cγ1 (PLCγ1) is the dominant signaling effector by which excessive activation of TrkB promotes epilepsy. We designed a novel peptide (pY816) that uncouples TrkB from PLCγ1. Treatment with pY816 following status epilepticus inhibited TLE and prevented anxiety-like disorder yet preserved neuroprotective effects of endogenous TrkB signaling. We provide proof-of-concept evidence for a novel strategy targeting receptor tyrosine signaling and identify a therapeutic with promise for prevention of TLE caused by status epilepticus in humans.
The effects of ethanol on pre-synaptic components of synaptic transmission in a model glutamatergic synapse: the crayfish neuromuscular junction

We have elucidated some of the mechanisms by which ethanol (EtOH) reduces synaptic efficacy at model glutamatergic synapses. The crayfish phasic and tonic neuromuscular junctions are superb models for directly assessing the effects of EtOH on pre-synaptic components of synaptic transmission. The ability to perform quantal analysis of synaptic transmission has allowed us to assess pre-synaptic alterations of release. Using this system, we report that the application of EtOH, within a range observed in intoxicated humans (44 and 88 mM), resulted in a diminution of excitatory post-synaptic potentials (EPSP) amplitudes. Additionally, using focal macro-patch recordings, quantal synaptic currents were recorded to assess the pre-synaptic component as potential target sites for EtOH's action. At the tonic neuromuscular junctions, EtOH (88 mM) reduced the probability of release (p), and in some cases, reduced the number of the release sites (n), but did not alter facilitation index nor did it affect the latency of vesicular release. At the phasic neuromuscular junction, a reduction in synaptic charge occurred during the presence of EtOH. Thus, the observed decrease in synaptic strength is at least partially attributable to a pre-synaptic alteration, specifically the release of fewer vesicles.
Breaching Biological Barriers: Protein Translocation Domains as Tools for Molecular Imaging and Therapy

The lipid bilayer of a cell presents a significant barrier for the delivery of many molecular imaging reagents into cells at target sites in the body. Protein translocation domains (PTDs) are peptides that breach this barrier. Conjugation of PTDs to imaging agents can be utilized to facilitate the delivery of these agents through the cell wall, and in some cases, into the cell nucleus, and have potential for in vitro and in vivo applications. PTD imaging conjugates have included small molecules, peptides, proteins, DNA, metal chelates, and magnetic nanoparticles. The full potential of the use of PTDs in novel in vivo molecular probes is currently under investigation. Cells have been labeled in culture using magnetic nanoparticles derivatized with a PTD and monitored in vivo to assess trafficking patterns relative to cells expressing a target antigen. In vivo imaging of PTD-mediated gene transfer to cells of the skin has been demonstrated in living animals. Here we review several natural and synthetic PTDs that have evolved in the quest for easier translocation across biological barriers and the application of these peptide domains to in vivo delivery of imaging agents. Mol Imaging (2003) 2, 313 – 323.
Research of Networked After-Sale Service System Based on Multi-Agent

An after-sale service is an important part of enterprise's production and operation. For improving quality and efficiency of after-sale services, a new mode of after-sale services, networked after-sale services system-NASS is presented based on multi-agent technique, network technique and modern communications technique. Architecture and workflow of the NASS are researched; method of assign and rank of after-sale services information are studied. Based on these a prototype system of NASS is established and security, practicability and high efficiency of it is proved. Results of study provide the theoretical basis for application of the networked after-sale services.
AN UNEXPECTED EARLY RECORD OF MICTOMYS VETUS (ARVICOLINAE, RODENTIA) FROM THE BLANCAN (PLIOCENE) GLENNS FERRY FORMATION, HAGERMAN FOSSIL BEDS NATIONAL MONUMENT, IDAHO

