cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
COX-2 and Alzheimer's disease: potential roles in inflammation and neurodegeneration

Epidemiological and clinical data suggest that nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are beneficial in the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). NSAIDs act by inhibiting cyclooxygenase, an enzyme that occurs in constitutive and inducible isoforms, known respectively as COX-1 and COX-2. Recognition that COX-2 plays a key role in inflammation led to the hypothesis that COX-2 might represent the primary target for NSAIDs in AD, consistent with inflammatory processes occurring in AD brain. This review highlights recently gathered evidence leading to a more complex view of the role of COX-2 in AD, including evidence that COX-2 directly contributes to neuronal vulnerability. Consideration of these roles is critical for the rational implementation of NSAID therapy in AD.
Hydrophilic Guidewires: Evaluation and Comparison of Their Properties and Safety

Objective To compare physical and mechanical properties of 10 commercially available hydrophilic guidewires. Methods In vitro testing was performed to evaluate 10 different straight hydrophilic guidewires (5 regular and 5 stiff wires): Glidewire, NiCore, EZ Glider, Hiwire, and Zipwire. The forces required for tip perforation, tip bending, shaft bending, and friction during movement were measured for all 10 wires. The tip contour was measured using high power light microscopy. Results The Glidewire required the greatest force to perforate our model (P = .01). The EZ Glider, Zipwire, and Glidewire had the lowest tip bending forces (P Conclusion Each wire has unique properties with advantages and disadvantages. The Glidewires (both stiff and regular) have the lowest potential for perforation, although they are less slippery. The Glidewire and EZ Glider required the least tip force to bend around a point of obstruction.
Atomic-Scale Studies of Complex Oxide Interfaces Using Aberration-Corrected Z-contrast Imaging and EELS

The recent development of probe aberration-correctors has enabled us to directly study the atomic- scale structure-property relationships of interfaces in complex oxides. In particular, by using correlated Z- contrast imaging and electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS), the structure, composition and bonding at complex oxide interfaces can all be characterized directly with a spatial and energy resolution that cannot be achieved by any other technique. In this paper, we will demonstrate that the combination of Z-contrast imaging and EELS can be used to analyze a wide range of properties in complex oxide materials, such as CMRs, high-κ dielectrics and high-Tc superconductors.
An exploratory comparison of US and international academically based entrepreneurship centres

Little research is available about the operations and management of academically based entrepreneurship centres, and even less is available on non-US-based centres. This paper fills the gap in the literature by examining the similarities and differences between US and non-US academically based entrepreneurship centres. More specifically, we examine the centres' structures, activities, success measures, directors' roles and resources. Global similarities were found in drivers of excellence and challenges facing centre directors. However, centres located outside the US tend to have different organisational structures, funding sources and missions. Our analysis forms the basis for benchmarking entrepreneurship centres and can help those interested in establishing such centres understand the different facets of their centres' management.
High-speed CMOS continuous-time complex graphic equalizer for magnetic recording

A high-speed continuous-time CMOS analog adaptive equalizer for use in magnetic recording read channels is presented. The equalizer is implemented as the summation of several bandpass filters covering different frequency bands as in a graphic equalizer. The outputs from each filter are weighted by a complex coefficient and summed, which results in a linear combiner structure guaranteed to converge under least mean square (LMS) adaptation. System-level simulations of our "complex graphic equalizer (CGE)" show that its performance is comparable to that of a ten-tap finite impulse response (FIR) equalizer following a fourth-order low-pass filter when tested with two different sequence detectors: EPR4-MLSD and fixed delay tree search with decision feedback (FDTS/DF). A five-band tunable CGE has been fabricated using a 0.8-/spl mu/m CMOS technology. The highest band of the fabricated CGE was centered at 80 MHz (corresponding to channel data rate of about 200 Msymbols/s). Measured dynamic range was 68 dB, and measured total harmonic distortion was only -75 dB while consuming 97 mW at 3.3 V. The measured CGE performance agreed within 0.2 dB with the simulation results for an FDTS/DF system with an ideal CGE operating at 2.5 user bits/PW50.
Children's Perceptions of Peers With Somatic Symptoms: The Impact of Gender, Stress, and Illness

Objective: To investigate how illness characteristics influence children’s responses to ill peers. Methods: A sample of 363 4th and 5th graders responded to a vignette describing a peer with abdominal pain. In a 2 2 2 2 design,conditions varied by (a) evidence for organic disease,(b) presence of stress,(c) sex of vignette character,and (d) sex of respondent. Children rated symptom severity,liking for the peer,and whether the peer should be excused from normal responsibilities. Results: Same sex preferences significantly influenced children’s liking for a peer. Children viewed symptoms with an organic etiology as more severe than those without one. Under certain conditions,symptom severity judgments mediated the relation between the presence of organic disease and (a) liking and (b) granting relief from responsibility. The presence of stress had little effect on ratings of symptom severity,liking,or relief from responsibility. Conclusions: Gender and evidence of organic disease influence children’s perceptions of and responses to symptomatic peers.
Heliotropism in microbial stromatolitic growths at Yellowstone National Park: Geophysical inferences

