cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A wavelet domain hierarchical hidden Markov model

This paper proposes a wavelet-domain hierarchical hidden Markov model for an unsupervised texture segmentation. Based on a hybrid graph structure, the global dependencies can be captured by a quad-tree structure across all scales, and local dependencies at higher resolution scales can be captured by a pyramidal graph structure. A novel context model that includes different positions, orientations, and scales is introduced. Applications of an unsupervised texture segmentation are presented. Compared with other alternative approaches for several test images, this method can achieve a significant improvement in segmentation, especially at higher resolution scales.
Soluble IgE receptors—Elements of the IgE network

Soluble isoforms of three human IgE Fc receptors, namely FceRI, FceRII, and galectin-3, can be found in serum. These soluble IgE receptors are a diverse family of proteins unified by the characteristic of interacting with IgE in the extracellular matrix. A truncated form of the alpha-chain of FceRI, the high affinity IgE receptor, has recently been described as a soluble isoform (sFceRI). Multiple soluble isoforms of CD23 (sCD23), the low affinity IgE receptor also known as FceRII, are generated via different mechanisms of extracellular and intracellular proteolysis. The second low affinity IgE receptor, galectin-3, only exists as a secretory protein. We here discuss the physiological roles of these three soluble IgE receptors as elements of the human IgE network. Additionally, we review the potential and current use of sFceRI, sCD23, and galectin-3 as biomarkers in human disease.
Extremely low frequency numerical modeling in lossy media using the FDTD

Discusses a computational procedure, based on the finite difference time domain (FDTD) algorithm, for extremely low-frequency (1 Hz) modeling of electromagnetic scattering by buried objects in lossy sedimentary layers under sea water. The FDTD algorithm is found to be accurate for modeling such objects tens of meters away from a constant current dipole source of 1 A in sea water. For validation of the extremely low-frequency and lossy FDTD modeling, the computed FDTD results are compared with those calculated by using integral equation techniques.
Organizational structures that support internal program evaluation

This chapter explores how the structure of large complex organizations such as Cooperative Extension affects their ability to support internal evaluation of their programs and activities. Following a literature review of organizational structure and its relation to internal evaluation capacity, the chapter presents the results of interviews with 10 selected Extension evaluators. Four structures for evaluation in Extension organizations are identified: (1) a separate evaluation unit, (2) within an administrative unit, (3) within a program area, and (4) within an academic department or school. The interviews addressed the philosophy and approach to program evaluation, what evaluators do, the perceived effects of organizational structure on evaluation, and reflections on the optimal structure for program evaluation in Extension. Several conclusions are presented: the evaluation function should be associated with a high administrative level in the organization, locating the evaluation function in program units appears to be preferred, roles and responsibilities of internal evaluators need to be clearly specified, internal evaluators need to work closely with administration and management to carry out their roles effectively and to incorporate evaluation into organizational decision making, and internal evaluators often assume other roles beyond their primary role as evaluator. © Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Involvement of Calcium and Calmodulin in the Regulation of Ovarian Steroidogenesis in Atlantic Croaker (Micropogonias undulatus) and Modulation by Aroclor 1254

Abstract The involvement of calcium-dependent signal transduction pathways in the regulation of ovarian steroidogenesis was investigated in Atlantic croaker. Treatment with the calcium ionophores A23187 and ionomycin caused a 2- to 5-fold increase in basal steroid accumulation by croaker ovarian tissue in vitro. A23187 potentiated human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG)-induced testosterone (T) accumulation, whereas it inhibited accumulation of estradiol-17β (E2) and the conversion of T to E2, suggesting that intracellular calcium modulates aromatase enzyme activity. Gonadotropin stimulation of ovarian steroidogenesis was decreased in the presence of EGTA and inhibitors of voltage-sensitive calcium channels (VSCCs) and inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate-receptors (IP3Rs), indicating that releases of calcium from both intracellular and extracellular stores are components of the signal transduction pathways initiated by gonadotropin. Calmodulin is also involved in the regulation of ovarian steroidogenesis in croaker, since the calmodulin inhibitors W-7 and trifluoperazine (TFP) attenuated hCG-stimulated T and E2 accumulation. These results are broadly similar to those reported previously in goldfish and suggest that the major calcium-dependent signaling pathways involved in gonadotropin stimulation of ovarian steroidogenesis in tetrapods are also present in teleosts. In addition, the involvement of calcium in the regulation of aromatase activity was demonstrated for the first time in a vertebrate ovary. Finally, acute exposure to 0.001–1 ppm Aroclor 1254 induced up to a 5-fold increase in hCG-stimulated E2 accumulation, and this effect was attenuated by co-treatment with inhibitors of VSCCs and calmodulin, suggesting the existence of a novel mechanism of endocrine disruption by an environmental contaminant involving alteration of calcium-dependent signaling pathways regulating steroidogenesis.
Montreal versus Kyoto: A Tale of Two Protocols

