cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer. Part II: Instrument Performance

The Atmospheric Emitted Radiance Interferometer (AERI) instrument was developed for the Department of Energy (DOE) Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) Program by the University of Wisconsin Space Science and Engineering Center (UW-SSEC). The infrared emission spectra measured by the instrument have the sensitivity and absolute accuracy needed for atmospheric remote sensing and climate studies. The instrument design is described in a companion paper. This paper describes in detail the measured performance characteristics of the AERI instruments built for the ARM Program. In particular, the AERI systems achieve an absolute radiometric calibration of better than 1% (3s) of ambient radiance, with a reproducibility of better than 0.2%. The knowledge of the AERI spectral calibration is better than 1.5 ppm (1s) in the wavenumber range 400‐ 3000 cm21.
The Oceanography Concept Inventory: A Semicustomizable Assessment for Measuring Student Understanding of Oceanography

ABSTRACT We developed and evaluated an Oceanography Concept Inventory (OCI), which used a mixed-methods approach to test student achievement of 11 learning goals for an introductory-level oceanography course. The OCI was designed with expert input, grounded in research on student (mis)conceptions, written with minimal jargon, tested on 464 students, and evaluated for validity, reliability, and generalizability. The result was a valid and reliable, semicustomizable instrument, with longer 23-item and shorter 16-item versions, as well as flexible grading using either classical one-point-per-item scoring or item-difficulty–weighted scoring. This article is of utility to potential end users of the OCI (e.g., practitioners and researchers) and test developers considering constructing a concept inventory.
Sequential sampling plan for assessing corn rootworm (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) larval injury to Bt maize

Abstract In-field product performance assessments are an essential component of corn rootworm ( Diabrotica spp.; CRW) resistance management plans for transgenic maize ( Zea mays L.) products expressing proteins derived from the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). The goal of a successful field sampling program is to accurately characterize in-field product performance while also minimizing resource demand, as collection of maize root samples to evaluate CRW injury can present resource challenges such as labor intensiveness, potential safety issues, and a limited time window available for sampling. A resource-efficient sequential sampling plan was developed that utilizes data-driven root injury threshold values derived from benchmark product performance data for both single and pyramided Bt maize traits for CRW control. This sequential sampling methodology incorporates unbiased sampling and controlled false positive and false negative error rates, enabling accurate assessment decisions to be made with efficient resource use. Our proposed approach enables systematic and effective classification of in-field Bt maize product performance, with applications to other CRW control technologies besides Bt maize products.
Imaging of the Male Pelvis: The Scrotum

Although there are many potential ways one might compartmentalize the imaging of scrotal disease (including pattern recognition, etiologies, and clinical presentation), this chapter focuses on the requisite entities that, based on their imaging and clinical features, constitute the core knowledge needed for the radiologist when faced with an abnormal scrotal sonogram. Hence, while not comprehensive, this review addresses diseases that are of interest because of a distinctive combination of clinical relevance and characteristic imaging features.
NONLINEAR CREEP OF CONCRETE ADAPTATION AND FLOW

A nonlinear integral-type creep law is developed by generalizing the linear superposition integral for the creep rate rather than the total strain. At low service stress level there is a significant (though previously overlooked) nonlinearity that consists in gradual stiffening or adaptation to a sustained compressive stress. It is modeled by a stress-dependent acceleration of the age-dependence of stiffness, and by an adaptation parameter whose rate is a function of the stress and age. The high-stress nonlinearity that consists of a weakening of the stiffness, is essentially without memory and is described by an additive rate-type flow term. Its stress dependence and the flow rate decay is modeled by kinematic hardening. An extension to elevated temperatures, which agrees with recovery data, is indicated. Although uniaxial creep is of primary interest, a rational triaxial generalization involving proper stress invariants is derived.
Decent Work with a Living Wage

The effects of globalization on employment justify augmenting the fundamental principles articulated in the ILO's 1998 Declaration by including a global goal of decent work with a living wage. Adding the principle of decent work with a living wage can help keep labor law relevant because it can be the organizing principle for an array of unions and other groups interested in worker welfare to push for its implementation as a matter of international, regional and national law. The goal of decent work with a living wage can be a rallying cry to help overcome the prevailing neoliberal assumption that the present set of very limited regulations of the market is a natural law. Regaining the intellectual high ground for claims of worker rights to decent work with a living wage can be the product for, but also the cause of, organized action by those who share values in fair treatment at a global level. Unions, but also other NGOs, need to see that it is in their long term interest as well as the long term interest of the workers it claims to represent to reach across borders to work together to achieve this goal. Conflicting strategic interests and different legal and organizational cultures make this a daunting goal, but one worth pursuing.
Wave height measurement using a short-range FMCW radar for unmanned surface craft

