cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Hydrothermal single crystal growth of Sc2O3 and lanthanide-doped Sc2O3

Abstract Single crystals of Sc 2 O 3 hold great promise as potential hosts for high-energy lasers, but the extremely refractory nature of this oxide makes crystal growth difficult. Hydrothermal methods have been used to synthesize and grow single crystals of Sc 2 O 3 and Er:Sc 2 O 3 at a temperature over 1800 °C below their melting point. Scandia crystals up to 6 mm in size have been obtained by spontaneous nucleation. A preliminary hydrothermal growth study was performed and rates of up to 0.16 mm/day were observed for seeded growth of both Sc 2 O 3 and Er:Sc 2 O 3 . Hydrothermal scandia has also been doped with trivalent Ho, Tm and Yb, making this an attractive technique for the growth of refractory optical crystals.
Genomic Tests of Variation in Inbreeding Among Individuals and Among Chromosomes

We examine the distribution of heterozygous sites in nine European and nine Yoruban individuals whose genomic sequences were made publicly available by Complete Genomics. We show that it is possible to obtain detailed information about inbreeding when a relatively small set of whole-genome sequences is available. Rather than focus on testing for deviations from Hardy–Weinberg genotype frequencies at each site, we analyze the entire distribution of heterozygotes conditioned on the number of copies of the derived (non-chimpanzee) allele. Using Levene’s exact test, we reject Hardy–Weinberg in both populations. We generalized Levene’s distribution to obtain the exact distribution of the number of heterozygous individuals given that every individual has the same inbreeding coefficient, F. We estimated F to be 0.0026 in Europeans and 0.0005 in Yorubans, but we could also reject the hypothesis that F was the same in each individual. We used a composite-likelihood method to estimate F in each individual and within each chromosome. Variation in F across chromosomes within individuals was too large to be consistent with sampling effects alone. Furthermore, estimates of F for each chromosome in different populations were not correlated. Our results show how detailed comparisons of population genomic data can be made to theoretical predictions. The application of methods to the Complete Genomics data set shows that the extent of apparent inbreeding varies across chromosomes and across individuals, and estimates of inbreeding coefficients are subject to unexpected levels of variation, which might be partly accounted for by selection.
Non-metallothionein-bound cadmium in the pathogenesis of cadmium nephrotoxicity in the rat

Male rats were injected SC with 0.6 mg Cd/kg/day for 5 days per week for 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks. Liver and kidney were examined morphologically and analyzed for metallothionein, cadmium, zinc, and copper. Morphologic changes were found in kidney but not in liver. The earliest ultrastructural change consisted of myelin figures in vacuoles in cytoplasm of proximal tubular lining cells reflecting degeneration of membranes. This change occurred after 4 weeks with 801 +/- 25 nmol/g (89.9 micrograms/g) total kidney cadmium or 390 nmol/g (43.7 micrograms/g) of cadmium not bound to metallothionein. Similar changes were observed after 6 weeks but after 8 weeks pathological changes consisted of focal cellular necrosis and interstitial fibrosis. Other ultrastructural changes included altered mitochondria and increased numbers of microbodies. Renal cadmium after 8 weeks exposure was 1827 +/- 48 nmol/g (215.3 +/- 5.8 micrograms/g) or 628 nmol/g (70.2 micrograms/g) of cadmium not bound to metallothionein. Total cadmium was higher in liver than in kidney but partitioning between bound and nonbound cadmium differed in the two organs. The fraction not bound to metallothionein increased with time of exposure in both liver and kidney. However, total cadmium in the liver did not exceed potentially available binding sites of metallothionein, whereas total cadmium did exceed potentially available binding sites of metallothionein in the kidney where pathologic changes occurred. The results indicated that degeneration of cellular membranes is an early cellular effect of cadmium exposure followed later by toxicity to organelles, cellular necrosis, and interstitial fibrosis. Cadmium-induced cellular toxicity is more directly related to the fraction of cadmium in the kidney that is not bound to metallothionein than is total cadmium per se.
Mass transfer from a solid sphere to water in highly turbulent flow

Mass transfer coefficients from 1/2-in. spheres of benzoic and cinnamic acids and 2-napthol to water were measured in the high Reynolds number region of 600 to 140,000. Previous data for liquids extended only to a Reynolds number of 11,000. Three separate and approximately parallel lines of JD vs. Reynolds number were found for the different solutes, and the shape of the curves was found to be similar to the total-drag-coefficient correlation for spheres. Experiments with benzoic acid and 2-napthol showed an effect of driving force and hence flux on the JD values. Mass transfer did occur in saturated solutions having zero driving force. When one subtracted the amount of mass transfer at zero driving force from the values at other driving forces, the corrected JD values at different driving forces were the same for a given solute. Possible explanations may be the effect of extreme turbulence on crystallization or physical attrition.
Comments on "Induction Thermocoagulation - A Seed Power Study"

In the above communication, Merry, Hale, and Zervas proposed two eddy-current models of seed implant heating. Their theoretical calculations and experimental observations showed the observed heating falls somewhere between the two models discussed. I wish to note some corrections to the theoretical results which will clearly delineate the applicability of the skin effect model and the inadequacies of the total penetration model.
Can Statistics Detect the Difference Between Apples and Oranges?: Response to Singh et al.