Over the last thirty years, climate change and depletion of the ozone layer have been widely believed to be the world's largest environmental problems. The two problems have many similarities. Both involve global risks created by diverse nations, and both seem to be best handled through international agreements. In addition, both raise serious issues of intergenerational and international equity. Future generations stand to lose a great deal, whereas the costs of restrictions would be borne in the first instance by the current generation; and while wealthy nations are largely responsible for the current situation, poorer nations are anticipated to be quite vulnerable in the future. But an extraordinarily successful agreement, the Montreal Protocol, has served largely to eliminate the production and use of ozone-depleting chemicals, while the Kyoto Protocol has spurred only modest steps toward stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions. What accounts for the dramatic difference between the two protocols? Part of the explanation lies in the radically different self-interested judgments of the United States; part of the explanation lies in the very different payoff structures of the two agreements. Influenced by the outcome of a purely domestic cost-benefit analysis involving reductions in ozone-depleting chemicals, the United States enthusiastically supported the Montreal Protocol. Influenced by the very different outcome of cost-benefit analyses for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, the United States aggressively opposed the Kyoto Protocol. An examination of the two protocols suggests that neither agreement fit the simple structure of a prisoner's dilemma, in which a nation gain from an enforceable agreement, gains even more if it is the only nation not to comply while all others do, and lose most if it, and everyone else, pursue their own national self-interest. For the United States, at least, compliance with the Montreal Protocol would have been justified even if no other country had complied; for the United States, and for several other countries, compliance with the Kyoto Protocol would not have been justified even if all other parties had complied. An understanding of the judgments that surround the two protocols indicates that even though moral considerations require the United States to spend a great deal to protect citizens in other nations, and even though such considerations can influence behavior, the nation is unlikely to act in response solely to those considerations. A general implication is that any international agreement to control greenhouse gases is unlikely to be effective unless the United States believes that it has more to gain than to lose. An illuminating wrinkle, also suggestive of the role of domestic self-interest, is that some European nations, above all the United Kingdom, initially contended that ozone depletion was a greatly exaggerated problem while later calling for strong controls on greenhouse gases.
Son preference and fertility in China.

This paper examines the effect of son preference on the hazards of having a second and a third birth. With data from the Two-per-thousand National Sample Survey on Fertility and Contraception conducted in 1988 by the State Family Planning Commission of China, the hazard of having a second birth among 62+ thousand married women who have had a first birth, and the hazard of having a third birth among 43+ thousand married women who have had two births was examined. These two hazards (i.e. the hazard of moving from the first to the second birth, and the hazard of moving from the second to the third birth) were analysed by estimating Cox proportional hazard models. The major covariate in the first analysis is whether or not the first-born was a daughter. In the second analysis the main covariate is whether both of the first two children were girls. In both models seven covariates known to have independent effects on the transition to a second (or third) birth are controlled for, namely, whether the woman is a Han, whether she is a farmer, her age at the birth of the first (or second) child, whether she had her first (or second) birth prior to the initiation in 1979 of the one-child policy, and three dummy variables reflecting her level of education. The results show the important influence of son preference on the hazard of having another birth.
ALCOHOL/DRUG DEPENDENCY IN HOMELESS YOUTH

Purpose: By age 16, half of all adolescents use alcohol and about one-quarter use marijuana. The pervasiveness of substance abuse is remarkably higher among homeless youth as compared to the general youth population. A significant need exists to develop appropriate drug and alcohol treatment that takes into account the unique perspectives of drug use in the culture of homelessness. While predictors, such as criminal involvement, academic failure, victimization, and “street” involvement are useful in understanding substance use among homeless youth, further research on alcohol/drug dependency is needed to develop effective interventions for this population. Methods: A convenience sample of 153 homeless youth accessing services at a street outreach center participated. Those 18-23 years of age, whose case managers had identified them as drug or alcohol users, were recruited. Following informed consent, youth completed a quantitative questionnaire. Results: The sample averaged 21 years of age, were predominantly white (67.3%) and male (65.4%). Results indicated that 98.7% of these youth reported drinking alcohol, using amphetamines (39.2%), heroin (46.4%), and/or marijuana (91.5%); 57.8% of youth interviewed were identified as dependent on substances and 61.0% were dependent on alcohol. Logistic regression analyses indicated that participants who received support from substance-using street friends (OR=2.1) and were dependent on substances (OR=4.9) increased the likelihood of alcohol dependency, while the more positive youth felt about drug use (OR=.88), the more confident they were in their ability to decrease their drug use (OR=.65), or earned money by selling blood/plasma (OR=.06) decreased the likelihood of alcohol dependence (model χ2 = 63.8, p<.001). Similar analyses of drug dependence showed that those who felt changing drug use behavior was important (OR=1.3), carried a weapon (OR=3.1), or were alcohol dependent (OR=2.7) were more likely to be drug dependent (model chi-square = 49.1, p<.001). Conclusions: This study confirms the magnitude of alcohol/drug dependence among homeless youth and demonstrates the varying predictors for alcohol and drug dependency. While school-based substance use prevention programs are available for adolescents, effective programs for homeless youth are nearly non-existent and needed. This study highlights the need for service agencies proving care for these youth to assess their alcohol and drug use. Although typical drug treatment is not feasible for these agencies, developing assessment and referral mechanisms and brief interventions that target alcohol/drug issues are needed.
The role and meaning of susto in Mexican Americans' explanatory model of type 2 diabetes.

