cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The impact of repeated insecticidal treatments on drift and benthos of a headwater stream

A small first-order, Appalachian Mountain stream received successive seasonal treatments with the insecticide, methoxychlor. Despite an application rate of 10 mg/1 methoxychlor for 4 hours, based on stream discharge, only a small fraction (1.6%) of the insecticide was exported to downstream reaches for a 31 h period during and following treatment. Most of the insecticide was incorporated into sediments of the streambed, which had residues ranging from 0.038 to 11.7 µg methoxychlor/g dry wt of sediments in June 1986 following treatments in December 1985 and March 1986. Despite low concentrations of methoxychlor measured in stream water (maximum = 128 µg/l) during the initial treatment, massive drift (> 950 000 organisms, and 70 g AFDM biomass) occurred from a stream area of about 144 m2. Numerically, collector-gatherer taxa (primarily Chironomidae) dominated drift (63 %) followed by shredders and predators; however, biomass of drift was dominated by shredders (48.9%), followed by predators and collector-gatherers. Compared with pre-treatment benthic abundances, insects were reduced by 75% following the initial treatment in December 1985, and 85% following an additional treatment in March 1986. Benthic abundances of non-insect taxa showed no significant changes. Benthic abundances of shredder, collector-filterer, and scraper functional groups exhibited significant decreases in the first month following treatment. Although benthic abundances of collector-gatherer and predator taxa were reduced by 48.6 and 40.5%, respectively, the reduction was not statistically significant because of high-sample variance. Comparisons of drift composition during the initial treatment with successive quarterly treatments (March 1986 to January 1988) reflected of ongoing pesticide disturbance of the biota as the community structure shifted from one consisting of a diverse insect and non-insect fauna toward one dominated by copepods, oligochaetes, Collembola, and chironomids.
Points to Consider on the Statistical Analysis of Rodent Cancer Bioassay Data When Incorporating Historical Control Data

Researchers routinely use historical control data (HCD) when analyzing rodent carcinogenicity data obtained in a particular study. Although the concurrent control group is considered to be the most relevant group to compare with the dose groups, the HCD provides a broader perspective to assist in understanding the significance of the current study. The HCD is used to provide information about the incidences of spontaneous tumors and malignant systemic disorders such as lymphoma and leukemia. This article presents some possible ways of incorporating the HCD when analyzing data from a rodent cancer bioassay. Specifically, exploratory (informal) and formal statistical procedures for analyzing such data are reviewed. The boxplot is presented as an exploratory tool that describes the current data in the context of the distribution of the HCD. It will also identify potential outliers that would not be otherwise be flagged using standard methods such as the mean, standard deviation, and range. The various options for the statistical analysis of HCD presented here do not necessarily represent standard practice.
Predicting Responses to Microblog Posts

Microblogging networks serve as vehicles for reaching and influencing users. Predicting whether a message will elicit a user response opens the possibility of maximizing the virality, reach and effectiveness of messages and ad campaigns on these networks. We propose a discriminative model for predicting the likelihood of a response or a retweet on the Twitter network. The approach uses features derived from various sources, such as the language used in the tweet, the user's social network and history. The feature design process leverages aggregate statistics over the entire social network to balance sparsity and informativeness. We use real-world tweets to train models and empirically show that they are capable of generating accurate predictions for a large number of tweets.
Amorphous Nb-Si Barrier Junctions for Voltage Standard and Digital Applications

Amorphous Nb-Si has been previously demonstrated as a Josephson junction barrier material for Nb-based superconducting voltage standard circuits, including both DC programmable and AC Josephson voltage standards operating at frequencies up to 20 GHz. This material was chosen so that the junctions could be fabricated in vertical stacks, increasing the number of junctions in an array, which in turn increases the output voltage of the circuits. This barrier material may also be used to create higher-speed junctions, because the same factors that lead to improved stacks also lead to more reproducible junctions with thin, insulating barriers. Recently, a collaboration between the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) produced 1 V and 10 V programmable Josephson voltage standard chips operating at 75 GHz that use these junctions. In this paper, we demonstrate junctions with characteristic frequencies approaching 500 GHz and observed Josephson phase locking at frequencies of 400 GHz and 800 GHz. These junctions are promising for applications in high-speed superconducting digital electronics.
Night Spaces: Darkness, Deterritorialization, and Social Control

