cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mesoporous nitrogen-doped carbons from PAN-based molecular bottlebrushes

Abstract Densely grafted brushes with poly( n -butyl acrylate)- block -polyacrylonitrile (PBA- b -PAN) block copolymers (BCPs) as side chains were synthesized by atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) using a “grafting from” technique. Owing to the covalent linkage of the arms to the backbone and the resulting strong steric repulsion between the BCP side chains, these bottlebrushes successfully overcame the partial miscibility problem existing in most BCPs at low degrees of polymerization ( DP ). PBA- b -PAN bottlebrushes were then pyrolyzed to form porous nitrogen-doped carbons using a two-step thermal treatment: first forming intermolecular crosslinks between the PAN blocks, following by decomposition of the PBA to create mesopores. Carbons prepared from brushes with longer PAN blocks exhibited higher surface areas, benefiting from more complete intermolecular crosslinking. Through careful adjustment of side-chain DP , carbons with surface area as high as 420 m 2 /g were obtained. Small mesopores (4–7 nm) with narrow size distributions, as well as significant nitrogen content (6–9 at. %), were observed. The brush-derived, nitrogen-doped mesoporous carbon was then deposited as a thin film on a glassy carbon electrode and demonstrated good electrocatalytic activity in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR).
A Markov chain model of a longitudinal breast cancer data set.

11040 Background: Cancer cell migration patterns are critical for understanding metastases and clinical evolution. Breast cancer spreads from one organ system to another via hematogenous and lympha...
The effect of hotel’s dual-branding on willingness-to-pay and booking intention: a luxury/upper-upscale combination

Dual-branding is drawing interest in the industry because it offers cost and operational efficiencies. However, when two branded hotels are located on the same property, consumer evaluation toward one brand might be affected by the other brand. This study examines the brand anchoring effect on customers’ willingness-to-pay and booking intention and whether the disclosure of such information affects consumer evaluations. By analyzing responses from 309 US consumers collected from a web-based survey service, we find no anchoring effect at the booking stage regardless of the level of disclosure but information disclosure significantly affects consumers’ perceived fairness when consumers learn the dual-branding status. The results suggest that while dual-branding and disclosure of such information do not affect consumer evaluation at the booking stage, insufficient disclosure of the dual-branding status would negatively affect perceived fairness, which could negatively affect the company in the long term.
Dynamic characteristics of horizontally curved bridges

Horizontally curved bridges have complicated dynamic characteristics because of their irregular geometry and nonuniform mass and stiffness distributions. This paper aims to develop a simplified and practical method for the calculation of the natural frequencies and mode shapes of horizontally curved bridges that would be of interest to bridge engineers for the estimation of the seismic response of these types of bridges. For this purpose, a simple three-degree-of-freedom (3DOF) dynamic model for free vibration equation of this type of bridge has been developed. It is shown that the translational motion of the deck of horizontally curved bridges in the direction that is perpendicular to their axis of symmetry is always coupled with the rotational motion of the deck, regardless of the location of the stiffness center. The model is further exploited to develop closed-form formulas for the estimation of the maximum displacements of the corners of the deck of one-way asymmetric horizontally curved bridges. The...
Mind and Matter: (Re)membering, Performing, and Being

In understanding one’s position in relation to the narratives one tells, the author revisits moments of ephemerality, and her desire for consistent documentation of these moments. She writes them down on sticky notes, and she uses these mobile memory reminders to keep her grounded and rooted in the present by reconsidering the past. Not only does she revisit important revelations in her life, but she is reminded of the ways her experiences are intertwined with those she is closest with. Her writing moves back and forth between the here and there, or the past and present, as she finds herself in narrative structure.
CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE IS ASSOCIATED WITH CHANGES IN ECHOCARDIOGRAPHIC MEASUREMENTS

The relationships between echocardiographic findings and chronic kidney disease (CKD) are incompletely understood. We compared echocardiographic measurements in 35,849 individuals stratified by glomerular filtration rate (GFR). Patients were stratified normal function or CKD stages ≤2, 3, 4, and
An Empirical Test Indicates Only Qualitatively Honest Aposematic Signaling Within a Population of Vertebrates

Abstract Signaling is an important part of intraspecific and interspecific interactions. Theoretical work examining honest signaling in aposematic species (e.g., those with conspicuous colors and secondary defenses) has focused primarily on discerning the patterns between conspicuousness and defense within populations. Most empirical work, however, has investigated these patterns across populations or species. Here, we test for honest signaling across individuals within a population of the aposematic poison frog, Ranitomeya imitator. We find no evidence that increasing levels of the aposematic signal are correlated with increasing levels of defense in this species, indicating that our study population does not signal in a quantitatively honest manner, but rather that the signal is qualitatively honest. Additionally, we found no evidence that frogs with higher levels of defense behave more boldly as a result of the presumed increased ecological release from predation, an expected outcome in a qualitatively...
Handling an organization's communication needs with a single web service