In effect, Singh, Bradley, and Zucker (2011) argued that their apples are different from the oranges in Hill, Menvielle, Sica, and Johnson (2010), and if you use a statistical test to detect differ...
Immunofluorescence studies of anti‐t cell antibodies and t cells in systemic lupus erythematosus

Peripheral blood T cells from patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and age- and sex-matched controls were studied by flow microfluorometry by using SLE anti-cell antibodies and fluorescein conjugated antibody to human IgM. Brightly staining cells were reduced in a number of patients with active SLE. Analysis of SLE T cells separated on a discontinuous stractin gradient indicated a preferential loss of cells, especially brightly staining cells, from one fraction. Quantitation of this phenomenon indicated that an average of greater than 90% of the brightly staining T cells from that fraction was lost in active SLE. This preferential loss of a subpopulation of T cells in patients with active SLE may be responsible for many of their immunologic abnormalities.
An integrated model of advertising clutter in offline and online media

The rapid growth of online advertising raises concerns about advertising clutter in the online media environment. This paper proposes an integrated model of advertising clutter that addresses the u...
““Race”” Speech——““Culture”” Speech——““Soul”” Speech: The Brief Career of Social-Science Language in American Religion during the Fascist Era

Beginning in the 1920s, American religious liberals borrowed language from the social sciences to describe the social experience of religion. Wishing to foster tolerance at a time when ethnic hatreds increasingly controlled world politics, they tried to drop the word ““race”” as the equivalent for a religious community and instead depict religions as cultural units by substituting terms like ““group.”” This was part of a broad intellectual transition in the free West. Long-standing biological models of society, assuming racial differences, gave way to explanations of human behavior emphasizing acquired traits. In this way, democratic cultures, confronting fascism, reaffirmed the malleability and equality of peoples and rejected determinism and hierarchy. American religious liberals of Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish backgrounds, committed to ecumenism and attentive to secular ideas, readily appropriated the new idiom. By the 1940s, talk of Nordic, Celtic, and Jewish races, among others, was rare, and the three mainstream religions, pictured as bearers of values, were praised as democracy's building blocks. Yet, because religion serves private needs and transcendent aspirations as well as society, this romance with social-science functionalism was short-lived. It was a small step from lauding religions as comparable and compromising to missing their distinctiveness, and a mood of traditionalism, expressed in humanistic, often biblically informed words, gained ground after World War II. This was not a simple speech revolution, however. Rhetoric that cast religions as social equivalents had enhanced the climate of freedom, to the point that religious minorities re-explored their heritages with unprecedented confidence. Social-science words set stage for their own subversion. This account of linguistic borrowing suggests the utility of considering religion as one language system among others in a complex culture. In this view, religious rhetoric is a public embodiment of values situated to interact with secular speech, making word use a sensitive meter of religious transformation.
Cochlear implantation concurrent with translabyrinthine acoustic neuroma resection.

Objectives/Hypothesis Cochlear implants provide successful auditory rehabilitation for patients with profound sensorineural hearing loss who do not derive at least marginal benefit from conventional hearing aids. Patients with neurofibromatosis type 2 can present with bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss caused by bilateral vestibular schwannomas. Auditory rehabilitation in these patients can be challenging. We present the case of one such patient who underwent a concurrent translabyrinthine vestibular schwannoma resection and cochlear implantation in the same ear. Study Design A case report and review of the literature. Methods Review the patient's medical record and MEDLINE literature search. Results The patient presented with a relatively small tumor that was situated in the fundus of the internal auditory canal with intralabyrinthine extension. Postoperative performance with implant stimulation was in the higher range of that for other cochlear implant patients. Conclusions To the best of our knowledge, this is the first case reported of simultaneous cochlear implant and translabyrinthine acoustic neuroma resection in the same ear of a patient with neurofibromatosis type 2.
Retinal Axonal Loss Begins Early in the Course of Multiple Sclerosis and Is Similar between Progressive Phenotypes

