cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Increasing Co-Product Evaluations by Using Integrative Logos

Widespread use of the strategy of co-branding: At present, numerous companies introduce co-products into the market that indicate cooperation between two companies. When they refer to the constituent brand names, they use the technique of co-branding. For instance, Gillette and ‘The Art of Shaving’ (men’s shaving products) offer the jointly developed Fusion Chrome Collection that contains a shaver with a kind of torch light in it.
Teaching Multi-Degree-of-Freedom Dynamics: A Laboratory Demonstration Tool

Abstract The development of the design and fabrication for a five degree of freedom rig of symmetrically coupled pendula for demonstrating eigenvalues, eigenvectors and dynamic system analysis theory is described. Although originally designed for testing and corroborating mode localization theory, the serendipitous capability of the system to be used as a teaching device in vibration or dynamic system analysis classes using TV tapes of the five separately excited natural modes was recognized early during the project, and is demonstrated in this paper. Instrumentation and data-analysis techniques are discussed.
Role of prophylactic PEG and risk factors for PEG dependency in head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy.

e17017 Background: Percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) dependency is a major morbidity associated with radiotherapy for head and neck cancer. There is controversy surrounding prophylactic PEG use and whether it predisposes to worse long-term swallow function and PEG dependency. The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of prophylactic PEG on treatment time and weight loss, and to identify risk factors for long-term PEG dependency. Methods: This study included 52 head and neck squamous cell carcinoma patients treated with radiotherapy (RT) to the primary site and bilateral cervical lymph nodes. Data were collected on primary tumor site, stage, age, RT dose, chemotherapy, weight, body mass index (BMI), treatment time, visits with Nutrition, and visits with Swallowing/Speech Pathology. Associations of prophylactic PEG with treatment time (time from initiation to completion of RT) and with weight loss were evaluated. Long-term PEG dependency was defined as placement of a PEG with continued PEG u...
Use of Liver Imaging and Biopsy in Clinical Practice

Advances in imaging techniques such as vibration-controlled transient elastography and magnetic resonance elastography have reduced the need for liver biopsy as a means of diagnosing liver disease.
A Low-Temperature Synthetic Route to Ternary Iron-Manganese Metal Fluorides Nanoparticles

Abstract Ternary metal fluoride Fe x Mn 1−x F 2 (x = 0.00, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, and 1.00), which is a potential cathode material for next-generation Li-ion batteries, were synthesized via a convenient, low-temperature, bottom-up solution-phase method. The lattice dimensions deduced from X-ray diffraction suggested formation of homogeneous solid solutions. With increasing Fe content, the morphology of the solid changed from cubic particles to dendritic, with an average particle size of 20–40 nm. The results suggested that this synthetic method constitutes a translatable route to large-scale production of ternary metal fluoride nanoparticles.
Does Socially Responsible Corporate Reporting Lead to Less Stock Speculation

I compare speculative bubble formation between a group of corporations in the S&P 500 that score high on corporate social responsibility versus the S&P 500 as a whole. I find that high CSR firms are less likely to exhibit speculative bubbles.
Information, communication, and online tool needs of Hispanic family caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

Purpose: To identify the information and communication needs of Hispanic family caregivers for individuals with Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD) and the manner in which online tools...
Chapter H - Practical Considerations of Combustion Oscillations

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses experimental studies of suppression methods and various possible applications of autonomous combustion oscillations. There are several possible methods, not specific to a given mode of combustion-driven oscillations, to reduce the amplitude of oscillation when pulsating combustion occurs. In fact, these methods occasionally will even eliminate the pulsations. The method is specific to a particular driving mechanism. The specific information available is insufficient in most instances to make it possible to judge the relative merits of various suppression methods. It might not always be desirable to eliminate combustion-driven oscillations. The chapter also reviews many proposals for applications of pulsating combustion. In some of these applications, pulsating combustion is suggested as a means of attaining new levels of performance or new compactness in design. In every instance, however, the problem of noise arises. It should be possible to relieve the problem to some extent by the proper use of multiple units and of muffling. The chapter also presents the applications of combustion-driven oscillations.
The Role of Nonprofits and Civil Society in Post-disaster Recovery and Development

This chapter examines the role of nonprofits in disaster recovery and development from a collaborative emergency management perspective. This chapter discusses the strengths of nonprofits in helping communities recover from disasters from the perspective of social capital. This chapter addresses the following questions: What is the role of nonprofit organizations in post-disaster development? How do nonprofits contribute to post-disaster recovery efforts and building resilient communities? How can inter-organizational networks better work to improve post-disaster development?
Genetic variation across VNTR loci in central North American Taraxacum surveyed at different spatial scales

