cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Housing Bubbles Across the Western Hemisphere

In the early 2000s, advanced economies experienced a precipitous drop in interest rates. This was—in part—the result of central banks’ unseemly loose-fitting monetary policy but also because of the interest rate convergence in the countries making up the euro area, and global economic factors. The decline in interest rates set off housing booms that were accompanied by large run-ups in household debt. While workers in China saw their income grow exponentially, the middle class in rich countries saw wages fall or stagnate, while the global elite saw its income shoot up by more than 60 percent. No wonder that the losers of globalization started to revolt; the new millennium coincided with a sharp rise in populist parties on the left and right.
Yale OpenHand Project: Optimizing Open-Source Hand Designs for Ease of Fabrication and Adoption

Although grasping and manipulation are key aspects of a robotic system's functionality, researchers often only have a limited selection of end effectors compatible with their manipulator base. This may either restrict the robotic system's full range of capabilities or force researchers to compensate for the end effector's intrinsic mechanical disadvantages through compensatory, nonoptimal control strategies. Advances in three-dimensional (3-D) printing have enabled researchers to quickly customize mechanisms for specific tasks, but the end product is usually not intended for extended use. It would be beneficial to identify strategies to augment the capabilities of additive manufacturing techniques to allow the easy and inexpensive construction of durable and functional hardware. To that end, this article details work on the Yale OpenHand Project, a library of lowcost, 3-D-printed, underactuated hand designs for researchers to freely implement and modify for their own use cases. The designs use cast flexural joints made via the hybrid deposition manufacturing (HDM) process to produce robust, impact-resistant subcomponents and help account for the structural shortcomings of fused deposition manufacturing (FDM). Several of these design examples are presented, evaluated, and compared with commercial alternatives. We hope that providing an accessible and extensible set of open-source hand designs will improve the iterative design process and produce many more options for researchers to utilize.
Ethical issues in primary care

This issue of Current Allergy and Clinical Immunology is dedicated to childhood atopic eczema in primary care and for this reason it is appropriate to address some of the ethical issues related to primary healthcare. Primary healthcare (PHC) is regarded as the basis of the healthcare system, as it is intended to provide 'most care for most people, for most conditions, most of the time'. Gilson et al describe it as follows: 'Primary health care aims to promote health and prevent disease, using education as one of its main tools. It aims to cure sick people and help people with disabilities to improve the quality of their lives.It follows the approach that health is linked to a country's social, economic and political development. It sees health as dependent on the environment in which people live, the services to which they have access and the extent to which they are able to take responsibility for their health.' Van Rensburg emphasises that PHC is the portal of first entry into the healthcare system, that its remit is broader than simply primary medical or curative care, and that it may lead to referral to secondary and tertiary care, as appropriate. It is 'not cheap, simple or second-class care: comprehensive PHC implies interventions firmly based on scientific research and on broad-based planning, implementation and coordination of such care'.
STEM success expectancies and achievement among women in STEM majors

Abstract The present research seeks to better understand women's underrepresentation in STEM fields by examining the interplay between their STEM success expectancies and academic achievement. In a sample of women from STEM undergraduate majors (N = 158), cluster analysis revealed a group of “self-doubting achievers” who were characterized by low expectations for success in STEM despite relatively strong academic achievement. Analyses testing for correlates of cluster membership illustrated that relative to other women in STEM majors, the self-doubting achievers were significantly lower in peer support, STEM identity, and STEM value. One year later, follow-up analyses were carried out with a subset of the original sample. Findings demonstrated that the self-doubting achievers were still characterized by fairly strong achievement and fairly low success expectancies; they also continued to report low levels of peer support relative to other women. Collectively, findings have implications for outreach efforts that target gender disparities in STEM fields.
Writing Wrinkles on Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) by Surface Oxidation with a CO2 Laser Engraver.

Surface wrinkles formed by the buckling of a strained stiff layer attached to a soft elastomer foundation have been widely used in a variety of applications. Micropatterning of wrinkled topographies is, however, limited by process/system complexities. In this article, we report an approach to write surface wrinkles with desired pattern geometries on poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) elastomers using a commercial infrared laser engraver with a spot size of 127 μm. Wrinkled micropatterns with wavelength from 300 μm were obtained in minutes without using special facilities or atmospheres. The minimal achievable pattern sizes of one-dimensional and two-dimensional patterns and the change of the minimal achievable pattern size with wrinkle orientation were investigated under a given set of operating parameters. Sub-spot size patterning was also demonstrated. To reduce surface cracking, a typical problem in large-area wrinkle patterning, a patterning scheme that separates neighboring laser exposure areas by...
Extinction measurements with low-power hsrl systems—error limits

HSRL measurements of extinction are more difficult than backscatter measurements. This is particularly true for low-power, eye-safe systems. This paper looks at error sources that currently provide an error limit of ~10-5 m-1 for boundary layer extinction measurements made with University of Wisconsin HSRL systems. These eye-safe systems typically use ~300mW transmitters and 40 cm diameter receivers with a 10-4 radian field-of-view.
Control of Mechanical and Nonholonomic Systems

