cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Future projections of streamflow magnitude and timing differ across coastal watersheds of the western United States

Climate change has and will continue to impact the magnitude and timing of streamflow throughout the world. While streamflow timing of western United States watersheds has shifted earlier in mountainous snow-dominated watersheds due to earlier snowmelt, timing for rain-dominated coastal watersheds has shifted to later in the year. Despite these dissimilarities, coastal watersheds have received little attention in the literature. This research assesses changes in projected climate and hydrology for five small coastal basins (42–718 km2) in Washington, Oregon, and California. Projections of temperature and precipitation from General Circulation Models (GCMs) for Representative Concentration Pathways 4.5 and 8.5 are coupled with the Soil and Water Assessment Tool hydrologic model to simulate future hydrology for each watershed. The response of climate, streamflow discharge, and timing was analysed for each watershed by comparing the projected mid-21st century (2035–2064) and late-21st century (2070–2099) to the historical period (1970–1999). While temperature is projected to increase at each watershed from 1 to 6 °C by the end of the 21st century, precipitation varies widely with the median and mean change across all watersheds and GCMs being close to zero (just 2.0 and 3.6%, respectively). Changes in the magnitude of peak winter streamflow discharge differ across the region compared to the historical period. Streamflow timing also features latitudinal divergence, with the southern California watershed projecting later timing by 13 days and all other watersheds indicating smaller shifts (0–7 days) for the end of the 21st century compared to the historical time period, largely from corresponding shifts in precipitation timing. The projected decreases in peak winter streamflow magnitude, particularly in central and southern California, have critical implications for water supply, which is already strained from extensive drought and high demand. This research makes strides to assess new trends across coastal watersheds.
Smart University: Software Systems for Students with Disabilities

Smart universities, smart classrooms and smart education are the wave of the future in a highly technological society. One of the distinctive features of a smart university is its ability of adaptation to and smooth accommodation of various types of students/learners such as regular students and life-long learners, in-classroom/local and remote/online students/learners, regular students and special students, i.e. students with various types of disabilities including physical, visual, hearing, speech, cognitive and other types of impairments. This chapter presents the outcomes of an ongoing research project aimed at systematic identification, analysis, and testing of available open source and commercial text-to-voice, voice-to-text and gesture recognition software systems—those that could significantly benefit students with disabilities. Based on obtained outcomes of completed research and analysis of designated systems we identified and recommended top text-to-voice, voice-to-text and gesture recognition software systems for implementation in smart universities.
Recombinant Human Nerve Growth Factor Increases Presynaptic Cholinergic Function Following Neuronal Damage: Implications for the Treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease

Nerve growth factor (NGF) promotes the maintenance of function and survival of adult cholinergic neurons of the septo-hippocampal pathway and attenuates lesion-induced deficits in neurochemical and behavioral measures related to cholinergic septo-hippocampal functions (Hefti et al., 1984; Will and Hefti, 1985; Williams et al, 1986, 1989; Will et al., 1988, 1990; Lapchak and Hefti, 1991).
Regulation of lipid metabolism by a lipid-carrying protein.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses regulation of lipid metabolism by a lipid-carrying protein. It provides an overview of some of the recent work on the protein originally called squalene and sterol carrier protein (SCP). SCP was discovered during attempts to purify rat liver membrane-bound enzymes catalyzing late steps in cholesterol biosynthesis. SCP is known to participate in many aspects of lipid metabolism and its regulation. It is an absolute requirement for activation of liver membrane-bound enzymes catalyzing cholesterol synthesis from lanosterol. SCP has a high affinity for long-chain fatty acids and is considered to be an intracellular fatty acid transport protein, like albumin, the plasma carrier for fatty acids. The chapter also outlines the purification and structural characterization of rat and human liver SCP; the development and use of an antibody to both rat and human liver SCP; the abundance and ubiquitous occurrence of SCP and its subcellular distribution; the factors regulating the level of liver SCP, the role of SCP in adrenal steroidogenesis, and the occurrence and level of SCP in malignant tissue.
Surface Chemistry of Thermal Dry Etching of Cobalt Thin Films Using Hexafluoroacetylacetone (hfacH).

Abstract A mechanism of thermal dry etching process of cobalt thin films by using 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoro-2,4-pentanedione (hexafluoroacetylacetone, hfacH) was investigated. This process, relevant to atomic layer etching (ALE) technology directed towards oxidized cobalt films, requires adsorption of molecular organic precursor, such as hfacH, at moderate temperatures and is often thought of as releasing water and Co(hfac)2 at elevated temperatures. The reaction was analyzed in situ by temperature-programmed desorption (TPD) and the resulting surface was investigated ex situ by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The changes in surface morphology during the process were monitored by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The removal of Co(hfac)2 from the surface was observed above 650 K, a temperature well above commercially desired etching conditions, suggesting that the thermal etching process is more complex than originally envisioned. In addition, the upper limit of thermal treatment is established at 800 K, as the microscopic techniques clearly indicated surface morphology changes above this temperature. In addition, the structure of the surface at the nanoscale is observed to be affected by the presence of surface bound organic ligands even at room temperature. Thus, further mechanistic studies should address the kinetic regime and surface morphology to make inroads into mechanistic understanding of the dry etching process.
Prevalence of Impaired fasting glucose in Qatari women between aged of 18 to 40 years old from the Qatari Bio Bank

