cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Personality Testing May Identify Applicants Who Will Become Successful in General Surgery Residency

Abstract Background Identification of successful general surgical residents remains a challenging endeavor for program directors with a national attrition of approximately 20% per year. The Big 5 personality traits and the Grit Scale have been extensively studied in many industries, and certain traits are associated with professional or academic success. However, their utility in surgery resident selection is unknown. Methods We performed a retrospective review of all categorical surgery residents (n = 34) at the University of Texas Medical Branch from 2015 to 2017. Current residents were classified into low performing (n = 12) or non-low performing (n = 22) based on residency performance and standardized test scores. Groups were assessed for differences in both conventional metrics used for selection and Big 5 and grit scores using bivariate analysis and Pearson's correlation coefficient. Personality testing was administered to recent resident applicants (n = 81). Applicants were ranked using conventional application information. We then examined the applicants' personalities and their rank position with personality characteristics of non–low-performing residents to determine if there was any correlation. Results The Big 5 personality test identified significantly higher extroversion, conscientiousness, and emotional stability scores in those residents classified as non–low performers. There was no significant difference in conventional metrics or in grit scores between non–low performers and low performers. Our final rank does not correlate well with personality traits of non–low performers. Conclusions The Big 5 test may prove to be a useful adjunct to the traditional residency application in identifying applicants who may become successful in general surgery residency.
Comparison of Cryoballoon and Hybrid surgical Posterior Wall Isolation for Persistent Atrial Fibrillation to conventional ablation.

Background Optimalablation strategy for persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) is unclear;PWI of the left atrium may improve outcome.Our aim was to compare outcomes of posterior wall isolation (PWI) ablation for persistent AF achieved by cryoballoon ablation (CRYO) or hybrid surgical ablation (HABL) to matched patients undergoing conventional radiofrequency ablation (CRA). Methods In our single center retrospective study,patients underwent HABL and CRYO withcircumferential pulmonary vein ablation (CPVA),roof and floor lines to complete PW box lesion. CRA consisted of CPVA, roof line and lateral mitral isthmus line (MVI). Results Of 61 patients (mean duration of AF 1.3 ± 0.4 yrs)who underwent ablation, after follow-up of 366 ± 62 days, AF recurrence was 10.5% and 48% (p=0.001) and the need for repeat ablation 5% vs 30% (p=0.007) in PWI and CRA groups respectively, without a significant difference in incidence of AT/FL 18 vs 26 % or cardioversion 5.2 vs 7.1 %. Total procedure time and fluoroscopic time were 242 ±70 min vs 279 ±53 min (p=0.08) and 20±9 min vs 12 ± 4 min (p=0.003) for PWI and CRA respectively. CRYO had less AF recurrence and complications than HABL. Mean length of stayfor CRYO patients was 41 hrs compared to 145 hrs in HABL group, who underwent two procedures. Conclusion PWI in persistent AF patients decreases recurrence of AF and need for repeat procedure compared to CRA; PWI by CRYO is superior to HABL due to less LOS and complications.
Uncovering Neglected Emerging Lived Religious Pluralisms

I outline an approach to lived religion that gives ‘religion from below’ full consideration and connects our scholarship of religious pluralism to the lived experiences of people in their everyday lives to understand the emergent lived religious pluralisms they are generating. My approach shows that religious pluralism in lived religion is more than how people experience macrosocial religious pluralisms but is also how individual people co-generate among themselves new religious pluralisms and mutual understandings.
FOXM1 regulates leukemia stem cell quiescence and survival in MLL-rearranged AML

FOXM1, a known transcription factor, promotes cell proliferation in a variety of cancer cells. Here we show that Foxm1 is required for survival, quiescence and self-renewal of MLL-AF9 (MA9)-transformed leukemia stem cells (LSCs) in vivo. Mechanistically, Foxm1 upregulation activates the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathways by directly binding to β-catenin and stabilizing β-catenin protein through inhibiting its degradation, thereby preserving LSC quiescence, and promoting LSC self-renewal in MLL-rearranged AML. More importantly, inhibition of FOXM1 markedly suppresses leukemogenic potential and induces apoptosis of primary LSCs from MLL-rearranged AML patients in vitro and in vivo in xenograft mice. Thus, our study shows a critical role and mechanisms of Foxm1 in MA9-LSCs, and indicates that FOXM1 is a potential therapeutic target for selectively eliminating LSCs in MLL-rearranged AML. FOXM1 is a known transcription factor which promotes cell proliferation in cancer cells. Here, the authors show that FOXM1 is required for the maintenance of quiescence and self-renewal of leukemia stem cells in MLL-AF9-rearranged acute myeloid leukemia patient and mouse models.
Approach to Acute Altered Mental Status

