cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Compressive Mechanical Properties of Porcine Brain: Experimentation and Modeling of the Tissue Hydration Effects.

Designing protective systems for the human head—and, hence, the brain—requires understanding the brain’s microstructural response to mechanical insults. We present the behavior of wet and dry porcine brain undergoing quasi-static and high strain rate mechanical deformations to unravel the effect of hydration on the brain’s biomechanics. Here, native ‘wet’ brain samples contained ~80% (mass/mass) water content and ‘dry’ brain samples contained ~0% (mass/mass) water content. First, the wet brain incurred a large initial peak stress that was not exhibited by the dry brain. Second, stress levels for the dry brain were greater than the wet brain. Third, the dry brain stress–strain behavior was characteristic of ductile materials with a yield point and work hardening; however, the wet brain showed a typical concave inflection that is often manifested by polymers. Finally, finite element analysis (FEA) of the brain’s high strain rate response for samples with various proportions of water and dry brain showed that water played a major role in the initial hardening trend. Therefore, hydration level plays a key role in brain tissue micromechanics, and the incorporation of this hydration effect on the brain’s mechanical response in simulated injury scenarios or virtual human-centric protective headgear design is essential.
Implications of a frame dependent dark energy for the spacetime metric, cosmography, and effective Hubble constant

In earlier papers we showed that a frame dependent effective action motivated by the postulates of three-space general coordinate invariance and Weyl scaling invariance exactly mimics a cosmological constant in Friedmann-Robertson-Walker (FRW) spacetimes but alters the linearized equations governing scalar perturbations around a spatially flat FRW background metric. Here we analyze the implications of a frame dependent dark energy for the spacetime cosmological metric within both a perturbative and a nonperturbative framework. Both methods of calculation give a one-parameter family of cosmologies which are in close correspondence to one another, and which contain the standard FRW cosmology as a special case. We discuss the application of this family of cosmologies to the standard cosmological distance measures and to the effective Hubble parameter, with special attention to the current tension between determinations of the Hubble constant at late time, and the Hubble value obtained through the cosmic microwave background angular fluctuation analysis.
Pyrroloquinoline Quinone Treatment for Prevention of Mitochondrial Damage in Plants

Mitochondrial decay inflicted by oxidative stress in brain cells is the primary cause of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and strokes. Oxidative stress is an imbalance of oxygen caused by disproportional amounts of pro-oxidants and antioxidants, which regulate the consumption of radical oxygen species (ROS). Overproduction of ROS disrupts cell structure of lipids, membranes, proteins, DNA, and also attacks mitochondria. The naturally slow rate of mitochondrial genesis is harmful to cells undergoing oxidative stress, as mitochondria cannot reproduce fast enough to replenish the necessary mitochondria count in the cell, leading to cell death. Pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ) is a vitamin that reduces ROS while accelerating mitochondrial growth, therefore making it a factor in resisting damage from oxidative stress. This experiment introduced antioxidant PQQ into Wisconsin Fast Plants undergoing oxidative stress. Plants were grown in varying concentrations of PQQ solution and exposed to oxidative stress once mature. The 0.1% PQQ solution led to the best plant survival, decaying at a slower rate. However, all plants watered with the vitamin did not grow as tall as the control. Therefore, PQQ intake at 0.1 percent concentration allows an extended lifespan for Wisconsin Fast Plants when exposed to oxidative stress, but the organism will be compromised in overall height.
Deciding when a life is not worth living: animperative to measure what matters

As a neonatal neurologist, I serve families facing tragic decisions in which they must balance trade-offs between death and life with profound disability. I often find myself in complex discussions about future outcome, in which families sort through in real-time what information they value most in making such a choice. Will he laugh ? Will he be in pain ? Will he know how much he’s loved ? In this month’s feature article, Brick et al share the results of an online survey aimed at assessing public views on when a life is not worth living, in an effort to inform ongoing legal and clinical debates about withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment for children. These findings raise important questions about how we define and measure outcomes that matter to parents as they make these tragic decisions. It is challenging to interpret these findings in the absence of context of how decision-making for infants occurs in real-time. The nature of this study and its objective required that cases be substantially simplified. As the authors acknowledge, the prognoses and function of the children involved in these cases were often deeply contested. Prognostic uncertainty is common for children with significant …
Numerical error analysis of the ICZT algorithm for chirp contours on the unit circle

This paper shows that the inverse chirp z-transform (ICZT), which generalizes the inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) off the unit circle in the complex plane, can also be used with chirp contours that perform partial or multiple revolutions on the unit circle. This is done as a special case of the ICZT, which in algorithmic form has the same computational complexity as the IFFT, i.e., O(n log n). Here we evaluate the ICZT algorithm for chirp contours on the unit circle and show that it is numerically accurate for large areas of the parameter space. The numerical error in this case depends on the polar angle between two adjacent contour points. More specifically, the error profile for a transform of size n is determined by the elements of the Farey sequence of order n − 1. Furthermore, this generalization allows the use of non-orthogonal frequency components, thus lifting one of the main restrictions of the IFFT.
Long-term predictive value of stroke volume index obtained from right heart catheterization: Insights from the veterans affairs clinical assessment, reporting, and tracking program.