Examples of heliotropism are easily observed in the microbially produced stromatolitic columnar growths in the thermal effluents from geysers and hot springs at Yellowstone National Park, Wyo. Six effluent regions with microbial mats that produce centimeter-sized conical to columnar structures have been analyzed. The columns or cones tilt south at up to 30° zenith angles, independent of water flow direction (velocities up to 8 cm/s). Subsurface layers and shallow cores of siliceous sinter, presumably microbially produced, also appear to preserve evidence of earlier heliotropism. In combination with similar discoveries in living stromatolitic structures at Shark Bay, Western Australia, this evidence provides a foundation upon which a methodology can be developed for using selected ancient stromatolites to deduce paleo-latitude, paleo-obliquity of the ecliptic, paleo-days per month and year (by using laminae counts), paleo—spin axis north-south, paleolocation of the geomagnetic pole (using paleomagnetism), and other paleoearth and earth-sun-moon dynamics.
Parallel Object Contracts for High Performance Computing

Modern high-performance computing applications are increasingly complex due to the nature of the problems being solved and the often unique, parallel platforms on which they are ultimately executed. Improving the quality of these applications through well-established software engineering techniques, such as design-by-contract, is of growing importance. This paper introduces preliminary work pursuing new interface contract clauses for parallel programming. Existing contract capabilities in the Babel compiler, which is a language interoperability tool tailored for high-performance computing, will be extended with parallel contract constructs for synchronization and method order sequencing. The goal of this work is to enhance existing contract mechanisms without imposing significant synchronization overhead. Preliminary results from an initial investigation of collective and threading assertions are presented.
Tumor-associated macrophages and stromal TNF-α regulate collagen structure in a breast tumor model as visualized by second harmonic generation

Collagen fibers can be imaged with second harmonic generation (SHG) and are associated with efficient tumor cell locomotion. Preferential locomotion along these fibers correlates with a more aggressively metastatic phenotype, and changes in SHG emission properties accompany changes in metastatic outcome. We therefore attempted to elucidate the cellular and molecular machinery that influences SHG in order to understand how the microstructure of tumor collagen fibers is regulated. By quantifying SHG and immunofluorescence (IF) from tumors grown in mice with and without stromal tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and in the presence or absence of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), we determined that depletion of TAMs alters tumor collagen fibrillar microstructure as quantified by SHG and IF. Furthermore, we determined that abrogation of TNF-α expression by tumor stromal cells also alters fibrillar microstructure and that subsequent depletion of TAMs has no further effect. In each case, metastatic burden correlated with optical readouts of collagen microstructure. Our results implicate TAMs and stromal TNF-α as regulators of breast tumor collagen microstructure and suggest that this regulation plays a role in tumor metastasis. Furthermore, these results indicate that quantification of SHG represents a useful strategy for evaluating the cells and molecular pathways responsible for manipulating fibrillar collagen in breast tumor models.
Elders' Life Stories: Impact on the Next Generation of Health Professionals

The purpose of this study was to pilot an enhanced version of the “Share your Life Story” life review writing workshop. The enhanced version included the addition of an intergenerational exchange, based on the content of seniors’ writings, with students planning careers in the health sciences. The researcher employed a mixed methods design. Preliminary results using descriptive analysis revealed an increase in positive images of aging and a decrease in negative images of aging among the five student participants. Qualitative results revealed six themes that illuminate the hows and whys of the quantitative results as well as additional program benefits. Feedback from students and seniors helped to refine the intergenerational protocol for a larger scale study.
Charging-induced asymmetry in molecular conductors

We investigate the origin of asymmetry in various measured current-voltage $(I\text{\ensuremath{-}}V)$ characteristics of molecules with no inherent spatial asymmetry, with particular focus on a recent break junction measurement. We argue that such asymmetry arises due to unequal coupling with the contacts and a consequent difference in charging effects, which can only be captured in a self-consistent model for molecular conduction. The direction of the asymmetry depends on the sign of the majority carriers in the molecule. For conduction through highest occupied molecular orbitals (i.e., HOMO or $p$-type conduction), the current is smaller for positive voltage on the stronger contact, while for conduction through lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (i.e., LUMO or $n$-type conduction), the sense of the asymmetry is reversed. Within an extended H\"uckel description of the molecular chemistry and the contact microstructure (with two adjustable parameters, the position of the Fermi energy and the sulphur-gold bond length), an appropriate description of Poisson's equation, and a self-consistently coupled nonequilibrium Green's function description of transport, we achieve good agreement between theoretical and experimental $I\text{\ensuremath{-}}V$ characteristics, both in shape as well as overall magnitude.
Constitutive recycling of the store-operated Ca2+ channel Orai1 and its internalization during meiosis.

