cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Book Review: Medieval Exegesis and Religious Difference edited by Ryan Szpiech

Ryan Szpiech, ed. Medieval Exegesis and Religious Difference: Commentary, Conflict, and Community in the Premodern Mediterranean , New York: Fordham University Press, 2015. Pp. 329. $55; ISBN 978-0-8232-6462-9. Ryan Szpiech’s volume contains thirteen essays on different aspects of medieval exegesis in the context of religious disputation, polemic, and co-existence. Some essays focus on the points of intersection between exegetical traditions, others on specific polemics, and still others on individual authors’ strategies in negotiating conversion, disputation, or coexistence. The essays are grouped into four thematic sections. The first section, “Strategies of Reading on the Borders of Islam,” contains essays on individual Jewish, Christian, and Muslim authors writing in the Islamicate world and how they negotiate the relationship between the three exegetical traditions. Sarah Stroumsa, in “The Father of Many Nations: Abraham in al-Andalus” (29-39), presents two Andalusi views of Abraham as a paragon of the scientist. Both draw on material from outside the religious tradition of the author; the Muslim Ibn Masarra uses ideas from Jewish mysticism of Abraham as a bearer of special knowledge, while the Jew Maimonides borrows Islamic historiographical traditions of Abraham as a man of science. Sidney Griffith’s “Ibn al-Mahrumah’s Notes in Ibn Kammunah’s Examination of the Three Religions : The Issue of the Abrogation of Mosaic Law” (40-57) is a fascinating study of a polemic study of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam authored by a Christian exegete and glossed by a Jewish scholar. They provide two different views (Jewish and Christian) on the question of the abrogation of Mosaic law as a basis for Christian theology. In “Al-Biqa’i seen through Reuchlin: Reflections on the Islamic relationship with the Bible” (58-70), Walid …
Object-Process Model-Based Operational Viewpoint Specification for Aerospace Architectures

Remote-controlled or autonomous multi-rotor air vehicles, or drones, have become common and commercially available even to individual consumers, mostly for imaging purposes. Drones appeal to mission architects looking to extend the toolbox provided to operators performing challenging missions such as public safety operations. However, careful analysis of the operational context and concept of operations must take place before major acquisitions. The purpose of this paper is to propose a model-based operational architecture definition framework, which is based on the Department of Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF) ontology and uses Object Process Methodology (OPM) as its underlying modeling language. Through careful mapping of DoDAF Operational Viewpoint (OV) ontology to OPM ontology, we were able to show that the entire OV ontology can be covered by a small set of objects, processes, relations among them, and constructs comprising them. We then show how to instantiate the ontology to create a model of an actual architecture of interest (AoI) while maintaining strong typing of the model elements to ensure validity, integrity, consistency, and continuous compliance with the OV. We demonstrate our approach on the case of using drones in public safety enterprises for the purpose of crowd management in massively attended events and locations. The proposed framework allows for capturing ConOps and OpsCon in a lightweight, yet robust and consistent manner, and improve communication and concept validation between operational stakeholders and enterprise architects.
Heterogeneous Graph Matching Networks: Application to Unknown Malware Detection

Information systems have widely been the target of malware attacks. Traditional signature-based malicious program detection algorithms can only detect known malware and are prone to evasion techniques such as binary obfuscation, while behavior-based approaches highly rely on the malware training samples and incur prohibitively high training cost. To address the limitations of existing techniques, we propose MatchGNet, a heterogeneous Graph Matching Network model to learn the graph representation and similarity metric simultaneously based on the invariant graph modeling of the program’s execution behaviors. We conduct a systematic evaluation of our model and show that it is accurate in detecting malicious program behavior and can help detect malware attacks with less false positives. MatchGNet outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms in malware detection by generating 50% less false positives while keeping zero false negatives.
Profiling the effect of nafcillin on HA-MRSA D592 using bacteriological and physiological media

Staphylococcus aureus is a leading human pathogen associated with both hospital-acquired and community-acquired infections. The bacterium has steadily gained resistance to β-lactams and other important first-line antibiotics culminating in its categorization as an urgent threat by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Observations of a varying response to antimicrobial exposure as a function of media type has revealed that clinical susceptibility testing performed in standard bacteriological media might not adequately represent pharmacological responses in the patient. Such observations have encouraged research designed to identify media types that more closely mimic the in vivo environment. In this study, we examine the response of a hospital-acquired USA100 lineage methicillin-resistant, vancomycin-intermediate S. aureus (MRSA/VISA) strain (D592) to nafcillin in a bacteriological compared to a more physiological tissue culture-based medium. We performed multi-dimensional analysis including growth and bacterial cytological profiling, RNA sequencing, and exo-metabolomics measurements (both HPLC and LC/MS) to shed light on the media-dependent activity of the commonly prescribed β-lactam antibiotic nafcillin.
Amine-Based Ionic Liquid for CO2 Capture and Electrochemical or Thermal Regeneration

