cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Atmospheric Attenuation In The Infrared Windows

Introduction and SummaryNone of the so- called atmospheric win-dows in the infrared are completely trans-parent, even in an atmosphere free of haze,fog, dust, or other particulate matter.Absorption by the atmospheric gases occursbecause of many, very weak absorption linesin the windows and the extreme wings ofvery strong lines whose centers are locatedoutside the windows. Most of the absorp-tion lines between the visible and approx-imately 18 gm result from simultaneouschanges in the vibrational and rotationalenergy levels of the absorbing molecules.At longer wavelengths most of the lines arepure rotational. A few pure rotationalH2O lines appear at wavelengths as shortas approximately 8 gm. (Ref. 1)Spectral curves of the atmosphere andof atmospheric gases studied in the labo-ratory are shown. The gases giving riseto the absorption are identified, andreasons for interest in certain regionsare discussed. New information on con-tinuum absorption and on the shapes of theextreme wings of collision- broadenedabsorption lines is presented. Attenuationby particles is not considered. For con-venience we have relied heavily on our ownwork, although other work is, in severalcases, equally appropriate.Window IdentificationAtmospheric transmission curves ob-tained by Taylor and Yates (Ref. 2) forhorizontal paths near sea level are shownin Figs. 1 and 2. The longest path isseen to produce considerable absorption inall of the window regions. The curves aresmoothed since the spectral slitwidth ofthe instrument is greater than the separa-tion of adjacent lines. Several thousandabsorption lines can be seen in this spec-tral region with high resolution.
Neurofibromatosis cerebral vasculopathy in an infant: clinical, neuroradiographic, and neuropathologic studies.

An infant with neurofibromatosis developed recurrent cerebrovascular accidents beginning at 3 months of life Cerebral arteriography demonstrated large-vessel occlusive disease and bilateral severe moyamoya. At autopsy these lesions were apparent on gross examination, and advanced intimal and medial dysplasia was seen on microscopic examination of both the anterior and posterior circulations. Although rare, neurofibromatosis cerebrovasculopathy may occur in young infants and may account for some strokes in this age group.
Effect of flexible joints on the stability and large deflections of a triangular frame

An isosceles triangular frame with rotationally resistive joints under a tip load is studied. The large in-plane deformation elastica equations are formulated. A stability analysis shows that the frame can buckle symmetrically or asymmetrically. The post-buckling behavior showing limit load and hysteresis are obtained by shooting and homotopy numerical algorithms. The behavior of a frame with rigid joints is studied in detail. The effects of joint spring constant and base length are found.
The Design and Some Emission Characteristics of an Economical dc Arc Plasmajet Excitation Source for Solution Analysis

DC plasma arc jet excitation and emission characteristics for solution analysis with economical inert gas flow rates
Testosterone concentrations in the peripheral plasma of androgenized female rats and in the estrous cycle of normal female rats.

Previous in vitro data have suggested that the ovaries of androgen sterilized female rats (ASFR) have the capacity to incorporate more labeled precursors into androgens than ovaries from normal rats. In order to test the biosynthetic capacity of the ASFR ovary in vivo, the following experiments were carried out. Blood was collected from 120-day-old intact, castrated or adrenalectomized ASFR. In addition, blood was collected from diestrous, estrous, proestrous, adrenalectomized proestrous and castrated female rats. The plasma was assayed for testosterone by a radioimmunologic system which did not require chromatography. The plasma testosterone concentration in ASFR was lower than that found in proestrous and diestrous females, similar to that found in estrous females, and higher than that found in castrated females. The proestrous females had significantly higher peripheral testosterone concentrations than either estrous or diestrous females. Furthermore, the testosterone concentration in the peripheral bl...
Joint attention and disorganized attachment status in infants at risk

The development of joint attention skills is a major milestone of infancy. Recent research suggests that the development of these skills may be affected by disorganized (D) attachment. This hypothesis was examined in a longitudinal study of attachment and joint attention skill development in a sample of infants at risk for developmental-behavioral morbidity. The results revealed that toddlers with D classifications initiated joint attention with an experimenter significantly less often than did secure, or even other insecure, toddlers. However, no group differences in the capacity to respond to the joint attention bids of others were observed in this study. These data suggest that a disturbance in the tendency to initiate episodes of joint attention with others may be indicative of early social-cognitive and social-emotional disturbance among infants affected by disorganized attachment status. Theory and research is reviewed to suggest that an early impairment in joint attention facility may make a significant contribution to risk for negative cognitive and emotional outcomes among these infants.
Characteristics of Norplant Users

