cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Characterization of Deleterious Mutations in Outcrossing Populations

Deng and Lynch recently proposed estimating the rate and effects of deleterious genomic mutations from changes in the mean and genetic variance of fitness upon selfing/outcrossing in outcrossing/highly selfing populations. The utility of our original estimation approach is limited in outcrossing populations, since selfing may not always be feasible. Here we extend the approach to any form of inbreeding in outcrossing populations. By simulations, the statistical properties of the estimation under a common form of inbreeding (sib mating) are investigated under a range of biologically plausible situations. The efficiencies of different degrees of inbreeding and two different experimental designs of estimation are also investigated. We found that estimation using the total genetic variation in the inbred generation is generally more efficient than employing the genetic variation among the mean of inbred families, and that higher degree of inbreeding employed in experiments yields higher power for estimation. The simulation results of the magnitude and direction of estimation bias under variable or epistatic mutation effects may provide a basis for accurate inferences of deleterious mutations. Simulations accounting for environmental variance of fitness suggest that, under full-sib mating, our extension can achieve reasonably well an estimation with sample sizes of only approximately 2000-3000.
Characterization of the R5912-02 MOD photomultiplier tube at cryogenic temperatures

Hamamatsu's R5912-02 MOD is an 8 inch diameter cryogenic photomultiplier tube of interest for light detection in large liquid noble dark matter and neutrino detectors. The R5912-02 MOD will be used in the MiniCLEAN single phase liquid argon dark matter detector and has been tested and characterized at cryogenic temperatures in the single photoelectron regime. A detailed model of the single photoelectron timing properties, pulse shape, and charge distribution will be described. The model extracts these parameters from fits to the unique multi-component timing structure of the R5912-02 MOD pulses.
A 12-b 750-ns subranging A/D converter with self-correcting S/H

The author presents results of a 12-b BiCMOS sampling analog-to-digital converter (ADC) IC. The ADC achieves full accuracy with an overall conversion time of 750 ns including sample acquisition. In addition, the design provides a 2.5-V reference output that can be used as the main reference for the ADC. A 2- mu m feature size BiCMOS process with 3-GHz polysilicon emitter n-p-n transistors was used to implement the design. The resulting die is 29.2 mm/sup 2/ and nominally dissipates 600 mW. >
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction in Advanced Nursing Practice: A Nonpharmacologic Approach to Health Promotion, Chronic Disease Management, and Symptom Control

The aim of this article is to discuss how advanced practice nurses (APNs) can incorporate mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) as a nonpharmacologic clinical tool in their practice. Over the last 30 years, patients and providers have increasingly used complementary and holistic therapies for the nonpharmacologic management of acute and chronic diseases. Mindfulness-based interventions, specifically MBSR, have been tested and applied within a variety of patient populations. There is strong evidence to support that the use of MBSR can improve a range of biological and psychological outcomes in a variety of medical illnesses, including acute and chronic pain, hypertension, and disease prevention. This article will review the many ways APNs can incorporate MBSR approaches for health promotion and disease/symptom management into their practice. We conclude with a discussion of how nurses can obtain training and certification in MBSR. Given the significant and growing literature supporting the use of MBSR in the prevention and treatment of chronic disease, increased attention on how APNs can incorporate MBSR into clinical practice is necessary.
Visceral white adipose tissue is susceptible to alcohol-induced lipodystrophy in rats: role of acetaldehyde.

Background Chronic alcohol exposure causes lipid dyshomeostasis at the adipose-liver axis, reducing lipid storage in white fat and increasing lipid deposit in the liver. Previous studies have shown that visceral fat, rather than subcutaneous fat, is a risk factor for metabolic diseases. This study was conducted to determine whether chronic alcohol exposure differentially affects lipid metabolism in visceral (epididymal) and subcutaneous fat, and the mechanisms underlying the alcohol effects. Methods Male Wistar rats were pair-fed the Lieber-DeCarli control or alcohol liquid diet for 12 weeks to determine the effects of alcohol on the white fat. Tissue explants culture and 3T3-L1 culture were conducted to define the role of acetaldehyde in alcohol-induced adipose tissue dysfunction. Results Chronic alcohol feeding significantly reduced visceral fat mass and down-regulated peroxisome proliferator activator receptor-γ and CCAAT/enhancer binding protein-α, 2 important transcription factors in regulation of lipogenesis. The protein levels of lipogenic enzymes including phospho-ATP-citrate lyase, acetyl-CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthase, lipin1, and diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 in the visceral fat were reduced. In contrast, chronic alcohol exposure did not affect subcutaneous fat mass and had less effect on the protein levels of lipogenic enzymes and regulators. Accordingly, the visceral fat showed a lower protein level of aldehyde detoxification enzymes compared to the subcutaneous fat. Acetaldehyde treatment to either visceral fat explants or 3T3-L1 adipocytes produced similar effects on lipogenic enzymes and regulators as observed in animal model. Conclusions These results demonstrated that visceral fat is more susceptible to alcohol toxicity compared to subcutaneous fat, and disruption of adipose lipogenesis contributes to the pathogenesis of alcoholic lipodystrophy.
Machine recognition vs human recognition of voices