This paper describes a radar system designed for deployment on an unmanned surface craft under development in the Autonomous Ocean Systems Laboratory of Memorial University. The radar system includes two sub-systems: one a long-range radar that detects sea-surface objects a few kilometers away, the other a short-range frequency modulated continuous wave radar. This short-range radar not only detects the near obstacles but also senses the sea state to enhance the navigation safety of the unmanned surface craft. The short-range radar provides a useful complement to the blind zone of the long-range radar and largely determines the survival of the unmanned surface craft in oceans. The design of the short-range system and the experimental results obtained from both wave tank and sea-surface tests are presented. The results show that the short-range radar are able to estimate the sea-state by measuring wave height.
Titian: data provenance support in Spark

Debugging data processing logic in Data-Intensive Scalable Computing (DISC) systems is a difficult and time consuming effort. Today's DISC systems offer very little tooling for debugging programs, and as a result programmers spend countless hours collecting evidence (e.g., from log files) and performing trial and error debugging. To aid this effort, we built Titian, a library that enables data provenance---tracking data through transformations---in Apache Spark. Data scientists using the Titian Spark extension will be able to quickly identify the input data at the root cause of a potential bug or outlier result. Titian is built directly into the Spark platform and offers data provenance support at interactive speeds---orders-of-magnitude faster than alternative solutions---while minimally impacting Spark job performance; observed overheads for capturing data lineage rarely exceed 30% above the baseline job execution time.
How Often Are Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Said to “Evolve” in the News?

Media plays an important role in informing the general public about scientific ideas. We examine whether the word "evolve," sometimes considered controversial by the general public, is frequently used in the popular press. Specifically, we ask how often articles discussing antibiotic resistance use the word "evolve" (or its lexemes) as opposed to alternative terms such as "emerge" or "develop." We chose the topic of antibiotic resistance because it is a medically important issue; bacterial evolution is a central player in human morbidity and mortality. We focused on the most widely-distributed newspapers written in English in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, India, and Australia. We examined all articles that focused primarily on the evolution of antibiotic resistance, were published in 2014 or earlier, and were accessible in online archives, for a total of 1639 articles. The total years examined per newspaper ranged from 5 to 37 years with a median of 27 years, and the overall range was 1978-2014. We quantified how many articles included the term "evolve" and analyzed how this varied with newspaper, country, and time. We found that an overall rate of 18% of articles used the term "evolve" but with significant variation among countries. Newspapers in the United Kingdom had the highest rate (24%), more than double of those in India (9%), the country with the lowest rate. These frequencies were lower than those found in scientific papers from both evolutionary journals and biomedical journals. There were no statistically significant changes in frequency and no trends when "evolve" usage was compared against variables such as newspaper circulation, liberal/conservative bias, time, and state evolution acceptance in U.S. newspapers. This study highlights the globally low usage of the word "evolve" in the popular press. We suggest this low usage may affect public understanding and acceptance of evolutionary concepts.
72 CHRONIC ADMINISTRATION OF STATINS ON IN VIVO HEME OXYGENASE EXPRESSION: A NOVEL MECHANISM OF ANTIOXIDANT PROTECTION.

Heme oxygenase (HO) is the rate-limiting enzyme in degrading heme to form bilirubin and thus serves as an ideal therapeutic target for preventing neonatal jaundice. Understanding the regulatory pathways of HO is crucial for developing strategies for this disorder. We have previously shown that statins, inhibitors of 3-hydroxyl-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase, selectively induce the HO-1 isozyme in vivo following a large single oral dose. The objective in this study was to investigate the effects of chronic administration of statins on in vivo induction of HO-1 expression. Adult mice were given atorvastatin or rosuvastatin (5 mg/kg body weight) or vehicle (control) by daily intraperitoneal injections for 1, 2, or 3 weeks. At each time point, mice were sacrificed. HO activity and tissue carbon monoxide (CO) levels in the liver, lung, brain, and heart were measured and then expressed as fold change from control levels. Total serum bilirubin (TSB) and carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) levels were measured after 3 weeks of statin treatment. Heart HO activity significantly increased after 2 and 3 weeks of treatment with atorvastatin (1.24 ± 0.27 [n = 7, p = .04] and 1.27 ± 0.07 [n = 4, p = .0009], respectively) and rosuvastatin (1.20 ± 0.13 [n = 5, p = .02] and 1.48 ± 0.27 [n = 5, p = .01], respectively). After 3 weeks of treatment, similar increases in heart tissue CO and COHb levels with atorvastatin (1.30 ± 0.24 [n = 5, p = .023] and 1.92 ± 0.17 [n = 5, p = .001], respectively) and rosuvastatin (1.47 ± 0.13 [n = 3, p = .01] and 1.63 ± 0.12 [n = 5, p = .001], respectively) were also found. Significant increases in antioxidant capacity in the heart in both atorvastatin- (n = 4) and rosuvastatin- (n = 5) treaqted mice were also observed and were paralleled by elevations in TSB of 1.49 ± 0.15-fold (p = .001) and 1.14 ± 0.14-fold (p = .02) from baseline levels, respectively. We conclude that the induction of HO activity by chronic treatment with atorvastatin and rosuvastatin is primarily in the heart. Subsequent production of CO and bilirubin, bioactive metabolic products of HO-1, is the major mechanism by which statins exert their antioxidant actions on the cardiovascular system and confer cardiac cytoprotection. This work was study was supported in part by National Institutes of Health grant #HD58013 and AstraZeneca grant #1RUSROSU0190.
Status of credentialing for health personnel