Altered mental status is a common complaint for hospitalized patients and a diagnostic challenge due to the myriad of potential underlying etiologies. This teaching script provides a framework for the workup of acute altered mental status.
‘Buddhism Has Been Insulted. Take Immediate Steps’: Burmese fascism and the origins of Burmese Islamophobia, 1936–38

In light of the current Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, this article investigates the emergence of Islamophobia in colonial Burma. Focusing on the under-examined Islamophobic riots that broke out countrywide in 1938, my research reveals that a nascent fascist movement used Muslims as a scapegoat for political and economic crisis. The colonial agribusiness economy had collapsed during the Great Depression, while the vast contract labour system of the Indian Ocean had brought millions of low-wage Indian migrants to Burma, causing a glut in the labour market. Burmese socialism provided a popular response to these issues. To compete, Burmese fascism emerged to appeal to a rising sense of nationalism, racially scapegoating Indians and the religion of Islam as the exploiters, colonizers, and invaders behind Burma's problems. Using the racialized term kala to conflate the ideas of colonizer, Indian, and Muslim, Burmese fascists inflamed hatred against Indian Muslims, Indian Hindus, and even indigenous Muslims, such as the Rohingya. By revealing the origins of this racialization, this article both deconstructs the lasting Burmese perception of the Rohingya as ‘Bengali immigrants’ and provides a generalizable case study into how races and racisms develop from specific historical factors and political movements. It also argues that the British amplified fascist ideas in Burma by focusing repression on movements that directly challenged their material control, such as socialism and communism. Therefore, it highlights how ruling classes often prefer nationalistic movements because they redirect popular unrest from the project of overthrowing structural factors to that of eliminating scapegoated minorities.
Right visual field advantage for lexical decision dependent on stimulus size and visibility: Evidence for an early processing account of hemispheric asymmetry.

Previous research suggests that the right visual field advantage on the lexical decision task occurs independent of the visual quality of stimuli [Chiarello, C., Senehi, J., & Soulier, M. (1986). V...
The push for stricter rules for internet platforms

Considering the origins, interpretations, and possible changes to Communications Decency Act §230 amid an evolving online environment.
The histone reader PHF7 cooperates with the SWI/SNF complex at cardiac super enhancers to promote direct reprogramming.

Direct cardiac reprogramming of fibroblasts to cardiomyocytes presents an attractive therapeutic strategy to restore cardiac function following injury. Cardiac reprogramming was initially achieved through overexpression of the transcription factors Gata4, Mef2c and Tbx5; later, Hand2 and Akt1 were found to further enhance this process1–5. Yet, staunch epigenetic barriers severely limit the ability of these cocktails to reprogramme adult fibroblasts6,7. We undertook a screen of mammalian gene regulatory factors to discover novel regulators of cardiac reprogramming in adult fibroblasts and identified the histone reader PHF7 as the most potent activating factor8. Mechanistically, PHF7 localizes to cardiac super enhancers in fibroblasts, and through cooperation with the SWI/SNF complex, it increases chromatin accessibility and transcription factor binding at these sites. Furthermore, PHF7 recruits cardiac transcription factors to activate a positive transcriptional autoregulatory circuit in reprogramming. Importantly, PHF7 achieves efficient reprogramming in the absence of Gata4. Here, we highlight the underexplored necessity of cardiac epigenetic readers, such as PHF7, in harnessing chromatin remodelling and transcriptional complexes to overcome critical barriers to direct cardiac reprogramming. Garry et al. report that the histone reader PHF7 cooperates with the SWI/SNF complex at cardiac super enhancers to increase accessibility to core cardiac transcription factors, thus facilitating direct cardiac reprogramming.
Reference Architectures for the IoT: A Survey

The Internet of Things (IoT) has become one of the essential technologies of the past few decades. Its popularity has increased based on its importance and application. It offers a solution to many issues affecting humanity in vital fields. IoT uses sensors and actuators to perform operations that complement higher-level applications. Building IoT applications requires using an architectural structure to support the application functions. Architectural modeling using patterns and Reference Architectures (RAs) applies abstraction, which helps in reducing the complexity of IoT systems. Because of this complexity, security is an important problem in IoT applications. An RA is the basis to build a security reference architecture (SRA). We survey the most important IoT RAs, showing their features and drawbacks and compare them accordingly. From the survey we find that the RA representations are imprecise and not very detailed. We define the features for a better RA that will be used as a basis for a SRA after enumerating its possible vulnerabilities and threats and then placing appropriate defenses.
Protective Role of 360° Laser Retinopexy in Patients with Rhegmatogenous Retinal Detachment: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.

