cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The ‘3 Rs’ and neuropsychological function in schizophrenia: a test of the matching fallacy in biological relatives

The 'matching fallacy' suggests that matching schizophrenic patients and normal control subjects on education or IQ may cause systematic mismatching of theoretically expected ability. This study supports a modest version of the matching fallacy effect in nonpsychotic biological relatives of schizophrenic patients. At equivalent levels of education, relatives and control subjects had similar Reading and Spelling scores on the Wide Range Achievement Test-Revised--measures that are largely unimpaired by schizophrenia-related processes. However, relatives showed a deficit in IQ (primarily verbal IQ) compared with what would be predicted from their Reading scores. A similar deficit in Arithmetic scores was found in non-college-educated relatives, but college-educated relatives showed an advantage. We discuss possible implications of the findings with regard to genetic and environmental factors.
A comparative study between currently used methods and Small Volume-Cone Beam Tomography for surgical placement of mini implants

ABSTRACT Objective: To compare the outcome of mini implant placement by four different methods: blind placement, a single periapical radiograph (PA), a single panoramic radiograph, and a small-volume cone-beam computed tomography (SV-CBCT). Our hypothesis was that SV-CBCT, with its high resolution, low radiation dose, and three-dimensional depiction of area of interest would yield superior diagnostic information in assessing the potential anchorage site compared to currently used methods that often result in undesired root perforations. Materials and Methods: Potential mini implant sites of 20 dentate or partially dentate human skulls were imaged using three different imaging modalities: PA, panoramic radiograph, and SV-CBCT. Mini implants were placed in 10 maxillary and 10 mandibular randomized sites blindly and using each of the three imaging modalities. Large-volume CBCT scans done postoperatively were used to detect root perforation. Two oral radiologists analyzed the images for perforation of root ...
Ionization mechanism of oligonucleotides in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry.

The ionization of nucleosides in matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry was systematically investigated using adenine (A), thymine (T), guanine (G) and cytosine (C) with several common matrices. Experimental results of the protonation and deprotonation of the bases of A, T, G and C in the matrices 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (2,5-DHB), α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (α-CHCA) and 3-hydroxypicolinic acid (3-HPA) provide an insight into the ionization mechanism of oligonucleotides in MALDI. It was found that the low ion signal from DNA in poly-G in MALDI as reported in earlier work could be attributed to the fact that the base of G is difficult to ionize. Our results suggest that the ionization of DNA in MALDI is dominated by the protonation and deprotonation of bases and it is basically independent of the backbone of DNA. Both the protonation and deprotonation are strongly structure dependent. The protonation is dominated by pre-protonation before laser ablation, while the deprotonation is controlled by the thermal reaction. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Historical Changes in Water Quality at German Branch in the Choptank River Basin

Many management strategies to improve the health of Chesapeake Bay focus on reducing losses of sediments and nutrients from agricultural land. Plot-scale studies have suggested that Best Management Practices (BMPs) reduce these losses, and natural resource managers have since supported implementation of a variety of BMPs on farms in the Chesapeake Bay watershed over the last two decades. As a test of the efficiency of these BMPs at the watershed scale, all farms within German Branch watershed had BMPs implemented in the early 1990s. Using water quality from two past monitoring programs (i.e., in 1986 and 1991–1995) and current water quality monitoring (i.e., collected 2003–2006), we detected a 28% decrease in baseflow P concentrations a decade after BMP implementation. There were no significant changes in nitrate or total nitrogen concentrations between BMP implementation and the most recent sampling. However, the significant rate of increase (∼0.08 mg N L−1 year−1) from 1986 to the 1990s did not continue to 2003–2006 baseflow conditions, which suggests that BMPs may have suppressed the rate of increase in nitrogen observed earlier in German. These data suggest that other management practices that increase agricultural N losses and natural processes that attenuate N losses at the watershed scale may obscure significant N reductions by current BMPs in the watershed.
k-Interchange procedures for local search in a precedence-constrained routing problem

Abstract We develop k-interchange procedures to perform local search in a precedence-constrained routing problem. The problem in question is known in the Transportation literature as the single vehicle many-to-many Dial-A-Ride Problem, or DARP. The DARP is the problem of minimizing the length of the tour traveled by a vehicle to service N customers, each of whom wishes to go from a distinct origin to a distinct destination. The vehicle departs from a specified point and returns to that point upon service of all customers. Precedence constraints in the DARP exist because the origin of each customer must precede his/her destination on the route. As in the interchange procedure of Lin for the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), a k-interchange is a substitution of k of the links of an initial feasible DARP tour with k other links, and a DARP tour is k-optimal if it is impossible to obtain a shorter tour by replacing any k of its links by k other links. However, in contrast to the TSP where each individual interchange takes O(1) time, checking whether each individual DARP interchange satisfies the origin-destination precedence constraints normally requires O(N2) time. In this paper we develop a method which still finds the best k-interchange that can be produced from an initial feasible DARP tour in O(Nk) time, the same order of magnitude as in the Lin heuristic for the TSP. This method is then embedded in a breadth-first or a depth-first search procedure to produce a k-optimal DARP tour. The paper focuses on the k = 2 and k = 3 cases. Experience with the procedures is presented. in which k-optimal tours are produced by applying a 2-opt or 3-opt search to initial DARP tours produced either randomly or by a fast O(N2) heuristic. The breadth-first and depth-first search modes are compared. The heuristics are seen to produce very good or near-optimal DARP tours.
R-PASS: A Fast Structure-Based RNA Sequence Alignment Algorithm

