cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Contemporary Theory in Medical Anthropology:Continuity,Transformation and Growth

As an organized subfield of anthropology,medical anthropology emerged in the late 1940s as an effort to link the anthropological studies of ethnomedicine,international public health movement,and anthropology of development.The article is organized into three parts.I begin by sketching out the historical context in which medical anthropology became established as an applied discipline with a sizeable body of theory.Then,I concentrate on the two major disciplinary emphases: non-western medicine and western biomedicine.In the first,I address the issues related to the attribution of sickness,the political use of medicine for social control,and the cultural role of healers and patients in non-western medical systems.In the second,I focus on the current theme that western biomedicine needs to be studied as a cultural system.Finally,looking beyond academia,I discuss how the current theories guided researchers to apply medical anthropological expertise in sustainable prevention of global diseases,such as AIDS and tuberculosis.Primary emphasis of the article is given to the principal concerns of the discipline,including the therapeutic process,health equity,social construction of health and sickness,and cross-cultural study of health and healing.
Pediatric Rhabdomyosarcoma:Evaluation of Imaging Performance

This paper introduced the pathology types and characteristics of pediatric rhabdomyosarcoma,as well as the CT and MRI features,and the purpose was to enhance the level of awareness and diagnosis.
388 P WAVE AMPLITUDE CHANGES IN PATIENTS WITH NORMAL AND ABNORMAL EXERCISE TESTS

Purpose To assess the relationship between exercise-induced myocardial ischemia and changes in atrial activity. Several investigators have postulated that inadequate ventricular output due to exercise-induced ischemia can lead to altered atrial contractility. These changes may be accompanied by measurable changes in P wave amplitude (Py) in patients with normal (N) and abnormal (+) exercise tests. Methods Retrospective analysis of Py was conducted by selecting 87 consecutive patients who underwent exercise stress tests (EST) according to the Bruce protocol. All patients were required to reach 85% of their target heart rate for inclusion in this study. Baseline measurements of Py were recorded in the supine position in leads II, aVF, V1, V5 and V6 using a 5x magnifier. These measurements were repeated at maximum exercise in each lead. Subjects were then classified as having either a “+” (n=36) or “N” (n=48) EST based on changes in their ST segment morphology. Independent sample, one-tailed t-tests were then conducted to see if “+” patients had greater increases in Py percent change from supine to exercise than “N” patients. Three patients were eliminated from the final analysis due to missing values. Results The mean Py exercise values were significantly greater than the supine values in all leads (p≤0.0001). The mean Py percent change from supine to maximum exercise was greater in patients with a “+” EST than in patients with a “N” EST (52.4% greater in V1, 52.5% in V5, 59.2% in V6, 6.7% in II, and 10.9% in aVF). This increase was statistically significant in leads V1, V5 and V6 (p=0.0479, 0.0197, and 0.0155 respectively), however, the mean difference between “+” and “N” patients in leads II and aVF was not significant (p= 0.3308 and 0.2843). Conclusions Py typically increases in response to exercise. Patients with a “+” EST have greater increases in Py in leads V1, V5 and V6, than patients with a “N” EST. The atrial response to decreased left ventricular function associated with exercise-induced ischemia may be reflected in Py increases. Further assessment of P wave changes in response to exercise may add diagnostic and prognostic value to the EST.
Unification and extension of intersection algorithms in numerical algebraic geometry

The solution set of a system of polynomial equations, called an algebraic set, can be decomposed into finitely many irreducible components. In numerical algebraic geometry, irreducible algebraic sets are represented by witness sets, whereas general algebraic sets allow a numerical irreducible decomposition comprising a collection of witness sets, one for each irreducible component. We denote the solution set of any system of polynomials f : C N ź C n as V ( f ) ź C N . Given a witness set for some algebraic set Z ź C N and a system of polynomials f : C N ź C n , the algorithms of this paper compute a numerical irreducible decomposition of the set Z ź V ( f ) . While extending the types of intersection problems that can be solved via numerical algebraic geometry, this approach is also a unification of two existing algorithms: the diagonal intersection algorithm and the homotopy membership test. The new approach includes as a special case the "extension problem" where one wishes to intersect an irreducible component A of V ( g ( x ) ) with V ( f ( x , y ) ) , where f introduces new variables, y. For example, this problem arises in computing the singularities of A when the singularity conditions are expressed in terms of new variables associated to the tangent space of A. Several examples are included to demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach applied in a variety of scenarios.
Development of an Ambulatory Clinical Pharmacy Prioritization Prediction Model for Patients With Diabetes

Background: Health care reform and the projected shortage of primary care physicians necessitate more efficient use of multidisciplinary collaboration. No studies, to date, have evaluated factors associated with treatment success among patients referred to a clinical pharmacist. Objective: To develop a prediction model using patient factors to assist in selecting patients with diabetes most likely to benefit from pharmacy interventions. Methods: A retrospective, nested case-control study was performed. A prediction model using multivariable logistic regression was developed, with model calibration and internal validation. Adult patients with diabetes who had a baseline hemoglobin A1C (A1C) ≥9%, who were consulted for collaborative pharmacy care between July 2009 and July 2014 were included. Success (cases) was defined as a decrease in A1C by 2% or a value of A1C <8% 1 year after the initial visit. Failures were those who did not achieve the A1C goal or were lost to follow-up. Results: A total of 544 uniqu...
Chilling Journalism: Can Newsgathering be Harassment or Stalking?

