cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Multiple Roles for the MyoD Basic Region in Transmission of Transcriptional Activation Signals and Interaction with MEF2

Establishment of skeletal muscle lineages is controlled by the MyoD family of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors. The ability of these factors to initiate myogenesis is dependent on two conserved amino acid residues, alanine and threonine, in the basic domains of these factors. It has been postulated that these two residues may be responsible for the initiation of myogenesis via interaction with an essential myogenic cofactor. The myogenic bHLH proteins cooperatively activate transcription and myogenesis through protein-protein interactions with members of the myocyte enhancer factor 2 (MEF2) family of MADS domain transcription factors. MyoD-E12 heterodimers interact with MEF2 proteins to synergistically activate myogenesis, while homodimers of E12, which lack the conserved alanine and threonine residues in the basic domain, do not interact with MEF2. We have examined whether the myogenic alanine and threonine in the MyoD basic region are required for interaction with MEF2. Here, we show that substitution of the MyoD basic domain with that of E12 does not prevent interaction with MEF2. Instead, the inability of alanine-threonine mutants of MyoD to initiate myogenesis is due to a failure to transmit transcriptional activation signals provided either from the MyoD or the MEF2 activation domain. This defect in transcriptional transmission can be overcome by substitution of the MyoD or the MEF2 activation domain with the VP16 activation domain. These results demonstrate that myogenic bHLH-MEF2 interaction can be uncoupled from transcriptional activation and support the idea that the myogenic residues in myogenic bHLH proteins are essential for transmission of a transcriptional activation signal.
The Case for the Natural Science Model For Research in Organizational Behavior And Organization Theory

Research methods similar to those used in the natural sciences have long been the norm in organizational behavior and organization theory. However, several writers have recently questioned their appropriateness for the study of organizations and the groups and individuals who make them up. In this paper I examine five major objections to the use of such methods in organizational behavior and organization theory and conclude that, while they may indicate a need for more thoughtful application of the natural science approach, they do not rule it out as the primary research strategy for the study of organizations.
Mechanisms and depths of Atlantic transform earthquakes

Mechanisms and depths of 40 earthquakes on major transforms along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge are studied in order to identify events that deviate from the transform-parallel strike-slip motion. Long and short period waves and Rayleigh wave spectral amplitudes are used to analyze focal mechanisms, depths, source time functions, and seismic moments of earthquakes. The relationship between centroid depths and transform thermal structures is examined. The data reveal that transform earthquake centroid depths occur above the predicted 400 C isotherms and the oceanic intraplate depths extend to the 750 C isotherm. Slip rates inferred from seismic moment releases are compared to those predicted by plate motions and good correlation is detected. The difference in the centroid depths of transform and interplate seismicity indicates transforms are either weaker or higher temperatures than expected.
Optimal Expansion Planning for the Deployment of Wind Energy

With the growing concern regarding climate change, the integration of renewable electric technologies into the grid has taken on increased importance over the past decade. In particular, the integration of wind energy is increasing the attention paid to power transmission investment planning, generation adequacy, and secure system operation. This attention calls for the development of new tools that can simultaneously address the economics, transmission, ancillary services, and reserve requirements associated with wind energy. This paper proposes a method for choosing the optimal plan for expanding transmission and generation considering optimal power flow, discrete plant sizes, and the resource variability of wind energy. The method minimizes total cost, i.e., the sum of the construction cost and the operation cost, to fulfill expected load. Due to the nature of transmission expansion planning and the economies of scale associated with conventional power plants, finding the expansion plan is an integer p...
Employing coherent detection for on-chip six-axis position sensors

Recent interest in multi-chip integration has motivated the development of on-chip sensors to address alignment challenges of assembling complex multi-chip packages. Earlier sensor implementations were susceptible to transistor leakage currents. More recent demonstrations correct this issue by measuring differences in coupling capacitances and using coherent detection to lower the noise floor. In this paper, we discuss these mechanisms that improve the accuracy of on-chip position sensors. We also present new methods of determining chip separation that can leverage coherent detection by measuring only differences in coupling.
Disruption of the ifkA and ifkB genes results in altered cell adhesion, morphological defects and a propensity to form pre‐stalk O cells during development of Dictyostelium