We present a fast pair wise RNA sequence alignment method using structural information, named R-PASS (RNA Pair wise Alignment of Structure and Sequence), which shows good accuracy on sequences with low sequence identity and significantly faster than alternative methods. The method begins by representing RNA secondary structure as a set of structure motifs. The motifs from two RNAs are then used as input into a bipartite graph-matching algorithm, which determines the structure matches. The matches are then used as constraints in a constrained dynamic programming sequence alignment procedure. The R-PASS method has an O(nm) complexity. We compare our method with two other structure-based alignment methods, LARA and ExpaLoc, and with a sequence-based alignment method, MAFFT, across three benchmarks and obtain favorable results in accuracy and orders of magnitude faster in speed.
An MCM based GPS receiver

The GPS receiver market place is now dominated by commercial rather than military applications for which the system was designed originally. New applications areas are appearing constantly with the most buoyant including low cost hand-held navigation units, receivers for automotive navigation and location, synchronisation of digital cellular systems and high accuracy receivers for the surveying community. Success in these commercial market places means having a product that can deliver the required level of performance within strict cost, size and power consumption constraints. These three key requirements can be met by maximising the integration level in the receiver and indeed, a lot of the present, basic performance, commercially available receivers are based on two core ASICs, RF and DSP/digital. This paper introduces the RF ASIC designed by Navstar, ROCIII, that delivers an “antenna to digital” solution. (6 pages)
Shape analysis algorithm based on information theory

In this paper, we describe an algorithm to measure the shape complexity for discrete approximations of planar curves in 2D images and manifold surfaces for 3D triangle meshes. We base our algorithm on shape curvature, and thus we compute shape information as the entropy of curvature. We present definitions to estimate curvature for both discrete curves and surfaces and then formulate our theory of shape information from these definitions. We demonstrate our algorithm with experimental results.
Coverage-based treatment planning to accommodate delineation uncertainties in prostate cancer treatment.

Purpose: To compare two coverage-based planning (CP) techniques with fixed margin-based (FM) planning for high-risk prostate cancer treatments, with the exclusive consideration of the dosimetric impact of delineation uncertainties of target structures and normal tissues. Methods: In this work, 19-patient data sets were involved. To estimate structure dose for each delineated contour under the influence of interobserver contour variability and CT image quality limitations, 1000 alternative structures were simulated by an average-surface-of-standard-deviation model, which utilized the patient-specific information of delineated structure and CT image contrast. An IMRT plan with zero planning-target-volume (PTV) margin on the delineated prostate and seminal vesicles [clinical-target-volume (CTVprostate) and CTVSV] was created and dose degradation due to contour variability was quantified by the dosimetric consequences of 1000 alternative structures. When D 98 failed to achieve a 95% coverage probability objective D 98,95 ≥ 78 Gy (CTVprostate) or D 98,95 ≥ 66 Gy (CTVSV), replanning was performed using three planning techniques: (1) FM (PTVprostate margin = 4,5,6 mm and PTVSV margin = 4,5,7 mm for RL, PA, and SI directions, respectively), (2) CPOM which optimized uniform PTV margins for CTVprostate and CTVSV to meet the D 98,95 objectives, and (3) CPCOP which directly optimized coverage-based objectives for all the structures. These plans were intercompared by computing percentile dose-volume histograms and tumor-control probability/normal tissue complication probability (TCP/NTCP) distributions. Results: Inherent contour variability resulted in unacceptable CTV coverage for the zero-PTV-margin plans for all patients. For plans designed to accommodate contour variability, 18/19 CP plans were most favored by achieving desirable D 98,95 and TCP/NTCP values. The average improvement of probability of complication free control was 9.3% for CPCOP plans and 3.4% for CPOM plans. Conclusions: When the delineation uncertainties need to be considered for prostate patients, CP techniques can produce more desirable plans than FM plans for most patients. The relative advantages between CPCOP and CPOM techniques are patient specific.
NASA unit sets ambitious course

After two decades of spectacular successes, planetary exploration has fallen upon hard times. It has been five years since a new spacecraft was launched toward the planets, and NASA has under current development only one planetary mission—Galileo, which will orbit Jupiter and probe its atmosphere in 1988. The intellectual challenge of understanding the planets and their common origin and evolution has not, of course, declined, and a great deal of exciting work is being accomplished using data (and samples) from past missions. But planetologists fear the demise of their discipline within a few years if momentum cannot be restored to NASA's program of planetary exploration.
Transcriptome Analysis Reveals the Same 17 S-Locus F-Box Genes in Two Haplotypes of the Self-Incompatibility Locus of Petunia inflata