BACKGROUND Right heart catheterization-derived hemodynamic parameters have been associated with short-term prognosis. HYPOTHESIS Hemodynamic parameters will be associated with long-term prognosis. METHODS Retrospective cohort study from the Veterans Affairs Clinical Assessment, Reporting, and Tracking Program included patients who underwent an index right heart catheterization between 2008 and 2016. Cox proportional hazard models were used to examine the association between stroke volume index and all-cause mortality. RESULTS For the final cohort of 37 209 patients, mean follow-up was 3.7 ± 2.5 years. All-cause mortality was 42.0% in the low (<35 cc/beat/m2 ) compared with 33.2% in the normal stroke volume index group (≥35 cc/beat/m2 ). In adjusted analysis, low stroke volume was significantly associated with higher mortality risk (HR (95% CI) 1.14 (1.10-1.18); P < .001) independent of clinical parameters. The area under the curve (AUC) for continuous measures of stroke volume index at predicting mortality in a Cox proportional hazard model was 0.56 at 3 years. When stroke volume index was combined with 14 clinical covariates, the AUC was 0.70 at 3 years. The addition of stroke volume index to these clinical covariates did not increase the discriminatory ability of the model at 1 year in a clinically meaningful way (integrated discrimination improvement index = 0.0021, 95% CI: 0.0010-0.0034). CONCLUSIONS The long-term prognostic value of right heart catheterization-derived stroke volume index appears to be marginal. While there was a weak association of low stroke volume index and excess mortality, inclusion of this parameter to a set of clinical covariates did not improve prognostic discrimination.
Immune Mechanisms in the Pathogenesis of Atherosclerosis

It is generally accepted that arteriosclerosis is a multifactorial disease and that several risk factors contribute to its development. However the correlation between the development of arteriosclerosis and the presence of any of the known risk factors or associations of risk factors is not perfect. Furthermore, the precise mechanism by which each risk factor contributes to the pathogenesis of arteriosclerosis is not well understood. Thus, there has been a persistent development of new thoughts and theories concerning risk factors and their relative pathogenic roles. In the past decade an upsurge of interest in the role of immune mechanisms in the development of arteriosclerosis has emerged. In the present review we will analyzed data suggesting that immunological factors may contribute, directly or indirectly, to the sequence of pathological events leading to the development of arteriosclerosis.
The role of phosphorylation/dephosphorylation in the regulation of cholesterol 7 alpha-hydroxylase activity.

The enzyme cholesterol 7α-hydroxylase catalyzes the hydroxylation of cholesterol to form 7α-hydroxycholesterol, which is the first compound in the biosynthesis of bile acids.
Treatment Considerations for Adolescents Who Exhibit Cognitive/Communication Problems: A Neuroscience Perspective

Purpose Adolescence is a period of substantial neurophysiological and behavioral growth, representing a second sensitive period of brain development. It is a psychological and social transition per...
Pitting behavior of friction stir repair-welded 304L stainless steel in 3.5% NaCl solution at room temperature: role of grain and defect structures

Stainless steel (SS) canisters used for storing spent nuclear waste are prone to chloride-induced stress corrosion cracking. Friction stir welding (FSW), being a low heat input process, can be used for repair welding of these canisters. In this study, an artificial crack was introduced on the 304L SS coupons by an electric discharge machining process. The artificial crack was repair-welded by FSW by maintaining the tool temperature a constant at two levels (725 and 825 °C). Friction stirring significantly reduced the grain size of the stirred zone (SZ) from about 47 to 2–4 μm. The fraction of low-angle grain boundaries increased in the SZ from 2 to 37–43%. On the other hand, the fraction of special grain boundaries (Σ3 and Σ9) that was ~ 50% in the base metal reduced to < 10% in the SZ. During friction stirring, the oxide layer of artificial crack was broken and aligned to form a spiral defect called lazy-S structure. All these microstructural changes affected the corrosion behavior of the FSW specimens when tested in 3.5% NaCl at room temperature using cyclic polarization, chronoamperometry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The FSW specimens showed lower polarization resistance and lower transpassive potential than those of the base metal specimens. However, the pitting protection potentials of the FSW specimens were higher than that of the base metal. The pitting behavior of the FSW specimens was influenced more by the preferential attack on the lazy-S region than by passive film breakdown. The flat band potentials of the passive film formed on the FSW specimens were more positive than that of base metal. The charge carrier density of passive film formed on the FSW specimens was higher than that of the base metal. The higher fraction of low-angle grain boundaries present in the FSW specimens could supply more number of misorientation dislocations at the metal/film interface which could form anion vacancies by a climb process leading to formation of oxide at these locations without stressing the substrate. Therefore, low-angle boundaries are considered helpful for formation of stress-free passive films that will be highly stable and enhance both pitting and stress corrosion cracking resistance.
Recovery Profiles after Concussion among Male Student-Athletes and Service Cadets with a Family History of Neurodegenerative Disease: Data from the NCAA-DoD CARE Consortium

