cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Gravitational radiation from supermassive black holes

If, as argued by some, the cores of most galaxies contain supermassive black holes, galaxy-galaxy collisions could lead to their coalescence and a consequent emission of gravitational radiation. For holes with masses $\ensuremath{\ge}{10}^{6}{M}_{0}$, the amplitude of this radiation should be sufficiently large (metric perturbation \ensuremath{\sim}${10}^{\ensuremath{-}18}$-${10}^{\ensuremath{-}17}$) as to be detectable at the present horizon distance ${\mathcal{R}}_{H}\ensuremath{\sim}{10}^{10}$ light years using current technology. It is shown here that there is solid evidence indicating that galaxy collisions could have been sufficiently frequent at early times (redshifts $z\ensuremath{\sim}2\ensuremath{-}3$) to lead to a rate of potentially observable events as short as one every \ensuremath{\sim}1-100 yr.
Dimerization of the UmuD' protein in solution and its implications for regulation of SOS mutagenesis

NMR spectroscopy has been used to determine that the dimerization interface of UmuD' in solution is not the homodimer interface originally inferred from crystallographic data. Instead, it resembles an interface that had been hypothesized to be involved in filamentation.
Early Parental Depression and Child Language Development.

Objective:To examine the effects of early maternal and paternal depression on child expressive language at age 24 months and the role that parent-to-child reading may play in this pathway.Participants and methods:The 9-month and 24-month waves from a national prospective study of children and their
Combinatorial Aspects of Flashcard Games

We study a family of discrete dynamical processes introduced by Novikoff, Kleinberg, and Strogatz that we call flashcard games. We prove a number of results on the evolution of these games, and in particular, we settle a conjecture of NKS on the frequency with which a given card appears. We introduce a number of generalizations and variations that we believe are of interest, and we provide a large number of open questions and problems.
The Impact of the Euro on the International Monetary System

(1998). The impact of the Euro on the International Monetary System. The International Spectator: Vol. 33, The Euro: Looking Ahead, pp. 5-20.
3D Iterative Restoration of Tomosynthetic Images

Analytic determination of the 3D PSF of a tomosynthetic image volume allows ns to solve the ill-posed inverse problem of recovering an image volume from a nonspecific orientation of projection views. We apply a nonlinear iterative 3D technique with nonnegativity constraints to restore these inherently blurred images from tuned-aperture reconstructed volumes.
Cortical projections to superficial laminae of the dorsal horn and to the ventral horn of the spinal cord in the North American opossum. Studies using the orthograde transport of WGA-HRP.

Abstract The orthograde transport of horseradish peroxidase conjugated to wheat germ agglutinin (WGA-HRP) has been used to study the distribution of corticospinal axons in adult and pouch-young opossums. As predicted from the results of degeneration and autoradiographic experiments, injections of WGA-HRP into limb areas of somatic motor-sensory cortex labeled axons in the dorsal and lateral funiculi of the cervical and upper thoracic spinal cord which could be traced to dense terminal zones in laminae III–VI. In addition, we obtained evidence for the presence of a few cortical axons in the ventral white matter and for innervation of the medial part of laminae I and II, laminae VII and VIII and lamina X. A few cortical axons are even present in lamina IX.
Effects of prestriate and striate lesions on performance of simple visual tasks.

Abstract Seven rhesus monkeys were tested for their performance on simple visual tasks before and after striate lesions or extensive prestriate lesions that included foveal prestriate cortex. A food discrimination task measured their ability to distinguish a raisin from a steel nut and a simple perimetry test required them to retrieve a raisin from various parts of their visual field. We confirmed the results of others that after occipital decortication, a monkey can locate moving targets and distinguish objects that differ in “salience.” An unexpected finding was that prestriate lesions caused more severe and longer lasting visual deficits than did striate lesions as judged by the monkey's performance on these tasks and by informal observation.
Management of cervical cerclage and preterm premature rupture of the membranes: Should the stitch be removed?

Abstract Objective: Our aim was to determine whether retention of cerclage after preterm premature rupture of the membranes occurring before 34 completed weeks’ gestation influences pregnancy outcome. Study Design: Singleton pregnancies with cerclage and premature rupture of the membranes between 24.0 and 34.9 weeks were reviewed. Women were excluded if they were first seen in labor, had chorioamnionitis, or were delivered within 48 hours. Control subjects consisted of women with premature rupture of the membranes without cerclage. Results: Eighty-one cases of cerclage with premature rupture of the membranes met criteria for inclusion: 30 women (37%) had their cerclage removed at presentation, and 51 (63%) retained the cerclage until delivery. Cases were similar in terms of gestational age at placement and gestational age at premature rupture of the membranes. There was no significant difference between the retained, removed, or control groups in terms of latency, gestational age at delivery, chorioamnionitis, or neonatal morbidity and mortality. Conclusions: Retention of cervical cerclage after premature rupture of the membranes occurring before 34 completed weeks’ gestation is associated with comparable clinical outcomes with respect to latency and perinatal outcome, when compared with removal of the cerclage. (Am J Obstet Gynecol 2000;183:840-6.)
The E22K mutation of myosin RLC that causes familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy increases calcium sensitivity of force and ATPase in transgenic mice

