cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Insulin-like growth factors I and II receptors in the Breast Cancer Survival Disparity among African-American Women

Objective: African–American (AA) women with breast cancer are more likely to have advanced disease at diagnosis, higher risk of recurrence and poorer prognosis than Caucasian (CA) women. We have recently shown higher insulin-like growth factor II (IGF-II) expression in paired breast tissue samples from AA women as compared to CA women. IGF-II is a potent mitogen that induces cell proliferation and survival signals through activation of the IGF-I and Insulin receptors (IGF-IR, IR) while IGF-II circulating levels are regulated by cellular uptake through the IGF2 receptor. We hypothesize that differential expression of the IGF1R and IGF2R among AA and CA women potentiates IGF-II mitogenic effects, thus contributing to the health disparity observed between these ethnic groups. Design: We examined IGF-IR and IGF2R mRNA, protein expression and IGF1R phosphorylation in paired breast tissue samples from AA and CA women by Real Time-PCR, Western blot analysis, immunohistochemistry and ELISA techniques. Results: Our results showed significantly increased expression of IGF1R in AA normal tissues as compared to CA normal tissues. IGF1R expression was similar between AA normal and malignant tissues, while IGF1R, IRS-1 and Shc phosphorylation was significantly higher in AA tumor samples. Significantly higher levels of IGF2R were found in CA tumor samples as compared to AA tumor samples. Conclusions: We conclude that IGF1R and IGF2R differential expression may contribute to the increased risk of malignant transformation in young AA women and to the more aggressive breast cancer phenotype observed among AA breast cancer patients and represent, along with IGF-II, potential therapeutic targets in breast cancer.
Opioid Analgesics and the Risk of Serious Infections Among Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Self-Controlled Case Series Study.

Objective Animal studies and in vitro human studies suggest that certain opioid analgesics impair crucial immune functions. This study was undertaken to determine whether opioid use is associated with increased risk of serious infection in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods We conducted a self-controlled case series analysis on a retrospective cohort of 13,796 patients with RA enrolled in Tennessee Medicaid in 1995–2009. Within-person comparisons of the risk of hospitalization for serious infection during periods of opioid use versus non-use were performed using conditional Poisson regression. Fixed confounders were accounted for by design; time-varying confounders included age and use of disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs, glucocorticoids, and proton-pump inhibitors. In additional analyses, risks associated with new opioid use, use of opioids known to have immunosuppressive properties, use of long-acting opioids, and different opioid dosages were assessed. Sensitivity analyses were performed to account for potential protopathic bias and confounding by indication. Results Among 1,790 patients with RA who had at least 1 hospitalization for serious infection, the adjusted incidence rate of serious infection was higher during periods of current opioid use compared to non-use, with an incidence rate ratio (IRR) of 1.39 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.19–1.62). The incidence rate was also higher during periods of long-acting opioid use, immunosuppressive opioid use, and new opioid use compared to non-use (IRR 2.01 [95% CI 1.52–2.66], IRR 1.72 [95% CI 1.33–2.23], and IRR 2.38 [95% CI 1.65–3.42], respectively). Results of sensitivity analyses were consistent with the main findings. Conclusion In within-person comparisons of patients with RA, opioid use was associated with an increased risk of hospitalization for serious infection.
Effects of Starting Body Weight, Body Condition, and Age on Gain of Cattle Grazing Native Grass1

In 29 trials over 10 yr, 6614 head of cattle (heifers: 11 trials, 2862 head; steers: 18 trials, 3752 head) were used to determine the effect of starting BW on gain while grazing native grass pastures. The heifers grazed for an average of 81 d (range, 70 to 93 d), and steers grazed for an average of 86 d (range, 75 to 99 d) from April to July. Average stocking rate was one animal per 0.81 ha (0.65 animal unit month/0.27 ha). The cattle were sorted by starting BW into five groups as follows: below 181 kg, 182 to 227 kg, 228 to 272 kg, 273 to 318 kg, and above 319 kg. In three additional trials, 602 yearling heifers were sorted by starting BW, as described previously, and assigned a body condition score from 1 (thinnest) to 5 (fattest). A separate grazing trial was conducted in which 158 yearling steers were compared with 103 steer calves. The yearlings were springborn and wintered on wheat pasture; the calves were fall-born. Heifers between 182 and 227 kg gained more BW (P<0.08) than did heifers that weighed more than 273 kg. Steers with starting BW between 182 and 227 kg and 228 to 272 kg gained substantially more (P<0.01) than did steers in other BW groups. Steers gained faster than heifers (1.05 vs 0.86 kg/d; P<0.001). As heifers became fatter, gain declined in all weight groups. Fall-born steer calves (202 kg) gained slower (1.11 vs 1.22 kg/d; P<0.01) than did spring-born yearling steers (267 kg). These data indicate that maximum BW gain is achieved when starting BW for stocker cattle grazing native grass for less than 100 d is between 182 and 227 kg for heifers and between 182 and 272 kg for steers. Yearling steers gained faster than calves. In conclusion, sex, age, and starting BW of cattle affect their gains while grazing native grass pastures. The optimum weight for best pasture gain may vary by forage type and quality, but there is an ideal weight range for stocker cattle used for grazing.
Derived distribution for electrical overstress failure thresholds of transistors

