cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Minor Blood Group Antigen Disparities in Sickle Cell Disease Population

Abstract Abstract 4381 Introduction: Red blood cell (RBCs) transfusion is the mainstay of treatment for sickle cell disease (SCD) patients and indications continue to expand. Differences in geographic origin between blood donors and sickle recipients has been posited as a cause of the high rate of alloantibodies in patients with sickle cell disease (Vichinsky et al. NEJM 1990; 322: 1617–21). Alloimmunization is one of the major limiting factors of obtaining compatible blood for transfusion and exchange transfusion compromising the management of patients with SCD. Mismatch in minor antigen distribution has been attributed as one of the main reasons for significantly high rate of alloantibodies in SCD patients. Here we describe the minor blood group antigen lacking in SCD patients and comparing with frequencies in white and black populations. Methods: Patients with diagnoses of SCD, confirmed by standard hemoglobin electrophoresis, who had at least one type and cross match done from 1995 through 2011 were included in this study. All patients are evaluated for K, C, E, S, Fya, Fyb, Jka and Jkb antigens in addition to ABO and RhD system before transfusion. Results were routinely recorded in the electronic database of the Georgia Comprehensive Sickle Cell Program at Grady Health System to improve patient transfusion management. The frequency of antigens was compared to published prevalence of antigens in Whites and African American population. Results: A total of 594 patients were identified with SCD who have been tested for antigens during this period, of these, 310 (52%) females and 284 (48%) males. Average age of the patients is 27 (range 3–84). Most common antigen lacking in SCD patients is from Kell blood group K (98%). About 9% of white population is positive for K. Frequency of E+ is 30% in white population and 2% in blacks while 83% of SCD patients lack E antigen. Overall antigen distribution and comparison included in Table 1 . Conclusion: Mismatch of antigen expression in white population (mainly donors) especially for K, E, C and Fya; may explain why these are common antibodies detected in SCD patients Anti E (42.3%), Anti C (30.2%), Anti K (28.1%) and Anti Fya (18.3%) (Rosse et al, Blood, Vol 76, No 7). Given these antigen frequency differences, efforts should be made to increase blood donation in the African American population and at least limited phenotypic matching continues to be justified. Table 1 . Antigens System Frequency of antigens: Whites % Frequency of antigens: Blacks % Antigens lacking in SCD patients in % K Kell 9 2 98 Fya Duffy 66 10 91 Fyb Duffy 83 23 78 Fya+/Fyb- Duffy 17 9 9 Fya-/Fyb+ Duffy 34 22 13 Fya+/Fyb+ Duffy 49 1 Fya-/Fyb- Duffy Very rare 68 71 E Rh 29 22 83 e Rh 98 98 11 C Rh 68 27 75 c Rh 80 96 10 Jkb Kidd 74 49 59 Jka Kidd 77 92 16 Jka+b- Kidd 26.3 51.1 51 Jka-b+ Kidd 23.4 8.1 8 Jka+b+ Kidd 50.3 40.8 33 Jka-b- Kidd rare rare S MNS 55 31 76 s MNS 89 93 14 Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Climbing success of adult Pacific lamprey on a vertical wetted wall

The ability of adult Pacific lamprey, Entosphenus tridentatus (Gairdner), to climb has enabled development of lamprey-specific fishways. Sheer vertical climbing elements are needed for these structures when fishway installation space is limited. A 1.6-m high aluminium wetted wall was built to test Pacific lamprey vertical climbing in relation to flow and three water delivery mechanisms: overflow, upwelling and sidewelling. Passage success and passage times were recorded for individual Pacific lamprey (n = 122). For those that interacted with the structure (n = 104), 94% successfully ascended the wall (76% on their first attempt). Average time from first interaction with the structure to exit ranged from 19.5 to 47.0 min. Success rates and passage times were not significantly affected by flow or water delivery treatments. This indicates that vertical elements can facilitate lamprey passage in the 0.13–3.59 L min−1 cm−1 flow range tested and may greatly expand the design alternatives in certain situations.
Design and Evaluation of a Block-based Environment with a Data Science Context

As computing becomes pervasive across fields, introductory computing curricula needs new tools to motivate and educate the influx of learners with little prior background and divergent goals. We seek to improve curricula by enriching it with authentic, real-world contexts and powerful scaffolds that can guide learners to success using automated tools, thereby reducing the strain on limited human instructional resources. To address these issues, we have created the BlockPy programming environment, a web-based, open-access, open-source platform for introductory computing students ( https://www.blockpy.com ). BlockPy has an embedded data science context that allows learners to connect the educational content with real-world scenarios through meaningful problems. The environment is block-based and gives guiding feedback to learners as they complete problems, but also mediates transfer to more sophisticated programming environments by supporting bidirectional, seamless transitions between block and text programming. Although it can be used as a stand-alone application, the environment has first-class support for the latest Learning Tools Interoperability standards, so that instructors can embed the environment directly within their Learning Management System. In this paper, we describe interesting design issues that we encountered during the development of BlockPy, an evaluation of the environment from fine-grained logs, and our future plans for the environment.
Has Indonesia’s Unique Progressivism in Mandating Corporate Social Responsibility Achieved Its Ends?