Successful communication of information via web services can be a complex and error-prone task, in large part due to network complexity between multiple fine-grained web services. This complexity can decrease ease of maintainability and increase inconsistency between the source and target destinations. A single all-encompassing web service that meets all of an organization's needs can be implemented that performs both generic or highly specific tasks. We have created a REST web service in Salesforce that handles multiple objects and performs specific tasks to test the viability of a single web service to meet all of an organization's needs. We found that one web service can be implemented to handle multiple or specific tasks with a single call. We show that as the number of database actions per single request increases so does the efficiency with which each individual action is processed. A reduction in the number of web services coupled with an increase of the functionality of a single web service provides many benefits when compared to multiple smaller web services.
Impact of Natural Disasters on Children Receiving Palliative Care Lessons Learned from Hurricane Harvey

To discuss the implications of natural disasters for pediatric palliative care patients and suggest a series of best practices for pediatric palliative care patients, their families, and their healthcare providers. Data from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina provide insight into the effects of natural disasters on children with chronic medical conditions. We supplement this with details from our recent experience caring for pediatric palliative care patients during Hurricane Harvey as well as new data about grief and bereavement in the context of natural disasters. Pediatric palliative care patients are a group that should be considered at high risk in the setting of a natural disaster. They are at increased risk of new medical problems or exacerbations of chronic conditions. Additionally, their past history places them at increased risk for disturbances in their psychosocial functioning including posttraumatic stress syndrome. This highlights the need for increased involvement of pediatric palliative care teams in preparation for a natural disaster, during the event, and in the aftermath.
The Mott Transition in Infinite Dimensions: Old Ideas and Some Surprises

The Mott transition phenomena can be studied systematically in the limit of large dimensions. We describe recent results and new insights in this field.
An analysis of noise-induced hearing loss in Army helicopter pilots.

Hearing loss in the aviation environment has been attributed to a variety of factors ranging from aircraft noise exposure to the aging process. Consequently, this study was conducted to determine the relative contribution of age, total flight hours, type of aircraft, and use of hearing protection to hearing loss in U.S. Army aviators. Information from a survey of the aviators in an aviation brigade was combined with audiometric records to create the data file. The final study group, 83% of the unit aviators, was evaluated for hearing loss using two criteria: 1) existing U.S. army standards, and 2) four empirical categories of significant threshold shift. Data analysis suggests that hearing loss is primarily a function of noise exposure as measured by total flight hours. Age was found to be a less significant factor; aircraft type had no significant effect. The results indicate that combination hearing protection appears to significantly lower the risk of hearing loss.
What is your diagnosis? Cerebrospinal fluid from a dog

A 6-year-old spayed female Boxer dog was presented to the Louisiana State University Veterinary Teaching Hospital with a 3-week history of ataxia, walking sideways, crossing over of limbs, and dragging her hind feet. She had a repair of her left cranial cruciate ligament approximately 4 months previously with uneventful recovery. There was no history of diarrhea or vomiting. Results of a CBC and urinalysis were unremarkable. The only abnormality noted on serum biochemical profile was mild hypercholesterolemia (296 mg/dL, reference interval [RI] 150–240 mg/dL). Cutaneous and mucosal lesions were not present. Age-related changes were seen on thoracic radiographs. Neurologic examination revealed severe ataxia, worse on the left side, and a left head tilt. She had delayed hopping in the forelimbs and fell when hopped in the rear. No abnormalities were observed on computed tomographic scan of the brain. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain revealed a lesion involving approximately 50% of the left side of the pons and medulla and extending dorsally to the 4th ventricle. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) collected from the atlanto-occipital cistern revealed a total nucleated cell count of 2000/mL (RI o 5/mL) and a total protein of 1898 mg/dL (RI o 30 mg/dL). A cytocentrifuged preparation of CSF was stained with Wright–Giemsa and examined (Figure 1).
Gene Expression Profiling in Asthma

Transcriptomics (gene expression profiling) refers to the quantitative and qualitative characterization of the collection of ribose nucleic acid (RNA) elements expressed in a biological system and represents one of the first truly genome-wide hypothesis-free investigative approaches in molecular biology. The advent of synthetic oligonucleotide microarray technologies has enabled large-scale application of gene expression profiling in the study of human disease, particularly malignant and hematological processes. Due to favorable characteristics of these processes, including their involvement of one cellular compartment (and often a specific, monoclonal cell type), the severity of the underlying cellular perturbation under study (malignant vs. benign cells), and the accessibility to large numbers of available banked samples obtained during clinically indicated medical procedures, the study of transcriptomics in oncology has been quite fruitful, with notable translation of these techniques to novel clinical applications with diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic implications. Furthermore, the discovery of large populations of noncoding RNA elements, including microRNA and long-intergenic noncoding RNA (LINCC-RNA) has expanded the scope of transciptomic profiling beyond the protein-coding messenger RNAs (mRNA).
Clinical Aspects of Photosensitizers

