cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Regulation of the Proteasome by Neuronal Activity and Calcium/Calmodulin-dependent Protein Kinase II

Protein degradation via the ubiquitin proteasome system has been shown to regulate changes in synaptic strength that underlie multiple forms of synaptic plasticity. It is plausible, therefore, that the ubiquitin proteasome system is itself regulated by synaptic activity. By utilizing live-cell imaging strategies we report the rapid and dynamic regulation of the proteasome in hippocampal neurons by synaptic activity. We find that the blockade of action potentials (APs) with tetrodotoxin inhibited the activity of the proteasome, whereas the up-regulation of APs with bicuculline dramatically increased the activity of the proteasome. In addition, the regulation of the proteasome is dependent upon external calcium entry in part through N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors and L-type voltage-gated calcium channels and requires the activity of calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII). Using in vitro and in vivo assays we find that CaMKII stimulates proteasome activity and directly phosphorylates Rpt6, a subunit of the 19 S (PA700) subcomplex of the 26 S proteasome. Our data provide a novel mechanism whereby CaMKII may regulate the proteasome in neurons to facilitate remodeling of synaptic connections through protein degradation.
Estimating the impact of the R&D tax credit on strategic groups in the pharmaceutical industry

Abstract The Economic Recovery and Tax Act of 1981 provided a 25 percent tax credit for increases in research and experimentation expenditures. Previous studies have shown considerable controversy about the effectiveness of various tax credits. This study focuses on the response of the strategic groups in the pharmaceutical industry to the credit. Four strategic groups were formed using different levels of research intensity (research/sales) and relative cash flow margin (cash flow/sales). The change in research intensity following enactment of the tax credit was estimated. The analysis found that the tax credit caused an increase in R&D expenditures. In addition, the R&D tax credit appears to have contributed to increased competitive R&D spending among the firms in the pharmaceutical industry.
Novel method for using Q-learning in small microcontrollers

A novel method for the utilizations of the Q-learning algorithm for small robot navigation is presented in this paper. The Q-learning algorithm usually requires a large amount of memory for its implementation. In this paper a novel method for implementing the Q-learning algorithm is proposed in order to reduce the amount of memory required. The benefit of using less memory is so that the algorithm can be implemented in systems with reduced amount of memory available, such as small mobile robots or robots that need a large size of memory devoted to other applications besides navigation. The Q-learning algorithm generates a map of the surrounding area by using inputs to sensors attached to the robot. The Q-learning algorithm developed makes a map of a static surrounding, the algorithm was developed using a BASIC Stamp.
Does equal treatment yield equal outcomes? The impact of race on survival in epithelial ovarian cancer.

Objective To determine if race impacts the survival of patients with epithelial ovarian cancer in a large academic medical center.
Chlorpropamide and an Antabuse-like reaction.

Excerpt To the editor: The editorial by Kreisberg (1) on the use of second-generation sulfonylureas stated that the possibility of an "antabuse-like" reaction and other "adverse side effects may ju...
The Role of Protein Arginine Methylation in mRNP Dynamics

In eukaryotes, messenger RNA biogenesis depends on the ordered and precise assembly of a nuclear messenger ribonucleoprotein particle (mRNP) during transcription. This process requires a well-orchestrated and dynamic sequence of molecular recognition events by specific RNA-binding proteins. Arginine methylation is a posttranslational modification found in a plethora of RNA-binding proteins responsible for mRNP biogenesis. These RNA-binding proteins include both heterogeneous nuclear ribonucleoproteins (hnRNPs) and serine/arginine-rich (SR) proteins. In this paper, I discuss the mechanisms of action by which arginine methylation modulates various facets of mRNP biogenesis, and how the collective consequences of this modification impart the specificity required to generate a mature, translational- and export-competent mRNP.
On the compatibility and thermally induced blending of poly(styrene phosphonate diethyl ester) with cellulose acetate

Abstract The miscibility of poly(styrene phosphonate diethyl ester) (PSP) with cellulose acetate (CA) was studied. Experiments were designed to prove that these polymers are a miscible pair. The study revealed that when blends were prepared from a solution with partially phosphorylated polystyrene, favourable conditions for crystallization of the cellulose acetate prevailed. Upon conversion of the crystalline regions into amorphous domains—as done by heating the sample in a differential scanning calorimeter—an amorphous homogeneous blend spontaneously formed. The merger of the CA- and PSP-rich phases in the temperature range 190–200°C (slightly above Tg of CA) was recorded to yield the plot of the corresponding changes in the glass transition temperature vs. time. Computation of the corresponding values for the changes in specific heats clearly indicated the exchange of matter between the two merging phases. However, it also showed that prolonged exposure of the sample to this temperature results in chemical changes (i.e. degradation and crosslinking) in the CA-rich phase. The results of this study revealed that PSP is miscible with CA at a lower degree of phosphorylation than previously thought; thus, one phosphoryl ester per six styrene units in PSP will still render this polymer miscible with cellulose acetate.
Terminology for ejecta in the solar wind

