cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A revision of the Neotropical tortoise beetle genus Eurypedus Gistel 1834 (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae).

The genus Eurypedus Gistel is revised based on detailed morphological study, including examination of the mouthparts and genitalia. Besides previously known diagnostic characters, such as an oblong and laterally parallel-sided body, narrow elytral lamella, narrow prosternal process between the procoxae, and angled pronotal base, new diagnostic characters are identified: antennal notches on the ventral surface of antennomeres V–XI, a stridulatory file on the vertex, and paired projections on the ventral surface of the pronotum. The distinct stridulatory file is found only in males. The number of ridges of the stridulatory file varies between 48 and 59. Eurypedus thoni Barber (= Cassida oblonga Sturm in Thon) syn. nov. is synonymized with E . peltoides (Boheman). The remaining two species E. peltoides and E. nigrosignatus (Boheman) show distinct distributions separated by the Amazon Basin.
Critical Role of the CXCL10/C-X-C Chemokine Receptor 3 Axis in Promoting Leukocyte Recruitment and Neuronal Injury during Traumatic Optic Neuropathy Induced by Optic Nerve Crush.

Traumatic optic neuropathy (TON) is an acute injury of the optic nerve secondary to trauma. Loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) is a key pathological process in TON, yet mechanisms responsible for RGC death remain unclear. In a mouse model of TON, real-time noninvasive imaging revealed a dramatic increase in leukocyte rolling and adhesion in veins near the optic nerve (ON) head at 9 hours after ON injury. Although RGC dysfunction and loss were not detected at 24 hours after injury, massive leukocyte infiltration was observed in the superficial retina. These cells were identified as T cells, microglia/monocytes, and neutrophils but not B cells. CXCL10 is a chemokine that recruits leukocytes after binding to its receptor C-X-C chemokine receptor (CXCR) 3. The levels of CXCL10 and CXCR3 were markedly elevated in TON, and up-regulation of CXCL10 was mediated by STAT1/3. Deleting CXCR3 in leukocytes significantly reduced leukocyte recruitment, and prevented RGC death at 7 days after ON injury. Treatment with CXCR3 antagonist attenuated TON-induced RGC dysfunction and cell loss. In vitro co-culture of primary RGCs with leukocytes resulted in increased RGC apoptosis, which was exaggerated in the presence of CXCL10. These results indicate that leukocyte recruitment in retinal vessels near the ON head is an early event in TON and the CXCL10/CXCR3 axis has a critical role in recruiting leukocytes and inducing RGC death.
The Discrete Logarithm Problem

The public key cryptosystems presented in Chapter 1 rely on the difficulty of solving the discrete logarithm problem in certain groups: An adversary who could efficiently compute discrete logarithms in the group underlying such a cryptosystem would be able to break the system. So to judge the security of the proposed cryptosystems we must have a closer look at algorithms for solving discrete logarithm problems.
Poroelastic Properties of the Arbuckle Group in Oklahoma Derived from Well Fluid Level Response to the 3 September 2016 Mw 5.8 Pawnee and 7 November 2016 Mw 5.0 Cushing Earthquakes

ABSTRACT The Arbuckle Group (Arbuckle) is a basal sedimentary unit that is the primary target for saltwater disposal in Oklahoma. Thus, the reservoir characteristics of the Arbuckle, including how the poroelastic properties change laterally and over time are of significant interest. We report observations of fluid level changes in two monitoring wells in response to the 3 September 2016 M w 5.8 Pawnee and the 7 November 2016 M w 5.0 Cushing earthquakes. We investigate the relationship between static strain resulting from these events and the fluid level changes observed in the wells. We model the fluid level response by estimating static strains from a set of earthquake source parameters and spatiotemporal poroelastic properties of the Arbuckle in the neighborhood of the monitoring wells. Results suggest that both the direction of the observed fluid level step and the amplitude can be predicted from the computed volumetric strain change and a reasonable set of poroelastic parameters. Modeling results indicate that poroelastic parameters differ at the time of the Pawnee and Cushing earthquakes, with a moderately higher Skempton’s coefficient required to fit the response to the Cushing earthquake. This may indicate that dynamic shaking resulted in physical alteration of the Arbuckle at distances up to ∼50 km from the Pawnee earthquake.
Cationic liquid crystalline nanoparticles for the delivery of synthetic RNAi-based therapeutics.