An ethylenediamine-functionalized ionic liquid (IL) was synthesized for CO₂ capture from industrial gases, with good CO₂ absorption capacity of around 0.95 mmol (42 mg) of CO₂/g of IL at 35 °C. In contrast to conventional gas desorption via utilization of an energy intensive thermal swing, CO₂ was released on competitive complexation of the amines with cupric ions introduced to the ionic liquid electrolyte by the oxidation of a copper electrode. The electrolyte was regenerated by electrodeposition of cupric ions at the cathode. This work emphasizes the importance of electrodeposition from metal-containing ILs and the potential for new recyclable catalysts.
Relativistic Nonthermal Particle Acceleration in Two-Dimensional Collisionless Magnetic Reconnection

Magnetic reconnection, especially in the relativistic regime, provides an efficient mechanism for accelerating relativistic particles and thus offers an attractive physical explanation for nonthermal high-energy emission from various astrophysical sources. I present a simple analytical model that elucidates key physical processes responsible for reconnection-driven relativistic nonthermal particle acceleration (NTPA) in the large-system, plasmoid-dominated regime in two dimensions. The model aims to explain the numerically-observed dependencies of the power-law index $p$ and high-energy cutoff $\gamma_c$ of the resulting nonthermal particle energy spectrum $f(\gamma)$ on the ambient plasma magnetization $\sigma$, and (for $\gamma_c$) on the system size $L$. In this self-similar model, energetic particles are continuously accelerated by the out-of-plane reconnection electric field $E_{\rm rec}$ until they become magnetized by the reconnected magnetic field and eventually trapped in plasmoids large enough to confine them. The model also includes diffusive Fermi acceleration by particle bouncing off rapidly moving plasmoids. I argue that the balance between electric acceleration and magnetization controls the power-law index, while trapping in plasmoids governs the cutoff, thus tying the particle energy spectrum to the plasmoid distribution.
Hidden Markov Model Enabled Prediction and Visualization of Cyber Agility in IoT era

Cyber-threats are continually evolving and growing in numbers and extreme complexities with the increasing connectivity of the Internet of Things (IoT). Existing cyber-defense tools seem not to deter the number of successful cyber-attacks reported worldwide. If defense tools are not seldom, why does the cyber-chase trend favor bad actors? Although cyber-defense tools monitor and try to diffuse intrusion attempts, research shows the required agility speed against evolving threats is way too slow. One of the reasons is that many intrusion detection tools focus on anomaly alerts’ accuracy, assuming that pre-observed attacks and subsequent security patches are adequate. Well, that is not the case. In fact, there is a need for techniques that go beyond intrusion accuracy against specific vulnerabilities to the prediction of cyber-defense performance for improved proactivity. This paper proposes a combination of cyber-attack projection and cyber-defense agility estimation to dynamically but reliably augur intrusion detection performance. Since cyber-security is buffeted with many unknown parameters and rapidly changing trends, we apply a machine learning (ML) based hidden markov model (HMM) to predict intrusion detection agility. HMM is best known for robust prediction of temporal relationships mid noise and training brevity corroborating our high prediction accuracy on three major open-source network intrusion detection systems, namely Zeek, OSSEC, and Suricata. Specifically, we present a novel approach for combined projection, prediction, and cyber-visualization to enable precise agility analysis of cyber defense. We also evaluate the performance of the developed approach using numerical results.
Bioelectrochemical Treatment of 1,4-Dioxane in the Presence of Chlorinated Solvents: Design, Process, and Sustainability Considerations

1,4-Dioxane is one of the most frequently detected organic water contaminants and often co-occurs with chlorinated volatile organic compounds due to its use as solvent stabilizer. Its recalcitrance...
Policy Rules and Forward Guidance Following the Covid-19 Recession

The Federal Open Market Committee’s revised Statement on Longer-Run Goals and Monetary Policy Strategy implements flexible average inflation targeting and mitigates shortfalls, rather than deviations, of employment from its maximum level. We first show how the Taylor, balanced approach, and balanced approach (shortfalls) rules in the Monetary Policy Report could be modified to be consistent with the revised statement. Federal funds rate prescriptions from the consistent rules are both closer to the liftoff from the effective lower bound in December 2015 and provide a closer fit to the actual federal funds rate than the rules currently included in the Report. We then compare prescriptions from the rules with the Committee’s forward guidance. While all of the rules prescribe liftoff from the effective lower bound before the Committee’s 2024:Q1 prescription, the prescribed liftoff with the balanced approach (consistent) rule is closest to the Committee’s. Finally, we consider longer-run scenarios. While the gap between the federal funds rate prescribed by the consistent rules and the Committee’s framework is about 2.5 percent in 2023:Q4, it is eliminated by 2026:Q2.
Epigenetics in prostate cancer: clinical implications

