cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Menopause Symptom Attribution Among Midlife Women in Methadone Treatment

This article describes menopause symptom attributions among 135 midlife methadone-maintained women between the ages of 40 and 55 years. A cross-sectional survey collected sample characteristics and a 14-item menopause symptom checklist. Following the checklist respondents were questioned regarding perceived symptom causality. For classic menopause symptoms (hot flashes, night sweats, and menstrual irregularities) a majority of women attributed menopause. For remaining symptoms, various attributions were reported or etiologies were unknown. How midlife women interpret their symptoms is important to understand since such appraisals may guide the type of health and treatment behaviors they choose. Education to promote understanding of the actual causes, diagnosis, and treatment of symptoms may encourage midlife women to seek appropriate intervention. Social workers treating midlife women must be aware of and understand the normal variations associated with menopause and the multifactor symptom etiology.
VEGF, flt-1, and KDR/flk-1 as Prognostic Indicators in Endometrial Carcinoma

Abstract Objective. Tumor angiogenesis is a highly regulated process under the influence of the host microenvironment and mediators. Studies of breast cancer and, more recently, ovarian and cervical cancer, demonstrate that neovascularization correlates with the likelihood of metastasis and recurrence. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), an important regulator of tumor angiogenesis in the endometrium, flt-1, and KDR/flk-1 are good markers of vascular proliferation. Being that angiogenesis is a precursor to the development of progressive disease, we hypothesize that quantifying VEGF, flt-1, and KDR/flk-1 expression in uterine malignancies is a superior predictor of metastatic potential and survival than is FIGO grade of tumor, depth of invasion, and histology. Methods. The histologic slides of 47 patients with uterine malignancies (35 adenocarcinomas, 6 papillary serous, and 6 carcinosarcomas) were reviewed. The paraffin blocks from the primary tumor were obtained. Immunohistochemistry staining was performed for VEGF, flt-1, and KDR/flk-1. Microvessel density, used to analyze VEGF and receptor concentrations, was determined by two independent investigators, who were blinded to the patients clinical status. The impact of VEGF, flt-1, and KDR/flk-1 as well as stage, grade, depth of invasion, and nodal status on the incidence of metastases, recurrence, and survival was determined using logistic regression analysis and product limit life system survival analysis, respectively. Results. Results indicated that when evaluating all three histologic types, only stage and grade of tumor were found to impact upon the incidence of recurrence and survival. When patients with carcinosarcoma and papillary serous adenocarcinoma were excluded from the analysis, once again only stage and grade of tumor were significant prognostic indicators of recurrence and survival. Only grade of tumor and depth of uterine invasion were significant predictors of a tumor's metastatic potential. VEGF, flt-1, and KDR/flk-1 proved to be of little significance in predicting metastases, recurrence, and survival. Patients with advanced disease in all three histologic subtypes often had low VEGF and receptor positivity. Conclusions. In this study, VEGF, flt-1, and KDR/flk-1 receptor concentrations did not correlate with the incidence of metastases, recurrence, and survival.
Speckle in microscopy

Abstract We present some theoretical and experimental results for the averaging of speckle as a function of bandlimited and multi-tone illumination. In imaging various microscope specimens, we find that photographs taken with either 6 narrow lines spread over 1500 A or white light have comparable resolution.
Scheduling and performance analysis of multicast interconnects

Multicast is an important operation in various emerging computing/networking applications. In particular, many multicast applications require not only multicast capability but also predictable communication performance, such as guaranteed multicast latency and bandwidth, called quality-of-service (QoS). In this paper, we consider scheduling in multicast interconnects, which aims to minimize the multicast latency for a set of multicast requests. Unfortunately, such a problem has been proved to be NP-Complete, which means that it is unlikely to find a fast exact algorithm for the multicast scheduling problem. We then turn to propose a simple, fast greedy multicast scheduling algorithm and derive a lower bound and an upper bound on the performance of the algorithm. As can be seen, while a lower bound is fairly straightforward, the upper bound is much more difficult to obtain. By translating the multicast scheduling problem into a graph theory problem and employing a random graph approach, we are able to obtain a probabilistic upper bound on the performance of the multicast scheduling algorithm. Our analytical and simulation results show that the performance of the proposed multicast scheduling algorithm is quite close to the lower bound and is statistically guaranteed by the probabilistic upper bound.
When conifers took flight: a biomechanical evaluation of an imperfect evolutionary takeoff

Abstract. Manifera talaris, a voltzian conifer from the late early to middle Permian (ca. 270 Ma) of Texas, is the earliest known conifer to produce winged seeds indicative of autorotating flight. In contrast to autorotating seeds and fruits of extant plants, the ones of M. talaris are exceptional in that they have variable morphology. They bore two wings that produced a range of wing configurations, from seeds with two equal-sized wings to single-winged specimens, via various stages of underdevelopment of one of the wings. To examine the effects of various seed morphologies on aerodynamics and dispersal potential, we studied the flight performance of paper models of three morphotypes: symmetric doublewinged, asymmetric double-winged, and single-winged. Using a high-speed camera we identified the mode of descent (plummeting, gliding, autorotation) and quantified descent speed, autorotation frequency, and other flight characteristics. To validate such modeling as an inferential tool, we compared descent of...
A probabilistic formulation for fracture energy of continuous fibre-brittle matrix composites