// Emanuela Gentile 1 , Taro Oba 1 , Jing Lin 1 , Ruping Shao 1 , Feng Meng 1 , Xiaobo Cao 1 , Heather Y. Lin 2 , Majidi Mourad 1 , Apar Pataer 1 , Veerabhadran Baladandayuthapani 2 , Dong Cai 3 , Jack A. Roth 1 and Lin Ji 1 1 Section of Thoracic Molecular Oncology, Department of Thoracic & Cardiovascular Surgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, United States 2 Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, United States 3 Department of Physics, The University of Houston, Houston, TX 77004, United States Correspondence to: Emanuela Gentile, email: egentile@mdanderson.org Keywords: delivery systems, cationic nanoparticles, RNAi, lung cancer, gene silencing Received: December 28, 2016 Accepted: May 05, 2017 Published: June 09, 2017 ABSTRACT RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapeutics have been used to silence the expression of targeted pathological genes. Small interfering RNA (siRNAs) and microRNA (miRNAs) inhibitor have performed this function. However, short half-life, poor cellular uptake, and nonspecific distribution of small RNAs call for the development of novel delivery systems to facilitate the use of RNAi. We developed a novel cationic liquid crystalline nanoparticle (CLCN) to efficiently deliver synthetic siRNAs and miRNAs. CLCNs were prepared by using high-speed homogenization and assembled with synthetic siRNA or miRNA molecules in nuclease-free water to create CLCN/siRNA or miRNA complexes. The homogeneous and stable CLCNs and CLCN-siRNA complexes were about 100 nm in diameter, with positively charged surfaces. CLCNs are nontoxic and are taken up by human cells though endocytosis. Significant inhibition of gene expression was detected in transiently transfected lung cancer H1299 cells treated with CLCNs/anti-GFP complexes 24 hours after transfection. Biodistribution analysis showed that the CLCNs and CLCNs-RNAi complexes were successfully delivered to various organs and into the subcutaneous human lung cancer H1299 tumor xenografts in mice 24 hours after systemic administration. These results suggest that CLCNs are a unique and advanced delivery system capable of protecting RNAi from degradation and of efficiently delivering RNAi in vitro and in vivo .
The Conversion of Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick:

Religious conversion is basic to the narrative of Mary Rich’s life that she began writing in 1672. It is fundamental to her diary of many years. Where the autobiography emphasizes her marriage and ...
Assessing the fidelity of predictability estimates

Predictability is an intrinsic limit of the climate system due to uncertainty in initial conditions and the chaotic nature of the atmosphere. Estimates of predictability together with calculations of current prediction skill are used to define the gaps in our prediction capabilities, inform future model developments, and indicate to stakeholders the potential for making forecasts that can inform their decisions. The true predictability of the climate system is not known and must be estimated, typically using a perfect model estimate from an ensemble prediction system. However, different prediction systems can give different estimates of predictability. Can we determine which estimate of predictability is most representative of the true predictability of the climate system? We test three metrics as potential indicators of the fidelity of predictability estimates in an idealized framework—the spread-error relationship, autocorrelation and skill. Using the North American multi-model ensemble re-forecast database, we quantify whether these metrics accurately indicate a model’s ability to properly estimate predictability. It is found that none of these metrics is a robust measure for determining whether a predictability estimate is realistic for El Nino-Southern oscillation events. For temperature and precipitation over land, errors in the spread-error ratio are related to errors in estimating predictability at the shortest lead-times, while skill is not related to predictability errors. The relationship between errors in the autocorrelation and errors in estimating predictability varies by lead-time and region.
Neural mechanisms of selective listening to pitch and timbre in musical sounds

Previous research showed that different dimensions of sound such as pitch and timbre elicit distinct patterns of neural activities. Here, we report event related potential (ERP) along with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data during a selective listening task of musical sounds. The participants were 12 normal adults. The stimuli were 4 musical tones with timbre (piano vs. violin) and pitch (high vs. low) contrasts. The stimuli were normalized for duration and intensity. In the timbre condition, the listener needed to indicate the instrument category. In the pitch condition, the listener needed to indicate the pitch level. While both conditions reached the ceiling-level accuracy, the pitch condition required significantly longer reaction time. Significant fMRI activations were found in the superior temporal gyri with right dominance for both conditions. The right superior temporal gyrus and left inferior frontal regions were important for coding pitch whereas the anterior cingulate cortex was exclusively active in selectively attending to timbre. These data demonstrate how different cortical networks contribute to selective listening. The ERP data further showed larger N1 and N2 peaks for the timbre condition than the pitch condition, suggesting that attentional modulation operates at both early and later stages of processing for selective listening.
“For the Health of the People:” Public Health and the Compensation of Maternity Leave in the 1910s

Soon after the 1892 Factory Act was implemented, women responded to its restrictive maternity leave clause by working to develop new pieces of legislation that gave women access to financial assistance during maternity leave. This chapter shows how women succeeded in incorporating compensatory maternity leave coverage in Norway’s 1909 and 1915 health insurance laws. It demonstrates how feminists and midwives directly engaged policymakers in their efforts to institute a maternity benefit that included free midwifery, maternity home stays, and covered not only women factory workers, but also the wives of men who worked in industry. They were able to do so largely because they relied on medical arguments that resonated with public health concerns. The chapter shows how these concerns were ubiquitous throughout Europe, and why their translation into law had a different outcome in Norway than in France or Germany.
Alessandro Arcangeli and Vivian Nutton (eds), Girolamo Mercuriale: Medicina e Cultura nell’Europa del Cinquecento , (Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 2008), pp. vii + 356, €37.00, paperback, ISBN: 978-88-222-5740-6.