The cooling during the Pliocene that preceded major continental glaciation in North America is recorded by thick fluvial and lacustrine sequences at Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument (HAFO) in southcentral Idaho (McDonald et al., 1996). Fossiliferous beds at HAFO occur within the nearly 200 m of exposed Glenns Ferry Formation west of the Snake River. This formation extends from southwestern Idaho into easternmost Oregon (Malde and Powers, 1962). The Glenns Ferry Formation within HAFO contains hundreds of localities that are within the Blancan North American Land Mammal Age. Collection of specimens from these localities since the late 1920s has resulted in large repositories of fossils currently housed, in part, at the United States National Museum, the University of Michigan Museum of Paleontology (UMMP), and the Idaho Museum of Natural History (IMNH); additionally, smaller collections were accumulated by other museums (McDonald et al., 1996). Today the paleontological resources of HAFO are stewarded by the National Park Service. In spite of the extensive previous collections, significant new discoveries are still being made at HAFO. The specimens described here are the first records of Mictomys vetus (Wilson, 1933) from HAFO. These fossils are also the earliest records of Mictomys anywhere and impact previously proposed scenarios of arvicoline biochronology (i.e., Repenning and Grady, 1988; Repenning et al., 1995; Fejfar and Repenning, 1998). The fossils described here are curated in the vertebrate paleontology collection of the IMNH in Pocatello, Idaho. #### Abbreviations AC, anterior cap; BRA1 and BRA2, buccal (=labial) reentrant angles 1 and 2; LaPW, labial primary wing; LiPW, lingual primary wing; LRA1, LRA2, and LRA3, lingual reentrant angles 1, 2, and 3; m1, lower first molar; m3, lower third molar; PL, posterior loop; T1, T2, and T3, triangles 1, 2, and 3. ### RodentiaBowdich, 1821 Muridae Illiger, 1811 Arvicolinae Gray, 1821 Mictomys vetus (Wilson, 1933) Figures …
The Logic of Relations

We have now examined the philosophical framework surrounding De Morgan’s views on relations, and we have also seen how these views show the need for a logic of relations. In this chapter, we will discuss De Morgan’s central contribution to the logic of relations, which he published in 1860 under the title, “On the Syllogism: IV and on the Logic of Relations.” In this classic memoir, De Morgan moves beyond his relational analysis of the syllogism and the bicopular syllogism to something that may justifiably be called a logic of relations: that is, the specification and systematization of previously unrecognized valid forms of relational inference.
Serological Diagnosis of Candidal Infections

(1973). Serological Diagnosis of Candidal Infections. CRC Critical Reviews in Clinical Laboratory Sciences: Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 19-59.
Dissolution parameters reveal role of structure and solvent in molecular gelation.

The relationship between thermodynamic dissolution parameters (enthalpy and entropy) and gelation ability was examined for two different classes of compounds in three different solvent systems. In total, 11 dipeptides and 19 pyridines were synthesized and screened for gelation in aqueous and organic solvents, respectively. The dissolution parameters were determined from the variable-temperature solubilities using the van’t Hoff equation. These studies revealed that the majority of gelators had higher dissolution enthalpies and entropies compared to nongelators, consistent with the notion that gelators have stronger intermolecular interactions and more order in the solid state. The dissolution parameters were also found to be solvent-dependent, suggesting that solvent–solute interactions are also important in gelation. Overall, these results indicate that converting nongelators into gelators is attainable when structural modifications or a change in solvent lead to increases in the dissolution parameters.
Influences of pregnancy risk factors on fetal and newborn disorders.

Excess fetal and newborn mortality have well-known associations with adequacy of maternal medical care during pregnancy as well as mother’s age, race, economic rank, marital status, and history of previous successful pregnancies. A study which included 783 consecutive autopsies on newborns delivered at a New York City Hospital provides the data for a multivariate analysis of these and other maternal factors on the incidence of specific disorders in newborn offspring.
Colwellia psychrerythraea Strains from Distant Deep Sea Basins Show Adaptation to Local Conditions