Dandelions (Taraxacum officinale Weber(sensu lato); Asteraceae) have been introduced to NorthandSouth America with human migration from Europe. While potential sourcepopulations have both sexually and obligate asexually (agamospermous)reproducing lineages, apparently only the latter have successfully colonizedtheAmericas. The consequences of obligate agamospermy on dandelion populationgenetic diversity in North America remain little explored. Here we use fourdifferent synthetic DNA probes that reveal genetic markers at multiplevariable-number-tandem-repeat (VNTR) loci to examine patterns of geneticvariation among plants collected along three different central North Americantransects with plants (21 to 22 individuals per transect) separated by: 1) >2 m and 5km and 30km and < 340 km (long transect). The mean numberofVNTR markers revealed per plant was 59.3. Co-clonal individuals (proportion ofbands shared exceeding 90%) were found in each transect, with the indexof clonality (the percent of co-clonal individuals detected in a transect)ranging from 34.12% for the short transect to 18.65% for the longtransect. Co-clonal individuals were separated by up to 200 km.With redundant examples of co-clonal individuals removed, mean similarity(proportion of band sharing) of distinct genotypes within transects was 0.426,and no statistical differences in level of similarity between transects, norindication of genetic differentiation between transects, was detected (meanFst between transect levels with all individuals included =0.05). These results indicate: 1) that dandelion genetic diversity ofcolonizinglineages in central North America is moderately high and does not reflectextreme bottleneck effects shown by some colonizing species; and 2) thatdandelion seed dispersal can be very effective in maintaining similar levels ofgenetic diversity at the different scales of sampling in this study, withcertain clones maintaining numerous, widespread individuals. Evidence that VNTRmutation is detectable within dandelion clonal lineages is presented,demonstrating that “clonal families” with lines increasinglydifferentiated from one another will continually evolve, and that Muller'srachet is, in all likelihood, turning for asexual lines.
Causes of Unhappiness in Dickens’ Little Dorrit and Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman

Alfred Schutz has said: “The place of man [is] in a cosmos that transcends his existence, but within which he has to find his way, his bearings” (Schutz and Luckmann, II, 243). The recognition of this uncertainty has driven some theorists toward a radical claim of the unknowability which underlies the sense of the postmodern. However, Schutz’s statement also contains, perhaps, the key motivation that leads to Phenomenology, to create a system of navigation for humanity in a cosmos that is too big and complex to be comprehended in total. Any puzzle, perhaps, verifies that we are in a situation where we must find “our bearings.” One such puzzle is provoked by the interesting parallels that exist between causes of unhappiness as presented by Charles Dickens in Little Dorrit and John Fowles in The French Lieutenant’s Woman, a book which is, in part, an investigation of what the life-world was like for the Victorians. In Little Dorrit, Dickens includes a chapter entitled “The History of a Self Tormentor,” a chapter title that is extradiagetic, imposed by the author on a first-person narration by a Miss Wade. Dickens’ chapter shows similarities to the descriptions given in Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman by the novel’s narrator and by its main female character, Sarah Woodruff; Fowles has an intradiagetic comment perform the task of labeling Sarah as a self tormentor. A Dr. Grogan tells how Sarah refused help and put herself in “a house she must know is a living misery” (126). Grogan identifies Sarah as one of a type he has seen in the medical literature: “It was as if she had become addicted to melancholia as one becomes addicted to opium” (127, Fowles’ italics). “Her sadness,” says Grogan, “becomes her happiness. She wants to be a sacrificial victim” (127). The interesting twist is that, while Dickens presents Miss Wade’s actions as perversely self tormenting, Fowles expects the reader to sympathize with Sarah’s parallel actions. Thus the emotional polarity switches when readers move between the two novels.
Low-energy resonances in 13C( alpha,n).

Two new resonances in the $^{13}\mathrm{C}$(\ensuremath{\alpha},n) reaction, at ${\mathit{E}}_{\mathrm{\ensuremath{\alpha}}}$=656 and 802 keV, have been observed and the resonance strengths have been measured. Limits on the (\ensuremath{\alpha},\ensuremath{\gamma}) strengths have been determined. Strengths for previously known (\ensuremath{\alpha},n) resonances at 1053 and 1586 keV are also reported.
Insecticidal Compounds from Plants

Plants possess limited movement and cannot escape in space from their enemies. Required to stand and fight to preserve their substance and progeny, they have evolved superlative defensive mechanisms. Dense bark, hard wood, spines, and thorns are classical morphological features of many plants. Less apparent, but probably more important in suppressing predation and disease, is the complex secondary chemistry of plants. Just as flowers elaborate a variety of alluring scents and tasty nectaries to attract birds, bees, and other insects to assist in cross pollination, many plants produce repellents, poisons, antifeedants, growth regulators, and antibiotics to reduce exploitation by herbivores and pathogens. Because insects compose more than 90% of all planetary species and are clearly the dominant herbivores, plants have evolved an extensive variety of defensive strategies targeted to limit their exploitation by pests. The earliest insecticides used by man were simple powders or aqueous extracts of poisonous plants. Hundreds of toxic plants have been employed by primitive cultures for purposes of insect control and most of these have been evaluated as prospective insecticides (Fig. 1), but only a scant few have been found to possess useful commercial insecticidal properties.
Nitrile Vibration Reports Induced Electric Field and Delocalization of Electron in the Charge-Transfer State of Aryl Nitriles.