Electrical overstress lailure may be analysed as a manifestation of plasma instabilities in semiconductors. The alternative Wunsch-Bell thermal paradigm is also useful for practical failure modelling, and is the basis for the derivation of the new probability density function presented.
A study of size efficiency in US banking: identifying banks that are too large

Maindiratta (1990) questioned the practical relevance of the most productive scale size (MPSS) and the associated concept of scale efficiency on the grounds that the observed output bundle of a firm or decision making unit (DMU), in many situations, is an assigned task and cannot be altered by the DMU. Also, in a market economy, the output-input combinations at the MPSS may not be economically viable. It would still be of interest to examine whether greater input saving can be achieved if the assigned output bundle is produced collectively by several banks, each operating efficiently, rather than individually by a single bank operating efficiently. In any specific case. the optimal number of smaller banks—if an existing bank should be broken up at all— is determined within a mixed integer programming model. In this study we apply DEA, utilizing the input and output data for the years 1984–1990 from 201 banks each with assets in excess of 1 billion dollars and hence regarded as ‘large banks’ by asset-size ...
Long-Term Galactic Cosmic Ray Environment Response of Plasma Analyzers on High-Altitude Spacecraft

The long-term galactic cosmic ray (GCR) environment response of the dosimeter and surface-charging monitors on two high-altitude satellites called F1 and F2 is analyzed. These satellites also host the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Two Wide-angle Imaging Neutral-atom Spectrometers. The trend of the GCR intensity with solar cycle from year 2006 through 2012 is estimated from in-situ Advanced Composition Explorer (ACE) and Ulysses data. The dosimeter average 25–45 MeV proton counts and the >2.4 MeV electron counts at apogee follow the expected GCR solar-cycle trend, but the best-fit variations are smaller than estimated from ACE heavy ion GCR data. The surface-charging monitor average minima ion counts at apogee on F1, one of the host spacecraft, are consistent with the solar-cycle variation of Ulysses proton GCR counts. Linear fits to the F1 surface-charging monitor response to the GCR environment that may be subtracted from the measured counts before conversion to particle fluxes are pro...
Improving the Lac System for Synthetic Biology

Abstract. The Escherichia coli lac Operon is controlled by a regulatory system that has been the subject of intensive study for the past fifty years. The system creates metabolic efficiency by responding to the levels of environmental lactose. In the absence of lactose, the LacI protein acts as a repressor of transcription from the lac promoter. Transcription begins when lactose binds to LacI, which results in the expression of three genes involved in lactose uptake and catabolism. The lac promoter is the most commonly used promoter in the field of synthetic biology. Although it is widely used, the lac promoter is known to have leaky transcription, meaning that transcription takes place even when the repressor is present and the inducer is absent. In an effort to redesign the lac promoter, we tested pLac variants that were reported to have a higher affinity for RNA polymerase than the wild-type. We also compared three mutants of the LacI repressor that were reported to have increasing affinity for the pLa...
Synthesis and Properties of Functionalized Polybenzimidazoles for High-Temperature PEMFCs

Polybenzimidazole (PBI) derivatives having dihydroxy functional groups (poly(2,2′-(dihydroxy-1,4-phenylene)5,5′-bibenzimidazole), 2OH-PBI) were successfully synthesized in poly(phosphoric acid) (PPA). The 2OH-PBI polymer underwent cross-linking reactions during the polymerization in poly(phosphoric acid) via the formation of phosphate bridges between the hydroxy groups of the polymer backbone. Gelation of the polymer solution during the polymerization was avoided by conducting the polymerization at relatively low monomer concentrations. The 2OH-PBI membranes showed higher proton conductivity compared to the unfunctionalized analogue, poly(2,2′-(1,4-phenylene)5,5′-bibenzimidazole) (para-PBI) membranes. Carefully controlled experiments were conducted to analyze separately the effects of both phosphoric acid doping level and polymer structure on the proton conductivity. Both polymer structure and phosphoric acid doping level were important determinants of membrane proton conductivity. The fuel cell performan...
Seed mass affects the susceptibility of weed and crop species to phytotoxins extracted from red clover shoots

