cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Knowledge begets knowledge: university knowledge spillovers and the output of scientific papers from U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) projects

Scientific papers submitted for publication from U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR)-funded research projects are an innovative output that has yet to be studied systematically. Using a knowledge production framework, we identify empirically covariates with the number of scientific papers resulting from SBIR projects over the period 1992 through 2001. We find empirically that when the firm involves a university in its funded project, more scientific papers result. When the form of university involvement is taken into account, we find the greatest impact on the output of scientific papers comes from the inclusion of an individual from the university who originally developed the technology being pursued by the firm in its SBIR project. In other words, the project-specific technical human capital knowledge from the university that spills over to the firm’s project begets (i.e., brings about) additional knowledge in the form of scientific papers submitted for publication.
Abdominal compartment syndrome: Often overlooked conditions in medical intensive care units

Intra-abdominal hypertension (IAH) and abdominal compartment syndrome are well recognized entities among surgical patients. Nevertheless, a number of prospective and retrospective observational studies have shown that IAH is prevalent in about half of the critically ill patients in the medical intensive care units (ICU) and has been widely recognized as an independent risk factor for mortality. It is alarming to note that many members of the critical care team in medical ICU are not aware of the consequences of untreated IAH and the delay in making the diagnosis leads to increased morbidity and mortality. Frequently it is underdiagnosed and undertreated in this patient population. Elevated intra-abdominal pressure decreases the blood flow to the kidneys and other abdominal viscera and also results in reduced cardiac output and difficulties in ventilating the patient because of increased intrathoracic pressure. When intraabdominal hypertension is not promptly recognized and treated, it leads to abdominal compartment syndrome, multiorgan dysfunction syndrome and death. Large volume fluid resuscitation is very common in medical ICU patients presenting with sepsis, shock and other inflammatory conditions like pancreatitis and it is one of the major risk factors for the development of intra-abdominal hypertension. This article presents an overview of the epidemiology, definitions, risk factors, pathophysiology and management of IAH and abdominal compartment syndrome in critically ill medical ICU patients.
Predictors of Recurrence and Survival in Patients With Surgically Resected Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors.

OBJECTIVE Given the lack of consensus on surveillance guidelines after pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (PanNET) resection, we assessed outcomes in a large cohort of patients with nonmetastatic, surgically resected PanNETs. METHODS Data of patients with PanNETs resected between 1990 and 2017 were retrospectively collected using databases at 3 academic institutions. The National Death Index was queried to determine vital status. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to estimate recurrence-free survival (RFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS) rates. Variables associated with recurrence and disease-related death were identified through Cox multivariate analyses. RESULTS Of 307 patients with PanNET who underwent resection, recurrence occurred in 79 (26%) of patients. For stage I and II disease, 5-year RFS rates were 90% and 43%, whereas 5-year DSS rates were 98% and 86% (P < 0.0001 and P = 0.0038, respectively). For grades 1, 2, and 3 disease, 5-year RFS rates were 87%, 49%, and 18%, and 5-year DSS rates were 98%, 89%, and 51% (P < 0.0001 for both). Stage II, grade 2, and grade 3 disease were each associated with increased recurrence and disease-specific death. CONCLUSIONS Stage and grade are important prognostic factors that should be utilized to tailor postsurgical surveillance after curative resection of PanNET.
What do students engage with the most? A comparative study between high and low achieving students within online learning environments

The purpose of the study was to explore the difference in student engagement between high achieving and low achieving senior undergraduate students who took all their courses entirely online at Uni...
Addition of radiotherapy to surgery and chemotherapy improves survival in localized malignant pleural mesothelioma: A Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) study.

Abstract Introduction Malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) is a devastating disease with poor survival outcomes for most patients. Optimizing therapeutic approaches is thus vital, but has been hampered by a dearth of randomized trials to guide decision making. We used a population-level database to evaluate the impact of radiotherapy as a component of trimodality therapy on overall survival (OS) in MPM. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the SEER Radiation/Chemotherapy database for patients with MPM who received surgery and chemotherapy, with or without radiotherapy. A propensity score-matched analysis with inverse probability of treatment weighting (IPTW) was performed. Weight-adjusted univariate KM analysis was performed and doubly robust, IPTW-adjusted multivariable cox proportional hazards regression modeling was also performed to quantify the effect of radiotherapy on OS in trimodality therapy for MPM. Results 1015 patients were identified. 678 patients received surgery and chemotherapy, and 337 patients received trimodality therapy. For patients with localized disease, OS was significantly improved with trimodality therapy (HR 0.56, CI 0.4 – 0.8, p = 0.001), which persisted with IPTW adjustment (HR 0.65, CI 0.49 – 0.95, p = 0.0248). No significant benefit was seen for patients with regional or distant disease. On multivariate analysis, positive predictors of survival after IPTW adjustment were female sex, diagnosis after 2005, and left-sided disease. Conclusions These findings support a significant benefit to OS by incorporating radiotherapy as a component of trimodality therapy for patients with localized MPM compared to only surgery and chemotherapy. It does not provide a significant overall survival benefit for patients with regional or metastatic disease.
A Proposed Moderated Mediation Model of Customer Loyalty Outcomes: An Abstract