The changing importance of contact photoallergens is emphasized with respect to variations in the degree of population exposure to them. Ways in which photosensitivity can coexist or be masked by contact sensitivity are discussed. The usefulness of a new indicator of compositae allergy in the investigation of individuals with eczema on light-exposed areas is mentioned.
The Opioid Crisis in Black Communities

While much of the social and political attention surrounding the nationwide opioid epidemic has focused on the dramatic increase in overdose deaths among white, middle-class, suburban and rural users, the impact of the epidemic in Black communities has largely been unrecognized. Though rates of opioid use at the national scale are higher for whites than they are for Blacks, rates of increase in opioid deaths have been rising more steeply among Blacks (43%) than whites (22%) over the last five years. Moreover, the rate of opioid overdose deaths among Blacks already exceeds that of whites in several states. The lack of discussion of Black overdose deaths in the national opioid discourse further marginalizes Black people, and is highly consistent with a history of framing the addictions of people of color as deserving of criminal punishment, rather than worthy of medical treatment. This article argues that, because racial inequalities are embedded in American popular and political cultures as well as in medicine, the federal and state governments should develop more culturally targeted programs to benefit Black communities in the opioid crisis. Such programs include the use of faith-based organizations to deliver substance use prevention and treatment services, the inclusion of racial impact assessments in the implementation of drug policy proposals, and the formal consideration of Black people's interaction with the criminal justice system in designing treatment options.
Nonlinear travelling internal waves with piecewise-linear shear profiles

In this work, we study the nonlinear travelling waves in density stratified fluids with piecewise-linear shear currents. Beginning with the formulation of the water-wave problem due to Ablowitz et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 562, 2006, pp. 313–343), we extend the work of Ashton & Fokas (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 689, 2011, pp. 129–148) and Haut & Ablowitz (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 631, 2009, pp. 375–396) to examine the interface between two fluids of differing densities and varying linear shear. We derive a systems of equations depending only on variables at the interface, and numerically solve for periodic travelling wave solutions using numerical continuation. Here, we consider only branches which bifurcate from solutions where there is no slip in the tangential velocity at the interface for the trivial flow. The spectral stability of these solutions is then determined using a numerical Fourier–Floquet technique. We find that the strength of the linear shear in each fluid impacts the stability of the corresponding travelling wave solutions. Specifically, opposing shears may amplify or suppress instabilities.
Identifying disparities in germline and somatic testing for ovarian cancer.

Abstract Objective Germline mutations occur in approximately 25% of patients with epithelial ovarian cancers while somatic BRCA mutations are estimated at 5–7%. The objectives of this study were to determine the rate of germline and somatic testing in women with ovarian cancer and to identify disparities in testing at a comprehensive cancer center (CCC) and a safety net hospital (SNH). Methods Patients treated for ovarian cancer from 2011 to 2016 were included. Clinicopathologic data were abstracted from the electronic medical records. Logistic regression modeling were performed to calculate odds ratios (OR) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). Results Out of 367 women, 55.3% completed germline testing; 27.0% received somatic testing. Women at the CCC were more likely to be tested for germline (60.4% vs 38.1%, p ≤ 0.001) and somatic (34.3% vs 2.4%, p ≤ 0.001) mutations than those at the SNH. Patients with Medicare (aOR = 0.51, 95%CI 0.28–0.94, p = 0.032) or Medicaid (aOR = 0.42, 95%CI 0.18–0.99, p = 0.048) were less likely to receive germline testing than those privately insured. Patients with Medicaid were less likely to receive somatic testing (aOR = 0.15, 95%CI 0.04–0.62, p = 0.009) than those privately insured. Women with disease recurrence had a higher likelihood of being tested for germline (OR = 3.64, 95%CI 1.94–6.83, P Conclusions Disparities in both germline and somatic testing exist. Understanding and overcoming barriers to testing may improve cancer-related mortality by allowing for more tailored treatments as well as for improved cascade testing.
Tracked Vehicle Physics-based Energy Modelling and Series Hybrid System Optimisation for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle

A hybrid electric tracked ground vehicle (HETGV) can reduce military fuel usage, however a review of current tools determined they are not suitable to estimate HEGTV performance. Based on topographic data and vehicle attributes, this research developed an estimation tool by creating a model to determine tracked vehicle energy and fuel requirements, and using these requirements, created a HEGTV cost and performance optimisation for the Bradley fighting vehicle energy system. The optimised design reduced fuel consumption by 15%, and met the vehicle's peak power requirement of 365 kW, with a recommended configuration of a 135 kW generator and 100 kWh battery, and an estimated drivetrain and fuel cost of $155,000. This analysis concludes by articulating the operational and tactical impacts of increased fuel efficiency.
20th Century Retreat and Recent Drought Accelerated Extinction of Mountain Glaciers and Perennial Snowfields in the Trinity Alps, California