Background Impaired fasting glucose (IFG), prediabetes, has a conversion to diabetes of 10% yearly, contributing to the prevalence of diabetes of 16.7% in Qatar. This high prevalence of diabetes will translate into serious vascular complications with considerable individual early mortality.Methods The Qatar Biobank is an ambitious national project that is collecting the demographic and biological data on an unselected Qatari population that currently has data from 1100 women aged 18-84 years. Data extraction of all women between the aged 18 to 40 years (inclusive) was undertaken by the Qatar Bio bank that identified 750 women in total. The number of women with and without impaired fasting glucose (IFG: plasma glucose 5.5-6.9 mmol/l; ADA diagnostic criteria) was determined and their demographic details compared. Bio statistical analysis was undertaken using SPSS. Results The prevalence of IFG was found to be 8.3% (62/750 women). Patients with IFG had a higher cardiovascular risk profile with a higher waist hip ratio (P < 0.01), lower HDL cholesterol (p < 0.01), higher insulin levels (( < 0.01), higher pulse wave velocity (a marker of arterial stiffness, p < 0.01), higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure (p < 0.01 and p < 0.03, respectively). C reactive protein, a marker of inflammation was also elevated (p < 0.04).Conclusion Whilst this is a small cohort, 8.3% of women had a ADA diagnosis of IFG with an adverse cardiovascular risk parameter profile. This study highlights that there is a need for early screening for IFG and intervention for the prevention of diabetes in young Qatari women below the age of 40. Acknowledgments We are grateful to the Qatar Foundation and the Qatar Biobank for their support and assistance.
Towards Learning Nuisance-Free Representations of Speech

Representation learning methods, such as deep autoencoders, have received sustained attention due to their ability to effectively learn meaningful representations for a variety of applications. While these learning approaches are able to derive representations from any source signal (e.g., images, language, or voice signals) and encourage the separation in dominating factor domains, they broadly treat factors of variation pertaining to nuisances (e.g., recording conditions, gender of speaker, accent etc.) no different from often subtle more interesting factors, such as paralinguistic target variables (e.g., voice quality and phonetic vowels). In paralinguistic speech analyses, nuisance variables (e.g. gender and accent of speakers) often dominate acoustic subtleties that pertain for example to the affect or well-being of the speaker. In this work, we seek to capture nuisance-free embeddings by learning two separate orthogonal representations: one representation specialized to capture nuisance factors and one that improves the representation of the target. We propose unsupervised and (semi-) supervised orthogonal autoencoders that allow us to learn informative representations of paralinguistic and phonetic targets while removing the effect of the nuisance - gender. Overall, our proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art approaches and shows improved target representations.
A Recursive Method for Traveling-Wave Arrival-Time Detection in Power Systems

This paper proposes a novel recursive method for detecting the first arrival time (AT) of traveling waves (TWs) in power grids to enhance the fault-location methods relying on TWs. This method depends on the adaptive discrete Kalman filter. It estimates the parameters of a high time-resolution voltage or current measurement and generates residuals (innovation sequence). Both measurement noises and TWs can result in an abrupt change in the residuals. The proposed method pinpoints the probable abrupt change and distinguishes whether it is caused by noises or arriving waves. As the proposed method is recursive, it is proper for implementation in on-site digital fault locators for real-time applications. For evaluation of the proposed method, EMTP-RV and the real-time digital simulator are utilized to perform the transient simulations. The results are then analyzed in MATLAB. The proposed method and the state-of-the-art AT-detection methods in the prior literature are compared, and the sensitivity analysis demonstrates that the measurement noises and fault parameters have less influence on the proposed method efficiency in comparison to the existing AT-detection methods.
Integrating simplified swarm optimization with AHP for solving capacitated military logistic depot location problem

Abstract This work addresses a two-level facility location problem in a military logistic system, named the military logistic depot location problem (MLDLP). Unlike most previous research on facility location problems, the objective of MLDLP is to maximize the average utility of requisitioned buildings, and the utility of a selected building depends on its attributes. This work develops an integer programming model and provides a two-stage method for this problem. In the first stage, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is applied to estimate the relative weights of the attributes as the coefficients of the objective function. In the second stage, simplified swarm optimization (SSO) is combined with a novel local search scheme based on AHP, called SSO AHP , which is proposed to deal with the problem. SSO AHP is empirically verified on thirty-six randomly generated problems, and the corresponding results are reported comparing the results with those obtained by up-to-date evolutionary computation methods.
The association between television viewing time and percent body fat in adults varies as a function of physical activity and sex