Newsgathering often requires journalists to ask uncomfortable questions or make multiple attempts to talk to unwilling sources. Some journalists have been accused of harassment, even when the plain language of state laws would not classify their actions as criminal conduct. In the rare instances that journalists actually were charged with harassment or subject to protective orders for stalking, district attorneys or judges typically did not allow them to be punished. This study, however, found nine statutes that might be applied to punish newsgathering activities that are neither hounding nor harassing. It also identifies language from statutes that clearly could not be applied to punish newsgathering communications by journalists. The article recommends that prosecutors and judges continue to prevent the application of criminal harassment and stalking laws to newsgathering activities.
Post-transplant Lymphoproliferative Disorders

Post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorders (PTLD) are a serious complication after solid organ or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and include a range of diseases from benign proliferations to malignant lymphomas. Risk factors for developing PTLD include Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) infection, recipient age, transplanted organ, type of immunosuppression, and genetics. Uncontrolled proliferation of EBV-infected B cells is implicated in EBV-positive PTLD, whereas the pathogenesis of EBV-negative PTLD may be similar to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in the general population. The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies PTLD into four categories: early lesions, polymorphic PTLD, monomorphic PTLD, and classical Hodgkin’s lymphoma (cHL). Treatment is aimed at cure of PTLD, while maintaining transplanted organ function. However, there are no established guidelines for the treatment of PTLD. Immune suppression reduction (ISR) is the first line of treatment in most cases, with more recent data suggesting early use of rituximab. In more aggressive forms of PTLD, upfront chemotherapy may offer a better and more durable response. Sequential therapy using rituximab followed by chemotherapy has demonstrated promising results and may establish a standard of care. Novel therapies including anti-viral agents, adoptive immunotherapy, and monoclonal antibodies targeting cytokines require further study in the prevention and treatment of PTLD.
LOVE IN THE NOVELS OF TONI MORRISON

AbstractThis essay focuses on the varieties of love in Toni Morrison’s novels. Love in a Morrison novel is always embedded in history, each character’s way of loving inflected (or warped) by legacies from the ancestral past as well as from his or her personal past. Morrison has said that her novels are didactic. They teach a reader to think anew about love, race and gender. I differentiate in this essay between the early novels, which teach through character and plot and an occasional direct authorial statement, and the later novels, starting with Beloved, which challenge a reader’s preconceptions about love through more subtle structural means. For example, deferred disclosures or gaps in meaning in the later novels draw out a reader’s assumptions about love and then, through a narrative twist, prompt the reader to examine and re-evaluate them. Love comes in a different shape in each later novel, surprising conventional expectations – from love as the deep friendship between young girls in Love to Home’s...
The Fundamentals Underlying Oil and Natural Gas Derivative Markets

What determines the range and boundaries of energy derivative markets? Why is the oil futures trade dominated by contracts on two grades and locations when the global trade encompasses many grades and locations? Should we expect change in the near future? We review research on the establishment and performance of energy derivative markets, focusing on the two major energy commodities: oil and natural gas. For both commodities, trade in derivatives arose at the conclusion of a historical process in which production along the value chain that had been coordinated by vertically integrated companies or similar institutional structures switched to being coordinated through markets. Consequently, much of the research reviewed here is about the structural changes that made it possible for markets to assume this role. This review encompasses research into the price discovery function, which determines how many successful futures contracts are needed for each commodity.
An unusual but classic cause of hand numbness: Pancoast tumour.

A 56-year-old man with a 42-pack year smoking history presented with complaints of acute-onset left shoulder pain, weakness and numbness of the left hand. A chest X-ray examination revealed a large apical opacity with complete destruction of first, second and third left ribs (figure 1), which was then confirmed with a chest CT scan (figure 2), which showed a large apical 9 cm heterogeneous …
Soluble ST2 does not change cardiovascular risk prediction compared to cardiac troponin T in kidney transplant candidates

Solubility of Tumorigenicity 2 (sST2) is a novel biomarker that better stratifies risk of cardiovascular events (CVE) compared to cardiac troponin T(cTnT) in heart failure. We assessed the association of sST2 with the composite outcome of CVE and/or mortality compared to cTnT in kidney transplant candidates.
A Comparative Analysis of Resource Utilization Between Proximal Row Carpectomy and Partial Wrist Fusion: A Population Study.