Many studies have shown that microbes, which share nearly identical 16S rRNA genes, can have highly divergent genomes. Microbes from distinct parts of the ocean also exhibit biogeographic patterning. Here we seek to better understand how certain microbes from the same species have adapted for growth under local conditions. The phenotypic and genomic heterogeneity of three strains of Colwellia psychrerythraea was investigated in order to understand adaptions to local environments. Colwellia are psychrophilic heterotrophic marine bacteria ubiquitous in cold marine ecosystems. We have recently isolated two Colwellia strains: ND2E from the Eastern Mediterranean and GAB14E from the Great Australian Bight. The 16S rRNA sequence of these two strains were greater than 98.2% identical to the well-characterized C. psychrerythraea 34H, which was isolated from arctic sediments. Salt tolerance, and carbon source utilization profiles for these strains were determined using Biolog Phenotype Microarrays’. These strains exhibited distinct salt tolerance, which was not associated with the salinity of sites of isolation. The carbon source utilization profiles were distinct with less than half of the tested carbon sources being metabolized by all three strains. Whole genome sequencing revealed that the genomes of these three strains were quite diverse with some genomes having up to 1600 strain-specific genes. Many genes involved in degrading strain-specific carbon sources were identified. There appears to be a link between carbon source utilization and location of isolation with distinctions observed between the Colwellia isolate recovered from sediment compared to water column isolates.
Multi-query outlier detection over data streams: poster

Real-time analytics of anomalous phenomena on streaming data typically relies on processing a large variety of continuous outlier detection requests, each configured with different parameter settings. The processing of such complex outlier analytics workloads is resource consuming due to the algorithmic complexity of the outlier mining process. In this work we propose a sharing-aware multi-query execution strategy for outlier detection on data streams called SOP. The key insight of SOP is to transform the problem of handling a multi-query outlier analytics workload into a single-query skyline computation problem. SOP achieves minimal utilization of both computational and memory resources for the processing of these complex outlier analytics workload.
Dynamical Change of Effective Degrees of Freedom in Fractal Chaos Model

We are concerned here with the theoritical study of a globally coupled network using the features of the autonomous Fractal Chaos model. The nonlinear behaviors generated by such an architecture provides us with many interesting properties. We focus here on the dynamical change of the system effective degrees of freedom. This organisation change reflects the system coherence towards its external environment and history. Such a capability seems crucial while trying to build self-learning systems.
Adapting the SAL method to evaluate reflectivity forecasts of summer precipitation in the central United States

The Structure Amplitude Location (SAL) method was originally developed to evaluate forecast accumulated-precipitation fields through identification and comparison of objects in both the forecast and the observed fields. This study describes a small modification for use with instantaneous composite-reflectivity forecasts, where objects' minimum size and reflectivity thresholds are prescribed. Both the original and modified SAL methods are used to evaluate daily 0000 UTC 12-km North American Model (NAM) forecasts, against NCEP/EMC 4-km Stage IV accumulated-precipitation estimates, during the summer of 2015 for a central US domain. Results show substantial sensitivity to the reflectivity threshold. This is likely related to sampling more signal from convective cell cores, and progressively ignoring stratiform rain areas, as threshold increases. Setting the threshold too high (40 dBZ) yields only 7% of time periods on which error scores can be computed, as opposed to 94% using a low threshold (5 dBZ). The primary difference between the two methods is a larger structural error in SAL using reflectivity, likely related to the unresolved convective peaks in the 12-km NAM forecasts; this error is smoothed out when accumulated precipitation is evaluated. SAL using reflectivity also reveals a diurnal cycle of skill, with minimum skill occurring around 1800–2200 UTC (early to late afternoon local time, before average convective activity reaches its maximum) and maximum skill occurring around 1000 UTC (just before sunrise). We conclude that both methods yield useful results, but results presented herein may not be generalisable to other verification domains or SAL formulations.
Dilation of Strictures in Patients with Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Who, When and How