IfkA and ifkB are two GCN2-like genes present in Dictyostelium. Disruption of either gene alone results in subtle developmental defects. However, disruption of ifkA and ifkB within the same strain results in severe morphological and patterning defects in the developing double null cells. The mutant cells aggregate in streams that give tightly clumped mounds. Fingers form from the mounds but remain attached to one another, especially at their bases. The fingers culminate to give fused and entangled structures lacking proper stalk but containing some spores. The morphological defects are consistent with an enhanced cell–cell and cell–substrate adhesiveness of the developing double null cells, which may result in inappropriate cell contacts and altered cell motility and sorting properties. In ifkA/ifkB nulls, cell type proportioning and patterning is altered in favor of ALC/pstO cell types. The bias toward the ALC/pstO cell types may be due, in part, to the nuclear localization of the transcription factor STATc in growing ifkA/ifkB null cells. STATc normally becomes localized to the nucleus during finger formation and only within the pre-stalk O zone. The precocious nuclear localization seen in the mutant cells may predispose the cells to a ALC/pstO cell fate. The findings indicate that IfkA and IfkB have redundant functions in Dictyostelium morphogenesis that involve maintaining proper cell–cell and cell–substrate adhesion and the equilibrium between different cell types for proper spatial patterning.
Multi-Label Prediction via Sparse Infinite CCA

Canonical Correlation Analysis (CCA) is a useful technique for modeling dependencies between two (or more) sets of variables. Building upon the recently suggested probabilistic interpretation of CCA, we propose a nonparametric, fully Bayesian framework that can automatically select the number of correlation components, and effectively capture the sparsity underlying the projections. In addition, given (partially) labeled data, our algorithm can also be used as a (semi)supervised dimensionality reduction technique, and can be applied to learn useful predictive features in the context of learning a set of related tasks. Experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed approach for both CCA as a stand-alone problem, and when applied to multi-label prediction.
Domestic Violence and Longitudinal Associations With Children’s Physiological Regulation Abilities

The present study examined the impact of domestic violence (DV) on children’s emotion regulation abilities measured via baseline vagal tone (VT). Specifically, the authors examined the relationship between DV exposure and children’s regulatory functioning over time, investigating whether DV exposure was related to the trajectory of children’s physiological regulatory abilities from the preschool period to middle childhood. Covariates, including marital dissatisfaction and conduct-problem status, along with potential gender differences, were examined. Though all children increased in baseline VT from Time 1 to Time 2, children exposed to DV displayed less increase in baseline VT over time as compared to nonexposed children. Results in terms of the long-term outcomes of DV on children and implications for interventions were taken into consideration and discussed in the article.
Trim bit setting of analog filters using wavelet-based supply current analysis

Wavelet transform has the property of resolving signal in both time and frequency unlike Fourier transform. In this work, we show that time-domain information obtained from wavelet analysis of supply current can be used to efficiently trim analog filters. The pole/zero locations in the frequency response of analog filters shift due to change in component values with process variations. Wavelet analysis of supply current can be a promising alternative to test frequency specification of analog filters, since it needs only one test stimulus and is virtually unaffected by transistor threshold variation. Simulation results on two test circuits demonstrate that we can estimate pole/zero shift with less than 3% error.
The Effect of Frequency Sweeping and Fluid Flow on Particle Trajectories in Ultrasonic Standing Waves

Particle concentration and separation in ultrasonic standing waves through the action of the acoustic radiation force on suspended particles are discussed. The acoustic radiation force is a function of the density and compressibility of the fluid and the suspended particles. A two-dimensional theoretical model is developed for particle trajectory calculations. An electroacoustic model is used to predict the acoustic field in a resonator, driven by a piezoelectric transducer. Second, the results of the linear acoustic model are used to calculate the acoustic radiation force acting on a particle suspended in the resonator. Third, a particle trajectory model is developed that integrates the equation of motion of a particle subjected to a buoyancy force, a fluid drag force, and the acoustic radiation force. Computational fluid dynamics calculations are performed to calculate the velocity field that is subsequently used to calculate fluid drag. For a fixed frequency excitation, the particles are concentrated along the stable node locations of the acoustic radiation force. Through a periodic sweeping of the excitation frequency particle translation is achieved. Two types of frequency sweeps are considered, a ramp approach and a step-change method. Numerical results of particle trajectory calculations are presented for two configurations of flow-through resonators and for two types of frequency sweeping. It is shown that most effective particle separation occurs when the fluid drag force is orthogonal to the acoustic radiation force.
Tracking Success: High School Curricula and Labor Market Outcomes by Race and Gender

Education researchers have established that educational tracking reinforces inequalities, but they have not fully examined the affect of these tracks on labor market outcomes for men and women of different races/ethnicities. At the same time, labor market researchers have studied the association between education and income by race and gender, but they do not distinguish among types of education. The researchers integrate these literatures by examining the relationship between educational tracking in secondary school and income in young adulthood, using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study. This study finds that educational tracking is associated with income, independent of the quantity of education.
PPL: an explicitly parallel production language for large scale parallelism

Considerable work has been done on parallelizing compilers for production languages, but the results are inadequate for tasks with large-scale parallelism. It is argued that explicitly parallel production languages are necessary for such tasks. PPL (Parallel Production Language), an explicitly parallel production language, is described. PPL is closely related to the OPS family of languages and is based primarily on OPS5. >
Quantitative metalations of 2-substituted 1,3-dithianes at -78°C using n-BuLi/Na-O-t-Bu