Purpose We conducted a population-level analysis comparing proximal row carpectomy (PRC) and partial wrist arthrodesis (PWA) for treatment of chronic wrist arthritis to (1) characterize national practice patterns, (2) determine the rate of conversion to total wrist arthrodesis (TWA), and (3) calculate the associated direct cost of care. Methods Using the Truven MarketScan databases from 2009 to 2015, we identified patients 18 years or older with a diagnosis of wrist osteoarthritis who had a PRC or PWA and were followed for 18 months. We used Chi-square analysis and multivariable logistic regression to examine patient characteristics associated with conversion to a TWA. Rates of repeat PWA were also obtained, including the total number of procedures until completion and direct treatment cost. Results Of a total of 3,388 eligible patients, 1,305 had a PRC (39%) and 2,083 had a PWA (61%). In patients 54 years of age or younger, PWA was more commonly performed than PRC (49% vs 38%). The TWA rates were significantly higher for patients of all ages who underwent PWA (19.2%) versus PRC (4.9%). Those undergoing PWA required more total procedures than patients who received a PRC (average, 1.7 vs 1.1) resulting in a greater average direct cost per patient ($10,842 vs $7,171). Conclusions Conversion rates to a TWA are significantly higher with a PWA (19.2%) than with a PRC (4.9%) and have a greater associated direct cost. This includes younger patients, who in the past were considered better candidates for PWA. Our findings suggest that surgeons may need to reevaluate their indications for PWA and that there may need to be a paradigm shift in the current practice patterns for salvage treatment of wrist arthrosis, more often considering PRC for all age groups. Type of study/level of evidence Prognostic II.
Theories and Models

The twelve papers in this session constitute an excellent cross section of research directed toward theorizing and modeling human failure detection and diagnosis behavior. Several papers struggle with theoretical issues by reporting experimental data. Others discuss models directly. Others try to relate the two.
The Genesis of the Fabless Business Model:Institutional Entrepreneurs in an Adaptive Ecosystem

How does an institutionally-contested business model originate, survive, and grow? What roles do institutional entrepreneurs play during different stages of evolution of the business model? In the ...
A transition at Molecular Reproduction and Development.

Announcing a transition of editors at Molecular Reproduction and Development. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
Inflammation weakens HIV prevention

The presence of multiple inflammatory cytokines predicts the failure of a topical 1% tenofovir microbicide gel to protect women against HIV infection.
Progression of Essential Tremor Over Time Using Digital Spirography in Patients on Stable Medication Doses Compared to Untreated Patients (P6.067)

Objective: Longitudinal evaluation of essential tremor progression over time using digital spirography to compare progression in treated vs. untreated patients Background: Essential tremor (ET) is the most common movement disorder in adults. Symptoms are disabling, impairing activities of daily living in up to 75% of affected people. Standardized hand-drawn writing samples may detect subtleties in tremor that are not visibly apparent to patients or physicians, allowing the opportunity for intervention before symptoms become clinically apparent. Digital spirography has been shown to reliably measure tremor severity and response to therapy. We hypothesized that patients with ET who were treated with stable doses of medication would progress more slowly than patients who were untreated. Design/Methods: Twenty unique patients ( 12 receiving stable doses of medication, 8 untreated) diagnosed with ET using TRG criteria were followed for a mean duration of two years. We quantified kinetic tremor with a spiral drawing task using a digitizing tablet and a magnetic pen. A custom-designed algorithm was employed to calculate spiral amplitudes. We used the individual time points sampled throughout the spirogram to measure tremor frequency, amplitude, and variability. Two spiral traces were collected for each hand at each visit to minimize variability and any learning effects. Results: Over up to a two-year mean follow up, tremor improved in both groups (−1.2cm/year in treated group vs. −0.572cm/year in untreated group). Rate of improvement was greater in the group on stable therapy compared to group on no medications, though this was not statistically significant ( p= 0.58). Conclusions: We found no significant difference in progression of ET amplitude over time between those treated vs. untreated, with both groups showing improvements in tremor over a mean two-year follow up period. Factors to help explain this improvement include: improved coping skills through education and counseling and treatment of comorbid conditions including mood and sleep disorders. Disclosure: Dr. Longardner has nothing to disclose. Dr. Nahab has received personal compensation for consulting, serving on a scientific advisory board, speaking, or other activities with Global Kinetics Corporation, Cala Health, and Merz.
The Taxonomy and Phylogenetic Relationships of Sivapithecus Revisited

Sivapithecus was resident in South Asia for over 5 million years. Its first appearance (ca. 12.7 Ma) and its last occurrence (ca. 6.8 Ma) in Siwalik sediments are likely to have coincided with global climatic and tectonic/eustatic events. Based on all available material, mostly limited to teeth, it appears that Sivapithecus experienced little significant anatomical change throughout this long period of time, nor is there evidence that the genus was extensively speciose. We do know that it was not a very common taxon in the Siwaliks. Assuming limited taphonomic bias in collecting, the genus probably never represented more than 1% of the overall mammalian community. For these reasons, the taxonomic status of Sivapithecus is still very much an open question, and we still have a rather limited understanding of the functional biology of its masticatory and locomotor systems. However, important new specimens attributable to Sivapithecus have been recovered over the last several years from Pakistan, and these new fossils, in conjunction with intensive pro-grams of magnetostratigraphic and sedimentological correlation have done much to narrow the focus on discussion. Nevertheless, neither the fossils nor the contextual data have brought consensus to the question of the relation ships of Sivapithecus to other Miocene large hominoid taxa outside of South Asia, or to the living great apes and humans. It is my intention here to evaluate the placement of Sivapithecus within the Hominoidea using all available fossil material, including some new specimens not yet formally described.
Histologic, Nuclear, and Stromal Grading