Residues of legume crops used to increase soil fertility may also serve as sources of phytotoxins that can suppress the germination and early growth of weed and crop species. To test the hypothesis that weed and crop susceptibility to extracts of red clover shoots would be inversely proportional to seed mass, we (1) identified 18 weeds and 44 crops whose 100-seed masses ranged from 20 to 26,250 mg; (2) exposed their seeds in petri dishes and filter paper to a 2% aqueous extract of ‘Marathon’ red clover shoots or distilled water; and (3) measured germination percentage and radicle length of germinated seeds after incubation for 4 days. In a second experiment, we assessed germination and radicle growth of four crop and four weed species after exposure to 1% extracts of Marathon or ‘Cherokee’ red clover or distilled water. Germination inhibition by red clover extracts was greatest for lighter seeds and least for heavier seeds in Experiment 1 (P 5 0.0005), but was unrelated to seed mass in Experiment 2. Radicle inhibition by red clover extracts was inversely proportional to seed mass in both Experiment 1 (P , 0.0001) and Experiment 2 (P 5 0.0047), and, in Experiment 1, was greater for monocots than dicots (P 5 0.0002). Our findings corroborate the general relationship between seed mass and stress tolerance observed by other investigators and indicate that smallseeded monocots are most likely to be susceptible to phytotoxins contained in red clover shoots. Nomenclature: Red clover, Trifolium pratense L.
Distinct Dynamics of Endocytic Clathrin-Coated Pits and Coated Plaques

Clathrin is the scaffold of a conserved molecular machinery that has evolved to capture membrane patches, which then pinch off to become traffic carriers. These carriers are the principal vehicles of receptor-mediated endocytosis and are the major route of traffic from plasma membrane to endosomes. We report here the use of in vivo imaging data, obtained from spinning disk confocal and total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy, to distinguish between two modes of endocytic clathrin coat formation, which we designate as “coated pits” and “coated plaques.” Coated pits are small, rapidly forming structures that deform the underlying membrane by progressive recruitment of clathrin, adaptors, and other regulatory proteins. They ultimately close off and bud inward to form coated vesicles. Coated plaques are longer-lived structures with larger and less sharply curved coats; their clathrin lattices do not close off, but instead move inward from the cell surface shortly before membrane fission. Local remodeling of actin filaments is essential for the formation, inward movement, and dissolution of plaques, but it is not required for normal formation and budding of coated pits in the cells we have studied. We conclude that there are at least two distinct modes of clathrin coat formation at the plasma membrane—classical coated pits and coated plaques—and that these two assemblies interact quite differently with other intracellular structures.
High Performance Inductors on CMOS-Grade Trenched Silicon Substrate

This paper reports on a new implementation of high-quality factor copper inductors on CMOS-grade silicon substrates (p = 10-20 Omega ldr cm) using a CMOS-compatible process. A low-temperature fabrication sequence (<300degC) is used to reduce the loss in silicon at RF frequencies by trenching the silicon substrate. The high aspect-ratio (30:1) trenches are subsequently bridged over or refilled with a low-loss dielectric to close the open areas and create a rigid low-loss island, referred to as Trenched Si Island. This method does not require air suspension of the inductors, resulting in mechanically-robust structures that are compatible with any packaging technology. A one-turn 0.8 nH inductor fabricated on a Trenched Silicon Island exhibits a very high peak quality factor of 71 at 8.75 GHz with a self-resonant frequency larger than 15 GHz.
Parental Mediators of Associations between Perceived Authoritative Parenting and Early Adolescent Substance Use

Assessed in this study was whether a variety of specific parental behaviors mediated associations between perceived authoritative parenting and early adolescent substance use. Eighth-grade students (N= 182) completed questionnaires about their perceptions of parental warmth, behavioral control, and psychological autonomy granting, which were used to compute a measure of perceived parental authoritativeness. Adolescents indicated their perceptions of parents’ acceptance of, and likely responses to, substance use. During telephone interviews, one parent of each of 113 adolescents indicated the extent to which he or she used specific strategies aimed at preventing offspring from engaging in substance use. Perceived authoritative parenting was associated with lower levels of substance use among boys and among girls. Perceived parental disciplinary consequences of engaging in substance use mediated associations between perceived authoritative parenting and girls’ substance use. Associations between perceived parental authoritativeness and boys’ substance use were not linked by any specific parental behaviors.
Randomized preprocessing of configuration for fast path planning

This paper presents a new approach to path planning for robots with many degrees of freedom (DOF) operating in known static environments. The approach consists of a preprocessing and a planning stage. Preprocessing, which is done only once for a given environment, generates a network of randomly, but properly selected, collision-free configurations (nodes). Planning then connects any given initial and final configurations of the robot to two nodes of the network and computes a path through the network between these two nodes. Experiments show that after paying the preprocessing cost (on the order of hundreds of seconds), planning is extremely fast (on the order of a fraction of a second for many difficult examples involving a 10-DOF robot). The approach is particularly attractive for many-DOF robots which have to perform many successive point-to-point motions in the same environment. >
Data protection in convolution computations

