cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Encountering my privilege (and others’ oppression)

ABSTRACTCourses: Communication and Diversity, Intercultural Communication, Gender CommunicationObjectives: After completing this semester-long activity, students should be able to (1) articulate a systems-of-oppression (privilege←→oppression) approach to thinking about difference; (2) confront and “interact differently” with one social identity category where they have privilege; and (3) explain the corresponding form of oppression at individual, institutional, and societal/cultural levels.
Grain Decoupling at Low Magnetic Fields in Ceramic YBa2Cu3O7-δ

The ongoing series of discoveries of new materials with ever higher transition temperatures has generated an unprecedented flood of research activity in recent months, particularly on the 90 K superconductors typified by YBa2Cu3O7-δ (123 compound).1–3 All these materials have Perovskite-based nominally layered structures,4 and thus may be expected to be anisotropic uniaxial superconductors.5 Unfortunately, the synthesis of crystalline forms of useful size with good superconducting properties has proven quite difficult, so that almost all measurements reported to date have been performed on ceramic pellets best described as randomly oriented granular aggregates. The finding at many laboratories of very low critical current densities (Jc’s) of 103 A/cm2 or less at 4 K in these materials has been a cause of concern for their potential use in most applications.6,7 However, recent measurements show high Jc’s (over 105 A/cm2 at 77 K) in thin crystalline films and at least 10:1 anisotropy in Hcl in small single crystals.8,9 It is commonly assumed that transport in the ceramic materials is limited by intergain impedances so that the grains are only weakly coupled in the superconducting state, probably by Josephson currents. However, to date there has been no direct test of this assumption.
Heavy-ion beam induced effects in enriched gadolinium target films prepared by molecular plating

Abstract A series of enriched gadolinium (Gd, Z = 64) targets was prepared using the molecular plating process for nuclear physics experiments at the Cyclotron Institute at Texas A&M University. After irradiation with 48 Ca and 45 Sc projectiles at center-of-target energies of E cot = 3.8–4.7 MeV/u, the molecular films displayed visible discoloration. The morphology of the films was examined and compared to the intact target surface. The thin films underwent a heavy-ion beam-induced density change as identified by scanning electron microscopy and α-particle energy loss measurements. The films became thinner and more homogenous, with the transformation occurring early on in the irradiation. This transformation is best described as a crystalline-to-amorphous phase transition induced by atomic displacement and destruction of structural order of the original film. The chemical composition of the thin films was surveyed using energy dispersive spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, with the results confirming the complex chemistry of the molecular films previously noted in other publications.
The Effects of Sound Speed on the Shape of the Ocean Impulse Response

The effects of sound speed on the shape of the ocean impulse response measured within the shadow zone are investigated at a range of 12 km and depths of 489, 677, and 841 m. Measured impulse responses are computed by cross-correlating received signals at these depths with a source replica of 35–55 Hz bandwidth. Time waveform envelopes of the measured responses are compared with envelopes computed by a time-domain parabolic equation model for three sound speed cases. It is found that the envelopes of these responses are predictable enough to remove propagational distortion by deconvolving the data envelope with the model envelope and thus extract useful source signal characteristics.
Physical Systems and Physical Thought

The notion of physical system is so ubiquitous it is mentioned in almost every work in physics. Scientists use the term, without much reflection, to refer to an aggregate of physical objects. Attention is sometimes directed to a system when one is interested in the system’s components and their distinct states and properties. But more often, physicists are concerned with the arrangement of the parts and interactions between the parts. They use various theoretical constructs to single out states and properties of the composite system; states and properties that either supervene on the particular configuration of the parts or constitute non-supervening, emergent features.
Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America's Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads

Over the last few years, the national push to have a properly trained science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce has been at the forefront of the nation’s top priority list. In a recent report to the President, Engage to Excel: Producing One-Million Additional College Graduates with Degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, President Barak Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (2012) offered five recommendations to address this priority. Recommendation 3 was to “launch a national experiment in postsecondary mathematics education to address the mathematics-preparation gap” (p. 27); Recommendation 4 was to “encourage partnerships among stakeholders to diversify pathways to STEM careers” (p. 30). These initiatives mirror Expanding Underrepresented Minority Participation: America's Science and Technology Talent at the Crossroads, which aimed to address the need to strengthen the U.S. STEM workforce with diversity and the inclusion of underrepresentation minorities at the forefront of its mission.
Erratum: Publisher Correction: Is DNA methylation the new guardian of the genome?