Petunia possesses self-incompatibility, by which pistils reject self-pollen but accept non-self-pollen for fertilization. Self-/non-self-recognition between pollen and pistil is regulated by the pistil-specific S-RNase gene and by multiple pollen-specific S-locus F-box (SLF) genes. To date, 10 SLF genes have been identified by various methods, and seven have been shown to be involved in pollen specificity. For a given S-haplotype, each SLF interacts with a subset of its non-self S-RNases, and an as yet unknown number of SLFs are thought to collectively mediate ubiquitination and degradation of all non-self S-RNases to allow cross-compatible pollination. To identify a complete suite of SLF genes of P. inflata, we used a de novo RNA-seq approach to analyze the pollen transcriptomes of S2-haplotype and S3-haplotype, as well as the leaf transcriptome of the S3S3 genotype. We searched for genes that fit several criteria established from the properties of the known SLF genes and identified the same seven new SLF genes in S2-haplotype and S3-haplotype, suggesting that a total of 17 SLF genes constitute pollen specificity in each S-haplotype. This finding lays the foundation for understanding how multiple SLF genes evolved and the biochemical basis for differential interactions between SLF proteins and S-RNases.
Effects of ambient conditions on the adhesion of cubic boron nitride films on silicon substrates

Abstract The influence of environmental conditions on cubic boron nitride (cBN) film adhesion to silicon substrated was investigated. cBN films were deposited on (100)-oriented silicon substrates by ion-assisted pulsed laser deposition. The irradiating ions were mixtures of nitrogen with (i) argon, (ii) krypton and (iii) xenon. Under room-ambient conditions, the films delaminated in the following time order: N/Xe, N/Kr and N/Ar. cBN films deposited using N/Xe ion-assisted deposition were exposed to four environmental conditions for several weeks: a 1 mTorr vacuum, high humidity, dry oxygen and dry nitrogen. Films exposed to the humid environment delaminated whereas those stored under vacuum or in dry gases did not. Films stored in dry nitrogen were removed after nearly 2 weeks and placed in the high-humidity chamber; these films subsequently delaminated with 14 h. It is concluded that the presence of a humid environment facilitates the delamination of BN thin films from silicon substrates. A model of the interaction between water and the interfacial material is also presented.
Obesity Associated Modulation of miRNA and Co-Regulated Target Transcripts in Human Adipose Tissue of Non-Diabetic Subjects.

Objective: Micro RNAs (miRNAs) are a class of non-coding regulatory RNAs. We performed a transcriptome-wide analysis of subcutaneous adipose tissue and in vitro studies to identify miRNAs and co-regulated target transcripts associated with insulin sensitivity (SI) and obesity in human. Methods: We selected 20 insulin-resistant (IR, SI=2.0±0.7) and 20 insulin-sensitive (IS, SI=7.2±2.3) subjects from a cohort of 117 metabolically characterized non-diabetic Caucasians for comparison. Results: After global profiling, 3 miRNAs had marginally different expressions between IR and IS subjects. A total of 14 miRNAs were significantly correlated with %fat mass, body mass index (BMI), or SI. The qRT-PCR validated the correlation of miR-148a-3p with BMI (r=-0.70, P=2.73X10 -6 ). MiRNA target filtering analysis identified DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) as one of the target genes of miR-148a-3p. DNMT1 expression in adipose tissue was positively correlated with BMI (r=0.47, p=8.42X10 -7 ) and was inversely correlated with miR-148a-3p (r=-0.34). Differentiation of SGBS preadipocytes showed up-regulation of miR-148a-3p and down-regulation of DNMT1 in differentiated adipocytes. After transfecting miR-148a-3p mimics into HeLa-S3 cells, DNMT1 was down-regulated, while transfection of adipose stem cells with miR-148a-3p inhibitor up-regulated DNMT1. Conclusions: Our results indicate that miR-148a-3pmediated regulation of DNMT1 expression may play a mechanistic role in obesity.
How retroactivity impacts the robustness of genetic networks

This paper studies how retroactivity impacts the robustness of gene transcription networks against parameter perturbations. By employing the linearization technique and the real stability radius, we provide comparisons of the robustness between gene transcription networks with retroactivity and ones without retroactivity. Both numerical and analytical results show that retroactivity tends to decrease such robustness. This finding in turn implies that modular genetic networks tend to be more robust against parameter perturbations.
Contrastive Conversations with International Students of Law

International students who have trained as lawyers abroad need meaningful and contextualized opportunities to make discoveries about differences between the writing they have been trained to produce and the writing they are expected to produce. Writing Specialists are in a unique position to engage them in individualized assessment, examine their writing closely, and determine which writing conventions and practices may be affecting their efforts to produce U.S.-style legal writing. This essay describes how Writing Specialists can use methods from contrastive rhetoric to discuss writing conventions and linguistic variation with international students.
The bribery statute: a new weapon against Medicare fraud.