To date, research has revealed that the concept of customer loyalty is tantamount to gaining strategic success during customer exchanges (Cronin et al. 2000; Wolter et al. 2017). To this end, this paper seeks to determine the antecedents of enhancing loyalty outcomes associated with the service exchange. Three studies are undertaken to not only propose the antecedent effect of satisfaction and mediating effect of value on loyalty outcome but also to further advance understanding by identifying the moderating effect of perceived justice to service satisfaction, value, and customer loyalty outcomes.
The mediator role of use of emotion in the association between personality traits and workaholism

espanolEste estudio examino el papel mediador del componente de uso de la emocion (UoE), de la Escala de inteligencia emocional, en la relacion entre extraversion (EX) y conciencia dentro de los Cinco Grandes factores de personalidad, y las dimensiones de trabajar en exceso (WE) y trabajar compulsivamente de la Escala holandesa de adiccion al trabajo. Junto con este objetivo, se recopilaron datos del personal sanitario, en su mayoria enfermeras, que trabajaba en hospitales privados que prestan servicios en Estambul. Los hallazgos indicaron que WE tuvo un efecto directo no significativo sobre EX (β = −0.358; p > .05), mientras que el efecto indirecto de WE sobre EX a traves de UoE fue significativo (β = 0.147; p EnglishThis study examined the mediator role of Use of Emotion (UoE) component of Emotional Intelligence (EI) Scale in the relationship between Extraversion (EX) and Conscientiousness (CO) within the Big Five (BF) personality factors, and the dimensions of Working Excessively (WE) and Working Compulsively (WC) of Dutch Work Addiction Scale (DUWAS). Along with this aim, data were collected from healthcare staff, most of who were nurses, working at private hospitals serving in Istanbul. The findings indicated that Working Excessively (WE) had a non-significant direct effect on Extraversion (EX) (β = -.358; p > .05) while the indirect effect of Working Excessively (WE) on Extraversion (EX) through Use of Emotion (UoE) was significant (β = .147; p
Disseminated herpes simplex virus 2 as a complication of pregnancy.

Abstract Disseminated herpes simplex virus 2 (HSV-2) infection, is a rare but devastating infection in pregnancy women. We present the case of a 30-year-old gravida 3, para 2−0-0−2, at 26 weeks 2 days gestation who presented with eleven days of vague and indolent symptoms before a diagnosis of disseminated HSV-2 infection with associated hepatitis was made. While the patient clinically improved with empiric acyclovir treatment, possibility of significant harm to the fetus remained, and the patient request elective termination. The authors review the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of disseminated HSV-2 infection in pregnancy.
Deepening the Group Training Experience: Group Cohesion and Supervision Impact in Alliance-Focused Training.

Objective The aim of the current study is to explore experiences of trainees engaged in alliance-focused training (AFT), a group supervision modality with an explicit focus on awareness of ruptures and implementation of repair strategies. Using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) group supervision as a point of comparison, the study examines supervisory alliance, ruptures, group cohesion and safety, and supervision impact. Method Eighty-three trainees (clinical psychology interns, advanced-level psychology externs and psychiatry residents) at a metropolitan medical center in New York City who received supervision in CBT (N = 38) or AFT (N = 45) reported on their group supervision experience. Participants had a mean age of 29.5 (SD = 4.9); 77% were women; 84% of participants identified as White, 7% as Multiethnic, 6% as Hispanic/Latinx, 1% as Black, and 1% as Asian. Participants reported on occurrence of ruptures with their supervisor, supervisory alliance (Working Alliance Inventory-Short), group safety, supervision depth and smoothness (Session Evaluation Questionnaire), and group cohesion (Group Climate Questionnaire). Mixed and general linear models, and correlation analyses were used for analysis. Results All trainees reported equally low incidence of ruptures with their supervisor alongside high ratings of supervisory alliance. Trainees in AFT reported experiencing less safety, smoothness, and greater intergroup conflict than trainees in CBT supervision; however, they also reported stronger group engagement and a deeper supervision experience. Conclusions Results suggest that AFT may provide a rich environment to foster a certain level of discomfort and risk-taking that may facilitate an engaging and meaningful learning experience.
Anomalous Reflection with Omnidirectional Active Metasurfaces Operating in Free Space

Metasurfaces that manipulate the reflection of impinging sound have recently received significant attention, but virtually all past designs are passive structures with high temporal and spatial dispersion and thus have narrow bandwidths and are unidirectional. In this work, we introduce a method to design omnidirectional and broadband anomalous acoustic reflectors composed of nonresonant active scatterers arranged in a periodic lattice of subwavelength periodicity. The method relies on the manipulation of the wave-vector component parallel to the reflector's surface (i.e., transverse component) in a broadband manner and for arbitrary impinging sound directions. To illustrate our method experimentally, we design and measure an anomalous reflecting metasurface operating in free space for which the transverse wave-vector components of the incident and reflected waves differ by a prescribed constant. We show that the effect does not depend on the direction of incidence and has a bandwidth an order of magnitude larger than passive anomalous reflectors. This work shows that the active scatterers behave similarly to the atoms of a natural material rather than the unit cells of gratings or phononic crystals in that rearranging the active scatterers changes the metasurface geometry while preserving the device's desired functionality.
Political Risk and Firm Exit: Evidence from the US-China Trade War

