cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The mTOR pathway negatively controls ATM by up-regulating miRNAs

The ataxia telangiectasia mutated (ATM) checkpoint is the central surveillance system that maintains genome integrity. We found that in the context of childhood sarcoma, mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling suppresses ATM by up-regulating miRNAs targeting ATM. Pharmacological inhibition or genetic down-regulation of the mTOR pathway resulted in increase of ATM mRNA and protein both in mouse sarcoma xenografts and cultured cells. mTOR Complex 1 (mTORC1) suppresses ATM via S6K1/2 signaling pathways. microRNA-18a and microRNA-421, both of which target ATM, are positively controlled by mTOR signaling. Our findings have identified a negative feedback loop for the signaling between ATM and mTOR pathways and suggest that oncogenic growth signals may promote tumorigenesis by dampening the ATM checkpoint.
Molting Success of Ixodes scapularis Varies among Individual Blood Meal Hosts and Species

The blacklegged tick (Ixodes scapularis) is an important vector of emerging human pathogens. It has three blood-feeding stages, as follows: larva, nymph, and adult. Owing to inefficient transovarial transmission, at least for the Lyme disease agent (Borrelia burgdorferi), larval ticks rarely hatch infected, but they can acquire infection during their larval blood meal. Nymphal ticks are primarily responsible for transmitting pathogens to hosts, including humans. The transition from uninfected host-seeking larva to infectious host-seeking nymph is therefore a key aspect of human risk of infection. It can be divided into a series of steps, as follows: finding a host, taking a blood meal, becoming infected, molting, and overwintering. The chance of succeeding in each of these steps may depend on the species identity of the blood meal host. We used a Bayesian method to estimate the molting success of larval I. scapularis collected from four commonly parasitized species of birds and eight commonly parasitized small and mid-sized mammals found in the forests of Dutchess County, New York. We show that molting success varies substantially among host species; white-footed mice, veeries, and gray catbirds support particularly high molting success, whereas ticks feeding on short-tailed shrews, robins, and wood thrushes were less successful. We also show that larval molting success varies substantially between individual blood meal hosts, and that this intraspecific variability is much higher in some species than in others. The causes of both inter- and intraspecific variation in molting success remain to be determined.
Location of the RNA-processing enzymes RNase III, RNase e and RNase P in the Escherichia coli cell

Summary Cells overexpressing the RNA-processing enzymes RNase III, RNase E and RNase P were fractionated into membrane and cytoplasm. The RNA-processing enzymes were associated with the membrane fraction. The membrane was further separated to inner and outer membrane and the three RNA-processing enzymes were found in the inner membrane fraction. By assaying for these enzymatic activities we showed that even in a normal wild-type strain of Escherichia coli these enzymes fractionate primarily with the membrane. The RNA part of RNase P is found in the cytosolic fraction of cells overexpressing this RNA, while the overexpressed RNase P protein sediments with the membrane fraction; this suggests that the RNase P protein anchors the RNA catalytic moiety of the enzyme to a larger entity. The implications of these findings for the cellular organization of the RNA-processing enzymes in the cell are discussed.
A High-Resolution Intensity Study for the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake in the Vicinity of San José, California

Abstract Variation of shaking intensity for the 18 April 1906 earthquake in and around the city of San Jose, California, is established based on 607 damage locations, using a methodology suitable for high-resolution mapping of intensity. This detailed methodology uses a refined modified Mercalli intensity (MMI) scale and is based on the premise that an intensity estimate can be calculated from the damage to a single building, provided extent of damage and style of building construction are sufficiently well known. To reflect the rich detail in the damage descriptions, the refined scale recognizes partial steps in the range MMI 6–9. For the 138 km 2 area of study, earthquake damage is compiled from published descriptions, mostly made by building-industry professionals within 10 days after the 1906 earthquake and never before evaluated for an intensity study. Sanborn–Perris Map Company fire insurance maps provide precise location and nature of construction for 483 damaged structures within, and 124 outside, the 1906 San Jose city limits. The distribution of assigned intensities approximates a normal distribution with median intensity 7.5, mean intensity 7.36, and standard deviation 0.687. Maximum intensity (8.5–9.0) is identical to contoured MMI from previous intensity studies with lower density of data. For analysis, damage data points are grouped at two scales. At the first, 227 modern census blocks contain as many as 31 buildings each, with mean of block median intensities 7.46 and standard deviation 0.660. In 71% of 101 blocks with two or more data points, intensity range is one point or less. This low variability indicates consistent building response in these blocks to ground shaking. Moderate to larger variations in intensity within some blocks may be attributed to differences in construction, prior damage to structures, or anthropogenic factors. At the second scale, geographically distinct associations of neighboring blocks are grouped into six microzones from 1.5 to 7.0 km across, with mean microzone intensity 6.6 to 8.2 and standard deviation 0.160 to 0.637. These intensity differences, which match variations observed in modern ground-motion studies, are inferred to reflect real variation in damage-causing ground motion in 1906. Methods presented here can be used to constrain ground-motion models, identify seismic hot spots, and improve site-specific assumptions for probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA).
Consistent shape maps via semidefinite programming