Although spanning the same physical area, the spaces of night differ from the spaces of daylight. Crucially, the night impels society to establish mechanisms that take the darkness into account (e.g., via enhanced surveillance of vulnerable areas and the lighting of places of consumption). The night spaces created by government policies, business strategies, or social codes of conduct seek to direct, if not outright control, people's actions and desires. Yet such hegemonic night spaces are themselves contested by groups and individuals who use the darkness to pursue alternate goals, some socially transgressive and some illegal. Accordingly, night spaces can be multiple, overlapping, and contradictory, incorporating the myriad tensions of the social processes that constitute them.
Tissue culture observations relevant to the study of axon-Schwann cell interactions during peripheral nerve development and repair

During peripheral nerve development the Schwann cell population is expanded so that adequate numbers are available for ensheathment of both nonmyelinated and myelinated nerve fibres. As ensheathment of these fibres progresses each axon--Schwann cell unit becomes surrounded by a basal lamina, providing a unique microtubular framework within the peripheral nerve trunk. Tissue culture studies of pure populations of neurones and Schwann cells cultured separately and in combination indicate that a surface component on the axon provides a mitogenic signal to Schwann cells requiring cell-cell contact. Biochemical, electron microscopic and immunocytochemical analyses of these cultures indicate that Schwann cells in contact with axons are able to generate a basal lamina (containing type IV collagen, laminin and heparan sulphate proteoglycan) and fibrous collagen, without the aid of other cells, and that axonal contact is required for deposition of the basal lamina. The role of Schwann cells and the extracellular matrix they synthesize and organize, as well as the role of the other known products of the Schwann cells in the process of peripheral nerve regeneration, are discussed. It is suggested that the large numbers and advantageous position of the Schwann cells, as well as their ability to provide their own surfaces, a basal lamina and multiple secretory products, may account for their extraordinary ability to foster nerve fibre regeneration.
Superconducting linacs as free electron laser drivers

The superconducting RF linac played a central role in the early development of free electron lasers. Now as FEL facilities are being constructed in the far-infrared and the vacuum ultraviolet in order to pursue frontier optical science, and as the feasibility of near-ultraviolet FEL facilities for commercial surface processing of materials is being evaluated, there is renewed interest in the special characteristics that superconducting RF linacs offer. These special characteristics include long pulse or CW operation, feedback regulation of accelerating fields, high efficiency, and availability of high gradient, low impedance structures. There are exciting new opportunities on the horizon for FEL facilities and it is clear that superconducting linacs will play an important role in their development.
Stress in undoped LPCVD polycrystalline silicon

The effect of processing conditions on stress in undoped LPCVD polycrystalline silicon films was investigated. Films were deposited at temperatures between 605 and 700 degrees C and pressures from 300 to 550 mtorr, with varying silane flow rate and deposition time. Low temperatures produced tensile films, while temperatures greater than about 620 degrees C resulted in compressive stress. Film thickness and deposition pressure also affect the stress rate. By removing film layers with a plasma etch, the stress profile through the film thickness was determined. Tension results when silicon atoms deposit in the amorphous state and subsequently crystallize, but thermal stress, due to differences in expansion coefficient between the film and substrate, is ruled out as significant contributor to the film stress. By superposing the crystallization stress and a compressive intrinsic stress component that decreases with temperature, the observed stress trend is obtained. >
Agent-Patient Similarity Affects Sentence Structure in Language Production: Evidence from Subject Omissions in Mandarin

Interference effects from semantically similar items are well-known in studies of single word production, where the presence of semantically similar distractor words slows picture naming. This article examines the consequences of this interference in sentence production and tests the hypothesis that in situations of high similarity-based interference, producers are more likely to omit one of the interfering elements than when there is low semantic similarity and thus low interference. This work investigated language production in Mandarin, which allows subject noun phrases to be omitted in discourse contexts in which the subject entity has been previously mentioned in the discourse. We hypothesize that Mandarin speakers omit the subject more often when the subject and the object entities are conceptually similar. A corpus analysis of simple transitive sentences found higher rates of subject omission when both the subject and object were animate (potentially yielding similarity-based interference) than when the subject was animate and object was inanimate. A second study manipulated subject-object animacy in a picture description task and replicated this result: participants omitted the animate subject more often when the object was also animate than when it was inanimate. These results suggest that similarity-based interference affects sentence forms, particularly when the agent of the action is mentioned in the sentence. Alternatives and mechanisms for this effect are discussed.
Cdc42p GTPase Regulates the Budded-to-Hyphal-Form Transition and Expression of Hypha-Specific Transcripts in Candida albicans

