cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of an invasive herbivore at the single plant scale do not extend to population-scale seedling dynamics

A complex of nine invasive weevils has established in the northern hardwood forests of the Great Lakes Region. These weevils have become the numerically dominant arthropod fauna in the lower vegetation strata of this ecosystem. Effects of these folivorous adults and rhizophagous larvae on seedling survival and density are unknown. We measured the impact of adult weevil defoliation on individual sugar maple (Acer saccharum Marshall) seedlings, the numerically dominant flora in these stands. Over 14 500 seedlings were measured to examine the effects of larval abundance, adult abundance, and adult defoliation on seedling dynamics during 2005–2009. Heavy defoliation led to individual sugar maple seedling mortality. However, at the stand level there was no measureable net effect of invasive weevils against the high natural background rates of seedling mortality. Seedling growth and biomass were reduced by high adult or larval populations, which were associated with heavy leaf and root herbivory, but not by mod...
Dynamic Characteristics of Rainbow Ceramics

The piezoelectric resonance behavior of end-clamped bimorph structures made from the rainbow monolithic ceramic have been evaluated. Thickness, width, width flexure, and length bending modes have been identified and measured. Using a very crude model in which the cermet component of the rainbow is assumed to have the same density × elasticity product as the bulk, surprisingly good agreement is obtained between observed and calculated frequency behavior. By appropriate processing it is possible to delaminate the bimorph, and work is now in progress to measure the properties of the two separate phases so that a proper composite resonator model may be developed.
An image-guided study of setup reproducibility of postmastectomy breast cancer patients treated with inverse-planned intensity modulated radiation therapy.

Purpose To calculate planning target volume (PTV) margins for chest wall and regional nodal targets using daily orthogonal kilovolt (kV) imaging and to study residual setup error after kV alignment using volumetric cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT). Methods and Materials Twenty-one postmastectomy patients were treated with intensity modulated radiation therapy with 7-mm PTV margins. Population-based PTV margins were calculated from translational shifts after daily kV positioning and/or weekly CBCT data for each of 8 patients, whose surgical clips were used as surrogates for target volumes. Errors from kV and CBCT data were mathematically combined to generate PTV margins for 3 simulated alignment workflows: ( 1 ) skin marks alone; ( 2 ) weekly kV imaging; and ( 3 ) daily kV imaging. Results The kV data from 613 treatment fractions indicated that a 7-mm uniform margin would account for 95% of daily shifts if patients were positioned using only skin marks. Total setup errors incorporating both kV and CBCT data were larger than those from kV alone, yielding PTV expansions of 7 mm anterior–posterior, 9 mm left–right, and 9 mm superior–inferior. Required PTV margins after weekly kV imaging were similar in magnitude as alignment to skin marks, but rotational adjustments of patients were required in 32% ± 17% of treatments. These rotations would have remained uncorrected without the use of daily kV imaging. Despite the use of daily kV imaging, CBCT data taken at the treatment position indicate that an anisotropic PTV margin of 6 mm anterior–posterior, 4 mm left–right, and 8 mm superior–inferior must be retained to account for residual errors. Conclusions Cone-beam CT provides additional information on 3-dimensional reproducibility of treatment setup for chest wall targets. Three-dimensional data indicate that a uniform 7-mm PTV margin is insufficient in the absence of daily IGRT. Interfraction movement is greater than suggested by 2-dimensional imaging, thus a margin of at least 4 to 8 mm must be retained despite the use of daily IGRT.
11C-Dihydrotetrabenazine PET of the Pancreas in Subjects with Long-Standing Type 1 Diabetes and in Healthy Controls

Type 2 vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT2), found in the brain, is also expressed by β-cells of the pancreas in association with insulin. Preclinical experiments suggested that 11C-dihydrotetrabenazine PET–measured VMAT2 binding might serve as a biomarker of β-cell mass. We evaluated the feasibility of 11C-dihydrotetrabenazine PET quantification of pancreatic VMAT2 binding in healthy subjects and patients with long-standing type 1 diabetes. Methods:11C-Dihydrotetrabenazine PET was performed on 6 patients and 9 controls. VMAT2 binding potential (BPND) was estimated voxelwise by using the renal cortex as reference tissue. As an index of total pancreatic VMAT2, the functional binding capacity (the sum of voxel BPND × voxel volume) was calculated. Pancreatic BPND, functional binding capacity, and stimulated insulin secretion measurements were compared between groups. Results: The pancreatic mean BPND was decreased in patients (1.86 ± 0.05) to 86% of control values (2.14 ± 0.08) (P = 0.01). In controls, but not in patients, BPND correlated with stimulated insulin secretion (r2 = 0.50, P = 0.03). The average functional binding capacity was decreased by at least 40% in patients (P = 0.001). The changes in functional binding capacity and BPND were less than the near-complete loss of stimulated insulin secretion observed in patients (P = 0.001). Conclusion: These results suggest that 11C-dihydrotetrabenazine PET allows quantification of VMAT2 binding in the human pancreas. However, BPND and functional binding capacity appear to overestimate β-cell mass given the near-complete depletion of β-cell mass in long-standing type 1 diabetes, which may be due to higher nonspecific binding in the pancreas than in the renal cortex.
Can Technology Increase Course Opportunities for Migrant Students

