cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Cognitive activities in complex science text and diagrams

Ainsworth’s (2006) DeFT framework posits that different representations may lead learners to use different strategies. We wanted to investigate whether students use different strategies, and more broadly, different cognitive activities in diagrams vs. in running text. In order to do so, we collected think-aloud protocol and other measures from 91 beginning biology majors reading an 8-page passage from their own textbook which included seven complex diagrams. We coded the protocols for a wide range of cognitive activities, including strategy use, inference, background knowledge, vocabulary, and word reading. Comparisons of verbalizations while reading running text vs. reading diagrams showed that high-level cognitive activities—inferences and high-level strategy use—were used a higher proportion of the time when comprehending diagrams compared to when reading text. However, in running text vs. diagrams participants used a wider range of different individual cognitive activities (e.g., more different types of inferences). Our results suggest that instructors might consider teaching students how to draw inferences in both text and diagrams. They also show an interesting paradox that warrants further research—students often skipped over or superficially skimmed diagrams, but when they did read the diagrams they engaged in more high-level cognitive activity.
An algorithm for the state assignment of synchronous sequential circuits

A systematic procedure for finding solutions to the state assignment problem in synchronous sequential circuits is described. It is based on two-block partition and is designed for use with D flip-flop memory elements.
Perspective: integrated market-immersion approach to teaching new product development in technologically-oriented teams

Abstract This article presents a market immersion methodology for teaching NPD in technologically-oriented teams. This methodology was developed during the early 1990s at the Lally School of Management and Technology of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Since then, it has been successfully utilized to train in excess of one hundred MBA-level student teams. The NPD course is taught by a 5-member cross-functional team of faculty with backgrounds in marketing, manufacturing operations, and accounting. The course is modeled on Cooper’s stage gate process, and the course is designed to provide a combination of classroom and apprenticeship experiences. The 6-credit, year-long course requires students to work in self-directed teams of approximately 5 to 6 members. Each student team chooses its own industry or technology domain in which to concentrate its efforts, and students undertake intensive market and field research in order to assess any existing market opportunities. Once a specific target market and market need have been identified, students are then required to design a product and an organization to meet that need. In specific, students must produce a detailed marketing, manufacturing, operations, advertising, distribution, and financial plan that can bring their product to market. During the process, students create multiple potential product designs, build mock-ups of their products, and field test the mock-ups. At every phase of the course, the teams are continuously immersed in real customer markets. As a result, teams must struggle to incorporate new market information and learning into their project in a consistent and holistic manner. The following article presents the curriculum content and tools, lessons learned, and student reactions to this original pedagogical approach to teaching NPD. Due to the length of the course, particular attention is paid to the teaming issues that naturally arise when teams work together on long-run projects.
Toward parallel practices for social justice-focussed teacher education and the elementary school classroom: learning lessons from Dewey's critique of the division of labor

Abstract The author observes that resistance to the division of labor into “cultured people” and “workers” can create a standpoint from which to generate not only an appropriately active and activist elementary school curriculum, but also a rationale for schooling. She contextualizes this observation in a self-study of two pedagogical strategies that highlight her conception of “parallel practices”, that is, lessons for her teacher education students that have clear implications for the curriculum of their future classrooms.
Brief Communication: Determination of helix orientations in proteins

Accurate description of helices, including curvature and bending, and determination of interhelical angles are essential for analysis of the three-dimensional fold and functionally important conformational changes in helical proteins. Here, a new computational method is presented that allows determination of angles between any helical stretches, the radius of curvature of curved helices, bending angle of bent helices, as well as symmetry relations within the protein molecule, using main chain atom coordinates. The method has been applied to describe changes in interhelical angles in calmodulin upon interaction with a target peptide, which reveals the conformational changes at a higher precision. Because subtle changes in helix-to-helix packing and interhelical angles often underlie significant functional transitions in proteins, this approach can serve as a useful tool for characterization of such conformational changes at an exceedingly high accuracy and thus provide detailed insight into the structure-function relationship of proteins.
Mechanisms for a reliable timer-based protocol

Abstract Timer-based protocol mechanisms are developed for reliable and efficient transmission of both single-message and message-stream traffic. That is, correct data delivery is assured in the face of lost, damaged, duplicate, and out-of-sequence packets. The protocol mechanisms seem particularly useful in a high-speed local network environment. Current reliable protocol design approaches are not well suited for single-message modes of communication appropriate, for example, to distributed network operating systems. The timer intervals that must be maintained for sender and receiver are developed along with the rules for timer operation, packet acceptance, and connection opening and closing. The underlying assumptions about network characteristics required for the timer-based approach to work correctly are discussed, particularly that maximum packet lifetime can be bounded. The timer-based mechanisms are compared with mechanisms designed to deal with the same problems using the exchange of multiple messages to open and close logical connections or virtual circuits.
Dynamics of B-DNA in the solid state.

