cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Right Ventricular Function: Imaging Techniques

Functional assessment of the right ventricle (RV) is challenging and has been understudied compared with the left ventricle. However, advances in echocardiographic assessment of RV function permit the quantitative assessment of RV performance via numerous modalities. Many RV function indices have now been studied in large samples of healthy dogs, and studies suggest a clinical benefit to echocardiographic RV function assessment in dogs and cats. This article reviews relevant RV anatomy and physiology and highlights numerous indices of RV function assessment for dogs and cats. Imaging techniques, advantages and disadvantages, and clinical impact of these indices are discussed.
Ability of garlic-derived diallyl disulfide and diallyl trisulfide supplemented by oral gavage to mitigate effects of an acute postweaning feed and water deprivation event in nursery pigs

Compounds in garlic have been shown to contain anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and immune modulatory properties that may be able to mitigate the effects of nursery pig stressors. The objective of the current experiment was to determine if oral gavage of garlic-derived diallyl disulfide (DADS) and diallyl trisulfide (DATS) could mitigate the effects of a 24-h postweaning feed + water deprivation event in nursery pigs. Pigs (6.0 ± 0.05 kg and 21 d old) were allotted to 4 treatments in a randomized complete block design at weaning with 8 replicate pens per treatment that consisted of with or without a 24-h postweaning feed + water deprivation event and with or without an oral gavage containing 3.6 mg DADS + DATS/kg BW. Growth performance and morbidity were recorded throughout the experiment, and on 1, 6, and 21 d after weaning, 1 pig per pen was selected, blood was collected, the pig was euthanized, and a segment of the distal ileum was subsequently excised for morphological and gene and protein expression measurements. Mucosal gene expression was conducted by reverse transcription PCR for immune, antioxidant, and cellular integrity markers. Furthermore, activity of mucosal superoxide dismutase was measured by colorimetric assay. Immediately following the feed + water deprivation event, there was a decrease ( < 0.01) in growth performance and an increase ( = 0.01) in serum cortisol. The feed + water deprivation event tended ( = 0.10) to decrease ileal villus height and supplementation of DADS + DATS by oral gavage increased ( = 0.03) villus height 1 d after weaning. Supplementation of DADS + DATS by oral gavage decreased ( = 0.03) and tended to decrease ( = 0.08) gene expression of on 6 and 21 d after weaning, respectively. Furthermore, at 1 d after weaning, ileal mucosa SOD activity was decreased ( = 0.01) by the feed + water deprivation and increased ( = 0.04) by oral supplementation of DADS + DATS. Expression of the tight junction genes and were reduced ( ≤ 0.05) due to the feed + water deprivation event 1 d after weaning. Results from the current study show that an acute feed + water deprivation event can impact growth performance, intestinal characteristics, and antioxidant status in nursery pigs, which can be partially mitigated by oral supplementation of garlic compounds DADS + DATS.
Brewing Unequal Exchanges in Coffee: A Qualitative Investigation into the Consequences of the Java Trade in Rural Uganda

This study represents a qualitative case study examining the broad impacts of coffee cultivation from a rural region in Eastern Uganda, the Bududa District. Over 20 interviews with coffee cultivators provide insights into how the coffee economy impacts gender relations, physical health, deforestation, and economic conditions. While there are some material benefits from cultivating and selling coffee beans, a lack of long-term economic stability for households and the consequences for the status of women, the health of the community, and the local environment calls into question the efficacy of coffee production as a viable development scheme that significantly enhances overall community well-being. This research hopes to bring attention to the mechanisms that enable broader unequal exchange relationships by focusing on the perspectives and experiences of growers in Bududa, Uganda, where a considerable amount of world coffee is grown and supplied to consumers in core nations.
Live Matter: Towards a theory of plant life

AbstractPlanting endures unquestioned in landscape architecture through a reliance on the authority of scientific botany and design expertise. While plants represent the intersection of life and matter, the discipline of landscape architecture only recognizes plants for supreme utility or divine beauty: our collective desire to domesticate. The ensuing planting procedures rely on a lineage of practices that pacify the aliveness of plants, as choice parts and reductive binomials render plant form. By using the term ‘live matter’, I suggest that plants can be reoriented and recognized for their aliveness. This reorientation is substantiated by an alternative botanical framework, which lies outside the burden of economically driven botany or reductive typologies of formal composition. In the following article, the botanic contributions of three scientists—J. W. Goethe, C. Darwin, and A. Arber—are described in order to expand the practice of planting in landscape architecture, so that identification of parts ...
The sensitivity of tokamak magnetohydrodynamics stability on the edge equilibrium

Due to the X-point singularity, the safety factor tends to infinity as approaching to the last closed flux surface. The numerical treatments of the near X-point behavior become challenging both for equilibrium and stability. The usual solution is to cut off a small fraction of edge region for system stability evaluation or simply use an up-down symmetric equilibrium without X-point as an approximation. In this work, we assess the sensitivity of this type of equilibrium treatments on the stability calculation. It is found that the system stability can depend strongly on the safety factor value (qa) at the edge after the cutting-off. When the edge safety factor value falls in the vicinity of a rational mode number (referred to as the resonant gap), the system becomes quite unstable due to the excitation of the peeling type modes. Instead, when the edge safety factor is outside the resonant gaps, the system is much more stable and the predominant modes become the usual external kink (or ballooning and infern...
Performance of a simple robust empiric timing protocol for CT pulmonary angiography.