Purpose Visual impairment from retinal re-detachment could be debilitating. The aim of this review is to evaluate the role of 360° laser retinopexy on success rate of rhegmatogenous retinal detachment (RRD) repair by a meta-analysis study. Methods The PubMed, Scopus, and the Cochrane Library databases were searched comprehensively from the date of database inception to January 2021, evaluating the role of 360° laser retinopexy in visual and anatomical success rate of RRD repair. This review was conducted based on the preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA) protocols. Results Among 202 articles screened for eligibility, six studies were found to be eligible for inclusion in our final analysis. Our meta-analysis demonstrates that prophylactic treatment with circumferential laser photocoagulation has no significant effect on the initial rate of retinal re-detachment or final best-corrected visual acuity following pars plana vitrectomy repair of RRD. Subgroup analysis of studies (n = 3) with 23-gauge pars plana vitrectomy, however, favors attachment rate in patients undergoing 360° prophylactic laser treatment. Conclusions Three hundred and sixty degree laser retinopexy appears to have favorable outcomes in patients undergoing 23-gauge retinal detachment repair. This protective effect, however, is not apparent with inclusion of 20-gauge vitrectomy studies.
Blue and Far-Red Light Affect Area and Number of Individual Leaves to Influence Vegetative Growth and Pigment Synthesis in Lettuce

Published work indicates that high percentage of blue light can enhance pigment levels but decreases growth, while addition of far-red light to growth light can increase quantum efficiency and photosynthesis in leafy greens. Combining high-energy blue light with low-energy far-red light may increase both vegetative growth and pigment levels. However, the effect of high-energy blue and low-energy far-red light on the vegetative growth and pigments synthesis is unclear. This information can be potentially useful for enhancing the levels of pigments with nutritional value (e.g., beta-carotene and anthocyanins) in the produce grown in vertical farms. We grew romaine lettuce (cv. Amadeus) under similar light intensity (approximately 130 μmol⋅m-2⋅s-1) but different proportions of red: blue: far-red including 90:10: 0 ("High-R"), 50: 50: 0 ("High-B"), and 42: 42: 16 ("High-B+FR") for 31 days. Results indicated that canopy area and leaf photosynthetic rate of lettuce plants was reduced in the High-B, thereby reducing plant growth. We did not observe photosynthesis enhancement in the High-B+FR. Instead, plants clearly showed photomorphogenic effects. The phytochrome photostationary state (PSS) decreased with far-red addition, resulting in reduced leaf number per plant. This was likely to shift the allocation of resources toward elongation growth for shade avoidance. Further, we observed an increase in the area of individual leaves, canopy area, and shoot dry weight in the High-B+FR. However, these appear to be an indirect consequence of decreased leaf number per plant. Our results also indicate that changes in expansion growth at individual leaf scale largely regulated pigment concentration in plants. As individual leaf area became smaller (e.g., High-B) or larger (e.g., High-B+FR), the levels of pigments including chlorophylls and beta-carotene increased or decreased, respectively. Area of individual leaves also positively influenced canopy area (and likely light interception) and shoots dry weight (or vegetative growth). Our study provides additional insights into the effects of high-energy blue and low-energy far-red light on individual leaf number and leaf growth, which appear to control plant growth and pigment levels in lettuce.
Technology Development Strains Standardization of Human Communication

This chapter places efforts to standardize computer terminology within a historical context of language standardizing efforts for earlier technologies of electricity and radio. It describes nationalistic concerns in assigning names to electrical concepts at the turn of the twentieth century. It also describes how standardization of radio terminology was considered to be important to concerns with safety and secure transportation systems. Language standardization efforts from the Institute of Radio Engineers (IRE) and American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) began to focus on creating glossaries of terms relating to automatic computing devices in the late 1940s, reflecting the growing importance and specialization of this emerging professional field. The glossaries developed in these organizations reflected the priorities of committee members with backgrounds in military, academic, and industry projects.
Aristotle and Personal Selling

AbstractThe authors discuss the relevance of Aristotle's writings, particularly in the Rhetoric, to modern-day personal selling. Aristotle endorses a sophisticated approach to selling—advocating a customer orientation and segmented markets. He proposes a three-pronged selling process that includes appeals to reason and the emotions of the purchaser while concurrently convincing the purchaser of the seller's integrity. Aristotle argues that the art of selling is subject to systematic formal treatment and demonstrates the possibilities of formal analysis in persuasion. He further assimilates logical argument with practical persuasion in a way that provides a sound basis for selling strategy.
Nutritional Science (The History)

First page of article Keywords: nutritional science (the history); breaking down nutritional requirements
Keystone XL Pipeline

The Keystone Pipeline and everything it entails has taken over the news and the majority of North America. Most people around the United States did not know the Keystone Pipeline already existed before all of the uproar and protesting began back at the end of 2011. The part of the pipeline that does not exist is the additional expansion, the Keystone XL Pipeline, which was proposed in 2008. Since the approval of the project in March 2010, the Keystone XL Pipeline has been a problematic proposition ever since the idea was introduced by the TransCanada Energy Company. While the project was originally developed as a partnership between TransCanada and ConocoPhillips, TransCanada is now the sole owner of the Keystone Pipeline System, as TransCanada received regulatory approval on August 12, 2009 to purchase ConocoPhillips' interest. TransCanada attempted to get a permit for the new pipeline for more than three years. Since the pipeline crosses international borders, TransCanada had to obtain a Presidential Permit through the State Department for construction of the portion of the pipeline that goes from Canada to the U.S. To this day, even though a substantial amount of the project is complete, protesters are still against the idea of transporting tar sands throughout Canada and the United States to refineries in Houston, Texas so that we will have additional sources of oil and fuel to supply our needs. The paper discusses the controversy, the accounting implications, the legal implications, and local press. Pictures Included.
Constable Receives 2013 William Gilbert Award: Response

