cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Size and habit evolution of PETN crystals—a lattice Monte Carlo study

Starting from an accurate inter-atomic potential we develop a simple scheme of generating an ''on-lattice'' molecular potential of short range, which is then incorporated into a lattice Monte Carlo code for simulating size and shape evolution of nanocrystallites. As a specific example, we test such a procedure on the morphological evolution of a molecular crystal of interest to us, e.g., Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, or PETN, and obtain realistic facetted structures in excellent agreement with experimental morphologies. We investigate several interesting effects including, the evolution of the initial shape of a ''seed'' to an equilibrium configuration, and the variation of growth morphology as a function of the rate of particle addition relative to diffusion.
Undergraduate use of government documents in the social sciences

Abstract This study investigates the degree of use of government documents by undergraduates in three social science disciplines and considers the reasons for use and nonuse, as well as methods of access to these materials. The results indicate that the frequency of document use was highest among political science students and lowest among history students, and that use was more frequent among seniors and juniors than freshmen and sophomores. Faculty members were seen to present the greatest influence in encouraging the students to use documents. Appropriate considerations for bibliographic instruction are inferred from these results and from responses suggesting typical methods of access to documents made by students.
The impact of coal utilization in Texas under the National energy plan

Abstract The paper describes the results of a study of the impact of the National Energy on the trend towards increased utilization of coal and lignite in Texas with forecasts of increased coal and lignite utilization for the electric utility and industrial sectors. Environmental impacts of this increased coal and lignite use are projected in terms of increased air pollutant emissions and air quality impacts. Economic costs of compliance with alternative source emission regulations are also projected for the electric utility industry. Lignite consumption in Texas under the National Energy Plan is projected to increase from the present 13 million metric tons in 1976 to 57 million metric tons annually by 1985. Sub-bituminous coal consumption in Texas is projected to increase from 1 million metric per year in 1976 to 49 million metric tons per year in 1985. Bituminous coal consumption in Texas is expected to increase from less than one million metric tons per year in 1976 to about 3 million metric tons per year in 1985. Major increases in sulfur oxides emissions from coal and lignite combustion in Texas can be expected by 1985 of up to 1.5 × 10 9 kg per year without controls and 0.2 × 10 9 kg per year with controls. Increases in acid precipitation formation will result in north-east Texas from extensive lignite usage for electric power generation as a detriment to agriculture. The photochemical air pollution problem in the Houston area will probably worsen primarily because of increased nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides emissions because of industrial coal combustion. Capital costs of air pollution controls in Texas for coal-fired utility boilers are estimated as up to U.S. $3.9 billion by 1985, with total operating costs of up to U.S. $1.2 billion per year.
Preliminary study of a two-element DRA sensor array for microwave breast cancer detection

A two-element sensor array was modeled. Preliminary results showed a significant difference of transmission coefficient level with the presence of the tumor and the decreasing level of the transmission coefficients when tumor shifts off the center. Moreover, an investigation carried out to study the effect of skin layer shows the skin layer reduces the coupling between two sensors and it is feasible to use the simplified no-skin models for tumor detection. The experimental detection results in both frequency domain and time domain will be presented later in the conference.
Capillary GC with Atomic Emission Detection (AED)

The historical development of atomic emission detection (AED) led to several attempts to use this technique for the identification of complex samples.
RECONSIDERING STATE, PARTY, AND SOCIETY IN EARLY REPUBLICAN TURKEY: POLITICS OF PETITIONING

This article examines the language, content, role, and historical significance of petitions written by ordinary people to the secretary-general of the Republican People's Party in the 1920s and 1930s. Given the highly authoritarian circumstances in which other forms of expressing popular opinion were suppressed, petition writing was one of the few modes of interaction between the bureaucratic/political elites and the people. Although petitioning was an effective mechanism for the Kemalist elite to gain insight into attitudes toward the new regime, people who lacked control over bureaucratic malfeasance and injustice used petitions to involve the political elite in their everyday concerns in order to have their demands fulfilled and justice restored. Through various strategies, petitioners mediated and/or transformed the regime's nationalist and populist discourse to further their own interests. In this sense, the founding principles and the master narrative of the regime turned into a discursive field in which the meanings of “state,” “nation,” and “citizen” were being constantly redefined and contested. Petitions prove that in early republican Turkey there was a much more complicated, multilayered, multifaceted relationship between the people and state and party authorities than has previously been assumed.
Adsorption of phenol and substituted phenols by iron oxides