According to Decker and coworkers, within a given stage of ovarian epithelial carcinoma, regardless of the histologic cell type, the increasingly higher grades have an increasingly poorer prognosis. This finding suggests that more intensive therapy be considered for all patients with ovarian epithelial carcinomas than is currently undertaken. Decker also restated that epithelial ovarian cancer has always been difficult to treat successfully. The concept of a “scale of malignancy” was suggested by Virchow as long ago as 1858, but its application to ovarian carcinoma classification systems has not been implemented. Reports by Decker have demonstrated the value of grading tumors for prognostic significance, and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) has now recognized that grading has value in the classification of carcinoma of the endometrium. It is anticipated that increased attention will be directed to the grading of ovarian cancers. Barber and associates reported on histologic and nuclear grading and stromal reactions as indices for prognosis in ovarian cancer. That report provides the basis for this chapter.
Archipelagoes of My South: Episodes in the Shaping of a Region, 1830-1965

The idea of “the South” can be challenging in a historical context; while often viewed as a monolithic whole, this depiction overlooks the region's diversity. Through the 10 essays that constitute ...
The Pretender of Pitcairn Island: Joshua W. Hill – The Man Who Would Be King Among the Bounty Mutineers

Pitcairn, a tiny Pacific island that was refuge to the mutineers of HMAV Bounty and home to their descendants, later became the stage on which one imposter played out his influential vision for British control over the nineteenth-century Pacific Ocean. Joshua W. Hill arrived on Pitcairn in 1832 and began his fraudulent half-decade rule that has, until now, been swept aside as an idiosyncratic moment in the larger saga of Fletcher Christian's mutiny against Captain Bligh, and the mutineers' unlikely settlement of Pitcairn. Here, Hill is shown instead as someone alert to the full scope and power of the British Empire, to the geopolitics of international imperial competition, to the ins and outs of naval command, the vicissitudes of court politics, and, as such, to Pitcairn's symbolic power for the British Empire more broadly.
Mucin 2 (MUC2) modulates the aggressiveness of breast cancer

Tumors that secrete large volumes of mucus are chemotherapy resistant, however, mechanisms underlying this resistance are unknown. One protein highly expressed in mucin secreting breast cancers is the secreted mucin, Mucin 2 (MUC2). While MUC2 is expressed in some breast cancers it is absent in normal breast tissue, implicating it in breast cancer. However, the effects of MUC2 on breast cancer are largely unknown. This study examined the role of MUC2 in modulating breast cancer proliferation, response to chemotherapy and metastasis. Using patient derived xenografts we developed two novel cell lines, called BCK4 and PT12, which express high levels of MUC2. To modulate MUC2 levels, BCK4 and PT12 cells were engineered to express shRNA targeted to MUC2 (shMUC2, low MUC2) or a non-targeting control (shCONT, high MUC2) and proliferation and apoptosis were measured in vitro and in vivo. BCK4 cells with shCONT or shMUC2 were labeled with GFP-luciferase and examined in an experimental metastasis model; disease burden and site specific dissemination were monitored by intravital imaging and fluorescence guided dissection, respectively. Proliferation decreased in BCK4 and PT12 shMUC2 cells versus control cells both in vitro and in vivo. Chemotherapy induced minimal apoptosis in control cells expressing high MUC2 but increased apoptosis in shMUC2 cells containing low MUC2. An experimental metastasis model showed disease burden decreased when breast cancer cells contained low versus high MUC2. Treatment with Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) increased MUC2 expression in BCK4 cells; this induction was abolished by the EGF-receptor inhibitor, Erlotinib. MUC2 plays an important role in mediating proliferation, apoptosis and metastasis of breast cancer cells. MUC2 may be important in guiding treatment and predicting outcomes in breast cancer patients.
Colonocyte metabolism shapes the gut microbiota

An imbalance in the colonic microbiota might underlie many human diseases, but the mechanisms that maintain homeostasis remain elusive. Recent insights suggest that colonocyte metabolism functions as a control switch, mediating a shift between homeostatic and dysbiotic communities. During homeostasis, colonocyte metabolism is directed toward oxidative phosphorylation, resulting in high epithelial oxygen consumption. The consequent epithelial hypoxia helps to maintain a microbial community dominated by obligate anaerobic bacteria, which provide benefit by converting fiber into fermentation products absorbed by the host. Conditions that alter the metabolism of the colonic epithelium increase epithelial oxygenation, thereby driving an expansion of facultative anaerobic bacteria, a hallmark of dysbiosis in the colon. Enteric pathogens subvert colonocyte metabolism to escape niche protection conferred by the gut microbiota. The reverse strategy, a metabolic reprogramming to restore colonocyte hypoxia, represents a promising new therapeutic approach for rebalancing the colonic microbiota in a broad spectrum of human diseases.
The U.S. Trade balance with partners from developing world: An asymmetry analysis of the J-curve effect