Does international conflict induce foreign firms to “follow the flag” and exit from a profitable market? We show that the US-China trade war broadly elevated political risks for multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in China, increasing firm exit overall. However, investment treaties can mitigate political risks at the country level while firm entrenchment determines resilience to risk at the firm level. Using a new dataset on all foreign-invested firms registered in China between 2014 and 2019, we implement difference-in-difference and triple-difference models to isolate the impact of increased political risks on MNC exit in the context of the US-China trade war. Our findings show that US and allied firms were not more likely to exit China, suggesting that foreign direct investment outflows do not "follow the flag." Instead, firm exit is determined by the balance of heightened political risks against the availability of firm-level and institutional resources to mitigate these risks.
Accountability in Collaborative Federal Programs—Multidimensional and Multilevel Performance Measures Needed: The Case of Wildland Fire Prevention:

Collaborative programs among Federal agencies, state and local agencies, and private sector organizations are often prescribed to address difficult interdisciplinary and intersectoral problems. Acc...
Exploring principles of hibernation for organ preservation

Interest in mimicking hibernating states has led investigators to explore the biological mechanisms that permit hibernating mammals to survive for months at extremely low ambient temperatures, with no food or water, and awaken from their hibernation without apparent organ injury. Hibernators have evolved mechanisms to adapt to dramatic reductions in core body temperature and metabolic rate, accompanied by prolonged periods without nutritional intake and at the same time tolerate the metabolic demands of arousal. This review discusses the inherent resilience of hibernators to kidney injury and provides a potential framework for new therapies targeting ex vivo preservation of kidneys for transplantation.
The principal axes method for constructive induction

Abstract The paper describes a novel method for constructive induction, called PRAX (Principal Axes). The underlying idea of the method is to determine descriptions of a class of certain basic concepts, and then use these descriptions as “principal axes” with which all other concepts can be described. Given examples of a new concept, the system determines a similarity matrix (SM) for that concept, that contains the average degree of similarity between the concept examples and the principal axes. These degrees of similarity are viewed as newly constructed attributes. To recognize an unknown concept instance, the method creates an SM for it, and then seeks the best matching similarity matrix of all known concepts. In experimental testing of the method on the problem of learning descriptions of a large number of visual textures, the PRAX method significantly outperformed the k-NN classifier often used for such problems. A very important result of this research is a demonstration that a symbolic learning method can be successfully applied to the domain of continuous attributes of low level vision in which nonsymbolic methods have been traditionally employed.
Molecular assessment of ammonia- and nitrite-oxidizing bacteria in full-scale activated sludge wastewater treatment plants.

Nitrification was assessed in two full-scale wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) over time using molecular methods. Both WWTPs employed a complete-mix suspended growth, aerobic activated sludge process (with biomass recycle) for combined carbon and nitrogen treatment. However, one facility treated primarily municipal wastewater while the other only industrial wastewater. Real time PCR assays were developed to determine copy numbers for total 16S rDNA (a measure of biomass content), the amo A gene (a measure of ammonia-oxidizers), and the Nitrospira 16S rDNA gene (a measure of nitrite-oxidizers) in mixed liquor samples. In both the municipal and industrial WWTP samples, total 16S rDNA values were approximately 2-9 × 10 13 copies/L and Nitrospira 16S rDNA values were 2-4 × 10 10 copies/L. amo A gene concentrations averaged 1.73 × 10 9 copies/L (municipal) and 1.06 × 10 10 copies/L (industrial), however, assays for two distinct ammonia oxidizing bacteria were required.
Evaluation of the Tritiated Water Method for Measurement of Transpiration in Young Pinus taeda L.

The tritiated water (HTO) technique was evaluated as a method for measurement of transpiration of young loblolly pine. Twenty-one millicuries of tritium in 3 ml of water were injected into holes drilled at the base of the trees. The transpiration rate was estimated to average 8.3 liters/day per tree for three trees injected in February and 40.4 liters/day for a single tree injected in July. Several methods of collecting the water from the trees for tritium analysis were evaluated. The collection of water by condensation in clear plastic bags sealed around branch tips proved to be a simple, reliable method of collecting water. Difference in the integral tritium activity with distance from the injection site were found. Serious errors in the estimation of transpiration are possible if the difference in tritium activity in the canopy are not taken into account. The activity measured in the water collected nearest the injection point provided good estimation of transpiration when compared to evaporation determined by a soil water balance or by the Penman-Monteith evaporation formula.
Linkage between the AMSAA models at higher levels of indenture in reliability analysis: A case study