Modern high-speed convolvers use sophisticated arithmetic units operating over large finite integer rings or with floating point approximations to the real or complex fields. However, these units are susceptible to random internal errors termed soft fails. New systematic encoding and data manipulation techniques that make error detection with generalized cyclic codes straightforward and efficient are described. Error control is attached directly to the data, permitting protection of any form of parallel or distributed system configuration. Design methods for one class of real cyclic codes are detailed. The necessary overhead for direct parity computations have complexity proportional to the number of parity symbols squared, whereas the error-detecting capability for both random and burst errors is directly related to this parity number. When certain extension fields exist, the parity calculations become linear with the number of complex operations in the extended domain. >
A nonparametric test for current status data with unequal censoring

Nonparametric tests for the comparison of different treatments based on current status data are proposed. For this problem, most methods proposed in the literature require that observation times on all subjects follow the same distribution. In other words, censoring distributions are identical between the treatment groups. In this paper, we focus on the situation where the censoring distributions may be different for subjects in different treatment groups and the test that can take this unequal censoring into account is given. The asymptotic distribution of the test proposed is derived. The method proposed is applied to data arising from a tumorigenicity experiment.
Preparing for the academic job market: an interactive panel for doctoral students

This proposal expands on the basic format of the successful interactive doctoral student panel sponsored by SIG/ED at the 2012 ASIS&T annual meeting. The 2013 panel features panelists prepared to address audience questions on such topics as the traditional academic job market, alternative career paths including post-doctoral opportunities, the development of personal research agendas, and the challenges of online instruction. The function of this panel is to provide an interactive platform for faculty members at all stages of their careers to provide advice and input for doctoral students nearing the completion of their doctoral work. This panel will provide valuable insight on finishing the dissertation, weighing post-doctoral opportunities, entering the job market, and beginning an academic career. The format will allow participants to ask questions anonymously that may otherwise be embarrassing to ask. The panel will be of greatest use to those doctoral students at the end of their doctoral program, but, as proven in 2012, will also be of interest to doctoral students beginning their doctoral work and new assistant professors.
Benefits of adherence to anti-hypertensive drug therapy

Long-term adherence or compliance with anti-hypertensive drug therapy is poor. It has been estimated that within the first year of treatment 16-50% of hypertensives discontinue their anti-hypertensive medications. Even among those who remain on therapy long term, missed medication doses are common. Epidemiological studies have shown that drug-treated hypertensives have higher blood pressures than age-, gender- and body mass index-matched normotensives. In addition, drug-treated hypertensive men and women who achieve blood pressure normalization are less likely to die over a 9.5-year period than those whose blood pressure remains elevated while taking anti-hypertensive drugs. Thus, one reason for less than optimal reduction of blood pressure-related cardiovascular-renal risk in drug-treated hypertensives is inadequate blood pressure lowering. Quantifiable excess risk has been documented even in the short term ( < 1 year) after interruption or discontinuation of anti-hypertensive medications as total healthcare costs are higher, mostly because of higher hospitalization rates. Data from the Treatment of Mild Hypertension Study (TOMHS) are relevant to long-term adherence to various anti-hypertensive drug monotherapies. At 48 months, 82.5% and 77.8% of participants remained on amlodipine and acebutolol, respectively (both P < 0.01 compared with placebo). However, only 67.5%, 66.1% and 68.1%, respectively, of chlorthalidone, doxazosin and enalapril participants remained on these drugs as monotherapy at 48 months. Differential adherence to long-term anti-hypertensive drug therapy could translate into a greater risk of blood pressure-related complications and higher overall healthcare expenditures. Strategies to minimize the deleterious impact of therapeutic non-adherence with anti-hypertensive medications as well as the clinical and cost implications of the TOMHS data will be discussed.
Connecting Programming Environments to Support Ad-Hoc Collaboration

Physical proximity supports various forms of ad-hoc collaboration among developers such as opportunistic task adaptation and helping co-developers when they are stuck. Connecting the input/output flows of stand-alone programming environments of distributed developers offers the potential to support such collaboration among them. Such a connection has several components including communication sessions, awareness of others' availability and the state of the objects on which they are working, and control channels allowing users to import edits of and share code with others and be notified when a team member has moved away from a program element of interest. It is possible to develop a collaboration-centered design that combines a variety of collaboration streams into a usable and useful user-interface, and implement the design using existing programming environment, communication, and compiler technologies.
Two- and Three-Dimensional Cloud-Resolving Model Simulations of the Mesoscale Enhancement of Surface Heat Fluxes by Precipitating Deep Convection