It has been a decade since Indonesia implemented its first mandatory CSR requirement. The time is ripe for the discussion: can Indonesia confidently say that it has saved Indonesia by making companies publicly answer for many social issues? Can it successfully bring social and economic justice by continuously enforcing this radical progressivism or utilitarianism? To begin to address these questions, this paper first examines Indonesia's unique features that strengthen CSR as a legal obligation and analyzes the current regulatory frame of CSR. Then, it discusses whether these laws and regulations have actually worked as a practical tool to encourage and enforce companies to perform CSR activities. This research concludes that company law can save Indonesia despite its failure so far due to a number of problems in and out of positive law. It suggests how it can specifically structure the CSR regulations and seeks attention to the more structural reform from the longer-term goal of developing a national mechanism.
186 – Atrolysin B

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the activity, specificity and structural chemistry of atrolysin B. Atrolysin B, formerly known as hemorrhagic toxin b 9 is isolated from the venom of the western diamondback rattlesnake, Crotalus atrox. The proteinase was one of two snake venom metalloproteinases found in a DEAE chromatographic fraction of the venom termed a-proteinase. Atrolysin B as isolated from the venom of C. atrox has a mass of 24 kDa by SDS-PAGE with a pi value in the basic pH range. There is one zinc atom per molecule along with variable number calcium ions. Based on the cDNA sequence analysis of atrolysin B, it is classified as a member of the P-I class of snake venom metalloproteinases. The proteinase domain has two disulfide bonds. No glycosylation consensus sequence sites are present. Atrolysin B is one of the less potent hemorrhagic toxins in C. atrox venom; it has a minimum hemorrhagic dose of 3 μg. It is found that due to the relatively larger amount of this proteinase present in the venom, it is calculated to contribute approximately 16% of the hemorrhagic activity of the venom. It is found that when atrolysin B is injected into muscle tissue, the typical degradation of the basement membrane structure surrounding capillaries is observed.
Revisiting Romer: Digging Deeper Into Influences on NFL Managerial Decisions:

Using Romer’s framework as the starting point, we examine the decisions by National Football League (NFL) coaches to “go for it” on fourth down with an expanded sample drawn from 12 years (2002-201...
Optical Characterization of Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) and Fe(II) Concentrations in Soil Porewaters Along a Channel-Bank Transect in a Salt Marsh

Chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) optical properties were measured in surface and porewaters as a function of depth and distance from the channel in a transect up the bank in a southern California salt marsh. Higher absorbance coefficients and fluorescence intensities in porewaters at depth vs. surface waters and shallower porewaters suggest soil porewater is a reservoir of CDOM in the marsh. Higher values were observed at the marsh sites compared to the channel site, suggesting increased production and storage in the marsh sites, and reduced leaching into overlying surface waters, is occurring. Spectral slope ratios decreased with depth, consistent with more aromatic, higher molecular weight material in the deeper porewaters, possibly due to different bacterial processing in the anaerobic vs. aerobic zones. Fe(II) concentrations, indicative of anaerobic bacterial processing, increased significantly at depth to values > 1000 μM, consistent with active anaerobic microbial processing occurring at depth. The transitions to higher reduced iron concentrations correlated with increased absorbance and fluorescence, suggesting processing by anaerobic iron-reducing bacteria in these deeper zones may not mineralize as much carbon as in the shallower aerobic zones. Alternatively, this may be due to reduction of solid iron oxides coated with organic matter releasing both DOM and Fe(II). The ratio of humic-like fluorescence to the absorption coefficient decreased with increasing iron concentration, possibly due to optical interference by iron species. Taken together, the data indicate that marsh sites in the salt marsh act as a reservoir for higher molecular weight, more aromatic organic matter.
Computational studies of shape control of charged deformable nanocontainers

Biological matter is often compartmentalized by soft membranes that dynamically change their shape in response to chemical and mechanical cues. Deformable soft-matter-based nanoscale membranes or nanocontainers that mimic this behavior can be used as drug-delivery carriers that can adapt to evolving physiological conditions, or as dynamic building blocks for the design of novel hierarchical materials via assembly engineering. Here, we connect the intrinsic features of charged deformable nanocontainers such as their size, charge, surface tension, and elasticity with their equilibrium shapes for a wide range of solution conditions using molecular dynamics simulations. These links identify the fundamental mechanisms that establish the chemical and materials design control strategies for modulating the equilibrium shape of these nanocontainers. We show that flexible nanocontainers of radii ranging from 10–20 nm exhibit sphere-to-rod-to-disc shape transitions yielding rods and discs over a wide range of aspect ratio λ (0.3 < λ < 5). The shape transitions can be controlled by tuning salt and/or surfactant concentration as well as material elastic parameters. The shape changes are driven by reduction in the global electrostatic energy and are associated with dramatic changes in local surface elastic energy distributions. To illustrate the shape transition mechanisms, exact analytical calculations for idealized spheroidal nanocontainers in salt-free conditions are performed. Explicit counterion simulations near nanocontainers and associated Manning model calculations provide an assessment of the stability of observed shape deformations in the event of ion condensation.
Clinical and dermoscopic features of keratinizing skin tumors in BRAFi-treated patients.

