cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Gender Variation in the Age-Crime Relation in Cross-National Context: Taiwan-US Comparison

Hirschi and Gottfredson’s premise of a ubiquitous adolescent-driven age-crime relation is widely endorsed, yet empirical tests have relied almost solely on non-disaggregated western data reflecting male patterns. Joint effects of gender and age have been strongly assumed but not broadly tested. To examine the invariance thesis, we probed for conditioning effects of gender and social context by comparing gender-age-crime patterns in an East Asian society, Taiwan, with those in the USA. Unique disaggregated arrest data for Taiwan and the USA were leveraged to determine whether there were within- as well as between-country differences in the age-gender-crime relation and whether the age-gender distributions were invariant across social groups and cultures. Major findings were as follows: (1) striking within-country similarity in age distributions of male and female offenders; and (2) considerable between-country dissimilarity in age-crime schedules of males and females: Taiwan male and female age-crime curves were less peaked and older than the US male and female age-crime curves, diverging from the widely-held premise of a ubiquitous adolescent-spiked age-crime curve. Strong cross-national variation in the age-crime relation, paired with remarkable gender similarity within nations, support life course approaches attentive to social context and suggest considerable mutability of any biological processes shaping the age-crime, the gender-crime, and the gender-age-crime relation.
Pivoting to Progressivism: Justice Stephen J. Chadwick, the Washington Supreme Court, and Change in Early 20th-Century Judicial Reasoning and Rhetoric

Relatively little attention has been paid to the part played by state judges in upholding progressive legislation in the early twentieth century in a period when the United States Supreme Court often overturned reform measures on constitutional grounds. In contrast, between 1910 and 1913, the Washington State Supreme Court rapidly changed its doctrinal analysis and its stance on judicial deference to elected lawmakers, aligning the state’s constitutional law with the public’s new views on the responsibility of government in addressing social and economic challenges. A fascinating window on the progressive period and changes in judicial reasoning and rhetoric is provided by focusing on a single member of the Washington Supreme Court, Stephen J. Chadwick, who sat on that court between 1908 through 1919. Chadwick was in many respects typical of his Washington Supreme Court colleagues: educated, publicly-involved and politically ambitious. But Chadwick played the leading role in conceptualizing and communicating the Washington Supreme Court’s new approach to progressive legislation. Chadwick’s legal opinions are striking for their cogent reasoning and clarity. They are also striking for their honesty about the forces that were causing him, as a judge, to look at things in a fresh way. There were three key reasons for the turnaround in his court’s philosophy: First, the judges were sophisticated, pragmatic and politically-experienced leaders whose feet were “on the ground” in their communities. Second, as educated and economically comfortable elites, their personal views changed along with those of other middle class Washingtonians — i.e., those who formed the backbone of the progressive movement. Finally, the altered philosophy about the role of the courts, i.e., the shift from the practice of ruling many regulatory and worker protection statutes unconstitutional to a more hands-off deferential approach to policy decisions by elected lawmakers, was directly influenced by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Justice Chadwick was clearly influenced by Holmes, and on the Washington court he anticipated the “legal realist” approach to legal theory and judicial decision-making that gained dominance nationally in the following decades.Note: Although the article cover date is Summer, 2013, Pacific Northwest Quarterly will publish this article in 2014.
Taking Back the Law School Classroom: Using Technology to Foster Active Student Learning

Law schools (and indeed all of higher education) have witnessed an explosive growth in the use of technology in the classroom. Many law professors now deploy a wide array of technological bells and whistles, including PowerPoint slides, web-based course platforms, in-class Internet access, and the like. Students, in turn, increasingly come to class armed with laptop computers to harvest the fruits of the classroom experience. Yet in recent years there has been somewhat of a backlash, with various law professors arguing that this technology is interfering with, rather than improving, pedagogy in the classroom. According to the critics, this technology increases student passivity and thus interferes with the active learning that should be the hallmark of a law school classroom. In addition, the critics complain that laptops provide too much competition for the students' attention, enticing them to play computer games or DVDs and, with in-class Internet access, to read and send email (or instant messages), shop on-line, or check out the latest political, financial, or sports news. This Article opens a new chapter in this debate, explaining how law professors can use both old and new technologies to increase student engagement in the classroom. We first lay out the pedagogical case for creating an active learning environment in the law school classroom and then examine the critics' charge that technology impedes these goals. The Article offers a competing vision of how technology can be harnessed to increase active student learning and, in the process, empower students to resist their laptop's siren song. In particular, we describe how in our tax and labor law courses we combine both old (substituting word processing text for PowerPoint slides) and new (using handheld wireless transmitters) technologies to inject more active learning into the classroom.
Viruses as vehicles for growth, organization and assembly of materials