In the original publication of this article [1] the figures and the captions of 3 figures do not match correctly due to a typographical error. In this correction article the corrected figures and captions for Figs. 1, 2 and 3 are shown.
On the Accuracy of A.C. Flux Leakage, Eddy Current, EMAT and Ultrasonic Methods of Measuring Surface Connecting Flaws in Seamless Steel Tubing

The objective of this study was to perform a comparative experimental evaluation to determine the detection sensitivity, classification (fJaw type) and depth sizing accuracy of A.C. flux leakage, single-frequency eddy current, electromagnetic acoustic transducer (EMAT) generated surface waves, and broadband ultrasonic methods for the measurement of complex surface connecting flaws in hot rolled, seamless, ferritic tubing. Since it was of interest to invest NDE techniques over a wide range of capabilities, tubing having flaw depths far exceeding industry standards was tested and evaluated. Results of the study will be used to provide a benchmark assessment of these NDE methods, from which decisions concerning production test systems can be made.
Klinische Aspekte der Immunosuppression

Kortikosteroide, zytotoxische Medikamente (Azathioprin und Cyclophosphamid) und Ciclosporin bilden die Grundlage der modernen immunosuppressiven Therapie. Diese konnen in verschiedenen Kombinationen oder im Falle von Ciclosporin in Einzeltherapie angewendet werden. Verschiedene Protokolle und deren Erfolgsrate sind in zahlreichen klinischen Studien beschrieben worden. In neuerer Zeit hat sich vor allem die Tripeltherapie mit Prednison, Azathioprin und Ciclosporin als die uberragende Behandlungsform bewahrt. Dies erlaubt, die Dosis der einzelnen Immunosuppressiva niedrig zu halten und gleichzeitig doch eine ausgezeichnete immunosuppressive Wirkung zu erzielen. Im folgenden sollen die klinisch relevanten Immunosuppressiva beschrieben und ihre Anwendung besprochen werden.
Modeling Humans: A General Agent Model for the Evaluation of Security

Careful planning is needed to design cyber infrastructures that can achieve mission objectives in the presence of deliberate attacks, including availability and reliability of service and confidentiality of data. Planning should be done with the aid of rigorous and sound security models. A security modeling formalism should be easy to learn and use, flexible enough to be used in different contexts, and should explicitly model the most significant parts of the system of interest. In particular, the research community is increasingly realizing the importance of human behavior in cyber security. However, security modeling formalisms often explicitly model only the adversary, or simplistic interactions between adversaries and defenders, or are tailored to specific use cases, or are difficult to use. We propose and define a novel security modeling formalism that explicitly models adversary, defender, and user behavior in an easy and general way, and illustrate its use with an example.
Short-term intermittent PTH 1-34 administration and bone marrow blood vessel ossification in Mature and Middle-Aged C57BL/6 mice.

Abstract Intermittent parathyroid hormone (PTH) administration augments bone and progressive bone marrow blood vessel (BMBV) ossification occurs with advancing age. Since intermittent PTH administration augments bone, it may also serve to increase BMBV ossification. We assessed the influence of 5- and 10-days of intermittent PTH 1–34 administration on trabecular and cortical bone and BMBV ossification in mature (6–8 mon; n = 30) and middle-aged (10–12 mon; n = 30) male and female C57BL/6 mice. Mice were divided accordingly: control (CON) and 5-days (5dPTH) and 10-days (10dPTH) of PTH. Mice were given PBS (50 μl) or PTH 1–34 (43 μg/kg/d) for 5- and 10-consecutive days. Trabecular bone microarchitecture (i.e., BV/TV [%], Tb.Th [μm], Tb.N [/mm], and Tb.Sp [μm]) was assessed in the distal femoral metaphysis and cortical bone parameters (i.e., Ct.Th [μm] and CSMI [mm4]) at the femoral mid-shaft. BMBV ossification (i.e., ossified vessel volume [OsVV, %] and ossified vessel thickness [OsV.Th, μm]) was assessed in the medullary cavity of the femoral shaft. All parameters were determined by μCT. At this sample size, no gender-related differences were observed so female and male data were pooled. There were no main effects nor interactions for trabecular microarchitecture and Ct.Th. However, CSMI was larger (p
Mindfulness practice predicts interleukin-6 responses to a mindfulness-based alcohol relapse prevention intervention.

Abstract Chronic alcohol misuse can result in chronically elevated interleukin (IL)-6, a pro-inflammatory cytokine, in the bloodstream. Given that Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) has been shown to reduce alcohol misuse, MBRP might also be effective in reducing IL-6 concentrations. Past research has found, however, that IL-6 does not respond consistently to mindfulness-based interventions. Building on prior studies, we examined whether between-person variability in engagement with mindfulness training (i.e., formal mindfulness practice time) is associated with between-person variability in changes in serum IL-6, using data from a randomized controlled trial evaluating MBRP for Alcohol Dependence (MBRP-A). Participants were 72 alcohol dependent adults (mean age = 43.4 years, 63.9% male, 93.1% White) who received a minimum dose (i.e., at least four sessions) of MBRP-A either at the start of the trial (n = 46) or after a 26-week delay (n = 26). IL-6 concentrations did not significantly change from pre- to post-intervention for the full sample. Nevertheless, greater mindfulness practice time was significantly associated with reduced IL-6 levels (r = −0.27). The association between practice time and IL-6 changes remained significant when controlling for intervention timing (i.e., immediate or after the 26-week delay), demographic characteristics, and changes in mindful awareness, obsessive-compulsive drinking, and depressive symptoms. The association between practice time and IL-6 changes was not significant when omitting the minimum treatment dose requirement. Overall, results suggest that the level of engagement in mindfulness training may predict changes in the inflammatory pathophysiology in adults with alcohol dependence.
Research From the IEEE IBM AI Compute and Emerging Technology Symposia