The Trinity Alps is a compact glaciated subrange of the Klamath Mountains in northwest California with elevations < 2,750 m making it a unique location in the western US to study glacier change. We examined glacier change since the last Little Ice Age advance in the late 19th century by mapping historic glacier areas using clearly defined moraines. At least six glaciers existed in the Trinity Alps around the 1880s and estimated glacier cover was at least 55.4 ha (0.554 km2). We tracked changes in two glaciers and two perennial snowfields since that time. Total glacier area decreased by 79% (43.8 ha to 9.1 ha) from the 1880s to 1994. By 2013, glacier area decreased another 7% of the 1880s area to 6.0 ha. Overall, retreat was similar for Salmon Glacier (–89%) and Grizzly Glacier (–84%), but since 1994 Salmon retreat has been much faster, 53% versus 16% for Grizzly. The extended 2012 to 2016 drought resulted in catastrophic retreat of both glaciers such that by 2015 Salmon Glacier disappeared and Grizzly Glacier retreated to 1.67 ha and partially stagnated, a –97% loss of total glacier area since the 1880s. Two snowfields (3.02 ha total area in 1955) were tracked since 1955, the Mirror Lake snowfield disappeared by the summer of 2013 and the Canyon Creek snowfield disappeared by October 2014. The unusually warm summer temperatures since 2005 combined with extremely low winter precipitation from 2013 to 2015 caused rapid retreat and near elimination of the Trinity Alps perennial snow and ice threatening local biodiversity that depends on these features.
How do we share data in COVID-19 research? A systematic review of COVID-19 datasets in PubMed Central Articles

Objective This study aims at reviewing novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) datasets extracted from PubMed Central articles, thus providing quantitative analysis to answer questions related to dataset contents, accessibility and citations. Methods We downloaded COVID-19-related full-text articles published until 31 May 2020 from PubMed Central. Dataset URL links mentioned in full-text articles were extracted, and each dataset was manually reviewed to provide information on 10 variables: (1) type of the dataset, (2) geographic region where the data were collected, (3) whether the dataset was immediately downloadable, (4) format of the dataset files, (5) where the dataset was hosted, (6) whether the dataset was updated regularly, (7) the type of license used, (8) whether the metadata were explicitly provided, (9) whether there was a PubMed Central paper describing the dataset and (10) the number of times the dataset was cited by PubMed Central articles. Descriptive statistics about these seven variables were reported for all extracted datasets. Results We found that 28.5% of 12 324 COVID-19 full-text articles in PubMed Central provided at least one dataset link. In total, 128 unique dataset links were mentioned in 12 324 COVID-19 full text articles in PubMed Central. Further analysis showed that epidemiological datasets accounted for the largest portion (53.9%) in the dataset collection, and most datasets (84.4%) were available for immediate download. GitHub was the most popular repository for hosting COVID-19 datasets. CSV, XLSX and JSON were the most popular data formats. Additionally, citation patterns of COVID-19 datasets varied depending on specific datasets. Conclusion PubMed Central articles are an important source of COVID-19 datasets, but there is significant heterogeneity in the way these datasets are mentioned, shared, updated and cited.
Hybrid deep reinforcement learning based eco-driving for low-level connected and automated vehicles along signalized corridors

Abstract Eco-Driving has great potential in reducing the fuel consumption of road vehicles, especially under the connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) environment. Traditional model-based Eco-Driving methods usually require sophisticated models and cannot deal with complex driving scenarios. This paper proposes a hybrid reinforcement learning (RL) based Eco-Driving algorithm considering both the longitudinal acceleration/deceleration and the lateral lane-changing operations. A deep deterministic policy gradient (DDPG) algorithm is designed to learn the continuous longitudinal acceleration/deceleration to reduce the fuel consumption as well as to maintain acceptable travel time. Collecting the critic’s value of each single lane from DDPG and integrating the information of adjacent lanes, a deep Q-learning algorithm is developed to make the discrete lane-changing decision. Together, a hybrid deep Q-learning and policy gradient (HDQPG) method is developed for vehicles driving along multi-lane urban signalized corridors. The method can enable the controlled vehicle to learn well-established longitudinal fuel-saving strategies, and to perform appropriate lane-changing operations at proper times to avoid congested lanes. Numerical experiments show that HDQPG can reduce fuel consumption by up to 46% with marginal or no increase of travel times.
Recovery in glioblastoma multiforme during inpatient rehabilitation is equivalent in first versus repeat resection: A 10-year retrospective analysis.