The present volume demonstrates that the past decade has been a fertile one for studies of Girolamo Mercuriale, and that, over and above the important recent additions to the bibliography on De Arte Gymnastica, scholars in various fields have increasingly examined Mercuriale’s works on subjects from paediatrics and gynaecology to epidemiology, dermatology and toxicology.
The Skeletal Stem Cell

Abstract Tissues in mammals are generally maintained by one of two schemas, mature cell replacement by mature cell division or mature cell replenishment from a more immature stem or progenitor population. It is the latter model that applies to bone homeostasis and we will review here the definition of the skeletal stem cell, its relationship to descendent semi-committed osteoprogenitors, and the terminally differentiated mesenchymal cells (MC) that make up the mature bone. In addition, we will discuss the migration of mesenchymal osteoprogenitors, their kinetics in regulation of life-long bone production, and the interaction of bone cells with hematopoietic cells in the bone marrow.
Time and Recovery from Brain Damage

The time course of behavioral recovery following brain trauma varies substantially from the few minutes or hours of disorientation that occur following a mild concussion (Russel and Nathan, 1946) to the years required for any recovery following a left temporal lobectomy in humans (e.g., Blakemore and Falconer, 1967). The amount of time over which recovery will be observed, as well as the extent of ultimate recovery as assessed by some measure of asymptotic performance of affected behaviors, is determined by many factors: the nature, extent, and level of nervous system damage, the rate of onset of the damage (e.g., degenerative disease versus acute trauma), age at time of trauma, and the extent and permanence of indirect trauma produced by accessory complications such as edema and hypoxia. In addition, the particular choice of measures used to assess recovery can affect markedly an experimenter’s judgment of when or whether or how abruptly recovery has occurred. These factors suggest events which underlie and ultimately determine the time course of recovery.
Status of methods, codes and applications for sensitivity and uncertainty analysis

Described are procedures to be followed in applying cross-section sensitivity and uncertainty analysis to arrive at estimates for the uncertainty associated with an integrated reactor performance parameter R. Means to reduce such uncertainty are outlined. The pertaining computational codes used as analytical tools to carry out the cross-section sensitivity/ uncertainty analysis are reviewed with emphasis on their current limitations and possible improvements. The range of the uncertainty in the prediction of the tritium breeding ratio TBR due exclusively to current uncertainties in the nuclear data field is presented as an application for the sensitivity and uncertainty methods and codes.
Genotoxic Agents in the Agro-Ecosystem Chairman’s Comments

In our agro-ecosystem, there are at least four classes of genotoxic agents that have been detected and characterized: 1. Genotoxic metabolites produced by plants and fungi. 2. Genotoxic heavy metal salts found in the soil. 3. Genotoxic man-made chemicals used as pesticides and other agricultural chemicals. 4. Genotoxic substances generated during the heat processing of foods or the burning of agricultural wastes.
Is Cooperative Research Center Affiliation Amongst Academic Researchers Stratifying the Academy? The Impacts of Departmental Prestige, Career Trajectory, and Productivity on Center Affiliation

This chapter contribution to the edited volume acknowledges while much research is focused on the effectiveness of cooperative research centers at fulfilling their multiple missions related to research, education, and outreach, that little research has analyzed how centers can stratify academic researchers. Based on a representative sample of academic scientists and engineers working at research extensive universities, Xuhong Su and Gretchen Keneson find evidence that cooperative research centers are more likely to include faculty employed in prestigious departments and who are highly productive. The authors discuss the multiple, competing interpretations of these results (i.e., the merit-based vs. accumulative advantage explanations of the allocation of resources in academia). For complementary examinations, see the chapter by Coberly and Gray on job satisfaction amongst academic faculty participating in cooperative research centers and also the chapter by Garrett-Jones and colleagues on role strain amongst faculty in centers.
Recent Results from the CDF Experiment at the Tevatron Proton-Antiproton Collider

Recent results from the CDF experiment are described. The Standard Model gives a good description of jet production, and W/Z production and decay. There is no evidence yet for the top quark, for fourth generation quarks, or for deviations from the Standard Model ascribable to quark substructure, supersymmetric particles, or heavy additional W-like or Z-like bosons. Limits are given where applicable. A search for a light Higgs Boson is also described.
x86-64 instruction usage among C/C++ applications

