cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Some Factors Influencing the Nonheme Iron Content of Meat and Its Implications in Oxidation

Three different methods for determining nonheme iron content of meat extracts which differed in final pH and either in heating or not heating of the samples, were compared. The final pH of meat extracts had little effect on the level of nonheme iron but heating gave higher values. Both final temperature and rate of heating influenced release of nonheme iron from meat pigment extracts, with the optimum temperature being 63-70°C. Slow heating resulted in release of more noneheme iron than fast heating. Nitrite was shown to prevent release of heme iron, apparently through stabilizing the porphyrin ring. Sources of nonheme iron and their relationship to oxidation in cooked meat are discussed.
Partisan Media and Discussion as Enhancers of the Belief Gap

This study examines the roles of partisanship, partisan media use, and political discussion in the development of belief gaps. Using national survey data, we construct models of political identity, media use, and discussion factors predicting beliefs on five contested political issues and find that ideology and partisanship are generally stronger predictors of beliefs than is education. Notably, each has independent effects on belief outcomes. Contrary to some concerns that the Internet especially promotes partisan clustering, use of partisan traditional media—television and radio—is by far the strongest information-related predictor of belief outcomes, whereas partisan social media use and partisan discussion are relatively weak and inconsistent. These findings suggest that political elites continue to exert significant influence over the perceptions of rank and file partisans.
Characterization of cured polystyrylpyridine by model compounds

The crosslinking or curing reaction of polystyrylpyridine (PSP) has been studied by means of thermal reactions of its model compounds. Compounds 2,6-distyrylpyridine, 4-stilbazole, and deuterated 4-stilbazole were pyrolyzed at 200-325 C both in air and under vacuum in a sealed tube. The major pyrolysis products were diarylethane and stilbene, and were characterized by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Major dimeric products were naphthalene or quinoline derivatives. Mechanisms for the pyrolysis are suggested, and a crosslinked structure for cured PSP is proposed based on the thermal reaction products of model compounds.
Economic uses of eastern red cedar

Juniperus virginiana, a tree of eastern North America, is of comparatively minor yet significant economic importance. Most uses of its wood depend on its pleasant odor, distinctive appearance, or resistance to microbial decay.
Dicopper(I,I) and delocalized mixed-valent dicopper(I,II) complexes of a sterically hindered carboxylate ligand

Admixture of the lithium salt of the bulky ligand 2,6-dimesitylbenzoate [ArCO2]− with [Cu(CH3CN)4]O3SCF3 yielded the dicopper(I,I) complex [(ArCO2)2Cu2(THF)2)] (1), which upon oxidation with AgX (X = SbF6− or ClO4−) in THF afforded the mixed-valent complexes [(ArCO2)2Cu2(THF)2]SbF6 (2) and [(ArCO2)2Cu2(THF)3]ClO4 (3), respectively. Fully delocalized mixed-valent (Cu1.5Cu1.5) formulations for 2 and 3 were determined on the basis of X-ray crystallography and UV-vis, resonance Raman, 1H NMR, and EPR spectroscopy. Notably, solvent dependent UV-vis spectra suggest that THF and/or counter ion coordination influence the intermetal bonding interactions in the mixed-valent cores.
High-density phase transitions in gauge theories

By the introduction of a chemical potential for an absolutely conserved fermion quantum number, we determine the onset of a phase transition in a general renormalizable, finite-temperature field theory with spontaneously broken symmetries. We also briefly investigate the possible physical existence of such a phase transition in black holes and in the early universe.
Synthesis of a photoaffinity probe for the beta-adrenergic receptor.

Abstract The synthesis and characterization of a beta-adrenergic photo-affinity label, N-(-2-hydroxy-3-naphthoxypropyl)-N′ (-2-nitro-5-azidophenyl ethylenediamine, (NAP-propranolol) is described. The inhibition constants (Ki) for the NAP-propranolol inhibition of 3 H-dihydroalprenolol binding and the inhibition of (−)-isoproterenol-stimulated adenylate cyclase in turkey erythrocytes are 100 nM and 19 nM respectively.
Provider adoption of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and the impact of vaccine shortages.

Objectives.—To 1) determine the factors associated with provider acceptance of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine and 2) describe how providers prioritize pneumococcal conjugate vaccine during shortages. Design/Methods.—During April–November 2002, we conducted a mailed survey of rural and urban Colorado practitioners who provided routine pediatric immunizations. Three groups were surveyed: 1) all immunization providers (n = 51) in 2 geographically large rural areas, identified through a regional immunization registry; 2) all providers (n = 61) from private pediatric practices in metropolitan Denver that were actively participating in the same registry; and 3) all family physicians (n = 244) from the same urban areas as the pediatric practices. Results.—Response rate was 60%. Provider adoption of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine was strong: 66% of urban family physicians, 84% of rural providers, and 98% of urban pediatric providers always recommended pneumococcal conjugate vaccine to healthy children ≤23 months old when vaccine supplies were adequate. In multivariate analysis, vaccine nonadopters were significantly more likely than adopters to report financial barriers to vaccination (odds ratio [OR] 3.17, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.58, 6.35) and concerns about vaccine safety (OR 3.37, 95% CI 1.37, 8.26). Eighty-nine percent of respondents had encountered pneumococcal conjugate vaccine shortages. During shortages, children Conclusions.—While provider acceptance of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine appears high, concerns about vaccine safety, cost, and availability exist, and these concerns will need to be addressed to maximize prevention of invasive pneumococcal disease in children.
Incremental approximate matrix factorization for speeding up support vector machines