Viruses have been used as scaffolds for the peptide-directed synthesis of magnetic and semiconducting materials, and have been further exploited in the formation of nanowires and liquid crystals. Reviewed in this manuscript is the work of Douglas, Mann, Fraden, Belcher, DeYoreo and others who have either exploited native viral structures to grow or assemble materials, or have genetically modified existing viral structures to specifically affect the growth and mineralization of inorganic materials. Rod-shaped viruses, including M13 bacteriophage and tobacco mosaic viruses, have been used in the synthesis of nanowires of metals, semiconductors and magnetic materials. The cowpea chlorotic mottle and the cowpea mosaic viruses have been used as nucleation cages for the mineralization of materials such as iron oxide and polyoxometalates. The exterior of such cages has been chemically modified with conjugating linkers as well as with polymeric materials and fluorophores. Further, viral-inorganic complexes have been incorporated into liquid crystal systems as well as self-supporting viral thin films and viral fibers.
Abstract B15: Combination chemotherapy in melanoma using EZH2 inhibitor

Melanoma is the deadliest variety of skin cancer, which according to the American Cancer Society (ACS) will account for around 9710 deaths and diagnosis of around 76,100 new melanoma cases in the current year. According to the ACS, melanoma is also the fastest growing cancer, and hence it is vital to investigate the pathogenesis involved in the advanced stage of melanoma, and design effective therapeutics for its treatment. Aberrant activity of the histone methyltransferase enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) has been reported to be associated with different types of cancer. The EZH2 catalyzes the deposition of the repressive mark histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation (H3K27me3) on the promoter of the target genes using the catalytic SET domain, thereby epigenetically silencing the expression of the target genes. This is because the H3K27me3 mark results in chromatin compaction which reduces the accessibility of various transcription factors to the gene, and hence adversely affects transcription. Several of such EZH2 target genes have been found to be tumor suppressor genes like RUNX3, DAB2IP, and E-cadherin, and silencing of such tumor suppressor genes is a chief mechanism by which EZH2 leads to cancer progression. Hence derepression of the tumor suppressor genes by inhibition of EZH2 could be an effective treatment strategy in different types of cancer. There has been no study till date investigating the role of EZH2 in melanoma. Our laboratory is investigating the role of EZH2 in the pathogenesis involved in the advanced stage of melanoma, to enable the design of effective therapeutic strategies for the treatment of melanoma. Drugs targeting epigenetic modifiers are becoming increasingly popular because of the fact that most epigenetic modifications and their effects can be reversed using these drugs. Our lab has strong evidence that metastatic (or advanced) melanoma is associated with upregulation of EZH2 and H3K27me3. We have also observed that EZH2 inhibition inhibits proliferation and invasion, and also induces apoptosis in metastatic melanoma cells. Recently our lab is performing combination chemotherapeutic studies in vitro, where EZH2 inhibitor GSK126 (S-adenosyl-methionine competitive inhibitor) is being used in combination with conventional chemotherapeutics like cisplatin and Bcl-2 inhibitors. Our results strongly suggest that when EZH2 inhibitor is used in combination with cisplatin or Bcl-2 inhibitor in metastatic melanoma cell lines, the inhibition is synergistic. This synergistic effect of GSK126 and cisplatin or Bcl-2 inhibitor has been found to be caspase-mediated. Citation Format: Deepanwita Sengupta, Nathan L. Avaritt, Alan J. Tackett. Combination chemotherapy in melanoma using EZH2 inhibitor. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on Advances in Melanoma: From Biology to Therapy; Sep 20-23, 2014; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(14 Suppl):Abstract nr B15.
Loss-Based Cross-Validated Deletion/Substitution/Addition Algorithms in Estimation

In van der Laan and Dudoit (2003) we propose and theoretically study a unified loss function based statistical methodology, which provides a road map for estimation and performance assessment. Given a parameter of interest which can be described as the minimizer of the population mean of a loss function, the road map involves as important ingredients cross-validation for estimator selection and minimizing over subsets of basis functions the empirical risk of the subset-specific estimator of the parameter of interest, where the basis functions correspond to a parameterization of a specified subspace of the complete parameter space. In this article we first review this approach. Then we propose a general deletion/substitution/addition algorithm for minimizing over subsets of variables (e.g., basis functions) the empirical risk of subset-specific estimators of the parameter of interest. In particular, in the regression context, this algorithm corresponds to minimizing over subsets of variables the sum of squared residuals of the subset-specific linear regression estimator. This algorithm provides us with a new class of loss-based cross-validated algorithms in prediction of univariate and multivariate outcomes, conditional density and hazard estimation, and we generalize it to censored outcomes such as survival. In the context of regression, using polynomial basis functions, we study the properties of the deletion/substitution/addition algorithm in simulations and apply the method to detect binding sites in yeast gene expression experiments.
Space and time efficient algorithms for planted motif search

We consider the (l,d) Planted Motif Search Problem, a problem that arises from the need to find transcription factor-binding sites in genomic information. We propose the algorithms PMSi and PMSP which are based on ideas considered in PMS1 [10]. These algorithms are exact, make use of less space than the known exact algorithms such as PMS and are able to tackle instances with large values of d. In particular algorithm PMSP is able to solve the challenge instance (17,6), which has not reported solved before in the literature.
Does daily kangaroo care provide sustained pain and stress relief in preterm infants