Epigenetic alterations, including changes in DNA methylation, histone modifications and nucleosome remodeling, result in abnormal gene expression patterns that contribute to prostate tumor initiation and continue to evolve during the course of disease progression. Epigenetic modifications are responsible for silencing tumor-suppressor genes, activating oncogenic drivers, and driving therapy resistance and thus have emerged as promising targets for antineoplastic therapy in prostate cancer. In this review, we discuss the role of epigenetics in prostate cancer with a particular emphasis on clinical implications. We review how epigenetic regulators crosstalk with critical biological pathways, including androgen receptor signaling, and how these interactions dynamically control prostate cancer transcriptional profiles. Because of their potentially reversible nature, restoration of a "normal" epigenome could provide a basis for innovative therapeutic strategies in prostate cancer. We highlight how particular epigenetic alterations are emerging as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers and/or targets for the treatment of advanced prostate cancer.
Sexual differences in bone porosity, osteocyte density, and extracellular matrix organization due to osteoblastic-specific Bmp2 deficiency in mice.

Abstract Clinical studies have come to conflicting conclusions regarding BMP2 deficiency's link to regulating bone mass and increasing fracture risk. This may be due to the signaling protein having sex- or age-dependent effects. Previous pre-clinical studies have supported a role, but have not adequately determined the physical mechanism causing altered bulk material properties. This study investigated the physical effects of Bmp2 ablation from osteogenic lineage cells (Osx-Cre; Bmp2fl/fl) in 10- and 15-week-old male and female mice. Bones collected post-mortem were subjected to fracture toughness testing, reference point indentation testing, microCT, and histological analysis to determine the multi-scale relationships between mechanical/material behavior and collagen production, collagen organization, and bone architecture. BMP2-deficient bones were smaller, more brittle, and contained more lacunae-scale voids and cortical pores. The cellular density was significantly increased and there were material-level differences measured by reference point indentation, independently of collagen fiber alignment or organization. The disparities in bone size and in bone fracture toughness between genotypes were especially striking in males at 15-weeks-old. Together, this study suggests that there are sex- and age-dependent effects of BMP2 deficiency. The results from both sexes also warrant further investigation into BMP2 deficiency's role in osteoblasts' transition to osteocytes and overall bone porosity.
Deep Learning Model to Predict Serious Infection Among Children With Central Venous Lines.

Objective: Predict the onset of presumed serious infection, defined as a positive blood culture drawn and new antibiotic course of at least 4 days (PSI*), among pediatric patients with Central Venous Lines (CVLs). Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Single academic children's hospital. Patients: All hospital encounters from January 2013 to December 2018, excluding the ones without a CVL or with a length-of-stay shorter than 24 hours. Interventions: None. Measurements and Main Results: Clinical features including demographics, laboratory results, vital signs, characteristics of the CVLs and medications used were extracted retrospectively from electronic medical records. Data were aggregated across all hospitals within a single pediatric health system and used to train a deep learning model to predict the occurrence of PSI* during the next 48 hours of hospitalization. The proposed model prediction was compared to prediction of PSI* by a marker of illness severity (PELOD-2). The baseline prevalence of line infections was 0.34% over all segmented 48-hour time windows. Events were identified among cases using onset time. All data from admission till the onset was used for cases and among controls we used all data from admission till discharge. The benchmarks were aggregated over all 48 hour time windows [N=748,380 associated with 27,137 patient encounters]. The model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.993 (95% CI = [0.990, 0.996]), the enriched positive predictive value (PPV) was 23 times greater than the base prevalence. Conversely, prediction by PELOD-2 achieved a lower PPV of 1.5% [0.9%, 2.1%] which was 5 times the baseline prevalence. Conclusion: A deep learning model that employs common clinical features in the electronic health record can help predict the onset of CLABSI in hospitalized children with central venous line 48 hours prior to the time of specimen collection.
Destabilization of CAR T-cell treatment efficacy in the presence of dexamethasone

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy is potentially an effective targeted immunotherapy for glioblastoma, yet there is presently little known about the efficacy of CAR T-cell treatment when combined with the widely used anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant glucocorticoid, Dexamethasone. Here we present a mathematical model-based analysis of three patient-derived glioblastoma cell lines treated in vitro with CAR T-cells and Dexamethasone. Advanced in vitro experimental cell killing assay technologies allow for highly resolved temporal dynamics of tumor cells treated with CAR T-cells and Dexamethone, making this a valuable model system for studying the rich dynamics of nonlinear biological processes with translational applications. We model the system as a non-autonomous, two-species predator-prey interaction of tumor cells and CAR T-cells, with explicit time-dependence in the clearance rate of Dexamethasone. Using time as a bifurcation parameter, we show that (1) the presence of Dexamethasone destabilizes coexistence equilibria between CAR T-cells and tumor cells and (2) as Dexamethasone is cleared from the system, a stable coexistence equilibrium returns in the form of a Hopf bifurcation. With the model fit to experimental data, we demonstrate that high concentrations of Dexamethasone antagonizes CAR T-cell efficacy by exhausting, or reducing the activity of CAR T-cells, and by promoting tumor cell growth. Finally, we identify a critical threshold in the ratio of CAR T-cell death to CAR T-cell proliferation rates that predicts eventual treatment success or failure that may be used to guide the dose and timing of CAR T-cell therapy in the presence of Dexamethasone in patients.
iDisorder: Understanding Our Obsession with Technology and Overcoming Its Hold on Us

