cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Contributions of fasting and postprandial plasma glucose levels to glycosylated hemoglobin and diabetes mellitus-related complications: Treating hyperglycemia with insulin

Abstract Background: Glycosylated hemoglobin (A1C) is a good indicator of a patient's mean plasma glucose level over the previous 90 to 120 days. It can assist in determining whether fasting plasma glucose (FPG) and postprandial plasma glucose (PPG) levels are under control in a patient with diabetes mellitus. Self-monitoring of blood glucose levels is essential to distinguish the contributions of FPG and/or PPG when a change occurs in the AIC level. Objectives: The goal of this article was to define A1C and address the contributions of FPG and PPG levels to overall A1C. Elevated A1C levels correlate with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and other complications, which are also reviewed here. Available therapies and therapeutic strategies are discussed, including the use of insulin when oral therapy alone has not maintained glycemic control. Methods: English-language articles (1990–2006) were searched on the PubMed database using the following terms: insulin, type 2 diabetes, early insulin use, A1 C, and hemoglobin A1 C . Results: Several studies are presented here which demonstrate that blood glucose levels can dramatically improve when insulin is added to the existing regimen of oral therapy or when administered alone. In recent trials, active titration of the insulin dose to treatment target levels has been effective in improving the overall glycemic profile. Insulin glargine and insulin detemir, long-acting insulin analogues, are safe and effective and can be used initially as basal insulin with oral agents or with prandial insulin (regular human insulin or a rapid-acting insulin analogue [eg, insulin lispro, insulin aspart, insulin glulisine]) if glucose levels are not well controlled with basal insulin plus oral agents. Basal-prandial insulin regimens that utilize both long-acting and rapid-acting insulin analogues most closely resemble normal pancreatic insulin secretion and are effective in allowing patients to achieve recommended glycemic targets. Conclusions: Early and persistent intensification of therapy designed to achieve glycemic goals, including the use of oral agents and/or insulin, should be initiated at diagnosis and appropriately titrated. The contributions of FPG and PPG to overall A1C should be closely monitored so that the most appropriate and effective treatment regimen may be implemented.
Guided ion beam studies of transition metal–ligand thermochemistry

Abstract Studies of organometallic chemistry in the gas phase can provide substantial quantitative information regarding the interactions of transition metals with a wide variety of covalently and noncovalently bound ligands. In this review, the technique of guided ion beam tandem mass spectrometry for the measurement of thermodynamic information is highlighted. Periodic trends in covalent bonds between first, second, and a few third row transition metals and small ligands are discussed. Periodic trends in covalent versus noncovalent metal ligand bonds are compared and fluctuations in sequential noncovalent bonds (solvation) as a function of different metals are reviewed. In all cases, electronic effects that can be used to understand the various trends are elucidated. Finally, recent results for ligands covalently bound to metal clusters are reviewed.
Structural classification and properties of ketoacyl synthases

Ketoacyl synthases (KSs) catalyze condensing reactions combining acyl-CoA or acyl-acyl carrier protein (acyl-ACP) with malonyl-CoA to form 3-ketoacyl-CoA or with malonyl-ACP to form 3-ketoacyl-ACP. In each case, the resulting acyl chain is two carbon atoms longer than before, and CO2 and either CoA or ACP are formed. KSs also join other activated molecules in the polyketide synthesis cycle. Our classification of KSs by their primary and tertiary structures instead of by their substrates and the reactions that they catalyze enhances insights into this enzyme group. KSs fall into five families separated by their characteristic primary structures, each having members with the same catalytic residues, mechanisms, and tertiary structures. KS1 members, overwhelmingly named 3-ketoacyl-ACP synthase III or its variants, are produced predominantly by bacteria. Members of KS2 are mainly produced by plants, and they are usually long-chain fatty acid elongases/condensing enzymes and 3-ketoacyl-CoA synthases. KS3, a very large family, is composed of bacterial and eukaryotic 3-ketoacyl-ACP synthases I and II, often found in multidomain fatty acid and polyketide synthases. Most of the chalcone synthases, stilbene synthases, and naringenin-chalcone synthases in KS4 are from eukaryota. KS5 members are all from eukaryota, most are produced by animals, and they are mainly fatty acid elongases. All families except KS3 are split into subfamilies whose members have statistically significant differences in their primary structures. KS1 through KS4 appear to be part of the same clan. KS sequences, tertiary structures, and family classifications are available on the continuously updated ThYme (Thioester-active enzYme) database.
Vancomycin and nephrotoxicity: just another myth?