We consider the bilateral trade balance of the U.S. with each of her 13 trading partners from the developing world. When we apply the linear ARDL approach of Pesaran et al. (2001), we find support for the J-curve effect with six partners. However, when we apply Shin et al.i¯s (2014) nonlinear ARDL approach to asymmetry analysis, we find support for the J-curve in the U.S. trade with 10 partners. Additionally, while we find support for the short-run asymmetric effects of exchange rate changes in almost all cases, the short-run effects translate into the long-run significant asymmetric effects in half of the cases.
Branching Patterns in Columnar Cacti

In recent years they study of vegetation structure has developed along novel and substantially different lines of investigation, following innovative approaches by Halle and Oldeman (1970) and Horn (1971). It has become fashionable to talk of the “architecture” of vegetation in general and of tree and shrub individuals in particular. A majority of this work has been conducted on tropical trees (see recent syntheses by Tomlinson and Zimmerman, 1978; Halle, Oldeman and Tomlinson, 1978). It includes attempts by various authors to show that branching patterns of certain tree species conforms to one of a limited number of standard forms (or “models”), and raises the possibility that certain vegetation types might be dominated by trees or shrubs that follow a particular branching mode.
Geographic variation in demography of black perch (Embiotoca jacksoni): Effects of density, food availability, predation, and fishing

Abstract It is well known that demographic rates such as growth and mortality may vary among populations, but the degree of variation in demography is often unknown, especially when considering multiple populations at large spatial scales (e.g., across hundreds of kilometers). Likewise, of the many factors that may affect demography, it is often unknown which are the major factors responsible for spatial variation in demographic rates. In this study, we estimated rates of growth and examined age distributions within nine populations of black perch (Embiotoca jacksoni) distributed across ~350 km of coastline. We tested whether spatial variation in demography was associated with several explanatory variables including population density, predator density, food availability, and fishing activity. Our study revealed a substantial amount of spatial variation in demographic rates. Among-population variation in growth accounted for 55% of the total variation, and the coefficient of variation for mean age within a population was 27%, suggesting substantial variation in mortality. Spatial variation in growth was most sensitive to variation in food availability and mean age was lowest at locations with high levels of spearfishing activity. Although the fishery for black perch is not a major one, fishing mortality rates may be very high in some areas. Overall, our results shed light on the ecological forces that shape demographic variation of this species, and suggest that fishing mortality may have a major influence on the dynamics of perch populations.
Molecular dynamics simulation of tropomyosin bound to actins/myosin in the closed and open states.

Tropomyosin (Tpm) is a dimeric coiled-coil protein that binds to filamentous actin, and regulates actin-myosin interaction by moving between three positions corresponding to the blocked, closed, and open states. To elucidate how Tpm undergoes transitions between these functional states, we have built structural models and conducted extensive molecular dynamics simulations of the Tpm-actins/myosin complex in the closed and open states (total simulation time >1.4 μs). Based on the simulation trajectories, we have analyzed the dynamics and energetics of a truncated Tpm interacting with actins/myosin under the physiological conditions. Our simulations have shown distinct dynamics of four Tpm periods (P3-P6), featuring pronounced biased fluctuations of P4 and P5 toward the open position in the closed state, which is consistent with a conformational selection mechanism for Tpm-regulated myosin binding. Additionally, we have identified key residues of Tpm specifically binding to actins/myosin in the closed and open state. Some of them were validated as functionally important in comparison with past functional/clinical studies, and the rest will make promising targets for future mutational experiments.
Distinguishing TBI malingering and fatigue using event-related potentials.

Abstract. Poorer-than-expected performance on cognitive-behavioral tasks may indicate malingering, or it could be an outcome of fatigue, resulting in false positives when suboptimal task performanc...
Monooxygenase system of Bacillus megaterium ALA2: Studies on linoleic acid epoxidation products