Scientific words are used to communicate, think, and reason, as well as to organize, store, and retrieve information. As knowledge grows, new words are introduced and some words are abandoned. What should one call the interplanetary objects that are ejected from the Sun, travel from the Sun to Earth in 2 to 4 days, and take about a day to sweep past Earth? The existence of these objects was postulated to explain a class of geomagnetic storms. Lindemann [1919] hypothesized that a “cloud” of neutral hydrogen is accelerated away from the Sun and gradually becomes ionized to form a “plasma cloud.” The plasma cloud produces the geomagnetic storm by transferring energy and momentum from the Sun to Earth. Lindemann's plasma clouds did not contain magnetic fields.
Optimism and pessimism in commodity price hedging

Rank dependent utility is used to model the use of corn futures and options on corn futures for a corn buyer. Optimal futures and options positions are numerically calculated by maximising rank dependent utility for a variety of cases. The cases represent three different types of agents--pessimists, strong optimists and weak optimists--for several levels of risk aversion, with and without transactions costs. Whether or not an agent trades as a speculator or a hedger is found to depend on his level of optimism or pessimism, risk aversion and transactions costs. Copyright 2004, Oxford University Press.
Mary Cover Jones: Feminine as Asset

Mary Cover Jones has played many roles during her career as a psychologist—researcher, professor, wife of the eminent psychologist Harold E. Jones, and friend to some of the great names in the field such as Erik Erikson and Nevitt Sanford. Included in the paper is a discussion of three of her primary areas of research—the case study of Peter which provided a preview of behavior modification, evidence from longitudinal studies regarding the problems of early and late maturing, and work on personality antecedents in problem drinkers. In addition, her part in the establishment of the major longitudinal studies at the University of California is reported. Finally, her successful application of traditionally feminine strengths to these many professional undertakings is discussed.
Test anxiety, expectancies, and expectancy changes.

-40 hish-TAQ Ss and 40 low-TAQ Ss (females) mere asked to state a general expectancy for success on a task prior to performance on that cask. Following either positive or negative reinforcement Ss were given an opportunity to change their estimates tor success. It was found chat high-TAQ Ss stated significantly lower expectancies for success prior to performance on the task. Furthermore, following failure, high-TAQ Ss showed a significantly greater decrement in expectancy than did low-TAQ Ss, while following success, there were no differences between highand low-TAQ Ss.
Challenging Hegemonic Paradigms and Practices: Critical Thinking and Active Learning Strategies for International Relations

I argue in this paper that one possible way of addressing the critical issue of preparing students for their future role as citizens in a global society is to integrate active learning exercises such as case studies and problem-based learning scenarios that focus on international issues and events and significant global conditions. These provide an opportunity for students to practice the skills that are essential for participation in modern democratic societies. In this brief discussion paper, I present two very practical strategies for introducing students to global realities and exposing them to different cultural and ideological ways of “seeing the world.” Both strategies emphasize skills that are essential for analysis, evaluation and, eventually, problem-solving.
Hybrid coding for split gray values in radiological image compression

Digital techniques are used more often than ever in a variety of fields. Medical information management is one of the largest digital technology applications. It is desirable to have both a large data storage resource and extremely fast data transmission channels for communication. On the other hand, it is also essential to compress these data into an efficient form for storage and transmission. A variety of data compression techniques have been developed to tackle a diversity of situations. A digital value decomposition method using a splitting and remapping method has recently been proposed for image data compression. This method attempts to employ an error-free compression for one part of the digital value containing highly significant value and uses another method for the second part of the digital value. We have reported that the effect of this method is substantial for the vector quantization and other spatial encoding techniques. In conjunction with DCT type coding, however, the splitting method only showed a limited improvement when compared to the nonsplitting method. With the latter approach, we used a nonoptimized method for the images possessing only the top three-most-significant- bit value (3MSBV) and produced a compression ratio of approximately 10:1. Since the 3MSB images are highly correlated and the same values tend to aggregate together, the use of area or contour coding was investigated. In our experiment, we obtained an average error-free compression ratio of 30:1 and 12:1 for 3MSB and 4MSB images, respectively, with the alternate value contour coding. With this technique, we clearly verified that the splitting method is superior to the nonsplitting method for finely digitized radiographs.
Alterations in the Promoter-specific Imprinting of the Insulin-like Growth Factor-II Gene in Wilms Tumor

