cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The mushroom Ganoderma lucidum suppresses breast-to-lung cancer metastasis through the inhibition of pro-invasive genes.

Breast cancer metastasis is one of the major reasons for the high morbidity and mortality of breast cancer patients. In spite of surgical interventions, chemotherapy, radiation therapy and targeted therapy, some patients are considering alternative therapies with herbal/natural products. In the present study, we evaluated a well-characterized extract from the medicinal mush- room Ganoderma lucidum (GLE) for its affects on tumor growth and breast-to-lung cancer metastasis. MDA-MB-231 human breast cancer cells were implanted into the mammary fat pads of nude mice. GLE (100 mg/kg/every other day) was administered to the mice by an oral gavage for 4 weeks, and tumor size was measured using microcalipers. Lung metastases were evaluated by hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining. Gene expression in MDA-MB-231 cells was determined by DNA microarray anal- ysis and confirmed by quantitative PCR. Identified genes were silenced by siRNA, and cell migration was determined in Boyden chambers and by wound-healing assay. Although an oral admin- istration of GLE only slightly suppressed the growth of large tumors, the same treatment significantly inhibited the number of breast-to-lung cancer metastases. GLE also downregulated the expression of genes associated with invasive behavior (HRAS, VIL2, S100A4, MCAM, I2PP2A and FN1) in MDA-MB-231 cells. Gene silencing of HRAS, VIL2, S100A4, I2PP2A and FN1 by siRNA suppressed migration of MDA-MB-231 cells. Our study suggests that an oral administration of GLE can inhibit breast-to-lung cancer metastases through the downregulation of genes responsible for cell invasiveness. The anti-metastatic benefits of GLE warrant further clinical studies.
Atlantic Hurricane Season of 1976

Abstract A summary of the 1976 Atlantic hurricane season is presented along with detailed accounts of individual storms. Interesting aspects of the 1976 season include the absence of any named storms in either the Gulf of Mexico or Caribbean Sea. Two storms in the central north Atlantic recurved toward the cast at unusually low latitudes. Hurricane Belle struck Long Island after weakening dramatically during the 24 h period prior to landfall.
Packet clustering introduced by routers: Modeling, analysis and experiments

Utilizing a highly precise network measurement device, we investigate router's inherent variation on packet processing time and its effect on interpacket delay and packet clustering. We propose a simple pipeline model incorporating the inherent variation and a metric to measure packet clustering. To isolate the effect of the inherent variation, we begin our analysis with no cross traffic and step through setups where the input streams have different data rate, packet size and go through different number of hops. We show that a homogeneous input stream with a sufficiently large interpacket gap will emerge at the router's output with interpacket delays that are negative correlated with adjacent values and have symmetrical distributions. We show that for smaller interpacket gaps, the change in packet clustering is smaller. It is also shown that the degree of packet clustering could in fact decrease for a clustered input. We generalize our results by adding cross traffic. We apply these results to demonstrate how we could reduce jitter by minimizing interpacket gap. All the results predicted by the model are validated with experiments with real routers.
Young, African American Adults With Asthma: What Matters To Them?

Abstract Background Asthma is a common chronic condition that shows significant health disparities among minority populations. Little research has focused on the management needs and preferences of young African American adults with asthma, a population undergoing dramatic life changes as they transition from adolescence to adulthood. Objective To understand the experiences and perspectives of young African American adults managing their asthma. Methods Focus groups were conducted with African American adults (n = 34) 18 to 30 years old with a physician diagnosis of asthma. Focus group sessions were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and coded using constant comparative analysis. Results Six major domains were identified and some of the salient themes included changes in asthma management needs with the onset of adulthood, career limitations owing to asthma, childcare interference with asthma regimen adherence, and difficulties with medication cost owing to lapses in insurance coverage. Participants also reported feeling discouraged when interacting with physicians as it related to their asthma care; yet ageism and racism were not perceived. Despite poor medication regimen compliance, participants were overwhelmingly interested in participating in asthma self-management programs and had strong preferences that such programs be tailored specifically to young adults with special consideration of the cultural experience of young African Americans with asthma. Conclusion Young African American adults have specific barriers to optimal asthma care and distinctive ideas for self-management programs. It is important for the asthma care provider to identify and address these population- and age-specific barriers to improve asthma outcomes and decrease health care disparities.
Do the age of the Universe and the Hubble constant depend on what scale one observes them

Abstract The apparent cosmological conflict between the age of the Universe, predicted in the standard Friedmann cosmology by using the recent measurements of the larger Hubble constant from a direct calibration of the distance to the Virgo galaxy cluster, and the ages of the oldest stars and globular clusters is resolved by invoking the scale dependence of cosmological quantities, including the age of the Universe. The distance dependence or the running of cosmological quantities is motivated by the asymptotically-free higher-derivative quantum gravity. The running can also be derived by “properly” modifying the Friedmann equations. This property may shed some light on the difference between the recent measurements of the Hubble constant using NGC 4571 at 15 Mpc, M100 at 17.1 Mpc and the type Ia supernovae.
Consequences of confirmed maternal rubella at successive stages of pregnancy