Since the fracture energy is a key design variable in brittle-matrix composites, the calculation of the energy and its probabilistic distribution becomes a prominent issue. A demonstration is presented of the way in which the statistical moments of the fracture-energy random variable may be directly calculated. The case considered is that in which continuous fibers possess periodic points of weakness along their length; the shear strength at the interface caused by the reentry of the fibers into the matrix will produce fiber-debonding.
Radiosynthesis and preliminary evaluation of 5-[123/125I]iodo-3-(2(S)-azetidinylmethoxy)pyridine: a radioligand for nicotinic acetylcholine receptors

Abstract The radiochemical syntheses of 5-[ 125 I]iodo-3-(2( S )-azetidinylmethoxy)pyridine (5-[ 125 I]-iodo-A-85380, [ 125 I]1) and 5-[ 123 I]-iodo-A-85380, [ 123 I]1, were accomplished by radioiodination of 5-trimethylstannyl-3-((1- tert -butoxycarbonyl-2( S )-azetidinyl)methoxy)pyridine, 2, followed by acidic deprotection. Average radiochemical yields of [ 125 I]1 and [ 123 I]1 were 40–55%; and the average specific radioactivities were 1,700 and 7,000 mCi/μmol, respectively. Binding affinities of [ 125 I]1 and [ 123 I]1 in vitro (rat brain membranes) were each characterized by a K d value of 11 pM. Preliminary in vivo assay and ex vivo autoradiography of mouse brain indicated that [ 125 I]1 selectively labels nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) with very high affinity and specificity. These studies suggest that [ 123 I]1 may be useful as a radioligand for single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging of nAChRs.
Interaction between D2 and N2 on (100) oriented W foil

Abstract The coadsorption of D 2 and N 2 on W foil (highly (100) oriented) at 140 K has been studied using temperature programmed desorption (TPD). The chemisorption and desorption of D 2 and N 2 is in agreement with data on W(100). For dosed mixtures of D 2 and N 2 , the dissociative adsorption is competitive. Preadsorbed N(a) (or D(a)) blocks the dissociative adsorption of D 2 (or N 2 ) linearly. The displacement of one adsorbate gas by the other does not occur at 140 K. Coadsorbed N(a) shifts D(a) to a lower energy binding state. On N/W, there is a weakly adsorbed molecular state of D 2 with E d = 5.5 kcal / mol and v (1) = 10 7.3 s -1 . There is an isotope effect for dissociative adsorption of molecular hydrogen on N/W. Evidence that adsorbed molecular N 2 undergoes both desorption and dissociation as the surface temperature increases is given. No direct bonding interaction between N(a) and D(a) is observed. These results demonstrate that the surfaces of W foils annealed to 2900 K are very good approximations to single crystal W(100) surfaces.
Immunoadsorbents with high capacity.

Abstract Immunoadsorbents with a large capacity for antibody adsorption were prepared by coupling antigens to insoluble polymers of rabbit serum albumin or γ-globulin. The insoluble polymers were made by coupling mercaptosuccinyl groups to protein and then crosslinking the modified protein with tris(1-(2-methyl)aziridinyl)phosphine oxide (MAPO). With an appropriate number of hapten groups incorporated, the adsorbents adsorbed more than eual their weight of anti-hapten antibody with high efficiency. The capacity of the adsorbent for anti-bovine serum albumin antibody was somewhat lower, but still much higher than that for adsorbents previously reported. That antibody content of the purified antibody preparations was higher than 90 per cent.
Baculovirus Expression Reconstitutes DrosophilaMitochondrial DNA Polymerase

Drosophila mitochondrial DNA polymerase has been reconstituted and purified from baculovirus-infected insect cells. Baculoviruses encoding full-length and mature forms of the catalytic and accessory subunits were generated and used in single and co-infection studies. Recombinant heterodimeric holoenzyme was reconstituted in both the mitochondria and cytoplasm of Sf9 cells and required the mitochondrial presequences in both subunits. The recombinant holoenzyme contains DNA polymerase and 3′-5′ exonuclease that are stimulated substantially by both salt and mitochondrial single-stranded DNA-binding protein. Thus, the recombinant enzyme exhibits biochemical properties indistinguishable from those of the native enzyme from Drosophila embryos. Production of the catalytic subunit alone yielded soluble protein with the chromatographic properties of the heterodimeric holoenzyme. However, the purified catalytic core has a 50-fold lower specific activity. This provides evidence of a critical role for the accessory subunit in the catalytic efficiency of Drosophilamitochondrial DNA polymerase.
Ultra High Pressure Technology and its Use in Surimi Manufacture: An Overview