Abstract The human IGF2 gene, which encodes a mitogenic peptide required for normal fetal development, is overexpressed in many types of tumors. IGF2 is transcribed from four promoters (P1-P4), and in most tissues, the gene is imprinted. In this study, we have analyzed IGF2 promoter usage and determined the allelic expression from each promoter in 19 ApaI- and 22 AluI-heterozygous Wilms' tumors. Loss of IGF2 imprinting (LOI) was observed in 8 ApaI-informative tumors. In these tumors, each parental allele was expressed in equal abundance, indicating that there was complete relaxation of IGF2 imprinting. In each LOI tumor, expression from promoter P1 as well as from the normally imprinted promoters P2-P4 was biallelic. In the 11 ApaI-informative tumors which maintained IGF2 imprinting (maintenance of imprinting), transcription from promoters P2-P4 was always monoallelic, while transcripts from P1 were derived from either one or both alleles. The lack of consistency of IGF2 imprinting of promoter P1 in maintenance of imprinting tumors was also observed in normal fetal tissues of 6-12 weeks gestation, suggesting a similarity in IGF2 regulation between Wilms' tumors and embryonic tissue development. These data suggest that the increased expression of IGF2 in Wilms' tumor may be caused either by biallelic gene expression in LOI tumors from promoters P2-P4 and/or by a reversion to an earlier stage of development which is characterized by increased synthesis of this fetal growth factor.
A Study of Handwriting in Written Stories of Normal and Learning Disabled Children.

Written stories of normally achieving and learning disabled children in grades one through three were compared, using a Handwriting Evaluation Scale designed for this study. The subjects also were given tests for receptive language, figure copying and spelling. The Non-LD and LD groups differed on figure copying, spelling and written productivity, but not receptive language. The Non-LD grade level groups differed significantly on two components of the handwriting scale (Letter Size and Control), while the LD grade level groups differed on three components (Letter Formation, Alignment and Spacing, and Letter Size). The most pronounced differences between the LD and normally achieving children were on Formation and Size. A separate analysis of the third grade stories revealed that handwriting was less related to productivity than spelling and visual-motor skills. Nevertheless, the results indicated that many LD students have weak visual-spatial-motor skills. Implications for intervention are discussed.
Is Distance Education the Answer to the Nursing Shortage

This study examined the effectiveness of distance education compared with campus based learning among nursing students. Distance education in nursing curricula is increasing. Academic nurse leaders must demonstrate the effectiveness of distance learning. This study is unique in that two cohorts, distance learners and campus learners, were taught synchronously by the same faculty member. Quantitative measures of student learning outcomes were compared using SPSS. There were no significant differences in learning outcomes between distance learners and campus learners. This study provides empiric support for distance education as a means to address the nursing shortage.
The Substorm Current Wedge: Further Insights from MHD Simulations

Using a recent magnetohydrodynamic simulation of magnetotail dynamics, we further investigate the buildup and evolution of the substorm current wedge (SCW), resulting from flow bursts generated by near-tail reconnection. Each flow burst generates an individual current wedge, which includes the reduction of cross-tail current and the diversion to region 1 (R1)-type field-aligned currents (earthward on the dawn and tailward on the duskside), connecting the tail with the ionosphere. Multiple flow bursts generate initially multiple SCW patterns, which at later times combine to a wider single SCW pattern. The standard SCWmodel is modified by the addition of several current loops, related to particular magnetic field changes: the increase of Bz in a local equatorial region (dipolarization), the decrease of |Bx| away from the equator (current disruption), and increases in |By| resulting from azimuthally deflected flows. The associated loop currents are found to be of similar magnitude, 0.1-0.3 MA. The combined effect requires the addition of region 2 (R2)-type currents closing in the near tail through dawnward currents but also connecting radially with the R1 currents. The current closure at the inner boundary, taken as a crude proxy of an idealized ionosphere, demonstrates westward currents as postulated in the original SCW picture as well as North-South currents connecting R1- and R2-type currents, which were larger than the westward currents by a factor of almost 2. However, this result should be applied with caution to the ionosphere because of our neglect of finite resistance and Hall effects.
Visual inspection using linear features

Abstract This paper presents a method to inspect a printed circuit board. We use a feature-based system which matches symbolic descriptions of an object and a model. These symbolic descriptions are derived from line segments detected in an image. A model is built from a perfect board together with the expected defects. The matching technique is a variation of a line matching method (“Kernel” method) successfully applied at USC on aerial images. The results are then interpreted to generate a description of the match.
And Now Introducing Mammalian Mirtrons

Mirtrons are short hairpin introns recently found in flies and nematodes that provide an alternative source for animal microRNA biogenesis and use the splicing machinery to bypass Drosha cleavage in initial maturation. The presence of mirtrons outside of invertebrates was not previously known. In the October 26 issue of Molecular Cell, Berezikov et al. expose a number of short mammalian introns as mirtrons.
Personality Constellations in Incarcerated Psychopathic Men