1.We Didn't Start the Fire * 2.Mini Generations 3. Internet of the Future * 4.Our Social Selves * 5.Who Am I Anyway? Am I My Online Persona or My Real Self? * 6.Is Anything Private Anymore? * 7. Information Overload * 8.The Myth of ADHD/OCD * 9.Taking an Emotional Toll * 10.How Does the Brain Work and What Are We Doing to Drive it to its Limits * 11.Distracting Ourselves to Death * 12. It's Not About Managing Your Time. It is About Managing Your Technology
Role of Thermal Expansion in Thermal Stress Resistance of Semi-Absorbing Brittle Materials Subjected to Severe Thermal Radiation

An analysis is presented of the thermal stresses resulting from “thermal trapping” in semi-absorbing brittle ceramic materials in the form of a thin flat plate subjected to intense thermal radiation. Solutions for the thermal stresses are presented for symmetric and asymmetric radiation heating and convective cooling with limiting values of the heat transfer coefficient, h = 0 and ∞. For h = ∞, the stresses are identically equal to zero for values of the optical thickness pa of 0 and ∞, and reach their maximum value at μa ≃ 1.3 and 2.0 for symmetric and asymmetric heating respectively. For h = 0, the magnitude of thermal stress increases with increasing optical thickness.
Regulation of the in vitro secondary antibody response. I. Suppression by relatively high, but physiological levels of calcium ion.

Abstract Secondary antibody responses generated in vitro with spleen cells from mice primed and boosted with SRBC or TNP-KLH antigen were found to be influenced by the amount of Ca 2+ in the culture medium. Relatively low levels of Ca 2+ (0.1 m M ) were optimally supportive for the generation of PFC in vitro , with higher, more physiological levels of Ca 2+ (1.0–1.7 m M ) suppressing the generation of PFC by as much as 100%. Suppression by high levels of Ca 2+ was most pronounced when the amount of antigen used to elicit the in vitro antibody response was high, whereas responses generated by lesser amounts of antigen were minimally affected by Ca 2+ level. Ca 2+ -mediated suppression was localized to an intermediate phase (24–48 hr) of the response. Mitogenic and polyclonal antibody responses were not affected by high levels of Ca 2+ . The effect of Ca 2+ concentration on the secondary, IgG-producing antibody response may be significant in terms of understanding the various control mechanisms interacting in regulation of IgG synthesis.
Cost Flow Diagrams as an Alternative Method of External Problem Representation - A Diagrammatic Approach to Teaching Cost Accounting and Evidence of Its Effectiveness

Undergraduate accounting students can have a difficult time conceptualizing manufacturing processes, the associated physical inventory flows, and the accompanying accounting cost flows. Traditional methods of teaching this material within managerial and cost accounting classes heavily stress the transactional and reporting requirements. Such approaches can leave students unclear as to the underlying nature and inter-relatedness of the issues and processes involved. This paper introduces and provides statistical evidence regarding a new visually-based diagrammatic approach that utilizes cost flow diagrams as an alternative method of external problem representation. As concrete examples of the technique, the paper includes diagrammatic solutions to three different traditional cost accounting problems. We hypothesize that the use of diagrams aids students in developing an innate understanding of inventory and cost flows across multiple cost accounting topics. Our approach is consistent with previous findings in the cognitive science literature that the use of diagrams allows students to process relationships and complex data in chunks, thereby processing more effectively. To study the effectiveness of a diagrammatic approach in teaching cost accounting, historical student final exam assessment data, segmented by course learning objectives, was collected and analyzed. The paper presents statistical and graphical evidence that indicates a significant improvement in student performance when a diagrammatic approach is utilized. Possibilities for generalization of visually-based diagrammatic techniques to other areas of accounting pedagogy are discussed and presented for consideration.
An Asymptotic Equivalence Between Two Frame Perturbation Theorems

In this paper, two stability results regarding exponential frames are compared. The theorems, (one proven herein, and the other in Sun and Zhou (J. Math. Anal. Appl. 235:159–167, 1999)), each give a constant such that if \({\sup }_{n\in {\mathbb{Z}}^{}}\|{\epsilon {}_{n}\|}_{\infty } < C\), and (ei⟨ ⋅,t n ⟩) n∈ℤ d is a frame for L 2[−π,π] d , then (ei⟨ ⋅,t n +e n ⟩) n∈ℤ d is a frame for L 2[−π,π] d . These two constants are shown to be asymptotically equivalent for large values of d.
Structure of Ball Llghtning