BACKGROUND Inpatient rehabilitation improves function in people with brain tumors, including glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) but there are limited data on the impact of multiple resections on outcomes. We hypothesize that outcomes will be more favorable for those patients with a single resection when compared to those with more than one resection. OBJECTIVE To examine functional outcomes in inpatient rehabilitation for people with GBM who underwent one or more resections prior to admission. DESIGN Retrospective analysis. SETTING Inpatient rehabilitation unit within a large, urban, academic medical center. PARTICIPANTS Patients who were admitted to our institution for the treatment of initial GBM or GBM recurrence necessitating surgical resection or repeat resection. INTERVENTIONS Not applicable. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) Total FIM Change, Total Functional Independence Measure (FIM) Efficiency, Motor and Cognitive FIM efficiency, and proportion discharged home. RESULTS From 2006 to 2016, 94 persons with GBM were admitted. Eight were readmissions classified as "repeat" and another seven transferred to the medical floor and excluded. Of the 79 patients included, 56 were first and 23 second resections, with a group mean age of 62.7 + 12.2 years and were 51% male. On analysis of covariance, change in FIM score from admission to discharge was insignificant between groups, adjusted for age and acute care length of stay (17.1 vs. 17.4, F[1, 75] = 0.027, P = .871). Likewise, the proportion of home discharge was not significant between groups (chi-square, 75.0% vs. 78.3%, P = .758). CONCLUSIONS Patients who have undergone second resections for GBM are reasonable candidates for admission to the inpatient rehabilitation units despite carrying a poor prognosis and having multiple exposures to surgical morbidity. Factors to take into account are that candidates considered for a second resection may be relatively younger or healthier and therefore may perform better from a functional standpoint. In addition, postoperative steroid administration may play a role in the similarities the authors noted. A larger, multicenter study should validate our findings (limited by sample size and a single location) and identify factors predicting a successful outcome.
How Long Can a Driver (Safely) Glance at an Augmented-Reality Head-Up Display?:

Augmented-Reality (AR) head-up display (HUD) is one of the promising solutions to reduce distraction potential while driving and performing secondary visual tasks; however, we currently don’t know ...
Drone Technology, Airspace Design, and Aerial Law in States and Cities

Federal and state governments have embraced drone technology in recent years to stimulate a domestic industry for new jobs and long-distance delivery services. However, the federal-state breakdown about who manages drone airspace has not been resolved, which, as the Government Accountability Office recently reported to Congress, threatens the progress of the US drone industry. What is clear is that landowners, whether public or private, own low-altitude airspace and air rights. This article traces the legal treatment of surface airspace as real property back to Anglo-American legal treatises and court decisions in the mid-19th century. Therefore, absent a revolution in property and government takings law, state and city authorities will play a major role in demarcating drone highways, as well as creating time, place, and manner restrictions such as time-of-day rules, noise maximums, and privacy protections. This paper proposes a cooperative federalism system of airspace leasing above public roads to avoid most nuisance, trespass, and takings lawsuits from residents. Finally, this paper proposes a legal presumption establishing an altitude where private air rights end and federally managed airspace begins.
Molecular aspects of temperature swing solvent extraction for brine desalination using imidazole-based solvents

Abstract Solvent extraction desalination has shown to be a promising energy-efficient technique when compared to separation processes usually employed. Despite the remarkable impact of the organic solvent’s molecular characteristics on this process, few studies have been carried out so far to explicitly ascertain the influence of these characteristics on the solubility of water in the solvent. Here, we assess the viability of four different imidazole-based solvents and compare them to an amine compound for solvent extraction desalination of high salinity brines. All-atom molecular simulations of pure solvent and water-solvent bulk mixtures are used to ascertain the influence of the solvents’ molecular structures on solvent–solvent and solvent–water interaction. Our results show that water solubilization in imidazole-based solvents is an endothermic process, while for a secondary amine (diisopropylamine) it is an exothermic process. We show that imidazole-based solvents can be designed to provide characteristics favorable to brine desalination.
Four positive lessons learned during the 2020-2021 COVID-19 global pandemic: Implications for spirituality in clinical practice

While the COVID-19 global pandemic has wrecked havoc for over a year in ways that we have not seen in our lifetimes, many important positive lessons have been learned during these tumultuous and what has felt like apocalyptic times. Upon close reflection, four critical and positive lessons were learned by this author that have implications for how we productively move forward in our efforts to provide spiritually and religiously informed psychotherapy services both now and in the future. These important lessons include the benefits of telehealth and "telespirit" services as well as highlighting the advantages of reflection, discernment, and resetting our life priorities. Although the pandemic took many lives and created economic chaos for countless people across the globe, several positive developments emerged that will provide an opportunity for better spiritually informed clinical practice in the future. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
Deconstructing Juryless Fact-Finding in Civil Cases