Objective: To determine whether a profile can be developed to indicate which clients are the best candidates for Norplant by describing the characteristics of clients who use this contraceptive for 5 years and those who have it removed early. Design: A descriptive study of data collected from a convenience sample. Setting: A state-supported university hospital's obstetric and gynecology outpatient clinic serving primarily indigent clients in the southern United States. Participants: Women (N = 256), primarily with low incomes, being seen for removal of Norplant contraceptive capsules. Of these, 166 women had completed the recommended 5 years. Main Outcome Measures: Characteristics of the clients who retained the contraceptive for the recommended 5 years and characteristics of clients who came for early removal. Results: Clients who retained the contraceptive for 5 years differed from those who did not on only three characteristics: race, age, and parity. No significant differences were found in education or marital status. Conclusions: No clear profile of successful Norplant users emerged. Instead, thorough counseling of each individual is essential to the client's completion of 5 years with Norplant. Advantages and disadvantages must be explained and the client's tolerance of possible side effects must be assessed, thereby helping the client to make an informed choice. JOGNN 29, 275–281; 2000.
On (Not) Practicing What We Preach

What should sociologists do when their everyday lives are at odds with their sociological values? Authors Ara Francis and Jill Bakehorn examine the contradictions that stem from trying to live soci...
Frequency-domain finite element methods for electromagnetic field simulation: fundamentals, state of the art, and applications to EMI/EMC analysis

This paper provides a critical review of frequency-domain finite element methods and their applications to the modeling of electromagnetic interactions in complex electronic components and systems. Emphasis is placed on the latest advances in finite element grid generation practices, element interpolation function selection, and robust, highly absorbing numerical grid truncation techniques for modeling electromagnetic interactions in unbounded domains. These advances have helped enhance the robustness and accuracy of the method. Finally, the advantages of domain decomposition techniques for the modeling of complex geometries are examined. Such domain decomposition techniques are expected to play an important role in the continuing effort to extend the applications of frequency-domain finite methods beyond the subcomponent-level to component and system modeling for electromagnetic interference and electromagnetic compatibility analysis and design.
Mechanism Analysis Using Implicit Constraints

This paper introduces an approach to kinematic and dynamic mechanisms analysis where one or more joints are modeled using joint component relative displacements that approximate real joint behavior. This approach allows for the simultaneous nonrecursive solution for both mechanism kinematic parameters and selected dynamic joint reaction forces. Also, for closed loop mechanisms, the approach eliminates the need for forming explicit loop closure constraint equations, so that the dynamic equations of motion, derived using either the Newtonian or Lagrangian method, have a simplified unconstrained form. The key element underlying the approach is the formation of axioms for the standard mechanism joint types that describe the form of the joint reaction force and/or moment in terms of a virtual (or real) displacement between the joint components.Copyright © 2008 by ASME
Parenting around child snacking: development of a theoretically-guided, empirically informed conceptual model

Background: Snacking contributes to excessive energy intakes in children. Yet factors shaping child snacking are virtually unstudied. This study examines food parenting practices specific to child snacking among low-income caregivers. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted in English or Spanish with 60 low-income caregivers of preschool-aged children (18 non-Hispanic white, 22 African American/Black, 20 Hispanic; 92 % mothers). A structured interview guide was used to solicit caregivers’ definitions of snacking and strategies they use to decide what, when and how much snack their child eats. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analyzed using an iterative theory-based and grounded approach. A conceptual model of food parenting specific to child snacking was developed to summarize the findings and inform future research. Results: Caregivers’ descriptions of food parenting practices specific to child snacking were consistent with previous models of food parenting developed based on expert opinion [1, 2]. A few noteworthy differences however emerged. More than half of participants mentioned permissive feeding approaches (e.g., my child is the boss when it comes to snacks). As a result, permissive feeding was included as a higher order feeding dimension in the resulting model. In addition, a number of novel feeding approaches specific to child snacking emerged including child-centered provision of snacks (i.e., responding to a child’s hunger cues when making decisions about snacks), parent unilateral decision making (i.e., making decisions about a child’s snacks without any input from the child), and excessive monitoring of snacks (i.e., monitoring all snacks provided to and consumed by the child). The resulting conceptual model includes four higher order feeding dimensions including autonomy support, coercive control, structure and permissiveness and 20 sub-dimensions. Conclusions: This study formulates a language around food parenting practices specific to child snacking, identifies dominant constructs, and proposes a conceptual framework to guide future research.
Effect of Externally Applied Plasticizer on Compaction Behavior of Spray‐Dried Powders

The effects of an externally applied plasticizer on compaction behavior and green microstructure quality of spray-dried powders was investigated. The plasticizer was applied to the external surfaces of already spray-dried powders by spraying it on tumbling spray-dried granules. The apparent yield point of the spray-dried powder was reduced when the plasticizer was added. Microstructures of compacts made from these granules (with and without the externally applied plasticizer) were compared at different compaction pressures. Better knitting across granule interfaces and fewer defects were obtained for the granules with the externally applied plasticizer.
Light and the circadian clock mediate time-specific changes in sensitivity to UV-B stress under light/dark cycles