Publisher Summary Over the years there has accumulated an impressive number of reports of encounters with glowing balls of various sizes that drift through the air for seconds or minutes before softly and suddenly vanishing away or exploding. The common name for these events is ball lightning. The first scientist to observe ball lightning appears to have been G. W. Richman, who worked with M. V. Lomonosov at the St. Petersburg Academy. Richman's experiment was not very different from Benjamin Franklin's. Richman led an ungrounded lightning rod to an electrometer in his laboratory. At the inquest, the engraver I. Sokolov reported that as a thunderstorm was approaching, he saw a pale blue fireball the size of a fist leave the rod and float silently through the air to Richman's face. There was then a sound like a small cannon, at which time Sokolov lost consciousness. When he recovered there was an acrid smoke. Richman was not breathing; there was a red spot on Richman's forehead, and two holes in one of his shoes. This chapter explores a consistent model of ball lightning, explaining the principal circumstances of Richman's death and Sokolov's testimony. The outline of the work done in this chapter is as follows: Some sample ball lightning observations are given to emphasize the rather fantastic behavior often reported. Some of the published theories and related experiments that have been used to explain ball lightning are critically reviewed. This chapter describes experiments showing that just oxygen and nitrogen permit discharges of anomalously high luminous efficiency and afterglow persistence electroluminescence, experiments dating back to Rayleigh's studies of “active nitrogen.” The luminous efficiency and half-life are estimated. The presence of electroluminescent air in lightning channels is inferred from photographic records. Then the question of providing this power is considered. The electtrohydrodynamic and molecular evolution of a ball of electroluminescent air from ordinary lightning or a glow discharge in the atmospheric electric field is studied. This chapter concludes that ball lightning, it would seem, is a natural laboratory not of magnetohydrodynamics, as was once hoped, but of electrohydrodynamics and molecular physics.
Bioconductor: software and development strategies for statistical genomics

Bioconductor is an open source initiative for the creation and dissemination of methods in statistical genomics and computational biology based on R. This article describes the requirements, language features, and methodology of design and development guiding the evolution of this project. Commitments to software interoperability, computable task-oriented documentation, and full transparency of algorithm development and use are found to be valuable in reducing barriers to access faced by statistical, computational, or biological researchers attempting interdisciplinary work. These commitments are expected to foster the propagation of standards of transparency and explicit reproducibility from wet-lab science, where they are well accepted, to in silico biology, where explicit reproduction of important published results is often very difficult. Keywords: computational biology; open source software; object-oriented programming; documentation; network algorithms; software quality assurance; reproducible research
A parallel Viterbi algorithm for decoding convolutional codes on SIMD machines

The parallel implementation aspects of the Viterbi algorithm, which gives the maximum likelihood solution to decoding conventional codes, are studied. The interconnection of the trellis diagram of a binary convolutional code is similar to the shuffle exchange. This similarity is exploited to present a parallel version of the Viterbi algorithm. The proposed algorithm avoids tasks such as appending and exchanging the survivor lists that are considered pragmatic issues to be accommodated in implementing the Viterbi algorithm. This is done by introducing an additional back-tracking procedure which is almost identical to the forward path where branch and path metrics are computed. The parallel Viterbi algorithm is implemented on the connection machine which is a SIMD (single instruction stream and multiple data stream) parallel machine. >
Phenotypic Stability in Rate of Maturation of Heterozygotes for Induced Chlorophyll Mutations in Tomato.

ONSIDERABLE attention has been directed in recent years to the study of C single-gene heterosis. Several workers have presented evidence to indicate that, occasionally, there is a cumulative action of divergent alleles such that the heterozygote is superior to either homozygote. In such cases, then, it appears that heterozygosity per se contributes to heterosis. GARBER and ROWLEY (1927) found that maize plants heterozygous for a recessive, defective endosperm mutation yielded significantly less than did their homozygous normal siblings. WENTZ and STEWART (1927) reported that soybeans heterozygous for a mutation which was semilethal in the homozygous condition, were not significantly different from their homozygous normal siblings with respect to yield. MANGLESDORF (1928) found that a defective endosperm mutation had a slight, but consistently deleterious effect in the heterozygous condition. The traits affected were earliness of blooming, length and weight of ears, and plant height. KARPER (1930) found that sorghum plants heterozygous for an albino seedling mutation were slightly, but not significantly taller than their homozygous normal sibs. The heterozygotes were also heavier than the homozygotes, but not significantly so. The two genotypes were equal with respect to earliness. ROBERTSON and AUSTIN (1935) spdied three recessive chlorophyll mutations in barley. Single gene heterozygotes were in no way inferior to their respective homozygous normal plants. Two of the genes were linked, and it was found that the double heterozygotes for these loci were significantly superior to the homozygous normal plants with respect to three different measurements of yield. JONES (1945) investigated five defective mutations in maize. The various heterozygotes were found to yield from 3 to 104 percent better than their respective homozygous siblings and were from 0 to 9 percent taller than homozygotes, depending on the mutation involved. Of special interest are the investigations of GUSTAFSSON and his co-workers on barley (1946, 1947, 1950a, 1950b, 1951). GUSTAFSSON (1951), working with the induced mutations, viridis and erectoides-29, demonstrated that, although viridis is lethal when homozygous, in the heterozygous condition in the dominant erectoides-
Life-Course Perspectives on Mental Health