A May 2000 U.S. Supreme Court decision determining when a Federal bribery statute can be used to fight Medicare fraud has ramifications for healthcare providers. In Fischer v. United States, the Court concluded that healthcare providers that participate in Medicare are considered to receive benefits as set forth in the bribery statute and thus can be prosecuted for fraudulent activities against the government under the statute. The statute mandates a fine, imprisonment for up to 10 years, or both for anyone convicted under it. Provider organizations that receive Medicare payments and business associates of such organizations should be aware that the government may step up its use of the bribery law in prosecuting fraudulent activity. In addition, although the case pertained specifically to healthcare providers that participate in Medicare, providers that do not participate in Medicare may wish to evaluate the advisability of accepting other Federal funding because of the possible reach of the bribery statute.
Muscle protein metabolism in finishing pigs fed ractopamine.

Forty crossbred barrows (average initial weight, 66.4 kg) were utilized to determine the effects of ractopamine (a phenethanolamine/beta adrenergic agonist) on protein accretion and synthesis, activities of cathepsins B, H, L and calcium-dependent proteinase and nucleic acid content of semitendinosus muscle (ST). All pigs were offered a 16% protein, mineral and vitamin fortified corn-soybean meal diet supplemented with either 0 or 20 ppm ractopamine for 14, 21, 28, 35 or 42 d. Protein synthesis (fractional rates) was studied in pigs at d 21 and 35; ST protease activities, protein and nucleic acid content were measured on d 14, 28 and 42. Ractopamine increased (P less than .01) ST total protein content and maintained RNA muscle concentration and total ST muscle RNA content. DNA content (mg/g ST) declined (P less than .05) upon ractopamine feeding, but total DNA per muscle remained unchanged except for d 42, when the ST muscles were largest. Fractional accretion rates (FAR) were 1.0 and 1.2% for control and ractopamine-fed pigs, respectively. Fractional protein synthesis rate (FSR) was higher (P less than .06) in ractopamine-fed pigs (6.1%/d) than in control pigs (4.4%/d). Fractional protein synthesis rate could account for the observed muscle hypertrophy and increased FAR. Estimated fractional breakdown rates (FBR = FSR - FAR) were 3.4%/d and 4.9%/d for control and ractopamine-fed pigs, respectively. The activities of the catheptic proteases and calcium-dependent proteinase were not affected by the treatments.
Christians in the Age of Islamic Enlightenment: A Review Essay

International Bulletin of Missionary Research, Vol. 34, No. 3 E bedraggled from imperial repression and reeling from the sudden inrush of Greek science and philosophy, Christianity achieved at the hands of Constantine a measure of guarded cohesion before splintering further under Justinian in the sixth century. The Christological controversy, which had taken its toll by the time of the rise of Islam in the seventh century, survived into the Islamic phase with renewed vigor. Rather than flinching, the fledgling Islamic movement set upon the Christian world from two different directions: from without, by the sequestration of territory, in the east against Byzantium and in the west against Spain; and from within, by Islamic criticism of Christian Scripture and of Christian doctrines. In the centuries following the collapse of the Roman Empire, Christianity was consolidating its hold on the Mediterranean before the rise of Islam in the seventh century challenged it seriously. In time, the caliphate proceeded to hold the papacy to ransom for a hundred years, and for much longer Europe danced to the tune of the caliph and, later, to that of the Sublime Porte in Istanbul. Meanwhile, Islam held tenaciously to the view that Christianity is a corrupted religion whose doctrines are invalid. Muslims may for expedience tolerate Christians, but they may not countenance the religion. Split in that fashion, Christians were granted protected status as a matter of social policy while the religion remained under legal restriction. Nowhere is the double fact of territorial disinheritance and religious disqualification more evident than in Bethlehem, Jesus’ birthplace and for centuries belonging in the Muslim sphere. It continues to lie on the remote, exotic rim Christians in the Age of Islamic Enlightenment: A Review Essay
Effect of input perturbation on the performance and wake dynamics of aquatic propulsion in heaving flexible foils

Fish produce thrust by sweeping a caudal fin through the water in a periodic motion. The effect of imposing a low-amplitude, high-frequency component to that driving motion is explored. Such input perturbations can greatly increase both the performance and efficiency of flapping-fin propulsion.
Our Message Was Electric: Susan Howe and the Resuscitation of Failed Utopian Projects