The yeast Candida albicans is a major opportunistic pathogen of immunocompromised individuals. It can grow in several distinct morphological states, including budded and hyphal forms, and the ability to make the dynamic transition between these forms is strongly correlated with virulence. Recent studies implicating the Cdc42p GTPase in hypha formation relied on cdc42 mutations that affected the mitotic functions of the protein, thereby precluding any substantive conclusions about the specific role of Cdc42p in the budded-to-hypha-form transition and virulence. Therefore, we took advantage of several Saccharomyces cerevisiae cdc42 mutants that separated Cdc42p’s mitotic functions away from its role in filamentous growth. The homologous cdc42-S26I, cdc42-E100G, and cdc42-S158T mutations in C. albicans Cdc42p caused a dramatic defect in the budded-tohypha-form transition in response to various hypha-inducing signals without affecting normal budded growth, strongly supporting the conclusion that Cdc42p has an integral function in orchestrating the morphological transition in C. albicans. In addition, the cdc42-S26I and cdc42-E100G mutants demonstrated a reduced ability to damage endothelial cells, a process that is strongly correlated to virulence. The three mutants also had reduced expression of several hypha-specific genes, including those under the regulation of the Efg1p transcription factor. These data indicate that Cdc42p-dependent signaling pathways regulate the budded-to-hyphaform transition and the expression of hypha-specific genes. Candida albicans is an opportunistic fungal pathogen, causing significant morbidity as well as life-threatening systemic disease in immunocompromised individuals. C. albicans cells can exist in a range of morphological states and possess the ability to radically alter their growth pattern from budded to hyphal growth in the presence of inducing signals, such as serum, N-acetylglucosamine, or numerous different formulations of laboratory media that induce a starvation response (5, 12). The starvation response appears to be physiologically relevant, since a starvation response can be induced in C. albicans cells when they are incubated in the presence of neutrophils (43). The ability to switch between the two distinct morphological states is an aspect of C. albicans biology that is strongly correlated to virulence, and mutants that are unable to make the transition are avirulent in a mouse model of disseminated candidiasis (9, 18, 24–26, 29, 39, 47, 57). The timing of hyphal production in the infection process is also crucial (45), and both budded and hyphal cells are seen in infected tissues, emphasizing the importance of this dynamic switch between morphological forms in the infection process.
Algorithms for finding most dissimilar images with possible applications to chromosome classification

Abstract By using chromosome images as a framework, algorithms for finding most dissimilar images are presented and illustrated by examples. In terms of angles, a chromosome image consists of two exterior biangles and two interior biangles. Biangles are defined and classified into 180° biangles, > 180° biangles and
Dynamic Sheltering Problem and An Existence Theorem for Admissible Strategies

This paper is devoted to a new class of dynamic problems, originally motivated by the protection issues when a spreading disaster occurs. In the propagation model, the invaded region is described by the reachable set of differential inclusions. To protect an assigned habitat against the disaster, an artificial barrier is constructed to shield the habitat in real time, where the barrier is characterized as one-dimensional rectifiable set in mathematical terms and a dynamic strategy is determined by the barrier constructed over time. In the paper, we start by showing the motivation of dynamic sheltering problems and then describe the mathematical models. Afterwards, we restrict the analysis to an isotropic case, and derive the minimum speed that ensures the existence of an admissible sheltering strategy. As the main conclusion, it is proved that, given a convex habitat, among all barriers each consisting of a Jordan curve, there exists an admissible sheltering strategy, if and only if the construction speed is greater than that determined by the boundary curve of the habitat. After stating the main theorem, an illustrative example is carefully examined, which provides insights into the existence theorem and clarifies several common misconceptions.
Real-time custom processing and delivery of large ECG data sets

A tool for rapid custom-processing large data sets of ECC signals has always been in demand in research communities. To facilitate this requirement, a link must be established between the numerical processing engine and the data storage system. In our research, we have established an extensive collection of ECG signals, known as the Glasgow Data, which is accessible to subscribers over the Internet (see related Computers in Cardiology paper 'Implementation of Web Database for ECG, M.A. Paracha, S.N. Mohammad, P.W. Macfarlane, J.M. Jenkins'). Meaningful analysis, such as specific plots and images of patient ECG signals, are stored as images in this large database. Initially, these images are generated in a numerical processing and scientific visualization tool such as Matlab. The key to rapid deployment of results from these processing tools is the facility directly, in real-time, to provide results to online users of the database. This requires connectivity between the processing engine and the database back-end. In this design we use open-source modules to establish this link, and demonstrate usability in the field of electrocardiology. With over 3300 individual patients registered in the Macfarlane Glasgow database, we are able to run researcher-specific algorithms over the entire domain of signal data and provide results instantly over the web-based system. This allows researchers to mold and study the data according to their own requirements and thus transform the data into useful knowledge, which should play a vital role in their respective research.
Global Leadership Education: developing emerging young leaders for community service in Missouri and Thailand