Using ultra high pressure (UHP) technology as a non-thermal preservation technique to ensure high quality food products has been investigated with increasing interest for many years. Since high pressure processing has become a viable commercial process within the last decade, its utilisation has been extended to include seafood products, a highly valued niche market. While surimi seafoods have traditionally been commercialised in Japan, surimi has been marketed in North America, Europe, Russia and other Asian countries over the last 20 years. The advantages of UHP surimi processing include manufacture of surimi seafood with natural appearance and imitation seafood analogues, as well as important improvements in textural properties such as hardness and elasticity. UHP can also modify physical and rheological properties of proteins, which could lead to the development of new pressurised seafood products. In short, UHP is a promising technology that could eventually replace heat-induced surimi gels.
Ion channel targeting in neurons

Electrical signaling by neurons depends on the precisely ordered distribution of a wide variety of ion channels on the neuronal surface. The mechanisms underlying the targeting of particular classes of ion channels to specific subcellular sites are poorly understood. Recent studies have identified a new class of protein-protein interaction mediated by PDZ domains, protein binding modules that recognize specific sequences at the C terminus of membrane proteins. The PDZ domains of a family of synaptic cytoskeleton-associated proteins, typified by PSD-95, bind to the intracellular C-terminal tails of NMDA receptors and Shaker-type K+ channels. This interaction appears to be important in the clustering and localization of these ion channels at synaptic sites. Recognition of specific C-terminal peptide sequences by different PDZ domain-containing proteins may be a general mechanism for differential targeting of proteins to a variety of subcellular locations.
Who's Minding the Kids? Pollucion, Public Schools, and Environmental Justice in Los Angeles

Objective. Although previous environmental justice research has focused on analysis of the disproportionate burden of environmental hazards on minority residents, few studies have examined demographic inequities in health risks among children. This article evaluates the demographic distribution of potentially hazardous facilities and health risks associated with ambient air toxics exposures among public schoolchildren in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Methods. We combine Geographic Information System analysis with multivariate statistics to compare enrollment and demographic information for students who attend district schools with the spatial pattern of land use, locations of toxic emissions and facilities, and calculated indices of estimated lifetime cancer risk and respiratory hazards associated with exposures to toxic air emissions. Results. District schools are more likely to be located in census tracts containing potentially hazardous facilities; however, these tracts actually have slightly lower cancer and respiratory health risks associated with air toxics when compared to other tracts in the district. Demographic comparisons among school sites indicate that minority students, especially Latinos, are more likely to attend schools near hazardous facilities and face higher health risks associated with outdoor air toxics exposure. Conclusions. These patterns of hazard exposure and health risk should be considered both in the process of siting new schools to house the rapidly growing regional student population and in remediation efforts at existing schools.
Differences in reported sleep need among adolescents

Increased lifestyle demands and reduced sleep are reported to result in daytime sleepiness and impaired functioning for teenagers. A sample of 612 freshman urban high school students completed a questionnaire describing their sleep patterns and problems, along with sociodemographic information, daily activities, pubertal development, depressive mood, and morning-evening preference. About 63% of the respondents felt they needed more sleep on weeknights (MS group), experienced sleepiness that interfered with their schoolwork, and had problems with sleeping. The other group reported they got sufficient sleep on weeknights (SS group) and did not experience sleepiness problems to the same degree. However, both had similar weeknight sleep and daily activity patterns. The MS group reported an ideal sleep time of 9.2 h, about 2 h more than they were getting and 1 h more than the SS group ideal, and had a higher preference for later bed and waking times. In our sample, individual differences in biologic sleep need and quality of sleep may be emerging as early as 14 years of age.
Use of glycosylated dendrimer macromolecules to fluorescently monitor glucose concentration

A minimally invasive biosensor is undergoing development to detect physiological concentrations of glucose within interstitial fluid. The sensor is based on a chemical assay consisting of Alexa Fluor 647 labeled concanavalin A lectin and dendrimer macromolecules functionalized to contain peripheral glucose moieties. The two components form large cross-linked particles that result in loss of fluorescent emission through shielding of interior fluorophores. As glucose is introduced into the assay, it competes with the glycodendrimers for binding to concanavalin A to disrupt the cross-linked complex and produce a reversible change in fluorescence intensity that is dependent on glucose concentration. Chemical analogs of the original glycodendrimer have been created and analyzed with the purpose of creating more stable and consistent dendrimers in order to maximize the response of the assay so that its signal can be better detected through dermal tissue and provide a better understanding of the sensor binding mechanics.
National Jewish Organizations