Familial hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (FHC) is an autosomal dominant disease caused by mutations in all of the major sarcomeric proteins, including the ventricular myosin regulatory light-chain (RLC). The E22K-RLC mutation has been associated with a rare variant of cardiac hypertrophy defined by mid-left ventricular obstruction due to papillary muscle hypertrophy. This mutation was later found to cause ventricular and septal hypertrophy. We have generated transgenic (Tg) mouse lines of myc-WT (wild type) and myc-E22K mutant of human ventricular RLC and have examined the functional consequences of this FHC mutation in skinned cardiac-muscle preparations. In longitudinal sections of whole mouse hearts stained with hematoxylin and eosin, the E22K-mutant hearts of 13-month-old animals showed signs of inter-ventricular septal hypertrophy and enlarged papillary muscles with no filament disarray. Echo examination did not reveal evidence of cardiac hypertrophy in Tg-E22K mice compared to Tg-WT or Non-Tg hearts. Physiological studies utilizing skinned cardiac-muscle preparations showed an increase by ΔpCa 50 ≥0.1 in Ca 2+ sensitivity of myofibrillar ATPase activity and force development in Tg-E22K mice compared with Tg-WT or Non-Tg littermates. Our results suggest that E22K-linked FHC is mediated through Ca 2+ -dependent events. The FHC-mediated structural perturbations in RLC that affect Ca 2+ binding properties of the mutated myocardium are responsible for triggering the abnormal function of the heart that in turn might initiate a hypertrophic process and lead to heart failure.
Esterase patterns of the chick lens

Abstract Carboxylesterase isozymes were detected in the chick lens. The isozyme pattern varies with age, both in number and relative concentration of bands. Furthermore there is a regional specificity of esterase pattern with respect to nuclear and cortical fibre cells.
Markov model prediction of I/O requests for scientific applications

Given the increasing performance disparity between processors and storage devices, exploiting knowledge of spatial and temporal I/O requests is critical to achieving high performance, particularly on parallel systems. Although perfect foreknowledge of I/O requests is rarely possible, even estimates of request patterns can potentially yield large performance gains. This paper evaluates Markov models to represent the spatial patterns of I/O requests in scientific codes. The paper also proposes three algorithms for I/O prefetching. Evaluation using I/O traces from scientific codes shows that highly accurate prediction of spatial access patterns, resulting in reduced execution times, is possible.
Host Suppression and Stability in a Parasitoid-Host System: Experimental Demonstration

We elucidate the mechanisms causing stability and severe resource suppression in a consumer-resource system. The consumer, the parasitoid Aphytis, rapidly controlled an experimentally induced outbreak of the resource, California red scale, an agricultural pest, and imposed a low, stable pest equilibrium. The results are well predicted by a mechanistic, independently parameterized model. The key mechanisms are widespread in nature: an invulnerable adult stage in the resource population and rapid consumer development. Stability in this biologically nondiverse agricultural system is a property of the local interaction between these two species, not of spatial processes or of the larger ecological community.
Noninvasive techniques for probing neurocircuitry and treating illness: vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)

Although the preceding chapters discuss much of the new knowledge of neurocircuitry of neuropsychiatric diseases, and an invasive approach to treatment, this chapter describes and reviews the noninvasive methods of testing circuit-based theories and treating neuropsychiatric diseases that do not involve implanting electrodes into the brain or on its surface. These techniques are transcranial magnetic stimulation, vagus nerve stimulation, and transcranial direct current stimulation. Two of these approaches have FDA approval as therapies.
Polyploidy and ecological transfiguration in Achillea

Polyploidy is a prominent chromosomal/genetical feature in most flowering plant groups (1, 2). Change in the number of chromosome sets (and thus gene dosage) is an important factor in the genesis of new species, in part because plants with higher ploidal levels often have ecological tolerances that differ from those of their progenitors. Plant evolutionists have been very interested in the origin of such differences, which may arise in two distinctive ways (3, 4). In the absence of hybridization, ecological divergence may be a simple by-product of change in ploidal level. Ecological divergence also may arise from natural selection acting on polyploid populations. It is impossible to distinguish between these alternatives from studies of two established entities that may have diverged in ploidal level thousands of years ago. In PNAS, Ramsey (5) demonstrates that a ploidal increase alone indeed may allow the invasion of a habitat that was previously unassailable by a long-established species. This study also demonstrates that long-standing polyploids are better adapted to this new habitat than are newly emergent ones.
Fabrication of advanced x-ray optics with magnetron minisource arrays