The 2009–2010 experiential Global Leadership Education program emphasized inclusive community engagement processes within and among diverse social, economic, ethnic, and geographic young professionals working in Missouri and Thailand communities to build leadership capacity for volunteerism, community service, and multicultural understanding. Key tenets of the program, supported by US Department of State funding, included mutual commitment to sustainable community development, collaborative program development, and evaluation. The experiential program included orientation, local workshops, experiential learning, and social networking to foster increased learning and continuation of relationships. Quantitative analysis indicated Thai and Missourian delegates reported significant learning of key community service leadership, volunteerism, and community development competencies. Analysis of qualitative data provided understanding of cultural differences and the program’s impact. The discussion provides conte...
Decision making in sensor networks observing poisson processes

This paper addresses a detection problem where several spatially distributed sensors independently observe a time-inhomogeneous stochastic process. The task is to decide at the end of a fixed time interval between two hypotheses regarding the statistics of the observed process. In the proposed method, each of the sensors transmits once to a fusion center a locally processed summary of its information in the form of a likelihood ratio. The fusion center then combines these messages to arrive at an optimal decision in the Neyman-Pearson framework. The approach is motivated by applications arising in the detection of mobile radioactive sources, and it serves as a first step toward the development of novel fixed-interval detection algorithms that combine decentralized processing with optimal centralized decision making.
Managing Globalization? The EU in International Trade Negotiations*

Through a study of the evolution of the concept of ‘managed globalization’ in trade, an idea conceptualized by EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy in 1999 and replaced by the new policy of ‘Global Europe’ in 2006, this article analyses whether the Commission has had an autonomous impact on the EU position in international trade negotiations, especially in the Doha Round of the WTO. Such autonomy appears wider at first glance than it actually is, since it is hard to find evidence that the doctrinal shift occurred against Member State preferences. In the end, the true (but limited) autonomy of the Commission comes from its entrepreneurial ability to repackage Member State preferences into a consensual doctrine.
Design and experiment of testbed using network coding for power management

Energy optimization is an important problem in modern wireless embedded systems. In recent years, several techniques have been proposed to optimize power consumption at the computing and communication layers of these systems. Network coding is one of the promising techniques at the communication layer in which multiple messages are opportunistically encoded into a single message to reduce the number of transmissions. While network coding is a theoretically promising technique, its benefit in energy efficiency depends on the practical overheads associated with various computations such as encoding, decoding, and the coding opportunity algorithm itself. Analytical and simulation-based studies are often inadequate to sufficiently evaluate the effectiveness of network coding. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of a wireless testbed for the purpose of energy-aware resource management in networked embedded systems. We also evaluate the energy performance of network coding technique under a wide range of channel and traffic conditions. Our results show that the network coding is indeed beneficial under poor channel and heavy network traffic conditions even when all the encoding and decoding overheads are accounted.
Micro and Macro Legal Efficiency: Supply and Demand

Efficiency is the key organizing principle behind law and economics. However, there are two senses in which the term is used, and it is useful to separate them. Initially as used by Posner, the term referred to particular rules, and it was argued that rules were generally efficient. I call this "micro" efficiency The evolutionary models of legal change were designed to provide an explanation for this sort of efficiency. More recently, there has come about a Hayekian notion of overall efficiency of the system. I call this "macro" efficiency. Competition between laws and legal systems provides a link between the two sorts of efficiency, but the empirical case for macro efficiency is stronger than the case for micro efficiency Focusing on competition between legal systems and bodies of law provides many interesting questions for future research.
Pancreas and cyst segmentation

Accurate segmentation of abdominal organs from medical images is an essential part of surgical planning and computer-aided disease diagnosis. Many existing algorithms are specialized for the segmentation of healthy organs. Cystic pancreas segmentation is especially challenging due to its low contrast boundaries, variability in shape, location and the stage of the pancreatic cancer. We present a semi-automatic segmentation algorithm for pancreata with cysts. In contrast to existing automatic segmentation approaches for healthy pancreas segmentation which are amenable to atlas/statistical shape approaches, a pancreas with cysts can have even higher variability with respect to the shape of the pancreas due to the size and shape of the cyst(s). Hence, fine results are better attained with semi-automatic steerable approaches. We use a novel combination of random walker and region growing approaches to delineate the boundaries of the pancreas and cysts with respective best Dice coefficients of 85.1% and 86.7%, and respective best volumetric overlap errors of 26.0% and 23.5%. Results show that the proposed algorithm for pancreas and pancreatic cyst segmentation is accurate and stable.
Comparative Studies on the Primary and Secondary Zoöspores of the Saprolegniaceae. I. Influence of Temperature

The activity of the primary and secondary zoospores in four genera of the Saprolegniaceae was studied and compared at temperatures from 5° to 35° C. Under carefully controlled conditions, primary z...
Multiple health behavior change in adults with or at risk for cancer: a systematic review.