Agudath Israel of America (1922). 42 Broadway, NY, NY 10004. (212) 797-9000. Mobilizes Orthodox Jews to cope with Jewish problems in the spirit of the Torah; speaks out on contemporary issues from an Orthodox viewpoint; sponsors a broad range of projects aimed at enhancing religious living, education, children’s welfare, protection of Jewish religious rights, outreach to the assimilated and to arrivals from the Former Soviet Union, and social services. Organizes Jewish women for philanthropic work in the US and Israel and for intensive Torah education, conducts seminars and support groups promoting the health and well-being of Jewish women and their families.
Scaling Self-Organizing Maps to Model Large Cortical Networks

Self-organizing computational models with specific intracortical connections can explain many functional features of visual cortex, such as topographic orientation and ocular dominance maps. However, due to their computational requirements, it is difficult to use such detailed models to study large-scale phenomenal like object segmentation and binding, object recognition, tilt illusions, optic flow, and fovea-periphery differences. This article introduces two techniques that make large simulations practical. First, we show how parameter scaling equations can be derived for laterally connected self-organizing models. These equations result in quantitatively equivalent maps over a wide range of simulation sizes, making it possible to debug small simulations and then scale them up only when needed. Parameter scaling also allows detailed comparison of biological maps and parameters between individuals and species with different brain region sizes. Second, we use parameter scaling to implement a new growing map method called GLISSOM, which dramatically reduces the memory and computational requirements of large self-organizing networks. With GLISSOM, it should be possible to simulate all of human V1 at the single-column level using current desktop workstations. We are using these techniques to develop a new simulator Topographica, which will help make it practical to perform detailed studies of large-scale phenomena in topographic maps.
Sulfate availability and the geological record of cold-seep deposits

Cold-seep deposits are the remnants of ancient chemosynthetic ecosystems that derive energy from microbial anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) using seawater sulfate. They provide a physical record of a microbial process that plays a critical role in regulating biospheric methane. Although highly ^(13)C-depleted kerogen suggests that AOM dates back 2.7 b.y., puzzlingly, the oldest reported cold seeps only appear at 635 Ma and lack carbon isotopic signals (<–30‰ Peedee belemnite) that are diagnostic of AOM in examples younger than 350 Ma. Using a one-dimensional biogeochemical reaction-transport model, we confirm that these discrepancies are an expected consequence of changes in seawater chemistry. More specifically, sub-millimolar (mM) to millimolar seawater sulfate concentrations ([SO_4^(2–)]SW) and elevated concentrations of dissolved inorganic carbon that characterized seawater through much of the Precambrian limited AOM-driven carbonate supersaturation and 13C depletion, making seep carbonates less likely to form and more challenging to identify. Moderate ^(13)C depletions observed in 420–370-m.y.-old cold-seep carbonates (independently identified by fossil assemblages and contextual and textural observations) indicate [SO_4^(2–)]SW < 5 mM in this interval. This is significant because low [SO_4^(2–)]SW has been linked to widespread ocean anoxia in the early Paleozoic, an environmental condition thought to have influenced the evolution, extinction, and recovery of early animals.
Phase-locked spiking of inner ear hair cells and the driven noisy Adler equation

The inner ear constitutes a remarkably sensitive mechanical detector. This detection occurs in a noisy and highly viscous environment, as the sensory cells—the hair cells—are immersed in a fluid-filled compartment and operate at room or higher temperatures. We model the active motility of hair cell bundles of the vestibular system with the Adler equation, which describes the phase degree of freedom of bundle motion. We explore both analytically and numerically the response of the system to external signals, in the presence of white noise. The theoretical model predicts that hair bundles poised in the quiescent regime can exhibit sporadic spikes—sudden excursions in the position of the bundle. In this spiking regime, the system exhibits stochastic resonance, with the spiking rate peaking at an optimal level of noise. Upon the application of a very weak signal, the spikes occur at a preferential phase of the stimulus cycle. We compare the theoretical predictions of our model to experimental measurements obtained in vitro from individual hair cells. Finally, we show that an array of uncoupled hair cells could provide a sensitive detector that encodes the frequency of the applied signal.
Impacts of aerosol-cloud interactions on past and future changes in tropospheric composition

Abstract. The development of effective emissions control policies that are beneficial to both climate and air quality requires a detailed understanding of all the feedbacks in the atmospheric composition and climate system. We perform sensitivity studies with a global atmospheric composition-climate model to assess the impact of aerosols on tropospheric chemistry through their modification on clouds, aerosol-cloud interactions (ACI). The model includes coupling between both tropospheric gas-phase and aerosol chemistry and aerosols and liquid-phase clouds. We investigate past impacts from preindustrial (PI) to present day (PD) and future impacts from PD to 2050 (for the moderate IPCC A1B scenario) that embrace a wide spectrum of precursor emission changes and consequential ACI. The aerosol indirect effect (AIE) is estimated to be −2.0 Wm−2 for PD-PI and −0.6 Wm−2 for 2050-PD, at the high end of current estimates. Inclusion of ACI substantially impacts changes in global mean methane lifetime across both time periods, enhancing the past and future increases by 10% and 30%, respectively. In regions where pollution emissions increase, inclusion of ACI leads to 20% enhancements in in-cloud sulfate production and ~10% enhancements in sulfate wet deposition that is displaced away from the immediate source regions. The enhanced in-cloud sulfate formation leads to larger increases in surface sulfate across polluted regions (~10–30%). Nitric acid wet deposition is dampened by 15–20% across the industrialized regions due to ACI allowing additional re-release of reactive nitrogen that contributes to 1–2 ppbv increases in surface ozone in outflow regions. Our model findings indicate that ACI must be considered in studies of methane trends and projections of future changes to particulate matter air quality.
The threshold trip duration for which recovery is no longer possible is associated with strength and reaction time.