The egg’s competency to activate at fertilization and transition to embryogenesis is dependent on its ability to generate a fertilization-specific Ca2+ transient. To endow the egg with this capacity, Ca2+ signals remodel during oocyte maturation, including inactivation of the primary Ca2+ influx pathway store-operated Ca2+ entry (SOCE). SOCE inactivation is coupled to internalization of the SOCE channel, Orai1. In this study, we show that Orai1 internalizes during meiosis through a caveolin (Cav)- and dynamin-dependent endocytic pathway. Cav binds to Orai1, and we map a Cav consensus–binding site in the Orai1 N terminus, which is required for Orai1 internalization. Furthermore, at rest, Orai1 actively recycles between an endosomal compartment and the cell membrane through a Rho-dependent endocytic pathway. A significant percentage of total Orai1 is intracellular at steady state. Store depletion completely shifts endosomal Orai1 to the cell membrane. These results define vesicular trafficking mechanisms in the oocyte that control Orai1 subcellular localization at steady state, during meiosis, and after store depletion.
10 Coordination in Organizations: An Integrative Perspective

Abstract Coordination, the process of interaction that integrates a collective set of interdependent tasks, is a central purpose of organizations. In this review we begin by discussing the origins of interest in coordination, tracing some of the classic perspectives. We present a review of recent literature on coordination in organizations arranged according to the mechanisms that help achieve it. We then go beyond this review to provide a framework to understand what different coordination mechanisms and activities accomplish. We propose that coordination mechanisms (such as routines, meetings, plans, and schedules) impact the work of organizations by creating three integrative conditions for coordinated activity: accountability, predictability, and common understanding. We end by examining the implications of such a perspective for future research on coordination in organizations.
Salt-induced hypertension in Dahl salt-resistant and salt-sensitive rats with NOS II inhibition

Although recent evidence suggests that reduced nitric oxide (NO) production may be involved in salt-induced hypertension, the specific NO synthase (NOS) responsible for the conveyance of salt sensi...
A method for smoke marker measurements and its potential application for determining the contribution of biomass burning from wildfires and prescribed fires to ambient PM2.5 organic carbon

[1] Biomass burning is an important source of particulate organic carbon (OC) in the atmosphere. Quantifying this contribution in time and space requires a means of routinely apportioning contributions of smoke from biomass burning to OC. Smoke marker (for example, levoglucosan) measurements provide the most common approach for making this determination. A lack of source profiles for wildfires and prescribed fires and the expense and complexity of traditional smoke marker measurement methods have thus far limited routine estimates of these contributions to ambient aerosol concentrations and regional haze. We report here on the collection of source profiles for combustion of numerous wildland fuels and on the development of an inexpensive and robust technique for routine smoke marker measurements. Hi-Volume filter source samples were collected during two studies at the Fire Science Laboratory in Missoula, MT in 2006 and 2007. Levoglucosan (and other carbohydrates) were measured in these samples using high-performance anion-exchange chromatography with pulsed amperometric detection. Results of this analysis along with water-soluble potassium, OC, and elemental carbon are presented. The results show that emissions of levoglucosan are fairly correlated with OC with an average ratio of 0.031 μg C/μg C. Further, there was a definite pattern that emerged based on fuel component burned with the typical levoglucosan/OC ratio of branches > straw > needles > leaves. Additionally, this carbohydrate measurement method appears to provide fingerprint information about the type of fuel burned that could help constrain profiles chosen for aerosol source apportionment and lead to a better determination of source contributions from biomass burning.
Real-time acoustic monitoring using wireless sensor motes

Wireless sensor networks (WSN) have recently gained popularity in distributed monitoring and surveillance applications. The objective of these devices is to extract pertinent information under several constrains such as low computational capabilities, limited arithmetic precision, and the need to conserve power. One of the most revealing environmental cues is audio. In this paper, we propose a voice activity detector and a simple gender classifier for use in a distributed acoustic sensing system. This algorithm makes use of low-complexity audio features and a pre-trained regression tree to classify incoming speech by gender. The algorithm is implemented real-time on the Crossbow sensor motes and a series of results are given that characterize the algorithm performance and complexity. Challenges in this real-time implementation include designing the algorithm and software architecture such that the signal processing is appropriately distributed between the sensor mote and the base station. At the base station, a data fusion algorithm considers a linear combination of individual mote decisions to form a final decision.
Robotic sensorimotor learning in continuous domains