Abstract Substituted dithianes can be metalated rapidly at −78°C in a virtually quantitative fashion using n-BuLi and Na-O-t-Bu in THF. Subsequent introduction of an electrophile affords fully substituted masked ketone equivalents.
Reforming Campaign Ads

Dissatisfaction with paid campaign advertisements in recent elections has generated heartfelt pleas for fundamental change in the ways elections are conducted. Following the example of Australia and until recently West Germany, some have called for an outright ban on television campaign ads in the United States. Others more worried about the effect on last-minute deciders have suggested the application of the French model, where ads are banned during the closing weeks of the campaign (Schoenbach, 1987: Penniman and Ranney, undated). These calls undoubtably reflect the deep frustration felt by viewers over the poor educational quality of advertisements in the United States. But it is far too simple to blame ads for these deficiencies. The problem of political commercials is as much a function of campaign structure and voter reactions as candidate behavior. Structural and attitudinal changes in the nature of campaigns have loosened the forces which used to restrain elite strategies. The rise of a mass-based campaign system at a time when candidates have powerful means of influencing viewers creates big incentives for media campaigns. Voters are bombarded with spot ads precisely because of the short-term possibilities evident in recent races (West, 1991a; 1991b). Since the problem of advertisements goes much deeper than ads themselves, it is unlikely that the elimination of television ads would solve the problems which plague American elections. After all, nonsubstantive appeals by candidates did not originate with television ads in 1952. fluffy rhetoric has a long tradition in American politics (Jamieson and Campbell, 1988). It was long before the dawn of the media age that politicians discovered they could fool some of the people at least some of the time. Recent court rulings furthermore make an outright ban on campaign commercials unlikely. Since ads are a protected form of candidate expression, court decisions after Buckley v. Valeo in 1976 generally have treated candidate advertisements as tantamount to free speech. This makes them subject to constitutional protection, and thereby quite difficult to restrict. Most efforts at direct regulation have been resisted as unconstitutional encroachments upon free press (Caywood and Preston, 1989). Because of court restrictions surrounding ad regulation, many reform initiatives aiming to improve campaign ads have been geared toward less direct approaches. These range from short-term proposals designed to overcome specific problems of advertisements to longer term changes which would reorient the role of advertising in American elections. Ultimately though, for any of these reforms to succeed, reporters are going to have to adopt a more aggressive stance in their coverage of candidate advertisements. Without effective oversight on the part of the free media, no reform is likely to improve campaign discourse.
The Clinton Scandal in Retrospect

On December 19, 1998, the House of Representatives approved two articles of impeachment against President Bill Clinton. The first article, passed by a vote of 228-206, charged that the president had given "perjurious, false and misleading testimony to a federal grand jury" (Cong. Rec. 1998, H12040). The second article, passed by a vote of 221-212, charged that the president had committed obstruction of justice in the sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by Paula Corbin Jones (Cong. Rec. 1998, H12042). Clinton thus became only the second president in the nation's history to be impeached by Congress. He also was the first elected president in history to suffer that fate. Clinton faced the prospect of also being the first president in history to be removed from office. A two-thirds majority
Mechanisms of bacterial pathogenicity

Pathogenic bacteria utilise a number of mechanisms to cause disease in human hosts. Bacterial pathogens express a wide range of molecules that bind host cell targets to facilitate a variety of different host responses. The molecular strategies used by bacteria to interact with the host can be unique to specific pathogens or conserved across several different species. A key to fighting bacterial disease is the identification and characterisation of all these different strategies. The availability of complete genome sequences for several bacterial pathogens coupled with bioinformatics will lead to significant advances toward this goal.
Abstracts From the Proceedings of the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM)

The Clerkship Directors in Internal Medicine (CDIM) is the organization dedicated to medical student education in internal medicine. Its members include educators across the continuum of medical st...
Microstructure and wear resistance of doped diamondlike carbon prepared by pulsed laser deposition

The authors have investigated the microstructure and tribological properties (wear resistance) of diamondlike carbon (DLC), DLC doped with Cu and DLC doped with Ti deposited by a sequential pulsed laser ablation of two targets onto Si(100) substrates. The composition of these films was determined by Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). Raman spectroscopy and detailed analysis of the electron diffraction pattern of the films showed typical features of DLC with a structure dominated by sp{sup 3} bonded carbon. Wear resistance measurements made on these samples by means of the crater grinding method showed that DLC + 2.75% Ti has the highest wear resistance, while that of undoped DLC has the lowest among the samples. The improvement of wear behavior of the doped films was attributed to the reduction of internal compressive stress due to the presence of more compliant atoms, as indicated by the G-peak position shift to smaller Raman shift. The XPS studies showed the evidence for the formation of Ti-C bonding in the Ti doped films. Thus they expect metal-doped DLC coatings can have better tribological properties than the undoped, highly stressed DLC coatings.
Down regulation of PSA by C/EBPα is associated with loss of AR expression and inhibition of PSA promoter activity in the LNCaP cell Line