Abstract Objective We instituted a new, simple CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) contrast material timing protocol using a standard empiric delay to replace our previous timing bolus method. This study tests the hypothesis that the empiric protocol more consistently produces diagnostic quality images of both the pulmonary arteries and the aorta with lower radiation exposure. Materials and methods We performed a retrospective review of consecutive CTPAs for 2months both before and after the protocol change. Pulmonary artery and aortic enhancement, patient characteristics, radiation exposure and results of CTPA were analyzed. Results There were 182 patients in the timing bolus group and 164 in the empiric timing group. Both groups had a female majority (59%) and a similar mean age (58 and 57years, respectively). Enhancement was significantly higher both for the pulmonary artery (median 400HU versus 359HU, P P P =0.05) in the empiric timing group, despite a higher body-mass-index (31 versus 29kg/m 2 , P P =0.1). Conclusion A simple empiric timing protocol for CTPA has robust performance compared to a timing bolus protocol. Empiric timing preserves the required high diagnostic quality for evaluation of the pulmonary arteries with the added benefits of aortic enhancement and lower radiation exposure.
Geography learning in primary school: Comparing face-to-face versus tablet-based instruction methods

Abstract Touchscreen tablet technology is being widely adopted in primary and secondary schools throughout the world. Current research largely explores how to use this technology to teach reading and writing, mathematics, and to a lesser extent science. However a research gap exists in exploring tablet technology to teach geography. The research in this article examines if any differences in learning outcomes exist between a more traditional teaching method and one that is centered on using touchscreen tablet technology when teaching USA states’ shapes and locations to second-graders. The results indicate that there is no statistically significant difference between the two teaching methods, but that combining the two methods may lead to significant improvements in learning outcomes.
Low b-value diffusion weighted imaging is promising in the diagnosis of brain death and hypoxic-ischemic injury secondary to cardiopulmonary arrest.

Cardiorespiratory arrest can result in a spectrum of hypoxic ischemic brain injury leading to global hypoperfusion and brain death (BD). Because up to 40% of patients with BD are viable organ donors, avoiding delayed diagnosis of this condition is critical. High b-value diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) measures primarily molecular self-diffusion; however, low b-values are sensitive to perfusion. We investigated the feasibility of low b-value DWI in discriminating the global hypoperfusion of BD and hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). We retrospectively reviewed cardiorespiratory arrest subjects with a diagnosis of HIE or BD. Inclusion criteria included brain DWI acquired at both low (50 s/mm2) and high (1000–2000 s/mm2) b-values. Automated segmentation was used to determine mean b50 apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values in gray and white matter regions. Normal subjects with DWI at both values were used as age- and sex-matched controls. We evaluated 64 patients (45 with cardiorespiratory arrest and 19 normal). Cardiorespiratory arrest patients with BD had markedly lower mean b50 ADC in gray matter regions compared with HIE (0.70 ± 0.18 vs. 1.95 ± 0.25 × 10−3 mm2/s, p < 0.001) and normal subjects (vs. 1.79 ± 0.12 × 10−3 mm2/s, p < 0.001). HIE had higher mean b50 ADC compared with normal (1.95 ± 0.25 vs. 1.79 ± 0.12 × 10−3 mm2/s, p = 0.016). There was wide separation of gray matter ADC values in BD subjects compared with age matched normal and HIE subjects. White matter values were also markedly decreased in the BD population, although they were less predictive than gray matter. Low b-value DWI is promising for the discrimination of HIE with maintained perfusion and brain death in cardiorespiratory arrest.
Virtual Configurations and Constitutive Equations for Residually Stressed Bodies with Material Symmetry

