cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Coupling reactions of radicals with carbanions

s a hydrogen atom from a suitable donor, probably a solvent molecule (reaction 25). This hydrogen is then removed as a proton by a molecule of base to yield the radical anion of the Z-bromo-a-nitropropane (reaction 26) which eliminates "broside ion forming the 2-nitro-2-propyl radical (reaction 27). There is substantial evidence for a process such as this occurring in cases where the nitro group is attached to an aromatic ring (8-10). However, similar examples have not been reported for an aliphatic nitro compound. Instead, photodecomposition occurs in a more straight forward manner (11): Br (CRj) 2^-1^02 —> (CH^)2C-N02 + Br(28) IjIOg (CH^)2C-Br —(CH^)2C-5r + NO?" (29) However, it is noteworthy to mention that the irradiation experiments described in this work were performed in P^^rez glassT'xare which effectively absorbs light of n^xavelengths less o than 2900 A while reactions 28 and 29 have been reported as O occurring at 2537 Another possibility is that the 2-bromo2-nitropropane undergoes a base-catalyzed elimination of hydrogen bromide to give a nitroolefin: NOg KO2 (CH^)2CBr + B" > CH2=CCH^ + EH + Br" (30) The nitroolefin would be expected to participate in an electron transfer or other process more readily than the bromo compound (reaction 23). The initial studies on the rate of oxygen uptake in the reaction of the 2-halo-2-nitropropanes with the
Mechanisms of Steroid Receptor and Growth Factor Cross Talk

The actions of steroids and their receptors are intertwined with growth factor signaling pathways and their components at many points in the pathways. Both steroid receptor and growth factor signaling result in alterations of transcription. Thus, there are many instances of transcriptional regulation of components of the various pathways. However, the topic of this review is the cross talk between the pathways that result in regulation of the activities of the components of the pathways through means other than altering expression of the components. Interactions among these pathways are complex and occur at numerous levels. Three major forms of cross talk are discussed in this review. 1. Effects of phosphorylation of steroid receptors and their associated coactivators on the activity of steroid receptors. 2. Interactions between steroid receptors and transcription factors whose activation is regulated by cell signaling pathways. 3. Activation of cell signaling pathways by steroids and their receptors.
Application of electric cell-substrate impedance sensing toward personalized anti-cancer therapeutic selection

Cell-based analysis may have the potential for using patient-derived tissues/cells as a basis for a more direct prediction of therapeutic outcomes. This study focused on the application of the Real Time Cell Electronic Sensing (RT-CES) system for screening effective anticancer drugs to different types of prostate cancers. The goal was to demonstrate the potential application of such technology toward the suitability in selection of personalized medicine. Three prostate cancer cell lines, DU145, LNCaP, and PC-3, and a normal prostate cell line were used. Docetaxel, Carboplatin, Abiraterone Acetate, Mitoxantrone, Sunitinib Malate were used as testing drugs. Cellular adhesion, proliferation and drug induced cellular responses were monitored by the RTCES system, and the results were correlated to the well-established cell viability tests. Identification of an effective drug from a panel of available anticancer drugs to a specific cancer cell line, or testing the effectiveness of a certain drug to a panel of prostate cancer cell lines was demonstrated. Cellular resistance to a drug at single dose and multiple dose challenges was monitored by RT-CES measurement, while such resistance was not detectable by endpoint cell viability assays. The results of this study highlighted the advantages of such real-time impedance-based sensing system for applications in chemotherapy reagent selection.
Impact of Peripheral Artery Disease on Long-Term Outcomes Following Ventricular Assist Device Placement

Purpose Patients with peripheral artery disease (PAD) have more extensive atherosclerotic disease and higher markers of inflammation, making them more susceptible to pro-thrombotic and ischemic events. It is conceivable that the implantation of a ventricular assist device (VAD) in patients with PAD would be associated with more adverse events than in those without PAD. Methods Retrospective review was performed for all patients who received a VAD between 2010-2016 with 2 years of follow-up. PAD is defined as either typical claudication symptoms, ankle-brachial index (ABI) Results Of the 289 patients who received a VAD, 60 (20.7%) had PAD and 159 (55%) received an orthotopic heart transplant (OHT). On average, patients with PAD were older, more likely to be a smoker, have hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and had prior myocardial infarction (MI) and stroke. There were no differences in survival at 2 years between those with and without PAD (p=0.52) (Figure 1). Patients with PAD had a lower risk of significant bleeding at 2 years (aOR: 0.46, 95% CI: 0.24-0.87, p=0.02) but no differences in the incidence of post-VAD stroke, infection, or VAD thrombosis. Conclusion Despite more prevalent baseline risk factors in patients with PAD undergoing VAD placement, there were no significant differences in analyzed 2-year outcomes.
Fibre production and fibre characteristics of alpacas farmed in United States