Recent advances in shape matching have shown that jointly optimizing the maps among the shapes in a collection can lead to significant improvements when compared to estimating maps between pairs of shapes in isolation. These methods typically invoke a cycle-consistency criterion --- the fact that compositions of maps along a cycle of shapes should approximate the identity map. This condition regularizes the network and allows for the correction of errors and imperfections in individual maps. In particular, it encourages the estimation of maps between dissimilar shapes by compositions of maps along a path of more similar shapes.In this paper, we introduce a novel approach for obtaining consistent shape maps in a collection that formulates the cycle-consistency constraint as the solution to a semidefinite program (SDP). The proposed approach is based on the observation that, if the ground truth maps between the shapes are cycle-consistent, then the matrix that stores all pair-wise maps in blocks is low-rank and positive semidefinite. Motivated by recent advances in techniques for low-rank matrix recovery via semidefinite programming, we formulate the problem of estimating cycle-consistent maps as finding the closest positive semidefinite matrix to an input matrix that stores all the initial maps. By analyzing the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) optimality condition of this program, we derive theoretical guarantees for the proposed algorithm, ensuring the correctness of the recovery when the errors in the inputs maps do not exceed certain thresholds. Besides this theoretical guarantee, experimental results on benchmark datasets show that the proposed approach outperforms state-of-the-art multiple shape matching methods.
Inflation with $\Omega$ $\neq$ 1

We discuss various models of an inflationary universe with \ensuremath{\Omega}\ensuremath{\ne}1. A homogeneous universe with \ensuremath{\Omega}g1 may appear due to the creation of a universe ``from nothing'' in theories where the effective potential becomes very steep at large \ensuremath{\varphi}, or in theories whree the inflaton field \ensuremath{\varphi} nonminimally couples to gravity. Inflation with \ensuremath{\Omega}1 generally requires an intermediate first-order phase transition with bubble formation and with a second stage of inflation inside the bubble. It is possible to realize this scenario in the context of a theory of one scalar field, but typically it requires artificially bent effective potentials and/or nonminimal kinetic terms. It is much easier to obtain an open universe in models involving two scalar fields. However, these models have their own specific problems. We propose three different models of this type which can describe an open homogeneous inflationary universe. \textcopyright{} 1995 The American Physical Society.
Peak detection on ChIP-Seq data using wavelet transformation

We propose a signal processing approach for detecting enrichment regions from ChIP-seq datasets. A wavelet transform of the ChIP-seq data offers a direct visualization for both short- and long-range patterns of the genome-wide mapping profile for protein binding site on DNA. To investigate the location of transcription factor binding site (TFBS) from ChIP-seq data, a wavelet-based peak detection algorithm is proposed. Differing from prior methods exploring the statistics of peaks in whole genome, scalogram of raw data is used. In addition, a SNR-like parameter used to detects the peaks is proposed to instead of raw data for tackling the peak finding problem. Also peak depth, the length of peak regions can be obtained by the measurement of SNR-like parameter with a threshold constrain. Furthermore, in order to eliminate false positives, a filter which sifts out the peaks with sufficient SNR but not deep enough in sequence depth is applied. The effectiveness of our method is demonstrated by applying the STAT1 ChIP-seq data and comparing to the well known published method, PeakSeq. The experimental results show that a large fraction of peaks identified by our method are consistent with the results of PeakSeq algorithm while our results show more consistent motif conservation scores.
Lesson Learned: Using Clinical Examples for Teaching Research Methods

Undergraduate students enrolled in their first statistics course were randomly assigned to read one of two mini-lessons about methodological confounds. In one, a therapist investigated a variable that might affect depression; in the other, a researcher investigated a variable that might affect memory. As hypothesised, the clinical lesson produced significantly higher interest in the lesson topic and significantly greater interest in the research described. Participants in the clinical lesson had a higher desire to do research in this area, though this difference only approached significance. Knowledge of the topic (number of correctly answered multiple-choice items) was not significantly different between conditions. These results suggest that placing methodological concepts in clinical contexts may provide a fruitful approach for improving the frequently reported negative student attitudes toward statistics and research methods.
Racial Disparities in Preschool Special Education Eligibility for Five Southern States

More than 67,000 preschoolers with disabilities across five states were examined for disproportionate special education eligibilities using risk ratios (RRs). Results indicated children classified as American Indian (RR = 2.25) and Black (RR = 1.64) were disproportionate in one state, whereas children classified as Asian, Hispanic, and White showed no disproportionality. Significant differences were found for preschoolers under orthopedic impairment (F = 43.99, p = .002, η2 = .971). Child ethnicity was significant for speech or language impairments (F = 3.313, p = .034, η2 = .424), mental retardation (F = 65.215, p = .001, η2 = .963), multiple disabilities (F = 5.244, p = .048, η2 = .636), hearing impairments (F = 4.181, p = .047, η2 = .611), other health impairments (F = 24.148, p = .003, η2 = .906), autism (F = 48.570, p = .001, η2 = .930), and developmental delay (F = 6.407, p = .003, η2 = .631).
Development of Operational Performance and Decision Models for Arterial Bus Lanes