Although Hispanic students are following a more rigorous curriculum than they were a decade ago, those who are migratory are more likely than their Anglo peers to face a disorderly school environment. The exemplary programs outlined here appear to provide a structure that promotes consistent learning and allows Hispanic students to organize their new knowledge.
Friends or foes: infants use shared evaluations to infer others' social relationships.

Predicting others' affiliative relationships is critical to social cognition, but there is little evidence of how this ability develops. We examined 9-month-old infants' inferences about 3rd-party affiliation based on shared and opposing evaluations. Infants expected 2 people who expressed shared evaluations to interact positively, whereas they expected 2 people who expressed opposing evaluations to interact negatively. A control condition revealed that infants' expectations could not be due to mere perceptual repetition. Thus, an abstract understanding that 3rd-party affiliation can be based on shared intentions has roots in the 1st year of life. These findings have implications for understanding humans' earliest representations of the social world. Because human societies involve complex social relationships and multiple levels of social organization, understanding affiliation patterns is a fundamental piece of social cognition. Adult humans and other primates readily reason about others' affiliative relation- ships (e.g., Cheney & Seyfarth, 2007; Cosmides, Tooby, & Kurz- ban, 2003; Kenny, Mohr, Bond, & Horn, 1996), but little is known about the developmental origins of this ability. Understanding affiliation is complicated, and information relevant for interpreting and predicting others' interactions is not always apparent through observable features such as perceptual similarity or physical prox- imity. Adults conceive of abstract similarities between people, such as shared attitudes, beliefs, and intentions, as indicating affiliative bonds (e.g., Byrne & Nelson, 1965). Infants also use intentions to understand other people's actions (e.g., Woodward, Sommerville, Gerson, Henderson, & Buresh, 2009), but it is un- known whether infants recruit such knowledge to reason about the interpersonal structure of the social world. In the current research, we investigate whether infants use intentions to form expectations about third-party affiliation, and specifically ask whether infants' social expectations recruit information about others' shared and opposing evaluations. Infants show impressive selectivity in their own social affilia- tions: They prefer to interact with individuals who were previously nice (e.g., Hamlin & Wynn, 2011; Hamlin, Wynn, & Bloom, 2007), and individuals who share their preferences (Mahajan & Wynn, 2012) or native language (Kinzler, Dupoux, & Spelke, 2007). However, it is possible that these precocious social achieve- ments are limited to situations that directly involve the infant, reflecting a desire to feel safe, which draws infants toward familiar or similar others. If infants' affiliative inferences were limited to first-person situations, they could nonetheless choose good social partners without analyzing and predicting other people's affiliation patterns.
A hybrid extended finite element/level set method for modeling phase transformations

A hybrid numerical method for modelling the evolution of sharp phase interfaces on fixed grids is presented. We focus attention on two-dimensional solidification problems, where the temperature field evolves according to classical heat conduction in two subdomains separated by a moving freezing front. The enrichment strategies of the eXtended Finite Element Method (X-FEM) are employed to represent the jump in the temperature gradient that governs the velocity of the phase boundary. A new approach with the X-FEM is suggested for this class of problems whereby the partition of unity is constructed with C1(Ω) polynomials and enriched with a C0(Ω) function. This approach leads to jumps in temperature gradient occurring only at the phase boundary, and is shown to significantly improve estimates for the front velocity. Temporal derivatives of the temperature field in the vicinity of the phase front are obtained with a projection that employs discontinuous enrichment. In conjunction with a finer finite difference grid, the Level Set method is used to represent the evolution of the phase interface. An iterative procedure is adopted to satisfy the constraints on the temperature field on the phase boundary. The robustness and utility of the method is demonstrated with several benchmark problems of phase transformation. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A robust and extensible tool for data integration using data type models

Integrating heterogeneous data sets has been a significant barrier to many analytics tasks, due to the variety in structure and level of cleanliness of raw data sets requiring one-off ETL code. We propose HiperFuse, which significantly automates the data integration process by providing a declarative interface, robust type inference, extensible domain-specific data models, and a data integration planner which optimizes for plan completion time. The proposed tool is designed for schema-less data querying, code reuse within specific domains, and robustness in the face of messy unstructured data. To demonstrate the tool and its reference implementation, we show the requirements and execution steps for a use case in which IP addresses from a web clickstream log are joined with census data to obtain average income for particular site visitors (IPs), and offer preliminary performance results and qualitative comparisons to existing data integration and ETL tools.
HC-search: learning heuristics and cost functions for structured prediction