e19052 Background: Development of keratinizing skin tumors (KST), including squamous cell carcinomas (SCC), keratoacanthomas (KA) and verrucae (warts), are common in patients receiving BRAF inhibit...
Predicting effective fracture toughness of ZrB2-based ultra-high temperature ceramics by phase-field modeling

Abstract The effective fracture toughness (EFT) of ZrB2-C ceramics with different engineered microarchitectures was numerically evaluated by phase-field modeling. To verify the model, fibrous monoliths (elongated hexagonal ZrB2-rich cells in a continuous C-rich matrix) with different volume fractions of a C-rich phase were considered. Architectures containing 10 and 30 vol% of C-rich phase showed EFT values about 42% more than that of pure ZrB2. Increasing the C-rich phase to 50 vol%, dropped toughness significantly, which is in agreement with the experimental results. Replacing hexagonal cells with cylindrical, triangular, or square cells of the same cross-sectional area changed the toughening mechanism and EFT. The orientation of the interface between the soft and hard phases with respect to the crack orientation also affected the energy required for crack propagation, and in some cases resulted in a higher EFT (even up to 70% of pure ZrB2 fracture toughness) either by suppressing uniform crack propagation or making crack cranking. Results not only show that the model can predict fracture toughness but also provide insight to improve toughness by engineering different microarchitectures.
Aria: a fast and practical deterministic OLTP database

Deterministic databases are able to efficiently run transactions across different replicas without coordination. However, existing state-of-the-art deterministic databases require that transaction read/write sets are known before execution, making such systems impractical in many OLTP applications. In this paper, we present Aria, a new distributed and deterministic OLTP database that does not have this limitation. The key idea behind Aria is that it first executes a batch of transactions against the same database snapshot in an execution phase, and then deterministically (without communication between replicas) chooses those that should commit to ensure serializability in a commit phase. We also propose a novel deterministic reordering mechanism that allows Aria to order transactions in a way that reduces the number of conflicts. Our experiments on a cluster of eight nodes show that Aria outperforms systems with conventional nondeterministic concurrency control algorithms and the state-of-the-art deterministic databases by up to a factor of two on two popular benchmarks (YCSB and TPC-C).
Abstract PO-078: Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of highly-multiplexed IHC images via antigen mapping

Recently developed technologies for digital imaging and highly multiplexed immunohistochemistry (mIHC) are enabling complex quantitative descriptions of tissue architecture. Imaging mass cytometry, multiplexed ion beam imaging, and co-detection by indexing can be used to profile the expression of dozens of proteins in a tissue section with single-cell resolution. Despite this progress, the amount of cell types and states that can be simultaneously identified by mIHC in a tissue section is still limited. Standard methods for identifying cell populations cluster cells according to expression similarities of the profiled antigens. These clusters are then manually annotated using previous knowledge of cell population markers. However, this is generally a partial, subjective, and biased process. Clusters often differ little in their antigenic profile and the interpretation of those differences is unclear. Moreover, the design of comprehensive antibody panels that include specific markers for every cell type and state present in the tissue is usually unfeasible. To overcome these limitations and increase the level of annotation of mIHC data, we propose an approach for enriching mIHC slides with single-cell RNA-seq data. Currently available single-cell RNA-seq technologies profile the expression of thousands of genes in each cell, allowing researchers to finely classify cells based on their gene expression profile. Some of the most recent approaches, like CITE-seq, REAP-seq, and Ab-seq, allow augmenting single-cell transcriptomes with concurrent protein measurements by staining dissociated cells with oligo-tagged antibodies. These approaches can be therefore used to determine the quantitative relation between gene and antigen expression levels. Here, we build upon CITE-seq and computational methods for the integration of single-cell omics data to identify and annotate cell populations in mIHC images in an automated way based on single-cell gene expression data from the same tissue. Our method, Spatially-resolved Transcriptomics via Epitope Anchoring (STvEA), performs transcriptome-guided annotation of mIHC datasets. It increases the phenotypic resolution of histological analyses by enabling annotation of subtle cell populations, spatial patterns of transcription, and interactions between cell types. We use the murine spleen as a test system to benchmark the stability and performance of STvEA and demonstrate its utility by using it to annotate published CODEX and CyTOF datasets of this organ. Citation Format: Kiya W. Govek, Emma C. Troisi, Zhen Miao, Steven Woodhouse, Pablo G. Camara. Single-cell transcriptomic analysis of highly-multiplexed IHC images via antigen mapping [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Special Conference on Tumor Heterogeneity: From Single Cells to Clinical Impact; 2020 Sep 17-18. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(21 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-078.
Before, Between, and After: Enriching Robot Communication Surrounding Collaborative Creative Activities.

