cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Simplified identification of disulfide, trisulfide, and thioether pairs with 213 nm UVPD

Disulfide heterogeneity and other non-native crosslinks introduced during therapeutic antibody production and storage could have considerable negative effects on clinical efficacy, but tracking these modifications remains challenging. Analysis must also be carried out cautiously to avoid introduction of disulfide scrambling or reduction, necessitating the use of low pH digestion with less specific proteases. Herein we demonstrate that 213 nm ultraviolet photodissociation streamlines disulfide elucidation through bond-selective dissociation of sulfur-sulfur and carbon-sulfur bonds in combination with less specific backbone dissociation. Importantly, both types of fragmentation can be initiated in a single MS/MS activation stage. In addition to disulfide mapping, it is also shown that thioethers and trisulfides can be identified by characteristic fragmentation patterns. The photochemistry resulting from 213 nm excitation facilitates a simplified, two-tiered data processing approach that allows observation of all native disulfide bonds, scrambled disulfide bonds, and non-native sulfur-based linkages in a pepsin digest of Rituximab. Native disulfides represented the majority of bonds according to ion count, but the highly solvent-exposed heavy/light interchain disulfides were found to be most prone to modification. Production and storage methods that facilitate non-native links are discussed. Due to the importance of heavy and light chain connectivity for antibody structure and function, this region likely requires particular attention in terms of its influence on maintaining structural fidelity.
A Study of Flame Dynamics Induced by A Dual-Pulse Laser Ignition Technique

This study describes the ignition and flame dynamics generated using a dual-pulse laser pre-ionization technique. The new technique involves the use of two nanosecond pulses for inducing gas heating and initiating combustion. Initially, a UV pulse $(\lambda =266$ nm) from the fourth harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser is used to pre-ionize a small volume of gas inside of the combustion chamber forming a weakly ionized plasma channel $(\mathrm {n}_{e} \sim 3 \mathrm {x}10 ^{16}$ cm-3). The cold plasma produced by the UV pulse (T~ 600 -1000K) is subsequently heated by an NIR $(\lambda =1064$ nm) pulse that follows ~ 10ns after the preionization pulse. The NIR beam adds energy into the gas through inverse bremsstrahlung absorption of radiation and increases the temperature of the plasma to T~ 2000-3000 K. Ignition of propane-air mixtures at various equivalence ratios was successfully achieved using the technique presented above and the results are contrasted with the more common laser breakdown/spark ignition technique that uses a single NIR pulse. Preliminary results show that the dual-pulse technique allows for ignition of leaner mixtures ($\phi =0.6)$ as compared to conventional laser breakdown ignition ($\phi =0.7)$. In addition, analysis of the pressure data collected during the combustion events suggests that the combustion efficiency (defined here as the fraction of the chemical energy of the fuel converted into heat) is also higher using the new technique. Measurements of the plasma energy absorption show that both techniques require similar (absorbed) energy for ignition $(\mathrm {E}_{abs} \sim 15$ mJ); however, the dual-pulse achieves this with less incident pulse energy, i.e., total combined pulse energy of 50 mJ $(\mathrm {E}_{UV}=20$ mJ, $\mathrm {E}_{NIR}=30$ mJ), as compared to needing incident 75 mJ for single pulse NIR. Moreover, studying the chemiluminescence emitted by the OH* radical $(\lambda _{OH\ast }=308$ nm) that is naturally produced during the combustion event using an ICCD camera revealed that the flame dynamics can be very different for the two techniques. The NIR initiated flames propagate as a toroidal structure owing to the vorticity induced by the shock wave that follows the spark, a situation that generates excessive flame stretching which can lead to quenching for lean mixtures. In contrast, the flames generated using the dual-pulse technique propagate as a roughly spherical front (depending on the offset of the two beam waists) with less pronounced stretching.
Implications of Ancestral Connectedness and the Afrocentric Paradigm for Anglo Saxon American Identity Construction

This article broadens existing relational theories and their relevance to our Western understanding of the formation of self-concept by examining Anglo Saxon Americans9 understanding of connection with Ancestors. It uses the African worldview as a sample Indigenous paradigm, shows its influence on contemporary African American culture, and reviews literature of Africentric psychology wherein conceptualization of, and engagement with, Ancestral connectedness has been employed. Based on findings from an earlier phenomenological inquiry into the lived experience of the formation of self-concept in relation to Ancestral connectedness in three Anglo Saxon Americans reveals that there is very little sense of Ancestral connectedness for these individuals. It follows that the long-standing premise in Western psychology that a healthy development of the self is forged out of a process of differentiation and increased autonomy must be brought into question. A self-identity based in the form of an extended self and having access to a lived connection with our Ancestors as Anglo Saxon Americans, can inform psychotherapeutic modalities designed to support our ever-growing social and psychological maladies.
Distinguishing Between Investigator Discriminability and Eyewitness Discriminability: A Method for Creating Full Receiver Operating Characteristic Curves of Lineup Identification Performance:

The conceptual frameworks provided by both the lineups-as-experiments analogy and signal detection theory have proven important to understanding how eyewitness lineups work. The lineups-as-experiments analogy proposes that when investigators use a lineup procedure, they are acting as experimenters and should therefore follow the same tried-and-true procedures that experimenters follow when executing an experiment. Signal detection theory offers a framework for distinguishing between factors that improve the trade-off between culprit and innocent-suspect identifications and factors that affect the frequency of suspect identifications. We integrate these two conceptual frameworks. We argue that an eyewitness lineup procedure is characterized by two simultaneous signal detection tasks. On one hand, the witness is tasked with determining whether the culprit is present in the lineup and identifying that person. On the other hand, the investigator knows which lineup member is the suspect and which lineup members are known-innocent fillers and is therefore tasked only with determining whether the suspect is the culprit. The investigator uses the witness's identification decision and associated level of confidence to decide whether the suspect is the culprit. We leverage this realization to demonstrate a method for creating full receiver operating characteristic curves for eyewitness lineup procedures.
Multinational maids: stepwise migration in a global labor market: by Anju Mary Paul, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2017, 410 pp., £90.00 (hardback), ISBN 978-1-107-19089-4

Migrant domestic workers from the Philippines are frequently represented as emblematic service workers in a worldwide, low wage, global labour market. Their larger travails and smaller triumphs hav...
Estimation of geoacoustic parameters using machine learning techniques

Modal dispersion of broadband acoustic data has been used extensively to estimate the geoacoustic parameters using perturbation techniques (Rajan et al., 1987), non-linear inversion techniques (Potty et al., 2000) and Bayesian inference (Warner et al., 2015). The Airy phase region corresponding the minimum group velocity of the normal modes are extremely sensitive to bottom properties in comparison with properties of the water column. This talk will explore the sensitivity of the group speed minima and the associated frequencies of the acoustic normal modes to bottom parameters. The group speed minima and the associated frequency data will be used to train a machine-learning algorithm. Synthetic data will be generated for various bottoms and it will be used as the training pool. Data collected from New England Bight, East China Sea, and New England Mud patch will be used to test the algorithm. The value added to the a priori bottom parameter information using the algorithm will be discussed in the context of computational cost associated with the algorithm. [Work supported by the Office of Naval Research.]
Biomechanical Comparison of the Long Head of the Biceps Tendon Versus Conjoint Tendon Transfer in a Bone Loss Shoulder Instability Model

Background:Augmentation of Bankart repair with long head of the biceps tendon transfer has been previously described, although there is a paucity of literature describing its biomechanical effects....
UK dog shelters have unreasonably high demands.

The recent research article on the importation of rescue dogs into the UK1 missed one common reason why owners choose to adopt from abroad, and that is the ‘preciousness’ of some of our dog rescue centres in the UK. My wife and I recently lost both of our dogs within a year of each other, both aged 13 and of natural causes. At the age of 66 we were debating whether it was fair to take on another dog, but life without one seemed unsettling, given that we had owned dogs our entire lives. We therefore decided to …
Workshop on Machine Learning for Optical Communication Systems: A Summary

A summary of a public workshop on machine learning for optical Communication systems held on August 2nd 2019, by the Communications Technology Laboratory in cooperation with the Information Technology Laboratory at NIST in Boulder, CO.
Conferencing on the Internet

This paper discusses three key requirements for conferencing applications — user on conference location, latency, and scalability. It then looks at the IETF and ITU approaches to meeting these requirements. Finally a protocol called SUCCESS, which attempts to combine the benefits of both approaches, is outlined.
Sex Differences in the Sustained Effects of Ketamine on Resilience to Chronic Stress

Exposure to stress is recognized to be a triggering factor in several mood disorders, including depression and anxiety. There is very little understanding of why female subjects have a significantly higher risk for these conditions than males. Recent findings in male rodents indicated that prophylactic ketamine can prevent the development of a stress-induced depressive-like phenotype, providing a pharmacological tool to study the mechanisms underlying stress resilience. Unfortunately, none of these studies incorporated female subjects, nor did they provide a mechanistic understanding of the effects of ketamine on stress resilience. Our previous work identified the prefrontal glutamatergic and parvalbumin (PV) systems as potential molecular mechanisms underlying sex differences in susceptibility to stress-induced emotional deregulations. To further address this point, we treated male and female mice with a single dose of ketamine before exposure to a chronic stress paradigm to determine whether stress-resilience induced by a pre-exposure to ketamine is similar in males and females and whether modulation of the prefrontal glutamatergic and PV systems by ketamine is associated with these behavioral effects. Ketamine prevented chronic stress-induced changes in behaviors in males, which was associated with a reduction in expression of PV and the NMDA receptor NR1 subunit. Ketamine did not protect females against the effects of chronic stress and did not change significantly prefrontal gene expression. Our data highlight fundamental sex differences in the sustained effects of ketamine. They also further implicate prefrontal glutamatergic transmission and PV in resilience to chronic stress.
Identifying Vulnerable GitHub Repositories and Users in Scientific Cyberinfrastructure: An Unsupervised Graph Embedding Approach

