cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Working Memory and Vigilance as Multivariate Endophenotypes Related to Common Genetic Risk for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.

Objective Understanding the role of endophenotypes is essential for process models of psychopathology. This study examined which candidate cognitive endophenotypes statistically mediate common variant genetic risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method A case-control design using community-recruited volunteer children 7 to 11 years of age (n = 656, n = 435 ADHD), of whom 514 were of homogenous European ancestry for the primary models (n = 337 ADHD, 177 non-ADHD). Children were assessed with a multi-informant, best-estimate diagnostic procedure and laboratory measures of working memory, response inhibition, executive functioning, arousal/attention, temporal information processing, and processing speed. Latent variables were created for the candidate cognitive measures and for parent- and teacher-rated ADHD dimensions. Polygenic risk scores (PGS) were computed using a discovery sample of 20,183 individuals with ADHD and 35,191 controls from the Psychiatric Genetics Consortium. Cognitive measures that survived multiple testing correction for association with the PGS were evaluated for mediation with ADHD using structural equation models. Results Results were essentially identical in the homogeneous European ancestry subgroup (n = 514) and in the full sample (N = 656). For the European population, the PGS was associated with ADHD diagnosis (Nagelkerke R2 = 0.045; β = 0.233, SE = 0.053, p = .000011) and multi-indicator dimensional ADHD latent variables by parent report (β = 0.185, SE = 0.043) and teacher report (β = 0.165, SE = 0.042). The PGS effect was statistically mediated by working memory (indirect effect, β = 0.101, SE = 0.029, 95% CI = 0.05, 0.16, p = .00049, 43% of genetic effect accounted for) and arousal/alertness (indirect effect β = 0.115, 95% CI = 0.04, 0.20, SE = 0.041, p = .005, 49% of genetic effect accounted for). Conclusion This is the first clear demonstration from molecular genetic data that working memory and arousal regulation are promising cognitive endophenotypes for ADHD with regard to mediating genetic risk from common genetic variants.
The effect of firm size on fracking safety

Abstract Large firms are becoming increasingly dominant in the natural gas production industry. At the same time, regulators and environmental groups are concerned about potential environmental damage associated with hydraulic fracturing. However, small firms are protected from the full extent of their damages, while large firms must internalize a greater portion of their social costs. This paper examines the effect of firm size and liability on environmental safety in the context of hydraulic fracturing in Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale across three dimensions of size. Impacts of firm size on safety are found across legal, regulatory, and brand dimensions of size with the largest effects being driven by changes in regulatory liability. These safety gains are sizable as violation rates would be approximately twice as high if firms at remained at 2008 sizes.
Making Room for Second Language Phonotactics: Effects of L2 Learning and Environment on First Language Speech Perception:

Language-specific restrictions on sound sequences in words can lead to automatic perceptual repair of illicit sound sequences. As an example, no Spanish words begin with /s/-consonant sequences ([#sC]), and where necessary (e.g., foreign loanwords) [#sC] is repaired by inserting an initial [e], (e.g. foreign loanwords, cf., esnob, from English snob). As a result, Spanish speakers tend to perceive an illusory [e] before [#sC] sequences. Interestingly, this perceptual illusion is weaker in early Spanish-English bilinguals, whose other language, English, allows [#sC]. The present study explored whether this apparent influence of the English language on Spanish is restricted to early bilinguals, whose early language experience includes a mixture of both languages, or whether later learning of second language (L2) English can also induce a weakening of the first language (L1) perceptual illusion. Two groups of late Spanish-English bilinguals, immersed in Spanish or English, were tested on the same Spanish AX (same-different) discrimination task used in a study by Carlson et al., (2016) and their results compared with the Spanish monolinguals from Carlson et al.'s study. Like early bilinguals, late bilinguals exhibited a reduced impact of perceptual prothesis on discrimination accuracy. Additionally, late bilinguals, particularly in English immersion, were slowest when responding against the Spanish perceptual illusion. Robust L1 perceptual illusions thus appear to be malleable in the face of later L2 learning. It is argued that these results are consonant with the need for late bilinguals to navigate alternative, conflicting representations of the same acoustic material, even in unilingual L1 speech perception tasks.
Manually adjusted versus vendor-preset definition of metabolite boundaries impact on proton metabolite ratios