In Arabidopsis, the circadian clock regulates UV-B-mediated changes in gene expression. Here it is shown that circadian clock components are able to inhibit UV-B-induced gene expression in a gene-by-gene-specific manner and act downstream of the initial UV-B sensing by COP1 (CONSTITUTIVE PHOTOMORPHOGENIC 1) and UVR8 (UV RESISTANCE LOCUS 8). For example, the UV-B induction of ELIP1 (EARLY LIGHT INDUCIBLE PROTEIN 1) and PRR9 (PSEUDO-RESPONSE REGULATOR 9) is directly regulated by LUX (LUX ARRYTHMO), ELF4 (EARLY FLOWERING 4), and ELF3. Moreover, time-dependent changes in plant sensitivity to UV-B damage were observed. Wild-type Arabidopsis plants, but not circadian clock mutants, were more sensitive to UV-B treatment during the night periods than during the light periods under diel cycles. Experiments performed under short cycles of 6h light and 6h darkness showed that the increased stress sensitivity of plants to UV-B in the dark only occurred during the subjective night and not during the subjective day in wild-type seedlings. In contrast, the stress sensitivity of Arabidopsis mutants with a compromised circadian clock was still influenced by the light condition during the subjective day. Taken together, the results show that the clock and light modulate plant sensitivity to UV-B stress at different times of the day.
Design and development of a sustainability toolkit for simulation

As sustainability related issues are becoming increasingly import in business decision making, simulation modeling is needed to analyze the system performance not only using traditional performance measures such as productivity and efficiency, but also taking into account sustainability related performance measures. This paper describes the design and development of a sustainability toolkit for simulation with the intent of making sustainability related performance measures as easy to model and collect as traditional productivity based performance measures. The focus here is on the development of a toolkit for modeling and analysis of environmental performance measures in discrete-event systems simulation.
Australian Local Government Economics - by Brian Dollery, Lin Crase and Andrew Johnson

The article reviews the book "Australian Local Government Economics," by Brian Dollery, Lin Crase, and Andrew Johnson
Projected Hessians for Preconditioning in One-Step One-Shot Design Optimization

One-shot optimization aims at attaining feasibility and optimality simultaneously, especially on problems where even the linearized constraint equations cannot be resolved economically. Here we consider a scenario where forming and factoring the active Jacobian is out of the question, as is for example the case when the constraints represent some discretization of the Navier Stokes equation. Assuming that the ‘user’ provides us with a linearly converging solver that gradually restores feasibility after each change in the design variables, we derive a corresponding adjoint iteration and attach an optimization (sub)step.
On Diagnosing Rare Disorders Rarely: Appropriate Use of Screening Instruments

The main aim of this study was to determine whether child mental health professionals who regularly use questionnaires to screen for mental disorders know that these questionnaires have a low predictive value when the base rate of a disorder is low. The study was based on a representative sample of professionals who used questionnaires regularly to screen for mental disorders. They were set a problem in which a clinic sample was screened with a questionnaire that, at a certain cut-point, had 80 % sensitivity and 80 % specificity, and in which the true base rate of disorder was 10%. Only 10% (5/48) of respondents answered correctly that just 30 % of individuals who scored above this cut-point would actually have the disorder and more than half of respondents believed that 80 % would have the disorder. Both users and designers of questionnaires need to be more aware of and explicit about their drawbacks as screens for mental disorders.
Pharmacology Review: Clinical Pharmacology of Caffeine in the Newborn

Caffeine is used commonly in the neonatal intensive care unit to treat apnea of prematurity. This review describes the mechanism of action, pharmacokinetics, and therapeutic role of caffeine. Published data on its efficacy and safety document that caffeine can reduce the frequency of apneic episodes and appears safe in the short term.
Quantitative measures reflect degeneration, but not regeneration, in the deafness mouse organ of Corti.

The deafness mouse (dn/dn) is a well known model of hereditary deafness uncomplicated by behavioral and motor disturbances. The organ of Corti in this mouse develops a normal complement of sensory and supporting cell structures, yet animals homozygous for this gene never demonstrate any hearing capacity. They are profoundly deaf from birth. Soon after development, the organ of Corti rapidly degenerates, most sensory cells having vanished by 50 days of age. Published observations have suggested that apical regions of the organ of Corti may regenerate some supporting cell structures by 90 days of age. We have quantified changes in organ of Corti structure from 15 to 130 days of age using several different measures. Measures of peak height and total cross-sectional area, as well as a subjective rating scale, all demonstrate consistent degenerative changes during this time period. No evidence for regeneration of supporting or sensory cell structures is noted, although a surprising degree of variability is present in all regions of the organ of Corti which may account for previous claims.
Evaluating drug-drug interaction information in NDF-RT and DrugBank