Research in creative robotics continues to expand across all creative domains, including art, music and language. Creative robots are primarily designed to be task specific, with limited research into the implications of their design outside their core task. In the case of a musical robot, this includes when a human sees and interacts with the robot before and after the performance, as well as in between pieces. These non-musical interaction tasks such as the presence of a robot during musical equipment set up, play a key role in the human perception of the robot however have received only limited attention. In this paper, we describe a new audio system using emotional musical prosody, designed to match the creative process of a musical robot for use before, between and after musical performances. Our generation system relies on the creation of a custom dataset for musical prosody. This system is designed foremost to operate in real time and allow rapid generation and dialogue exchange between human and robot. For this reason, the system combines symbolic deep learning through a Conditional Convolution Variational Auto-encoder, with an emotion-tagged audio sampler. We then compare this to a SOTA text-to-speech system in our robotic platform, Shimon the marimba player. We conducted a between-groups study with 100 participants watching a musician interact for 30 seconds with Shimon. We were able to increase user ratings for the key creativity metrics; novelty and coherence, while maintaining ratings for expressivity across each implementation. Our results also indicated that by communicating in a form that relates to the robot’s core functionality, we can raise likeability and perceived intelligence, while not altering animacy or anthropomorphism. These findings indicate the variation that can occur in the perception of a robot based on interactions surrounding a performance, such as initial meetings and spaces between pieces, in addition to the core creative algorithms.
Contrastive Out-of-Distribution Detection for Pretrained Transformers

Pretrained transformers achieve remarkable performance when the test data follows the same distribution as the training data. However, in real-world NLU tasks, the model often faces out-of-distribution (OoD) instances. Such instances can cause the severe semantic shift problem to inference, hence they are supposed to be identified and rejected by the model. In this paper, we study the OoD detection problem for pretrained transformers using only in-distribution data in training. We observe that such instances can be found using the Mahalanobis distance in the penultimate layer. We further propose a contrastive loss that improves the compactness of representations, such that OoD instances can be better differentiated from in-distribution ones. Experiments on the GLUE benchmark demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methods.
Pregalactic Chemistry

The evolution of the universe from times after the recombination of the first atoms is controlled by chemistry. Chemistry can also help us to learn more about the first structures. In this paper we review the chemistry and atomic physics that are important in the time shortly after recombination, including the formation of the first structures.
Optical window characterization experiment with laser-induced gradients

Optical window characterization is performed with a CO2 laser heating the material to understand the optical effects, thermal effects, and temperature dependence of the index of refraction. Distortions in the optical window caused by operating in challenging aerothermal environments can impact an imager’s performance. Uneven heating of the window will induce a temperature gradient, which when coupled with the temperature dependence of the refractive index, causes a flat sapphire window to act as an imperfect lens. Experimental capability allows multiple sensors and diagnostic equipment to collect synchronized data. A long-wave infrared (LWIR) camera images the sample’s front and back surfaces to measure temperatures and temperature gradients. A transmitted laser probe beam is captured simultaneously by a visible imager and wavefront sensor. The visible imager captures how a point source appears observed through the window. A transmitted wavefront is reconstructed from the wavefront sensor. The reconstructed wavefront includes effects from both dn/dT and mechanical deformation of the window. Using the reconstructed wavefront and imager optics in Zemax, the point spread function (PSF) of the imager looking through the heated window is generated and compared with the experimentally measured PSF.
A Different Case for Restraint

The United States‟ response to the terrorist attacks of September 11 has included the use of coercive interrogations, indefinite detention, and the targeted killing of Al Qaeda operatives in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen. These responses have been roundly criticized on legal, moral, and policy-making grounds by a wide range of scholars, politicians, and activists. Vast numbers of books, articles, and editorials have concluded that the Bush administration‟s legal, moral, and policy arguments were incorrect, internally inconsistent, and unsustainable. But few have taken the next step to consider the broader implications that this rejection of the Bush administration‟s policies has for how law, morality, and politics are shaped by terrorism. What coherence does law have if it countenances a series of heinous breaches (terrorism), but upholds its own prohibitions against any practical response (increased intelligence collection through coercion and increased incapacitation through detention and targeted killings)? 1 What fundamental moral principle(s) does international humanitarian law (“IHL”) 2 rest upon if it creates a system that, from a consequentialist perspective, can be used to privilege its most egregious violators? If law and morality fail to require a specific course of action, what policy choices should a purely self-interested United States‟ government make about detainee treatment and targeted killings in the face of Al Qaeda‟s continuing threat to its civilians?
Summation of Session II