Stricture formation occurs in up to 40% of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Patients are often symptomatic, resulting in significant morbidity, hospitalizations, and loss of productivity. Strictures can be managed endoscopically in addition to traditional surgical management (sphincteroplasty or resection of the affected bowel segments). About 3% to 5% patients with IBD develop primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC), which results in stricture formation in the biliary tree, managed for the most part by endoscopic therapies. In this article, we discuss endoscopic management of strictures both in the alimentary tract and biliary tree in patients with IBD and/or PSC.
The Potential Effects of Forest Roads on the Environment and Mitigating their Impacts

Forest roads are a necessary element for accessing forestry resources, but their impact on the environment can be significant. Forest roads can cause a variety of impacts on local wildlife that may lead to extirpation: facilitating the spread of invasive organisms, causing death or harm by vehicle strikes, and changing the behavior of animals to their detriment. Roads create improved access to forests, which can increase predation rates from hunters. Animals may move to avoid traffic noise, increasing their vulnerability to predation by other animals. One of the most significant impacts of forest roads is on water quality, through both catastrophic and chronic sources of water pollution, primarily from sediment. While it is not the case that every road will cause any or all of these impacts, for those that do, mitigation measures can be used to lessen these negative effects. These mitigation measures must begin during the location phase of the road and should continue through construction, use, and maintenance of the roads. Application of these mitigation measures allows forest managers to minimize the impacts from their forest roads when necessary.
Which dataset is this iris image from

The performance of a biometric recognition algorithm is often evaluated by testing it on standard datasets. This process, known as technology evaluation, is necessary to compare the matching performance of different algorithms. In the case of iris recognition, datasets such as ICE, MBGC, CASIA, NICE, WVU, UBIRIS, etc. have been used for this purpose. However, iris images in each of these datasets are impacted by the methodology used to collect them. Factors such as external lighting, sensor characteristics, acquisition protocol, subject composition, data collection environment, nuances of the collection process, etc. are dataset-specific and they leave a digital 'imprint' on the associated data. Therefore, iris images in different datasets may exhibit different intricate characteristics that can potentially impact the performance assessment process. In this work, we conduct an experiment to determine if such dataset-specific attributes are significant enough to be detected in the collected images. To this end we formulate a classification problem where the goal is to determine the dataset to which a given input iris image belongs to. By extracting a set of statistical and Gabor-based features from an iris image, we use a learning-based scheme to associate the input iris image with a specific database. A 83% accuracy is obtained on a set of 1536 images from 8 different datasets collected using 6 different sensors.
THE INFLUENCE OF VACUUM PASTEURIZATION UPON THE FREEZING POINT AND SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF MILK

The freezing point of milk was raised approximately 0.005 C by passing the milk through a two-stage vacuum pasteurization system to a filler. Milk had a warmer freezing point after passing through the first vacuum chamber than before, indicating some condensation of water vapors, and/or removal of CO2 in this chamber. After passing through the second vacuum chamber the milk had about the same freezing point as it did after the first vacuum treatment. The specific gravity was decreased by clarification but was not altered by vacuum treatment. Milks collected over an 18-months' period were found to have an average freezing point 0.0065 C warmer after processing than before processing.
Family, Community, and Childhood in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century Greece

This chapter explores childhood and the Greek family and community in late nineteenth and early twentieth century Greece. In this chapter, one will find that the family was important throughout Greece and considered a fundamental unit where values and customs were transmitted to children in informal learning settings. Informal learning, however, differed between rural and urban communities. Social–structural differences between rural and urban communities were vast, while class and income also played an important role in how children learned. In rural communities, the family and other members of the community directed much of the learning for children.
Research of voltage stability analysis method in distribution power system with plug-in electric vehicle