Hydrated solid B-form DNA is shown to have large amplitude motions of the phosphodiester groups and immobile bases at temperatures above 5 °C. The 31P nuclear magnetic resonance chemical shift powder pattern of DNA in the solid state is significantly averaged by motions that are rapid compared to 104 Hz. The DNA was labelled with deuterium at the C-8 purine position by exchange. The 2H nuclear magnetic resonance spectra have complete static quadrupole powder patterns indicative of no motions fast compared to 106 Hz at 50 °C.
Disorders of Extreme Stress (DESNOS) Symptoms Are Associated With Type and Severity of Interpersonal Trauma Exposure in a Sample of Healthy Young Women

Childhood abuse and other developmentally adverse interpersonal traumas may put young adults at risk not only for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but also for impairment in affective, cognitive, biological, and relational self-regulation ("disorders of extreme stress not otherwise specified"; DESNOS). Structured clinical interviews with 345 sophomore college women, most of whom (84%) had experienced at least one traumatic event, indicated that the DESNOS syndrome was rare (1% prevalence), but DESNOS symptoms were reported by a majority of respondents. Controlling for PTSD and other anxiety or affective disorders, DESNOS symptom severity was associated with a history of single-incident interpersonal trauma and with more severe interpersonal trauma in a dose-response manner. Noninterpersonal trauma was associated with elevated prevalence of PTSD and dissociation but not with DESNOS severity. Study findings indicate that persistent posttraumatic problems with self-regulation warrant attention, even in relatively healthy young adult populations.
Cytotoxic Test Automation: A Live-Dead Cell Differential Counter

An appropriately modified cell spectrophotometer was used successfully for performing automatic counts of live and dead cells in the cytotoxic test, with trypan blue staining as an indicator of dead cells and light scattering to identify viable cells.
On the non-existence of small Cohen–Macaulay algebras

Abstract By finding a p-adic obstruction, we construct many examples of complete noetherian local normal F p -algebras R such that no module-finite extension R ↪ S is Cohen–Macaulay. These examples should be contrasted with a result of Hochster–Huneke: the directed union of all such extensions is always Cohen–Macaulay.
The Icosahedral Quasiperiodic Phase

The discovery of the icosahedral phase, which marked the start of the new science of quasicrystals, has posed several intriguing questions for the scientific community. Verification of the unique quasiperiodic character of quasicrystals has been obtained through a series of experiments, and the nature of its structure has been studied with a variety of experimental tools. This article briefly introduces quasiperiodicity and outlines some of the crystallographic properties of the icosahedral phase.
Spec-based flip-flop and latch repeater planning

Shrinking process geometries and frequency scaling give rise to an increasing number of interconnects that require multiple clock cycles. This paper explores efficient techniques to insert flip-flops and latches to meet pre-determined latency and margin constraints at the receivers. Previous approaches push timing margins to either ends of interconnect. We present an O(n log n)-time algorithm to insert flip-flops that evens out timing margins across the entire interconnect, resulting in more robust designs and faster design convergence. An O(n log n)-time extension to handle symmetric, two-phases latches is also presented. Experimental results verify the correctness and practicality of our approach.
Fuzzy RDF: A data model to represent fuzzy metadata

Resource description framework (RDF) together with RDF schema (RDFS) is important semantic Web standards proposed from W3C. RDF is a knowledge representation language to deal with hard semantics in the description and manipulation of crisp metadata. However, information is often vague or ambiguous. Many metadata are fuzzy by nature, and the Semantic Web should be capable to represent fuzzy data. In this paper, a fuzzy RDF data model is presented including fuzzy RDF syntax and fuzzy RDF semantics. A distinctive feature of fuzzy RDF data model, which is based on fuzzy logic theory, is able to deal with special data whose values are no more crisp values, but may be a fuzzy set.
Structural Change in Higher Education: Implications for Agricultural Economics Extension; or Does Diffedence, Decadence and Dissonance Make a Difference?

Discussion of changes taking place in American agriculture followed by a review of the traditional model of extension suggests there is dissonance between what is needed to inform contemporary agriculture and what extension actually does. The paper further suggests that difficulty in packaging the newly needed information in ways that achieve the institutional maintenance objectives of extension explain a part of the system's decadence and reluctance to change. Since the intellectual problems of market failure, even political market failure, are within the domain of economists, diffidence by agricultural economists to those issues within the Land-Grant system can make a difference.
A comparison of volatiles in mandibular glands from three Crematogaster ant symbionts of the whistling thorn acacia