Bacillus megaterium ALA2 produces many oxygenated FA from linoleic acid: 12,13-dihydroxy-9(Z)-octadecenoic acid; 12,13,17-trihydroxy-9(Z)-octadecenoic acid; 12,13,16-trihydroxy-9(Z)-octadecenoic acid; 12-hydroxy-13,16-epoxy-9 (Z)-octadecenoic acid; and 12,17;13,17-diepoxy-16-hydroxy-9 (Z)-octadecenoic acid. Recently, we studied the monooxygenase system of B. megaterium ALA2 by comparing its palmitic acid oxidation products with those of the well-studied catalytically self-sufficient P450 monooxygenase of B. megaterium ATCC 14581 (NRRL B-3712) and of B. subtilis strain 168 (NRRI B-4219). We found that their oxidation products are identical, indicating that their monooxygenase systems (hydroxylation) are similar. Now, we report that strain ALA2 epoxidizes linoleic acid to 12,13-epoxy-9(Z)-octadecenoic acid and 9,10-epoxy-12 (Z)-octadecenoic acid, the initial products in the linoleic acid oxidation. The epoxidation enzyme did not oxidize specific double bond of the linoleic acid. The epoxidation activity of strain ALA2 was compared with the above-mentioned two Bacillus strains. These two Bacillus strain also produced 12,13-expoxy-9 (Z)-octadecenoic acid and 9,10-epoxy-12(Z)-octadecenoic acid, indicating that their epoxidation enzyme systems might be similar. The ratios of epoxy FA production by these three strains (A1 A2, NRRI B-3712, and NRRI B-4219) were, respectively, 5.56∶0.66∶0.18 for 12,13-epoxy-9(Z)-octadecenoic acid and 2.43∶0.41∶0.57 for 9,10-epoxy-12(Z)-octadecenoic acid per 50 mL medium per 48 h.
Experimental Methods for Material Selection, Quality Control, and Forensic Investigations of Asphalt Paving Materials

The Minnesota Road Research Project (MnROAD) and the National Center for Asphalt Technology (NCAT) have formed a partnership to execute asphalt mixture performance testing experiments with a nationwide implementation impact. As part of this partnership, a pooled-fund study, called MnROAD Cracking Group (CG) experiment, was conducted to identify laboratory experiments that can best address low-temperature cracking performance. The construction of the test cells at MnROAD was done in 2016 and original binders and loose mix were collected and used to prepare testing specimens for laboratory experiments. In this paper, the viability of using three test methods for asphalt mixtures and one test method for asphalt binders in the material selection process, quality control, and forensic investigations of asphalt paving materials is discussed. These test methods are the Bending Beam Rheometer (BBR) for creep and strength of asphalt mixtures; low temperature SCB (Semi-Circular Bending) fracture testing for asphalt mixtures; |E*| (Dynamic Modulus) testing of asphalt mixtures using the IDT (Indirect Tensile) configuration; and BBR strength testing of asphalt binders. First, the materials used are described and the test methods are discussed. The experimental results are presented and statistical tools are used to identify significant factors in predicting low temperature cracking resistance of the set of asphalt materials used in the CG experiment. Conclusions are drawn based on preliminary field performance data.
Gender, environmental issues and policy: An examination of the views of male and female economists

Abstract The authors survey male and female environmental economists, who are members of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists (AERE), to determine if there are gender differences in views on environmental issues and policy. Controlling for organizational affiliation (academic, non-academic) and country of residence, we find general consensus in views on many issues by experts in the field. Nonetheless, there are statistically significant gender differences in views in all four areas of policy examined.
Growth Mindset Development in Design-Based Makerspace: A Longitudinal Study

Growth mindset plays an important role in students’ motivation for learning. Students who believe that their abilities are malleable are more likely to set mastery goals and to persist when encount...
Relationship of clinical measures with humeral torsion in young adults: a pilot study.

Humeral retroversion alters range of motion and has been linked to injury risk. Clinically,palpation of the bicipital groove is used to quantify humeral torsion, but the accuracy of this procedure ...
Engineering hierarchical nanochannels in graphene oxide membranes by etching and polydopamine intercalation for highly efficient dye recovery

Abstract Graphene oxide (GO) membranes have been extensively investigated for dye removal from wastewater, and they are often reduced or cross-linked to improve their stability, which, however, decreases water permeance. This study demonstrates an effective approach to enhance both durability and water permeance and retain dye rejection by synergistically integrating chemical etching using H2O2 and intercalation with polydopamine (PDA) to create hierarchical nanochannels. The nanopores on the holey GO (HGO) shorten the diffusion path, while the PDA intercalation increases the channel sizes and stabilizes the GO nanosheets. Optimized membranes exhibit water permeance of 70 - 120 LMH/bar (much higher than state-of-the-art commercial polyamide membranes) and a Congo Red rejection of 98.5%, better than GO membranes reported in the literature. Moreover, a membrane with water permeance of 70 LMH/bar exhibits stable performance in a 3-day continuous crossflow filtration test. The versatile approach reported here may be applied to other two-dimensional materials to create hierarchical nanochannels for desired separations.
Shift happens: A comparison of the tax-motivated income shifting of multinationals in territorial and worldwide countries

This paper tests for differences in the tax-motivated income shifting behaviors of multinationals subject to different systems of taxing foreign earnings. I find that multinationals subject to territorial tax regimes shift more income than those subject to worldwide tax regimes. This result is robust to the inclusion of controls for anti-avoidance measures and country-level characteristics. In additional tests, I find that worldwide firms bear the dead-weight cost of having cash trapped in foreign subsidiaries while territorial firms do not.
Spectral deformations and soliton equations