Abstract The recovery of young adults from trips of increasing severity was studied. Our null hypothesis was that lower extremity strength, and reaction time, step time, step distance and step velocity measured in a volitional stepping task would not explain a significant portion of the variance in the magnitude of the threshold trip duration for which recovery is no longer possible. Ten males and 11 females (average age 26.8 and 28.4 years old, respectively) were subjected to trips of increasing duration until recovery was no longer possible with a single step. The average threshold trip duration for which subjects were no longer able to recover with a single step was 681±169 m s. The threshold trip duration significantly increased as lower extremity strength increased and volitional reaction time decreased (multiple stepwise linear regression: R2=0.52, p=0.001). The other volitional step parameters and the subject characteristics were not significantly associated with the magnitude of the threshold trip duration. These results suggest that some trip-related falls may be due to slower reaction times and/or reduced lower extremity strengths.
A LATENT VIRUS IN NORMAL MICE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING PNEUMONIA IN ITS NATURAL HOST

1. A virus capable of producing fatal pneumonia in mice has been isolated repeatedly from the lungs of certain apparently healthy mice. Not all mice carry the virus. It was obtained only from mice supplied by three breeders although mice from eight different sources were studied. 2. The virus was avirulent as it occurred in normal mouse lungs and became virulent only after serial mouse lung passage. It was strictly pneumotropic for mice and produced pneumonia when given intranasally but showed no evidence of infection when given by other routes. The virus was non-infectious for ferrets and did not become pathogenic for this species after numerous serial passages. It was also non-pathogenic for rabbits, guinea pigs, rhesus monkeys, voles, deer mice, skunks, wood-chucks, opossums, and Syrian hamsters. 3. All strains of the virus which have been tested have been immunologically identical, as indicated both by cross immunity and cross neutralization tests in mice. 4. The virus was antigenic both in mice and in rabbits and was readily differentiated from viruses of human influenza and of swine influenza by means of either cross immunity or cross neutralization tests. 5. The virus was also neutralized by about 30 per cent of normal human sera tested. 6. The virus was extremely labile, and suspensions prepared in saline or broth became inactivated within a few hours at room temperature. The addition of normal horse serum to the virus suspensions, however, exerted a definite stabilizing effect. 7. Ultrafiltration results indicated that the virus particles have a diameter of about 100 to 150 millimicrons. 8. Evidence is presented which indicates that this virus is different from other viruses which various investigators have found in normal mouse lungs.
Variation among primary care physicians in prostate-specific antigen screening of older men.

No organization recommends prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening in men older than 75 years. Nevertheless, testing rates remain high.1,2 We hypothesized that primary care physicians (PCPs) would vary substantially in PSA screening rates and that much of the variance in whether an older man received a PSA test would depend on which PCP he saw.
EFFECTS OF PREDATOR REMOVAL ON MALLARD DUCKLING SURVIVAL

We experimentally evaluated the effect of predator removal on mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) duckling survival in south-central Saskatchewan, Canada, in 2000 and 2001. Previous predator-removal research has focused on nest success, but our study was the first to document an effect on duckling survival. We compared 4 control sites (no predator removal) with 4 treatment sites where professional trappers removed common nest predators. Survival of 686 ducklings from 78 broods was determined using radiotelemetry and periodic counts of ducklings. Duckling survival was higher on predator-removal sites relative to control sites in 2000 and 2001 and negatively correlated with hatch date in 2000. Results of analyses including and excluding hatch date as a covariate suggest that hatch date was confounded with predator removal (i.e., predator removal influenced hatch dates). Based on these results, we concluded that duckling survival was affected by predator removal in 2 ways. First, predator removal increased duckling survival by removing predators that likely caused total brood loss. Second, in-the-year hatch date was negatively correlated with duckling survival, earlier average hatch dates on predator-removal areas contributed to increased duckling survival. Combining the 2 effects and averaging over years, 30-day duckling survival was 0.573 (90% CI: 0.492 to 0.657) on predator-removal sites and 0.357 (90% CI: 0.275 to 0.456) on control sites. We concluded that predator-removal efforts conducted primarily to increase nest success of upland-nesting ducks also increased survival of mallard ducklings.
Why Does Diverticulitis Perforate