Bus lanes are a form of exclusive bus facility typically found along busy arterial streets. The use of bus lanes is justified because buses can carry more passengers than automobiles. However, a lane taken away from general-purpose traffic and designated as a bus-only lane can create congestion in other lanes, causing protests by motorists. An effort was undertaken to develop operational performance and decision models that can be used to justify and design bus lanes on arterial streets. The model considers the overall average person travel time under two treatments: with and without a bus-only lane. The CORSIM simulation model was used to estimate the bus and nonbus travel speeds under various scenarios of prevailing conditions, including bus volume, nonbus volume, right-turn volume, bus stop location, bus stop density, presence of bus bay, number of bus berths, mean dwell time, green ratio, cycle length, signal offset, and number of lanes. The simulated data were used as a substitute for field data in a...
PC-based human face recognition system

Measurements from features of a human such as eyes, nose, mouth, and face profile are used for face recognition. Images of human faces, each 256*200 in size with 64 shades of gray, are stored in a gray-level referenced file. Face matchings were performed in two stages. In the first stage, image processing techniques were used to extract six features from each of the gray-level images. Each face is represented by a vector of six dimensions and is stored in the six-feature referenced file along with the gray-level images. The same features from an unlabeled face were then extracted and a search was performed to locate the most likely candidates in the six-feature file. Computations were greatly simplified since matching was based on six numbers and many of the unlikely candidates were eliminated at this stage. The second stage involved the matching of all facial features of the unlabeled face to those of the most likely candidates in the gray-level file. Time required to match a face was greatly reduced since comparison of all facial features was done on relatively fewer most likely candidates. Experimental results indicated that with a small referenced file of ten persons the system was able to correctly classify unlabeled faces 80% of the time. Currently a computing time of 15 minutes is needed for each classification. >
Cross-regulatory interactions between Fgf8 and Shh in the avian frontonasal prominence

The frontonasal prominence of the developing avian embryo contains an organizing center, defined by juxtaposition of the Sonic hedgehog (Shh) and Fibroblast growth factor 8 (Fgf8) expression domains. This molecular interface presages any detectable growth of the frontonasal prominence, and experiments involving transplantation of this boundary epithelium have demonstrated it is a source of dorsal-ventral and rostral-caudal patterning information for the neural crest-derived mesenchyme of the upper beak. We explored the ontogeny of this organizing center by mapping the expression domains of both genes and their receptors and downstream targets. We tested the extent to which Shh and Fgf8 regulate each other's expression in this frontonasal organizer by either blocking or ectopically activating these pathways. Our experiments revealed mutual antagonism between the two molecules, which aids in establishing and maintaining a molecular boundary that subsequently influences patterning and growth of the middle and upper face.
LEISURE ‐ Leisure in the economic thought of John Paul II

In the thought of John Paul II, an accurate understanding of the human person includes the relationship of economic life to full human life. Just as human work is essential to human life lived in imitation of God, so is rest and leisure. Lacking a clear sense of leisure, human beings try to reach their fulfillment by increasing their possessions. As a result they give complete priority to the economic order, making it an end in itself rather than a means to the common good. They get caught up in consumerism, thinking that material possessions will bring them happiness, and thereby become willing to accept the destruction of God’s gift of creation, if only they can have more material things. This essay explores the connections between work, leisure, consumerism, and the environment primarily in Centesimus Annus (1991), Laborem Exercens (1981) and Sollicitudo Rei Socialis (1987).
Water ethics on a human‐dominated planet: rationality, context and values in global governance

A discourse on water ethics has emerged as a field linking practical water demands, social practices, and hydrological constraints to philosophic norms. The field arose parallel to growing, global understandings of the interconnected nature of water management and governance challenges. As such, it has been inflected with issues and contests across a range of policy concerns—from holistic and integrated water management to economics, justice, and human rights. The emerging water ethics discourse challenges both traditional environmental ethics and conventional approaches to resource management on issues of gender, power relations, and ecological concerns. It suggests an alternate, place-specific approach for linking shared water concerns to normative contests.
The Association Between Alcohol Consumption and Morbidity and Mortality in Patients Undergoing Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery

Objective Moderate alcohol consumption appears protective against cardiovascular events and mortality in community-based epidemiologic studies, but whether its consumption affects perioperative outcomes remains unknown. Therefore, the authors tested the hypothesis that alcohol consumption of 3 or more drinks per week improves postoperative outcomes in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. Design A propensity-matched retrospective cohort study. Setting A major cardiovascular surgical institute, tertiary care teaching hospital. Participants Data from 13,065 patients undergoing elective CABG surgery at the Cleveland Clinic were analyzed. Interventions None. Measurements and Main Results Propensity scores were used to match alcohol users with infrequent/nonusers. From the matched subset, the relationship between alcohol use and the composite outcome (any major cardiac, renal, respiratory, infectious, or neurologic morbidity and mortality) was determined univariably with the Pearson chi-square test and multivariably using stepwise logistic regression. Estimation of the relationship between such alcohol use and hospital length of stay was of secondary interest. Patients who reported consuming at least 3 drinks per week experienced similar odds of the composite outcome (adjusted odds ratio [95% confidence interval] of 1.13 [0.96-1.34], p = 0.14) to infrequent or nonusers. In a secondary analysis, the hospital length of stay was unrelated to alcohol use (adjusted hazard ratio [95% CI] of 1.03 [0.97-1.09], p = 0.28). Conclusion The present results showed that alcohol consumption was not associated with the risk for postoperative complications in patients undergoing CABG surgery. Alcohol abusers could not be separated in this study, and, based on previous literature, this result might not be applied to them.
Myocardial Blood Flow in Pacing-Induced Angina

Current methods of measuring myocardial blood flow using 133xenon have failed to separate normals from patients with ischemic heart disease at rest. In the present study such a separation was attempted by utilizing pacing-induced tachycardia (PIT) to stress the myocardium. 133Xenon was injected into the left coronary artery to measure blood flow in 27 patients at rest and during pacing-induced tachycardia. Oxygen content was simultaneously measured in the aorta and coronary sinus of 13 of these patients. Pacing rates of 150 beats/min or greater were obtained in 21 patients. In 10 patients (group I), who developed ischemia, manifested either by typical angina or ischemic electrocardiographic changes during PIT, myocardial blood flow increased 32 ml/min/100 g of tissue ( P < 0.001). In 17 patients (group II), who did not develop ischemia, myocardial blood flow increased 12 ml/min/100 g of tissue ( P < 0.02). The increase in group I patients was significantly greater than in group II ( P < 0.02). Myocardial oxygen consumption increased 4.63 ml/min/100 g of tissue ( P < 0.01) in ischemic responders (group I) and 2.62 ml/min/100 g of tissue in nonischemic responders (group II). It is concluded that patients with an ischemic response to pacing-induced tachycardia had a greater increase in myocardial blood flow and myocardial oxygen consumption than patients who did not develop an ischemic response. This unexpected finding is best explained by an increased myocardial blood flow in the nonischemic areas of the myocardium which may result from a vasodilator response to ischemia.
DCT/IDCT processor design for high data rate image coding

Computation of the discrete cosine transform (DCT) and its inverse (IDCT) at a high data rate is considered. The issues involved in the design of special-purpose VLSI processors are discussed, and an 8*8 2-D DCT/IDCT processor chip that can be used for high rate image and video coding is presented. A recently published algorithm for computing the DCT and its inverse is outlined. The processor architecture based on the algorithm is presented. Details of functional units and special circuits are discussed. The 8*8 2-D DCT/IDCT processor chip measures 7.9*9.2 mm/sup 2/. It is designed using the MOSIS 2 mu m scalable CMOS technology. It takes 16-b inputs. uses 16-b internal memory for coefficients and data, and generates 16-b outputs. A single input line determines if the chip computes the DCT or the IDCT. The chip is highly pipelined with a latency of 127 cycles and a maximum delay time of 18 ns between any two pipeline stages. >
Semi-crystalline two-way shape memory elastomer

Abstract Most shape memory polymers are rigid and exhibit only one way (irreversible) shape memory effect. This work explored the two-way (reversible) shape memory effect for semi-crystalline elastomeric networks. These semi-crystalline networks with various gel fractions and crosslinking densities were synthesized via radical initiated crosslinking of poly(ethylene-co-vinyl acetate). The thermal, mechanical, and the two-way shape memory properties of the resulting materials were investigated. The critical impact of the gel fraction on the two-way shape memory behaviors was revealed. The results from this study establish the basis for potential applications involving soft reversible actuation.
Calibration errors unleashed: effects on cosmological parameters and requirements for large-scale structure surveys

Imperfect photometric calibration of galaxy surveys due to either astrophysical or instrumental effects leads to biases in measuring galaxy clustering and in the resulting cosmological parameter measurements. More interestingly (and disturbingly), the spatially varying calibration also generically leads to violations of statistical isotropy of the galaxy clustering signal. Here we develop, for the first time, a formalism to propagate the effects of photometric calibration variations with arbitrary spatial dependence across the sky to the observed power spectra and to the cosmological parameter constraints. We develop an end-to-end pipeline to study the effects of calibration, and illustrate our results using specific examples including Galactic dust extinction and survey-dependent magnitude limits as a function of zenith angle of the telescope. We establish requirements on the control of calibration so that it does not significantly bias constraints on dark energy and primordial non-Gaussianity. Two principal findings are (1) largest-angle photometric calibration variations (dipole, quadrupole and a few more modes, though not the monopole) are the most damaging and (2) calibration will need to be understood at the ∼ 0.1 per cent–1 per cent level (i.e. rms variations mapped out to accuracy between 0.001 and 0.01 mag), though the precise requirement strongly depends on the faint-end slope of the luminosity function and the redshift distribution of galaxies in the survey.
Effects of micronutrients on growth of children under 5 y of age: meta-analyses of single and multiple nutrient interventions