The ability of Fe oxides to adsorb phenol and various substituted phenols from dilute aqueous solution and from the vapor state was investigated, utilizing Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy to evaluate the type of surface complex formed. Adsorption from solution at pH 5.5 was weak (undetectable in the case of the unsubstituted phenol). There was some indication that quantity of adsorption was inversely related to the pKa of the p-substituted phenols, with the most acidic phenols adsorbing the most strongly from solution. The FTIR spectra revealed that adsorption on goethite and amorphous Fe oxide from the vapor state tended to perturb vibrational bands sensitive to the phenolic OH group, an indication of bonding between surface Fe3+ and the phenolic ligand. Depending on level of adsorption, both physically and chemically adsorbed phenols could be detected by FTIR with chemisorption being more in evidence on amorphous Fe oxide. Phenol that was 2,6-methyl-disubstituted failed to interact strongly with the goethite surface, suggesting that steric hindrance from groups adjacent to the phenolic group prevented inner-sphere coordination of the phenols to surface Fe atoms. This steric effect was not evident for low levels of adsorption on amorphous Fe oxide, suggesting an important role of site geometry in limiting chemisorption. The strength of the Fe3+-phenolic coordination bond was correlated to the pKa of the phenol, with more acidic phenols forming weaker CO bonds. The quantity of water present determined whether the phenols adsorbed at barely detectable or much higher levels, suggesting a competition between H2O and phenols for ligand positions of surface Fe.
α5β1 Integrin Activates an NF-κB-Dependent Program of Gene Expression Important for Angiogenesis and Inflammation

GeneCalling, a genome-wide method of mRNA profiling, reveals that endothelial cells adhering to fibronectin through the α5β1 integrin, but not to laminin through the α2β1 integrin, undergo a complex program of gene expression. Several of the genes identified are regulated by the NF-κB transcription factor, and many are implicated in the regulation of inflammation and angiogenesis. Adhesion of endothelial cells to fibronectin activates NF-κB through a signaling pathway requiring Ras, phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase, and Rho family proteins, whereas adhesion to laminin has a limited effect. Retroviral transfer of the superrepressor of NF-κB, IκB-2A, blocks basic fibroblast growth factor-induced angiogenesis in vivo. These results suggest that engagement of the α5β1 integrin promotes an NF-κB-dependent program of gene expression that coordinately regulates angiogenesis and inflammation.
Aquatic insects in a sea of desert: population genetic structure is shaped by limited dispersal in a naturally fragmented landscape

Habitat requirements and landscape features can exert strong influences on the population structure of organisms. For aquatic organisms in particular, hydrologic requirements can dictate the extent of available habitat, and thus the degree of genetic connectivity among populations. We used a landscape genetics approach to evaluate hypotheses regarding the influence of landscape features on connectivity among populations of the giant water bug Abedus herberti (Hemiptera: Belostomatidae). Abedus herberti is restricted to naturally-fragmented, perennial stream habitats in arid regions of North America. This species is exceptional because it is flightless at all life stages. Thus, we hypothesized a high degree of population genetic structure in A. herberti due to hydrologic constraints on habitat and low dispersal ability of the organism. A total of 617 individuals were sampled from 20 populations across southeastern Arizona, USA and genotyped at 10 microsatellite loci. We used a Bayesian clustering method to delineate genetic groups among populations. To determine which of six landscape variables (representing hypotheses of landscape-level connectivity) has the strongest association with genetic connectivity in A. herberti, we used information-theoretic model selection. Strong population structure was evident among A. herberti populations, even at small spatial scales. At a larger scale, A. herberti populations were hierarchically structured across the study region, with groups of related populations generally occurring in the same mountain range, rather than in the same major watershed. Surprisingly, stream network connectivity was not important for explaining among-population patterns. Only the Curvature landscape variable was identified as having an association with genetic connectivity in A. herberti. The Curvature variable hypothesizes that gene flow tends to occur where local topography is concave, such as within stream drainages and dry gullies. Thus, our results suggest that population connectivity may depend on the shape of local overland topography rather than direct connectivity within stream drainage networks.
A neuronal-specific differentiation protein that directly modulates retinoid receptor transcriptional activation.

The specificity of a nuclear receptor's ability to modulate gene expression resides in its ability to bind a specific lipophilic ligand, associate with specific dimerization partners and bind specific DNA sequences in the promoter regions of genes. This sequence of events appears to be the basis for targeting an additional regulatory complex composed of a variety of protein and RNA components that deliver signals for facilitation or inhibition of the RNA polymerase complex. Characterization of the tissue and cell-specific components of these coregulatory complexes appear to be integral to our understanding of nuclear receptor regulation of transcription. A novel yeast screen sensitive to retinoid-X receptor (RXR) transcriptional activation resulted in the isolation of the rat homologue of the mouse NPDC-1 gene. NPDC-1 has been shown to be involved in the control of neural cell proliferation and differentiation, possibly through interactions with the cell cycle promoting transcription factor E2F-1. Although the amino acid sequence of NPDC-1 is highly conserved between mouse, rat and human homologues, their tissue specific expression was seen to vary. A potential for direct protein:protein interaction between NPDC-1, RXR and retinoic acid receptor beta (RARβ) was observed in vitro and NPDC-1 facilitated RXR homodimer and RAR-RXR heterodimer DNA binding in vitro. Expression of NPDC-1 was also observed to repress transcription mediated by retinoid receptors as well as by several other nuclear receptor family members, although not in a universal manner. These results suggest that NPDC-1, through direct interaction with retinoid receptors, functions to enhance the transcription complex formation and DNA binding function of retinoid receptors, but ultimately repress retinoid receptor-mediated gene expression. As with NPDC-1, retinoids and their receptors have been implicated in brain development and these data provide a point of convergence for NPDC-1 and retinoid mediation of neuronal differentiation.
Estimating optical properties in layered tissues by use of the Born approximation of the radiative transport equation