BACKGROUND: Vancomycin is considered the drug of choice for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infection; however, it has also been linked with nephrotoxicity in the past, sometimes leading to its substitution with linezolid. We hypothesized that patients treated with vancomycin for gram-positive (GP) infections would have an increased incidence of rise in creatinine and need for hemodialysis (HD) compared with patients receiving linezolid. METHODS: This was a retrospective cohort study of a prospectively maintained database of all surgical patients treated with either vancomycin or linezolid for GP infections in a single intensive care unit from 2001 to 2008 and managed under a cycling antibiotic protocol. Patients were followed up until hospital discharge. Categorical and continuous variables were evaluated. Multivariable logistic regression was performed. RESULTS: A total of 545 patients were treated for 1,046 GP infections (571 with vancomycin, 475 with linezolid) over 7 years. Patient demographics were similar between groups; however, the vancomycin group was associated with a longer treatment course (16.2 [0.5] days vs. 14.3 [0.5] days; p = 0.022). Unadjusted outcomes were similar between groups. Multivariable analysis revealed that Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation II score predicted an increase in creatinine levels greater than 1.0 following antibiotic therapy (relative risk [RR], 3.01; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.22Y7.42) and subsequent need for HD (RR, 3.07; 95% CI, 1.23Y7.62). In addition, initial creatinine level predicted an increase in creatinine levels greater than 1.0 following antibiotic therapy (RR, 4.36; 95% CI, 1.46Y12.99) and subsequent need for HD (RR, 10.83; 95% CI, 3.19Y36.77). Linezolid was found to be protective regarding rise in creatinine levels greater than 1.0 following antibiotic therapy; however, this was only experienced when vancomycin trough levels greater than 20 were encountered (RR, 5.4;95% CI, 1.19Y24.51). CONCLUSION: These data suggest that vancomycin is minimally nephrotoxic and has a similar nephrotoxic profile as compared with linezolid when appropriate dosing is used, even among critically ill patients with complex infections. (J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2013;75: 830Y835. Copyright * 2013 by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins) LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Therapeutic/care management, level II.
Living and loving “decent”: Religion and relationship quality among urban parents☆

Religious participation is linked to overall satisfaction among both married and unmarried couples in urban America. Less is known about what may account for the association between religious participation and relationship quality. We explore this issue using data from the first two waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study. Relationship-related behaviors (e.g., temperance) and relationship-specific behaviors (e.g., affection) can each account for the association between church attendance and relationship quality. Furthermore, religious participation appears to be more tightly linked to men's perceptions of relationship quality than women's.
The use of a multiobjective evolutionary algorithm to increase flexibility in the search for better IMRT plans

Purpose: To evaluate how a more flexible and thorough multiobjective search of feasible IMRT plans affects performance in IMRT optimization. Methods: A multiobjective evolutionary algorithm (MOEA) was used as a tool to investigate how expanding the search space to include a wider range of penalty functions affects the quality of the set of IMRT plans produced. The MOEA uses a population of IMRT plans to generate new IMRT plans through deterministic minimization of recombined penalty functions that are weighted sums of multiple, tissue-specific objective functions. The quality of the generated plans are judged by an independent set of nonconvex, clinically relevant decision criteria, and all dominated plans are eliminated. As this process repeats itself, better plans are produced so that the population of IMRT plans will approach the Pareto front. Three different approaches were used to explore the effects of expanding the search space. First, the evolutionary algorithm used genetic optimization principles to search by simultaneously optimizing both the weights and tissue-specific dose parameters in penalty functions. Second, penalty function parameters were individually optimized for each voxel in all organs at risk (OARs) in the MOEA. Finally, a heuristic voxel-specific improvement (VSI) algorithm that can be used on any IMRT plan was developed that incrementally improves voxel-specific penalty function parameters for all structures (OARs and targets). Different approaches were compared using the concept of domination comparison applied to the sets of plans obtained by multiobjective optimization. Results: MOEA optimizations that simultaneously searched both importance weights and dose parameters generated sets of IMRT plans that were superior to sets of plans produced when either type of parameter was fixed for four example prostate plans. The amount of improvement increased with greater overlap between OARs and targets. Allowing the MOEA to search for voxel-specific penalty functions improved results for simple cases with three structures but did not improve results for a more complex case with seven structures. For this modification, the amount of improvement increased with less overlap between OARs and targets. The voxel-specific improvement algorithm improved results for all cases, and its clinical relevance was demonstrated in a complex prostate and a very complex head and neck case. Conclusions: Using an evolutionary algorithm as a tool, it was found that allowing more flexibility in the search space enhanced performance. The two strategies of (a) varying the weights and reference doses in the objective function and (b) removing the constraint of equal penalties for all voxels in a structure both generated sets of plans that dominated sets of plans considered to be “Pareto optimal” within the conventional, more limited search space. When considering voxel-specific objectives, the very large search space can lead to convergence problems in the MOEA for complex cases, but this is not an issue for the VSI algorithm.
LIGHT-INDUCED FORMATION OF O-2˙ OXYGEN RADICALS IN SYSTEMS CONTAINING CHLOROPHYLL