It has been apparent from this conference that the FUra-CF combination is of exceptional interest to investigators in all areas of cancer chemotherapy, from basic biochemistry to clinical studies. There are a number of reasons for this. First, the FUra-CF combination was proposed on the basis of rational a priori biochemical studies at the enzymological level, which revealed the role of CH2H4PteGlu in the mechanism of interaction between FdUMP and TS. Secondly, there is a multiplicity of biochemical pathways and reactions involved in the conversion of CF to the reduced folate cofactor form. This provides the opportunity for many more biochemical studies which in turn should give rise to more ideas for drug modulation. Thirdly, the basic concept seems to hold up across the board. In contrast to many modulation ideas which seem to work basically as conceived in vitro only to fizzle out when taken to in vivo systems, the effect of adding folates works in stabilizing the ternary complex in the test tube, it works to enhance the toxicity of the drugs in cell culture, and so far all indications are that the same biochemical mechanism is operative in human patients as well. This is encouraging in that it validates a concept of cancer drug pharmacology for which there was heretofore little precedent, namely, that finding out more about how drugs work will lead to more effective ways to use them.
Enzymic reactions of enamines with N-ethylmaleimide.

γ-Cystathionases catalyze elimination of substituents from the β- or γ-positions of 4-carbon chain length amino acids with formation of α-ketobutyrate, but when N-ethylmaleimide is added to reaction mixtures the α-ketobutyrate is replaced by a product reflecting addition to the maleimide double bond of an intermediate with carbanion character at carbon 3. The product is α-keto-3-(3′-(N′-ethyl-2′,5′-dioxopyrrolidyl)) butyric acid, or KEDB. The reactive intermediate was postulated to be one of the three enamines: free aminocrotonate, aminocrotonate bound to the enzyme in an unprotonated form, or the Schiff base between aminocrotonate and the coenzyme, pyridoxal phosphate. The cystathionases have now been shown to catalyze stereospecific reactions with N-ethylmaleimide, yielding only one of the two possible diastereoisomers. The same isomer was formed by a third pyridoxal-P enzyme, cystathionine γ-synthase acting on O-succinylhomoserine, but a threonine dehydrase yielded the other isomer of KEDB from threonine. The last two enzymes differ from cystathionases in that the 3-carbon substrates, O-succinylserine and serine, respectively, do react in the presence of the maleimide to yield the analogue of KEDB less the methyl group, KEDP. This evidence that free enamino acids were not the intermediates that reacted with maleimide prompted an investigation of whether they were intermediates in any form. The basis for this study was that if they were, solvent tritium would be introduced into the β-position of newly formed pyruvate or α-ketobutyrate in a spontaneous step, and therefore the kinetic isotope effect would always be the same, regardless of which enzyme was used. Preliminary results suggest that the isotope effects may differ characteristically with different enzymes. A third study of the reactions of enamines with maleimides involved generating free enamines in the presence of the latter, through the action of hydrolytic enzymes on N-acyl derivatives of α-aminoacrylate and α-aminocrotonate. A kidney aminopeptidase produced KEDP from the first and a mixture of isomers of KEDB from the second. However, it is possible that the reactive species was an enzyme-bound enamine in this case also.
Tight binding inhibitors--VI. Interactions of deoxycoformycin and adenosine deaminase in intact human erythrocytes and sarcoma 180 cells.

Abstract The inactivation and reactivation of adenosine deaminase (ADA) by deoxycoformycin was studied in intact human erythrocytes and murine Sarcoma 180 cells in vitro . The second-order rate constant ( k 1 ) for the association reaction between deoxycoformycin and intraerythrocytic ADA was calculated to be 5.1 × 10 3 M −1 sec −1 . This is about 300 to 500-fold lower than the k 1 values determined either with hemolyzed human erythrocytes ( k 1 = 1.4 × 10 6 M −1 sec −1 ) or with partially purified human erythrocytic ADA ( k 1 = 2.6 × 10 6 M −1 sec −1 ). In intact erythrocytes only slight reactivation ( EI complex) was detectable over 24 hr, whereas with hemolysates about 50 per cent reactivation of the inhibited ADA was observed in about 25 hr ( k 2 = 7.7 × 10 −6 sec −1 ). The k 1 values with intact and supernatant fractions from homogenized Sarcoma 180 cells were determined to be 1.1 × 10 4 M −1 sec −1 and 4.2 × 10 6 M −1 sec −1 respectively. With intact Sarcoma 180 cells, negligible reactivation of ADA was seen during a 48-hr period. Preliminary studies indicate an important role for the erythrocytic nucleoside transport system on the apparent k 1 values and the rate of inactivation of ADA by deoxycoformycin in intact cells.
Effectiveness of an outreach program designed to enhance college students' help-seeking attitudes, intentions, and to reduce stigmas