The alpaca is the most important fibre-producing member of the South American camelids. There are two types of alpacas introduced into the United States, namely, Huacaya and Suri, however, a majority of alpacas are that of the Huacaya breed. Currently, there are 171,316 alpacas registered in the Alpaca Registry Inc (ARI) from 1986 to 2010 in the U.S. Alpacas can be found in every state of the United States and are farmed in various geographical environments ranging from hot desert to high mountain ranges. Alpacas were shorn at 10 to 18 months of fibre growth intervals and produced 2 kg per head fleece per year. Coat colour is varies widely in the alpacas, ranging from white to black and various shade combinations in 22 different natural colour categories. An earlier survey in different U.S. regions for Huacaya alpaca performance recordings showed that body weight, fleece weight, and fibre quality traits have improved for alpacas farmed in North America. This paper presents the recent analysis of both Huacaya (n = 714) and Suri (n = 502) alpacas sampled at 18 alpaca ranches located within the west, central and eastern regions of the U.S. Body weight, average fibre diameter, fibre diameter variation, mean staple length, and comfort factor estimates were 61.8 kg, 24.9 micron, 19.4%, 74.5 mm and 81.4% for Huacaya and 65.5 kg, 26.5 micron, 20.7%, 75.5 mm and 77% for Suris. Although it appeared that Suri alpacas were heavier for body weight and about 1.5 micron coarser than Huacaya fleeces tested in this study, there was no evidence for any fibre production or fibre characteristic superiority in the one breed over the other except the preference of a breed specialty trait.
Modulations in Oscillatory Activity of Globus Pallidus Internus Neurons During a Directed Hand Movement Task-A Primary Mechanism for Motor Planning.

Globus pallidus internus (GPi) neurons in the basal ganglia are traditionally thought to play a significant role in the promotion and suppression of movement via a change in firing rates. Here, we hypothesize that a primary mechanism of movement control by GPi neurons is through specific modulations in their oscillatory patterns. We analyzed neuronal spiking activity of 83 GPi neurons recorded from two healthy nonhuman primates executing a radial center-out motor task. We found that, in directionally tuned neurons, the power in the gamma band is significantly (p<0.05) greater than that in the beta band (a ‘cross-over’ effect), during the planning stages of movements in their preferred direction. This cross-over effect is not observed in the non-directionally tuned neurons or when tuned neurons are aligned to their non-preferred direction. These data suggest that, during movement planning, information encoding by GPi neurons may be governed by a sudden emergence and suppression of oscillatory activities, rather than simply by a change in average firing rates.
Broadband quantum efficiency enhancement in high index nanowire resonators.

Light trapping in subwavelength semiconductor nanowires (NWs) offers a promising approach to simultaneously reducing material consumption and enhancing photovoltaic performance. Nevertheless, the absorption efficiency of a NW, defined by the ratio of optical absorption cross section to the NW diameter, lingers around 1 in existing NW photonic devices, and the absorption enhancement suffers from a narrow spectral width. Here, we show that the absorption efficiency can be significantly improved in NWs with higher refractive indices, by an experimental observation of up to 350% apparent external quantum efficiency in lead sulfide NW resonators, a 3-fold increase compared to Si NWs. Furthermore, broadband absorption enhancement is achieved in single tapered NWs, where light of various wavelengths is absorbed at segments with different diameters. Overall, the single NW Schottky junction solar cells benefit from optical resonance, near bandgap open circuit voltage, and long minority carrier diffusion length, de...
Characterization of novel inhibitors of histone deacetylases

611 Reversible modification of histones and other cellular proteins by acetylation is widely accepted to be one of the key mechanisms regulating gene expression and protein activity. Recent studies suggest that histone deacetylases (HDACs) play important roles in the regulation of cell proliferation and differentiation. HDAC inhibitors have been demonstrated to inhibit cancer cell growth in vitro and in vivo, and several of them are currently being studied as potential anticancer agents in clinical trials. We studied 10 newly synthesized HDAC inhibitors (structurally different analogues of hydroxamic acid (1), mercaptoacetamide (2), and biphenylalanine (7)) using several cancer cell lines (SQ-20B, PC-3, MCF-7, HeLa, and Jurkat). To characterize these inhibitors, we analyzed their effects on cell proliferation, cell cycle, and pertinent protein expression. The values of HDAC inhibitors IC50 were determined for these cancer cells and normal human cells after 24 and 48 hours of treatment. Cytotoxicity assays revealed Jurkat cells most sensitive at nM ranges to all the inhibitors tested, while little toxicity was observed in normal cells. Induction of p21Cip1 expression was observed within 2-12 h of treatment depending on the cell line. FACS analysis demonstrated that cells were predominantly accumulated in either G1 or G2 phase of the cell cycle, albeit concentration-dependent. Currently, using PC-3 and MCF-7 cell lines in which the expression of HDACs was suppressed by RNA interference (RNAi), we are investigating target-specificities of these HDAC inhibitors on HDAC family members. These studies could provide valuable instruments for further elucidation of specific HDAC functions in normal and tumor cells, and potentially result in development of more efficient therapeutics for cancer treatment.
Development of the ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter Readout Electronics for the HL-LHC