Preliminary evidence indicates that genetic factors associated with having a family history of neurodegenerative disease (fhNDD) may predispose an individual to persistent symptoms and poorer cogni...
Antibodies Elicited in Response to a Single Cycle Glycoprotein D Deletion Viral Vaccine Candidate Bind C1q and Activate Complement Mediated Neutralization and Cytolysis

Herpes simplex virus (HSV) prevention is a global health priority but, despite decades of research, there is no effective vaccine. Prior efforts focused on generating glycoprotein D (gD) neutralizing antibodies, but clinical trial outcomes were disappointing. The deletion of gD yields a single-cycle candidate vaccine (∆gD-2) that elicits high titer polyantigenic non-gD antibodies that exhibit little complement-independent neutralization but mediate antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and phagocytosis (ADCP). Active or passive immunization with ΔgD-2 completely protects mice from lethal disease and latency following challenge with clinical isolates of either serotype. The current studies evaluated the role of complement in vaccine-elicited protection. The immune serum from the ΔgD-2 vaccinated mice exhibited significantly greater C1q binding compared to the serum from the gD protein vaccinated mice with infected cell lysates from either serotype as capture antigens. The C1q-binding antibodies recognized glycoprotein B. This resulted in significantly greater antibody-mediated complement-dependent cytolysis and neutralization. Notably, complete protection was preserved when the ΔgD-2 immune serum was passively transferred into C1q knockout mice, suggesting that ADCC and ADCP are sufficient in mice. We speculate that the polyfunctional responses elicited by ΔgD-2 may prove more effective in preventing HSV, compared to the more restrictive responses elicited by adjuvanted gD protein vaccines.
A Storytelling Systems Review Essay on America’s Return to Original Politics: Glenn Aparicio Parry. Original Politics: Making America Sacred Again. NY: Select Books Inc., 2020

The devolved mode is necessary at some point to move from one stage to the other, for a system must degrade and break down (principle of entropy) before something new can be created. (Parry, 2020, ...
An Approach to Faculty Development for Underrepresented Minorities in Medicine.

Objectives The diversity of the US physician workforce lags significantly behind the population, and the disparities in academic medicine are even greater, with underrepresented in medicine (URM) physicians accounting for only 6.8% of all US medical school faculty. We describe a "for URM by URM" pilot approach to faculty development for junior URM Family Medicine physicians that targets unique challenges faced by URM faculty. Methods A year-long fellowship was created for junior URM academic clinician faculty with funding through the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine Project Fund. Seven junior faculty applied and were accepted to participate in the fellowship, which included conference calls and an in-person workshop covering topics related to writing and career advancement. Results The workshop included a mix of prepared programming on how to move from idea to project to manuscript, as well as time for spontaneous mentorship and manuscript collaboration. Key themes that emerged included how to address the high cost of the minority tax, the need for individual passion as a pathway to success, and how to overcome imposter syndrome as a hindrance to writing. Conclusions The "for URM by URM" approach for faculty development to promote writing skills and scholarship for junior URM Family Medicine physicians can address challenges faced by URM faculty. By using a framework that includes the mentors' lived experiences and creates a psychological safe space, we can address concerns often overlooked in traditional skills-based faculty development programs.
Tree Stand-Related Injuries in Nonadmitted and Admitted Patients at a Level 2 Trauma Center in Michigan: 2015-2019.

Introduction Tree stand–related injuries (TSRI) are more common than firearm-related injuries in hunters. Most previous studies on the topic used trauma databases that only include admitted patients. This study characterizes injury patterns found in nonadmitted and admitted TSRI patients presenting to a level 2 Michigan trauma center. TSRI prevention interventions are also discussed. Methods Cases were obtained through a retrospective chart review of the Henry Ford Allegiance Health trauma registry and EPSi cost-accounting database from 2015 to 2019. Keywords searched included fall, hunter, tree, tree stand, treestand, ICD 9 diagnosis (E884.9_Other accidental fall from one level to another), and ICD 10 diagnosis (W14.XXXA_Fall from tree, initial encounter). We analyzed age, sex, body mass index, injury severity score, disposition, alcohol use, injuries sustained, reported height of fall, and narrative of fall. Results Thirty-three patients were identified. Patient age was 45±13 y (mean±SD). All patients were male. Injury severity score for nonadmitted patients was 2±1 vs 13±11 in admitted patients. Thirty-three percent of cases were nonadmitted; 67% were admitted. The most common injuries sustained were spinal (33%) and lower extremity fractures (15%). The average yearly TSRI case rate was 5.73 per 10,000 hunters in the study area. Conclusions Our study found that spinal and lower extremity fractures were the most common injuries sustained. One-third of our patients were nonadmitted and therefore not included in the Henry Ford Allegiance Health trauma registry. Some nonadmitted patients had significant injuries requiring specialist consultation, orthopedic braces, or outpatient surgery.
Book Review for Twitter: A Biography