v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 8 CHAPTER THREE: METHODS 49 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS 64 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSIONS 83 APPENDIX A: FLOW CHART OF STUDY PROCEDURES 110 APPENDIX B: POSTING ADVERTISEMENT 111 APPENDIX C: INFORMED CONSENT DOCUMENT 112 APPENDIX D: MEASURES 115 APPENDIX E: PROGRAM OUTLINES FOR THE OUTREACH PROGRAMS 125 APPENDIX F: DEBRIEFING FORMS 127 iii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Theory or Reasoned Action 4 Figure 2. Theory or Reasoned Action: Factors determining a person’s behavior. 19 Figure 3. Application of Theory of Reasoned Action in increasing help-seeking behaviors. ..... 48 Figure 4. Flow chart of retention through phases of the study 65 Figure 5. Attitudes toward seeking help before and after the programs. 77 Figure 6. Anticipate benefits before and after the programs. 78 Figure 7. Selfstigma associated with seeking psychological help. 80 Figure 8. Selfstigma associated with seeking psychological help 80 Figure 9. Perceived public stigma associated with seeking psychological help. 82 iv LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Outcome Studies of Programs to Improve Help-seeking Attitudes and Willingness ...... 11 Table 2 Studies on Stigma-Reducing Strategies 31 Table 3 Prevalence of Mental Health Disorders in the United States 39 Table 4 Studies on Forgiveness and Mental Health/Well-being 43 Table 5 Internal Consistency Reliability of the Outcome Measures in the Present Study 51 Table 6 Estimated Total Sample Size at Power of .80 or Higher 61 Table 7 Means and Standard Deviations of the Outcome Variables 68 Table 8 Differences Between Those With and Without Previous Counseling 70 Table 9 Pearson Correlations among Study Variables 71 v ABSTRACT Two hundred and one college students from a large Midwest university were randomly assigned to attend an outreach program, an alternative outreach program, or a no-treatment control group. The outreach program was based on Ajzen and Fishbein’s (1980) Theory of Reasoned Action and was designed to help reduce the stigma associated with seeking help and increase students’ attitudes toward and intentions to seek counseling. The program included interventions to increase participants’ positive attitudes toward counseling, perceived benefits of counseling, and implement interventions to decrease perceived public stigma and self-stigma. Only the theoretically-derived outreach program was found to be effective in increasing participants’ anticipated benefits about counseling and in decreasing their perceived public stigma associated with seeking counseling. Both the theoretically-derived outreach program and the alternative program were effective in increasing participants’ positive attitudes toward counseling and decrease their self-stigma associated with counseling immediately after the
Monte Verde and the Pleistocene Peopling of the Americas

Until recently, the oldest firm evidence of human presence in the Americas has been that from the 11,500-year-old Clovis archaeological site. In his Perspective, Meltzer discusses work by a collaboration led by Dillehay at the University of Kentucky that shows the presence of humans at the Monte Verde site in Chile as long as 12,500 years ago. Claims of such pre-Clovis sites have been met with extreme skepticism in the past, but as Meltzer relates, this work has yielded an extraordinary array of physical evidence for a human presence at Monte Verde.
Chloride and calcium in Photosystem II: from effects to enigma(*).

This minireview focuses on the early evidence for roles of chloride and calcium ions in reactions of photosynthetic electron transport and on the reluctance with which an essential function of these inorganic ions in the process of water oxidation was accepted. For example, Daniel Arnon’s group initially refuted the conclusion of Otto Warburg, the discoverer of a ‘chloride effect,’ that chloride was a ‘coenzyme.’ Their reasoning was that chloride had not been shown to be an essential mineral nutrient of plants. In the case of calcium, the problem was that the first ‘calcium effects’ had been seen with preparations from cyanobacteria rather than from green plants. While today the status of calcium and chloride as essential participants in the process of water oxidation is rarely disputed, the nature of their involvement still eludes all experimental inquiries. Substantial progress in this respect may come from recent refinements of the application of Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy to the study of photosynthetic water oxidation.
Efficient, high power laser to multi-fiber coupler for triggering optically activated switches

There are numerous applications requiring multiple high power laser beams. The simultaneous operation of more than one optically controlled high power switch such as photo-conductive, optically initiated gas, surface, and junction semiconductor, requires synchronous delivery of pulsed high power optical energy to many sites. The University of Missouri design presented here avoids the input surface damage that limits other high power division schemes and operates at the peak optical power density of the device materials. This design consists of a prism coupler, planar waveguide, and waveguide tapers fabricated on a silicon substrate. The laser beam will be spatial expanded, focused along one axis using a cylindrical lens or grating, and directed into the prism coupler. The prism coupler allows the optical energy to be coupled into the single highest mode of the planer waveguide. Actual splitting of the optical energy is accomplished by the use of multiple tapered waveguides, which are coupled to multimode fibers. Design methodology and simulation results of the proposed design will be presented.
Activation of succinate dehydrogenase by electron flux from NADH and its possible regulatory function