Advances in the operationalization of psychopathy have led to an increased understanding of the boundaries, structure, and nomological network of this construct, although significant questions remain. The empirical identification of replicable and theoretically meaningful psychopathy subtypes may help to improve the classification and diagnosis of this condition. We conducted a classification study of 91 incarcerated men who met conventional criteria for high levels of psychopathy using the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised. We expanded on the methodology of previous research on psychopathy subtypes by utilizing a comprehensive personality assessment instrument and a prototype matching approach to classification. The analyses revealed a primary (narcissistic) subtype and a secondary (hostile and dysregulated) subtype that were broadly consistent with the previous literature. External validation analyses, statistical controls, and incremental validity analyses provided substantial support for the primary and secondary subtypes.
Accelerometer profiles of physical activity and inactivity in normal weight, overweight, and obese U.S. men and women

Background: The 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) is used to describe an accelerometer-derived physical activity/inactivity profile in normal weight (BMI < 25 kg/m 2 ), overweight (25 ≤ BMI < 30 kg/m 2 ), and obese (BMI ≥ 30 kg/m 2 ) U.S. adults. Methods: We computed physical activity volume indicators (activity counts/day, uncensored and censored steps/ day), rate indicators (e.g., steps/minute), time indicators (employing NHANES activity counts/minute cut points to infer time in non-wear, sedentary, low, light, moderate, and vigorous intensities), the number of breaks in sedentary time (occasions when activity counts rose from < 100 activity/counts in one minute to ≥ 100 activity counts in the subsequent minute), achievement of public health guidelines, and classification by step-defined physical activity levels. Data were examined for evidence of consistent and significant gradients across BMI-defined categories. Results: In 2005-2006, U.S adults averaged 6,564 ± SE 107 censored steps/day, and after considering non-wear time, they spent approximately 56.8% of the rest of the waking day in sedentary time, 23.7% in low intensity, 16.7% in light intensity, 2.6% in moderate intensity, and 0.2% in vigorous intensity. Overall, approximately 3.2% of U.S. adults achieved public health guidelines. The normal weight category took 7,190 ± SE 157 steps/day, and spent 25.7 ± 0.9 minutes/day in moderate intensity and 7.3 ± 0.4 minutes/day in vigorous intensity physical activity. The corresponding numbers for the overweight category were 6,879 ± 140 steps/day, 25.3 ± 0.9 minutes/ day, and 5.3 ± 0.5 minutes/day and for the obese category 5,784 ± 124 steps/day, 17.3 ± 0.7 minutes/day and 3.2 ± 0.4 minutes/day. Across BMI categories, increasing gradients and significant trends were apparent in males for sedentary time and decreasing gradients and significant trends were evident in time spent in light intensity, moderate intensity, and vigorous intensity. For females, there were only consistent gradients and significant trends apparent for decreasing amounts of time spent in moderate and vigorous intensity. Conclusions: Simple indicators of physical activity volume (i.e., steps/day) and time in light, moderate or vigorous intensity physical activity differ across BMI categories for both sexes, suggesting that these should continue to be targets for surveillance.
Modeling the Effects of Restricting Packer-Owned Livestock in the U.S. Swine Industry

An imperfectly competitive model of processor (packer) behavior is formulated to estimate welfare effects from restricting alternative marketing arrangements of livestock procured by packers. Pork was aggregated into a composite good and hog supply was partitioned into negotiated (spot), contract, and packer‐owned. The model was estimated with the dynamic SUR method using weekly Mandatory Price Reporting (MPR) hog and pork data from 2001 to 2005. The model incorporates production uncertainty by modeling expected pork output as expected output in the input demand functions. The welfare effects from banning packer‐owned hogs indicate that independent producers, consumers, and packers all would lose.
Electrophoretic polymorphism of glutathione peroxidase

SUMMARY A method for the detection of glutathione peroxidase after electrophoresis on starch gel has been devised. Blood samples from 780 persons of Caucasian or Negro origin were studied. An electrophoretically fast enzyme, designated as the Thomas variant, was found in 6·4 % of 392 Negro donors and 0·8 % of 388 Caucasian donors. This variant was inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion. A slightly rapid electrophoretic mobility was noted in some cord blood samples and in a father and daughter with a refractory anaemia. Because this variant, designated ‘Musi’ differed so little from the normal variant, it was difficult to further characterize it, but it did not appear that this variant was genetically determined. Glutathione peroxidase from most other tissues had the same electrophoretic mobility as the enzyme from erythrocytes, but the enzyme from cultured human fibroblasts moves more rapidly. Various laboratory animals were found to have electrophoretically distinguishable glutathione peroxidase, but efforts to hybridize hamster enzyme to human enzyme were unsuccessful.
Formal verification and its impact on the snooping versus directory protocol debate