Background: C/EBPα is a transcription factor essential for terminal differentiation of several cell types. It has not known if C/EBPα protein is expressed and functions in the prostate gland. Methods: The presence of C/EBPα in normal and cancerous prostate epithelium was examined by immunochemistry. Over expression of C/EBPα in LNCaP cells was conducted with retrovirusmediated transduction. PSA expression was examined by RT-PCR and western blot and PSA promoter activity by luciferase reporter assay. Results: In normal prostate C/EBPα was expressed in the basal layer of the epithelium. In prostate cancer C/EBPα was detected at low levels throughout the cancers and in advanced prostate cancer C/EBPα expression was associated with decreased expression of AR and PSA. Overexpression of C/EBPα inhibited epigenetically PSA expression and was accompanied by the loss of expression of AR. Transient increase of C/EBPα inhibited the PSA promoter/enhancer activity independently of expression of AR. Conclusion: In LNCaP cells C/EBPα over expression inhibits expression of PSA by AR -dependent and independent mechanisms and by extinguishing AR expression provides a model for hormonal independent cell growth.
Global Climate Change: Background and Sociological Contributions

The source of the global, systemic problem of global climate change (GCC) is principally human activities (anthropogenic forces). While an understanding of climate change is the purview of climate and related scientists, an understanding of the human factors contributing to climate change is the purview of the social sciences. The social sciences can also contribute to the assessment of appropriate strategies and policies for addressing climate change issues. Such an assessment is undertaken by three social scientists?Loren Lutzenhiser, Thomas Rudel, and Timmons Roberts?in the articles that follow. This article presents an introduction to those contributions by providing an historical overview of the globalization of environmental concerns and a context for understanding the sociological significance of climate change. It also highlights the contribution of the three articles to our understanding of climate policy.
The Effects of Energy and Amino Acid Levels on Performance and Carcass Quality of Male and Female Broilers Grown Separately

Abstract Studies were conducted to evaluate the response of male and female broiler chickens to diets containing different levels of energy and amino acids. Two energy series were compared: 3,080, 3,135, and 3,190 kcal of ME/kg (“low”) and 3,190, 3,245, and 3,300 kcal of ME/kg (“high”) in pelleted starter, grower, and finisher diets. Diets provided a minimum of 85, 90, 95, 100, 105, and 110% of suggested amino acid recommendations for the broiler male except for Met and TSAA, which were kept at 105%. Modifications were made in feeding periods, recognizing the differences in rate of gain and marketing ages of the two sexes. Feeding periods were 0 to 21, 21 to 42, and 42 to 56 days for males and 0 to 18, 18 to 35, and 35 to 49 days for females. Four floor pen trials utilizing 9,600 male and 9,600 female broilers were conducted. Birds were processed to determine dressing percentage and abdominal fat pad weights. Energy content of the diets had no significant (P>.05) effect on body weight or feed efficiency for male or female broilers. Carcass dressing percentage of females, but not males, was significantly (P
Application of a novel measure of EEG non-stationarity as 'Shannon- entropy of the peak frequency shifting' for detecting residual abnormalities in concussed individuals.

Abstract Objective The aim of this report was to propose a novel measure of non-stationarity of EEG signals, named Shannon- entropy of the peak frequency shifting (SEPFS). The feasibility of this method was documented comparing this measure with traditional time domain assessment of non-stationarity and its application to EEG data sets obtained from student-athletes before and after suffering a single episode of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) with age-matched normal controls. Methods Instead of assessing the power density distribution on the time–frequency plane, like previously proposed measures of signal non-stationarity, this new measure is based on the shift of the dominant frequency of the EEG signal over time. We applied SEPFS measure to assess the properties of EEG non-stationarity in subjects before and shortly after they suffered mTBI. Student-athletes at high risk for mTBI ( n =265) were tested prior to concussive episodes as a baseline. From this subject pool, 30 athletes who suffered from mTBI were retested on day 30 post-injury. Additional subjects pool (student-athletes without history of concussion, n =30) were recruited and test–re-tested within the same 30day interval. Thirty-two channels EEG signals were acquired in sitting eyes closed condition. Results The results showed that the SEPFS values significantly decreased in subjects suffering from mTBI. Specifically, reduced EEG non-stationarity was observed in occipital, temporal and central brain areas, indicating the possibility of residual brain dysfunctions in concussed individuals. A similar but less statistically significant trend was observed using traditional time domain analysis of EEG non-stationarity. Conclusions The proposed measure has at least two merits of interest: (1) it is less affected by the limited resolution of time–frequency representation of the EEG signal; (2) it takes into account the neural characteristics of the EEG signal that have not been considered in previously proposed measures of non-stationarity. Significance This new method may potentially be used as a complementary tool to assess the alteration of brain functions as a result of mTBI.
Incidence and predictors of 30-day readmission among patients hospitalized for advanced liver disease.