With the large-scale use of electric vehicles (EV), the impact of charging plug-in EV on the distribution power system will be growing in the future. The voltage stability of distribution network with plug-in EV is more and more concerned by people. The voltage stability mechanism of distribution network with large scale plug-in EV is analyzed and the voltage stability model considering the voltage characteristic of integrated load is proposed in this paper. The voltage stability boundary condition calculation model and voltage instability severity calculation model is build. Taking two-bus distribution equivalent system as an example, the impact of different proportions of constant impedance load, constant current load and constant power load on voltage stability are simulated and analyzed. The impact of equivalent impedance and total load of distribution system on voltage stability also be simulated and analyzed. Simulation results show that the voltage stability is related to the proportion of three types of load, equivalent impedance and the total load. The constant impedance load has a negative feedback effect on the recovery of voltage, while the constant power load has a positive feedback effect on the recovery of voltage. When the positive feedback effect is more than negative feedback, the voltage instability even the voltage collapse will happen. The voltage instability severity is related to the structure of distribution network and system total load.
Green Electricity Markets as Mechanisms of Public-Goods Provision: Theory and Experimental Evidence

Utility-based green electricity programs provide market opportunities for consumers to reduce the carbon footprint of their electricity use. These programs deploy three types of public-goods contribution mechanisms: voluntary contribution, green tariff, and all-or-nothing green tariff (Kotchen and Moore, 2007). We extend the theoretical understanding of the all-or-nothing green tariff mechanism by showing that an assumption of warm-glow preferences is needed to explain widespread participation in programs deploying this mechanism. We conduct the first experimental test to compare the revenue generating capacity of a pure public good (based on the voluntary contribution mechanism) and an impure public good (based on the green tariff mechanism). In experimental play, the voluntary contribution mechanism raises 50% more revenue than the green tariff mechanism. With the all-or-nothing green tariff, experimental play and regression estimates show that a warm-glow preference positively affects participation, as predicted by the theory.
A Single Dual-Function Enzyme Controls the Production of Inflammatory NOD Agonist Peptidoglycan Fragments by Neisseria gonorrhoeae .

Neisseria gonorrhoeae gonococcus (GC) is a Gram-negative betaproteobacterium and causative agent of the sexually transmitted infection gonorrhea. During growth, GC releases lipooligosaccharide (LOS) and peptidoglycan (PG) fragments, which contribute significantly to the inflammatory damage observed during human infection. In ascending infection of human Fallopian tubes, inflammation leads to increased risk of ectopic pregnancy, pelvic inflammatory disease, and sterility. Of the PG fragments released by GC, most are disaccharide peptide monomers, and of those, 80% have tripeptide stems despite the observation that tetrapeptide stems make up 80% of the assembled cell wall. We identified a serine-protease l,d-carboxypeptidase, NGO1274 (LdcA), as the enzyme responsible for converting cell wall tetrapeptide-stem PG to released tripeptide-stem PG. Unlike characterized cytoplasmic LdcA homologs in gammaproteobacteria, LdcA in GC is exported to the periplasm, and its localization is critical for its activity in modifying PG fragments for release. Distinct among other characterized l,d-carboxypeptidases, LdcA from GC is also capable of catalyzing the cleavage of specific peptide cross-bridges (endopeptidase activity). To define the role of ldcA in pathogenesis, we demonstrate that ldcA disruption results in both loss of NOD1-dependent NF-κB activation and decreased NOD2-dependent NF-κB activation while not affecting Toll-like receptor (TLR) agonist release. Since the human intracellular peptidoglycan receptor NOD1 (hNOD1) specifically recognizes PG fragments with a terminal meso-DAP rather than d-alanine, we conclude that LdcA is required for GC to provoke NOD1-dependent responses in cells of the human host.IMPORTANCE The macromolecular meshwork of peptidoglycan serves essential functions in determining bacterial cell shape, protecting against osmotic lysis, and defending cells from external assaults. The conserved peptidoglycan structure, however, is also recognized by eukaryotic pattern recognition receptors, which can trigger immune responses against bacteria. Many bacteria can induce an inflammatory response through the intracellular peptidoglycan receptor NOD1, but Neisseria gonorrhoeae serves as an extreme example, releasing fragments of peptidoglycan into the environment during growth that specifically antagonize human NOD1. Understanding the peptidoglycan breakdown mechanisms that allow Neisseria to promote NOD1 activation, rather than avoiding or suppressing immune detection, is critical to understanding the pathogenesis of this increasingly drug-resistant organism. We identify a peptidoglycan l,d-carboxypeptidase responsible for converting liberated peptidoglycan fragments into the human NOD1 agonist and find that the same enzyme has endopeptidase activity on certain peptidoglycan cross-links, the first described combination of those two activities in a single enzyme.
Textures in cold rolled copper and 70-30 alpha brass