The ATLAS Liquid Argon Calorimeter electronics will be upgraded to process the 182,468 calorimeter cells with 16-bit dynamic range at 40 MHz in the high pileup conditions of the high-luminosity LHC. Electronics components with Low-noise, low-power, radiation-tolerant and high-bandwidth capabilities are being developed in 65 nm and 130 nm CMOS technologies for the font end electronics. High performance FPGAs that are connected through high-speed links to perform energy reconstruction, data reduction and buffering will be developed for the off-detector electronics. Design studies on the performance of the off-detector readout system are presented as well.
The impact of surgical approach on quality of life for pleural malignant mesothelioma

Background: A comprehensive review of quality of life (QoL) after surgery for malignant pleural mesothelioma (MPM) was conducted to assess differences between pleurectomy decortication (P/D) and extrapleural pneumonectomy (EPP). Methods: Original research studies on quality of life after mesothelioma surgery were identified through June 2016; 15 articles and 12 distinct datasets, for a total of 523 patients, were retrieved. Results: QoL data was available for 102 patients treated with EPP and 296 with P/D. Two studies directly compared QoL outcomes between the two techniques. Symptoms, lung function parameters, and physical and social functioning were still compromised 6 months following surgery. However, P/D patients fared better than EPP patients across QoL measures. Conclusions: Quality of life is generally better for patients undergoing P/D compared to EPP, for an extended period following surgery. Given the need for multimodality therapy and the aggressive nature of MPM, QoL outcomes should be strongly considered when recommending type of surgery for patients with this disease.
Seroprevalence and Risk Factors of Severe Fever with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome

Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome (SFTS) is caused by SFTS virus (SFTSV). This phlebovirus was first reported to cause this disease in 2011 in China. Since its identification, serological surveys of the healthy human population and domesticated and wild animals in China, Japan, and South Korea have been conducted. This literature review shows that the SFTSV seroprevalence in healthy people ranges from 0% to 10.5% and depends on age, occupation, living area, and tick-bite history. High rates of antibody positivity have been detected in many domesticated and wild animals. Thus, these animals may act as amplifying hosts of the virus. The implications and challenges facing the seroepidemiology of this novel bunyavirus are discussed.
Le révisionnisme historique et la création des métis de l’est : la mythologie du métissage au Québec et en Nouvelle-Écosse

Le present article porte sur le phenomene recent des revendications autochtones chez les descendant·e·s des premiers colons de la Nouvelle-France, a savoir les Franco-Quebecois au Quebec et les Acadiens en Nouvelle-Ecosse. Nous y soutenons que les pretentions actuelles a une identite metisse autochtone revendiquant une reconnaissance juridique en vertu de la Loi constitutionnelle de 1982 sont profondement ancrees dans des logiques de colonialisme de peuplement blanc (white settler colonialism). Notre article revele l’omnipresence de la mythologie du metissage dans differents documents. Pour infirmer de telles revendications, nous demontrons que la politique de la France en Nouvelle-France se voulait avant tout une tentative de francisation des peuples autochtones. En d’autres mots, les colonisateurs francais cherchaient plus a assimiler les peuples autochtones qui auraient maintenu un mode de vie autochtone qu’a constituer une societe hybride sur le plan culturel. Faute de preuves suffisantes d’un metissage soutenu au debut des colonies au Quebec et en Acadie, nous passons en revue les arguments de deux principaux organismes representant les soi-disant metis de l’est.
Vaccination Policies and Disease Incidence Across the Pond: Implications for the United States.

* Abbreviation: CI — : confidence interval In this issue of Pediatrics , Vaz et al report the results of their study, “Mandatory Vaccination in Europe."1 Although this study analyzed vaccination and vaccine-preventable disease trends in Europe, the policy implications are timely and relevant to US vaccination practices given the ongoing measles outbreaks in the United States and the legislative responses playing out in state capitols across the United States. In this study, the authors examined the associations between vaccination mandate policies and subsequent vaccination coverage and measles and pertussis incidence in 29 European countries. Stated another way, the authors wanted to know if having a stricter vaccination policy resulted in higher vaccination rates and a lower incidence of 2 highly contagious vaccine-preventable diseases. We already know that in the United States, a stricter state-based vaccination policy leads to lower rates of nonmedical exemptions2,3 and lower rates of vaccine-preventable diseases,4,5 but before the study by Vaz et al,1 these questions had not been examined among European countries. We can think of 3 main reasons this study is highly relevant to US vaccine policy: First, it demonstrates that the impact of such policies is not country specific, offering guidance to countries throughout the world on strategies to increase or maintain high vaccination rates. Second, some of the policies used … Address correspondence to Sean T. O’Leary, MD, MPH, Department of Pediatrics, University of Colorado, Mail Stop F443, 13199 E Montview Blvd, Suite 300, Aurora, CO 80045. E-mail: sean.oleary{at}cuanschutz.edu
Discors Concordia: Swamps as Borderlands in Dante’s Inferno