The scientific cyberinfrastructure community heavily relies on public internet-based systems (e.g., GitHub) to share resources and collaborate. GitHub is one of the most powerful and popular systems for open source collaboration that allows users to share and work on projects in a public space for accelerated development and deployment. Monitoring GitHub for exposed vulnerabilities can save financial cost and prevent misuse and attacks of cyberinfrastructure. Vulnerability scanners that can interface with GitHub directly can be leveraged to conduct such monitoring. This research aims to proactively identify vulnerable communities within scientific cyberinfrastructure. We use social network analysis to construct graphs representing the relationships amongst users and repositories. We leverage prevailing unsupervised graph embedding algorithms to generate graph embeddings that capture the network attributes and nodal features of our repository and user graphs. This enables the clustering of public cyberinfrastructure repositories and users that have similar network attributes and vulnerabilities. Results of this research find that major scientific cyberinfrastructures have vulnerabilities pertaining to secret leakage and insecure coding practices for high-impact genomics research. These results can help organizations address their vulnerable repositories and users in a targeted manner.
Delusional evidence-responsiveness

Delusions are deeply evidence-resistant. Patients with delusions are unmoved by evidence that is in direct conflict with the delusion, often responding to such evidence by offering obvious, and strange, confabulations. As a consequence, the standard view is that delusions are not evidence-responsive. This claim has been used as a key argumentative wedge in debates on the nature of delusions. Some have taken delusions to be beliefs and argued that this implies that belief is not constitutively evidence-responsive. Others hold fixed the evidence-responsiveness of belief and take this to show that delusions cannot be beliefs. Against this common assumption, I appeal to a large range of empirical evidence to argue that delusions are evidence-responsive in the sense that subjects have the capacity to respond to evidence on their delusion in rationally permissible ways. The extreme evidence-resistance of delusions is a consequence of powerful masking factors on these capacities, such as strange perceptual experiences, motivational factors, and cognitive biases. This view makes room for holding both that belief is constitutively evidence-responsive and that delusions are beliefs, and it has important implications for the study and treatment of delusions.
Lupus susceptibility genes

Abstract Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is a heterogeneous autoimmune disease with established genetic susceptibility. Genetic studies have revealed that SLE is largely a complex genetic disease influenced by the cumulative effect of multiple genetic variants, most of which are nonprotein coding, dispersed across the genome. Research has successfully identified more than 120 risk loci, defined mainly by haplotypes (a set of variants that are coinherited), that are associated with increased SLE susceptibility. Current efforts use publicly available bioinformatics data, fine-mapping and/or dense imputation, and molecular studies to identify the functional variants that drive the haplotype association and pathologic effect. In this chapter, we emphasize the complex genetic heritability of SLE by highlighting several risk associations from the current literature that demonstrate the complexity and recent advances in our understanding of how non-HLA SLE-susceptibility loci contribute to disease pathology.
Differential Consumption of Coagulation Factors Resulting from Activation of the Extrinsic (Tissue Thromboplastin) or the Intrinsic (Foreign Surface Contact) Pathways

1. The consumption of coagulation Factors IX, X, and XI was studied in normal whole blood clotted with celite (intrinsic activation) or tissue thromboplastin (extrinsic activation). 2. During these studies an assay method for Factor XI was developed which was not influenced by the presence of tissue thromboplastin. The assay method is based on the thromboplastin generation principle. 3. When blood clotted in silicone treated tubes, the serum and plasma concentrations of Factors IX, X, and XI were almost identical, indicating that little consumption or activation of these factors had occurred. 4. In the presence of celite, coagulation Factors IX and XI are consumed, whereas Factor X is consumed only slightly. 5. In the presence of tissue thromboplastin, Factor X is consumed, whereas Factors IX and XI are not consumed. 6. In the presence of both celite and thromboplastin, the thromboplastin decreased the consumption of Factors IX and XI produced by celite. 7. The study of serum coagulation factor levels may provide evidence as to whether the coagulation process had been initiated by the intrinsic (foreign surface contact) or extrinsic (thromboplastin) pathways.
Mitral Valve Prostheses