An electric field is created upon photoinduced charge separation in electron donor–acceptor (D–A) molecules. The photophysics of a prototypical D–A molecule, 4-(dimethylamino)-benzonitrile (DMABN), has been under extensive investigation for decades. Here, by using the framework of the vibrational Stark effect (VSE), we show that the nitrile vibration quantifies a significant induced electric field in the intramolecular charge-transfer state of DMABN. We further demonstrate that such a phenomenon can be observed in a structurally similar aryl nitrile and that the VSE depends on solvent polarity due to dielectric screening. Our current work shows how the superb sensitivity of the nitrile vibration can be used to identify the nature of electron delocalization and quantify the induced electric field in photoinduced charge transfer processes.
A Sensational and Unique Novelty: The Reception of Rashid al-Din’s World History

Rashid al-Din’s world history, contained in the second volume of the Jamiʿ al-Tawarikh, is widely popular among modern scholars as a monument of early Persian book art and a witness to the cultural...
Answer to September 2017 Photo Quiz.

Answer: Histoplama capsulatum associated with granulomatous inflammation of the larynx . Histoplasma capsulatum is a dimorphic thermal fungus that is found in temperate zones and tropical humid areas where soils are acidic and rich in nitrogen. Fungal spores can be found in the soil of caves or
Fingerprinting Far Proximity from Radio Emissions

As wireless mobile devices are more and more pervasive and adopted in critical applications, it is becoming increasingly important to measure the physical proximity of these devices in a secure way. Although various techniques have been developed to identify whether a device is close, the problem of identifying the far proximity (i.e., a target is at least a certain distance away) has been neglected by the research community. Meanwhile, verifying the far proximity is desirable and critical to enhance the security of emerging wireless applications. In this paper, we propose a secure far proximity identification approach that determines whether or not a remote device is far away. The key idea of the proposed approach is to estimate the far proximity from the unforgeable “fingerprint” of the proximity. We have validated and evaluated the effectiveness of the proposed far proximity identification method through experiments on real measured channel data. The experiment results show that the proposed approach can detect the far proximity with a successful rate of 0.85 for the non-Line-of-sight (NLoS) scenario, and the successful rate can be further increased to 0.99 for the Line-of-sight (LoS) scenario.
Paired cycle-GAN-based image correction for quantitative cone-beam computed tomography

Purpose The incorporation of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) has allowed for enhanced image-guided radiation therapy. While CBCT allows for daily 3D imaging, images suffer from severe artifacts, limiting the clinical potential of CBCT. In this work, a deep learning-based method for generating high quality corrected CBCT (CCBCT) images is proposed. Methods The proposed method integrates a residual block concept into a cycle-consistent adversarial network (cycle-GAN) framework, called res-cycle GAN, to learn a mapping between CBCT images and paired planning CT images. Compared with a GAN, a cycle-GAN includes an inverse transformation from CBCT to CT images, which constrains the model by forcing calculation of both a CCBCT and a synthetic CBCT. A fully convolution neural network with residual blocks is used in the generator to enable end-to-end CBCT-to-CT transformations. The proposed algorithm was evaluated using 24 sets of patient data in the brain and 20 sets of patient data in the pelvis. The mean absolute error (MAE), peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR), normalized cross-correlation (NCC) indices, and spatial non-uniformity (SNU) were used to quantify the correction accuracy of the proposed algorithm. The proposed method is compared to both a conventional scatter correction and another machine learning-based CBCT correction method. Results Overall, the MAE, PSNR, NCC, and SNU were 13.0 HU, 37.5 dB, 0.99, and 0.05 in the brain, 16.1 HU, 30.7 dB, 0.98, and 0.09 in the pelvis for the proposed method, improvements of 45%, 16%, 1%, and 93% in the brain, and 71%, 38%, 2%, and 65% in the pelvis, over the CBCT image. The proposed method showed superior image quality as compared to the scatter correction method, reducing noise and artifact severity. The proposed method produced images with less noise and artifacts than the comparison machine learning-based method. Conclusions The authors have developed a novel deep learning-based method to generate high-quality corrected CBCT images. The proposed method increases onboard CBCT image quality, making it comparable to that of the planning CT. With further evaluation and clinical implementation, this method could lead to quantitative adaptive radiation therapy.
2019 Year in Review: Aerosol Therapy