The purpose of this paper is to construct the general forms for constitutive equations for residually stressed hyperelastic bodies that are composed of material with a specified symmetry. The effective mechanical properties of a material comprising a residually stressed body are dependent on both the intrinsic material properties of the underlying natural material and on the residual stress field itself. Thus, prediction of the mechanical behavior of a residually stressed body typically requires a constitutive model that explicitly includes the influence of the residual stress for deformations out of the residually stressed configuration. In this paper, constitutive equations are derived for the cases where the underlying natural material is transversely isotropic or orthotropic, two material symmetries of special interest in the description of biological tissues. In addition, it is established that the method used in the derivation can be applied to materials with any symmetry for which an integrity basis is known. The derivation requires that the constitutive equation for the underlying natural material be known and that the restriction of the response function to the set of positive definite symmetric tensors be locally invertible. The resulting constitutive equations are expressed as functions of the residual stress and the deformation gradient out of the residually stressed configuration. A major advantage of the method is that the only material parameters in the constitutive equation are those of the underlying stress free material.
Care of Chronically Ill Children in Schools

Children with chronic illnesses and handicapping conditions spend more time outside the family in school than in any other institution. This article addresses the major issues that need to be addressed by schools and gives guidelines for appropriate school care. The topics discussed are educational placement of chronically ill children, related school services, school-health services, and the pediatrician’s role in schools.
OP120: Oral cancer clinical risk assessment with the dynamic electronic gene – Environment record

Oral cancer risk assessment is crucial in reducing disease impact via prevention and increased screening. The primary aim of this presentation is to describe the scientific basis for the creation of a clinical risk assessment method named Dynamic Electronic Gene - Environment Record (DYEGER). A secondary aim is to evaluate how DYEGER performs in the clinic. Methods: We constructed a complex algorithm that processes information on patients’ risk factors, synthesizes risk data into individualised risk scores, and places patients in distinct risk categories. Several risk factors have been incorporated into the algorithm including tobacco use and frequency intensity, ethanol use and frequency intensity, HPV status, gender, age, diet, occupational exposure and two genetic polymorphisms on genes ERCC5 and IGF2R. Comprehensive meta-analysis of the published literature via CMA v2. software was conducted to quantify disease risk using random effects modelling. A summary odds ratio was generated for each risk factor based on weights assigned to each study that we meta-analysed. Exponential regression analysis was performed to calculate the odds ratio for continuous exposures. Results: Composite DYEGER scores 1–4 were found to denote low risk individuals; DYEGER scores 5–16 were found to denote medium risk individuals, and DYEGER >17 denote individuals at high risk. In addition to risk classification, the individual DYEGER categories point to risk determinants that require reduction, and can be used to drive follow up and secondary prevention. Conclusion: The DYEGER method permits clinicians to classify individuals in risk categories according to genetic and behavioural risk determinants. It also permits clinicians to identify the risk elements that drive the risk score and to follow up with patients to reduce exposure. Pilot evaluation of the method in the clinic produced positive results with 90% of the participants reporting ease of use, increased satisfaction of the clinician and increased patient awareness.
LISTERIA | Listeria monocytogenes – Detection by Chemiluminescent DNA Hybridization

Chemiluminescence reactions can be used to detect nucleic acid hybridization when a suitably labeled probe is available. A commercial test kit based on this principle was initially developed to identify Listeria monocytogenes clinical isolates, but it has also been used with food isolates. A sample can be identified within an hour. The kit is based on a chemically tagged DNA probe that specifically hybridizes to a region of L. monocytogenes ribosomal RNA. If selective enrichment cultures of foods are concentrated and fractionated appropriately, the kit can be used to detect L. monocytogenes in foods.
Assessing niacin as an atherosclerosis therapeutic agent valuable insights provided by high-resolution vascular magnetic resonance imaging.

Despite the substantial clinical benefit offered by potent low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-reducing therapeutics such as statins, a majority of patients will still experience major cardiovascular events ([1][1]). Accordingly, there exists a large, unmet need for new atherosclerosis therapeutic
Interface model of PEM fuel cell membrane steady-state behavior

Modeling works which simulate the proton-exchange membrane fuel cell with the computational fluid dynamics approach involve the simultaneous solution of multiple, interconnected physics equations for fluid flows, heat transport, electrochemical reactions, and both protonic and electronic conduction. Modeling efforts vary by how they treat the physics within and adjacent to the membrane-electrode assembly (MEA). Certain approaches treat the MEA not as part of the computational domain, but rather an interface connecting the anode and cathode computational domains. These approaches may lack the ability to consistently model catalyst layer losses and MEA ohmic resistance. This work presents an upgraded interface formulation where coupled water, heat, and current transport behaviors of the MEA are modeled analytically. Improving upon the previous work, catalyst layer losses can now be modeled accurately without ad-hoc selection of model kinetic parameters. Key to the formulation is the incorporation of water absorption/desorption resistances. The interface model is developed with the consideration of only thru-plane variation, based upon varied fundamental research into each of the relevant physics. The model is validated against differential cell data with high- and low-humidity reactants. The agreement is very good in each case.
Representation and evolution of urban weather boundary conditions in downtown Chicago

This study presents a novel computing technique for data exchange and coupling between a high-resolution weather simulation model and a building energy model, with a goal of evaluating the impact o...
Variability in reported physician practices for brain death determination