In recent years, interest in machine learning, deep learning, and more broadly AI has taken the computing industry by storm. Advancements in AI compute acceleration, along with algorithmic innovations and availability of training data, are widely credited as the catalysts to the resurgence of AI. The potential of AI has caught the interest of researchers spanning various disciplines, e.g., across the hardware and software computing stack, and career stages, e.g., from students to seasoned researchers. This interest has led to a staggering rate of advancement in the field. With the goal of bringing together researchers from various disciplines, career stages, and from industry and academia, the IEEE and IBM organized the $1^{\mathrm {st}}$ AI Compute Symposium (AICS18) [items [1] – [4] in the Appendix].
Are unsatisfactory outcomes after concurrent chemoradiotherapy for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer due to treatment-related immunosuppression?

Abstract Background and Purpose We test the hypothesis that unsatisfactory outcomes after concurrent chemoradiotherapy (RT) for locally advanced non-small cell lung cancer (LA-NSCLC) are due to treatment-related immunosuppression. Materials and Methods White blood cells (WBCs) data were retrospectively collected for all stage IIIA/B LA-NSCLC patients before and after (after RT: two weeks, two months, four months) concurrent chemotherapy and intensity-modulated RT in which patients were treated to a median of 63 Gy (1.8–2.0 Gy/fractions) in 2004–2014 (N = 155). Nine WBC variables were generated from pre-RT normalized absolute number of lymphocytes and neutrophils (L, N) and the N/L thereof. A WBC variable was considered a predictor for overall survival and recurrence (distant/local/nodal/regional) if p ≤ 0.006 (corrected for 9 variables) from Cox regression and competing risk analyses, respectively; both conducted using bootstrap resampling. Finally, a WBC variable predicting any of the outcomes was linearly associated with each of eleven disease/patient/treatment characteristics (p ≤ 0.005; corrected for 11 characteristics). Results At the three post-RT time points both L and N significantly decreased (p Conclusion Significantly lower WBC levels after concurrent chemo-RT for LA-NSCLC are associated with worse long-term outcomes. The mechanism behind this treatment-related immunosuppression requires further analysis likely including other characteristics as no statistically significant association was established between any WBC variable and the disease/patient/treatment characteristics.
Deep Reinforcement Learning Pairs Trading with a Double Deep Q-Network

This research applies a deep reinforcement learning technique, Deep Q-network (DQN), to a stock market pairs trading strategy for profit. There is a need for this work, not only to further the use of reinforcement learning in stock market trading, but in many other areas of financial markets. The work utilizes a specific type of DQN, a Double Deep Q-Network to learn a pairs trading strategy. The DDQN is able to learn a cointegrated stock pair's mean reversion pattern, and successfully make predictions based on this pattern. Attesting that a reinforcement learning system, can effectively learn and execute a pairs trading strategy in the stock market. It also introduces a parameter, Negative Rewards Multiplier, during training that adjusts the system's ability to take more conservative actions. Based on the results, the next steps would be to employ this method in other financial markets, or perhaps use a DDQN to learn additional trading strategies.
Joint Beamwidth and Power Optimization in MmWave Hybrid Beamforming-NOMA Systems

The use of directional transmission in millimeter-Wave (mmWave) frequencies results in limited channel coherence time. In this paper, we take the limited channel coherence time into account for non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) in mmWave hybrid beamforming systems. Due to the limited coherence time, the beamwidth of the hybrid beamformer affects the beam-training time, which in turn directly impacts the data transmission rate. To investigate this trade-off, we utilize a combined beam-training algorithm. Then, we formulate a sum-rate expression which considers the channel coherence time and beam-training time as well as users’ power and other system parameters. Further, a joint power and beamwidth optimization problem is solved by iterating between the power allocation and the beamwidth optimization. When allocating the power, we use the log-exponential reformulation and the sequential parametric convex approximation (SPCA) methods to solve the non-convex problem. Since beamwidth optimization involves too many variables, we propose an algorithm which iterates between clusters of users. Numerical results show that the optimized mmWave hybrid beamforming-NOMA system can achieve much higher sum-rates compared to NOMA with analog beamforming and traditional multiple access techniques.
Synthesis, Characterization, and Growth Mechanism of Silicon Oxide Nanowires

Two fabrication methods have been investigated to synthesize silicon oxide nanowires. One was catalytic thermal evaporation method in which silicon monoxide was used as the precursor and Au particles served as the catalysts. Using nanosphere lithography, patterned nanowires were obtained and their growth positions were controlled by the locations of Au catalysts. For the second method, without silicon monoxide as the precursor and without the aid of Au catalyst, silicon oxide nanowires directly formed along the direction of the silicon substrate only with the introduction of hydrogen gas. A series of experiments were carried out to study effects of reaction time, temperature, and hydrogen on the growth of the nanowires. Also, various electron microscopy techniques were utilized to characterize their morphologies and internal structures and to analyze their compositional distributions. In this paper, the characterization of different silicon oxide nanowires and their formation mechanisms in relation to both preparation methods are discussed.
Feasibility of Medical Student Mentors to Improve Transition in Sickle Cell Disease.