In the current media ecology, Twitter is sometimes perceived as a platform full of misinformation and disinformation. The use of Twitter is fraught with the dynamic interplay of various social agen...
Bayesian constrained decision fusion

Decision fusion aims to intelligently combine decisions provided by a network of sensors. However, uncalibrated sensors or sensors of unknown reliability challenge this task because they significantly skew the fused decision. This work deals with decision fusion when no information on the sensor reliability is provided. To ensure high-performance fusion, side information is leveraged in the form of pairwise constraints, that capture relationships between pairs of data. A Bayesian approach is developed based on variational inference that can jointly assess sensor reliability, and perform label aggregation. Performance of the proposed algorithm is validated on real datasets.
A Role for NRF2-Signaling in the Treatment and Prevention of Solar Lentigines.

Background Photoaging is premature skin aging resulting from oxidative stress generated by exposure to solar radiation. A key clinical feature is solar lentigines, areas of hyperpigmentation on sun-exposed skin. Skin pigmentation is determined by cross-talk between keratinocytes and melanocytes, which is exquisitely sensitive to oxidative stress. Toll-like receptor (TLR) signaling and NF-E2-related factor 2 (NRF2) signaling, an endogenous antioxidant system, serve as a bridge between the oxidative stress response and immune regulation. Moreover, TLR-mediated induction of IL-6 production has been shown to prevent ultraviolet (UV)-induced hyperpigmentation. Methods Shave biopsies of solar lentigines were obtained from 14 individuals. An additional 7 subjects applied broccoli sprout extract (BSE) containing sulforaphane daily or vehicle on photodamaged skin. Immunofluorescence staining was used to determine total and phosphorylated NRF2 in the lentiginous skin. Dermoscopy and Fontana & Masson staining were used to assess the effect of topical BSE on UV-induced pigmentation. Similar topical treatments were performed in a mouse model of UVB-induced hyperpigmentation utilizing WT, Nrf2-/-, or K14-Cre-ERT2IL-6Rαfl/fl C57BL/6 mice. Results NRF2 expression is altered in solar lentigines, and UV-induced skin pigmentation in humans could be ameliorated with topical BSE. Corresponding mouse models replicated the authors' clinical findings and identified a potential mechanistic link to IL-6Rα signaling in keratinocytes. Conclusion The authors' findings suggest that dysregulation of NRF2 signaling is involved in the pathogenesis of UV-induced skin pigmentation and pharmacological activation of NRF2 may represent a potential therapeutic target in photoaging.
Categorical Foundations and Foundations of Category Theory

This paper is divided into two parts. Part I deals briefly with the thesis that category theory (or something like it) should provide the proper foundations of mathematics, in preference to current foundational schemes. An opposite view is argued here on the grounds that the notions of operation and collection are prior to all structural notions. However, no position is taken as to whether such are to be conceived extensionally or intensionally.
Gay and Lesbian Social Work Students' Experiences in Field Placement

This article describes the results of an exploratory study of the experiences of lesbian and gay social work students in field placement. In-depth interviews with 30 lesbian and gay social work students and graduates revealed 11 categories of sexual–orientation related issues that they confronted in field placements, including heterosexist and homophobic attitudes and behaviors, unwelcoming agency climates, and challenges related to disclosure of sexual orientation in the agency. Participants also suggested resources that might improve the field placement experience. The implications of the findings for social work students, academic programs, and placement agencies are discussed.
Honesty is the best policy.

Not surprisingly, Americans vary in their attitudes toward sex. As part of a general culture war, some people advocate teaching abstinence-only sex education in schools, while others advocate teach...
Electronic theses and dissertation (ETD) repositories: What are they? Where do they come from? How do they work?