We use the Born approximation of the radiative transport equation to recover simultaneously the absorption and scattering coefficients in a single layer of a two-layer tissue sample from reflectance data. This method reduces the estimation of both optical properties to a single linear, least-squares problem. It is valid over length scales smaller than a transport mean free path and hence is useful for epithelial tissue layers. We demonstrate the accuracy of this method by using spatially resolved reflectance data computed with Monte Carlo simulations.
Analyse des déterminants de la demande de travail dans les enterprises des sous branches du secteur de l’industrie en Côte d’Ivoire

La presente etude avait pour objectifs de determiner les facteurs qui influent significativement sur la demande de travail des entreprises du secteur industriel en Cote d’Ivoire, d’evaluer l’impact d’une variation de ces facteurs sur le niveau de l’emploi et enfin de determiner l’impact de la devaluation sur la demande de travail. Les resultats suggerent que la valeur reelle du capital, le chiffre d’affaires, la valeur ajoutee par unite de travail et le cout reel moyen du travail sont les facteurs qui influent significativement sur la demande de travail dans les entreprises du secteur industriel. En outre, le chiffre d’affaires est la variable qui a la plus forte correlation (positive) avec l’emploi. Le cout reel moyen du travail a une forte correlation negative avec l’emploi. La devaluation intervenue en janvier 1994 a influe significativement aussi bien positivement que negativement sur la demande de travail des entreprises du secteur industriel et cela en fonction de la sous branche consideree. — The objective of the present study is to seek the determinants of labour demand in the manufacturing sector in the Cote d’Ivoire, and to determine the impact of a change in these elements on the level of employment. The paper also examines the impact of the change of parity of the domestic currency on the demand for labour. The empirical results suggest that real value of capital assets, cash flow, the value-added of a labour unit, and the average real cost of labour are significant determinants of the demand for labour in the manufacturing sector. Moreover, the cash flow has the highest positive correlation with employment. It is followed by the real cost of labour which has a negative correlation with employment. The devaluation of the domestic currency in January 1994 affected labour demand in the manufacturing sector both positively and negatively depending on the sub-sector considered.
A geometric interpretation of the diagonal of a tensor-product Bézier volume

A geometric interpretation of the diagonal of a tensor-product trivariate Bezier volume using degree elevation of Bezier triangles is given.
Unfinished Accounting Issues: Incorporating Fair Value and Prudence in Accounting Theory

The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) is introducing new International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) which aim to make financial statements more useful. The process has generated considerable debate. This paper is a contribution to the debate, in the particular context of insurance accounting, and attempts to provide a coherent framework for accounting theory which makes a clear distinction between retrospective statements required for administrative accountability, fair value for current market transactions and to measure value creation, and a prospective prudence required to protect policyholders, depositors and other creditors. It is argued that the IASB's founding purpose to provide a single set of accounts is therefore incoherent; different purposes require different numbers. This also implies that fair value accounts should attempt to value intangible assets. In this context, actuarial analyses of surplus would greatly assist in measuring whether model assumptions are appropriate.
Phonologic Impairment and Prereading Update on a Longitudinal Study

This study examined the effects of overt phonologic impairment (disordered speech) on phonological awareness, verbal working memory, and letter knowledge. Forty-five children—29 with moderate to severe productive phonologic impairment at the inception of the project and 16 without impairment—were followed from mean age 3–6 to age 6–0. Fifteen participants with impairment were matched on gender and mental age to 15 without impairment for certain aspects of the analysis. The children with phonologic impairment performed significantly worse than their controls on tasks of verbal working memory, phoneme segmentation, and letter identification. In addition, a path analysis revealed working memory to be a potentially important mediating variable. The investigators also measured productive syntax, which, although associated with productive phonology and working memory, was not associated with letter identification.
The Tragedy of Realism: Morality, Power, and IR Theory