Relevant publications related to medicinal and toxic aerosols are discussed in this review. Treatment of COPD includes a combination of long-acting bronchodilators and long-acting muscarinic antagonists. A combination of aclidinium bromide and formoterol fumarate was approved in the United States. The combination was superior to its components alone, as well as tiotropium and a salmeterol-fluticasone combination. Increased risk of an asthma exacerbation was reported in children exposed to electronic nicotine delivery systems. A smart inhaler capable of recording inspiratory flow was approved in the United States. The use of as-needed budesonide-formoterol was reported to be superior to scheduled budesonide and as-needed terbutaline for the treatment of adults with mild-to-moderate asthma. A survey among teens with asthma and their caregivers revealed a disagreement in the number of inhaled controller medications the teen was taking. Treatment with inhaled hypertonic saline resulted in a decreased lung clearance index in infants and preschool children with cystic fibrosis. Surgical masks were well tolerated and significantly decreased the burden of aerosolized bacteria generated by coughing in adults with cystic fibrosis. Inhaled liposomal amikacin in addition to guideline-based therapy was reported to be superior to guideline-based therapy alone in achieving negative sputum cultures in adult subjects with Mycobacterium avium complex pulmonary disease. During 2019, lung injury associated to e-cigarette or vaping was reported, including 60 casualties.
Three pion spectrum in the $I=3$ channel from lattice QCD

Three-body states are critical to the dynamics of many hadronic resonances. We show that lattice QCD calculations have reached a stage where these states can be accurately resolved. We perform a calculation over a wide range of parameters and find all states below inelastic threshold agree with predictions from a state-of-the-art phenomenological formalism. This also illustrates the reliability of the formalism used to connect lattice QCD results to infinite volume physics. Our calculation is performed using three positively charged pions, with different lattice geometries and quark masses.
Population Substructure in Association Studies

Genetic association studies using population-based designs have distinct features that make them an attractive approach for gene mapping. Similar to epidemiological studies, they typically use unrelated individuals. As a consequence, the study recruitment is relatively easy and the statistical analysis is straight-forward to implement using standard statistical analysis techniques. This provides population-based designs with an advantage over other designs. Since epidemiological studies have a long tradition in biomedical research and are available for many complex diseases that are expected to have a genetic component, existing epidemiological studies can be converted into genetic association studies without much effort if the DNA of the study subjects is available, e.g., blood samples, etc. The study subjects have to be genotyped at the genetic marker loci, but often no additional phenotyping or, even, recruitment of subjects is required.
Isolation and Pharmacological Characterization of Six Opioidergic Picralima nitida Alkaloids.

The seeds of the akuamma tree (Picralima nitida) have been used as a traditional treatment for pain and fever. Previous studies have attributed these effects to a series of indole alkaloids found w...
Sickle Cell Disease

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a life-threatening inherited red blood cell disorder affecting millions worldwide but primarily affecting the African American/Black population in the United States. In SCD, the production of abnormal hemoglobin S limits oxygen and blood flow throughout the body. Despite advances in treatment (e.g., blood transfusions and hydroxyurea therapy), patients with SCD have high levels of healthcare utilization because of acute and chronic complications that include pain and damage to the organs, bones, and vascular system. They are also at significant risk for neurologic impact, including stroke and cognitive deficits that occur primarily in the domains of executive function and processing speed. Patients with SCD experience functional impairment related to acute and chronic pain, poor quality of life, anxiety, and depression. Pain and adherence are the most common referral concerns, followed by referrals related to mood, development (e.g., academic concerns), and transition to adult care. Acceptance of psychological interventions (e.g., psychoeducation, cognitive behavioral therapy, motivational interviewing) are complicated by patient experiences with racial bias within the healthcare system, health-related stigma, misunderstanding of the role of psychological services, and perceived lack of cultural competency by providers. The consultation-liaison psychologist has an opportunity when working with patients with SCD to decrease potential stigma around mental health, contextualize the role of the pediatric psychologist in their work with patients with a chronic condition, support the medical team in their approach to pain management, and interact regularly with the entire psychosocial team to support consistent care.
Costly Calculations: A Theory of War, Casualties, and Politics

Gartner and Segura consider the costs of war – both human and political – by examining the consequences of foreign combat, on domestic politics. The personal costs of war – the military war dead and injured – are the most salient measure of war costs generally and the primary instrument through which war affects domestic politics. The authors posit a general framework for understanding war initiation, war policy and war termination in democratic polities, and the role that citizens and their deaths through conflict play in those policy choices. Employing a variety of empirical methods, they examine multiple wars from the last 100 years, conducting analyses of tens of thousands of individuals across a wide variety of historical and hypothetical conditions, whilst also addressing policy implications. This study will be of interest to students and scholars in American foreign policy, international politics, public opinion, national security, American politics, communication studies, and military history.
The effect of mentoring and self-esteem on job satisfaction: a comparative study between U.S.-born and foreign-born faculty

The purpose of this study was to compare U.S.-born and foreign-born faculty members’ job satisfaction in research universities and investigate if mentoring and self-esteem affect job satisfaction o...
Head Circumference within the Normal Range and Neurodevelopmental Outcomes in Preterm Infants