Background: To determine whether retinal axonal loss is detectable in patients with a clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), a first clinical demyelinating attack suggestive of multiple sclerosis (MS), and examine patterns of retinal axonal loss across MS disease subtypes. Methodology/Principal Findings: Spectral-domain Optical Coherence Tomography was performed in 541 patients with MS, including 45 with high-risk CIS, 403 with relapsing-remitting (RR)MS, 60 with secondary-progressive (SP)MS and 33 with primary-progressive (PP)MS, and 53 unaffected controls. Differences in retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness and macular volume were analyzed using multiple linear regression and associations with age and disease duration were examined in a cross-sectional analysis. In eyes without a clinical history of optic neuritis (designated as eyes without optic neuritis ), the total and temporal peripapillary RNFL was thinner in CIS patients compared to controls (temporal RNFL by -5.4 μm [95% CI -0.9 to -9.9 μm, p = 0.02] adjusting for age and sex). The total (p = 0.01) and temporal (p = 0.03) RNFL was also thinner in CIS patients with clinical disease for less than 1 year compared to controls. In eyes without optic neuritis, total and temporal RNFL thickness was nearly identical between primary and secondary progressive MS, but total macular volume was slightly lower in the primary progressive group (p RRMS>CIS - with proportionally greater thinning in eyes previously affected by clinically evident optic neuritis. Retinal axonal loss begins early in the course of MS. In the absence of clinically evident optic neuritis, RNFL thinning is nearly identical between progressive MS subtypes. © 2012 Gelfand et al.
Future perspectives of SAR polarimetry with applications to multi-parameter fully polarimetric polsar remote sensing & geophysical stress-change monitoring with implementation to agriculture, forestry & aqua-culture plus natural disaster assessment & monitoring within the “pacific ring of fire”

With the un-abating global population increase our natural resources are stressed as never before, and the global day/night monitoring of the terrestrial covers from the mesosphere to the litho-sphere becomes all the more urgent. Microwave radar sensors are ideally suited for space imaging because those are almost weather independent, and microwaves propagate through the atmosphere with little deteriorating effects due to clouds, storms, rain, fog and haze. Globally humidity, haze and cloudiness are increasing at a rather rapid pace for irreversible reasons due to expansive aerosol build-up within the tropical/subtropical belts. Thus, optical remote sensing from space especially in the tropical and sub-tropical vegetated belts will become rather ineffective, and microwave remote sensing technology must now be advanced strongly and most rapidly hand in hand with digital communications technology because operationally radar sensing is more rapidly available especially for disaster mitigation assistance.
An Examination of the Evidence Base for Function-Based Interventions for Students with Emotional and/or Behavioral Disorders Attending Middle and High Schools

The authors field-tested the core quality indicators and standards for evidence-based practices for single-case design studies developed by Horner and colleagues (2005) by applying them to the literature exploring functional assessment-based interventions conducted with secondary-age students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD). First, we evaluated this knowledge base by applying the indicators to determine if the studies identified (n = 12) were of acceptable methodological quality. Second, we analyzed studies meeting the recommended quality indicators to determine whether function-based interventions with students with EBD might be considered an evidence-based practice. Results reveal that only 1 study addressed all proposed quality indicators, suggesting that function-based interventions are not yet an evidence-based practice for this population per these indicators and standards. Limitations and recommendations are posed.
A TEST OF ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESES FOR CHARACTER DIVERGENCE BETWEEN COEXISTING SPECIES

Why do closely related, coexisting species typically differ in phenotypic features associated with resource use? One answer to this question is that such differences might generally evolve in allopatry, as different species adapt to divergent environmental conditions, and any differences that thereby accumulate might subsequently enable coexistence in sympatry. Alternatively, coexisting species might generally diverge in sympatry, because of selection to reduce competition for food (character displacement). Here we evaluated these two causes of character divergence by asking which hypothesis better explains differences in feeding morphology between tadpoles of two species of spadefoot toads, Spea bombifrons and S. multiplicata. We found that, in natural ponds containing both species, S. multiplicata almost always developed into a smaller, round-bodied tadpole with normal sized jaw muscles used for feeding on detritus at the pond bottom (the “omnivore” morph), whereas S. bombifrons almost always developed ...
High Waste Loading Glass Formulations for Hanford High-Aluminum High-Level Waste Streams

The current estimates and glass formulation efforts have been conservative in terms of achievable waste loadings. These formulations have been specified to ensure that the glasses are homogenous, contain essentially no crystalline phases, are processable in joule-heated, ceramic-lined melters and meet WTP Contract terms. The WTP’s overall mission will require the immobilization of tank waste compositions that are dominated by mixtures of aluminum (Al), chromium (Cr), bismuth (Bi), iron (Fe), phosphorous (P), zirconium (Zr), and sulfur (S) compounds as waste-limiting components. Glass compositions for these waste mixtures have been developed based upon previous experience and current glass property models. Recently, DOE has initiated a testing program to develop and characterize HLW glasses with higher waste loadings. Results of this work have demonstrated the feasibility of increases in waste loading from about 25 wt% to 33-50 wt% (based on oxide loading) in the glass depending on the waste stream. It is expected that these higher waste loading glasses will reduce the HLW canister production requirement by about 25% or more.
A Comparison of Hydroxyl Radical and Hydrogen Peroxide Generation in Ambient Particle Extracts and Laboratory Metal Solutions.

