cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Dinaciclib Induces Anaphase Catastrophe in Lung Cancer Cells via Inhibition of Cyclin-Dependent Kinases 1 and 2

Despite advances in targeted therapy, lung cancer remains the most common cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States. Chromosomal instability is a prominent feature in lung cancer and, because it rarely occurs in normal cells, it represents a potential therapeutic target. Our prior work discovered that lung cancer cells undergo anaphase catastrophe in response to inhibition of cyclin-dependent kinase 2 (CDK2), followed by apoptosis and reduced growth. In this study, the effects and mechanisms of the multi-CDK inhibitor dinaciclib on lung cancer cells were investigated. We sought to determine the specificity of CDK-dependent induction of anaphase catastrophe. Live cell imaging provided direct evidence that dinaciclib caused multipolar cell divisions resulting in extensive chromosome missegregation. Genetic knockdown of dinaciclib CDK targets revealed that repression of CDK2 and CDK1, but not CDK5 or CDK9, triggered anaphase catastrophe in lung cancer cells. Overexpression of CP110, which is a mediator of CDK2 inhibitor-induced anaphase catastrophe (and a CDK1 and 2 phosphorylation substrate), antagonized anaphase catastrophe and apoptosis following dinaciclib treatment. Consistent with our previous findings, acquisition of activated KRAS sensitized lung cancer cells to dinaciclib-mediated anaphase catastrophe and cell death. Combining dinaciclib with the mitotic inhibitor taxol augmented anaphase catastrophe induction and reduced cell viability of lung cancer cells. Thus, the multi-CDK inhibitor dinaciclib causes anaphase catastrophe in lung cancer cells and should be investigated as a potential therapeutic for wild-type and KRAS-mutant lung cancer, individually or in combination with taxanes. Mol Cancer Ther; 15(11); 2758-66. ©2016 AACR.
Filler effects and treeing phenomena in laboratory models and cable sections

The nucleation and growth under high voltage stress of tree-like shapes in solid dielectrics is a phenomena reported by many observers. The major investigative effort has been on dielectrics which are unfilled.1–3 Some investigations have been done on the effects of filler on high voltage treeing.4,5 This paper presents some observations of high voltage treeing made on point-to-plane models and cable sections containing steel needles. Tree growth inhibition caused by mineral fillers is demonstrated.
Ring Avulsion Injuries: A Systematic Review:

Background: Ring avulsion injuries can range from soft tissue injury to complete amputation. Grading systems have been developed to guide treatment, but there is controversy with high-grade injurie...
A Look Inside the Apple Watch: Intellectual Property Rights and Future Legal Battles

It is not just a watch. It is a masterpiece of intellectual property (IP) rights. It is not just a revolutionary product. It is the next chapter in Apple Inc.’s story.Apple believes in technology designed for the wrist (such as a smartwatch), but also in a strong design patent protection strategy. To protect this wearable, as a result of their investment, Apple applied for and received several design patents. Every detail is protected: the drawer where the watches are shown, the bracelet, the “slide-in” interchangeable strap system mechanism, the digital crown, the display, the charger, the retail box, etc. Future innovations will however continue to copy this kind of consumer products and challenge the Courts.In this context, developing and/or acquiring intellectual property rights may create a solid foundation for growth and success. Indeed, a winning exploitation of IP assets, including but not limited to know-how, patents, trademarks, aligned with your passion for innovation and your business strategy, may contribute to increase protection and enforcement measures against infringers and competitors.This Note examines how a maker of wearable devices, such as Apple, can use different forms of intellectual property rights in Europe, China, and the United States, as well as other intangible assets, to protect a business product.
The First Cold War Spy Novel: The Origins and Afterlife of Humphrey Slater's Conspirator

This article analyzes Humphrey Slater's Conspirator (1948) as the first identifiable Cold War spy novel and uses textual analysis and new archival findings to place the novel into its proper historical and intellectual context. As a quasi-autobiographical confession, the novel predated The God That Failed in introducing its readers to the psychology and lifestyle of Western Communists in the 1930s and 1940s. Conspirator explores how new postwar strategic realities affected Soviet policies and helped to spur changes in the intelligence-gathering methods of the Soviet security apparatus. The novel's publication and its adaptation by Hollywood demonstrate the impact of British fiction on the process of constructing the image of a Cold War nemesis in the United States.
SQML: large-scale in-database machine learning with pure SQL

Many enterprises have migrated their data from an on-site database to a cloud-based database-as-a-service that handles all database-related administrative tasks while providing a simple SQL interface to the end user. Businesses are also increasingly relying on machine learning to understand their customers and develop new products. Given these converging trends, there is a pressing need for database-as-a-service providers to add support for sophisticated machine learning algorithms to the core functionality of their products.
Focus location extraction from political news reports with bias correction