Background: There is limited consensus among drug information sources on what constitutes drug-drug interactions (DDIs). We investigate DDI information in two publicly available sources, NDF-RT and DrugBank. Methods: We acquire drug-drug interactions from NDF-RT and DrugBank, and normalize the drugs to RxNorm. We compare interactions between NDF-RT and DrugBank and evaluate both sources against a reference list of 360 critical interactions. We compare the interactions detected with NDF-RT and DrugBank on a large prescription dataset. Finally, we contrast NDF-RT and DrugBank against a commercial source. Results: DrugBank drug-drug interaction information has limited overlap with NDF-RT (24-30%). The coverage of the reference set by both sources is about 60%. Applied to a prescription dataset of 35.5M pairs of co-prescribed systemic clinical drugs, NDF-RT would have identified 808,285 interactions, while DrugBank would have identified 1,170,693. Of these, 382,833 are common. The commercial source Multum provides a more systematic coverage (91%) of the reference list.
Understanding the Impact of Neighborhood Information on End-to-End Fairness in Multi-Hop Wireless Networks

Fair resource allocation for end-to-end flows is an important yet challenging problem in multi-hop wireless networks. Recent research on fair resource allocation mainly focuses on two directions: 1) theoretical methods for joint optimization of scheduling and rate allocation, which are inherently hard to implement; 2) heuristic rate allocation solutions, which are practical for implementation, but simplify the scope of resource sharing regions using different neighborhood models. One key question that remains unanswered is how well these heuristic neighborhood-aware rate allocation solutions approximate the fair point defined in the theoretical optimal resource allocation framework. To evaluate the impact of different neighborhood models on end-to-end fairness, we first establish a baseline fairness model (i.e., proportional fairness) using the price-based resource allocation framework. In this framework, price represents the cost of the resource usage incurred by unit flow. The rate of a flow is directly linked to its price, which is the aggregated price of the links it traverses. The link price is the sum of the prices of all the resource sharing regions which it belongs to. Obviously, when the resource sharing regions are approximated by different neighborhood models in the heuristic solutions, link prices will manifest as different values. To quantify the deviations of these heuristic neighborhood-aware solutions from the baseline proportional fairness model, we introduce a normalized fairness index model. Six different neighborhood models are evaluated. Our study makes two significant observations: 1) symmetric knowledge on the construction of a neighborhood is important in achieving fairness. Such a knowledge has not been considered in any of the existing neighborhood-aware rate allocation algorithms; 2) while 1-hop neighborhood information brings noticeable gain in fairness, the knowledge of 2-hop neighborhood information does not necessarily bring additional benefit.
Abstracting the principles of development using imaging and modeling

Here we look at modern developmental biology with a focus on the relationship between different approaches of investigation. We argue that direct imaging is a powerful approach not only for obtaining descriptive information but also for model generation and testing that lead to mechanistic insights. Modeling, on the other hand, conceptualizes imaging data and provides guidance to perturbations. The inquiry progresses most efficiently when a trinity of approaches—quantitative imaging (measurement), modeling (theory) and perturbation (test)—are pursued in concert, but not when one approach is dominant. Using recent studies of the zebrafish system, we show how this combination has effectively advanced classic topics in developmental biology compared to a perturbation-centric approach. Finally, we show that interdisciplinary expertise and perhaps specialization are necessary for carrying out a systematic approach, and discuss the technical hurdles.
Sphingolipids stimulate cell growth via MAP kinase activation in osteoblastic cells

Ceramide, ceramide-1-phosphate (C1P) sphingosine (SPH) and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) effects on proliferation and extracellular-signal regulated kinases, ERKs (also known as MAPKs), activation were investigated in human and rat osteoblastic cells. MAPK activation was sphingolipid-specific in cells from both species. In human osteoblastic cells, S1P and C1P markedly stimulated ERK2 phosphorylation with a slight increase in phosphorylation of ERK1. SPH nor ceramide induced phosphorylation of either ERK isoform. In rat osteoblastic cells, SIP, ceramide and SPH stimulated phosphorylation of both isoforms. C1P did not induce phosphorylation of ERK1 but produced a mild increase in phosphorylation of ERK2. In human cells, only S1P significantly (P<0.05) increased osteoblastic cell proliferation, while in the rat cells all four sphingolipids significantly (P<0.05) induced proliferation. The calcium channel blocker verapamil blocked (P<0.05) these effects in both cell types. The MAPK inhibitor, PD98059, inhibited (P<0.05) the mitogenic effect of SIP in human cells. In rat cells, PD98059 effects were less substantial but significant for S1P and C1P. This study demonstrates that sphingolipids are mitogens for both human and rat osteoblastic cells with the MAPK pathway and calcium mediating in part these effects in a species specific manner.
Turkey Liable Before the European Court of Human Rights

