cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Cyclical Behavior of Equilibrium Unemployment and Vacancies

This paper argues that the textbook search and matching model cannot generate the observed business-cycle-frequency fluctuations in unemployment and job vacancies in response to shocks of a plausible magnitude. In the United States, the standard deviation of the vacancy-unemployment ratio is almost 20 times as large as the standard deviation of average labor productivity, while the search model predicts that the two variables should have nearly the same volatility. A shock that changes average labor productivity primarily alters the present value of wages, generating only a small movement along a downward-sloping Beveridge curve (unemploymentvacancy locus). A shock to the separation rate generates a counterfactually positive correlation between unemployment and vacancies. In both cases, the model exhibits virtually no propagation. (JEL E24, E32, J41, J63, J64)
Immune response to hepatitis B surface antigen: enhancement by prior injection of antibodies to the idiotype

Anti-idiotype reagents that recognize a common idiotype associated with the combining site of antibodies to hepatitis B surface antigen (anti-HBs) were used to manipulate the immune response to hepatitis B surface antigen in BALB/c mice. The injection of antibodies to the idiotype before antigenic stimulation resulted in an increase in the number of cells secreting immunoglobulin M antibodies to hepatitis B surface antigen. Anti-HBs-secreting cells were also induced by administration of antibodies to the idiotype without subsequent antigen exposure. These findings indicate that the immune response to hepatitis B surface antigen in mice is regulated through an idiotype-anti-idiotype network.
Moisture sorption properties of chitosan

The moisture equilibrium isotherms of chitosan were determined at 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 � C, using the gravimetric static method. Experimental data were analyzed by the GAB, Oswin, Halsey and Smith equations. Isosteric heat and differential entropy of sorption were determined from the GAB model using the Clausius-Clapeyron and Gibbs-Helmholtz equations, and pore size distribution was calculated by the Kelvin and Halsey equations. The GAB and Oswin equations showed best fit to the experimental data with R 2 z 99% and low mean relative deviation values (E% < 10%). Monolayer moisture content values (from 0.12 to 0.20 kg kg � 1 ) and water surface area values (from 450 to 700 m 2 g �1 ) decrease with increasing temperature. Isosteric heat and differential entropy of sorption were estimated as a function of moisture content. The Kelvin and Halsey equations were adequate for calculation of pore size distribution, which varied from 0.5 to 30 nm.
On the equivalence of heat kernel estimates and logarithmic Sobolev inequalities for the Hodge Laplacian

In this paper we consider the Hodge Laplacian on differential k-forms over smooth open manifolds MN, not necessarily compact. We find sufficient conditions under which the existence of a family of logarithmic Sobolev inequalities for the Hodge Laplacian is equivalent to the ultracontractivity of its heat operator. We will also show how to obtain a logarithmic Sobolev inequality for the Hodge Laplacian when there exists one for the Laplacian on functions. In the particular case of Ricci curvature bounded below, we use the Gaussian type bound for the heat kernel of the Laplacian on functions in order to obtain a similar Gaussian type bound for the heat kernel of the Hodge Laplacian. This is done via logarithmic Sobolev inequalities and under the additional assumption that the volume of balls of radius one is uniformly bounded below.
Ecophysiological factors contributing to the distributions of several Quercus species in the intermountain west

Les caracteristiques hydriques de trois especes de chenes (Quercus gambelii, Q turbinella et Q macrocarpa) et de leurs hybrides (Q gambelii x turbinella, Q gambelii x macrocarpa) ont ete analysees sur des arbres en plantations comparatives dans le nord de l'Utah (Etats-Unis). En l'absence d'irrigation pendant les mois d'ete, Q turbinella et Q macrocarpa etaient incapables de maintenir des echanges gazeux actifs en cours de journee; apres un pic matinal, la conductance stomatique restait tres faible pendant le reste du temps. En revanche, Q gambelii et les hybrides ont maintenu des conductances stomatiques elevees pendant toute cette periode. Ces observations sont a mettre en relation avec la presence sur les individus de Q gambelii d'un systeme racinaire capable d'atteindre les couches du sol plus profondes et rechargees en humidite en cours de l'hiver, alors que ni Q turbinella ni Q macrocarpa ne presentent cette caracteristique. En se basant sur la distribution actuelle des deux hybrides, on peut supposer que Q turbinella et Q macrocarpa occupaient autrefois des regions plus septentrionales et plus seches que leur aire actuelle. Lors du retrait des deux especes parentes, les hybrides avec l'espece Q turbinella, qui depend moins des pluies estivales, sont restes en place. La dimension et la longevite des feuilles, le rapport de composition isotopique du carbone, et les temperatures hivernales minimales ne sont pas correles avec l'absence de Q macrocarpa et de Q turbinella des habitats a secheresse estivale. En revanche, la dependance aux pluies estivales semble etre le facteur critique contribuant a la disparition progressive de ces especes des sites a secheresse estivale de la zone des plateaux de l'ouest americain.
Between People and Machines

The paper is discussing the importance of medical information systems. Clinical engineers provide engineering services and equipment to health-care providers.
Understanding the property enhancement mechanism in exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets reinforced polymer nanocomposites

The focus of this study is to understand how exfoliated graphite nanoplatelets (xGnP) alter the elastic response of semi-crystalline polymers and reveal the mechanisms responsible for the property ...
Monotonic and fatigue behavior of five clinically relevant conventional and highly crosslinked UHMWPEs in the presence of stress concentrations.