Automatic identification of geolocation mentioned in online news articles provide vital information for understanding associated events. While numerous open-source and commercial tools exist for geolocation extraction, they lack in reliable identification of fine-grained location, i.e., they identify location at country-level rather than a fine-grained city or locality level. The problem of location identification has been widely studied. Yet, most techniques depend on external knowledge-base or view the problem only in terms of Named Entity Recognition (NER), only to identify country-level location information. In this paper, we focus on news articles describing an event. A set of locations directly associated with the event are called focus locations. However, an event can occur only at a single location. Therefore, we aim to extract this location among focus locations, and call this as primary focus location. We propose a mechanism that utilizes the named entities to identify potential sentences containing focus locations, and then employ a supervised classification mechanism over sentence embedding to predict the primary focused geolocation. However, the main issue with such an approach is the unavailability of ground truth (i.e., whether words in a sentence is focus or non-focus) for training a classifier. In practice, labels from only a small number of news articles may be available for training due to high cost of manual labeling. If these articles are not a good representation of news articles in the wild, the classifier may not perform well. Therefore, we utilize an adaptation mechanism to overcome sampling bias in training data. Particularly, we train a classifier by using bias-corrected training data obtained from news articles published by an agency, while testing it on news articles published by a different agency. Our empirical results show superior performance compared to baseline approaches on real-world datasets consisting of news articles.
Combating Baseless Patent Suits: Rule 11 Sanctions with Technology-Specific Application

Nuisance-value patent suits impose significant costs on a wide range of industries. Patent assertion entities (PAEs), or “patent trolls,” receive particular attention, although individual inventors and practicing corporations also contribute. Yet effective solutions in the political arena remain elusive. The situation calls for a practical approach that can be quickly implemented, is useful throughout various stages of litigation, and adaptable to meet the different needs of various industries. Sanctions under Rule 11 can be such a tool in curbing frivolous infringement suits. Rule 11 is particularly useful in the patent litigation context because it applies throughout the stages of litigation, including the initial stages, and its provisions help prevent the overdeterrence of claims with merit. A technology-specific application of the prefiling investigation requirement under Rule 11 can be an effective weapon in deterring plaintiffs from bringing meritless claims. Existing factors of the Rule should be considered within the context of the specific technology at issue.
An Institutional Perspective on Cybercrimes

There are persuasive arguments for thinking that institutional processes have enormous power to explain cyberattacks. This chapter examines how macro- and micro-level institutions provide regulative, normative, and cognitive legitimacy to hackers’, organizations’, and governments’ actions that facilitate or hinder cyberattacks. More specifically, we analyze institutions at supra-national, national, professional, industry, organizational, informal network, and intra-organizational levels in terms of their impacts on cyberinfrastructure, network, and computer attacks.
Methods for obtaining and analyzing unattended polysomnography data for a multicenter study

Summary: This paper reviews the data collection, processing, and analysis approaches developed to obtain comprehensive unattended polysomnographic data for the Sleep Heart Health Study, a multicenter study of the cardiovascular consequences of sleep-disordered breathing. Protocols were developed and implemented to standardize in-home data collection procedures and to perform centralized sleep scoring. Of 7027 studies performed on 6 697 participants, 5 534 studies were determined to be technically acceptable (failure rate 5.3%). Quality grades varied over time, reflecting the influences of variable technician experience, and equipment aging and modifications. Eighty-seven percent of studies were judged to be of igoodi quality or better, and 75% were judged to be of sufficient quality to provide reliable sleep staging and arousal data. Poor submental EMG (electromyogram) accounted for the largest proportion of poor signal grades (9% of studies had <2 hours artifact free EMG signal). These data suggest that with rigorous training and clear protocols for data collection and processing, good-quality multichannel polysomnography data can be obtained for a majority of unattended studies performed in a research setting. Data most susceptible to poor signal quality are sleep staging and arousal data that require clear EEG (electroencephalograph) and EMG signals.
Are Mid-Segment Markets in India Still Elusive to MNCs?

The emerging markets, including India, China, Brazil, Russia, and then new emerging markets like parts of Africa, Eastern Europe are outside of the traditional home markets of MNCs. The MNCs typically have grown their business in many industries in their home markets of North America, Western Europe, or Japan. On the one hand when these home markets are seeing saturation in growth, on the other hand emerging markets are exploding in growth. This offered a perfect opportunity for the MNCs to capture higher market share and establish dominance. However, the journey has not been easy for many and only few companies can claim success across all customer segments. We looked at India as a representative emerging market and examined the market segmentation in a couple of industry domains. We then make a comparison between the market segment pyramids of the MNC home market and the emerging market. Though the pyramids are similar, we observe that the pyramids are offset to each other in the vertical direction, which means the bases of the two pyramids are at different levels. We refer to this phenomenon as the “Emerging Market Offset.” As a consequence, this leads to two fundamental gaps—a Premium gap and an Addressability gap. The MNCs have to develop a better understanding of these gaps to formulate a successful strategy. We then present a case that MNCs have to develop a deeper understanding of the emerging market offset and the consequent gaps. With this, they can adopt right strategic choices to successfully create a profitable business across the segments. They cannot easily copy approaches from home markets and expect automatic success. Success seems to be more elusive for many MNCs, when the offset is higher!
Students Moving Out of Their Comfort Zones: Primary and Secondary Stability