This invited paper argues that to facilitate formal verification, multiprocessor systems should (1) decouple enforcing coherence from enforcing a memory consistency model and (2) decouple the interconnection network from the cache coherence protocol (by not relying on any specific interconnect ordering or synchronicity properties). Of the two dominant classes of cache coherence protocols - directory protocols and snooping protocols - these two desirable properties favor use of directory protocols over snooping protocols. Although the conceptual simplicity of snooping protocols is seductive, aggressive implementations of snooping protocols lack these decoupling properties, making them perhaps more difficult in practice to reason about, verify, and implement correctly. Conversely, directory protocols may seem more complicated, but they are more amenable to these decoupling properties, which simplify protocol design and verification. Finally, this paper describes the recently-proposed token coherence protocol's adherence to these properties and discusses some of its implications for future multiprocessor systems.
Situational leadership applied to the dissertation process

For more than 40 years, concern has been expressed over the attrition rate of students in Ph.D. programs in American universities. Although there are a number of significant factors at work, attrition of doctoral students in sciences such as anatomy may lead to a dearth of trained teaching anatomists as well as research scientists in the anatomical sciences. Failure to complete the Ph.D. process including the dissertation carries a high cost, not only to the students who fail to complete their programs, but also to society at large due to the expenditure of scarce education resources. A variety of factors have been examined in the various studies, but two stands out of major interest for this article: student personality factors such as perseverance and the level of faculty mentoring/support to the students during the graduate education process. A new approach to providing faculty support based on the needs of the individual student is presented in this article. Situational Leadership(R) has been developed over the past 40 years by Paul Hersey and Kenneth Blanchard and their associates. This leadership model is unique in that when it is applied to the dissertation process, it requires the faculty member to determine the readiness level of the graduate student. Because each student is a unique individual, the faculty mentor assesses each student based on the specific task at hand in order to provide the appropriate style of mentorship each student requires.
On-chip high speed localized cooling using superlattice microrefrigerators

In this paper, we addressed heating problems in integrated circuits (ICs) and proposed a thin-film thermionic cooling solution using Si/SiGe superlattice microrefrigerators. We compared our technology with the current most common solution, thermoelectric coolers, by strengthening the advantages of its compatible fabrication process as ICs for easy integration, small footprint in the order of ~ 100times100 mum2, high cooling power density, 600W/cm2 and fast transient response less than 40 mus. The thermoreflectance imaging also demonstrated its localized cooling. All these features combined together to make these microrefrigerators a very promising application for on-chip temperature control, removing hot spots inside IC
A parallel method for enumerating amino acid compositions and masses of all theoretical peptides

Enumeration of all theoretically possible amino acid compositions is an important problem in several proteomics workflows, including peptide mass fingerprinting, mass defect labeling, mass defect filtering, and de novo peptide sequencing. Because of the high computational complexity of this task, reported methods for peptide enumeration were restricted to cover limited mass ranges (below 2 kDa). In addition, implementation details of these methods as well as their computational performance have not been provided. The increasing availability of parallel (multi-core) computers in all fields of research makes the development of parallel methods for peptide enumeration a timely topic. We describe a parallel method for enumerating all amino acid compositions up to a given length. We present recursive procedures which are at the core of the method, and show that a single task of enumeration of all peptide compositions can be divided into smaller subtasks that can be executed in parallel. The computational complexity of the subtasks is compared with the computational complexity of the whole task. Pseudocodes of processes (a master and workers) that are used to execute the enumerating procedure in parallel are given. We present computational times for our method executed on a computer cluster with 12 Intel Xeon X5650 CPUs (72 cores) running Windows HPC Server. Our method has been implemented as a 32- and 64-bit Windows application using Microsoft Visual C++ and the Message Passing Interface. It is available for download at https://ispace.utmb.edu/users/rgsadygo/Proteomics/ParallelMethod . We describe implementation of a parallel method for generating mass distributions of all theoretically possible amino acid compositions.
"Los estados fallidos y la tutela internacional" en The Global Covenant. Human conduct in a World of States , Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2000.

Este capitulo dirime la pregunta de si la sociedad internacional tiene o deberia tener alguna responsabilidad en lo que concierne las condiciones civiles internas de los paises independientes. Algunos estados son una autentica calamidad para sus poblaciones. Pero, ?constituyen un problema normativo para las relaciones internacionales? ?Quien es responsable de las condiciones internas inciviles y a menudo inseguras de lo que habitualmente denominamos estados fallidos? ?Son responsables el gobierno y la sociedad de esos estados? ?Es responsable la sociedad de estados? ?Tienen cabida en la sociedad internacional contemporanea los fideicomisos o los protectorados internacionales? This chapter addresses the question whether international society has or should have any responsibility concerning the domestic civil conditions of independent countries. Some states clearly are a calamitous reality for their populations. But do they constitute a normative problem for international relations? Who is responsible of the uncivil and often unsafe domestic conditions of what are usually termed failed states? Are the government and citizens of those countries responsible? Is the society of states responsible? Is there any place for international trusteeships or protectorates in contemporary international society?
RAD51, genomic stability, and tumorigenesis