Mitral valve surgery is one of the most technically demanding aspects of cardiac surgery, owing both to the valve’s location and to its complicated structure. Overall cardiac surgical performance is gauged by the rate of successful mitral valve repair. Typically, the best short-term and long-term outcomes are achieved by surgeons who have a subspecialized interest in mitral valve surgery and perform large numbers of repairs in high-volume centers. A repair is usually preferred over a replacement, owing to both longevity and the avoidance of anticoagulation, but repair is not always technically feasible if the valve is stenotic, calcified, significantly thickened, or morphologically unsuitable. A good replacement is always better than a poor repair, which may lead to premature redo surgery. Mitral valve repairs typically involve plication of the posterior leaflet and insertion of an annuloplasty ring. An Alfieri stitch is sometimes included to optimize leaflet coaptation. Mitral valve replacements can be both bioprosthetic and mechanical. Individualized factors including the patient’s age, suitability for anticoagulation, and plans for future pregnancies are all important to consider when deciding on the best approach. Robotic mitral valve surgery with femoral cannulation via a mini-thoracotomy is now providing an alternative to traditional approaches via a median sternotomy. Percutaneous valve replacement or repair using various clip devices is now a viable alternative for some patients [see Chap. 6]. Valvuloplasty may be adjunctively performed as a temporizing bridge to surgery or a more palliative procedure in the setting of significant mitral stenosis, although factors such as valve and subvalvular thickening and calcification will ultimately govern suitability for this procedure.
2D Seepage Process Simulation: Preliminary Analyses

One of the research activities carried out by the "Impact on Soil and Coast" division of CMCC (Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate Change) concerns the impacts on territory monitoring activity and hydrological risk prevention.The activity purpose is identifying slide triggering factors in pyroclastic soils of the Campania Region.This preliminary analysis identifies the role that shape of the slope and boundary conditions play into seepage processes.Seep dynamics into the soil can be analysed with the FEM software SEEP/W (Geo-Slope International LTD, 2004); it is able to model the water flow and the pore-water pressure distribution through porous materials. Depending on the infiltration amounts, suction, pore water pressure and soil physical properties can be modified.Pyroclastic soil of Nocera Inferiore (Salerno) is tested.
On the Use of Lypunov Equations in Continuization and Discretization of Linear Systems

In this paper Lyapunov equations are used to convert a discrete time system (DTS) into a continuous time system (CTS). It is shown that with the appropriate choice of the input matrix B and output matrix C, in balanced coordinates, and knowledge of the Hankel singular values of the DTS, one can solve the two CT Lyapunov equations for the CTS's dynamic matrix A. Different choices of B and C result in different CT models that correspond to different discretization techniques. For example, if B and C were chosen as in Euler's method, the resulting CT would be equivalent to the inverse of Euler's method, while the choice of B and C as in the bilinear transform method would result in the CT model normally obtained using the direct bilinear transform method. The proposed technique preserves stability and both the Hankel and the H-infinity norms of the system. Unlike the bilinear transform method, the continuized system is strictly proper and thus guarantees a zero initial error in the system response. Moreover, the steady state error can be set to zero without requiring a direct feedthrough term as in the bilinear transform method.
Homelessness and Health Care

The serious health care challenges associated with homelessness are underscored by high mortality rates and frequent use of hospital care. Some health challenges are intimately associated with being homeless, including exposure to extremes of weather, and trauma from assault. More often, however, homeless persons face problems common to all adults, such as hypertension, diabetes, and cancer. However, these problems are harder to manage without a stable residence. Mental illness and substance use disorders are also common and often contribute to homelessness. Homelessness is associated with a greater likelihood of health care needs going unmet, in part because a regular source of outpatient care is often lacking. Intervening problems are often managed emergently, at high cost, through hospital emergency visits and inpatient admissions. Unique services have evolved to address challenges in homeless health care, including medical respite programs for recuperative care, and primary care clinics tailored to a homeless clientele. The provision of supportive housing through the Housing First approach has been successful in enabling people to escape homelessness while reducing health system costs. Whether these interventions can actually improve health while reducing total costs to society is likely to vary depending on both the individuals being served and the community context. Keywords: health care; hospitals; medicine; mental health; stigma
Raiding in Newly Founded Colonies of Solenopsis invicta Buren (Hymenoptera: Formicidae)

Queens of Solenopsis invicta Buren, the red imported fire ant, that were collected following mating flights raised their first workers in the laboratory. Colony members were counted, queens were weighed, and all were marked with paint. Eighty-four colonies were randomly paired and the pairs were placed adjacent to one another and their behavior observed. At 4 d, 23 of the colonies had combined to form two-queen colonies, the other 19 formed single-queen combined colonies. At 60 d, 38 of the colonies had combined to form single-queen combined colonies. Queens that produced the greater number of brood survived in combined colonies. Colony raiding was the method observed for combining colonies. Supernumerary queens were eliminated by abandonment or attack by other queens or workers. Minims eliminated or abandoned the queens that produced fewer worker brood. Colony raiding may be an adaptive method of increasing colony size and vigor.
A model for patient-centered Army primary care.

ABSTRACTThis pilot evaluated a novel method of primary care delivery in a military family practice setting. A registered nurse, registered nurse case manager, and primary care provider formed the patient management team. Approximately 2,500 empanelled patients participated in a pilot program that applied a patient-centered approach to primary care. The pilot tracked outcome measures, which included (1) panel size, (2) access to care, (3) care utilization, (4) continuity of care, (5) nurse and provider productivity, (6) Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set measures, and (7) satisfaction measures. When compared to the standard family practice clinic, the patients in the pilot were able to access the family practice clinic more frequently (p < 0.05), were less seen in the urgent care (p < 0.05), and had a lower no-show rate (p < 0.001) for scheduled appointments. The providers were able to see their own empanelled patients significantly more frequently (p < 0.05) and virtually all Healthcare Eff...
Cation-controlled self-assembly of a hexameric europium wheel.