While automated speaker recognition by machines can be quite good as seen in NIST Speaker Recognition Evaluations, performance can still suffer when the environmental conditions, emotions, or recording quality changes. This research examines how robust humans are compared to machine recognition for changing environments. Several data conditions including short sentences, frequency selective noise, and time-reversed speech are used to test the robustness of both humans and machine algorithms. Statistical significance tests were completed and, for most conditions, human were more robust.
A Test of Weak‐Form Efficiency in Residential Real Estate Returns

This paper tests weak-form efficiency of residential real estate returns for the city of Memphis, Tennessee. The database for the study is comprised of the population of all sales of single-unit residential property over a fifteen-year period, 1970–1984. The city was divided into ten submarkets based on Memphis City Planning Commission planning districts. An analysis of variance procedure was utilized to stabilize the variance both within and across submarkets and nonmarket financing was partially controlled by eliminating transactions with loan-to-value ratios greater than 95%. The remaining transactions were then used to generate a mean return series. The advantage of the mean over the single transaction series used by Gau is that it represents the most likely outcome for the investor trying to duplicate investment performance since “property unique” features would be expected to cancel. Seven of the ten submarkets exhibited time patterns; however, after adjusting for transaction costs, all ten submarkets were determined weak-form efficient for the period 1970–1984. This was not true for the short horizon holding period, 1970–1975. In four sub-markets an asymmetric version of Alexander's filter rule was able to outperform a buy-and-hold, even for round- trip transaction costs as high as 10%.
Measurement of DCF fluorescence as a measure of reactive oxygen species in murine islets of Langerhans

In islets of Langerhans, oxidative stress induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS) is thought to be critically involved in β-cell dysfunction during the development of diabetes. However, ROS have also been hypothesized to play a role in cellular signalling. To aid in delineating the effects of ROS in living islets of Langerhans, the endocrine portion of the pancreas that contain β-cells, we sought to develop a robust and reproducible protocol to measure these species using the fluorescent dye, 2',7'-dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (H2DCF-DA). The protocol that was developed minimized photobleaching and leakage of H2DCF from murineislets and utilized a normalization procedure to further reduce experimental variability. The method allowed for ~25 min of DCF measurement in living islets. We used the developed protocol to compare DCF fluorescence from batches of islets incubated in varying glucose concentrations and observed ~1.5-fold higher fluorescence signals in 3 vs. 20 mM glucose. The effects of diazoxide, which clamps open K+ATP channels reducing intracellular [Ca2+] ([Ca2+]i) without affecting glucose metabolism, were also investigated. The presence of diazoxide increased DCF fluorescence at all glucose concentrations tested while addition of 30 mM K+ to increase [Ca2+]i reduced the fluorescence by ~15%. With the developed protocol, all experimental methods tested to increase [Ca2+]i resulted in a decrease in DCF fluorescence, potentially indicating involvement of ROS in intracellular signalling cascades.
Design and optimization of CPW circuits using EM-ANN models for CPW components

Accurate and efficient electromagnetically trained artificial neural-network (EM-ANN) models have been developed for coplanar waveguide (CPW) circuit components. Modeled components include: CPW transmission lines (frequency dependent Z/sub 0/ and /spl epsiv//sub re/), 90/spl deg/ bends, short-circuit stubs, open-circuit stubs, step-in-width discontinuities, and symmetric T-junctions. These models allow for circuit design, simulation, and optimization within a commercial microwave circuit simulator environment, while providing the accuracy of electromagnetic (EM) simulation. Design and optimization of a CPW folded double-stub filter and a 50-/spl Omega/ 3-dB power divider circuit using the developed CPW EM-ANN models are demonstrated.
Microbiology and geochemistry of Little Hot Creek, a hot spring environment in the Long Valley Caldera

A culture-independent community census was combined with chemical and thermodynamic analyses of three springs located withintheLong Valley Caldera, Little Hot Creek (LHC) 1, 3, and 4. All three springs were approximately 80 � C, circumneutral, apparently anaerobic and had similar water chemistries. 16S rRNA gene libraries constructed from DNA isolated from spring sediment revealed moderately diverse but highly novel microbial communities. Over half of the phylotypes could not be grouped into known taxonomic classes. Bacterial libraries from LHC1 and LHC3 were predominantly species within the phyla Aquificae and Thermodesulfobacteria, while those from LHC4 were dominated by candidate phyla, including OP1 and OP9. Archaeal libraries from LHC3 contained large numbers of Archaeoglobales and Desulfurococcales, while LHC1 and LHC4 were dominated by Crenarchaeota unaffiliated with known orders. The heterogeneity in microbial populations could not easily be attributed to measurable differences in water chemistry, but may be determined by availability of trace amounts of oxygen to the spring sediments. Thermodynamic modeling predicted the most favorable reactions to be sulfur and nitrate respirations, yielding 40‐70 kJ mol )1 e ) transferred; however, levels of oxygen at or below our detection limit could result in aerobic respirations yielding up to 100 kJ mol )1 e ) transferred. Important electron donors are predicted to be H2 ,H 2S, S 0 ,F e 2+ and CH4, all of which yield similar energies when coupled to a given electron acceptor. The results indicate that springs associated with the Long Valley Caldera contain microbial
On Piggybacking in Vehicular Networks