Abstract Five formulations of clinically relevant UHMWPE (conventional, moderately crosslinked annealed and remelted, and highly crosslinked annealed and remelted) were investigated in a physiologically relevant environment. Their monotonic stress-strain behavior in the presence of notches of two different severities and at two different displacement rates was examined using a custom developed video based system. It was found that both an elevation of yield stress and a truncation of orientation hardening took place under monotonic loading and that these changes were found to be material and elastic stress concentration factor dependent. The fatigue behavior of these materials was examined using the same geometries via a stress-life approach with failure defined as fracture of the specimen in the 1000 to 100,000 cycle lifetime range. The results were modeled using the Basquin relationship ( σ = AN b , where σ =stress and N =lifetime, and A and b are experimentally derived constants) via maximum likelihood estimation methods to account for specimen runout (no failure at 250,000cycles). The conventional material was found to have a greater slope, b , and intercept, A , than the crosslinked materials as well as appearing to have less variance in its failure distributions.
Differential expression of c-erb B2/neu, epidermal growth factor receptor, cytokeratin 8, and the prostatic steroid-binding protein gene in rat ventral prostate during postnatal development.

BACKGROUND The development and progression of prostate neoplasia may recapitulate the early developmental pattern of expression of genes in the prostate. The study of prostate development may, therefore, provide insights into the molecular mechanisms important in prostate neoplasia and reveal new markers. METHODS We compared postnatal expression of four genes: neu and epidermal growth factor receptor genes (EGFR), androgen-upregulated in the ventral prostate of adult rats (C-3), and androgen-repressed (CK8) in Sprague–Dawley rats. In situ hybridization was performed on prostate frozen sections collected on postnatal days 1, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, and 60 from five rats per day. Staining intensities for antisense probes specific for each gene were determined relative to day 1 intensity. RESULTS Growth factor receptors including neu and EGFR may be coordinately regulated in the basal-cell population during prostate development. CK8 and C-3 show evidence of similar androgen regulation during development. CONCLUSIONS CK8 and C-3 have distinct patterns of expression in the postnatal period of development and these genes may be good markers of differentiation. Both neu and EGFR may be involved in androgen-independent growth of basal cell population in prostate. Prostate 47:164–171, 2001. © 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Subspace matching thalamic microstimulation to tactile evoked potentials in rat somatosensory cortex

We show experimental results that the evoked local field potentials of the rat somatosensory cortex from natural tactile touch of forepaw digits and matched thalamic microstimulation can be qualitatively and quantitively similar. In ongoing efforts to optimize the microstimulation settings (e.g., location, amplitude, etc.) to match the natural response, we investigate whether subspace projection methods, specifically the eigenface approach proposed in the computer vision community (Turk and Pentland 1991 [1]), can be used to choose the parameters of microstimulation such that the response matches a single tactile touch realization. Since the evoked potentials from multiple electrodes are high dimensional spatio-temporal data, the subspace projections improve computational efficiency and can reduce the effect of noisy realizations. In computing the PCA projections we use the peristimulus averages instead of the realizations. The dataset is pruned of unreliable stimulation types. A new subspace is computed for the pruned stimulation type, and is used to estimate a sequence of microstimulations to best match the natural responses. This microstimulation sequence is applied in vivo and quantitative analysis shows that per realization matching does statistically better than choosing randomly from the pruned subset.
Basic level category structure emerges gradually across human ventral visual cortex

Objects can be simultaneously categorized at multiple levels of specificity ranging from very broad "natural object" to very distinct "Mr. Woof", with a mid-level of generality basic level: "dog" often providing the most cognitively useful distinction between categories. It is unknown, however, how this hierarchical representation is achieved in the brain. Using multivoxel pattern analyses, we examined how well each taxonomic level superordinate, basic, and subordinate of real-world object categories is represented across occipitotemporal cortex. We found that, although in early visual cortex objects are best represented at the subordinate level an effect mostly driven by low-level feature overlap between objects in the same category, this advantage diminishes compared to the basic level as we move up the visual hierarchy, disappearing in object-selective regions of occipitotemporal cortex. This pattern stems from a combined increase in within-category similarity category cohesion and between-category dissimilarity category distinctiveness of neural activity patterns at the basic level, relative to both subordinate and superordinate levels, suggesting that successive visual areas may be optimizing basic level representations.
What Fails English as the Dream Language of Rural India