This chapter reveals the utopian impulse and rhetoric of negation that underpin Susan Howe’s investigation of the historical past. Two of Howe’s works, Souls of the Labadie Tract and The Midnight, address the consequences of failed utopian social ideals. Central to each book is a visionary figure: Jean de Labadie is a seventeenth-century pastor whose religious beliefs inspire a utopian sect in Maryland in Souls of the Labadie Tract, and landscape designer, Frederick Law Olmsted envisions an ideal municipal park in Buffalo, New York, in The Midnight. Lagapa argues that, despite the collapse of these men’s plans, a utopian dynamic might be resuscitated from their failed projects, particularly if Howe’s poems are read properly—as a negative image of the promise of utopia.
Imperial Russia’s Muslims: Islam, empire, and European modernity, 1788–1914

In Mustafa Tuna’s first monograph, he unravels the roles of Islam, social networks, state interventions, multiple infrastructural changes, and the globalization of European modernity in bringing ab...
Stability of the Cortical Sensory Waveforms, the P1-N1-P2 Complex and T-Complex, of Auditory Evoked Potentials.

Purpose Atypical cortical sensory waveforms reflecting impaired encoding of auditory stimuli may result from inconsistency in cortical response to the acoustic feature changes within spoken words. ...
Complex arithmetic primitives

Apart from Fortran and symbolic-algebra systems, few programming languages support complex arithmetic. The 1998 ISO C++ Standard adds a standard header file, , to provide a complex data-type template, and prototypes of complex versions of a dozen or so elementary functions. The 1999 ISO C Standard goes further, offering a standard header file, , and a new language keyword, _Complex. When is included, the name complex can be used as a synonym for the new keyword, allowing declaration of objects of type float complex, double complex, and long double complex.
Handling time-varying confounding in state transition models for dynamic optimization of adaptive interdisciplinary pain management

ABSTRACTInterdisciplinary pain management combines multiple disciplines of professionals to understand the biological and psychosocial factors causing a patient's pain and to determine the best tre...
Novel solvent exchange distillation column

Abstract Solvent exchange or solvent swap is commonly used in production of complex organic molecules when the next processing step requires that the solute be dissolved in a different solvent. The current methods for solvent exchange, batch distillation and diafiltration, also produce a waste stream containing a mixture of the feed and chasing solvents that must be separated, usually by distillation. The results obtained from an Aspen Plus model of the new exchange column are compared with constant volume batch distillation simulations for both still pot and still pot plus column systems. The new solvent exchange column reduces the amount of the waste stream, and when the feed solvent is the more volatile solvent the exchange column can often be designed to produce feed solvent at the desired purity; thus, eliminating the need for an additional distillation column to separate the two solvents. When the initial solvent is the less volatile component, the new exchange column will often be competitive with constant volume diafiltration which is currently used.
Study of Chip Morphology and Chip Formation Mechanism During Machining of Magnesium-Based Metal Matrix Composites

Magnesium (Mg) and its alloys are among the lightest metallic structural materials, making them very attractive for use in the aerospace and automotive industries. Recently, Mg has been used in metal matrix composites (MMCs), demonstrating significant improvements in mechanical performance. However, the machinability of Mg-based MMCs is still largely elusive. In this study, Mg-based MMCs are machined using a wide range of cutting speeds in order to elucidate both the chip morphology and chip formation mechanism. Cutting speed is found to have the most significant influence on both the chip morphology and chip formation mechanism, with the propensity of discontinuous, particle-type chip formation increasing as the cutting speed increases. Saw-tooth chips are found to be the primary chip morphology at low cutting speeds(lower than 0.5 m/s), while discontinuous, particle-type chips prevail at high cutting speeds (higher than 1.0 m/s). Using in situ high speed imaging, the formation of the saw-tooth chip morphology is found to be due to crack initiation at the free surface. However, as the cutting speed (and strain rate) increases, the formation of the discontinuous, particle-type chip morphology is found to be due to crack initiation at the tool tip. In addition, the influences of tool rake angle, particle size, and particle volume fracture are investigated and have little effect on the chip morphology and chip formation mechanism.
Measuring the Evolution of a Scientific Field through Citation Frames

Citations have long been used to characterize the state of a scientific field and to identify influential works. However, writers use citations for different purposes, and this varied purpose influ...
Photobiomodulation by Low Power Laser Irradiation Involves Activation of Latent TGF-β1

Laser mediated stimulation of biological process was amongst its very first effects documented by Mester et al. but the ambiguous and tissue-cell context specific biological effects of laser radiation is now termed ‘Photobiomodulation’. We found many parallels between the reported biological effects of lasers and a multiface-ted growth factor, Transforming Growth Factor-β (TGF-β). This review outlines the interestingparallelsbetween the twofieldsand our rationalefor pursuingtheir potential causal correlation. We explored this correlation using an in vitro assay systems and a human clinical trial on healing wound extraction sockets that we reported in a recent publication. In conclusion we report that low power laser irradiation can activate latent TGF-β1 and β3 complexes and suggest that this might be one of the major modes of the photobiomodulatory effects of low power lasers.
Measuring Sustainability: Deriving Metrics from a Secure Human–Environment Relationship