Case analysis of Kallis and Androulla Panayi v. Turkey and Urper and Others v. Turkey; 1 page, 8 notes.
Morphometry of the intestine of the pig

A method and scheme are described to improve precision for quantitation of functional aspects of the intestine by morphometric evaluation of a representative sample hereafter called a circumsection. A circumsection is defined as: all tissue lying within the total circumference of a slice of the intestinal wall transected at a right angle to the long axis of the intestine tube. The quantitative values obtained from these substantial specimens therefore provide a basis for reliable estimations of the organ content of specified cellular masses or of functional surfaces, ie, villi volume, epithelial surface, crypt mass, muscle mass, etc. The volume, mass, or area of specialized cells can be compared with physiological functions and capacities. These comparisons and relationships are important to investigate the causes and effects of digestion-absorption parameters on performance output of healthy animals-growth, development, reproduction, lactation, work output, etc. The data can also describe responses of the digestive organs (tissues) to various inputs-dietary, environmental, chemical, and physical. The method involves analysis of a montage of photomicrographs of the circumsection. The method was successful; the data collected demonstrated that the small intestine of the pig has lateral symmetry (left vs right) but is asymmetrical in the opposite plane (mesenteric vs antimesenteric). The asymmetry is especially clear in the ileum and jejunum where significant differences between opposite halves ranged from 7% to 90% of the mean value.
Solid-state 139La and 15N NMR spectroscopy of lanthanum-containing metallocenes.

A preliminary set of solid-state 139La and 15N NMR data for lanthanum-containing metallocenes is presented, including (C5H5)3La, (C5Me4H)3La, [(C5Me5)2La]+[BPh4]-, and 15N-enriched [(C5Me4H)2La(THF)]215N2. Broad 139La NMR spectra, with breadths ranging from 600 kHz to 2.5 MHz, were acquired with piecewise QCPMG techniques at 9.4 T. Simulations of the spectra reveal 139La quadrupolar coupling constants (CQ) between 44 and 105 MHz. In addition, the first NMR measurement of a nitrogen chemical shift (CS) tensor for dinitrogen bound side-on to a metal atom is reported for [(C5Me4H)2La(THF)]215N2. The 139La NMR parameters show remarkable sensitivity to changes in metallocene structure and can be interpreted in an intuitive manner. Preliminary RHF and DFT calculations of 139La electric field gradient (EFG) and nitrogen CS tensors are used to provide tensor orientations and to rationalize the origin of the NMR parameters in terms of molecular structure and symmetry. The sensitivity of 139La and 15N NMR tensor pa...
Evaluation of the demented patient

Approaching the patient with Alzheimer's disease often requires the participation of a team of collaborating physicians and psychologists as well as others both for diagnosis and for management. This article describes the approach to the disease by a neurologist, geriatrician, psychiatrist, and psychologist. Each describes a specific diagnostic approach, and the reader can appreciate the incremental value to assessment and care that emerges from the aggregate.
Application of Structure-Spectrum Relationships of Imidazolium Ionic Liquids to Protein Assay

Imidazolium ionic liquids( ILs) have extensive applications in various fields. In the present study,the influence of the carbon-chain length of alkyl group on the imidazolium ring and the various halogen anions including Cl!,Br!and I!on the spectral properties of ILs were systematically investigated. We found that the fluorescence intensity of imidazolium ILs increased with the increasing carbon-chain length of alkyl groups,while decreased with the decreasing electronegativity of the halogen anions. The addition of hemoglobin( Hb) into the ILs solutions resulted in the fluorescence enhancement of ILs,thus a quantitative method was developed for Hb detection within a linear concentration range of 0. 03- 1. 0 μmol / L,with a detection limit of 8 nmol / L. Based on the effect of different protein species on the spectral properties of the imidazolium ILs,a sensor array was fabricated for the discrimination of 8 proteins. The discrimination accuracy was found to be 90% when the protein concentrations were higher than 500 nmol / L.
Folacin content of supplemental foods for pregnancy

Microbiological assay with Lactobacillus casei was made to determine total folacin content of foods allowed in the Special Supplemental Food Program (WIC) serving low-income pregnant women in the United States, who are at risk for folacin deficiency. Results of the assay showed that, when foods with a high nutrient density and Index of Nutritional Quality for folacin were selected, 69 percent of the folacin RDA for pregnancy could be provided in only 34 percent of the energy allowance. Thus the WIC program can contribute significant amounts of folacin to the diet of pregnant women.
Use of a Large Image Repository to Enhance Domain Dataset for Flyer Classification

This paper describes our exploratory work on supplementing our dataset of images extracted from real estate flyers with images from a large general image repository to enhance the breadth of the samples and create a classification model which would perform well for totally unseen, new instances. We selected some images from the Scene UNderstanding (SUN) database which are annotated with the scene categories that seem to match with our flyer images, and added them to our flyer dataset. We ran a series of experiments with various configurations of flyer vs. SUN data mix. The results showed that the classification models trained with a mixture of SUN and flyer images produced comparable accuracies as the models trained solely with flyer images. This suggests that we were able to create a model which is scalable to unseen, new data without sacrificing the accuracy of the data at hand.
Plasma cholinesterase activity as a biomarker for quantifying exposure of green sturgeon to carbaryl following applications to control burrowing shrimp in Washington State.