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES: Metabolite peak boundary definition is an important postprocessing step in proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS). We compare metabolite ratios calculated using three different postprocessing strategies: software-rendered default peak boundaries, manually adjusted peak boundaries and a curve-fitting program. The first two of these methods are commercially available.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 42 spectra acquired on a 1.5-T MR unit using two-dimensional chemical shift proton MR spectroscopy (TR/TE = 1500/144 ms) were analyzed. Choline (Cho), creatine (Cr), and N-acetylaspartate (NAA) relative concentrations were derived and the following metabolite ratios were calculated: Cho/Cr, Cho/NAA, and NAA/Cr. Metabolite concentrations/ratios were calculated using (a) default peak boundaries rendered by commercially available, postprocessing software (Functool 2000, version 2.6.0); (b) manually adjusted peak boundaries by an experienced spectroscopist, using an option offered by the same commercially available software; and (c) an offline in-house curve-fitting program. Measurements obtained with method (c) were considered as the "gold standard." Paired t-tests comparing default and adjusted metabolite ratios, as well as default and adjusted ratios with their respective curve-fit values were used for statistical analysis.RESULTS: Significant differences between default and manually adjusted values were found for Cho/Cr ratios <1.5 and for all Cho/NAA ratios. For Cho/Cr ratios <1.5, significant differences between default and curve-fit values were present; this was not the case when comparing manually adjusted and curve-fit values. Default and manually adjusted Cho/NAA ratios were significantly higher than corresponding curve-fit ratios. Manually adjusted values were, however, closer to the curve-fit values. No significant differences were noted between default and adjusted NAA/Cr values; default and manually adjusted ratios were significantly lower than curve-fit ratios.CONCLUSION: There can be significant differences in metabolite ratios calculated using default and manually adjusted peak limits in proton MR spectroscopy. Furthermore, Cho/Cr and NAA/Cho adjusted metabolite ratios are closer to curve-fit values, which are considered the most accurate of the three. (Less)
CHAPTER 6 – Transcription of Immunoglobulin Genes

This chapter describes the transcription of Immunoglobulin genes (Ig). The chapter presents general characteristics of the Ig regulatory elements and discusses areas of current research. In addition, it discusses the striking example of serendipity in science; the research on Ig transcriptional regulation has provided unexpected insights in other aspect of immune biology. Each functional Ig V gene segment has a transcriptional initiation site, a TATA element and regulatory sequences comprising a promoter extending approximately 100 to 200 bp 5´ of the leader coding sequences. The most important regulatory element in both light and heavy chain promoters is an octamer element, which is usually located within 100 bp of the transcription initiation site. Families of DNA-binding transcriptional regulators, binding to individual sites in the promoter and enhancer elements are identified, and their mechanisms of action defined in vitro. As described above, these studies have illuminated that transcription factors play important roles in the early development of hematopoietic and lymphoid cells, and in many other aspects of immune function.
Food Democracy: Critical Lessons in Food, Communication, Design and Art,

Recently, in Europe especially, the definition of Food Design has expanded to include the processes of design and design thinking in shaping global food systems. Oliver Vodeb’s Food Democracy: Crit...
SWORD: A Bounded Memory-Overhead Detector of OpenMP Data Races in Production Runs

The detection and elimination of data races in largescale OpenMP programs is of critical importance. Unfortunately, today's state-of-the-art OpenMP race checkers suffer from high memory overheads and/or miss races. In this paper, we present SWORD, a data race detector that significantly improves upon these limitations. SWORD limits the application slowdown and memory usage by utilizing only a bounded, user-adjustable memory buffer to collect targeted memory accesses. When the buffer fills up, the accesses are compressed and flushed to a file system for later offline analysis. SWORD builds on an operational semantics that formally captures the notion of concurrent accesses within OpenMP regions. An offline race checker that is driven by these semantic rules allows SWORD to improve upon happens-before techniques that are known to mask races. To make its offline analysis highly efficient and scalable, SWORD employs effective self-balancing interval-tree-based algorithms. Our experimental results demonstrate that SWORD is capable of detecting races even within programs that use over 90% of the memory on each compute node. Further, our evaluation shows that it matches or exceeds the best available dynamic OpenMP race checker in detection capability while remaining efficient in execution time.
Intellectual Contract and Intellectual Law

Technological change is altering the nature of contract toward a greater focus on intangible assets. The direction of technological change toward greater connectivity, interoperability, mobile communications, the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), virtual inventions, and cooperative research and development (R&D) has profound implications. This article develops a new framework that I refer to as “Intellectual Law” to address this shift. The article introduces the concept of “Intellectual Contract” (IC) to characterize agreements for invention, innovation, and technology adoption. The article also introduces the concept of “Intellectual Tort” (IT) to describe liability including but not limited to misappropriation of trade secrets and infringement of patents, trademarks, and copyrights. Intellectual Law provides a consistent framework for IC, IT and Intellectual Property (IP). The article observes that legal protections for inventors cannot rely solely on what has proven to be a flawed combination of IT and IP. The article argues that greater emphasis on IC would improve both IT and IP. Because IC protects expectation interests it is essential for creating, developing, sharing, and applying intangible assets. IC generates gains from trade that enhance the benefits of inventors, innovators and adopters beyond what can be achieved by IT and IP alone.
Ethical Reflections on Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology presents a multitude of ethical concerns, many of which are being actively considered by organizations ranging from small groups in civil society to large corporations and governments. However, it also presents ethical concerns which are not being actively considered. This paper presents a broad overview of twelve topics in ethics in AI, including function, transparency, evil use, good use, bias, unemployment, socio-economic inequality, moral automation and human de-skilling, robot consciousness and rights, dependency, social-psychological effects, and spiritual effects. Each of these topics will be given a brief discussion, though each deserves much deeper consideration.
Robotic Transthoracic Esophageal Leiomyoma Resection