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to determine if there is a linkage between the army material systems analysis activity (AMSAA) reliability growth models at the system and subsystem levels and at the subsystem and functional levels of indenture. If such a linkage exists, how this information can be used when tracking reliability of fielded systems to provide early warning signals to detect unwanted reliability problems at lower levels, where improvements are typically made.Design/methodology/approach – Actual performance data from large equipments were analyzed for several groupings of such equipment, where equipment age and generation of design determined the groupings. For each dataset, the system‐level trend was measured using the AMSAA model for three different cases. For each of the three cases, all subsystem trends were measured, in addition to the system‐level trend. This was done to see if any relationship exists, as hypothesized, between system and subsystem trends. Data were analyzed usi...
Formation and Processing of Organics in the Early Solar System

Until pristine samples can be returned from cometary nuclei, primitive meteorites represent our best source of information about organic chemistry in the early solar system. However, this material has been affected by secondary processing on asteroidal parent bodies which probably did not affect the material now present in cometary nuclei. Production of meteoritic organic matter apparently involved the following sequence of events: Molecule formation by a variety of reaction pathways in dense interstellar clouds; Condensation of those molecules onto refractory interstellar grains; Irradiation of organic-rich interstellar-grain mantles producing a range of molecular fragments and free radicals; Inclusion of those interstellar grains into the protosolar nebula with probable heating of at least some grain mantles during passage through the shock wave bounding the solar accretion disc; Agglomeration of residual interstellar grains and locally produced nebular condensates into asteroid-sized planetesimals; Heating of planetesimals by decay of extinct radionuclides; Melting of ice to produce liquid water within asteroidal bodies; Reaction of interstellar molecules, fragments and radicals with each other and with the aqueous environment, possibly catalysed by mineral grains; Loss of water and other volatiles to space yielding a partially hydrated lithology containing a complex suite of organic molecules; Heating of some of this organic matter to generate a kerogen-like complex; Mixing of heated and unheated material to yield the meteoritic material now observed. Properties of meteoritic organic matter believed to be consistent with this scenario include: Systematic decrease of abundance with increasing C number in homologous series of characterisable molecules; Complete structural diversity within homologous series; Predominance of branched-chain isomers; Considerable isotopic variability among characterisable molecules and within kerogen-like material; Substantial deuterium enrichment in all organic fractions; Some fractions significantly enriched in nitrogen-15; Modest excesses of L-enantiomers in some racemisation-resistant molecules but no general enantiomeric preference. Despite much speculation about the possible role of Fischer-Tropsch catalytic hydrogenation of CO in production of organic molecules in the solar nebula, no convincing evidence for such material has been found in meteorites. A similarity between some meteoritic organics and those produced by Miller-Urey discharge synthesis may reflect involvement of common intermediates rather than the operation of electric discharges in the early solar system. Meteoritic organic matter constitutes a useful, but not exact, guide to what we shall find with in situ analytical and sample-return missions to cometary nuclei.
New Horizons Cruise Observations of Lyman-α Emissions from the Interplanetary Medium

Initial results are presented for observations of interplanetary Lyman-α and Lyman-β emissions in the outer solar system obtained by the Alice ultraviolet spectrograph on the New Horizons spacecraft (the first new such data from outside the orbit of Saturn since the Voyager spacecraft). The observations consist of 6∘ ×360∘ great-circle swaths on the sky, centered on the ecliptic direction λ = 51. 3∘, β = 44. 8∘, which passes within ∼ 33∘ of the upstream and downstream directions of the interstellar wind. To date, three such scans have been acquired: on October 7, 2007, October 18, 2008, and June 19, 2010 (at which times the New Horizons spacecraft was 7.6, 11.3, and 17.0 AU from the Sun, respectively). The data compare fairly well with model simulations, although the brightness of interplanetary Lyman-α emissions falls off more slowly than expected with radial distance from the Sun. The ratio of Lyman-α/Lyman-β brightnesses in the interplanetary medium agrees well with previous measurements by the Voyager ultraviolet spectrometers.
The impact of ion-implantation damage on dopant diffusion

The dopant diffusion has been investigated for silicon substrates implanted with high dosages above the amorphization threshold. Both the transient enhanced diffusion and the uphill diffusion are shown in boron, phosphorus, and arsenic profiles with Si ion implants. The uphill diffusion toward residual damages has been simulated with a phenomenological segregation model. The boron enhanced diffusion with As and P implantation is also affected by the n-type doping besides implant damages.
Quantitative characterization of mesenchymal stem cell adhesion to the articular cartilage surface.