Objectives 1. Determine whether stress in preterm infants, measured with salivary cortisol, decreases after five days of Kangaroo Care (KC) compared to five days of Standard Care (SC). 2. To determine whether kangaroo care provides sustainable pain relief beyond the period of skin-to-skin holding.
39Ar/Ar measurements using ultra-low background proportional counters

Abstract Age-dating groundwater and seawater using the 39Ar/Ar ratio is an important tool to understand water mass-flow rates and mean residence time. Low-background proportional counters developed at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory use mixtures of argon and methane as counting gas. We demonstrate sensitivity to 39Ar by comparing geological (ancient) argon recovered from a carbon dioxide gas well and commercial argon. The demonstrated sensitivity to the 39Ar/Ar ratio is sufficient to date water masses as old as 1000 years.
Refractory period dynamics and cardiac stability: results from a computer model

Computer simulations of reentrant cardiac electrical conduction were extended to include dynamics which cause alternation in refractory-period duration at high pacing rates. The simulations demonstrate that alternation increases susceptibility to fibrillation as compared to models with nonalternating refractory periods. The alternating refractory periods lead to long transients in the model which create the appearance of aperiodicity. The authors suggest that details in cellular dynamics may play an important role in determining how the heart responds to rapid pacing. A small change in these details can produce a large change in the system as a whole. >
Coupling of whole-building energy simulation and multi-dimensional numerical optimization for minimizing the life cycle costs of office buildings

The minimization of life cycle costs for building materials and operational energy consumption of a reference commercial office building model is achieved through the optimization of envelope design parameters by the use of integrated energy simulation and multi-dimensional numerical optimization techniques. The whole-building energy simulation program EnergyPlus v6.0 is coupled with GenOpt v3.0 generic optimization tool to automatically compute the optimal values of thermal insulation thicknesses for external walls and roofs in addition to glazing unit types for vertical fenestration. A life cycle cost (LCC) model is implemented within the GenOpt program for the objective function evaluation using simulation outputs pertaining to energy consumption and associated utility costs. A stochastic population-based and multi-dimensional optimization technique of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is utilized for searching the parameter space. This algorithm can result in a 36.2% reduction in the computational effort to converge to the global minimum point with a very high degree of accuracy compared to the full enumeration technique. The results indicate that the annual total site energy consumption of the optimized building model is reduced by 33.3% with respect to the initial baseline case. The optimized envelope parameters can yield 28.7% life cycle cost reduction over a 25 years life span with a simple pay-back period of 4.2 years.
Factors affecting gastrointestinal absorption of drugs

Absorption from the intestine is dependent on: (1) the physiochemical state of the substance, (2) the nonabsorptive physiologic functions and state of the intestine, (3) the metabolic activity and functions of the absorbing cell, and (4) the structure of the absorbing surface. Certain changes within each of the four categories will produce uniform or predictable changes in drug absorption which may be applied generally. Other alterations produce highly predictable effects on absorption of certain classes of drugs, while still other alterations, particularly those in metabolic activity, produce changes which are specific for a single agent or group of structurally related agents. Unintentional alterations in either the rate or amount of drug absorption can lead to ineffective oral therapy on the one hand, or toxic reactions on the other.
The neural control of alternate heartbeat coordination states in the leech,Hirudo medicinalis

The bilateral paired hearts of the medicinal leech are controlled by a set of segmental heart motor neurons (HE cells) which are in turn controlled, via inhibitory synapses, by a set of segmental heart interneurons (HN cells). The HE cells fire in rhythmic impulse bursts because their steady discharge is periodically inhibited by the HN cells. 1) With the identification of an additional pair of HN cells in segmental ganglion 1 and the elucidation of several synaptic connections between HN cells a more complete heart control circuit diagram is now available. This circuit diagram accounts for the observed activity cycles of the various HN and HE cells and consequently for the behavior of the hearts themselves. 2) The bilaterally paired HE cells are coordinated by the HN cells such that the segmental heart tube sections on one side constrict in a caudorostral sequence to produce a rear-to-front peristalsis, while the segmental heart tube sections on the other side constrict nearly synchronously (non-peristaltically). This difference in the coordination modes of the two hearts is not permanent, and reciprocal coordination mode transitions occur every 10–50 heartbeat cycles. Cell HN(5) is phasically active on the side of the non-peristaltic heart tube and completely inactive on the side of the peristaltic heart tube. Reciprocal changes in the activity-inactivity pattern of the HN (5) cell pair are responsible for the observed spontaneous reciprocal changes in coordination mode. When cell HN (5) is made to be active or inactive, by intracellularly injected current, similar but unilateral changes, in coordination mode occur.
Measurement of spectral, directional reflectivities of solids at high temperatures between 9 and 11 μm