Traditional decomposition-based solutions to Support Vector Machines (SVMs) suffer from the widely-known scalability problem. For example, given a one-million training set, it takes about six days for SVMLight to run on a Pentium-4 sever with 8G-byte memory. In this paper, we propose an incremental algorithm, which performs approximate matrix-factorization operations, to speed up SVMs. Two approximate factorization schemes, Kronecker and incomplete Cholesky, are utilized in the primal-dual interior-point method (IPM) to directly solve the quadratic optimization problem in SVMs. We found out that a coarse approximate algorithm enjoys good speedup performance but may suffer from poor training accuracy. Conversely, a fine-grained approximate algorithm enjoys good training quality but may suffer from long training time. We subsequently propose an incremental training algorithm, which uses the approximate IPM solution of a coarse factorization to initialize the IPM of a fine-grained factorization. Extensive empirical studies show that our proposed incremental algorithm with approximate factorizations substantially speeds up SVM training while maintaining high training accuracy. In addition, we show that our proposed algorithm is highly parallelizable on an Intel dual-coreprocessor.
Effect of tryptophan insertions on the properties of the human group IIA phospholipase A2: mutagenesis produces an enzyme with characteristics similar to those of the human group V phospholipase A2.

An important characteristic of the human group IIA secreted phospholipase A2 (IIA PLA2) is the extremely low activity of this enzyme with phosphatidylcholine (PC) vesicles, mammalian cell membranes, and serum lipoproteins. This characteristic is reflected in the lack of ability of this enzyme to bind productively to zwitterionic interfaces. Part of the molecular basis for this lack of activity is an absence of tryptophan, a residue with a known preference for residing in the interfacial region of zwitterionic phospholipid bilayers. In this paper we have replaced the eight residues that make up the hydrophobic collar on the interfacial binding surface of the enzyme with tryptophan. The catalytic and interfacial binding properties of these mutants have been investigated, particularly those properties associated with binding to and hydrolysis of zwitterionic interfaces. Only the insertion of a tryptophan at position 3 or 31 produces mutants that significantly enhance the activity of the human IIA enzyme agai...
Recent developments in gas turbine materials and technology and their implications for syngas firing

Gas turbine combined-cycle systems burning natural gas represent a reliable and efficient power generation technology that is widely used. A critical factor in their development was the rapid adaptation of aero-engine technology (single crystal airfoils, sophisticated cooling techniques, and thermal barrier coatings) in order to operate at the high rotor-inlet temperatures required for high efficiency generation. Early reliability problems have been largely overcome, so that this type of power generation system is now considered to be a mature technology capable of achieving high levels of availability. Current interest in replacing natural gas with gas derived from coal (syngas or hydrogen) in these gas turbine systems focuses attention on implications for the critical turbine components. In this paper, the development requirements for materials for critical hot gas-path parts in large gas turbines burning coal-derived syngas fuels are briefly considered in the context of the state-of-the-art in materials for engines burning natural gas. It is shown that, despite some difficult design issues, many of the materials used in current engines will be applicable to units burning syngas. However, there is the potential that the durability of some components may be prejudiced because of differences in the combustion environment (especially in terms of water vapor content, and possibly sulfur compounds and particulates). Consequently, effort to develop improved coatings to resist erosion and also attack by S-containing compounds may be necessary.
Dechlorination of ferric chloride with oxygen

Because of increasing ecological concern, the Bureau of Mines is investigating the use of chlorination technology in extractive metallurgy. A key problem is the fact that ferric chloride is commonly generated during processing of a wide variety of ores and minerals. This paper describes small laboratory-scale studies designed to effect dechlorination of ferric chloride by oxygen in a fluidized bed reactor to produce a viable, nonpolluting iron oxide product and chlorine gas, which could be recycled in a chlorination process. These studies demonstrated that close to 100 pct conversions of ferric chloride to ferric oxide and chlorine can be effected by reaction with oxygen at temperatures ranging from 500° to 650°C. The off-gas from the single-stage reactor contained up to 95 pct chlorine. The study also demonstrated that the presence of a small amount of NaCl in the reactor catalyzed the reaction between ferric chloride and oxygen and permitted high conversions at temperatures as low as 500°C.
Sex differences in socialization anxiety.