Genomic instability is characteristic of malignant cells, and a strong correlation exists between abnormal karyotype and tumorigenicity. Increased expression of the homologous recombination and DNA repair protein Rad51 has been reported in immortalized cell lines and multiple primary tumor cell types which could alter recombination pathways to contribute to the chromosomal rearrangements found in these cells. In addition, Rad51 participates in a complex network of interactions that includes DNA damage sensors, tumor suppressors, and cell cycle and apoptotic regulators, and mutation of many of these proteins have also been associated with tumor initiation or progression. Insights into the connection between disregulated Rad51 and malignant phenotype indicate that Rad51 is a potential target for new anti-cancer regimens including those that use siRNA technology.
Dynamics of Large-Scale Structures for Jets in a Crossflow

Results of a three-dimensional unsteady computational study of a row of jets injected normal to a crossflow are presented with the aim of understanding the dynamics of the large-scale structures in the region near the jet. The jet to crossflow velocity ratio is 0.5. A modified version of the computer program (INS3D), which utilizes the method of artificial compressibility, is used for the computations. Results obtained clearly indicate that the near-field large-scale structures are extremely dynamic in nature, and undergo breakup and reconnection processes. The dynamic near-field structures identified include the counterrotating vortex pair (CVP), the horseshoe vortex, wake vortex, wall vortex, and shear layer vortex. The dynamic features of these vortices are presented in this paper. The CVP is observed to be a convoluted structure interacting with the wall and horseshoe vortices. The shear layer vortices are stripped by the crossflow, and undergo pairing and stretching events in the leeward side of the jet. The wall vortex is reoriented into the upright wake system. Comparison of the predictions with mean velocity measurements are made. Reasonable agreement is observed.
The Work of John Griggs Thompson: A Survey

In a burst of activity between the late 1950’s and the early 1980’s, one of the biggest mathematical stories of the twentieth century was told—that of the classification of the finite simple groups. The peerless leader of the analysis of arbitrary finite simple groups was John Griggs Thompson, from the moment he came on the scene. His vision lit the entire enterprise, while his inventions supplied and inspired brand-new mathematical tools. The Thompson chapter surveys his contributions to finite group theory as well as Galois theory and other areas of algebra.
Self Advocacy and Self Determination for Youth with Disability and Their Parents During School Transition Planning

This chapter provides a critical account of legal, policy and practical ways that US school systems prepare children for transition to adulthood. School transition processes are meant to support students as they move from secondary education (high school) to university-level education, vocational training, employment or community placement. Rodriguez writes from the perspective of a parent of a child with a learning disability and a pediatric occupational therapist with decades of experience in the United States school system at primary, middle and high school levels. She discusses current systemic practices which are lacking, and offers suggestions of ways to encourage self-advocacy and self-determination for students and parents.
United They Fall: Why the International Community Should Not Promote Military Integration after Civil War

Preventing the recurrence of civil war has become a critical problem for both scholarship and policy. Conventional wisdom urges the creation of capable, legitimate, and inclusive postwar states to reduce the risk of relapse into civil war, and international peacebuilders have often encouraged the formation of a new national army that would include members of the war's opposing sides. However, both the theoretical logics and the empirical record identifying military integration as a significant contributor to durable post–civil war peace are weak. An analysis of eleven cases finds little evidence that military integration played a substantial causal role in preventing the return to civil war. Military integration does not usually send a costly signal of the parties’ commitment to peace, provide communal security, employ many possible spoilers, or act as a powerful symbol of a unified nation. It is therefore both unwise and unethical for the international community to press military integration on reluctant...
Application of fuzzy theories to formulation of multi-objective design problems

Much of the decision making in real world takes place in an environment in which the goals, the constraints, and the consequences of possible actions are not known precisely. In order to deal with imprecision quantitatively, the tools of fuzzy set theory can by used. This paper demonstrates the effectiveness of fuzzy theories in the formulation and solution of two types of helicopter design problems involving multiple objectives. The first problem deals with the determination of optimal flight parameters to accomplish a specified mission in the presence of three competing objectives. The second problem addresses the optimal design of the main rotor of a helicopter involving eight objective functions. A method of solving these multi-objective problems using nonlinear programming techniques is presented. Results obtained using fuzzy formulation are compared with those obtained using crisp optimization techniques. The outlined procedures are expected to be useful in situations where doubt arises about the exactness of permissible values, degree of credibility, and correctness of statements and judgements.
Environmental Law Conferences, Symposia, and Events