Background: Micronutrient interventions have received much attention as a cost-effective and promising strategy to improve child health, but their roles in improving child growth remain unclear. Objective: Meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials were conducted to evaluate the effect of micronutrient interventions on the growth of children aged ,5 y old. Design: Eligible studies were identified by PubMed database searches and other methods. Weighted mean effect sizes and 95% CIs were calculated for changes in height, weight, and weightfor-height z scores (WHZ) by using random-effect models. Tests for publication bias were done by using funnel plots, heterogeneity, and stratified analyses by predefined characteristics. Results: Interventions including iron (n ¼ 27) or vitamin A (n ¼ 17) only had no significant effects on growth. Interventions including zinc only (n ¼ 43) had a small positive effect (effect size ¼ 0.06; 95% CI: 0.006, 0.11) on change in WHZ but no significant effect on height or weight gain. Multiple micronutrient interventions (n ¼ 20) improved linear growth (0.09; 95% CI: 0.008, 0.17). Conclusions: Our findings confirm earlier results of no benefits for interventions including iron and vitamin A only but differ from the earlier meta-analysis that found improvements in linear growth for zinc only interventions. This may be due to the improved nutritional status of children in the more recent studies. Multiple micronutrient interventions improve linear growth, but the benefits are small. Other strategies are needed to prevent stunting. Am J Clin Nutr
Strictly Nonblocking f-Cast Photonic Switching Networks under General Crosstalk Constraints

We derive conditions under which a d-ary multilog network is f-cast strictly nonblocking under the general crosstalk constraint that no active route can share more than c switching elements with other active routes. The problem setting is very general and thus challenging in many ways: (1) f-cast covers both unicast (f = 1) and multicast/broadcast (f = N), (2) d-ary networks are much more general then the commonly considered binary multilog networks, and (3) the crosstalk constraint covers both the usual link-blocking case (c = n) and the crosstalk-free case (c = 0). Prior to our work, results with the general crosstalk constraint are known only in the unicast case. Other results on strictly nonblocking f-cast networks are known without the general crosstalk constraint. Most of these known results are corollaries of the results in this paper. Additionally, our analytical approach based on linear programming duality makes it very easy to verify sufficiency proofs.
Chronic Kidney Disease in Non-Diabetic Older Adults: Associated Roles of the Metabolic Syndrome, Inflammation, and Insulin Resistance.

Background The aims of the study were to examine the association between CKD and the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its components in older adults. We also explored two possible pathways linking the metabolic syndrome with CKD: inflammation as measured by high sensitivity C-Reactive Protein (hsCRP) and insulin resistance as measured by HOMA-IR. Methods Community-dwelling non-diabetic 70+ adults from the Einstein Aging Study participated in the study. We defined CKD as eGFR below 60mL/min/1.73m2. MetS was defined according to recent guidelines from the National Cholesterol Education Program. Binary logistic regressions were used to assess the association between the metabolic syndrome, its components and CKD with adjustments for demographics, HOMA-IR and hsCRP. Results Of 616 participants (mean age = 79.3 years, 65.5% female), 25% had MetS and 26.5% had CKD. Participants with CKD had a significantly higher prevalence of the MetS than individuals without CKD (34.4% vs. 24.3%). Binary logistic regression models showed that CKD was associated with MetS (OR = 1.72, 95%CI = 1.13–2.61). The association was unaltered by adjustment for hsCRP but altered by adjustment for HOMA-IR. As the number of MetS components increased the relative odds of CKD also increased. None of the individual components was independently associated with CKD. Conclusion MetS is associated with CKD in non-diabetic older adults. Results showed that as the number of MetS components increased so did the odds for CKD. HOMA-IR seems to be in the casual pathway linking MetS to CKD.
Murciélagos del Paraguay

C. Lopez-Gonzalez, 2005. Murcielagos Del Paraguay. Publicaciones del Comite Espanol del Programa Hombre y Biosfera Red lberoMaB, UNESCO, Sevilla, Espana, 300 pp. ISSN 1138-8153, price(paper), $30.00. Paraguay has had a long history of mammalian exploration, formally beginning toward the end of the Spanish empire in South America with the work of Azara (1801,1802) and steadily increasing to the present via additional substantial amplifications of examinable materials (Baud 1981; D'Elia and Pardinas 2004; Gamarra de Fox and Martin 1996; Lopez-Gonzalez 2004; Myers and Wetzel 1983; Stevens et al. 2004, 2007; Willig et al. 2000; Wilson and Gamarra de Fox 1991; Yahnke 2006; N. de la Sancha, in litt.). Originating from this material is Murci e lagos del Paraguay , which now stands as the most comprehensive compilation of information on bats of this country. This book provides highly detailed descriptions in Spanish of the 54 species of Chiroptera known from Paraguay up to the year 2000 in terms of their distribution, morphology, natural history, and …
Voluntary Disclosure in Annual Reports: The Association between Corporate Financial Performance, Graph Use, and Graph Type