There has been great interest in use of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)-based therapies for cartilage repair. Most recently, treatments involving intra-articular injection of MSCs have shown great promise for cartilage repair and arthritis therapy, which rely on MSC adhesion to cartilage. While there is some information on chondrocyte adhesion to cartilage, there is relatively little known about the kinetics and strength of MSC adhesion to cartilage. The goals of this study were as follows: (1) to quantify the kinetics and strength of adhesion of marrow-derived MSCs to articular cartilage using standard laboratory hardware; (2) to compare this adhesion behavior to that of articular chondrocytes; and (3) to assess the effect of serial monolayer culture on MSC adhesion. First through fourth passage MSCs and primary articular chondrocytes were allowed to adhere to the articular surface of cartilage disks for up to 30 h and the number of adhered cells was recorded to quantify adhesion kinetics. After 30 h, adherent cells were subjected to centrifugal shear to determine adhesion strength, quantified as the shear necessary to detach half the adhered cells (σ50). The number of adhered MSCs and adhesion strength increased with passage number and MSCs adhered more strongly than did primary articular chondrocytes. As such, the kinetics and strength of MSC adhesion to cartilage is not dramatically lower than that for articular chondrocytes. This protocol for assessing cell adhesion to cartilage is simple to implement and may represent an important screening tool for assessing the efficacy of cell-based therapies for cartilage repair. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 101A: 3592–3598, 2013.
Effect of Irrigation and Climate Variability on Water Quality of Coastal Watersheds: Case Study in Alabama

AbstractAgricultural activities are considered the leading cause of surface water quality degradation in the United States. While agricultural production in the state of Alabama is mainly rain-fed,...
Perceived Uncertainty, Spiritual Well-Being, and Psychosocial Adaptation in Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis.

Objective: To examine the role of spiritual well-being as a mediator and moderator between perceived uncertainty and psychosocial adaptation to multiple sclerosis (MS). Participants and Design: Fifty individuals (40 women, 10 men) diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Main Outcome Measures: Selfreport measures on illness uncertainty, spiritual (religious and existential) well-being, and psychosocial adjustment to illness were analyzed by a series of hierarchical multiple regression analyses. Results: Both uncertainty and spiritual well-being independently predicted psychosocial adjustment to MS after the influence of demographic and disability-related variables were considered. Spiritual well-being demonstrated a mediator effect but, mostly, failed to show a moderator effect. Conclusion: Spiritual well-being exerts an appreciable influence on adaptation to MS and also acts to mitigate the impact of uncertainty on adaptation. Rehabilitation psychologists may wish to consider its beneficial role as part of their clinical work. Multiple sclerosis (MS), one of the most common disabling diseases of young adults, is an inflammatory demyelinating disorder of the central nervous system with an estimated prevalence of about 250,000‐350,000 individuals in the United States (Devins & Shnek, 2000; Kalb, 1996; Schapiro, 1998). First symptoms usually appear at the young adult age, but the disease may also become evident later in life. The course of MS is highly variable and makes studies of etiology and possible mechanisms of treatment challenging. Because of MS’s highly variable clinical course, individual outcomes cannot be reliably predicted. For many individuals, MS starts with a relapsing‐remitting pattern with episodic exacerbations of neurological dysfunction, which remit completely or partially. Over the years, for most individuals, the disease develops into the secondary progressive form with accumulated disability (Lublin & Reingold, 1996).
Repair and capping of porous MSQ films using chlorosilanes and supercritical CO2

Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), spectroscopic ellipsometry, goniometry, and electrical measurements were used to investigate repair and capping of porous methylsilsesquioxane (JSR LKD 5109) low-k films using a series of chlorosilanes in the form of R"4"-"nSiX"n, where R is a methyl group and X is chlorine (trimethylchlorosilane-TMCS, dimethyldichlorosilane-DMDCS, and methyltrichlorosilane-MTCS), dissolved in supercritical CO"2 (scCO"2). All three chemicals deposited methylsilyl (-O-Si-CH"3) moieties on the surface by reaction with both lone and H-bonded silanol (SiO-H) groups on the surface of oxygen ashed porous methylsilsesquioxane (p-MSQ) films. Spectroscopic ellipsometry and goniometry showed that the total film thickness and contact angle increased in the order TMCS
Spin-Orbit and Target Spin Effects in Helion Elastic Scattering

The well depth of the spin-orbit term for the helion-nucleus optical-model potential was determined by performing parameter searches for elastic scattering data at successive fixed values of ${V}_{s}$. Resulting plots of $\frac{{\ensuremath{\chi}}^{2}}{N}$ vs ${V}_{s}$ show consistent minima for the 13 data sets used. Elastic angular distributions studied were for $^{60}\mathrm{Ni}$ at four energies between 35 and 71 MeV and for three groups of neighboring even- and odd-mass targets at energies between 60 and 71 MeV. The $\frac{{\ensuremath{\chi}}^{2}}{N}$ vs ${V}_{s}$ plots for all the even-mass ($I=0$) targets have minima at values of ${V}_{s}$ between 2.0 and 3.0 MeV, while the plots for all the odd-mass ($I\ensuremath{\ne}0$) targets have minima about 1 MeV greater (3.0 to 4.0 MeV). This difference in the best-fit values of ${V}_{s}$ is consistent over a wide range of target mass and of scattering energy, and suggests the presence of a detectable target spin interaction in helion elastic scattering.
Metal−Polyimide Nanocomposite Films: Single-Stage Synthesis of Silvered Polyimide Films Prepared from Silver(I) Complexes and BPDA/4,4‘-ODA