Objective We sought to determine if variation in head circumference (HC) within the range of normal (5th–10th and 90th–95th percentile) is associated with poor neurodevelopmental outcomes (NDO), which defined as mild or moderate delay by Bayley II psychometrics (BSID-II). Study Design This is a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial assessing the benefits of magnesium for the prevention of cerebral palsy. Fetuses with a normal HC at birth defined as within 5th to 95th percentile were included. NDO were assessed at age 2 with BSID-II. Moderate delay was defined as a score Results Of 1,236 included infants, 111 (8%) had small normal HC; 1,058 (85%) had normal HC; and 67 (5%) had large normal HC. Baseline characteristics were similar between groups. There was no association with changes in HC within the range of normal and developmental indices. When considered as a continuous variable, every 1 cm increase in HC was also not associated with a significant change in developmental indices. Conclusion Within the normal range (5th–95th percentile), changes in HC did not correlate with changes in NDO at 2 years as measured by Bayley II scales. Key Points
Shared Interactive Book Reading Interventions for Young Children With Disabilities: A Systematic Review.

Purpose Shared interactive book reading (SIBR) is an evidence-based practice for young children who are typically developing and those with developmental disabilities or considered at risk for deve...
Gender, Manumission, and the Roman Freedwoman

Gender, Manumission, and the Roman Freedwoman examines the distinct problem posed by the manumission of female slaves in ancient Rome. The sexual identities of a female slave and a female citizen were fundamentally incompatible, as the former was principally defined by her sexual availability and the latter by her sexual integrity. Accordingly, those evaluating the manumission process needed to reconcile a woman's experiences as a slave with the expectations and moral rigor required of the female citizen. The figure of the freedwoman - fictionalized and real - provides an extraordinary lens into the matter of how Romans understood, debated, and experienced the sheer magnitude of the transition from slave to citizen, the various social factors that impinged upon this process, and the community stakes in the institution of manumission.
Necrolytic Migratory Erythema

G.Y. Wu et al. (eds.), Atlas of Dermatological Manifestations of Gastrointestinal Disease, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4614-6191-3_56, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Clinical signs and features include: Rare dermatitis that occurs mostly in patients with • a -cell tumor of the pancreas (glucagonoma) that usually occurs in the fi fth to sixth decade and presents with frequency of 1:20,000,000 persons/year [ 1 ] Rash comes in waves of irregular erythematous lesions with • visible scale with subsequent necrosis and crusting of the epidermis in the center of the lesions leading to bullae [ 2 ] Central healing ultimately occurs giving the lesions an • annular appearance; the process for development to healing is about 2 weeks Predilection for intertriginous sites and areas subject to • pressure and frictions [ 2 ] (e.g., perineum, groin, buttocks, lower abdomen, and lower extremities) ( see Fig. 56.1 ) Often superinfected with • Staphylococcus aureus and Candida Albicans Lesions tend to be highly pruritic; occasionally associ• ated with stomatitis, glossitis, angular cheilitis, and nail changes [ 2 ] Can be related to multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN)-1 • or MEN-2 (rare) By diagnosis, 50–100% have metastatic tumor but • although it is incurable the slow-growing tumor is unlikely to cause death [ 3 ] May also occur in absence in the pseudoglucagonoma • syndrome in which there is an absence of a pancreatic tumor. Causes include liver disease, malabsorption, in fl ammatory bowel disease, and other malignancies [ 1, 2 ] May occur secondary to glucagon cell adenomatosis [ • 4 ] Pathogenesis of this disease is unclear but hypotheses include: Possibly due to increased level of glucagon in blood: sug• gested by the apparent correlation of decreased symptom severity with decreased glucagon (via tumor resection or administration of somatostatin analogues); against this, however, is that patients with nonglucagonoma disease do not always have elevated glucagon [ 3 ] Nutritional de fi ciency: similar histology to other • de fi ciencies; improvement in patients given amino acids, zinc, and fatty acids; glucagon may stimulate pathways leading to hypovitaminosis B (symptoms have many features of vitamin B de fi ciencies) and low levels of free fatty acids and amino acids [ 3 ] Liver disease may lead to decreased hepatic degradation • of glucagon and hypoalbuminemia. Hypoalbuminemia can then cause a decrease in zinc and essential fatty acid levels [ 1, 2 ] Histopathological features include: Classic: necrolysis of stratum spinosum (“sudden death”) • with intracellular edema and keratinocyte degeneration (dyskeratosis and necrosis) leading to subcorneal/midepidermal clefts and bullae; psoriasiform epidermal hyperplasia with con fl uent parakeratosis; hypergranulosis with pallor of the epidermis; often a lymphohistiocytic in fi ltrate around the dilated vessels in the edematous papillary dermis ( see Fig. 56.2 ) The diagnosis is made using a combination of: Evidence of glucagonoma: hyperglucagonemia, glucose • intolerance, weight loss, normocytic anemia, malaise, Necrolytic Migratory Erythema
Inner Speech—L2: Thinking Words in a Second Language. María C. M. de Guerrero