The Tragic Vision of Politics: Ethics, Interests and Orders. By Richard Ned Lebow. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 424 pp., $75.00: (ISBN 0-521-82753-1), $27.00: (ISBN 0-521-53485-2). The Tragic Vision of Politics: Ethics, Interests and Orders by Richard Ned Lebow is difficult to summarize. It is about many things, and it is open to a variety of interpretations. It is also experimental in style in that the first chapter is a short story about Richard Nixon's experiences in hell. As is inevitably the case with a book as ambitious as this one, it has flaws both in substance and in style. But it is a book that is well worth reading for anyone interested in international relations theory, and in the ontology or historiography of the field. The abstract at the beginning of the book describes it as an argument that national security is best preserved through the use of ethical policies. This argument is certainly part of the book, but it does not in the end come across as the central theme. The title of the book, The Tragic Vision of Politics , is in this sense a more accurate description; international politics is tragic in the manner of ancient Greek tragedies. Lebow argues that the principal classical realists were all at heart tragedians, and that their tragic vision lends an insight into the nature and practice of international politics that contemporary realists, with their neopositivist ontologies, have lost. Half of …
Probabilistic determination of critical wave height for a multi-degree of freedom capsize model

In this paper a statistical methodology is extended to the nonlinear multi-degree of freedom vessel capsize problem in random seas. It is demonstrated that the study of transient motions, through analysis of the erosion of the vessel's safe basin mapped in the space of initial conditions [Soliman, M.S. Thompson, J., 1991. Transient and steady state analysis of capsize phenomena. Applied Ocean Research 13, 2], leads to significantly less conservative and potentially more accurate predictions of ultimate dynamic stability. The work presented herein pairs this approach with a statistical framework to yield feasible stability criteria.
Housing vouchers versus housing production: Assessing long‐term costs

Abstract Possibly the single largest debate in the field of affordable rental housing concerns the use of tenant‐based assistance versus project‐based assistance. The accepted wisdom is that project‐based assistance costs anywhere from 50 to 100 percent more than tenant‐based assistance. This premium for project‐based housing is based on a comparison of subsidy costs at the start of a project's life rather than on a comparison of the discounted present value of the costs over the long term. The subsidy costs of samples of Section 8 new construction projects have been compared to those of Section 8 certificates over a long period of time. The results indicate that the cost premium associated with project‐based assistance may be lower than conventionally believed, around 40 percent, and may get even lower if the cost comparison could extend to longer time periods and could control for the quality of the housing units.
Understanding hospital readmission intensity after radical cystectomy.

Purpose: Hospital readmissions after radical cystectomy vary with respect to intensity in terms of impact on patients and health care systems. Therefore, we conducted a population based study to examine factors associated with increasing readmission intensity after radical cystectomy for bladder cancer.Materials and Methods: Using SEER (Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results)-Medicare data we identified 1,782 patients who underwent radical cystectomy from 2003 to 2009. We defined readmission intensity in terms of length of stay (days) divided into quartiles of less than 3 (lowest), 3 to 4, 5 to 7 and more than 7 (highest). We used logistic regression to examine factors associated with readmission intensity.Results: More than half of the patients with the highest intensity readmissions were readmitted within the first week and 77% were readmitted within 2 weeks of discharge. Patients with the highest intensity readmissions were similar in age, gender, race, socioeconomic status, pathological stage, co...
Extending unbiased stereology of brain ultrastructure to three-dimensional volumes.

OBJECTIVE: Analysis of brain ultrastructure is needed to reveal how neurons communicate with one another via synapses and how disease processes alter this communication. In the past, such analyses have usually been based on single or paired sections obtained by electron microscopy. Reconstruction from multiple serial sections provides a much needed, richer representation of the three-dimensional organization of the brain. This paper introduces a new reconstruction system and new methods for analyzing in three dimensions the location and ultrastructure of neuronal components, such as synapses, which are distributed non-randomly throughout the brain. DESIGN AND MEASUREMENTS: Volumes are reconstructed by defining transformations that align the entire area of adjacent sections. Whole-field alignment requires rotation, translation, skew, scaling, and second-order nonlinear deformations. Such transformations are implemented by a linear combination of bivariate polynomials. Computer software for generating transformations based on user input is described. Stereological techniques for assessing structural distributions in reconstructed volumes are the unbiased bricking, disector, unbiased ratio, and per-length counting techniques. A new general method, the fractional counter, is also described. This unbiased technique relies on the counting of fractions of objects contained in a test volume. A volume of brain tissue from stratum radiatum of hippocampal area CA1 is reconstructed and analyzed for synaptic density to demonstrate and compare the techniques. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: Reconstruction makes practicable volume-oriented analysis of ultrastructure using such techniques as the unbiased bricking and fractional counter methods. These analysis methods are less sensitive to the section-to-section variations in counts and section thickness, factors that contribute to the inaccuracy of other stereological methods. In addition, volume reconstruction facilitates visualization and modeling of structures and analysis of three-dimensional relationships such as synaptic connectivity.
Adsorption Dynamics of CO on Silica Supported Gold Clusters: Cluster Size Effects in Molecular Beam Scattering Experiments