The Bureau of Health Manpower Education recently announced that it will fund a study of the feasibility of establishing a national system of certification for health personnel. Dietetic and nutrition services are among the principal fields to be addressed in the study, to be conducted by the Institute of Public Administration. Thus, this broad discussion of credentialing takes on added importance in the light of current developments.
Biomedical Ethics Committees

As a consequence of rapidly increasing and complex ethical dilemmas in medicine, health care institutions are responding by forming biomedical ethics committees. In this article, the authors review the origins, functions, and potential drawbacks of these committees and also make suggestions on starting these committees.
Coordinate changes in C protein and myosin expression during skeletal muscle hypertrophy.

In this study, two new C protein isoforms in adult rat skeletal muscle were resolved using sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. These isoforms migrated between previously iden...
Diagnostic Ultrasound in the Evaluation of Scrotal Masses

AbstractEvaluation of 27 patients with scrotal masses was done with gray scale ultrasound. Given the clinical diagnosis ultrasound proved reliable in almost all cases.
The health status of Gulf War veterans: lessons learned from the Department of Veterans Affairs Health Registry.

Objective: To describe the demographic characteristics and postwar health status of U.S. Gulf War veterans who participated in the Department of Veterans Affairs health examination registry program. Design: Case records of 52,835 veterans who participated in a standardized health examination program were reviewed. Setting: Participants volunteered for physical examinations at a Department of Veterans Affairs medical treatment facility from August 1992 to September 1996. Subjects: U.S. Gulf War veterans deployed to southwest Asia between August 1990 and 1996. Main Outcome Measure: Demographic, military, symptom, and International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, diagnostic categories. Results: A wide variety of symptoms and diagnoses were reported without apparent internal variation by military characteristics (branch and service component). The frequency of symptoms (fatigue, skin rash, headache, muscle and joint pain, and memory loss) reported increased over time, whereas the proportion of individuals with physician-diagnosed illnesses remained fairly constant. No single category of disease increased or decreased substantially over time. Conclusions: Veterans have experienced a wide variety of health problems since their Gulf War service. These problems, in aggregate, are different from what has been seen in other armed conflicts. The Department of Veterans Affairs registry is a very large case series and has failed to identify a single, unique syndrome or new illness after Gulf War service. An epidemiologic study would better define the prevalence of specific symptoms and medical conditions among Gulf War veterans and to what extent any of the conditions identified are associated with Gulf War military service. The knowledge provided by such studies would be important to development of preventive measures and future deployment medical surveillance planning.
The Perplexing Delivery Mechanism of Lipoplexes

Publisher Summary The chapter explores the perplexing delivery mechanism of lipoplexes. This chapter summarizes the process of lipoplex-mediated in vitro gene transfer and describes recent advances in the understanding of in vivo gene transfer. The focus is on systemic lipoplex administration. Lipoplexes are formed through electrostatis interactions among cationic lipids and DNA components. The chapter discusses the cationic lipid structure along with the role of helper liquid. This lipid is necessary for the establishment of a bilayered vesicle morphology with some cationic lipids. Steps leading to the formation of lipoplex are listed in detail. The chapter outlines the in vitro transfection that mentions—successful delivery of a lipoplex in an intact animal involves interactions with anatomical and physiological components located in the vasculature and extracellular space. These interactions with the biophase can alter lipoplex properties and/or prevent access to target cells. The phenomena related to these are discussed thoroughly in this chapter. The study concludes that to improve lipoplex gene-delivery efficiency, an important research strategy has to be found for improving nonviral gene delivery. This will unravel the mechanisms by which current systems function in vivo .
CHAPTER 65 – Experimental Antiplatelet Therapy

The platelet plays a central role in the pathophysiology of atherosclerosis through its effects on inflammation.1,2 In addition to modulating inflammation, the platelet is directly involved in thrombosis and subsequent acute vascular events (including acute coronary syndromes, ischemic strokes, and symptomatic peripheral arterial disease).3 Together, this spectrum of disease is termed atherothrombosis, and the goal of antiplatelet therapy is to reduce the development and clinical expression of atherothrombotic disease.
Elastomer-metal laminate armor