Primary stability, meaning when a kayak sits flat on the water’s surface, is used as a metaphor to describe students determined to stay in their comfort zone. Two students in Math for a Cause stayed in their primary stability as a form of resistance, and rather than engage in the inquiry required of the course, merely wanted to reinforce their preexisting beliefs. Subsequently, they had little learning gains and their ideas about literacy, math, and social justice remained unchanged. In contrast, secondary stability, meaning when a kayaker leans so the boat tips on the edge, relates to students who go outside of their comfort zone and stretch their learning. Students who stayed in secondary stability longer gained insights into social justice and their own learning.
Opportunities and Investment Strategies to Improve Food Security and Reduce Poverty in Mali through the Diffusion of Improved Agricultural Technologies

This document reviews the potential agricultural technologies that exist or can feasibly be produced to help promote poverty reduction and food security in Mali in the next 5 to 10 years. Overall there are a plethora of good technologies either available, in the pipeline, or feasible with a small amount of research effort. In many cases succeeding in poverty reduction and increasing food security will not be about choosing the exact right technology, but about helping farmers access and know about a panoply of available technologies from which they can choose the right one to maximize their future potential.
Design guidelines for on-chip unstable resonator cavity to suppress filamentation in GaSb-based diode lasers

We demonstrate GaSb-based diode lasers emitting near 2.7 μm that are fabricated as on-chip unstable resonator cavities using the focused ion beam tool. A near-diffraction-limited lateral beam is observed in broad-area devices where the reflection from the cylindrical mirror at the back facet overrides direct counterpropagation in the cavity to suppress the formation of filaments. We identify a geometric parameter that can be used as a general guide to optimizing the on-chip unstable resonator cavity for maximum brightness. This parameter is the aperture within the unstable resonator cavity, a measure of the angular divergence contained within the device, and is shown to correlate with the onset of filament suppression.
Long-term Weight Loss Maintenance in the Continuation of a Randomized Diabetes Prevention Translational Study: The Healthy Living Partnerships to Prevent Diabetes (HELP PD) Continuation Trial

OBJECTIVE HELP PD was a clinical trial of 301 adults with prediabetes. Participants were randomized to enhanced usual care (EUC) or to a lifestyle weight loss (LWL) intervention led by community health workers that consisted of a 6-month intensive phase (phase 1) and 18 months of maintenance (phase 2). At 24 months, participants were asked to enroll in phase 3 to assess whether continued group maintenance (GM) sessions would maintain improvements realized in phases 1 and 2 compared with self-directed maintenance (SM) or EUC. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS In phase 3, LWL participants were randomly assigned to GM or SM. EUC participants remained in the EUC arm and, along with participants in SM, received monthly newsletters. All participants received semiannual dietitian sessions. Anthropometrics and biomarkers were assessed every 6 months. Mixed-effects models were used to assess changes in outcomes over time. RESULTS Eighty-two of the 151 intervention participants (54%) agreed to participate in phase 3; 41 were randomized to GM and 41 to SM. Of the 150 EUC participants, 107 (71%) continued. Ninety percent of clinic visits were completed. Over 48 months of additional follow-up, outcomes remained relatively stable in the EUC participants; the GM group was able to maintain body weight, BMI, and waist circumference; and these measures all increased significantly (P CONCLUSIONS Participants in the GM arm maintained weight loss achieved in phases 1 and 2, while those in the SM arm regained weight. Because group session attendance by the participants in the GM arm was low, it is unclear what intervention components led to successful weight maintenance.
Savage Inequalities: Capitalist Crisis and Surplus Humanity

The escalation of worldwide inequalities reflects a crisis of global capitalism that is as much structural, one of over-accumulation, as it is political, one of hegemony. This article explores the ...
Chromosomal Recombination Targets in Chlamydia Interspecies Lateral Gene Transfer.

ABSTRACT Lateral gene transfer (LGT) among Chlamydia trachomatis strains is common, in both isolates generated in the laboratory and those examined directly from patients. In contrast, there are very few examples of recent acquisition of DNA by any Chlamydia spp. from any other species. Interspecies LGT in this system was analyzed using crosses of tetracycline (Tc)-resistant C. trachomatis L2/434 and chloramphenicol (Cam)-resistant C. muridarum VR-123. Parental C. muridarum strains were created using a plasmid-based Himar transposition system, which led to integration of the Camr marker randomly across the chromosome. Fragments encompassing 79% of the C. muridarum chromosome were introduced into a C. trachomatis background, with the total coverage contained on 142 independent recombinant clones. Genome sequence analysis of progeny strains identified candidate recombination hot spots, a property not consistent with in vitroC. trachomatis × C. trachomatis (intraspecies) crosses. In both interspecies and intraspecies crosses, there were examples of duplications, mosaic recombination endpoints, and recombined sequences that were not linked to the selection marker. Quantitative analysis of the distribution and constitution of inserted sequences indicated that there are different constraints on interspecies LGT than on intraspecies crosses. These constraints may help explain why there is so little evidence of interspecies genetic exchange in this system, which is in contrast to very widespread intraspecies exchange in C. trachomatis. IMPORTANCE Genome sequence analysis has demonstrated that there is widespread lateral gene transfer among strains within the species C. trachomatis and with other closely related Chlamydia species in laboratory experiments. This is in contrast to the complete absence of foreign DNA in the genomes of sequenced clinical C. trachomatis strains. There is no understanding of any mechanisms of genetic transfer in this important group of pathogens. In this report, we demonstrate that interspecies genetic exchange can occur but that the nature of the fragments exchanged is different than those observed in intraspecies crosses. We also generated a large hybrid strain library that can be exploited to examine important aspects of chlamydial disease.
Unique anabolic action of stem cell gene therapy overexpressing PDGFB-DSS6 fusion protein in OVX osteoporosis mouse model