This paper presents a study of x86-64 instruction usage across 9,337 C/C++ applications and libraries in the Ubuntu 16.04 GNU/Linux distribution. We present metrics for reasoning about the relative importance of instructions weighted by the popularity of applications that contain them. From this data, we systematize and empirically ground conventional wisdom regarding the relative importance of various components of an ISA, with particular focus on building binary translation tools. We also verify the representativity of two commonly used benchmark suites, and highlight areas for improvement.
The Concept of Motion in the Sixteenth Century

Few topics in intellectual history are as poorly understood as the concept of motion, and particularly the changes that this concept underwent during the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century. Part of the difficulty stems from the vaguely defined status of the concept in the sixteenth century, when the groundwork was being laid for the contributions of Galileo and his associates. At least three different speculative views of motion were being discussed during this period, and in academic circles as diverse as those in Britain, France, the Low Countries, Germany, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. Moreover, each speculative view had a distinctive practical import, and thus brought a different influence to bear on the science of motion, or mechanics, that was soon to undergo such extensive development. So complex was the resulting situation in the sixteenth century that any attempt to characterize it in a brief essay must run the risk of being a considerable over-simplification. This risk can perhaps be minimized by following a procedure similar to that adopted in the previous essay of this volume, viz, by restricting attention to the one problem of the entitative status of local motion. More precisely, we aim to examine the question as to how local motion may be said to differ both from the moving object and the terminus it attains, and to discuss the answers being given to it in the early part of the century at the University of Paris, or by thinkers who studied then at the university.
Nanoscale Resolution 3D Snapshot Particle Tracking by Multifocal Microscopy.

Accurate, precise, and rapid particle tracking in three dimensions remains a challenge; yet, its achievement will significantly enhance our understanding of living systems. We developed a multifoca...
Erratum for Royalty and Steen, “Quantitatively Partitioning Microbial Genomic Traits among Taxonomic Ranks across the Microbial Tree of Life”

Volume 4, no. 4, e00446-19, 2019, [https://doi.org/10.1128/mSphere.00446-19][1]. The original Table S2 file in the supplemental material contained unstandardized data and has now been replaced with a version that contains standardized data, as described in Materials and Methods. [1]: /lookup/doi/
Abstract 14064: Left Circumflex Lesion a Great Masquerader: Stemi Mimicking Classic Pericarditis

Introduction: Pericarditis and STEMI both present with acute chest pain and ST elevations in the EKG. The pattern of ST-elevation and the nature of chest pain usually aid in clinching the diagnosis...
A prefrontal-bed nucleus of the stria terminalis circuit limits fear to uncertain threat.

While walking home alone late one night, you hear footsteps behind you. Your heart starts to beat faster as you wonder whether someone might be following you. Being able to identify and evade threats is essential for survival. A key part of this process is learning to recognize signals that predict potential danger: the sound of footsteps behind you, for example. But many such cues are unreliable. The person behind you might simply be heading in the same general direction as you. And if you spend too much time and energy responding to such false alarms, you may struggle to complete other essential tasks. To be useful, responses to cues that signal potential threats must thus be proportionate to the likelihood that danger is actually present. By studying threat detection in mice, Glover et al. have identified a brain circuit that helps ensure that this is the case. Two groups of mice learned to fear a tone that predicted the delivery of a mild footshock. In one group of animals, the tone was followed by a shock on every trial (it was said to be ‘fully reinforced’). But in the other group, the tone was followed by a shock on only 50% of trials (‘partially reinforced’). After training, both groups of mice froze whenever they heard the tone – freezing being a typical fear response in rodents. But the animals trained with the partially reinforced tone showed less freezing than their counterparts in the fully reinforced group. Moreover, freezing in response to the partially reinforced tone was accompanied by activity in a specific neural pathway connecting the frontal part of the brain to an area called the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. Inhibiting this pathway made mice respond to the partially reinforced tone as though it had been reinforced on every trial. This suggests that activity in this pathway helps dampen responses to unpredictable threat cues. In people with anxiety disorders, cues that become associated with unpleasant events can trigger anxiety symptoms, even if the association is unreliable. The findings of Glover et al. suggest that reduced activity of circuits that constrain excessive responses to threats might contribute to anxiety disorders.
Multivariate Ranks and Quantiles using Optimal Transport: Consistency, Rates, and Nonparametric Testing