Esophageal leiomyoma is the most common benign esophageal tumor. It is of smooth muscle origin. Dysphagia is the most common symptom. Many are found incidentally. Upper gastrointestinal endoscopy, barium swallow, endoscopic ultrasound, and computed tomography are the most frequent methods to evaluate them; other tests might be necessary to clarify the differential. Surgical resection is indicated for symptoms, possibility of malignancy, enlarging lesions and for patients request removal of the lesions. Less than 10% need to be removed. The details of robotic resection are described. For simple esophageal leiomyoma, hospital stays are brief, less than 3 days.
Aridland spring response to mesoscale precipitation: Implications for groundwater-dependent ecosystem sustainability

Abstract Aridland springs maintain groundwater-dependent habitats for aquatic and terrestrial species. San Solomon Spring (Texas, USA) is part of a regional karst spring complex in the Chihuahuan Desert that supports several species of federal and state conservation interest. However, drought, climatic variability, and groundwater abstraction threaten discharge and water quality. In the surrounding Delaware Basin, expansion in unconventional oil and gas development using hydraulic fracturing may increase demands on aquifers that also provide flows to the springs. A critical knowledge gap limiting habitat conservation and sustainable groundwater abstraction is that the flow system is not well understood. While the source of most spring discharge is from a Pleistocene-recharged regional flow system, evidence suggests that a modern local flow component provides fresh water influx. However, the exact sources, mechanisms, and timing of localized recharge are unknown. To address these questions, this study combined long-term in-situ spring water quality monitoring (specific conductance, turbidity, and temperature) data with weather station-corrected 4 km gridded precipitation data to quantify the lag response at San Solomon Springs to mesoscale storm events and to delineate potential local recharge zones. Between April 2011 and March 2012, 26 event-flow responses were documented, with an average lag of 43 days between storm event and spring response. Response time varied depending on storm magnitude, spatial extent, and antecedent soil moisture conditions. Cross-correlation analysis of spatially distributed precipitation indicated zones of potential local recharge in the mountain block/mountain front zones and alluvial channels issuing from the Davis Mountains. Some local flow paths appear to cross known watershed boundaries, suggesting that groundwater abstraction in sensitive capture zones should be managed carefully to maintain spring flows and conserve habitats.
Predicting Energy Expenditure of an Acute Resistance Exercise Bout in Men and Women.

The energy expenditure of resistance exercise (RE) is an important consideration for exercise prescription and weight management, yet prediction models are lacking. Purpose This study aimed to develop regression equations to predict energy expenditure (kcal) for RE involving each major muscle group using commonly measured demographic and exercise variables as predictors. Methods Fifty-two healthy, active subjects (27 men, 25 women, age 20-58 yr, height 174.1 ± 10.5 cm, weight 188.7 ± 42.6 kg, V˙O2max 36.8 ± 9.2 mL·kg⋅min) were strength tested to estimate their one-repetition maximum 1 wk before their experimental RE bout. The experimental RE bout consisted of a warm-up set followed by 2-3 sets (2-min turnover) of 8-12 reps at 60%-70% of predicted one-repetition maximum for leg press, chest press, leg curl, lat pull, leg extension, triceps push down, and biceps curl. Kilocalories were estimated from V˙O2 measured continuously throughout the RE bout via an automated metabolic cart. Total exercise volume (TV) was calculated as sets × reps × weight lifted. Multiple linear regression (stepwise removal) was used to determine the best model (highest adjusted R) to predict the kilocalorie consumption of the total workout and of the individual RE lifts. Results The derived regression equation for the net kilocalorie consumption of an RE bout was as follows: total net kilocalorie = 0.874 (height, cm) - 0.596 (age, yr) - 1.016 (fat mass, kg) + 1.638 (lean mass, kg) + 2.461 (TV × 10) - 110.742 (R = 0.773, SEE = 28.5 kcal). Significant equations were also derived for individual lifts (R = 0.62 to 0.83). Conclusions Net energy expenditure for a total RE bout and for individual RE can be reasonably estimated in adult men and women using commonly measured demographic and RE variables.
The Role of SmallSats in Scientific Exploration and Commercialization of Space

Over the past decade, SmallSats have been established as having great potential for science exploration and commercialization of space. The SmallSat revolution aims to decrease the cost of space development, making space exploration accessible to students, educators, and public citizens. These efforts have focused on miniaturization of instruments and space platforms, as well as reducing their cost, mass, and needed power. In addition to enabling scientific exploration, SmallSats provide affordable means for the public to purchase remote sensing and communication products on a global scale. SmallSat mission concepts are particularly powerful when they are deployed in distributed architecture or constellations. For example, the most promising observation techniques for global science measurements of the Earth system and space weather require multi-point distributed observations of the Earth system at a feasible cost. The high cost of access to space has long been a barrier, especially with the prohibitive cost of large satellites. Affordable SmallSat constellations can be game-changers, enabling scientific exploration as well as commercial global data products. In this paper, we highlight investments made by NASA to date (specifically a study in developing and prototyping a SmallSat platform with standard interfaces), along with several example mission concept scenarios in Earth and space science (astrophysics, heliophysics, and planetary) applications that can be achieved using this platform.
Thermal acoustic excitations with atomic-scale wavelengths in amorphous silicon