Rural masses in India view English as the language of socio-economic empowerment through education. Education could be either in English or in regional languages, but children should learn English, because it is seen as the key to the world of opportunities in higher education and employment. The governments need to politically respond to the aspirations of the common masses keeping aside both politicised language policies and theoretical linguistic inputs that encourage one’s mother tongue as the ideal medium of instruction. Onerous responsibility lays on men, methods, and materials over which government have the least say, but the practising teachers of English and academics who help bureaucrats in framing language policies in India are solely responsible for non-realization of dreams of the masses. There is something terribly rotten in the state of English-teaching enterprise in India. This paper proposes to examine the present state of affairs in the teaching of English to rural students and to offer constructive alternatives to the existing package of men, materials, and methods.
Deterioration of academic achievement and marijuana use onset among rural adolescents

This study utilizes discrete-time survival analysis to assess the effect of level of academic achievement (both contemporaneously and prospectively) and changes in academic achievement on initiation of marijuana use among rural adolescents in junior high school. In the sample under consideration, 36% of boys and 23% of girls initiated use of marijuana by the end of ninth grade. Consistent with our hypothesis, poor academic achievement is a salient predictor of initiation of marijuana use among both boys and girls. Both contemporaneous and lagged levels of achievement significantly predict initiation. In addition, change in academic achievement is an important predictor of initiation. That is, students who demonstrate a deterioration of their academic achievement over time are more likely to start using marijuana. Poor academic achievement and deterioration of academic achievement should be considered as risk factors for initiation of marijuana use among rural adolescents. Initiatives targeted at improving academic achievement and/or drug use prevention initiatives designed for poor achieving students may help to prevent initiation of marijuana use.
Concentration-dependent time-lag measurements

In gas-metal permeation, diffusion is normally considered to be the rate-controlling step. In addition, the diffusivity is usually taken to be independent of concentration. Under these conditions, the time lag (a characteristic of the system which depends on the time required to achieve steady state flow) is found to be (and theoretically should be) independent of the gas pressure applied to the inlet surface of the metal membrane. Furthermore, the time lag can then be directly related to the diffusivity of the system. In this paper, data on the hydrogen type 321 stainless steel system are presented which show a pronounced effect of pressure on measured values of the time lag. Taken alone, these data can be explained either by a concentration-dependent diffusivity or by resistance to flow at the metal surface. From steady state data it is shown that surface resistance is the better explanation. A model of the permeation process is presented which is consistent with the time lag data, and an estimate is made of the diffusivity of hydrogen in type 321 stainless steel. The variables studied were hydrogen pressure at the entrance surface of the membrane (0.1 to 30.0 atm.), temperature (300° to 800°C.), and membrane wall thickness (0.0252 to 0.2475 cm.).
Learning capabilities enhanced in harsh environments: a common garden approach

Previous studies have suggested that the ability to inhabit harsh environments may be linked to advanced learning traits. However, it is not clear if individuals express such traits as a consequence of experiencing challenging environments or if these traits are inherited. To assess the influence of differential selection pressures on variation in aspects of cognition, we used a common garden approach to examine the response to novelty and problem-solving abilities of two populations of black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus). These populations originated from the latitudinal extremes of the species’s range, where we had previously demonstrated significant differences in memory and brain morphology in a multipopulation study. We found that birds from the harsh northern population, where selection for cognitive abilities is expected to be high, significantly outperformed conspecifics from the mild southern population. Our results imply differences in cognitive abilities that may be inherited, as individuals from both populations were raised in and had experienced identical environmental conditions from 10 days of age. Although our data suggest an effect independent of experience, we cannot rule out maternal effects or experiences within the nest prior to day 10 with our design. Nevertheless, our results support the idea that environmental severity may be an important factor in shaping certain aspects of cognition.
Talkabout: Making Distance Matter with Small Groups in Massive Classes

Massive online classes are global and diverse. How can we harness this diversity to improve engagement and learning? Currently, though enrollments are high, students' interactions with each other are minimal: most are alone together. This isolation is particularly disappointing given that a global community is a major draw of online classes. This paper illustrates the potential of leveraging geographic diversity in massive online classes. We connect students from around the world through small-group video discussions. Our peer discussion system, Talkabout, has connected over 5,000 students in fourteen online classes. Three studies with 2,670 students from two classes found that globally diverse discussions boost student performance and engagement: the more geographically diverse the discussion group, the better the students performed on later quizzes. Through this work, we challenge the view that online classes are useful only when in-person classes are unavailable. Instead, we demonstrate how diverse online classrooms can create benefits that are largely unavailable in a traditional classroom.
What Is Your Guess? The Case of the Blue-Green Urine

A random urine sample was received for routine urinalysis from a 62-year-old patient who had undergone multiple surgeries 9 months earlier to treat metastatic bladder cancer. The patient was at that time prescribed amlodipine, fosinopril, omeprazole, pravastatin, Prosed™ DS (Ferring Pharmaceuticals), and VESIcare (Astellas Pharma). Fig. 1. Urine sample from patient with a history of bladder cancer. 1. What is responsible for the unique color of this urine sample (Fig. 1)? 2. Will the color interfere …
Genetic resistance to leukosis caused by the JM virus in the fowl.