The cross-fertilization of the sociology of mental health and life-course perspectives is a valuable and increasingly investigated research topic. Mental health is dynamic rather than static, and life-course principles provide conceptual and methodological tools for understanding those dynamics. The purpose of this chapter is to review the state of the science with regard to mental health and illness in life-course perspective. It begins with a review of fundamental life-course principles, including examples of their utility for contributing to our understanding of mental health. A brief section summarizes methodological advances that permit analyses of long-term patterns of stability and change in mental health and its risk and protective factors. The core of this chapter reviews research on four key topics that combine life-course perspectives with major issues in the sociology of mental health. This chapter ends with brief recommendations for future research.
Geochelone in Illinois and the Illinoian-Sangamonian Vegetation of the Type Region

Abstract An investigation of Illinoian- and Sangamonian-age deposits in the type region for both Pleistocene stages in central Illinois has yielded a palynological record spanning the Illinoian-Sangamonian boundary associated with an interglacial fauna containing Geochelone crassiscutata. The pollen indicates a shift from high Picea and Pinus to deciduous trees, followed by grass and herbaceous taxa, and finally, a return of deciduous trees. This sequence appears to correlate with marine isotopic stages 6 through 5d. Faunal remains are abundant throughout but megafauna are present only in the interglacial section where Geochelone occurs. The presence of Geochelone suggests above-freezing temperatures in central Ilinois throughout the year during at least the portion of the Sangamonian represented.
Human Cholecystokinin Type A Receptor Gene: Cytogenetic Localization, Physical Mapping, and Identification of Two Missense Variants in Patients with Obesity and Non-Insulin-Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM)

The human CCKAR gene was previously mapped to chromosome 4 using a panel of human/hamster somatic cell hybrids. We now report the cytogenetic and physical localization of the CCKAR gene. Using fluorescence in situ hybridization, we determined that CCKAR maps to 4p15.1-p15.2. On the physical map, CCKAR was adjacent to the marker AFMa283yh5, between AFMb355ya5 and WI-4086. A simple sequence repeat (D4S391) with high heterozygosity was found in the database, and CCKAR and this genetic marker were colocalized on two YACs (933D9 and 928A5). We also characterized the genomic structure and determined the exon-intron boundaries of the gene. This provided the opportunity to screen the gene in patients with non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus and/or obesity for single nucleotide changes using a single-strand conformational polymorphism strategy. Five sequence variants were identified in the coding sequence of the gene, including two missense variants (G21R and V365I). The results of these studies provide (1) precise genetic and physical mapping data, (2) exon-intron sequences for single nucleotide analysis, and (3) identification of two missense mutations in the CCKAR gene. The contribution of these CCKAR variants to normal physiology, to obesity, and to diabetes can now be evaluated.
Mechanical characterization of graphite platelet nanocomposites through molecular mechanics and continuum modeling

Mechanical properties of nanocomposites consisting of epoxy substrate reinforced by randomly oriented graphite platelets are studied with Mori-Tanaka method in collaboration with molecular mechanics. Elastic constants of graphite nanoplatelets which are the inclusion phase of the micromechanical model are calculated based on their molecular force field. The calculated elastic constants are well compared with the both experimental data and other theoretical predictions in literatures. The results from Mori-Tanaka's method based on the graphite modulus calculation from molecular mechanics are found that nanocomposite moduli have strong dependence on the aspect ratios of reinforcing particles, but no direct size dependence. The predicted nanocomposite moduli compare favorably with modulus measurement of several graphite particles of various aspect ratios and sizes. The experimental data also shows that particle sizes have very weak effect on nanocomposite moduli.© 2006 ASME
Ankle arthrodesis using an arthroscopic method: Long-term follow-up of 34 cases

Thirty-four ankle arthrodeses performed using an arthroscopic technique were followed for an average of 8 years. The fusion rate was 97% and the average time to fusion was 9 weeks; 86% of patients had good or excellent functional results. There were no wound infections or neurological injuries. There was one malunion and one additional minor complication. The arthroscopic method uses an abrader to denude the joint surfaces of cartilage, followed by screw fixation. The average time to fusion is significantly less than other ankle arthrodesis techniques, which hastens the recovery period. The shorter time to fusion is likely a result of the minimal soft tissue stripping that is performed during the procedure. The low morbidity of this technique eliminates the need for hospitalization in most cases. There were no long-term adverse sequelae. This is the largest reported series of arthroscopic ankle arthrodeses.
Basis for hormonal management of advanced prostate cancer