Objectives The degree of training and variability in the clinical brain death examination performed by physicians is not known. Methods Surveys were distributed to physicians (including physicians-in-training) practicing at 3 separate academic medical centers. Data, including level of practice, training received in completion of a brain death examination, examination components performed, and use of confirmatory tests were collected. Data were evaluated for accuracy in the brain death examination, self-perceived competence in the examination, and indications for confirmatory tests. Results Of 225 total respondents, 68 reported completing brain death examinations in practice. Most physicians who complete a brain death examination reported they had received training in how to complete the examination (76.1%). Seventeen respondents (25%) reported doing a brain death examination that is consistent with the current practice guideline. As a part of their brain death assessment, 10.3% of physicians did not report completing an apnea test. Of clinicians who obtain confirmatory tests on an as-needed basis, 28.3% do so if a patient breathes during an apnea test, a clinical finding that is not consistent with brain death. Conclusions There is substantial variability in how physicians approach the adult brain death examination, but our survey also identified lack of training in nearly 1 in 4 academic physicians. A formal training course in the principles and proper technique of the brain death examination by physicians with expert knowledge of this clinical assessment is recommended.
Will history repeat itself? Growth mixture modeling of suspected serial sexual offending using forensic DNA evidence

Abstract Purpose Sexual offenders often commit more than one sexual assault, but there is variability in how many assaults they commit and in what pattern over time. Trajectory modeling studies typically use criminal history records as a data source to model perpetrators' sexual assault convictions, but this may underestimate the scope of offending because so few sexual assaults result in a conviction. Method We used both criminal history records and forensic DNA evidence from sexual assault kits (SAKs; also termed ‘rape kit’) to identity a sample of n = 392 serial offenders, all of whom were suspected of committing two or more sexual assaults. Results Using growth mixture models, we identified and validated a four-class model of suspected serial sexual offending spanning ages 16 to 60. The four classes varied in the overall number of sexual assaults committed by each perpetrator and the ages of peak offending. All classes included sexual assaults identified through rape kit testing and through criminal history records. Conclusions Forensic DNA testing of rape kits can help identify suspected serial sexual offenders. DNA testing plus criminal history searches on identified offenders as standard investigation practice would provide police with a more complete picture of offenders' criminal behavior.
Impact of Headlight Glare on Pedestrian Detection with Unilateral Cataract

Detecting pedestrians while driving at night is difficult, and is further impeded by oncoming headlight glare (HLG). Cataracts increase intraocular light scattering, making the task even more challenging. We used a within-subjects repeated measures design to determine the impact of HLG on driving with unilateral cataract. Pedestrian detection performance of six young normal vision (NV) subjects was measured with clear lens glasses and with simulated unilateral cataract (0.8 Bangerter foil) glasses. The subjects drove night-time scenarios in a driving simulator with and without custom simulated headlight glare. With simulated unilateral cataracts, pedestrian detection rates decreased and response times increased with oncoming HLG. We verified these effects with six patients who already underwent cataract surgery for one eye and were scheduled to get cataract surgery in the other eye. We measured their performance before and after the second cataract surgery. The results were similar to those obtained with the simulated unilateral cataract, confirming that a negative impact of HLG persists with untreated cataract in one eye.
The Balkan Reconquista and Turkey’s Forgotten Refugee Crisis

Over the previous two centuries Southeastern Europe has gained an unenviable reputation as an arena for bloody ethnic conflict. The national wars of liberation, the Balkan Wars, the First and Secon...
Blueprint for a Pop-up SARS-CoV-2 Testing Lab

Abstract The appearance and spread of the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) led to the official declaration of a global pandemic, with states in the US implementing shelter-in-place orders at an unprecedented scale. SARS-CoV-2 has a robust person-to-person transmission rate and an asymptomatic period of two weeks or more, leading to widespread infection that has overwhelmed healthcare infrastructures around the globe. Effective public health measures require extensive, accurate, and rapid testing to determine infection rates. Here we describe the strategy we used to establish a CLIA-licensed clinical laboratory to perform a validated Laboratory-Developed Test (LDT) for SARS-CoV-2 in Berkeley, California and the surrounding Bay Area community. Our procedures for implementing the technical, regulatory, and data management workstreams necessary for clinical sample processing provide a roadmap to aid others in setting up similar testing centers. Note on Nomenclature in accordance with established virology and infectious disease nomenclature, throughout this document we use “SARS-CoV-2” to refer to the viral agent causing infection and “COVID-19” to refer to the human infectious disease caused by that viral agent.
Augmenting an Inpatient Fall Program With Video Observation.