Summary Cross-cultural ethnographic data on 106 pre-industrial and industrializing societies were used to test seven hypotheses about sex-linked differences in modal levels of socialization anxiety observed among children. Five of these hypotheses were supported, demonstrating that boys displayed significantly higher overall levels of socialization anxiety than girls; girls exhibited significantly lower levels of anxiety related to achievement, independence, and self-reliance training than boys; and, finally, a higher level of anxiety, associated with nurturance training occurred among girls than boys. Of the two remaining unsupported hypotheses, data were in the predicted direction for both (girls exhibited higher levels of responsibility and obedience anxiety than boys); however, the differences failed to reach significance.
An Electrocardiographic, Anatomic, and Metabolic Study of Zonal Myocardial Ischemia in Coronary Heart Disease

An integrated approach, utilizing cine coronary angiography, the standard 12-lead and post-exercise electrocardiograms, and regional myocardial lactate metabolism, is presented for detection of regional myocardial ischemia in patients with coronary heart disease. The normal electrocardiogram was of no predictive value and was present with extensive coronary disease and myocardial production of lactate. The abnormal electrocardiogram gave an accurate indication of a portion, but not all zones of ischemia. Multiple electrocardiographic abnormalities were invariably associated with severe coronary artery disease, although in most patients many more coronary lesions were present than electrocardiographic abnormalities. The regional lactate pattern was very helpful in localizing myocardial ischemia and significant coronary artery lesions. Regional lactate abnormalities may have a great practical value in the selection of patients for myocardial revascularization surgery and in their postoperative evaluation.
Anatomically-Specific Actions of Oestrogen Receptor in the Developing Female Rat Brain: Effects of Oestradiol and Selective Oestrogen Receptor Modulators on Progestin Receptor Expression

Steroid hormones largely exert their actions by activating nuclear receptors, which, as transcription factors, powerfully influence fundamental processes of neural development. Often, steroid receptor action demonstrates remarkable specificity under different developmental, anatomical or hormonal conditions. Yet, the mechanisms underlying such specificity are poorly understood. The present study examined the anatomically-specific regulation of progestin receptor (PR) expression by oestrogen receptor (ER) activation in the ventromedial nucleus (VMN) of the hypothalamus and the medial preoptic nucleus (MPN) of the neonatal female rat brain, using the selective oestrogen receptor modulators (SERMs), tamoxifen and ICI 182780 (ICI), in the presence or absence of oestradiol benzoate (EB) treatment. The results demonstrate that PR immunoreactivity (PR-ir) in the neonatal female MPN was significantly increased by EB and this increase was abolished by either tamoxifen or ICI treatment. In contrast, within the VMN of the same animals, EB had no effect on PR-ir and the SERMs only modestly decreased PR-ir. Interestingly, ICI acted as a true antagonist regardless of EB treatment, whereas tamoxifen acted as an ER agonist in the absence of EB in the MPN, but not the VMN, representing one of the first in vivo demonstrations of tissue-specific and oestradiol-independent effects of tamoxifen on ER activation. The present results indicate that PR expression is highly dependent on oestradiol and its receptor in the MPN, although it is independent of both oestradiol and ER activation within the neonatal VMN. These findings demonstrate the anatomically-specific actions of oestradiol and its receptor to induce PR in two brain regions controlling different aspects of female reproductive behaviours in adulthood.
A data validation program nucleus.

A data validation program designed for flexibility and user-modification is presented. It is assumed that the data to be validated consist of packets; i.e., groups of records with a common value in a record-linking field. Acceptance or rejection of data is on a packet basis. Individual field validation is specified by user-supplied tables. Multiple field checking and field interaction checking on both an intra-record and an inter-record basis may be specified by user-supplied subprograms. The program is written in PL/I using structured programming techniques. Further modifications such as record size and key positions are possible at pre-processor time.
An inversion method for separating apparent and intrinsic attenuation in layered media

Summary. The method proposed by Menke and Dubendorff for separating the effects of intrinsic and apparent attentuation (due soIely to scattering) is studied. The basic algorithm is shown to be applicable not only to alayered medium, as first proposed, but also to a three-dimensionally heterogeneous medium, as long as the medium possesses a scaling between correlation functions of material properties (compressional and shear velocity, density). The plane layered algorithm is analysed in detail. A rigorous derivation is presented that demonstrates that the inversion formula is unique. The validity of one of the fundamental assumptions of the method, the additivity of intrinsic and apparent attenuation, is discussed, and is shown to be valid in the context of mean field theory. The influence of random noise and of limited bandwidth on the solution are investigated through fdter theory and numerical simulations.
Sleep Patterns and Predictors of Disturbed Sleep in a Large Population of College Students