OBJECTIVE Advances in medical care have resulted in nearly 95% of all children with sickle cell disease (SCD) living to adulthood. There is a lack of effective transition programming, contributing to high rates of mortality and morbidity among adolescents and young adults (AYAs) during the transition from pediatric to adult healthcare. This nonrandomized study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary outcomes of a novel medical student mentor intervention to improve transition outcomes for AYA with SCD. METHODS Eligible participants were ages 18-25 years, either preparing for transition or had transferred to adult care within the past year. Twenty-four AYA with SCD (Mage = 20.3, SD = 2.6) enrolled in the program and were matched with a medical student mentor. Feasibility and acceptability of the intervention was assessed through enrollment rates, reasons for refusal, retention rates, engagement with the intervention, satisfaction, and reasons for drop-out. Dependent t-tests were used to evaluate the preliminary effects of the intervention on patient transition readiness, health-related quality of life, self-efficacy, SCD knowledge, medication adherence, and health literacy. RESULTS Participants (N = 24) demonstrated adequate retention (75.0%), adherence to the intervention (M = 5.3 of 6 sessions), and satisfaction with the intervention components. Participants demonstrated significant improvements in transition readiness (p = .001), self-efficacy (p = .002), medication adherence (p = .02), and health literacy (p = .05). CONCLUSIONS A medical student mentor intervention to facilitate transition from pediatric to adult care for AYA with SCD is both feasible and acceptable to patients and medical students. Preliminary results suggest benefits for patients, warranting a larger efficacy study.
Exercise Is Medicine for Immune Function: Implication for COVID-19.

ABSTRACT: This review supports that physical activity improves immunosurveillance and has the potential to counter COVID-19 infection and symptomatology at three prevention levels. At the primary prevention level, several lines of evidence support that physical activity is an immune system adjuvant in combating infectious diseases. Recent epidemiological studies indicate that regular physical activity is associated with a reduced risk for COVID-19, similar to what has been reported for other respiratory infections. Although specific COVID-19-related studies are needed, data from investigations with other types of infectious agents, such as influenza, support the potential role of physical activity in augmenting COVID-19 vaccine efficacy (secondary prevention level). There is a growing awareness that COVID-19 can cause sustained morbidity in some patients, and physical training and rehabilitation (tertiary prevention level) can be directed toward improvement in physical fitness, quality of life, and immune health.
Arsenite exposure inhibits the erythroid differentiation of human hematopoietic progenitor CD34+ cells and causes decreased levels of hemoglobin.

Arsenic exposure poses numerous threats to human health. Our previous work in mice has shown that arsenic causes anemia by inhibiting erythropoiesis. However, the impacts of arsenic exposure on human erythropoiesis remain largely unclear. We report here that low-dose arsenic exposure inhibits the erythroid differentiation of human hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs). The impacts of arsenic (in the form of arsenite; As3+) on red blood cell (RBC) development was evaluated using a long-term culture of normal human bone marrow CD34+-HPCs stimulated in vitro to undergo erythropoiesis. Over the time course studied, we analyzed the expression of the cell surface antigens CD34, CD71 and CD235a, which are markers commonly used to monitor the progression of HPCs through the stages of erythropoiesis. Simultaneously, we measured hemoglobin content, which is an important criterion used clinically for diagnosing anemia. As compared to control, low-dose As3+ exposure (100 nM and 500 nM) inhibited the expansion of CD34+-HPCs over the time course investigated; decreased the number of committed erythroid progenitors (BFU-E and CFU-E) and erythroblast differentiation in the subsequent stages; and caused a reduction of hemoglobin content. These findings demonstrate that low-dose arsenic exposure impairs human erythropoiesis, likely by combined effects on various stages of RBC formation.
Correlates of survival after autoantibody reduction therapy for acute IPF exacerbations.

Background No medical treatment has proven efficacy for acute exacerbations of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (AE-IPF), and this syndrome has a very high mortality. Based on data indicating humoral autoimmune processes are involved in IPF pathogenesis, we treated AE-IPF patients with an autoantibody reduction regimen of therapeutic plasma exchange, rituximab, and intravenous immunoglobulin. This study aimed to identify clinical and autoantibody determinants associated with survival after autoantibody reduction in AE-IPF. Methods Twenty-four(24) AE-IPF patients received the autoantibody reduction regimen. Plasma anti-epithelial autoantibody titers were determined by HEp-2 indirect immunofluorescence assays in 22 patients. Results Mean age of the patients was 70 + 7 years old, and 70% were male. Beneficial clinical responses that occurred early during therapy were a favorable prognostic indicator: supplemental O2 flows needed to maintain resting SaO2>92% significantly decreased and/or walk distances increased among all 10 patients who survived for at least one year. Plasma anti-HEp-2 autoantibody titers were ~-three-fold greater in survivors compared to non-survivors (p 1:160 were present in 75% of the evaluable one-year survivors, compared to 29% of non-survivors, and 10 of 12 patients (83%) with anti-HEP-2 titers Conclusions Autoantibody reduction therapy is associated with rapid reduction of supplemental oxygen requirements and/or improved ability to ambulate in many AE-IPF patients. Facile anti-epithelial autoantibody assays may help identify those most likely to benefit from these treatments.
IMPACT ANALYSIS OF THE CAPABILITY ON STRATEGY VIA OTHELLO GAME

