Humor is hypothesized to be a social activity that alters the status of the humorist positively and that of the object or victim negatively. Of the two traditionally distingushed classes of humor, "ostracizing" humor singles out a victim, with others present or absent either incidental affiliates of the humorist (and one another) or unaffected. "AltBiative" humor, on the other hand, is focused ...

“SEM images were acquired at Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory Central research facilities, UIUC. Funding: We acknowledge University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Children’s Discovery Institute for financial assistance. Authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the kind support from Prof. Gang Logan Liu, ECE, UIUC and his laboratory for allowing us to use his inbuilt maskin...

Fluoresceinated IgG was injected centrally into the rabbit's cornea and both its rate of loss from the tissue and its rate of spread in the stroma were estimated by objective fluorometry. A new technique for determining the rate of loss was established which required only the measurement of the maximum fluorescence in the tissue. The rate at which freshly formed IgG in the blood would arrive at...

This study proposes the SCRATCH model for the aqueous solubility estimation of a compound directly from its structure. The algorithm utilizes predicted melting points and predicted aqueous activity coefficients. It uses two additive, constitutive molecular descriptors (enthalpy of melting and aqueous activity coefficient) and two non-additive molecular descriptors (symmetry and flexibility). Th...

Background: Interests in natural products are being subjected to scientific method of testing. The use of Aloe Vera cuts across barriers of time and culture in the treatment of a broad range of illnesses. The basis of its reputation resides mainly with steadfast belief in claims of its curative properties, but without hard scientific evidence. Materials and Methods: Thirty three adult male rats...