— It has been shown recently that photosystem 1 particles, photosystem 1 lipid vesicles and chlorophyll-a lipid vesicles show identical photochemical reactions in the presence of oxygen e.g. H+-and O2-uptake (Van Ginkel, 1979). Therefore, spin-trapping experiments were done to identify the oxygen radicals formed. The spintrap phenyltertiarybutylnitrone (PBN) failed to yield information about oxygen radicals. With the spintrap 5,5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-1-oxide (DMPO), however, we obtained a mixed spectrum of O-2˙ and OH·-adducts generated in chloroplasts, photosystem 1 particles or chlorophyll-a lipid vesicles. These data indicate that chlorophyll-a in an artificial membrane can also catalyze O-2˙-formation. Chlorophyll-a lipid vesicles catalyze light-induced formation of the Tiron-semiquinone free radical, which has been proposed as a specific O-2˙-probe (Greenstock and Miller, 1975). However, OH· scavengers strongly reduce the formation of this radical, whereas superoxide dismutase does not. Pulse-radiolysis measurements showed that the rate constant for the reaction of Tiron with OH· is 8.2 · 109M-1 s-1, which is considerably higher than the published Tiron/O-2˙ rate constants. Therefore, Tiron is a better spin probe for OH· than for O-2˙. We suggest that light-induced H+-and O-2˙-uptake in membranes containing chlorophyll-a in the presence of ascorbate is caused mainly by the very rapid reaction of OH· with ascorbate.
A comparative study of nucleation parameterizations: 1. Examination and evaluation of the formulations

[1] Large uncertainty exists in the nucleation parameterizations that may be propagated into climate change predictions through affecting aerosol direct and indirect effects. These parameterizations are derived either empirically from laboratory/field measurements or from theoretical models for nucleation rates. A total of 12 nucleation parameterizations (7 binary, 3 ternary, and 2 power laws) that are currently used in three-dimensional air quality models are examined comparatively under a variety of atmospheric conditions from polluted surface to very clean mesosphere environments and evaluated using observations from several laboratory experiments and a field campaign conducted in a sulfate-rich urban environment in the southeastern United States (i.e., Atlanta, Georgia). Significant differences (by up to 18 orders of magnitude) are found among the nucleation rates calculated with different parameterizations under the same meteorological and chemical conditions. All parameterizations give nucleation rates that increase with the number concentrations of sulfuric acid but differ in terms of the magnitude of such increases. Differences exist in their dependencies on temperatures, relative humidity, and the mixing ratios of ammonia in terms of both trends and magnitudes. Among the 12 parameterizations tested, the parameterizations of Kuang et al. (2008), Sihto et al. (2006), and Harrington and Kreidenweis (1998) give the best agreement with the observed nucleation rates in most laboratory studies and in Atlanta during a summer season field campaign and either do not exceed or rarely exceed the upper limits of the nucleation rates (i.e., the dimer formation rate) and new particle formation rates (i.e., the formation rate of particles with 2 nm diameter). They are thus the most plausible nucleation parameterizations for applications in the planetary boundary layer of polluted sulfate-rich urban areas. Limitation with the two power laws are that they were derived empirically based on observations at specific locations under certain atmospheric conditions that may be different from laboratory measurement conditions and those at other locations and that they do not consider RH and T dependence. By contrast, the ternary nucleation parameterization of Napari et al. (2002) should not be used because it grossly overpredicts the observed nucleation rates, often exceeding the upper limit dimer or new particle formation rates, and giving an enhancement factor due to the presence of ammonia and a dependence on relative humidity that are inconsistent with laboratory measurements. The binary nucleation parameterization of Wexler et al. (1994) and Kulmala et al. (1998b) also should not be used because the former gives nucleation rates exceeding the upper limits under most atmospheric conditions and the latter contains technical mistakes in its formula.
Transient vitreous inflammatory reactions associated with combination antiretroviral therapy in patients with AIDS and cytomegalovirus retinitis

Purpose To report the observation that a transient vitreous inflammatory reaction may develop in the eyes of patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), cytomegalovirus retinitis, and an increased CD4 + T-lymphocyte count during treatment with antiretroviral therapy including a protease inhibitor. Methods We reviewed the medical records of eight patients with AIDS and cytomegalovirus retinitis who developed vitreous inflammatory reactions greater than those usually seen with this disease. Results Vitreous inflammatory reactions obscured the view of the posterior pole in all patients. No iris nodules, synechiae, glaucoma, or cystoid macular edema were observed. Six patients had unilateral cytomegalovirus retinitis, and, in each, the inflammation occurred only in the eye with cytomegalovirus retinitis. The vitreous inflammatory reactions were associated with clinically inactive cytomegalovirus retinitis in six patients, with disease reactivation in one patient, and were present at diagnosis of active disease in one patient. Cyto-megalovirus retinitis has not recurred in any of these patients since their episodes of vitreous inflammation. Vitreous inflammation developed in all eight patients after a substantial increase in CD4 + T-lymphocyte counts caused by combination anti-retroviral therapy. Five patients had CD4 + T-lymphocyte counts of greater than 100 cells per μl at the time the vitreous inflammatory reaction developed. No other causes of uveitis were found. Conclusions Patients with AIDS and cyto-megalovirus retinitis may develop transient intra-ocular inflammation associated with combination antiretroviral therapy. We believe that this inflammation reflects an improved immune response against cytomegalovirus.
Some findings of FADD knockdown in inhibition of HIV-1 replication in Jurkat cells and PBMCs