Dante Alighieri invokes both classical and medieval conceptions of wetlands to characterize the swamps of Inferno as morally and physically liminal spaces. This paper examines the multivalent functions of swamps—paludi in the original Tuscan of the Divine Comedy—to understand collapsed distinctions between the opposing forms of physical matter of Hell’s landscape (dirt, water) and opposing forms of divine judgement (damnation, salvation). The swamps of Inferno slow down the narrative as Dante carefully navigates the peculiar marshy formations which divide various levels and circles of the underworld. The paludi of Inferno only become traversable—and comprehensible—when the poet leaves behind his human pity for a reinforced belief in the righteousness of God’s rulings. An ecocritical assessment of the status of swamps as borderlands, as well as an examination of the classical precedents to Dante’s treatment of swamps, build a framework for understanding the complexities of wetlands as both generative spaces and sites of decay and death in Inferno.
CP-TRAM: Cyber-Physical Transmission Resiliency Assessment Metric

Natural disasters and cyber intrusions threaten the normal operation of the critical electric grid infrastructure. There is still no widely accepted methodology to quantify the resilience in power systems. In this work, power system resiliency refers to the ability of the system to keep provide energy to the critical load even with adverse events. A significant amount of work has been done to quantify the resilience for distribution systems. Even though critical loads are located in distribution system, transmission system play a critical role in supplying energy to distribution feeder in addition to the Distributed Energy Resources (DERs). This work focuses on developing a framework to quantify the resiliency of cyber-physical transmission systems. Quantifying the resiliency of the transmission network, is important to determine and devise suitable control mechanisms to minimize the effects of undesirable events in the power grid. The proposed metric is based on both system infrastructure and with changing operating conditions. A graphical analysis along with measure of critical parameters of the network is performed to quantify the redundancy and vulnerabilities in the physical network of the system. A similar approach is used to quantify the cyber-resiliency. The results indicate the capability of the proposed framework to quantify cyber-physical resilience of the transmission systems.
Movement Computing Education for Middle Grades

This paper takes a theoretical approach to movement computing education for young learners, with a focus on middle grades (grades 6-8, ages 11-14). This age group is targeted as a lower bound because, while some elements of computational thinking may be available to still younger learners, there are abstractions involved in movement computation that pre-require a certain amount of formal operation, in the Piagetian sense. We outline a parallel foundation of key ideas in movement (specifically dance) and key ideas in computing (specifically data representations) at this age-appropriate level. We describe how these foundations might be laid down together early on so that they can later be integrated via the introduction of sensing and feedback technology. Concepts in movement and choreography are studied using words and bodies, as in traditional dance education, and later using computer simulations and motion capture. Data concepts are introduced first by appeal to general questions and later by specification to the movement of individual and collective joints and bodies.
Can incoming United States pediatric interns be entrusted with the essential communication skills of informed consent

PURPOSE According to the entrustable professional activities (EPA) for entering residency by the Association of American Medical Colleges, incoming residents are expected to independently obtain informed consent for procedures they are likely to perform. This requires residents to not only inform their patients but to ensure comprehension of that information. We assessed the communication skills demonstrated by 372 incoming pediatric interns between 2007 and 2018 at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, obtaining informed consent for a lumbar puncture. METHODS During a simulated case in which interns were tasked with obtaining informed consent for a lumbar puncture, a standardized patient evaluated interns by rating 7 communication-based survey items using 5-point Likert scale from “poor” to “excellent.” We then converted the scale to a numerical system and calculated intern proficiency scores (sum of ratings for each resident) and average item performance (average item rating across all interns). RESULTS Interns received an average rating of 21.6 per 28 maximum score, of which 227 interns (61.0%) achieved proficiency by scoring 21 or better. Notable differences were observed when comparing groups before and after EPA implementation (76.97% vs. 47.0% proficient, respectively). Item-level analysis showed that interns struggled most to conduct the encounter in a warm and friendly manner and encourage patients to ask questions (average ratings of 2.97/4 and 2.98/4, respectively). Interns excelled at treating the patient with respect and actively listening to questions (average ratings of 3.16, each). Both average intern proficiency scores and each average item ratings were significantly lower following EPA implementation (P<0.001). CONCLUSION Interns demonstrated moderate proficiency in communicating informed consent, though clear opportunities for improvement exist such as demonstrating warmth and encouraging questions.
Late 1990s’ cool season climate shift in eastern North America

Changes in the frequency of cold and warm synoptic weather types within eastern North America indicate the occurrence of a cool season climate shift in the late 1990s. This aligns with the timing of shifts toward earlier spring ice out on freshwater lakes within the region and less frequent cold air mass passage over the North American Great Lakes. While a preliminary shift occurred in the early 1980s, a pronounced shift toward more frequent warm weather types during November through April occurred after 1997, when prominent warming of the lower atmosphere over the region began. The late 1990s’ climate shift appears linked to middle atmospheric circulation change associated with phase changes for two influential low-frequency climate teleconnections originating within the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation. The climate shift, approximately 20 years after warming within the global climate system commenced, further illustrates the importance of climate system variability within anthropogenically driven climate change.
A Numerical Simulation of the Reconnection Layer in 2D Resistive MHD