Prior archival research indicates that companies reporting increases in key financial performance variables (KFVs) are more likely to include graphs of these measures in their annual reports. This study expands prior work by using cognitive and social psychology theories to predict that the decision to graph depends not only the direction, but also on the magnitude of changes in corporate financial performance. We also examine management choices related to the type of annual report graphs, i.e., whether companies use simple or artistically embellished graph formats to present financial information. Using data from 163 top US companies that were in continual existence from 1999 to 2002, we replicate earlier findings that companies with increases in corporate performance are more likely to graph KFVs. Further, we extend prior research by showing that companies with larger increases in sales are more likely to graph this measure, but companies with larger increases in the "bottom line" measures of net income and earnings per share are less likely to graph KFVs. At the same time, companies with larger decreases in corporate performance measures are less likely to use graphs. We found that companies with increases in sales are more likely to present artistically embellished sales graphs, but did not find any other relationships between direction of corporate performance change and use of embellished graphs. However, we found some evidence that the magnitude of change in corporate performance may be associated with graph type as companies with larger performance decreases are less likely to use embellished graphs and companies with larger increases are more likely to use embellished graphs. Our results indicate that the relationship between changes in corporate performance and graph usage is more complex than the simple directional relationships found in earlier research. These findings are consistent with impression management theory.
A Practical Minded Obsession: With the Possibility and Consequence of Failure.

The ACGME (Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education) in its description of its ‘Outcome Project’ notes that all training programs “must require its resident to obtain competencies in six areas to the level expected of a new practitioner” and these six competencies include: patient care and medical knowledge, interpersonal skills and professionalism, and systems based practice and practice based learning. Furthermore, most hospital credentialing systems require evidence of successful adoption and practice of these same six competencies. In his article entitled ‘Creating the Educated Surgeon of the 21 st Century’ Atul Gawande concludes “We are doctors, not technicians. We must educate ourselves accordingly.” [Gawande, A. The American Journal of Surgery 181: 551–556, 2001]
The Securities Acts' Treatment of Notes Maturing in Less than Nine Months: A Solution to the Enigma

This article proposes a solution to the enigma of the differing treatment of notes maturing in less than nine months in the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Despite Supreme Court precedent that the definitions of "security" in both Acts are "virtually identical," § 3(a)(3) of the 1933 Act exempts these notes only from registration, while § 3(a)(10) of the 1934 Act exempts these notes from the definition of "security." This article argues that the 1933 Act registration exemption and the 1934 Act exclusion should apply only to prime quality commercial paper of a type not ordinarily purchased by the general public and issued to facilitate current operations. Under this interpretation, the "family resemblance" test for "note" would subsume §§ 3(a)(3) and 3(a)(10), rendering the definition of "security" identical under both Acts.
In-situ Monitoring of the Brush/Rotor Interface in a Homopolar Motor with Acoustic Emission

Homopolar motors have been proposed as alternative propulsion means for ships. Such motors operate in a very harsh and demanding environment, making in-situ diagnostics and fault-monitoring systems a key issue for extended operation. In a typical homopolar motor, several thousand brushes are used, which are all in sliding contact with a copper rotor at a velocity of about 10 m/s. Wear and degradation of the brush and rotor are key issues that need to be understood in order to design a reliable motor. In this investigation, Acoustic Emission (AE) transducers were used to study the characteristics of the brush/rotor interface of a homopolar motor as a function of speed, load, materials and other design parameters. The AE sensors were directly coupled to the brush in the homopolar motor test rig, and data were obtained over extended periods of time. The sensor signal demonstrated good sensitivity to brush/rotor contact conditions, brush contact load and motor current polarity. The results show that AE is well suited for in-situ monitoring of the brush and rotor conditions.
Evaluation of Statistical Treatments of Left-Censored Environmental Data Using Coincident Uncensored Data Sets. II. Group Comparisons

The main classes of statistical treatments that have been used to determine if two groups of censored environmental data arise from the same distribution are substitution methods, maximum likelihood (MLE) techniques, and nonparametric methods. These treatments along with using all instrument-generated data (IN), even those less than the detection limit, were evaluated by examining 550 data sets in which the true values of the censored data were known, and therefore "true" probabilities could be calculated and used as a yardstick for comparison. It was found that technique "quality" was strongly dependent on the degree of censoring present in the groups. For low degrees of censoring ( 40% censoring), no technique provided reliable estimates of the true probability. Group size did not appear to influence the quality of the result, and no technique appeared to become better or worse than other techniques relative to group size. Finally, IN appeared to do very well relative to the other techniques regardless of censoring or group size.
Eight-membered Rings with One Nitrogen Atom