Thank you for the generous citation. I am truly honored that the GP section considers me a worthy recipient of this award. As you might guess, I don't deserve exclusive credit for everything in Rick's citation, and if you look at the coauthors on all my publications, you can get a pretty good idea of who really did the work. I have been fortunate to work in a highly collegial environment at the University of California, San Diego, where my mentors, colleagues, postdocs, and students at Scripps Institution of Oceanography's Institute of Geophysics of Planetary Physics have been tremendously important to me. Additionally, this year (2013) marks 30 years since I first attended the AGU Fall Meeting, and the GP section has really been my scientific home within this organization, connecting me to a broader range of collaborators from all over the world. I owe thanks to a large number of people who have contributed to the fun of doing science and provided opportunities to discuss things in a highly collegial environment.
American citizenship and expatriatism: identity and politics outside the state

This article seeks to interrogate the concept of global citizenship through the disruptive lens of the American expatriate. The goal of this inquiry is to use empirical research done on American expatriates, including the results of a survey conducted by the authors, to better understand issues of citizenship and politics amongst American expatriates. The theoretical literature on citizenship and transnationalism argues that immigrants and expatriates help challenge the hegemony of the nation-state, a claim that can be tested by investigating how expatriates view their own experiences. By juxtaposing the empirical work of researchers focused on American expats with the theoretical work of citizenship and globalization theorists, we find that political affinity and national identity continue to matter for those living outside the USA, but within a larger global context. Thus, if the path envisioned by those who embrace globalization is to be followed, how might concepts of citizenship and national policy t...
Fractal applications to complex crustal problems

Complex scale-invariant problems obey fractal statistics. The basic definition of a fractal distribution is that the number of objects with a characteristic linear dimension greater than r satisfies the relation N ~ r -D where D is the fractal dimension. Fragmentation often satisfies this relation. The distribution of earthquakes satisfies this relation. The classic relationship between the length of a rocky coast line and the step length can be derived from this relation. Power law relations for spectra can also be related to fractal dimensions. Topography and gravity are examples. Spectral techniques can be used to obtain maps of fractal dimension and roughness amplitude. These provide a quantitative measure of texture analysis. It is argued that the distribution of stress and strength in a complex crustal region, such as the Alps, is fractal. Based on this assumption, the observed frequency-magnitude relation for the seismicity in the region can be derived.
Concordance of serum cytokines and stimulated mononuclear cell responses in older adults

Despite evidence that different antigens elicit unique cellular and cytokine responses, it’s often assumed cytokine levels in systemic circulation reflect how peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) will react in vitro to endotoxin or mitogen stimulation. Similar assumptions are frequently made regarding the patterns of association for regulatory, proliferative and proinflammatory cytokines. Today, most researchers employ only lipopolysaccharide (LPS) as the cell stimulant, whereas earlier studies commonly used plant lectins, such as phytohemagglutinin (PHA). These assumptions were investigated using blood and PBMC-stimulated multi-cytokine arrays determined for adults 35–84 years of age (N = 74) from the Midlife in US study (MIDUS). Serum cytokine concentrations were compared to levels released by unstimulated PBMC or following overnight cultures with either LPS or PHA. In addition to the higher levels found after stimulation, and distinct responses to LPS and PHA, the results provided the opportunity to test correlations between blood and cultured values and the influence of age and participant health. Surprisingly, cytokines viewed as integral to the proinflammatory cascade (IL-6, TNF α , and IL-8) were more strongly correlated in PHA-stimulated supernatants than following LPS stimulation. It was also striking that indications of age and obesity-related dysregulation were more evident in blood cytokine levels, whereas the capacity of PBMC to respond to stimulation was retained, suggesting function was preserved even as peripheral signs of immune senescence became apparent with rising cytokine levels.
Infant Security Education: A Multidisciplinary Approach

A dilemma exists within the birthing centers for all health care facilities that strive to maintain a family‐centered model of care: how to create a homelike environment in a comfortable, secure environment while at the same time integrating a highly coordinated infant security program. Here's how one hospital in New Hampshire put all of the "right stuff" into place to protect moms and their newborns.
SALT-an integrated environment to automate generation of function tests for APIs