Background & Aims The rate of readmission to the hospital 30 days after discharge (30-day readmission rate) is used as a quality measure for hospitalized patients, but it has not been studied adequately for patients with advanced liver disease. We investigated the incidence and factors that predict this rate and its relationship with mortality at 90 days. Methods We analyzed data from patients with advanced liver disease who were hospitalized to an inpatient hepatology service at 2 large academic medical centers in 2008. Patients with elective admission and recipients of liver transplants were not included. During the study period, there were 447 patients and a total of 554 eligible admissions. Multivariate analyses were performed to identify variables associated with 30-day readmission and to examine its relationship with mortality at 90 days. Results The 30-day readmission rate was 20%. After adjusting for multiple covariates, readmission within 30 days was associated independently with model for end-stage liver disease scores at discharge (odds ratio [OR], 1.06; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.02–1.09; P = .002), the presence of diabetes (OR, 1.78; 95% CI, 1.07–2.95; P = .027), and male sex (OR, 1.73; 95% CI, 1.03–2.89; P = .038). After adjusting for age, sex, and model for end-stage liver disease score at discharge, the 90-day mortality rate was significantly higher among patients who were readmitted to the hospital within 30 days than those who were not (26.8% vs 9.8%; OR, 2.6; 95% CI, 1.36–5.02; P = .004). Conclusions Patients with advanced liver disease frequently are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days after discharge; these patients have a higher 90-day mortality rate than those who are not readmitted in 30 days. These data might be used to develop strategies to reduce early readmission of hospitalized patients with cirrhosis.
Examining potential benefits of group living in a sawfly larva, Perga affinis

Although defense may serve as a primary selective force behind the evolution and maintenance of social behavior, numerous other benefits play a role as well. Larvae of the Australian sawfly, Perga affinis, live in colonies and retain their gregarious lifestyle through pupation. To evaluate selective pressures maintaining social behavior in P. affinis, I investigated potential benefits of group living. These included predation protection, immune function, thermoregulation, foraging facilitation, and pupation success where I compared treatments between individuals versus groups and between groups of different sizes. I found no evidence of predation on larvae; however, the mortality risk was significantly higher for single versus grouped larvae, suggesting that other grouping benefits are important. Immune function was not a benefit as hemolymph from single versus grouped larvae did not differ in its ability to limit bacterial growth. Investigating thermoregulation revealed that grouped larvae attained significantly higher temperatures than single individuals and that large groups reached higher temperatures than small groups. Larvae grew significantly faster at higher temperatures, indicating that the increased heat absorption and retention capacity of large groups may speed up development. Group size did not affect foraging facilitation (measured via weight gain) except during the last time period, where individuals in large groups gained significantly more weight. Weight gain in the last instar may be critical for pupation as high larval weight significantly increased the odds of pupation success. Thus, the group size effect on weight gain during the last instar provides an adaptive explanation for the observed ontogenetic increase in colony size and coalescence. Key words: group living, growth rate, group size, larvae, ontogenic shift, thermoregulation. [Behav Ecol]
Selecting a CEO: The Leader, the Business Builder, or the Technologist Case Number: CG-15 Publication Year: 2009

In 2003, the board of directors of GDF decided to initiate a thorough search process to replace its existing CEO. GDF Corp was a leader in the telecommunications industry, offering network equipment and enterprise solutions to a broad range of customers around the world. The company’s business came under pressure during the technology bust of 2001 and 2002. An interim CEO was brought in to stabilize the company, but by 2003 the board realized that it needed a new CEO to bring the business up to the level of performance that the board and shareholders expected. This case describes in detail the external search process used by GDF. It also describes in detail the three finalists for the position. Readers of the case are asked to decide who they would select as GDF’s new CEO. They are also asked to structure the executive’s compensation.
Conceptual and technical advances define a key moment for theoretical neuroscience.