The authors propose that some aspects of task-based learning in robotics can be approached using nativist and constructionist views on human sensorimotor development as a metaphor. They use findings in developmental psychology and neurophysiology, as well as machine perception, to guide the overall design of robotic system that attempts to learn sensorimotor binding rules for simple actions. Visually driven grasping was chosen as the experimental task. The learning was empirical in nature, and was done by having the robot observe repeated interactions with the task environment. The technique of nonparametric projection pursuit regression was used to accomplish reinforcement data sets that capture task invariants. The learning process generally implied failures along the way. Therefore, the mechanics of the untrained robotic system must be able to tolerate mistakes during learning and not be damaged. This problem was addressed by the use of an instrumented compliant robot wrist that controlled impact forces. >
An Analysis of the Environments of Intense Convective Systems in West Africa in 2003

We investigated the local- and regional-scale thermodynamical and dynamical environments associated with intense convective systems in West Africa during 2003. We identified convective system cases from TRMM microwave imagery, classifying each case by the system minimum 85-GHz brightness temperature and by the estimated elapsed time of propagation from high terrain. The speed of the mid-level jet, the magnitude of the low-level shear, and the surface equivalent potential temperature (theta(sub e)) were greater for the intense cases compared to the non-intense cases, although the differences between the means tended to be small, less than 3K for surface theta(sub e). Hypothesis testing of a series of commonly used intensity prediction metrics resulted in significant results only for low-level metrics such as convective available potential energy and not for any of the mid- or upper-level metrics such as 700-hPa theta(sub e). None of the environmental variables or intensity metrics by themselves or in combination appeared to be reliable direct predictors of intensity. In the regional scale analysis, the majority of intense convective systems occurred in the surface baroclinic zone where surface theta(sub e) exceeded 344 K and the 700-hPa zonal wind speeds were less than -6/ms. Fewer intense cases compared to non-intense cases were associated with African easterly wave troughs. Fewer than 25% of our cases occurred in environments with detectable Saharan dust loads, and the results for intense and non-intense cases were similar. Our results for the regional analysis were consistent with the seasonal movement of the WAM and the intertropical front, regional differences in topography, and AEW energetics.
Manager responses to internal transfer attempts: Managerial orientation, social capital, and perceived benefits as predictors of assisting, hindering, or refraining

Internal job transfers are an understudied human resource practice. This paper addresses various antecedents of managerial action or inaction in response to an attempted transfer by a current emplo...
Increased endoneurial fluid pressure in galactose neuropathy

Edema and increased endoneurial fluid pressure developed in peripheral nerves of rats that received a diet containing 40% galactose during a study of the role of sugar alcohols in producing neuropathy. Fluid pressure was elevated starting in the third month and progressed to a fivefold increase over control values by the fifth month. Microscopic examination confirmed the presence of edema as predicted by the sorbitol theory, which is often invoked to explain the pathogenesis of diabetic neuropathy.
Growth Response of 13 Container-Grown Landscape Plants to Uniconazole

Abstract Uniconazole, an experimental plant growth regulator, was applied as a foliar spray and a medium drench to 13 and 7 species, resp. Shoot dry weight was determined at 60, 90, and 120 days after treatment. Sixty days after treatment, shoot dry weight of no species was affected by uniconazole. At 90 and 120 days, shoot dry weight of all species, except golden privet (Ligustrum × vicaryi), Russian-olive (Elaeagnus angustifolia), and waxleaf privet (Ligustrum lucidum), decreased with increasing rates of uniconazole, regardless of method of application. Degree of growth reduction varied by species, rate, and method of application. For most species, uniconazole was effective in suppressing growth for 120 days. Generally greater reduction of shoot growth resulted from drench application compared to foliar application.
In the Twilight of the Nation-State: Subnational Constitutions in the New World Order

Globalizing forces have undermined many of the traditional attributes of sovereignty. The firm national boundaries of the Westphalian nation-state have been breached by enhanced global communication and commerce, as well as by the growth of transnational entities of many varieties, including businesses, nongovernmental organizations, and governmental associations. While this transformation offers many benefits, the globalized world order challenges important principles of coordination and of political legitimacy. The existence of multiple overlapping legal regimes may impose costly burdens of complexity on individuals and firms that operate across jurisdictional boundaries. Globalization threatens, as well, the democratic accountability that afforded political legitimacy in the modern nation-state. This article, delivered initially as the twentieth Annual Lecture on State Constitutional Law, argues that states and state constitutions have a significant role in ameliorating the governance deficits accompanying globalization. States can provide a mediating structure to allow subnational bodies to participate in governance with less danger of conflict and confusion. As compared with the national political system, the state governmental process provides a means to incorporate international legal principles that is more accountable to the electorate and more likely to ensure the appropriate adaptation of global norms within the domestic system. In sum, globalization creates a potential crisis of coordination and legitimacy, and the state political system is well designed to address these concerns. Domestic legal doctrine will have to accommodate these important functions of states in the new world order.
Targeting an essential GTPase obg for the development of broad-spectrum antibiotics