A new apparatus to measure spectral directional reflectivities of solids for temperatures up to 1100 °C is developed. Reflectivities of two ceramic materials, silicon nitride (Si3N4) and silicon carbide α-SiC, are measured at wavelengths between 9 and 11 μm (the operating range of tunable CO2 lasers) for various temperatures, angles of incidence, and for two types of polarization, the electric vector perpendicular and parallel to the plane of incidence. Reflectivities are measured by comparing the power of the beam reflected from the sample (heated in the furnace) with that of the incident beam. This experimental setup is limited to relatively specular surfaces (with a collection half-angle of 15°). The measurements show that the reflectivity of α-SiC at room temperature rises sharply near ∼10.2 μm because of the presence of a 12.6-μm reflection band (restrahlen band), and the occurrence of this phenomenon gradually shifts to longer wavelengths as the temperature is raised to 1000 °C. At 10.6 μm, where most CO3 lasers operate, the reflectivity of SiC diminishes rapidly as the temperature is raised. Si3N4 has two restrahlen bands on both sides of 9.9 μm at room temperature that gradually shift to longer wavelengths with temperature. However, the decrease in reflectivity of Si3N4 with temperature at 10.6 μm is very small.
The effects of mysid grazing on kelp zoospore survival and settlement

Recent studies have indicated that long-distance dispersal by kelp zoospores may play an important role in the colonization of newly exposed rocky habitats and in the recovery of recently disturbed kelp forests. This may be facilitated by the vertical transport of zoospores into the shallower portions of the water column where they are exposed to greater alongshore currents that increase their dispersal potential. However, this vertical transport can also expose them to elevated irradiances and enhanced grazing by zooplankton, both of which negatively impact zoospore survival and settlement. In this study, we used plankton tows to show that zooplankton (mysids) were at least seven times more abundant in the surface waters than near the benthos along the edge of a large kelp forest at the time of our spring sampling. We then used feeding experiments and epifluorescence microscopy to verify that these mysids grazed on kelp zoospores. Finally, we conducted laboratory experiments to show that grazing by these mysids over a 12 h period reduced kelp zoospore settlement by at least 50% relative to treatments without grazing. Together with previous studies that have revealed the impacts of high irradiance on zoospore survival and settlement, our study indicates that the vertical transport of kelp zoospores into the shallower portions of the water can also expose them to significantly increased mortality from mysid grazing. Thus, if these patterns are consistent over broader temporal and geographic scales, vertical transport may not be a viable method for sustained long-distance zoospore dispersal.
Methodology for tolerance design using quality loss function

Abstract In this paper, we develop a methodology for tolerance design that focuses on total variability from the target value. A general optimization model is developed to allocate tolerances to assembly parts. The constraint for the optimization model is the requirment for assembly tolerances or variability and cost is related to the total cost to reduce variance for the components and loss due to variation from target for the assembly. Different quality loss functions are also discussed.
Decomposing the Moral Community: Religious Contexts and Teen Childbearing

Teen birth rates vary widely across counties in the United States. In this study, we examine whether the religious composition of a county is correlated with the rate of teen childbearing using both a traditional moral communities approach and a “decomposed” version of that framework. Utilizing 2000 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Census Bureau, and the Religious Congregation and Membership Survey, we find that the total percentage of religious adherents in a county is not significantly correlated with the teen birth rate. However, when we decompose the Christian population into major denominational groupings, we find the percentage of evangelical Protestants in a county is positively associated with the teen birth rate while the percentage of Catholics is negatively associated with teen childbearing. Possible explanations for the association between religious context and teen birth rates are discussed, as well as their policy and research implications. Descomponiendo la comunidad moral: contextos religiosos y el embarazo adolescente (Seth Ovadia y Laura M. Moore) Resumen Las tasas de embarazo adolescente varian ampliamente entre los diferentes condados de los Estados Unidos. En el presente estudio, examinamos si la composicion religiosa de un condado esta relacionada con la tasa de embarazo adolescente haciendo uso de la perspectiva tradicional de las comunidades morales al igual que una version “descompuesta” de dicho marco analitico. Utilizando datos para el 2000 de los Centros para el Control y Prevencion de Enfermedades, de la Oficina del Censo de los Estados Unidos y de la Encuesta sobre Membresia Religiosa, encontramos que no hay una correlacion significativa entre el porcentaje total de personas pertenecientes a una religion en un condado y la tasa de embarazo adolescente. Sin embargo, cuando descomponemos la poblacion cristiana en sus denominaciones principales, encontramos que el porcentaje de protestantes evangelicos en un condado esta positivamente asociado con la tasa de embarazo adolescente mientras que el porcentaje de catolicos esta asociado negativamente con dicha tasa. El articulo discute varias explicaciones posibles para la asociacion entre el contexto religioso y la tasa de embarazo adolescente al igual que las implicaciones en terminos de politicas y de investigacion futura.
Continuous-time signal analysis using wavelets