This article examines the role and meaning of susto (fright) in Mexican Americans' explanatory model (EM) of type 2 diabetes. This analysis is based on a study of the health beliefs about type 2 diabetes mellitus among Mexican Americans living in El Paso County, Texas, on the U.S.-Mexico border. Susto was described as an event that could change the bodily state, causing a susceptible person to be more vulnerable to the onset of type 2 diabetes after some unspecified time. The study results illustrate the integration of multiple etiologies into Mexican Americans' EMs of diabetes and illustrate how the environment affects the way in which these explanations are manifested. Acculturation of biomedical system beliefs into the traditional Mexican health belief system has resulted in a synthesis of both systems and a blending of the participants' explanation of type 2 diabetes.
Discriminant Embedding for Local Image Descriptors

Invariant feature descriptors such as SIFT and GLOH have been demonstrated to be very robust for image matching and visual recognition. However, such descriptors are generally parameterised in very high dimensional spaces e.g. 128 dimensions in the case of SIFT. This limits the performance of feature matching techniques in terms of speed and scalability. Furthermore, these descriptors have traditionally been carefully hand crafted by manually tuning many parameters. In this paper, we tackle both of these problems by formulating descriptor design as a non- parametric dimensionality reduction problem. In contrast to previous approaches that use only the global statistics of the inputs, we adopt a discriminative approach. Starting from a large training set of labelled match/non-match pairs, we pursue lower dimensional embeddings that are optimised for their discriminative power. Extensive comparative experiments demonstrate that we can exceed the performance of the current state of the art techniques such as SIFT with far fewer dimensions, and with virtually no parameters to be tuned by hand.
Climatologically Aided Mapping of Daily Precipitation and Temperature

Abstract Accurately mapped meteorological data are an essential component for hydrologic and ecological research conducted at broad scales. A simple yet effective method for mapping daily weather conditions across heterogeneous landscapes is described and assessed. Daily weather data recorded at point locations are integrated with long-term-average climate maps to reconstruct spatially explicit estimates of daily precipitation and temperature extrema. The method uses ordinary kriging to interpolate base station data spatially into fields of approximately 2-km grain size. The fields are subsequently adjusted by 30-yr-average climate maps [Parameter-Elevation Regression on Independent Slopes Model (PRISM)], which incorporate adiabatic lapse rates, orographic effects, coastal proximity, and other environmental factors. The accuracy assessment evaluated an interpolation-only approach and the new method by comparing predicted and observed values from an independent validation dataset. The results of the accura...
Interlocking Corporate Directorates and the Global City Hierarchy

This paper examines the direct and indirect economic linkages of the most prominent cities in the world, those commonly referred to as global cities, in terms of the direct and indirect linkages of the boards of directors of Fortune Global 500 firms headquartered in a given city with boards of directors of other firms. Specifically, we identify the interlocks of corporate boards located within these major cities with other Fortune 500 boards of directors by degrees of separation, and present a new ranking for selected global cities based upon these direct and indirect ties. We find that New York clearly dominates these economic linkages, followed by London and Paris. This is most pronounced for financial companies. Contrary to other global city rankings, we locate Tokyo below Frankfurt and Chicago on this dimension. We argue that these multiple levels of indirect relationships reflect a significant, and until now unexplored, dimension of what it means to be a global city.
Net Risk: Environmental Information Design, Access, and Literacy

This paper describes work-in-progress to understand how information technology is both an environmental problem and an environmental resource. My research questions include the following: I) How have environmental problems prompted the design of new information collection, processing and distribution systems? 2) What are the cultural and political effects of the massive amount of environmental information now available? 3) What is constraining access to environmental information? 4) What kinds ofliteracy are required for effective engagement with environmental iriformation? 5) Can environmental ethics be updated to encourage critical engagement with information technology?
The Role of Venture Capital in Financing Small Businesses