Data suggest that sedentary behavior is an independent risk factor for obesity; however, the extent to which physical activity (PA) and sex alter this relationship remains unclear. To address this gap, the current study examined the association between television (TV) viewing time and percent body fat (%BF) as a function of PA level and sex. Trained interviewers assessed 454 adults at their place of residence. Participants completed questionnaires to determine h of TV watched per week, PA level (inactive = not meeting PA guidelines vs. active = meeting PA guideline), and covariates including demographics (e.g., sex), depression symptoms, perceived stress, fruit and vegetable intake, and environmental support for PA. Foot-to-foot bioelectrical impedance (Tanita TBF-300, Tokyo, Japan) was used to assess %BF. Mixed models were generated to examine the association between TV h/wk. and %BF as a function of PA level and sex while accounting for the multi-level nature of the data (neighborhood- and individual-levels) and covariates. Participants were 44.4 ± 14.0 (Mean + Standard Deviation) years of age with 33.2 ± 11.1%BF, and watched 19.3 ± 15.5 h/wk. of TV. Most were female (70.9%) and inactive (63.2%). Mixed model regression demonstrated that among inactive participants, each additional h of TV viewed/wk. was associated with a 1.03% increase in %BF; TV h/wk. and %BF were not associated in active adults. When models were further stratified by sex, h of TV viewed/wk. were significantly associated with %BF only in inactive females. Each additional h of TV viewed/wk. was associated with an increase in %BF of 1.14%. Conclusion: Interventions targeting PA and/or TV viewing time may be a high-priority to curb excess BF accumulation especially among inactive females.
Evaluating Climate Change Impacts on the Management of the Great Lakes of North America

The analysis of the first order hydrologic effects of potential climate change scenarios is but a prerequisite to the evaluation of water resources management impacts. Determining the physical hydrologic responses of watersheds presents considerable difficulties. More complicated yet is the analysis and evaluation of alternative water resources management response strategies. Yet there is a belief that some form of sensitivity analysis can provide insights on how to deal with climate change uncertainty in contemporary water management decision-making, so an effort must be made to devise a credible and useful approach for those purposes.
A subset of brain neurons controls regurgitation in adult Drosophila melanogaster

Taste is essential for animals to evaluate food quality and make important decisions about food choice and intake. How complex brains process sensory information to produce behavior is an essential question in the field of sensory neurobiology. Currently, little is known about higher-order taste circuits in the brain as compared with those of other sensory systems. Here, we used the common vinegar fly, Drosophila melanogaster, to screen for candidate neurons labeled by different transgenic GAL4 lines in controlling feeding behaviors. We found that activation of one line (VT041723-GAL4) produces 'proboscis holding' behavior (extrusion of the mouthpart without withdrawal). Further analysis showed that the proboscis holding phenotype indicates an aversive response, as flies pre-fed with either sucrose or water prior to neuronal activation exhibited regurgitation. Anatomical characterization of VT041723-GAL4-labeled neurons suggests that they receive sensory input from peripheral taste neurons. Overall, our study identifies a subset of brain neurons labeled by VT041723-GAL4 that may be involved in a taste circuit that controls regurgitation.
Healing of vitamin D deficiency rickets complicating hypophosphatasia suggests a role beyond circulating mineral sufficiency for vitamin D in musculoskeletal health.

Abstract Hypophosphatasia (HPP) is the metabolic bone disease caused by loss-of-function mutation(s) of the ALPL gene that encodes the cell-surface tissue-nonspecific isoenzyme of alkaline phosphatase (TNSALP). In HPP, extracellular accumulation of inorganic pyrophosphate (PPi), a TNSALP natural substrate and inhibitor of biomineralization, often leads to rickets or osteomalacia despite normal or sometimes elevated circulating levels of calcium (Ca) and inorganic phosphate (Pi). We report an infant girl with vitamin D deficiency rickets subsequently healed by cholecalciferol administration alone before receiving TNSALP-replacement therapy for accompanying HPP. Throughout her clinical course, circulating Ca and Pi levels were normal or elevated. At presentation with failure-to-thrive at age six months, radiographs revealed severe rickets and serum 25(OH)D was 8 ng/mL (Nl, 30–100), yet low ALP activity 55 U/L (Nl, 124–341), normal Ca 9.3 mg/dL (Nl, 8.5–10.1) and Pi 6.4 mg/dL (Nl, 3.5–7.0), and low-normal parathyroid hormone 21 pg/mL (Nl, 14–72) were instead consistent with HPP. At age nine months, after 1000 IU of cholecalciferol orally each day for six weeks, serum 25(OH)D was 86 ng/mL, strength markedly better, and radiographs documented significant improvement of rickets. At age 18 months, with fully healed vitamin D deficiency rickets, findings of underlying HPP included a waddling gait and Gower sign, metaphyseal “tongues” of radiolucency, elevated serum pyridoxal 5′-phosphate 121 ng/mL (Nl, 2–33), and bi-allelic ALPL missense mutations. Then, nearly complete restoration of strength and radiographic healing of her remaining skeletal disease from HPP occurred during asfotase alfa enzyme replacement treatment. At no time, including presentation, were circulating Ca or Pi levels compromised. Instead, and in keeping with HPP, high-normal or elevated serum Ca and Pi concentrations were consistently documented. Thus, our findings suggest some role for vitamin D in musculoskeletal health beyond assuring circulating mineral sufficiency.
Distribution of Meloidogyne enterolobii in Eastern North Carolina and Comparison of Four Isolates