The ability of individuals and institutions to take actions that would achieve sustainability is often lost in rhetoric about what it is or isn’t and how to measure progress. Typically, sustainability is viewed as an objective and in this capacity efforts are made to identify indicators and to manage the environment to save it from civilization or to minimize human impact upon it. However, our intention to measure sustainability as an objective sets us in the wrong direction. Indicators of this objective measure deviations of the human or environmental condition from sustainability, but to sustain requires that no appreciable deviation has occurred. Viewed from this perspective, sustainability must be redefined and a new set of metrics must be identified to guide actions that avoid losses. These metrics must define the boundaries of human activities relative to environmental capabilities and to provide early warning signs of conditions that would be unfavorable to human life and signal a need to change. Once established, these metrics can be used as planning criteria so that they inform and become a measure of human actions. This enables progress toward civilization within the context of an environment that is able to sustain human life and is itself able to be sustained.
OSCILLATORY SHEAR STRESS INDUCED STABILIZATION OF THIN FILM INSTABILITIES

The airways of the lungs are coated with a thin viscous film. Often, especially in disease, the liquid film can form a plug that obstructs airflow. The formation of the liquid plug is due to capillary driven instabilities that can arise in the lining, causing the lining to close up [1–4]. Airflow can also be obstructed if the airway wall collapses. This occurs when the elastic forces of the tube are not large enough to sustain the negative fluid pressures inside the tube. The phenomenon of airway closure occurs in many normal and pathological situations. It can occur in premature neonates who do not produce enough surfactant to keep the surface-tension sufficiently low. A clinical treatment is to deliver exogenous surfactant to these neonates in the form of a liquid bolus. In order to facilitate breathing they are also placed on mechanical ventilators. The amplitude (tidal volume) and frequency settings are two key parameters at the disposal of clinicians. Frequencies may range from normal breathing to high frequency ventilation at 5 Hz or more [6–7]. Airway obstruction and hypercapnea (build up of carbon dioxide in the lungs) are two examples of the manifestation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease that may also occur in adults. In order to reduce breathlessness in patients with obstructive airway disease, chest wall vibrators are placed around the patients rib cage, which oscillate at frequencies up to 100 Hz [8]. Airway closure is also an issue in the microgravity environment of outer space since there is marked decrease in ventilatory inhomogeneity. It has been shown using the single nitrogen breath washout test that even though closing volumes are not affected by microgravity, there is considerable variability [9]. Their investigations suggest that some airways may close above residual volume, and that other factors besides gravity, such as the mechanical properties of the airway walls, are important factors on whether airway closure occurs.
Aquatic Adaptations in Fish Eyes

Of all the sense organs, eyes have probably attracted the most attention because of both their central importance and intricate construction. Darwin knew that such “organs of extreme perfection and complication” posed a crucial test of his theory because they seemed too good to have been shaped by natural selection (Darwin [1859] 1958). Since eyes must obey the optical laws of physics, fundamental physical constraints on their structure provide an important analytical basis for understanding adaptive ocular specializations. In light of these physical constraints, inferences about the selective forces that have shaped eye design can be made with some confidence, particularly in the study of aquatic eyes.
An enhanced recovery program in colorectal surgery is associated with decreased organ level rates of complications: a difference-in-differences analysis

Perioperative care has lacked coordination and standardization. Enhanced recovery programs (ERPs) have been shown to decrease aggregate complications across surgical specialties. We hypothesize that the sustained implementation of an ERP will be associated with a decrease in a broad range of complications at the organ system level. Adult patients undergoing elective colorectal procedures between 1/2011 and 10/2016 were included. Patients were stratified based on exposure to a sustained ERP (7/2014–10/2016) after an 18-month wash-in period in a pre-post analysis. The primary outcome was 30-day complication rate by organ category as collected by National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) abstractors. Demographic and other patient level data were collected. Complication rates were compared using multivariable regression employing a differences-in-differences (DiD) approach using the national NSQIP PUF file to account for secular trends. A total of 1182 patients were included in this study, with 47% treated in an ERP. The two groups were similar in age, gender, race, BMI, comorbidity index, and procedure type. In a multivariable DiD analysis, significant reductions were seen in surgical site infection (OR 0.30; 95% CI 0.20–0.43), postoperative pulmonary complications (OR 0.46; 95% CI 0.24–0.90), transfusion (OR 0.27; 95% CI 0.15–0.51), urinary tract infections (OR 0.34; 95% CI 0.18–0.66), sepsis (OR 0.35; 95% CI 0.20–0.61), and cardiac complications (OR 0.10; 95% CI 0.01–0.84). A reduction in return to the operating room and 30-day readmission was also observed. Median length of stay (LOS) decreased from 5.2 to 3.5 days (p 1.5-day reduction in LOS in a colorectal surgery population.
Experimental Methods for Seismic Simulation of Structural Columns: State-of-the-Art Review and Introduction of New Multiuse Structural Testing System