We report on particle size effects in the adsorption dynamics (gas-surface energy transfer) of CO, studied by molecular beam scattering. The initial adsorption probability shows a maximum as a function of Au exposure, χAu, i.e., cluster size. This reactivity maximum appears to coincide with the enhancement of catalytic activity seen for the CO oxidation reaction for small clusters.
What percentage of the oceanic mixed layer is accessible to marine lidar? Global and the Gulf of Mexico prospective

The oceanic mixed layer is a nearly homogenous region of the upper ocean which, in principle, has a little or no variation in turbulence strength, temperature or density with depth. This layer mediates oceanic fluxes of gas, momentum and heat. Here, based on the chosen marine Lidar system, we have carried out estimates of the depth penetration of the Lidar when compared to the local mixed layer depth. On average, we have found that at least 50% of the global oceanic mixed layer depth is accessible to the Lidar observations. When operating in a single scattering mode, which is more attenuating but more amenable to analysis, the modeled Lidar was found to access 0.4 of global mixed layer depth in half of the cases. The single scattering Lidar was found to access a large fraction of the equatorial mixed layer - a region very important when addressing global climatic issues. In a coastal environment such as the Gulf of Mexico the single scattering Lidar was found to penetrate upper half of the mixed layer, underscoring the potential for Lidar to address environmental issues there.
Identification of diagnostic subnetwork markers for cancer in human protein-protein interaction network

Background: Finding reliable gene markers for accurate disease classification is very challenging due to a number of reasons, including the small sample size of typical clinical data, high noise in gene expression measurements, and the heterogeneity across patients. In fact, gene markers identified in independent studies often do not coincide with each other, suggesting that many of the predicted markers may have no biological significance and may be simply artifacts of the analyzed dataset. To find more reliable and reproducible diagnostic markers, several studies proposed to analyze the gene expression data at the level of groups of functionally related genes, such as pathways. Studies have shown that pathway markers tend to be more robust and yield more accurate classification results. One practical problem of the pathway-based approach is the limited coverage of genes by currently known pathways. As a result, potentially important genes that play critical roles in cancer development may be excluded. To overcome this problem, we propose a novel method for identifying reliable subnetwork markers in a human protein-protein interaction (PPI) network. Results: In this method, we overlay the gene expression data with the PPI network and look for the most discriminative linear paths that consist of discriminative genes that are highly correlated to each other. The overlapping linear paths are then optimally combined into subnetworks that can potentially serve as effective diagnostic markers. We tested our method on two independent large-scale breast cancer datasets and compared the effectiveness and reproducibility of the identified subnetwork markers with gene-based and pathway-based markers. We also compared the proposed method with an existing subnetwork-based method. Conclusions: The proposed method can efficiently find reliable subnetwork markers that outperform the genebased and pathway-based markers in terms of discriminative power, reproducibility and classification performance. Subnetwork markers found by our method are highly enriched in common GO terms, and they can more accurately classify breast cancer metastasis compared to markers found by a previous method.
Environmental constraints and sigmoid utility: implications for value, risk sensitivity, and social status

Abstract Friedman and Savage [Journal of Political Economy 4 (1948) 279] proposed sigmoid utility theory to model the relationship between social class and risk sensitivity. Their proposal has not been explicitly modeled to allow for full testing of the concept. We argue that sigmoid utility arises naturally from boundary conditions imposed by finite environmental resources that engender competition. We also present a sigmoid formulation and examine its empirical warrant by considering economic data from anthropological, historical, and sociological cases studies. Standard risk sensitivity measures such as Arrow–Pratt and downside risk aversion provide expectations for which individuals are most risk prone. Insights from prospect theory indicate under what conditions sigmoid utility may be most useful. We consider the implications of environmental constraint in the context of the sigmoid model as an explanation for the nature of political turmoil during the collapse of Maya civilization (ca. AD 850), we consider the role lack of constraint played in the American Revolution, and we explore how sigmoid utility can enrich our understanding of contemporary American voting behavior.
Steady-state and dynamic flux balance analysis of ethanol production by Saccharomyces cerevisiae