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the construction of new solutions V of the Korteweg-deVries (KdV) hierarchy of equations by deformations of a given finite-gap solution V0. To describe the nature of these deformations the chapter assumes a moment that the given real-valued quasi-periodic finite-gap solution V0 is described in terms of the Its–Matveev formula. The chapter also gives brief account of the KdV hierarchy using a recursive approach ans describes real-valued quasi-periodic finite-gap solutions and the underlying Its–Matveev formula in some detail. To describe the hierarchy of KdV equations the chapter first recalls the recursive approach to the underlying Lax pairs. In addition, the chapter introduces isospectral and non-isospectral deformations in a systematic way by alluding to single and double commutation techniques.
Spectroscopic Investigation of Metal Combustion

Abstract Time resolved spectroscopy, ordinary flame spectra and photographs establish the fact that Al and Mg can burn in the vapor phase and Zr cannot in a flashbulb environment. It appears that the vapor phase burning criterion put forth earlier by Glassman must be modified to include the rate of heat loss, particularly radiative. In an attempt to increase the understanding of metal particle combustion, schemes are postulated to correlate qualitatively the burning behavior of metals with the physical properties of the metals and their oxides. The suggested schemes are consistent with the observations described herein and with those reported by others.
Controlling plasmon drag with illumination and surface geometry

We study electric signals associated with surface plasmon propagation in rough and smooth silver films. The polarity of the signal can be controlled with light illumination and system geometry.
Reformulating CSPs for scalability with application to geospatial reasoning

While many real-world combinatorial problems can be advantageously modeled and solved usingConstraint Programming, scalability remains a major issue in practice. Constraint models that accurately reflect the inherent structure of a problem, solvers that exploit the properties of this structure, and reformulation techniques that modify the problem encoding to reduce the cost of problem solving are typically used to overcome the complexity barrier. In this paper, we investigate such approaches in a geospatial reasoning task, the building-identification problem (BID), introduced and modeled as a Constraint Satisfaction Problem by Michalowski and Knoblock [1]. We introduce an improved constraint model, a custom solver for this problem, and a number of reformulation techniques that modify various aspects of the problem encoding to improve scalability. We show how interleaving these reformulations with the various stages of the solver allows us to solve much larger BID problems than was previously possible. Importantly, we describe the usefulness of our reformulations techniques for general Constraint Satisfaction Problems, beyond the BID application.
Yeast DNA diesterase for 3'-fragments of deoxyribose: purification and physical properties of a repair enzyme for oxidative DNA damage.

Abstract The DNA strand breaks resulting from exposure to the free radicals generated by ionizing radiation or oxidizing agents are refractory to DNA repair synthesis because of deoxyribose fragments that block their 3' termini. The restoration of normal 3'-OH nucleotide primers is the essential first step in the excision repair of these radical-induced strand breaks. We have used a synthetic DNA substrate containing 3'-phosphoglycolaldehyde esters to identify and purify to physical homogeneity the major yeast diesterase that removes such nucleotide fragments. Yeast 3'-phosphoglycolaldehyde diesterase had Mr = 40,500 upon sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. A similar molecular weight estimate from gel filtration indicated that the active species is a nearly globular monomer. Purification of the enzyme removed a tightly bound metal, but the activity of the purified enzyme could be restored by the addition of Co2+, Mn2+, Ni2+, or Zn2+, with Co2+ the most effective cofactor. Even 3 microM Co2+ stimulated near-maximal activity, and this metal also conferred significant thermal stability on the purified protein. This is a novel enzyme, whose N-terminal amino acid sequence does not show any significant similarity to published sequences, and which is not the product of any gene in the RAD52 epistasis group.
Natural products as a resource for new drugs

Natural products have served as a major source of drugs for centuries, and about half of the pharmaceuticals in use today are derived from natural products. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the continuing central role of natural products in the discovery and development of new pharmaceuticals. In this context, selected examples of important natural product-derived drugs are cited, focusing on some of the most recent introductions to the clinical setting, and a brief overview of some of the important recent developments and remaining challenges in the process of discovering and developing bioactive natural products is provided. Interest in natural products research is strong and can be attributed to several factors, including unmet therapeutic needs, the remarkable diversity of both chemical structures and biological activities of naturally occurring secondary metabolites, the utility of bioactive natural products as biochemical and molecular probes, the development of novel and sensitive techniques to detect biologically active natural products, improved techniques to isolate, purify, and structurally characterize these active constituents, and advances in solving the demand for supply of complex natural products. Opportunities for multidisciplinary research that joins the forces of natural products chemistry, molecular and cellular biology, synthetic and analytical chemistry, biochemistry, and pharmacology to exploit the vast diversity of chemical structures and biological activities of natural products are discussed.
Intermediate Sanctions and the Halfway Back Program in Kentucky