Abstract It is well known that succinate dehydrogenase (SD) is transformed from an inactive to an active state on combination with substrates or competitive inhibitors and that SD becomes deactivated on removing the activator. Activation has a high temperature coefficient and is thought to be due to a conformational change in the enzyme. In the present paper it is shown that in well washed membrane preparations, in which SD occurs largely in the deactivated form, NADH induces activation of SD. The activation progresses as long as NADH is present; once NADH is removed by oxidation, SD reverts rapidly to the deactivated form. NADH-induced activation has the same temperature coefficient as that produced by succinate and the kinetic properties of SD activated by either agent are the same. Activation is not due to a combination of NADH with SD, since rhein and piericidin, inhibitors of NADH oxidation, interfere with the activation of SD by NADH. Extraction of CoQ10 with pentane prevents the activation by NADH nearly completely, while readdition of CoQ10 restores activability by NADH. It is suggested that the agent responsible for this type of activation is reduced CoQ and that NADH serves only to maintain CoQ10 in the reduced state. Since thenoyltrifluoroacetone prevents succinate oxidation but not activation of SD by NADH, it appears that CoQH2 can interact with and induce changes in SD in the absence of electron transport. The possibility that this type of rapid activation-deactivation may be of regulatory significance in the Krebs cycle is discussed.
Restoration and reconstruction of AVHRR images

Describes the design of small convolution kernels for the restoration and reconstruction of Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR) images. The kernels are small enough to be implemented efficiently by convolution, yet effectively correct degradations and increase apparent resolution. The kernel derivation is based on a comprehensive, end-to-end system model that accounts for scene statistics, image acquisition blur, sampling effects, sensor noise, and postfilter reconstruction. The design maximizes image fidelity subject to explicit constraints on the spatial support and resolution of the kernel. The kernels can be designed with finer resolution than the image to perform partial reconstruction for geometric correction and other remapping operations. Experiments demonstrate that small kernels yield fidelity comparable to optimal unconstrained filters with less computation. >
Magnetic properties of amorphous ribbon

The magnetic properties of transition-metal amorphous alloys are discussed, with emphasis on methods to increase the value of the saturation induction at room temperature, and on the factors that control the low-field magnetic properties that are important in most engineering applications.
Greater observatories: A midlife crisis for X-ray astronomy.

As the field celebrates its 50th birthday, Martin Elvis asks how to keep this unique window into the Universe open.
Data Extraction From Film Using Optical And/Or Digital And/Or Electronic Devices

The current interest in applying hybrid techniques to data extraction from film is discussed and reviewed. The three basic operations of power spectral analysis, spatial filtering, and correlation are described. Particular emphasis is placed on how these operations can be carried out with an appropriate combination of optical with either digital (binary) or electronic (analogue) subsystems. Some examples will illustrate the procedure.© (1977) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
A finite element procedure for calculation of strain from interpolated displacements

Second-order universal kriging is proposed as an accurate model for interpolating displacements measured in the field to nodal points of a superimposed finite element mesh. These interpolated displacements are used in a modified finite element procedure to calculate strain. This model is compared to a local trend model to judge superiority. Interpolation models are tested by randomly sampling displacements obtained in a finite element analysis, then applying interpolation in attempts to reconstruct the original results.
Pharmaceutical Care of Terminally Ill Patients

Care of patients with advanced, irreversible disease is multimodal but usually has a major pharmacological component. The development of pharmaceutical services to support the care of patients with terminal disease is discussed. The evolution of the modem hospice movement is described as is the documentation of hospice pharmaceutical services. The interdisciplinary team that normally provides such care is described. Responsibilities of pharmacists in providing care to terminally ill patients are discussed and hospice pharmaceutical care is defined including a position description for a hospice pharmacist. Principles of drug therapy in the management or pain are provided and other symptoms commonly seen in terminal care are listed. Case studies in pharmaceutical care of pain in terminally ill patients are presented. Data on hospice pharmaceutical services provided in the United States are summarized and references useful to pharmacists providing such care are listed.
Getting from Here to There: The Roles of Policy Makers and Principals in Increasing Science Teacher Quality

In this study we investigate how federal and state policy makers, and school principals are working to improve science teacher quality. Interviews, focused discussions, and policy documents serve as the primary data source. Findings suggest that both policy makers and principals prioritize increasing incentives for teachers entering the science teaching profession, providing professional development for new teachers, and using students’ data to evaluate and improve instruction. Differences between the two leadership groups emerged in terms of the grain size and practicality of their concerns. Our findings indicate that the complexity of educational challenges to improve science teacher quality call for the co-construction of policy by multiple constituent groups including school principals, federal and state policy makers, and science education researchers.
Spherically symmetric droplet combustion of three and four component miscible mixtures as surrogates for Jet-A