Fas-associated protein with death domain (FADD) is a key adaptor molecule transmitting the death signal mediated by death receptors, and it is also required for T cell proliferation. A recent study indicated that FADD is able to affect HIV-1 production, but the mechanism is not known. Using the susceptible Jurkat cell line and peripheral blood mononuclear cells, we studied the effects of FADD on HIV-1 production. TaqMan RT-PCR was used to quantify HIV-1 viral RNA copies, and Western blot analysis was used to detect protein expression. FADD knockdown decreased HIV-1 replication and inactivated caspase-3 activity in the cells and blocked CD4 translocation to the lipid rafts of the plasma membrane. Reduced expression of FADD suppressed TCR signaling through downregulation of TCR, CD3, and Zap-70 in response to HIV-1 infection and blocked the trafficking of TCR, CD3, CD28, and Zap-70 to lipid rafts, leading to reduced activation of NF-κB and NFAT, which are required for HIV-1 replication. FADD knockdown diminished caspase-8 migration to lipid rafts and its expression in response to HIV-1 infection. These results indicate that FADD, as a host pro-apoptotic protein, plays important roles in regulating HIV-1 replication and production in several ways, and apoptotic pathway inhibition is able to decrease HIV-1 replication and production.
Low incidence of asymptomatic brainmetastases in patients with renal cell carcinoma

Brain metastases from renal cell carcinoma are uncommon. The present study was undertaken to determine the value of routine computerized tomographic (CT) scanning of the brain in patients with renal cell carcinoma. A review of 106 patients with renal cell carcinoma who had undergone CT scan of the brain revealed brain metastases in only 13.2 percent. Brain metastases were accompanied by central nervous system (CNS) symptoms in 78.6 percent of patients, with headaches constituting the most common presenting symptom (64.3%). Brain metastases were detected in only 3.3 percent of patients who had no CNS symptoms at the time of evaluation. It is concluded that CT scanning of the brain should be performed routinely only for those patients who report CNS symptoms at the time of evaluation.
Metrology and coatings for the 40 kg LIGO optics

The 4 km LIGO interferometers seek to measure the gravitational radiation from cosmic explosions. In order to do so, their massive mirrors must meet several demanding specifications which are sometimes conflicting. I will described why the job is so challenging and how the challenges may be met.
Polypyrroles in three dimensions. The synthesis of tripyrrane-strapped 2-aminophenylporphyrins

Abstract The synthesis of two “three dimensional expanded porphyrins”, namely the singly and doubly bridged, tripyrrane-strapped tetrakis(2-aminophenyl)porphyrins, 1 and 2 , is described.
The nature of the transition in d = 4 U(1) lattice gauge theory

Abstract The phase transition for the d = 4 compact U(1) lattice gauge theory has been studied using the Monte Carlo renormalization-group method. A single relevant eigenvalue is observed on the Wilson axis. The MCRG estimate for the exponent v changes with the coupling β; an extrapolation towards β∞c provides an estimate v ∼ 0.42 rather than ∼ 0.33 as obtained by finite-size scaling. It is confirmed that loops of monopole current are the mechanism driving the transition. It is shown that at the transition the largest loop of monopole current undergoes a discontinuity in size and begins to span the lattice. On the basis of these findings, it is conjectured that on the Wilson axis the discontinuity is a finite-size effect.
Do microcracks decrease or increase fatigue resistance in cortical bone

Fatigue of cortical bone produces microcracks; it has been hypothesized that these cracks are analogous to those occurring in engineered composite materials and constitute a similar mechanism for fatigue resistance. However, the numbers of these linear microcracks increase substantially with age, suggesting that they contribute to increased fracture incidence among the elderly. To test these opposing hypotheses, we fatigued 20 beams of femoral cortical bone from elderly men and women in load-controlled four point bending having initial strain ranges of 3000 or 5000 microstrain. Loading was stopped at fracture or 10(6) cycles, whichever occurred first, and microcrack density and length were measured in the loaded region and in a control region that was not loaded. We studied the dependence of fatigue life and induced microdamage on initial microdamage, cortical region, subject gender and age, and several other variables. When the effect of modulus variability was controlled, longer fatigue life was associated with higher rather than lower initial crack density, particularly in the medial cortex. The increase in crack density following fatigue loading was greater in specimens from older individuals and those initially having longer microcracks. Crack density increased as much in specimens fatigued short of the failure point as in those that fractured, and microcracks were, on average, shorter in specimens with greater numbers of resorption spaces, a measure of remodeling rate.
Representation of high-dimensional, molecular solid-liquid phase diagrams