The guava root-knot nematode (RKN), Meloidogyne enterolobii, is a particularly aggressive pathogen with limited known distribution in the United States. In 2011, M. enterolobii was identified on fi...
Laminar convection in rectangular ducts of fully developed flow

Abstract Benchmark calculations for the Graetz problem in rectangular ducts are performed for three wall conditions (T – constant temperature, H2 – constant heat flux, and H1 – constant axial heat input with constant peripheral temperature). Results are reported for a wide range of duct aspect ratio (1/1 through 1/10) and over a wide span of inverse Graetz number (Z>10−6). This builds on earlier works that neglect the initial ~20% of thermal boundary layer growth in reporting heat transfer results and that omit the H2 wall condition. Using a new generalized approach, Nusselt number results for the T and H1 wall condition are correlated to better than ±2.5% for the entire range of inverse Graetz number and duct aspect ratios. Limitations on correlating the H2 wall condition by the same method are discussed.
Receipt of Guideline-Recommended Surveillance in a Population-Based Cohort of Prostate Cancer Patients Undergoing Active Surveillance.

Purpose Prospective clinical trials have demonstrated the safety and efficacy of active surveillance for men with localized prostate cancer but also suggested that inadequate surveillance may risk missing an opportunity for cure. Methods and Materials We used data from a population-based cohort of active-surveillance patients to examine the rigor of surveillance monitoring in the general population. Results Among 1419 patients enrolled from 2011 to 2013 throughout the state of North Carolina in collaboration with the state cancer registry and followed prospectively, 346 pursued active surveillance. Only 13% received all guideline-recommended surveillance testing (including prostate-specific antigen, digital rectal examination, and prostate biopsy) within the first 2 years. Furthermore, adherence was Conclusions These findings suggest that “active surveillance” as implemented in the general population may not represent the rigorous monitoring regimens used in the studies that demonstrated the safety of this management approach. More real-world studies on active surveillance are needed.
GluN2D NMDA Receptors Gate Fear Extinction Learning and Interneuron Plasticity

The cerebellum is critically involved in the formation of associative fear memory and in subsequent extinction learning. Fear conditioning is associated with a long-term potentiation at both excitatory and inhibitory synapses onto Purkinje cells. We therefore tested whether fear conditioning unmasks novel forms of synaptic plasticity, which enable subsequent extinction learning to reset cerebellar circuitry. We found that fear learning enhanced GABA release from molecular layer interneurons and this was reversed after fear extinction learning. Importantly an extinction-like stimulation of parallel fibers after fear learning is sufficient to induce a lasting decrease in inhibitory transmission (I-LTDstim) in the cerebellar cortex, a form of plasticity that is absent in naive animals. While NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) receptors are required for the formation and extinction of associative memory, the role of GluN2D, one of the four major NMDA receptor subunits, in learning and memory has not been determined. We found that fear conditioning elevates spontaneous GABA release in GluN2D KO as shown in WT mice. Deletion of GluN2D, however, abolished the I-LTDstim induced by parallel fiber stimulation after learning. At the behavioral level, genetic deletion of GluN2D subunits did not affect associative learning and memory retention, but impaired subsequent fear extinction learning. D-cycloserine, a partial NMDA receptor (NMDAR) agonist, failed to rescue extinction learning in mutant mice. Our results identify GluN2D as a critical NMDAR subunit for extinction learning and reveal a form of GluN2D-dependent metaplasticity that is associated with extinction in the cerebellum.
Bounds on Causal Effects and Application to High Dimensional Data.

This paper addresses the problem of estimating causal effects when adjustment variables in the back-door or front-door criterion are partially observed. For such scenarios, we derive bounds on the causal effects by solving two non-linear optimization problems, and demonstrate that the bounds are sufficient. Using this optimization method, we propose a framework for dimensionality reduction that allows one to trade bias for estimation power, and demonstrate its performance using simulation studies.
Leadership Development in the United Arab Emirates: The Transformational Learning Experiences of Women

To consider designing future efforts toward developing leadership programs for women in the United Arab Emirates, it is important to understand how these women learn and develop. Transformational l...
Political Considerations in a Liberal Pluralist State