Abstract Purpose To characterize sleep patterns and predictors of poor sleep quality in a large population of college students. This study extends the 2006 National Sleep Foundation examination of sleep in early adolescence by examining sleep in older adolescents. Method One thousand one hundred twenty-five students aged 17 to 24 years from an urban Midwestern university completed a cross-sectional online survey about sleep habits that included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Epworth Sleepiness Scale, the Horne-Ostberg Morningness–Eveningness Scale, the Profile of Mood States, the Subjective Units of Distress Scale, and questions about academic performance, physical health, and psychoactive drug use. Results Students reported disturbed sleep; over 60% were categorized as poor-quality sleepers by the PSQI, bedtimes and risetimes were delayed during weekends, and students reported frequently taking prescription, over the counter, and recreational psychoactive drugs to alter sleep/wakefulness. Students classified as poor-quality sleepers reported significantly more problems with physical and psychological health than did good-quality sleepers. Students overwhelmingly stated that emotional and academic stress negatively impacted sleep. Multiple regression analyses revealed that tension and stress accounted for 24% of the variance in the PSQI score, whereas exercise, alcohol and caffeine consumption, and consistency of sleep schedule were not significant predictors of sleep quality. Conclusions These results demonstrate that insufficient sleep and irregular sleep–wake patterns, which have been extensively documented in younger adolescents, are also present at alarming levels in the college student population. Given the close relationships between sleep quality and physical and mental health, intervention programs for sleep disturbance in this population should be considered.
Transcription of functionally related constitutive genes is not coordinated

Expression of an individual gene can vary considerably among genetically identical cells because of stochastic fluctuations in transcription. However, proteins comprising essential complexes or pathways have similar abundances and lower variability. It is not known whether coordination in the expression of subunits of essential complexes occurs at the level of transcription, mRNA abundance or protein expression. To directly measure the level of coordination in the expression of genes, we used highly sensitive fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) to count individual mRNAs of functionally related and unrelated genes within single Saccharomyces cerevisiae cells. Our results revealed that transcript levels of temporally induced genes are highly correlated in individual cells. In contrast, transcription of constitutive genes encoding essential subunits of complexes is not coordinated because of stochastic fluctuations. The coordination of these functional complexes therefore must occur post-transcriptionally, and likely post-translationally.
Ipilimumab-Induced Encephalopathy with a Reversible Splenial Lesion

Ipilimumab, an anti-cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen (CTLA)-4 monoclonal antibody, is first-line therapy for stage IV melanoma. Although serious immune-related adverse events occur in 25% of patients receiving ipilimumab, serious neurological toxicity primarily consisting of transient sensory and motor neuropathies affect less than one percent. We report a melanoma patient who received high dose ipilimumab at 10 mg/kg as first-line therapy for metastatic disease. After the third dose, he developed "mild" encephalopathy with a reversible splenial lesion (MERS) of the corpus callosum by MRI and neurogenic bladder, two novel immune-related adverse events during checkpoint inhibition. In addition to headache, delirium and altered consciousness commonly seen with MERS, he also developed tremor, gait instability, paresthesias and neurogenic bladder. The latter two were thought to represent sensory and autonomic neuropathies, respectively. The syndrome gradually resolved following intravenous methylprednisolone at 2mg/kg divided twice daily for 5 days and a slow taper of oral prednisone over 8 weeks.
Paleogeography of some vestiges of Iapetus: paleomagnetism of the Ordovician Robert's Arm, Summerford, and Chanceport groups, central Newfoundland

In the Central Mobile Belt of Newfoundland, three volcanic groups of early Middle Ordovician age (Robert9s Arm, Summerford, and Chanceport) are thought to have formed within the Iapetus Ocean. Demagnetization analyses of 328 samples from these three groups has yielded similar magnetic directions, calculated by combining stable end-point directions and great-circle poles. The three groups yield similar poles located at 6°N, 140°E; 8°N, 140°E; and 10°N, 131°E, corresponding to paleolatitudes of about 30°S. The magnetization of the Robert9s Arm Group passes the tilt test, and one site shows normal polarity, antipodal to the directions of the other sites. The paleolatitude of 31°S places the volcanic rocks at the time of their formation in the middle of Iapetus, between the Laurentian margin at about 15°S and the location of the Avalon Terrane at >50°S. Subsequent accretion to Laurentia and the presently adjacent island-arc rocks represented by the Moreton9s Harbour Group occurred after northward drift in the later Ordovician/earliest Silurian and before the Middle Silurian.
The fiber fuse phenomenon in polarization-maintaining fibers at 1.55 μm

The fiber fuse phenomenon was investigated in PANDA-style polarization-maintaining fibers at 1.55 mum. We present fuse velocity and threshold data, and observe different thresholds for fast- and slow-axis alignment.
Reprogramming of human cancer cells to pluripotency for models of cancer progression