A promising new drug target for the development of novel broad-spectrum antibiotics is the highly conserved small GTPase Obg (YhbZ, CgtA), a protein essential for the survival of all bacteria including Neisseria gonorrhoeae (GC). GC is the agent of gonorrhea, a prevalent sexually transmitted disease resulting in serious consequences on reproductive and neonatal health. A preventive anti-gonorrhea vaccine does not exist, and options for effective antibiotic treatments are increasingly limited. To address the dire need for alternative antimicrobial strategies, we have designed and optimized a 384-well GTPase assay to identify inhibitors of Obg using as a model Obg protein from GC, ObgGC. The assay was validated with a pilot screen of 40,000 compounds and achieved an average Z' value of 0.58 ± 0.02, which suggests a robust assay amenable to high-throughput screening. We developed secondary assessments for identified lead compounds that utilize the interaction between ObgGC and fluorescent guanine nucleotide analogs, mant-GTP and mant-GDP, and an ObgGC variant with multiple alterations in the G-domains that prevent nucleotide binding. To evaluate the broad-spectrum potential of ObgGC inhibitors, Obg proteins of Klebsiella pneumoniae and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus were assessed using the colorimetric and fluorescence-based activity assays. These approaches can be useful in identifying broad-spectrum Obg inhibitors and advancing the therapeutic battle against multidrug resistant bacteria.
Nuclear Spectroscopy in the α Particle

We discuss the properties of the 15-dimensional $\mathrm{SU}(4)$ supermultiplet of negative-parity excited states of the $A=4$ system. This multiplet consists of the electric-dipole resonance and its spin-isospin analogs. The position of the "center of gravity" of this supermultiplet is determined by the Wigner and Majorana components of the nucleon-nucleon force, while the splittings within the supermultiplet are due to the spin-dependent parts of the force. We calculate the energies and state vectors of these levels within the framework of the shell model after isolating the center-of-mass motion and assuring ourselves that we are dealing with proper intrinsic excitations of the system. We compute the position of the "center of gravity" of the supermultiplet and the splittings within it,u sing both a Kurath force and a force taken from low-energy nucleon-nucleon scattering. The results are compared with some recent experimental findings concerning these levels.
Moving toward consensus: GAPNA's role in implementation of the consensus model for APRN regulation

model. Even before the final publication of the consensus model in 2008, the leadership of National Conference of Gerontological Nurse Practitioners (NCGNP) was well aware of the proposed model, the advent of the new population foci of adult-gerontology and the implications of the expansion of the numbers of advanced practice registered nurses who were to be prepared to manage the growing numbers of older adults in our nation. A deliberate transformation was the changing of the well-established name of our organization to GAPNA to reflect the growing membership of nurses no longer exclusively prepared as gerontological nurse practitioners (GNPs). 2 Expecting that GAPNA’s role and recognition as a specialty organizationwould expand, strategic planning at that time included positioning the organization to be present at the national forefront by participating at invitational meetings, expanding our educational offerings and embracing the challenge of defining the specialty of advanced practice gerontological nursing. 2
The inheritance of the immobilization antigens ofParamecium Aurelia, variety 2: With one text-figure

1. The inheritance of antigens which produce immobilizing antibodies has been studied inParamecium aurelia, variety 2. A single gene can control the ability to manifest an antigen. The appearance of one of two alternative cross-reactive antigens is also controlled by a single factor. The stability and titres of theF1 clones of a cross between two homologous serotypes and the variation in the appearance of the serotype of such genotypically identical clones were examined. 2. The cytoplasm has an influence on the appearance of the immobilizing antigens in exconjugants of crosses between animals of similar serotypes and, especially, diverse serotypes. The influence of the parental serotype in crosses between cross-reacting serotypes may persist for as long as twenty postconjugation fissions, but in the majority of instances disappears within a few fissions. In contrast, when paramenia of the same genotypes but diverse serotypes are crossed, the parental serotype may persist indefinitely. 3. The persistence of a hybrid phenotype inF2 generation animals presumed to be homozygous is probably due to nuclear abnormalities which ensure the maintenance of a heterozygous genotype, rather than to the action of cytoplasmic particles.
ANALYTICAL RELATIONSHIPS FOR OPTIMAL AEROELASTIC FLIGHT CONTROL EIGENVALUES