Structured prediction is the problem of learning a function from structured inputs to structured outputs. Inspired by the recent successes of search-based structured prediction, we introduce a new framework for structured prediction called HC-Search. Given a structured input, the framework uses a search procedure guided by a learned heuristic H to uncover high quality candidate outputs and then uses a separate learned cost function C to select a final prediction among those outputs. We can decompose the regret of the overall approach into the loss due to H not leading to high quality outputs, and the loss due to C not selecting the best among the generated outputs. Guided by this decomposition, we minimize the overall regret in a greedy stagewise manner by first training H to quickly uncover high quality outputs via imitation learning, and then training C to correctly rank the outputs generated via H according to their true losses. Experiments on several benchmark domains show that our approach significantly outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.
Magnetic and transport properties of epitaxial Fe 3 O 4 films grown at different oxygen pressure

The performance of spintronic devices depends critically on the ability to control the properties of high spin-polarization materials such as magnetite (Fe3O4) in thin films. In this work, the effect of oxygen pressure on the transport and magnetic properties of Fe3O4 thin films was extensively investigated. The 20 nm Fe3O4 films were grown on MgO (001) substrates using molecular beam epitaxy under different oxygen pressure. The quality of epitaxial Fe3O4 thin films was judged by observation of the Verwey transition and corroborated by x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS). In particular, the resistivity measurements showed the Verwey transition to be as sharp as bulk magnetite, which has not been seen in previous studies for film thicknesses less than 30 nm. Therefore, this work provides insight for the growth of ultrathin magnetite films with high crystal quality and sharp Verwey transition. Furthermore, the magnitude of the magnetization change at the Verwey transition was observed to be sensitive to the oxygen pressure during film growth. These results are consistent with the XPS measurements and indicate a relative narrow range of optimal oxygen pressure for the formation of high quality thin magnetite films with electronic and magnetic properties close to bulk Fe3O4.
DECAY OF $sub 55$$sup 129$Cs

The decay of $_{55}^{129}\mathrm{Cs}$ [produced by the ($\ensuremath{\alpha},2n$) reaction on ${\mathrm{I}}^{127}$] has been studied by use of the techniques of scintillation spectroscopy. The half-life of this activity was measured as 32.06\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}0.06 h. Gamma rays with energies 94, 174, 270, 278, 321, 375, 416, 549, 591, 904, and 945 keV have been observed in the singles and coincidence measurements. The 270-keV gamma ray was observed only in the coincidence measurements. Considerable effort was made to derive accurate energy and intensity information from the spectroscopic data. The electron-capture branching ratios to the ground state and excited states were determined from the coincidence measurements; $log\mathrm{ft}$ values for the various decay branches were derived from these ratios and the gamma-ray intensity measurements. A decay scheme is presented and compared with the pairingmodel calculations of Kisslinger and Sorensen.
BEAVER-POND SEQUENCE MORPHOLOGY AND SEDIMENTATION IN NORTHWESTERN MONTANA

Two adjacent beaver-pond sequences of seven ponds each were examined along the eastern boundary of Glacier National Park, Montana, to determine spatial patterns and amounts of sedimentation, both within individual ponds and along pond sequences. Dams and their associated ponds were categorized into two age groups, young versus old, based on dam morphology and surface vegetation. Old ponds contained significantly more sediment than did young ponds. However, hypothesized patterns of downstream reductions in coarse-grained sediment, both within a pond and along a sequence, were not observed, nor were there any discernible patterns in sediment texture across ponds. [Key words: beaver pond, sedimentation, Rocky Mountains, Montana.]
Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions analysis of catalysts for hydrotreating of fast pyrolysis bio-oil

Abstract Bio-oil from fast pyrolysis of biomass requires multi-stage catalytic hydroprocessing to produce hydrocarbon drop-in fuels. One process design currently in development involves fixed beds of ruthenium-based catalyst and conventional petroleum hydrotreating catalyst. As the catalyst is spent over time as a result of coking and other deactivation mechanisms, it must be changed out and replaced with fresh catalyst. A main focus of bio-oil upgrading research is increasing catalyst lifetimes to 1 year. Biofuel life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) assessments typically ignore the impact of catalyst consumed during fuel conversion as a result of limited lifetime, representing a data gap in the analyses. To help fill this data gap, life cycle GHGs were estimated for two representative examples of fast pyrolysis bio-oil hydrotreating catalyst, NiMo/Al 2 O 3 and Ru/C, and integrated into the conversion-stage GHG analysis. Life cycle GHGs are estimated at 5.5 kg CO 2 -e/kg catalyst for NiMo/Al 2 O 3 . Results vary significantly for Ru/C, depending on whether economic or mass allocation methods are used. Life cycle GHGs for Ru/C are estimated at 80.4 kg CO 2 -e/kg catalyst using economic allocation and 13.7 kg CO 2 -e/kg catalyst using mass allocation. Contribution of catalyst consumption to total conversion-stage GHGs at 1-year catalyst lifetimes is 0.5% for NiMo/Al 2 O 3 and 5% for Ru/C when economic allocation is used (1% for mass allocation). This analysis does not consider the use of recovered metals from catalysts and other wastes for catalyst manufacture and therefore these are likely to be conservative estimates compared to applications where a spent catalyst recycler can be used.
Investigation of the pH Induced Conformational Rearrangement of Influenza Hemagglutinin