This work is motivated by network applications that require nodes to disseminate their state to others. In particular, vehicular nodes will host applications that periodically disseminate time-critical state across the network to help improve on-road safety. In this work, we want to minimize the average age of state information that a node observes from any other node in networks with hundreds to thousands of nodes. We explore the benefits, vis-a-vis reducing age, of a multi-hop wireless network over a fully-connected one, for a physical network of on-road vehicles, by allowing nodes to piggyback other nodes' states. We show that for a large road network and a chosen schedule, there exists an optimal fraction of connected neighbor nodes, which, for a fixed signal-to-noise ratio between most distant nodes, is invariant to the size of the network. Via simulation we confirm that significant reductions in age are obtained via piggybacking for network sizes of interest.
Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis: Objectives and Design

The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis was initiated in July 2000 to investigate the prevalence, correlates, and progression of subclinical cardiovascular disease (CVD) in a population-based sample of 6,500 men and women aged 45-84 years. The cohort will be selected from six US field centers. Approximately 38% of the cohort will be White, 28% African-American, 23% Hispanic, and 11% Asian (of Chinese descent). Baseline measurements will include measurement of coronary calcium using computed tomography; measurement of ventricular mass and function using cardiac magnetic resonance imaging; measurement of flow-mediated brachial artery endothelial vasodilation, carotid intimal-medial wall thickness, and distensibility of the carotid arteries using ultrasonography; measurement of peripheral vascular disease using ankle and brachial blood pressures; electrocardiography; and assessments of microalbuminuria, standard CVD risk factors, sociodemographic factors, life habits, and psychosocial factors. Blood samples will be assayed for putative biochemical risk factors and stored for use in nested case-control studies. DNA will be extracted and lymphocytes will be immortalized for genetic studies. Measurement of selected subclinical disease indicators and risk factors will be repeated for the study of progression over 7 years. Participants will be followed through 2008 for identification and characterization of CVD events, including acute myocardial infarction and other coronary heart disease, stroke, peripheral vascular disease, and congestive heart failure; therapeutic interventions for CVD; and mortality.
Relation between Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale Wind Speeds and Peak 3-s Gust Speeds over Open Terrain

The Saffir-Simpson scale for categorizing hurricane intensity and damage potential is increasingly being used by hurricane forecasters and emergency managers. The hurricane intensity categories are associated in the scale with 1-min wind speeds. For structural engineering purposes the ASCE 7 Standard defines these 1-min speeds as speeds at 10 m over open water. This technical note provides estimates of the ratio of peak 3-s wind speeds at 10 m over open-terrain exposure—the speeds used in the ASCE 7 wind map—to 1-min speeds at 10 m above open water. Based on the ASCE 7 power-law model, the estimated ratio is 1.03. Based on the logarithmic law model, depending upon assumptions pertaining to the surface roughness for flow over open water, and upon the estimation method, the ratio varies from 1.03 to 1.12.
Introduction to the Neurobiology of Actin

Neurons are arguably the most complex cells in nature and are characterized by a complex, dynamic, and highly polarized morphology. Actin and its regulatory proteins are the most abundant set of proteins within cells and form one of the major cytoskeletal systems, the actin filament cytoskeleton. While much has been learned about the roles of the actin cytoskeleton in non-neuronal cells, our understanding of the full spectrum of the functions of actin in neurons is far from complete. This book is intended to provide the neuroscience community with an introduction to the interface between the actin cytoskeleton and the myriad of issues fundamental to the understanding of nervous system function. The book covers the neurobiology of actin ranging from basic cellular organization and function to the roles of actin in the health and disease states of the nervous system. This chapter provides a primer on actin intended to serve the reader as background and review for the rest of the chapters.
EShopMonitor: a Web content monitoring tool

Data presented on commerce sites runs into thousands of pages, and is typically delivered from multiple back-end sources. This makes it difficult to identify incorrect, anomalous, or interesting data such as $9.99 air fares, missing links, drastic changes in prices and addition of new products or promotions. We describe a system that monitors Web sites automatically and generates various types of reports so that the content of the site can be monitored and the quality maintained. The solution designed and implemented by us consists of a site crawler that crawls dynamic pages, an information miner that learns to extract useful information from the pages based on examples provided by the user, and a reporter that can be configured by the user to answer specific queries. The tool can also be used for identifying price trends and new products or promotions at competitor sites. A pilot run of the tool has been successfully completed at the ibm.com site.
Pelvic, Hip, and Thigh Injuries