In this paper, continuous-time wavelet transform (CTFT) is applied to analyze non- bandlimited continuous-time signals. Orthogonal CTWT based on Daubechies finite-support wavelets is used for signal analysis and reconstruction. A procedure to compute CTWT coefficients for a given scale and translation is described. Both noise-free and noisy signals are used in the specific examples that we consider here.© (1995) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Ethnicity, politics, and history in Mexico and Central America

Wilson, Richard. Maya Resurgence in Guatemala: Q'eqchi’ Experiences. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1995. xiv + 373 pp. including tables, figures, photographs, appendices, notes, glossary, bibliography, and index. $32.95 cloth. Frye, David. Indians into Mexicans: History and Identity in a Mexican Town. Austin; University of Texas Press, 1996. viii + 250 pp. including figures, photographs, appendices, notes, bibliography, and index. $40.00 cloth, $19.95 paper. Hale, Charles R. Resistance and Contradiction: Miskitu Indians and the Nicaraguan State, 1894–1987. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1994. ix + 296 pp. including tables, figures, photographs, appendices, notes, bibliography, and index. $42.50 cloth.
Hierarchical Planning Abilities in Children With Specific Language Impairments

The present study examined Cromer's (1983) claim that children with language impairments have a hierarchical planning deficit that affects language as well as performance on complex construction tasks. Subjects were 30 boys (ages 5-7 years), 15 with specific language impairments (SLI) and 15 with normally developing language. Children were asked to build four hierarchical structures: a block construction, a puzzle construction, a simple straw construction, and a complex straw construction. Children who failed to complete the complex straw construction were taught how to construct the model using a sequential strategy. The two groups tended to perform comparably on the block and complex straw construction, the easiest and hardest of the four constructions. The two groups performed least comparably on the puzzle, simple straw construction, and the training task. On the basis of these findings and recent work by Greenfield (1991), we concluded that it is time to reject the notion that a central hierarchical planning mechanism underlies language and non-language structures that contain hierarchical components. The possible exception is early in development before language and manual actions become more autonomous and modular in nature.
American Slavery, Atlantic Slavery, and Beyond: The U.S. “Peculiar Institution” in International Perspective

Comparative methodologies may have taken a back seat in slavery scholarship since the transnational turn, but works in the last decade by the likes of David Brion Davis, Seymour Drescher, Stanley E...
Perfect Bayesian equilibrium and sequential equilibrium

We introduce a formal definition of perfect Bayesian equilibrium (PBE) for multi-period games with observed actions. In a PBE, (P) the strategies form a Bayesian equilibrium for each continuation game, given the specified beliefs, and (B) beliefs are updated from period to period in accordance with Bayes rule whenever possible, and satisfy a “no-signaling-what-you-don't-know” condition. PBE is equivalent to sequential equilibrium if each player has only two types, or there are only two periods, but differs otherwise. Equivalence is restored by requiring that (B) apply to the relative probabilities of types with posterior probability zero.
A wireless pedestrian tracking network

The ease of deploying wireless camera sensor nodes has grown with the reduction of manufacturing costs of low power, high resolution cameras. Although current wireless sensor network platforms have limited on-board resources for solving highly complex computer vision problems, we show that by splitting the processing costs between the sensor node and a powerful backend, we can achieve better classification results. Using such a distributed processing approach, we balance the computational and communication costs for achieving better detection performance while improving the system lifetime.
Policy aspects of Web page development

Web page creation involves many decisions beyond Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) coding. Developers need to consider numerous factors such as identifying the person responsible for the project, maintaining content, and establishing criteria for the evaluation and selection of resources. Other areas of consideration include identifying the target audience for the project, establishing guidelines on confidentiality and copyright issues, and coordinating a backup/disaster recovery plan. These aspects and others of Web page development are discussed. Examples are included from libraries which have loaded policy statements online as part of institutional home pages. The Uniform Resource Locators (URL's) of the library policies are listed as is a selected bibliography of publications about Web page development.
A quantitative ultrasound model of the bone with blood as the interstitial fluid

Abstract A variant of the Biot–Johnson model of a poroelastic material is investigated to see if the viscosity of the interstitial fluid is significant in the ultrasound insonification of non-defatted cancellous bone. The equations of motion are derived using a Lagrangian formulation. Numerical experiments are performed on various bone samples. It is shown that the viscosity of the interstitial fluid does indeed signify in the ultrasound frequency range.
Live-cell imaging shows apoptosis initiates locally and propagates as a wave throughout syncytiotrophoblasts in primary cultures of human placental villous trophoblasts