Within the range of this experiment, no attainable amount of cold rolling would cause the pole figures of cold rolled copper and 70-30 brass to become similar, in spite of the fact that such a similarity is predicted by theory.
The Prevalence of ADHD in American Society: The Influence of Parent-Child and Child-Technology Interactions

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a behavioral disorder that begins in childhood and persists throughout adulthood and is characterized by symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Societal attitudes classify the diagnosis of ADHD differently in establishing what behaviors are deemed acceptable or tolerable in children depending on the particular region or area. American culture provides an important framework for societal perspectives of how ADHD is expressed through behaviors that are considered an abnormal pathology. The purpose of this study is to conduct a literature review of ADHD in various cultures to ascertain why the prevalence of this disorder continues to rise in American society. The hypothesis we assume for the increased rates of ADHD in our society is based on a linkage of events created by effects from a lack of parent-child interactions that lead to an increase in technology use which develops behaviors that mimic ADHD-like traits.
Regulation and Markets for Catastrophe Insurance

This paper discusses some of the problems associated with the efficient economic design of markets for catastrophe insurance and the regulation of private companies offering such insurance. The paper first considers the elements of the problem, on both the demand and supply side. On the demand side, we point to well-known difficulties of consumers and small businesses to evaluate the benefits of insurance relative to other approaches to risk bearing and risk mitigation. On the supply side, we note the inherent problems of insuring losses from natural hazards because of the correlated structure of the underlying loss distributions. Finally, regulatory problems associated with solvency, price and entry regulation for catastrophe insurance are analyzed. The paper concludes that the volatile mix of demand-side failures, supply-side complexities and regulatory manipulation are likely to make this area an important and difficult one for efficient economic design.
Activity recognition from accelerometer data

Activity recognition fits within the bigger framework of context awareness. In this paper, we report on our efforts to recognize user activity from accelerometer data. Activity recognition is formulated as a classification problem. Performance of base-level classifiers and meta-level classifiers is compared. Plurality Voting is found to perform consistently well across different settings.
India: Democracy and Development

India has experienced accelerated economic growth since adopting an outward-oriented, market strategy. The services sector has largely driven GOP while manufacturing has expanded and foreign direct investment has become robust. Now, the country faces both internal and external challenges on the path to prosperity: a shift in political party dynamics, terrorist attacks, rising infrastructure and energy demands, and a global financial crisis. How can the nation's leaders implement economic reforms to ensure continued development?
Spatial Filter Versus Conventional Spatial Model Specifications: Some Comparisons

Spatial statistical analysis of geographically distributed counts data has been widely undertaken for many years, with initial analyses involving log-Gaussian approximations because only the normal probability model was first adapted in an implementable form (Ripley, 1990, pp. 9–10) to handle spatial autocorrelation (SA) effects (i.e., similar values tend to cluster on a map, indicating positive self-correlation among observations). In more recent years, linear regression techniques have given way to generalized linear model techniques that account for non-normality (e.g., logistic and Poisson regression), as well as geographic dependence. In very recent years, both linear and generalized linear models have been supplemented with hierarchical Bayesian models, in part to deal with geographic regions having small counts. The objective of this chapter is to furnish a comparison of this variety of principal techniques—both frequentist and Bayesian—available for map analysis with the newly formulated spatial filtering approach.
Ordinary realism: A difficulty for anthropology:

AbstractIn this article, I address the editors’ (Sidnell and Lambek) arguments about the immanence of the ethical, in contrast to different questions concerning ‘ordinary ethics’ recently raised in...
Disentangling photoperiod from hop vernalization and dormancy for global production and speed breeding