GC–MS analyses of dichloromethane extracts of the mandibular glands from three coexisting Crematogaster species, C. mimosae, C. nigriceps, and C. sjostedti, showed distinct differences in the 28 volatile compounds that were identified. The variations of gland components in these ant species may facilitate species identification and lead to species-specific alarm and defence responses that influence their competitive interactions. 3-Hexanol, 3-methylbutanoic acid, 2-methylbutanoic acid, 3-octanone, 3-octanol, phenylacetaldehyde, 2-phenylpropenal, and 3-decanone were found in all three species. The mandibular glands of C. nigriceps contain 7 compounds not detected in the two other species; 3-methyl-2-pentanone, 3-methyl2-pentanol, 3-methyl-2-hexanol, 3-methyl-2-heptanone, 3-methyl-2-heptanol, 2-phenylethanol and 2-methylheptanoic acid. C. sjostedti’s mandibular gland secretion also contains 7 compounds not detected in the other two species; butanoic acid, 3-heptanol, 2-methylpentanoic acid, glycerol, 6-methyl-3-octanol, 2-pyrrolidinone and 3-nonanol. Nonanal was the only compound detected solely in extracts of C. mimosae.  2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Factors affecting the transmission of salmonella by flies: natural resistance to colonization and bacterial interference.

Groups of immobilized gnotobiotic houseflies, Musca domestica L., were mono-contaminated with graded doses of Salmonella typhimurium, bicontaminated with S. typhimurium and Proteus mirabilis, and multicontaminated with S. typhimurium and a mouse fecal flora. Of 45 flies fed an average of 22 Salmonella cells alone, 26 showed bacterial multiplication, up to 1.4 × 107 in one case. There was a fairly consistent increase in percentage of Salmonella excreters with increasing input, so that all flies given 104 and 105 cells shed Salmonella some time during an observation period of 8 to 13 days. Multiplication, however, reached higher levels in flies given 102 or 103 organisms. A high input was not necessary to produce a high proportion of Salmonella excreters. Among 22 flies given an average of 90 Salmonella cells, multiplication occurred in 17 and 18 became excreters. Antagonism between P. mirabilis and S. typhimurium, which was previously described in the blowfly maggot tract, also occurred in the gut of the adult housefly. With an input of 103 cells each of Salmonella and Proteus, there was a reduction of Salmonella excreters to 27% on the first day and elimination by the second day. With a normal fecal flora which contained no demonstrable P. mirabilis, 37% of the flies were still excreting Salmonella on the fourth day, but not by day 6; among flies fed Salmonella alone at the same input, the organism was excreted by 87% on the first day and 62% on the second day, and outputs continued for at least 8 days. Salmonella was lodged mainly in the mid- and hindgut 3 days after the infective meal, minimizing transmission through vomit. Comparison studies with the common green bottle fly, Phaenicia sericata Mg., showed it to be more resistant than the housefly to establishment and multiplication of S. typhimurium.
Silk layering as studied with neutron reflectivity.

Neutron reflectivity (NR) measurements of ultrathin surface films (below 30 nm) composed of Bombyx mori silk fibroin protein in combination with atomic force microscopy and ellipsometry were used t...
Beamspace array processing for moving sources

We consider a method for signal detection given a small number of data samples, such as in the case of tracking moving sources. By employing a linear transformation, we map the full dimension sensor space data onto a lower dimension space (beamspace) to lower the computation complexity and enhance the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR). The SINR of the beamspace MVDR beamformer is compared with that of diagonally loaded MVDR. Analysis and simulation show that the beamspace MVDR has better performance when the number of data samples is small.
Morbidity after procurement of radial arteries in diabetic patients and the elderly undergoing coronary revascularization

Abstract Background . The use of radial arteries for coronary revascularization is increasing. There remain concerns regarding alteration of upper extremity function after radial artery procurement. This study evaluates the functional morbidity in higher risk patients. Methods . Between April 1997 and September 1999, 374 patients underwent unilateral or bilateral radial artery procurement. A questionnaire was used to evaluate symptoms related to motor and sensory function and changes in appearance after radial artery harvest. Results . Two hundred eighty-nine patients were successfully interviewed. The average age was 63 years. Median follow-up was 9.5 months (range, 2 to 23 months). No patient suffered limb loss. Altered gross and fine motor function, residual pain, paresthesias, numbness, pallor, swelling, and altered temperature sensation were compared among diabetic patients, patients older than 70 years, and patients without these characteristics. Conclusions . Radial artery procurement for elective coronary revascularization can be done with minimal serious morbidity in higher risk patients. The most common symptoms were numbness and paresthesia. Despite the finding of greater residual pain in diabetic patients, we do not believe the use of radial artery conduits is contraindicated in these patients.
What Are The Respective Roles Of The Public And Private Sectors In Pharmaceutical Innovation

What are the respective roles of the public and private sectors in drug development? This question is at the heart of some policy proposals, such as those that would give the government a share of profits from drugs at least partly developed with federal research dollars. This paper provides empirical data on these issues, using information included in the patents on drugs approved between 1988 and 2005. Overall, we find that direct government funding is more important in the development of “priority-review” drugs—sometimes described as the most innovative new drugs—than it is for “standard-review” drugs. Government funding has played an indirect role—for example, by funding basic underlying research that is built on in the drug discovery process—in almost half of the drugs approved and in almost two-thirds of priority-review drugs. Our analyses should help inform thinking about the returns on public research funding—a topic of long-standing interest to economists, policy makers, and health advocates.
Language, Aging, and Inhibitory Deficits: Evaluation of a Theory