Abstract THE avian leukosis complex represents the greatest single cause of mortality in the domestic fowl. Estimates of the annual cost of this group of diseases to the poultry industry are as high as $200,000,000. This is largely due to condemnations of 7 to 9 week old broilers in the dressing plants and to mortality throughout the growing period and thereafter. Recent work has demonstrated that there are different types of leukosis, each resulting from different viruses or transmissible agents. At the present time there appears to be two main groups responsible for most of the field cases of leukosis. Using the classification proposed by Sevoian (1967), we refer to these as Type I (or lymphoid leukosis) and Type II (or Marek’s disease). At least two sub-types (A and B) of the “RIF-type” viruses referred to as Type I leukosis have been isolated, while a third sub-type (C) has been suggested…
HIERARCHICAL IMPORTANCE OF PRE-PASSAGE QUESTIONS: EFFECTS ON CUED RECALL

This experiment compared the effects of pre-passage questions that quizzed information of different structural importance on college students' cued recall of expository prose passages. Among higher-vocabulary subjects, cued recall of detail information not specifically quizzed by the pre-passage questions was significantly greater in the condition in which pre-passage questions quizzed a detail unit than in the higher-level pre-passage question condition or the no pre-passage question condition, p < .05. These findings suggest that lowerlevel pre-passage questions do facilitate encoding of related details for subjects of certain ability levels, and that earlier findings showing a facilitation of free recall by higher-level pre-passage questions, but not by lower-level pre-passage questions, reflect primarily a retrieval phenomenon. However, the results also indicate that lower-level pre-passage questions are specific in their facilitative effects and do not promote memory for related main ideas. Recent research (Wilhite, 1983) has shown that the effect of pre-passage questions on the retention of indirect (i.e., non-quizzed) material depends on the structural importance of the information being quizzed. Specifically, Wilhite found that questions quizzing higher-level main ideas facilitated the free recall of related main ideas compared to a no-question control condition, whereas questions quizzing lower-level details in the passage did not facilitate recall of related main ideas. Neither higher-level nor lower-level questions significantly affected recall of indirect details. One possible interpretation of these results is that higher-level questions are more likely to encourage encoding of related information than are lowerlevel questions. In recent experiments by Reynolds and his associates (Reynolds & Anderson, 1982; Reynolds, Standiford, & Anderson, 1979), it
Implementing decentralization programmes in Asia: A comparative analysis

Decentralization in development planning and administration is being attempted in novel ways as governments seek to generate economic growth and at the same time achieve greater social equity. Little has been done to assess comparatively the nature and effectiveness of these experiments. This article is based on a selection of eight case studies, each set in a different Asian country, where an innovative approach to decentralization has been adopted by the central government in order to achieve development aims. The stimulus to innovate is considered, the different forms of decentralization compared and a tentative comparative evaluation is made of the effectiveness of decentralizing development planning and implementation. What the analysis shows is that despite diversity in the objectives and differences in the forms decentralized programmes took there were common problems centring on administrative capability. This, the author argues, has important implications for governments and international agencies.
Fast charge collection in GaAs MESFETs

Time-resolved charge collection measurements on 1- mu m-gate-length digital GaAs metal-semiconductor field effect transistors (MESFETs) with a variety of energetic ions and picosecond laser pulses exhibit risetimes as short as 25 ps with pulse widths of approximately 35 ps. Evidence is presented for the presence of three distinct-timescale charge collection processes, with time constants ranging from less than 25 ps to >1 mu s. The effects of radiation damage on the charge collection transients are presented, and the use of above-bandgap picosecond laser excitation is demonstrated as a viable alternative to ion excitation for characterization of the dynamical response of high-frequency, radiation-sensitive devices to rapid charge deposition. >
The Classical Liberal Constitution: The Uncertain Quest for Limited Government. By Richard A. Epstein. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014. Pp. xv, 684. $49.95.)