Two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) cloud-resolving model (CRM) simulations are conducted to quantify the enhancement of surface sensible and latent heat fluxes by tropical precipitating cloud systems for 20 days (10–30 December 1992) during the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). The mesoscale enhancement appears to be analogous across both 2D and 3D CRMs, with the enhancement for the sensible heat flux accounting for 17% of the total flux for each model and the enhancement for the latent heat flux representing 18% and 16% of the total flux for 2D and 3D CRMs, respectively. The convection-induced gustiness is mainly responsible for the enhancement observed in each model simulation. The parameterization schemes of the mesoscale enhancement by the gustiness in terms of convective updraft, downdraft, and precipitation, respectively, are examined using each version of the CRM. The scheme utilizing the precipitation was found to yield the most desirable estimations of the mean fluxes with the smallest rms error. The results together with previous findings from other studies suggest that the mesoscale enhancement of surface heat fluxes by the precipitating deep convection is a subgrid process apparent across various CRMs and is imperative to incorporate into general circulation models (GCMs) for improved climate simulation.
A field-programmable noise-canceling wideband receiver with high-linearity hybrid class-AB-C LNTAs

A field-programmable noise-canceling wide-band receiver front end with high performance LNTAs is presented. The common-source (CS) and common-gate (CG) LNTAs are split into several cells whose bias point can be individually programmed in class AB or C yielding a highly linear hybrid class-AB-C LNTA. The 40nm LP CMOS receiver prototype can be programmed on the fly to adapt to different RF environments; it was tested in a low noise mode, a high linearity mode and a low power mode. Across these modes, the receiver has maximum gain of 53dB, a minimum NF of 2.2dB, a maximum B 1 dB of +11dBm, and a maximum OB-IIP 3 of +21dBm; the signal path consumes between 15 and 40mA from a 2.5V supply and the LO current varies from 2.2 to 20mA from a 1.1V supply across operating frequencies. The measured LO emission at the antenna port is <-84dBm.
How modality specific is processing of auditory and visual rhythms

The present study used ERPs to test the extent to which temporal processing is modality specific or modality general. Participants were presented with auditory and visual temporal patterns that consisted of initial two- or three-event beginning patterns. This delineated a constant standard time interval, followed by a two-event ending pattern delineating a variable test interval. Participants judged whether they perceived the pattern as a whole to be speeding up or slowing down. The contingent negative variation (CNV), a negative potential reflecting temporal expectancy, showed a larger amplitude for the auditory modality compared to the visual modality but a high degree of similarity in scalp voltage patterns across modalities, suggesting that the CNV arises from modality-general processes. A late, memory-dependent positive component (P3) also showed similar patterns across modalities.
Intermediate Disturbance Hypothesis

The hypothesis provides a nonequilibrium view of how communities can gain or maintain a richness in species without an intricacy of adaptations. The temporal pattern is for diversity to increase until resources become limiting and then declines over time as resources are contested. Any disruption or disturbance of this process can reset the community to some earlier state. High rates of disturbance will keep the community in an early stage with few species, and low rates of disturbance will allow competitive exclusion to reduce diversity. Therefore, some rate or magnitude of disturbance should exist that maintains the community in an intermediate developmental state of highest diversity. Strong and weak competitors, good and poor colonizers, can all coexist when disturbance prevents the monopolization of resources and the loss of species.
How to Approach Mentorship as a Mentee

Mentorship relationships have the potential to impart numerous benefits to early- and middle-career academic physicians–scientists, clinicians, and administrators. These relationships not only influence the mentee’s decision to enter and remain in academic medicine, but they have been shown to increase self-confidence and productivity, improve overall career satisfaction, and enhance the mentee’s sense of professional community.
The Obama Administration's Trade Agenda Is Crumbling

The nation has been living with the Obama administration’s trade policy for five years, with relatively little to show for it. In the remaining three years, is the executive branch likely to obtain Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and successfully conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP)? Although free traders very much want all of this to happen, hard-headed experience indicates it’s most likely that the administration will accomplish none of this.Why such a downbeat conclusion? Debates over the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and the Uruguay Round in the 1990s illustrated how very difficult it could be to build support for the negotiation of trade agreements and for the passage of enacting legislation. Building such support requires a firm commitment to the cause of trade liberalization, an understanding of the economics that make open markets so desirable, an eagerness to explain the benefits to those who are undecided, and a willingness to invest a whole lot of political capital to round up the required votes. It’s not clear whether any of those conditions currently exist.
Two-Party versus Multiparty Negotiation

The environmental dispute in the Brown Paper Company Case (described in chapter 4) essentially involved two parties—the EPA and the paper company. By contrast, there were many negotiators (both groups and individuals) in the Grayrocks and South Carolina cases (chapter 3). Environmental problems are often of the multiparty variety.
Rhetoric, Emotional Manipulation, and Political Morality: The Modern Relevance of Cicero vis-à-vis Aristotle