Over a thousand women with confirmed rubella infection at different stages of pregnancy were followed up prospectively. Two-thirds of the women were multiparous. Pregnancy continued in 40%, and the infants were followed up after birth both clinically and serologically. The frequency of congenital infection after maternal rubella with a rash was more than 80% during the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, 54% at 13-14 weeks, and 25% at the end of the second trimester. The infection rate then rose again to reach a high figure in the last month. Follow-up was to 2 years of age--the findings in infected children being compared with those in children who had escaped infection. Rubella defects occurred in all infants infected before the 11th week (principally congenital heart disease and deafness) and in 35% of those infected at 13-16 weeks (deafness alone). No defects attributable to rubella were found in 63 children infected after 16 weeks. Continued surveillance of cases of confirmed rubella during pregnancy is recommended as an additional way of monitoring the effect of rubella vaccination.
Nonlinear dynamics of quantum systems and soliton theory

We show that spacetime evolution of one-dimensional fermionic systems is described by nonlinear equations of soliton theory. We identify a spacetime dependence of a matrix element of fermionic systems related to the orthogonality catastrophe or boundary states with the τ-function of the modified KP-hierarchy. The established relation allows us to apply the apparatus of soliton theory to the study of nonlinear aspects of quantum dynamics. We also describe a bosonization in momentum space—a representation of a fermion operator by a Bose field in the presence of a boundary state.
Relationships between critical current and stress IN NbTi

The effects of various types of stress on the critical current of a multifilamentary NbTi superconductor are reported. Degradation of critical current due to axial tension applied at 4 K, transverse compression applied at 4 K, and hairpin bending strain applied at room temperature has been measured. The degradation from axial tension is much greater than from transverse compression in many practical cases because the soft copper matrix limits the build-up of transverse compression. The degradation from typical levels of transverse compression is only about 4% at 8 T, for example. For axial tension, on the other hand, higher stresses can occur that will degrade the critical current by 24%, for example, at 7 T and 2.7% strain. Both the axial-tensile and the transverse-compressive stress effects are about 98% reversible; thus the degradation will be seen only when the conductor is under operational stress. The results indicate that a primary origin of the critical current degradation in NbTi is a stress-induced reversible decrease in the upper critical field.
Field theory without Feynman diagrams: One loop effective actions

Abstract In this paper the connection between standard perturbation theory techniques and the new Bern-Kosower calculational rules for gauge theory is clarified. For one-loop effective actions of scalars, Dirac spinors, and vector bosons in a background gauge field, Bern-Kosower type rules are derived without the use of either string theory or Feynman diagrams. The effective action is written as a one-dimensional path integral, which can be calculated to any order in the gauge coupling; evaluation leads to Feynman parameter integrals directly, bypassing the usual algebra required from Feynman diagrams, and leading to compact and organized expressions. This formalism is valid off-shell, is explicitly gauge invariant, and can be extended to a number of other field theories.
Cosmic microwave background polarization

Abstract Polarization of the cosmic microwave background, though not yet detected, provides a source of information about cosmological parameters complementary to temperature fluctuations. This paper provides a complete theoretical treatment of polarization fluctuations. After a discussion of the physics of polarization, the Boltzmann equation governing the evolution of the photon density matrix is derived from quantum theory and applied to microwave background fluctuations, resulting in a complete set of transport equations for the Stokes parameters from both scalar and tensor metric perturbations. This approach is equivalent at lowest order in scattering kinematics to classical radiative transfer, and provides a general framework for treating the cosmological evolution of density matrices. The metric perturbations are treated in the physically appealing longitudinal gauge. Expressions for various temperature and polarization correlation functions are derived. Detection prospects and theoretical utility of microwave background polarization are briefly discussed.
The Direct Acyl-Alkylation of Arynes

An efficient and mild acyl-alkylation of arynes is described. The method is used to synthesize medium-sized carbocycles by the ring-expansion of cyclic β-ketoesters.
How many multiword expressions do people know

What is a multiword expression (MWE) and how many are thereq Mark Liberman gave a great invited talk at ACL-89, titled “How Many Words Do People Knowq” where he spent the entire hour questioning the question. Many of the same questions apply to multiword expressions. What is a wordq An expressionq What is manyq What is a personq What does it mean to knowq Rather than answer these questions, this article will use them as Liberman did, as an excuse for surveying how such issues are addressed in a variety of fields: computer science, Web search, linguistics, lexicography, educational testing, psychology, statistics, and so on.
Contractile activity of mouse small intestinal longitudinal smooth muscle