Humulus lupulus L. (hop) flowers are a key ingredient in beer, imparting the beverage's aroma and bitterness profile. Photoperiod is known to interact with temperature to control flowering in hops. Studies have stipulated that resting dormant buds on hops require a minimum chilling duration for their meristems to break dormancy and grow fruitfully. This assertion, in part, led to a long-held notion that hops require vernalization and/or dormancy for the meristem to change from a vegetative to floral state. The research in this study aims to separate photoperiod from vernalization and dormancy through a series of experiments that artificially control photoperiod to prevent the onset of dormancy and chilling exposure. Six experiments were performed to assess flower yield and quality for seven diverse hop cultivars (with and without exposure to chilling and dormancy) to quantify the impact on flowering performance. Vernalization and dormancy, two plant traits previously considered necessary to the proliferation of hop flowers, do not influence hop flower yield and quality. The findings have broad implications; global hop production can be distributed more widely and it paves the way for speed breeding and controlled-environment production to achieve 4 hop generation cycles per year, as opposed to 1 under field-grown conditions.
Task Allocation in Fog-Aided Mobile IoT by Lyapunov Online Reinforcement Learning

Fog-aided mobile IoT is proposed to speed up service response by deploying fog nodes at network edges. We investigate the task allocation in fog-aided mobile IoT networks, where mobile users generate computing tasks at different locations and offload them to fog nodes, i.e., to intelligently distribute tasks to different fog nodes in order to adapt to the varying wireless channel conditions and different fog resources. The objective is to minimize the average task completion time constrained by the mobile device’s battery capacity and each task’s completion deadline. In practice, future tasks are usually unknown in advance owing to the unpredictable environments and hence an online algorithm is required to make decisions on the fly. Moreover, the local task information may be incomplete and hence historical statistics should be utilized to estimate the most appropriate fog node for the current task. Therefore, we design an online reinforcement learning algorithm to address the two challenges. We also derive and analyze the computational complexity and theoretical bound. Simulation results show that our online algorithm achieves the optimal performance asymptotically, illustrate the performances of our online reinforcement learning algorithm as compared with existing works, and validate the theoretical bound analysis.
Powering Electronics by Scavenging Energy from External Metals

This article demonstrates a new approach for powering robots and electronics by electrochemically scavenging energy from metal surfaces. This approach overcomes energy storage scaling laws by allow...
Infant Movement Response to Auditory Rhythm

Rhythmic entrainment occurs when an auditory rhythm drives an internal movement oscillator, thus providing a continuous time reference that improves temporal and spatial movement parameters. Entrai...
Energy Efficient Data Transmission in IoT Platforms

Abstract Internet of Things (IoT) as an emerging technology is of interest to academia and industry. An IoT node is a small device and the supplied power is usually provided by batteries. The collected data by IoT nodes will be transferred to a gateway server which may aggregate data and send it to a cloud platform for further data processing. When IoT nodes distribute through a vast area, nodes located far away from the gateway server will need to transfer data through multi-hops to the gateway server. To have a better power consumption and increase node operational time, next forwarding node can be selected with the highest power level among several candidate nodes. In this paper we propose a data transmission model, and develop a next node selection forwarding factor to balance data transmission throughout the network. The proposed model will consider workload in addition to the available power level to select the next forwarding node. Our simulation results show the selected next forwarding node will operate for a longer time even it has a lower power level compared to the other candidate nodes. This improvement may increase network stability and decrease the number of lost packets during the data transmission.
New Languages with Implicit Parallelism and Heap Storage are Needed for Parallel Programming

As we increase the number of nodes in a parallel machine, the granularity of the tasks must decrease.1 Larger machines also have longer latencies. To avoid idling a processor during a remote communication, it must switch to another task, which, in turn, may also engage in a remote communication, and so on. Thus, we need a large pool of tasks per processor so that it is likely that there are always some that are ready to execute.
Dynamics and rheology of ring-linear blend semidilute solutions in extensional flow. Part I: Modeling and molecular simulations