The ability to study live cells as they progress through the stages of cancer provides the opportunity to discover dynamic networks underlying pathology, markers of early stages, and ways to assess therapeutics. Genetically engineered animal models of cancer, where it is possible to study the consequences of temporal-specific induction of oncogenes or deletion of tumor suppressors, have yielded major insights into cancer progression. Yet differences exist between animal and human cancers, such as in markers of progression and response to therapeutics. Thus, there is a need for human cell models of cancer progression. Most human cell models of cancer are based on tumor cell lines and xenografts of primary tumor cells that resemble the advanced tumor state, from which the cells were derived, and thus do not recapitulate disease progression. Yet a subset of cancer types have been reprogrammed to pluripotency or near-pluripotency by blastocyst injection, by somatic cell nuclear transfer and by induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS) technology. The reprogrammed cancer cells show that pluripotency can transiently dominate over the cancer phenotype. Diverse studies show that reprogrammed cancer cells can, in some cases, exhibit early-stage phenotypes reflective of only partial expression of the cancer genome. In one case, reprogrammed human pancreatic cancer cells have been shown to recapitulate stages of cancer progression, from early to late stages, thus providing a model for studying pancreatic cancer development in human cells where previously such could only be discerned from mouse models. We discuss these findings, the challenges in developing such models and their current limitations, and ways that iPS reprogramming may be enhanced to develop human cell models of cancer progression.
Connections between Alternative Transcription and Alternative Splicing in Mammals

The majority of mammalian genes produce multiple transcripts resulting from alternative splicing (AS) and/or alternative transcription initiation (ATI) and alternative transcription termination (ATT). Comparative analysis of the number of alternative nucleotides, isoforms, and introns per locus in genes with different types of alternative events suggests that ATI and ATT contribute to the diversity of human and mouse transcriptome even more than AS. There is a strong negative correlation between AS and ATI in 5' untranslated regions (UTRs) and AS in coding sequences (CDSs) but an even stronger positive correlation between AS in CDSs and ATT in 3' UTRs. These observations could reflect preferential regulation of distinct, large groups of genes by different mechanisms: 1) regulation at the level of transcription initiation and initiation of translation resulting from ATI and AS in 5' UTRs and 2) posttranslational regulation by different protein isoforms. The tight linkage between AS in CDSs and ATT in 3' UTRs suggests that variability of 3' UTRs mediates differential translational regulation of alternative protein forms. Together, the results imply coordinate evolution of AS and alternative transcription, processes that occur concomitantly within gene expression factories.
Practical, cost-effective regional anesthesia for ambulatory surgery

Abstract In the present medical environment, cost-effective anesthetic choices are a top priority. Regional anesthesia is a cost-effective choice for ambulatory surgery provided it is appropriate for the procedure, anesthesiologist, surgeon, patient, and facility—and the regional technique is carefully selected. Specific techniques are discussed with respect to their practical and cost-effective aspects. A model for analysis of costs of anesthesia for ambulatory surgery is proposed.
River Basin Management at the Lowest Appropriate Level: When and Why Does It (Not) Work in Practice?

When the research project that has led to the material and analysis presented in this book started, a great deal of investigation had been carried out into the application of the four so-called Dublin Principles of 1992 (ICWE 1992). These are frequently quoted in the water literature and have been guiding much of the thinking about water resource management in the past one and a half decades. Most discussion, however, has taken place around three of the Dublin Principles: those related to water as an economic good, the role of women in provision and management of water, and the need for integrated water resource management. Interestingly, the fourth principle, which concerns river basin management at the lowest appropriate level, was also being promoted and applied, but it was more or less taken for granted that it was a desirable practice, with little enquiry into whether it really worked and what the outcomes of its application were. These questions are, of course, vital for policymakers and water users throughout the world, especially in light of the number of river basin management efforts that are under way in the 21st century. Governments in several countries, multilateral financing agencies such as the World Bank, and other institutions such as the Global Water Partnership promote river basin organizations as a means of advancing river basin management at the lowest appropriate level. Accordingly, a study was carried out to consider those questions in a systematic way; this book presents the outcomes of the investigations into this issue.
The stuff of metaphor: “fyr and tow” in the Prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale

ABSTRACTThis paper proposes a new reading for a proverb in Chaucer's Prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale (ll. 89–90). The dangers in assembling “fyr and tow” have long been understood simply as a figurative warning against sexual temptation, following a common precedent of Scripture and vernacular proverb. I argue here that the Wife's usage invites a contemporary, sensational reading of fire and tow as well: a reference to the fatal accident of the bal des ardents at the French royal court in 1393, which very nearly took the life of Charles VI. Such a reading allows for a more complete critical understanding of the Wife of Bath's sources and her social identity.
Interaction of steroids with a model of stratum corneum lipids

Lithocholic acid acetate methyl ester, cholesteryl acetate, methyl lithocholate, hydrocortisone, progesterone, and testosterone were added to a model system of stratum corneum lipids and structural changes were investigated using low-angle x-ray diffraction and NMR spectroscopy. — The interactions were dominated by the presence of cholesterol in the model. Without it the three esters gave a radically different relation between water and the structure than the three remaining steroids. With cholesterol present the only difference was less water penetration after addition of the esters. NMR data demonstrated a disordering effect of hydrocortisone contrary to the influence of cholesterol.
Thesis 11 at 40 years