In this paper we present a two-dimensional, time dependent, numerical simulation of a reconnection current layer in incompressible resistive magnetohydrodynamics with uniform resistivity in the limit of very large Lundquist numbers. We use realistic boundary conditions derived consistently from the outside magnetic field, and we also take into account the effect of the back pressure from flow into the the separatrix region. We find that within a few Alfven times the system evolves from an arbitrary initial state to a steady state consistent with the Sweet--Parker model, even if the initial state is Petschek-like.
Data-Driven Distributionally Robust Electric Vehicle Balancing for Mobility-on-Demand Systems under Demand and Supply Uncertainties

As electric vehicle (EV) technologies become mature, EV has been rapidly adopted in modern transportation systems, and is expected to provide future autonomous mobility-on-demand (AMoD) service with economic and societal benefits. However, EVs require frequent recharges due to their limited and unpredictable cruising ranges, and they have to be managed efficiently given the dynamic charging process. It is urgent and challenging to investigate a computationally efficient algorithm that provide EV AMoD system performance guarantees under model uncertainties, instead of using heuristic demand or charging models. To accomplish this goal, this work designs a data-driven distributionally robust optimization approach for vehicle supply-demand ratio and charging station utilization balancing, while minimizing the worst-case expected cost considering both passenger mobility demand uncertainties and EV supply uncertainties. We then derive an equivalent computationally tractable form for solving the distributionally robust problem in a computationally efficient way under ellipsoid uncertainty sets constructed from data. Based on E-taxi system data of Shenzhen city, we show that the average total balancing cost is reduced by 14.49%, the average unfairness of supply-demand ratio and utilization is reduced by 15.78% and 34.51% respectively with the distributionally robust vehicle balancing method, compared with solutions which do not consider model uncertainties.
Simulacra and spectacle: The role of negative public values in the re-enchantment of U.S. politics

This paper details the manner in which Trump’s brand image and use of political spectacle attempt to displace political authority reliant on rationality in decision making, which has long legitimat...
Office-Based Orthobiologic Procedures for Tendons

There has been a growing interest in the use of office-based orthobiologics, which are defined as the use of biological tissues to optimize musculoskeletal/orthopedic injuries, for treatment of tendons for four reasons. First, the emergence of the musculoskeletal (MSK) ultrasound for diagnosis and evaluation of tendons allows improved procedural outcomes by offering higher accuracy and less pain than palpation-guided injections. Second, the field has seen a significant increase in research and understanding of tendinopathy, and we understand that there are several growth factors that are important for tendon healing. Third, our veterinary and oral surgical colleagues utilizing orthobiologics with animal models have demonstrated promising outcomes. Finally, there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating short-term relief from corticosteroid injections, but poor long-term outcomes with potential tendon degeneration and rupture. Thus, other injection alternatives such as platelet-rich plasma, bone marrow aspirate concentration, adipose tissue, and amniotic tissue are being sought.
Against the Grain: Elite Consensus, Press Independence and the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War

This study examines the political and news discourse that surrounded the 2006 Israel-Lebanon War. We use this as a case study to engage the broader scholarly debate over the process and conditions ...
Marketing the Profession: The Influence of Non-Traditional Psychosocial Fieldwork on Perceptions of Occupational Therapy

Current literature examines nontraditional occupational therapy (OT) fieldwork experiences from the students’ perspective while investigating the professional identity within these settings. There ...
THE IMPACT OF RACE AND INTERACTIONS BETWEEN STUDENT-FACULTY ONUNDERGRADUATE STUDENT LEARNING AND MULTICULTURAL PERCEPTIONS

THE IMPACT OF RACE AND INTERACTIONS BETWEEN STUDENT-FACULTY ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT LEARNING AND MULTICULTURAL PERCEPTIONS A Study of Differences Between Asian/White Faculty and Asian/White Students at VCU By Yun Zhu, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2011 Major Director: Charol Shakeshaft, Ph.D. Professor and Chair, Department of Educational Leadership School of Education As enrollment of minority students and recruitment of minority faculty in higher education increase, opportunities for students to interact with racially and ethnically different faculty will become more frequent and pronounced. Also, there may be expectations that these interactions will produce greater educational gains and sensitivity to racial issues. A quantitative research methodology was employed to measure the nature of the student-faculty interactions across race and to explore factors that influence undergraduate students’ GPA and multicultural perceptions in order to identify ways in which student-faculty interactions might better serve the students. Mainly, this study focused on the quantity, quality, and socialization of interactions between White and Asian students and faculty members. The instrument used for data collection was a combination of five national online surveys that were designed to assess college students’ perceptions and experiences of their student-faculty interactions and data were gathered with White and Asian faculty and students at Virginia Commonwealth University. Data collection consisted of surveying students and faculty members via email. The researcher found that only the quality of student-faculty interactions, which belongs to the quality of interactions, had a positive impact on students’ GPA (.06) and their multicultural perceptions (.18). A better understanding of factors influencing students’ GPA and multicultural perceptions would be beneficial for both teachers and undergraduate students at VCU.
Comunistas, indigenistas e indígenas en la formación de la Federación Ecuatoriana de Indios y el Instituto Indigenista Ecuatoriano