There is a large literature on nonholonomic motion planning, the construction in the nonholonomic setting of explicit open loop controls as discussed in Chapter 4; see, for example, Li and Canny [1993] and Murray and Sastry [1993] and the works cited therein as well as, for example, Sussmann and Liu [1991], Lafferiere and Sussman [1991], Lewis, Ostrowski, Murray, and Burdick [1994], Ostrowski, Desai, and Kumar [1997], Lewis and Murray [1999], Ostrowski [2000], Bullo, Leonard, and Lewis [2000], and Bullo, Lewis, and Lynch [2002]. It is not our intention in this book to give an exhaustive account of the details of this theory. We will instead illustrate some aspects of the theory illustrated by Brockett’s generalization of the Heisenberg system as well as systems in so-called chained form.
Directing Foreign Aid for Basic Education: Taking Account of Political Will

Introduction: The Importance of Political Will The goal of Education For All (EFA), an international commitment launched in 1990 with the aim of providing basic education to every child in the world by 2015, is in jeopardy. Today at least 77 million children do not attend primary school. One reason is a lack of resources: shortages of funding, as well as books, classrooms, and qualified teachers. But there is another reason that may be even more important: the dearth of government commitment to primary education what, in this context, is often called political will. With political will, the other barriers are often surmountable. Without it, even unlimited resources will rarely produce access to quality primary schooling. For example, among the five countries in the world with the most children out-of-school is Saudi Arabia, a country which no one would mistake for poor. Donors sometimes do try to judge a country's political will before they offer their aid. In the past donors generally looked to the commitment of individual politicians and policymakers. Then when leaders failed to live up to their promises, the blame fell on their initial will. More recently, some donors, like the World Bank and the U.S.'s Millennium Challenge Corporation, have tried to take account of a government's past performance and democratic accountability to its people as a guide to whether aid will be well-used. But most aid for basic education is not directed this way. And even if it was, it probably would not be any more effective. Historically, many of the governments most firmly committed to providing quality, universal basic education were autocratic, not democratic: China, Cuba, Korea, and Taiwan are a few examples. And many governments can seem to switch their commitment in mid-stream; in the 1990s, for example, China became much less committed to basic education while many African countries, like Ghana, became much more committed. With such confusing evidence, how is a donor to know whether a government has enduring political will to provide basic education? The answer comes from a government's incentives in providing basic education. There are two groups in a country that may want the government to provide universal, or at least widespread, access to quality basic education. One group is employers; the other is the poor. The key to knowing whether a government will have political will is to know, first, when each of these groups will want the government to invest in primary education, and second, when the government will care what each of these groups wants. If the past is any guide, defining political will this way turns out to be very accurate and not very difficult.
Adjustment, the hands and healing.

Chiropractic is the largest “unorthodox” health profession in the United States. It is licensed in all 50 states and its services covered by governmental and private health insurance. Yet chiropractic remains, in the opinion of medical commentators, an unscientific healing cult. Chiropractic holds that much illness is caused, directly or indirectly, by derangements in homeostasis that result from subtle vertebral malalignments called “subluxations”. Only a minority of “straight” chiropracters continue to provide spinal manipulation as their only treatment, while the majority “mixers” have embraced physical therapy, vitamin supplements and a wide variety of drugless symptomatic treaments Clinical trials suggest that spinal manipulation has short-term benefit in back pain, but the success of chiropractic is not fully explained by that effect. The clinical art, though, as manifested in the chiropractor-patient interaction contributes greatly to chiropractic healing. This process promotes patient acceptance and validation, fulfills expectations, provides explanations and engages the patient's commitment. The same process lies at the core of the “art of medicine”. Seeing the clinical art as it functions in chiropractic can help us to understand its independent power in medicine.
The Effects of Low-Dose Aspirin and Selective Inhibitors of Thromboxane-Synthase on Eicosanoid Production in Man

The appreciation that two cyclooxygenase products, i.e. prostacyclin (PGI2) and thromboxane (TX) A2 have potent and contrasting effects on platelet function and vascular tone (see ref. 1 for a review) has prompted attempts to develop selective pharmacologic tools affecting their production with the aim of under standing their pathophysiologic role and possibly treating human disease states. Two different approaches have been followed; 1) differential inhibition, of platelet vs vascular cyclooxygenase by low-dose aspirin 2,3,4 and 2) selective inhibition of TX-sypthase by a variety of imidazole derivatives, such as dazoxiben5,6 , UK- 38,4857, CGS 130808 and OKY-0469. The former has a clear advantage in achieving a profound and long-lasting suppression of platelet TXA2 production with a high safety margin and low cost. The latter approach has theoretically two distinct advantages over low-dose aspirin, i.e. it can result in enhanced PGI2 production by virtue of platelet-derived prostaglandin (PG) endoperoxides, and it can be expected to inhibit TXA2 production in all TXA2-producing cells.
MRI-Inspired High-Resolution Localization for Biomedical Applications: Artificial Nuclear Spins on a Chip