Diverticular disease is a common entity in the western world with an increasing incidence globally. This probably reflects both an increase in detection and an ageing population. The pathophysiology of diverticular disease is likely multifactorial involving dietary habits, changes in colonic pressures and motility, and colon wall structural changes. Not only has the understanding of the natural history of the disease become more complex than previously believed but the treatment algorithms have also evolved. Management paradigms are changing and are increasingly challenging, particularly for complicated diverticulitis. While the prevalence of diverticulitis is increasing, its pathogenesis and natural history have received little attention. The aim of this article is to review the current literature regarding the pathogenesis of diverticular perforation and highlight the fact that there is limited data regarding its pathophysiology.
Visualizing Moderating Effects in Path Models with Latent Variables

Path models with and without latent variables are extensively used in e-collaboration research. Both direct and moderating relationships can be included in such path models. Moderating relationships involve three latent variables, the moderating variable and a pair of variables that are connected through a direct link. This paper discusses the visualization of moderating relationships through two-dimensional and three-dimensional graphs. The software WarpPLS version 5.0 is used in this discussion, since it provides an extensive set of graphs that can be used to visualize moderating effects.
Ultrafast carrier dynamics in disordered semiconductors determined by time-resolved THz and NIR spectroscopy

We determine ultrafast carrier dynamics characteristic of disordered semiconductors, including both dispersive transport and bimolecular recombination, via self-consistent modeling of time-resolved measurements in both the far-infrared (THz) and near-infrared spectral regions.
The Origin of the German Word Ehre ‘Honor‘

Special interest in the German word Ehre was aroused forty years ago when Gustav Ehrismann dealt with Middle High German ere as one of the three cardinal virtues of the age of chivalry (“Die Grundlagen des ritterlichen Tugendsystems,” Zeitschrift fur deutsches Alter-tum, LVI, 1919, 137–216). Since then this word has been repeatedly discussed by scholars, e.g., by E. R. Curtius (who opposed Ehrismann's views), Elisabeth Karg-Gasterstadt (in her detailed semantic study of the word in Old High German), Friedrich Maurer (in his investigations of the word in Middle High German), Eduard Neumann, and others. The same topic has also been dealt with in several dissertations, e.g., by Hildegard Emmel and by Frederik Mos-selmann.“ Recently monographs by Hans Reiner and by George Fenwick Jones have dealt with the concept of honor.
Effect of guanylic acid on plasma NEFA response to stress.

SummaryPretreatment with hydrocortisone restores plasma NEFA response of adrenalectomized animals to normal but is without effect on intact rats. Pretreatment with guanylic acid, a purine nucleotide, abolishes NEFA response to fasting and tourniquet stress in the normal animal. It prevents elevation in plasma NEFA in the fasting adrenalectomized rats. Survival time of adrenalectomized animals subjected to tourniquet stress is significantly prolonged by pretreatment with guanylic acid. A physiologic mechanism is suggested which operates via lymphatic release of nucleotides resulting from cortical steroid activity.
Site-resolved structural energetics of the T7 concatemer junction.

The concatemer junction is a conserved sequence of 8 bp, which is strategically located at the junction between the head-to-tail repeats of genomic DNA in T7 and related bacteriophages. The RNA polymerase pauses at this site to recruit the machinery necessary for cleavage of the concatemer into single genome DNA. During pausing, the transcription bubble collapses and the transcription RNA–DNA hybrid is shortened to only 3 bp. This work addresses the question of the role of the nucleic acid components of the transcription elongation complex in this collapse of the transcription bubble. The nucleic acid structures investigated are the DNA–DNA duplex structure present at the concatemer junction when the DNA is not transcribed and the RNA–DNA hybrid formed when the concatemer junction is transcribed. The structural energetics of each base pair in the two structures is characterized using imino proton exchange and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The results show that 5 bp in the DNA–DNA duplex at the ...
Study on the System of Agricultural Information Service of Yunnan Province

In this paper the system of agriculture information service in Yunnan was studied,and the structure of the system of agriculture information service was summarized.Finally,some suggestions were proposed in allusion to problems and constraints of the system.
The Potential and Countermeasures of Grain Production Yield Increase in Tianmen City

Grain security is the fundamental guarantee of national security. In the last decade, the national grain production yield has been increasing in the past nine successive years. Under the current condition, how to realize the sustainable increase in grain production has become a difficult issue for various regions. Taking Tianmen city as an example, the advantages and potential of grain production were analyzed; meanwhile, concrete measures for grain production increase were proposed from the aspect of climate condition, geographical condition and cultivated land condition, so as to provide reference for government decision-making.
The Asian miracles: implementing the COP21 agreement

The governments of Asian countries have signed on to the COP21 agreement, binding their states to the fulfilment of the global climate change policy of the United Nations. Thus, they are now confronted with the task of implementing the chief objectives of the COP21: halting and reducing CO2 emissions stopping deforestation and desertification, and promoting long-term decarbonisation of their economies in a wide sense. The policy process envisaged is a decentralised one, with each government defining its ends and means. The COP21 puts enormous responsibility on Asian countries, as this region has the most CO2 emissions of all regions in the world and its energy consumption is predicted to continue to grow at a fast rate. Yet, policy implementation is difficult to conduct in a successful manner.
Soleus muscle atrophy in rats induced by cast immobilization: lack of effect by anabolic steroids.