TESOL Quarterly welcomes evaluative reviews of publications relevant to TESOL professionals.
Business, Taxes, and Corruption in Russia

The extent of corruption in Russian government and society is well known. This paper explores the attitudes of Russian businesspeople both owners and executive-level employees to corruption, and discusses the ways in which they tailor their financial and other business practices to fit the overall political-economic situation in Russia as they perceive it. This specifically involves concealing income (both corporate and personal) in order to avoid paying taxes. The key objective in this paper is to illustrate the particular cultural logic through which businesspeople justify their financial practices: they almost universally represent their non-disclosure of income as a virtue, rather than a moral or social offense, although with some irony. This ultimately relates to their overall conceptions of social responsibility and
Optimal entrainment of heterogeneous noisy neurons

We develop a methodology to design a stimulus optimized to entrain nonlinear, noisy limit cycle oscillators with uncertain properties. Conditions are derived which guarantee that the stimulus will entrain the oscillators despite these uncertainties. Using these conditions, we develop an energy optimal control strategy to design an efficient entraining stimulus and apply it to numerical models of noisy phase oscillators and to in vitro hippocampal neurons. In both instances, the optimal stimuli outperform other similar but suboptimal entraining stimuli. Because this control strategy explicitly accounts for both noise and inherent uncertainty of model parameters, it could have experimental relevance to neural circuits where robust spike timing plays an important role.
Responding intelligently to unparsable inputs

All natural language systems are likely to receive inputs for which they are unprepared. The system must be able to respond to such inputs by explicitly indicating the reasons the input could not be understood, so that the user will have precise information for trying to rephrase the input. If natural language communication to data bases, to expert consultant systems, or to any other practical system is to be accepted by other than computer personnel, this is an absolute necessity.This paper presents several ideas for dealing with parts of this broad problem. One is the use of presupposition to detect user assumptions. The second is relaxation of tests while parsing. The third is a general technique for responding intelligently when no parse can be found. All of these ideas have been implemented and tested in one of two natural language systems. Some of the ideas are heuristics that might be employed by humans; others are engineering solutions for the problem of practical natural language systems.
Perspectivas para o Bem-estar na Docência: Trajetória de Vida e Produção de Sentido

O artigo e decorrente de uma pesquisa-acao que focaliza a producao de sentido na docencia. Tem por objetivo analisar os modos de construcao e o desenvolvimento de valores criativos, vivenciais e atitudinais em professores que lecionam no Ensino Medio, no Curso Normal. O referencial teorico que fundamenta o estudo e a abordagem antropologica de Viktor Frankl no que se refere a producao de sentido, estabelecendo-se uma interlocucao com autores que discutem a tematica investigada. A coleta de dados foi realizada atraves da aplicacao de um questionario contendo questoes abertas, de cinco encontros com os professores e do registro das observacoes no diario de campo. Participaram do estudo nove professores situados na faixa etaria entre 20 e 40 anos de idade, sendo quatro do genero feminino e cinco do masculino. A analise dos dados coletados se da a partir da Tecnica de Analise de Conteudo proposta por Bardin. A incursao nos dados sinaliza para o cultivo de: valores vivenciais pautados especialmente por caracteristicas de humanizacao docente; valores atitudinais reconhecidos na valorizacao e vivencia de espacos e decisoes de um coletivo; e valores criativos expressos na criatividade metodologica em meio a uma realidade onde impera a pobreza e a falta de recursos educacionais.
Bacterial degradation of biotin. Catabolism of 14C-biotin and its sulfoxides.

Abstract A biotin-degrading particulate system has been obtained by sonic rupture of a soil pseudomonad which grows on d-biotin as sole source of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur. Investigation of the catabolism of 14C-biotin and its sulfoxides in this system has revealed the following. Degradation of biotin to CO2 is enhanced in the buffer-washed particulate preparations by addition of adenosine triphosphate, Mg2+, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, and coenzyme A. Maximal activation is found with 10-5 m nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. Production of CO2 from ureido carbonyl and aliphatic carboxyl portions of biotin and biotin d-sulfoxide is effectively inhibited by azide but is decreased only slightly by high concentrations of acetate or malonate. Oxybiotin, homobiotin, norbiotin, dethiobiotin, and the diaminocarboxylate from biotin moderately inhibit degradation of biotin and its d-sulfoxide. l-Cysteine is effective as an apparent inhibitor, but this amino acid is very actively metabolized in the particulate preparations. Biotin and both d- and l-sulfoxides of biotin are efficiently catabolized by the particulate preparations and exhibit mutual competition as substrates. Production of CO2 is most rapid from biotin d-sulfoxide, whereas the l-sulfoxide is somewhat less active than biotin. Very little degradation of biotin sulfone or diaminocarboxylate occurs. Oxybiotin, homobiotin, and norbiotin are not catabolized. Several catabolites of biotin have been isolated from incubation mixtures by column and paper chromatography.
Comparison of teratogenic chemicals in the rat and chick embryos; an exhibit with additions for publication.