A generic framework for the representation of multicomponent molecular solid-liquid phase diagrams in the form of digraphs is presented. Pure components, eutectic points, and saturation points in the solid-liquid composition space are represented as vertices of the digraph. These vertices are connected to form edges on the basis of the adjacency matrix, which is constructed by following a set of generic rules derived from the Gibbs phase rule. These edges form the boundaries of high-dimensional saturation varieties. Included in the framework is a procedure for plotting high-dimensional isobaric and isothermal isobaric phase behavior in the form of projections and cuts. With this framework, solid-liquid phase behavior of multicomponent systems can be easily represented and studied. Applications include facilitation of experimental development of high-dimensional phase diagrams and synthesis of crystallization-based separation processes. The latter is illustrated with the separation of a quinary mixture.
An Efficient Monte Carlo Method for Estimating Ne From Temporally Spaced Samples Using a Coalescent-Based Likelihood

This article presents an efficient importance-sampling method for computing the likelihood of the effective size of a population under the coalescent model of Berthier et al. Previous computational approaches, using Markov chain Monte Carlo, required many minutes to several hours to analyze small data sets. The approach presented here is orders of magnitude faster and can provide an approximation to the likelihood curve, even for large data sets, in a matter of seconds. Additionally, confidence intervals on the estimated likelihood curve provide a useful estimate of the Monte Carlo error. Simulations show the importance sampling to be stable across a wide range of scenarios and show that the Ne estimator itself performs well. Further simulations show that the 95% confidence intervals around the Ne estimate are accurate. User-friendly software implementing the algorithm for Mac, Windows, and Unix/Linux is available for download. Applications of this computational framework to other problems are discussed.
The Alphaphone - - a Method for Measuring Thin-Film Absorption at Laser Wavelengths

A sensitive infrasonic method for measuring the absorption of thin films at laser wavelengths has been demonstrated. A fraction of the heat absorbed from the beam by the film passes through a thin layer of gas to the back wall of the Alphaphone, while the remaining absorbed energy heats the supporting window. The gas temperature and pressure rise is then measured with a capacitance microphone. Sensitivity as great as 1.5 × 10−7 absorption per surface could be achieved with 10 W input by allowing irradiation to continue until the window is saturated with heat. However, the waiting time for saturation even with thin windows would be about 5 min, and with lock-on amplifier demodulation the total measurement time would be several hours. If the chopping speed is increased to 1.5 sec for irradiation and 1.5 sec for cooling, adequate sensitivity of 10−4 absorption with a signal-to-noise ratio of 9 is achieved with a total measurement time of 1 min. The samples we tested were KRS-5 substrates coated with layers one quarter-wave thick at 10.6 μm. One sample was a single layer of calcium fluoride. Other samples had a layer of zinc sulfide over a binder layer of thorium fluoride. The instrument may be calibrated absolutely with a thin-film heater described herein. The method is insensitive to surface scattering losses as large as several percent.
Immunoreactivity for a calmodulin-dependent protein kinase is selectively increased in macaque striate cortex after monocular deprivation

Abstract Immunocytochemical methods were used to localize type II Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase in the macaque primary visual cortex. Neurons that stain for the kinase include both pyramidal and nonpyramidal cells and they appear to form a subset of cortical neurons. They are densely packed in layers II and IVB, somewhat more sparse in layers III, IVC beta, and VI, and nearly absent in layer V. In normal animals the distribution of kinase-positive cells within each layer is relatively uniform. However, in animals in which one eye is removed 7-14 days before sacrifice or sutured shut for 9 or 11 weeks, the cells in layer IVC beta are divided into alternating lightly and darkly stained bands. Comparison of immunocytochemically stained sections with adjacent sections stained for the mitochondrial enzyme, cytochrome oxidase, reveals that the kinase staining increases in ocular dominance columns originally driven by the removed or closed eye. These findings suggest that either the concentration of type II Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase or its accessibility to the antibody probe increases dramatically and selectively in neurons of macaque primary visual cortex that have been deprived of their normal visual input. This may indicate that changing levels of activity in cortical neurons can alter their regulatory machinery.
Estradiol enhances gene delivery to human breast tumor cells