To test the hypothesis that an anabolic steroid such as nandrolone decanoate (ND) will ameliorate or abolish disuse-mediated alterations resulting from five weeks of hindlimb immobilization, female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into six groups: control, control + ND, shortened-immobilized, shortened-immobilized + ND, stretched-immobilized, and stretched-immobilized + ND. Immobilization was accomplished by wrapping hindlimbs with plaster of Paris. Nandrolone decanoate in sesame oil was administered via weekly intraperitoneal injection (7 mg/kg) while nontreated rats received equivalent volumes of the vehicle. After five weeks selected morphometric, biochemical, and mechanical parameters were examined in the slow-twitch soleus muscle (SOL). Muscle wet weight fell from a control value of 145 +/- 19 mg to 70 +/- 8 mg (p less than .05) in the immobilized-shortened group where ND had no effect (81 +/- 11 mg). Muscle stretch alone prevented weight loss (159 +/- 31 mg). The addition of ND resulted in significant SOL hypertrophy (200 +/- 42 mg), p less than .05. Immobilization resulted in a significant shift in muscle protein distribution toward sarcoplasmic protein, a change unaltered by ND but abolished by stretch. Muscle strength, as indicated by peak tetanic tension, fell 45% (p less than .05) as a result of shortened immobilization. Nandrolone decanoate had no effect on this condition, although the ameliorating effect of stretch was abolished when in combination with ND treatment. The elevation observed in maximal shortening velocity (shortened-immobilized) was unaffected by ND alone, but abolished by stretch with or without ND treatment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Effects of Interactive Cloud Cover and Liquid Water Content Programs on Climatic Temperature Perturbations

A physically-based one-dimensional interactive cloud formation model has been developed, which incorporates parameterizations of precipitation and evaporation. The model can predict cloud cover and liquid water content as a function of temperature distribution. The model-computed cloud liquid water content compares well with the statistical average based on aircraft measurements. This model is used in connection with a one-dimensional radiative-turbulent climate model to investigate temperature changes due to doubling of CO2. The incorporation of an interactive cloud formation program, in which cloud cover and liquid water content are generated in accordance with the temperature distribution, reduces the sensitivity of temperature increases, as compared with the case when cloud cover and/or liquid water content are fixed in the climate model. Preliminary results from a two-dimensional climate model coupled with a modified cloud program, including horizontal transports also support the finding that clouds appear to stabilize the perturbed climate due to external radiative forcings.
Branding Books, Branding Readers: Marketing to Teens in the Digital Age

Bridging historical and contemporary practices of marketing books to young people, Chapter 2 is dedicated to practices of marketing books, and uses an interview with a veteran children’s book marketer and interviews with marketers at small, medium, and large publishing companies to compare practices before and after digital technologies. Earlier, marketing to young people was a top-down process, as children had to be reached via a series of gatekeepers, including parents, teachers, and librarians. Now, digital technologies enable a disintermediated space in which publishers can communicate directly with teen consumers via their proprietary online sites. As a result, technology is shifting traditional definitions of “marketer,” “author,” and “consumer” in favor of collaborative communities of online immaterial and affective labor by publishers, authors, and teen consumers. Consolidations in publishing houses and changes in bookselling practices, from the rise of the superstore to Amazon.com, transmedia, and a push toward hypercommercialism, lead to a new model of publishing, in which books become brands and readers too are branded (e.g., Twilight-reader) and commodified. Publishers’ online spaces and free social media resources theoretically give all publishers the same opportunities for reaching young readers, but interviews with marketers at a small, a medium, and a large publisher demonstrate that this is not exactly the case.
Sex as a Life-History Strategy

This chapter explores the consequences of anisogamy on the evolution of sex differences and it also discusses the consequences of some other important evolutionary innovations in reproduction that preceded the appearance of homo sapiens and constrains the subsequent evolutionary trajectory. Humans are among the longest lived of species, and perhaps the most flexible in terms of life-history strategy. Females are those individuals that produce large, nutrient-rich, immobile gametes; males are those individuals that produce small, nutrient-poor, mobile gametes; individuals that produce both kinds of gametes are called hermaphrodites. The fact that human beings are K–selected mammals constrains the life history option in many ways. On the other hand, being K-selected mammals also makes possible a new variety of options. The mammalian heritage, for example, has restricted lactation to females, but has also given human's a creative brain and a culture that invented baby bottles. Human life-history strategies reflect both the constraints and flexibility.
Errant Thoughts and Social Crimes in The Prelude