Significant advances have been made recently toward technologies such as smart pills to image the gastrointestinal tract [1], distributed sensors to map the function of the brain [2], and microscale swimming robots to access organs through the bloodstream [3]. Such technologies promise new ways to diagnose and treat diseases of local pathology, including neurodegeneration, autoimmune disease, cancer, and atherosclerosis. In fact, wireless microscale devices that navigate the body to diagnose and treat disease are key elements of the future of medicine, addressing localized malfunction in neurological, cardiovascular, autoimmune, cancer, and other disease areas.
Efficient Data Flow Tagging and Tracking for Refinable Cross-host Attack Investigation

Investigating attacks across multiple hosts is challenging. The true dependencies between security-sensitive files, network endpoints, or memory objects from different hosts can be easily concealed by dependency explosion or undefined program behavior (e.g., memory corruption). Dynamic information flow tracking (DIFT is a potential solution to this problem, but, existing DIFT techniques only track information flow within a single host and lack an efficient mechanism to maintain and synchronize the data flow tags globally across multiple hosts. In this paper, we propose RTAG, an efficient data flow tagging and tracking mechanism that enables practical cross-host attack investigations. RTAG is based on three novel techniques. First, by using a record-and-replay technique, it decouples the dependencies between different data flow tags from the analysis, enabling lazy synchronization between independent and parallel DIFT instances of different hosts. Second, it takes advantage of system call-level provenance information to calculate and allocate the optimal tag map in terms of memory consumption Third, it embeds tag information into network packets to track cross-host data flows with less than 0.05% network bandwidth overhead. Evaluation results show that RTAG is able to recover the true data flows of realistic cross-hos attack scenarios. Performance wise, RTAG reduces the memory consumption of DIFT-based analysis by up to 90% and decreases the overall analysis time by 60%–90% compared with previous investigation systems.
Scalable Nonnegative Matrix Factorization with Block-wise updates

Nonnegative Matrix Factorization (NMF) has been applied with great success to many applications. As NMF is applied to massive datasets such as web-scale dyadic data, it is desirable to leverage a cluster of machines to speed up the factorization. However, it is challenging to efficiently implement NMF in a distributed environment. In this paper, we show that by leveraging a new form of update functions, we can perform local aggregation and fully explore parallelism. Moreover, under the new form of update functions, we can perform frequent updates, which aim to use the most recently updated data whenever possible. As a result, frequent updates are more efficient than their traditional concurrent counterparts. Through a series of experiments on a local cluster as well as the Amazon EC2 cloud, we demonstrate that our implementation with frequent updates is up to two orders of magnitude faster than the existing implementation with the traditional form of update functions.
Teaching the teacher: exploring STEM graduate students’ nature of science conceptions in a teaching methods course

ABSTRACTGraduate students regularly teach undergraduate STEM courses and can positively impact students’ understanding of science. Yet little research examines graduate students’ knowledge about na...
The importance of being resilient: Psychological well-being, job autonomy, and self-esteem of organization managers

Abstract The demands on people in the 21st century pose enormous threats to their psychological well-being (PWB). Because people high in PWB are happier, healthier, and more productive than those who are low, it is morally and economically important for organizations to do what they can to promote the PWB of its members. Based on job demands/resources theory, this study explores how organizations can use knowledge about work design and individual differences to bolster the PWB of its members. We propose that organizations can increase the PWB of members by enhancing job autonomy, thereby increasing organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), which is positively related to PWB. In addition, we propose that resilience might act as a moderator of this indirect relationship, such that high resilience enhances the positive relationship autonomy has with OBSE, and subsequently with PWB. Measures of autonomy, resilience, OBSE, and PWB were obtained online from a sample of 674 organizational managers. SEM results indicated that high job autonomy most benefited (in terms of OBSE) those participants who were low in trait resilience, while providing fewer benefits to high resilient people. Results are discussed in terms of how organizations might enhance member PWB by increasing member OBSE and/or resilience.
Meeting the challenges of discrete mathematics for computer science: the power of symbols

Motivating students to see the relevance of Discrete Mathemathics to Computer Science has always been challenging. Some textbooks, such as [1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9] have been a great help, since they include material directly associated with various topics in CS, along with programming exercises. The more subtle challenge is to help students see the importance of symbols and how the choice of syntactic representations has and continues to play a major role in how we think and how we reason. Here we examine an approach to the importance of representations choices that not only highlights the power of symbols, but also provides students with an opportunity to improve their oral communication skills.
Haploid Plant Production: Pollen/Anther/Ovule Culture

Anther Culture Microspore (Pollen) Culture Ovule Culture Conclusion Bibliography Keywords: culture media; hormones; somatic embryogenesis
Experience and Outcomes of Surgically Implanted Melody Valve in the Pulmonary Position.