Objectives To identify components of efficacious interventions for multiple health behavior change (MHBC) in adult cancer survivors or adults at high risk for cancer. Methods A systematic review of MHBC interventions was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses framework. Results Ten studies met inclusion criteria. Most studies changed at least 2 health behaviors. Diet, exercise, and smoking cessation were consistently changed with in-person interventions. Longer duration interventions using phone or mail contact had a positive association with changing diet and exercise. Conclusions MHBC interventions positively influenced behavior change in adults with cancer and those at high risk for cancer. Future studies should focus on increasing dissemination and implementation of efficacious interventions.
No effect of H2O degassing on the oxidation state of magmatic liquids

Abstract The underlying cause for why subduction-zone magmas are systematically more oxidized than those formed at mid-ocean spreading ridges is a topic of vigorous debate. It is either a primary feature inherited from the subduction of oxidized oceanic crust into the mantle or a secondary feature that develops because of H 2 O degassing and/or magma differentiation. Low total iron contents and high melt H 2 O contents render rhyolites sensitive to any effect of H 2 O degassing on ferric–ferrous ratios. Here, pre-eruptive magmatic Fe 2+ concentrations, measured using Fe–Ti oxides that co-crystallized with silicate phenocrysts under hydrous conditions, are compared with Fe 2+ post-eruptive concentrations in ten crystal-poor, fully-degassed obsidian samples; five are microlite free. No effect of H 2 O degassing on the ferric–ferrous ratio is found. In addition, Fe–Ti oxide data from this study and the literature show that arc magmas are systematically more oxidized than both basalts and hydrous silicic melts from Iceland and Yellowstone prior to extensive degassing. Nor is there any evidence that differentiation (i.e., crystal fractionation, crustal assimilation) is the cause of the higher redox state of arc magmas relative to those of Iceland/Yellowstone rhyolites. Instead, the evidence points to subduction of oxidized crust and the release of an H 2 O-rich fluid and/or melt with a high oxygen fugacity ( f O 2 ), which plays a role during H 2 O-flux melting of the mantle in creating basalts that are relatively oxidized.
Multi-Cellular Mechanical Regulation of Endothelial Permeability

Disruption of endothelial barrier function by edemagenic mediators such as thrombin occurs largely through the formation of paracellular gaps between the constituent cells. Classical understanding of this process emphasizes disruption of a localized balance of forces between the centripetal tractions exerted by the endothelial cell upon its substrate and the centrifugal stresses that the cell exerts upon neighboring cells. This idea specifically predicts a strong correlation between baseline cell-cell tension and the location of subsequent agonist induced gap formation. Using the first explicit maps of cell generated forces together with simultaneous maps of associated paracellular gaps, we find little evidence to support this prediction. We find instead a striking correlation between the location of small, baseline paracellular gaps and the location of larger, thrombin generated gaps. Moreover, we find that increases in monolayer tension are associated with enhanced intercellular stress transmission. To rationalize these unexpected data on the mechanical mechanisms of gap formation we have developed a minimal model of the endothelial monolayer as a system of attractive, polydisperse particles under tension and find that we can reproduce salient features of agonist induced gap formation, namely modulation of permeability by growth of pre-existing gaps and growth of intercellular stress correlations across the monolayer, Together these data suggest a picture in which regulation of endothelial permeability occurs not solely at the level of the cell pair but rather by cooperative coupling of local and long range interactions.
High precision characterization of a high finesse fiberized etalon

We characterize the properties of a 100 MHz fiberized etalon. Sub-Hz (10−8) precision is attained for the FSR measurement for both polarization eigenstates. The finesse is measured with 3 % precision and the acoustic noise frequency response of the etalon is experimentally measured.
Masting synchrony in northern hardwood forests: super-producers govern population fruit production