In this paper we study multivariate ranks and quantiles, defined using the theory of optimal transport, and build on the work of Chernozhukov et al.(2017) and Hallin et al.(2021). We study the characterization, computation and properties of the multivariate rank and quantile functions and their empirical counterparts. We derive the uniform consistency of these empirical estimates to their population versions, under certain assumptions. In fact, we prove a Glivenko-Cantelli type theorem that shows the asymptotic stability of the empirical rank map in any direction. Under mild structural assumptions, we provide global and local rates of convergence of the empirical quantile and rank maps. We also provide a sub-Gaussian tail bound for the global L_2-loss of the empirical quantile function. Further, we propose tuning parameter-free multivariate nonparametric tests -- a two-sample test and a test for mutual independence -- based on our notion of multivariate quantiles/ranks. Asymptotic consistency of these tests are shown and the rates of convergence of the associated test statistics are derived, both under the null and alternative hypotheses.
Compositional Generalization for Neural Semantic Parsing via Span-level Supervised Attention

We describe a span-level supervised attention loss that improves compositional generalization in semantic parsers. Our approach builds on existing losses that encourage attention maps in neural sequence-to-sequence models to imitate the output of classical word alignment algorithms. Where past work has used word-level alignments, we focus on spans; borrowing ideas from phrase-based machine translation, we align subtrees in semantic parses to spans of input sentences, and encourage neural attention mechanisms to mimic these alignments. This method improves the performance of transformers, RNNs, and structured decoders on three benchmarks of compositional generalization.
Confucian Modernity, Ultimacies, and Transcendence

Abstract I want to engage Taylor with a comparative Confucian vision of modernity. In order to do this, I need to present a metaphysics which can serve as a framework for comparisons necessary for a global philosophical historical perspective on modernity and transcendence and in which, in particular, I can represent both Christian and Confucian categories as alternative specifications of ultimate reality. Using non-personalistic metaphors of spontaneous emergence and stressing (dis)harmonies, Confucian philosophy gives its own specification of the ultimate conditions of human life. This will allow me to sketch how Confucian modernists might engage with modernity. I will thus defend in Confucian terms Taylor’s claim that genuine religious transcendence is possible within the conditions of modernity.
The International Monetary Fund in the Global Economy: Global finance and the politics of IMF lending: theory

In this chapter, I develop in greater detail my argument that changes in the composition of international capital flows constitute the key factor explaining variation in the International Monetary Fund's lending policies. I begin by discussing the key dimensions of variation in financial globalization in the contemporary world economy. Specifically, I illustrate the substantial changes in the composition of borrowers and lenders in international finance during the last two decades, as well as the sizeable variation in the geographic distribution of private international creditors. After outlining these changes in the composition of developing countries' international debt, I then discuss the IMF decision-making process in detail. Drawing on principal–agent theories of international institutions, I develop a “common agency” theory of IMF policymaking in which two key actors – the Fund's largest member states (the “collective principal”) and the IMF's bureaucratic staff (the “agent”) – jointly determine lending decisions. In contrast to most existing theories of IMF lending, this framework explicitly accounts for both actors' key roles in Fund policymaking. Moreover, it also takes into account the importance of preference heterogeneity among the Fund's principals in shaping IMF lending decisions. Finally, using this common agency framework, I explain how changes in the composition of private international capital flows shape the politics of IMF lending. I develop a set of testable hypotheses linking changes in private international debt composition to variation in the preferences of both the Fund's largest shareholder countries and the IMF staff over the size and terms of Fund lending arrangements.
A direct search approach to optimization for nonlinear model predictive control

Summary Nonlinear model predictive control (NMPC) depends on performing a constrained nonlinear optimization, based on predictions of future system behavior, during a sampling interval to determine the control action to be applied to the system during the next time step. The difficulty in designing an optimization procedure to solve a constrained NMPC problem is due to the finite time horizon to which the predictive model is evaluated, the state and control actuator constraints, and sampling interval length. The resulting objective function, which is to be optimized is typically not differentiable. Although there are many commercial, shareware, and open-source optimization packages available that can perform a nonlinear constrained optimization for most cases, there are NMPC implementations requiring embedded code or that must meet stringent timing requirements that preclude the use of off-the-shelf packages. In cases where the predictive model is known, such as aerodynamic or hydrodynamic systems, a direct-search optimization algorithm can perform well enough in a real-time environment. Direct search algorithms are simple to implement and can be made more efficient by applying differential geometric techniques to the search methodology. The typical smoothness of the equations of motion for vehicular systems allows the objective function's stationarities to be handled in a straight-forward way. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Electronic structure of disordered materials

It has been known since the work of Bloch (1928) that there are universal features in the electronic structures of crystals. The most important of these are energy bands separated by gaps, crystal momentum as a good quantum number, and the form of the wave function; they provide the conceptual foundations of much of solid state physics.
Career choice factors for bsw students: A 10-year perspective

This article examines the major factors involved in choosing to enter social work for 746 undergraduate students studied over a 10-year period. Its findings suggest that, although altruism remains the touchstone for their choice, students are motivated by both service to others and job self-interest. The findings also indicate that the dimensions of motivation for choosing social work have not significantly changed over the last 10 years. The implications for these findings are also discussed.
Hostile and Benevolent Sexism: Measuring Ambivalent Sexist Attitudes Toward Women