The author of this study is the leading libertarian legal theorist in America. When the leading legal theorist of any perspective devotes almost a decade to writing a book about the Constitution of...
The Role of Solvent and the Outer Coordination Sphere on H2 Oxidation Using [Ni(PCy2NPyz2)2]2+

Hydrogenase enzymes are reversible catalysts for H2 production/oxidation, operating with fast rates and minimal overpotentials in water. Many synthetic catalyst mimics of hydrogenase operate in organic solvents. However, recent work has demonstrated the importance of water in the performance of some model complexes. In this work, the H2 oxidation activity of [Ni(PCy2N(3–pyridazyl)methyl2)2]2+ (CyPyz) was compared as a function of acetonitrile, methanol, and water. The reactivity was compared under neutral and acidic conditions in all three solvents and improvement in catalytic activity, from 2 to 40 s–1, was observed with increasing hydrogen bonding ability of the solvent. In addition, the overpotential for catalysis drops significantly in the presence of acid in all solvents, from as high as 600 mV to as low as 70 mV, primarily due to the shift in the equilibrium potential under these conditions. Finally, H2 production was also observed in the same solution, demonstrating bidirectional (irreversible) homogeneous H2 production/oxidation. A structurally and electronically similar complex with a benzyl instead of a pyridazyl group was not stable under these conditions, limiting the evaluation of the contributions of the outer coordination sphere. Collectively, we show that by tuning conditions we can promote fast, efficient H2 oxidation and bidirectional catalysis.
Theory transitions in organizational buying behavior research

Organizational buying is an active research domain with hundreds of studies grounded in one or several of the complementary theoretical models in the literature. In recent years, however, many scholars have focussed on the importance of the buyer‐seller relationship. For many research studies, the theoretical framework has expanded from a buying‐side‐only perspective. Explores the reason for this transition in terms of changes in the business‐to‐business environment. Given the environmental changes, the next theory transition may be to view buying and selling relationships between firms from a systems perspective. Introduces basic systems thinking concepts as they may apply in the buyer‐seller context.
Solving the scheduling problem in high level synthesis using a normalized mean field neural network

A neural network solution to the time constrained scheduling problem in high level synthesis of digital circuits is proposed. The mean field theory neural network with graded neurons, proposed by Peterson and Soderberg (1989) is adapted and renamed as normalized mean field net. With the use of ASAP and ALAP schedules as limiting constraints, the number of neural variables is kept to a scalable size resulting in a fast and efficient implementation. An extension to include multi-cycle operations is presented. The proposed network is simulated and tested on two examples including a fairly large benchmark circuit from the 1988 High Level Synthesis Workshop. In all cases, the network is able to find optimal solutions in the first trial. >
A model-based parameter estimation technique for wide-band interpolation of periodic moment method impedance matrices with application to genetic algorithm optimization of frequency selective surfaces

A model-based parameter estimation (MBPE) technique is introduced in this paper for efficiently interpolating periodic moment method (PMM) impedance matrices over a wide frequency band. In the model, only the Floquet harmonics that strongly affect the frequency band of interest are employed to approximate the matrix elements, while the contributions from all other higher-order harmonics are compactly represented by two additional terms. The derivation of the model is physics-based, and the objective is to find the coefficients of the terms in the model by utilizing the values of the impedance matrix elements calculated via PMM at only a few frequency points. The number and position of these fitting points can be pre-determined from the cutoff frequencies of the Floquet harmonics, which allows the MBPE interpolation process in this case to be completely automated. In other words, the number and position of the sampling points are only dictated by the periodicity of the frequency selective surface (FSS) structure and the frequency range of interest. Unlike many of the other scattering parameter-based techniques, the shape and the resonances in the response of the FSS do not have any impact on the construction of the interpolation model. This makes it particularly useful in genetic algorithm (GA) aided FSS design, since for a fixed periodicity and frequency range the MBPE interpolation is independent of the scattering response of candidate FSS designs. Several examples of the new PMM-MBPE approach are presented including one in which it is used to considerably speed up the GA-based design process for a reconfigurable FSS
AGRICULTURAL SUBSIDIES IN THE BUDGET OF THE REPUBLIC OF SERBIA

In this paper, the authors analyse the dynamics of agricultural subsidies, compared to the developments in public revenue and public expenditure and the total subsidies of the republic budget, in the years of 2006-2013. We performed desk research using official statistical data and processing them with standard statistical methods, and studying and quoting a number of scientific papers and documents of national and EU institutions. We also considered the government's projection of the scope and structure of agricultural subsidies by 2024, having in mind the fiscal consolidations and the obligations of adjusting legislation, support policy and institutional framework in agriculture with those of the EU. A three-year fiscal consolidation programme, which includes, among other things, reducing and re-examining agricultural support programmes, should create a healthy basis for stable and growing budget transfers to agriculture. Investment support will still be very important, and producers could expect a more significant growth in direct payments just before and just after joining the EU.
Thoracic duct injury in penetrating neck trauma

Thoracic duct laceration from penetrating neck trauma is a rare injury associated with significant morbidity. Seventy-one cases published in the English literature in the last 50 years, along with one new case, were reviewed in an attempt to characterize the clinical profile, treatment, and outcome.
A New Method for Measuring Home Ranges of Small Mammals