Several obstacles limiting the use of contemporary control design techniques in production vehicles are noted. These obstacles restrict one from obtaining insight into the control law augmentation of the vehicle. For example, with the Linear Quadratic (LQ) state feedback method, detail effects from cost function weight adjustment are not easily understood. Further, the role of each feedback loop is not readily apparent. Fundamental to overcoming this problem is factoring of the LQ characteristi c polynomial. Useful analytical expressions, and ultimately the relationships they represent, are sought between basic design parameters of the system and the closed-loop eigenvalues. An approximate analytical factoring technique, previously developed for open-loop applications, is considered as a tool for this closed-loop problem. The first two terms of a Taylor series are used to capture the polynomial coefficient dependencies upon the polynomial factors. By analytically inverting the first order sensitivity matrix, corrections to preliminary approximate factors are generated. Expressions for the closed-loop factors are in terms of basic parameters such as stability and control derivatives, structural vibration damping ratio and natural frequency, and cost function weights, allowing key relationships to be uncovered between the "design knobs" and important closed-loop features.
Retailers and Private Label Brands: Current Knowledge and Directions for Future Research

As private label brands gain share and attention in the marketplace, it is important for retailers and academics to update their knowledge about this phenomenon. In this conceptual paper, we examine retailer-centric private label research and identify two main research streams – both related to retailer goals and practices. We also identify two key areas for future research.
Large and Median Group Dialogue Today

65 1 Patrick de Mare called groups “median” when they comprised between eight and 25 members, approximately. 2 Senior Fellow, FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, Harvard School of Public Health. Correspondence should be addressed to Pamela Steiner, AM, EdM, EdD, LMHC, CGP, SEP, 28 Madison Street, Cambridge, MA 02138. E-mail: psteiner@hsph.harvard.edu. “To jaw jaw is always better than to war war,” quoted the New York Times on June 27, 1954. Winston Churchill’s remark was made at a White House luncheon the day before. In our GROUP article of 2000, “Dialogue Groups in the 21st Century: An Extension of Practice,” Stephanie Beukema and I wrote about deliberately convened groups, ones that are larger than therapy groups. We focused most on those groups whose purpose is to address societal-level concerns. Thanks in good part to the deep interest, understanding, revision, and commitment of the guest editor, Mark Ettin, our piece stands up very well on rereading. I was amazed and impressed! The discussion is clear, very rich, rather wise, and reasonably comprehensive. It could easily be the outline for at least a year’s graduate course! There is nothing I would change. We laid out many of the challenges of jaw-jawing. However, if we had had readers who challenged the piece, or who even responded to it, maybe I wouldn’t be saying that. Let me use that as my starting point. Who would disagree with Churchill’s claim? It seems uncontroversial. But, if it is so obviously a good idea, why is it little operationalized? Why the lack of reaction to our piece? I can offer an answer to the first question but only wish I could to the second. Happily, jaw-jawing in general is now popular as a way of dealing productively with conflict. Alternative dispute resolution has expanded, as have various approaches to interest-based negotiations. John Kerry recently reminded the world that he spent four years negotiating with the Iranians to reach an agreement to limit their production of nuclear weapons. The Central Intelligence Agency employs psychiatrists and psychologists as a matter of course, and presumably their remit is, in part, to help
Genomic Dark Matter Illuminated: Anopheles Y Chromosomes

Hall et al. have strategically used long-read sequencing technology to characterize the structure and highly repetitive content of the Y chromosome in Anopheles malaria mosquitoes. Their work confirms that this important but elusive heterochromatic sex chromosome is evolving extremely rapidly and harbors a remarkably small number of genes.
Invariants on G/U x G/U x G/U, G = SL(4,C)

Let G = SL(n,C). Let U be the standard maximal unipotent subgroup of G, i.e., the group of all upper triangular matrices with 1’s on the diagonal. The invariants of G acting by left translation on GIU x G/U x G/U are explicitly c alculated for n = 2,3 ,4. In each case, all relations among the invariantsriants are given along with a Stanley decomposition for the algebra of invariants. This theory is applied to the calculation of the decomposition of the tensor product of two finite-dimensional irreducible representations of G.
“I’m Trying To Be the Safety Net”: Family Protection of Patients With Moderate-To-Severe TBI During the Hospital Stay:

Research has shown that during hospital stay, family caregivers of patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) perceive that their role is to protect the patient; however, research on this topic is limited. The purpose of this article is to describe family caregivers' experience of protecting patients with TBI during the hospital stay. Grounded theory was used to conduct 24 interviews with 16 family caregivers. Findings showed family caregivers worked to protect the patient's physical and emotional safety, using the following strategies: (a) influencing the selection of staff, (b) breaking the patient's bad habits, (c) anticipating how to orchestrate the home environment; (d) connecting on an emotional level, (e) managing visitors, and (f) connecting on an emtoional level. The findings have practice implications for educating interdisciplinary health care providers about the experience of family caregivers and for developing an adversarial alliance between health care providers and family caregivers during the hospital stay to improve support provided to them.
A primer on selecting grain boundary sets for comparison of interfacial fracture properties in molecular dynamics simulations