Human placental villi are surfaced by the syncytiotrophoblast, a multinucleated, epithelial-cell layer that functions in maternalefetal exchange. Mononucleated cytotrophoblasts are subjacent to the syncytiotrophoblast. Using confocal fluorescence microscopy of third-trimester villi, we previously found that cytotrophoblasts are often interdigitated into the syncytiotrophoblast, that cytotrophoblasts undergo caspase-mediated apoptosis, and that apoptosis is much lower, and perhaps completely inhibited, in intact syncytiotrophoblast lacking fibrin-type fibrinoid. Previous analysis of primary cultures of human trophoblasts also indicated lower levels of apoptosis in syncytiotrophoblast compared to cytotrophoblasts. Here, using confocal microscopy we find that cultured cytotrophoblasts and syncytiotrophoblasts display complex structural relationships, as in vivo, and that apoptosis of a cytotrophoblast or syncytiotrophoblast does not induce apoptosis of adjacent trophoblasts. Using live-cell imaging of mitochondrial depolarization and nuclear condensation in cultured syncytiotrophoblasts, we show apoptosis initiates in a localized region and propagates radially at w5 mm/min with no loss of velocity until the entire syncytium has undergone apoptosis. The rate of propagation is similar in cases of spontaneous apoptosis and in apoptosis that occurs in the presence of cobalt chloride or rotenone, two inducers of apoptosis. We suggest that inhibition of syncytiotrophoblast apoptosis in vivo is important to prevent widespread syncytiotrophoblast death, which would result in placental dysfunction and contribute to poor pregnancy outcomes.
On Being Sane in an Insane Place – The Rosenhan Experiment in the Laboratory of Plautus’ Epidamnus

Plautus’ Roman comedy Menaechmi (The Two Menaechmuses) of c. 200 BC anticipates in fictional form the famous Rosenhan experiment of 1973, a landmark critique of psychiatric diagnosis. An analysis of the scenes of feigned madness and psychiatric examination suggests that the play (and the earlier Greek play from which it was adapted) offers two related ethical reflections, one on the validity of psychiatric diagnoses, the other on the validity of the entire medical model of insanity—that is, of the popular notion and political truth that mental illness is a (bodily) disease “like any other.” This essay is offered as a contribution to the interpretation of the play as well as to the history of psychiatry.
Goyazensolide, a schistosomicidal heliangolide from Eremanthus goyazensis

Abstract Isolation and structure determination of goyazensolide, a new heliangolide responsible for the schistosomicidal properties of Eremanthus goyazensis Sch.-Bip., is reported.
SYNTHESIS OF AMIDES OF DIPHENIC ACID AS POTENTIAL ANTISPASMODIC AGENTS.

Twenty-six new amides of diphenic acid have been synthesized as potential antispasmodics. All of the described compounds were screened for pharmacological activity; none of the new structures demonstrated significant antispasmodic activity to warrant further investigation. Details of the pharmacological screening will be reported by G. K. W. Yim in another paper.
Treatment Outcomes for At-Risk Young Children With Behavior Problems: Toward a New Definition of Success

ABSTRACT. This study examined the outcomes of Early Pathways (EP), an in-home parent–child therapy program with 447 at-risk children younger than 5 years of age who were referred for severe behavio...
A Year's Test of a so-called Fly Salt.

A salt mixture termed “fly salt,” containing 9.77% free sulphur, has been sold extensively throughout the middle west, under the representation that when fed to cattle, enough sulphur was excreted with the perspiration to prevent flies from biting the cattle, thereby resulting in greater gains to beef cattle and preventing losses in milk flow from fly attacks. Two experiments were carried out by the Kansas State Agricultural College-one at the Hays Station with a herd of 20 high grade Hereford yearlings against a comparable herd kept under the same conditions fed common salt; the other with four dairy cattle at the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Station fed the “fly salt” against animals fed common salt which was sulphur free. The gain in weight in the yearlings in 156 days was approximately equal and the dairy cattle fed the “fly salt” showed a very similar decline in milk flow to the check animals. The salt was, also wholly ineffective as a fly repellent. The fly salt cost six times that of the common salt, and was not relished by the animals.
Identification of an insulin-like factor in astrocyte conditioned medium

Survival of dissociated 19-day fetal rat telencephalic neurons in a hormone-free defined medium required the addition of insulin at pharmacological concentrations. However, survival of astrocytes cultured from the cerebral cortex of newborn rats in the same medium did not require insulin. When fetal neurons were incubated with astrocyte conditioned medium or plated on a monolayer of astrocytes, their survival was significantly increased in the absence of insulin. This effect of astrocyte conditioned medium was visibly inhibited by affinity chromatography on an anti-insulin protein A agarose column. A 5–30 kDa ultrafiltration fraction of astrocyte conditioned medium also increased neuronal survival. In addition, the 5–30 kDa fraction stimulated [3H]leucine incorporation into the TCA insoluble material from cultured neurons and competed for [125I]insulin binding to intact neuronal cultures. These results indicate that cultured astrocytes produce a factor with biological and immunological properties similar to those of insulin. This factor may in part mediate the observed neurotrophic effects of astrocyte conditioned medium and may play a role in the normal development and differentiation of central nervous system neurons.
A novel hybrid approach for estimating total deposition in the United States