The movements of individually toe-marked wild Mus musculus were detected by tracking the mice on smoked kymograph paper. The smoked paper was placed in unbaited half-gallon milk-carton or coffee-can shelters arranged in a dense rectangular grid. As many as ten records were obtained from an individual mouse in a single night. The method avoids the biases of trap inhibition, learning, and trap fatigue inherent in the mark-and-recapture method, and provides information suitable for the investigation of the theoretical probability density functions of mouse activity.
Red Imported Fire Ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) Response to Current and Conductive Material of Active Electrical Equipment

Electric fields generated by active electrical equipment do not attract the red imported fire ant, Solenopsis invicta Buren, but rather, ants aggregate near circuits after contact with the bare, bridgeable wires or contact points. This contact results in current flow through the bodies of ants causing derangement, incapacitation, and death, all of which lead to peculiar behaviors, including release of chemicals, that excite ants and attract ants to the site. Ant response to strong electric fields of 197, 120, and 30 V/mm was negated by spacing and sheathing circuit contacts. There by preventing ant access to active conductive material. Thresholds for ant response to electricity were ≈5.0 V and 0.83 mA.
The role of mass media campaigns in preventing unintended pregnancy

This short paper discusses the potential of advertising campaigns to reduce rates of unintended pregnancy in the United States. The author did a review research indicating that past campaigns encouraging contraceptive use have affected the behavior of some members of their target populations, and presented simulation results suggesting that a publicly funded, nationwide campaign has the potential to reduce by more than 20,000 the number of children born into poverty each year, to save taxpayers substantially more money than is required to fund the campaign, and to effect meaningful reductions in rates of teenage pregnancy, non-marital childbearing, and abortion. Key words: Media campaigns, contraception, unintended pregnancy.
Desferrioxamine Enhances the Effects of Gamma Radiation on Clonogenic Survival and the Formation of Chromosomal Aberrations in Endothelial Cells

Vascular injury and endothelial damage contribute to the efficacy and complications of radiotherapy. Iron chelation protects against iron-catalyzed oxidative injury, but it also inhibits DNA synthesis in proliferating cells and can cause apoptosis. We examined the prevailing effects of iron chelation on the survival of γ-irradiated human umbilical vein endothelial cells by treating monolayers, primarily in the G1/ G0 phase of the cell cycle, with the iron chelator desferrioxamine for 24 h prior to γ irradiation. Desferrioxamine treatment alone diminished plating efficiency by inducing apoptosis and delaying proliferation; this effect disappeared by 48 h. Desferrioxamine treatment reduced clonogenic survival after exposure to 2.5 Gy γ radiation, but neither iron loading with hemin nor treatment with another iron chelator, 2,2-dipyridyl, which is a potent inhibitor of ribonucleotide reductase, had an effect on survival after irradiation. Clonogenic survival and chromosomal aberrations were measured in paral...
BEHAVIOR OF MICROORGANISMS AND ENDOTOXIN PERFUSED THROUGH THE ISOLATED RAT LIVER.

SummaryUtilizing the isolated perfused rat liver as a model to study the behavior of bacteria and bacterial products in that organ, 3 observations have been made: (1) A latent period of at least 1 1/2 hours was present before organisms which had been injected endoportally appeared in the bile. (2) Gram-negative bacilli appeared in the bile with regularity while staphylococcal organisms failed to do so during the period of perfusion. (3) A decrease in hepatic blood flow was produced by administration of gram-negative bacilli. Neither staphylococci alone, nor endotoxin alone induced this effect, but the 2 in combination slowed blood flow. Endotoxin, even in massive doses, had no direct hemodynamic effect on the isolated perfused rat liver.
Surgical isolation of the atrial septum from the atria: Identification of an atrial septal pacemaker

This is a report of the third in a series of experiments carried out to identify and to determine the reliability of atrial pacemakers below the sinoatrial (SA) node. This information could be useful to the surgeon in planning both corrective atrial operations and direct operations for atrial arrhythmias. In this study, done in dogs, the atrial septum containing the atrioventricular (AV) node was completely separated from the remaining atria. Seven dogs survived for 35 to 116 days. Serial electrocardiograms (ECGs) after operation showed that four of the seven dogs developed a regular junctional rhythm with a rate of 85 beats/min, whereas three of seven developed an irregular junctional rhythm with pauses and bigeminy. In a control study, in which the AV node was disconnected from the His bundle, a slow regular junctional rhythm was produced in all three of the dogs. Thus, in the series of three experiments, this being the report of the last one, a hierarchy of pacemakers below the SA node was identified. The first one, a pacemaker in the low right atrium in the region of the coronary sinus, was the most reliable and was associated with a normal ECG. A second, in the atrial septum, did not develop dominance in all dogs. However, the junctional pacemaker in the His bundle always became dominant after the AV node was disconnected from the His bundle and was associated with a regular but slow rhythm.
Impact of Cu, Zn-superoxide dismutase and Se-dependent glutathione peroxidase-1 knockouts on acetaminophen-induced cell death and related signaling in murine liver.