Abstract Background Interest in genomic modulation experimentally often necessitates use of mouse models. Materials and methods AIM: To characterize and quantitate smooth muscle contractile activity of the mouse small intestine using in vitro techniques. Full-thickness jejunal and ileal muscle strips from mice were cut in the direction of longitudinal muscle, suspended in tissue baths (37°C), and connected to force transducers. Spontaneous contractility and two dose-response curves to the cholinergic agonist bethanechol and adrenergic agonist norepinephrine were quantitated for 6 h. Results Total contractile activity increased over 4 to 5 h in jejunum ( P P P Conclusion Experiments in murine jejunal but not ileal longitudinal muscle in vitro must consider early changes in contractile activity after tissue harvest. These experiments serve as a baseline for comparison of stimuli or genetic modifications on murine contractile activity of longitudinal muscle in vivo.
On the structure of certain natural cones over moduli spaces of genus-one holomorphic maps

We show that certain naturally arising cones over the main component of a moduli space of J0-holomorphic maps into [Pn] have a well-defined Euler class. We also prove that this is the case if the standard complex structure J0 on [Pn] is replaced by a nearby almost complex structure J. The genus-zero analogue of the cone considered in this paper is a vector bundle. The genus-zero Gromov-Witten invariant of a projective complete intersection can be viewed as the Euler class of such a vector bundle. As shown in a separate paper, this is also the case for the "genus-one part" of the genus-one GW-invariant. The remaining part is a multiple of the genus-zero GW-invariant.
Bounding filter: A simple solution to lack of exact a priori statistics

Weiner and Kalman—Bucy estimation problems assume that models describing the signal and noise stochastic processes are exactly known. When this modeling information, i.e., the signal and noise spectral densities for the Weiner filter and the signal and noise dynamic system and disturbing noise representations for Kalman—Bucy filtering, is inexactly known, then the filter's performance is suboptimal and may even exhibit apparent divergence. In this paper a system is designed whereby the actual estimation error covariance is bounded by the covariance calculated by the estimator. Therefore, the estimator obtains a bound on the actual error covariance which is not available, and also prevents, its apparent divergence. The bounding filter can be of lower order than the original stochastic models; hence, a technique is devised of reducing the order of the filtering system and concurrently obtaining a figure of merit for its performance. For many cases, the design conditions devised for the steady-state Weiner filter apply to transient Kalman—Bucy filter performance.
On the cultural transmission of preferences for social status

Abstract We study the formation of preferences for `social status' as the result of intergenerational transmission of cultural traits. We characterize the behavior of parents with preferences for status in terms of socialization of their children to this particular cultural trait. We show that degenerate distributions of the population (whereby agents have either all status preferences or all non-status preferences) are dynamically unstable. Moreover, under some conditions, there exists a unique stationary distribution which is non-degenerate (in which both status and non-status preferences co-exist in the population), and this distribution is locally stable. Finally, we study the dependence of the stable stationary distribution of status preferences on institutional, technological and policy parameters which affect agents' economic conditions.
Towards autonomous on-road driving via multiresolutional and hierarchical moving-object prediction

In this paper, we present the PRIDE framework (Prediction In Dynamic Environments), which is a hierarchical multi-resolutional approach for moving object prediction that incorporates multiple prediction algorithms into a single, unifying framework. PRIDE is based upon the 4D/RCS (Real-time Control System) and provides information to planners at the level of granularity that is appropriate for their planning horizon. The lower levels of the framework utilize estimation theoretic short-term predictions based upon an extended Kalman filter that provide predictions and associated uncertainty measures. The upper levels utilize a probabilistic prediction approach based upon situation recognition with an underlying cost model that provide predictions that incorporate environmental information and constraints. These predictions are made at lower frequencies and at a level of resolution more in line with the needs of higher-level planners. PRIDE is run in the systems’ world model independently of the planner and the control system. The results of the prediction are made available to a planner to allow it to make accurate plans in dynamic environments. We have applied this approach to an on-road driving control hierarchy being developed as part of the DARPA Mobile Autonomous Robotic Systems (MARS) effort.
Gamma ray induced charge buildup in insulators

Irradiation of an insulator by gamma rays can produce voltage and charge buildups near thin layers of foreign material within the insulator. Measurements have been made of the current produced as a function of atomic number and thickness of the perturbing layer. Current was also measured as a function of separation from the perturbation, as was voltage buildup within the insulator close to the perturbation.
Intramolecular Diels–Alder reactions of N-substituted oxazolones

The first intramolecular Diels–Alder reactions of simple trienes featuring an N-substituted oxazolone as the dienophilic component have been investigated and are reported herein.
Mission strategy for combined comet-asteroid flybys.