Highly reflective and surface conductive flexible polyimide films have been prepared by the incorporation of silver(I) acetate and 1,1,1-trifluoro-2,4-pentanedione or 1,1,1,5,5,5-hexafluoro-2,4-pentanedione into a dimethylacetamide solution of the poly(amic acid) formed from 3,3‘,4,4‘-biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride and 4,4‘-oxydianiline. Thermal curing of the silver(I)-containing poly(amic acid) leads to cycloimidization of the polyimide precursor with concomitant silver(I) reduction yielding reflective and conductive silvered surfaces with properties approaching those of the native metal. The metallized films usually exhibit mechanical and thermal properties close to that of the parent polyimide. Films were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
Properties of the translational machinery from a sulfur-dependent archaebacterium

Summary Several characteristics of an in vitro polypeptide synthesizing system from the thermoacidophilic archaebacterium, Sulfolobus solfataricus , were examined. Poly A-directed lysine incorporation increased progressively as the incubation temperature was raised from 37 to 75°C. The stimulation of proline incorporation by poly C did not occur at 37 or 45°C and only a low level of incorporation was observed at the optimal temperature tested, namely 55°C. The addition of homologous unfractionated tRNA enhanced poly U-directed phenylalanine incorporation at 45°C more than two and one half-fold, whereas supplementation with tRNAs from Escherichia coli , baker's yeast, wheat germ and rat liver was without effect. Diphtheria toxin was a highly effective inhibitor of poly U-directed polyphenylalanine synthesis at 45°C. Although neomycin at a high concentration inhibited the poly U-phenylalanine reaction at 45°C, no inhibition was observed at 65°C. The antibiotic was not inactivated at 65 °C in the absence or in the presence of the extract. MS2 RNA stimulated phenylalanine incorporation at 15 mM ++ but not at 8 mM Mg ++ . Preincubation of ribosomes at 65°C for 40 min in the absence of spermine impaired their ability to carry out poly U-directed polyphenylalanine synthesis by 32%, while this value was only 3% if the ribosomes were preincubated in the presence of 3 mM spermine.
Diagnosing comprehension deficits through listening and reading.

Assessment of students with reading comprehension difficulties should include measurement of both listening and reading comprehension of extended discourse in order to begin to identify the reason or reasons for their deficits. The problems of developing an effective comprehension test are discussed. An experimental screening test, Profiles in Listening and Reading (PILAR), is presented as one approach to assessing comprehension. Its potential as a screening and diagnostic test is considered, using students’ profiles from two studies.
Regulation of manganese superoxide dismutase in glomerular epithelial cells: mechanisms for interleukin 1 induction.

Regulation of manganese superoxide dismutase in glomerular epithelial cells: Mechanisms for interleukin 1 induction. Reactive oxygen species have been implicated as mediators of tissue injury in glomerular inflammation. The expression of the antioxidant enzyme, manganese superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), was examined in primary cultures of rat glomerularepithelial cells (GEC) in response to inflammatory mediators. The results demonstrate that GEC respond to interleukin-1 (IL-1) and bacterial lipopolysaccharride (LPS) with an increase in MnSOD steady-state mRNA levels. The IL-1α-mediated induction of MnSOD mRNA levels was both time- and dose-dependent. Maximal levels, approximately 40-fold above controls, were observed at 12 hours with 2 ng/ml of IL-1α. MnSOD protein levels were also markedly elevated by IL-1α. The induction of MnSOD mRNA by IL-1α required de novo transcription as well as some degree of protein synthesis. To elucidate the potential intracellular signal that mediates IL-1α-dependent MnSOD expression, three classical signaling pathways were examined. We found no evidence that MnSOD induction by IL-lα is mediated by either the cyclooxygenase or lipoxygenase pathway or via activation of protein kinase C. Based on the presence of IL-lα in several forms of glomerular inflammation, the observed increase in MnSOD expression by this immunoregulatory cytokine must have an important role in the antioxidant defense of glomerular epithelial cells.
Focal sclerosing glomerulonephropathy with hyalinosis. A clinical and pathologic analysis of the disease in children.

A retrospective clinicopathologic study was made of 17 children with focal sclerosing glomerulonephropathy with segmental hyalinosis (FSGNH). Renal morphologic changes include segmental glomerular sclerosis with local hyaline, eosinophilic deposits. Segmental glomerular deposits of IgM, IgG, C3, and C4 were commonly observed. Ultrastructural evaluation revealed small paramesangial as well as large and small local subendothelial glomerular capillary electrodense deposits. Inital symptoms were mixed nephritic/nephrotic manifestations or proteinuria. Serum B1C was normal. Persistent hypertension and renal failure occurred early. Corticosteroid therapy was of no apparent, benefit. Five patients with serial renal biopsies showed histologic progression from minimal glomerular alterations that would have been interpreted as minimalchange glomerulonephropathy to FSGNH and finally chronic glomerulonephritis. FSGNH appears to be a specific glomerulonephropathy that may initially present as steriod-resistant nephrotic syndrome with minimal glomerular alterations and progress to chronic end-stage glomerulonephritis.
Follow-up on misrepresentation of research activity by orthopaedic residency applicants: has anything changed?