THE CHICK EMBRYO is used widely in studying drugs for teratogenic activity. Chemicals, which have been injected at the same period of incubation of the chick embryo, may produce separate and characteristic patterns of developmental abnormalities. The effects of many drugs, such as insulin, azaserine, sulfanilamide, 4-aminopteroyl glutamic acid, 8-azaguanine, physostigmine, thallium, lead, boric acid and cortisone, have been reviewed. The chick embryo in the egg is an isolated and independent system, whereas mammalian embryos are usually intimately involved with the maternal host which may detoxify, excrete or otherwise protect the fetus against noxious chemicals. It was, therefore, of interest to determine the effects of drugs, teratogenic in the chick embryo, on the mammalian fetus. The rat was selected because of its availability and because there is considerable information on rat embryology and teratology. Because some drugs, apparently inactive in the chick embryo, have produced consistent developmental abnormalities in the rat fetus, the pregnant rat also has been used for the initial study of selected compounds. The objectives of these studies were: 1) to determine and compare the teratogenic action of drugs on the chick and rat embryos; 2) to determine the consistency and specificity of action of each drug; 3) to determine the relation between the time during gestation when a drug is introduced and the occurrence of specific abnormalities; 4) to determine the relationship of the dose of a drug toxic to the mother, the dose toxic to the embryo, and the dose producing consistent developmental defects, and 5) to detect compounds which protect the embryo from the teratogenic action of a chemical.
LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PARENTS: Special Considerations for the Custody and Adoption Evaluator

Estimates are that there are between 1.2 and 3 million people who are in same-gender partnered household relationships in the United States. Although there is less certainty about the number of parents among these couples and the number of single-parent gay and lesbian families, all research shows that a growing number of gay and lesbian as well as bisexual and transgender individuals are choosing to be parents. A sound body of empirical literature has demonstrated that the sexual orientation of a parent is irrelevant in terms of a person's ability to parent and has no lasting effect on the psychological adjustment of the person's children. Nevertheless, a majority of states in the United States place considerable legal hurdles in the face of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals who would like to be parents, as do many countries around the world, and the social context of contemporary society creates a number of special issues that the forensic evaluator or psychologist may encounter when asked to make a custody, adoption, or other fitness to parent assessment with LGBT parents. This article presents an overview of these issues and moves beyond theory to provide specific recommendations for evaluators working with LGBT parents.
A standard-cell self-timed multiplier for energy and area critical synchronous systems

This paper describes the design of a standard-cell self-timed multiplier for use in energy and area critical synchronous systems. The area of this multiplier is bounded by N rather than N/sup 2/ as seen in more traditional combinational parallel array designs, where N is the word size. Energy has a polynomial growth with word size, but has a coefficient that is much smaller than that seen in a combinational array design. Although the multiplier is self-timed, it can be embedded in a synchronous system appearing as a combinational element. This paper presents latency, area, and energy estimates for the multiplier implemented at various word sizes, and compares these numbers with a traditional combinational array multiplier. The self-timed multiplier uses 1/3 the energy and 1/7 the area of the combinational design for a 24-bit word size.
Physician Satisfaction and Physician Well-Being: Should Anyone Care?

We present a model of hypothesized relationships between physician satisfaction, physician well-being and the quality of care, in addition to a review of relevant literature. The model suggests that physicians who are stressed, burned out, depressed, and/or have poor self-care are more likely to be dissatisfied, and vice-versa. Both poor physician well-being and physician dissatisfaction are hypothesized to lead to diminished physician concentration, effort, empathy, and professionalism. This results in misdiagnoses and other medical errors, a higher rate of inappropriate referrals and prescriptions, lower patient satisfaction and adherence to physician recommendations, and worse physician performance in areas not observed by others. Research to date largely supports the model, but high quality studies are few. Research should include studies that are prospective, larger, and have a stronger analytic design, ideally including difference in differences analyses comparing quality of care for patients of physicians who become dissatisfied to those who remain satisfied, and vice versa. K eywords: physician satisfaction, physician dissatisfaction, quality of care, physician well-being, physician burnout
User acceptance of SaaS-based collaboration tools: a case of Google Docs