A theory of sexism as ambivalence, not just hostility, toward women is presented. Ambivalent Sexism Theory distinguishes between hostile and “benevolent” sexism (each addresses issues of power, gender differentiation, and sexuality). Benevolent sexism encompasses subjectively positive (for the sexist) attitudes toward women in traditional roles: protective paternalism, idealization of women, and desire for intimate relations. Hostile sexism encompasses the negative equivalents on each dimension: dominative paternalism, derogatory beliefs, and heterosexual hostility. Both forms of sexism serve to justify and maintain patriarchy and traditional gender roles. The validity of a measure of these constructs, the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory (ASI), is reviewed. Comparisons are offered between the ASI and other measures of sexist attitudes (e.g., the AWS), with suggestions for the proper domains of different scales.
Staphylococcus aureus osmoregulation: roles for choline, glycine betaine, proline, and taurine.

Choline, glycine betaine, and L-proline enhanced the growth of Staphylococcus aureus at high osmolarity (i.e., they acted as osmoprotectants) on various liquid and solid defined media, while an osmoprotective effect of taurine was shown only for cells growing on high-NaCl solid medium that lacked other osmoprotectants. Potassium pool levels were high, and there was little difference in levels in cells grown at different osmolarities. Glycine betaine accumulated to high levels in osmotically stressed cells, and choline was converted to glycine betaine. Proline and taurine also accumulated in response to osmotic stress but to lower levels than glycine betaine.
Geochemical Evidence of Present-Day Serpentinization

Ultrabasic (pH > 11) water issues from some fresh ultramafic bodies. The properties of the ultrabasic solutions are believed to be due to current reactions yielding serpentine from primary olivines and pyroxenes. The low concentrations of divalent airon. divalent magnesium, and dissolved silica from the serpentinization require an increase in rock volume.
Prevalence and Pattern of Congenital Heart Disease in Uttarakhand, India

To find the prevalence and pattern of congenital heart disease (CHD) at a tertiary care hospital in Uttarakhand, India. A thorough history and clinical examination was done for all the live births and children up to 18 y of age who presented to the institute over a period of 3 y from July 2008 through June 2011. Those suspected of having a CHD, were further evaluated with ECG, chest radiography and the diagnosis was confirmed by color Doppler echocardiography. Of the 36541 children examined, 312 were identified as having congenital heart defects, thus giving a prevalence of 8.54 per 1000 children attending hospital. Only one fifth cases were diagnosed in neonatal period and the diagnosis was delayed beyond infancy in more than half of the cases. Ventricular septal defect (30.45%), atrial septal defect (17.63%), patent ductus arteriosus (9.62%), pulmonary stenosis (6.41%), tetralogy of Fallot (5.45%) and transposition of great arteries (5.13%) were the commonest defects observed. Only 9.29% of children with CHD underwent definitive treatment. The prevalence of CHD at a tertiary referral hospital in Uttarakhand India is 8.54 per 1000 children. VSD and TOF are the most common acyanotic and cyanotic congenital heart defects respectively.
Reducing women's poverty by shifting social security benefits from retired couples to widows

This article examines proposals to transfer Social Security benefits from married couples to surviving widows in terms of effects on poverty rates, trust fund expenditures, and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) expenditures. Because widows are much more likely to be living in poverty than older married women, it makes sense to consider Social Security benefits in a lifetime framework and transfer some benefits from the time both the husband and wife are alive to the time when there is only one survivor, usually the wife. Because of expected life span and age differences of marital partners, a $1 reduction of the couple's benefit can finance a $1.45 increase in the widow's benefit. The 1990 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) matched to the Social Security Administration's benefit records are the basis for the estimates.
Gentrification in the American heartland? Evidence from Oklahoma City

Past research on gentrification has focused overwhelmingly on older, postindustrial cities, bypassing urban areas with other morphologies and demographic characteristics. In this paper, we address this gap by applying the analytical tools used to examine gentrification in postindustrial cities to a less conventional setting: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, a younger, sprawling, mid-sized American city. In 1993, voters passed a sales tax initiative designed to transform Bricktown, a depopulated rail and manufacturing neighborhood near the city’s center. This study examines the subsequent physical and cultural makeover of the area surrounding Bricktown by analyzing traditional gentrification variables, like income, household size, property values, and education. To these indicators, we add several additional variables, including business and restaurant types, which help illustrate shifting consumer preferences and the spatial change in businesses aimed at people in different income brackets.
Level of anastomosis and recurrent colonic diverticulitis