Abstract A study was carried out of pressure wave transmission and the ballistic penetration of steel substrates incorporating a front-face laminate, the latter consisting of alternating layers of thin metal and a soft polymer; the latter undergoes a viscoelastic phase transition on impact. The ballistic properties of laminate/steel structures are substantially better than conventional military armor. This enhanced performance has three origins: large energy absorption by the viscoelastic polymer, a significant strain-hardening of the material, and lateral spreading of the impact force. These mechanisms, active only at high strain rates, depend on the chemical structure of the polymer but not on the particular metal used in the laminate.
Molecular Biology of Biotin-Containing Enzymes Required in Lipid Metabolism

The water soluble vitamin, biotin, acts as a cofactor for a set of enzymes that catalyze carboxylation, decarboxylation or transcarboxylation reactions (Moss and Lane, 1971). In plants we have characterized four biotin-containing enzymes each of which catalyze reactions required in lipid metabolic processes. These enzymes are the homomeric and heteromeric isozymes of acetyl-CoA carboxylase (ACCase), methylcrotonyl-CoA carboxylase (MCCase) and geranoyl-CoA carboxylase (GCCase). The studies of these biotin-containing enzymes has led to an interest in biotin biosynthesis, and we have cloned the gene coding for biotin synthase.
Frühe Schriften 1914 – 1918

Es ist haufig allzu naheliegend und allemal verfuhrerisch, bereits in den fruhesten Schriften alles Spatere vorgezeichnet zu finden. Die Passage, mit der Benjamin seinen 1915 zuerst gedruckten Aufsatz, Das Leben der Studenten, einleitet, gibt dazu mehr als nur einen Anlas. Auf zwei Vortrage zuruckgehend, die er im Mai und Juni 1914 als neu gewahlter Prasident der Berliner Freien Studentenschaft hielt, stellt der Text neben dem zwei Jahre fruher entstandenen Dialog uber die Religiositat der Gegenwart den vielleicht konzentriertesten Ausdruck seiner Gedankenentwicklung in jener Zeit dar. Weitausgreifend ruckt der Anfang zwanzigjahrige Student der Philosophie an den Universitaten Freiburg und Berlin seinen Versuch einer geistigen Standortbestimmung des Studentenlebens zwischen Universitat und Staat, Studium und Beruf, in den Horizont einer metaphysischen Geschichtsauffassung, in deren Zentrum das Verstandnis der Gegenwart steht.
Factors associated with emergency department useamong veteran psychiatric patients.

Frequent utilization of emergency department (ED) services contributes substantially to the cost of healthcare nationally and is often driven by psychiatric factors. Using national-level data from the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), the present study examined patient-level factors associated with ED use among veteran psychiatric patients. Veterans who had at least one ED visit with a psychiatric diagnosis in fiscal years 2011–2012 (n = 226,122) were identified in VHA administrative records. Andersen’s behavioral model of healthcare utilization was used to identify need, enabling, and predisposing factors associated with frequency of ED use (primary outcome) in multivariate regression models. Greater ED use was primarily linked with need (psychotic, anxiety, personality, substance use, and bipolar disorders) and enabling (detoxification-related service utilization and homelessness) factors. Chronic medical conditions, receipt of an opioid prescription, and predisposing factors (e.g., younger age) were also linked to greater ED use; however, the effect sizes for these factors were markedly lower than those of most psychiatric and psychosocial factors. The findings suggest that intensive case management programs aimed reducing frequent ED use among psychiatric patients may require greater emphasis on homelessness and other psychosocial deficits that are common among these patients, and future research should explore cost-effective approaches to implementing these programs.
Single Units in the Posterior Parietal Cortex Encode Patterns of Bimanual Coordination

Bimanual coordination is critical for a broad array of behaviors. Drummers, for example, must carefully coordinate movements of their 2 arms, sometimes beating on the same drum and sometimes on different ones. While coordinated behavior is well-studied, the early stages of planning are not well understood. In the parietal reach region (PRR) of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), the presence of neurons that modulate when either arm moves by itself has been taken as evidence for a role in bimanual coordination. To test this notion, we recorded neurons during both unilateral and bimanual movements. We find that the activity that precedes an ipsilateral arm movement is primarily a sensory response to a target in the neuron's visual receptive field and not a plan to move the ipsilateral arm. In contrast, the activity that precedes a contralateral arm movement is the sum of a movement plan plus a sensory response. Despite not coding ipsilateral arm movements, about half of neurons discriminate between different patterns of bimanual movements. These results provide direct evidence that PRR neurons represent bimanual reach plans, and suggest that bimanual coordination originates in the sensory-to-motor processing stream prior to the motor cortex, within the PPC.
Collective flow from AA, pA to pp collisions – Toward a unified paradigm

Abstract I give an overview of the latest development in understanding collective phenomena in high-multiplicity hadronic final state from relativistic nucleus-nucleus, proton-nucleus and proton-proton collisions. Upon reviewing the experimental data and confronting them with theoretical models, a unified paradigm in describing the observed collectivity across all hadronic collision systems is emerging. Potential future paths toward addressing key open questions, especially on collectivity in small systems (pp, pA), are discussed.
Beacon-Guided Structure from Motion for Smartphone-Based Navigation