AbstractExperimental research on seismic behavior of structural columns is one of the most important and active research areas in structural engineering. Various methods with innovative loading con...
The Modest Impact of Palazzolo v. Rhode Island

Before 2001, state and federal courts did not agree on the extent to which a property owner’s regulatory takings claim should be weakened by the existence of legal restrictions on her use of the property at the time she acquired it. The Palazzolo Court addressed this doctrinal confusion but did not completely resolve it, offering six opinions that partially contradict each other. Some of this discord has persisted, with Palazzolo already cited in nearly five hundred judicial opinions, and not always consistently. This Article examines the impact Palazzolo has had on state and lower federal courts. After reviewing the law before Palazzolo and the Supreme Court’s decision in that case, the Article offers suggestions as to how courts ought to interpret the contradictory opinions in Palazzolo. More specifically, cases arising at different points in the ripening process should be treated differently, and only a small subset of takings claims should benefit from Palazzolo’s relaxation of the notice rule. Next the Article assesses the evidence, in an effort to determine whether courts interpreting Palazzolo have actually been following these suggestions. First, it examines the small number of claims in which an owner that probably would have lost before 2001 prevailed. It then compares these results with the far more numerous cases in which an owner that probably would have lost before 2001 still lost even after that decision. The Article closes by offering a more generalized assessment of the effects of Palazzolo. It concludes that nearly all of the courts to cite Palazzolo have heeded its requirements, but only a few cases have turned out differently than they would have before 2001. The Court’s ripeness rules dictate that few landowners should benefit from the holding in Palazzolo, and only a small number actually do benefit. Lower courts understand Palazzolo, they have been applying it correctly, and they should continue to do what they have been doing.
The Pricing of Optimal Insurance Policies

One area of research concerning the demand for insurance focuses on determining the optimal form for the indemnification function. This literature shows that from the viewpoint of the insured the deductible form for the indemnification function is optimal under quite general circumstances both in the expected utility model and in nonexpected utility models that preserve second degree stochastic dominance.1 This result depends on the way in which deductible insurance is priced. How other forms of insurance are priced obviously matters if the deductible form is to be optimal. It is also the case that the pricing of deductible policies relative to one another plays a role in demonstrating the optimality of the deductible form.
Special Issue Editorial

Extract: Over the past thirty years the need for legal professionals to become culturally competent have been repeated in numerous reports and inquiries. The Indigenous Cultural Competency for Legal Academics Program (ICCLAP) was designed to address this apparent gap in legal education. Led by a team of Indigenous legal academics - the project’s core aims were to consult with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander legal services, key stakeholders and legal academics to conceptualise what ICC means in the context of legal education; identify knowledge gaps, professional development needs, and guiding principles for embedding ICC; develop workshops and resources for legal academics; and foster a community of practice to support the embedding of ICC in law curricula.
Blue over Green? Defining Typologies of Rural Landowners Growing Blueberry in Place of Forests in Georgia, United States

Ricardian Rent Theory is typically used for analyzing land use change decisions of rural landowners. However, to the best of our knowledge no study focuses on the motivations of landowners for their land use change decisions in general and deforestation in particular. This information is important for southern Georgia, where more than 6,000 ha of evergreen forestland were moved into blueberry production between 2010 and 2017. We surveyed 34 family landowners who had moved to blueberry production to ascertain their motivations and analyzed the data using Q-methodology to categorize them into four typologies: Family Oriented landowners grow blueberry as a family legacy; Value Seeking landowners want higher value over time from their land; Environmental Cautious landowners grow blueberry for profit, but recognize a link between deforestation and blueberry expansion; finally, Profit Motivated landowners grow blueberry for higher profits in a short period and clearly recognize forestry as a long-term investment. The majority of surveyed blueberry farmers suggested that with appropriate financial incentives, they would practice forestry rather than higher risk blueberry farming. Our findings provide insights for policymakers in designing incentives for achieving sustainable land management and ensuring the multifunctionality of rural landscapes in Georgia and surrounding states facing similar issues.
Gastrointestinal Helminths from Three Species of Rhacophorid Frogs, Polypedates colletti, P. macrotus, and P. otilophus (Anura: Rhacophoridae) from Borneo, Malaysia

Three species of Polypedates frogs (Rhacophoridae) from Borneo, Malaysia, were examined for helminths: Polypedates colletti (n = 5), P. macrotis (n = 8), and P. otilophus (n = 5). We found 3 species of Nematoda: Cosmocerca ornata, Raillietnema rhacophori, and Physalopteroides sp. Cosmocerca ornata was the only helminth infecting all 3 rhacophorid species. The most numerous helminth (too numerous to count) was R. rhacophori in P. otilophus. The 3 species of Polypedates are parasitized by generalist helminths that also infect other species of anurans. Four new host records are reported.
Nerve Growth Factor Gene Delivery across the Blood-Brain Barrier to Reduce Beta Amyloid Accumulation in AD Mice.