Influenza hemaggutinin (HA), a trimeric membrane fusion glycoprotein, guides the invasion of flu viruses into its host cells through endocytosis after binding to their receptors. During this process, a reduced endosomal pH triggers a large-scale structural rearrangement of HA2, the evolutionarily conserved stem domain of HA. This structural change is responsible for the fusion of the viral and the host membranes, facilitating the subsequent delivery of viral genome. Although the end states structures of the HA2 transition have been crystallized, the molecular details of this transition is unknown. To map out the overall picture, here we employ a combination of both coarse-grained and explicit solvent molecular dynamics simulations with the aim of understanding the underlying mechanism of membrane fusion. Our simulations suggest that the overall transition is separated into a fast phase and a slow phase. At the fast phase, HA2 experiences a fast order-disorder transition at a junction domain (Loop3-4) and reaches an asymmetric configuration. In the subsequent slow phase HA2 starts two transition pathways. Also, the results reveal that a reduction in pH destabilizes HA2 by protonating some key residues near its fusion peptides. Finally, a timescale competition among different domains of HA2 is shown to be necessary for HA function.
Compared to What?: Ali Aggregation and the Changing Contours of Due Process and the Power of Lawyers

A half century ago, class actions were controversial. Aggregation was seen as permissible only under exceptional circumstances that could justify departures from the obligations of individual voice, participation, and control of the then-dominant procedural framework. The adoption in 2009 by the American Law Institute of Principles of the Law of Aggregate Litigation mark the normalization of group-based adjudication as well as the embrace of group-based settlements through which lawyers and judges shape binding and preclusive judgments. In those principles, the ALI offered two models of the “process due,” one focused on court-based obligations of public performance and the other imposing some regulation on out-of-court behavior yet relaxing relational constraints on lawyers by licensing them to enter into individual contracts pre-authorizing mass settlement negotiations. The ALI’s expansive attitudes contrast to another understanding of due process, exemplified by the 2008 Supreme Court decision of Taylor v. Sturgell. That ruling insisted that courts could not rely on the idea of “virtual” represenstation to use a judgment against one party to preclude another, even if the sequential plaintiffs shared the same lawyer. This essay explores the histories, differences, and benefits of these divergent approaches as they allocate authority among disputants, lawyers, judges, and give meaning to the phrase “due process of law.”
Textual Silences and the (Re)Presentation of Black Undergraduate Women in Higher Education Journals: A Critical Discourse Analysis.

Academic journals serve as a discipline’s official discourse reflecting what has been deemed important in that discipline at a specific point in time. For the better part of 20 years, discourses in the field of student affairs have constructed Black men as a population in need of specific attention. The proliferation of scholarship on Black men and a surface examination of quantitative data have left many with the impression that Black women students are succeeding. This study problematizes the assumptions regarding the status of Black undergraduate women by examining how the population is discursively represented in higher education journals and how those representations impact discourses of student affairs practice. To answer these questions, the study uses critical discourse analysis (CDA) to examine the use of textual silences to construct a narrative of the experiences of Black undergraduate women. This approach centers the role of language in the process of social practices and the maintenance and reproduction of societal power imbalances (Gavey, 1989). The analysis of data in this study resulted in three major themes describing discourses of Black undergraduate women: (1) persistence in the face of adversity, (2) preeminence of interdependent relationships, and (3) Black women as race plus gender. Broad implications from this study directly relate to the need for more varied, nuanced, and intersectional literature addressing the needs of Black undergraduate women. Furthermore, there is a call for student affairs practitioners to critically engage with academic journals as they seek to inform their practice and journal producers to consider the diversity of perspective and encourage innovation in the review process.
Petrology of some lithic fragments of alkalic high-alumina basalt composition from Apollo 12 coarse fines