All grain boundaries are not equal in their predisposition for fracture due to the complex coupling between lattice geometry, interfacial structure, and mechanical properties. The ability to understand these relationships is crucial to engineer materials resilient to grain boundary fracture. Here, a methodology is presented to isolate the role of grain boundary structure on interfacial fracture properties, such as the tensile strength and work of separation, using atomistic simulations. Instead of constructing sets of grain boundary models within the misorientation/structure space by simply varying the misorientation angle around a fixed misorientation axis, the proposed method creates sets of grain boundary models by means of isocurves associated with important fracture-related properties of the adjoining lattices. Such properties may include anisotropic elastic moduli, the Schmid factor for primary slip, and the propensity for simultaneous slip on multiple slip systems. This approach eliminates the effect of lattice properties from the comparative analysis of interfacial fracture properties and thus enables the identification of structure-property relationships for grain boundaries. As an example, this methodology is implemented to study crack propagation along Ni grain boundaries. Segregated H is used as a means to emphasize differences in the selected grain boundary structures while keeping lattice properties fixed.
Joint relative risks for estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer from a clinical model, polygenic risk score, and sex hormones

Models that predict the risk of estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancers may improve our ability to target chemoprevention. We investigated the contributions of sex hormones to the discrimination of the Breast Cancer Surveillance Consortium (BCSC) risk model and a polygenic risk score comprised of 83 single nucleotide polymorphisms. We conducted a nested case-control study of 110 women with ER-positive breast cancers and 214 matched controls within a mammography screening cohort. Participants were postmenopausal and not on hormonal therapy. The associations of estradiol, estrone, testosterone, and sex hormone binding globulin with ER-positive breast cancer were evaluated using conditional logistic regression. We assessed the individual and combined discrimination of estradiol, the BCSC risk score, and polygenic risk score using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC). Of the sex hormones assessed, estradiol (OR 3.64, 95% CI 1.64–8.06 for top vs bottom quartile), and to a lesser degree estrone, was most strongly associated with ER-positive breast cancer in unadjusted analysis. The BCSC risk score (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.00–1.75 per 1% increase) and polygenic risk score (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.06–2.36 per standard deviation) were also associated with ER-positive cancers. A model containing the BCSC risk score, polygenic risk score, and estradiol levels showed good discrimination for ER-positive cancers (AUROC 0.72, 95% CI 0.65–0.79), representing a significant improvement over the BCSC risk score (AUROC 0.58, 95% CI 0.50–0.65). Adding estradiol and a polygenic risk score to a clinical risk model improves discrimination for postmenopausal ER-positive breast cancers.
Soy Protein Utilization in Food Systems

Soy protein products are utilized in food systems as whole beans, flours and grits, concentrates and isolates, and textured products. Soy proteins play a significant role in food systems as a source of supplementary and complementary protein and contribute functional properties such as solubility, water absorption, viscosity, emulsification, texture, and antioxidation. Whole soybeans are processed into snack foods, beverages, and fermented foods. Soy protein is an ideal supplement for cereal protein because it corrects lysine and other amino acid deficiencies. Blends of soy flour or grits with cereals such as corn, wheat, or sorghum are widely used in world feeding programs. The blends are also valuable in domestic food systems such as breakfast cereals and baked foods. Concentrates and isolates are utilized in processed meats and baby foods. Isolates are employed as whipping agents and coffee whiteners. Thermoplastic extrusion of defatted flours or protein concentrates produces an expanded type of textured protein. Isolated soy protein is converted to meat analogs by a spun fiber process. Textured soy protein products are used to extend or replace meat products in food systems.
Minimal Input and Output Selection for Stability of Systems With Uncertainties

In networked control systems, selecting a subset of input and output nodes is a crucial step in designing a stabilizing controller. Most existing approaches to input and output selection focus on nominal systems with known parameters. For systems with uncertainties and time delays, current selection methods are based on exploiting the convexity after relaxing the original problem, which is inherently discrete, to continuous optimization forms, and hence lack optimality guarantees. This paper studies the problem of identifying the minimum-size sets of input and output nodes to guarantee stability of a linear system with uncertainties and time delays. We derive sufficient conditions to guarantee the existence of a stabilizing controller for an uncertain linear system, based on a subset of system modes lying within the controllability and observability subspaces induced by the selected inputs and outputs. We then formulate the problems of selecting minimum-size sets of input and output nodes to satisfy the derived conditions, and prove that they are equivalent to discrete optimization problems with bounded submodularity ratios. We develop polynomial-time selection algorithms with provable guarantees on the minimum number of inputs and outputs required. Our approach is applicable to various types of uncertainties, including additive uncertainty, multiplicative uncertainty, uncertain output delay, and structured uncertainty. In a numerical study, we test our approach for the wide-area damping control in power systems to ensure small signal stability. Our results are validated on the IEEE 39-bus test power system.
Federal Student Loan Servicing: Contract Problems and Public Solutions