The vibrational properties of glasses remain a topic of intense interest due to several unresolved puzzles, including the origin of the Boson peak and the mechanisms of thermal transport. Inelastic scattering measurements have revealed that amorphous solids support collective acoustic excitations with low THz frequencies despite the atomic disorder, but these frequencies are well below most of the thermal vibrational spectrum. Here, we report the observation of acoustic excitations with frequencies up to 10 THz in amorphous silicon. The excitations have atomic-scale wavelengths as short as 6 \AA{} and exist well into the thermal vibrational frequencies. Simulations indicate that these high-frequency waves are supported due to the high group velocity and monatomic composition of a-Si, suggesting that other glasses with these characteristics may also exhibit such excitations. Our findings demonstrate that a substantial portion of thermal vibrational modes in amorphous materials can still be described as a phonon gas despite the lack of atomic order.
Exploring Visualization Techniques with HACC Simulation Data

In this project we explore several different techniques for visualizing data created by Hardware/Hybrid Accelerated Cosmology Code (HACC) cosmology simulations. We present four methods that have thus far been explored. Mainly, we discuss visualizing data through ParaView, vl3, SPH interpolation, and virtual reality environments. We display our preliminary results, as well as our plans to begin applying our techniques to large scale data sets.
Sequential extraction processing: alternate technology for corn wet milling

47 INTRODUCTION 48 MATERIALS AND METHODS 51 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 58 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 72 REFERENCES 73
‘We are naked waitresses who deliver sex’: a phenomenological study of circumstantial sex workers’ lives

Historically, research on the commercial sex industry has focused on the industry’s impact on society while overlooking the voices and experiences of sex workers. To explore the lived experience of...
Feasibility of ground state spin switching in a molecular analogue of the mixed-metal oxides with the perovskite structure

Abstract The carboxylate substitution reaction between the reported all-benzoate complex [Ce3Mn8O8(PhCO2)18(PhCO2H)2] (1) and 2-Cl-benzoic acid has led to isolation of [Ce3Mn8O8(2-Cl-PhCO2)15.3(PhCO2)2.7(H2O)2] (2). The structures of 1 and 2 are very similar, both containing a tetragonally-elongated MnIII8 cuboid with a CeIV at its center and two CeIII attached to opposite faces, but 2 shows extensive disorder in the ligands and the Cl atom positions and occupancies. Variable-temperature (T) solid-state dc and ac magnetic susceptibility data for 2 are significantly different from those for 1 and are assigned as due to small ligand-induced structural perturbation of the core that has brought an A-type antiferromagnetic (AF) excited state much closer to the C-type AF ground state. Fits of the dc χMT vs T data support this interpretation but due to the ligand disorder in 2, a more definitive description of the lowest energy spin states of 2 is not possible. Nevertheless, these results provide important support for the feasibility of ground state spin switching by ligand-induced core perturbation (‘chemical pressure’) in this family, and they encourage further studies.
Indices of Serum Tonicity in Clinical Practice

Although disturbances of serum tonicity (effective osmolality) may have dire consequences, only surrogate indices of tonicity are available in practice. This report identifies the appropriate index for expressing clinical states of dystonicity. Serum sodium concentration ([Na]S) and osmolality ([Osm]S) may be incongruent. When the tonicity state shown by [Osm]S is higher than [Na]S and the difference between the 2 indices is caused by an excess of solute that distributes in total body water, tonicity is described by [Na]S. When this difference results from a gain of solute with extracellular distribution like mannitol or a decrease in serum water content, causing a falsely low measurement of [Na]S, [Osm]S accurately reflects tonicity. Two indices of tonicity are applicable during hyperglycemia: the tonicity formula (2 ·[Na]S + [Glucose]S/18) and the corrected [Na]S ([Na]S corrected to a normal [Glucose]S using an empirically derived coefficient). Clinicians should understand the uses and limitations of the tonicity indices.
Coordination and Communication of Autonomous Subsystems in Cyber Physical Systems: A Mechanism Learning Approach

In the control of many autonomous subsystems, such as autonomous vehicles or UAV networks, a centralized control may be hindered by the prohibitive complexity, limited communication bandwidth, or private information of subsystems. Therefore, it is desirable for the control center to coordinate the controls of subsystems by designing mechanisms such as pricing, which makes the local optimizations of subsystem dynamics also maximize the reward of the total system, namely the social welfare. The economics framework of mechanism design is employed for the coordination of the autonomous subsystems. To address the challenge of dynamics, which are not considered in conventional economics mechanism design, and the complexity of private information, the approaches of geometrization and machine learning are employed, by endowing different geometric structures to the problem. The theoretical framework is applied in the context of urban aerial mobility, where the numerical simulations show the validity of the proposed framework.
Correction to: Beneficiation of coal using supercritical water and carbon dioxide extraction: sulfur removal