Compensatory damage caps mandate juryless fact-finding in common law-based civil cases and lessen the jury’s traditional and historic role as injury valuator. This Article explores juryless fact-finding in civil cases by turning to recent interpretations of the Sixth Amendment Criminal Jury Trial Clause at criminal sentencing. At first blush, compensatory damage caps and criminal sentencing appear to have little in common. Caps reduce a jury’s damage findings to a fixed amount. Some sentencing guidelines designated which facts are necessary to support a particular sentence. Yet, both remove the jury during a significant part of a civil or criminal case. In civil cases the jury is removed from the “damages” phase of the litigation; in criminal cases, from the “punishment” phase of the "criminal prosecution." As a result, compensatory damage caps and certain forms criminal sentencing guidelines lessen the jury’s role as fact-finder and intrude on the jury’s verdict or decree.Recent Sixth Amendment jurisprudence has recently rejected mandatory juryless fact-finding for purposes of fixing punishment at criminal sentencing hearings. Seventh Amendment jurisprudence remains undeveloped on the clash between caps and the civil jury, but the Sixth Amendment offers three lessons about common law criminal juries that should apply in the civil context. First, modern procedures cannot significantly alter certain common law characteristics of the jury trial right. Second, mandatory removal of the jury as the primary fact-finder was not authorized in common law cases. Third, a common law jury’s factual determinations were fully enforceable unless exceptional circumstances were presented. This Article urges adoption of cap alternatives that encourage individual review upon necessity. Such alternatives should also advance a states’ dual interest to protect both civilly liable defendants and severely injured plaintiffs.
Fatness, friendship, and “corpu-allyhood” stratagems

The practice, theory, and critique of allyship have been central to feminist scholarship and activism. Identities once not regarded as identities at all but as neutral givens, such as maleness, whi...
Speeding Up Benefits to Charity: Donor Advised Fund and Foundation Reform

Charitable giving incentives are failing to achieve their purposes. Currently $1.26 trillion has accumulated in donor advised funds (DAFs) and private foundations, a massive accumulation of wealth under the effective control of the wealthiest in society. Gifts to these charitable intermediaries inherently frustrate the purpose of the charitable giving incentives. Until the funds are released from the intermediary, no working charity is able to benefit from the donation. Congress recognized this delay in benefit problem with respect to private foundations in landmark legislation in 1969, but has never addressed the problem for DAFs, and the rules for foundations are now too easy to avoid. Recent bi-partisan legislation introduced in Congress would address these issues. The Accelerating Charitable Efforts (ACE) Act would impose a time limit on advisory privileges for DAF contributions and close loopholes in the private foundation payout rules, among other reforms. While the ACE Act has many supporters, there is organized opposition in favor of the status quo. The article explains the case for change and addresses the various arguments made against reform, including that current payout levels are sufficient, that reform would harm charitable giving and introduce costly new burdens on charities, that the timing of grants within a DAF does not matter and so should not be regulated, and that to limit advisory privileges is to target DAFs and to attack philanthropic freedom. Finding none of these arguments persuasive, the article also considers whether there should be an exception to reform for community foundation and other mission-driven DAF sponsors, and whether an alternative would be to impose a five percent payout rule on DAF accounts. The article concludes that reform of charitable intermediaries is essential for the legitimacy of the charitable giving incentives and to counter growing charitable wealth accumulations. The ACE Act however should be strengthened to apply to existing DAF accounts and to study the effectiveness of incentives to improve private foundation payout and the extent to which DAFs at mission-driven sponsors further their mission.
Cultivation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis for Research Purposes

Individual investigators have different reasons for cultivating Mycobacterium tuberculosis in their laboratories; the medium to be used and the conditions of incubation should be tailored to the specific goals, taking into account the physiologic characteristics of this organism. A classic description of M. tuberculosis, which would be only partially accurate, might characterize this organism as a fastidious, slowly growing, strictly aerobic, lipid-rich, hydrophobic, acid-fast bacterial rod. Much of the early research on the tubercle bacillus was directed toward production of tuberculin or other crude chemical products of the bacilli, such as unique lipids or polysaccharides. The growth of tubercle bacilli in the synthetic media cited is difficult to follow in quantitative terms, as it cannot be measured optically and since simple plating is not accurate because of the severe clumping of the bacilli. Media based on a Tween 80-albumin formulation are satisfactory for cultivation of tubercle bacilli for studies of growth rates and kinetics and, in most cases, for preparation of bacilli for chemical extraction. Glycerol has commonly been used in media when large crops of bacilli are desired, since this carbohydrate markedly stimulates growth of M. tuberculosis (note that glycerol inhibits growth of fresh isolates of the closely related Mycobacterium bovis). M. tuberculosis is known to produce enzymes of anaerobic metabolism, and these are especially prominent when bacilli are tested after direct harvest from host tissues; there is a general shift away from O2-dependent pathways to anaerobic or facultative anaerobic pathways in host derived bacilli compared to cultured organisms.
Estimating σ2 in the Presence of Outliers

Let x 1, x 2, …, X n , be independent normal variates with a common variance σ2 and suppose that k 1 of the x i are outliers. That is, k 1 of the x i come from a population with mean μ + λ while the remaining n − k 1 of the x i come from a population with mean μ. New techniques for estimating σ2 are proposed and the properties of the new estimators are discussed.
War, Work, and the Culture of Gender