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the electronic theses and dissertation (ETD) repository as a subset of local institutional digital repositories. The paper discusses the originating institutions and organizations including Virginia Tech Initiative, the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization and the United States Department of Education.Design/methodology/approach – This paper is informational in nature and explores the topic of ETD repositories. It provides information relevant to academic and digital librarians interested in including an ETD repository in their institution's digital library. The paper discusses interoperability among repositories and the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting. The paper discusses issues related to ETD repositories including intellectual property rights, publishers' views of ETDs as prior publications, plagiarism issues, development costs, and long‐t...
Neutrino Induced μ- e+ Events and the Charm Hypothesis

It is shown that the copious production of kaons in the neutrino induced μ -e+ events observed at Fermi-lab is consistent with the charm hypothesis.
Integration of Scientific Echo Sounders with an Adaptable Autonomous Vehicle to Extend Our Understanding of Animals from the Surface to the Bathypelagic

AbstractAcoustic echo sounders designed to map and discriminate organisms in the water column have primarily been deployed on ships. Because of acoustic attenuation of higher frequencies used to detect and discriminate micronekton and nekton, this has effectively restricted the range of this information to the upper water column. In an effort to overcome these range limitations by reducing the distance between the transducer and the targets of interest, dual-frequency (38 and 120 kHz) split-beam echo sounders were integrated into a Remote Environmental Monitoring Units (REMUS) 600 autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), effectively doubling the range of quantitative acoustic data into the mesopelagic zone (600–1200 m). Data from the first set of missions in a range of conditions revealed that the AUV provided a stable platform for the echo sounders and improved vertical and horizontal positional accuracy over echo sounders towed by ships. In comparison to hull-mounted echo sounders, elimination of ship noise...
Incentives, Anxiety and Agency: Organizational Culture and the Challenges of Performance Management Reform

While straightforward in theory, performance management reforms have proved uneven in practice. This is because they require not only changes in formal systems but also changes in culture. Through a mixed-method analysis of performance management in the New York City school system, this dissertation seeks to identify the informal conditions under which a performance culture is most likely to emerge on the front lines. Prior theory suggests that culture change is most likely in organizations with the incentive and the capacity to change. Thus, all else equal, performance management reform’s impact would be greatest in contexts with both a positive organizational climate and a high level of survival anxiety brought on by performance pressure. This analysis finds, however, that while organizational climate strongly predicts performance values, survival anxiety has a much more muted impact. Increased survival anxiety does predict the espousal of performance management values, it appears to impede the adoption of performance management behaviors, or values-in-use. A positive organizational climate, by contrast - one characterized by intra-organizational trust and perceptions of support - facilitates schools’ ability and willingness to espouse and adopt performance management values. While they require confirmation and replication in other policy sectors, these findings have substantial implications both for theories of organizational behavior and institutional change and for policymakers and public managers seeking to enact administrative reform to improve policy and organizational performance.
Unsafe gods: security, secularism and schooling. By Lynn Davies

In this 2014 publication, Lynn Davies proposes an argument for what she refers to as a dynamic secularism, a social system that is at once inclusive, open to complexity, and restrictive of threats ...
Good manufacturing practices and clinical supplies.

Quality characteristics must be assured through adherence to good manufacturing practices in the production, control, and testing of drug products intended for investigational as well as commercial use. A draft guideline on the preparation of investigational new drug products, soon to be available in final form, addresses questions that have been raised regarding acceptable practices and procedures to facilitate compliance with the CGMP regulations as applied to clinical supplies. Inspections of sterile clinical supplies production can be expected to include the areas most likely to influence product safety, quality, and uniformity in the same manner as would be expected regarding the manufacture of commercial batches. Some areas of particular significance in the manufacture of parenteral clinical supplies include validation of terminal sterilization, aseptic processing, and oxygen exclusion. The validation of the aseptic handling during lyophilixation requires special attention. Other CGMP concerns include the provision of a quality control unit, avoiding packaging mixups, and being prepared for an amendment to the CGMP regulations regarding terminal sterilization.
A speech coding algorithm based on predictive coding

Summary form only given. A compression algorithm for high quality speech signal using predictive coding techniques is developed. Code-excited linear predictive coding (CELPC) is one of the key techniques to compress speech signal to a bit-rate around 4.8 Kbps. However, due to the heavy computational requirement in the CELPC and speech signals usually can be divided into two portions: namely the based-band and the high-band frequency range. A hybrid CELPC and voice excited linear predictive coding (VELPC) scheme is developed for speech coding to reduce the complexity of the original CELPC. In the algorithm, a speech signal is firstly divided into two portions, the based-band and high-band respectively, in frequency domain, and then the low portion is coded with CELPC and the high-band portion is coded with VELPC. The test experiments showed this new coder can produce synthesized speech with good quality at a better bit rates than the original CELPC. When using the coding methods for the base-band and the high-band signal, we must decide how to divide the speech signal into two portions. In choosing the bandwidth of the base-band signal, there is a trade-off between the coding quality and the bit rate. In our experiment, the bandwidth of the base-band signal is chosen as one fourth of that of the original speech. Subjective evaluation experiments were conducted to test the performance of the hybrid CELPC and VELPC technique. For speech signal sampled at 8 kHz, a bit rate of 4.0 kbps can be achieved with frame intervals of 23 ms. The experimental results showed that the quality of the synthesized speech using hybrid coding technique at the bit rate of 4.0 kbps was almost the same as that of the CELPC at the bit rate of 4.8 kbps.
The Unexpected Journey Shared by Families: Using Literature to Support and Understand Families Raising a Child with Disabilities