Othello is a game that is already antiquated, but the game is still played by many people. Othello game is played by 2 people. If you want to win over the opponent, you must have a good strategy so that all the pieces on the board into the color of the chip. Each player would continue to seek a new strategy to make the pieces multiply. Under these conditions, will result in job terstimulasinya brain to strategize. This of course has an impact on the development of creativity in the organization's strategy. This study was conducted to prove that the game Othello is able to train its player in developing strategies. The results showed that in the Othello game, players are able to train level strategy if he plays continuously. Automatically, playing the game of Othello can stimulate the brain so as to improve the ability to strategize. Keyword — Strategic, thinking , critical thinking, tactic
Research and Experimentation in Teaching Effectiveness: The Ethical Review Process and the IRB

Research and experimentation in teaching effectiveness, which makes research subjects of students in regular classroom settings, should be subject to an ethical review process that is separate from, and in addition to, the mandated review of human subjects research that is conducted by Institutional Review Boards. Furthermore, despite the moral dilemmas that often characterize ethical decisions in the review of teaching effectiveness, we should not shy away from developing and applying a basic set of normative principles for ethical decision making.
Imprisoning Communities: How Mass Incarceration Makes Disadvantaged Neighborhoods Worse

Preface Chapter 1: The problem of concentrated incarceration Chapter 2: Incarceration and crime Chapter 3: The problem of mass incarceration concentrated in poor places Chapter 4: Communities, coercive mobility, and public safety Chapter 5: Death by a thousand little cuts: studies of the impact of incarceration Chapter 6: In their own voices: people in high incarceration communities TALK ABOUT THE IMPACT OF INCARCERATION. Chapter 7: The impact of incarceration on community safety Chapter 8: Dealing with concentrated incarceration-the case for community justice Appendix: Imagining a Strategy of Community Justice Bibliography Index
Measured Interpretation: Introducing the Method of Correspondence Analysis to Legal Studies

Professor Harcourt develops and advocates a method to more rigorously measure and evaluate how qualitative “social meaning” variables relate to legal practices and public policies. The method integrates in-depth qualitative interviews with an experimental free associational component, map analysis of the interviews, and a methodology, correspondence analysis, that remains little known in the United States despite its acceptance in other parts of the world. Correspondence analysis, according to Professor Harcourt, is a tool that allows researchers to visually represent the relationship between structures of social meaning and the contexts and practices within which they are embedded. This method opens up structures of meaning in a more accessible and rigorous way than was previously possible, and can significantly aid in the analysis of legal and public policy. Professor Harcourt uses his own research, focusing on the social meanings of guns to youth, as an example of how correspondence analysis works. Using this method, Professor Harcourt extracts and graphically represents meanings from interviews of thirty incarcerated male youths and analyzes the policy implications of his findings.
Regulation of glutamine synthetase. IV. Reversible dissociation and inactivation of glutamine synthetase from Escherichia coli by the concerted action of EDTA and urea.

Abstract Factors influencing subunit association in the glutamine synthetase from Escherichia coli have been studied by means of sucrose gradient sedimentation, disc gel electrophoresis, and light-scattering techniques. The native enzyme is not dissociated by treatments with 0.01 m EDTA, 1.0 m urea, mercaptan, or alkaline pH when tested individually; however, 0.01 m EDTA in combination with 1.0 m urea or alkaline pH will cause dissociation of the enzyme to subunits of about 1 12 the molecular weight of the native enzyme. When the dissociated enzyme is sedimented in a sucrose density gradient containing a mixture of 0.01 m EDTA and 1.0 m urea throughout or is subjected to disc gel electrophoresis in a buffer containing 0.01 m EDTA and 1.0 m urea, the protein migrates as a homogeneous band corresponding to a substance of low molecular weight as expected of the basic subunit species. However, when the dissociated enzyme, obtained by prior treatment with 0.01 m EDTA and 1.0 m urea, is sedimented on a sucrose gradient not containing EDTA and urea, or is subjected to disc gel electrophoresis in a buffer not containing these reagents, the enzyme migrates as a polydispersed system containing 7 or more discrete molecular forms of aggregates that vary in sizes, as would be expected of derivatives containing 1–12 or more subunits. A similar polydispersed system is obtained by treatment of the enzyme with 1.0 m urea plus 2-mercaptoethanol. Disaggregation of the enzyme to basic subunits in the presence of 1.0 m urea and 0.01 m EDTA at pH 8.0 is accompanied by a complete loss in catalytic activity. Reaggregation of the dissociated subunits with a transient restoration of catalytic activity is achieved by the addition of Mn++ and adjustment of the pH to 7.0.
Discontinuous galerkin finite element methods applied to two-phase, air-water flow problems