Abstract This study examines the droplet combustion characteristics of three and four component miscible liquid mixtures and compares the results with an aviation fuel (Jet-A) burning under the same conditions. The configuration used in the comparison is the base case of spherical symmetry whereby the droplet and flame are spherical and concentric. Mixtures consisting of n-decane/iso-octane/toluene and n-dodecane/iso-octane/1,3,5-trimethylbenzene/n-propylbenzene in specific molar ratios of 42.67/33.02/24.31 and 40.41/29.48/7.28/22.83, respectively, were previously shown to replicate certain gas phase combustion properties of Jet-A. These specific blends are assessed here for their ability to replicate combustion properties derived from the spherically symmetric case. The data compared include the evolution of the droplet, flame and soot shell diameters. The initial droplet diameter was fixed at 0.56 ± 0.04 mm in the experiments and combustion was carried out in room temperature air under normal atmospheric pressure. It was found that both blends do replicate certain features of the droplet burning process of Jet-A, though the four component blend performs slightly better. In particular, the sooting propensity and soot standoff ratios are better replicated by the four component blend which is consistent with that blend having been formulated to match the molecular weight and threshold sooting index of Jet-A. Flame standoff ratios and burning rates show a conformance suggested by fuel property variations. The liquid density is identified as a potentially important property in developing liquid surrogate fuels. The results suggest the potential of combustion properties derived from spherically symmetric droplet combustion to assist with developing surrogates for complex transportation fuels.
A caveat concerning singular value decomposition

Abstract An assessment is made of the ability of the singular value decomposition (SYD) technique to recover the relationship between two variables x and y from a time series of their observations. It is shown that SVD is rigorously successful only in the special cases when either (i) the transformation linking x and y is orthogonal or (ii) the covariance matrix of either x or y is the identity matrix. The behavior of the method when theSE conditions are not met is also studied in a simple two-dimensional case. That this caveat can be relevant in a meteorological context is demonstrated by performing an SVD analysis of a time series of global upper-tropospheric streamfunction and vorticity fields. Although these fields are linked by the two-dimensional Laplacian operator on the sphere, it is shown that the pairs of singular patterns resulting from the SVD analysis are not so related. The problem is apparent even for the first SVD pair and generally becomes worse for succeeding pairs These results suggest ...
Book reviews - Digital signal processing

This book claims to be "an up-to-date and detailed introduction to the fundamentals of processing signals by digital techniques and their applications to practical problems." The claim is indeed valid. The authors have certainly written an up-to-date book. Moreover, their technical contributions on the subject of digital signal processing, coverage of the fundamental concepts is excellent. The book fulfills a need that has existed for a good text on the fundamentals of digital signal processing. On the whole, the book is well-organized and extremely well-written. It contains eleven chapters. References to the literature are included at the end of each chapter. In addition, each chapter contains a rather large number of problems closely related to the subject matter in the chapter.
Progress towards ultra-wideband AlGaN/GaN MMICs

Abstract The AlGaN/GaN material system possesses fundamental properties that make it an ideal candidate for high power microwave devices. This has been known for over 30 years, however, significant device progress has only come recently. This article gives a summary of AlGaN/GaN electronic device progress, outlines future device directions, and discusses the use of these new devices in power amplifier circuits.
Platelets: yin and yang.

In this issue of Blood , Boulaftali and colleagues have made the important and novel observation that deficiency of the serine protease inhibitor (serpin), PN-1, in platelets results in a prothrombotic state, supporting the role of platelet PN-1 in thrombosis.[1][1] Specifically, Boulaftali et al
Consequences of Fast, Stochastic Rhodopsin Shutoff for a Model of Phototransduction in Rods

Rod photoreceptors signal the number and timing of photon absorption, a property that requires that each single photon response be of similar amplitude from trial to trial. How such reproducibility is achieved has been the subject of much experimental and theoretical work, which has demonstrated the importance of multiple steps in rhodopsin deactivation and diffusion of second messengers (Mendez et al., 2000; Bisegna et al., 2008). So far, all previous models have assumed that rhodopsin lifetime is significantly longer than recent measurements indicate (Krispel et al., 2006; Burns and Pugh, 2009). Additionally, recent biochemical studies have provided new details about the dependence of rhodopsin deactivation on phosphorylation level (Vishnivetskiy et al., 2007) that should inform a complete model of light response kinetics and reproducibility. We have implemented a spatio-temporal model of phototransduction in which the rhodopsin deactivation scheme is a stochastic multi-step process lasting no more than 50 ms. The parameters of this model were constrained using an extensive data set obtained from a variety of transgenic mouse lines, each developed to perturb rhodopsin activity, PDE deactivation, or Ca2+ feedback. Our simulations demonstrate the relative contributions of stochastic rhodopsin deactivation, Ca2+ feedback to guanylate cyclase, and second messenger diffusion to single photon response variability under biologically relevant constraints.