Willapa Bay (Washington State, USA) has been 1 of the rare intertidal locations where large-scale pesticide applications occur. Until recently, carbaryl was applied to control burrowing shrimp that decrease commercial oyster productivity. The bay is a critical habitat for green sturgeon (Acipenser medirostris), an anadromous species listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act. However, the hazard that carbaryl poses is unknown. Surrogate seawater-acclimated white sturgeon (A. transmontanus) were exposed to 0 μg L(-1) , 30 μg L(-1) , 100 μg L(-1) , 300 μg L(-1) , 1000 μg L(-1) , and 3000 μg L(-1) carbaryl for 6 h, and brain acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and plasma butyrylcholinesterase (BChE) activities were measured. Enzyme recovery was measured in an additional cohort exposed to 1000 μg L(-1) carbaryl for 6 h. Activity of AChE was reduced (p ≤ 0.001) at concentrations ≥ 100 μg L(-1) with recovery in the 1000 μg L(-1) cohort by 72 h. Surprisingly, BChE activity was greater than controls at concentrations ≥ 300 μg L(-1) (p > 0.05), a finding confirmed in additional fish exposed to 3000 μg L(-1) for 6 h (+30%, p < 0.001) with apparent recovery by 48 h. Plasma samples were collected from free-living green sturgeon before and 4 d to 5 d after application of carbaryl in Willapa Bay. Activity of BChE after application was reduced 28% (p < 0.001), indicating exposure to the pesticide. However, the lack of congruence between BChE and AChE activity in captive white sturgeon exposed to carbaryl indicates that further studies are needed to better understand the risk carbaryl exposure poses to green sturgeon. Environ Toxicol Chem 2016;35:2003-2015. © 2015 SETAC.
Fabrication, characterization and permeation study of ultrafiltration dialysis membranes

AbstractIn this work, cellulose acetate-based flat sheet membranes were fabricated using PEG 400 and glycerol as an additive in various composition of doped solutions. The fabricated membranes were characterized using SEM, AFM, and FTIR analysis techniques. According to SEM, it was observed that the addition of PEG 400 wt% resulted in the formation of membranes with micro and nanopores and the distribution of pores was not uniform. To avoid heterogeneity in pore sizes, glycerol was added in the dope solution containing CA and PEG 400 (6.2 wt%). The addition of 10.1 wt% glycerol resulted in the formation of membrane with uniform distribution of pores. The permeation study of synthesized membranes was carried out using pure water, urea, and glucose solution which revealed that CA PEG-10.1 wt% glycerol-blended membrane (M8) is most sugar selective and selectivity up to 15.21 is documented.
Interdisciplinary Research and Transformative Research as Facets of National Science Policy

Permeating discourse on how new scientific fields are formed are questions of how to organize and fund scientific renewal. This chapter employs a science policy perspective to identify and analyze the interdependent decisions that universities and government funding agencies are making and purportedly need to make to accommodate and/or nurture trends toward interdisciplinary research and transformative research. For atop propositions that assert that the internal dynamics of scientific inquiry require increased emphasis on both these modes of research are practical constraints of resource availability. The total resources required to satisfy the claims for continued support of mainstream research fields, or disciplines, and to meet the claims of advocates for support of new fields will invariably exceed whatever level of total resources are supplied by the collectivity of sponsors—governments, foundations, industry, universities—for academic research. Viewed against this backdrop, the case(s) for initiatives to bolster interdisciplinary or transformative research may neither be unchallengeable or unstoppable.
Self-assembly of precisely defined DNA nanotube superstructures using DNA origami seeds

We demonstrate a versatile process for assembling micron-scale filament architectures by controlling where DNA tile nanotubes nucleate on DNA origami assemblies. "Nunchucks," potential mechanical magnifiers of nanoscale dynamics consisting of two nanotubes connected by a dsDNA linker, form at yields sufficient for application and consistent with models.
Market Structure, Technological Development, and Productivity