In the original publication, there are few amendments to be made in Section 3.2 Extractive reactions involved.
The New Man in the House Rules: How the Regulation of Housing Vouchers Turns Personal Bonds Into Eviction Liabilities

Whereas federal aid to the poor has traditionally focused on support for families, a central contradiction in these policies is the degree to which the state employs antifamily modes of regulation ...
FairFuzz: a targeted mutation strategy for increasing greybox fuzz testing coverage

In recent years, fuzz testing has proven itself to be one of the most effective techniques for finding correctness bugs and security vulnerabilities in practice. One particular fuzz testing tool, American Fuzzy Lop (AFL), has become popular thanks to its ease-of-use and bug-finding power. However, AFL remains limited in the bugs it can find since it simply does not cover large regions of code. If it does not cover parts of the code, it will not find bugs there. We propose a two-pronged approach to increase the coverage achieved by AFL. First, the approach automatically identifies branches exercised by few AFL-produced inputs (rare branches), which often guard code that is empirically hard to cover by naively mutating inputs. The second part of the approach is a novel mutation mask creation algorithm, which allows mutations to be biased towards producing inputs hitting a given rare branch. This mask is dynamically computed during fuzz testing and can be adapted to other testing targets. We implement this approach on top of AFL in a tool named FairFuzz. We conduct evaluation on real-world programs against state-of-the-art versions of AFL. We find that on these programs FairFuzz achieves high branch coverage at a faster rate that state-of-the-art versions of AFL. In addition, on programs with nested conditional structure, it achieves sustained increases in branch coverage after 24 hours (average 10.6% increase). In qualitative analysis, we find that FairFuzz has an increased capacity to automatically discover keywords.
Autoimmune progesterone dermatitis in the adolescent population.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE Autoimmune progesterone dermatitis (APD) is a rare autoimmune hypersensitivity reaction that occurs cyclically at the peak of endogenous progesterone production during the menstrual cycle in women. No study characterizing APD in the adolescent population is found; it appears likely to be underdiagnosed and undertreated. METHODS A retrospective, single-center, review of all adolescent and pediatric patients (<20 years old at onset) with documented diagnosis of APD. RESULTS Seventeen adolescent APD patients were included (mean age at diagnosis: 14.4 ± 2 years, mean interval of 13.6 ± 11.1 months between symptom onset and diagnosis). Twelve patients presented with urticaria, two with fixed drug eruption. Erythema multiforme, eczema, and recurrent aphthous stomatitis were present in one patient each. Exposure to exogenous progestin was present in two patients prior to disease onset. Progesterone skin test was performed in six patients with positive results in two. Fourteen patients received antihistamines and/or a topical corticosteroid. Combined oral contraceptives (COCs) were given to eleven patients, in seven via continuous daily dosing. Gonadotropin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) was used in five, progesterone desensitization in four, omalizumab in two, and danazol in one patient. CONCLUSIONS Adolescent APD is associated with a significant delay in diagnosis. The most common manifestation is urticaria. Exogenous exposure to progestins is uncommon in adolescent APD. Continuous COC, GnRHa, and progesterone desensitization have been used to control symptoms. Large, multicenter studies are required to better define, diagnose, and treat this under recognized condition among adolescent patients.
Absolutely continuous spectrum for random Schrödinger operators on the Bethe strip

The Bethe strip of width m is the cartesian product , where is the Bethe lattice (Cayley tree). We prove that Anderson models on the Bethe strip have “extended states” for small disorder. More precisely, we consider Anderson-like Hamiltonians on a Bethe strip with connectivity K ≥ 2, where A is an m × m symmetric matrix, is a random matrix potential, and λ is the disorder parameter. Given any closed interval , where amin and amax are the smallest and largest eigenvalues of the matrix A, we prove that for λ small the random Schrodinger operator Hλ has purely absolutely continuous spectrum in I with probability one and its integrated density of states is continuously differentiable on the interval I.
Perception of Performance: A Test of Return Extrapolation in the Cross-Section

Consistent with recent findings that investors perceive performance by price changes, cross-sectional return extrapolation comes entirely from capital gains. Stocks that do not pay dividends (capital-gain stocks) experience robust return extrapolation, while dividend-paying stocks do not. Using a stock’s dividend-paying status to proxy for exposure to return extrapolation, I test cross-sectional predictions of return extrapolation models. Consistent with return extrapolation models, momentum and long-term reversal are stronger among capital-gain stocks. The value premium, however, is similar for both groups, suggesting that while return extrapolation may help generate momentum and long-term reversal, its role is limited for the value premium.
Thirty-day morbidity and mortality following revision total shoulder arthroplasty in octogenarians:

BackgroundOctogenarians are at an increased risk of morbidity and mortality following various surgeries, but this has not yet been well explored in octogenarians undergoing revision total shoulder ...
Repeated freeze–thaw cycles increase extractable, but not total, carbon and nitrogen in a Maine coniferous soil

Abstract Northeastern North America has been experiencing warmer winters with reduced snow accumulation, with more frequent winter freeze–thaw cycles. We conducted a laboratory experiment to investigate how increased frequency of freeze–thaw cycles (FTC) would alter soil C and N availability. Organic (O) and mineral (B) horizon soils were collected from a coniferous forest in Maine, processed to exclude roots, and then frozen in the laboratory (−10 °C) with one (FTC-1), two (FTC-2), or six (FTC-6) thaw periods (+5 °C). Soils were analyzed for extractable ammonium (NH4-N), water extractable organic carbon (WEOC), carbon dioxide flux (respiration), and total C and N. Extractable NH4-N increased following FTC (all levels), for both horizons. While WEOC concentrations did not change for FTC vs. control, the WEOC in O horizons had a lower SUVA254 in FTC soils compared to control, indicating a stronger microbial influence (i.e., microbial cell lysis) in these soils after FTC. Respiration in O horizon soils decreased post-incubation and did not differ between FTC and Control soils. In the B horizon, however, FTC soils showed greater respiration than Control soils, suggesting that the newly available nutrients may have stimulated microbial activity. In contrast to these results, total C and N remained unaltered by FTC, presumably because the FTC disturbances represented mostly a translocation of C and N from one pool into another, and losses due to respiration were too small to significantly influence the large TC and TN pools. The effect of FTC on NH4-N did not change with FTC frequency, suggesting that a single FTC is sufficient to alter both C and N availability and/or quality, and that additional FTC may not have a significant further effect. This study provides fresh insights on how organic and mineral horizon soils might respond to increased freeze–thaw frequency in winter.
Immersive Furnishing - Randomized Big Five Personality Traits Based Interior Layouts

In this work, we created an application to generate different apartment settings based on the Big Five personality model and investigated user perception and level of immersion in VR. The goal was to achieve a believable, immersive randomization of apartments interior for open world applications. The Big Five Model is a modern personality theory that defines five central personality traits: extraversion, agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. For each apartment layout, we simulated a personality by randomizing values of each of the five traits. We then calculated a series of derived traits from these base five traits and used these base and derived traits to influence the interior layout of the apartment. To test how much the personality-based interior layout system affected perceived personality, we set up a key-finding game and asked participants a series of questions about their perception of the apartment tenant after they found the keys on each floor. We found that participants’ perceptions of tenants’ personalities generally matched the original Big Five personality model used to generate the apartment layout with a higher rate than random chance.
Electrogenic Coupling of Sulfate Secretion to Chloride Transport in Lobster Hepatopancreas

The present chapter describes a proposed transcellular secretory mechanism for the divalent anion sulfate which has been characterized in the hepatopancreas of a decapod crustacean, Homarus americanus. The driving force for the overall transcellular movement of sulfate is a sulfate-chloride antiporter present in the brush border membrane which operates in an electrogenic fashion, exhibiting a 1:1 coupling ratio. The brush border antiporter is regulated by external protons, a physiologically relevant characteristic due to the generally low luminal pH of the crustacean hepatopancreas during digestion/absorption functions. There is a separate anion exchanger on the hepatopancreatic basolateral membrane which provides for sulfate entry into the epithelial cell from the hemolymph. The processes involved with sulfate transport will be discussed with reference to the current models of sulfate transport in vertebrate tissues.
Friends in low places: The impact of locations and companions on 21st birthday drinking

The present research examined how various locations and companions were associated with hazardous drinking during 21st birthday celebrations. The sample included 912 college students (57% female) who completed an online survey to examine 21st birthday drinking. Locations included bars, friends' houses, restaurants, outdoor barbecues, homes, parents' homes, and Fraternity/Sorority houses. Companions included friends, family members, casual acquaintances, roommates, significant others, Fraternity/Sorority members, and none (alone). Participants consumed an average of 7.6 drinks and reached an average eBAC of .15 during their 21st birthday celebrations. Locations accounted for 20%/18% of the variance in number of drinks and eBAC, respectively, whereas companions accounted for 23%/20% of the variance. Drinking with romantic partners was associated with less drinking, whereas drinking with Fraternity/Sorority members was associated with more drinking. Stepwise regressions combining locations and companions suggested that, overall, celebrating in a bar setting and with Fraternity and Sorority members were the strongest variables associated with drinking. With the exception of a bar setting, companions were the most important contextual factors associated with 21st birthday drinking.
Inactivation of bacterial glutamine synthetase by ADP-ribosylation