A process for direct application of multilayered coatings to large area (180 cm2) planar or curved optical surfaces has been developed. Small diameter (2.54 cm) sputter sources are appropriately configured in an array for the deposition of multilayered coatings on virtually any optical surface. Potential application in soft x-ray projection lithography is examined for the deposition of Mo/Si multilayers with a uniform, 6.5 - 7 nm, layer pair spacing onto 15.2 cm diameter silicon wafers. Layer pair spacing variations less than 1.5%, over surface areas exceeding 120 cm2, are measured using Cu (Kappa) (alpha) grazing incidence diffraction.© (1992) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Critical phenomena in complex contagions

Why do some contagions “go viral” and others do not? Research on “small world” networks (Watts and Strogatz, 1998) shows how a very small number of long-range ties that bridge between clusters can allow contagions to spread almost as rapidly as on a random network of equal density. Recent research shows how long-range ties that accelerate the spread of information and disease can impede the spread of complex contagions—behaviors, beliefs and preferences that diffuse via contact with multiple adopters (Centola and Macy, 2007). In confirming this result analytically and extending the analysis from small world to power law networks, we discovered that complex contagions require a critical mass of infected nodes that corresponds to a phase transition in the ability of the contagion to take advantage of the “shortcuts” created by long-range ties. We demonstrate how this critical mass is related to the dynamics of the contagion process and identify implications for modeling behaviors that spread via social influence, such as viral marketing and social movements.
Effects of Alanine Cluster Mutations in the D12 Subunit of Vaccinia Virus mRNA (Guanine-N7) Methyltransferase

The (guanine-N7)-methyltransferase domain of the vaccinia virus mRNA capping enzyme is a heterodimer composed of a catalytic subunit D1(498-844) bound to a stimulatory subunit D12. To identify structural elements of the 287-amino-acid D12 subunit that participate in binding and activation of the catalytic subunit, we introduced 12 double-alanine mutations at vicinal residues that are conserved in the D12 homologs of other vertebrate poxviruses. His-tagged D12 mutants were coexpressed in bacteria with the D1(498-544) subunit, and the recombinant D1(498-844)/His-D12 heterodimers were purified. Eight of the mutants (K111A-R112A, N120A-N121A, N126A-N127A, F141A-R142A, K223A-D224A, H260A-S261A, E275A-N276A, and R280A-R281A) had no significant effect on methyltransferase activity. Three of the mutants (L61A-K62A, F176A-K177A, and F245A-L246A) displayed an intermediate level of cap methylation (35-50% of wild-type activity). Only one mutation, N42A-Y43A, elicited a significant loss of the methyltransferase activation function (<20% of the wild-type activity). Nine of the D12-Ala/Ala proteins were produced individually in bacteria and tested for reconstitution of methyltransferase activity in vitro by mixing with the catalytic subunit. K111A-R112A, N120A-N121A, F176A-K177A, F245A-L246A, and L61A-K62A displayed diminished affinity for the D1 catalytic subunit. N42A-Y43A was uniquely defective in its ability to activate cap methylation by the catalytic subunit. Our results suggest that the methyltransferase activation function of D12, though clearly dependent on the physical interaction with D1, also requires constituents of D12 that are engaged specifically in catalysis.
Active site generation of a protonically unstable suicide substrate from a stable precursor: glucose oxidase and dibromonitromethane.

Bromonitromethane is an inefficient suicide substrate for glucose oxidase (in contrast to the case of CH3CClNO2- and d-amino acid oxidase) because, in the enzyme−substrate encounter step, the requi...
Electronic cigarettes: safety concerns and regulatory issues.

Is there anything such as safe smoking? This is a claim made by manufacturers of electronic cigarettes, who promote their products as smoking alternatives. The wide availability and aggressive marketing of these products may leave health care providers and patients asking an important public health
Perspective taking and adolescent sex offenders: From developmental theory to clinical practice

Clinical child researchers and practitioners face increasing pressure to more fully incorporate developmental findings and principles into their work. In describing a developmental approach to the assessment and treatment of perspective-taking deficits in adolescent sex offenders, we discuss some of the benefits and difficulties inherent in such integrative efforts. Following an overview of the clinical literature on juvenile sexual offending that focuses on the roles of perspective taking and empathy, we turn to a review of the developmental literature. This literature, particularly the model proposed by Selman, provides a rich conceptual foundation for understanding the relationship between perspective-taking skills and sexual offenses. We then describe our efforts to incorporate this model into clinical practice. The article concludes with an illustrative case example.
Determination of the absolute configuration of monosaccharides by 1H NMR spectroscopy of their per-O-(S)-2-methylbutyrate derivatives