AMONG THE ISSUES that have recently infused labour history with its electri cal energy, none has created more sparks than the debate over the meaning of workers' culture. Simply put, the problem is how to think about large groups of people in ethnic, racial, regional, or gendered ways in the context both of their own cultural integrity and of their relationships with a larger society. The issue has led some historians, following Herbert Gutman, into an exploration of culture as though it could somehow exist independently of a wider social reality, resisting it in the interests of traditional cultural forms. But concern with the inherently static implications of such a notion has led other historians to question the power and even the existence of independent cultures altogether, adhering more closely to the Marxian conception of a culture that emerges from a class-defined consciousness conditioned by social reality. In the interstices, such voices as those of Sean Wilentz and T. Jackson Lears are beginning to develop more complex explanations of the relationship between consciousness and culture, between behaviour and attitudes. My own current favourite inspiration is Charles Sabel, whose portrait of workers' world views provides a variegated picture of consciousness within which cultural change becomes plausible.1
Environmental Factors Influencing the Growth of Vegetables

Growth and development of plants depend on climatic and soil factors. Weather is the state of the atmosphere with respect to temperature, moisture, air movement, solar radiation, or any meteorological phenomena over a short period of time. Climate is the average course or condition of weather at a location over a period of many years; it is the integrated effects of temperature, precipitation, humidity, sunlight, and wind. The soil condition in many ways is dependent on climate.
Tight contact structures via dynamics

We consider the problem of realizing tight contact structures on closed orientable three-manifolds. By applying the theorems of Hofer et al., one may deduce tightness from dynamical properties of (Reeb) flows transverse to the contact structure. We detail how two classical constructions, Dehn surgery and branched covering, may be performed on dynamically-constrained links in such a way as to preserve a transverse tight contact structure. 1. CONTACT GEOMETRY AND DYNAMICS For a more thorough treatment of the basic definitions and theorems related to the geometry and dynamics of contact structures see, e.g., [1]. A contact structure 5 on a 3-manifold M is a totally nonintegrable 2-plane field in TM. More specifically, at each point p E M we have a 2-plane ~p C TpM that varies smoothly with p, with the property that 5 is nowhere integrable in the sense of Frobenius, i.e., there exists (locally) a defining 1-form ac (whose kernel is J) such that a A doa 7 0. If a is globally defined, ~ is called orientable and a a contact 1-form for ~. We adopt the common restriction to orientable contact structures. The interesting (and difficult) problems in contact geometry are all of a global nature: Darboux's Theorem (see, e.g., [23, 1]) implies that all contact structures are locally contactomorphic, or diffeomorphic preserving the plane fields. A similar result holds for a surface E in a contact manifold (M, ) as follows. Generically, TpE n $p will be a line in TpE. This line field integrates to a singular foliation SE called the characteristic foliation of S. One can show, as in the single-point case of Darboux's Theorem, that >E determines the germ of . along S. There has recently emerged a fundamental dichotomy in three dimensional contact geometry. A contact structure S is overtwisted if there exists an embedded disk D in M whose characteristic foliation D1 contains a limit cycle. If ~ is not overtwisted, then it is called tight. Eliashberg [6] has completely classified overtwisted contact structures on closed 3-manifolds the geometry of overtwisted contact structures reduces to the algebra of homotopy classes of plane fields. Such insight into tight contact structures is slow in coming. The only general method for constructing tight structures is by Stein fillings (see [14, 7]), and the uniqueness Received by the editors January 28, 1998. 1991 Mathematics Subject Classification. Primary 53C15, 57M12; Secondary 58F05.
The role of iso-immunization in the pathogenesis of erythroblastosis fetalis

STUDIES on the cause of intra-group transfusion accidents associated with pregnancy have established the importance of the concept of iso-immunization of the mother by blood factors in the fetus transmitted from the father.1–5 More recently it was found that the same theory of iso-immunization may serve as the basis for a theory on the pathogenesis of erythroblastosis fetalis, the well-described familial hemolytic disease of the newborn.3, 4, 6
Competition Among Rhizobium spp. for Nodulation of Leucaena leucocephala in Two Tropical Soils

The successful nodulation of legumes by a Rhizobium strain is determined by the competitive ability of that strain against the mixture of other native and inoculant rhizobia. Competition among six Leucaena rhizobial strains in single and multistrain inoculants were studied. Field inoculation trials were conducted in an oxisol and a mollisol soil, both of which contained indigenous Leucaena-nodulating rhizobia. Strain-specific fluorescent antibodies were used for the identification of the strains in Leucaena nodules. Mixtures of three recommended inoculum strains for Leucaena spp. (TAL82, TAL582, and TAL1145) were used in peat-based inocula either alone or with one of the three other strains isolated from the sites, B213, B214, and B215. Each of these latter three strains was also used as single-strain inocula to study their competition with the native rhizobia in the two soil systems. In the oxisol soil, strains B213 and B215, when used as single-strain inocula, outcompeted the native rhizobia and formed 92 and 62% of the nodules, respectively. Strain B214 was the least competitive in oxisol soil, where it formed 30% of the nodules, and the best in mollisol soil, where it formed 70% of the nodules. The most successful competitor for nodulation in multistrain inocula was strain TAL1145, which outcompeted native and other inoculum Leucaena rhizobia in both soils. None of the strains in single or multistrain inoculants was capable of completely overcoming the resident rhizobia, which formed 4 to 70% of the total nodules in oxisol soil and 12 to 72% in mollisol soil. No strong relationship was detected between the size of the rhizosphere population of a strain and its successful occupation of nodules.
Abundance and Size Distribution of Lakes, Ponds and Impoundments