The simple asymmetric tetradentate ligand 2,2‘:6‘,2‘ ‘-terpyridine-6-carboxylic acid leads to the self-assembly of the first europium nanowheel containing europium ions in two different coordination environments. Moreover the self-assembly of bis(terpyridinecarboxylate) europium species to form a hexameric wheel capable of strongly binding LnIII cations is controlled by the ligand/cation ratio.
Organic/inorganic Langmuir-Blodgett films based on metal phosphonates 2 : zirconium phosphonate-based alternating layer films

Abstract Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) films of zirconium salts of the functionalized phosphonic acids 4-octadecyloxyphenylphosphonic acid (P0), 4-octadecyloxybiphenylphosphonic acid (B0), and 4-(4-octadecyloxyphenyldiazenyl)phenylphosphonic acid (A0) have been prepared and characterized. Layers of P0, B0, or A0 can be deposited onto zirconated octadecylphosphonic acid layers using a three-step deposition procedure to form alternating zirconium phosphonate LB bilayers. Film composition and molecular orientations are characterized through X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR).
Some remarks on the zener drag

Revue du phenomene d'entrainement Zener ou ancrage Zener: inhibition des joints de grains par des particules de seconde phase. Proposition d'une expression simplifiee de la contrainte d'ancrage en terme du rayon de courbure. Etablissement d'une relation entre le rayon de courbure des joints et la grosseur finale des grains. Discussion de la grosseur finale des grains en fonction de la fraction volumique de precipites
Hypoxia in Vivo Decreases Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor α-Regulated Gene Expression in Rat Heart

Abstract We tested the hypothesis that hypoxia decreases PPARα-regulated gene expression in heart muscle in vivo. In two rat models of systemic hypoxia (cobalt chloride treatment and iso-volemic hemodilution), transcript levels of PPARα and PPARα-regulated genes (pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 4 (PDK4), muscle carnitine palmitoyltransferase-I (mCPT-I), and malonyl-CoA decarboxylase (MCD)) were measured using real-time quantitative RT-PCR. Data were normalized to the housekeeping gene β-actin. Atrial natriuretic factor (ANF) and pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase 2 (PDK2), which are not regulated by PPARα, served as controls. CoCl2 treatment decreased PPARα, PDK4, mCPT-I, and MCD mRNA levels. Iso-volemic anemia also caused a significant decrease in PPARα, PDK4, and MCD mRNA levels. Transcript levels of mCPT-I showed a slight, but not significant decrease (P = 0.08). Gene expression of β-actin, ANF, and PDK2 did not change with either CoCl2 treatment nor with anemia. Myocardial PPARα-regulated gene expression is decreased in two models of hypoxia in vivo. These results suggest a transcriptional mechanism for decreased fatty oxidation and increased reliance of the heart for glucose during hypoxia.
Cardiovascular effects of desipramine in children and adults during exercise testing.

ABSTRACT Objective In light of recent reports of sudden death in children being treated with desipramine (DMI), 3 of which were associated with physical exercise, the authors examined the effects of DMI on exercise in children and adults before and during DMI treatment. Method Before treatment, 22 subjects (9 children, 13 adults) participated in a graded treadmill exercise test. Outcome measures included exercise tolerance, cardiovascular, and electrocardiographic parameters at progressive intensity levels and serum norepinephrine (NE) levels before and after exercise testing. Subjects were then treated with DMI, titrated to an average DMI dosage of 3 mg/kg, and underwent repeated exercise testing. Results DMI treatment was associated with a significant elevation of circulating NE levels in the pre-exercise assessment. Exercise tolerance was not affected by DMI, and blood pressure and heart rate effects were modest. The cardiovascular impact of DMI treatment was similar in children and adults. One 31-year-old subject exhibited a brief episode of ventricular tachycardia associated with exercise during DMI treatment. Conclusions DMI has only minor effects on the cardiovascular response to exercise, and these effects do not appear age-related. However, DMI may increase the risk of exercise-associated arrhythmias in rare individuals.
ANTISEMITISM AND SOCIAL CRITIQUE IN DICKENS'S OLIVER TWIST

WHEN SIKES AND NANCY RECAPTURE OLIVER, in Dickens's Oliver Twist, intending to return him to the gang of thieves, Sikes warns Oliver against crying out to passersby, announcing that his dog will go for Oliver's throat if he so much as speaks one word. Looking at the dog, who is eyeing Oliver and growling and licking his lips, “with a kind of grim and ferocious approval,” Sikes tells Oliver, “He's as willing as a Christian, strike me blind if he isn't!” (109; ch. 16). Sikes of course simply intends to say that his dog is as good as human, but Dickens's joke, in the context of the novel, is a chilling one. Sikes's bloodthirsty dog is as willing as the novel has shown many a professed Christian to be to exercise brute power over the weak and helpless, to drive Oliver into a life of crime, and to commit physical violence against him. In the course of the novel, Dickens shows what professed Christians have been willing to do to the poor and invites his readers to contemplate what they as Christians should instead be willing to do. Oliver Twist is of course deeply concerned with the condition of England's poor, and Dickens invokes the idea of Christianity as a rhetorical tool through which to make the social commentary that is at the novel's moral center.
In search of Ariadne's thread: A review of the recent literature on rhetorical theory