Background Keeping patients safe is a goal for all health care facilities. Facilities should look at technology as a way to help improve outcomes. Patient falls are a dangerous, costly, and preventable health care-associated event. Local problem The fall rate on the host facility's orthopedic unit was 2.6 per 1000 patient-days. Methods Patients on an inpatient orthopedic unit who had a fall risk score greater than 13, based on the Johns Hopkins Fall Risk Assessment Tool, were provided with an added intervention, video observation. Intervention Video observation units with 2-way communication were introduced to help prevent patient falls. Results The fall rate per 1000 patient-days after implementing this intervention for 6 weeks was 0 falls per 1000 patient-days. Conclusions There was a 100% decrease in patient falls on the inpatient unit where video observation was implemented.
Radiographic paradoxical response in patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) undergoing treatment with second-generation hormone therapy (second-HT).

5577Background: Prostate specific antigen (PSA) has well-recognized limitations as a marker for treatment response and disease progression. A post hoc analysis of the PREVAIL trial reported 24.5% o...
The ‘Eyes’ Have It: The Pleasures and Problems of Scopophilia in Nabokov’s Work

This paper examines a distinctive aspect of the important theme of vision in Vladimir Nabokov’s work—the pleasure that one person may derive from observing another person, often of the opposite sex. While many episodes of voyeurism or scopophilia involve a male character spying on a female character, Nabokov likes to complicate or even subvert this pattern, creating scenes in which males watch other males, or females take control of the gaze and observe male characters. The paper explores the delights and the discomforts that one might derive in Nabokov’s fictional world from spying on another, depending on whether one is the observer or the observed. While fully aware of the pleasure that some of his male characters gain from looking at a female figure from a safe distance, Nabokov enjoys destabilizing this impulse through parody, satire, and exaggeration, creating a rich portrait of human desire, longing, and frustration.
Transgender Women on College Athletic Teams - The Case of Lindsay Hecox.

Transgender Women on College Athletic Teams A challenge to an Idaho law prohibiting transgender girls and women from joining female athletic teams raises important questions about the complex biolo...
Transcranial Doppler Ultrasound Evidence of Active Cerebral Embolization in COVID-19.

Abstract Objective To report six consecutive patients with confirmed coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) who underwent Transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasonography evaluation for cerebral microemboli in the setting of suspected or confirmed acute ischemic stroke. Methods Patient data were obtained from medical records from Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Chicago, IL between May and June 2020. All patients with confirmed COVID-19 who underwent clinical TCD ultrasonography for microemboli detection were included. Results A total of eight TCD studies were performed in six patients with COVID-19 (4 men and 2 women, median age 65±5), four with confirmed ischemic stroke and two with refractory encephalopathy. Microemboli were detected in three male patients, two patients had suffered a confirmed ischemic stroke and one who developed prolonged encephalopathy. Microemboli of varying intensity were identified in multiple vascular territories in two patients, and microemboli persisted despite therapeutic anticoagulation in a third patient. Of the three patients without evidence of microemboli on TCD ultrasonography, two patients had suffered a confirmed ischemic stroke, while one remained with refractory encephalopathy. Conclusions TCD ultrasonography for microemboli detection identified three patients with confirmed COVID-19 with evidence of cerebral arterial microemboli, including one who was therapeutically anticoagulated. TCD ultrasonography provides a non-invasive method for evaluating cerebral microemboli in patients with COVID-19 and may be useful in assessing response to treatment in cases with suspected or confirmed disorders of hypercoagulability. Further studies investigating the prevalence of cerebral microemboli and associated risk factors are needed to characterize their pathogenic mechanism and guide therapeutic interventions in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
An examination of emotion regulation as a mechanism underlying eating disorder pathology in lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals

Abstract Objective Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) individuals generally experience eating disorders at higher rates than heterosexual individuals. While there is limited research examining why LGB individuals experience higher levels of eating pathology, emotion regulation (ER) deficits have been associated with higher rates of other forms of psychopathology in this population. The present study examined the impact of specific ER deficits on the relationship between LGB status and eating pathology. We hypothesized that 1) LGB individuals would report higher levels of ER deficits, and 2) ER deficits would mediate the relationship between LGB status and eating pathology. Method Participants were 195 LGB and 193 heterosexual adults recruited via mTurk who completed self-report measures of eating pathology and ER deficits. Results One-way ANCOVA analyses revealed that LGB individuals reported higher levels of ER deficits compared to heterosexuals for all DERS subscales except for DERS-Awareness. Nearly all DERS subscales (DERS-Nonacceptance, DERS-Goals, DERS-Strategies, DERS-Impulse) significantly mediated the relationship between LGB status and eating pathology. Discussion Consistent with our hypotheses, LGB individuals reported higher levels of ER deficits compared to heterosexuals and specific ER deficits partially accounted for the relationship between LGB status and eating pathology. Future research should utilize longitudinal designs to examine whether the ER deficits identified in the present study prospectively predict eating pathology. Considering the immense mental health burden placed on the LGB community, it is essential that research continue to identify the unique needs of LGB individuals to more effectively treat and prevent psychopathology, including eating disorders, in this population.
Communicating Mathematics During Small Groupwork Through Video-Conferencing Applications