Background. In the early 1940s, when it was established that most prostatic cancers were androgen dependent and could be controlled by androgen withdrawal, little was known about the mechanism of androgen action. Measurements of hormones, both in the circulation and in the tissue, were not available, nor were measurements of androgen receptors known at that time. Methods. Since that time, a large body of information has been published regarding the mechanism of androgen-mediated action. With the understanding of androgen-mediated action has come the opportunity to develop drugs targeted to block specific steps in the sequence of androgen action, beginning in the hypothalamus-pituitary area and extending down to the intracellular processes of enzymatic reduction
Cholangiocarcinoma. A spectrum of intrahepatic, perihilar, and distal tumors.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this article is to introduce a simple method for classifying cholangiocarcinomas and to apply this system to analyze a large number of patients from a single institution. SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA: For the past 2 decades, most western reports on cholangiocarcinoma have separated intrahepatic from extrahepatic tumors and have subclassified this latter group into proximal, middle, and distal subgroups. However, "middle" lesions are uncommon and are managed most often either with hilar resection or with pancreatoduodenectomy. The spectrum of cholangiocarcinoma, therefore, is best classified into three broad groups: 1) intrahepatic, 2) perihilar, and 3) distal tumors. These categories correlate with anatomic distribution and imply preferred treatment. METHODS: The records of all patients with histologically confirmed cholangiocarcinoma who underwent surgical exploration at The Johns Hopkins Hospital over a 23-year period were reviewed. RESULTS: Of 294 patients with cholangiocarcinoma, 18 (6%) had intrahepatic, 196 (67%) had perihilar, and 80 (27%) had distal tumors. Age, gender, race, and associated diseases were similar among the three groups. Patients with intrahepatic tumors, by definition, were less likely (p < 0.01) to be jaundiced and more likely (p < 0.05) to present with abdominal pain. The resectability rate increased with a more distal location (50% vs. 56% vs. 91%), and resection improved survival at each site. Five-year survival rates for resected intrahepatic, perihilar, and distal tumors were 44%, 11%, and 28%, and median survival rates were 26, 19, and 22 months, respectively. Postoperative radiation therapy did not improve survival. In a multivariate analysis resection (p < 0.001. hazard ratio 2.80), negative microscopic margins (p < 0.01, hazard ratio 1.79), preoperative serum albumin (p < 0.04, hazard ratio 0.82), and postoperative sepsis (p < 0.001, hard ratio 0.27) were the best predictors of outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Cholangiocarcinoma is best classified into three broad categories. Resection remains the primary treatment, whereas postoperative adjuvant radiation has no influence on survival. Therefore, new agents or strategies to deliver adjuvant therapy are needed to improve survival.
Nonlinear electrical conductivity in heterogeneous media

A new method is proposed for estimating the effective behaviour of strongly nonlinear composite materials. The central idea is to write down second–order Taylor expansions for the constituent phase energy functions, about appropriately chosen reference fields. This allows the restatement of the problem for the nonlinear composite in terms of a corresponding problem for a fictitious linear composite with anisotropic constituents, subjected to a given distribution of polarization fields. The procedure thus permits the straightforward conversion of well–known estimates for linear composites, such as the Maxwell–Garnett and effective–medium approximations, into corresponding estimates for nonlinear composites. The resulting nonlinear Maxwell–Garnett and effective-medium estimates are exact to second order in the contrast.
Institutional Considerations for Emergency Response in Developing Nations: Indonesia, Brazil, and Angola

ABSTRACT As exploration and production increase in developing nations, multinational oil companies have to deal with new institutional requirements for emergency response. These can range from plan submission requirements to reporting requirements for a spill to dispersant application regulations. In each country, the institutional requirements can be hidden under several different agencies, changing on a regular basis, or nonexistent. For example, in Indonesia, detailed regulations exist defining the response agencies depending on the distance from the shoreline, but institutional capacity is lacking. In Brazil, there are contingency plan format requirements as part of the environmental process for drilling, strict dispersant permit requirements, and newly published regulations (February 2000) requiring oil spill reporting. In Angola, there are no existing regulations regarding spill response; however, there are emerging regulations targeting the petroleum industry, and a National Oil Spill Contingency P...
PPARδ-mediated antiinflammatory mechanisms inhibit angiotensin II-accelerated atherosclerosis

Activation of the nuclear hormone receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor δ (PPARδ) has been shown to improve insulin resistance, adiposity, and plasma HDL levels. However, its antiatherogenic role remains controversial. Here we report atheroprotective effects of PPARδ activation in a model of angiotensin II (AngII)-accelerated atherosclerosis, characterized by increased vascular inflammation related to repression of an antiinflammatory corepressor, B cell lymphoma-6 (Bcl-6), and the regulators of G protein-coupled signaling (RGS) proteins RGS4 and RGS5. In this model, administration of the PPARδ agonist GW0742 (1 or 10 mg/kg) substantially attenuated AngII-accelerated atherosclerosis without altering blood pressure and increased vascular expression of Bcl-6, RGS4, and RGS5, which was associated with suppression of inflammatory and atherogenic gene expression in the artery. In vitro studies demonstrated similar changes in AngII-treated macrophages: PPARδ activation increased both total and free Bcl-6 levels and inhibited AngII activation of MAP kinases, p38, and ERK1/2. These studies uncover crucial proinflammatory mechanisms of AngII and highlight actions of PPARδ activation to inhibit AngII signaling, which is atheroprotective.
PFG-ω1-Filtered TOCSY Experiments for the Determination of Long-Range Heteronuclear and Homonuclear Coupling Constants and Estimation ofJ-Coupling “Crosstalk” Artifacts in 2-D ω1-Filtered “E. COSY-Style” Spectra