Steady-state and dynamic flux balance analysis (DFBA) was used to investigate the effects of metabolic model complexity and parameters on ethanol production predictions for wild-type and engineered Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Three metabolic network models ranging from a single compartment representation of metabolism to a genome-scale reconstruction with seven compartments and detailed charge balancing were studied. Steady-state analysis showed that the models generated similar wild-type predictions for the biomass and ethanol yields, but for ten engineered strains the seven compartment model produced smaller ethanol yield enhancements. Simplification of the seven compartment model to two intracellular compartments produced increased ethanol yields, suggesting that reaction localisation had an impact on mutant phenotype predictions. Further analysis with the seven compartment model demonstrated that steady-state predictions can be sensitive to intracellular model parameters, with the biomass yield exhibiting high sensitivity to ATP utilisation parameters and the biomass composition. The incorporation of gene expression data through the zeroing of metabolic reactions associated with unexpressed genes was shown to produce negligible changes in steady-state predictions when the oxygen uptake rate was suitably constrained. Dynamic extensions of the single and seven compartment models were developed through the addition of glucose and oxygen uptake expressions and transient extracellular balances. While the dynamic models produced similar predictions of the optimal batch ethanol productivity for the wild type, the single compartment model produced significantly different predictions for four implementable gene insertions. A combined deletion/overexpression/insertion mutant with improved ethanol productivity capabilities was computationally identified by dynamically screening multiple combinations of the ten metabolic engineering strategies. The authors concluded that extensive compartmentalisation and detailed charge balancing can be important for reliably screening metabolic engineering strategies that rely on modification of the global redox balance and that DFBA offers the potential to identify novel mutants for enhanced metabolite production in batch and fed-batch cultures.
A most dangerous game: death and injury to birds from porcupine quills

ABSTRACT Predation is dangerous, not only for the prey but sometimes also for the predator. Because these dangers to predators are not well understood, we document evidence of predation or scavenging by a Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) on a North American porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) in Pennsylvania, USA, with potentially lethal consequences to the eagle. We also review published literature on incidence of porcupine quills causing injury or death to birds. At least nine species have been documented as having contact with porcupine quills. A minimum of 39% of these interactions resulted in death to the bird, demonstrating the risk birds face when interacting with porcupines. Predation of porcupines should be selected against and irregular, yet it apparently persists and is likely more common than currently recognized.
Sequence and embryonic expression of the amphioxus engrailed gene (AmphiEn): the metameric pattern of transcription resembles that of its segment-polarity homolog in Drosophila

Vertebrate segmentation has been proposed as an evolutionary inheritance either from some metameric protostome or from a more closely related deuterostome. To address this question, we studied the developmental expression of AmphiEn, the engrailed gene of amphioxus, the closest living invertebrate relative of the vertebrates. In neurula embryos of amphioxus, AmphiEn is expressed along the anteroposterior axis as metameric stripes, each located in the posterior part of a nascent or newly formed segment. This pattern resembles the expression stripes of the segment-polarity gene engrailed, which has a key role in establishing and maintaining the metameres in embryos of Drosophila and other metameric protostomes. Later, amphioxus embryos express AmphiEn in non-metameric patterns - transiently in the embryonic ectoderm and dorsal nerve cord. Nerve cord expression occurs in a few cells approximately midway along the rostrocaudal axis and also in a conspicuous group of anterior cells in the cerebral vesicle at a level previously identified as corresponding to the vertebrate diencephalon. Compared to vertebrate engrailed expression at the midbrain/hindbrain boundary, AmphiEn expression in the cerebral vesicle is relatively late. Thus, it is uncertain whether the cerebral vesicle expression marks the rostral end of the amphioxus hindbrain; if it does, then amphioxus may have little or no homolog of the vertebrate midbrain. The segmental expression of AmphiEn in forming somites suggests that the functions of engrailed homologs in establishing and maintaining a metameric body plan may have arisen only once during animal evolution. If so, the protostomes and deuterostomes probably shared a common segmented ancestor.
How stable are food webs during a mass extinction

As we confront the reality of the ongoing human-driven mass extinction ( 1 ), attention often focuses on the response of individual species to environmental change. However, species survival also depends on other species in the food web: Changing population numbers or extinction of one species can propagate through the food web to cause further perturbation or extinction. Although this has long been appreciated ( 2 ), it is hard to test predictions of how food webs of living ecosystems will be affected by disturbance. The fossil record provides a window into how past food webs have responded to mass extinction. On page 90 of this issue, Roopnarine and Angielczyk ( 3 ) assess food web stability of the remarkably well-preserved terrestrial communities of the Karoo Basin in South Africa across the largest past mass extinction, the Permian-Triassic event (∼252 million years ago).
Cubic and quartic convergence for first-order periodic boundary-value problems

In this paper, the results of Lakshmikantham et al. (Ref. 1) for first-order periodic boundary-value problems are extended, by using the extended method of quaislinearization and rapid convergence for initial-value problems of Mohapatra et al. (Ref. 2). Also, it is shown that monotone sequences converge cubically to the unique solution when the forcing function in the differential equation is 2–hyperconvex and converge quartically when the forcing function is 3–hyperconvex. Several other generalizations of the problem are also presented.
Marketing Psychology at Academic Health Centers