Summary Trees commonly reproduce via masting cycles, which involves synchronized inter-annual variability in fruit crop size. A few individuals in a population will commonly produce much more fruit than others. If these trees produce fruit more frequently, as indicated by a lower inter-annual variability in fruit production, they may dominate fruit production over time. By measuring fruit production of 1635 individuals of 10 temperate tree species across 4 years in northern lower Michigan, we estimated the inter-annual variability and synchrony in each species. We compared fruit production estimates with measurements of tree size, soil nutrient availability and neighbourhood crowding to investigate the source of inter-individual variation in number of fruit produced. We found that trees’ fruit production increased with tree size. The trees that accounted for the largest proportion of total fruit production had lower inter-annual variability and higher synchrony in fruit production. These ‘super-producer’ trees tended to have high nutrient availability and few neighbouring trees, but there were no effects of nutrient availability or neighbourhood crowding on fruit production in the population as a whole. Synthesis. Masting is a population-level phenomenon, and is typically studied at this level. However, when we apply individual tree observations of fruit production to this phenomenon, it reveals super-producers which produce fruit more consistently than the rest of the population. By reducing inter-annual variability in fruit production, but increasing synchrony and making large numbers of fruit, super-producers may be able to reap the benefits of masting while governing population fruit production over time.
“A Just and Graceful Elocution”: Miscellanies and Sociable Reading

This article explores the role of miscellany collections as aids to recitation and education. It offers an insight into the perceived social and cultural roles of literature in the later eighteenth century, and suggests some of the ways we might use miscellanies to understand the relationship between the practical, educational, and aspirational uses of poetry, and the formation of a literary canon. Recitation miscellanies not only showed readers how to achieve affect, but they also gave them collections of literature to appreciate, and some introduction to the terms on which those readers might value the texts that they encountered. In examining the numerous recital collections of this period, we can see not only the close connection between miscellany publication and the contemporary social vogue for reading aloud, but also the ways in which miscellany texts mediated a whole range of cultural concerns, from social aspiration, to moral rectitude.
Managing Academic Misconduct in the Classroom: A Discriminant Analysis of Subject and Situational Differences Between Cheaters and Non Cheaters

This paper supports earlier findings that subject variables such as gender, GPA, and neutralizing attitude are significantly related to incidence of cheating among marketing students. Results indicate that in addition to having cheating deterrents in place, it is also essential to change current attitudes of students towards cheating.
Response by Bekelis et al to Letter Regarding Article, "Anesthesia Technique and Outcomes of Mechanical Thrombectomy in Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke".

We want to thank Drs Dexter and Hindman for their interest in our article.1 Our analysis has attempted to address the authors’ first concern. Clustering of observations in 1 particular hospital was addressed by using mixed effects methods with hospital identity as a random effects variable. Unmeasured confounding was addressed using an instrumental variable analysis. The regional rate of general anesthesia (hospital-level general anesthesia rate) was used as …
Maximal Lyapunov Exponent for a Stochastically Perturbed Co-Dimension Two Bifurcation

Almost-sure asymptotic stability of a 3 dimensional codimension two dynamical system under small intensity stochastic excitations is investigated. The method of stochastic averaging is used to derive a set of approximate Ito equations. These equations, along with their sample properties, are then examined to obtain the almost-sure stability conditions. The sample properties of the process are based on the boundary behavior of the associated scalar diffusion process of the amplitude Ito equations. The maximal Lyapunov exponent is calculated using the ergodic scalar diffusive process, which in turn yields the almost-sure stability conditions.
Fixed-Architecture, Robust Control Design Using Fixed-Structure Multipliers

Abstract Mixed structured singular value analysis tests that allow the structure of the multipliers to a priori be specified have been developed. These tests can be characterized in terms of the existence of positive definite solutions to certain Riccati equations. Probability-one homotopy algorithms are developed to find a solution. These results easily extend to provide computationally tractable algorithms for fixed-architecture, robust control design.
Role of intraoperative ropivacaine in adult post-tonsillectomy pain control: A randomized controlled trial

We sought to evaluate the efficacy of ropivacaine in post-tonsillectomy pain management in adults and evaluate the timing of intraoperative ropivacaine administration for this purpose. A prospective, double-blinded, randomized, controlled trial with a paired design was performed in 25 consecutive adults undergoing tonsillectomy. To date, no studies examining the efficacy of local anesthetics in post-tonsillectomy pain control have used a paired design to account for the variability in pain difference between individuals. Patients were prerandomized into those receiving tonsillar fossa injections before or after the tonsillectomy. All surgeries were performed by the senior author. The tonsil on 1 side was injected with saline and the tonsil on the other side with ropivacaine. Patient responses were obtained via written questionnaire. Three of 25 patients were excluded from the study. Sixteen of 22 patients had lateralization of pain to 1 side during recovery. No statistically significant difference in pain control was observed between ropivacaine and normal saline. Local anesthetic decreased pain in 7 of 22 patients, and increased pain was experienced on the side with local anesthetic in 9 of 22 patients. Six of 22 patients had no difference in pain from one side to the other. The time to equalization of pain based on laterality was 8.8 and 6.8 days, respectively, in the patients injected before or immediately after the tonsillectomy. Administration of the local anesthetic ropivacaine does not affect post-tonsillectomy pain. Moreover, timing of injection does not affect postoperative pain. We recommend against the use of intraoperative ropivacaine for pain control in patients undergoing tonsillectomy.
Stachel -independent modulation of GPR56/ADGRG1 signaling by synthetic ligands directed to its extracellular region.