A set of discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element methods are proposed to solve the air-water, two-phase equations arising in shallow subsurface flow problems. The different time-splitting approaches detailed incorporate primal formulations, such as Oden-Baumann-Babuska DG (OBB-DG), Symmetric Interior Penalty Galerkin (SIPG), Non-Symmetric Interior Penalty Galerkin (NIPG), and Incomplete Interior Penalty Galerkin (IIPG); as well as a local discontinuous Galerkin (LDG) method applied to the saturation equation. The two-phase flow equations presented are split into sequential and implicit pressure/explicit saturation (IMPES) formulations. The IMPES formulation introduced in this work uses one of the primal DG formulations to solve the pressure equation implicitly at every time step, and then uses an explicit LDG scheme for saturation equation. This LDG scheme advances in time via explicit Runge-Kutta time stepping, while employing a Kirchoff transformation for the local solution of the degenerate diffusion term. As fluid saturations may be discontinuous at the interface between two material types, DG methods are a natural fit for this problem. An algorithm is introduced to efficiently solve the system of equations arising from the primal DG discretization of the model Poisson's Equation on conforming grids. The eigenstructure of the resulting stiffness matrix is examined and the reliance of this system on the penalty parameter is detailed. This analysis leads to an algorithm that is computationally optimal and guaranteed to converge for the order of approximation p = 1. The algorithm converges independently of h and of the penalty parameter σ. Computational experiments show that this algorithm also provides an excellent preconditioning step for higher orders of approximation and extensions are given to 2D and 3D problems. Computational results are also shown for a more general second order elliptic equation, for example, cases with heterogeneous and non-isotropic K. The numerical schemes presented are verified on a collection of standard benchmark problems and the two-phase flow formulations are validated using empirical results from the groundwater literature. These results include bounded column infiltration problems in which the soil air becomes compressed and entrapped, as well as other shallow subsurface infiltration problems. It is shown that the IMPES approach introduced holds promise for the future, especially for problems with very small, or even zero, capillary pressure. Such problems are commonly found in the SPE literature. Finally, initial computational results are shown which relate to a simplified model of the CO2 sequestration problem.
Large eddy simulations of the flow past wind turbines: actuator line and disk modeling

Large eddy simulations of the flow through wind turbines have been carried out using actuator disk and actuator line models for the turbine rotor aerodynamics. In this study, we compare the performance of these two models in producing wind turbine wakes. We also examine parameters that strongly affect the performance of these models, namely, grid resolution and the way in which the actuator force is projected onto the flow field. The proper choice of these two parameters has not been adequately addressed in previous works. We see that as the grid is coarsened, the predicted power decreases. As the width of the body force projection function is increased, the predicted power increases. The actuator disk and actuator line models produce similar wake profiles and predict power within 1% of one another when subject to the same uniform inflow. The actuator line model is able to generate flow structures near the blades such as root and tip vortices which the actuator disk model does not, but in the far wake, the predicted mean wakes are very similar. In order to perform validation against experimental data, the actuator line model output was compared with data from the wind tunnel experiment conducted at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim. Agreement between measured and predicted power, wake profiles, and turbulent kinetic energy has been observed for most tip speed ratios; larger discrepancies in power and thrust coefficient, though, have been found for tip speed ratios of 9 and 12. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Double isotopic labeling in toxicological analysis I. Strychnine in blood—a preliminary report

Initial results in the development of toxicological assays based on double isotopic labeling methodology are presented. It has been found that strychnine can be analyzed more accurately by this method than by more conventional procedures.
Analysis and prediction of transient opacity spikes using dimensional modeling

Dimensional modeling, GT-Power in particular, has been used for two related purposes—to quantify and understand the inaccuracies of transient engine flow estimates that cause transient smoke spikes and to improve empirical models of opacity or particulate matter used for engine calibration. It has been proposed by dimensional modeling that exhaust gas recirculation flow rate was significantly underestimated and volumetric efficiency was overestimated by the electronic control module during the turbocharger lag period of an electronically controlled heavy duty diesel engine. Factoring in cylinder-to-cylinder variation, it has been shown that the electronic control module estimated fuel–Oxygen ratio was lower than actual by up to 35% during the turbocharger lag period but within 2% of actual elsewhere, thus hindering fuel–Oxygen ratio limit–based smoke control. The dimensional modeling of transient flow was enabled with a new method of simulating transient data in which the manifold pressures and exhaust ga...
Pulpal and periapical tissue responses in conventional and monoinfected gnotobiotic rats.