Venture capital is an important alternative for companies that have difficulties accessing more traditional financing sources and it is a strong financial injection for early-stage companies that do not have evidence for persistent profitability yet. Firstly, deep prescreening process should be performed before investing in small, start-up business because of the information asymmetries, which in turn are the main cause for adverse selection and moral hazard problems. Well performed initial scan ensures good investment. Seed capital provided than enables the firm's set off. But what is more important is the conclusion that there is much more than just capital that flows from the investors to the organizations in which they invest. Indeed, fresh capital inflow is accompanied with the process of value-adding which provides the company with monitoring, skills, expertise, help and, basically, reputation for attracting further finance. Consequently, the role of the venture capital in financing small business is tremendous. The paper sheds light on these issues.
The status of eye irritancy testing: a regulatory perspective.

Eye irritation testing is a salient public issue and continues to escalate on the public agenda. Issues relevant to this milieu include legislative proposals to ban animal use for cosmetic testing, adequacy of the current standard (viz., the Draize Eye Irritancy Test), availability of non-animal methodologies, validation paradigm for new testing models, international harmonization of testing standards and methods, and the regulatory role in product testing and enforcement. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) feels that enactment of legislation proposed to ban animal use from testing products for safety would pose serious problems from a public health perspective. FDA encourages the development of alternative test methods and is aware that many such tests are in various stages of evolution. At this time, however, none of these tests has been accepted by the scientific community as total replacement to the Draize test. FDA's basic positions on the use of non-animal alternatives are as follows: 1) The use of animal tests by industry to establish the safety of regulated products is necessary to minimize the risks from such products to humans, 2) The Draize eye irritancy test is currently the most valuable and reliable method for evaluating the hazard or safety of a substance introduced into or around the human eye, and 3) No non-animal tests are presently available to completely replace the Draize. FDA is actively involved with U.S. and international groups to harmonize protocols for product development, evaluate the current status of non-whole animal methodologies, and standardize testing requirements. The Agency has recently participated in several scientific symposia evaluating the status of non-whole animal methods in toxicity testing. Moreover, FDA representatives are currently scheduled to participate in international meetings and workshops planned for the immediate future addressing several issues in product safety determination. Language: en
The meaning of biological information.

Biological information encoded in genomes is fundamentally different from and effectively orthogonal to Shannon entropy. The biologically relevant concept of information has to do with ‘meaning’, i.e. encoding various biological functions with various degree of evolutionary conservation. Apart from direct experimentation, the meaning, or biological information content, can be extracted and quantified from alignments of homologous nucleotide or amino acid sequences but generally not from a single sequence, using appropriately modified information theoretical formulae. For short, information encoded in genomes is defined vertically but not horizontally. Informally but substantially, biological information density seems to be equivalent to ‘meaning’ of genomic sequences that spans the entire range from sharply defined, universal meaning to effective meaninglessness. Large fractions of genomes, up to 90% in some plants, belong within the domain of fuzzy meaning. The sequences with fuzzy meaning can be recruited for various functions, with the meaning subsequently fixed, and also could perform generic functional roles that do not require sequence conservation. Biological meaning is continuously transferred between the genomes of selfish elements and hosts in the process of their coevolution. Thus, in order to adequately describe genome function and evolution, the concepts of information theory have to be adapted to incorporate the notion of meaning that is central to biology.
Politics, the Rule of Law, and the Role of the Crime of Aggression

In this essay, I take up two concerns raised by Harold Koh and Todd Buchwald in their critique of the Kampala amendments on aggression: what they term “proxy prosecution” and the notion of aggression as a uniquely political question. I also take issue with the argument in Alain Pellet’s response on attacks by non-state actors.
Single exosome detection in serum using microtoroid optical resonators(Conference Presentation)

Recently exosomes have attracted interest due to their potential as cancer biomarkers. We report the real time, label‐free sensing of single exosomes in serum using microtoroid optical resonators. We use this approach to assay the progression of tumors implanted in mice by specifically detecting low concentrations of tumor‐derived exosomes. Our approach measures the adsorption of individual exosomes onto a functionalized silica microtoroid by tracking changes in the optical resonant frequency of the microtoroid. When exosomes land on the microtoroid, they perturb its refractive index in the evanescent field and thus shift its resonance frequency. Through digital frequency locking, we are able to rapidly track these shifts with accuracies of better than 10 attometers (one part in 10^11). Samples taken from tumor‐implanted mice from later weeks generated larger frequency shifts than those from earlier weeks. Control samples taken from a mouse with no tumor generated no such increase in signal between subsequent weeks. Analysis of shifts from tumor-implanted mouse samples show a distribution of unitary steps, with the maximum step having a height of ~1.2 fm, corresponding to an exosome size of 44 ± 4.8 nm. This size range corresponds to that found by performing nanoparticle tracking analysis on the same samples. Our results demonstrate development towards a minimally‐invasive tumor "biopsy" that eliminates the need to find and access a tumor.
Calculation and Research of Three-dimension Power Frequency Magnetic Field around 750 kV Transmission Lines in Northwest China