As the second longest serving editor of Dialectical Anthropology (after founder Stanley Diamond), I begin this reflection with some personal context on what Dialectical Anthropology means to me and hopefully also to my profession. Marxists often speak of a permanent ‘‘crisis of capitalism.’’ But I grew up in one of those rare moments when there did not appear to be a crisis: the golden age of capitalism, or the three decades after the second inter-imperialist war. Born in 1963, the penultimate year of the baby boom, my childhood involved endless gratitude for the prosperity, economic expansion, and fabulous wealth of American capitalism. We had the expectation that each year would be better than the last so that by the year 2000 scarcity would be conquered, cities would have moving sidewalks, and we would all only work a few hours a week. There were terrible upheavals out there, such as the killing of almost three million people to prevent national healthcare in Vietnam, and similar horrors and absurdities in dozens of other countries, as well there were urban insurrections in the USA. However, these events were somehow not the symptoms of a crisis, but punctuation marks in a golden sentence. What is so strange is that this was, in fact, the one period during the last 100 years when government officials, their intellectual helpmates and their big
Fabrication of High-Q Nanobeam Photonic Crystals in Epitaxially Grown 4H-SiC.

Silicon carbide (SiC) is an intriguing material due to the presence of spin-active point defects in several polytypes, including 4H-SiC. For many quantum information and sensing applications involving such point defects, it is important to couple their emission to high quality optical cavities. Here we present the fabrication of 1D nanobeam photonic crystal cavities (PCC) in 4H-SiC using a dopant-selective etch to undercut a homoepitaxially grown epilayer of p-type 4H-SiC. These are the first PCCs demonstrated in 4H-SiC and show high quality factors (Q) of up to ∼7000 as well as low modal volumes of <0.5 (λ/n)3. We take advantage of the high device yield of this fabrication method to characterize hundreds of devices and determine which PCC geometries are optimal. Additionally, we demonstrate two methods to tune the resonant wavelengths of the PCCs over 5 nm without significant degradation of the Q. Lastly, we characterize nanobeam PCCs coupled to luminescence from silicon vacancy point defects (V1, V2) in...
Reconstruction of the cranial base.

The cranial base is a complex boundary between intracranial and extracranial anatomic structures. Adequate reconstruction of the basieranium depends on the location, size, and nature of the defect. A reconstructive ladder can be built on a few basic principles: coverage of vital structures, separation of the intra- and extradural spaces, procedural simplicity, and aesthetics. Individual consideration should be given to reconstruction of bone, soft tissue, dura, and cerebrospinal fluid spaces.
Teaching as an exaptation

We appreciate and endorse Kline's ethological taxonomy and its application. However, the definition of teaching she presents is problematic, as it replaces mentalistic intent with intention on the part of natural selection. We discuss problems with the strict adaptationist view and suggest instead that the five forms of teaching presented in the taxonomy may constitute exaptations rather than adaptations.
Evolutionary Computation and Fractal Visualization of Sequence Data

Publisher Summary This chapter explores a particular class of visualization techniques for sequence data. Each of the techniques discussed results in fractals, which are well known for their complexity and visual beauty. Evolutionary computation is used in this chapter to optimize the extent to which the fractals produced are able to separate different categories of input sequence data. The overall method has merit because fractals are useful for conveying many different types of information within one picture by using both shape and color. It first describes a standard technique for visualizing DNA or other sequence data with a fractal algorithm, and then generalizes this technique in two different ways to obtain two new types of evolvable fractals, including an indexed IFS, uses incoming sequence data to choose which contraction map will be applied next, and chaos automaton that drives a finite-state machine. Both of these new methods are forms of iterated function systems (IFS), which are collections of randomly driven or data-driven contraction maps. Both evolvable fractals are tested on their ability to visually distinguish among different DNA from distinct microbial genomes. Finally, the chapter discusses potential improvements in the fractal chromosomes, fitness functions, and various other issues that must be resolved to obtain useful applications.
Receipt of Travel Survey Advance Letter and Its Impact on Reported Trips and Number of Phone Calls for Survey Completion in Telephone Surveys

AbstractResearch is conducted into the effect the receipt of a travel survey advance letter, sent as part of a household travel survey, has on the person trips reported by a household’s survey respondent for each household member and on the number of phone calls made to a household to successfully complete the survey using two data sets collected in household travel surveys conducted in the Greater Toronto Area in 2001 and 2006. The results of the statistical analysis of the data led to the conclusion that not receiving the survey advance letter resulted in survey respondents significantly underreporting the trips made by their respective household members. The underreporting varied with trip purpose, with home-based mandatory trips not being underreported while home-based discretionary and non-home-based trips were significantly underreported. Additionally, households not receiving the survey advance letter required significantly more phone calls to complete the survey compared to households that receive...
A program optimization for automatic database result caching