Glutamine synthetase from Escherichia coli was inactivated by chemical modification with arginine-specific reagents (Colanduoni, J. A., and Villafranca, J. J. (1985) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 126, 412-418). E. coli glutamine synthetase was also a substrate for an erythrocyte NAD:arginine ADP-ribosyltransferase. Transfer of one ADP-ribosyl group/subunit of glutamine synthetase caused loss of both biosynthetic and gamma-glutamyltransferase activity. The ADP-ribose moiety was enzymatically removed by an erythrocyte ADP-ribosylarginine hydrolase, resulting in return of function. The site of ADP-ribosylation was arginine 172, determined by isolation of the ADP-ribosylated tryptic peptide. Arginine 172 lies in a central loop that extends into the core formed by the 12 subunits of the native enzyme. The central loop is important in anchoring subunits together to yield the spatial orientation required for catalytic activity. ADP-ribosylation may thus inactivate glutamine synthetase by disrupting the normal subunit alignment. Enzyme-catalyzed ADP-ribosylation may provide a simple, specific technique to probe the role of arginine residues in the structure and function of proteins.
Recognizing Medication related Entities in Hospital Discharge Summaries using Support Vector Machine

Due to the lack of annotated data sets, there are few studies on machine learning based approaches to extract named entities (NEs) in clinical text. The 2009 i2b2 NLP challenge is a task to extract six types of medication related NEs, including medication names, dosage, mode, frequency, duration, and reason from hospital discharge summaries. Several machine learning based systems have been developed and showed good performance in the challenge. Those systems often involve two steps: 1) recognition of medication related entities; and 2) determination of the relation between a medication name and its modifiers (e.g., dosage). A few machine learning algorithms including Conditional Random Field (CRF) and Maximum Entropy have been applied to the Named Entity Recognition (NER) task at the first step. In this study, we developed a Support Vector Machine (SVM) based method to recognize medication related entities. In addition, we systematically investigated various types of features for NER in clinical text. Evaluation on 268 manually annotated discharge summaries from i2b2 challenge showed that the SVM-based NER system achieved the best F-score of 90.05% (93.20% Precision, 87.12% Recall), when semantic features generated from a rule-based system were included.
Surveying the Eighteenth-Century Anglo-Indian Canon

The canon of eighteenth-century British literature has productively splintered into many canons, and one that should be added is the Anglo-Indian canon. This postcolonial canon consists of literature exploring the relationship between Britain and India and performing cultural productions of ‘India’ in the process. The most important works in the Anglo-Indian canon between about 1750 and 1850 include novels (Hartly House, Calcutta, The Missionary), drama (The Nabob, The Mogul Tale, The Sword of Peace, The Widow of Malabar), poetry (Bedukah, The Curse of Kehama), and travel narratives (by William Hodges, Georg Forster, Lord Valentia, and Bishop Heber). These authors address issues such as the characteristics of Indian religion, government, culture, and economics; the effects India has on British soldiers, administrators, merchants, and artists; the differences in gender roles; and the responsibilities Britain has toward India. The earlier work in the Anglo-Indian canon (from the eighteenth century) is more open-minded toward India, allowing for curiosity, engagement, and hybridity. In contrast, the later work (from the nineteenth century) envisions the encounter of cultures as a clash, asserts British superiority, and promotes Orientalism.
Searching for non-coding RNA

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) are functional RNA molecules that do not code for proteins. Classic examples include ribosomal and transfer RNAs, but dramatic discoveries in the last few years have greatly expanded both the number of known ncRNAs and the breadth of their biological roles [1]. In short, ncRNAs are much more biologically significant than previously realized. The computational problems associated with discovery and characterization of ncRNAs are quite different from, and arguably more difficult than, comparable tasks for protein-coding genes [2]. A key element of this difference is the importance of secondary structure in most ncRNAs. RNA secondary structure prediction is a well-studied problem, and useful tools exist, but they are certainly not perfect. It is generally accepted that the best evidence for stable secondary structure in biologically relevant RNAs is to identify diverged examples exhibiting compensatory base-pair changes that would preserve putative structural elements. Unfortunately, such compensatory mutations interfere with the ability of standard sequence search and alignment tools (e.g., BLAST, ClustalW) to find and align homologs.
A Qualitative Description of Female Veterans’ Deployment-Related Experiences and Potential Suicide Risk Factors

OBJECTIVE: A qualitative study among female Veterans from recent conflicts was conducted to explore the women's experiences and potential suicide risk factors according to the Interpersonal Psychological Theory of Suicide, including burdensomeness, failed belongingness, and acquired ability. METHODS: The presented paper is an extension of published work by Brenner et al. (2008) regarding mostly male combat Veterans. The methodology employed was qualitative descriptive with hermeneutic hues (Sandelowski, 2000). Interviews were conducted with 19 women, aged 24-52 years, all of whom had been deployed to combat zones in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. RESULTS: Transcripts were reviewed and themes emerged regarding women being a minority within their environment and deployment-related stressors. These experiences seemed to influence participants' views of the world and ways of coping. CONCLUSIONS: Among the interviewed female Veterans, preliminary support was provided for Joiner's concepts. Therapeutic strategies for applying themes to clinical practice (e.g., peer support, family therapy, interventions aimed at increasing distress tolerance) are provided. Language: en
A Primer on Professionalism for Doctrinal Professors