To study the distribution of power frequency magnetic field(PFMF) at ground level under 750 kV transmission line in northwest region,the paper establishes a catenary equation-based 3D PFMF calculation model for the transmission lines considering meteorological parameters and span.Taking Guanting-East Lanzhou and Hami-Anxi transmission and transformation project as an examples,the paper analyzes the characteristics of the 3D PFMF in northwest typical meteorological condition,and gives a comparative analysis of the impact of design parameters on the PFMF,including meteorological conditions and horizontal span, transmission line height,phase distance,wire type and split count,split spacing,single-circuit line's wire arrangement,phase sequence arrangement of double-circuit line's wire and so on.The results show that the PFMF intensity at 2m above the ground level is much less than 0.1 mT and the PFMF's environmental impact around double-circuit line on same tower is smaller than that around single-circuit transmission line.
Anthropomorphic, hormonal, and psychologic correlates of semen quality in endurance-trained male athletes

Twenty male marathon athletes were evaluated by hormonal profiles, psychologic testing, anthropomorphic indices, and semen evaluations. Although total testosterone (T) was significantly decreased in 14 of 20 subjects, free testosterone (FT) was within the normal range in the majority. Ninety percent of subjects (18 of 20) had normal semen analyses. Running mileage, body fat, T, and FT values did not correlate with semen quality. Two athletes with severe oligospermia were found to have the lowest values of T and FT and significant differences in psychologic stress scores. From these data we conclude that (1) vigorous endurance training may be associated with significantly decreased T values but not sperm production; (2) a subgroup of severely oligospermic athletes may be characterized by an "anorectic" symptom complex including higher stress, increased body leanness, and significantly decreased T levels; (3) male endocrine evaluation should be interpreted within the context of physical activity; and (4) factors other than T levels need to be evaluated when one is formulating a therapy plan in oligospermic male athletes.
Factors affecting massive postmortem bronchoconstriction in guinea pig lungs

To examine endogenous factors affecting the development of the massive bronchoconstriction in the postmortem guinea pig lung, 58 anesthetized open-chest animals were divided into three groups: 1) e...
Spatial distribution of syndesmophytes along the vertebral rim in ankylosing spondylitis: preferential involvement of the posterolateral rim.

Objective Syndesmophytes in ankylosing spondylitis (AS) can occur anywhere along the vertebral rim, but little is known about how and where they develop, and particularly if they first form in certain locations along the rim. This information might provide clues to their aetiology. We examined the spatial distribution of syndesmophytes in the thoracolumbar spine in patients with AS using CT. Methods We performed lumbar spine CT scans in 50 patients and used a validated computer algorithm to measure syndesmophyte heights in six intervertebral disc spaces. We measured heights every five radial degrees around the rim of each superior and inferior vertebral endplate. Results Syndesmophytes were observed in 208 of 296 intervertebral disc spaces. Both ascending and descending syndesmophytes were non-randomly distributed along the vertebral rim (p Conclusions Syndesmophytes are not randomly distributed around the vertebral rim, as might be expected if they develop solely in response to inflammation. Rather, they preferentially occur, and likely develop first, at the posterolateral rim. Studying factors that can lead to this pattern may help elucidate how syndesmophytes develop.
A Genetically Encoded FRET Sensor for Hypoxia and Prolyl Hydroxylases

Oxygen is vital for all aerobic life forms. Oxygen-dependent hydroxylation of hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α by prolyl hydroxylase domain enzymes (PHDs) is an important step for controlling the expression of oxygen-regulated genes in metazoan species, thereby constituting a molecular mechanism for oxygen sensing and response. Herein, we report a genetically encoded dual-emission ratiometric fluorescent sensor, ProCY, which responds to PHD activities in vitro and in live cells. We demonstrated that ProCY could monitor hypoxia in mammalian cells. By targeting this novel genetically encoded biosensor to the cell nucleus and cytosol, we determined that, under normoxic conditions, the HIF-prolyl hydroxylase activity was mainly confined to the cytosol of HEK 293T cells. The results collectively suggest broad applications of ProCY on the evaluation of hypoxia and PHD activities and understanding of pathways for the control of hypoxic responses.
Solution of Differential Equations