This article evaluates the success of Inhibitory Deficit theory in addressing two basic functions of a theory: explaining available results and predicting new findings. The review focuses on language comprehension and production, domains of cognition vulnerable to age-linked inhibitory deficits under the theory. Considerable research, however, reports remarkable age constancy in many aspects of language performance, contrary to the predictions of Inhibitory Deficit theory. For conditions that do produce age differences in language comprehension and production, evidence for inhibitory deficits is controversial at best. In predicting new findings, Inhibitory Deficit theory is constrained by lack of a well specified model, producing confusion between inhibition that occurs at a behavioral level versus a theoretical level. Modification of the theory is required to bring it in line with empirical findings on language and aging, and greater specification of underlying processes is required to reduce contradictions in predictions.
The utility of SPECT lung perfusion scans in minimizing and assessing the physiologic consequences of thoracic irradiation

Abstract Purpose : Three-dimensional single photon emission computed tomography lung perfusion scans (SPECT) provide a unique quantitative 3-dimensional map of the distribution of functioning pulmonary vascular/alveolar subunits, information not provided by other imaging modalities. This report describes our initial experience utilizing these scans to assist in the design of radiation treatment beams and to assess changes in regional lung function following irradiation. Methods and Materials : Patients were immobilized and scanned in the treatment position with appropriate fuducial markers. Four millicuries of technetium 99M microaggregated albumin were injected and SPECT images of the lung were generated. Pre-treatment SPECT images were used to help design radiation beams to minimize irradiation of functioning lung. Pre- and post-treatment scans were compared to assess changes in regional function. These changes in function were then correlated with the regional radiation dose. Results : Pre-radiotherapy SPECT scans were obtained in 18 patients (11 with lung cancer). Marked variations in regional function were frequently noted. In patients with primary lung tumors, these variations were not necessarily immediately adjacent to the tumor volume. In general, patients with poor pulmonary function pre-treatment, in whom one would like to spare as much normal lung as possible, had the most non-uniform distribution throughout the lung of functioning vascular/alveolar subunits. In these cases, pre-treatment scans were most useful in designing radiation portals to minimize irradiation of functioning lung. SPECT scans were also used to detect changes in regional lung function secondary to radiotherapy in four patients. With doses in excess of 40 Gy, reductions in regional function were noted 1–6 months following completion of radiotherapy. These reductions were not necessarily accompanied by reductions in conventional pulmonary function tests, which are assessments of whole lung function and may not reflect regional lung injury if the volume affected is small. Conclusions : SPECT lung scans provide an excellent means of assessing regional lung function, superior to that obtainable with planar images. The functional data provided by the SPECT images is useful in designing “optimal” radiation treatment beams and in assessing the effect of radiotherapy on regional lung functions. Efforts are continuing in our laboratory to develop a dose response curve for regional lung damage using the tools of SPECT scanning and 3-dimensional dose calculations.
Rethinking Situatedness Environment Structure in the Time of the Common Code

Common coding proposes a shared representation in the brain between perception, execution, and imagination of movement. This neural-level representation is considered to support a “direct activatio...
Convergent algorithms for pattern recognition in nonlinearly evolving nonstationary environment

Blaydon and Ho have recently proposed two algorithms to determine the probability p(A/x) that a sample with the set of attributes x belongs to a pattern class A, assuming a fixed p(A/x). The present letter modifies these algorithms to allow p(A/x) ≡ p i (A/x), i= 1, 2, ..., to evolve (not necessarily linearly) with i. Dynamic stochastic approximation arguments are used.
Dietary intake and a food-frequency instrument to evaluate a nutrition intervention for the Apache in Arizona

Department of Nutrition, University of Massachusetts,100 Holdsworth Way, Amherst, MA 01003, USASubmitted 2 March 2006: Accepted 27 November 2006: First published online 4 April 2007AbstractObjective: To demonstrate how dietary data collected from 24-hour dietary recallswere incorporated into the development of a quantitative food-frequencyquestionnaire (QFFQ) for the Apache in Arizona.Design: A cross-sectional study was ﬁrst conducted using 24-hour dietary recalls toidentify foods for inclusion on a QFFQ that would be used to evaluate a nutritionintervention.Setting: The White Mountain and San Carlos Apache reservations in East-centralArizona.Subjects: The 24-hour dietary recalls were collected from a random sample of 53adults (34 women and 19 men).Results: A QFFQ was developed that included all foods reported by two or morerespondents, plus traditional and seasonal foods. Portion size was assessed usingfamiliarhouseholdunitsandculturallyappropriatefoodmodels.Theﬁnalinstrumentcontains 155 foods. Frequency of consumption is assessed using eight categoriesranking from ‘never or less than once a month’ to ‘2 or more times a day’. Nutrientintakes and the ﬁve major food sources of energy, fat and sugar are presented.Conclusion: The QFFQ developed is complete and up-to-date for assessing usualfood and nutrient intake for the Apache in Arizona. The instrument will be used toevaluate a food store-based nutrition intervention to reduce risk of chronic diseases.KeywordsDietary assessmentQuantitative food-frequencyquestionnaireFood and nutrient intakeNutrition interventionApacheArizonaDiet-related chronic disease disproportionately affectsminority groups in the USA, with American Indianpopulations among the most impacted. A large gap existsin the health status of American Indians compared withCaucasians and ‘US all races’
A Comment on the Need for Father-Infant Postpartal Interaction