Abstract We present novel one- and two-dimensional versions of the ω 1 -filtered TOCSY experiment. These experiments utilize pulsed-field gradient techniques and INEPT–reverse INEPT magnetization transfer to generate heteronuclear filtering by means of coherence pathway selection. The major advantages of this approach are twofold: first, each experiment requires a reasonable number of transmitter pulses, gradient pulses, and delays to implement. Second, the use of z -axis gradients at the beginning and termination of the pulse sequences prevents the recovery of dephased magnetization prior to FID detection. This technique was incorporated into 1-D and 2-D ω 1 -filtered J XH - and J HH -TOCSY-style experiments. As demonstrated on 15 N-enriched peptide samples, the use of the pulsed-field-gradient coherence selection scheme effectively filters out unwanted magnetization components, thereby improving the overall sensitivity of the experiments. In addition to this suite of pulse sequences, we also present a method for correcting the reduction in J -coupling that results from crosspeak shifting in 2-D ω 1 -filtered E. COSY-style spectra. This correction is applicable to both Lorentzian and Gaussian 2-D crosspeak lineshapes.
Hybridization studies with nucleic acids from murine plasma cell tumors.

Abstract Studies are presented of the hybridization of pulse-labeled RNA from murine myeloma tumors with DNA isolated from the same or different tumors or normal mouse tissues. Rates of reaction, thermal stability and competition experiments all suggest differences among the four different tumor DNAs, a result which may indicate specific amplification of immunoglobulin genes.
An estimation of the electric field in the magnetotail current sheet using the observed energetic ion bulk flow

It is important to know the electric field in the tail current sheet in order to understand how particles behave and how much energy is being dissipated. The electric field is also a measurement of the reconnection rate during substorms. For the CDAW-6 substorm period of March 22, 1979, we used the ion data from the medium energy particles experiment (MEPE) on the ISEE-1 satellite, and studied nine measurements of the 3D distribution function centered on the center of the current sheet. The measured distribution function was then integrated to obtain the average of bulk flow velocity in the geocentric solar ecliptic (GSE) frame. This bulk flow velocity was then broken up into its components perpendicular and parallel to the magnetic field for the nine cases. It was further assumed that the perpendicular component was due, in part, to an energy dependent drift and to an energy independent electric field drift. Using the bulk flow velocities from any two energy channels we can separate out the electric and energy dependent drifts and thus obtain electric field and energy dependent components. The two lowest energy channels (34.3 keV and 54.9 keV) give the main results, and the 80.4 keV and 118.8 keV channels are used as a cross check. We find that Ex fluctuates approximately ±5 mV/m, and Ey ± 10 mV/m, in reasonable agreement with measurements by the electric field instrument [Pedersen et al., 1985], with most of the fluctuation presumably due to the motion of the current sheet. Using current sheet oscillation theory and the central current sheet data points, we can estimate Ey in the frame of the current sheet and find a positive average Ey with a magnitude of ≈ 0.1 mV/m, which is also consistent with that expected for reconnection in this substorm time period. The Ez component has a remarkable linear correlation with Bx, with a correlation coefficient of 0.91. Assuming Bx varies linearly with z, a positive ion density of 3.14×10−20/d(Re) Coulombs/m³ is implied. Such a positive space charge near the current sheet center is expected theoretically.
Role of cytochrome P450c17 in polycystic ovary syndrome

The hyperandrogenism of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) appears to be due to dysregulation of steroidogenesis within the ovaries and adrenal glands. P450c17 is the key enzyme that regulates androgen synthesis. It is the only enzyme known to have the capacity to convert C21-precursors to the androgen pre-hormones, the 17-ketosteroids. It is a single enzyme with two activities, 17-hydroxylase and 17,20-lyase. Thus, its regulation is a significant factor in the expression of hyperandrogenism. Androgen secretion is LH-dependent in the ovary and ACTH-dependent in the adrenal glands. The androgenic response to each of these tropic hormones seems to be modulated by intra-ovarian or intra-adrenal autocrine and paracrine mechanisms. This modulation serves to regulate steroid hormone secretion in tissue-specific ways. Insulin, IGFs and inhibin are among the many growth factors capable of augmenting the response to LH and ACTH. The insulin/IGF system stimulates P450c17 mRNA expression and activities in the ovaries and adrenal glands. An integrating link between insulin resistance and hyperandrogenemia may be serine phosphorylation, which inhibits activity of the insulin receptor and promotes the 17,20-lyase activity of P450c17. However, it must be kept in mind that there is some evidence for the existence of P450c17-independent pathways of androgen biosynthesis.