About 7 percent of patients who have resections for diverticular disease later suffer from recurrent disease. In resections for sigmoid disease, the surgeon often has the choice of using either the distal sigmoid colon or the upper rectum for the distal portion of the anastomosis. We examined the courses of 501 consecutive patients who had resection and anastomosis for diverticular disease at the Mayo Clinic between 1970 and 1975. Recurrent diverticulitis developed in 12.5 percent of the patients in whom the sigmoid colon had been used for the distal margin of anastomosis and in 6.7 percent of those in whom the rectum had been used (p = 0.03). Reoperation was required in 3.4 percent of the patients in whom the sigmoid colon was used as the distal anastomotic site and in 2.2 percent of those in whom the rectum had been used (p greater than 0.05). We found no increase in anastomotic leaks or other perioperative complications in patients in whom the rectum had been mobilized. We conclude that the entire distal sigmoid colon should be removed during resection for diverticular disease and anastomosed to the upper rectum to avoid recurrent diverticulitis.
Engineered Streptavidin Monomer and Dimer with Improved Stability and Function

Although streptavidin’s high affinity for biotin has made it a widely used and studied binding protein and labeling tool, its tetrameric structure may interfere with some assays. A streptavidin mutant with a simpler quaternary structure would demonstrate a molecular-level understanding of its structural organization and lead to the development of a novel molecular reagent. However, modulating the tetrameric structure without disrupting biotin binding has been extremely difficult. In this study, we describe the design of a stable monomer that binds biotin both in vitro and in vivo. To this end, we constructed and characterized monomers containing rationally designed mutations. The mutations improved the stability of the monomer (increase in Tm from 31 to 47 °C) as well as its affinity (increase in Kd from 123 to 38 nM). We also used the stability-improved monomer to construct a dimer consisting of two streptavidin subunits that interact across the dimer–dimer interface, which we call the A/D dimer. The bio...
Is Part-Time Farming Really a Step in the Way Out of Agricultural?

One of the most important questions regarding the phenomenon of part-time farming is whether it is a stable situation or just a step in the way out of agriculture. This article provides support for the first possibility in the context of Israeli family farms in the 1970s. A multinomial logit model of work choices is estimated, including estimated transition probabilities among the explanatory variables. The results indicate that a high objective probability of exit from farming within the next decade decreased the tendency to engage in off-farm work, especially in a full-time job, in 1971.
Microelectronic Distributed Network Synthesis

The synthesis procedures presented herein are the first simple mathematical techniques applicable to distributed RC networks. The methods are significantly different from those presently available in that they do not require recourse to a digital computer for their application. Moreover, because the actual synthesis employs an auxiliary complex plane, the calculations may be accomplished with pencil and pad. The synthesis techniques find immediate application in the field of microelectronics.
Morphologies of uranium and uranium–zirconium electrodeposits

Abstract Uranium and uranium–zirconium electrodeposits produced in the Fuel Cycle Facility at Argonne National Laboratory-West were examined using standard metallurgical techniques. Substantial differences in the morphologies of the two types of deposits were observed. Samples from pure uranium deposits were comprised of chains of uranium crystals with a characteristic rhomboidal shape, while the morphologies of samples from deposits containing zirconium in excess of approximately 0.5 wt% showed more polycrystalline features. Zirconium was found to be present as a second, zirconium metal phase at or very near the uranium–zirconium dendrite surfaces. Higher collection efficiencies and total deposit weights were observed for the uranium–zirconium deposits; this performance increase is likely a result of better mechanical properties exhibited by the uranium–zirconium dendrite morphology.
Library and IT mergers: how successful are they?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide an introduction to four articles from Reference Services Review focusing on the theme of library/IT mergers. It aims to place the articles that follow in their larger historical context and draw conclusions about the success or lack of success of such mergers in general.Design/methodology/approach – The paper frames the four articles that follow, explaining their approach to library/IT mergers and their place in the ongoing discussion of the service effectiveness of such converged organizations.Findings – The paper suggests that library/IT service mergers may be analogous to management's or labor's decision to unionize.Practical implications – The success of academic libraries and IT services has more to do with the quality of leadership and professional commitment to service than it does with the question of whether these two academic units should merge.Originality/value – The paper provides an introduction to the special issue on library and IT mergers.
Neonatal care of high-risk cloned and transgenic calves.