Paternal participation in postpartal activities may enhance the formation of affectional bonds between the father and the newborn. The father's expression of love, warmth, and compassion for his infant have often been inhibited by a heretofore limited definition of the paternal role by certain socioeconomic events and by gaps in our implementation of family-centered maternity care. Research is needed to investigate paternal needs postpartally and to identify alternatives that nursing can provide to best fulfill these needs. The focus of family-centered maternity care must be broadened in order to more directly reject the needs of the father.
Color patterns for pictorial content description

In this paper, we propose a new type of image feature, which consists of patterns of colors and intensities that capture the latent associations among images and primitive features in such a way that the noise and redundancy are minimized. Incorporating our feature model into a Content-based Image Retrieval (CBIR) system moves the research in image retrieval beyond simple matching of images based on their primitive features and creates a ground for learning image semantics from visual content. A system developed using our proposed feature model, will have the capability of learning associations between not only semantic concepts and images, but also between semantic concepts and patterns. We evaluated the performance of our system based on the retrieval accuracy and on the perceptual similarity order among retrieved images. When compared to standard image retrieval methods, our preliminary results show that, even if the feature space was reduced to a significantly lower dimensional space, the accuracy and perceptual similarity for our system remain the same or better depending on the category of images.
Conflict Resolution in a Network Society

This article explores the import of the network society for conflict resolution, broadly defined. Defining networks as social structures which connect people to each other, the article highlights the dual potential impacts of networks on participation in conflict resolution processes. Network society discourse creates a discourse of inclusion while also offering opportunities for exclusion. Conflict resolution theory has embraced the inclusive potential of network dynamics both implicitly and explicitly. Peacebuilders use networks, with their potential for participation and connecting conflict resolution processes, levels, and sectors, in efforts to do their peacebuilding work better. However, not all networks support conflict resolution. Networks can also reinforce conflicts, institutionalize exploitation, exacerbate inequalities, and strengthen violent conflict movements. Networks can be distinguished as inclusive or exclusive. Inclusive networks are more suitable for supporting meaningful participation in conflict resolution processes, while exclusive networks entrench conflict. Vibrant networks incorporate more inclusive and more exclusive dynamics in network vitality that allows both flexibly incorporating diversity and developing clarity of focus that inevitably delineates areas (or people or activities) outside the area of focus. Meaningful inclusion and participation in conflict resolution negotiations is broadly possible through inclusive networks, but forms of exclusion from conflict resolution negotiations are equally possible outgrowths of exclusive networks.
JNK signaling involved in the effects of cyclic AMP on IL-1β plus IFNγ-induced inducible nitric oxide synthase expression in hepatocytes

cAMP significantly inhibits IL-1beta+IFNgamma-induced iNOS gene expression in hepatocytes, but the signaling pathways responsible for the effect are not known. PKA inhibitors, H89, PKI, and KT5720, had no effect on the recovery of the inhibitory effects of cAMP on cytokine-induced hepatocyte iNOS expression and activity. The JNK inhibitor, SP 600125, effectively reversed the inhibitory effects of cAMP on iNOS expression and significantly increased iNOS promoter activity. A cAMP analogue, dbcAMP, significantly induced JNK signaling and increased AP-1 binding activity in hepatocytes. The JNK activator, anisomycin, inhibited iNOS expression and transcription in hepatocytes as well as AP-1 binding activity; and SP600125 reversed this effect of anisomycin. Overexpression of c-Jun in hepatocytes inhibited IL-1beta+IFNgamma-induced nitrite accumulation and iNOS promoter activity while dominant negative c-Jun partially reversed the inhibitory effects of cAMP on nitrite accumulation. We conclude that JNK signaling plays an important role in the inhibitory effects of cAMP on IL-1beta+IFNgamma-induced iNOS gene expression in cultured hepatocytes.
Hospitalization Patterns Associated with Appalachian Coal Mining