Legal education reform advocates agree that law schools should integrate “professionalism” throughout the curriculum. Ultimately, it falls to individual professors to decide how to incorporate professionalism into each course. This can be an especially difficult task for doctrinal professors. The law — and not the practice of law — is the focus of most doctrinal casebooks. Law students typically do not act in role as lawyers in these classes, so they are not compelled to resolve professional dilemmas in class, as students would be in a clinic or simulation-based course. As a result, it takes some additional preparation and thought to introduce professionalism issues into these courses. Some professors may resist making this change — not knowing which aspect or aspects of professionalism should be the focus, fearing that time spent on professionalism will detract from the real subject matter of the class, or believing professionalism is adequately covered elsewhere in the curriculum. This Article considers how and why doctrinal professors should address the challenge of integrating professionalism into the classroom. Part I briefly discusses the multitude of meanings ascribed to attorney professionalism and argues that the lack of a clear, concise, and shared definition is a substantial barrier to effectively incorporating professionalism into the law school curriculum. Next, Part II provides a more coherent, streamlined definition of attorney professionalism. This Part also identifies and describes three primary aspects of lawyer professionalism: fulfilling duties to clients, satisfying duties to the bar, and possessing core personal values essential to being a good lawyer. This simplified conception of professionalism should begin to address the concerns of professors who do not know where to begin to incorporate professionalism into their classes. It is also intended to persuade skeptics that professionalism is something they can and should teach as part of their doctrinal classes. Thereafter, Part III provides guidance for developing course outcomes that connect course subject matter and professionalism. Questions prompt doctrinal professors to look for the natural connections between their course subject matter and issues of professionalism. Then, Part IV considers various methods doctrinal professors can use to introduce professionalism topics into their courses. Integrating professionalism into the classroom does not require professors to abandon their casebooks; using case law can be an effective method. This Part also considers other teaching methods and materials for combining doctrine, skills, and professionalism. Finally, Part V concludes with thoughts on how students benefit when professors make the effort to incorporate professionalism into every law school classroom.
ARISE: a challenging 25-m space antenna design

The ARISE (Advanced Radio Interferometry between Space and Earth) program, part of future scientific and communications missions, are designed to test the concept of using very large reflector antennas in space. The antenna dimensions are targeted from 10 m to 25 m and beyond. Frequencies covering L-band through W-band are being considered. Among these challenging missions, the ARISE program is projected to utilize a 25 m dual offset Gregorian optics operating from 8 GHz to 86 GHz. The objective of this mission is to create a space-based VLBI system (integrated with ground based antennas) for high resolution mapping of the black holes.
MESSENGER RNA UTILIZATION DURING DEVELOPMENT OF CHICK EMBRYO LENS.

A marked increase in synthesis or availability of messenger RNA which can accommodate eight to ten ribosomes was observed in the chick embryo lens between 11 and 12 days of development. The increase is seen in a shift from polyribosomes consisting of predominantly two to five single ribosomes to polyribosomes of predominantly eight to ten ribosomes in lens cells. Short-lived (half-life, 3 hours) and long-lived (half-life, 〉 30 hours) messenger RNA9s coexist in whole lenses on the 14th day of development.
Identification and mapping of microsatellite markers linked to a root-knot nematode resistance gene (rkn1) in Acala NemX cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)

Host-plant resistance is the most economic and effective strategy for root-knot nematode (RKN) Meloidogyne incognita control in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.). Molecular markers linked to resistance are important for incorporating resistance genes into elite cultivars. To screen for microsatellite markers (SSR) closely linked to RKN resistance in G. hirsutum cv. Acala NemX, F1, F2, BC1F1, and F2:7 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) from intraspecific crosses and an F2 from an interspecific cross with G. barbadense cv. Pima S-7 were used. Screening of 284 SSR markers, which cover all the known identified chromosomes and most linkage groups of cotton, was performed by bulked segregant analysis, revealing informative SSRs. The informative SSRs were then mapped on the above populations. One co-dominant SSR marker CIR316 was identified tightly linked to a major resistance gene (designated as rkn1), producing amplified DNA fragments of approximately 221 bp (CIR316a) and 210 bp (CIR316c) in Acala NemX and susceptible Acala SJ-2, respectively. The linkage between CIR316a marker and resistance gene rkn1 in Acala NemX had an estimated distance of 2.1–3.3 cM depending on the population used. Additional markers, including BNL1231 with loose linkage to rkn1 (map distance 25.1–27.4 cM), BNL1066, and CIR003 allowed the rkn1 gene to be mapped to cotton linkage group A03. This is the first report in cotton with a closely linked major gene locus determining nematode resistance, and informative SSRs may be used for marker-assisted selection.