Background Multiple congenital cardiac malformations require pulmonary valve replacement and/or right ventricular outflow (RVOT) reconstruction. Pulmonary valve replacement remains challenging in children owing to the limited growth potential of prosthetic valves. We evaluated outcomes in patients undergoing surgical implantation of a Melody valve in the RVOT. Methods Data were retrospectively collected for 23 patients undergoing surgical Melody valve implantation at Boston Children's Hospital between 2009 and 2019. We assessed postoperative valve function, reintervention rates, and mortality. Results Median age was 1.7 years (range, 2 months to 6 years); 12 patients were aged greater than 2 years (52%). Diagnosis was tetralogy of Fallot in 15 patients (65%); 15 had a prior RVOT operation (65%). The Melody valve was dilated before surgery to a median diameter of 14 mm (range, 10-20 mm). No patients had acute pulmonary regurgitation. One required transcatheter RVOT reintervention before discharge. Median follow-up was 3.7 years (range, 0.02-8.7 years) with moderate or greater pulmonary regurgitation in 2 patients. Catheter-based interventions (mean, 0.83 ± 1.07/patient) occurred at a median of 1 year (range, 16 days to 5.4 years) and included valve expansion for somatic growth (n = 10) and subsequent valve-in-valve replacement (n = 3). Three patients (13%) required surgical valve explant or replacement at a median of 1.0 year (range, 0.6-3.7 years) for Melody-specific indications. One-, 3-, and 5-year freedom from Melody-driven reoperation was 90%, 90%, and 83%, respectively. Conclusions The Melody valve can be surgically implanted in the RVOT of young patients with acceptable early results. These valves can be successfully dilated through transcatheter reintervention to accommodate growth.
ZBTB38 is dispensable for antibody responses

Members of the broad complex, tram track, bric-a-brac and zinc finger (BTB-ZF) family of transcription factors, such as BCL-6, ZBTB20, and ZBTB32, regulate antigen-specific B cell differentiation, plasma cell longevity, and the duration of antibody production. We found that ZBTB38, a different member of the BTB-ZF family that binds methylated DNA at CpG motifs, is highly expressed by germinal center B cells and plasma cells. To define the functional role of ZBTB38 in B cell responses, we generated mice conditionally deficient in this transcription factor. Germinal center B cells lacking ZBTB38 dysregulated very few genes relative to wild-type and heterozygous littermate controls. Accordingly, mice with hematopoietic-specific deletion of Zbtb38 showed normal germinal center B cell numbers and antibody responses following immunization with hapten-protein conjugates. Memory B cells from these animals functioned normally in secondary recall responses. Despite expression of ZBTB38 in hematopoietic stem cells, progenitors and mature myeloid and lymphoid lineages were also present in normal numbers in mutant mice. These data demonstrate that ZBTB38 is dispensable for hematopoiesis and antibody responses. These conditional knockout mice may instead be useful in defining the functional importance of ZBTB38 in other cell types and contexts.
Exome Sequencing for Prenatal Diagnosis in Nonimmune Hydrops Fetalis.

Abstract Background The cause of most fetal anomalies is not determined prenatally. Exome sequencing has transformed genetic diagnosis after birth, but its usefulness for prenatal diagnosis is stil...
Breaking the Energy-Bandwidth Limit of Electrooptic Modulators: Theory and a Device Proposal

In this paper, we quantitatively analyzed the tradeoff between energy per bit for switching and modulation bandwidth of classical electrooptic modulators. A formally simple energy-bandwidth limit (10) is derived for electrooptic modulators based on intracavity index modulation. To overcome this limit, we propose a dual cavity modulator device which uses a coupling modulation scheme operating at high bandwidth (>200 GHz) not limited by cavity photon lifetime and simultaneously features an ultralow switching energy of 0.26 aJ, representing over three orders of magnitude energy consumption reduction compared to state-of-the-art electrooptic modulators.
Current Research and Viewpoints on Internet Addiction in Adolescents

This review describes recent research findings and contemporary viewpoints regarding internet addiction in adolescents including its nomenclature, prevalence, potential determinants, comorbid disorders, and treatment. Prevalence studies show findings that are disparate by location and vary widely by definitions being used. Impulsivity, aggression, and neuroticism potentially predispose youth to internet addiction. Cognitive behavioral therapy and medications that treat commonly co-occurring mental health problems including depression and ADHD hold considerable clinical promise for internet addiction. The inclusion of internet gaming disorder in the DSM-5 and the ICD-11 has prompted considerable work demonstrating the validity of these diagnostic approaches. However, there is also a movement for a conceptualization of the disorder that captures a broader range of media-use behaviors beyond only gaming. Efforts to resolve these approaches are necessary in order to standardize definitions and clinical approaches. Future work should focus on clinical investigations of treatments, especially in the USA, and longitudinal studies of the disorder’s etiology.
The Self in Teams