Despite its apparent diversity and confusion, the recent literature reflects a consistent attempt to revise the “modern” conception of the relationship between rhetoric and epistemology. Recent scholars stress that rhetoric functions not only to transmit, but also to generate, knowledge. This epistemic view of rhetoric appears in a number of different forms, ranging from a moderate emendation of traditional theory to a radical, neo‐sophistic conception of language and reality. Such “postmodern” approaches challenge many of the metatheoretical assumptions of the discipline, including those that bear on the ethics of rhetoric and on the “subject‐matter” of rhetorical inquiry.
The Eternal Frontier: An Ecological History of North America and Its Peoples

"The Eternal Frontier" leads the reader on a 65-million-year quest to understand the formation of North America. From the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period to the present day, Flannery explores America's history with keen insight and an extraordinary breadth of knowledge. Ultimately, human beings had to face the environmental vicissitudes of the continent, and Flannery's exploration of the ways in which we have coped makes for fascinating reading.
BURNOUT AND HUMOR USAGE AMONG COMMUNITY COLLEGE NURSING FACULTY MEMBERS

This study assessed the correlation of burnout among community college nursing faculty members and their use of humor to mediate academic stress related to burnout. Sixty-three community college nu...
Temperature dependence of Ge/Si avalanche photodiodes

By combining Si (with a low k-value, bd is defined as the voltage where the dark current is 100µA. The temperature dependence of the breakdown voltage V bd is then shown in the inset. One sees that the voltage V bd increases with the temperature. This is due to the temperature dependence of phonon scattering [4]. Fig. 33 shows the dark current I dark (in logarithmic scale) versus 1/(kT) for different bias voltages. The dark current increases by nearly a factor 2 every 10 °C when V bias = −15V, which is similar to that for a Ge-Si PIN photodiode shown in Ref. [3]. We have also measured the dark current from 200K–300K. Fig. 4 shows the activation energy extracted from dark current versus temperature, using the relation I d ∞T2exp(-Ea /kT). The activation energy decreases as bias voltage increases. This can be explained as follows. At higher bias voltages, the depletion layer becomes wider and consequently the G-R in the space charge region increases. Thus, the dominant source of the dark current becomes the G-R current, which is less sensitive to the temperature.
A mimic of anterior wall myocardial infarction.

A 61-year-old man with no significant medical history suddenly developed dyspnea at rest, quickly followed by collapse. Emergency medical services found the patient in severe respiratory distress (first electrocardiogram [ECG]), and soon after, he became pulseless despite preserved sinus rhythm on the monitor, that is, pulseless electrical activity (PEA). Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), including intravenous epinephrine, reestablished a pulse (Figure 1). A second ECG was recorded on his arrival to the emergency department. The patient had multiple subsequent episodes of PEA, with return of his pulse soon after CPR each time. He had marked jugular venous distension (Figure 2). The first ECG shows sinus tachycardia, 126 beats/min, and right-axis deviation of the QRS. ST-segment elevation, seen in leads V1eV3 and aVR, is particularly prominent in leads V1eV2 (3 mm), with Q waves in those 2 leads. The differential diagnosis includes both anterior wall myocardial infarction and isolated right ventricular injury from acute pulmonary emboli (PE). The latter diagnosis is suggested by right-axis deviation, ST elevation in aVR, and the ST-segment elevation being more prominent in lead V1 than in lead V3, the opposite of what is characteristically seen in anterior myocardial infarction. The second ECG shows atrial flutter with a rate of 236 flutter waves per minute, 2:1 atrioventricular conduction, complete right bundle branch block (RBBB), and rightaxis deviation. The anterior ST-segment elevation and the lead V2 Q wave have resolved. Acute RBBB is commonly seen with occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery proximal to the first major
Degradation study of lubricant with cyclotriphosphazene moiety under low-energy electron impact

Abstract When subjected to low-energy electron ( 6 H 4 –CF 3 ) attached to cyclotriphosphazene moiety of A20H lubricant and the end group (CF 2 CH 2 OH) were found to be easily segregated at low electron dosage. PN core (CF 2 CH 2 OP 3 N 3 ) breakdown occured at higher electron dosage. NH 2 /PO species which were formed from the PN core breakdown could be the most probable source of the corrosive droplets.
Radiative transfer in clouds with small‐scale inhomogeneities: Microphysical approach