The synthesis, chemical reactivity, physical properties, and applications of eight-membered heterocycles with one nitrogen heteroatom were reviewed for the period 1996–2006, with emphasis on azocanes, partially unsaturated azocanes, and azocines.
Digital data acquisition and processing for a neutron-gamma-ray imaging system

A digital, data-acquisition system for use with a large number of detectors was set up at the University of Michigan. Fast waveform digitizers from CAEN Technologies with 8 channels were synchronized to create a fully scalable system, with a current set-up of 32 channels. While some of the system's limitations are still being investigated, the excellent time resolution of the system enabled accurate time-of-flight measurements at the Los Alamos Neutron Science Center (LANSCE).
Quantifying the robustness of power networks against initial failure

This paper proposes a notion of robustness metric for a power network in terms of the minimal power disturbance required to cause an initial failure. We allow multiple disturbances to act upon different load-side nodes. We formulate the computation of the robustness metric in terms of various equivalent optimization problems with affine inequality constraints. To obtain these results, our analysis identifies a polyhedral cone determined by the topology of the power network whose extreme rays determine the affine inequality constraints. We employ the Double Description method to calculate these extreme rays and discuss how to properly initialize it. Simulations on an IEEE 9-bus power network illustrate our results.
Abstract 255: Allelic Variants in Arhgef11 via the Rho-Rock Pathway Promote Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition in Proximal Tubule Cells and Contributes to Kidney Injury

The Dahl salt-sensitive (S) rat is a widely studied model of hypertension that develops progressive kidney injury characterized by proteinuria, glomerulosclerosis and tubulointerstitial fibrosis, culminating in a significant decline in kidney function. Through positional cloning approaches, Arhgef11, a Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor for the Rho-ROCK pathway was identified as a strong candidate gene. The most likely pathophysiological mechanism (based on animal studies) relates to the development of tubulointerstitial fibrosis, suggesting that chronic activation of Rho-ROCK in tubular cells may contribute to kidney injury observed in the S rat. Arhgef11 knockdown cell lines (up to 60% knockdown) as well as primary cultures of proximal tubule cells (PTC) were studied. Knockdown of Arhgef11 resulted in reduced RhoA activity (30% decrease, 0.57 ± 0.05 vs 0.82 ± 0.06 ng/mg protein), decreased activation of Rho-ROCK pathway (40-60%) and less stress fiber formation (2-fold reduction, 2.28 ± 0.18 vs 4.39 ± 0.64 in length/width ratio) versus control. S rat PTCs exhibited increased expression of Arhgef11, activation of Rho-ROCK, and decreased uptake of FITC-albumin (5.85 ± 0.71 vs 8.25 ± 0.64 mg/g protein) compared to control (minimal congenic). Both Arhgef11 knockdown cell-lines and PTCs stimulated with the profibrotic cytokine TGFβ1 were more prone (versus control) to epithelial-mesenchymal transition as demonstrated by increased expression of N-Cadherin, Vimentin, Col1a1 and spindle shape morphology. While dysregulation of the Rho-ROCK pathway in tubular cells appear to play an important role in EMT and promote fibrosis, chronic stimulation in other kidney cell types including vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) and glomerular epithelial cell (GEC) could also contribute to S rat kidney injury. Thus, we are currently investigating Arhgef11 knockdown in VSMC and GEC cell-lines as well as primary cells derived from the S rat. In summary, these studies suggest that the functional significance of genetic variants in Arhgef11 may be of major importance in promoting changes in cell morphology (Rho-Rock and/or EMT), function of tubule cells, and/or act in concert with dysregulation in VMSC and GEC to promote kidney injury.
For the duration: Creating a collection maintenance unit in technical services

The University of Illinois-Chicago is an ARL member library with a collection of 2.3 million volumes. While we have access to many electronic resources, we still have a substantial collection of physical items to manage in several buildings. Many of those volumes are held at the Richard J. Daley Library on our east campus, where nonhealth-related academic programs are located. Late in 2015, the head of the Daley Circulation Department announced his retirement after more than 30 years in that position. The department was a typical academic library circulation unit, including circulation desk, shelving, reserves, and interlibrary loan. Most of the two dozen staff members had been with the department for many years.
The Use of Fluoroscopy During Direct Anterior Hip Arthroplasty: Powerful or Misleading?