This chapter discusses the solution of differential equations. With the substitutions and application of the decomposition method, solutions to nonlinear differential equations with polynomial nonlinearities can be made without linearization procedures. Derivation of the A n for polynomial nonlinearities makes it easy to write solutions for nonlinear stochastic or deterministic differential equations involving such nonlinearities. The chapter discusses the decimal power nonlinearities. It also discusses the anharmonic oscillator systems. When fluctuations of dynamical variables occur in nonlinear oscillating systems, usual methods involve replacing the actual nonlinear system with an equivalent linear system and averagings that are only valid within the limits of perturbation theory or the assumption of white noise processes for reasons of mathematical tractability. The anharmonic oscillator for the deterministic case stresses the point that the methods developed for nonlinear stochastic systems are valid in the linear or deterministic limiting cases as well and can be compared with known results there.
Challenges and Progress on Using Large Lossy Endgame Databases in Chinese Checkers

A common evaluation function for playing Chinese Checkers with two or more players has been the single-agent distance across the board. This is an abstraction of a perfect heuristic, because it ignores the interactions between the players in the game. Previous work has studied these heuristics for smaller versions of the game, including 6-piece data for a board with 49 locations and 81 locations which have 13.98 million and 324.5 million combinations respectively. The single-agent solution to the full game of Chinese Checkers has 81 locations and 10 pieces per player. This results in 1.88 trillion possible positions and is stored using 500 GB of disk space. In this paper we report results from a preliminary study on how to best use the data to improve the play of a Chinese Checkers program.
Cross-Validation of Simulation and EPR Oximetry Approaches: Membrane Cholesterol Reduces Oxygen Flux

Prior EPR oximetry work by Subczynski and colleagues has shown that cholesterol increases membrane resistance to oxygen permeation by 3- to 5-fold when present in a 1:1 ratio with phospholipid. In the current study, we use molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the biophysics of oxygen transport in membranes incorporating cholesterol. The simulations enable cross-validation of the EPR oximetry measurements and the simulations. Further, we have been able to observe oxygen transport near the bilayer surface, which has not been accessible to EPR spin-label probes. We find excellent agreement between the simulation and EPR observations. Our simulations affirm that cholesterol reduces oxygen flux when present at a 1:1 ratio with phospholipid. They further indicate that the bilayer surface in the presence or absence of cholesterol presents greater resistance to permeation than previously observed by EPR.
Delaminating infraspinatus tendon tears with differential retraction: imaging features and surgical relevance

To describe infraspinatus tendon injuries with associated intramuscular edema in light of more recently elucidated anatomical knowledge. A retrospective review was performed to identify MRI cases with infraspinatus tendon injury accompanied by muscle edema. MR images were reviewed to evaluate the location of the injury, to assess the degree of tendon retraction, and to assess for muscular changes. Clinical and surgical data were reviewed when available. Twenty-three patients were identified (13 males, 10 females, mean age of 52 years). MRI demonstrated infraspinatus muscle edema in all cases with variably retracted infraspinatus tendon fibers. Three patients (13 %) presented acutely after traumatic falls, 11 patients (48 %) presented after a minor trauma or recalled event, and 9 patients (39 %) presented with more chronic symptoms. Of the nine patients who underwent arthroscopic surgery, six patients (67 %) did not have an identifiable corresponding lesion, despite the findings described on the preoperative MRI. In these six cases, some superficial fibers of the transverse portion of the infraspinatus tendon remained intact on the MRI. Three patients (13 %) had follow-up MRI examinations with one progressing to severe muscle atrophy, one without progression of existing muscle atrophy, and one with no atrophy on the initial or subsequent evaluation. Eighteen of 23 patients had concomitant partial-thickness or full-thickness tears of the adjacent supraspinatus tendon. Injuries of the infraspinatus tendon with resultant muscle edema and variable muscle atrophy may, in fact, represent delaminating type injuries with differential retraction of a layered tendon and may be missed on arthroscopy.
An Exploration of How Family Dinners Are Served and How Service Style Is Associated With Dietary and Weight Outcomes in Children

Abstract Objective To explore how families serve meals and how different service styles are associated with responsive feeding and child dietary and weight outcomes. Methods Baseline data from a subset (n = 75) of randomized controlled trial participants (Healthy Home Offerings via the Mealtime Environment (HOME) Plus study, aged 8–12 years) were analyzed using a series of linear regression models. Adjusted means (95% confidence intervals) and beta coefficients (SEs) are presented. Results Families were most likely to report plated meal service (36% of families), followed by family-style (29%). Family-style was significantly associated with a lower mean level of food restriction (P = .01). No significant associations were observed between style of meal service and child outcomes (all P > .05). Conclusions and Implications Although plated meal service may seem like a desirable strategy for ensuring that children eat a healthier diet, the current results did not provide support for this association. Evidence was found to support the use of family-style meal service to promote the use of responsive feeding.
Thoughts on Appraising Marine Mineral Resources