In the present study we sought to improve the efficacy and safety of our Sca1+ PDGFB stem cell gene therapy for osteoporosis in ovariectomized (OVX) mouse model. This therapy is administered by marrow transplantation. We established the promise of this approach by previously showing that this therapy in normal mice increase bone density, increased endosteal cortical and trabecular bone formation, caused de novo trabecular bone formation, increased cortical thickness and improve bone strength. In the current study we produced a fusion gene, PDGFB-DSS6. We reasoned that the DSS6, calcium binding protein would trap the PDGFB at the bone surface and thereby limit the amount of PDGFB required to produce an optimal bone formation response, i.e. efficacy with a lower engraftment. The result shows that indeed with a very low level of engraftment we achieved a large increase in bone formation in the OVX model of bone loss. Serum analysis for biochemical marker of new bone formation showed an approximate 75% increase in alkaline phosphatase levels in Sca1+PDGFB-DSS6 group as compared to other groups. Quantitative analysis of bone by microCT showed a massive increase in trabecular bone density and trabecular connectivity of the femur in the metaphysis in Sca1+ PDGFB-DSS6 group. The increased cortical porosity produced by OVX was replaced by the Sca1+ PDGFB-DSS6 therapy but not by the positive control Sca1+ PDGFB. Additionally, an increase in the femur bone strength was also observed specifically in Sca1+ PDGFB-DSS6 as compared to other treatment groups, emphasizing the functional significance of the observed anabolic action is on bone formation. In future work we will focus on nontoxic preconditioning of our marrow transplantation procedure and also on transcriptional control of therapeutic gene expression to avoid excess bone formation.
P140 The roles of sex hormone receptors and chemosensitivity in ovarian cancer

Introduction/Background Expression of sex hormonal receptors (SHR) had been reported to influence survival outcomes in patients with epithelial ovarian cancer. In present study, we attempted to investigate the association and mechanism between SHR expression and chemosensitivity in epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC). Methodology We reviewed 71 patients with EOC who underwent surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy and analyzed sex hormone receptors (SHR) immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of tissue samples obtained from these patients. The disease-free survival (DFS), overall survival (OS), and percentage of chemosensitivity were compared between weak and strong SHR IHC expression. The effects of cisplatin administration on cell proliferation in ovarian cancer OC3-VGH cells with different SHR expression were investigated. Results Patients with strong androgen (AR) and progesterone receptors (PR) IHC expression had better 5-year DFS, OS, and chemosensitivity. In cell model data, overexpression of AR and PR OC3-VGH cells caused higher sensitivity to cisplatin treatment. OV3-VGH cisplatin resistant clone expressed lower level of AR and PR than wild-type. Overexpression of AR OC3-VGH cells showed higher DNA damage signals after cisplatin treatment. Conclusion Our data indicated that strong AR and PR expression were good prognostic factors via the mechanism of better cisplatin sensitivity. Novel therapeutics against AR and PR might be promising for treatment of EOC patients. Disclosure Nothing to disclose.
Chapter III – Projective Geometry

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the different aspects of projective geometry. The extended plane consists of the ordinary points, the ordinary lines, the ideal points, and the ideal line. Two nonparallel ordinary lines intersect as usual in the Euclidean plane, and one do not want them to intersect again at an ideal point, and that's why one add a different ideal point to each family of parallel lines. In the Euclidean plane, any two lines intersect at a unique point, except when the lines are parallel. Parallel lines create exceptions that must be considered in Euclidean geometry. Adding ideal points to the Euclidean plane eliminates these exceptions. Any two lines in the extended plane intersect at a unique point, and two parallel ordinary lines intersect at an ideal point.
Rapid Ex-Vivo Ciliogenesis and Dose-Dependent Effect of Notch Inhibition on Ciliogenesis of Respiratory Epithelia