Background: In our previous study, published in 1999, we showed that 18% of research citations listed as published by orthopaedic residency applicants were misrepresented. Since our last report, we sought to determine whether there had been any change in the behavior of applicants wishing to pursue the field of orthopaedic surgery. Methods: We evaluated the research citations that were identified after a review of the Publications section of the Common Application Form from the Electronic Residency Application Service for all applicants to our orthopaedic residency program for 2005 and 2006. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were established for citations listed on candidate applications. Citations were required to be from journals listed in Ulrich's Periodicals Directory . The PubMed-MEDLINE database engine was used to search for citations. If searching failed to yield the cited publication, a review of the journal of alleged publication was undertaken and an interlibrary search was conducted with the use of several research databases. When no match was found, the citation was labeled as misrepresented. Misrepresentation was defined as either (1) nonauthorship of an existing article or (2) claimed authorship of a nonexistent article. Results: One hundred and forty-two (35.9%) of 396 applicants during the 2005 and 2006 application periods listed publications. A total of 304 citations were claimed from these 142 applicants. Listings included articles that were in press or in print (thirty-four citations), articles in journals not found in Ulrich's Periodicals Directory (twenty-eight citations), book chapters (twenty-three citations), and articles recorded as having been submitted (eighty-eight citations). These 173 works were excluded from our analysis. One hundred and thirty-one citations were referenced as appearing in journals per our search criteria, and all were verified. Twenty-seven or 20.6% (95% confidence interval, 14.2% to 28.7%) of 131 citations were misrepresented. Conclusions: The prevalence of misrepresented research publications from orthopaedic surgery residency applicants increased modestly to 20.6% compared with that found in our original report (18%). As we recommended in our last report, we strongly urge residency programs to require applicants to submit reprints of their publications with their residency applications. Perhaps standardized guidelines should be developed to help to prevent misrepresentation through the Electronic Residency Application Service.
Cytological evidence for temporal differences during the asynchronous ovarian maturation of bisexual and unisexual fishes of the genus Poecilia

Comparisons based upon morphological features and cytochemical staining properties of chromatin, nucleoli, and the ooplasm were used in the present analysis of ovarian maturation in wild-caught Poecilia mexicana and its related gynogenetic diploid and triploid' species'. Using an empirically derived ovarian maturation index, seasonal and collection site differences were found between the unisexual and bisexual forms. These fish seem equally suited to their environments. However, our data indicate that differences in microhabitat can have a profound influence on oocyte development. Although females of Poecilia spp. have asynchronous cycles of ovarian maturation, we could not detect any peculiar cytological events associated with the gynogenetic mode of reproduction. Sperm were found in ovaries of both unisexual and bisexual forms indicating that the unisexuals can compete effectively with females of P. mexicana for matings with males of this species. The methods employed in this study provide a sensitive measure of reproductive potentials in sympatric species.
Unworking Milton: Steps to a georgics of the mind

Traditionally read as a poem about laboring subjects who gain power through abstract and abstracting forms of bodily discipline, John Milton’s Paradise Lost (1667, 1674) more compellingly foregrounds the erotics of the Garden as a space where humans and nonhumans intra-act materially and sexually. Following Christopher Hill, who long ago pointed to not one but two revolutions in the history of seventeenth-century English radicalism – the first, ‘the one which succeeded[,]… the protestant ethic’; and the second, ‘the revolution which never happened,’ which sought ‘communal property, a far wider democracy[,] and rejected the protestant ethic’ – I show how Milton’s Paradise Lost gives substance to ‘the revolution which never happened’ by imagining a commons, indeed a communism, in which human beings are not at the center of things, but rather constitute one part of the greater ecology of mind within Milton’s poem. In the space created by this ecological reimagining, plants assume a new agency. I call this reimagining ‘ecology to come.’
FACTORS AFFECTING ROOT FORMATION OF PHASEOLUS VULGARIS.

The successful rooting of leafy cuttings involves three physiologically distinct processes: initiation of root primordia; development of true roots from these initials; and maintenance of the cutting as an excised organ during the rooting. The first of these, where it does not take place spontaneously, can be brought about in many plants by treatment with auxin. The second (outgrowth of the roots) involves the formation of cell-wall and protoplasm; it therefore requires the supply of carbohydrates and nitrogenous materials, together with such special substances as may be needed for root growth. Normally all of these materials would be supplied from the leaves or from storage in the stem. Too little attention has been paid up to now to the third process, the maintenance of the cutting, which, in view of the special conditions that obtain when leaves are severed from the plant, is of great importance. Thus, as pointed out by Chibnall (4), the detached leaf of many plants, including Phaseolus, undergoes a rapid and extensive proteolysis. The present experiments were, therefore, designed to shed some light on the second and third of these processes. It was our intention to study the influence of nutrition, especially nitrogen nutrition, and other external chemical factors on the rooting and maintenance of leafy herbaceous material. Since internal factors must also be considered in such a study, attention was paid to the r?le of auxin and also to the separate r?les of the leaves and the stem.
Functional analysis of an eye enhancer of the Drosophila eyes absent gene: differential regulation by eye specification genes.