Writers have devoted too little attention to the question of the appropriate limits of the state. There seems to be a tacit assumption that wise, well-meaning statesmen will translate philosophers’ insights into good policy. I suggest that it is more likely to find that government leaders in large nations are narcissistic, power-obsessed, and corrupt. The necessity for protecting children’s needs must balanced against the need to maintain the integrity of private spaces against the sorts of governments that are likely to wield authority. I propose seven principles that undergird this balance, and that will be reified in the State Intervention Test in the next chapter. These principles are family primacy, pluralism, political realism, negotiation, limitation of government scope, diffusion of government power, and sufficientarianism. Essentially, I seek a political process with constitutional guarantees of liberty. My vision derives from a contemporary movement in political theory known as political realism. Needs must ultimately be determined politically, and are reified through a political process as guarantees of minimum fulfillment of important interests. The idea that the state should provide such a floor is called sufficientarianism. The levels of sufficiency are established through a modus vivendi. There is no non-controversial principled justification, so I use sentiment to justify my political realist solution. First, it is based on compassion, and possibly solidarity. Second, it encompasses the notion of self-insurance; any of us may fall below a sufficient level without the state providing a floor. Finally, the existence of a social net promotes the legitimacy of societal institutions, including the state, thus promoting social harmony and order.
TU-AB-BRB-03: Coverage-Based Treatment Planning to Accommodate Organ Deformable Motions and Contouring Uncertainties for Prostate Treatment.

The accepted clinical method to accommodate targeting uncertainties inherent in fractionated external beam radiation therapy is to utilize GTV-to-CTV and CTV-to-PTV margins during the planning process to design a PTV-conformal static dose distribution on the planning image set. Ideally, margins are selected to ensure a high (e.g. >95%) target coverage probability (CP) in spite of inherent inter- and intra-fractional positional variations, tissue motions, and initial contouring uncertainties. Robust optimization techniques, also known as probabilistic treatment planning techniques, explicitly incorporate the dosimetric consequences of targeting uncertainties by including CP evaluation into the planning optimization process along with coverage-based planning objectives. The treatment planner no longer needs to use PTV and/or PRV margins; instead robust optimization utilizes probability distributions of the underlying uncertainties in conjunction with CP-evaluation for the underlying CTVs and OARs to design an optimal treated volume. This symposium will describe CP-evaluation methods as well as various robust planning techniques including use of probability-weighted dose distributions, probability-weighted objective functions, and coverage optimized planning. Methods to compute and display the effect of uncertainties on dose distributions will be presented. The use of robust planning to accommodate inter-fractional setup uncertainties, organ deformation, and contouring uncertainties will be examined as will its use to accommodate intra-fractional organ motion. Clinical examples will be used to inter-compare robust and margin-based planning, highlighting advantages of robust-plans in terms of target and normal tissue coverage. Robust-planning limitations as uncertainties approach zero and as the number of treatment fractions becomes small will be presented, as well as the factors limiting clinical implementation of robust planning. Learning Objectives: 1. To understand robust-planning as a clinical alternative to using margin-based planning. 2. To understand conceptual differences between uncertainty and predictable motion. 3. To understand fundamental limitations of the PTV concept that probabilistic planning can overcome. 4. To understand the major contributing factors to target and normal tissue coverage probability. 5. To understand the similarities and differences of various robust planning techniques 6. To understand the benefits and limitations of robust planning techniques
Brain intermediary metabolism in vivo: changes with carbon dioxide, development, and seizures.

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews selected aspects of brain intermediary metabolism in vivo, with a focus on the recent developments in methodology and on changes found during development, seizures, and respiratory acidosis. The chapter discusses that carbon dioxide (CO2) levels play an important role in normal functioning of the central nervous system (CNS). Increased neuronal activity requires additional energy from oxidative phosphorylation, which raises the CO2 level in the milieu of the active neurons. This increased CO2 could then function to regulate local metabolism in two ways,(1) by causing an increase in local cerebral blood flow, it increases the flow of oxygen and glucose towards, and the movement of CO2 away from the active neurons, and (2) by inhibiting glycolysis, it slows the rate of development of an intracellular lactic acidosis, which may occur in response to a temporary imbalance between the rate of glycolysis and that of pyruvate oxidation. Metabolic consequences of the carbon dioxide treatment have important implications for investigators studying the effects of a variety of CNS depressants on energy metabolism.
Environmental specimen banking

The risk of environmental damage from the countless chemicals and chemical combinations is estimated by monitoring the air, water, soil, and biota and comparing the findings to known risks. Environmental monitoring involves the collection and chemical analysis of selected samples to determine pollutant trends, forecast damage to the environment, and develop control strategies. However, past experience has taught us that there is always a level of uncertainty associated with the chemical analysis of complex environmental samples. This uncertainty arises from insufficient analytical sensitivity to detect trace levels of damaging pollutants, unsuspected analytical inaccuracies associated with unknown interferences, and limited resolution to identify and quantify all pollutants of interest.
Full-Length But Not Truncated CD34 Inhibits Hematopoietic Cell Differentiation of M1 Cells