The Covid-19-induced closure of schools forced many instructors throughout the world to develop ways to deliver instruction online. Video-conferencing applications became one prominent tool for instructors to continue instruction. We report the perceptions of undergraduate mathematics students and preservice mathematics teachers who interacted in online “workshops.” In the online workshops, students worked on mathematics problems in small groups while preservice teachers supported their work. Two rounds of semi-structured interviews with both groups were conducted, wherein participants compared and contrasted their experiences with in-person and online group work. Analyses revealed three challenges with respect to online communication: (a) limited access to one another’s written mathematical work, (b) limited ability to have one-on-one conversations, and (c) the tendency for students to leave their cameras turned off during the workshops. In particular, we emphasize that the multimodal nature of mathematics requires extra attention to strategies for sharing symbolic, diagrammatic, gestural, and other non-verbal ways of communicating mathematics.
Holistic Framework for Highway Construction Cost Index Development Based on Inconsistent Pay Items

AbstractA construction cost index (CCI) measures the price changes of construction items over time. It allows owner agencies and contractors to monitor construction market fluctuations so that they...
La narrativa breve de Patricia Esteban Erlés desde el prisma del color

The short stories of Patricia Esteban Erles are saturated with color and exemplify this author’s constant experimentation with language. The purpose of this essay is to analyze how Erles uses color in her short stories (“Verde arsenico”, Manderley en venta and Azul ruso) and to propose an array of examples of this method. We will show how Erles manages to make the connections between form and content stronger thanks to the use of color, for example. We will also see color used as a tool that helps the narrator achieve depth within the limits of the short story. We will also show how Erles uses particular historical colors as intertexts or how she further communicates taboo elements in her uncanny stories through allusions to colors. Erles uses techniques provenient from photography such as the bokeh and shows a deep knowledge of the physical workings of color waves, and she uses this to make her stories even scarier and more verisimilar. Through a very specific use of verbal tones, Erles creates a pluridimensional Gothic postmodern space that adapts decadent elements to a contemporary taste.
Better Together: Coeur d’Alene Reservation Communities and the University of Idaho

This article describes the University of Idaho’s partnershipwith the Coeur d’Alene Reservation Communities, which wasawarded a 2010 Outreach Scholarship/W. K. Kellogg FoundationEngagement Award for the Western Region.
Survival of Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium, and Listeria monocytogenes in and on Vacuum Packaged Lebanon Bologna Stored at 3.6 and 13.0°C

Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium, or Listeria monocytogenes was spread onto the surface of Lebanon bologna luncheon slices using sterile glass rods. The inoculated slices were stacked and vacuum packaged. The packages were stored at 3.6 or 13°C. The foodborne pathogens, E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella Typhimurium, or L. monocytogenes were reduced in Lebanon bologna during storage at 3.6 or 13°C. The higher storage temperature (13.0°C) resulted in significantly faster destruction of E. coli O157:H7 and L. monocytogenes, compared to storage at refrigeration temperature (3.6°C) (P < 0.005). E. coli O157:H7 was the most resistant to destruction among the three foodborne pathogens. A linear destruction of E. coli O157:H7 occurred only after an initial lag period. Storage temperature did not have a significant effect on the rate of destruction of Salmonella Typhimurium. Foodborne pathogens inoculated prior to fermentation did not show any enhanced survival compared to control cells (inoculated after...
Post-Newtonian Methods and Conservation Laws

The present paper is concerned with the conservation laws in general relativity as expressed in terms of the Landau-Lifshitz complex and their role in the development of the successive post-Newtonian approximations to the equations of general relativity of a perfect fluid. In § I, the known conservation laws of Newtonian hydrodynamics are formulated in a language that the relativistic laws appear as natural generalizations. In § II, the same laws are considered in the framework of general relativity. In particular the conserved energy is identified as the difference between the (0,0)-component of the Landau-Lifshitz complex and the conserved rest-mass energy (\(={{c}^{2}}p{{u}^{0}}\sqrt{-g}\)). In § III, the development of the first and the second post-Newtonian approximations to the equations of relativistic hydrodynamics are described and illustrated. And finally in § IV, the manner in which one can obtain the equations of the 2 1/2 — post-Newtonian approximation is described. In this approximation all terms inclusive of O(c−5) beyond the Newtonian are retained; it is in this approximation that terms representing the reaction of the fluid to the emission of gravitational radiation by the system first make their appearance. It is shown how the derived radiation-reaction terms of O(c−5) contribute to the dissipation of energy and angular momentum in agreement with the predictions of the linearized theory of gravitational radiation.
Hepatic polysomes that contain apoprotein B mRNA have unusual physical properties.