En la decada de los cuarenta, activistas urbanos en el Ecuador jugaron papeles importantes en la formacion de dos organizaciones que trataron de buscar soluciones a los problemas persistentes que enfrentaban los indigenas: la Federacion Ecuatoriana de Indios (FEI) y el Instituto Indigenista Ecuatoriano (IIE). Sin embargo, habia muy poca comunicacion o colaboracion entre los involucrados en las dos organizaciones.
The Relation of Socioeconomic Factors and Racial/Ethnic Differences in US Asthma Mortality

Objectives. This study described relations between socioeconomic factors and race/ethnicity as risk factors for asthma mortality. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted of US mortality records from 1991 through 1996. Results. Higher standardized mortality ratios were seen for Blacks vs Whites (3.34 vs O.65), low vs high educational level (1.51 vs 0.69), and low vs high income (1.46 vs 0.71). Excess mortality for Blacks vs Whites was present in the highest and lowest quintiles of median county income and educational level. The disparity in asthma mortality rates according to median county income and education remained after control for race/ethnicity. Conclusions. Black race/ethnicity appears to be associated, independently from low income and low education, with an elevated risk for asthma mortality.
Leukemia and pregnancy

Abstract Leukemia, claiming over 6,000 lives a year in the United States alone, has more than doubled its death rate in the last twenty-five years. 14 In viewing these statistics, however, we must realize that progress in clinical and laboratory methods leading to more complete and accurate diagnoses plays an important part in the detection of a rising death rate from leukemia. The physician may occasionally have the responsibility of dealing with a pregnancy in the woman with leukemia. This paper is presented (1) to report 7 cases of leukemia and one case of lymphosarcoma and pregnancy, and (2) to attempt to correlate some of the impressions and conclusions in the literature concerning leukemia and pregnancy.
Non-uniqueness of atmospheric modeling

We focus on the deceptively simple question: how can we use the emitted photons to extract meaningful information on the transition region and corona? Using examples, we conclude that the only safe way to proceed is through forward models. In this way, inherent non-uniqueness is handled by adding information through explicit physical assumptions and restrictions made in the modeling procedure. The alternative, ‘inverse’ approaches, including (as a restricted subset) many standard ’ ‘spectral diagnostic techniques’, rely on more subjective choices that have, as yet, no clear theoretical support. Emphasis is on the solar transition region, but necessarily discussing the corona, and with implications for more general problems concerning the use of photons to diagnose plasma conditions.
Growth of the birth canal in adolescent girls

Abstract The growth and development of four dimensions of the pelvic birth canal are analyzed from a longitudinal sample of 90 well-nourished girls aged 8 through 18. Compared with stature, the pelvic basin grows more slowly and continuously through late adolescence. Similarly, size of the birth canal is smaller the first 3 years past menarche than at age 18. At low gynecologic ages, a significantly greater percentage of growth to adult size is required in the pelvis as compared to stature, and growth of the birth canal continues beyond the asymptote for statural increase. The pelvis is smaller and less mature among girls with early menarche than among girls with late menarche at the same menarcheal ages. These results indicate that immaturity of the birth canal of the pelvis may have significance for obstetric risks among young teenage primiparous girls.
Light-evoked expansion of subretinal space volume in the retina of the frog.

The retina of the frog was superfused with a Ringer solution containing impermeant “probe” cations and anions. Light-evoked concentration changes in these probe ions were measured in the subretinal space (SRS) with ion-selective microelectrodes. A decrease in probe ion concentration was found, and several observations suggest that this is caused by a light-evoked expansion of the SRS. The probe ion decrease was not seen in the isolated retina; thus, the pigment epithelial (PE) cells are important for its generation. Pharmacological studies suggest that K+ channels in the PE cells are important--perhaps the PE cells shrink in response to the light-evoked decrease in SRS [K+]. The light- evoked decrease of SRS volume may be important in the understanding of SRS solute concentrations, retina-PE adhesivity, photoreceptor-PE cell interactions, and the interphotoreceptor matrix.
Magnetic equation of state for in thin – superfluid films

Abstract We examine the thermodynamics of a two-dimensional Fermi gas model describing adsorbed 3 He in a thin superfluid 4 He film. We show that the magnetic steps seen in experiment are a simple manifestation of the T=0 K equation of state and that the thermal stability of the steps is determined by the larger of Δe/2, one-half of the level spacing, and μ m H 0 , the magnetic energy. We derive the conditions under which there exist points in the phase space (termed invariant points) through which all low-temperature isotherms pass exponentially close. The calculated invariant points for the magnetic susceptibility versus coverage are in good agreement with experiment. We calculate the magnetic susceptibility and show that it should exhibit a step-like structure versus 3 He coverage similar to that of the magnetization.
Everyone’s Doing It, But What Does Teacher Testing Tell Us About Teacher Effectiveness?