The political situation in Britain during the 1790s receives scant attention in any version of The Prelude, especially when we consider the thousands of lines devoted in the 1805 and 1850 versions of the text to events occurring at the same time across the Channel. The one brief commentary on the conservatives who dominated British government during this decade attributes this omission not to indifference to domestic conditions but rather to the poet’s still almost uncontrollable rage over them. In the 1805 Prelude, the narrator claims “this is passion over near ourselves, / Reality too close and too intense” (X.640–1). He adds:
Walk-through metal detectors for stadium security

Walk-through metal detectors (WTMDs) are increasingly utilized as a security measure at large events held at stadiums. As this is a different environment than standard use cases (e.g. airports, prisons), work has been done to understand how to best integrate this technology into an outdoor high throughput screening environment. We have performed several experiments on these WTMDs to understand their performance in real stadium environments in order to inform security directors of areas of potential vulnerabilities. These experiments also help the security directors to be more informed of the real functionality in the field of the WTMDs, as they were examined to understand performance in non-laboratory settings. Experimental design was utilized to create three types of experiments which were performed on three different brands of WTMDs. These experiments focused on height and orientation, speed passing through the WTMD, and proximity outside of the WTMD. These experiments will help security personnel at large stadium venues gain a greater understanding of how WTMDs work and how they perform.
T Cell–Replete Peripheral Blood Haploidentical Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation with Post-Transplantation Cyclophosphamide Results in Outcomes Similar to Transplantation from Traditionally Matched Donors in Active Disease Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Outcomes for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who fail to achieve complete remission remain poor. Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) has been shown to induce long-term survival in AML patients with active disease. HCT is largely performed with HLA-matched unrelated or HLA-matched related donors. Recently, HCT with HLA-haploidentical related donors has been identified as a feasible option when HLA-matched donors are not immediately available. However, there are little data comparing outcomes for AML patients with active disease who receive haploidentical versus traditionally matched HCT. We retrospectively analyzed data from 99 AML patients with active disease undergoing allogeneic HCT at a single institution. Forty-three patients received unrelated donor HCT, 32 patients received matched related donor HCT, and 24 patients received peripheral blood haploidentical HCT with post-transplantation cyclophosphamide. We found no significant differences between treatment groups in terms of overall survival (OS), event-free survival, transplantation-related mortality, cumulative incidence of relapse, and cumulative incidence of acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). We performed univariate regression analysis of variables that modified OS in all patients and found only younger age at transplantation and development of chronic GVHD significantly improved outcome. Although limited by our relatively small sample size, these results indicate that haploidentical HCT in active AML patients have comparable outcomes to HCT with traditionally matched donors. Haploidentical HCT can be considered in this population of high-risk patients when matched donors are unavailable or when wait times for transplantation are unacceptably long.
Millennial Student Preference of Audience Response System Technology

Previous research studies have found that audience response systems or “clickers” provide significant classroom, learning, and assessment benefits in higher education. However, there are few to no ...
An approximate numerical solution to the Graetz problem with constant wall temperature

The present set of themes related to the investigations of heat transfer by convection and the transport phenomenon in a cylindrical pipe in laminar flow, is commonly called the Graetz problem, which is to explore the evolution of the temperature profile for a fluid flow in fully developed laminar flow. A numerical method was developed in this work, for visualisation of the temperature profile in the fluid flow, whose strategy of calculation is based on the orthogonal collocation method followed by the finite difference method (Crank-Nicholson method). The calculations were effected through a FORTRAN computer program and the results show that orthogonal collocation method giving better results than Crank-Nicholson method.
Managing Risk Management

We survey and analyze risk management goals, policies, and perceptions of risk managers in businesses and organizations around the world. With more than 1,100 responses and a global scope, we ask specific questions about risk management behavior in six risk areas: interest rate, foreign exchange, commodity, energy, credit, and geopolitical risk. We question risk managers about their firm's exposures to these risks areas as well as their financial and operational methods used to in risk management. In addition, we pose specific questions about the interaction between risk management and the firm's investing and financing policies as well as the impact of recent and possible changes to derivatives market regulation on the firm's derivative usage. As some questions in the survey are drawn directly from earlier surveys we are also able to assess changes in policy and practice over time. Finally, we link the personal characteristics of risk managers to their practices. For example, we are able to determine whether a manager's personal risk aversion is linked to the risk management policy that manager oversees. Overall the results suggest that in the post global financial crisis world, risk management is an important part of corporate activities and that best practice in risk management policy and behavior has become global.
Magnesium ion mobility in post-spinels accessible at ambient pressure

We propose that Ti-containing post-spinels may offer a practically-accessible route to fast multivalent ion diffusion in close-packed oxide lattices, with the caveat that substantial thermodynamic driving forces for conversion reactions exist.