Empirical investigations in the 1950s into the sources of productivity growth found that a significant part of that growth could be attributed to technological change (see, for example, Kendrick, 1956; Solow, 1957; Abromowitz, 1956; Denison, 1962). The proportion of growth accounted for by technology varies from one study to another, partly because of measurement problems and differences in data, but all agree that technology is an important factor. This spurred a series of investigations into the process of technological change. It began to be treated as an endogenous process; various factors within the firm were examined for their effect on technology.
Discriminant Analysis When Scale Contamination Is Present in the Initial Sample

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses one particular aspect of the robustness of the linear discriminant function, that is, robustness against contamination of the initial samples. Very little research has been done on the robustness of the linear discriminant function. The linear discriminant function is used to assign observations to one of two populations. If the underlying distributions of the observations are multivariate normal with the same covariance matrices, the sample discriminant has certain desirable asymptotic properties. If the underlying populations are not normal, the discriminant still has some desirable properties, but is not, in general, the optimal rule in any sense. The amount of loss of discriminating power is a function of how non-normal the distributions are. It is known, however, that even slight non-normality can hurt location estimators considerably. The overall probability of misclassification can be greatly affected by location contamination, depending upon the direction of the contamination. The greatest effect of location contamination occurs when the contaminating mean is on the opposite side of the uncontaminated population mean.
Isolation of Components Involved in Ethylene Signaling

Ethylene is unique among all plant hormones in that it is an odorless and colorless gas, and yet like other hormones it has profound effect on many aspects of plant growth and development as well as the interaction of plants with their environment. The perception and signaling of ethylene in plants has intrigued many biologists since its discovery. The gaseous ethylene was established as a growth hormone in the early twentieth century, its biosynthesis pathway was revealed in the 1970s, the core ethylene signaling components were isolated in the 1990s, and the signaling mechanisms are further revealed in the last decade. Ethylene research has been at the very front of modern plant biology and has made a great impact on our understanding of plant biology at the molecular and genetic levels. This chapter describes how the signaling molecules were isolated and identified largely according to historical order (Fig. 2.1). Ethylene biosynthesis and biochemical characterization of signaling molecules are covered in other chapters in the book. Open image in new window Fig. 2.1 Historical over view of identifying major ethylene signaling components
The human plasma cholesteryl ester transfer protein: structure, function and physiology.

The first report of net transfer of preformed cholesteryl esters between plasma lipoprotein species was by Rehnborg and Nichols in 1964 (1). The identification of a protein factor catalysing the exchange of cholesteryl esters between plasma lipoproteins was first made by Zilversmit and colleagues in 1975 (2). A factor with similar properties was identified in human plasma by the same laboratory in 1978 (3). Since that time there has been a rapid increase both in interest and information concerning cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP). A summary of earlier attempts to isolate plasma cholesteryl ester transfer activity is contained in a recent review (4). The recent isolation of human plasma CETP, cloning of its cDNA, and the expression of the cloned gene intransfected cells (5,6) provides an appropriate opportunity to review the nature of this protein and its significance in plasma lipid metabolism.
Mediated images of success: Hegemonic media representations and social justice

ABSTRACTThis activity highlights the concept of cultural hegemony, illustrating it by a reflection on the images of success and successful people portrayed in the media. The purpose of the exercise...
Can a Kite Be a Triangle? Aesthetics and Creative Discourse in an Interactive Geometric Environment

In this chapter we will use the lens of aesthetics (Sinclair in Mathematics and beauty: aesthetic approaches to teaching children. Teachers College Press, New York, NY, 2006) to explore mathematical creativity in an interactive geometric environment from three different perspectives: inquiry, teaching, and mathematical resolution. We will be illustrating the mathematical creativity with an episode where academically talented middle school students are working with Shape Makers (Battista in Shapemakers. Key Curriculum Press, Emeryville, CA, 2003) in Geometer’s Sketchpad. At one point in the lesson, a student makes a triangle looking shape with the Kite Maker Tool and asks, “Can a triangle be a kite?” We see creativity reflected in three ways: in the generation of ideas, in the teacher’s instructional choices, and in the resolution of the mathematical discussion by the students. The creative and aesthetic qualities of open inquiry, the Geometers’ Sketchpad, and teacher moves created a setting where students and the teacher made aesthetically motivational, generative, and evaluative choices to build understanding of geometric properties of kites and triangles as well as the limitations of sets of geometric properties in classifying geometric shapes.
Codon-Based Sequence Alignment for Mutation Analysis by High-Throughput Sequencing