Abstract Atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and sulfur causes many deleterious effects on ecosystems including acidification and excess eutrophication. Assessments to support development of strategies to mitigate these effects require spatially and temporally continuous values of nitrogen and sulfur deposition. In the U.S., national monitoring networks exist that provide values of wet and dry deposition at discrete locations. While wet deposition can be interpolated between the monitoring locations, dry deposition cannot. Additionally, monitoring networks do not measure the complete suite of chemicals that contribute to total sulfur and nitrogen deposition. Regional air quality models provide spatially continuous values of deposition of monitored species as well as important unmeasured species. However, air quality modeling values are not generally available for an extended continuous time period. Air quality modeling results may also be biased for some chemical species. We developed a novel approach for estimating dry deposition using data from monitoring networks such as the Clean Air Status and Trends Network (CASTNET), the National Atmospheric Deposition Program (NADP) Ammonia Monitoring Network (AMoN), and the Southeastern Aerosol Research and Characterization (SEARCH) network and modeled data from the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. These dry deposition values estimates are then combined with wet deposition values from the NADP National Trends Network (NTN) to develop values of total deposition of sulfur and nitrogen. Data developed using this method are made available via the CASTNET website.
Conformational transitions of immunoglobulin fragments by citraconylation of their lysine side chains

Abstract The reversibility of conformational transitions resulting from citraconylation of lysine side chains of human IgG immunoglobulin fragments Fab(t) and Fc(t) and Bence-Jones proteins was studied by means of circular dichroism (CD), viscosity, sedimentation, and immunoprecipitation techniques. It was found that all the proteins expanded upon citraconylation and that the immunoreactivity was lost; the CD spectra indicated a partial disorganization of the secondary and tertiary structures. The citraconylated fragment Fabt(t) showed partial reversibility in restoring the hydrodynamic properties, CD spectrum, and immunoprecipitation upon increasing the ionic strength of the solution to 1·1 or upon regeneration of the lysine amino groups. In the cases of Fc(t) and especially the κ and λ antigenic type Bence-Jones proteins, however, the restoration of the conformation was even less complete than in the case of Fab(t). The differences in the reversibility between the Fab(t) and the Bence-Jones proteins suggest that in Fab(t) the heavy chain segments exert a stabilizing effect on the conformation that is absent in the light chain without the heavy chain support. The immunoprecipitation of the regenerated fragments in agar gel was positive, in spite of the incomplete reversal of the CD spectra. This indicates that partial modification in conformation is permissible in order to achieve positive immunoprecipitation.
T cell activation by soluble C1q-bearing immune complexes: implications for the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis

Both innate and adaptive immune systems are thought to participate in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis in adults and children. The experiments reported here were undertaken to examine how immune complexes, potent stimulators of inflammation, may regulate cells of the adaptive immune system. Human T cells were prepared from peripheral blood by negative selection and incubated with bovine serum albumin (BSA)–anti-BSA immune complexes that were formed in the presence or absence of human C1q. C1q-bearing immune complexes, but not unopsonized complexes, elicited both TNF-α and IFN-γ secretion from human T cells. Secretion of both cytokines was time- and dose-dependent. Cross-linking C1q on the cell surface of T cells produced the same results. Cytokine secretion was not inhibited by blocking the C3b receptor (CR1, CD35) on T cells prior to incubation with immune complexes. Reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) of immune complex-stimulated cells revealed accumulation of both TNF-α and IFN-γ mRNA within 2 h post-stimulation. IL-2 was not detected in cell culture supernatants, but IL-2 receptor α chain (CD25) was detected in low density on a small proportion of T cells activated by C1q-bearing immune complexes. Secretion of both cytokines was inhibited partially, but not completely, by IL-10. These experiments show that immune complexes, potent inflammatory mediators, may activate T cells through a novel mechanism. These findings have implications for chronic inflammatory diseases in humans.
Background and speckle suppression with a divided pupil and Nomarski prism for reflectance line-scanning confocal microscopy of human tissues

We present a design of a line-scanning confocal microscope for reduced speckle and improved sectioning performance by the use of two pupil-modification techniques. The first is a divided-pupil configuration in which the illumination and detection paths are separate in object space except in the focal (optical sectioning) plane. The second technique is a novel implementation of a Nomarski prism and quarter-wave retarder, termed NRDIC, which has shown good results in point-scanning confocal microscopy and we will present its translation to line-scanning confocal microscopy. A stable turbid phantom that simulates the background-driven speckle was used for quantitative characterization. Compared to standard full pupil line-scanning, we show improvements in signal to background of 1.8 and 9 for NRDIC and divided pupil, respectively. Preliminary imaging in human skin in-vivo demonstrates the improvements in contrast and reduction of speckle for both the NRDIC and divided pupil modes.
Vertebrate exon trapping methods: implications for transcript mapping with mosquito DNA