Notwithstanding the widespread assumption that Aristotle forges a better relationship among rhetoric, the emotions, and political morality than Cicero, I contend that Cicero, not Aristotle, offers a more relevant account of the relationship among these terms. I argue that, by grounding his account of emotional appeals in the art of rhetoric, Aristotle does not evade the moral problems originating in emotional manipulation. Moreover, Aristotle9s approach to emotional appeals in politics is, compared to Cicero9s, static, unable to adapt to new political circumstances. I suggest that Cicero9s approach to the rhetorical emotions is more acceptable to a modern audience than Aristotle9s because it is ethically based while also responsive to political realities. Cicero accommodates emotional appeals to circumstance based on his belief in decorum as a moral principle. Further, I show that emotional manipulation in Cicero is not as problematical as it initially appears.
Stimulating Discussion: Higher Education is Serious Business

(1953). Stimulating Discussion: Higher Education is Serious Business. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 24, No. 7, pp. 390-391.
High-Speed Jet Noise Reduction Using Microjets on a Jet Engine

by a jet engine. Experiments were conducted at the NASA Ames Research Center using a General Electric YJ97-GE-3 turbofan jet engine that was equipped with a 317.5 mm converging nozzle. The engine was operated at conditions that resulted in jets with fully expanded Mach numbers of 0.9 and 1.3. The microjets were generated using up to 48 evenly spaced micro-nozzles that had exit diameters of 1.2 and 2.4 mm. The operating pressure of the microjets was varied from 7.9 to 42.4 bar. Various microjet configurations were used resulting in a total mass flux of the microjets that ranged from 0.5 to 2.3 % of the primary mass flux for the subsonic jet and from 0.3 to 1.0 % of the primary mass flux for the supersonic jet. Through the various configurations it was found that reductions of up to 2 dB in the OASPL could be obtained for both the subsonic and supersonic jets. The reductions for the subsonic jet were seen at all frequencies while they were seen primarily at the higher frequencies for the supersonic jet. A reduction of about 2 dB in the shock noise of the supersonic jet was also observed.
Environmental engineering education in North America

The field of environmental engineering is rapidly evolving, and environmental engineering education programmes have been forced to try to keep pace. Keeping up with all of these changes has been difficult for many university programmes, particularly those that do not have a separate environmental engineering curriculum. As a result, many universities are establishing separate environmental engineering degree programmes or even creating a separate Department of Environmental Engineering. This paper describes current curriculum development activities in North America and efforts to accredit these programmes. It also describes the structure and operation of the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), an organization in North America that is dedicated to improving environmental engineering education.
Molecular and Genetic Factors in Crohn’s Disease

The precise etiology of Crohn’s disease (CD) is not yet known. However, research in the fields of immunology, microbiology, and genetics suggests an interplay between host and environmental factors (Table 2.1). Environmental factors may be external agents that a patient has been exposed to such as NSAIDs or cigarette smoking or present within the host, such as the microbes and pathogens that comprise the microbiome. Host factors relate to the individual’s immunologic response to these external factors, which increasingly appear to be genetically defined or programmed early in life. This interplay between host physiology and external agents ultimately leads to an alteration in the host’s inflammatory homeostasis and maintenance of the gut mucosal integrity (Fig. 2.1) resulting in unchecked inflammation, enteric bacterial invasion, and worsening tissue destruction. Additionally, the variation in the multitude of factors that interact within the individual patient presumably results in the dozens of different phenotypes of CD (stricturing, fistulizing, inflammatory, ileal, colonic, etc.).
Solar Radiation Pressure: Averaged Analysis

Stating the same problem analyzed in the previous chapter as a perturbation problem allows us to introduce averaging to the dynamics of the system. In the following we show that the averaged dynamics of an orbiter subject to solar radiation pressure (SRP) and orbiting about a point mass can be solved in closed form with a very simple solution that still exhibits significantly complex behavior. Given this solution we are able to identify a set of stable “frozen orbits” that are suitable for spacecraft mission design and which enable a spacecraft to orbit about very small asteroids without the need for active control.
The Culture of Reform

Health reform, tax reform, environmental reform, immigration reform, government reform, drug reform, prison reform, housing reform, banking reform, and the list goes on; of course, it includes education reform. As a nation, we seem to find ourselves deeply entrenched in a culture of reform. Why is this so?
Investigating students’ use of lecture videos: Learning analytics vs. self-evaluation surveys

This presentation examines students’ use of lecture videos through two approaches -- (1) students’ real usages of lecture videos as collected from Blackboard, a learning management system which can track students’ activities and store every click in its backend database or in the web server log file, and (2) a self-evaluation of students’ study strategies in the course survey at the end of the semester. This study was conducted in a fully online psychology course taught in Fall 2014, Summer 2015, and Fall 2015. The course included 76 streaming lecture videos ranging from 3.5 to 30 minutes. A comparison between these two sets of data was examined and discussed in this presentation. The preliminary analysis revealed that most students’ study strategies reported on the survey were consistent with their real usages on the Blackboard course site. However, survey data could not explain which lecture videos students had watched and how frequently students watched videos. Learning analytics can support instructors in understanding how students used videos, when they watched, and which videos were watched most. The data also implied that students’ final grades and learning satisfaction associated with their usage of lecture videos. As compared to survey data, the evidence indicated that learning analytics can give more detailed and accurate descriptions about students’ learning behaviors. This presentation will share the limitations of either method. This presentation will benefit both undergraduate and graduate courses whose instructors plan to use surveys or learning analytics to understand their students’ learning behaviors and study strategies.
Parental involvement, socio-economic status and students' perceptions of the classroom learning environment as predictors of 8th grade students' academic achievement: A structural equation model.

PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT, SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE CLASSROOM LEARNING ENVIROMENT AS PREDICTORS OF 8 GRADE STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT: A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL.
Code of the suburb: inside the world of young middle-class drug dealers

I hope suburbia becomes the new stomping ground for criminologists. It should for reasons Scott Jacques and Richard Wright reveal in their fascinating book on drug dealing among middle-class suburb...
Epidemiology of Shoulder Dislocations in High School and Collegiate Athletics in the United States: 2004/2005 Through 2013/2014.

Background:Shoulder dislocations occur frequently in athletes across a variety of sports. This study provides an updated descriptive epidemiological analysis of shoulder dislocations among high sch...
Background to the Carrera Uprising

The conquest of the Americas developed a society that was based on a hierarchy of racial groups. The increasingly complex relations and military threats among the European powers in the eighteenth century forced the Spanish authorities to reorganize the defense of their American colonies. The wide administrative reforms of the Bourbon ruler Charles III included a transformation of the military that would impact the social order of the Americas and would create a militarized society. The establishment of a militarized elite and a militarily trained population not only contributed to the success of the independence movement but also insured that the political conflicts of the new nation would be resolved through organized military violence.
Chapter 30 – Fractionated Photon Radiation Therapy for Skull Base Chordomas and Chondrosarcomas

Abstract Chordomas and chondrosarcomas of the base of the skull are difficult to manage because of their location and proximity to critical structures. Since recurrence after surgery alone is common, planning of multimodal therapy, including postoperative radiation, is often essential. Although postoperative radiation improves local control of tumor after surgery, its efficacy may be limited by proximity of critical structures such as the brainstem and optic pathways. Significant improvement in photon irradiation techniques, such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy, three-dimensional conformal radiation therapy, and tomotherapy, are permitting delivery of higher dose to tumor while sparing critical normal structures from radiation exposure above tolerable levels.
Sleep and Long-Term Care

Long-term care (LTC) involves a range of support and services for people with chronic illness and disabilities who can not perform activities of daily living independently. Poor sleep increases the risk of LTC placement, and sleep disturbance is extremely common among LTC residents. The identification and management of sleep disturbance in LTC residents is a vital, but perhaps underappreciated, aspect of offering high-quality care for this already compromised population. This review describes the nature and consequences of sleep disturbances in LTC, clinical assessment and management of sleep disturbances in LTC, and implications for future research and clinical practice.
Patterns of Discordance Between Pretransplant Imaging Stage of Hepatocellular Carcinoma and Posttransplant Pathologic Stage: A Contemporary Appraisal of the Milan Criteria.

BackgroundPatients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) exceeding Milan criteria on explant pathology are at increased risk of recurrence and death. Discordance between contemporary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and explant pathology, and preoperative characteristics predictive of discordance are
Subwavelength optical lithography via classical light: A possible implementation

The resolution of an interferometric optical lithography system is about the half wavelength of the illumination light. We proposed a method based on Doppleron resonance to achieve a resolution beyond half wavelength [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 163603 (2006)]. Here, we analyze a possible experimental demonstration of this method in the negatively charged silicon-vacancy (${\mathrm{SiV}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$) system by considering realistic experimental parameters. Our results show that quarter wavelength resolution and beyond can be achieved in this system even in room temperature without using perturbation theory.
Electron transfer reactions of metal complexes in solution

A few representative electron-transfer reactions are selected and their kinetic parameters compared with the predictions of activated complex models. Since Taube has presented an elegant treatment of intramolecular electron-transfer reactions, emphasis is on bimolecular reactions. The latter electron-transfer reactions are more complicated to treat theoretically since the geometries of their activated complexes are not as well known as for the intramolecular case. In addition in biomolecular reactions, the work required to bring the two reactants together needs to be calculated. Since both reactants generally carry charges this presents a non-trivial problem at the ionic strengths usually used to study bimolecular electron transfer.
Histochemistry and Ultrastructure of Pollen Development in Podocarpus macrophyllus D. Don