Groups that range from two persons to many are a very big part of social life—in all its facets—and most organizations rely on teamwork: the justification is that teams are better at solving problems and learn more rapidly and with more effect than individuals (Serrat, 2009). This precis offers reflections on personal experiences of teamwork, noting what does not work. The precis identifies a meaningful common purpose as the single highest requirement for getting work done but underscores other key ingredients of practice. The precis also notes the importance of integrating team identity for team effectiveness.
The Epidemiologic Case-Crossover and Case–Control Approaches in Prevention Research

Point: If the evidence from prevention research is to be definitive, compelling, and translational into public health action, our studies must be tightly controlled and disciplined, perhaps even rigid. For this reason, within the prevention sciences, we tend to bite the tongue when our ideas track toward innovation in research approach.
A study of time dependence during serial needle ice events

Soil surface temperature, net radiation and soil heave data during a series of eleven consecutive needle ice growth-melt cycles at Vancouver, Canada, were studied using computer-graphic techniques. A method of analyzing the morphologic evolution of a needle growth using surface temperature and soil heave data is presented. Lastly, an atmospheric-geomorphic correlation matrix derived partially from the analysis of surface temperature-heave data is used to highlight the importance of afternoon evaporation in determining the course of an individual needle ice event within an event series.
Family Therapy in the Treatment of Alcohol Related Problems: A Review of Behavioral Family Therapy, Family Systems Therapy and Treatment Matching Research

Abstract This paper reviews the literature for the family therapy of alcoholism. Behavioral family therapy receives the most attention by researchers while family systems therapy is popular among practitioners. Behavioral family therapy is concerned with altering reinforcement for drinking behavior, while family systems therapy is concerned with family functioning. While both approaches receive some empirical support, neither approach emerges as superior. Treatment matching attempts to discover the conditions under which treatment approaches are most effective. A review of studies evaluating treatment matching research follows a review of behavioral and family systems therapy for alcoholism research. While the most recent study investigating treatment matching does not strongly support the matching hypothesis, it is premature to conclude there is no validity to the theory. Researchers concerned with discovering which interventions work best under what conditions need to replicate prior studies and to form...
Interrelations between Vitamin E and Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids in Adult Men

Publisher Summary Man has evolved in an oxygen-filled environment, also the advantages of oxygen in maintaining life are well known. This chapter emphasizes a problem related to the undesirable effects of oxygen on lipid compounds. The chapter also helps to recall that many water-soluble biological systems also need protection and that ascorbic acid—which might be the most important water-soluble antioxidant—as well as some sulfhydryl and other compounds, may indeed serve importantly as guardians of a preferred oxidation-reduction potential in the tissues. If the hypothesis is correct that a disturbed balance between peroxidation and antioxidation may lead to local pathology, then one might expect those tissues which have the higher concentrations of polyunsaturates, like the testes and ovaries, to be affected relatively early in vitamin E-deficiency states. In tissues that gradually accumulate unsaturated fats with time, as in muscle, a different type of pathology should be noted. In the brain, the species that can be studied during the earliest stages of nerve fiber myelinization, as in the young chick, another type of pathology should be found. One should, therefore, carefully evaluate the effects of long-term consumption of large amounts of polyunsaturated.
A measure of in-synchrony regions in the auditory nerve firing patterns as a basis for speech vocoding

A speech spectrum intensity measure based on temporal non-place modeling of the cat's auditory nerve firing patterns is introduced where the spectrum intensity values are estimated using timing-synchrony measurements only. The ability of this measure to serve as a speech information carrier was tested psychoacoustically, by integrating the proposed measure into a buzz-hiss type analysis-synthesis vocoder. Informal listening suggests that considerable speech information is preserved when this new measure is used to replace the spectrum analyzer portion of the vocoder.
Choice Within Schools Can Help Students, Schools, and Society

If we cannot give parents and students more choice within our schools, say these authors, it will only be a matter of time before they seek choice in other schools.
How "many" Maximizes in the Balkan Sprachbund

This paper begins by arguing that the words many and much (and their Balkan counterparts) are modifiers of degrees, type 〈〈d, t〉, 〈d, t〉〉. They denote functions from a set of d-degrees (the scale D) to a singleton set of the degree d, which is the measure of D. This analysis is based on arguments made by Wheeler (1972), McConnell-Ginet (1973) and Klein (1982) and goes against those put forth by e.g. Keenan (1996) and Hackl (2000). It then demonstrates that such an analysis allows for a compositional account of the semantic differences between Balkan degree questions that are monomorphemic and their counterparts with an additional overt many. These examples are from Romanian:
Transient receptor potential channel 1 maintains adherens junction plasticity by suppressing sphingosine kinase 1 expression to induce endothelial hyperpermeability