Theoretical approaches have long shaped neuroscience, but current needs for theory are elevated and prospects for advancement are bright. Advances in measuring and manipulating neurons demand new models and analyses to guide interpretation. Advances in theoretical neuroscience offer new insights into how signals evolve across areas and new approaches for connecting population activity with behavior. These advances point to a global understanding of brain function based on a hybrid of diverse approaches.
Catalytic reduction of 4,4′-(2,2,2-trichloroethane-1,1-diyl)bis(methoxybenzene) (methoxychlor) with nickel(I) salen electrogenerated at reticulated vitreous carbon cathodes

Abstract Methoxychlor [or 4,4′-(2,2,2-trichloroethane-1,1-diyl)bis(methoxybenzene)], a common environmental pollutant, has been catalytically reduced with nickel(I) salen electrogenerated in situ at carbon cathodes in dimethylformamide (DMF) containing 0.050 M tetra- n -butylammonium tetrafluoroborate (TBABF 4 ). Cyclic voltammograms for reduction of nickel(II) salen in the presence of various concentrations of methoxychlor provide evidence for catalytic reduction. Cathodic peak currents for the nickel(II) salen–nickel(I) salen redox couple increase in proportion to the concentration of methoxychlor, whereas the anodic peak current associated with reoxidation of nickel(I) salen diminishes; in addition, a cathodic prepeak appears at higher concentrations of methoxychlor. Controlled-potential (bulk) electrolyses of nickel(II) salen at reticulated vitreous carbon cathodes in the presence of methoxychlor allowed the n value for reduction of methoxychlor to be determined. With the aid of gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, major electrolysis products have been identified as 4,4′-(2-chloroethene-1,1-diyl)bis(methoxybenzene) and 4,4′-(ethene-1,1-diyl)bis(methoxybenzene), and the product distribution was determined by means of gas chromatography. Adducts arising from the combination of fragments derived from methoxychlor and DMF have also been detected and confirmed, and a mechanistic scheme is proposed to account for the various products.
Peasant Stem Families in Early Modern Austria: Life Plans, Status Tactics, and the Grid of Inheritance*

And you know the story about a son whose wife disliked her father-in-law so much that she denied him a place at the table. Nor was he allowed to sleep in a separate room but had to make do with a place under the stairs. When winter came and the father asked the son for a cloak because he could no longer bear the cold, the son gave the father two yards of cloth to mend his torn old coat or cover himself otherwise. The son’s little son also asked for two yards of cloth and, when his father asked him why, he replied: he would keep them until the time when his father was weak and old and would give them to him as father had just done with grandfather. The father came to his senses, took his son’s words to heart and sent the boy to the old father with a fur coat and an invitation to return to the table. He also provided his father with a room of his own. (anecdote from a German evangelical sermon, 1586) The persons in this story make up a stem family at a particular point in its life course; that is, they form a domestic group composed of parents (in this case, a single surviving parent) living with one married child who has taken over the family property and has begun rearing offspring of his own. There are a number of variations on this story in the folklore of early modern Central Europe. Each story treats the discords which can arise in such families. For example, in a shorter and somewhat coarser version than that given above, the father was hungry and a pig’s trough replaces the two yards of cloth. Despite differences in language and emotional content, however, the moral is generally the same: parents deserve to share in what they have helped create, and their presence in the family serves to teach intergenerational cooperation and respect to the young. In the version quoted here this point is made especially well by having the child remind the father of his obligations. We are confronted here by a thoroughly socialized child whose invocation of the Golden Rule reestablishes order and harmony in the family’s affairs.
Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy Calculation in Finite-Difference Time-Domain Package

Electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) is a unique tool that is extensively used to investigate the plasmonic response of metallic nanostructures. We present here a novel approach for EELS calculations using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method (EELS-FDTD). We benchmark our approach by direct comparison with results from the well-established boundary element method (BEM) and published experimental results. In particular, we compute EELS spectra for spherical nanoparticles, nanoparticle dimers, nanodisks supported by various substrates, and a gold bowtie antenna on a silicon nitride substrate. Our EELS-FDTD method can be easily extended to more complex geometries and configurations. This implementation can also be directly exported beyond the FDTD framework and implemented in other Maxwell’s equation solvers.
Assessment of Academic Advising: A Cross-Sectional Study

We highlight a study of an academic advising program at the University of Michigan. Students were surveyed via the Internet, and we summarize data obtained in 2001 and 2002. The majority of respond...
Spaceflight Reduces Foreign Protein Expression in Tissue-engineered Skeletal Muscle

Skeletal muscle atrophy is a well-known effect of spaceflight in both humans and animals. Although the mechanisms of this effect is multifactorial, it has previously been demonstrated in an in vitro model using tissue-engineered skeletal muscle (Bioartificial Muscles, BAMs) that spaceflight can cause skeletal muscle atrophy at the tissue level through down-regulation of total endogenous protein synthesis rates. In this study, BAMs were engineered from avian skeletal muscle cells genetically-engineered to secrete recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH) and flown aboard the space shuttle on a 9-day mission to determine the effects of spaceflight on the synthesis of a foreign protein whose gene is controlled by a constitutively expressed retroviral promoter. Spaceflight did not significantly affect the rate of BAM glucose metabolism, but compared to ground-control BAMs, space-flown BAMs secreted 47.5% less rhGH (p<0.05). Based on this study, it appears that spaceflight has a direct negative effect on skeletal muscle protein synthesis rate at the translational rather than transcriptional level.
Pulmonary Emboli and Deep Vein Thromboses: Are They Always Part of the Same Disease Spectrum?