The mineralogy and petrology of three lithic fragments of alkalic highalumina basalt (Kreep) composition from the Apollo 12 coarse fines was studied in detail, using an electron microprobe, in order to gain insight into their crystallization histories. Most rocks of this composition are brecciated and our study indicates that a variety of environments of crystallization can be distinguished for mineral fragments and matrices. Mineral fragments are derived from members of the ANT suite (probably troctolites) in fragments 2 and 5, and the alkalic high-alumina basalt suite in fragment 3. The rocks from which they were derived were coarse-grained, recrystallized and equilibrated, as indicated by major, and especially, minor elements. Minor elements in plagioclase, olivine, pyroxene, and zircon are consistently lower in mineral fragments as compared with matrix minerals. The origin of large zircon fragments is problematic but they are probably from the alkalic high-alumina basalt suite. Mineral fragments may have been derived from plutonic rocks (none have yet been recognized from the alkalic high-alumina basalt suite), but possibly also from breccia fragments which were recrystallized in hot, thick ejecta blankets. The matrix of the lithic fragments is of alkalic high-alumina basalt composition and is either igneous or metamorphic, or both. Hence, lithic fragments 2 and 5 are polymict breccias whereas fragment 3 is a monomict breccia. Matrix glasses in fragments 2 and 3 represent melts fractionated along the orthopyroxeneplagioclase cotectic in the olivine-anorthite-silica pseudoternary system. If these liquids could be separated from the residuum and crystallized they would be, as yet, unrecognized members of the alkalic high-alumina basalt suite. The alkalic high-alumina basalt mixing component of fragment 5 (a polymict breccia) has such a composition and may be derived from such a fractionated rock. A mineral fragment of pyroxene intergrown with ilmenite, approximately parallel to (001), is interpreted as decorated shock lamellae rather than as a deep-seated intergrowth, as found in kimberlites. A glass coating on one side of fragment 3 has SiO2-rich and feldspathic schlieren and appears to be derived, by impact melting, from a rock of granite composition.
Closed Loop Positioning Control for a DNC-Milling Machine

The open loop positioning devices of a direct numerically controlled milling machine have been converted to provide feedback to the computer for a closed loop control system. The computer program to check and correct table movement and position after each step as well as the generalized point to point operating routine are presented.
Do Individual Perceptions Matter in Pornography Effects? How Perceived General Acceptance and Influence of Pornography May Impact Agreement With Sex-Role Attitudes

Pornography use is often associated with less-progressive sex-role attitudes, such as endorsement of a sexual double standard between heterosexual partners, but the process by which this relationship occurs is still largely unexamined. The present study was conducted to examine how perceptions about pornography may play a role in the relationship between pornography use and sex-role attitudes. Perceived general acceptance and perceived influence of pornography on most people partially mediated the relationship between pornography use and sex-role attitudes. The more participants reported using pornography, the more they believed pornography was generally accepted and had a positive influence; however, conversely to what was hypothesized, the more positive they perceived pornography’s influence, the less likely they were to report sex-role attitudes that endorse a sexual double standard.
Highly Valued Degrees at California State University, Long Beach

California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) received the 2014 national award from the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) for Excellence and Innovation in Student Su...
Status of the Cotesia flavipes species complex (Braconidae: Microgastrinae) based on mitochondrial 16S rRNA and NADH 1 dehydrogenase gene sequence

Partial DNA sequences of the mitochondrial 16S ribosomal RNA and NADH 1 dehydrogenase genes (831 bp) were determined for 7 species of the parasitic wasp genus Cotesia, including all three members of the Cotesia flavipes species complex. Cladistic analy sis was used to infer a phylogenetic tree and examine the relationships among members of the C. flavipes complex. The DNA sequences were also used to determine the extent of se quence variation among members of the complex in order to evaluate the specific status of each of the three species. Unweighted parsimony analysis indicated that the C. flavipes com plex is monophyletic and that C. chilonis and C. sesamiae are more closely related to each other with respect to C. flavipes. However, we were unable to confirm that C. chilonis and C. sesamiae are in fact separate species as only ~1% sequence divergence was observed in a pairwise comparison of the DNA sequences for these two species. A list of potentially use ful diagnostic characters is presented.
Entropy and Other Measures of Chaos

The throw of a dice and the flip of a coin are the best-known devices for generating an unpredictable end result. In both cases the detailed sequence of events cannot be controlled at each step so as to guarantee a definite outcome. The main problem seems to lie with the starting conditions although relatively few parameters are involved: the position and the momentum of the center of mass, as well as the orientation in space and the angular momentum at a given instant in time. These quantities would have to be measured with an accuracy far exceeding any practical instrument; moreover, the drag from the air and the bouncing from surfaces would have to be investigated to a degree that is not ordinarily available. Nevertheless, there is a chain of cause and effect from beginning to end; nothing is inherently random in the elementary mechanics, but our ignorance makes it so.
Radial-contour mode microring resonators: Nonlinear dynamics

Abstract This research is on the dynamics of electrostatically actuated radial-contour mode microring resonators. The governing equation of motion is derived by the minimization of the Hamiltonian and generalized to include the viscous damping effect. The Galerkin method is used to discretize the distributed-parameter model of the considered ring resonator. The periodic solutions in the vicinity of fundamental natural frequency are determined by means of shooting method; the stability of the periodic orbits are investigated by determining the well-known Floquet exponents of the perturbed motions. The influences of intermolecular forces such as van der Waals and Casimir on the dynamic behavior of the resonator are investigated. The natural frequencies and mode shapes of the ring are calculated for various values of ratio of radii (β). The effect of the design parameters including ring radius, electrostatic voltage and quality factor on the dynamic responses, is discussed. The results of present study can be used in the design of novel MEMS resonators, RF filters and channelizers.
Raising or control? Children's early get-passives