Stability of endothelial cell (EC) adherens junctions (AJs) is central for prevention of tissue edema, the hallmark of chronic inflammatory diseases including acute respiratory distress syndrome. Here, we demonstrate a previously unsuspected role of sphingosine kinase 1 (SPHK1) in the mechanism by which transient receptor potential channel 1 (Trpc1)-mediated Ca(2+) entry destabilizes AJs. Trpc1(-/-) monolayers showed a 2.2-fold increase in vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin cell-surface expression above wild-type (WT) monolayers. Thrombin increased endothelial permeability (evident by a 5-fold increase in interendothelial gap area and 60% decrease in transendothelial electrical resistance) in WT but not Trpc1(-/-) ECs. Trpc1(-/-) mice resisted the hyperpermeability effects of the edemagenic agonists used and exhibited 60% less endotoxin-induced mortality. Because sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) strengthens AJs, we determined if TRPC1 functioned by inhibiting SPHK1 activity, which generates S1P. Intriguingly, Trpc1(-/-) ECs or ECs transducing a TRPC1-inactive mutant showed a 1.5-fold increase in basal SPHK1 expression compared with WT ECs, resulting in a 2-fold higher S1P level. SPHK1 inhibitor SK1-I decreased basal transendothelial electrical resistance more in WT ECs (48 and 72% reduction at 20 and 50 μM, respectively) than in Trpc1(-/-) ECs. However, SK1-I pretreatment rescued thrombin-induced EC permeability in Trpc1(-/-) ECs. Thus, TRPC1 suppression of basal SPHK1 activity enables EC-barrier destabilization by edemagenic agonists.
Xml schemas in Oracle XML DB

The W3C XML Scheme language is becomimg increasingly popular for expressing the data model for XML documents. It is a powerful language that incorporates both strutural and datatype modeling features. There are many benefits to storing XML Schema compliant data in a database system, including better queryability, optimied updates and stronger validation. However, the fidelity of the XML document cannot be sacrificed. Thus, the fundamental problem facing database implementers is: how can XML Schemes be mapped to relational (and object-relational) database without losing schema semantics or data-fidelity? In this paper, we present the Oracle XML DB solution for a flexible mapping of XML Schemas to object-relational database. It preserves document fidelity, including ordering, namespaces, comments, processing instructions etc., and handles all the XML Schema semantics including cyclic definitions, dervations (extension and restriction), and wildcards. We also discuss various query and update optimiations that involve rewriting XPath operations to directly operate on the underlying relational data.
A production type-curve solution for coalbed methane reservoirs

Abstract A production type-curve solution for coalbed methane reservoirs is presented in this paper. The proposed production type curves were generated in terms of dimensionless production rate and dimensionless time groups that are based on the diffusivity equations of the two-phase flow in dual-porosity, dual-permeability coalbed methane reservoirs. The dual-porosity, dual-permeability reservoir simulation model is used as a tool in constructing the production type curves with constant sandface pressure specifications at the inner boundary. Sensitivity analyses are performed to investigate the capability of the proposed production type curves. Several sets of type-curve matching exercises are successfully performed to predict reservoir properties on different systems exhibiting a variety of reservoir and fluid properties. The proposed production type curves can be used to estimate reservoir properties including fracture permeability, fracture porosity, matrix porosity and water saturations in the fracture and matrix systems.
Paiela “women‐men”: the reflexive foundations of gender ideology

Paiela notions about femaleness and maleness stem from an indigenous reflexive doctrine concerning the character of “women-men” or humanity. This reflexive doctrine, that “we” are both “good” and “bad,” serves as the semantic key to a rather unique social structure predicated on a distinction between domestic and public domains and its moral entailments. The way in which gender functions as a master code of that structure is explored at length. In a concluding section, possible global applications of the analysis are proposed and, more cautiously, an explanation of the sources of women's inferiority in a certain class of societies is offered without recourse to reductionist argumentation. [gender, women's status, Melanesia, social structure, reflexivity]
Note on the standard enthalpies of formation of LuNiS, Lu3Pd4 and LuPd, determined by high temperature direct synthesis calorimetry

Abstract The standard enthalpies of formation of LuNiS, Lu 3 Pd 4 and LuPd have been determined by high-temperature direct synthesis calorimetry at 1477±2 K. The following values of ΔH 1 0 in kJ (mole atom) −1 , are reported: LuNi 5 , -30.0 0.8; Lu 3 Pd 4 , -98.4±2.2; and LuPd, -95.0±1.4. The results are compared with predicted values from the Miedema model and with a previous value reported by Selhaoui and Kleppa for LuPd.
Regulation of Distinct Stages of Skeletal Muscle Differentiation by Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases

The signal transduction pathway or pathways linking extracellular signals to myogenesis are poorly defined. Upon mitogen withdrawal from C2C12 myoblasts, the mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) p42Erk2 is inactivated concomitant with up-regulation of muscle-specific genes. Overexpression of MAPK phosphatase-1 (MKP-1) inhibited p42Erk2 activity and was sufficient to relieve the inhibitory effects of mitogens on muscle-specific gene expression. Later during myogenesis, endogenous expression of MKP-1 decreased. MKP-1 overexpression during differentiation prevented myotube formation despite appropriate expression of myosin heavy chain. This indicates that muscle-specific gene expression is necessary but not sufficient to commit differentiated myocytes to myotubes and suggests a function for the MAPKs during the early and late stages of skeletal muscle differentiation.
VLSI implementation of a quasi-ml, energy efficient fixed complexity sphere decoder for MIMO communication system

This paper presents a low power VLSI implementation of a novel Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) decoder which combines Fixed Complexity Sphere Decoder (FSD) algorithm, real-valued lattice formulation and Pair-wise sorted QR decomposition (P-SQRD) searching approach to simultaneously improve the throughput, bit error rate (BER) and complexity. Two-stage approximate sorting scheme with minimum data swapping is adopted to realize a power efficient architecture. This ASIC is implemented in IBM 90 nm 8 metal layer standard CMOS technology with core area of 1.3 mm2. This design supports 4×4 antenna array with flexible modulations from BPSK to 16-QAM. At 0.8V core power supply, the estimated peak data rate exceeds 1.44Gbps. The estimated energy efficiency is 15.4 pJ/bit which is 50% better than the other state of the art SDs [1], [7].
Effect of artemisinin derivatives on apoptosis and cell cycle in prostate cancer cells

Artemisinin is a plant-derived anti-malarial drug that has relatively low toxicity in humans and is activated by heme and/or intracellular iron leading to intracellular free radical formation. Interestingly, artemisinin has displayed anti-cancer activity, with artemisinin dimers being more potent than monomeric artemisinin. Intracellular iron uptake is regulated by the transferrin receptor (TfR), and the activity of artemisinin depends on the availability of iron. We examined the level of TfR in prostate cancer (PCa) tumor cells, synthesized two new artemisinin dimers, and evaluated the effect of dihydroartemisinin and artemisinin dimers, ON-2Py and 2Py, on proliferation and apoptosis in PCa cells. TfR was expressed in the majority of PCa bone and soft tissue metastases, all 24 LuCaP PCa xenografts, and PCa cell lines. After treatment with dihydroartemisinin, ON-2Py, or 2Py all PCa cell lines displayed dose-dependent decrease in cell number. 2Py was most effective in decreasing cell number. An increase in apoptotic events and growth arrest was observed in the C4-2 and LNCaP cell lines. Growth arrest was observed in PC-3 cells, but no significant change was observed in DU 145 cells. Treatment with 2Py resulted in a loss of the anti-apoptotic protein survivin in all four cell lines. 2Py treatment also decreased androgen receptor and prostate-specific antigen expression in C4-2 and LNCaP cells, with a concomitant loss of cell cycle regulatory proteins cyclin D1 and c-Myc. This study shows the potential use of artemisinin derivatives as therapeutic candidates for PCa and warrants the initiation of preclinical studies.
Bone mineral density after bone marrow transplantation in childhood: measurement and associations.

This study examined the bone mineral density (BMD) of 46 (median age 16.3, 8-29) survivors of autologous and allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT). Areal (g/m2) BMD was acquired with dual energy x-ray absorptiometry and volumetric (g/cm3) BMD values were calculated. Abnormal BMD was identified in 24% (11/46) of survivors with areal measures and 22% (10/46) with volumetric measures. Comparison of areal and volumetric BMD revealed the measures were highly correlated (r = 0.73, p
Non-Fragile Decentralized Control for the Uncertain Singular Large-Scale Systems with Time-Delay

This paper is concerned with the non-fragile decentralized controller design problem for uncertain singular large-scale system with time-delay. Sufficient condition for the controller is expressed in terms of linear matrix inequalities(LMIs). When this condition is feasible, the desired controller can be obtained with additive gain perturbations and multiplicative gain perturbations. Finally, a numerical example is also given to illustrate the effectiveness.
Psychotherapeutic intervention in angina: I. A critical review.

Abstract This paper considers the literature on factors found to be associated with angina and pseudoangina, and attempts to delineate those psychosocial characteristics that might distinguish angina patients from either nonanginal CAD patients or from non-CAD normals. A cluster of characteristics emerges from both retrospective and prospective studies suggesting greater affective lability, “neuroticism”, and perhaps physiologic reactivity than in either comparison group. The literature also suggests that learning and suggestion may play important roles in generating specific precipitants for anginal attacks. The literature on psychosocial intervention in anginal syndromes is almost entirely anecdotal, allowing few firm conclusions to be drawn, but suggesting the possible efficacy of certain behavioral, didactic, and supportive-psychodynamic interventions.
Large Costs, Small Benefits: Explaining Trade Dispute Outcomes