The administrative structure of academic health centers is reviewed, with a view to understanding the issues of marketing psychological services within that setting. The slow changes at academic health centers to new practice styles requires psychology to formulate a market strategy addressing the traditional specialist model and another plan responsive to the emerging model emphasizing primary care. Market targets for psychologists include administration, physicians, and patients. Presently, the Association of Medical School Psychologists is working with the Association of Academic Health Centers to design a marketing program targeting leaders at academic health centers.
Eliminating Indefinite Mass Matrices with the Transmission Simulator Method of Substructuring

The transmission simulator method of experimental dynamic substructuring captures the interface forces and motions through a fixture called a transmission simulator. The transmission simulator method avoids the need to measure connection point rotations and enriches the modal basis of the substructure model. The free modes of the experimental substructure mounted to the transmission simulator are measured. The finite element model of the transmission simulator is used to couple the experimental substructure to another substructure and to subtract the transmission simulator. However, in several cases the process of subtracting the transmission simulator has introduced an indefinite mass matrix for the experimental substructure. The authors previously developed metrics that could be used to identify which modes of the experimental model led to the indefinite mass matrix. A method is developed that utilizes those metrics with a sensitivity analysis to adjust the transmission simulator mass matrix so that the subtraction does not produce an indefinite mass matrix. A second method produces a positive definite mass matrix by adding a small amount of mass to the indefinite mass matrix. Both analytical and experimental examples are described.
Use of an on-line patient portal in a depression collaborative care management program

Abstract Background Evidence for patient portals on health outcomes is still accumulating. Methods We performed a retrospective study of patients in a depression collaborative care management (CCM) program comparing dropout rates and outcomes at six months in patients who used the portal with their CCM managers versus those who did not use the portal for this purpose. Results 1769 patients were analyzed, of which 272 (15.4%) used the portal to connect with their CCM managers. Portal users were more likely to be younger (mean age 37.8 years versus 42.6 years p Limitations Limitations include the observational study design and a predominantly white study population. Conclusion Use of a patient portal in depression CCM allows additional options for patients to participate without negatively influencing clinical outcomes.
Efficacy and Safety of Methylphenidate for ADHD and Uncontrolled Seizures

Twenty-four participants with uncontrolled epilepsy and ADHD in this prospective study, conducted at University of Joinville, Santa Catarina, Brazil, were 7 -16 years of age.
Variables That Best Differentiate In-Patient Acute Stroke from Stroke-Mimics with Acute Neurological Deficits

Introduction. Strokes and stroke-mimics have been extensively studied in the emergency department setting. Although in-hospital strokes are less studied in comparison to strokes in the emergency department, they are a source of significant direct and indirect costs. Differentiating in-hospital strokes from stroke-mimics is important. Thus, our study aimed to identify variables that can differentiate in-hospital strokes from stroke-mimics. Methods. We present here a retrospective analysis of 93 patients over a one-year period (2009 to 2010), who were evaluated for a concern of in-hospital strokes. Results. About two-thirds (57) of these patients were determined to have a stroke, and the remaining (36) were stroke-mimics. Patients with in-hospital strokes were more likely to be obese (p = 0.03), have been admitted to the cardiology service (p = 0.01), have atrial fibrillation (p = 0.03), have a weak hand or hemiparesis (p = 0.03), and have a prior history of stroke (p = 0.05), whereas, when the consults were called for "altered mental status" but no other deficits (p < 0.0001), it is likely a stroke-mimic. Conclusion. This study demonstrates that in-hospital strokes are a common occurrence, and knowing the variables can aid in their timely diagnosis and treatment.
Clinical and multiparametric MRI signatures of granulomatous prostatitis.

The purpose of the study is to differentiate granulomatous prostatitis (GP) from high-grade prostate cancer (PCa) based on clinical findings and imaging characteristics on multiparametric MRI (MP-MRI). Pathology from patients undergoing MRI/US fusion-guided prostate biopsies between 2014 and 2015 was reviewed. Five patients with biopsy proven GP were identified as well as 15 patients with biopsy-proven Gleason score ≥4 + 3 = 7 PCa. Patients were matched for age, serum PSA level, and prebiopsy-assigned MP-MRI cancer suspicion scores. MP-MRI studies were reviewed to identify findings that would differentiate GP from PCa in patients who had equally high suspicion scores based upon imaging characteristics. All five patients with GP on MR/US fusion-targeted biopsies were assigned a PIRADS 4 or 5 suspicion score. There were equally high suspicion scores on MP-MRI for both groups (p = 0.57). Re-evaluation of the MRI characteristics of the 5 GP patients and 15 matched controls who had pathologically proven Gleason score ≥4 + 3 = 7 PCa on targeted biopsy demonstrated statistically lower mean ADC values within the index targeted lesion for PCa vs. GP (p = 0.002) Qualitatively, no patients with GP on biopsy had imaging evidence of higher-staged disease, while 33% of patients in the high-risk PCa cohort demonstrated at least one high-stage feature (p = 0.003). Patients with GP routinely have MRIs with moderate to high levels of suspicion for harboring PCa. Re-evaluation of these patients’ imaging demonstrated characteristics including significantly higher ADC values and absence of high-stage features, which may help differentiate areas of GP from PCa in the future.
Cyber-FIT: An Agent-Based Modelling Approach to Simulating Cyber Warfare