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the histochemistry and ultrastructure of pollen development in Podocarpus macrophyllus D. Don. In the early stages of development of the microsporophyll, the cells are rectangular with a profusely vacuolated cytoplasm and numerous amyloplasts and plasmodesmatal connections are present. During prophase, the tapetal cells are characterized by abundant ribosome and polysome populations, amyloplasts, and Golgi activity. As the plasmalemma of the microspore mother cells withdraws from the parent wall, mildly PAS-positive fibrillar material remains, presumably a breakdown product of the original wall. Long, thin, three-layered structures of an intensely electrondense material appear in the cytoplasm of the microspore mother cells in early meiosis. The tapetal nuclei and cytoplasm show signs of intense activity from meiosis II until after tetrad formation. The line of demarcation between the distal face of the grain and the air-sacs is markedly different in sculpturing from the rest of the pollen surface, bearing a number of thick finger-like processes.
The Ontology of Collective Action

What is the ontology of collective action? I have in mind three connected questions. 1. Do the truth conditions of action sentences about groups require there to be group agents over and above individual agents? 2. Is there a difference, in this connection, between action sentences about informal groups that use plural noun phrases, such as ‘We pushed the car’ and ‘The women left the party early’, and action sentences about formal or institutional groups that use singular noun phrases, such as ‘The United States declared war on Japan on December 8th, 1941’ and ‘The Supreme Court ruled that segregation is unconstitutional in 1954 in Brown vs. Board of Education’?3. Under what conditions does it make sense to speak of a group doing something together, and what, if anything, is a collective action?These questions are of interest in themselves, and they are of interest also for the light their answers promise to shed on the nature of the social reality and on the difficult question of the nature and distribution of moral responsibility for the consequences of group action. In the paper, I argue thata) understanding action sentences about groups does not commit us to the existence of group agents per se, but only to the existence of individual agents;b) there is no difference in this regard between sentences which attribute actions to informal groups on the one hand and institutional groups on the other;c) collective action can be both intentional and unintentional; d) any random group of agents each of whom does something is also a group which does something together; e) while there is a sense in which groups per se perform no primitive collective actions, and therefore no actions at all, f) there is a sensible extension of talk of actions to groups, though it should be treated strictly speaking, like talk of group agents, as a facon de parler, for g) the only agents per se are individuals and the only actions are theirs
Freedom and Efficiency in Education

Education policy-makers in Europe and in North America have become preoccupied with assessing the ‘productivity’ of their systems, especially as measured by the tested skills of their pupils as compared with those of their economic competitors. The concern is not misplaced; for too long we have focused upon educational attainment —the number of years of formal schooling completed, or the proportion of an age cohort enrolled full time—rather than upon educational achievement. What pupils have actually learned, and what they can do with what they have learned, is important information, and educators should welcome better information about how successful their schools have been in those terms.1
Circulating γ-Tocopherol Concentrations Are Inversely Associated with Antioxidant Exposures and Directly Associated with Systemic Oxidative Stress and Inflammation in Adults.

Background Although α- and γ-tocopherol are co-consumed antioxidants, circulating γ-tocopherol concentrations were paradoxically found to be inversely associated with total vitamin E intake and circulating α-tocopherol concentrations. There are limited data on this apparent paradox or on determinants of circulating γ-tocopherol concentrations. Objective To help clarify possible determinants of circulating γ-tocopherol concentrations, we investigated associations of circulating γ-tocopherol concentrations with various dietary and lifestyle factors and biomarkers of oxidative stress and inflammation. Methods We pooled cross-sectional data from 2 outpatient, adult, elective colonoscopy populations (pooled n = 419) on whom extensive dietary, lifestyle, and medical information was collected, and the following plasma concentrations were measured: α- and γ-tocopherol (via HPLC), F2-isoprostanes (FiPs; via gas chromatography-mass spectrometry), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP; via latex-enhanced immunonephelometry). Multivariable general linear models were used to assess mean γ-tocopherol differences across quantiles of plasma antioxidant micronutrients, FiPs, and hsCRP; an oxidative balance score [OBS; a composite of anti- and pro-oxidant dietary and lifestyle exposures (a higher score indicates higher antioxidant relative to pro-oxidant exposures)]; and multiple dietary and lifestyle factors. Results Adjusted for serum total cholesterol, mean γ-tocopherol concentrations among those in the highest relative to the lowest tertiles of circulating α-tocopherol and β-carotene, the OBS, and total calcium and dietary fiber intakes were 31.0% (P < 0.0001), 29.0% (P < 0.0001), 27.6% (P = 0.0001), 29.7% (P < 0.0001), and 18.6% (P = 0.008) lower, respectively. For those in the highest relative to the lowest tertiles of circulating FiPs and hsCRP, mean γ-tocopherol concentrations were 50% (P < 0.0001) and 39.0% (P < 0.0001) higher, respectively. Conclusions These findings support the conclusion that circulating γ-tocopherol concentrations are inversely associated with antioxidant exposures and directly associated with systemic oxidative stress and inflammation in adults. Additional research on possible mechanisms underlying these findings and on whether circulating γ-tocopherol may serve as a biomarker of oxidative stress, inflammation, or both is needed.