Abstract Generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) – including superoxide ( O 2 − ), hydrogen peroxide (HOOH), and hydroxyl radical ( OH) – has been suggested as one mechanism underlying the adverse health effects caused by ambient particulate matter (PM). In this study we compare HOOH and OH production from fine and coarse PM collected at an urban (Fresno) and rural (Westside) site in the San Joaquin Valley (SJV) of California, as well as from laboratory solutions containing dissolved copper or iron. Samples were extracted in a cell-free, phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) solution containing 50 μM ascorbate (Asc). In our laboratory solutions we find that Cu is a potent source of both HOOH and OH, with approximately 90% of the electrons that can be donated from Asc ending up in HOOH and OH after 4 h. In contrast, in Fe solutions there is no measurable HOOH and only a modest production of OH. Soluble Cu in the SJV PM samples is also a dominant source of HOOH and OH. In both laboratory copper solutions and extracts of ambient particles we find much more production of HOOH compared to OH: e.g., HOOH generation is approximately 30–60 times faster than OH generation. The formation of HOOH and OH are positively correlated, with roughly 3% and 8% of HOOH converted to OH after 4 and 24 h of extraction, respectively. Although the SJV PM produce much more HOOH than OH, since OH is a much stronger oxidant it is unclear which species might be more important for oxidant-mediated toxicity from PM inhalation.
Collisional viscosity of FCC particles in a CFB

Particle velocity distributions were measured for a flow of 75-{micro}m FCC (fluidized catalytic cracking) particles in a CFB (circulating fluidized bed) using a new video-digital camera technique. From the spread of particle histograms, a random oscillating particle velocity was determined. This random velocity was used to compute the powder viscosity with the help of dense-phase kinetic theory of granular flow. There was excellent agreement between this kinetic-theory measurement and previous macroscopic viscosity measurements. The dimensionless group kinematic viscosity divided by the oscillating velocity and particle diameter correlated all available data as a function of particle volume fraction.
On the performance of a routing protocol for the reconfigurable wireless network

Reconfigurable wireless networks (RWNs) are a special class of ad-hoc networks that are characterized by: large geographical coverage, wide range of nodal mobility, and large nodal density. Recently, a new routing protocol for this type of networks was proposed and coined the zone routing protocol (ZRP). The main feature of the ZRP protocol is its dynamic behavior-the operation of the scheme is governed by a single parameter, the zone radius, which adjusts the scheme's behavior from purely reactive to proactive routing. We study the performance of the scheme, evaluating the average number of control messages required to discover a route within the network. Our results show that by properly seizing the zone radius, the routing overhead can be lower (sometimes much lower) than the overhead of both reactive and proactive schemes.
The epidemiology and comorbidities of migraine and tension-type headache

Abstract Headache is one of the most common medical complaints resulting in presentation to a doctor’s office, and it is frequently associated with substantial personal and societal burden. This burden is often greater than the disability associated with several common medical disorders such as hypertension and diabetes. Migraine and tension-type headache (TTH) are the most common primary headache disorders. In the first section of this review, the authors will discuss the incidence and prevalence rates of migraine, as well as the data suggesting that such rates may have increased in the past. This is then followed by a discussion on several key migraine comorbid disorders, as well as the personal and societal burden associated with migraine. In the second section, the authors will similarly review the epidemiology of TTH, as well as its comorbid conditions and its burden on the individual and society.
Analysis of microstrip structures on and near dielectric ridges using an integral equation-mode matching technique

A full-wave technique which uniquely synthesizes well-known integral-equation and mode-matching methods is shown to be applicable to the study of propagation in microstrip structures which are on or near dielectric ridges. Coupled microstrips on dielectric ridges and a microstrip near a chip edge are examined to demonstrate the accuracy and utility of this method. Compared to the method of lines and the full-wave mode matching analyses, the integral-equation-mode-match technique is more complex than the former and similar in complexity to the latter when shielded two-dimensional structures are considered; however, three-dimensional structures may be much more easily characterized by the integral-equation-mode-matching technique. >
Object-oriented animation system for seismic response of multistory structures

Visualizing the dynamic behavior of structures under earthquake loading is a challenge for students taking structural dynamics and earthquake engineering courses. A prototype animation system was developed for visualizing the dynamic response of multistory structures subjected to earthquake excitations, using the object-oriented programming paradigm and implemented in Microsoft Windows and Borland C++ on a 33 MHz 80486-based personal computer. At present, the animation system is limited to two-dimensional multistory frames with rigid floors. The input can be any accelerogram ground acceleration record due to any real or artificial earthquake. The user of the system can change the input parameters of the structure or select the ground acceleration record and view their effect on the dynamic behavior of the structure. This object-oriented animation model is an effective courseware or interactive computer tool that may be used in teaching structural dynamics and earthquake engineering courses.
Throughput and Delay Analysis of Half-Duplex IEEE 802.11 Mesh Networks