Intermediate sanctions are more cost-effective means of responding to crime, both at the initial point of sanctioning, and as a means of responding to noncompliant offenders already under supervision. However, if intermediate sanction programs are to provide a viable option for avoiding further over-crowding in our prisons, and limiting spending on corrections, the operations of such programs, and the ways in which offenders are selected for participation must be efficient and effective. The key to success, then, for intermediate sanctions for offenders who violate conditions of community supervision is to establish a viable set of criteria for screening potential program participants. In our study of Kentucky's Halfway Back Program we found that traditional demographic and offender criminal history screening criteria were not accurate predictors of successful program completion. The failure of these factors to successfully predict program completion point to the need to refine the policies governing the ...
Characterization of oligomers of 3,3,3-trifluoro-1-phenylpropyne and 1-phenylpropyne by mass spectrometry

Abstract Oligomers of PhCCCF 3 and of PhCCCH 3 have been prepared by heating the alkynes with dibenzoyl peroxide as an initiator. The degree of oligomerization, the average molecular weights and the nature of the end groups were determined using a combination of mass spectrometric techniques including desorption electron impact, fast atom bombardment, field desorption and MS/MS. The contrasting end-group patterns have been interpreted in terms of relative rates and HOMO/SOMO energy gaps.
Early ground-based vicarious calibration results for Landsat 8 OLI

The Operational Land Imager (OLI) is one of two instruments onboard the Landsat 8 platform, which was launched on 11 February 2013 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The multispectral bands of OLI retain the 30-m spatial resolution of Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 7 ETM+, but improvements to the system include 12-bit radiometric resolution, eight multispectral bands in the VNIR and SWIR spectral regions, and one panchromatic band. The earlier TM and ETM+ sensors use a whiskbroom configuration, while OLI uses a pushbroom configuration, which allows it to have a higher signal-to-noise ratio than previous Landsat instruments. This also creates challenges in radiometric calibration due to the large number of detectors on the 14 focal plane modules. Long-term data continuity is a crucial component of the 40-year Landsat series of satellites, and ground-based vicarious calibration has played an important role in ensuring that these sensors remain on the same radiometric scale. This work presents the early ground-based in-flight radiometric calibration of OLI, which was determined using the traditional and well-understood reflectance-based approach, as well as the Radiometric Calibration Test Site (RadCaTS), which is an automated suite of instruments located at Railroad Valley, Nevada.
Description of a hybrid ice sheet-shelf model, and application to Antarctica

Abstract. The formulation of a 3-D ice sheet-shelf model is described. The model is designed for long-term continental-scale applications, and has been used mostly in paleoclimatic studies. It uses a hybrid combination of the scaled shallow ice and shallow shelf approximations for ice flow. Floating ice shelves and grounding-line migration are included, with parameterized ice fluxes at grounding lines that allows relatively coarse resolutions to be used. All significant components and parameterizations of the model are described in some detail. Basic results for modern Antarctica are compared with observations, and simulations over the last 5 million years are compared with previously published results. The sensitivity of ice volumes during the last deglaciation to basal sliding coefficients is discussed.
Processing dynamic scenarios from a reliability analysis of a nuclear power plant digital instrumentation and control system

Abstract This paper illustrates a method for processing accident scenarios generated in a dynamic reliability analysis of a Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) equipped with digital Instrumentation and Control (I&C). The method is based on a Fuzzy C-Means clustering algorithm for classification, which takes into account not only the system states reached at the end of the scenarios but also the timing and magnitude of the occurred failure events, and the characteristics of the process evolution. An illustrative case study is considered, regarding the fault scenarios of the digital I&C of the Lead–Bismuth Eutectic eXperimental Accelerator Driven System (LBE-XADS). A SIMULINK model of the system has been embedded within a Monte Carlo (MC) sampling procedure for injecting faults at random times and of random magnitudes. The accident scenarios thereby generated are classified on the basis of three different system end states, which relate to the value reached by the diathermic oil secondary coolant temperature with respect to maximum and minimum safety threshold values set to avoid primary coolant thermal shocks and degradation of the oil physical and chemical properties.
Use of wallstents in central airway obstruction

Tracheobronchial stents are playing an increasing role in the management of select large airway obstruction. Despite more than 20 years of experience, stent technology remains far from being perfect. Tube stents are the most commonly used endobronchial prosthesis yet, flawed by the need for rigid bronchoscopy and complications such as migration. Self-expandable metallic (SEM) stents offer ease of insertion and minimized risk of migration. The following article describes our experience with the SEM wallstent in 45 patients. The preliminary experience is encouraging yet, long-term follow-up is necessary.
6-Bromo-N-(6-bromo-pyridin-2-yl)-N-[4-(2,3-di-hydro-thieno[3,4-b][1,4]dioxin-5-yl)phen-yl]pyridin-2-amine.

In the title mol­ecule, C22H15Br2N3O2S, the central benzene ring forms dihedral angles of 12.39 (17), 56.66 (17) and 74.71 (19)°, respectively, with the mean planes of the thio­phene and two pyridine rings. The dioxane ring is in a half-chair conformation. An intra­molecular C—H⋯O hydrogen forms an S(6) ring. The amine N atom is sp2-hybridized.