In today’s global society, it is important for future teacher educators to identify and apply different types of dispositions, attitudes, and skills in order to provide full participation and support to all types of families. Partnerships with families having a child with a disability calls for teacher educators of the general and special education professions to collaborate and to provide a meaningful, engaging environment for children with and without disabilities. As a result, teacher educators must be committed to teaching all children and supporting all families with equal respect, care, and dignity, regardless of the child’s ability level. This article addresses how using literature can be a teaching strategy for understanding and supporting families with children with disabilities. The article summarizes future teacher educators’ attitudes and perceptions of working with families with children with disabilities after reading a book written by a parent raising a child with a disability. By investigating specific disabilities and reflecting about the personal story each family shares through literature selections, teacher educators may develop and nurture the dispositions to teach with passion, appreciate individual differences, and empower families raising children with disabilities to reach their full potential.
Progressive Education, After-School Programs and their Impact on the Lives of African American Males: An Introduction

This edition of the Peabody Journal of Education analyzes the historical and contemporary role of after-school programs in the development of African American males. In this introduction, the author places after-school programs within an historical context of progressivism, progressive education and social change in 19th-century America. As these new ideas of children and childhood were conceptualized, four significant social changes in America—industrialization, urbanization, immigration, and an “American reformation”—sparked the implementation of remedies for social ills within urban settings. This article suggests that the early 20th-century focus on after-school programs for African Americans were the results of lessons learned from early “remedies” targeting “new” immigrants. Moreover, the later desire to assist African American youth through these national and local youth development organizations was spurred by the rapid migration of African Americans to the urban northeast and Midwest during the f...
Robust optimization for fleet planning under uncertainty

Abstract We create a formulation and a solution procedure for fleet sizing under uncertainty in future demands and operating conditions. The formulation focuses on robust optimization, using a partial moment measure of risk. This risk measure is incorporated into the expected recourse function of a two-stage stochastic programming formulation, and stochastic decomposition is used as a solution procedure. A numerical example illustrates the importance of including uncertainty in the fleet sizing problem formulation, and the nature of the fundamental tradeoff between acquiring more vehicles and accepting the risk of potentially high costs if insufficient resources are available.
Students' Ratings of College Services and Their Scores on Handwriting Areas

244 student volunteers rated their involvement in eight advising and counseling services at the University of Northern Colorado and gave a sample of their handwriting. On the Student Services Use Questionnaire they rated each service as to use, duration, satisfaction, and effectiveness. Eight measures of handwriting were correlated with the four sets of ratings. Values showing little or no relation to use, duration or effectiveness, but six of the eight correlations with students' satisfaction were significant. The significance was due primarily to larger ovals in nine of the handwritten letters. This enlarged aspect of handwriting may be associated with emotionally immature students.
Barriers and facilitators to recovering from e-prescribing errors in community pharmacies

Objective To explore barriers and facilitators to recovery from e-prescribing errors in community pharmacies and to explore practical solutions for work system redesign to ensure successful recovery from errors.
Non-fragile state-feedback control of uncertain piecewise-affine slab systems with input constraints: a convex optimisation approach

The main contribution of this work is to propose a design technique for state-feedback control of continuous-time piecewise-affine (PWA) systems that is robust not only to the system uncertainties, but also to variations of the controller gains. More specifically, this study presents sufficient conditions to synthesise a robust non-fragile PWA controller that exponentially stabilises the closed-loop equilibrium point. Furthermore, these conditions are cast as an optimisation problem subject to a set of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), which can then be solved efficiently. In addition, a set of LMI conditions are derived to ensure that the control input will always meet a pre-assigned upper bound. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Orthostatic vasomotor response in spinal man

The cardiovascular adaptation of tetraplegics to the upright position has been previously demonstrated to be deficient. Presumably this is due to the interruption of the spinal pathways linking supraspinal control centres with the peripheral sympathetic motor neurons. Review of previous studies of this phenomenon reveals that vasomotor responses have been determined primarily from blood flow measurements in the extremities. Contradictory conclusions have been drawn. Study of the visceral circulation, in particular renal blood flow, could shed more light on this poorly understood area. Renal clearance tests were carried out on seven healthy controls and eight chronic, clinically complete tetraplegic patients. Renal blood flow, mean arterial pressure, and total renal vascular resistance in both supine and passive head-up tilt positions were calculated from collected data. Renal blood flow and total renal vascular resistance showed significant decrease and increase respectively during tilting in controls and tetraplegic subjects. Although the renal circulation is autoregulated, postural change causes profound alteration of the renal blood flow mediated through the haemodynamic effects of the renal nerves. Sympathetic renal vasoconstriction is mediated by the carotid sinus reflex through the vasomotor centre in the brainstem. In the absence of supraspinal influence the renal vasculature is shown to respond to an orthostatic stimulus with a vigorous vasoconstriction. The adaptation of spinal man to the upright position may involve the recovery of a spinal vasomotor reflex involving the splanchnic circulation.
Production of bovine insulin-like growth factor 2 (bIGF2) in Escherichia coli