Abstract Genes involved in eye development are highly conserved between vertebrates and Drosophila. Given the complex genetic network controlling early eye development, identification of regulatory sequences controlling gene expression will provide valuable insights toward understanding central events of early eye specification. We have focused on defining regulatory elements critical for Drosophila eyes absent ( eya ) expression. Although eya has a complex expression pattern during development, analysis of eye-specific mutations in the gene revealed a region selectively deleted in the eye-specific alleles. Here we have performed detailed analysis of the region deleted in the eye-specific eya 2 allele. This analysis shows that this region can direct early eya gene expression in a pattern consistent with that of normal eya in eye progenitor cells. Functional studies indicate that this element will restore appropriate eya transcript expression to rescue the eye-specific allele. We have examined regulation of this element during eye specification, both in normal eye development and in ectopic eye formation. These studies demonstrate that the element was activated upon ectopic expression of the eye specification genes eyeless and dachshund, but does not respond to ectopic expression of eya or sine oculis. The differential regulation of this element by genes involved during early retinal formation reveals new aspects of the genetic hierarchy of eye development.
Redesign of MST enzymes to target lyase activity instead promotes mutase and dehydratase activities

The isochorismate and salicylate synthases are members of the MST family of enzymes. The isochorismate synthases establish an equilibrium for the conversion chorismate to isochorismate and the reverse reaction. The salicylate synthases convert chorismate to salicylate with an isochorismate intermediate; therefore, the salicylate synthases perform isochorismate synthase and isochorismate-pyruvate lyase activities sequentially. While the active site residues are highly conserved, there are two sites that show trends for lyase-activity and lyase-deficiency. Using steady state kinetics and HPLC progress curves, we tested the “interchange” hypothesis that interconversion of the amino acids at these sites would promote lyase activity in the isochorismate synthases and remove lyase activity from the salicylate synthases. An alternative, “permute” hypothesis, that chorismate-utilizing enzymes are designed to permute the substrate into a variety of products and tampering with the active site may lead to identification of adventitious activities, is tested by more sensitive NMR time course experiments. The latter hypothesis held true. The variant enzymes predominantly catalyzed chorismate mutase-prephenate dehydratase activities, sequentially generating prephenate and phenylpyruvate, augmenting previously debated (mutase) or undocumented (dehydratase) adventitious activities.
Trisomy 18 mosaicism: Clues to the diagnosis

Karyotypes of blood and skin fibroblasts at ages 3 and 8.5 years had shown non-mosaic trisomy 18 in a male now of age 19. Because of his prolonged survival and an atypical phenotype, skin fibroblast cultures from a new biopsy were established at age 18, and only normal 46,XY cells were observed, while peripheral blood lymphocytes still demonstrated 47,XY, + 18. This patient and six others with trisomy 18 mosaicism illustrate the advisability of looking for such a pattern in individuals whose phenotype in early life is not fully consistent with the trisomy 18 syndrome. Additional clues to the presence of trisomy 18 mosaicism are male sex, survival beyond 2 years and lack of fingertip arches.
Finding community structure in networks using the eigenvectors of matrices

We consider the problem of detecting communities or modules in networks, groups of vertices with a higher-than-average density of edges connecting them. Previous work indicates that a robust approach to this problem is the maximization of the benefit function known as ``modularity'' over possible divisions of a network. Here we show that this maximization process can be written in terms of the eigenspectrum of a matrix we call the modularity matrix, which plays a role in community detection similar to that played by the graph Laplacian in graph partitioning calculations. This result leads us to a number of possible algorithms for detecting community structure, as well as several other results, including a spectral measure of bipartite structure in networks and a centrality measure that identifies vertices that occupy central positions within the communities to which they belong. The algorithms and measures proposed are illustrated with applications to a variety of real-world complex networks.
Intelligent route planning for fast autonomous vehicles operating in a large natural terrain

Abstract This paper presents a 2D route planner to support operations for an autonomous vehicle conducting missions at high speeds in a large natural terrain. A configurable search engine is used to search a pre-prepared digitized map of the natural terrain and to generate a suboptimal route in terms of distance, safety, and maneuvering. The suboptimal route is more optimized and smoothed by a route filter that produces the optimal route under some conditions. A high-level intelligent supervisory module configures the search engine and assigns weights to the three route cost components to satisfy the mission objectives and the time constraints of the mission. To take advantage of previous route planning experience, an intelligent learning support engine is used to collect route cost data and to build a knowledge base that is used to provide better heuristics to the search engine. The presented approaches and results contribute towards a truly autonomous vehicle capable of conducting complex missions efficiently and in real time.