Abstract An empirical method was developed to determine the absolute configuration of monosaccharides, based on high-field 1H NMR spectroscopy of their per- O-(S)-2-methylbutyrate (SMB) derivatives. The SMB derivatives of the D and L forms of a given monosaccharide are diastereomers, allowing them to be distinguished on the basis of differences in their 1H NMR chemical shifts. The reproducibility of these chemical shift differences may allow the absolute configuration of a wide range of monosaccharides to be routinely determined by comparing the spectra of their SMB derivatives to standard spectra in a data base, making it unnecessary to prepare and analyze new standards for each analysis. The derivatization procedure uses inexpensive, easy-to-handle reagents and is virtually complete. Application of the method to three complex glycans provided an unambiguous determination of the absolute configurations of their constituent monosaccharides. The enantiomeric forms of several monosaccharides are distinguishable by high-field 1H NMR spectroscopy of their per-O-(S)-2-methylbutyrate derivatives.
Probabilities of Low Nighttime Temperatures during Stocking and Harvest Seasons for Inland Shrimp Culture

Litopenaeus vannamei is cultured in earthen ponds at southern US inland sites when water temperatures permit shrimp survival and growth. The probability of a minimum air temperature ≤14 C for one, three, or five consecutive days at one coastal and eight inland sites where L. vannamei is or could be grown in ponds is high (50%) from late March through late April at all sites except Arcadia, Florida, and Harlingen, Texas. Probabilities are 10% by early May to early June. In the autumn, the 10 and 50% probability levels are reached in early- to mid-September and by late September to mid-October, respectively. Arcadia, Florida, and Harlingen, Texas, have the longest periods with low probabilities and Pecos, Texas, has the shortest periods. The maximum pond water temperature from the previous afternoon and the minimum air temperature from that night predicted the minimum pond water temperature the following morning for Pine Bluff, Arkansas: (R2 = 0.886): Tmin = 1.464 + 0.169Amin + 0.727Tmax, where Tmin = minimum daily pond water temperature (C), Amin = minimum air temperature (C) for the same day, and Tmax = maximum pond water temperature (C) from the previous day. Pond stock out and harvest decisions can be guided by minimum air temperature probabilities and predicted water temperature.
Initial performance of a 6 GHz "volume" ECR ion source

An all-permanent-magnet, 6-GHz "volume-type" ECR ion source has been constructed and evaluated. This source employs a novel magnetic field configuration with an extended central flat region to form a large, on-axis, ECR volume. It can also be converted to a traditional minimum-5 source where the ECR zones are surfaces. Comparisons are made of the performance of the source when operated in both "volume" and "surface" modes. According to the preliminary results, the "volume" mode is superior in terms of ion beam intensities and charge-state distributions.
Building cross‐cultural coalitions: A case‐study of the Black‐Korean Alliance and the Latino‐Black Roundtable

Abstract A case‐study is presented of two Los Angeles‐based cross‐cultural coalitions, the Black‐Korean Alliance [BKA] and the Latino‐Black Roundtable [LBR]. An analysis of the development and eventual dissolution of these two coalitions is presented against the backdrop of the history of relations between the African‐American, Korean‐American and Latino communities of Los Angeles. The central issues leading to the breakup of the two coalitions were: lack of resources, internal power dynamics between coalition partners, nationalistic factions within the broader communities, cross‐cultural dynamics between coalition members, the use of a dialogue model to frame coalition activities, and the analysis of intergroup relations underlying the formation of the coalitions. The applied and theoretical implications of the research are discussed.
Canonical frobenius form of matrices of a mechanical analog of dynamical systems of even order

For a dynamical system of even order in the Frobenius form, we find the canonical form of its mechanical analog. The matrix of transformation to this form does not depend on the parameters of the transformed systems, and, hence, the obtained result can be extended to the class of pseudolinear nonstationary systems.
“The Only Good Thing Was the G.I. Bill”: Effects of the Education and Training Provisions on African-American Veterans' Political Participation

The education and training benefits of the G.I. Bill of Rights are renowned for their redistributive effects among nonblack veterans, but their consequences for black veterans remain in question. Among non-blacks, the provisions are known to have expanded access to education across class lines, and to have generated positive socioeconomic consequences. They also fostered greater postwar involvement in civic associations and political activities, particularly among less advantaged beneficiaries. Given the widely perceived view that the G.I. Bill represents a landmark social program, it is imperative to investigate whether access to its social and economic benefits transcended the rigid color line of the postwar era. As well, consideration of how the education and training benefits affected African-American veterans' political participation may deepen our understanding of the relationship between governance and civic engagement.
Developing Behavioral Theory With the Systematic Integration of Community Social Capital Concepts