Abstract Exon trapping methods have played an important role in the development of transcript maps. In one in vivo vertebrate method, exons in a genomic DNA clone are transcribed, and they are recovered without any a priori information on the nature of the expressed transcript. The only requirement is that the genomic DNA clone contains exons separated by intervening introns that are removed by splicing during mRNA transcription and that the splice donor and acceptor site sequences follow those used by vertebrates. It is not known whether invertebrate splice donor and acceptor sites from genes that contain short introns will be processed correctly using an in vivo vertebrate exon trapping method. In this report, an analysis of mosquito splice sites using software designed to identify exons in genomic DNA sequence suggested that the vertebrate exon trapping method could recognize mosquito introns and exons. When a mosquito genomic DNA clone containing the D7 gene was tested experimentally, this method failed to recognize and process small introns (
Ultrastructure of teratocytes of Cardiochiles Nigriceps Viereck (Hymenoptera : Braconidae)

Abstract Teratocytes, cells from the embryonic membrane of the eggs of braconid parasitoids, increase in size following their liberation into the hemocoele of their host. Ultrastructural examination of these cells revealed a ramified nucleus, extensive vesicular rough endoplasmic reticulum, microvilli, and vesicles at the cell periphery. The extensive vesicular endoplasmic reticulum suggests a secretory function. The presence of cellular outpockets containing vesicles supports this view. All cells up to 4 days, following their liberation, appear very uniform. Two cell types develop in 5–6 days.
Use of the Laryngeal Mask Airway as an Alternative to a Face Mask during Outpatient Arthroscopy

The laryngeal mask airway (LMA) has recently become available in the United States, and several authors have suggested that it is superior to an anesthesia mask. To test this hypothesis, 64 patients undergoing outpatient arthroscopic knee surgery were randomly assigned to have anesthesia maintained
A radiologic and anatomic study of internal derangements of the temporomandibular joint

Fifteen temporomandibular joints (TMJs) in unfixed cadavers were examined clinically and then arthrograms were made. Eleven of the TMJ disks were mechanically displaced anteriorly before the arthrograms were made. The joints were removed, fixed, frozen, and sectioned perpendicular to the long axis of the condyle in 2 mm slices. The arthrograms of the joint were compared with arthrograms of each individual section and the original tissue slices to determine whether there was a definite correlation with true anatomic relationships. Because of the complexity of the internal morphology of the hard and soft tissues in the TMJ, no accurate or consistent conclusions about the actual physical relationships could be made by means of arthrogram.
Seroma periprotésico tras corrección abierta de aneurisma de aorta abdominal

La presencia de un seroma tras la correccion abierta de un aneurisma aortico abdominal se ha descrito en raras ocasiones. La mayoria de los casos descritos en la literatura hacen referencia al uso de implantes de politetrafluoroetileno. Presentamos el caso de un paciente con un gran seroma sintomatico periaortico 10 anos despues de la correccion convencional (abierta) de un aneurisma de aorta. La etiologia de dichos seromas tiene una importancia significativa en la reparacion aortica endovascular.
Challenges and Opportunities Associated With Social Network Research: An Examination of Emergent Methodological Issues

Those who study social networks encounter an all-too-often conundrum in academia: the richness of data sets coupled with methodological complications. This article highlights three of the most salient issues facing social network scholars and potential ways of overcoming them. By discussing the quantitative measurement of the network in question, the specific variables under examination, and the overall goal(s) of the research project, readers will understand both the costs and rewards associated with an area of communication, psychology, and sociology scholarship that has existed and thrived for more than a half century.
Electronic Structure and Mechanical Properties of Intermetallics: Apb Energies in Ni-Al-Based Systems

The possible origin of the high degree of brittleness (i.e., low ductility) of the Ni-Al-based alloys in the B2 structures is investigated by means of all-electron self-consistent total energy LMTO calculations. Using a supercell approach, the energetics of the two simplest anti-phase boundaries (APB) for NiAl in the B2 structure - namely the ½ on {110} and ½ on {112} - are calculated for the first time assuming no relaxation at the interface. We find APB energies of order of 800 ergs/cm2 for both cases. Since the calculated APB energies are very high, slip is hardly likely to occur - as suggested experimentally. By substituting Ni or Al with V, Cr or Mn at the APB interface plane, remarkably decreased APB energies are obtained. These first results on these simplified model systems may suggest a way to decrease the APB energy contribution to the ductility of NiAl-based alloys.
The Kapitza conductance of Mica

Abstract The Kapitza conductance between cleaved mica and superfluid helium is measured by the second sound technique from 1.2 K to 2 K. The data are reproducible. The temperature exponents is 4.1.
In situ technique for synthesizing Fe-TiC composites

In-situ formation of Fe-TiC metal matrix composites are studied to determine processing procedures and resulting microstructures. It is possible to synthesize composites with up to 30 vol% TiC and composites up to 10 vol.% TiC can be statically cast. Vacuum synthesis avoids foaming. Microstructures show the carbides are spherulitic and distributed uniformly in the ferrous matrix.