Most popular Web applications rely on persistent databases based on languages like SQL for declarative specification of data models and the operations that read and modify them. As applications scale up in user base, they often face challenges responding quickly enough to the high volume of requests. A common aid is caching of database results in the application's memory space, taking advantage of program-specific knowledge of which caching schemes are sound and useful, embodied in handwritten modifications that make the program less maintainable. These modifications also require nontrivial reasoning about the read-write dependencies across operations. In this paper, we present a compiler optimization that automatically adds sound SQL caching to Web applications coded in the Ur/Web domain-specific functional language, with no modifications required to source code. We use a custom cache implementation that supports concurrent operations without compromising the transactional semantics of the database abstraction. Through experiments with microbenchmarks and production Ur/Web applications, we show that our optimization in many cases enables an easy doubling or more of an application's throughput, requiring nothing more than passing an extra command-line flag to the compiler.
Sex trafficking in Cyprus: An in-depth study of policy, services, and social work involvement:

Human trafficking is a major social justice issue, with sex trafficking the most documented form. It depends on vulnerable and oppressed women who are bartered as commodities in an extremely profit...
Electrical and Mechanical Characteristics of HTS Twisted Stacked-Tape Cable Conductor

Electrical and mechanical characteristics of a twisted stacked-tape cable (TSTC) made of REBCO tapes are presented for both power transmission and magnet applications. It was found that the twist-pitch length and bending diameter that results in 2% degradation in the critical current are approximately proportional to the tape width. The critical twist-pitch length and bending diameter are roughly 22 times and 150 times the tape width, respectively. The cable critical-current of a square cross-section TSTC conductor is proportional to the square of the tape width, while the critical engineering-current-density is independent of the width. Both the current and current density are inversely proportional to the tape thickness. Finally, a method to mitigate the thermal contraction of a conductor during cooldown for power transmission applications is also discussed. Using a helically twisted conductor, the thermal contraction can be minimized by designing a cable for which the twisted-cable-diameter is reduced during the cooldown process while maintaining the conductor overall length constant.
Characterization of Human Cancer Cell Lines by Reverse-phase Protein Arrays

Cancer cell lines are major model systems for mechanistic investigation and drug development. However, protein expression data linked to high-quality DNA, RNA, and drug-screening data have not been available across a large number of cancer cell lines. Using reverse-phase protein arrays, we measured expression levels of ∼230 key cancer-related proteins in >650 independent cell lines, many of which have publically available genomic, transcriptomic, and drug-screening data. Our dataset recapitulates the effects of mutated pathways on protein expression observed in patient samples, and demonstrates that proteins and particularly phosphoproteins provide information for predicting drug sensitivity that is not available from the corresponding mRNAs. We also developed a user-friendly bioinformatic resource, MCLP, to help serve the biomedical research community.
Conclusion: Making Sense of Chinese Criminal Trials

Chinese culture and law have many features. Both have been flexible and adaptive for centuries and, both were radically reshaped in the twentieth century. With a focus on China’s attempt to accelerate its legal and criminal justice reform efforts in the past two decades, this study shows in a limited fashion what the effects of some of these innovations have been: they are modest at best. The current Chinese juridical practice is set in a political climate that can be defined as adaptive authoritarianism where elements of the rule of man, rule by law, and rule of law coexist. The field of Chinese criminal justice can be figuratively described as a “fenced-off playground with paternalistic guards.” (The Economist 2013) There is a general recognition that China’s economic ascendance in recent decades has created a genuine dilemma pitting a liberated (and increasing liberal) grassroots economic spirit against the old, stifling political constraints induced by the government. In particular, researchers have noticed the expanded expectation for the Chinese court to serve not only as impartial and effective adjudicators of private disputes but also as necessary checks on state power (Liebman 2008).
Carboranes: the strongest Brønsted acids in alcohol dehydration

Alcohol dehydration is an important reaction for the production of olefins (polymer feedstock) and known to evolve on solid acids through the formation of carbenium ions. In this work, we employed density functional theory calculations to study the dehydration mechanisms of biomass-derived alcohols catalyzed by fully halogenated carborane superacids, the strongest known Bronsted acids to date. We considered three carborane acids with shells consisting of fluorine, chlorine and bromine as well as alcohols of different substitution (primary, secondary and tertiary). Our results demonstrate that the fluorinated carborane is the most active alcohol dehydration catalyst, with the reaction following an intramolecular βH elimination mechanism. We found that water, a dehydration product, competes with alcohols for the catalytic (Bronsted acid) sites, increasing at the same time the dehydration barriers. Due to the increased stability of the conjugate base of the carboranes, the acid can dissociate under dehydration conditions and H3O+ can act as the acid catalyst, in addition to the non-dissociated carborane. Solvation by polar protic solvents decreases the reaction barriers due to stabilization of the carbenium ions formed at the transition states. We show strong linear correlations between calculated reaction barriers and carbenium ion stability, a known alcohol reactivity descriptor. Interestingly, by calculating the alcohol dehydration slopes on various Lewis and Bronsted catalysts, we reveal a slope dependence on the degree of carbenium ion character at the transition state, which in turn, depends on the reaction mechanism. This slope dependence can be attributed to the degree of charge separation at the transition states. As alcohol dehydration mechanisms can be very difficult to elucidate experimentally, this observation opens new avenues for identifying potential dehydration mechanisms.
Heterogeneity of SOX9 and HNF1β in Pancreatic Ducts Is Dynamic