– The purpose of this paper is to identify and understand factors that influence users’ acceptance of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) collaboration tools in organizational settings. , – This paper develops a research model based on the Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM). Using data collected from a field study of Google Docs, the research model and related hypotheses are tested by structural equation modeling. , – Users’ confirmation with expectations positively affect their perceived usefulness and satisfaction level; Users’ perceived usefulness and satisfaction positively affect their intention to continue using such collaboration tools. Users’ prior experience with such tools and their IT skills have a moderating effect on the relationships among confirmation, perceived usefulness, satisfaction, and continuance intention. , – This study identifies the theoretical foundations of user acceptance of SaaS collaboration tools in the context of mandatory adoption. This empirical study, based on an established theoretical foundation, will help the research community to gain a deeper understanding of user acceptance of cloud computing technologies, in particular, SaaS collaboration tools. , – The findings of this study can provide vendors and implementing organizations with useful strategies and tactics to enhance users’ acceptance of SaaS collaboration tools. , – With the increasing popularity of cloud computing technologies, there have been ongoing concerns about the effectiveness of SaaS collaboration tools in organizational settings. This study is one of the first empirical research to examine the factors influencing users’ acceptance of SaaS collaboration tools.
Co-infection of mallards with low-virulence Newcastle disease virus and low-pathogenic avian influenza virus

Waterfowl are considered the natural reservoir of low-virulence Newcastle disease viruses (loNDVs) and low-pathogenic avian influenza viruses (LPAIVs). The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of co-infections with loNDV and LPAIV on the infectivity and excretion of these viruses in mallards. One-month-old mallards were inoculated intranasally with 106 median embryo infectious doses of a wild-bird-origin loNDV and A/Mallard/MN/199106/99 (H3N8) LPAIV on the same day or received the LPAIV 2 or 5 days after loNDV inoculation. All mallards became infected with both viruses based on detection of seroconversion and viral shedding. Co-infection resulted in a higher number of cloacal swabs detected positive for LPAIV and a lower number of cloacal swabs detected positive for loNDV in some groups, although differences between groups were not statistically significant. Co-infection did not affect replication of LPAIV in epithelial cells of the lower intestine and bursa of Fabricius. In summary, the ...
Computational bead design

Computational Bead Design is an interdisciplinary project designed to introduce students (K-20) to computing (beginning programming), digital modeling and additive manufacturing techniques. Throughout history beads have been considered to hold symbolic and sacred knowledge. They can communicate social standing, political history, and religious beliefs. Beads have been a representation of a civilizations' technological advancement. The technical sophistication of bead manufacturing often mirrors the general technological level of the society (Dubin). This project highlights the bead, once again, as a marker of our current technological advancements through computing and 3D printing.
EFFECTS OF ACIDIC AZOPROTEINS ON PLASMA TRIGLYCERIDE LEVELS AND ON THE HEPARIN-ACTIVATED CLEARING SYSTEM

When injected into the rabbit 3 acidic azoproteins produced marked changes in the blood triglyceride levels. 4-Arsonophenylazoproteins, which were found to act similarly in 2 other mammalian species, produced a gross and prolonged hyperlipemia. 4-sulfono- and 4-carboxyphenylazoproteins in the rabbit produced an initial elevation and later lowering in blood triglyceride levels. The correlation between these changes and the action of the azoproteins on clearing factor lipase provides further evidence for the importance of this enzyme in fat transport mechanisms. 4-Arsonophenylazoprotein is powerfully inhibitory to the lipase. 4-Carboxy- and 4-sulfonophenylazoprotein in vivo initially inhibit the enzyme and later produce a heparin-like activation.
Effects of combined administration of low dose atorvastatin and vitamin E on inflammatory markers and endothelial function in patients with heart failure.

Background: Heart failure has been associated with impaired endothelial function, increased inflammatory process and elevated oxidative stress status. Both statins and vitamin E separately improve endothelial function in patients with hypercholesterolemia and/or advanced atherosclerosis. Aim: To evaluate the effect of atorvastatin alone or in combination with vitamin E on endothelial function and serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) and vascular cells adhesion molecule (sVCAM-1) in patients with ischemic heart failure. Methods: Thirty-eight male patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy were randomly divided into three groups and received either atorvastatin 10 mg/day (n=14), a combination of atorvastatin 10 mg/day plus vitamin E 400 IU/day (n=12), or no statin or antioxidant treatment (n=12), controls) for 4 weeks. Forearm blood flow (FBF) was measured using venous occlusion strain-gauge plethysmography. Forearm vasodilatory response to reactive hyperemia (RH%) or to nitrate (NTG%) was defined as the percent change of FBF from rest to the maximum flow during reactive hyperemia or after nitrate administration, respectively. Results: RH% was significantly improved in both the atorvastatin-treated (p<0.01) and atorvastatin plus vitamin E groups (p<0.05), but the increase was significantly higher in the atorvastatin-treated group (p<0.05). Serum levels of IL-6, TNF-α and sVCAM-1 were decreased in the atorvastatin-treated group (p<0.05 for all), but remained unaffected in the other two groups (p=NS for all). Conclusions: Low dose atorvastatin treatment improves endothelial function and reduces the expression of proinflammatory cytokines and adhesion molecules in patients with ischemic heart failure, an effect partly depressed by vitamin E.