Pelvic, hip, and thigh injuries are relatively rare in the young athlete (1). The young athlete with pelvic or hip pain may present with an acute injury necessitating immediate treatment. An acute injury may cause pain in the pelvic, hip, thigh, or even knee region. More commonly, the young athlete will have a chronic injury that will limit activities during or after sporting activities. The spectrum of injury can range from osseous tumors, masked by injury (2), to simple strains. Apophyseal avulsions and stress fractures are the most commonly encountered skeletal injuries of the hip and pelvis. These injuries can result in substantial amount of injury time for the young athlete. Diagnosis and treatment of the pelvis, hip, and thigh injuries is one of the most difficult clinical tasks for the sports physician, and one of possibly great frustration for the young athlete. Therefore, careful clinical diagnosis with considerations of broad differentials and appropriate treatment in this age group is crucial.
Christopher D. Lloyd: Exploring Spatial Scale in Geography

Over a decade ago, colleagues and I published a paper that attempted to clarify the meanings of the word “scale” (Dungan et al. 2002). We recommended that the context of “scale” should always be specified according to whether it pertained to (1) a process (or phenomenon), (2) observations (or measurements), or (3) analysis. Our paper, not for the first time and certainly not for the last, pointed out that scale has numerous meanings, some of which are unrelated and some of which are similar, or even contradictory. We suggested that the term should be avoided in favor of more specific terms (such as cartographic ratio, resolution, extent, support, range, grain, etc.) in order to reduce ambiguity. Professor Christopher Lloyd’s book, Exploring Spatial Scale in Geography, is about a diverse collection of scale-related topics. The introduction states that the focus of the book is on scale as “the size or extent of a process”, aligning with context (1) above. However, Professor Lloyd uses the term scale in almost all the other senses as well throughout the 253 pages of this slim volume, without distinguishing contexts (2) and (3). The book’s ten chapters touch on most aspects of spatial scale and illustrate them using case studies from human and physical geography. Professor Lloyd has aimed at a “stand-alone introduction” to the analysis of spatial scale. Unfortunately, the text does not live up to this promise. Though the survey-like nature of the material could be suitable for an introduction and the case studies are typically quite straightforward, there is a lack of coherence or depth-of-explanation that would really help geography students without a solid background in statistics. In numerous instances, terms are brought up without preamble or definition, such as cartograms (page 23), queen’s case contiguity (page 35), two-point patterns (page 92), multi-collinearity (page 114) and cross-validation (page 117).
The Elasticity of Rubber

Abstract Rubbers, natural and synthetic, are unique in being highly extensible and in retracting forcibly and quickly to substantially their original dimensions when released. It has been found that the stress-strain curves for extension and compression of most of the simplest vulcanizates of natural rubber and the three most important synthetic rubbers are similar in shape. The relationship is expressed by the equation F/M=(L−1−L−2) exp A(L−L−1) where F is the stress, L the ratio of stretched to unstretched length, and M and A are constants. The constant M depends on the nature of the rubber, the extent of vulcanization, and the time of creep. The constant A has a value of about 0.38. By a study of stress-temperature relations it is found that the most important factor in the retraction of stretched rubber is the tendency of long chain flexible molecules to return to a configuration which is statistically more probable than the one which the stretching has forced them to assume. Calculations of entropy c...
How Does National Context Shape Academic Work and Careers? The Prospects for Some Empirical Answers

The 2007–2008 Changing Academic Profession provides a wealth of data on the work activities and careers of academics in 19 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas (North and South). In making sense of the data and the story (or stories) that they tell about the “global” academic profession, it is important to understand that historically the very essence of the academic profession (who they are, what they do and where they do it, what kinds of careers they pursue) has differed markedly across countries. It is critical to have a basic understanding of those differences as a means to “correctly” interpret similarities and differences in the data across. This chapter identifies at least three (four) models or prototypes of the academic profession—the Latin American model, the Continental European (French and German) model, the North American (US and Canadian) model, and various “hybrid” models—exploring how these differ in terms of institutional work setting, type of work activities, career anchors and mobility, and demographic profile. The chapter concludes by addressing the question: To what extent, and in what ways, is globalization muting (or accentuating) these historic differences?
Cross-Class Nuptiality Patterns in Traditional Korea: Statistical Analysis of the Tansong Household Registers for 1678

This paper presents preliminary results of statistical analysis of the Tansong County household registers for 1678. We focus on identifying the social class of county residents and on identifying marriages. We use a multivariate LOGIT model to estimate probabilities of marriage, both within and outside of one's social class as functions of age. We find that almost all marriages are monogamous. We also find strong tendencies to marry within social class. Despite this there is significant intermarriage between social classes. This is primarily between commoners and non-resident slaves. Also males aristocrats, particularly older ones, marry commoners and slaves in significant numbers. Female aristocrats never marry outside their social class. We document significant differences in the marriage patterns for craftsmen, as opposed to other commoners; and for "true" aristocrats as opposed to marginal ones. We find strong influences of father and mother's status on marriage patterns, with higher status parents increasing the probability of marrying higher status spouses. Finally, we find evidence of strong village-level effects on marriage patterns which cannot be explained by the observed characteristics of the people living in those villages.
The Carry-over Effect of Advertising:

Most advertisers believe there is a carry-over effect of advertising. What evidence is available, and what does it indicate about the relationships of sales to advertising?The author of this articl...
The feasibility of turnback from a low altitude engine failure during the takeoff climb-out phase

Engine failure in a single engine aircraft at a low altitude is a critical evolution which demands immediate implementation of established procedures. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of executing a 180◦ turn and forced landing when engine failure occurs at 500 ft. following takeoff and transition to the climb-out phase of the flight. Using a variable stability flight simulator set for the performance of a light single engine aircraft and a computer-controlled automatic data acquisition system, various procedures for turning back to the airfield and landing were tested and optimized. Pilots ranging in experience from students with 40 hours, to FAA certified flight instructors, to veteran military pilots with more than 5000 hours were tested in the simulator controlled circumstances. The computercontrolled data acquisition system continually recorded the critical parameters of the flight and later processed the data for analysis. The final computer output consisted of eight graphs (airspeed, rate of climb, angle of attack, and bank angle vs time and altitude) and four different views of a graphic computer drawing of the actual flight path. With a data base of 28 pilots, an analysis of the processed output revealed that it is feasible to turn a light single engine aircraft 180◦ from 500 ft. and land the aircraft somewhere on the airfield. The data also show that the theoretical optimum bank of 45◦ with coordinated rudder does indeed turn the aircraft 180◦ with the least loss of altitude. However, the study also shows that 30◦ of bank with coordinated rudder produces only slightly inferior results with a much higher safety factor.
Queen control in colonies of weaver ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae).

The queens of the formicines Oecophylla longinoda (Latreille) and O. smaragdina (F.) are extremely attractive to major workers; stimuli from the head, apparently chemical in nature, induce the workers to regurgitate and present trophic eggs at frequent intervals. The queens suppress the laying of viable eggs but not trophic eggs by the major workers; the effect is evidently mediated by pheromones and persists in the corpses of the queens for as long as 6 months. A new system of intersegmental glands has been discovered in the abdomen of the queen. The propharyngeal, postpharyngeal, maxillary, and mandibular glands are well developed. These cephalic organs may serve in conjunction with the abdominal intersegmental glands as the source of the attractants and control substances.
Endoscopic Retrograde Cholangiopancreatography (ERCP): Pancreatoscopy for the Evaluation of Pancreatic Neoplasia

Peroral pancreatoscopy (POP) permits direct visualization of the main pancreatic duct (MPD). It may be utilized to discriminate malignant intraductal tumors and mucin from benign ductal pathology such as strictures and stones from chronic pancreatitis. POP is also utilized to guide intraductal lithotripsy in the setting of difficult pancreatic duct stones. In this chapter we will focus on the use of POP in the identification, clarification, and sampling of occult MPD lesions that may not be visible by noninvasive imaging, transluminal endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), or pancreatography. Further, we will review the complementary role of POP to alternate imaging modalities in the evaluation of patients with suspected or known pancreatic neoplasia.
Effects of feeding ergovaline on lamb performance in a heat stress environment.

Lambs exposed to a heat-stressed environment (33 degrees C, 50% relative humidity) were used in three experiments to determine whether ergovaline (EV) is the primary toxin involved in fescue toxicosis. The first study evaluated the effects of feeding diets containing increasing levels of endophyte-infected tall fescue seed (E+) and decreasing levels of endophyte-free tall fescue seed (E-). The second and third study evaluated the response to a diet that contained synthetic EV added to an E- diet and the response to a diet containing endophyte-infected ryegrass seed (R+) with an elevated concentration of EV. In Exp. 1, lambs were fed diets of: 1) 10% E- and 0% E+, 2) 5% E- and 5% E+, or 3) 0% E- and 10% E+. Increasing the percentage of E+ in the diet resulted in a linear decrease (P 0.10) from the E+ lambs; however, serum prolactin was lower (P 0.10) by feeding EV or E+ fescue seed in Exp. 2. In Exp. 3, lambs were fed diets that contained: 1) 10% E-, 2) 3.24% R+ and 6.76% E-, which added an equivalent amount of EV to E+ diets but reduced concentrations of other ergot alkaloids, or 3) 10% E+. Lambs fed the E+ diet and maintained at 33 degrees C had lowered feed intake (as-fed basis), skin temperature, and TCI compared with lambs fed the E- or R+ diets (P < 0.05). Lambs fed the E+ diet had increased rectal temperatures and lowered serum prolactin compared with lambs on the R+ diet (P < 0.05). Lambs on the R+ diet had a greater rectal temperature and lower serum prolactin than lambs on the E- diet (P < 0.05). These results suggest that EV is a fescue toxin; however, other alkaloids might work synergistically with EV, causing the full expression of fescue toxicosis.
Blood Level of Inter-Alpha Inhibitor Proteins Distinguishes Necrotizing Enterocolitis From Spontaneous Intestinal Perforation.