This research study examines children’s comprehension of the get-passive, to determine (i) what age the get-passive is acquired, (ii) how children perform with ‘get’ relative to ‘be’, and (iii) what structure(s) children assign to the get-passive. We argue that the results of two experiments (with children around 3-4 years to 6 years) indicate that young children may initially assume a causative/control analysis of the get-passive, allowing them to comprehend those that have animate subjects alone. By around age 4, children comprehend both actional get- and be-passives, and interpret the by-phrase as containing the agent of the action.
A tunable inductor based on a magnetic flux valve

This paper introduces a novel tunable inductor whose inductance can be adjusted continuously in a large range. The new inductor has one winding wrapped on a magnetic flux valve (MFV) and two C-cores attached to each side of the MFV to form a closed magnetic circuit. Its inductance can be altered continuously by applying an external control voltage on the MFV. This paper presents the concept, configuration, and working principle of the proposed novel tunable inductor. The calculation of the inductance is also introduced based the equivalent magnetic circuit theory. A prototype of the tunable inductor is designed and constructed. Experiments are performed on the prototype to prove the proposed tunable inductor concept.
The Role of Microglia and Macrophages in CNS Homeostasis, Autoimmunity, and Cancer

Macrophages are major cell types of the immune system, and they comprise both tissue-resident populations and circulating monocyte-derived subsets. Here, we discuss microglia, the resident macrophage within the central nervous system (CNS), and CNS-infiltrating macrophages. Under steady state, microglia play important roles in the regulation of CNS homeostasis through the removal of damaged or unnecessary neurons and synapses. In the face of inflammatory or pathological insults, microglia and CNS-infiltrating macrophages not only constitute the first line of defense against pathogens by regulating components of innate immunity, but they also regulate the adaptive arms of immune responses. Dysregulation of these responses contributes to many CNS disorders. In this overview, we summarize the current knowledge regarding the highly diverse and complex function of microglia and macrophages during CNS autoimmunity—multiple sclerosis and cancer—malignant glioma. We emphasize how the crosstalk between natural killer (NK) cells or glioma cells or glioma stem cells and CNS macrophages impacts on the pathological processes. Given the essential role of CNS microglia and macrophages in the regulation of all types of CNS disorders, agents targeting these subsets are currently applied in preclinical and clinical trials. We believe that a better understanding of the biology of these macrophage subsets offers new exciting paths for therapeutic intervention.
Ureteral stents increase risk of postoperative acute kidney injury following colorectal surgery

Ureteral stents are commonly placed before colorectal resection to assist in identification of ureters and prevent injury. Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a common cause of morbidity and increased cost following colorectal surgery. Although previously associated with reflex anuria, prophylactic stents have not been found to increase AKI. We sought to determine the impact of ureteral stents on the incidence of AKI following colorectal surgery. All patients undergoing colon or rectal resection at a single institution between 2005 and 2015 were reviewed using American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program dataset. AKI was defined as a rise in serum creatinine to ≥ 1.5 times the preoperative value. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed to identify independent predictors of AKI. 2910 patients underwent colorectal resection. Prophylactic ureteral stents were placed in 129 patients (4.6%). Postoperative AKI occurred in 335 (11.5%) patients during their hospitalization. The stent group demonstrated increased AKI incidence (32.6% vs. 10.5%; p < 0.0001) with bilateral having a higher rate than unilateral stents. Hospital costs were higher in the stent group ($23,629 vs. $16,091; p < 0.0001), and patients with bilateral stents had the highest costs. Multivariable logistic regression identified predictors of AKI after colorectal surgery including age, procedure duration, and ureteral stent placement. Prophylactic ureteral stents independently increased AKI risk when placed prior to colorectal surgery. These data demonstrate increased morbidity and hospital costs related to usage of stents in colorectal surgery, indicating that placement should be limited to patients with highest potential benefit.
Mine Warfare in the Russo-Japanese War: The Royal Navy Perspective

The Russo-Japanese War was the first modern naval conflict in which independent mines played a leading role. This chapter examines the Royal Navy’s view on the conflict as presented by their naval attaches. It shows what information was sent back to London and how this was shaped by the assumptions of the attaches. This gives insight into the cultural attitudes of these naval officers. The chapter concludes by looking at how the attaches’ reports were received in London and what this tells us about attitudes towards the mine.
II. Just War and Imagination Are Not Mutually Exclusive