Background: Cilia are actin based cellular protrusions conserved from algae to complex multicellular organisms like Homo sapiens. Respiratory motile cilia line epithelial cells of the tracheobronchial tree, beat in a synchronous, metachronal wave, moving inhaled pollutants and pathogens cephalad. Their role in both congenital disorders like primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD) to acquired disorders like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) continues to evolve. In this current body of work we outline a protocol optimized to reciliate human nasal epithelial cells and mouse tracheal cells in vitro. Using this protocol, we knocked down known cilia genes, as well as use a small molecule inhibitor of Notch, N-[N-(3,5-Difluorophenacetyl)-L-alanyl]-S-phenylglycine t-butyl Ester (DAPT), to assess the effect of these on ciliogenesis in order to show the validity of our protocol. Methods: Tracheas were harvested from wild-type, adult C57B6 mice, pronase digested and sloughed off epithelial cells grown to confluence in stationary culture on rat-tail collagen coated wells. Upon reaching confluence, collagen was digested and cells placed suspension culture protocol to reciliate the cells. Using this suspension culture protocol, we employed siRNA gene knockdown to assay gene functions required for airway ciliogenesis. Knock down of Dynein axonemal heavy chain 5 (Dnah5), a ciliary structural protein, was confirmed using immunostaining. Mouse tracheal cells were treated in suspension with varying doses of DAPT, an inhibitor of Notch, with the purpose of evaluating its effect and dose response on ciliogenesis. The optimum dose was then used on reciliating human nasal epithelial cells. Results: siRNA knockdown of Foxj1 prevented ciliation, consistent with its role as a master regulator of motile cilia. Knockdown of Dnai1 and Dnah5 resulted in immotile cilia, and Cand1 knockdown, a centrosome protein known to regulate centrosome amplification, inhibited airway ciliogenesis. Dnah5 knockdown was confirmed with significantly decreased immunostaining of cilia for this protein. Inhibiting Notch signaling by inhibiting gamma secretase with DAPT enhanced the percentage of ciliation, and resulted in longer cilia that beat with higher frequency in both mouse and human airway epithelia. Conclusions: Modifying existing reciliation protocols to suit both human nasal epithelial and mouse tracheal tissue, we have shown that knockdown of known cilia-related genes have the expected effects. Additionally, we have demonstrated the optimal dosage for significantly improving reciliation of airway epithelia using DAPT. Given that cilia length and function are significantly compromised in COPD, these findings open up interesting avenues for further exploration.
Low-noise infrared digital-alloy avalanche photodiodes

Avalanche photodiodes (APDs) can provide high receiver sensitivity owing to their internal gain, however, the impact ionization gain mechanism is also a source of noise. Recently, AlxIn1-xAsySb1-y grown as a digital alloy has been used to fabricate APDs with excess noise as low as Si (k ~ 0.01). Operation of these APDs at telecommunication wavelengths (1300 nm to 1550 nm) or 2 µm has been achieved. This paper also discusses staircase APDs, which utilize compositional grading to mimic the dynodes of a photomultiplier tube, with a gain of 2x arising at each step providing extremely low noise avalanche gain.
Suicide knowledge and intention to intervene: college students

Objective: The revised Willingness to Intervene against Suicide questionnaire and the Expanded Revised Facts on Suicide Quiz were employed to examine the relationship between college students' knowledge about suicide and intention to intervene. Participants: College students (n = 515) participated, a majority being women and Caucasian. Methods: Participants completed an online survey. Data were analyzed in SPSS. Results: College students have poor knowledge of suicide facts; however, this low level of accurate knowledge was not associated with intention to intervene with a suicidal person. Attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, sex, and no previous suicide attempt were all significant predictors of intention to intervene. Conclusions: These results challenge the notion that one must be well-informed in order to intend to take action.
Third-party procedural justice perceptions: The mediating effect on the relationship between eWOM and likelihood to purchase

The role of the relationship between employees and companies and the effects of that relationship on a consumer’s buying intention have received scant attention in the marketing literature. This re...
Measuring parent strategy use in early intervention: Reliability and validity of the Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Intervention Fidelity Rating Scale across strategy types:

Children with autism spectrum disorder benefit from early, intensive interventions to improve social communication, and parent-implemented interventions are a feasible, family-centered way to incre...
On the Timing Ability of Mutual Fund Managers

Existing studies of mutual fund market timing analyze monthly returns and find little evidence of timing ability. We show that daily tests are more powerful and that mutual funds exhibit significant timing ability more often in daily tests than in monthly tests. We construct a set of synthetic fund returns in order to control for spurious results. The daily timing coefficients of the majority of funds are significantly different from their synthetic counterparts. These results suggest that mutual funds may possess more timing ability than previously documented. THE PERFORMANCE OF MUTUAL FUNDS RECEIVES a great deal of attention from both practitioners and academics. Almost 50 percent of U.S. households invest in mutual funds, with an aggregate investment of over five trillion dollars (Investment Company Institute, 2000). Given the size of their stake, the investing public's interest in identifying successful fund managers is understandable, especially in light of mounting evidence that the returns of most actively managed funds are lower than index fund returns.1 From an academic perspective, the goal of identifying superior fund managers is interesting because it challenges the efficient market hypothesis. In this paper, we examine the ability of mutual fund managers to time the market, that is, to increase a fund's exposure to the market index prior to market advances and to decrease exposure prior to market declines. Most existing studies find little evidence that fund managers possess market timing ability. Treynor and Mazuy ((1966), hereafter referred to as TM), for example, develop a test of market timing and find significant ability in only 1 fund out of 57 in their sample. Henriksson (1984) uses the market timing test of Henriksson and Merton ((1981), hereafter referred to as HM) and finds that only 3 funds out of 116 exhibit significant positive market timing ability. Graham and Harvey (1996) analyze investment newsletters' suggested allocations between equity and cash, thereby measuring explicitly the
Анализ механизмов религиозной радикализации молодёжи и сопоставление вариантов противодействия её проявлениям (на примере Северного Кавказа) (Analysis of the Mechanisms of Religious Radicalization of Youth and a Comparison of Options to Counter Its Manifestations (For Example, the North Caucasus))