Automation of test design during the function testing phase is essential both to reduce the substantial cost of testing and to improve the delivered software reliability. We argue for a model based approach specifically designed from a test perspective to automate test design. We describe features of the Specification and Abstraction Language for Testing (SALT) environment which embodies this perspective. SALT allows testers to capture relationships among partitions of input and output variables for a function under test. The tester can also specify (potential) updates to context which result from the function invocation. This context enables the generation of sequences of function invocations with expected outputs. These test specifications along with a fault model, allow generation of an optimized set of test variations. We describe an example to illustrate SALT usage and report results of our pilot study using SALT.
Sequential Activity of Simultaneously Recorded Neurons in the Superior Colliculus During Curved Saccades

The visual world presents multiple potential targets that can be brought to the fovea by saccadic eye movements. These targets produce activity at multiple sites on a movement map in the superior colliculus (SC), an area of the brain related to saccade generation. The saccade made must result from competition between the populations of neurons representing these many saccadic goals, and in the present experiments we used multiple moveable microelectrodes to follow this competition. We recorded simultaneously from two sites on the SC map where each site was related to a different saccade target. The two targets appeared in rapid sequence, and the monkey was rewarded for making a saccade toward the one appearing first. Our study concentrated on trials in which the monkey made strongly curved saccades that were directed first toward one target and then toward the other. These curved saccades activated both sites on the SC map as they veered from one target to the other. The major finding was that the strongly curved saccades were preceded by sequential activity in the two neurons as indicated by three observations: the firing rate for the neuron related to the first target reached its peak earlier than did the rate of the neuron for the second target; the timing of the peak activity of the two neurons was related to the beginning and end of the saccade curvature; a weighted vector-average model based on the activity of the two neurons predicted the timing of saccade curvature. Straight averaging saccades ended between the targets so that they did not go to either target, and they were accompanied by simultaneous rather than sequential activation of the two neurons. Thus when multiple populations of neurons are active on the SC movement map, the resulting saccade is determined by the relative timing of the activity in the populations as well as their magnitude. In contrast, SC activity at the two sites did not predict the final direction of the saccade, and several control experiments found insufficient activity at other sites on the SC map to account for that final direction. We conclude that the SC neuronal activity predicts the timing of the saccade curvature, but not the final direction of the trajectory. These observations are consistent with SC activity being critical in selecting the goal of the saccade, but not in determining the exact trajectory.
A Liouville comparison principle for sub- and super-solutions of the equation w t −Δ p ( w ) = | w | q -1 w

We establish a Liouville comparison principle for entire weak sub- and super-solutions of the equation (*) wt−Δp(w) = |w|q-1w in the half-space \({\mathbb {S}= \mathbb {R}^1_+\times \mathbb {R}^n}\) , where n ≥ 1, q > 0, and \({ \Delta_p(w) := {\rm div}_x \left(|\nabla_x w|^{p-2}\nabla_x w \right)}\) , 1 < p ≤ 2. In our study we impose neither restrictions on the behaviour of entire weak sub- and super-solutions of (*) on the hyper-plane t = 0, nor any growth conditions on their behaviour and on that of any of their partial derivatives at infinity. We prove that if \({1< q \leq p-1+\frac {p}{n}}\) and u and v are, respectively, an entire weak super-solution and an entire weak sub-solution of (*) in \({\mathbb {S}}\) which belong, only locally in \({\mathbb {S}}\) , to the corresponding Sobolev space and are such that u ≥ v, then u ≡ v. The result is sharp. As direct corollaries we obtain known Fujita-type and Liouville-type theorems.
Further Evidence for a Critical Vessel Caliber in Experimental Coronary Shock

New experiments confirm previous observations that production of protracted coronary shock in the closed-chest dog following microsphere embolization is a critical function of the embolus size. The vessels occluded by the critical emboli have been located by a plastic coronary injection-tissue corrosion technic, and a definite relationship has been demonstrated between vessel caliber and anatomic type, in a dog heart, for the gradient from epicardium through endocardium.
Gonadotropic Activation of Preovulatory Synthesis and Release of Progestin in the Rabbit

Progesterone and 20α-hydroxypregn-4-en-3-one (β4-3-ketopregnene-20α-ol), an active progestin closely related in structure to progesterone, were measured in New Zealand white rabbit ovaries and ovarian vein blood by physicochemical methods described in detail. Coitus or the injection of ovulatory dosages of pituitary or placental gonadotropins caused marked elevations in progestin output. Single injections of other pituitary tropins were ineffective, with the exception of growth hormone, which stimulated the output of the steroids under certain conditions. The 20α-OH steroid (20α-hydroxypregn-4-en-3-one) was produced in quantities approximately 10-fold greater than progesterone. Increased output of both steroids was attended by a rise in the progestin content of the ovaries; the output could be attributed, therefore, to increased synthesis rather than to release from a preformed store. The amounts of both progestins released could be correlated positively with the size and maturity of the ovary. Their sour...
Binding of peptides with basic and aromatic residues to bilayer membranes: phenylalanine in the myristoylated alanine-rich C kinase substrate effector domain penetrates into the hydrophobic core of the bilayer.