Adhesion G protein-coupled receptors (aGPCRs) play critical roles in diverse biological processes, including neurodevelopment and cancer progression. aGPCRs are characterized by large and diverse extracellular regions (ECRs) that are autoproteolytically cleaved from their membrane-embedded signaling domains. Although ECRs regulate receptor function, it is not clear whether ECRs play a direct regulatory role in G-protein signaling or simply serve as a protective cap for the activating “Stachel” sequence. Here, we present a mechanistic analysis of ECR-mediated regulation of GPR56/ADGRG1, an aGPCR with two domains [pentraxin and laminin/neurexin/sex hormonebinding globulin-like (PLL) and G protein-coupled receptor autoproteolysis-inducing (GAIN)] in its ECR. We generated a panel of high-affinity monobodies directed to each of these domains, from which we identified activators and inhibitors of GPR56-mediated signaling. Surprisingly, these synthetic ligands modulated signaling of a GPR56 mutant defective in autoproteolysis and hence, in Stachel peptide exposure. These results provide compelling support for a ligand-induced and ECR-mediated mechanism that regulates aGPCR signaling in a transient and reversible manner, which occurs in addition to the Stachel-mediated activation.
Bombesin Receptor Agents

Bombesin is a peptide isolated from a European frog that exhibits many biological actions, including smooth muscle contraction and secretion of hormones and neuropeptides …
Magnetic Isolation of Phagosomes Containing Toll-Like Receptor Ligands

Phagosomal compartments are critical in microbial defense as vesicles that degrade invading organisms. In a broader context, vesicular trafficking plays an important role in shuttling many different types of cargo that are critical for proper function of the cell. Endosomal and phagosomal vesicles are thus important locations for the assembly of intracellular signaling platforms that mediate host responses to invasive pathogens such as Borrelia burgdorferi. Isolation of phagosomes from cells is an important technique that allows for a detailed study of phagosomal components and signaling complex assembly. However, purification of phagosomes had previously been challenging and it has been difficult to obtain sufficient purity of the phagosomal fractions. Here, we modify a new magnetic isolation technique that greatly simplifies purification of phagosomes and isolates vesicles with sufficient purity for analysis.
Cognitive Dissonance and Pediatric Procedural Pain Management: A Concept Clarification

Abstract Background: Pediatric nurses have often reported that pain management is a vital part of patient care. Evidence, however, suggests pediatric procedural pain treatments are often underused. Cognitive dissonance, the mental conflict leading to unpleasant thoughts and or feelings, may be related to this evidence-based gap found between what pediatric nurses claim about procedural pain management (that it is important) and what they actually do (underutilize pain treatments). Objective: The purpose of this manuscript is to clarify and further develop the concept of cognitive dissonance in terms of its relationship to nurses' mental struggles with underutilization of pediatric procedural pain treatments. A more relevant and extended definition of cognitive dissonance is presented. Design: The concept of cognitive dissonance was examined using Rodgers' evolutionary concept analysis approach/framework. Analysis Methods: Through a six-step process of concept identification, setting and sample identification, data collection, data analysis, and future implication discussion, a more accurate and representative definition of cognitive dissonance is described. Databases used included CINAHL, Google Scholar, PsycINFO, ERIC, and PubMed. Seminal, recent, and relevant works were included in the review to adequately develop and clarify the concept. Conclusions: Procedural pain management breech among pediatric nurses is proposed to occur before the mental conflict produced. The unpleasant mental conflict created after the breech is followed by the nurse's determination to reduce mental conflict through attitude change followed by cognition change, which more closely reflects his or her behavior.
Experience-dependent olfactory behaviors of the parasitic nematode Heligmosomoides polygyrus