[1] Several recent publications have indicated that cloud droplets belonging to a particular size range may tend to cluster by forming small random particle groups imbedded in an otherwise uniform cloud. To analyze radiative transfer in clouds with such small-scale inhomogeneities, we invoke the concepts of statistical electromagnetics. We show that as long as the assumptions of ergodicity and spatial uniformity hold, one can still apply the classical radiative transfer equation in which the participating extinction and phase matrices are obtained by averaging the respective single-particle matrices over all the particles constituting the cloud. This result implies that comparisons of in situ and remote-sensing retrievals of the cloud-particle size distribution can be problematic and should be performed with caution.
Sinterability studies and microwave dielectric properties of sol–gel synthesized Ba(Zn1/3Ta2/3)O3 nanoparticles

Abstract Nanosized phase pure powder of Ba(Zn 1/3 Ta 2/3 )O 3 (BZT) was prepared by sol–gel method and subsequent pyrolysis of the dried gel. The powders were pyrolyzed at different elevated temperatures and the effect of pyrolysis temperature on particle size was investigated. The sinterability of BZT ceramics made from nanopowders was found to be very high. Hence the sintered microstructure shows very large grains. However sintered density and microwave dielectric properties of sintered nanopowders were found to be poor. Reason for the poor densification was found to be the formation of large amounts of intergranular porosity and drastic grain growth during sintering. The samples were sintered by muffling with calcined BZT powder. Different sintering additives were added to calcined nanosized powders and then sintered. Most of the dopants are found to promote grain growth of sintered microstructure. Some of the dopants are found to reduce temperature coefficient of resonant frequency to zero when the average ionic radius was about 0.615 A.
Response of Biofilm Bacteria to Dissolved Organic Matter from Decomposing Maple Leaves

Stream bacteria play an important role in the utilization of dissolved organic matter (DOM) leached from leaves, and in transfer of this DOM to other trophic levels. Leaf leachate is a mixture of labile, recalcitrant, and inhibitory compounds, and bacterial communities vary in their ability to utilize leachate. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of DOM from sugar maple leaves on bacterial populations in biofilms on decomposing leaf surfaces. Populations of Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, Burkholderia cepacia, and Pseudomonas putida were enumerated on decomposing maple leaves in a northeast Ohio stream using fluorescence in situ hybridization. Additionally, artificial substrata consisting of PVC-end caps filled with agar supplemented with leaf leachate and covered with cellulose filters were used to determine bacterial response to leachate from leaves at different stages of decomposition. Population sizes of bacterial species exhibited different responses. Leachate did not affect A. calcoaceticus. B. cepacia was tolerant of phenolic compounds released from leaves and the population size increased when DOM concentrations were greatest. In contrast, P. putida was inhibited by phenolic components of leachate when total DOM concentrations were greatest. Differences in response of the bacterial species to components of leaf leachate indicate the complexity of microbial population dynamics and interactions with DOM. Differences among species in response to DOM have the potential to influence transport and retention of organic matter in stream ecosystems.
Evidence-Based Drug Use in Equine Medicine and Surgery

The nature of the equine industry and equine veterinary medicine often requires veterinarians to prescribe drugs with little evidence for a drug's formulation safety or efficacy, or even assurance of the chemistry of the drug used. This means that equine veterinarians must remain skeptics and understand the limitations in their ability to attribute safety and efficacy to a particular drug or treatment. An evidence-based approach to pharmacology demands rigorous testing and an unbiased analysis of results.
Axonal ensheathment and septate junction formation in the peripheral nervous system of Drosophila.

Axonal insulation is critical for efficient action potential propagation and normal functioning of the nervous system. In Drosophila, the underlying basis of nerve ensheathment is the axonal insulation by glial cells and the establishment of septate junctions (SJs) between glial cell membranes. However, the details of the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying axonal insulation and SJ formation are still obscure. Here, we report the characterization of axonal insulation in the Drosophila peripheral nervous system (PNS). Targeted expression of tau-green fluorescent protein in the glial cells and ultrastructural analysis of the peripheral nerves allowed us to visualize the glial ensheathment of axons. We show that individual or a group of axons are ensheathed by inner glial processes, which in turn are ensheathed by the outer perineurial glial cells. SJs are formed between the inner and outer glial membranes. We also show that Neurexin IV, Contactin, and Neuroglian are coexpressed in the peripheral glial membranes and that these proteins exist as a complex in the Drosophila nervous system. Mutations in neurexin IV, contactin, and neuroglian result in the disruption of blood–nerve barrier function in the PNS, and ultrastructural analyses of the mutant embryonic peripheral nerves show loss of glial SJs. Interestingly, the murine homologs of Neurexin IV, Contactin, and Neuroglian are expressed at the paranodal SJs and play a key role in axon-glial interactions of myelinated axons. Together, our data suggest that the molecular machinery underlying axonal insulation and axon-glial interactions may be conserved across species.
Real-time in situ measurements of atmospheric optical absorption in the visible via photoacoustic spectroscopy. 1: Evaluation of photoacoustic cells.