The goal of this study was to test whether the volume of coal mining was related to population hospitalization risk for diseases postulated to be sensitive or insensitive to coal mining by-products. The study was a retrospective analysis of 2001 adult hospitalization data (n= 93,952) for West Virginia, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania, merged with county-level coal production figures. Hospitalization data were obtained from the Health Care Utilization Project National Inpatient Sample. Diagnoses postulated to be sensitive to coal mining by-product exposure were contrasted with diagnoses postulated to be insensitive to exposure. Data were analyzed using hierarchical nonlinear models, controlling for patient age, gender, insurance, comorbidities, hospital teaching status, county poverty, and county social capital. Controlling for covariates, the volume of coal mining was significantly related to hospitalization risk for two conditions postulated to be sensitive to exposure: hypertension and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The odds for a COPD hospitalization increased 1% for each 1462 tons of coal, and the odds for a hypertension hospitalization increased 1% for each 1873 tons of coal. Other conditions were not related to mining volume. Exposure to particulates or other pollutants generated by coal mining activities may be linked to increased risk of COPD and hypertension hospitalizations. Limitations in the data likely result in an underestimate of associations.
Corporate Shell Games: LLPs, LLCs, and Responsibility for Mitigation Sites

Determining who is legally responsible for a wetland mitigation site is not always a straight-forward process. A wetland regulator provided us a portion of a mitigation bank application that referred to a corporation and its officers, an LLP and two LLCs. This article explains what LLPs and LLCs are, and why many mitigation bank operators opt for these business forms. We then walk through the mitigation bank document itself to try to unravel which entity actually would be responsible for the mitigation bank site. The article concludes with recommendations that wetland regulators should consider when evaluating mitigation proposals involving LLPs and LLCs, whether affiliated with a mitigation bank or not. While there is no particular reason to be worried about LLPs and LLCs as compared to traditional corporations, regulators should consider requiring notice for any changes in the ownership and management of these entities. Regulators should also ensure that financial assurances such as letters of credit and performance bonds expressly cover the entity (whether LLP, LLC, or another form) responsible for the mitigation site.
Chloroquine stimulates absorption and inhibits secretion of ileal water and electrolytes

The effects of chloroquine diphosphate, a drug with "'membrane-stabilizing" properties, were studied on basal ileal absorption and on ileal secretion induced by increased intracellular cAMP levels and calcium (serotonin). The studies were performed on rat (in vivo) and rabbit ileum (in vitro). Intraluminal chloroquine (10(-4) M) reversed cholera toxin- and theophylline-induced secretion in rat ileum but did not alter the cholera toxin- and theophylline-induced increases in cAMP content. Addition of chloroquine (10(-4) M) to the mucosal surface of rabbit ileum did not alter basal active electrolyte transport or the serotonin-induced decreased Na and Cl absorption but inhibited the theophylline-induced C1 secretion. Addition of chloroquine (10(-4)) M) to the serosal surface stimulated net Na and Cl absorption. This effect may involve intracellular calcium. Chloroquine increased the rabbit ileal calcium content and decreased 45Ca2+ influx from the serosal surface. Both the mucosal and serosal effects of chloroquine described led to a net increase in absorptive function of the intestine and should prove useful in developing treatment of diarrheal diseases.
Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of Prostate Cancer

Increasing evidence points to prostate cancer being a disease strongly linked to abnormal metabolism, and several important metabolic shifts have been associated with the presence and progression of prostate cancer. Metabolic imaging modalities are now being applied at all timepoints in the prostate cancer disease process, including initial diagnosis, during active surveillance of localized disease, after successful and failed therapy, and in metastatic disease. The metabolic phenotype of prostate cancer includes increases in phospholipid metabolism, oxidative phosphorylation, aerobic glycolysis, altered citrate production, and increased reducing capacity. The unique metabolism of prostate cancer and how it can be measured using phosphorous (31P), proton (1H), and (13C) carbon magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) are presented in this article. In addition, literature describing the clinical utility of combining metabolic data obtained from 1H MRSI with changes in prostate morphology (via spin–spin relaxation), microstructure/cellular density (with diffusion weighting), and microvasculature/perfusion (using contrast agents) for the assessment of individual prostate cancer patients is presented, and the future clinical potential of adding hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate MRSI to a multiparametric 1H MRI staging exam is discussed. Keywords: prostate cancer; metabolism; magnetic resonance spectroscopy; magnetic resonance imaging; magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging; dynamic nuclear polarization; hyperpolarized 13C MR; Warburg effect; high-resolution magic-angle spinning spectroscopy; cell and tissue culture bioreactor
Effects of varying degrees of legitimacy in the attribution of responsibility for negative events

Team A (2 confederates and 1 naive S) and Team B (3 naive Ss) played a game in which tokens were won or lost. On certain loss trials, the confederates of Team A attributed the loss to the naive S, either legitimately or nonlegitimately. This accusation caused the accused to become less willing to interact further in similar situations, and to lower his interest in the game. Observers were less willing to interact with the accused than with others in the legitimate, and with both the accused and accusers in the nonlegitimate condition. Results were interpreted in terms of defensiveness, perception of reality, and compatibility.
New method for the analysis of process rotating machine shop vibration test