One consequence of the 2007-2008 financial crisis was an abrupt shift from bank-based to direct federal student loans. This momentous change required the Department of Education to rapidly establish the capacity to service loans, which was achieved by outsourcing this responsibility to four large for-profit firms and a group of smaller regional entities. Loan servicing involves routine payment processing, account management and borrower communication, as well as the non-routine yet more labor intensive role of assisting borrowers that face hardship with debt repayment. Borrowers have expressed dissatisfaction with the present system. Complaints jumped significantly in the first two years of the loan servicing contracts and remain at historic highs. Problems with loan servicers have been a significant factor in these complaints. Both the Education Department and the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau have identified questionable practices regarding how servicers process and credit loan payments, and their failure to provide adequate advice and assistance for borrowers with delinquent and distressed loans. To understand why the system is underperforming, we examine the public-private contracting system for student loan servicing, and conclude that the contract terms establish incentives to reduce operational costs that far outweigh the incentives to be responsive to the needs of borrowers. This case illustrates the inherent limitations of performance-based contracts as an administrative tool. Regardless of design, contractors will strive to minimize operational commitment to any labor-intensive task, in this instance attending to the personal needs of borrowers. We identify two remedies improving the efficiency and responsiveness of student loan servicing. The first is more robust contract monitoring and contractor performance oversight by the office of Federal Student Aid (FSA). The second is the establishment of a public loan-servicing unit that would raise standards by competing against the private loan-servicing agents. While these two options are not mutually exclusive, we view the latter as having the greatest potential to improve the student loan servicing system. The concept of loan servicing as a government function is not novel. The Department of Agriculture, for instance, successfully issues and services farm loans. A similar function can be established within a federal agency for student loans. The loan servicing function could be added to FSA's existing role under the Direct Loan program, or assigned to another federal agency, such as the Treasury Department or the Internal Revenue Service. We identify some particular advantages in assigning this function to the United States Postal Service, which has a history of providing financial services, manages an accessible retail network, and enjoys a favorable image among the public.
Crystal Structure and Conductivity of AgI-Based Solid Electrolytes II

Since the last review of the author’s work in the field of solid electrolytes at a NATO conference,1 two structures have been determined in his laboratory, those of Py5Ag18I23 and the intermediate temperature form of RbAg4I5. Some difficulties have developed with the structure of the silver iodide tungstate solid electrolyte mentioned in the abstract for this conference. In particular, very recent conductivity measurements at elevated temperatures indicate that its formula might be Ag51I35 (W4O16)2 instead of Ag26Il8(W4O16). (Takahashi, Ikeda and Yamamoto2 first reported this solid electrolyte to have the formula Ag6I4WO4.) It will therefore be necessary to report on this material at a later date.
The Standard Model

The material covered in this chapter occupies a central position in the classical the theory of particles and interactions. It includes geometric descriptions of the electromagnetic, electroweak and strong (interquark) interactions, based on the unifying Yang-Mills approach outlined in Chapter 5.
Anomalous tilting in InGaAs graded buffers from dislocation sources at wafer edges

Abstract Uniform strain relaxation and defect densities across the entire wafer are important aspects of lattice-mismatched or metamorphic epitaxy of semiconductors. Achieving this requires an understanding of the sources of dislocations that lead to relaxation. We show that wafer edges are a major source of misfit dislocations in InGaAs graded buffers on GaAs substrates. AlInP solar cells fabricated from regions on the wafer affected by edge sources have a markedly lower performance due to a local increase in the threading dislocation density. Spatially resolved x-ray reciprocal space maps and electron backscattered diffraction maps of the InGaAs compositionally graded buffer reveal anomalous epi-layer tilting on 2-inch substrates from these dislocation sources at the wafer edge. The tilting abruptly changes direction partially through the graded buffer growth as the dislocations from the wafer edge appear in the x-ray sampling areas. We speculate that anisotropic misfit dislocation glide in III-V materials in combination with non-uniform stress states during growth biases slip system activity. These experiments demonstrate that lattice-mismatched epitaxy requires additional controls over the growth environment to achieve uniform strain relaxation for wafer scale heterogeneous integration.
The Effect of Downstream Classification Tasks for Evaluating Sentence Embeddings

One popular method for quantitatively evaluating the utility of sentence embeddings involves using them in downstream language processing tasks that require sentence representations as input. One simple such task is classification, where the sentence representations are used to train and test models on several classification datasets. We argue that by evaluating sentence representations in such a manner, the goal of the representations becomes learning a low-dimensional factorization of a sentence-task label matrix. We show how characteristics of this matrix can affect the ability for a low-dimensional factorization to perform as sentence representations in a suite of classification tasks. Primarily, sentences that have more labels across all possible classification tasks have a higher reconstruction loss, however the general nature of this effect is ultimately dependent on the overall distribution of labels across all possible sentences.