Russian Abstract: В данной работе рассматриваются подходы и теории, получившие распространение в анализе процесса радикализации и религиозно мотивированного насилия. Развитие интеллектуальной мысли в данной сфере прошло через два основных этапа. На первом этапе исследования концентрировались на проблемах терроризма без специального анализа его религиозной мотивации. На втором этапе в центре внимания оказались вопросы именно исламской радикализации и религиозно мотивированного насилия. Анализ этих проблем приобрел более конкретный характер, радикализация стала рассматриваться как процесс. English Abstract: This paper examines the approaches and theories that have become widespread in the analysis of the process of radicalization and religiously motivated violence. The development of intellectual thought in this area went through two main stages. At the first stage, research focused on the problems of terrorism without a special analysis of its religious motivation. At the second stage, the focus was on issues of Islamic radicalization and religiously motivated violence. The analysis of these problems has become more specific, radicalization has become regarded as a process.
TRAM Flap Breast Reconstruction.

The transverse rectus abdominus musculocutaneous flap, or TRAM flap, has revolutionized the plastic and reconstructive surgeon's approach to breast reconstruction. Since its first clinical description by Hartrampf, Schellan, and Black in 1982, the TRAM flap has become today's standard for autogenous tissue breast reconstruction. In light of the recent controversy regarding silicone breast implants, the use of autogenous tissue for breast reconstruction has become even more popular. It is the wide belief of most plastic and reconstructive surgeons that, by using autogenous tissue, the reconstructed breast has a more natural shape and contour. Furthermore, patient satisfaction is extremely high and problems inherent with implants, such as capsular contracture, are avoided. With newer technology and a stronger emphasis on self-examination and routine mammographic screening, breast cancer is currently being detected at earlier stages. Because of this, more and more women with diagnosed breast cancer are undergoing breast conserving surgery and radiotherapy. Patients with larger tumors, in more advanced stages, often require a more extensive operation, namely a modified radical mastectomy. The TRAM flap, in an immediate or delayed setting, is an ideal technique for the reconstruction of a modified radical mastectomy defect. We at the Breast Care Center of Mount Zion Medical Center of U.C. San Francisco are extremely pleased with the results of immediate breast reconstruction using the TRAM flap techniques.
Task Decomposition Support to Reactive Scheduling

This paper describes the development of an intelligent tasking model which has been designed to enable complex systems, human agents and software agents, to be tasked and controlled within a reactive work ow management paradigm. The task models exploit recent advances within the AI community in reactive control, scheduling and continuous execution. The Dynamic Execution Order Scheduler ( DEOS ) extends the current work ow paradigm to allow tasking in dynamic and uncertain environments by viewing the planning and scheduling tasks as being integrated and evolving entities. DEOS is being applied to the domains of Air Campaign Planning ( ACP ) and Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance ( ISR ) management. These are highly reactive domains in which new tasks and priorities are identified continuously and plans and schedules are generated and updated within a temporal and resource constrained setting.
Establishment of Fibroblast Cultures

Fibroblasts are fairly easily isolated from a variety of tissues, in this case skin. The cells are fast growing and can be rapidly expanded from small samples. They are suitable for behavioral, functional, biochemical, and genomic studies. Skin fibroblast cultures are started from explants in which the epidermis is enzymatically removed to prevent contamination of the fibroblasts with epidermal cells. Alternatively, the dermis can be enzymatically dissociated to provide a suspension of fibroblasts.
Initializing RBF-networks with small subsets of training examples

An important research issue in RBF networks is how to determine the gaussian centers of the radial-basis functions. We investigate a technique that identifies these centers with carefully selected training examples, with the objective to minimize the network's size. The essence is to select three very small subsets rather than one larger subset whose size would exceed the size of the three small subsets unified. The subsets complement each other in the sense that when used by a nearest-neighbor classifier, each of them incurs errors in a different part of the instance space. The paper describes the example-selection algorithm and shows, experimentally, its merits in the design of RBF networks.
Immigration, Amnesty, and the Rule of Law