There is increasing evidence showing dual functions of antioxidant enzymes in coping with reactive oxygen species (ROS) versus reactive nitrogen species (RNS). The objective of this study was to compare the impacts of knockout of Cu, Zn-superoxide dismutase (SOD1) and Se-dependent glutathione peroxidase-1 (GPX1) on cell death and related signaling mediated by acetaminophen (APAP), a RNS inducer in liver. Two groups of young adult knockout mice (SOD1−-/– and GPX1−-/–), along with their wild types (WT), were killed 5 hrs after an ip injection of saline or APAP (300 mg/kg body wt). While the WT mice showed more hepatic necrosis and DNA breakage than the GPX1−-/– mice, the SOD1−-/– mice had essentially no positive response compared with their saline-injected controls. The APAP treatment activated liver c-jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) in the WT and GPX1−-/– mice, but not in the SOD1−-/– mice. The APAP-induced changes in other cell death-related signal proteins such as p21, caspase-3, and poly(ADP-ribose) polymer...
Synergistic Effect of High Temperature and High pH on the Destruction of Salmonella enteritidis and Escherichia co1i O157:H7.

This study was undertaken to determine if high temperature and high pH interact synergistically to enhance the rate of destruction of two important gram-negative foodborne pathogens, Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enteritidis . The rates of destruction in NaHCO3-NaOH buffers at pH 7.0, 10.0, and 11.0 were determined at 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, and 65°C. Use of an improved heating protocol eliminated a "tailing effect" at longer exposure times. The present study demonstrated that the combination of high pH and high temperature resulted in a highly significant synergistic interaction (P > F = 0.0001), which caused rapid death of both E. coli O157:H7 and S. enteritidis . This "alka-therm" technology might be used commercially to destroy gram-negative foodborne pathogens on various raw agricultural commodities.
Non-operative Treatment Outcomes of Stable Juvenile Osteochondritis Dissecans Lesions of the Knee

Objectives: Osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) of the knee most commonly occurs in skeletally-immature pre-adolescent or adolescent patients. Stable juvenile OCD lesions are initially treated via non-operative methods, with varying rates of successful healing reported in the literature. Unloader bracing has been introduced as a relatively new method designed to reduce weight-bearing stress and promote healing for femoral condyle lesions, although the outcomes of unloader bracing compared to other forms of non-operative treatment have not been established.
Ensemble of Adaptations for Classification: Learning Adaptation Rules for Categorical Features

Acquiring knowledge for case adaptation is a classic challenge for case-based reasoning (CBR). To provide CBR systems with adaptation knowledge, machine learning methods have been developed for automatically generating adaptation rules. An influential approach uses the case difference heuristic (CDH) to generate rules by comparing pairs of cases in the case base. The CDH method has been studied for case-based prediction of numeric values (regression) from inputs with primarily numeric features, and has proven effective in that context. However, previous work has not attempted to apply the CDH method to classification tasks, to generate rules for adapting categorical solutions. This paper introduces an approach to applying the CDH to cases with categorical features and target values, based on the generalized case value difference heuristic (GCVDH). It also proposes a classification method using ensembles of GCVDH-generated rules, ensemble of adaptations for classification (EAC), an extension to our previous work on ensembles of adaptations for regression (EAR). It reports on an evaluation comparing the accuracy of EAC to three baseline methods on four standard domains, as well as comparing EAC to an ablation relying on single adaptation rules, and assesses the effect of training/test size on accuracy. Results are encouraging for the effectiveness of the GCVDH approach and for the value of applying ensembles of learned adaptation rules for classification.
Effects of neutron irradiations in various crystal samples of large size for future crystal calorimeter

In this paper, we report an investigation on the radiation damage effects induced by neutrons in large size crystal scintillator: BGO, CeF3, LYSO:Ce and PWO. The irradiations were carried out by using fast neutrons from one 241Am-Be and two 252Cf sources. The optical and scintillation properties of these samples, including UV excitation and emission spectra, longitudinal transmission, light output, decay kinetics and light response uniformity, were measured before and after the irradiations. The neutron induced photo-current was also measured, and was used to estimate the readout noise under the neutron flux expected by an electromagnetic calorimeter at a very severe radiation environment. Because of its high light output and excellent radiation resistance LYSO:Ce crystal is found to have the smallest neutron induced readout noise as compared to other large size crystals, indicating it is a good candidate material for a future crystal calorimeter in a severe radiation environment.
Anti-coagulation complications in pregnancies with severe pulmonary arterial hypertension.