The influence of estradiol on the delivery of plasmid DNA to estrogen receptor positive MCF-7 human breast cancer cells was studied by the use of a reporter assay and by histochemical staining. Continuous exposure to estradiol enhanced the lipofectamine-mediated delivery of both pSV40-luciferase and pCMV β-galactosidase in a concentration-dependent manner. Estradiol increased both the amount of pCMV β-galactosidase per cell and the total fraction of cells competent to receive the transgene. The efficiency of transgene delivery to MCF-7 cells was further improved by repeating the transfection procedure in the presence of estradiol. Although overall gene uptake was reduced in control cells when studies were performed at room temperature (as opposed to 37°C), potentiation of gene uptake by estradiol was maintained. At a concentration of 100 µM, estradiol also enhanced delivery of the transgene to estrogen receptor negative MDA-MB-231 breast tumor cells, indicating that the potentiating effects of estradiol are not mediated through the estrogen receptor. These studies are the first to raise the possibility that gene delivery to breast tumor cells can be improved by estradiol in single- or repeated-treatment regimens.
A snail-killing fly, Dominimyza tanyacaenan. gen.n. sp. (Diptera: Sciomyzidae) in Dominican amber

A new genus and species of snail-killing flies, Dominimyza tanyacaenan. gen., n. sp. (Diptera: Sciomyzidae), is described from Dominican amber. Diagnostic characters for Dominimyza include a propleuron with a strong bristle, an elongate porrect flagellum with a long, finely pubescent arista, divergent ocellar, post-ocellar and outer vertical bristles, convergent inner vertical bristles, two pairs of fronto-orbital bristles, scutellum with two pairs of marginal scutellar bristles, vallar bristles present, a strong bristle present near the middle of the anterior face of the mid-femora, a clear wing with fuscous areas, A1 fading as it nears the wing margin, R1 extending apicad of the anterior crossvein and the absence of pre-apical bristles on the fore tibia. This is the first description of a snail-killing fly in Dominican amber.http://www.zoobank.org/urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:6E080144-0C13-4511-8AAE-FAFEA3E1C1C2
Drunken States: Temperance and French Rule in Cote D'Ivoire, 1908-1916

Why, at a time when alcohol made a substantial contribution to colonial economies in West Africa, did the French governor of Cote d'Ivoire launch a temperance campaign in 1912? This question serves as the starting point for an exploration of the ways in which economic, social, and cultural ideas interacted and shaped French policies on social problems in the colonies. Linking together metropolitan and colonial histories of drink, and placing Cote d'Ivoire in a broader regional context in which British West African governors were reluctant to embrace temperance movements, the article finds that temperance was one aspect of a consolidation of state power in Cote d'Ivoire that entailed greater French intervention in Africans' daily lives. The governor's campaign benefited briefly from its appearance at the same time as an African temperance movement, but in the long run the economic and cultural imperatives that favored the importation of French wine tended to undermine the argument that alcohol was harmful to taxpaying Africans.
Large-scale requirements analysis revisited: The need for understanding the political ecology of requirements engineering

This paper addresses the political nature of requirements for large systems, and argues that requirements engineering theory and practice must become more engaged with these issues. It argues that large-scale system requirements is constructed through a political decision process, whereby requirements emerge as a set of mappings between consecutive solution spaces justified by a problem space of concern to a set of principals. These solution spaces are complex sociotechnical ensembles that often exhibit non-linear behaviour in expansion due to domain complexity and political ambiguity. Stabilisation of solutions into agreed-on specifications occurs only through the exercise of organisational power. Effective requirements engineering in such cases is most effectively seen as a form of heterogeneous engineering in which technical, social, economic and institutional factors are brought together in a current solution space that provides the baseline for construction of proposed new solution spaces.
Zero-cycle loads: microarchitecture support for reducing load latency

Untolerated load instruction latencies often have a significant impact on overall program performance. As one means of mitigating this effect we present an aggressive hardware-based mechanism that provides effective support for reducing the latency of load instructions. Through the judicious use of instruction predecode, base register caching, and fast address calculation, it becomes possible to complete load instructions up to two cycles earlier than traditional pipeline designs. For a pipeline with one cycle data cache access, this results in what we term a zero-cycle load. A zero-cycle load produces a result prior to reaching the execute stage of the pipeline, allowing subsequent dependent instructions to issue unfettered by load dependencies. Programs executing on processors with support for zero-cycle loads experience significantly fewer pipeline stalls due to load instructions and increased overall performance. We present two pipeline designs supporting zero-cycle loads: one for pipelines with a single stage of instruction decode, and another for pipelines with multiple decode stages. We evaluate these designs in a number of contexts: with and without software support, in-order vs. out-of-order issue, and on architectures with many and few registers. We find that our approach is quite effective at reducing the impact of load latency, even more so on architectures with in-order issue and few registers.
The Role of Habitus and Cultural Capital in Choosing a College, Transitioning From High School to Higher Education, and Persisting in College Among Minority and Nonminority Students.