The Appeal declares, “We believe that there is no ‘just war,’” because it has been “used to endorse rather than prevent or limit war,” and it “undermines the moral imperative to develop tools and capacities for nonviolent transformation of conflict.” In what follows, I offer a response to the latter part of the Appeal ’s criticism, one that has been similarly made by the Protestant pacifist theologian Stanley Hauerwas and the Irish Catholic theological ethicist Linda Hogan—namely, that JWT prevents us from imagining alternatives to war. For Hauerwas and Hogan, “just war” has been a dangerous figment of our imagination since the time of Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, and it has thereby impeded Catholics’ ability to imagine nonviolence as a faithful and practical way for addressing conflict. Similarly, the Appeal asks us to imagine a church without “just war” and, instead, with “just peace.” However, while I take both the Appeal ’s criticism of just war and its call for nonviolence seriously, I think its portrayal of just war is a distortion and fails to acknowledge that just war theorists actually have imaginatively developed tools and capacities for addressing conflict that are directed toward protecting and building just peace. In the end, I will also suggest that the Appeal lacks consideration of the ethic behind just war, which actually provides a method for moral thinking about the use of all forms of force—not only war, but also nonviolent resistance, which is also a form of force—and, indeed, many other questions in applied ethics.
Evaluation findings from the Institute for Public Health and Faith Collaborations.

Objective.The Institute for Public Health and Faith Collaborations sought to cultivate boundary leadership to strengthen collaboration across religious and health sectors to address health disparit...
Homework: Parent and Student Involvement and Their Effects on Academic Performance

The present study investigated the influence of student homework time and parental time and involvement in helping activities on grade 3 and 5 students' academic performance. A six-week Log Phase followed a Survey Phase to evaluate the ability of these variables to predict teachers' ratings of academic performance and students' percent correct on math and spelling tests and assignments. Thirty-one grade 3 and 5 parents collected homework information on a nightly basis in the Log Phase, while two types of surveys were administered to the larger pool of parents and teachers in the Survey Phase. Homework time and helping time were found to be predictive of academic performance across grade levels, especially for the grade 3 group. Students characterized as below average performers tended to spend more time than above average performers and received greater parental help. The predictive strength of parental helping time differed for grade according to phase; and the frequency of parental involvement in certai...
Dopaminergic Neurons in the Substantia Nigra in Normal Aging and MPTP-Lesioned Mice

Parkinson’s disease is a slowly progressive neurodegenerative disorder that seldom occurs in patients below the age of 60. Its incidence increases with age, but the cause remains unknown. Typically, the disease is characterized by decreased dopamine levels in the striatum and a loss of pigmented dopamine nerve cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta. 1-Methyl-4-phenyl-l,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP) is a commercially available compound that has been illicitly used as a new type of heroin (Langston et al, 1983). Many users developed a Parkinson-like disorder with bradykinesia, rigidity, tremor, flexed posture, loss of postural reflexes, mutism, and drooling following intravenous (IV) administration of MPTP (Davis et al., 1979; Langston et al., 1983; Langston and Ballard, 1985). Since then, MPTP has been shown to produce parkinsonian symptoms and neuropathology of the nigrostriatal dopamine system in nonhuman primates as well as in mice (Burns et al., 1983; Langston et al., 1985; Heikkila et al., 1984; Gupta et al., 1984–1986).
Breath and Being: Contextualizing Object Persons at Paquimé, Chihuahua, Mexico

For almost 50 years North American archaeologists have applied the ­processual paradigm, which holds that culture is an extra-somatic means of adaptation whereby artifacts and buildings “functioned as tools.” Even 30 years ago with the push for postprocessual approaches that de-emphasized functional considerations in favor of other interpretations, such as ritual and cognitive significance, many features and objects were still considered passive items that were used to communicate religious or cosmological principles. Although anthropologists have long been astounded by how many of the various ontologies found throughout the world accorded a spiritual, active, living nature to some artifacts, features, and the landscape, the implications of this fundamental premise for artifact/human interaction has only been considered over the last decade by a handful of archaeologists.
The Explosion of -Omic-Based Technology and its Impact on the Exposome

Shortly after the creation of the field of genomics, other investigators noted the utility of a comprehensive approach to their particular discipline. A means of examining the totality of protein expression, metabolites, lipids, etc., was viewed as an attractive and comprehensive way of study. The obvious fields of genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, pharmacogenomics, metabolomics, and proteomics are developed, representing some of the major -omic technologies. These have been followed by an explosion of other -omes and -omics. This chapter examines some of the more common -omic disciplines, the corresponding technologies, their advantages and limitations, and how they can contribute to the exposome.
Cellular and Molecular Mechanisms Underlying Arterial Baroreceptor Remodeling in Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes

Clinical trials and animal experimental studies have demonstrated an association of arterial baroreflex impairment with the prognosis and mortality of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. As a primary part of the arterial baroreflex arc, the pressure sensitivity of arterial baroreceptors is blunted and involved in arterial baroreflex dysfunction in cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Changes in the arterial vascular walls, mechanosensitive ion channels, and voltage-gated ion channels contribute to the attenuation of arterial baroreceptor sensitivity. Some endogenous substances (such as angiotensin II and superoxide anion) can modulate these morphological and functional alterations through intracellular signaling pathways in impaired arterial baroreceptors. Arterial baroreceptors can be considered as a potential therapeutic target to improve the prognosis of patients with cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.
Association Between Market Competition and Prices of Generic Topical Dermatology Drugs.