Health behavior theories state that social environments influence health behaviors, but theories of how this occurs are relatively underdeveloped. This article systematically surveys community social capital concepts in health behavior literature and proposes a conceptual framework that integrates these concepts into existing behavioral theory. Fifty-three studies tested associations between community social capital concepts and physical activity (38 studies), smoking (19 studies), and diet (2 studies). Trustworthiness of community members was consistently associated with more health-promoting and less disease-promoting behaviors in 19 studies. Neighborly reciprocity showed mixed results in 10 studies. Reporting a good sense of community was associated with more physical activity in only 5 of 16 studies. Neighborhood collective efficacy, which includes social cohesion and informal social control, was inconsistently associated with behaviors in 22 studies. Behavioral social norms were associated with smoking and physical activity in 2 of 6 studies, and neighborhood modeling of physical activity was associated with increased activity in 12 of 17 studies, with 1 opposing result. This review identifies several community social capital-related concepts that are, at times, associated with both health-promoting and disease-promoting behaviors and often have no associations. Theory explains these findings by describing the relationships and interactions among these concepts. Using these findings, this article proposes a conceptual framework that integrates community social capital concepts into existing behavioral theory. Iterative empirically based theory development is needed to address these concepts, which affect behaviors. These results can also inform theoretically based community-based and socially tailored interventions.
The East Asian Library in the Twenty-First Century

Celebrating the one-hundredth issue of the CEAL Bulletin is, I believe, a good opportunity to think about the future of the East Asian library. This essay is, however, not to forecast the future course of the East Asian library, but rather to present a vision, or to throw out some thoughts on desirable future developments in the East Asian library.
Evidence for electrically induced partial strand separation of DNA

We measured electrically induced changes of some optical properties of DNA solutions. These were the absorption coefficient and the reduced dichroism. The electric fields were applied in the form of 50–300-μsec-long pulses of varying field strength, up to 20 kV/cm. Changes of the optical properties were studied during the pulse. Solutions of varying DNA and salt concentrations were used. The qualitative predictions expected from the theory of electrically induced partial denaturation of the DNA were all observed. These are: (1) a decrease of the reduced dichroism at high fields; (2) a concurrent increase in the absorption coefficient; (3) a critical field above which effect (1) and (2) begin to occur; (4) a decrease of the magnitude of the above effects with increasing salt concentration; (5) a return to the status quo ante after short pulses.
Explicit bounds for multidimensional linear recurrences with restricted coefficients

This note employs path counting techniques to extend recent results on bounds for odd order linear recurrences to higher dimensions. The results imply optimal zero-free polydisks for multivariable power series with 0, 1 coefficients. Among the applications is a result that states that the optimal zero-free polydisk has radius approximately 1/(v + 1), for large dimensions v.
Optimal operation of a variable‐volume stirred tank reactor

For certain classes of chemical reactions, it is possible to increase the yield of the desired products by choosing appropriate variable-volume operating policies. An analysis of the steady state and semibatch operation of a stirred tank reactor demonstrates operating policies for both the isothermal and adiabatic case to maximize the steady state yield and to produce an improved semibatch yield. Computations carried out by using an analogue computer with a digital logic expansion system demonstrate further relationships between yield increase and operating policy.
Limestone: High-throughput candidate phenotype generation via tensor factorization

The rapidly increasing availability of electronic health records (EHRs) from multiple heterogeneous sources has spearheaded the adoption of data-driven approaches for improved clinical research, decision making, prognosis, and patient management. Unfortunately, EHR data do not always directly and reliably map to medical concepts that clinical researchers need or use. Some recent studies have focused on EHR-derived phenotyping, which aims at mapping the EHR data to specific medical concepts; however, most of these approaches require labor intensive supervision from experienced clinical professionals. Furthermore, existing approaches are often disease-centric and specialized to the idiosyncrasies of the information technology and/or business practices of a single healthcare organization. In this paper, we propose Limestone, a nonnegative tensor factorization method to derive phenotype candidates with virtually no human supervision. Limestone represents the data source interactions naturally using tensors (a generalization of matrices). In particular, we investigate the interaction of diagnoses and medications among patients. The resulting tensor factors are reported as phenotype candidates that automatically reveal patient clusters on specific diagnoses and medications. Using the proposed method, multiple phenotypes can be identified simultaneously from data. We demonstrate the capability of Limestone on a cohort of 31,815 patient records from the Geisinger Health System. The dataset spans 7years of longitudinal patient records and was initially constructed for a heart failure onset prediction study. Our experiments demonstrate the robustness, stability, and the conciseness of Limestone-derived phenotypes. Our results show that using only 40 phenotypes, we can outperform the original 640 features (169 diagnosis categories and 471 medication types) to achieve an area under the receiver operator characteristic curve (AUC) of 0.720 (95% CI 0.715 to 0.725). Moreover, in consultation with a medical expert, we confirmed 82% of the top 50 candidates automatically extracted by Limestone are clinically meaningful.
Chemistry in Past and New Science Frameworks and Standards: Gains, Losses, and Missed Opportunities

Science education frameworks and standards play a central role in the development of curricula and assessments, as well as in guiding teaching practices in grades K–12. Recently, the National Research Council published a new Framework for K–12 Science Education that has guided the development of the Next Generation Science Standards. In this paper, we discuss what we see as critical gains, losses, and missed opportunities in the representation of chemistry in these new documents compared to the previous National Science Education Standards. The goal is to facilitate the comparative analysis of these two documents from a chemistry perspective, and elicit issues that we judge demand greater discussion and reflection among chemistry educators.
Educating Culturally Competent Clinicians: Using Multiple Perspectives to Review Curriculum Content