CD34 is expressed on human and murine hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells and its clinical usefulness for isolation of stem/progenitor cells has been well established. Although expression of CD34 is regulated in a developmental stage-specific manner, the function of CD34 is not known. Recently we have shown that both a full-length and truncated form of CD34 protein is expressed by hematopoietic cells (Blood 84:691, 1994). To test whether failure to suppress either form of CD34 could affect terminal myeloid differentiation, we constitutively expressed these CD34 proteins in murine M1 myeloid leukemia cells, which can be terminally differentiated to macrophages by treatment with interleukin-6 of leukemia inhibitory factor. Surprisingly our results show that forced expression of the full-length but not the truncated form of CD34 impedes terminal differentiation by these agents. Because the difference between the two forms of CD34 protein resides in the length of their respective cytoplasmic tail domains, our findings strongly suggest that the cytoplasmic domain region of full-length CD34 is responsible for the observed maturation arrest phenotype. These findings suggest a potential negative regulatory role for full-length CD34 in hematopoietic cell differentiation and may explain, at least in part, the block in maturation observed in CD34+ acute myeloid leukemia.
The Theory of the Firm, Independent Contractors, and Some Law and Economics of Employment

This paper considers use of employment contracts versus commercial contracts for the exchange of labor services. Those workers selling their services via the former contract are employees and those using the latter are independent contractors. Following the legal distinction between the two types of contracts, this is equivalent to modeling the right to control the work routine. The work routine is allowed to affect effort incentives as in Holmstrom and Milgrom (1994) and investment incentives as in Grossman and Hart (1986). Predictions of the effects of monitoring costs and the importance of investment on control of the work routine and use of independent contractors are derived. These predictions are tested and supported with data from the Current Population Survey augmented with occupational characteristics from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles.
Escaping the tolerance trap: Implications of rigidity in OPEC's output adjustment mechanism

Abstract In order to examine the implications of the weakening of OPEC's responsiveness in adjusting its production levels, this paper explicitly incorporates rigidity in the quantity adjustment mechanism, thereby extending previous research which assumed smooth quantity adjustments. The rigidity is manifested in a tolerance range for the discrepancy between the declared target price and that of the market. This environment gives rise to a ‘tolerance trap’ which impedes the convergence process and inevitably brings the market to a stanstill before it reaches the targeted price and revenue objectives. OPEC's reaction to the standstill has important implications for the achievement of the target-based equilibrium and for the potential collapse of the market price. This paper examines OPEC's policy options in the tolerance trap and reveals that the optimal policy in order to break this impasse and move closer to the equilibrium point is gradually to reduce output and not to flood the market (which unfortunately has happened in the past).
Pharmacoeconomics of Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccines

This chapter reviews key concepts in pharmacoeconomics and the pharmacoeconomic literature pertaining to pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), with an emphasis on recent work and future advances. A cost minimization analysis assumes that all interventions being analyzed result in equal health outcomes and that the primary consideration is which alternative results in lower net costs. Cost-effectiveness analyses and cost-utility analyses are used predominantly in vaccine-related pharmacoeconomic evaluations. Pharmacoeconomic evaluations of pneumococcal vaccine’s value are built upon models of pneumococcal disease burden. In order to estimate the value for money represented by the introduction of PCV, epidemiologic data on pneumococcal disease incidence need to be integrated with demographic data from the population of interest to develop a proper understanding of the numbers of cases of disease, death, and disability resulting from pneumococcal infection. Most pharmacoeconomic evaluations assumed that PCV prevents invasive pneumococcal disease, pneumonia, and otitis media. One of the greatest challenges in modeling the economic value of PCV lies in developing estimates of pneumonia incidence that are (i) in accord with the vaccine efficacy data available from clinical trials and (ii) appropriate to the population being modeled. The most common direct non-health care cost included in the studies was the value of caregiver time spent tending to sick children.
Improved behaviour of tries by the "symmetrization" of the source

In this paper, we propose and study a pre-processing technique for improving performance of digital tree (trie)-based search algorithms under asymmetric memoryless sources. This technique (which we call a symmetrization of the source) bijectively maps the sequences of symbols from the original (asymmetric) source into symbols of an output alphabet resulting in a more uniform distribution. We introduce a criterion of efficiency for such a mapping, and demonstrate that a problem of finding an optimal construction for a given source (or universal) symmetrization transform is equivalent to a problem of constructing a minimum redundancy variable-length-to-block code for this source (or class of sources). Based on this result, we propose search algorithms that incorporate known (optimal for a given source and universal) variable-length-to-block codes and study their asymptotic behaviour. We complement our analysis with a description of an efficient algorithm for universal symmetrization of binary memoryless sources, and compare the performance of the resulting search structure with the standard tries.
Emergence in the modular shading system based on cellular automaton

The first paper on cellular automaton-based shading system (CASS) for building facades was already published in 2009 [Zawidzki, M. (2009). Implementing cellular automata for dynamically shading a building facade. Complex-Systems, 18(3), 287–305]. A year later a small-scale prototype was built and documented in [Zawidzki, M., & Fujieda, I. (2010). The prototyping of a shading device controlled by a cellular automaton. Complex-Systems, 19(2), 157–175]. The original CASS was a CA hardware. Although the polarized film disc shading system (PFSS-D) presented here diverts from the purity of the original concept, it is more likely to find real applications, as it presents much wider range of aesthetic and practical capabilities. The CA patterns, however, remain the key feature of this organic architecture system. This paper discusses the practical applicability of PFSS-D and outlines the fabrication of a full-scale model. A number of new features such as capability of displaying any graphics and text, adjusting t...
The Second Nature of Geography: Hartshorne as Humanist∗