Abstract To characterize the association of the mRNA for apoprotein B (apoB) with ribosomes, rat hepatic cytoplasmic extracts were fractionated by density gradient centrifugation. On linear sucrose gradients, the sedimentation velocity of the 14.4-kilobase apoB mRNA was retarded compared to the mRNAs for other hepatic proteins, which were concentrated in fractions containing the bulk of the polysomes. This unusual distribution of apoB mRNA could not be explained by cotranslational association of nascent apoB peptides with lipids, based on experiments using either detergents to delipidate proteins or puromycin to release nascent peptides from polysomes. The results were also not the result of the editing of apoB mRNA, since the sucrose gradient distributions of both edited and nonedited forms were similar. In contrast, the distribution of a 3'-truncated apoB mRNA (apoB-42, 5.8 kilobases) expressed in rat hepatoma cells resembled that of mRNA of a typical hepatic protein. As opposed to the sedimentation velocity results, on equilibrium density gradients most hepatic apoB mRNA was found in the fraction that contained polysomes. Based on these data, the elongation rate of nascent apoB, and the calculated translational yield of apoB mRNA, we conclude that the majority of rat hepatic apoB mRNA must be part of polysomal complexes with unusual physical properties related to the presence of sequence(s) in the 3'-region of the message. These sequences may either be primary determinants of structural features or binding sites for protein factors that effect conformational changes.
Automobility and Freedom

Cars are central to modern life the world over. When ownership and use of cars becomes widespread in a society – decades ago in most of the western world; more recently in China, India, and many other countries – we can readily identify substantial changes: its centrality to economic activity and growth, dramatic influence on community development patterns, alterations to the rhythms of daily life, novel threats to individual safety, and of course its devastating impact on climate and environmental quality. Influences of such remarkable breadth and depth seem likely to have a great impact upon our political conceptions, yet have rarely been the explicit subject of political theory. I confront the car not merely as a private consumer choice, nor simply as a subject of technological improvement, but as an embedded component of a material system and practice that has been termed 'automobility.' I argue that contemporary conceptions of freedom are far more deeply enmeshed with automobility than we typically recognize or examine. On the one hand, automobility generates a tremendously flexible – and widely appealing -- source of mobility, privacy, and independence. On the other hand, it can be understood as a potentially coercive practice that consumes massive amounts of space, requires lengthy commutes, increases dependence among youth, elderly, and others unable to drive, harms or eliminates environmental options for future generations, and structures patterns of living, working, and playing that often preclude many from more than nominal use of alternatives even where these are available. Consistent with the APSA theme of 'the politics of rights,' I sketch some of the contours of a conception of freedom that emerges from our status as what might be termed automobility’s subjects. Rights talk begins with conceptions of freedom. Yet familiar liberal or republican conceptions remain abstracted from practice in ways that make it difficult to garner insight into automobility. As a result, rather than beginning with such theories and then seeking to apply them to discourses of automobility, the aim of this paper is to examine automobility and freedom together. In what ways does automobility shape our understandings of freedom and how does this understanding create both constraints and opportunities for critical evaluation of automobility?
Generating confidence intervals for composition-based landscape indexes

Many landscape indexes with ecological relevance have been proposed, including diversity indexes, dominance, fractal dimension, and patch size distribution. Classified land cover data in a geographic information system (GIS) are frequently used to calculate these indexes. However, a lack of methods for quantifying uncertainty in these measures makes it difficult to test hypothesized relations among landscape indexes and ecological processes. One source of uncertainty in landscape indexes is classification error in land cover data, which can be reported in the form of an error matrix. Some researchers have used error matrices to adjust extent estimates derived from classified land cover data. Because landscape diversity indexes depend only on landscape composition – the extent of each cover in a landscape – adjusted extent estimates may be used to calculate diversity indexes. We used a bootstrap procedure to extend this approach and generate confidence intervals for diversity indexes. Bootstrapping is a technique that allows one to estimate sample variability by resampling from the empirical probability distribution defined by a single sample. Using the empirical distribution defined by an error matrix, we generated a bootstrap sample of error matrixes. The sample of error matrixes was used to generate a sample of adjusted diversity indexes from which estimated confidence intervals for the diversity indexes were calculated. We also note that present methods for accuracy assessment are not sufficient for quantifying the uncertainty in landscape indexes that are sensitive to the size, shape, and spatial arrangement of patches. More information about the spatial structure of error is needed to calculate uncertainty for these indexes. Alternative approaches should be considered, including combining traditional accuracy assessments with other probability data generated during the classification procedure.
The Hurst exponent of Fermi gamma-ray bursts

Using a wavelet decomposition technique, we have extracted the Hurst exponent for a sample of 46 long and 22 short Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) detected by the Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) aboard the Fermi satellite. This exponent is a scaling parameter that provides a measure of long-range behavior in a time series. The mean Hurst exponent for the short GRBs is significantly smaller than that for the long GRBs. The separation may serve as an unbiased criterion for distinguishing short and long GRBs.
Conceptual influences on induction: A case for a late onset.