Emerging technologies for mesh networks can provide users with last-mile service to an access point by forwarding data through wireless relays instead of through expensive wireline infrastructure. While an extensive amount of literature on the subject has been amassed in the last decade, existing papers model network traffic flow solely as a function of routing topology, neglecting contention at the Media Access Control layer; as a result, the inbound flow to a relay station is independent of the transmission success rate from forwarding stations. This leads to overestimation of traffic flow, especially at network operation approaching full capacity, and in turn makes for inaccuracies in predicting throughput and delay. In our model, the inbound flow depends on the transmission success rate as well. Other novel contributions are the incorporation of a half-duplex contention model we developed in previous work, which captures both uplink and downlink traffic, and a generic framework to represent any mesh routing topology (minimum-hop, minimum-airtime, etc.)
Petrel parents shunt all experimentally increased reproductive costs to their offspring

Abstract Investment in current reproduction should be balanced against future reproduction. Thus, the allocation of resources during a breeding season is a trade-off between the needs of the parent and the needs of the offspring. Life-history theory predicts the trade-off point to favour the parent in long-lived species and the offspring in short-lived species. To investigate parent-offspring conflict in a long-lived species, the cost of flight was manipulated (by reducing wing span) in Leach's storm-petrel, Oceanodroma leucorhoa . The effect of the manipulation on adult nutritional condition was measured using ptilochronology and the effect on offspring nutritional condition was measured by tracking chick growth. No difference was found in nutritional condition between treatment and control parents. Treatment chicks gained mass more slowly and spent a greater proportion of nights without being fed by either parent. As predicted for a long-lived species, when faced with an increased cost of parental care, the storm-petrel parents apparently shunted that cost to their offspring. These results are compared with previous studies of long- and short-lived species in which parental costs were artificially increased.
4-Chlorobenzoate Uptake in Comamonas sp. Strain DJ-12 Is Mediated by a Tripartite ATP-Independent Periplasmic Transporter

The fcb gene cluster involved in the hydrolytic dehalogenation of 4-chlorobenzoate is organized in the order fcbB-fcbA-fcbT1-fcbT2-fcbT3-fcbC in Comamonas sp. strain DJ-12. The genes are operonic and inducible with 4-chloro-, 4-iodo-, and 4-bromobenzoate. The fcbT1, fcbT2, and fcbT3 genes encode a transporter in the secondary TRAP (tripartite ATP-independent periplasmic) family. An fcbT1T2T3 knockout mutant shows a much slower growth rate on 4-chlorobenzoate compared to the wild type. 4-Chlorobenzoate is transported into the wild-type strain five times faster than into the fcbT1T2T3 knockout mutant. Transport of 4-chlorobenzoate shows significant inhibition by 4-bromo-, 4-iodo-, and 4-fluorobenzoate and mild inhibition by 3-chlorobenzoate, 2-chlorobenzoate, 4-hydroxybenzoate, 3-hydroxybenzoate, and benzoate. Uptake of 4-chlorobenzoate is significantly inhibited by ionophores which collapse the proton motive force.
A computer-aided incremental protocol test sequence generation: the production systems, approach

The authors present a formal model for incremental protocol test sequence generation based on executable rule-based specification and implementation. In order to have direct control, instead of using heterogeneous representation mechanisms, a homogeneous representation mechanism, the OPS5 production system, is used in both the design phase and the test phase. Since the tested paths can be recorded in a globally shared dataspace (working memory) of the OPS5 production system, the test process can continue by searching for the untested transitions incrementally. This method uses a status message to verify the entrance state instead of using distinguishing sequences. Therefore, each transition is tested exactly once. >
Curriculum Integration and Adaptation: Individualizing Pedagogy for Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Students

In the United States, populations identified as linguistically and culturally diverse (LCD) are increasing at the fastest rate in public schools (Samway & McKeon, 2007). LCD students have not performed as well as their monolingual and/or affluent peers on state mandated assessments. No Child Left Behind Act (2001) stressed this disparity as â€œthe achievement gap,â€ resulting in highly structured curricular demands from districts forcing teachers to grapple between those demands and meeting the academic and cultural needs of LCD students. Using case-study methodology, this research explored how teachersâ€™ beliefs about teaching and learning influence curriculum decision-making for LCD students. Through the triangulation of interviews, observations, and document analysis, three teachers and their students in a low-income, urban, k-4 school in a predominantly Spanish-speaking community was investigated. Participants integrated and adapted curriculum based on personal beliefs about teaching and learning, the needs of their LCD students, and the mandated curriculum.
Normal ranges of left ventricular strain: a meta-analysis.