This living document lists upcoming environmental law conferences, symposia, and related events. There is a calendar of conferences along with information about participating, publication opportunities, contact information, registration fees, and other details. There is also a list of non-law conferences that environmental law scholars may be interested in attending. We continually update this document as we receive information about new events. The date on the front page indicates when the list was most recently revised.
Improvement on the Appearance of Conventional Beam Pumping Units Based on Humanism Factors

The role of hunanism factors in the appearance design of mechanical products and the appearances of the beam,horse and stent of conventional beam pumping unit are improved and designed on the premise that the performance of the pumping unit is ensured not to changed with the the culture elements of the hunanism factors,the bionic design method of modern industrial product design being applied.The dynamic analysis and finite element analysis are conducted for the improved units to verify the practical prefromance and security.In the end,three-dimension effect picture of the pumping unit is finished,and the hunanism design of the appearance of mechanical products is achieved.
Research on Application of 10kV UPQC in Distribution Network

Five methods are proposed in this paper to improve practicability of the modular multilevel converter based unified power quality conditioner(MMC-UPQC)equipment in 10 kV distribution network.In the first method,variable turn ratio transformers are used to replace series transformer of the traditional MMC-UPQC,which increases the voltage sag compensation depth.In the second method,two series converters in series are used to replace single series converter in the traditional MMC-UPQC,which reduces the common DC link voltage level and decreases the insulation requirement of the valve set cabinet.In the third method,shunt converter absorbs appropriate quantity active power during the voltage sag,which reduces releasing energy of the DC capacitors in sub-modules and decreases capability of the DC capacitors.In the fourth method, hybrid frequency control sub-modules are used in MMC-UPQC and the frequencies of sub-modules are set by power quality problems they handled,which reduces the switching power loss in sub-modules and decreases cooling requirement.In the fifth method,circulating current suppressing control is introduced in control strategy,which reduces the circulating current in MMC-UPQC's converters and decreases inductance of the arm inductors.Compared with the traditional MMC-UPQC, MMC-UPQC with the proposed five methods can increase the voltage sag compensation capability and decrease the area and cost.
Cervical Collar Placement

The cervical spine (C-spine) accounts for the majority of all spinal injuries. In the US prehospital setting, patients are often transported using cervical collars (C-collars) and rigid backboards in trauma and when spinal cord injuries are suspected. After airway, breathing, and circulation, every effort must be made to secure the C-spine.
Receipt of Recommended Adolescent Vaccines Among Youth With Special Health Care Needs

We examined vaccination coverage among youth with special health care needs (YSHCN) using data from parents of adolescents (11-17 years) who responded to a statewide survey in 2010-2012 (n = 2156). Using a validated screening tool, we identified 29% of adolescents as YSHCN. Weighted multivariable logistic regression assessed associations between special health care needs and receipt of tetanus booster, meningococcal, and human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines. Only 12% of youth had received all 3 vaccines, with greater coverage for individual vaccines (tetanus booster, 91%; meningococcal, 32%; HPV, 26%). YSHCN had greater odds of HPV vaccination than other youth (33% vs 23%, OR = 1.70, 95% CI = 1.16-2.50) but vaccination coverage was similar ( P ≥ .05) for other outcomes. In subgroup analyses, HPV vaccination also differed depending on the number and type of special health care needs identified. Findings highlight low levels of vaccination overall and missed opportunities to administer recommended vaccines among all youth, including YSHCN.
Environment Representation for And-Or Parallel Execution

A model for and-or parallel execution of logic programs is presented based on an extension of the classical and-or tree. An implementation of this model targeted towards shared-memory multiprocessors is also presented. Two extensions of the classical and-or tree are proposed, motivated by two pragmatic concerns in the parallel execution of conjunctive subgoals: (i) the need to represent sequential nodes, which correspond to sequential subgoals determined by data-dependency analysis of the program; and (ii) the need to represent crossproduct nodes, to assist in avoiding over-computation when a set of and-parallel subgoals also exhibit or-parallelism. We discuss the use of this extended and-or tree model by showing how restricted and-parallelism (RAP) can be combined with full or-parallelism. We then discuss some implementation issues of this abstract model, especially environment representation. We show how an extension of the binding an ays technique for or-parallelism allows constant-time access to variables in the presence of and-parallelism. This extension is called a base array, and we discuss issues in parallel execution and work selection as they relate to binding and base arrays.
Long-term GPS carrier-phase time transfer noise: A study based on seven GPS receivers at NIST

This paper reports a preliminary study of the long-term GPS carrier-phase time transfer noise, based on seven NIST GPS receivers. We find that the difference in carrier-phase time-transfer result using any two GPS receivers over 100 days can change by ∼ 0.5 ns (peak-to-peak) in most cases and by ∼ 1.3 ns (peak-to-peak) in some extreme cases. This suggests that a more frequent GPS calibration is needed to achieve sub-nanosecond GPS timing accuracy.
Water Security, Disasters, and Risk Assessment