Objective To examine circulating levels of inter-alpha inhibitor protein (IaIp) in infants with necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP), and matched controls to assess the diagnostic accuracy of IaIp to differentiate NEC from SIP and to compare receiver operating characteristics of IaIp for NEC with C-reactive protein (CRP). Study design A prospective, nested case-control study of infants with feeding intolerance was carried out. Blood and clinical data were collected from 27 infants diagnosed with NEC or SIP and from 26 matched controls admitted to our unit. Infants with modified Bell criteria stage 2 or greater were included as NEC. Clinical, radiologic, and/or surgical findings were used to identify infants with SIP. Controls were matched for gestational age, postnatal age, sex, and birth weight. Results Mean ± SD IaIp blood levels were 147 ± 38 mg/L, 276 ± 67 mg/L, and 330 ± 100 mg/L in infants with NEC, SIP, and matched controls, respectively ( P P Conclusions IaIp levels were significantly decreased in infants with NEC compared with SIP and matched controls. The diagnostic accuracy of IaIp for NEC was superior to that of CRP.
The AC Conductivity in n-Type Silicon Below the Metal-Insulator Transition

In recent decades there have been many important developments, both experimental and theoretical, which have clarified our understanding of the various physical processes responsible for impurity band DC transport in doped semiconductors. In particular, the studies of Fritzsche and coworkers1−3 have distinguished the various thermally activated processes [σDC(T)=Σσi exp(−ei/kT)] responsible for phonon-induced hopping conduction on the insulating side of the metal-insulator (MI) transition. These DC transport studies of impurity-band conduction have been reviewed by Fritzsche4. One result for weakly-compensated Ge and Si was the demonstration that the activation energy e2 scaled to zero as the donor density (n-type) or acceptor density (p-type) approached a critical value Nc (the MI transition) for the onset of a finite σDC(N,T=0)” Nc is reliably given5, for a wide range of impurity-host systems, by the Mott criterion Nc 1/3a*= 0.26±0.05 where a* is an effective Bohr radius. The activation energy e2=(EC–EF) where EC is the mobility edge within the Anderson localization approach; e2 is the energy difference between upper and lower Hubbard bands within the Hubbard model. More recently, the scaling theory predictions of Abrahams et. al.6 for σDC(N,T=OK) for metallic samples have been experimentally confirmed for Si:P7, Ge:Sb8, and Si:As9, 10 and other systems. The experimental results for these impurity-host systems show σDC(N>NC, T→OK)α (N/Nc−1)υ but with different critical exponents11 for different systems. The uncompensated systems Si:P, Ge:Sb, and Si:As show υ≃0.5 rather than the Anderson localization prediction6 of υ≃1.
Buying a Commercial Telescope

This book is unashamedly intended to inspire amateur astronomers to join the exciting new breed of amateurs who use high-tech to observe and image the night sky. Many of these amateurs will already have purchased their dream telescopes and can easily skip this chapter without loss. However, an increasing number of newcomers to this hobby appear to be people who have spent many years working hard and earning money, with the dream of spending a good chunk of their savings on some top-notch equipment when they finally retire or leave the rat race. In other cases, younger observers have simply saved hard so they can afford the equipment of their dreams as soon as possible. With so much money at stake it is important to make the right decisions and not to be disappointed by an expensive mistake.
An Historic Chinese Abalone Fishery on California’s Northern Channel Islands

Beginning in the 1850s, Chinese abalone fishermen developed an intensive commercial fishery focused on the abundant black abalone (Haliotis cracherodii) stocks of Alta and Baja California. They systematically harvested and dried tons of abalone meat and shells from intertidal waters and shipped them to markets in mainland China and America. Several legislative attempts were made to curtail Chinese involvement in the fishing industry, claiming they were harvesting abalone without regard to size. Recent research documents the abundance, distribution, and constituents of historic abalone sites and discusses the impact of “Chinese” abalone fishermen on San Miguel Island, California. Thousands of shell measurements show that the Chinese harvested larger abalones than those collected by Native American foragers for 10,000 years prior to European contact, providing important data on local ecology during the early historic period.
The Multidimensional Problems of Educational Inequality Require Multidimensional Solutions

We have a fundamental problem in our society. Inequality is at an all-time high. The stubborn roots of inequality continue to entrench historically disadvantaged groups at the bottom of the ladder ...
Assessing the effectiveness of a community food security project for curriculum development

Many counties of Western North Carolina have high levels of food insecurity that may be addressed by training communities to grow, prepare, and preserve their own food. A curriculum was developed a...
To Begin With the End: Backward Design in Leisure Studies

As a professionally based field, leisure studies programs are perpetually in a position to produce the future managers, supervisors, and directors of the various subfields that comprise our areas o...
Deficiency of microvascular thrombomodulin and up-regulation of protease-activated receptor-1 in irradiated rat intestine: possible link between endothelial dysfunction and chronic radiation fibrosis.