This article evaluates a threefold approach for assessing cultural and linguistic diversity (CLD) content in the core curriculum of a speech-language pathology master’s program. A standard syllabus...
Risk Factors for Readmission After Lower Extremity Procedures for Peripheral Artery Disease

Objective As pressure to contain health care costs increases, there has been greater scrutiny of readmissions in the vascular surgery population. The objective of this study was to evaluate postoperative readmissions after open and endovascular lower extremity (LE) procedures for peripheral artery disease (PAD). Methods A retrospective cohort study was performed of elective adult inpatients with PAD and LE procedures which were selected from the Health Facts database (Cerner Corporation, Kansas City, Mo) between October 2008 and December 2010 using International Classification of Disease, 9th Clinical Modification diagnosis codes (claudication, rest pain, and ulceration/gangrene) and procedure codes for LE revascularization (endovascular and open). Multivariable logistic regression and χ 2 were used to compare patients who received endovascular and open procedures. The Charlson Comorbidity Index, comorbid diagnoses, and laboratory results were used to adjust for confounding. The main outcome measure evaluated was readmission ≤30 days of discharge. Results Of 463,362 index admissions, 16,574 patients were identified with a diagnosis of PAD. Combining PAD with elective LE procedures during the index admission, 777 underwent open and 681 underwent endovascular procedures. Unadjusted readmission rates for open and endovascular procedures for claudication, rest pain, and ulceration/gangrene were 10.2% vs 11.3% ( P = .69), 14.0% vs 18.2% ( P = .43), and 21.1% vs 19.5% ( P = .69), respectively. Readmission increased by the severity of the diagnosis for open and endovascular procedures ( P = .0006). Men comprised 58% of the cohort; readmission rates were not statistically different by sex ( P = .19). Race was not associated with procedure performed ( P = .16), but nonwhite race was associated with more severe PAD ( P Conclusions Less invasive endovascular procedures were not associated with decreased readmission rates compared with open surgery. The overall readmission rate for claudicant patients was 10.7%, which was unexpectedly high. Predictors of readmission included male sex, longer hospital stays, hospital infection, elevated aspartate aminotransferase, and high numbers of medications ordered and dispensed. Further examination exploring reasons for readmission are required to decrease readmission rates in the vascular surgery population.
The Social and Cultural Context of Coping With Sickle Cell Disease: I. A Review of Biomedical and Psychosocial Issues

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is widely conceived in the United States as a group of blood disorders that principally affect African Americans. Although pain is its principal feature, strokes, lung problems, sepsis, anxiety, depression, impaired social functioning, and maladjustment at work are frequent concomitants. This article selectively reviews biomedical and psychosocial aspects of SCD related to pain assessment, medical treatment, genetic counseling, education, and employment. The strongest support exists for claims of social deficits among adolescents and depression and work-related problems among adults. The social context of SCD, including issues related to socioeconomic status (SES), urbanicity, ethnicity, cultural values, and racial stigmatization, are important to include in empirical assessments and theoretical analyses of the effects of SCD on children and their families. The adverse psychosocial functioning often described as an effect of SCD might indeed be a consequence of these factors acting alone or in concert with the strains of SCD.
Applying SOA and Web 2.0 to Telecom: Legacy and IMS Next-Generation Architectures

With the emergence of SOA and Mashups technologies, telecom service providers now look toward Web 2.0 and next-generation network technologies to redefine the customer experience. How can telecom legacy applications be handled to fit in these trends? With IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), the Next Generation Network (NGN) architecture, the delivered multimedia services can be accessed by users from various devices via IP network or traditional telephony systems. Yet, with the characteristics of Web 2.0, new social capabilities could be applied to these services and personalization services could be provided. This technical paper consists of two parts: "SOA-lization" of telecom architectures, and "Web 2.0-ification" of the same. The SOA-lization section suggests a methodology for transforming both legacy applications and next-generation IMS into a Service-Oriented Architecture offering. The key emphasis here is a suggested analysis methodology that addresses how to migrate to SOA based on an existing legacy service layer. A case study using telecom solution applications will be discussed. The Web 2.0-ification section will first illustrate the characteristics of Web 2.0 and identify which telecom capabilities can fit in a Web 2.0 context. A case study of how to Web 2.0-enable using Ajax and Mashup technologies both in data level and GUI level will be discussed.To conclude, this technical paper describes techniques to SOA-lize legacy application and then to Web 2.0-ify the same or similar applications. These suggested techniques should be easily applicable to any other industry when Web 2.0 technologies are adopted.
A Reinforcement Learning Approach to Online Web Systems Auto-configuration