Factory approval test (FAT) or shop run test is a unique opportunity to evaluate rotating machine performance before delivery to site. This note presents a new adaptive signal processing method to evaluate vibration measurement during FAT based on obtained noisy data. It is also a necessary step for machine reliability, fault diagnosis, future predictive maintenance, and condition monitoring.
X-Linked Mental Retardation and Epilepsy Syndrome

A kindred of 7 affected male infants with an X-linked mental retardation and epilepsy syndrome (XMRE), distinct from X-linked West and other mental retardation-epilepsy syndromes, is reported from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI.
Securitization and Leverage in General Equilibrium

I develop a highly tractable dynamic general equilibrium model with collateralized lending and securitization in which asset-backed securities (ABS) function as a mechanism for risk sharing. Entrepreneurs who face aggregate and idiosyncratic investment risks can borrow from a menu of non-recourse loans offered by financial intermediaries by putting up their investments as collateral. The intermediaries pool debt contracts, issue ABS, and sell them to entrepreneurs. In addition to establishing equilibrium existence, I prove that in equilibrium only the lowest collateral loan market will be active and the entrepreneurs will leverage to maximum, leading to the endogenous emergence of "subprime" loans. Despite moral hazard by entrepreneurs, moderate collateral requirement improves welfare and economic growth.
Yagi-Uda Receiving Elements in Microwave Power Transmission system Rectennas

Directional receiving elements are proposed to reduce rectenna costs in free-space microwave power transmission systems, particularly in applications like solar power satellites where the power bea...
Combining self-optimizing control and extremum seeking for online optimization with application to Vapor Compression cycles

The goal of online optimization is to find economizing input values that minimize the plant's steady-state operational cost. Often, the optimal value of these inputs is a function of the system's disturbances. For systems with a direct measurement of the operational cost function and multiple process outputs, there is a wealth of information that can be exploited for online optimizing feedback control. When extremum seeking control is applied to these systems, multiple potential process measurements unrelated to achieving system performance objectives present a choice of the extremum seeking controlled variable. In this paper, a Vapor Compression System moving boundary simulation model is employed to investigate the effectiveness of combining self-optimizing control with extremum seeking control. Results show that combining extremum seeking's ability to adapt to slowly varying disturbances under minimal assumptions about the system model with the transient performance guarantees provided by self-optimizing control improves optimization performance by nearly 60% relative to the case where extremum seeking directly controls an actuator input.
Reducing the number of fetuses in a pregnancy: providers' and patients' views of challenges.

Study question How do patients and providers perceive and make decisions about possible reductions of multi-fetal pregnancies? Summary answer Physicians may be transferring additional embryos, assuming that patients will later undergo reduction if need be; but decisions to reduce pregnancies are difficult for patients, who may agree to undergo the procedure in advance and later renege. What is already known Implanting more than one embryo increases the likelihood that at least one embryo will successfully lead to a child but also that the patient may end up with twins or higher-order multiple births. Study design, size, duration In-depth interviews of ~1 h each were conducted with 37 ART providers and patients (17 physicians, 10 other health providers and 10 patients) and systematically analyzed. Participants/materials, setting, method The telephone interviews explored the participants' views and decisions regarding pregnancy reduction. The answers were analyzed systematically. Main results and the role of chance Providers may be transferring additional embryos, thinking that doing so will increase the likelihood of a 'take home baby' and that the patients could undergo reductions, if need be, to avoid the risks and complications of twins or multiple births. Yet patients often appear to have difficulty confronting the prospect of fetal reduction and/or renege on prior agreements to undergo the procedure. Providers should thus be wary and exceedingly careful about these situations. Limitations, reasons for caution The sample size was sufficient for qualitative research designed to elucidate the issues and themes that emerge, but not for statistically analyzing how various groups may differ (e.g. physicians versus patients). Future studies should investigate these issues with larger samples. Wider implications of the findings These data, the first to examine how IVF providers and patients view and approach decisions regarding the reduction of fetuses, suggest several complications and dilemmas. This information has critical implications for future practice, guidelines, research and education of providers, patients, insurers, policymakers and others. Study funding/competing interests Funding was provided by grant #UL1 RR024156 from the National Center for Research Resources, the Greenwall Foundation and the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. There are no conflicts of interest to declare.
THE AFGHAN DISCOVERY OF BUDDHA: CIVILIZATIONAL HISTORY AND THE NATIONALIZING OF AFGHAN ANTIQUITY