The concept of fitting in at a particular college has been linked to student persistence. Studies have identified habitus and cultural capital, psychosocial factors associated with a student’s fit at a particular institution. This study examined the dimensions of precollege psychosocial factors, determined the extent to which those factors were reflected in students’ college choices, and established the effects those factors exert on measures of student satisfaction. Overall, students choose colleges where they experience comfort, acceptance, and fit.
Jews at sea: reflections on Israel's Jewish detractors and defamers

The involvement of Jews in the much-publicized May 2010 Mavi Marmara incident at sea, is but one instance of many that illustrates Jewish collusion with Israel's detractors and defamers. While their numbers remain relatively small, the impact of such Jews in fostering a public rhetoric of anti-Israel vilification is growing and needs to be taken seriously. The current propaganda war against the Jewish state is, among other things, a language war, and close scrutiny of today's anti-Zionist discourse is essential.
Review and Evaluation of Soil-Cement Pavements

Factors affecting properties of soil-cement; quality and thickness design procedures for soil-cement base courses are examined; field tests and airfield performance data are analyzed and compared with performance of conventional flexible pavements.
Forming self-assembled cell arrays and measuring the oxygen consumption rate of a single live cell

We report a method for forming arrays of live single cells on a chip using polymer micro-traps made of SU8. We have studied the toxicity of the microfabricated structures and the associated environment for two cell lines. We also report a method for measuring the oxygen consumption rate of a single cell using optical interrogation of molecular oxygen sensors placed in micromachined micro-wells by temporarily sealing the cells in the micro-traps. The new techniques presented here add to the collection of tools available for performing “single-cell” biology. A single-cell self-assembly yield of 61% was achieved with oxygen draw down rates of 0.83, 0.82, and 0.71 fmol/minute on three isolated live A549 cells.
Some Effects of Iodine Given to Rabbits After a Period of Cholesterol Feeding.

Conclusion(1) The cholesterol content of rabbit liver, increased by cholesterol feeding, tends to return spontaneously to a normal value when the feeding is stopped. KI apparently does not accelerate this fall. (2) The normal decrease in adrenal weights and the prompt fall in the blood cholesterol occurring when cholesterol feeding is stopped are both inhibited by the administration of KI at the conclusion of the feeding period. (3) The high incidence of males among rabbits failing to develop a hypercholesterolemia with cholesterol feeding warrants further study.
QoS-aware multicast protocol using bounded flooding (QMBF) technique

Many multicast applications, such as video-on-demand and tele-education have quality of service (QoS) requirements from the underlying network. Recently, many QoS-based multicast protocols have been proposed to meet these requirements. However, few of them can achieve high success ratios. We propose a new QoS-based multicast protocol, QoS-aware multicast protocol using bounded flooding (QMBF) technique. Every network node has local network cell topology information as well as QoS state information. The QMBF utilizes this information to increase the chance of finding the feasible branch. It is based on two methods to find a feasible branch - computing out partial feasible branches using local network cell information (collected from bounded flooding messages) and multiple path searching. The design of QMBF allows it to operate on top of any unicast routing protocol or cooperate with a QoS-based unicast routing protocol.
Differential encoding of affective and nonaffective content information in trait anxiety

The relative encoding of affective and nonaffective content information in high and low trait anxious individuals was investigated. Experiment 1 (N = 35) found that, compared to Low Anxiety participants, High Anxiety participants showed relatively greater speeding of affective semantic decisions compared to nonaffective content semantic decisions. Using a similarity rating paradigm, Experiments 2 (N = 51) and 3 (N = 100) found higher levels of trait anxiety were associated with a decreased use of content information when nonaffective information was less salient than affective information. Experiment 4 (N = 100) found higher levels of trait anxiety were associated with a complementary increased use of affective information when affective information was less salient than nonaffective information. Thus, it appears that trait anxiety may be associated with a bias to encode less salient information to a greater extent when it is relevant to affect, and to a lesser extent when it is not.
Approaches in wetting phenomena

We review the subject of drops on surfaces from the early days of Young through the concept of line tension (line energy) and the equations of Furmidge and Dussan to the more modern Shanahan–de Gennes approach and the equations and experiments that emanated from them. The force approach and line energy approach seems mutually exclusive, but we reconcile them using the Shanahan–de Gennes approach.
Setup Planning Automation for Six-Axis Wire Electrical Discharge Machining

A modern six-axis wire electrical discharge machining (WEDM) system is capable of producing more complex geometries than 2D, 2½D, or ruled surface parts. The rotational axis on a six-axis WEDM system allows a part to be rotated while using a cutting wire to fabricate it. However, limited automation for process planning six-axis WEDM systems requires significant time and effort must be put into process planning. Even with commercially-available computer-aided design (CAD ) software, it is difficult to produce process plans for a six-axis WEDM system. Toward automatic development of process plans, a method of determining such setup plans, including the number of setup orientations and rotational axis movements, is presented in this paper. Tangent visibility analysis results presented in our prior research are used to guide the setup, and intermediate coordinate systems are defined in order to classify the tangent visibility results. A greedy algorithm is developed to determine the set of intermediate coordinates and setup orientations for six-axis WEDM.
Temperature and relative humidity profiles during heat treatment of mills and its efficacy against Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) life stages