Background The definition of normal values of left ventricular global longitudinal strain (GLS), global circumferential strain, and global radial strain is of critical importance to the clinical application of this modality. The investigators performed a meta-analysis of normal ranges and sought to identify factors that contribute to reported variations. Methods MEDLINE, Embase, and the Cochrane Library database were searched through August 2011 using the key terms "strain," "speckle tracking," "left ventricle," and "echocardiography" and related phrases. Studies were included if the articles reported left ventricular strain using two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography in healthy normal subjects, either in the control group or as a primary objective of the study. Data were combined using a random-effects model, and effects of demographic, hemodynamic, and equipment variables were sought in a meta-regression. Results The search identified 2,597 subjects from 24 studies. Reported normal values of GLS varied from −15.9% to −22.1% (mean, −19.7%; 95% CI, −20.4% to −18.9%). Normal global circumferential strain varied from −20.9% to −27.8% (mean, −23.3%; 95% CI, −24.6% to −22.1%). Global radial strain ranged from 35.1% to 59.0% (mean, 47.3%; 95% CI, 43.6% to 51.0%). There was significant between-study heterogeneity and inconsistency. The source of variation was sought between studies using meta-regression. Blood pressure, but not age, gender, frame rate, or equipment, was associated with variation in normal GLS values. Conclusions The narrowest confidence intervals from this meta-analysis were for GLS and global circumferential strain, but individual studies have shown a broad range of strain in apparently normal subjects. Variations between different normal ranges seem to be associated with differences in systolic blood pressure, emphasizing that this should be considered in the interpretation of strain.
An Intervention to Improve Follow-up of Patients with Otitis Media

We evaluated the effects of an educational intervention and telephone reminders on compliance with medication-taking and appointment-keeping for children with otitis media. During an initial interview we examined parents' health beliefs and other factors associated with compliance in our outpatient setting. The children were then systematically assigned to one of five study groups (G1-5). Parents in G1 received an educational session with a nurse and two follow-up telephone reminders. Parents in G2 received only two telephone reminders. Parents in G 3 met with the nurse for an educational session only. Parents in G4 were exempted from interventions, while parents in G5 were exempted from the interventions and the initial interview. The telephone reminder significantly increased the return rate for follow-up appointments (p < 0.05). This effect was not enhanced by combining it with an educational intervention focusing more on medication compliance. Relatively simple and inexpensive interventions such as th...
ShareEnabler: policy-driven access management for ad-hoc collaborative sharing

The rise of the Internet has introduced dramatic changes in managing and sharing digital resources among widely dispersed groups. This paper presents a policy-driven access management approach for ad-hoc collaboration to enable secure information sharing in heterogeneous network environments. In particular, we attempt to incorporate the features of distributed role-based access control, delegation and dissemination control to meet the fundamental access control requirements associated with resource originators. These features are realized in a set of XACML-based Role-based Originator Authorization policies (ROA). We propose a security architecture, called ShareEnabler, to achieve effective authorization and enforcement mechanisms in the context of Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networking oriented file sharing. We briefly discuss our proof-of-concept prototype implementation based on an existing P2P file sharing toolkit developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Special needs call for specialized services: a response to no need to specialize: reproductive health is for all adolescents.

The Surgeon Generals first Call to Action regarding persons with disabilities coincides with the 15th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and reminds us that 54 million Americans have some diagnosed disability and 18.5% of them are 24 years of age or younger. In line with most current thinking regarding disability the Surgeon General emphasizes the importance of a biopsychosocial approach to disability in which disability arises from a combination of factors at the physical emotional and environmental levels.1 This definition differs from the historical perspective of disability as an illness and allows for the person with a disability to be viewed as a whole person rather than as a diagnosis or set of symptoms. (excerpt)
Polymerase mu is a DNA-directed DNA/RNA polymerase.

DNA polymerases are defined as such because they use deoxynucleotides instead of ribonucleotides with high specificity. We show here that polymerase mu (pol μ), implicated in the nonhomologous end-joining pathway for repair of DNA double-strand breaks, incorporates both ribonucleotides and deoxynucleotides in a template-directed manner. pol μ has an approximately 1,000-fold-reduced ability to discriminate against ribonucleotides compared to that of the related pol β, although pol μ's substrate specificity is similar to that of pol β in most other respects. Moreover, pol μ more frequently incorporates ribonucleotides when presented with nucleotide concentrations that approximate cellular pools. We therefore addressed the impact of ribonucleotide incorporation on the activities of factors required for double-strand break repair by nonhomologous end joining. We determined that the ligase required for this pathway readily joined strand breaks with terminal ribonucleotides. Most significantly, pol μ frequently introduced ribonucleotides into the repair junctions of an in vitro nonhomologous end-joining reaction, an activity that would be expected to have important consequences in the context of cellular double-strand break repair.
Source monitoring and associative structure

Abstract Paired associates were used to study source memory. In three studies each word of the pairs was presented in one of the four locations of a two by two array. An event code explanation of memory representation, based on the hierarchical propositional network of Anderson and Bower (1974), was used to explain two seemingly paradoxical results: (a) Location identification of the cue word depended on successful target recall, and (b) source memory for the cue and target words was the same. Furthermore, the creation of an event code in memory can explain why the source locations of unrecalled target words were identified above chance level. This explanation seems preferable to a word code explanation in which source information for each item is attached to itself and also to the other item in the pair. It is suggested that the event code explanation may also play a role in accounting for source identification without recognition.
Ion channel dysfunction associated with arrhythmia, ventricular noncompaction, and mitral valve prolapse: a new overlapping phenotype.