BACKGROUND Epoprostenol, a potent vasodilator, is the treatment of choice for severe pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) in pregnancy. However, its inhibition of platelet aggregation increases the risk of coagulation complications with conjunctive use of anti-coagulants for thromboprophylaxis. CASES Case 1 demonstrates a pregnancy complicated by thrombocytopenia. Case 2 describes a pregnancy with newly diagnosed PAH at 35 weeks who delivered by repeat cesarean delivery complicated by a wound hematoma. Case 3 describes a patient who delivered at 32 weeks. She required extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and a heart-lung transplant. Her care was further complicated by severe thrombocytopenia with postpartum hemorrhage refractory to usual conservative measures. CONCLUSIONS This case series describes three patients with severe PAH in pregnancy and the range of different complications that arose from anticoagulation in the setting of epoprostenol.
Machine Learning for Structured Clinical Data

Research is a tertiary priority in the EHR, where the priorities are patient care and billing. Because of this, the data is not standardized or formatted in a manner easily adapted to machine learning approaches. Data may be missing for a large variety of reasons ranging from individual input styles to differences in clinical decision making, for example, which lab tests to issue. Few patients are annotated at a research quality, limiting sample size and presenting a moving gold standard. Patient progression over time is key to understanding many diseases but many machine learning algorithms require a snapshot, at a single time point, to create a usable vector form. Furthermore, algorithms that produce black box results do not provide the interpretability required for clinical adoption. This chapter discusses these challenges and others in applying machine learning techniques to the structured EHR (i.e. Patient Demographics, Family History, Medication Information, Vital Signs, Laboratory Tests, Genetic Testing). It does not cover feature extraction from additional sources such as imaging data or free text patient notes but the approaches discussed can include features extracted from these sources.
Magnetic Moments of Electrons and Positrons

In this report we describe a number of new features in our precision experiments currently in progress to measure the anomalous magnetic moments of the electron and positron, and we will point out the impact these improvements will have in testing several fundamental theories in physics. In the electron experiment, reduction in both statistical and systematic errors will result in a comparison with QED predictions at the level of the eighth-order term in the expansion of the anomaly in powers of α. In addition, by varying the energy of the electrons we can test special relativity to an accuracy of 2×10-11. The positron experiment will test CPT by comparing the electron and positron magnetic moments.
Student conceptions of ‘conducting tests’ in design in the middle school classroom

Engineering design is a complex experience for students to undertake and for instructors to assess. Conducting tests is a critical design practice, yet the research on K-12 students' conceptions on conducting experiments is limited. Such research is essential as we attempt to understand how students become informed designers and ways in which we can support their transformation. By analyzing students' prioritization and re-prioritization of design strategies after participating in a design activity, this study examined how students' conceptions of design activities change over time. The study took place in three middle schools with 746 students. The main data source was the “conceptions of design test,” which students completed a pre- and post-test, before and after completing a design project. We performed McNemar tests to quantitatively analyze students' changing conceptions of design. Results suggest that after a design activity, “conducting tests” became a statistically more important concept to students. Future work will investigate student rationale for this increased importance placed on “conducting tests” in design.
Clinical Profile of Nonresponders to Surgical Myectomy with Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy.

Abstract Background Surgical myectomy reverses heart failure symptoms in the vast majority of obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients. However, a small subgroup fails to experience sustained postoperative improvement despite relief of obstruction. Clinical profile of such patients has not been well defined. Methods Consecutive obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients undergoing myectomy at Tufts Medical Center for drug-refractory New York Heart Association III/IV heart failure symptoms, 2004 to 2017, were followed postoperatively for 2.5 ± 2.8 years and assessed for outcome. Results Of the 503 patients, there were 4 postoperative deaths (0.8%); 480 patients (96%) had sustained improvement to New York Heart Association classes I or II (responders), but 19 (3.8%) developed advanced symptoms (classes III or IV) in the absence of obstruction (nonresponders). Compared with responders, nonresponders were younger (40 ± 13 vs 53 ± 14 years; P P P Conclusions Surgical myectomy is highly effective at reversing heart failure symptoms in the vast majority of patients with obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. However, a small minority experience persistent functional limitation despite surgical relief of outflow obstruction. Predictors of adverse postoperative course were substantial/massive septal thickness and youthful age. Patients who failed to respond symptomatically to myectomy were considered for advanced heart failure treatment, including heart transplantation.
Motor Neuron Disorders

ALS is the most common adult-onset motor neuron disorder. ALS affects upper and lower motor neurons, resulting in a combination of spasticity, hyperreflexia, atrophy, and weakness. SMA is the most common childhood-onset motor neuron disorder and is an autosomal recessive disorder of the SMN gene. Other less common motor neuron disorders include SBMA, PLS, Hirayama disease, and viral poliomyelitis. The differential diagnosis and management of motor neuron disorders are discussed in this chapter.