The advance of high-throughput sequencing has made it possible to perform large-scale mutation analysis by altering codons on a sequence and investigating the effect of the changes. While sequence alignment algorithms can be applied to compare the reads to the original unaltered sequence, neither nucleotide-based nor protein-based alignment is completely suitable for analyzing changes at the codon level.We develop a codon-based sequence alignment algorithm by modifying the dynamic programming equations so that an exact match of three letters in a codon is assigned a positive score, a mismatch of at least one letter in a codon is assigned a negative score, and an indel of either one, two or three letters is assigned a constant negative score. This strategy models what could happen within each codon directly. It has the same time complexity as the nucleotide-based dynamic programming algorithm.We apply our algorithm to analyze the effect of mutations within the RNA Polymerase II trigger loop from high-throughput sequencing libraries that we have generated in our lab. We compare our results to the ones obtained with nucleotide-based alignment. We show that our algorithm is able to avoid systematic errors that could be made with nucleotide-based alignment.
Discovery of a transient ultraluminous X-ray source in the elliptical galaxy M86

We report the discovery of the transient ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) CXOU J122602.3+125951 (hereafter M86 tULX-1), located 3'52" (19 kpc) northwest of the centre of the giant elliptical galaxy M86 (NGC 4406) in the Virgo Cluster. The spectrum of M86 tULX-1 can be fit by a power-law plus multicolour-disc model with a 1.0 [+0.8 -2.6] index and an 0.66 [+0.17 -0.11] keV inner-disc temperature, or by a power law with a 1.86 +/- 0.10 index. For an isotropically emitting source at the distance of M86, the luminosity based on the superposition of spectral models is (5 +/- 1) x 10^39 erg/s. Its relatively hard spectrum places M86 tULX-1 in a hitherto unpopulated region in the luminosity-disc temperature diagram, between other ULXs and the (sub-Eddington) black-hole X-ray binaries. We discovered M86 tULX-1 in an archival 148-ks 2013 July Chandra observation, and it was not detected in a 20-ks 2016 May Chandra observation, meaning it faded by a factor of at least 30 in three years. Based on our analysis of deep optical imaging of M86, it is probably not located in a globular cluster. It is the brightest ULX found in an old field environment unaffected by recent galaxy interaction. We conclude that M86 tULX-1 may be a stellar-mass black hole of ~30 - 100 M_Sun with a low-mass giant companion, or a transitional object in a state between the normal stellar-mass black holes and the ultraluminous state.
Autonomic Neuromodulation Acutely Ameliorates Left Ventricular Strain in Humans

Low-level transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation at the tragus (LLTS) is anti-adrenergic. We aimed to evaluate the acute effects of LLTS on left ventricular (LV) function and autonomic tone. Patients with diastolic dysfunction and preserved LV ejection fraction were enrolled in a prospective, randomized, double-blind, 2 × 2 cross-over study. Patients received two separate, 1-h sessions, at least 1 day apart, of active LLTS (20 Hz, 1 mA below the discomfort threshold) and sham stimulation. Echocardiography was performed after LLTS or sham stimulation to assess cardiac function. A 5-min ECG was performed to assess heart rate variability (HRV). Twenty-four patients were enrolled. LV global longitudinal strain improved by 1.8 ± 0.9% during active LLTS compared to sham stimulation (p = 0.001). Relative to baseline, HRV frequency domain components (low frequency, high frequency, and their ratio) were favorably altered after LLTS compared to sham stimulation (all p < 0.05). We concluded that LLTS acutely ameliorates cardiac mechanics by modulating the autonomic tone. Trial registration: NCT02983448
Bayesian Reasoning Based Malicious Data Discovery on Gulf-Dialectical Arabic Tweets

One of the largest domains for written communication is the on-line domain. Today, social media has become widely used among people of different ages, groups and nationalities. In the Gulf region, Twitter is one of popular social networking sites. Tweets do not only contain information about opinions, news, and conversations, but also contain malicious content such as false information, malicious links, and other types of cyber threats. Therefore, those tweets need to be identified first in order to discover whether it is malicious or not. Tweets from the Gulf region are not written in the Modern Standard Language (MSA), which is used in most translation systems as an Arabic source. In this paper, we first present a Gulf Dialectical Arabic (Gulf DA) to English dataset in order to create a Gulf Knowledge Base (GulfKB). Then, we use the GulfKB model-based reasoning that is based on Bayesian inference to uncover malicious content and suspicious users. We have evaluated the proposed approach using numerical results. Our approach gives accuracy of 91% and outperforms the existing approaches in the state of art literature.
Voice Teacher Certification and Research: Relationships and Trends

Within voice training, voice teacher certification has become a rising force. In the academic job market in the United States, the majority of university theatre voice teaching positions prefer or ...
Sex, Lies, and Stereotypes: Gendered Implications of Fake News for Women in Politics

This analysis examines the literature on gendered media coverage of women candidates for higher office, and considers how biases in the treatment of candidates based on gender may be evident in or ...
Elementary English Learner Classroom Composition and Academic Achievement: The Role of Classroom-Level Segregation, Number of English Proficiency Levels, and Opportunity to Learn:

Using mixed methods, we investigated (a) the association of the extent of English learner (EL) classroom-level segregation (proportion EL) and number of EL English proficiency levels with elementar...