Great progress has been made in computer vision-based localization systems. However, some systems tend to work well only in certain visually feature-rich environments. It is often the case that feature-based matching techniques can have a hard time dealing with scenes with only a few features or a large number of repetitive features. In these situations, computer vision-based localization may fail to estimate camera position or may yield a large localization error. We approach this problem from a systems perspective, where we are required to obtain accurate localization of blind travellers using a smartphones app for localization. In particular, we assume that the environment is already instrumented with Bluetooth low energy (BLE) signals to provide rough proximity information, and we propose to integrate it with visual information to perform efficient structure-from-motion and camera localization. Our multi-model sensing approach can accelerate localization speed and obtain more accuracy in challenging environments when compared to traditional baseline approaches. We also show that our approach can accelerate the time for reconstructing large 3D models. Our framework is released as an open source project. It can be used by different mobile operating systems, enabling the development of navigation applications on mobile platforms.
'IN VIVO' MODEL SYSTEMS TO STUDY ras ONCOGENE INVOLVEMENT IN CARCINOGENESIS

Correlations have been reported between exposure to chemicals, radiation, viruses or certain diets and human cancer. Some chemicals have been pointed out as causative factors in specific tumor types (IARC, 1982; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1983).
A cognitively plausible approach to understanding complex syntax

This paper describes a cognitively plausible mechanism for systematically handling complex syntactic constructions within a semantic parser. More specifically, we show how these constructions are handled without a global syntactic grammar or syntactic parse tree representations and without sacrificing the benefits of semantically-oriented parsing. We evaluate the psychological validity of our architecture and conclude that it is a plausible computational model of human processing for an important class of embedded clause constructions. As a result, we achieve robust sentence processing capabilities not found in other parsers of its class.
Development of pedagogical knowledge among learning assistants.

Successful outcomes of the Learning Assistant (LA) model include increased learning outcomes in STEM gateway courses and increased persistence to graduation among LAs and the students they serve. While there are many possible reasons that the LA program is effective, the pedagogical development of the LAs themselves has not yet been systematically studied. The research reported here investigated how deeply first-time LAs enrolled in a one-semester pedagogy course took up the language associated with the course’s essential pedagogical principles. By reviewing prior research as well as assessing our target population and our pedagogy course learning goals, we developed a set of three essential pedagogical principles that are critical for effective classroom instruction and developed a coding scheme for identifying these principles in LAs’ written work. We then looked at LA’s development of language with respect to these principles by analyzing weekly teaching reflections submitted by LAs during five iterations of our pedagogy course. Our research indicated that the language used to introduce particular pedagogical principles might play an important role in initiating LAs’ uptake of these concepts. We found that LAs began to develop an understanding of the language that values students’ prior ideas in learning, but the depth of this understanding varied. In addition, LAs did not demonstrate as much growth in their language with respect to the formative assessment or to the idea that students play a role in constructing knowledge. In developing a pedagogy course for LAs, relating to their prior backgrounds in STEM appears to be critical. Using language that is accessible seems to increase LAs’ ability to develop pedagogical principles. Although LAs’ development of language related to the essential pedagogical principles is small, it may be enough to allow them to create contexts that facilitate learning.
Effects of Tween 80 on fermentative butanol production from alkali-pretreated switchgrass

Abstract In this study, switchgrass was investigated as a renewable feedstock for fermentative production of acetone, butanol and ethanol (ABE). For this purpose, switchgrass was first subjected to alkaline pretreatment, which reduces its recalcitrance and increases enzyme accessibility. Both simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF) and separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF) were applied. The pretreated switchgrass solids inhibit ABE fermentation, presumably due to the residual lignin portion, as evidenced by the toxicity test of various model phenolic compounds. Addition of a non-ionic surfactant, Tween 80, alleviated the phenol-induced inhibition. As constrained by the “solid effects”, the upper limit of solid loading that SSF could process was in the range of 5–6%. SSF with 5% solid loading produced a total of 12.3 g/L ABE solvents with 7.8 g/L of butanol. SHF was further applied to process higher solid loadings. A total of 14.3 g/L ABE solvent with 8.5 g/L of butanol was produced from SHF with 7% solid loading. SSF gave an overall bioconversion yield close to that of pure sugar control, whereas SHF was able to avoid the “solid effects” with a slightly lower overall bioconversion yield.
Patient Safety in an Academic Medical Practice

Many different types of patient safety events can occur in the outpatient setting. This chapter reviews types of outpatient errors and strategies for prevention. Additionally, basic principles of risk management and educational opportunities focused on patient safety are discussed.
Baudelaire's Frisson Fraternal Horror and Enchantment in "Les Tableaux Parisiens"