Bovine insulin-like growth factor 2 (bIGF2) was produced in inclusion bodies in the cytoplasm of Escherichia coli and accumulated at high levels: 20-25% of total Coomassie-stained bacterial protein. The level of accumulation of bIGF2 was affected by the choice of codons in the 5' end of the coding sequence and by a rpoH mutation in the host cells. Purified recombinant bIGF2 had the native N terminus and the same mitogenic activity as that of bIGF2 purified from bovine serum.
Endolymphatic mastoid shunt: a reevaluation of efficacy.

OBJECTIVES: The main goal of this paper was to statistically reevaluate the efficacy of the endolymphatic shunt procedure for Meniere's disease.METHODS: Thomsen et al (Arch Otolaryngol 1981; 107:271–7) reported on the placebo effect in surgery for Meniere's disease in a controlled doubleblind study. Thirty patients with typical Meniere's disease in whom medical treatment failed participated in the study. A placebo-controlled blinded surgical study has not since been replicated. We performed a retrospective statistical analysis using data extracted from the published report and reanalyzed it using both the original and new statistical measures and techniques.RESULTS: The original conclusions drawn by Thomsen et al differed considerably from ours in 5 key areas, including postoperative vertigo, nausea and vomiting, tinnitus, and combined score.CONCLUSIONS: This analysis strongly supports the effectiveness of the endolymphatic shunt in the management of Meniere's disease and refutes the placebo effect previo...
Understanding Emotional Development: Helping Early Childhood Providers Better Support Families.

This article is intended to provide early childhood providers with a concise overview of emerging emotional development in young children (birth–5), the important role of primary caregivers, and the link between parenting, emotional development, and behavior. Specific suggestions that have been shared with urban Head Start mothers are offered, including support from the literature as to why such suggestions are worthwhile to share with families. The importance of acknowledging the contributing role of teachers and parents in young children's emotional development is discussed.
Analysis of the rumen bacterial diversity under two different diet conditions using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, random sequencing, and statistical ecology approaches

Abstract Bacterial community structure and diversity in the rumen of steers in conditions of hay and corn diets was assessed by in vitro retrieval and analysis of the variable region (V3) of 16S rDNA. Two types of libraries were generated in this study: DGGE libraries, which further were analysed by excising, reamplification, and sequencing, and random shotgun sequence libraries. Phylogenetic and sequence similarity analyses of the resultant 68 clone sequences in DGGE libraries revealed the presence of 42 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) or phylotypes defined as having more than 97% of sequence similarity. One hundred and thirty four clone sequences in shotgun libraries were clustered into 72 phylotypes. The phylotype similarity, diversity, richness, and evenness in these libraries were estimated using a variety of diversity indices. In relation to diet, the corn-fed animals displayed more diverse and rich bacterial populations, which were mostly contributed by CFB-related phylotypes. Proteobacteria were also numerically prevalent on this diet (27%) but were represented by a few phylotypes thus diminishing the overall diversity and species richness values. On hay diet, the principal contributors to general diversity and species richness appeared to be low-G + C gram-positives. Although the ruminal Treponemaes were encountered only in hay-fed animals, their impact on species diversity on hay diet was low because of the limited number of phylotypes.
Effects of hormone replacement therapy on cognitive aging and dementia risk in postmenopausal women: a review of ongoing large-scale, long-term clinical trials

The aim of this review is to discuss the purpose, design, and expected findings of several ongoing large-scale, long-term clinical trials studying the effects of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on cognitive aging and risk of developing dementia. The Women's Health Initiative Study of Cognitive Aging (WHISCA) and the cognitive component of the Women's International Study of long Duration Oestrogen after Menopause – Cognition (WISDOM-COG) (to be completed in 2005 and 2006, respectively) will provide information about the effects of HRT on cognitive aging. The Preventing Postmenopausal Memory Loss and Alzheimer's with Replacement Estrogens study (PREPARE), the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) and the dementia component of WISDOM-COG (to be completed in 2003, 2005 and 2009, respectively) will address the question of whether estrogens can delay or prevent dementia. These ongoing clinical trials will also be the first to study the effects of estrogen with and without progesterone, and the effect...
The turbonator: Design and development