Pancreatic duct epithelial cells have been suggested as a source of progenitors for pancreatic growth and regeneration. However, genetic lineage-tracing experiments with pancreatic duct-specific Cre expression have given conflicting results. Using immunofluorescence and flow cytometry, we show heterogeneous expression of both HNF1β and SOX9 in adult human and murine ductal epithelium. Their expression was dynamic and diminished significantly after induced replication. Purified pancreatic duct cells formed organoid structures in 3D culture, and heterogeneity of expression of Hnf1β and Sox9 was maintained even after passaging. Using antibodies against a second cell surface molecule CD51 (human) or CD24 (mouse), we could isolate living subpopulations of duct cells enriched for high or low expression of HNF1β and SOX9. Only the CD24high (Hnfβhigh/Sox9high) subpopulation was able to form organoids.
Word Ban? Wherefore "Vulnerable".

Edited byJacquelyn H. Flaskerud, RN, PhD, FAANUniversity of California, School of Nursing, Los Angeles, California, USAJanna Lesser, RN, PhDUniversity of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio,...
Prevalence and correlates of binge drinking among older adults with multimorbidity.

Abstract Background Binge drinking among older adults has increased in the past decade. Binge drinking is associated with unintentional injuries, medical conditions, and lower health-related quality of life. No studies have characterized multimorbidity among older binge drinkers. Methods We examined past 30-day binge alcohol use and lifetime medical conditions among adults age ≥50 from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2005 to 2014. Self-reported lifetime prevalence of 13 medical conditions and medical multimorbidity (≥2 diseases) among binge drinkers were compared to non-binge drinkers. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine correlates of binge alcohol use among older adults with medical multimorbidity. Results Among adults aged ≥50, 14.4% reported past-month binge drinking. Estimated prevalence of medical multimorbidity was lower (21.4%) among binge drinkers than non-binge drinkers (28.3%; p Conclusion The prevalence of multimorbidity was lower among current binge drinkers compared to non-binge drinkers, possibly because older adults in good health are apt to drink more than adults in poorer health. Current use of tobacco and substance use disorder were associated with an increased risk for binge drinking among older adults with multimorbidity. Binge drinking by older adults with multimorbidity may pose significant health risks especially with the concurrent use of other substances.
The Effect of Gender Identity on Perceptions of Authority Figures’ Racial Comments

ABSTRACTSocial identity affects perceptions of leaders and subordinates in organizations. This investigation examined gender identity an aspect of social identity. Utilizing quantitative and qualitative survey methods, we theorized that gender identity affects perceptions of racism by authority figures. The quantitative results indicated that white women participants with a low gender identity were more likely to perceive racism by a low-status authority figure (e.g., a black individual) who made a derogatory racial comment toward white students than when a high-status group member authority figure (i.e., a white individual) made similar comments. This suggests that women have low feelings of solidarity with oppressed racial groups when they have a low gender identity. However, the qualitative results indicated that, overall, more women than men perceived racism in negative racial comments by the authority figure, no matter the authority figure’s social status.
Laser-Induced Graphene

ConspectusResearch on graphene abounds, from fundamental science to device applications. In pursuit of complementary morphologies, formation of graphene foams is often preferred over the native two-dimensional (2D) forms due to the higher available area. Graphene foams have been successfully prepared by several routes including chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods and by wet-chemical approaches. For these methods, one often needs either high temperature furnaces and highly pure gases or large amounts of strong acids and oxidants. In 2014, using a commercial laser scribing system as found in most machine shops, a direct lasing of polyimide (PI) plastic films in the air converted the PI into 3D porous graphene, a material termed laser-induced graphene (LIG). This is a one-step method without the need for high-temperature reaction conditions, solvent, or subsequent treatments, and it affords graphene with many five-and seven-membered rings. With such an atomic arrangement, one might call LIG “kinetic grap...
Prediction Bounds in Accelerated Life Testing: Weibull Models with Inverse Power Relationship

The problem of obtaining lower prediction bounds for a future observation from a Weibull population at design stress level is investigated using Type II censored accelerated life test data from higher than design stress levels. By assuming the scale par..