This paper shows that basic principles developed for estimating mineral endowment and potential mineral supply of a land region apply also to such estimation for a marine region. However, estimation methods for marine minerals may differ from those for land minerals as a consequence of differences in modes of occurrence and in available information. Because many mineral endowment measures, e.g., thickness of ferromanganese crust and concentration of cobalt, are correlated, as also are bathymetric and geologic measurements, the multivariate statistical methods of factor, regression, and correspondence analyses may be especially useful in the estimation of the metal endowment of a marine region. This paper examines the use of these methods, with cobalt in ferromanganese crusts serving as a reference. Although the paper deals primarily with the use of multivariate statistical relations to estimate cobalt endowment, some consideration also is given to the use of these relations within a potential supply system that is designed to estimate the amount of metal that is discoverable and producible for specific economic circumstances.
Combined mode fracture via the cracked Brazilian disk test

An analysis is made of the cracked Brazilian disk test. Explicit results are given for the stress intensity factors of a crack aligned at any direction to the applied load. Various approximations are considered and a simplified ‘short crack’ approximation is shown to be accurate for l/a≤0.3 (l is crack length, a the disk radius). At certain angles it is found that crack closure should occur and as a frist step the effect of friction is taken into account for such cases by using this short crack approximation. Finally, experimental results are presented to confirm and elucidate the use of this specimen geometry for the problem of combined mode fracture.
Prevalence and Predictors of Mental Health Programming Among U.S. Religious Congregations

Objective:This study assessed the prevalence of and factors associated with congregation-based programming in support of people with mental illness.Methods:To estimate the proportion of congregations that provide mental health programming, this study reports analyses of survey responses from the 2012 National Congregations Study, a nationally representative survey of religious congregations in the United States (N=1,327). The analysis used multivariate logistic regression to identify congregational characteristics associated with the provision of mental health programming.Results:Nearly one in four U.S. congregations (23%) provided some type of programming to support people with mental illness. Approximately 31% of all attendees belonged to a congregation that provided mental health programming. Congregational characteristics associated with providing mental health programming included having more members and having members with higher incomes, employing staff for social service programs, and providing he...
System-level design for ESD protection on multiple IO interfaces

This paper introduces the application of system-efficient ESD design (SEED) to ESD-induced pulses that are typical for system-level ESD. Emphasis is given to USB connectors because it has been shown that discharges to the connector shell will not lead to damaging current levels; however, the current levels are sufficient to cause soft-failures and possibly lead to latch-up of the USB IC.
Noradrenergic Function in the Medial Hypothalamus: Potential Relation to Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia

Anorexia nervosa and bulimia are psychiatric disorders which in recent years have been associated with well-defined diagnostic criteria (Bruch 1974; Casper et al. 1980; Garfinkel and Garner 1982; Garfinkel et al. 1980; Johnson et al. 1982; Russell 1979; Strober 1981).
Clinical Significance of Histone Deacetylase Inhibitors in Cancer

Chromatin remodeling agents modulate gene expression in tumor cells. Acetylation and deacetylation are catalyzed by specific enzyme families, histone acetyltransferases (HATs) and deacetylases (HDACs), respectively. Aberrant acetylation of histone and nonhistone proteins has been linked to malignant diseases. HDAC inhibitors bear great potential as new drugs because of their ability to modulate transcription, induce differentiation and apoptosis, and inhibit angiogenesis. Furthermore, HDAC inhibitors also enhance the activity of other cancer therapeutics such as tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL), chemotherapeutic drugs, and radiotherapy. Some of the HDAC inhibitors are currently under clinical investigations. This chapter reviews the chemistry and the biology of HDACs and HDAC inhibitors, laying particular emphasis on those agents which have potentials for cancer therapy.
The Role of the Family in Talent Development

The family is the first and often the most important influence on the developing child. Family characteristics and functioning can positively and negatively influence the development of talent and interact with personal characteristics of the child. In addition, family dynamics can differentially support the development of high achievement and high creativity. Optimal families are ones that balance family closeness with support for autonomous pursuit of unique talent development paths. Family dynamics contribute to the development of key characteristics of adult creative producers including the ability to spend significant time in self-imposed, talent developing practice and study; a preference for unconventionality and independent thinking; coping skills for stress, anxiety, and intellectual complexity; and a tendency to express and resolve emotional issues through creative work in a chosen domain.
Some Historical Aspects of Callosotomy for Epilepsy