Richard Hartshorne's The Nature of Geography, its sequel, and his works on political geography are examined in light of contemporary humanistic and cultural trends in geography. Hartshorne frequently discussed the value of subjectivity to the geographer, and often touched on the themes of cultural regions and experiential perception. Hartshorne further developed these trends along political lines. His humanistic forecasts have heretofore gone unrecognized. It is argued that, far from the “descriptive” aspersion with which he is often viewed, Hartshorne was a methodological generalist.
A short highly regio- and stereoselective synthesis of triacylglycerols

Abstract Glycidyl esters reacted with carboxylic anhydrides in the presence of LiBr in tetrahydrofuran (THF) or benzene to produce 3-bromo-1,2-propanediol esters with no significant acyl migration. Displacement of Br by cesium carboxylates was accomplished cleanly in THF-hexamethylphosphoric triamide (THF-HMPT) at 50–55°C (5 h) completing a highly regioselective triglyceride synthesis. The regioselectivity of these reactions allows stereoselective synthesis if one initiates the short sequence with enantiomerically pure glycidol. Commercial (R)-(+)-glycidol (94.6% R) was used to synthesize (R)- and (S)-lauroyl oleoyl palmitoyl glycerol. 1H-NMR data of S-methoxy-α-trifluoromethylphenyl acetic acid ((S)-MTPA) derivatives formed by reaction of the (S)-MTPA ester of (R)-glycidol indicated that these reactions preserved configuration as expected.
Multicore-aware hybrid code positioning to reduce worst-case execution time

Unlike general-purpose programs, it is important to reduce the worst-case performance rather than the average-case performance for real-time systems. In this paper, based on a dual-core processor with a shared L2 cache, we propose a code positioning scheme that can reduce the worst-case execution time (WCET) for real-time threads by minimizing both the intra-thread and inter-thread instruction cache misses. Our experiments indicate that the proposed hybrid code positioning approach can effectively reduce the worst-case performance for real-time threads running on this dual-core processor.
Free Composition of Paragroups

As a first step we define an extremality condition for paragroups, then we prove that any given extremal paragroup is equivalent to a Popa system constructed with the string algebras associated with the starting paragroup. As a corollary, we get that any extremal paragroup can be thought of as the paragroup coming from a (generally non-hyperfinite) extremal inclusion of II1 factors. Then we define a free composition for paragroups, using as a model the definition by V. Jones and D. Bisch of free composition of subfactors; and we prove that for any two given paragroups P1 and P2 there always exists a third paragroup P which realizes the free composition of P1 and P2 .
Phytotoxicity of cadmium inhibited by lime

Height growth and dry weight accumulation of six-week-old soybeans (Glycine max var. Williams) were severely reduced by 4 ppm CdCl2 in quartz sand culture. This reduction in growth was eliminated by application of 40 ppm Ca(OH)2 (90 kg/hectare plow depth equivalent). CaCO3 at 500 ppm was not effective in preventing cadmium phytotoxicity. re]19760525
Bone mineral density and prolactin associations in patients with chronic schizophrenia.

George Abraham *, Uriel Halbreich , Ronald H. Friedman , Richard C. Josiassen d Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Pennsylvania, Hahnemann University, 3300 Henry Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19129, USA Department of Psychiatry, Erie County Medical Center, State University New York, Buffalo, NY 14215, USA Department of Internal Medicine, Norristown State Hospital, 1001 Sterigere Street, Norristown, PA 19401, USA Norristown State Hospital Clinical Research Center, University of Pennsylvania, 1001 Sterigere Street, Norristown, PA 19401, USA
A Method for Three-Dimensional Navier–Stokes Simulations of Large-Scale Regions of the Human Lung Airway

A new methodology for CFD simulation of airflow in the human bronchopulmonary tree is presented. The new approach provides a means for detailed resolution of the flow features via three-dimensional Navier–Stokes CFD simulation without the need for full resolution of the entire flow geometry, which is well beyond the reach of available computing power now and in the foreseeable future. The method is based on a finite number of flow paths, each of which is fully resolved, to provide a detailed description of the entire complex small-scale flowfield. A stochastic coupling approach is used for the unresolved flow path boundary conditions, yielding a virtual flow geometry that allows accurate statistical resolution of the flow at all scales for any set of flow conditions. Results are presented for multigenerational lung models based on the Weibel morphology and the anatomical data of Hammersley and Olson (1992, “Physical Models of the Smaller Pulmonary Airways,” J. Appl. Physiol., 72(6), pp. 2402–2414). Validation simulations are performed for a portion of the bronchiole region (generations 4–12) using the flow path ensemble method, and compared with simulations that are geometrically fully resolved. Results are obtained for three inspiratory flowrates and compared in terms of pressure drop, flow distribution characteristics, and flow structure. Results show excellent agreement with the fully resolved geometry, while reducing the mesh size and computational cost by up to an order of magnitude.
Injured Intoxicated Drivers: Citation, Conviction, Referral, and Recidivism Rates