In a web system, configuration is crucial to the performance and service availability. It is a challenge, not only because of the dynamics of Internet traffic, but also the dynamic virtual machine environment the system tends to be run on. In this paper, we propose a reinforcement learning approach for autonomic configuration and reconfiguration of multi-tier web systems. It is able to adapt performance parameter settings not only to the change of workload, but also to the change of virtual machine configurations. The RL approach is enhanced with an efficient initialization policy to reduce the learning time for online decision. The approach is evaluated using TPC-W benchmark on a three-tier website hosted on a Xen-based virtual machine environment. Experiment results demonstrate that the approach can autoconfigure the web system dynamically in response to the change in both workload and VM resource. It can drive the system into a near-optimal configuration setting in less than 25 trial-and-error iterations.
ENCODE whole-genome data in the UCSC Genome Browser

The Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project is an international consortium of investigators funded to analyze the human genome with the goal of producing a comprehensive catalog of functional elements. The ENCODE Data Coordination Center at The University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) is the primary repository for experimental results generated by ENCODE investigators. These results are captured in the UCSC Genome Bioinformatics database and download server for visualization and data mining via the UCSC Genome Browser and companion tools (Rhead et al. The UCSC Genome Browser Database: update 2010, in this issue). The ENCODE web portal at UCSC (http://encodeproject.org or http://genome.ucsc.edu/ENCODE) provides information about the ENCODE data and convenient links for access.
Public service broadcasting and the challenge of new technology: A case study of Japan’s NHK

The decade of 1980's was characterized by multiplying challenges to public service broadcasting in many countries. The threat to the financial viability of public broadcasting, which had originated with the stagnation of receiver fee revenue in the face of rapidly escalating production costs, was compounded by the economic-ideological chal lenges posed by the advent of new media technologies. By the end of the 1980s, public broadcasting systems everywhere appeared to be either crumbling or managing a slow decline.As a system operating in a uniquely different, and little-studied, policy environment, Japan's public service broadcasting system, NHK, presents a sharp contrast to this grim picture of decline. In contrast to many of its Western counterparts, such as the BBC, for example, NHK has succeeded in adapting new technologies to its own advantage and has grown tremendously in power and prominence as a broadcasting institution since the early 1980s.Based on extensive personal interviews conducted with Ja...
Multiplex single strand conformation polymorphism analysis by capillary electrophoresis with on-the-fly fluorescence lifetime detection.

This paper describes the use of on-the-fly fluorescence lifetime detection (OFLD) for multiplex single strand conformation polymorphism (SSCP) analysis by capillary electrophoresis (CE). The dye labels studied for multiplex SSCP-OFLD-CE analyses included RG, NBD, and BODIPY-FL. The dyes were first investigated for a model system of "Wild Type" and "Mutant" 43-base fragments designed to vary by a single A/T substitution. Two dye pairs, BODIPY-FL/RG and BODIPY-FL/NBD, were then used to detect the G20210A mutation in the human prothrombin gene. Mobility correction was required for the BODIPY-FL/RG system. Three "blind" analyses were performed of three mixtures that combined a control fragment (wild type-BODIPY-FL) with two "unknown" fragments selected among four possibilities (wild type or mutant labeled with NBD or RG). In each multiplex analysis, the "origin" of the unknown fragments was correctly identified on the basis of fluorescence lifetime of the dye label and the presence or absence of the mutation was correctly determined on the basis of conformation-induced differences in migration time.
Historic and Current Status of the American White Pelican Breeding at Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge, North Dakota

Abstract Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge currently supports the largest breeding colony of the American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) in North America. The first written account of the colony's status was in 1905, when approximately 500 pelicans nested on two islands in Chase Lake. The colony grew to nearly 34,000 breeding birds by 2002. Surveys of breeding pelicans in the colony were sporadic from 1905 until 1972. Because the availability of foraging areas affects recruitment, pond counts from south-central North Dakota were used as an index of the relative availability of foraging areas. Pond counts varied widely in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1993, pond numbers increased dramatically, reached a peak in 1997, then declined but remained relatively high through 2002. Pelican numbers also increased in the mid- to late-1990s, possibly in response to increased and stable foraging opportunities. Because rising water in Chase Lake inundated the original nesting islands during that period, pelicans ...
Quotas in Agricultural Policy of the United States

Publisher Summary Price, income support, and various types of production control measures are the critical aspects of the laws enacted during the Great Depression, having a dramatic and continuing effect on U.S. agricultural policy. Price support was primarily through loans, and income support through various payments to farmers. The marketing of specified fruits, nuts, and vegetables are covered by marketing orders upon the approval of producers representing a designated share of the area to be covered by the order or of producers representing two-thirds of the value of the marketing for the specified commodity. While the focus of milk marketing orders is on price regulation within a particular marketing area, production incentive plans are authorized, which may include the limitation of production through the creation of a base for each producer within a marketing area. Acreage allotments and marketing quotas are authorized for all types of tobacco. . However, only producers of flue-cured tobacco have approved national marketing quotas on an acreage basis. The domestic supply of peanuts is controlled by the use of a marketing quota, which assigns a portion of the overall national percentage quota to each producer. The national peanut quota is not a protected property interest, so it can be changed without affecting the property interest of the farm owners or operators.
Alterations in mRNA stability during rat liver regeneration.