ABSTRACT Background: Pulmonary embolis (PEs) are thought to emanate from deep vein thromboses (DVTs). Government agencies now use thromboembolic events as a quality metric for reimbursement for care. Recent data suggest that PEs and DVTs may represent different pathologic processes. We sought to identify separate risk factors for PEs and DVTs to test whether they are the same disease process. Methods: A retrospective review of the National Trauma Data Bank between 2007 and 2010 was performed. Demographics, complications, comorbidities, and injury data were reviewed for risk factors for patients diagnosed with a PE or DVT. Results: After exclusion criteria were met 521,969 patient entries were analyzed. Of these patients, 4,154 and 1,460 had a DVT or PE, respectively,while 8% (433) of patients had both. PEs and DVTs, had 18 overlapping risk factors, 26 independent risk factors (5 for PEs; 21 for DVTs), and one divergent risk factor. Conclusion: Despite PEs and DVTs having overlapping risk factors, there ar...
Trade Deficits and Economic Policy: A Law and Economics Analysis

This paper analyzes trade deficits from a law and economics perspective. The author concludes that trade deficits are the result of faulty accounting and that economic policy should not be influenced by the presence or extent of a trade deficit because the balance of trade figure is an irrelevant statistic.
Empirical, Analytical Study of Hardware-Based Page Swap in Hybrid Main Memory System

Emerging persistent memories (PM) such as PCM or STT-MRAM promise to make up for the shortcomings of DRAM which undergoes a scaling problem and a wasteful refresh power consumption. Hence, a future system memory is anticipated to be a hybrid of DRAM and PM. For such a system to achieve better performance, it is paramount to exploit the heterogeneity of memory access latencies with page swaps that place hot pages in faster, smaller DRAM and cold pages in slower, larger PM. The goal of this paper is to study the impact of a hardware-based page swap in a hybrid memory on the application performance. To this end, we propose a simple analytical model that evaluates the profitability of a page swap by considering a distribution ratio of memory requests between two memories and a varying access latency to each memory. By comparing the outcome of the model to the architecture simulation performance, we show that the proposed model is a useful tool to analyze the behavior of a page swap. Also, we propose and evaluate a model-guided, hardware-driven page swap mechanism which regulates page swaps online. Our experimental results show that the model appraises the profitability of a page swap with an accuracy of 90.9% for the studied workloads. Meanwhile, the model-guided page swap improves IPC performance, on average, by 28.9% and 13.3% compared to no page swap and static page swap schemes. In addition, our model-guided page swap dramatically reduces the number of page swaps by up to 17.3× over static page swap schemes, thus improving performance.
Cubic curves and totally geodesic subvarieties of moduli space

In this paper we present the rst example of a primitive, totally geodesic subvariety F M g;n with dim(F ) > 1. The variety we consider is a surfaceF M 1;3 dened using the projective geometry of
Black Deaths Matter: Race, Relationship Loss, and Effects on Survivors:

Close relationships are a resource for mental and physical health that, like other social resources, is unequally distributed in the population. This article focuses on racial disparities in the loss of relationships across the life course. Racial disparities in life expectancy in the United States mean that black Americans experience the deaths of more friends and family members than do white Americans from childhood through later life. I argue that these losses are a unique type of stress and adversity that, through interconnected biopsychosocial pathways, contribute to disadvantage in health over the life course. I focus particularly on how the interconnected pathways associated with loss undermine opportunities for and increase risks to social ties throughout life, adding to disadvantage in health. I call on social scientists and policy makers to draw greater attention to this unique source of disadvantage for black children, adults, and families.
Excitonic Interactions in Bacteriochlorin Homo-Dyads Enable Charge Transfer: A New Approach to the Artificial Photosynthetic Special Pair.

Excitonically coupled bacteriochlorin (BC) dimers constitute a primary electron donor (special pair) in bacterial photosynthesis and absorbing units in light-harvesting antenna. However, the exact nature of the excited state of these dyads is still not fully understood. Here, we report a detailed spectroscopic and computational investigation of a series of symmetrical bacteriochlorin dimers, where the bacteriochlorins are connected either directly or by a phenylene bridge of variable length. The excited state of these dyads is quenched in high-dielectric solvents, which we attribute to photoinduced charge transfer. The mixing of charge transfer with the excitonic state causes accelerated (within 41 ps) decay of the excited state for the directly linked dyad, which is reduced by orders of magnitude with each additional phenyl ring separating the bacteriochlorins. These results highlight the origins of the excited-state dynamics in symmetric BC dyads and provide a new model for studying the primary processe...
A physician-led initiative to improve clinical documentation results in improved health care documentation, case mix index, and increased contribution margin