Abstract The effect on healing of mechanically damaged pulp and periapical tissues in the presence of either the normal oral flora or a select microorganism was studied. Thirty-five conventional and gnotobiotic rats, infected with Streptococcus mutans (Strain 6715), had the mesial palatal roots of their upper right and left first molars intentionally overinstrumented with a standardized No. 10 stainless-steel endodontic reamer. Thirty-five teeth were exposed to the oral environment for the duration of the study, and in the other thirty-five, silver amalgams were placed immediately into the access cavities in order to effect a seal. The animals were killed at various intervals over a period of 30 days after endodontic instrumentation, and the histologic specimens were studied. The periapical tissue reactions seen in this experiment could be related directly to the bacterial invasion of the root canal. Where microorganisms were found along the entire length of the root canals, i.e., in the teeth of the conventional animals without amalgam seals, the tissue reaction was severe. When the inoculum was limited, so was the reaction.
Novel Sulfonanilide Analogues Suppress Aromatase Expression and Activity in Breast Cancer Cells Independent of COX-2 Inhibition

Aromatase is a particularly attractive target in the treatment of estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. Aromatase levels in breast cancer cells are enhanced by prostaglandins and reduced by COX inhibitors. The synthesis and biological evaluation of a novel series of sulfonanilide analogues derived from the COX-2 selective inhibitor NS-398 are described. The compounds suppress aromatase enzyme activity in SK-BR-3 breast cancer cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The effect of these compounds on COX-2 inhibition is investigated in breast cancer cells as well. Structure-activity analysis does not find a correlation between aromatase suppression and COX-2 inhibition. Microsomal aromatase inhibition studies rule out the possibility of direct enzyme inhibition. Real-time PCR analysis demonstrates that the sulfonanilide analogues decrease aromatase gene transcription in SK-BR-3 cells. These studies suggest that the novel sulfonanilide compounds suppress aromatase activity and transcription in SK-BR-3 breast cancer cells independent of COX-2 inhibition.
Fractal analysis of contrast-enhanced CT images to predict survival of patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated with sunitinib.

Intratumoral heterogeneity is a well-recognized feature of malignancy. To assess the heterogeneity of tumor using fractal analysis of contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CE-CT) images for predicting survival of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients treated with sunitinib. The patient cohort comprised 23 patients (19 men, 4 women; mean age 61.5 years) with HCC who underwent CE-CT at baseline and after one cycle of sunitinib. Arterial-phase (AP) and portal-phase (PP) CE-CT images were analyzed using a plugin software for ImageJ (NIH, Bethesda, MD). A differential box-counting method was employed to calculate the fractal dimension (FD) of the tumor. Tumor FD, density, and size were compared with survival. Median progression-free survival (PFS) was 4.43 months. Patients were grouped into a favorable PFS (PFS >4.43 months; 9 patients) and an unfavorable PFS group (PFS ≤4.43; 13 patients). The baseline FD on both the AP and PP images was lower in the favorable PFS group than in the unfavorable PFS group (both P = 0.03). There was a significant difference in the change of the FD on the AP image between the favorable and unfavorable PFS groups (P = 0.02). Tumor density and size showed no significant correlations with PFS. In the Kaplan–Meier analysis, patients with tumors showing lower FD on the AP image at baseline showed longer PFS (P = 0.002). Patients with tumors showing a greater reduction in the FD on the PP image after one cycle of the therapy showed longer overall survival (P = 0.002). The FD of the tumor on CE-CT images may be a useful biomarker for HCC patients treated with sunitinib.
Some Economic and Demographic Comparisons of Slavery in the United States and the British West Indies

HE recent spate of works on slavery and slave systems has derived from historians of many specific interests-economic, political, intellectual, social. This is perhaps most understandable in the United States with its current concerns with the race issue, and in Africa, where the relationship between the European penetration and African response remains of major interest, but studies have also come from a number of other countries. A large variety of questions have been analysed: the effect on the African economy of this rather unusual export, the economics of the lMliddle Passage and of plantation societies, the cultural dimensions of the life of the enslaved, the genesis of abolition ideas and their political success, among others. In part, the breadth of interest no doubt reflects the broad spectrum of moral positions possible, ranging from the indications provided by slavery of the enormous potential for man's inhumanity to man, to a conclusion which some regard as ultimately optimistic and hopeful: optimistic, since the story of slavery provides a measure of the human ability to survive and persevere, and even suggests that at times social and economic ideas which seem most unquestioned can rapidly be changed by political and other means. This abundance of historical work on slavery means that the choice of issues for discussion in any review is unlimited. Of necessity, however, any particular survey must be limited geographically and topically. Much of this article, therefore, will be concerned with the British areas of settlement of the New World the British West Indies, where slavery ended in i834, and the American South, where the system terminated under quite different conditions thirty years later. I shall be concerned mainly with general patterns of economic and demographic behaviour, topics of obvious interest in themselves, but also because they provide an essential background to the study of the social and cultural life of the enslaved in these areas.
Who Works with Whom? Interest Group Alliances and Opposition