Recent years have seen an unprecedented number of state laws proposed and enacted on the subject of illegal immigration. In addition, municipalities across the country have enacted ordinances designed to discourage illegal immigration and the employment of unauthorized aliens. Some observers have suggested that these efforts are simply the result of energized political activists, frustrated with inaction in Congress, turning their attention to state and local legislation. According to this view, such state and local laws are merely spillover consequences of the larger debate regarding controversial imigration bills in Congress. These explanations do not accurately reflect what has been happening in the effort to confront illegal immigration at the state and local level. To be sure, frustration with congressional inaction sometimes fuels enthusiasm for state and local action. But that explanation does not fully account for what has been occurring in state legislatures and city halls nationwide. Independent forces motivate state and local governments to confront illegal immigration within their respective jurisdictions. While illegal immigration is a national issue, the consequences are felt first and foremost at the state and local level. This article addresses the fiscal burden to state and local governments of illegal immigration, argues that amnesty is not the answer, and, that amnesty actually exacerbates the fiscal costs of illegal immigration. It concludes that even if granting amnesty to twelve million illegal aliens could be accomplished with ease, it would not alleviate the burden that so many cities and states are bearing. Illegal immigration is very expensive for the cities and states in which the illegal aliens live. An amnesty, like so many "solutions" that gain currency in the halls of Congress, is no solution at all.
Growth of "seeded" cellulolytic enrichment cultures on mesquite wood.

Eleven enrichment cultures were developed by a “seeded” enrichment culture technique, and one was developed by a simple enrichment technique. The seeded enrichment, the pure “seed,” and the simple enrichment cultures were compared during growth on mesquite wood, cotton, carboxymethylcellulose, and cellobiose. All of the enrichment cultures were cellulolytic and exceeded the pure seed cultures in mesquite wood hydrolysis and/or viable cell count. Yeast extract improved, but was not essential for, growth of the seeded enrichment cultures on carboxymethylcellulose. Two of the seeded enrichment cultures, CAD5 and CAD11, grew best at 37°C and pH 7.0 on mesquite wood. A 1.0% (wt/vol) wood concentration was optimum for their growth.
Prevalence and Prognostic Value of Right Ventricular Systolic Dysfunction in Patients With Constrictive Pericarditis Who Underwent Pericardiectomy.

Impaired right ventricular systolic function (RVSF) may complicate the treatment of constrictive pericarditis (CP) by pericardiectomy, which is a procedure that remains with significant morbidity and mortality. We evaluated RVSF in patients with CP who underwent pericardiectomy to determine the prognostic value of RVSF. RVSF was assessed by measuring Tricuspid Annular Plane Systolic Excursion (TAPSE) in 35 patients (mean age 52 ± 15.4 years) who underwent pericardiectomy. Thirty-one patients (88.6%) had reduced RVSF (TAPSE ≤1.8 cm). Eight patients (23%) had postoperative events (heart failure 3 and hospital mortality 5). Logistic regression showed that concomitant coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) (p = 0.052), left ventricular ejection fraction (p = 0.059), left atrial diameter (p = 0.028), and TAPSE (p = 0.016) were borderline or significant univariate predictors of events. TAPSE (p = 0.018, odds ratio = 0.605 [0.40 to 0.92]) and CABG (p = 0.033, odds ratio = 20 [1.26 to 315]) were independent predictors of events on multivariate analysis. Stepwise analysis showed that TAPSE provided incremental prognostic value (p = 0.029, chi-square increase 11.6 to 16.3) to the combination of CABG, ejection fraction, and left atrial diameter. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis showed an area under the curve of 0.815 for TAPSE. TAPSE of 1.38 cm had a sensitivity of 88% and specificity of 67% for identifying patients with events. TAPSE was also inversely related to the length of hospital stay after pericardiectomy (p = 0.02, R = −0.424). Hence, our study showed that RVSF is frequently reduced in patients with CP who underwent pericardiectomy. In conclusion, TAPSE is an independent predictor of events and provides incremental prognostic value to other clinical and echocardiographic variables.
Transmission system reactive power compensation

In the book Edited by T. J. E. Miller (Reactive Power Control in Electric Systems, John Wiley & Sons, 1982) the forward by Charles Concordia contains a perfect summary of why we must use reactive compensation: "...the transmission of active power requires a difference in angular phase between voltages at the sending and receiving points (which is feasible within wide limits), whereas the transmission of reactive power requires a difference in magnitude of these same voltages (which is feasible only within very narrow limits). But why should we want to transmit reactive power anyway? Is it not just a troublesome concept, invented by the theoreticians, that is best disregarded? The answer is that reactive power is consumed not only by most of the network elements, but also by most of the consumer loads, so it must be supplied somewhere. If we can't transmit it very easily, then it ought to be generated where it is needed." (Reference Edited by T. J. E. Miller, Forward Page ix). This paper discusses the transmission line requirements for reactive power compensation.
A novel method to eliminate the toppling issue for small CD/high AR/dense structures