Water security means having secure water systems, being safe from floods and droughts, and being protected from disruptions and sabotage of water systems. As a connector, water is essential for food security, environmental security, economic security, and health security, among others. The main process to plan for water security is risk assessment, which includes hazard identification, vulnerability assessment, and impact analysis.
The Orthodox Church in the Arab world: 700–1700: an anthology of sources

The editors and contributors to The Orthodox Church in the Arab World have done a great service in offering up an anthology of twelve texts, ranging from the eighth to the eighteenth centuries, whi...
Decellularization Strategies for Regenerative Medicine: From Processing Techniques to Applications

As the gap between donors and patients in need of an organ transplant continues to widen, research in regenerative medicine seeks to provide alternative strategies for treatment. One of the most promising techniques for tissue and organ regeneration is decellularization, in which the extracellular matrix (ECM) is isolated from its native cells and genetic material in order to produce a natural scaffold. The ECM, which ideally retains its inherent structural, biochemical, and biomechanical cues, can then be recellularized to produce a functional tissue or organ. While decellularization can be accomplished using chemical and enzymatic, physical, or combinative methods, each strategy has both benefits and drawbacks. The focus of this review is to compare the advantages and disadvantages of these methods in terms of their ability to retain desired ECM characteristics for particular tissues and organs. Additionally, a few applications of constructs engineered using decellularized cell sheets, tissues, and whole organs are discussed.
An Experimental Neuroelectric Prosthetic Arm

Abstract In this paper, a prosthetic arm developed for use in neuroelectric control experiments is described. The motivation for neuroelectrically-controlled prostheses is presented, as well as an overview of the design features required for effective and natural control. The development of the prosthetic hardware and control system are described, with emphasis on the sensors used in the control laws and for sensory feedback. A method of using the frequency of efferent nerve pulses as command inputs is also described. Preliminary experimental results are presented.
The largest minority population in the U.S. without adequate dental care

A recent series of reports in Health Affairs reviewed the disparities in securing needed oral health services in the U.S. Despite an extensive oversight of the many issues involved, no direct mention is made of the particular conditions of the largest minority population in the U.S. unable to access dental care-the tens of millions of individuals with special health care needs. A review is provided of the particular barriers and conditions faced by this increasing population in its efforts to secure needed services.
Host responses to AMF from plots differing in plant diversity

Increased plant species richness in a plant community leads to changes in the composition of the associated arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungal (AMF) community. We tested whether AMF from plots with increased plant diversity cause significant differences in the growth of Lespedeza capitata, Schizachyrium scoparium or Liatris aspera. Seedlings of each were transplanted into pasteurized soil inoculated with soil from their own monocultures, or from plots with one, seven, or 15 additional plant species. In addition, inocula from S. scoparium and L. capitata monocultures were tested for reciprocal growth effects. Inocula from plots containing the native tallgrass prairie species Lespedeza capitata showed increasing AMF species richness and spore density with increasing plant diversity; this was not true with plots containing Schizachyrium scopariumor Liatris aspera. All three species responded to AMF inoculation with increased growth and Cu concentrations, and lowered Mn concentrations compared to non-inoculated control plants. Increasing the plant diversity of the inoculum source-plots significantly affected plant weights of L. capitata, but not of the other two host plants. Both S. scoparium and L. capitata showed increases in growth with inoculum from S. scoparium monocultures compared to that from L. capitata monocultures. Spore density of inoculum source plots was associated with subsequent plant growth or nutrient content only in Lespedeza plots, which contained considerably fewer spores, plant cover, and root biomass in plots with lower plant diversity.
Reducing specific energy consumption of seawater desalination: Staged RO or RO-PRO?

Abstract Specific energy consumptions (SECs) in seawater RO desalination employing staged RO and RO-PRO with energy recovery devices are investigated using systematic mathematical methods. The SECs in both configurations are minimized by solving a constrained nonlinear optimization model which optimally selects operating conditions and allocates membrane area between different membrane units. It is shown that both staged RO and RO-PRO are noticeably advantageous over single-stage RO only if a dimensionless parameter γtotal = AtotalLpπ0/Q0 is sufficiently large. The RO-PRO outperforms staged RO when internal concentration polarization is not severe, water recovery is low (e.g., 30%) and/or membrane area is abundant (e.g., γtotal ≥ 1.6). The staged RO is likely to excel at a high water recovery (e.g., 60%) even though the high-salinity brine enhances the driving force for osmotic energy recovery in the RO-PRO. Both configurations have comparable SECs based on water recoveries of 40% and 50% and a γtotal of 0.8, a representative value in industrial seawater RO plants.