THE BASIC configuration of the electric generating systems used on aircraft has been changing rapidly in recent years. This change has carried from the wide-speed-range 30-volt d-c systems used on most World War II planes to the constant-frequency 400-cps (cycle per second) a-c systems used on newer aircraft. The advent of constant-frequency requirements on airplanes with variable-speed engines necessitated the development of techniques for supplying constant-speed shaft power to the generators. In some cases this is done with shaft power supplied through variable gear ratio devices and in other cases by fixed-speed air turbines operating on high-pressure air bled from the jet engine compressor. Regardless of the approach used, the electric system designer faces two major problems; overall system weight must be minimized, and the system components must be compatible with the severe environmental conditions associated with high-performance aircraft. Both of these problems promise to become more severe in future aircraft.1
Nature of the transition in nonlinear spin-S Ising models (half-integer spin)

Abstract We consider the spin-S Hamiltonian H =-JΣ 〈i,j〉 Q S (S i )Q S (S j )−λΣ i Q S (S i ) where QS(y) is a polynomial in y of degree 2S whose eigenvalues are ±1 and rigorously show that except for a multiplicative constant, the partition functions for all half-integer values of S are identical.
Measuring Kleinman-disallowed hyperpolarizabilities by time-resolved hyper-Rayleigh scattering

Time-resolved single photon counting is used for measuring Kleinman-disallowed nonlinear tensor components in order to evaluate molecular materials for chiral axial organic nonlinear optical materials. The experimental setup and results are described.
Oligomycin effects on lipolysis and the oxidative metabolism of brown fat cells

Abstract 1. Oligomycin inhibited the respiration of rat brown fat cells incubated in the absence but not in the presence of 10 mM glucose. 2. Oligomycin increased the conversion of glucose to CO 2 in brown fat cells. In white fat cells oligomycin diminished the conversion of glucose to CO 2 . 3. m -Chloro(carbonyl cyanide)phenylhydrazone doubled respiration by brown fat cells and markedly increased the conversion of glucose to CO 2 over a 2-h period in the presence of glucose. In the absence of glucose, m -chloro(carbonyl cyanide)phenylhydrazone reduced respiration of brown fat cells by over 50%. 4. Octanoic acid (0.9 mM) increased O 2 consumption of brown fat cells over 10-fold in the presence of glucose and 4-fold in the absence of glucose. Oligomycin had only a small effect on octanoate conversion to CO 2 or octanoate-induced respiration of brown fat cells in the presence of glucose, but in the absence of glucose oligomycin markedly inhibited these parameters. 5. Oligomycin blocked the lipolytic response of both brown and white fat cells to epinephrine and theophylline if the antibiotic was added prior to the lipolytic agents. 6. These data indicate that in the presence of glucose both basal and fatty acid-stimulated respiration in brown fat cells is largely oligomycin insensitive under conditions in which hormonal activation of lipolysis is blocked by oligomycin.
Metallic sandwich panels subjected to multiple intense shocks

The mechanical response and fracture of metal sandwich panels subjected to multiple impulsive pressure loads (shocks) were investigated for panels with honeycomb and folded plate core constructions. The structural performance of panels with specific core configurations under multiple impulsive pressure loads is quantified by the maximum transverse deflection of the face sheets and the core crushing strain at mid-span of the panels. A limited set of simulations was carried out to find the optimum core density of a square honeycomb core sandwich panels under two shocks. The panels with a relative core density of 4%–5% are shown to have minimum face sheet deflection for the loading conditions considered here. This was consistent with the findings related to the sandwich panel response subjected to a single intense shock. Comparison of these results showed that optimized sandwich panels outperform solid plates under shock loading. An empirical method for prediction of the deflection and fracture of sandwich panels under two consecutive shocks – based on finding an effective peak over-pressure – was provided. Moreover, a limited number of simulations related to response and fracture of sandwich panels under multiple shocks with different material properties were performed to highlight the role of metal strength and ductility. In this set of simulations, square honeycomb sandwich panels made of four steels representing a relatively wide range of strength, strain hardening and ductility values were studied. For panels clamped at their edge, the observed failure mechanisms are core failure, top face failure and tearing at or close to the clamped edge. Failure diagrams for sandwich panels were constructed which reveal the fracture and failure mechanisms under various shock intensities for panels subjected to up to three consecutive shocks. The results complement previous studies on the behavior and fracture of these panels under high intensity dynamic loading and further highlights the potential of these panels for development of threat-resistant structural systems.
Solid state magnetic azimuth sensor for small satellites

The Earth's magnetic field can provide attitude reference for satellites. Because of the nature of the terrestrial magnetic field, magnetic sensing is primarily used to sense azimuth, with a horizon sensor providing reference in the other two axes. The magnetometer azimuth sensor is small, light, and inexpensive. A new solid-state magnetometer based on magnetoresistive techniques can provide azimuth determination with an accuracy equal to existing techniques. It has even more favorable advantages, however, in size, weight, power consumption, and cost compared to conventional techniques. A magnetic azimuth sensing system based on this magnetometer should provide azimuth information to about 0.5 degrees, a limit imposed by uncertainties in the Earth's field rather than limitation in sensitivity of the solid-state sensor.