Toppling during clean process is a general structure issue when we scale down critical dimension (CD)/increase aspect ratio (AR) and density of the nano structures. In this paper, we demonstrated a novel process with CH 4 PLAD (plasma doping) conformal process to eliminate the toppling issue. A uniform C deposition layer from CH 4 PLAD process wrapped the whole structure on the top/bottom/sidewall and made structure more robust during clean process. As a result, the toppling issue could be eliminated. The PLAD condition should be chosen in the “highly collisional case” in order to maximize deposition and minimize implant. ARXPS (angle resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy) and PDP1 (plasma device planar 1D) simulation were applied to define the “highly collisional case”. There was a strong correlation between implant dose and toppling reduction rate. Besides CH 4 PLAD, other neutral species such as GeH 4 PLAD may also be used for this process. The advantages of this process include no thermal Dt, fast throughput and low cost. It may help us to continue scaling down the structures with higher AR/smaller CD/higher density.
Advances in the electrochemical regeneration of aluminum hydride

In previous work, a reversible cycle that uses electrolysis and catalytic hydrogenation of spent Al(s) for the regeneration of alane (AlH3) was reported. In this study, the electrochemical synthesis of alane is improved. Advances in the electrochemical regeneration of alane have been achieved via the use of lithium aluminum hydride (LiAlH4) and lithium chloride (LiCl). Lithium chloride reacts in a cyclic process and functions as an electro-catalytic additive that enhances the electrochemical process by increasing the cell efficiency and the alane production. Electrochemical techniques are used to show that the increased rate of alane generation is due to the electro-catalytic effect of lithium chloride, rather than an electrolyte enhanced effect.
Cytogenetic analyses of a murine carcinoma cell line and six metastatic derivatives with different degrees of radioresistability

We reported that a murine carcinoma (DEN3) and its six pulmonary metastases (M2, M4C, M4D, M4E, M4F, and M6) exhibited different degrees of radioresistability (In Vitro Cell. Dev. Biol. 26:222–228; 1990). While the M2, M4C, M4E, and M4F cultured cells survived up to 2.5 Gy, the cells of DEN3 and M6 tolerated up to 5.0 Gy, and the M4D cells could withstand up to 10.0 Gy of X-irradiation. In the present investigation, the cytogenetic features of these cell lines were examined: (a) to determine the degree of cytogenetic heterogeneity among these cell lines, and (b) to investigate whether any association between the cytogenetic anomaly and the degree of radioresistability could be established. Heterogeneous cytogenetic aberrations were detected in all of the above lines. Karyotype analysis of the M4D and M6 cell lines displayed both numerical and structural abnormalities. The gain and loss of chromosomal copies were observed. Structural aberrations, such as translocation and deletion appeared in both cell lines. However, correlation between the cytogenetic abnormality and the degree of radioresistability was not demonstrated except for a dramatic reduction in one or more copies of the X-chromosome that occurred in 86% and 93% of the M6 and M4D cells, respectively. The results suggest heterogeneous cytogenetic aberrations among these cell lines and a possible association between the loss of X-chromosome and radioresistability of these tumor cells.
Histologic changes in three explanted native cardiac valves following use of fenfluramines

Abstract Use of fenfluramines, either alone or co-administered with phentermine (“fen-phen”) as anorexic agents in obesity, has been associated with the development of clinically significant cardiac valve disease. We present the macroscopic and histologic findings in cardiac valves explanted from three patients who presented with valvular disease after fenfluramine or fenfluramine-phentermine use and underwent single valve replacement surgery. Paraffin sections were prepared with hematoxylin and eosin, trichrome, elastic–van Gieson, and Giemsa stains, as well as immunostains using antibody to CD3 and CD20. All three patients (two females, ages 37 and 43, and a 49-year-old male) developed progressively symptomatic mitral (2 patients) or aortic (1 patient) valvular insufficiency following dexfenfluramine (2 patients) or fenfluramine-phentermine (1 patient) use. Macroscopic changes included irregular leaflet thickening, accompanied by chordal fusion in the mitral valves, but without vegetations, commissural fusion, or evidence of annular dilation. Histologically, fibromyxoid plaques and nodules just below the valve surface, superficial to a generally intact elastic fiber layer, were associated with CD3-positive lymphocytes. Valves from all three patients had central myxoid degenerative changes, which were focal/mild in one mitral valve, diffuse/moderate in one mitral valve, and diffuse/marked in one aortic valve. Focal areas of superficial fibromyxoid change or intimal thickening may also be seen in cardiac valves from patients with drug-unrelated processes leading to symptomatic or asymptomatic valvulopathy. Therefore, when valve tissue is available for histopathologic examination, valvular disease can be attributed to use of fenfluramines only if the following criteria are satisfied: (i) the macroscopic and microscopic features are consistent with fenfluramine-related valvulopathy, (ii) clinical, echocardiographic, and intraoperative findings support the diagnosis, and (iii) the history of drug exposure predates the development or exacerbation of valvular dysfunction.
Diversity Reception in UHF Long-Range Communications

Several diversity techniques employed in uhf beyond-the-horizon systems are discussed. Field experience is evaluated in terms of equipment reliability, flexibility and performance. A nonswitching parallel combiner has become the standard military diversity circuit for uhf long-range receivers. The circuit is described and analyzed.