"Baudelaire's Frisson Fraternel: Horror and Enchantment in 'Les Tableaux Parisiens'" considers the significance of encounters between Baudelaire's narrator, the urban flâneur, in "Les Sept vieillards," "Les Petites vieilles," and "Les Aveugles," and grotesque, sinister, yet fascinating figures met in the street. The article demonstrates that these encounters are different in kind from other allegorical figures in the many other urban poems of Les Fleurs du Mal and Le Spleen de Paris, such as the verse poems "Le Cygne," "Le Soleil," and "Le Crepuscule du soir," and the prose texts "Les Yeux des pauvres" and "La Fausse monnaie;" this difference is attributed to a nexus of associations whose common term is an uncannily indeterminate humanity, in which life and death are increasingly indistinguishable. The fascination and anxiety evoked by these figures in the narrator and the reader alike provoke a terrible immediacy with the unconscious, an irresistible return of repressed, primitive fears, drawing us into a disturbing proximity with death.
Dioramas in Natural History Museum—Tools for Nature Conservation

The National Museum of Natural History, situated in the medieval city of Mdina, is by comparison to most national natural history museums elsewhere, small. This is both in its collections (c.a. 500,000 specimens) and in the space available for display purposes. Nevertheless, the restricted space does not impede new and innovative approaches to museum displays. The art of depicting nature behind a glass pane has long been a substantial element of museum displays. In 2004 the museum embarked on a series of educational oriented dioramas, highlighting Maltese habitats and the commoner species one is likely to encounter. The first set of eight dioramas was well received not only by the general public but also by teachers and children alike. With this positive feedback from our visitors, the museum is embarking on a series of micro-dioramas, the first of which will highlight “Life in the undergrowth”.
AFRICAN DUST: ITS LARGE-SCALE TRANSPORT OVER THE ATLANTIC OCEAN AND ITS IMPACT ON THE MEDITERRANEAN REGION

Mineral dust is a major aerosol component over many regions of the world, especially arid areas. In satellite images dust is the most persis- tently visible aerosol component over the oceans. There is increased interest in dust because of its impact on climate and also because iron associated with dust is an essential micronutrient that can serve to enhance ocean primary productivity and, thus, impact the global carbon cycle. Africa is the world's largest dust source. Great quantities of African dust are transported over large areas of the North Atlantic and the Mediterranean. In this report I review recent research on African dust transport and discuss some of the possible impacts that dust might have. A major concern is the future trend in African dust transport under climate change conditions. It is very difficult to predict future trends because of our lack of understanding of the factors that affect the activity of dust sources. North Africa can serve as the ideal laboratory in which to study these important processes.
Hydrogenation/Dehydrogenation of Unsaturated Bonds with Iron Pincer Catalysis

This chapter examines iron pincer complexes that catalyze hydrogenation and dehydrogenation reactions of common organic compounds, focusing on work reported in the last decade. Substrates include aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, esters, nitriles, imines, amines, CO2, formic acid, amides, alkenes, and alkynes. Hydroboration and hydrosilation catalysis with iron pincers are also summarized. Some examples of enantioselective iron catalysis using pincers and tetradentate ligands are included. Examples of C–O cleavage have also been reported, and the scope of this chemistry is presented.
Non-Market Competition as a Discovery Procedure

Virtually all of the seminal theoretical contributions of the Austrian school deal with the functioning of the market process. Curiously, however, a significant strand of modern Austrian research has taken a “nonmarket turn”—dealing with social interaction beyond the scope of market institutions. This chapter synthesizes recent work in the Austrian tradition on nonmarket entrepreneurship, reviewing the vibrant and varied applications of market process insights to nonmarket issues. I conceptualize nonmarket entrepreneurs as change agents whose actions alter the institutional environment at different levels of the institutional hierarchy. The result is a rough sketch of a framework for nonmarket action as a competitive discovery procedure. From here, I raise conceptual challenges and opportunities for future research.
The distribution of waiting distances in ancestral recombination graphs and its applications

The ancestral recombination graph (ARG) contains the full genealogical information of the sample, and many population genetic inference problems can be solved using inferred or sampled ARGs. In particular, the waiting distance between tree changes along the genome can be used to make inference about the distribution and evolution of recombination rates. To this end, we here derive an analytic expression for the distribution of waiting distances between tree changes under the sequentially Markovian coalescent model and obtain an accurate approximation to the distribution of waiting distances for topology changes. We use these results to show that some of the recently proposed methods for inferring sequences of trees along the genome provide strongly biased distributions of waiting distances. In addition, we provide a correction to an undercounting problem facing all available ARG inference methods, thereby facilitating the use of ARG inference methods to estimate temporal changes in the recombination rate.
Robotic Ventral Hernia Repair

The surgical correction of defects of the abdominal wall is a very common type of surgery and has been constantly evolving throughout the years in terms of its technique and materials.
Diffuse interstitial pneumonia-like/macrophage activation syndrome-like changes in patients with COVID-19 correlate with length of illness.