We examined the in vivo transcriptional and posttranscriptional regulation of various genes involved in hepatocyte growth and replication that exhibited changes in steady-state mRNA levels after 70...
Older Workers and Short-Term Jobs: Employment Patterns and Determinants

Data from the longitudinal Health and Retirement Study indicate that, among older Americans with work experience since age 50, approximately 12 percent of men and 32 percent of women never held a full-time career job; the retirement patterns of these non-full-time career older workers are diverse, just as they are for individuals with career jobs.
Magneto-Optical Studies of Impurities in Coupled and Perturbed Quantum Wells

Recent far infrared magneto-spectroscopic studies of shallow donor impurities in GaAs/AlGaAs multiple-quantum-well (MQW) structures are described. Three examples are given: 1) Photothermal ionization spectroscopy of high excited states in well-center-doped QWs; 2) The effects of wave function penetration through narrow barriers on the electronic states of shallow donor impurities in coupled double quantum wells; and 3) The effects of electric fields (Stark effect) on shallow donors in wide quantum wells.
Nobel Elinor: Transcending Markets, Bureaucracy, Covenants, and Business Elites

AbstractElinor Ostrom has innovated by transcending the common quasi-determinisms of Markets, Bureaucracy, Covenants, and Business Elites. She has joined elements of all these to illuminate dark corners for most theories, like informal negotiation, intergovernmental cooperation, restructuring incentives, and forming new governance coalitions among voluntary participants, public, private, and non-profit. Her analytical insights link to personal lifestyle in ways that have been inspirational to many globally.
Creating Meaningful New Brand Names: A Study of Semantics and Sound Symbolism

Little academic research has been directed to developing new brand names. While guidelines for creating effective new brand names have been proposed (e.g. the name should be distinctive, easy to pronounce, meaningful, etc), results of following such prescriptions are largely unknown. The purpose of this study is to examine customer response to products introduced with “meaningful” new brand names. Specifically, this research proposes and empirically tests two methods for creating meaningful new brand names. Results of the study indicate that products with brand names using sound symbolism to convey product-related information are liked better by consumers and positioned more strongly in their minds. Supplementing sound symbolism imbeds with semantic imbeds in a brand name further enhances both product liking and positioning.
Asplund, Sigurd Lewerentz, Architect

(1989). Asplund, Sigurd Lewerentz, Architect. Journal of Architectural Education: Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 51-53.
Controlled Synthesis of Si Nanopillar Arrays for Photovoltaic and Plasmonic Applications

This paper focuses on developing a robust process to independently control the geometrical parameters of Si nano-pillar (NP) arrays. These parameters include height and diameter of NPs, spacing between them, and the shape of the NPs. We have shown that the diameter, height, and spacing of NPs can be independently engineered by controlling the diameter of nano-beads through synthesis procedure, duration of isotropic SiO2 etching and duration of anisotropic Si etching, respectively.
J31 Correlation of Cag Repeat Length between Maternal and Paternal Allele of the HD Gene: Evidence for Assortative Mating

Background The effect of CAG repeats on brain function below disease threshold has not been studied thoroughly. We sought to evaluate the possibility of assortative mating in a group of subjects recruited from the community and with no family history of Huntington’s. Methods 85 healthy children ages 6–18 years of age were recruited from the surrounding community. The first 47 consecutive subjects were collected and a second set of subjects, n = 38 were enrolled after. These were treated as mutually exclusive samples. DNA was provided and CAG repeat measured. Spearman correlations were run evaluating the relationship between the two alleles in regard to CAG repeat length. Results The first sample showed a significant correlation of r = 0.511, p = 0.0002, thus longer Allele1 lengths were associated with longer Allele2 lengths. The correlation for the 2nd sample, was similar at r = 0.528, p = 0.0007. Conclusion This simple analysis shows evidence that there is assortative mating in regard to CAG length of HTT. That is, the length of CAG repeat in the maternal allele of HTT strongly correlates with the length of the CAG repeat of the paternal allele of HTT, suggesting that the male and female pair mated based on the common feature of having a similar genotype (length of CAG repeat).
Civil Society and Paths to Abolition

This article explores aspects of the abolitionist movements in comparative imperial and national perspective. Contrasting the transoceanic roads to emancipation in the pioneering British and French empires, it then examines subsequent cases in Russia, the United States of America and Brazil. It attempts to assess the relative impact of civil and/or military mobilizations—or their absence—in relation to the public sphere and legislative actors. It speculates on the impact of different forms and outcomes on the legacies of abolitions.