Microvascular injury is believed to be mechanistically involved in radiation fibrosis, but direct molecular links between endothelial dysfunction and radiation fibrosis have not been established in vivo. We examined radiation-induced changes in endothelial thrombomodulin (TM) and protease-activated receptor-1 (PAR-1) in irradiated intestine, and their relationship to structural, cellular, and molecular aspects of radiation injury. Rat small intestine was locally exposed to fractionated X-radiation. Structural injury was assessed 24 hours and 2, 6, and 26 weeks after the last radiation fraction using quantitative histology and morphometry. TM, neutrophils, transforming growth factor-β, and collagens I and III were assessed by quantitative immunohistochemistry. PAR-1 protein was localized immunohistochemically, and cells expressing TM or PAR-1 transcript were identified by in situ hybridization. Steady-state PAR-1 mRNA levels in intestinal smooth muscle were determined using laser capture microdissection and competitive reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction. Radiation caused a sustained, dose-dependent decrease in microvascular TM. The number of TM-positive vessels correlated with all parameters of radiation enteropathy and, after adjusting for radiation dose and observation time in a statistical model, remained independently associated with neutrophil infiltration, intestinal wall thickening, and collagen I accumulation. PAR-1 immunoreactivity and transcript increased in vascular and intestinal smooth muscle cells in irradiated intestine. PAR-1 mRNA increased twofold in irradiated intestinal smooth muscle. Intestinal irradiation up-regulates PAR-1 and causes a dose-dependent, sustained deficiency of microvascular TM that is independently associated with the severity of radiation toxicity. Interventions aimed at preserving or restoring endothelial TM or blocking PAR-1 should be explored as strategies to increase the therapeutic ratio in clinical radiation therapy.
Transarterial Embolisation of Dural Arteriovenous Fistula Involving an Isolated Segment of the Superior Petrosal Sinus: A Case report

This case report illustrates a relatively rare case of dural arteriovenous fistula (AVF) involving direct supply to an isolated segment of the superior petrosal sinus (SPS). Successful transarterial obliteration of the lesion was accomplished with only a liquid embolic agent with long-term angiographic and clinical cure.
Current medical abortion care.

Medical abortion using mifepristone and a prostaglandin analogue is a highly effective option for early abortion. Since the clinical introduction of mifepristone to the world in 1988, millions of women have had the opportunity to have a safe abortion without primary surgical intervention. The standard method of providing medical abortion has evolved through well-done studies to develop regimens that decrease cost and time to abortion. Currently, mifepristone with misoprostol is the most widely used medical abortion regimen. The most effective option available involves mifepristone 200 mg followed at least 24 hours later by misoprostol 800 µg vaginally. Women can selfadminister the misoprostol, with complete abortion rates exceeding 95%. Researchers continue to refine the available regimens to improve outcomes and acceptability.
Discounting environmental outcomes: Temporal and probabilistic air-quality gains and losses.

Much human choice and decision-making research has employed a discounting framework to help aid our understanding of how time, uncertainty, and other factors influence an outcome’s value. Most of this research, however, is limited to the study of monetary outcomes. The purpose of the present study w
A 40-Year-Old Man With Albinism and Progressive Dyspnea

Case Presentation A 40-year-old male subject employed as a grocery store manager presented to a pulmonary clinic with a dry cough and progressive dyspnea of 1 year duration. The patient was previously an avid cyclist and first noted his dyspnea when he was unable to bike as far as before. Bilateral interstitial lung infiltrates were recently noted on chest radiography. At the time of presentation, he could no longer cycle due to dyspnea. The patient’s medical history was significant for albinism and severe visual impairment. He had no family history of albinism or pulmonary disorders. He had never smoked, drank alcohol only occasionally, and had no significant environmental exposures.
Auditory Sensory Gating and the Big Five Personality Factors

Abstract. Sensory gating allows an individual to filter out irrelevant sensory information from the environment, potentially freeing attentional resources for more complex tasks. Some work has demo...
Methodological Transparency and Big Data: A Critical Comparative Analysis of Institutionalization

Big data is increasingly employed in predictive social analyses, yet there are many visible instances of unreliable models or failure, raising questions about methodological validity in data driven approaches. From meta-analysis of methodological institutionalization across three scholarly disciplines, there is evidence that traditional statistical quantitative methods, which are more institutionalized and consistent, are important to develop, structure, and institutionalize data scientific approaches for new and large n quantitative methods, indicating that data driven research approaches may be limited in reliability, validity, generalizability, and interpretability. Results also indicate that interdisciplinary collaborations describe methods in significantly greater detail on projects employing big data, with the effect that institutionalization makes data science approaches more transparent.
Graphene Support Effects on Palladium Catalyzed Reactions