OBJECTIVES: Assess the pathologic changes in the lungs of COVID-19 decedents and correlate these changes with demographic data, clinical course, therapies, and duration of illness. METHODS: Lungs of 12 consecutive COVID-19 decedents consented for autopsy were evaluated for gross and histopathologic abnormalities. A complete Ghon "en block" dissection was performed on all cases; lung weights and gross characteristics recorded. Immunohistochemical studies were performed to characterize lymphocytic infiltrates and to assess SARS-CoV-2 capsid protein. RESULTS: Two distinct patterns of pulmonary involvement were identified. Three of 12 cases demonstrated a predominance of acute alveolar damage (DAD) while 9 of 12 cases demonstrated a marked increase in intra-alveolar macrophages in a fashion resembling desquamative interstitial pneumonia or macrophage activation syndrome (DIP/MAS). Two patterns were correlated solely with a statistically significant difference in the duration of illness. The group exhibiting DAD had duration of illness of 5.7 days while the group with DIP/MAS had duration of illness of 21.5 days (t-test p = 0.014). CONCLUSIONS: The pulmonary pathology of COVID-19 patients demonstrates a biphasic pattern, an acute phase demonstrating DAD changes while the patients with a more prolonged course exhibit a different pattern that resembles DIP/MAS-like pattern. The potential mechanisms and clinical significance are discussed.
Esophageal Motility Disorders and Diverticula: Physiologic Implication and Surgical Considerations:

Zenker’s diverticula are the most common diverticula of the esophagus and attributed to a hypertensive non-compliant cricopharyngeus muscle with reduced sphincter opening. Cricopharygeus myotomy is...
The African Diaspora: Slavery, Modernity, and Globalization

The African diaspora is arguably the most important event in modern African history. From the fifteenth century to the present, millions of Africans have been dispersed -- many of them forcibly, others driven by economic need or political persecution--to other continents, creating large communities with African origins living outside their native lands. The majority of these communities are in North America. This historic displacement has meant that Africans are irrevocably connected to economic and political developments in the West and globally. Among the known legacies of the diaspora are slavery, colonialism, racism, poverty, and underdevelopment, yet the ways in which these same factors worked to spur the scattering of Africans are not fully understood -- by those who were part of this migration or by scholars, historians, and policymakers. In this definitive study of the diaspora in North America, Toyin Falola offers a causal history of the western dispersion of Africans and its effects on the modern world. Reengaging old and familiar debates and framing new ones that enrich the discourse surrounding Africa, Falola isolates the thread, running nearly six centuries, that connects the history of slavery, the transatlantic slave trade, and current migrations. A boon to scholars and policymakers and accessible to the general reader, the book explores diverse narratives of migration and shows that the cultures that migrated from Africa to the Americas have the capacity to unite and create a new pan-Africanist movement within the globalized world. Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair in the Humanities and University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the 2011 recipient of the Distinguished Africanist Award from the African Studies Association and serves as the vice president of the International Scientific Committee of the UNESCO Slave Route Project. His previous books published by the University of Rochester Press include The Power of African Cultures and Nationalism and African Intellectuals.
Mammal Faunas of Xeric Habitats and the Great American Interchange

The Great American Interchange is one of the more fascinating occurrences in vertebrate history. A huge continent, South America, was cast adrift from the terrestrial mainland of the Gondwana supercontinent very early in mammalian history. Like a massive island, South America moved slowly northward at a rate of only centimeters per year, its initial faunal complement developing in isolation from the rest of the organisms of the world. Detailed reports on the evolution of the South American paleofauna during this period are available elsewhere (e.g., G. G. Simpson, 1967, 1969, 1978, 1980; Patterson and Pascual, 1972; Webb, 1976; Marshall et al., 1979, 1981, 1982; Webb and Marshall, 1982) and will not be reviewed extensively here. I will examine only some highlights of the interchange to illustrate factors that are important to the development of the faunas of arid and semiarid habitats. Suffice to say that the evolution of mammals in South America took place over both space and time.
Book Review of Frederic L. Borch, Judge Advocates in Combat: Army Lawyers in Military Operations from Vietnam to Haiti (2001)

This is a review of Frederic L. Borch, Judge Advocates in Combat: Army Lawyers in Military Operations from Vietnam to Haiti (2001). The book presents and supports a specific thesis. It shows that military attorneys over time gradually have assumed an important new duty in combat operations. Judge advocates, for example, now directly influence the planning and execution of military actions by drafting rules of engagement, aiding in the selection of targets, crafting policies to ensure compliance with the law of war, and even by advising on political matters in host nations. I have written a positive review of this book.
Approximating the ACOPF problem with a hierarchy of SOCP problems

Semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxations for the Alternating Current Optimal Power Flow (ACOPF) problem have been shown to be tight for well studied problem instances. However, due to the computational demands of SDP, it becomes difficult to use SDP relaxations to approximate large-scale instances of the ACOPF problem. Recently, computationally cheaper second-order cone relaxations have been proposed for the ACOPF problem that are tight for networks with a simple topology. In this paper, we exploit recent results in polynomial optimization to construct a hierarchy of second-order cone relaxations that provide increasingly better approximations for ACOPF problems. We show that in comparison with proposed related SDP hierarchies, the second-order cone hierarchies provide good approximations to the ACOPF problems for larger scale networks. We illustrate this with numerical examples on well studied instances of the ACOPF problem.
Modeling the risk of spread and establishment for Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) in Massachusetts from 2008-2009

AbstractLand managers responsible for invasive species removal in the USA require tools to prevent the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis) (ALB) from decimating the maple-dominant hardwood forests of Massachusetts and New England. Species distribution models (SDMs) and spread models have been applied individually to predict the invasion distribution and rate of spread, but the combination of both models can increase the accuracy of predictions of species spread over time when habitat suitability is heterogeneous across landscapes. First, a SDM was fit to 2008 ALB presence-only locations. Then, a stratified spread model was generated to measure the probability of spread due to natural and human causes. Finally, the SDM and spread models were combined to evaluate the risk of ALB spread in Central Massachusetts in 2008–2009. The SDM predicted many urban locations in Central Massachusetts as having suitable environments for species establishment. The combined model shows the greatest risk of sp...
A Quasi‐Experimental Test of the Marginal Trader Hypothesis

Summary Economists have tried to reconcile irrational individual-level behavior with rational market behavior through the Marginal Trader Hypothesis (MTH), which posits that even when most traders act irrationally, a small group of well-informed traders can keep an asset's market price equal to its fundamental value. I test the MTH by comparing predictions for the 2008 U.S. presidential election generated by the Iowa Electronic Markets to those of a prediction contest, a decision task that precludes marginal traders. The results do not support the MTH; I find that the forecasts generated by the prediction market and the prediction contest are equally accurate.
Enhancement of the Dense-Core Vesicle Secretory Cycle by Glucocorticoid Differentiation of PC12 Cells: Characteristics of Rapid Exocytosis and Endocytosis

The secretory cycle of dense-core vesicles (DCVs) in physiologically stimulated patch-clamped PC12 cells was analyzed using both amperometry and capacitance measurements. Untreated cells had low or undetectable Ca currents and sparse secretory responses to short depolarizations. Dexamethasone (5 μm) treatment for 5–7 d tripled Ca current magnitude and dramatically increased quantal secretion in response to depolarization with action potentials. Such cells expressed L-, N-, and P-type Ca channels, and depolarization evoked rapid catecholamine secretion recorded as amperometric spikes; the average latency was ∼50 msec. These spikes were much smaller and shorter than those of primary adrenal chromaffin cells, reflecting the smaller size of DCVs in PC12 cells. Depolarizing pulse trains also elicited a rapid increase in membrane capacitance corresponding to exocytosis in differentiated but not in naive cells. On termination of stimulation, membrane capacitance declined within 20 sec to baseline indicative of rapid endocytosis (RE). RE did not take place when secretion was stimulated in the presence of Ba or Sr, indicating that RE is Ca-specific. RE was blocked when either anti-dynamin antibodies or the pleckstrin homology domain of dynamin-1 was loaded into the cell via the patch pipette. These studies indicate that neuroendocrine differentiation of PC12 cells with glucocorticoids enhances the development of the excitable membrane and increases the coupling between Ca channels and vesicle release sites, leading to rapid exocytosis and endocytosis. Slow catecholamine secretion in undifferentiated cells may be caused in part by a lack of localized secretory machinery rather than being an intrinsic property of dense-core vesicles.
Recognition of a specific self-peptide: self-MHC class II complex is critical for positive selection of thymocytes expressing the D10 TCR.

We examined the specificity of positive and negative selection by using transgenic mice carrying a variant of the D10 TCR. We demonstrate that a point mutation at position 51 within the CDR2α segment significantly reduces the avidity of this TCR for its cognate ligand, but does not impact recognition of nonself MHC class II molecules. Although structural studies have suggested that this TCR site interacts with the MHC class II β-chain, the avidity of this TCR for its ligand and the function of the T cell can be reconstituted by a point mutation in the bound antigenic peptide. These data demonstrate that the bound peptide can indirectly alter TCR interactions by influencing MHC structure. Remarkably, reducing the avidity of this TCR for a specific antigenic peptide-MHC ligand has a dramatic impact on thymic selection. Positive selection of thymocytes expressing this TCR is nearly completely blocked, whereas negative selection on allogenic MHC class II molecules remains intact. Therefore, the recognition of self that promotes positive selection of the D10 TCR is highly peptide-specific.