nthis issue of theJournal, 2 elegant papersreport the association of arrhythmia, primarilysinus bradycardia, left ventricular noncompac-tion (LVNC), and mitral valve prolapse (MVP)(1,2),demonstrating that the underlying cause is muta-tion and dysfunction of the hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide channel 4 (HCN4), amajor constituent of the pacemaker current (I
International Norms and Standards Applicable to Situations of State Fragility and Failure

State fragility and failure are best defined legally as the incapacity of a state to perform its obligations toward its citizens and toward the international community in general. Fragile, failing, and failed states are characterized by an implosion of state structures, which results in the incapability of governmental authorities to perform their functions, including providing security, respecting the rule of law, exercising control, supplying education and health services, establishing commercial and banking systems, and maintaining economic and structural infrastructures.
A 3D culture system enhances the ability of human bone marrow stromal cells to support the growth of limbal stem/progenitor cells

The standard method of cultivating limbal epithelial progenitor/stem cells (LSCs) on a monolayer of mouse 3T3 feeder cells possesses the risk of cross-contamination in clinical applications. Human feeder cells have been used to eliminate this risk; however, efficiency from xenobiotic-free cultures on a monolayer appears to be lower than in the standard method using 3T3 cells. We investigated whether bone marrow stromal cells (BMSCs), also known as bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells, could serve as feeder cells for the expansion of LSCs in the 3-dimensional (3D) system. Primary single human LSCs on a monolayer of 3T3s served as the control. Very poor growth was observed when single LSCs were cultured on BMSCs. When LSC clusters were cultured on a BMSC monolayer (CC-BM), 3D culture system (3D CC-BM) and fibrin 3D system (fibrin 3D CC-BM), the 3D CC-BM method supported a greater LSC expansion. The 3D CC-BM system produced a 2.5-fold higher cell growth rate than the control (p 0.05), whereas the proportion of K12(+) cells was lower (p<0.05). These results indicate that BMSCs can efficiently support the expansion of the LSC population in the 3D culture.
Molecular Mechanism Underlying the Plant NRT1.1 Dual-Affinity Nitrate Transporter

Nitrate (NO3−) is one of the most important sources of mineral nitrogen, which also serves as a key signaling molecule for plant growth and development. To cope with nitrate fluctuation in soil that varies by up to four orders of magnitude, plants have evolved high- and low-affinity nitrate transporter systems, consisting of distinct families of transporters. Interestingly, the first cloned nitrate transporter in Arabidopsis, NRT1.1 functions as a dual-affinity transporter, which can change its affinity for nitrate in response to substrate availability. Phosphorylation of a threonine residue, Thr101, switches NRT1.1 from low- to high-affinity state. Recent structural studies have unveiled that the unmodified NRT1.1 transporter works as homodimers with Thr101 located in close proximity to the dimer interface. Modification on the Thr101 residue is shown to not only decouple the dimer configuration, but also increase structural flexibility, thereby, altering the substrate affinity of NRT1.1. The structure of NRT1.1 helps establish a novel paradigm in which protein oligomerzation and posttranslational modification can synergistically expand the functional capacity of the major facilitator superfamily (MFS) transporters.
Energy systematics of jet tomography at RHIC: √{s}=62.4 vs 200 A GeV

Abstract The collision energy dependence of jet tomography is investigated within the GLV formalism. The emphasis is on estimating systematic uncertainties resulting from the interplay of energy loss fluctuations and the rapid increase of the parton transverse momentum slopes as s decreases from 200 to 62 A GeV .
Critical Tax Theory: Prying Open the Closet Door: The Defense of Marriage Act and Tax Treaties

In response to a letter from a clearly alarmed conservative organization, the IRS recently reaffirmed the fact that same-sex couples who are married under state law are ineligible to file a joint federal income tax return. In making this assertion (in a letter that the organization later published on the Internet), the IRS relied on the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defines marriage for purposes of federal law as a union of a man and a woman. In this article, I consider whether the IRS' statement to that organization will hold true when viewed from a wider, international perspective. The United States is not the only country where same-sex couples are seeking (and have been granted) the right to marry. Same-sex couples have already been granted the right to marry in Canada, the Netherlands, and Belgium, and it appears that they will soon be granted the right to marry in Spain. Each of these four countries has concluded an income tax treaty with the United States. And, as is common, each of these income tax treaties contains a nondiscrimination article that prohibits the United States from taxing citizens of the other country in an other or more burdensome fashion than it taxes its own citizens in the same circumstances. The heart of this article consists of a discussion of the relationship between the nondiscrimination provisions in these treaties and DOMA. I conclude that a tenable argument can be made that DOMA should not be given priority over the treaty provisions and that, as a result, the IRS (and, in many cases, state and local tax authorities) should be required to recognize the marriages of resident alien same-sex couples who are citizens of Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands (or, soon, Spain).
A single-islet microplate assay to measure mouse and human islet insulin secretion