Palladium catalysts are often anchored to a support, such as graphitic carbon, to increase their overall surface area and facilitate catalytic reactions. There is a potential for interaction between the support and the catalyst, which can affect such reactions. At a certain palladium size threshold, it is hypothesized that the effects of the support on reactions on Pd are negligible. To determine this threshold, the Pd catalyst size and shape were varied (size was varied in the number of layers and number of Pd atoms, while shape ranged from hemispherical to spherical). The Pd clusters ranged from 2-5 layers and 38-293 atoms. Also, the graphene support was functionalized to different extents to test its effect on catalytic reactions on Pd. Initially, adsorption reactions of H*, O*, C*, OH*, and CH* onto supported Pd were tested to determine the effects of catalyst shape and size on the binding energy of such adsorbates. Periodic density functional theory calculations were used to determine these binding energies on bare Pd, Pd on a pure graphene support, and Pd on graphene functionalized with oxygen and hydroxide. These tests revealed that smaller Pd particles (about 100 atoms or fewer) are influenced by the support, showing large shifts in adsorbate binding energy from the pure graphene to the functionalized graphene. This shift in binding energy indicates that there are major changes in the catalytic behavior of sites upon which the adsorption reaction was tested, meaning that sites near the Pd-graphene interface might be affected by the support.
Titania surface chemistry and its influence on supported metal catalysts

Abstract This work characterized the surface chemistry of a number of different titania samples including four commercial anatase samples, an anatase sample that we synthesized, the pyrogenic titania samples P25 and P90, and a commercial rutile sample. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), and Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy (DRIFTS), were used to identified surface species that might interfere with the acid/base properties of the surface hydroxyls. All commercial anatase samples were contaminated by sulfur, which diminished their effectiveness as metal oxide supports for heterogeneous catalysis and has implications for their utility as photocatalysts. Hydrogen-bonded surface hydroxyls remained after calcination up to 400 °C for all anatase samples, in contrast to rutile and the pyrogenic titania materials P25 and P90, in which they were eliminated. Ru(0) catalysts on titania without hydrogen-bonded surface hydroxyls showed enhanced C O hydrogenolysis selectivity in the presence of water while Ru(0) catalysts on titania with hydrogen-bonded surface hydroxyls showed diminished selectivity in water, suggesting that surface hydrophilicity is important for this reaction. Heteroepitaxy between rutile RuO2 and rutile TiO2 is not essential for the creation of small evenly-spaced supported Ru(0) nanoparticles, which are important in many catalytic reactions.
Magnetic 3D Bioprinting for Personalized Medicine.

Background & Aim The effort for using 3D cell culture models for personalized medicine applications still faces technical challenges in handling, presence of animal extra-cellular matrix (ECM), processing, miniaturization, and scalability to high-throughput. Personalized medicine holds the promise of designing patient-specific therapies to improve therapeutic efficiency. However, the scarcity of tumor and biopsy tissue is a limiting factor in the development of diagnostic assays. Here, we use magnetic 3D bioprinting (M3D), in which cells are gently magnetized and assembled with magnetic forces. In magnetizing cells, we make 3D cell culture experiments not only routine, feasible, and scalable, but also enable fine spatial control in assembling spheroids using flat-bottom microplates. This presentation will show high-throughput applications in cancer drug discovery and personalized medicine with our 384- and 1,536-well formats. Methods, Results & Conclusion This work uses patient cells from biopsies or patient-derived xenografts (PDX) and prints them into 3D structures using M3D. The core principle of M3D is the gentle magnetization of cells using nanoparticles & their assembly using magnetic forces. Once assembled, these cells can form spheroids or organoids with traits of tumor environments, including ECM & cell-cell & cell-ECM interactions. Here, we demonstrate how to print spheroids from cells isolated from tumor biopsies and PDX. Isolation techniques from mincing & filtration to enzymatic digestion were evaluated. These cells were magnetized by incubation with a biocompatible magnetic nanoparticle assembly, Nanoshuttle. Once magnetized, cells were printed into spheroids of varying sizes, from 1,000-20,000 cells, in 384- & 1536-well plates. These cells were cultured for days. Isolation was best with either mincing and filtration alone or collagenase II(400 U/mL) digestion for 1h. These cells were then magnetized & printed into spheroids, which were tested after 72h. Spheroids of 1,000-10,000 cells were best. We also demonstrated the ability to assay compound toxicity. M3D can be used to generate spheroids or organoids from small tissue samples, while overcoming many of the limitations of other 3D cell culture methods, such as the use of animal ECM. We demonstrate the ability to isolate cells from patient tumors and PDX models & print them into spheroids with a small number of cells and in high-throughput. These results demonstrate a platform for the development of personalized cancer treatments.
Abstract 218: Novel Blood Biomarker Taurine and Glutamate for Early Predicting Outcomes After Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest

Introduction: Out-of-Hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is the leading cause of death with an overall survival rate of less than 10%. Organ failure and metabolic impairment are two critical elements of...