Abstract Heat treatment involves raising the temperature of a food-processing facility to 50–60°C and maintaining these elevated temperatures for 24–36 h to kill stored-product insects. The pilot feed and flour mills at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS, were subjected to heat treatment using gas and steam heaters, respectively, during 4–8 August 2001 to characterize temperature and relative humidity profiles and to determine efficacy against developmental stages of the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst). Temperature and relative humidity profiles in each mill were electronically monitored in 10 different locations. Susceptibility of eggs, young instars, old instars, pupae, and adults of T. castaneum to heat was determined at the same 10 locations within each mill. The number of hours required to reach the target temperature of 50°C, number of hours above 50°C, and maximum temperatures varied between the mills and among mill locations. Relative humidity decreased predictably with an increase in temperature, and was ⩽21% in most locations at 50°C or above. Two separate three-parameter non-linear regression models best described temperature and relative humidity profiles observed in each mill. Despite non-uniform heating at the sample locations, mortality of T. castaneum life stages was 100% in most locations, except in areas where temperatures were
Electronic system packaging: the search for manufacturing the optimum in a sea of constraints

Manufacturing electronic systems is a multicomponent, multichip, hybrid design process which spans the life of the product. The design constraint list is not limitless, but if incomplete, can lead to economic loss for the product. Details of some of the constraints that affect system performance, reliability, materials selection, and the assembly of the product are presented. The electronic constraints include chip crossing delay, fan out (number of receivers on a driven net), crosstalk (unwanted electromagnetic coupling between independent signal lines and power supplies), DC voltage drop, the number of simultaneously switched line drives and reflections of signal waves from discontinuities in transmission line networks. The power dissipation constraints include maximum junction temperature, ambient temperature and pressure drop conditions, and component-to-component temperature variation. The cost constraints include materials, fabrication, and assembly. Some of the mathematical constraints are defined, along with the coupling between them and optimum solutions are shown graphically. The ability to resolve the system manufacturing constraints through optimization will determine the final success of a product. >
Comparing Expert and Metric-Based Assessments of Association Rule Interestingness

In association rule mining, interestingness refers to metrics that are applied to select association rules, beyond support and confidence. For example, Merceron & Yacef (2008) recommend that researchers use a combination of lift and cosine to select association rules, after first filtering out rules with low support and confidence. However, the empirical basis for considering these specific metrics to be evidence of interestingness is rather weak. In this study, we examine these metrics by distilling association rules from real educational data relevant to established research questions in the areas of affect and disengagenment. We then ask three domain experts to rate the interestingness of the resultant rules. We finally analyze the data to determine which metric(s) best agree with expert judgments of interestingness. We find that Merceron & Yacef (2008) were right. Lift and cosine are good indicators of interestingness. In addition, the Phi Coefficient, Convinction, and Jaccard also turn out to be good indicators of interestingness.
Stealthy attacks meets insider threats: A three-player game model

Advanced persistent threat (APT) is becoming a major threat to cyber security. As APT attacks are often launched by well funded entities that are persistent and stealthy in achieving their goals, they are highly challenging to combat in a cost-effective way. The situation becomes even worse when a sophisticated attacker is further assisted by an insider with privileged access to the inside information. Although stealthy attacks and insider threats have been considered separately in previous works, the coupling of the two is not well understood. As both types of threats are incentive driven, game theory provides a proper tool to understand the fundamental tradeoffs involved. In this paper, we propose the first three-player attacker-defender-insider game to model the strategic interactions among the three parties. Our game extends the two-player FlipIt game model for stealthy takeover by introducing an insider that can trade information to the attacker for a profit. We characterize the subgame perfect equilibria of the game with the defender as the leader and the attacker and the insider as the followers, under two different information trading processes. We make various observations and discuss approaches for achieving more efficient defense in the face of both APT and insider threats.
Probability and Random Variables

Probability is a rich and beautiful subject, a discipline unto itself. Its origins were concerned primarily with games of chance, and many lectures on elementary probability theory still contain references to dice, playing cards, and coin flips. These lottery-style scenarios remain useful because they are evocative and easy to understand.
Implant-based breast reconstruction following conservative mastectomy: one-stage vs. two-stage approach

Conservative mastectomy with preservation of the nipple areolar complex is now considered a safe and effective technique in properly selected patients. Good candidates for this procedure include women with small to moderate breast volume having therapeutic or prophylactic mastectomy. Both autologous and prosthetic options are available; however prosthetic techniques are performed more frequently. Prosthetic approaches include immediate 1-stage (direct to implant) or 2-atge (tissue expander/implant) techniques. Delayed prosthetic reconstruction is also possible with conservative mastectomy. This manuscript will review the 1-stage and 2-stage methods with an emphasis on indication, surgical techniques, and outcomes.