Abstract Study objectives: Several studies have suggested that legally intoxicated drivers who are injured when involved in a motor vehicle crash are unlikely to be cited or prosecuted for driving under the influence (DUI). The purpose of this study was to determine (1) the rates of citation and prosecution of legally intoxicated drivers who are injured in a motor vehicle crash and hospitalized in a Level I trauma center, (2) the rates of previous and subsequent alcohol-related citation in this population, and (3) the rate of referral for treatment of alcohol-related problems made during the hospital stay. Methods: In a retrospective review of trauma registry and Cleveland Municipal Court records from January 1993 through April 1995, we examined the records of all drivers injured in a motor vehicle crash who were transported to a Level I urban trauma center, admitted to the trauma service, and determined to have a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .10 gm% or higher at the time of admission to the emergency department. Results: Seventy drivers admitted after a motor vehicle crash had a BAC of .10 gm% or higher. This represented 33% of the drivers older than 16 years of age who were admitted to the trauma service. Twenty-three drivers (32.8%) were cited for DUI, and 15 (21%) of the 70 were successfully prosecuted and convicted. Four of 23 cited drivers had previous citations; another 5 incurred subsequent citations during the study period. Eight of the 70 drivers who were admitted with a high BAC were referred for outpatient alcohol counseling after discharge. None were offered counseling as inpatients. Conclusion: Citation and prosecution rates of legally intoxicated drivers injured in motor vehicle crashes and hospitalized in our trauma center were low. Recognition of alcoholism and inpatient counseling were rare. Multiple alcohol-related citations were common among drivers cited for DUI. [Cydulka RK, Harmody MR, Barnoski A, Fallon W, Emerman CL: Injured intoxicated drivers: Citation, conviction, referral, and recidivism rates. Ann Emerg Med September 1998;32:349-352.]
Is Obesity as Dangerous to Your Wealth as to Your Health

Obesity is a growing public health issue, with a rising number of adults classified as overweight. Although medical research shows being overweight is dangerous to one’s health, this research, which investigates young, U.S. baby boomers from 1985 to 2000, finds it is also dangerous to one’s wealth. The net worth of the obese is roughly half that of those with normal body mass. As young baby boomers age, peak net worth slowly shifts toward those with lower mass. Boomers with a body mass index (BMI) of 22 in 1985 held the most net worth, but by 2000 the peak shifted to those with a BMI of 17. From 1985 to 2000, for every one-point BMI increase, net worth on average fell $1,000, holding other factors like income constant. Surprisingly, part of the reason BMI is inversely related to networth is because lighter people receive more inheritances than heavier individuals.
Peripheral versus central muscarinic effects on blood pressure, cardiac contractility, heart rate, and body temperature in the rat monitored by radiotelemetry.

Our laboratory has found that the organophosphate pesticide chlorpyrifos elicits an elevation in blood pressure that persists for approximately 24 hr after exposure. Since organophosphate pesticides inhibit acetylcholinesterase activity and cause cholinergic stimulation in the central nervous system and peripheral tissues, we suspect that the hypertensive response from chlorpyrifos is elicited by activation of pressor areas in the brain stem, specifically muscarinic receptors which are known to mediate hypertensive responses. Oxotremorine, a muscarinic agonist, should elicit a blood pressure response similar to organophosphate pesticides. This study used radiotelemetry to assess the effects of oxotremorine on blood pressure, heart rate, core temperature, QA interval (a measure of cardiac contractility), and motor activity in the male, Long-Evans rat. Subcutaneous co-administration of 0.2 mg/kg oxotremorine with 1.0 mg/kg methyl scopolamine (i.e., to block oxotremorine's peripheral effects) caused a marked elevation in blood pressure that developed concomitantly with a 2 degrees decrease in core temperature, 60 beats/min. increase in heart rate, increase in cardiac contractility but no change in motor activity. Overall, blood pressure increased by 19 mmHg from baseline and the response persisted for approximately 12 hr after injection. Methyl scopolamine alone increased heart rate but had no effect on blood pressure, core temperature, and motor activity. Oxotremorine injected without methyl scopolamine led to a relatively minor increase in blood pressure and hypothermia. Overall, central muscarinic stimulation with oxotremorine and methyl scopolamine leads to a vigorous hypertensive response that is associated with increased cardiac contractility, suggesting an increase in cardiac output. Combined central and peripheral cholinergic stimulation following oxotremorine without methyl scopolamine, as would also occur with exposure to chlorpyrifos and other organophosphate pesticides, did not elicit as much of a hypertensive response. This would suggest pathways other than those controlled directly with muscarinic receptors are operative in the development of chlorpyrifos-induced hypertension.