Four configurations of resonant photoacoustic cells were evaluated for maximum signal sensitivity to light absorption by the sample, with minimal noise and background. Theoretical and experimental data are discussed. Azimuthal and radial resonant modes were compared for one cell. Of the four, the best cell was a brass cylinder, 2.5-cm radius and 9.5-cm length, which was operated in the azimuthal mode. An argon-ion laser (λ = 514.5 nm) was the light source. A continuous sample flow through the cell, required for real-time in situ atmospheric measurements, gave an acceptable noise level and time for signal response at ~500 cc/min. Linearity of the photoacoustic signal was checked in the range applicable to atmospheric absorption. At a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) equal to 1, a light absorption detection limit of 4.7 × 10−6 m−1 could be achieved.
The brain bases of reading late learned words: Evidence from functional MRI

Age of acquisition (AoA) effects for reading have been documented in the literature. Recent studies have suggested that more effortful phonological retrieval is involved in picture naming for late learned words. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to determine the neuroanatomical correlates of AoA effects in reading, and to explore whether AoA effects in the brain modulate activity in areas devoted to phonological processing. Participants were asked to covertly name blocks of early and late learned words while being scanned with functional MRI. Results revealed a relative increase in neural activity for late learned words in a set of brain areas involved in auditory-phonological processing (the planum temporale of the posterior-superior left temporal lobe) and articulatory motor planning (BA 44, putamen, and globus pallidus). These findings support the view that late learned words involve more effortful phonological retrieval, but in addition point to a second locus of the AoA effect in the ...
Retinoids enhance cisplatin-based chemoradiation in cervical cancer cells in vitro.

Abstract Objective. The aim of this study was to determine whether receptor-dependent and receptor-independent retinoids sensitize cervical cancer cells to clinically relevant doses of concurrent radiation and cisplatin. Methods. The clonogenic assay was performed on SiHa cervical carcinoma cultures treated with 5 μM 9- cis -retinoic acid (RA) or 3 μM 4-HPR for 3 days prior to and following concurrent treatment with 3 μ M cisplatin and 2 Gy of Co 60 radiation. Results. Neither 9- cis -RA nor 4-HPR significantly decreased survival for radiation only or cisplatin only ( t test: P t test: 9- cis -RA P = 0.045; 4-HPR P = 0.027). Conclusions. Both receptor-dependent and receptor-independent retinoids enhance concurrent chemoradiation effects in vitro.
Laboratory preparation and applications of modified carbowax 20M bonded supports to the gas chromatography of pesticides

Abstract Five gas chromatographic (GC) solid supports, modified by treatment to give surface bonded Carbowax 20M, were evaluated for their suitability by GC stationary phases for several pesticides both before and after coating with OV-210. Even though all the modified supports were far superior to non-treated supports, there were appreciable differences between the supports for some of the more difficult to chromatograph pesticides. Carbowax 20M bonded to Gas-Chrom P generally gave the best performance for the pesticides tested. Preparation of the support for optimum response required extensive refluxing in 9 N hydrochloric acid to remove all traces of acid, coating with 5% Carbowax 20M, conditioning overnight at 280° followed by Soxhlet extraction with methyl alcohol and dichloromethane to remove all unbound Carbowax 20M. It was demonstrated that certain modified packings could play a useful role in the analysis of such compounds.
One size does not fit all.

In their proposed approach to disclosure of individual genetic results to research participants, Ravitsky and Wilfond (2006) bring forth important considerations. While this is a thought-provoking ...
How CDBG Came to Pass

After 40 years, it is hard to remember the context in which the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) was created and became an established program. Proposed by a Republican president, it was enacted by a Democratic Congress that was in the process of impeaching him. It replaced a program that had been in existence for 25 years and had strong political supporters, as well as half a dozen other categorical programs, each with its own constituency. This paper will describe the policy process by which the CDBG program came into existence in the early 1970s, identifying the major concerns and their resolution.
Langmuir-Blodgett monolayers of gold nanoparticles with amphiphilic shells from V-shaped binary polymer arms.

Gold nanoparticles functionalized with amphiphilic polybutadiene−poly(ethylene glycol) (PB−PEG) V-shaped arms formed stable Langmuir monolayers at the air−water and the air−solid interfaces. At these interfaces, the binary arms vertically segregated into a dense polymer corona, which surrounded the gold nanoparticles, preventing their large-scale agglomeration and keeping individual nanoparticles well-separated from each other and forming flattened, pancake nanostructures. The presence of both PEG and PB chains in the close proximity to the gold core was confirmed by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, whereas the AFM phase contrast images revealed the presence of 2 nm gold cores surrounded by the polymer shell with the diameter of 11 nm. We suggest that the amphiphilic shell drives their spontaneous organization into discrete 2D pancakelike hybrid structures that measured up to 10 μm in diameter and had a high packing density of gold clusters.
A tribute to Géza Freud

We discuss some of the recent work in approximation theory motivated by the research of Geza Freud (1922-1979).