Interest-group interactions may be examined in ways comparable to the analysis of conflict and coalition in other areas of political science. We seek to measure and compare the structure of interest-group participation and conflict in four domains of U.S. domestic policy: agriculture, energy, health, and labor. Data are drawn from a survey of 806 representatives of organizations with interests in federal policy, supplemented by interviews with 301 government officials in the same four domains. Several types of data are adduced regarding the intensity and partisanship of group conflict in each domain and the range and variety of group participation. Coalitional patterns are described and the mutual positioning of different kinds of organization—peak-association groups versus more specialized trade, professional, or commodity groups, for example—are examined.
Network therapy: Decreased secondary opioid use during buprenorphine maintenance

Network therapy (NT) employs family members and/or friends to support compliance with an addiction treatment carried out in office practice. This study was designed to ascertain whether NT is a useful psychosocial adjunct, relative to a control treatment, for achieving diminished illicit heroin use for patients on buprenorphine maintenance. Patients agreeing to randomization to either NT (N = 33) or medication management (MM, N = 33) were inducted onto short-term buprenorphine maintenance and then tapered to zero dose. NT resulted in significantly more urine toxicologies negative for opioids than MM (65% vs. 45%) and more NT than MM patients (50% vs. 23%) experienced a positive outcome relative to secondary heroin use by the end of treatment. The use of NT in office practice may therefore improve the effectiveness of eliminating secondary heroin use during buprenorphine maintenance. It may also be useful in enhancing compliance with an addiction treatment regimen in other contexts.
The Story of Manhood: Using a Narrative Approach to Facilitate Unique Constructions of Masculinity

Many mental health practitioners in the area of men's studies have asserted that traditional psychotherapy is not conducive to male clients (e.g., Brooks, 1998; Wexler, 2009). An alternative method for counselors to use with male clients is narrative therapy. Traditionally, many have conceptualized male sex roles as stories that society forces men to enact through enforced shame. Using narrative therapy with men, counselors need to take special considerations for the narrating of men's problem-saturated stories, externalizing men's issues, challenging masculine metaphors, and constructing a unique masculine team. I provide a case study as an example for using these techniques with men.
DMLLE: a large-scale dimensionality reduction method for detection of polyps in CT colonography

Computer-aided diagnosis systems have been shown to be feasible for polyp detection on computed tomography (CT) scans. After 3-D image segmentation and feature extraction, the dataset of colonic polyp candidates has large-scale and high dimension characteristics. In this paper, we propose a large-scale dimensionality reduction method based on Diffusion Map and Locally Linear Embedding for detection of polyps in CT colonography. By selecting partial data as landmarks, we first map the landmarks into a low dimensional embedding space using Diffusion Map. Then by using Locally Linear Embedding algorithm, non-landmark samples are embedded into the same low dimensional space according to their nearest landmark samples. The local geometry of samples is preserved in both the original space and the embedding space. We applied the proposed method called DMLLE to a colonic polyp dataset which contains 58336 candidates (including 85 6-9mm true polyps) with 155 features. Visual inspection shows that true polyps with similar shapes are mapped to close vicinity in the low dimensional space. FROC analysis shows that SVM with DMLLE achieves higher sensitivity with lower false positives per patient than that of SVM using all features. At the false positives of 8 per patient, SVM with DMLLE improves the average sensitivity from 64% to 75% for polyps whose sizes are in the range from 6 mm to 9 mm (p < 0.05). This higher sensitivity is comparable to unaided readings by trained radiologists.
Acute thrombotic-ischemic coronary syndromes: the usefulness of TEC.

Transluminal extraction catheter (TEC) is a percutaneous device that performs simultaneous thrombus aspiration and plaque excision. Clinical indications for its application are acute myocardial infarction, unstable angina, and stable angina caused by atherosclerotic, thrombotic lesions located within native coronary arteries and degenerated saphenous vein grafts. The device is useful in management of ischemic patients with contraindications to either pharmacologic thrombolytics or platelet GPIIb/IIIa receptor inhibitors, and can also effectively be used in combination with these agents. A successful TEC procedure requires careful patient selection, strict adherence to recommended indications, optimal equipment selection, familiarity with mechanical components of the device, full understanding of safe and efficacious techniques for deployment and activation, as well as recognition of unique associated angiographic manifestations such as the “empty-pouch phenomenon.” As with other debulking devices, the incidence of restenosis post-TEC appears to be directly related to acute luminal gain at the time of procedure and therefore requires the need for adjunct stenting. This communication describes and illustrates various clinical, technical, and angiographic aspects of TEC procedure in patients with acute ischemic-thrombotic coronary syndromes. Cathet. Cardiovasc. Intervent. 48:406–420, 1999. © 1999 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Structural and dielectric properties in the system LiTaO3-WO3

Phase transition in the (1-x)LiTaO3-xWO3 solid solution system has been studied by means of X-ray diffraction and dielectric measurements. Nonstoichiometric solid solutions with a LiTaO3 structure are formed in the range of 0 < x ≤ 0.4, and the introduction of WO3 into LiTaO3 causes cation vacancies in the Lisites. The axial ratio (c/a) of the hexagonal cell and the ferroelectric Curie temperature decrease with the increase of x. A trirutile compound LiTaWO6 (x=0.5) exhibits photochromism.