Abstract Electrostatic interactions with positively charged regions of membrane-associated proteins such as myristoylated alanine-rich C kinase substrate (MARCKS) may have a role in regulating the level of free phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2) in plasma membranes. Both the MARCKS protein and a peptide corresponding to the effector domain (an unstructured region that contains 13 basic residues and 5 phenylalanines), MARCKS-(151–175), laterally sequester the polyvalent lipid PI(4,5)P2 in the plane of a bilayer membrane with high affinity. We used high resolution magic angle spinning NMR to establish the location of MARCKS-(151–175) in membrane bilayers, which is necessary to understand the sequestration mechanism. Measurements of cross-relaxation rates in two-dimensional nuclear Overhauser enhancement spectroscopy NMR experiments show that the five Phe rings of MARCKS-(151–175) penetrate into the acyl chain region of phosphatidylcholine bilayers containing phosphatidylglycerol or PI(4,5)P2. Specifically, we observed strong cross-peaks between the aromatic protons of the Phe rings and the acyl chain protons of the lipids, even for very short (50 ms) mixing times. The position of the Phe rings implies that the adjacent positively charged amino acids in the peptide are close to the level of the negatively charged lipid phosphates. The deep location of the MARCKS peptide in the polar head group region should enhance its electrostatic sequestration of PI(4,5)P2 by an “image charge” mechanism. Moreover, this location has interesting implications for membrane curvature and local surface pressure effects and may be relevant to a wide variety of other proteins with basic-aromatic clusters, such as phospholipase D, GAP43, SCAMP2, and the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor.
Movement of liquid inclusions in soluble solids: An inverse Stokes’ law

The temperature distribution in an ellipsoidal liquid inclusion in a soluble solid, with a constant gradient far away from the liquid, and the movement of the liquid inclusion as a whole, which results as a consequence, are investigated. Since the solid is soluble and its concentration in solution is temperature dependent, any temperature variation in the liquid induces a concentration variation, which will transfer mass by diffusion, eroding the wall where the temperature is high and depositing solid material at the wall where the temperature is lower. This erosion or deposition will cause the liquid inclusion to move, and will, through absorption or release of latent heat, in turn affect the temperature distribution. From the result obtained for the general ellipsoid, specific results for prolate and oblate ellipsoids of revolution, the sphere, and circular and elliptic cylinders are obtained.
Initiation of cell wall lysis in gametes of Chlamydomonas reinhardi by isolated flagella of the complementary mating type.

Abstract Mating in the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardi involves initial agglutination of the flagella of plus and minus gametes followed by cell wall loss in preparation for cell fusion. It has been reported that agglutination and wall loss can also be caused by isolated flagella. Contradictory results have been reported concerning the efficacy of isolated flagella in these reactions, possibly due to differences in isolation procedures. We have found that gametic flagella prepared in 7% sucrose show both specific adhesion and initiation of lytic factor release when mixed with intact gametes. Evidence for multiple flagellar receptors involved in the initial stages of mating have been presented in previous studies. Here we report that gametic flagella isolated during regeneration regain the ability to agglutinate intact gametes of the opposite mating type when less than 3 μm in length. The initiation of cell wall loss is delayed until the average flagellar length is greater than 4 μm. This result supports the view that the flagellar membrane is heterogeneous along its longitudinal axis.
Spatial Context and Poverty: Area-Level Effects and Micro-Level Effects on Household Poverty in the Texas Borderland & Lower Mississippi Delta: United States, 2006

This paper uses microdata from the 2006 American Community Survey for households in the Texas Borderland and Mississippi Delta to examine the effects of spatial location context on the odds of households being in poverty. We examine the micro-level and area-level effects of poverty among households located in the two regions. We estimate a series of multilevel regression models predicting the log odds of a household being in poverty. Our major contribution is the demonstration that areal context characteristics have statistically significant effects on the likelihood of households being in poverty. Spatial context matters when it comes to predicting poverty of the households in the Delta and Borderland.
Dimensionality of the Job Diagnostic Survey Among Distinct Subgroups of Seasonal Hotel Workers

This study assessed the dimensionality of Hackman and Oldham's (1974) Job Diagnostic Survey amongst workers in six English seasonal seaside hotels. Overall results of correlation and reliability coefficients for the present samples were comparable with those of Hackman and Oldham, and supported the theoretical cohesiveness of the item scales. In addition, all of the samples apart from the SO group showed a basic, underlying seven-factor structure. In general, the factor structure was much stronger for workers who aspired to year-round, rather than to seasonal, work. It also appeared to be stronger for workers who lived away from hotel premises. This might be expected, because workers in these groups corresponded most closely to the work patterns of workers in other industries offering full-time, non- seasonal employment.
Spiritual well‐being, population aging, and a need for improving practice with the elderly: A psychosocial account