We use Brownian dynamics (BD) simulations and single molecule experiments to investigate the influence of topological constraints and hydrodynamic interactions on the dynamics and rheology of solutions of ring-linear polymer blends at the overlap concentration. We find agreement between simulation and experiment in which rings in solution blends exhibit large conformational fluctuations. A subpopulation of rings shows extension overshoots in the startup of the flow, and other populations display tumbling and tank-treading at the steady state. Ring polymer fluctuations increase with the blend fraction of linear polymers and are peaked at a ring Weissenberg number Wi R ≈ 1.5. On the contrary, linear and ring polymers in pure solutions show a peak in fluctuations at the critical coil-stretch Weissenberg number Wi = 0.5. BD simulations show that extension overshoots on the startup of the flow are due to flow-induced intermolecular ring-linear polymer hooks, whereas fluctuations at the steady state are dominated by intermolecular hydrodynamic interactions (HIs). This is supported by simulations of bidisperse linear polymer solution blends, which show similar trends in conformational dynamics between rings and linear polymers with a matched contour length. Compared to BD simulations, single molecule experiments show quantitatively larger fluctuations, which could arise because experiments are performed on higher molecular weight polymers with stronger topological constraints. To this end, we have advanced the understanding of the effects of topological interactions and intermolecular HIs on the dynamics of semidilute ring-linear polymer blend solutions.
The causes and treatment of pseudofolliculitis barbae

Pseudofolliculitis barbae, commonly referred to as "razor bumps" or "ingrown hairs," is a papular and pustular, foreign body inflammatory reaction that can affect any individual who has curly hair and who shaves. This condition is a particular nuisance to African-Americans. This report will discuss the causes of pseudofolliculitis barbae and present a systematic approach to treatment.
Dehydroepiandrosterone replacement therapy in older adults improves indices of arterial stiffness

Serum dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) concentrations decrease approximately 80% between ages 25 and 75 year. Aging also results in an increase in arterial stiffness, which is an independent predictor of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and mortality. Therefore, it is conceivable that DHEA replacement in older adults could reduce arterial stiffness. We sought to determine whether DHEA replacement therapy in older adults reduces carotid augmentation index (AI) and carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) as indices of arterial stiffness. A randomized, double-blind trial was conducted to study the effects of 50 mg day(-1) DHEA replacement on AI (n = 92) and PWV (n = 51) in women and men aged 65-75 year. Inflammatory cytokines and sex hormones were measured in fasting serum. AI decreased in the DHEA group, but not in the placebo group (difference between groups, -6 ± 2 AI units, P = 0.002). Pulse wave velocity also decreased (difference between groups, -3.5 ± 1.0 m s(-1), P = 0.001); however, after adjusting for baseline values, the between-group comparison became nonsignificant (P = 0.20). The reductions in AI and PWV were accompanied by decreases in inflammatory cytokines (tumor necrosis factor α and IL-6, P < 0.05) and correlated with increases in serum DHEAS (r = -0.31 and -0.37, respectively, P < 0.05). The reductions in AI also correlated with free testosterone index (r = -0.23, P = 0.03). In conclusion, DHEA replacement in elderly men and women improves indices of arterial stiffness. Arterial stiffness increases with age and is an independent risk factor for CVD. Therefore, the improvements observed in this study suggest that DHEA replacement might partly reverse arterial aging and reduce CVD risk.
A family of floating-gate adapting synapses based upon transistor channel models

We have developed a family of three analog VLSI synapses based on three types of biological channel types, Ach-excitatory, NMDA-excitatory, and GABA/sub A/-inhibitory in a 0.5 /spl mu/m CMOS process. We have successfully reproduced EPSPs and IPSPs similar to what is found in biology. Presently, we manually modify synaptic strength. We continue our work to expand self-adapting synapses. Since these synapses are relatively small in area, we anticipate having hundreds of them in a single 1.5 /spl times/ 1.5 mm die.