Characteristics of a human cell line transformed by DNA from human adenovirus type 5

One hundred and fifty lungs from the cases below 15 years of age with various congenital heart diseases and 80 controls were used for histometrical and histological studies. Cases with congenital heart disease were divided into two groups of the increased and the decreased pulmonary blood flow. In the former group, the thickness of the pulmonary arterial media was the same as that of controls in the neonatal period, and through the wall thickness gradually decreased in a pattern seen in controls, the thickness was constantly larger than that of controls. In some cases, the media increased gradually within 6 months after birth. Pneumonia and massive pulmonary hemorrhage were seen in a higher incidence in autopsy cases. Pneumonia in younger infants was histologically characteristic and possibly more correlated to their death. In the latter group, most of the cases were with the thinner medias of the pulmonary arteries. Massive pulmonary hemorrhage was not common in the latter group.     

Crystallisation Studies of Trimethylhexamethylene/Hexamethylene Terephthalate Copolymers and Polystyrene Blends

A study has been made of the influence of the non-crystallising component, trimethyl-hexamethylene terephthalate, on the crystallisation behaviour of crystallising component, hexamethylene terephthalate in a series of their copolymers. It was found, using Differential Scanning Calorimetry, that as the melting point decreased with composition, the level of crystallinity fell more rapidly than expected on a proportionality basis, the degree of supercooling increased, and there was the emergence of a double crystallisation process. A second study in which the polymers were blended with polystyrene revealed similar influences but with less supercooling.     

Effects of Transcendental Meditation versus resting on physiological and subjective arousal.

On 4 successive days, 10 highly trained and experienced meditators (aged 26–54 yrs) were asked to relax for 5 min, meditate for 20 min, and then relax for 5 min. In contrast, 10 other Ss (aged 22–32 yrs) who had no training or experience with meditation were asked to relax for 5 min, rest for 20 min, and then relax for 5 min. Physiological arousal (heart and respiration rates, skin resistance, and blood pressure) and subjective arousal (cognitive, somatic, and relaxation) were measured throughout the experiment. Prior to meditating or resting, meditators tended to have higher heart rates and diastolic blood pressure than did nonmeditators. Meditation was associated with generally reduced arousal; but while meditating, meditators did not evidence lower levels of arousal than nonmeditators did while resting. Results place qualifications on previous studies of the effects of meditation on arousal. Implications for the study of personality functioning, stress management, and psychotherapy are discussed. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Program evaluation: resource for decision making

Formal program evaluation is an important resource for health care decision making. It is necessary in situations where traditional organizational evaluative capabilities an no longer meet the requirements of the job at hand.     

Integer programming models and analysis for a multilevel passenger screening problem

Designing effective aviation security systems has become a problem of national interest and concern. Passenger prescreening is an important component of aviation security. Effectively using passenger prescreening information to develop screening strategies can be quite challenging. Moreover, it can be difficult to measure the effectiveness of such systems after they are in place. To address these issues, this paper introduces the Multilevel Passenger Screening Problem (MPSP). In MPSP, a set of classes are available for screening passengers, each of which corresponds to several device types for passenger screening, where each device type has an associated capacity and passengers are differentiated by their perceived risk levels. The objective of MPSP is to use prescreening information to determine the passenger assignments that maximize the total security subject to capacity and assignment constraints. MPSP is illustrated with examples that incorporate flight schedule and passenger volume data extracted from the Official Airline Guide.     

A comparison of Landsat TM and MODIS vegetation indices for estimating forage phenology in desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis nelsoni) habitat in the Sonoran Desert,USA

Sonoran Desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis mexicana) occupy rugged upland areas that experience irregular periods of vegetation growth associated with precipitation events. These episodic and often spatially limited events provide important forage and preformed water resources that may be important drivers of animal movement and habitat use. Habitat-use models that incorporate forage phenology would broaden our understanding of desert bighorn ecology and have considerable potential to inform conservation efforts for the species. Field-based methods are of limited utility to characterize vegetation phenology across large areas. Vegetation indices (VI) derived from satellite imagery are a viable alternative, but may be confounded by areas of high relief and shadow effects that can degrade VI values. The varying spatial and temporal resolutions of readily available satellite sensors, such as the Landsat thematic mapper (TM) and moderate-resolution imaging spectrometer (MODIS), present additional challenges. In this study, we sought to minimize degrading effects of terrain on TM- and MODIS-based estimates of vegetation phenology. We compared effects of high topographic relief on time series MODIS- and TM-based VI such as the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and enhanced vegetation index (EVI) using VI departures from average (DA) in shaded and unshaded areas. Sun elevation angle negatively impacted TM-derived NDVI and EVI values in areas of steep terrain. In contrast, MODIS-derived NDVI values were insensitive to sun elevation and terrain effects, whereas MODIS-derived EVI was degraded in areas of steep terrain. Time series MODIS NDVI and EVI DA values differed significantly during months of low sun elevation angle. Average MODIS EVI departure values were ≥20% lower than NDVI under these conditions, confounding time series estimates of plant phenology. Our best results were obtained from MODIS 16-day composited NDVI. These remote-sensing-based VI estimates of seasonal plant phenology and productivity can be used to inform models of habitat use and movements of desert bighorn over large areas.     

Defining and computing a value based cyber-security measure

In earlier work, we presented a value based measure of cybersecurity that quantifies the security of a system in concrete terms, specifically, in terms of how much each system stakeholder stands to lose (in dollars per hour of operation) as a result of security threats and system vulnerabilities; our metric varies according to the stakes that each stakeholder has in meeting each security requirement. In this paper, we discuss the specification and design of a system that collects, updates, and maintains all the information that pertains to estimating our cybersecurity measure, and offers stakeholders quantitative means to make security-related decisions.     

The discipline dependence of citation statistics

This study compares the citations characteristics of researchers in engineering disciplines with other major scientific disciplines, and investigates variations in citing patterns within subdisciplines in the field of engineering. Utilizing citations statistics including Hirsch’s (Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 102(46):16569–16572, 2005) h-index value, we find that significant differences in citing characteristics exist between engineering disciplines and other scientific fields. Our findings also reveal statistical differences in citing characteristics between subdisciplines found within the same engineering discipline.     

Learning the lessons of tit-for-tat: Even competitors can get the message.

The tit-for-tat strategy is known for its ability to train cooperation during an iterated 2-person prisoner's dilemma. In this research, a repeated measures design was used to assess the nature and long-term persistence of such training. One month after playing against a programmed tit-for-tat strategy, participants returned to the lab to play a randomly matched other participant. Participants increased their levels of cooperative behavior, both during the 1st sequence and in the 2nd sequence compared with the first. Dispositional competitors increased the most from the 1st to the 2nd sequence and also gained the most new respect for opponents' self-interestedness following the 1st sequence. This suggests that competitors may be individualists at heart and that the "punitive" feature of tit-for-tat (R. Axelrod, 1984) is important for eliciting enhanced cooperation from such opponents. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)