Abstract The current trend of population aging suggests the need for greater emphasis on spiritual well‐being (SWB) of older populations. Current research has not provided much theoretical guidance for professional practice. To improve spiritual care for the elderly, this article reviews some influential psychosocial theories in terms of their approaches to spiritual or religious issues and aging or adult development. Finally, current theoretical advancements in this regard are introduced for improving social work practice with the elderly.
Trend of shape resonance-induced features in the angular distribution parameter as a function of photon energy for carbon, silicon and germanium tetrac

Abstract The angular distribution parameter as a function of photon energy, β(hν), has been measured in the 13–27 e V range using synchrotron radiation for the five valence orbitais in silicon and germanium tetrachlorides. The results have been compared with those previously reported for carbon tetrachloride. In particular, the trend of shape resonanceinduced features has been followed along the valence isoelectronic series CCl4-SiCl4-GeCl4 for the 1e and 2t2 orbitals. As the atomic number of the central atom increases, the shape resonances move toward the threshold ionization energy for a particular molecular orbital.
The Modular Combustion Facility for the Space Station Laboratory - A Requirements and Capabilities Study

This paper describes a modular combustion facility for the Space Station, designed to provide facility-level services to interchangeable experiment modules, each of which designed specifically for the needs of a particular combustion experiment. The facility-level services are to include computer devices for the data acquisition, experimental control, and data reduction and analysis; the electrical power conversion and control; video cameras and recordings; the cooling-loop supply; waste management; gas supply; precision gas-mixing; and the combustion diagnostics support. Summarized categories of the data base are provided, which were developed to assimilate and to process the responses from the investigators.
Aesthetic design of e-commerce web pages - Webpage Complexity, Order and preference

This study was conducted to understand the perceptual structure of e-commerce webpage visual aesthetics and to provide insight into how physical design features of web pages influence users' aesthetic perception of and preference for web pages. Drawing on the environmental aesthetics, human-computer interaction, and psychology literature, we identify webpage visual Complexity and Order as two salient webpage aesthetic features and investigate the moderating role of the e-commerce customer's motivational orientation on his/her preference for web aesthetic features. Two independent samples were recruited and presented with images of 24 homepages varying across six levels of Complexity and four levels of Order. The results of this study suggested significant influences of webpage Complexity and Order on customer's preference for the web pages and a moderating effect of customer's shopping motivational orientation on his/her preference for webpage Complexity. However, no moderating effect of motivational orientation was found on the preference for webpage Order.
Pathogenic mutations differentially affect the catalytic activities of the human B12-processing chaperone CblC and increase futile redox cycling

Human CblC catalyzes the elimination of the upper axial ligand in cobalamin or B12 derivatives entering the cell from circulation. This processing step is critical for assimilation of dietary cobalamin into the active cofactor forms that support the B12-dependent enzymes, methionine synthase and methylmalonyl-CoA mutase. Using a modified nitroreductase scaffold tailored to bind cobalamin and glutathione, CblC exhibits versatility in the mechanism by which it removes cyano versus alkyl ligands in cobalamin. In this study, we have characterized the effects of two pathogenic missense mutations at the same residue, R161G and R161Q, which are associated with early and late onset of the CblC disorder, respectively. We find that the R161Q and R161G CblC mutants display lower protein stability and decreased dealkylation but not decyanation activity, suggesting that cyanocobalamin might be therapeutically useful for patients carrying mutations at Arg-161. The mutant proteins also exhibit impaired glutathione binding. In the presence of physiologically relevant glutathione concentrations, stabilization of the cob(II)alamin derivative is observed, which occurs at the expense of increased oxidation of glutathione. Futile redox cycling, which is suppressed in wild-type human CblC, explains the reported increase in oxidative stress levels associated with the CblC disorder. Background: CblC processes cobalamins entering a cell to a common intermediate. Results: Pathogenic mutations at Arg-161 weaken glutathione binding to CblC and stabilize cob(II)alamin. Conclusion: The R161Q/G mutations impair the dealkylation but not the decyanation activity of CblC. Significance: Increased redox cycling by the CblC mutants explains the observed cellular oxidative stress associated with this disorder.
Climatology of Barrier Jets along the Alaskan Coast. Part I: Spatial and Temporal Distributions

Abstract This paper investigates the temporal and spatial climatology of coastal barrier jets in the Gulf of Alaska. The jets are divided into two categories based upon the origin of the air involved: “classic” barrier jets fed primarily by onshore flow and “hybrid” jets fed primarily by gap flow from the continental interior. The analyses are compiled from five years (1998–2003) of synthetic aperture radar images from the Radarsat-1 satellite totaling 3000 images. Thermodynamic and kinematic data from the NCEP reanalysis is used in the interpretation of the results. The majority of coastal barrier jets occur during the cool season, with the coastline near Mount Fairweather and the Valdez–Cordova mountains experiencing the greatest number of barrier jets. Hybrid jets are even more strongly restricted to the cool season and are commonly found to the west of Cross Sound, Yakutat Bay, and Icy Bay. Some interannual variability in the total number of jets is observed. Coastal barrier jet formation is associate...
Regulation of Stat1 protein expression by phenylalanine 172 in the coiled-coil domain