Parasitic nematodes of humans and livestock cause extensive disease and economic loss worldwide. Many parasitic nematodes infect hosts as third-stage larvae, called iL3s. iL3s vary in their infection route: some infect by skin penetration, others by passive ingestion. Skin-penetrating iL3s actively search for hosts using host-emitted olfactory cues, but the extent to which passively ingested iL3s respond to olfactory cues was largely unknown. Here, we examined the olfactory behaviors of the passively ingested murine gastrointestinal parasite Heligmosomoides polygyrus. H. polygyrus iL3s were thought to reside primarily on mouse feces, and infect when mice consume feces containing iL3s. However, iL3s can also adhere to mouse fur and infect orally during grooming. Here, we show that H. polygyrus iL3s are highly active and show robust attraction to host feces. Despite their attraction to feces, many iL3s migrate off feces to engage in environmental navigation. In addition, H. polygyrus iL3s are attracted to mammalian skin odorants, suggesting that they migrate toward hosts. The olfactory preferences of H. polygyrus are flexible: some odorants are repulsive for iL3s maintained on feces but attractive for iL3s maintained off feces. Experience-dependent modulation of olfactory behavior occurs over the course of days and is mediated by environmental carbon dioxide (CO2) levels. Similar experience-dependent olfactory plasticity occurs in the passively ingested ruminant-parasitic nematode Haemonchus contortus, a major veterinary parasite. Our results suggest that passively ingested iL3s migrate off their original fecal source and actively navigate toward hosts or new host fecal sources using olfactory cues. Olfactory plasticity may be a mechanism that enables iL3s to switch from dispersal behavior to host-seeking behavior. Together, our results demonstrate that passively ingested nematodes do not remain inactive waiting to be swallowed, but rather display complex sensory-driven behaviors to position themselves for host ingestion. Disrupting these behaviors may be a new avenue for preventing infections.
Understanding what affects career progression using linkedin and twitter data

Nowadays competitions in workplaces become increasingly intense. People are looking for promotion strategies that could help them move up faster in their career paths. Our main objective is to determine how factors such as personality, industry and education background impact one's career path, and the highest career stage one could reach. In this study, we bring a novel methodology to determine a career stage based on the job title and company information, so that a career path that consists of several stages could represent the occupational growth. We associate individuals' career paths with their education backgrounds, unique thinking styles, interests, and personalities by analyzing extensive users from Social Media. Our study shows that those able to move up faster and higher share particularly similar traits, characteristics and tendencies. Finally, we employ machine learning techniques to predict career progression with a promising accuracy.
Entrepreneurialism in the Translational Biologic Sciences: Why, How, and However.

Summary Because they are perceived as distinct from the biological sciences, entrepreneurial pursuits may be daunting to the average researcher. In this report, we explain why academic scientists and in particular translational researchers should be naturally as well as rationally attracted to entrepreneurial endeavors. We go into some detail of how entrepreneurial achievements are actually accomplished and offer a few caveats for consideration when embarking down entrepreneurial pathways. We conclude that, although not for everyone, for translational investigators in the biologic sciences, entrepreneurial pursuits are desirable, accomplishable, and professionally rewarding.
Timelines of Underwater Archaeology

The history of archaeology underwater is inextricably associated with the history of marine technology, for it is through the equipment and techniques of diving and underwater work that archaeology under water is made possible. The following timelines describe a few of the literally hundreds of milestones in the evolution of diving, marine technology, and deepwater archaeology. Undoubtedly, some readers will take issue with one or more of the entries in these timelines. Fortunately, the Historical Diving Society USA (HDS-USA) pointed significant errors in the draft, then helped put things to right. The discipline of underwater archaeology owes a debt of gratitude to the HDS, an international organization of loyal and scholarly volunteers who are preserving the history of the technology of diving. The timelines in this chapter will have served their purpose if they provide the reader with a better understanding of and appreciation for the remarkable inventors and their creations that allow us to confidently venture into the water, seeking evidence of our past that would otherwise never be revealed.
Genetic coagulation defects.

Normal hemostasis in response to blood vessel injury results from sequential activation of coagulation enzymes and culminates in formation of a stabilized fibrin clot. Complex natural mechanisms are known to exist for deterring this process. The principal components that suppress intravascular clotting thereby ensuring unobstructed blood flow are the coagulation inhibitors and the fibrinolytic system. When defects of these components occur the disrupted balanced between procoagulant and anticoagulant activities in blood may lead to thrombosis.
Contemporary Despair and its Antidote

The prevalent mood of contemporary mankind is one of despair, for never before have the prospects of civilization seemed gloomier or the situation of mankind more helpless. The extinction of the race within the foreseeable future seems threatened from every quarter, whether by the exhaustion of the resources of the earth, or by the pollution of the sea and its life-giving waters, or by the destruction of the ecological systems in which living species cooperate to maintain themselves and one another. All these deleterious processes seem to be happening at an accelerating pace without any deliberate action on the part of man and despite such feeble efforts as he has yet made or seems likely to make to stem the tide of deterioration.