The United States frequently engages in negotiations with its trading partners over expanded market access for American firms. Although many of these negotiations involve markets worth millions or even billions ofdollars, sometimes government officials bargain long and hard over issues that were never predicted to result in substantial benefits. For example, the United States held negotiations with Japan for more than 30 years over increased market access for American apples. These negotiations were ultimately carried to the highest levels of government, discussed at international conferences, and even ruled on by the World Trade Organization, yet estimates of the potential market forforeign apples never exceeded $15 million. Such protracted negotiations in this sector do not make sense from the perspective of expected utility theory but can be explained by prospect theory. Apple negotiations came to represent a spiral model for both the United States and Japan. As each side viewed its own losses as deepening over the course of negotiations, each became caught in a prospect theory spiral of actions and became willing to take even riskier actions in an attempt to recoup losses.
Implementation of an evidence-based modified therapeutic community: Staff and resident perspectives

The widespread successful implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs) into community substance abuse settings require a thorough understanding of practitioner and client attitudes toward these approaches. This paper presents the first that we know of a qualitative study that explores staff and resident experience of the change process of a therapeutic community to an evidence-based modified therapeutic community for homeless individuals with co-occurring substance abuse and mental illness disorders. The sample consists of 20 participants; 10 staff and 10 residents. Interviews were conducted at the agency, recorded and transcribed verbatim. Transcripts were organized and coded from a grounded theory perspective. Themes and patterns of staff and resident experience were identified. The change in program structure from TC to MTC were perceived by staff as efforts to accommodate the particular needs of the homeless individuals with mental and substance abuse disorders and feeling they were inadequately prepared with inadequate resources to facilitate a successful transition. Participant descriptions were described in terms of loss of structure, loss of peers and being helped. Findings have potential to shape implementation of evidence-based practices in community substance abuse treatment.
Quantitative analysis of hardware support for real-time operating systems

Microprocessor architects, supported by advances in VLSI technology, have been enormously successful at steadily accelerating the performance of application software. However, operating system performance has lagged due to a divergence between operating system and architectural trends. Unfortunately, some recent work in this area has targeted average-case performance improvements with little or no consideration for the worst-case behavior that must be considered for real-time applications. This paper explores whether one can improve the worst-case performance of operating systems, and as a result, the schedulability of real-time task-sets, using specific hardware-assisted operating system primitives without sacrificing flexibility. The Intel 80960XA Microprocessor, which directly supports basic operating system primitives in hardware, provides an excellent platform to explore operating system hardware and software boundary issues. This paper specifically analyzes the viability of an hardware-assisted fixed-priority scheduler. Using the Real-Time Mach operating system, we did two ports to the 80960XA: one representative of generic RISC implementations, and another which exploited the hardware-supported operating system primitives. We measured the performance of the operating system primitives in both cases and found an average performance improvement factor of 3 for the hardware accelerated version. We applied a formal scheduling model to evaluate the relative performance of the two implementations for two representative real-time applications. The hardware accelerated version reduced operating system burden by factors of 2.66 and 4.1 for the avionics and inertial navigational system task sets, respectively.
Why do Bier blocks work for hand surgery ... Most of the time

surgical procedures because it provides anesthesia for short procedures and a bloodless field under tourniquet control. It is a safe and cost-effective alternative to general anesthesia, with patients who undergo IVRA leaving the hospital one hour sooner and having less postoperative nausea than those undergoing general anesthesia. 2,3 The success of IVRA for hand surgery is contingent on careful patient selection, maintenance of a bloodless field, and tolerance of the tourniquet. We will discuss why Bier blocks work well for hand surgery, and review some of the recent literature on technical modifications to improve intraoperative hemostasis and tourniquet tolerance. TRADITIONAL METHOD OF IVRA Traditionally, IVRA is performed by first applying a single or double lumen tourniquet to the proximal arm. For surgery less than 20 minutes duration, a single lumen tourniquet is usually chosen, whereas for surgery up to 60 minutes, a double lumen tourniquet provides a more extended period before tourniquet pain occurs. A 20- or 22-gauge cannula is inserted preoperatively into a vein on the dorsum of the hand. The extremity is then elevated and exsanguinated using an Esmarch bandage. Incomplete exsanguination can reduce the quality of anesthesia and hemostasis within the surgical field. The proximal lumen of the tourniquet is then inflated. Local anesthetic (LA) is then injected slowly. A dose of 3 mg/kg 0.5% lidocaine is used frequently. Rapid infusion can exceed the tourniquet pressure and LA may enter the systemic circulation. Surgical-level anesthesia is commonly reached within 5 to 10 minutes. The tourniquet’s proximal lumen remains inflated until the patient becomes uncomfortable. The distal lumen, which is over an anesthetized area, is then inflated, followed by release of the proximal lumen. Gradual release of the distal lumen at the end of the procedure is recommended to prevent systemic LA toxicity for procedures lasting less than 20 minutes. 4