This paper introduces the Cyber - Forces Interactions Terrain (FIT) Simulation Framework. This framework provides an apparatus with which to carry out virtual experiments involving cyber warfare engagements. Our agent-based modelling approach is a first attempt at providing the necessary components with which military planners can reason about cyber force projections on varying terrains and against various adversarial forces. We simulate and then predict the results of cyber warfare at the level historically desired by military planners: vulnerabilities, asset degradation, and mission capability rate.
The design and testing of an inductive voltage adder for ALS-U kicker magnets

An inductive voltage adder has been designed to drive 50 ohm stripline kicker magnets for an upgrade to the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to a diffraction limited light source. Several features were included in the design to allow damping potential oscillations and optimizing the rise and fall times. A prototype of this inductive voltage adder has been fabricated and tested into a 25 ohm resistive load to characterize system performance. The design and preliminary test results are presented.
Examining Intertextual Connections in Written Arguments: A Study of Student Writing as Social Participation and Response.

Writing studies scholarship has long understood the need for context-based studies of student writing. Few studies, however, have closely examined how students use intertextual relationships in the...
Micromechanisms of fatigue crack growth in polycarbonate polyurethane: Time dependent and hydration effects

Polycarbonate polyurethane has cartilage-like, hygroscopic, and elastomeric properties that make it an attractive material for orthopedic joint replacement application. However, little data exists on the cyclic loading and fracture behavior of polycarbonate polyurethane. This study investigates the mechanisms of fatigue crack growth in polycarbonate polyurethane with respect to time dependent effects and conditioning. We studied two commercially available polycarbonate polyurethanes, Bionate® 75D and 80A. Tension testing was performed on specimens at variable time points after being removed from hydration and variable strain rates. Fatigue crack propagation characterized three aspects of loading. Study 1 investigated the impact of continuous loading (24h/day) versus intermittent loading (8-10h/day) allowing for relaxation overnight. Study 2 evaluated the effect of frequency and study 3 examined the impact of hydration on the fatigue crack propagation in polycarbonate polyurethane. Samples loaded intermittently failed instantaneously and prematurely upon reloading while samples loaded continuously sustained longer stable cracks. Crack growth for samples tested at 2 and 5Hz was largely planar with little crack deflection. However, samples tested at 10Hz showed high degrees of crack tip deflection and multiple crack fronts. Crack growth in hydrated samples proceeded with much greater ductile crack mouth opening displacement than dry samples. An understanding of the failure mechanisms of this polymer is important to assess the long-term structural integrity of this material for use in load-bearing orthopedic implant applications.
Quality Improvement in Anesthesiology — Leveraging Data and Analytics to Optimize Outcomes

Quality improvement is at the heart of practice of anesthesiology. Objective data are critical for any quality improvement initiative; when possible, a combination of process, outcome, and balancing metrics should be evaluated to gauge the value of an intervention. Quality improvement is an ongoing process; iterative reevaluation of data is required to maintain interventions, ensure continued effectiveness, and continually improve. Dashboards can facilitate rapid analysis of data and drive decision making. Large data sets can be useful to establish benchmarks and compare performance against other providers, practices, or institutions. Audit and feedback strategies are effective in facilitating positive change.
Yella gal: Eartha Kitt’s racial modulations

This article investigates mid-century singer/dancer/actor Eartha Kitt’s ambiguous racial aesthetics, which ran the gamut from Eastern and Western Oriental sound and embodiment in dance, Afro-Latina...
Disease Resistance Mechanisms in Plants

Plants have developed a complex defense system against diverse pests and pathogens. Once pathogens overcome mechanical barriers to infection, plant receptors initiate signaling pathways driving the expression of defense response genes. Plant immune systems rely on their ability to recognize enemy molecules, carry out signal transduction, and respond defensively through pathways involving many genes and their products. Pathogens actively attempt to evade and interfere with response pathways, selecting for a decentralized, multicomponent immune system. Recent advances in molecular techniques have greatly expanded our understanding of plant immunity, largely driven by potential application to agricultural systems. Here, we review the major plant immune system components, state of the art knowledge, and future direction of research on plant–pathogen interactions. In our review, we will discuss how the decentralization of plant immune systems have provided both increased evolutionary opportunity for pathogen resistance, as well as additional mechanisms for pathogen inhibition of such defense responses. We conclude that the rapid advances in bioinformatics and molecular biology are driving an explosion of information that will advance agricultural production and illustrate how complex molecular interactions evolve.