Postnatal losses encountered in cloned calves are extensive. Because of their high value and their apparent tendency to develop certain conditions at a higher frequency than normal calves, cloned calves are managed differently from other calves. Problems most commonly reported include respiratory failure, pulmonary hypertension, increased birth weight, enlarged umbilical vessels, musculoskeletal abnormalities, various congenital defects, and abnormal immune function. Careful monitoring and aggressive treatment of the calves immediately after birth is described.
An information criterion for normal regression estimation

Abstract A discrimination information approach for evaluating the performance of a special class of linear transforms of the least squares (LS) estimates is proposed. An information criterion is defined which is shown to be a well-behaved function of the transformation matrix. The proposed criterion is related to the predictive mean squared error (PMSE) of the linear transform estimates. The relation between the information criterion and the PMSE leads to a weak necessary condition for the uniform PMSE dominance of the linear transform estimates over the LS estimates. Application of the proposed information criterion as a diagnostic for ridge regression is discussed. An illustrative example is also analyzed.
Electron tunneling in tantalum surface layers on niobium

We have performed electron tunneling measurements on tantalum surface layers on niobium. The tunnel junctions comprise 2000-A-circle Nb base electrodes with 10--100-A-circle i-italicn-italic s-italici-italict-italicu-italic--deposited Ta overlayers, an oxide barrier, and Ag, Pb, or Pb-Bi alloy counterelectrodes. The base electrodes were prepared by ion-beam sputter deposition. The characteristics of these junctions have been studied as a function of Ta-layer thickness. These include the critical current, bound-state energy, phonon structure, and oxide barrier shape. We have compared our results for the product I-italic/sub c-italic/R versus tantalum-layer thickness with an extended version of the Gallagher theory which accounts for both the finite mean free path in the Ta overlayers and suppression of the I-italic/sub c-italic/R product due to strong-coupling effects. Excellent fits to the data yield a value of the intrinsic scattering probability for electrons at the Ta/Nb interface of r-italic/sup 2/ = 0.01. This is consistent with the value expected from simple scattering off the potential step created by the difference between the Fermi energies of Ta and Nb. We have found a universal empirical correlation in average barrier height phi-bar and width s-italic in the form phi-bar = 6 eV/(s-italic-10 A-circle) for measured junctions which holds both for our data andmore » results for available data in the literature for oxide-barrier junctions. The latter are composed of a wide variety of base and counterelectrode materials. These results are discussed in the general context of oxide growth and compared with results for artificial tunnel barriers.« less
Adaptive Learning Model for Predicting Negotiation Behaviors through Hybrid K-means Clustering, Linear Vector Quantization and 2-Tuple Fuzzy Linguistic Model

Abstract Acknowledged System of systems (SoS) manager has no direct control over contributing systems yet they deliver capabilities required to meet the purpose of the SoS operating in an interdependent environment. Forming a joint capability by contribution requires both persuasion and negotiation between the SoS coordinator and each individual system. Negotiation here involves multiple parties, and multiple issues. The challenges here include predicting an opponent system's negotiation behavior and reaching a near optimal negotiation outcome based on the following three issues: performance demands made by the coordinator, monetary benefits in lieu of effort required, and the deadline assigned to prepare for the final SoS participation formation. The negotiation framework proposed involves an unsupervised clustering of the difference between offers from both parties on all three issues by clustering techniques. The clustering results so far indicate the presence of four prominent behaviors: selfish, semi-cooperative, opportunistic, and extremely selfish. The clustered data was used to train both a radial bass function network (RBFN) and a linear vector quantization network (LVQN) to predict future offers. Once trained, the SoS manager uses 2-tuple fuzzy linguistic representation model for decision making. A time-dependent strategy is used to generate a new offer by SoS manager to the systems.
The Internet and Film: Teaching Middle East Politics Interactively

Recent innovations in information technology can benefit students and instructors if they are effectively integrated with the curriculum. As computer technologies have become more affordable, more powerful, and easier to use, their integration in education has increased.1 It is no longer unusual to find college courses that incorporate some online component. The most common way to use the Internet is to post an online version of the class syllabus with links to potentially more exciting sites. The Internet can, of course, be used interactively and in conjunction with other media to enhance the
Design Properties of Silicon Nitride for High Temperature Gas Turbine Application

Engineering properties useful in design are presented for both hot pressed and reaction sintered silicon nitride. In particular, the statistical nature of strength properties is discussed from the standpoint of cause of strength scatter, effect of sample preparation and test procedure, Weibull statistical analysis, and the application of Weibull strength parameters.Copyright © 1977 by ASME
Responses of Immortalized Type II Alveolar Cells to Various Levels of Oxidative Stress. † 173

Responses of Immortalized Type II Alveolar Cells to Various Levels of Oxidative Stress. † 173
New developments in anal surgery: Incontinence

Abstract Fecal incontinence is a particularly vexing problem leading to a disruption in lifestyle and social embarrassment for those who suffer from it. Prevalence rates may be higher than reported, as patients are often reluctant to seek treatment. Furthermore, the traditional treatments of medical management, biofeedback, and surgical repair of sphincter muscle defects have only a limited utility for some patients. Innovative therapies being developed and tested may contribute substantially to the traditional treatment armamentarium. After reviewing traditional management, this chapter focuses on novel pharmacologic options and new advances in surgical treatment including encirclement procedures such as the artificial bowel sphincter and neuromodulation using sacral nerve stimulation. © 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.