Importance During the last decade, increases in drug prices for commonly prescribed dermatologic medications have outpaced the rate of inflation, national health care growth, and reimbursements. Among nondermatologic medications, studies have shown a role for robust generic market competition in reducing drug prices. The association between competition and the costs of topical dermatologic generic drugs has not been evaluated. Objective To characterize the association between changes in drug price and the number of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved manufacturers among the most commonly used topical dermatologic generic products. Design, Setting, and Participants This retrospective cost analysis of the most commonly prescribed topical dermatologic generic drugs used cumulative annual claims data from the Medicare Part D Prescriber Public User File to identify 597 dermatologist-prescribed drugs with more than 10 claims. The number of manufacturers and the price per unit were identified from the FDA Orange Book and the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) database, respectively, for 2013 through 2016. Drugs that were nondermatologic, were not topically administered, were missing NADAC data, were lacking a generic formulation, or had fewer than 400 claims were excluded. Main Outcomes and Measures Primary outcomes included per-unit drug price and number of FDA-approved manufacturers. Pricing measures were adjusted for inflation and are reported in 2016 dollars. Results The present analysis included 116 topical dermatologic generic formulations, representing 70.5% of the total Medicare Part D dermatologist-coded claims from 2015. Drug formulations with 1 to 2 manufacturers during the study period sustained a median percentage increase in price of 12.7%, whereas those with more than 6 manufacturers had a median percentage decrease in price of 20.5%. Formulations with 1 to 2 manufacturers had a 20.6%, 19.5%, and 33.2% higher percentage increase in price than those with 3 to 4 manufacturers, 5 to 6 manufacturers, and more than 6 manufacturers, respectively. There was a statistically significant inverse association between the percentage change in drug price and median number of manufacturers (Spearman correlation coefficient, −0.26;P = .005). Conclusions and Relevance The negative association between the change in drug price and the median number of manufacturers of generic topical dermatologic drugs indicates a role for market competition in controlling the costs of generic drug prices within dermatology. These findings support policies that facilitate robust market competition among topical dermatologic generic drugs produced by a limited number of manufacturers.
The Joint of the Architect’s Hand

In modern day architecture practice, the role of the hand in the design process has been displaced by the advent of new technology. There is an inherent desire in practice to rely fully on the computer, which within its digital parameters removes the direct connection of the architect’s hand from the creative process. To create meaningful architecture, it is imperative to understand that the relationship of the architect’s hand in the design process is as critical as the relationship of the architectural joint to the project. To understand the hand, I approached it architecturally and rigorously studied its form and structure. At the same time, I studied several sculptors and artists, such as Richard Serra, Eduardo Chillida, Robert Morris and Eva Hesse who concentrated on the process over the final product. I created section drawings of select pieces and analyzed them with hand motions to study their forms. With these analyses, I created a material joint that explored different ways to “hold” masses and “join” different materials. With my hand analyses and material joints, I have understood the level of the “joint” at different scales: from the hand that makes the architecture to the actual structure that holds architecture together.
Optical approaches for single-cell and subcellular analysis of GPCR–G protein signaling

G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), G proteins, and their signaling associates are major signal transducers that control the majority of cellular signaling and regulate key biological functions including immune, neurological, cardiovascular, and metabolic processes. These pathways are targeted by over one-third of drugs on the market; however, the current understanding of their function is limited and primarily derived from cell-destructive approaches providing an ensemble of static, multi-cell information about the status and composition of molecules. Spatiotemporal behavior of molecules involved is crucial to understanding in vivo cell behaviors both in health and disease, and the advent of genetically encoded fluorescence proteins and small fluorophore-based biosensors has facilitated the mapping of dynamic signaling in cells with subcellular acuity. Since we and others have developed optogenetic methods to regulate GPCR–G protein signaling in single cells and subcellular regions using dedicated wavelengths, the desire to develop and adopt optogenetically amenable assays to measure signaling has motivated us to take a broader look at the available optical tools and approaches compatible with measuring single-cell and subcellular GPCR–G protein signaling. Here we review such key optical approaches enabling the examination of GPCR, G protein, secondary messenger, and downstream molecules such as kinase and lipid signaling in living cells. The methods reviewed employ both fluorescence and bioluminescence detection. We not only further elaborate the underlying principles of these sensors but also discuss the experimental criteria and limitations to be considered during their use in single-cell and subcellular signal mapping.