Abstract Introduction Clinical documentation is the key determinant of inpatient acuity of illness and payer reimbursement. Every inpatient hospitalization is placed into a diagnosis related group with a relative value based on documented procedures, conditions, comorbidities and complications. The Case Mix Index (CMI) is an average of these diagnosis related groups and directly impacts physician profiling, medical center profiling, reimbursement, and quality reporting. We hypothesize that a focused, physician-led initiative to improve clinical documentation of vascular surgery inpatients results in increased CMI and contribution margin. Methods A physician-led coding initiative to educate physicians on the documentation of comorbidities and conditions was initiated with concurrent chart review sessions with coding specialists for 3 months, and then as needed, after the creation of a vascular surgery documentation guide. Clinical documentation and billing for all carotid endarterectomy (CEA) and open infrainguinal procedures (OIPs) performed between January 2013 and July 2016 were stratified into precoding and postcoding initiative groups. Age, duration of stay, direct costs, actual reimbursements, contribution margin (CM), CMI, rate of complication or comorbidity, major complication or comorbidity, severity of illness, and risk of mortality assigned to each discharge were abstracted. Data were compared over time by standardizing Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) values for each diagnosis related group and using a CMS base rate reimbursement. Results Among 458 CEA admissions, postcoding initiative CEA patients (n = 253) had a significantly higher CMI (1.36 vs 1.25; P = .03), CM ($7859 vs $6650; P = .048), and CMS base rate reimbursement ($8955 vs $8258; P = .03) than precoding initiative CEA patients (n = 205). The proportion of admissions with a documented major complication or comorbidity and complication or comorbidity was significantly higher after the coding initiative (43% vs 27%; P Conclusions Accurate and detailed clinical documentation is required for key stakeholders to characterize the acuity of inpatient admissions and ensure appropriate reimbursement; it is also a key component of risk-adjustment methods for assessing quality of care. A physician-led documentation initiative significantly increased CMI and CM.
Psychiatric Disorders in Women’s Health

The global burden of psychiatric disorders is growing with major depression often being as debilitating as diabetes or coronary artery disease. Women often seek psychiatric care from their primary care provider or obstetrician/gynecologist. The most common psychiatric disorders seen in women include major depression, persistent depressive disorder, bipolar disorder as well as generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Most of these disorders are effectively treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) or similar antidepressant/anxiolytic medications (+/−psychotherapy). However, bipolar disorder requires mood stabilizers.
Development of the CYGNSS Geophysical Model Function for Wind Speed

Geophysical model functions (GMFs) are developed which map the Level 1 observables made by the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) radar receivers to ocean surface wind speed. The observables are: 1) the normalized bistatic radar cross section ( σo ) of the ocean surface; and 2) the slope of the leading edge of the radar return pulse scattered by the ocean surface. GMFs are empirically derived from measurements by CYGNSS which are nearly coincident with independent estimates of the 10-m-referenced ocean surface wind speed ( u 10). Two different sources of “ground truth” wind speed are considered: numerical weather prediction model outputs and measurements by the NOAA P-3 hurricane hunter during eyewall penetrations of major hurricanes. The GMFs derived in each case have significant differences that are believed to result from differences in the state of development of the long wave portion of the ocean surface height spectrum that result from characteristic differences in wave age and fetch length near versus far from a hurricane.
Value-driven cardiac surgery: Achieving “perfect care” after coronary artery bypass grafting

Abstract Objective The objective of this study was to determine if the implementation of a value-driven outcomes tool comprising modifiable quality and utilization metrics lowers cost and improves value of coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) postoperative care. Methods Ten metrics were defined for CABG patients in 2 temporally separated phases. Clinical care protocols were designed and implemented to increase compliance with these metrics. Clinical outcomes and cost data were harvested from the electronic medical record using a proprietary value-driven outcomes tool and verified by a data management team. "Perfect care" was defined as achieving all 10 metrics per patient episode. Results Over a 45-month period, data of 467 consecutive patients who underwent isolated CABG were analyzed. "Perfect care" was successfully achieved in 304 patients (65.1%). There were no observed differences in mortality between patient groups. Linear regression analysis showed a negative correlation between percent compliance with "perfect care" and mean cost. When multivariate analysis was used to adjust for preoperative risk score, mean cost for patients with "perfect care" was 37.0% less than for those without "perfect care." Conclusions In the context of focused institution-specific interventions to target quality and utilization metrics for CABG care, clinical care pathways and protocols informed by innovative tools that link automated tracking of these metrics to cost data might simultaneously promote quality and decrease costs, thereby enhancing value. This descriptive study provides preliminary support for a systematic approach to define, measure, and modulate the drivers of value for cardiothoracic surgery patients.