Through their interactions with French archaeologists from around 1930, Afghan historians formulated a new official historical identity for Afghanistan based on its pre-Islamic past. This article provides the first analysis of this process by tracing the emergence of the new historiography through the career of its chief promoter, Ahmad ʿAli Kuhzad, as curator of the National Museum (founded 1931) and director of the Afghan Historical Society (founded 1942). Through placing Kuhzad in these official institutional settings and reading his major works, the article shows how traditional Persianate historiography was challenged by an imported and amended version of world civilizational history. In the decades after independence in 1919, this new historical vision allowed the young Afghan nation-state to stake its civilizational claims on an international stage. In these previously unexcavated historiographical strata lie the roots of the Taliban's iconoclasm, which are revealed as a dialogical response to the state cultural institutions that remade Afghanistan as Aryana.
Urban and Rural Preservice Special Education Teachers' Computer Use and Perceptions of Self-Efficacy:

Despite the rapid and ongoing increase in the use and availability of computers and technology in and outside of public school classrooms, there is relatively little literature that has examined pr...
Chronic Ethanol Consumption Alters SOD2 Dynamics through Lysine Acetylation

Chronic ethanol consumption is a significant source of morbidity and mortality worldwide and contributes to approximately 6% of global deaths. Understanding mechanisms of hepatic mitochondrial dysfunction resulting from ethanol metabolism remains a key area of interest. Our findings demonstrate that liver physiology is altered by ethanol-induced mitochondrial protein hyperacetylation. Since oxidative stress is a critical marker of early-stage ethanol toxicity in the liver, scrutiny is focused on the impact of ethanol toxicity on the acetylation status of mitochondrial antioxidant proteins and overall antioxidant status. We used a mouse model that employs a Lieber-DeCarli liquid diet to examine the impact of chronic ethanol consumption in a high-fat Western diet. Towards the goal of elucidating mechanisms of alcohol toxicity, we integrated a multi-omics approach utilizing techniques such as 1D- and 2D-SDS-PAGE followed by Western blot, immunohistochemistry (IHC), enzyme activity assays, quantitative acetylomics via HPLC-MS/MS, and computational modeling. These proteomic techniques were employed to assess changes in the acetylation status of individual lysine residues on mitochondrial antioxidant proteins from control and ethanol-fed mice. The results of our studies indicate that, as a result of chronic ethanol consumption, the global acetylation of SOD2 lysine residues was increased in liver by 270% and 400%, as quantified by Western blot and LC-MS/MS, respectively. Western blot analysis also showed an approximate 400% increase in SOD2 K68 acetylation, which is known to inhibit enzyme activity. IHC analysis revealed that ethanol-induced acetylation of SOD2-K68 is significantly increased in the zone 3 in liver, which is generally known to be hypoxic. Our findings also correlate with a decreased ratio of GSH/GSSG as a consequence of ethanol toxicity. These acetyl-related changes were then correlated with alterations in SOD2 enzymatic structure and activity. Interestingly, chronic ethanol consumption shifted the isoelectric point of SOD2 toward a more negative state as demonstrated by 2D- electrophoresis. Ethanol-induced acetylation in vivo also decreased SOD2 activity by 40%. Through the integration of enzyme assays, mass spectrometry, and computational biology, our goal is to further elucidate mechanisms of nutrient disruption and oxidative stress due to alcohol toxicity.
Honey, I shrunk the cluster!: parallel computing and Monte Carlo simulations on iPod Touches, iPhones and iPads

One of the more intriguing new frameworks in the iPhone 3 Software Developers Kit (SDK) is GameKit, designed to support multiplayer gaming on the iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad family of devices. With surprisingly little effort, it is possible to adapt GameKit to set up a cluster of devices to perform parallel computing. This paper outlines what is required, and how this might be used in an intriguing Monte Carlo simulation.
Crystal growth in gels and Liesegang ring formation: I. Diffusion relationships

Abstract In this paper, Fick's diffusion equation for reagents in gels is solved as a function of time by numerical methods, the only procedure available for finite systems. Inexhaustible as well as finite reservoirs are considered, together with “concentration programming”, the scheduled adjustment of reservoir concentrations. The results are directly relevant to Liesegang Ring formation.
One-way travel-time inverted ultra-short baseline localization for low-cost autonomous underwater vehicles

This paper presents an acoustic localization system for small and low-cost autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Accurate and robust localization for low-cost AUVs would lower the barrier toward multi-AUV research in river and ocean environments. However, these AUVs introduce size, power, and cost constraints that prevent the use of conventional AUV sensors and acoustic positioning systems, adding great difficulty to the problem of underwater localization. Our system uses a single acoustic transmitter placed at a reference point and is acoustically passive on the AUV, reducing cost and power use, and enabling multi-AUV localization. The AUV has an ultra-short baseline (USBL) receiver array that uses one-way travel-time (OWTT) and phased-array beamforming to calculate range, azimuth, and inclination to the transmitter, providing an instantaneous estimate of the vehicle location. This estimate is fed to a particle filter and graph-based smoothing algorithm to generate a consistent AUV trajectory. We describe the complete processing pipeline of our system, and present results based on experiments using a low-cost AUV. To the authors' knowledge, this work constitutes the first practical demonstration of the feasibility of OWTT inverted USBL navigation for AUVs.