Abstract Background Direct anterior approach total hip arthroplasty (THA) with fluoroscopic assistance is growing in popularity. Variables such as pelvic tilt, c-arm technique, and patient positioning can affect the perceived fluoroscopic view. This study evaluates the effect of these variables on the position of the acetabular component. Methods Forty-one hips in 40 patients undergoing direct anterior arthroplasty THA with fluoroscopic assistance underwent routine postoperative radiographs and postoperative pelvic computed tomography scan. The acetabular component position as defined by a 3-dimensional reconstruction was compared to the surgeon's intraoperative perception of the component's position and compared to routine postoperative plain radiograph measurements. Results Although fluoroscopy was used to create an anteroposterior pelvic radiograph utilizing the coccyx to pubis symphysis distance, a 3D reconstruction created in the same pelvic orientation as the fluoroscopic images confirmed that 39/41 hips were placed with unrecognized excess of anteversion and inclination secondary to imaging the pelvis in extension. Conclusion Intraoperative imaging during supine direct anterior arthroplasty THA confirms appropriate component placement. Pelvic tilt can greatly affect the perceived position of the acetabular component and cannot be accurately compensated for by assessing the relationship between the coccyx and pubic symphysis due to morphologic variation and orientation. We recommend positioning the c-arm so that the size and shape of the obturator foramen matches the standing preoperative anteroposterior pelvis image. This technique allows for the native standing pelvic tilt to be accounted for intraoperatively and will result in the least variation in intraoperative and postoperative standing acetabular component orientation.
Alcohol and Drug Use Disorders

Alcohol and other drug use increase the risk for a wide array of health consequences, including substance use disorders (SUDs). Fully 10% of deaths among working adults are due to alcohol, a leading cause of preventable death. SUDs can be short-lived and resolve on their own, or they can be more severe, chronic diseases. Substance use disorders can be identified in clinical care settings by brief questionnaires as brief as single items, and longer questionnaires and interview can provide assessments of levels of risk and severity useful for determining appropriate management. Effective SUD treatments include pharmacotherapy, behavioral modalities, and recovery supports. Treatment should be adapted to severity and response, and medications should not be withheld from those not receiving psychosocial interventions. Other medical and mental health comorbidities must be addressed, as should social ills. Promising models exist for integrating the management of SUDs into general health settings.
Effect of Long-Term Exposure to Lower Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Beginning Early in Life on the Risk of Coronary Heart Disease: A Mendelian Randomization Analysis

Objectives The purpose of this study was to estimate the effect of long-term exposure to lower plasma low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) on the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). Background LDL-C is causally related to the risk of CHD. However, the association between long-term exposure to lower LDL-C beginning early in life and the risk of CHD has not been reliably quantified. Methods We conducted a series of meta-analyses to estimate the effect of long-term exposure to lower LDL-C on the risk of CHD mediated by 9 polymorphisms in 6 different genes. We then combined these Mendelian randomization studies in a meta-analysis to obtain a more precise estimate of the effect of long-term exposure to lower LDL-C and compared it with the clinical benefit associated with the same magnitude of LDL-C reduction during treatment with a statin. Results All 9 polymorphisms were associated with a highly consistent reduction in the risk of CHD per unit lower LDL-C, with no evidence of heterogeneity of effect (I 2 = 0.0%). In a meta-analysis combining nonoverlapping data from 312,321 participants, naturally random allocation to long-term exposure to lower LDL-C was associated with a 54.5% (95% confidence interval: 48.8% to 59.5%) reduction in the risk of CHD for each mmol/l (38.7 mg/dl) lower LDL-C. This represents a 3-fold greater reduction in the risk of CHD per unit lower LDL-C than that observed during treatment with a statin started later in life (p = 8.43 × 10 −19 ). Conclusions Prolonged exposure to lower LDL-C beginning early in life is associated with a substantially greater reduction in the risk of CHD than the current practice of lowering LDL-C beginning later in life.
Measurements of N2O from composted organic wastes

The current atmospheric mixing ratio of nitrous oxide (N2O), a chemically significant trace gas, is increasing at a rate of 0.25−0.31% yr-1, apparently well correlated with human activity. Better quantification of all N2O sources is required in efforts to stabilize this rate of increase. N2O emissions from the composting of wastewater sludge and livestock wastes were measured during 1993 and 1994 using enclosure methods. Static chambers were placed on the surface of the compost piles, and N2O mixing ratios within the chamber headspace were measured over time from which fluxes were calculated. The flux measurements resulted in mass-based emission factors of 0.7 g of N2O (dry kg)-1 and 0.5 g of N2O (dry kg)-1 for the sludge compost and the livestock waste compost, respectively. The derived emission factors were used in conjunction with recent waste generation and disposal statistics to estimate potential global N2O emissions from the treatment of organic wastes. Livestock waste treatment appears to hold the...
Troubleshooting in the Commercial Computer Industry: A Success Story

There are certainly extremes of “success” and “failure” in the troubleshooting domain. Some of the most spectacular failures occur in the military setting. A good example was the Mayaguez affair in 1975, which followed the Vietnam war, and was America’s most recent combat activity. Some months after that incident, Secretary of Defense Schlesinger admitted that: “... The thirty-one-year-old carrier Hancock ... operating without one of its four shafts ... never reached the scene. The helicopter carrier Okinawa, ... with part of its boiler plant off the line ... also never arrived at the scene. The escort vessel Holt, the first ship at the scene, had power-supply problems, and consequently its main battery was down the night before the engagement.”