This research examines the mechanism of early induction, the development of induction, and the ways attentional and conceptual factors contribute to induction across development. Different theoretical views offer different answers to these questions. Six experiments with 4- and 5-year-olds, 7-year-olds and adults (N = 208) test these competing theories by teaching categories for which category membership and perceptual similarity are in conflict, and varying orthogonally conceptual and attentional factors that may potentially affect inductive inference. The results suggest that early induction is similarity-based; conceptual information plays a negligible role in early induction, but its role increases gradually, with the 7-year-olds being a transitional group. And finally, there is substantial contribution of attention to the development of induction: only adults, but not children, could perform category-based induction without attentional support. Therefore, category-based induction exhibits protracted development, with attentional factors contributing early in development and conceptual factors contributing later in development. These results are discussed in relation to existing theories of development of inductive inference and broader theoretical views on cognitive development.
A novel pathway of cellular activation mediated by antiphospholipid antibody‐induced extracellular vesicles

Background Elevated levels of endothelial cell (EC)-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) circulate in patients with antiphospholipid antibodies (APLAs), and APLAs, particularly those against β2-glycoprotein I (β2GPI), stimulate EV release from ECs. However, the effects of EC-derived EVs have not been characterized.
Micro-Evolution: Cultural Elements in Physical Variation

THE study of genetic population theory and of the processes of microevolution with human material is very difficult, and little actual work has been done. Fortunately, such a study appeared in this journal (Kraus and White 1956) while the present investigation was under way, thus obviating the need for much preface here. Let us simply make two main points. The first is the influence of culture on breeding behavior, through different mating systems, different population sizes or densities, different opportunities for gene exchange, and so forth (see especially Kluckhohn and Griffiths 1950). This should be a differential of some effect in the case of man, and it compels a relationship between cultural and physical anthropology which has to a great extent been neglected, as Kraus and White point out. For example, "The results of this neglect are twofold: first, the phenotypic and genotypic frequencies are not necessarily representative of the designated population, and second, t -called population (or nation or tribe, etc.) is not necessarily a biologicalhbreeding unit, since only a careful study of social institutions, particularly such social groups as the clan, the local community, and the band, can possibly determine the true breeding population" (Kraus and White 1956:1019). But blame can be shared by both physical and cultural anthropologists, for "new demands are now placed upon the usual field procedures, since the quantification of data is a prerequisite. The cultural anthropologist must not only describe, he must count" (Kraus and White 1956:1018). The second is the fact that theorems of population genetics, and applications of them, relate very largely, though by no means entirely, to single genepair traits. However, traits of continuous variation (such as underlie the familiar anthropological measurements of form) are doubtless determined by several loci, and may be polygenic in the proper sense; hence much less can be said about them (but see Mather 1949; Darlington and Mather 1950; Reeve and Waddington 1952). Yet these traits constitute a whole field of human variation in size and shape, furthermore involving modification by environment as well as the relationship and differentiation of populations-in short, all the processes of micro-evolution. It should also be noted that this normal morphology is traditionally the central field not only of physical anthropology but of zoology and paleontology as well. Snyder's remarks (1950:163) on this subject are especially pertinent:
Named Entity Transliteration and Discovery from Multilingual Comparable Corpora

Named Entity recognition (NER) is an important part of many natural language processing tasks. Most current approaches employ machine learning techniques and require supervised data. However, many languages lack such resources. This paper presents an algorithm to automatically discover Named Entities (NEs) in a resource free language, given a bilingual corpora in which it is weakly temporally aligned with a resource rich language. We observe that NEs have similar time distributions across such corpora, and that they are often transliterated, and develop an algorithm that exploits both iteratively. The algorithm makes use of a new, frequency based, metric for time distributions and a resource free discriminative approach to transliteration. We evaluate the algorithm on an English-Russian corpus, and show high level of NEs discovery in Russian.
Delay-induced degrade-and-fire oscillations in small genetic circuits.

Robust oscillations have recently been observed in a synthetic gene network composed of coupled positive and negative feedback loops. Here we use deterministic and stochastic modeling to investigate how a small time delay in such regulatory networks can lead to strongly nonlinear oscillations that can be characterized by ‘‘degrade-and-fire’’ dynamics. We show that the period of the oscillations can be significantly greater than the delay time, provided the circuit components possess strong activation and tight repression. The variability of the period is strongly influenced by fluctuations near the oscillatory minima, when the number of regulatory molecules is small.