There are 304 million natural lakes on continents and these natural lakes cover more than 2.8% of the land surface, not including temporary water bodies and wetlands. Impounded waters cover another 0.22% of the land area and the number of small impoundments is growing rapidly as human water needs increase. Although the largest, often deepest, lakes of the world are best known and understood, the area of lakes on continental surfaces is largely dominated by small water bodies. The amount of land surface covered by lakes depends upon regional hypsometry, or the form, undulation, and tilt of the land surface. Small lakes cover a range of depths, however, large lakes are very rarely shallow. Many past analyses have both underestimated the area of the world covered by lakes and the role of small water bodies in aquatic environments.
Controlling the Cost of Reliability in Peer-to-Peer Overlays

Structured peer-to-peer overlay networks provide a useful substrate for building distributed applications but there are general concerns over the cost of maintaining these overlays. The current approach is to configure the overlays statically and conservatively to achieve the desired reliability even under uncommon adverse conditions. This results in high cost in the common case, or poor reliability in worse than expected conditions. We analyze the cost of overlay maintenance in realistic dynamic environments and design novel techniques to reduce this cost by adapting to the operating conditions. With our techniques, the concerns over the overlay maintenance cost are no longer warranted. Simulations using real traces show that they enable high reliability and performance even in very adverse conditions with low maintenance cost.
A categorical modeling approach to analyzing the impacts of the Lacey Act 2008 amendment on Chinese companies’ export cost and the implications on their sourcing behaviors

The United States (US) Lacey Act 2008 amendment (LAA) is a timber legality regulation that requires US importers to monitor and minimize the risk of illegally harvested wood products within their s...
Erzählkultur: Beiträge zur kulturwissenschaftlichen Erzählforschung, Hans-Jörg Uther zum 65. Geburtstag

Reviewed Medium: book Year: 2009 Pages: 556 Publisher: De Gruyter ISBN: 978-3-11-021471-0 (hard cover).
A novel assembly mechanism for the DNA polymerase III holoenzyme DnaX complex: association of δδ′ with DnaX4 forms DnaX3δδ′

We have constructed a plasmid-borne artificial operon that expresses the six subunits of the DnaX complex of Escherichia coli DNA polymerase III holoenzyme: tau, gamma, delta, delta', chi and psi. Induction of this operon followed by assembly in vivo produced two taugamma mixed DnaX complexes with stoichiometries of tau(1)gamma(2)deltadelta'chipsi and tau(2)gamma(1)deltadelta'chipsi rather than the expected gamma(2)tau(2)deltadelta'chipsi. We observed the same heterogeneity when taugamma mixed DnaX complexes were reconstituted in vitro. Re-examination of homomeric DnaX tau and gamma complexes assembled either in vitro or in vivo also revealed a stoichiometry of DnaX(3)deltadelta'chipsi. Equilibrium sedimentation analysis showed that free DnaX is a tetramer in equilibrium with a free monomer. An assembly mechanism, in which the association of heterologous subunits with a homomeric complex alters the stoichiometry of the homomeric assembly, is without precedent. The significance of our findings to the architecture of the holoenzyme and the clamp-assembly apparatus of all other organisms is discussed.
Simple protocols to determine dust potentials from cattle feedlot soil and surface samples.

Cattle feedlot dust is an annoyance and may be a route for nutrient transport, odor emission, and pathogen dispersion, but important environmental factors that contribute to dust emissions are poorly characterized. A general protocol was devised to test feedlot samples for their ability to produce dust under a variety of environmental conditions. A blender was modified to produce dust from a variety of dried feedlot surface and soil samples and collect airborne particles on glass fiber filters by vacuum collection. A general blending protocol optimized for sample volume (150-175 cm3), blending time (5 min of pre-blending), and dust collection time (15 s) provided consistent dust measurements for all samples tested. The procedure performed well on samples that varied in organic matter content, but was restricted to samples containing less than 200 to 700 g H 2 O kg -1 dry matter (DM). When applied to field samples, the technique demonstrated considerable spatial variability between feedlot pen sites. Mechanistically, dust potential was related to moisture and organic matter content. An alternative protocol also demonstrated differences within pen sites in maximum dust potential and dust airborne residence time. The two protocols were not intended, nor are they suitable, for predicting actual particulate matter emissions from agricultural sources. Rather, the protocols rapidly and inexpensively compared the potential for dust emission from samples of differing composition under a variety of environmental conditions.