One complication to comparing β-cell function among islet preparations, whether from genetically identical or diverse animals or human organ donors, is the number of islets required per assay. Islet numbers can be limiting, meaning that fewer conditions can be tested; other islet measurements must be excluded; or islets must be pooled from multiple animals/donors for each experiment. Furthermore, pooling islets negates the possibility of performing single-islet comparisons. Our aim was to validate a 96-well plate-based single islet insulin secretion assay that would be as robust as previously published methods to quantify glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from mouse and human islets. First, we tested our new assay using mouse islets, showing robust stimulation of insulin secretion 24 or 48 h after islet isolation. Next, we utilized the assay to quantify mouse islet function on an individual islet basis, measurements that would not be possible with the standard pooled islet assay methods. Next, we validated our new assay using human islets obtained from the Integrated Islet Distribution Program (IIDP). Human islets are known to have widely varying insulin secretion capacity, and using our new assay we reveal biologically relevant factors that are significantly correlated with human islet function, whether displayed as maximal insulin secretion response or fold-stimulation of insulin secretion. Overall, our results suggest this new microplate assay will be a useful tool for many laboratories, expert or not in islet techniques, to be able to precisely quantify islet insulin secretion from their models of interest.
Back-Tracking James Welch

amid the wreckage and garbage of Western materialism: junked cars, tarpaper shacks, blown tires and rusting radiators, discarded bath-tubs, shattered glass ... and the memories of Indians past. The haunting traditional names still carried by Blackfeet-Speakthunder, Earthboy, Star Boy, Bear Child-remind the people of times-that-might-have-been, old myths half remembered and half made up. Parts refuse to mix, and differences are the rule; there are incompatibles, incongruous groupings: "alone, afraid, stronger," the poems say, in "a world of money, promise and disease."1 The contemporary world desecrates sacred things, irrecoverably past, as Indian memories warp in pained fantasies. Heart Butte, a holy place for vision quests, is littered with dreaming drunks, Moose Jaw is winterlocked, Havre lined with bars and tale-telling fishermen. Times keep changing, traditionalists "look back" to worn "tracks," idealizing a mythic past out-of-reach even in "the old days," then "stumble-bum down the Sunday street," as in the poem "Grandma's Man." Welch corrects any illusions that would meliorate pain: begin with the bone of what is, the "blood" definition by tribe, and ask for no more. Searching through "a dream of knives and bones," the artist in creative antagonism pieces together a skeleton of the present-a structure inside things heard in the ck-Tracking James Welch
Watch and learn: Spillover effects of peace accord implementation on non-signatory armed groups

Theories of observational learning and the effects of reputation formation on future conflict interactions have been applied much more steadily to interstate conflict than to civil conflict. Yet, many nations have multiple civil wars with multiple warring dyads, offering groups ample opportunities to watch and learn from prior interactions between other rebel groups and the government. When a government keeps the promises it made to the signatories in a previous negotiated agreement, we argue that the risk of subsequent challenges from other non-signatory groups declines as these groups update their beliefs about that government and the efficacy of violent versus non-violent mobilization. In our analysis of the implementation of comprehensive peace accords since 1989, we found that governments that kept their implementation commitments to the signatory group(s) in a negotiated settlement experienced fewer armed challenges from other armed groups in the future.
Shoulder heavy responsibilities to develop vigorously Shaoxing rice wine industry

Shaoxing municipal government made up its mind to redevelop Shaoxing rice wine industry in order to protect the Chinese national cultural heritage. Five suggestion and measurements made according to current status in this paper were as follows, (1) the development and technique advancement of new product of Shaoxing rice wine was blocked by current standard in a certain extent; (2) the bottleneck was controlled by limited consumption area; (3) enhancing the research on healthy function of the wine; (4) speeding up the study of science and technology on traditional industry; (5) changing the current propagandizing policy and expanding consumers group.
Wake me when it's over - Bacterial toxin-antitoxin proteins and induced dormancy.

Toxin–antitoxin systems are encoded by bacteria and archaea to enable an immediate response to environmental stresses, including antibiotics and the host immune response. During normal conditions, ...
Some Special Absolutely Continuous Distributions

This chapter discusses some special absolutely continuous distributions. The distribution of χ 2 is called the chi-square (or χ 2 ) distribution with n degrees of freedom. A very important property of the chi-square distribution is called the reproductive property. The two distributions—F-distribution and t-distribution—are among the most important in practical applications of mathematical statistics. To obtain the F-distribution, two independent random variables X, Y, where X has a chi-square distribution with m degrees of freedom, and Y has a chi-square distribution with n degrees of freedom is considered. The distribution of the random variable U is called the F-distribution with (m, n) degrees of freedom. A random variable has a t-distribution with n degrees of freedom if it has the same distribution function.