The therapeutic potential of nerve growth factor (NGF) gene using brain-targeted liposomal nanoparticles was investigated for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We designed brain-targeted g...
Facebook groups provide effective social support to patients after bariatric surgery

Social support after bariatric surgery is considered essential. Unfortunately, patient participation in such groups tends to be limited threatening their effectiveness. Facebook groups may provide a social support option that attracts more participation. The aim of this study was to describe our experience with the administration of a Facebook social support group and evaluate its perceived value by our bariatric patients. After IRB approval, all Facebook group posts since its establishment in 2015 were reviewed and a thematic analysis was undertaken. Group members also completed a survey related to their Facebook group experience and its perceived value. Responses were collected using 5-point Likert scales. In addition, 30 members were phone interviewed using open-ended questions and their responses were analyzed. Over 4 years, the group accumulated 12,507 posts, 104,053 comments, and 197,594 reactions. On average, members check the group page more than once per day. Ten common themes were identified in the submitted posts: questions, motivation related, education related, diet related, physical activity related, current status updates, sharing failures, social, random/humorous and other. Members reported that the group helped them do well with their procedure (3.3/5) particularly due to the motivation of others’ successful stories (3.5/5) and made them feel understood (3.9/5) even though it offered limited help controlling their eating habits (2.7/5). The phone interviews suggested that the Facebook group offered constant support, was simple to use, and provided the sole social support for many patients. They most appreciated the motivational posts that kept them on track and the assistance/comments of clinical staff. In contrast, they disliked repeated questions/spam and negative stories shared by some members. Facebook groups can provide effective social support to patients after bariatric surgery. Peers educate, answer questions, and motivate patients by sharing their positive experiences. Whether this online connectedness also positively impacts patient outcomes requires further study.
Does Parental Monitoring During Adolescence Moderate Neighborhood Effects on African American Youth Outcomes

The present study investigated the effects of parental monitoring, neighborhood risk, and racism experiences during early adolescence on adolescents’ emotional and behavioral outcomes in high school. Five hundred twenty-two African American youth and their parents and teachers completed surveys about youth development over time. Consistent with our hypotheses, we found that neighborhood risk and racism had small and significant relations with anxiety, oppositional behavior, and conduct problems. Additionally, parental monitoring moderated the effects of neighborhood risk on behavior problems in both 9th and 12th grade, controlling for baseline problems. Finally, parental monitoring did not moderate effects of risk contexts on the development of anxiety problems. Findings are discussed with regard to implications for supporting effective parenting practices in high-risk contexts.
Managing Hip-Spine Concepts in the Direct Anterior Approach With Use of Fluoroscopy.

Abstract Background The spinopelvic relationship in regard to total hip arthroplasty has become a topic of increasing interest in recent years. Hip arthritis and a stiff lumbar spine create a situation where the spinopelvic junction has decreased mobility, which in turn increases the risk of instability after total hip arthroplasty as the femoral acetabular joint must undergo increased motion. Regardless of the approach, surgeons should be aware of the risk of instability in patients with a stiff spinopelvic junction and the necessary modifications to component positioning to avoid postoperative instability. As many direct anterior approach surgeons use fluoroscopy for intraoperative navigation, anterior approach surgeons must also understand how to best use this technology to improve component positioning. Methods In this article, we address the basic concepts surrounding spinopelvic stiffness, the intraoperative component adjustments necessary for optimizing stability, and how to appropriately use fluoroscopy for navigation in the direct anterior approach. Conclusions Appropriate use of intraoperative fluoroscopy includes understanding the impact of parallax and distortion, properly recreating the patient’s standing functional pelvic plane intraoperatively and adjusting the cup’s target position based on a preoperative understanding of the patient’s spinopelvic motion.
Self-Perceptions, Normative Beliefs, and Substance Use Associated With High School Girls Comparing Themselves to Peers

BACKGROUND We assessed whether self-descriptions, self-perceptions, perceived substance use of friends, and actual substance use were associated with high school girls' frequency of making social comparisons to peers. METHODS We analyzed data from the Adolescent Health Risk Behavior Survey data for 357 high school girls using multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS Compared to those who "never/rarely" made social comparisons, participants who self-described as fearing something constantly (p = .014) and forced to imitate the people they like (p = .009) were more likely to "usually" compare themselves to peers. Participants who described themselves as feeling forced to imitate the people they like (p = .022), were not the person they would like to be (p = .005), and did not remain calm under pressure (p = .010), were more likely to "often/always" make social comparisons. Participants who perceived themselves as unattractive (p = .034) and self-centered (p = .016) were more likely to "often/always" make social comparisons. Participants who perceived a larger proportion of friends use illicit drugs were less likely to "usually" make social comparisons (p = .027). Participants who perceived a larger proportion of friends drink alcohol were more likely to "often/always" make social comparisons (p = .018). CONCLUSIONS Girls who perceive and describe themselves more negatively are at increased odds of making social comparisons to peers.