The large size, central location and widespread connections of the corpus callosum stimulated, for centuries, investigations which were motivated as much by scientific curiosity as by therapeutic considerations. Callosal physiology has more recently been important to surgeons concerned primarily with other structures, including those neighboring the third ventricle, which can be approached through the corpus callosum. But the principal medical interest has been in the role of the corpus callosum in the generalization of seizures. At the end of the 19th century and on two other, separate occasions in the 20th century, callosotomy was promoted as a treatment for seizure disorders. Before 1900, less obviously around 1940, and most clearly in the 1960’s, these therapeutic proposals were stimulated by animal experimentation. One theme of this chapter is the reciprocal interaction of surgical therapy and laboratory experimentation: in particular, the most recent therapeutic use of callosotomy has been accompanied by widespread physiologic and psychologic interest in this conspicuous brain structure.
Vortex ring interaction by the vortex method

The vortex ring merger problem is a challenging one for numerical computation and is of considerable physical and mathematical interest. By the ring merger problem, we mean the flow which follows the simultaneous injection of two parallel vortex rings, identical in shape and in circulation, into an idle, incompressible fluid. We assume, for clarity of the discussion, that the vortex rings are generated in such a way that each by itself would move downward. At the edges which are closest together, the rings will tilt upward, and this causes them to move toward each other. After a short time, the rings appear to merge into one distorted vortex ring. Experiments have been carried out for a number of years. Photographic visualizations are reproduced in [17], for example. More recently, Schatzle and Coles have carried out further experiments, which have revealed considerably more detail, and in which they have measured a part of the vorticity field [19]. Of fundamental interest in this problem is the fact that the competition between the nonlinear vortex stretching process and the smoothing and damping by viscous stresses, which is thought to characterize turbulence, can be studied in reasonable isolation here. The problem is of further relevance due to the fact that concentrated tube­like structures appear in a variety of important flow situations (such as trailing vortices behind aircraft and hairpin vortices in three­dimensional boundary layers)
A novel mammalian cell line development platform utilizing nanofluidics and optoelectro positioning technology

Generating a highly productive cell line is resource intensive and typically involves long timelines because of the need to screen large numbers of candidates in protein production studies. This has led to miniaturization and automation strategies to allow for reductions in resources and higher throughput. Current approaches rely on the use of standard cell culture vessels and bulky liquid handling equipment. New nanofludic technologies offer novel solutions to surpass these limits, further miniaturizing cell culture volumes (105 times smaller) by growing cells on custom nanofluidic chips. Berkeley Lights' OptoElectro Positioning technology projects light patterns to activate photoconductors that gently repel cells to manipulate single cells on nanofluidic culturing chips. Using a fully integrated technology platform (Beacon), common cell culture tasks can be programmed through software, allowing maintenance and analysis of thousands of cell lines in parallel on a single chip. Here, we describe the ability to perform key cell line development work on the Beacon platform. We demonstrate that commercial production Chinese hamster ovary cell lines can be isolated, cultured, screened, and exported at high efficiency. We compare this process head to head with a FACS-enabled microtiter plate-based workflow and demonstrate generation of comparable clonal cell lines with reduced resources. © 2018 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Biotechnol. Prog., 34:1438-1446, 2018.
Development of enhanced emission factor equations for paved and unpaved roads using artificial neural network

Abstract Road dust is a primary source of PM that is having a significant impact on human health and air quality. In order to efficiently develop PM control strategies, it is critical to improving the ability to estimate the emission levels of PM resuspended from paved and unpaved roads. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has developed emission factor equations to quantify the magnitude of PM for paved and unpaved roads based on multiple linear regression (MLR) models. However, the MLR models are not suitable to capture the complex and non-linear mechanisms of PM emissions, thereby limiting the accuracy of the MLR-based PM prediction models. This paper is to present a method to improve the quality of the existing EPA emission factor equations for paved and unpaved roads by employing an artificial neural network (ANN). The presented method consists of the following steps: data processing, ANN model training, and validation of the presented method through data testing. The data utilized for the case study were retrieved from the database used by the EPA to generate PM10 emission factor equations for the paved and unpaved roads for a fair comparison. The presented method was evaluated by demonstrating its improved performance as shown in the coefficient of determination (R2) and the root mean square error (RMSE) values. The empirical findings of the case study verified that the presented method using the ANN model is capable of improving the quality of the EPA emission factor equations, resulting in higher R2 and lower RMSE values for both paved and unpaved roads. The expected significance of this paper is that the presented method improves the ability to develop more reliable emission factor equations for predictable PM levels that can help agencies establish enhanced PM control strategies.