This paper explores the relationship between teacher testing and teacher effectiveness using a unique data set that links teachers to their individual students. The findings show a positive relationship between some teacher licensure tests and student achievement. But, they also suggest that states face significant tradeoffs when they require particular performance levels as a precondition to becoming a teacher. Some teachers whom we might wish were not in the teacher work force based on their contribution toward student achievement are eligible to teach based on their performance on the tests; other individuals who would be effective teachers are ineligible. For example, the results suggest that upping the elementary teacher licensure test standard from the one currently used in North Carolina to the higher standard used in Connecticut would lead to the exclusion of less than 0.5 percent of the teacher work force estimated to be very ineffective teachers, but would also result in the exclusion of 7 percent of the teacher work force estimated to be effective teachers.
Estimating Climate Resilience for Conservation across Geophysical Settings

Conservationists need methods to conserve biological diversity while allowing species and communities to rearrange in response to a changing climate. We developed and tested such a method for northeastern North America that we based on physical features associated with ecological diversity and site resilience to climate change. We comprehensively mapped 30 distinct geophysical settings based on geology and elevation. Within each geophysical setting, we identified sites that were both connected by natural cover and that had relatively more microclimates indicated by diverse topography and elevation gradients. We did this by scoring every 405 ha hexagon in the region for these two characteristics and selecting those that scored >SD 0.5 above the mean combined score for each setting. We hypothesized that these high-scoring sites had the greatest resilience to climate change, and we compared them with sites selected by The Nature Conservancy for their high-quality rare species populations and natural community occurrences. High-scoring sites captured significantly more of the biodiversity sites than expected by chance (p < 0.0001): 75% of the 414 target species, 49% of the 4592 target species locations, and 53% of the 2170 target community locations. Calcareous bedrock, coarse sand, and fine silt settings scored markedly lower for estimated resilience and had low levels of permanent land protection (average 7%). Because our method identifies—for every geophysical setting—sites that are the most likely to retain species and functions longer under a changing climate, it reveals natural strongholds for future conservation that would also capture substantial existing biodiversity and correct the bias in current secured lands.
Analysis of MMPI Data for Classification Purposes by Multivariate Statistical Techniques

THE PURPOSE of this paper is to present the steps involved in the appl i cation of multivariate analysis to the assignment?with a minimum error of classification?of Npeople to q criterion groups on the basis of all information provided by k in tercorrelated measures. The study itself stems from the writer's at tempt to identify as potential delinquents or non delinquents (q = 2), a population of ninth-grade high-school boys (N= 1802) to whom the MMPI had been administered by Hathaway (3) in 1947-1948, and for whom police and/or court records were available through 1952. Severity of misdemeanor made possible a classification of delinquency into eight levels. Because of i n t e r-group similarity of MMPI profiles between nondelinquents and de linquents atlevelsoneandtwo, the latter (N = 363) have been omitted from this study (see Table I). Variables used in one part of the study, re ferred to as the main study, consisted of the scores on the F, Hs, Sc, Mf, andPd scales of the MMPI (k = 5); in another part, the school study, they consisted of the Ma, Sc, Mf, and Pd scales of the MMPI; honor point ratio, and numbers of days absent in Grade VIII (k = 6). In the main study the MMPI profiles of 351 boys who had achieved delinquency status by 1952 were divided by random procedures into two groups: Sample A (N = 175) which was used in the develop ment of the classification formula, and Sample B (N=176), set aside for cross-validation pur poses. Two samples of 175 profiles each were similarly selected from the nondelinquent set of MMPI profiles. In t h e s c hool study both delin quent and nondelinquent groups were divided in to Samples Af and B* and four sub-groups (N = 91) were thus similarly obtained.
Understanding the Relations Between RAN Letter Subtest Components and Word Reading in First-Grade Students

First-grade students (N = 221) were individually tested on a battery of cognitive and achievement measures of verbal fluency, visual attention, phonological awareness, orthographic recognition, rapid automatized naming (RAN) of letters and objects, and reading. All tests were subjected to postacquisition scoring, and all RAN measures were segregated into measures of articulation time, pause time, and consistency of the pause time. Structural equation modeling demonstrated that word reading was directly and significantly predicted by RAN letter naming and general RAN cognitive processing time of objects. Moreover, RAN letter reading constructs were significantly and directly predicted by the latent variables of phonological awareness, orthographic recognition, and general RAN object articulation and cognitive processing times. RAN letter naming constructs were also significantly and indirectly predicted by visual attention. The reading model was found to be consistent with a total mediation of the relation of phonological awareness and reading through RAN letter naming and supported the validity of the RAN letter naming subtest as a basic letter reading test. These findings supported the double-deficit hypothesis for letter reading. We suggest that phonological memory is a basic factor underlying general RAN cognitive processing time of objects and domain-specific information associated with phonemes and their graphic representations.
Defending Against Hostile Takeovers: Impact on Shareholder Wealth