Stat1 plays an essential role in signal transduction and gene expression of various cytokines including interferons (IFNs). Although the mechanism of cytokine-induced activation of Stat1 and transcriptional regulation of Stat1 gene expression have been established, post-transcriptional regulation of Stat1 protein expression is not fully understood. Here, we report identification of a mutant of Stat1 that has decreased expression levels by using inducible translocation trap (ITT), a reporter gene-based detection system of nuclear translocation. The substitution of serine for phenylalanine 172 (F172S) in the coiled-coil domain causes marked decrease in Stat1 protein expression in various cell lines without decreasing its mRNA levels. Our results suggest that the decrease is caused by translational/post-translational mechanisms independent of proteasome machinery. These results suggest a novel potential mechanism of determination of specificity of Stat proteins and showed that the ITT system is a powerful technique to identify mutants of nuclear translocating signal transducers.
Models and solutions for isothermal and nonisothermal evaporation from a partially filled tube

Abstract Evaporation from a liquid pool which partially fills a circular tube into an otherwise quiescent ambient has been investigated by a succession of models and accompanying numerical solutions. The modeling included consideration of: (a) evaporation occurring under both isothermal and non-isothermal conditions as related to the absence or presence of depression of the temperature at the liquid surface, (b) interactions between the velocity, mass fraction, and temperature fields in the gas-vapor space in the tube and in the ambient, (c) natural convection in the gas-vapor space, (d) radiative interchange in the gasvapor space, (e) natural convection in the liquid pool, and (f) conduction in the insulation surrounding the tube, in the tube wall, and in the liner between the tube and the insulation. By using a special set of closure conditions at the open top of the tube, it was found that evaporation rates (i.e. Sherwood numbers) of acceptable accuracy can be obtained without having to extend the numerical solutions into the ambient. Another key finding was that the depression of the temperature at the liquid surface decreased the Sherwood number. When radiative transfer in the gas-liquid space was activated, the temperature depression diminished and the Sherwood number markedly increased. Natural convection in the liquid pool also acted to lessen the temperature depression and to increase the Sherwood number.
Reconstruction of Convex Bodies from Brightness Functions

Abstract. Algorithms are given for reconstructing an approximation to an unknown convex body from finitely many values of its brightness function, the function giving the volumes of its projections onto hyperplanes. One of these algorithms constructs a convex polytope with less than a prescribed number of facets, while the others do not restrict the number of facets. Convergence of the polytopes to the body is proved under certain essential assumptions including origin symmetry of the body. Also described is an oracle-polynomial-time algorithm for reconstructing an approximation to an origin-symmetric rational convex polytope of fixed and full dimension that is only accessible via its brightness function. Some of the algorithms have been implemented, and sample reconstructions are provided.
Hypothesis regarding the cellular mechanisms responsible for long-term synaptic potentiation in the hippocampus

Abstract A possible cellular mechanism accounting for the long-term potentiation (LTP) of synaptic transmission in the hippocampus is presented. Our multiple-stage hypothesis postulates that repetitive stimulaion causes an increase of intracellular calcium in the target dendritic regions which results in the activation of a membrane-associated protease which in turn exposes additional glutamate receptors.
Characterizations of equilibrium queue length distributions in M/Gl/1

Abstract In certain multiqueue systems, a resourceful server may decide on which queue to attend to next based on criteria that may include the equilibrium queue lengths of some or all queues. The server's decision will be unaffected by queue length only when the distribution of queue length is uniform. In studying this problem, we present first the simple case of the M/GI/1 queue to determine conditions under which equilibrium queue lengths can either be uniformly distributed, or have components that are uniform, and also present a method for designing such a queueing process. It is shown that there is an inherent connection between probability distributions { k j } of the number of arriving customers during a service that are geometric and equilibrium queue length distributions { p j } that are geometric. In particular, we present a simple probabilistic proof via a recurrence equation that says that the M/M/1 queue is the only M/GI/1 queue with both { k j } and { p j } geometric.
North sea project management

This review is intended (1) to describe project management as practiced in the North Sea, (2) to provide a useful checklist of the steps involved in project planning, execution, and control, and (3) to give a convenient bibliography for reading in greater depth. It also should create increased awareness of the special technical skills and tools available for managing very large and complex development projects. The review treats preproject planning, overall project organization and management, vital control functions, and finally, contracting and internal resource management. Though this review focuses on the North Sea, the management principles discussed should apply to large projects anywhere. Several references relating to other areas and other industries support this and organizational fulfillment.