Innovations in takeover financing, less restrictive regulatory requirements, and a general desire to enhance market position have led to a substantial increase in corporate takeover and restructuring activity. In response target firm managers have become increasingly active in devising defensive strategies and tactics designed to ward off hostile bidders. It is well‐ documented, however, that large wealth gains accrue to target firm shareholders in mergers and acquisitions. Thus the emergence of such terms as “shark repellents”, “poison pills”, and “greenmail”, raises the question of whose best interests are really being served by antitakeover measures.
Science for Everyone: Visions for Near-Future Educational Technology

Recent and emerging technologies offer many opportunities for exploration and learning. These technologies allow learners (of any age) to work with real data, use authentic scientific instruments, explore immersive simulations and act as scientists. The capabilities soon to be available raise questions about the role of schools but do rely on directed learning traditionally supplied by teachers. The prevalence of new tools and data streams can transform society, not just kids, into a culture of learning.
cDNAs Encoding the Baboon Thrombin Receptor Indicate a Primate Transcription Start Site Upstream of Putative Sites Reported for the Human Gene

Abstract Two cDNAs encoding the thrombin receptor of baboon vascular smooth muscle cells have 5′-untranslated regions that begin upstream of multiple putative transcription initiation sites reported for the closely related human receptor gene. The extent of these baboon 5′-untranslated cDNA regions and their close similarity to the corresponding human sequences suggest that there is only one transcription initiation site of the primate thrombin receptor gene, which might be linked to a typical TATA-box previously identified in the upstream region of the human gene. It is possible that all primates have a unique thrombin receptor gene transcription start site. Inferences drawn from the baboon system may be usefully extrapolated to the human, in view of the extensive similarities seen between the nucleotide sequences of baboon and human thrombin receptor gene sequences in the 5′- untranslated and coding regions. The extents of the 5′-untranslated region of the baboon cDNAs argue that the “multiple” transcription start sites identified for the human gene are artifactual. The striking differences in the reported baboon and human transcription start sites warrant further investigation in view of the significant role played by the thrombin receptor in numerous vascular and cellular growth responses.
Impaired skeletal muscle maturation following neonatal neurectomy

Abstract The maturation of normal and denervated skeletal muscles of the rat from the newborn period to postnatal day 42 was studied with histochemical techniques. At birth the majority of the muscle fibers in the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles of the rat normally are in the myotube stage and histochemically undifferentiated. By postnatal day 21, all myotubes had gradually developed into histochemically well differentiated extrafusal muscle fibers. Neonatal sciatic denervation severely impaired this maturation process, resulting in persistence at day 21 of many myotubes, which were mostly type II fibers histochemically. Meanwhile, some muscle fibers, mainly type I histochemically, had become well differentiated. By 28 days postdenervation, evidence of inadvertent partial reinnervation appeared in some muscles. It was concluded that in the postnatal maturation process of skeletal muscle, neuronal influences are necessary and more critical for the type II fibers in the rat. In light of this study, a possible neurogenic role in certain of human cases termed “myotubular myopathy” was suggested.
Antimicrobial Stewardship in the Intensive Care Unit: A Focus on Potential Pitfalls:

Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) have many risk factors for resistant pathogens such as prolonged length of stay, frequent and broad-spectrum antimicrobial therapy, presence of foreign materials, and proximity with other patients. However, of the risk factors associated with acquisition of resistant pathogens, inappropriate use of antimicrobial agents has been the most implicated. Thus, many health care institutions have adopted antimicrobial stewardship programs (ASPs) as a mechanism to ensure more appropriate antimicrobial use. ASPs can have a significant impact in the ICU, leading to improved antimicrobial use and resistance patterns and decreased infection rates and costs, due to the inherent nature of infections encountered and high and often inappropriate antibiotic utilization in this setting. However, certain challenges exist for ASPs in the ICU including issues with infrastructure and personnel, information technology, the core ASP strategy, patient-specific factors, conversion of intravenous to oral therapy, and dose optimization. The combination of comprehensive infection control (IC) and effective antimicrobial stewardship can prevent the emergence of resistance among microorganisms and may decrease the negative consequences associated with antimicrobial misuse.
Conformationally-restricted vigabatrin analogs as irreversible and reversible inhibitors of γ-aminobutyric acid aminotransferase

Compounds that inhibit γ-aminobutyric acid aminotransferase exhibit anticonvulsant activity; vigabatrin is a known irreversible inhibitor of this enzyme and anticonvulsant drug. Conformationally-restricted, five-membered- and six-membered-ring vigabatrin analogs were synthesized and tested as inhibitors of γ-aminobutyric acid aminotransferase. Two monofluorinated compounds, 4 and 5, are time-dependent inhibitors of the enzyme, and their potencies are comparable to that of vigabatrin. Compounds 6 and 7 are weak reversible inhibitors.