Review of the currently consolidating interest in one or more relatively inexpensive small body exploration missions, and discussion of a proposed ballistic flyby of two asteroids and the periodic comet Forbes, to be launched in 1977. Trajectory data and target encounter conditions are presented for a selected set of missions which are compatible with the propulsion capabilities of a modified Pioneer F & G spacecraft.
Poor Substitutes — Why Cooperatives and Triggers Can't Achieve the Goals of a Public Option

President Obama has said that he could support both cooperatives and triggers if they created accountability and competition for private insurance. But could they? Jacob Hacker writes that analysis of both ideas and similar initiatives in prior legislation suggests that they could not.
Landé g Factors and Orbital Momentum Quenching in Semiconductor Quantum Dots

We show that electron and hole Land\'e $g$ factors in self-assembled III-V quantum dots have a rich structure intermediate between that of paramagnetic atomic impurities and bulk semiconductors. Strain, dot geometry, and confinement energy modify the effective $g$ factors, yet are insufficient to explain our results. We find that the dot's discrete energy spectrum quenches the orbital angular momentum, pushing the electron $g$ factor towards 2, even when all the materials have negative bulk $g$ factors. The approximate shape of a dot can be determined from measurements of the $g$ factor asymmetry.
Charge transport in strongly coupled molecular junctions: “in-phase” and “out-of-phase” contribution to electron tunneling

We report a first-principles study on the evolution of nonequilibrium charge transport in a two-terminal molecular-scale device with the increase in the length of the molecular wire built out of cubane oligomers. In particular, for wires of three different lengths, we look into the relative contribution of the “in-phase” and the “out-of-phase” components of the total electronic current under the influence of an external bias. In the low-bias regime, the “out-of-phase” contribution to the total current is minimal and the “in-phase” elastic tunneling of the electrons is responsible for the net electronic current. This is true, irrespective of the length of the molecular spacer. In this regime, the current–voltage characteristics follow Ohm’s law and the conductance of the wires is found to decrease exponentially with the increase in length, which is in agreement with experimental results. However, after a certain “offset” voltage, the current increases nonlinearly with bias and the “out-of-phase” tunneling ...
ESCAPE FRACTION OF IONIZING PHOTONS DURING REIONIZATION: EFFECTS DUE TO SUPERNOVA FEEDBACK AND RUNAWAY OB STARS

The fraction of hydrogen ionizing photons escaping from galaxies into the intergalactic medium is a critical ingredient in the theory of reionization. We use two zoomed-in, high-resolution (4 pc), cosmological radiation hydrodynamic simulations with adaptive mesh refinement to investigate the impact of two physical mechanisms (supernova, SN, feedback, and runaway OB stars) on the escape fraction (f esc) at the epoch of reionization (z ≥ 7). We implement a new, physically motivated SN feedback model that can approximate the Sedov solutions at all (from the free expansion to snowplow) stages. We find that there is a significant time delay of about ten million years between the peak of star formation and that of escape fraction, due to the time required for the build-up and subsequent destruction of the star-forming cloud by SN feedback. Consequently, the photon number-weighted mean escape fraction for dwarf galaxies in halos of mass 108-1010.5 M ☉ is found to be , although instantaneous values of f esc > 20% are common when star formation is strongly modulated by the SN explosions. We find that the inclusion of runaway OB stars increases the mean escape fraction by 22% to . As SNe resulting from runaway OB stars tend to occur in less dense environments, the feedback effect is enhanced and star formation is further suppressed in halos with in the simulation with runaway OB stars compared with the model without them. While both our models produce enough ionizing photons to maintain a fully ionized universe at z ≤ 7 as observed, a still higher amount of ionizing photons at z ≥ 9 appears necessary to accommodate the high observed electron optical depth inferred from cosmic microwave background observations.
What Does Financial Literacy Training Teach Us

The authors use data from a finance-related theme park to explore how financial education changes investment, financing, and consumer behavior. Students were assigned fictitious life situations and asked to create household budgets. Some students received a 19-hour financial literacy curriculum before going to the park, and some did not. After controlling for demographic variables, the authors show that the treatment effects of the financial literacy program are strong. Students were more frugal, delayed gratification, paid off debt faster, and relied less on credit financing after training. Students who attended training showed greater uptake of decision support that was offered in the park, which indicates that decision support and financial literacy training are complements, not substitutes.
Production of glycoprotein-deleted rabies viruses for monosynaptic tracing and high-level gene expression in neurons

Recombinant rabies viruses rendered replication-deficient by the deletion of their envelope glycoprotein gene are useful tools for neuroscientists, permitting (1) extraordinarily high transgene expression levels within neurons, (2) retrograde infection of projection neurons through their axon terminals, (3) targeted infection of genetically specified neurons and (4) monosynaptic tracing of neuronal inputs. Here we present a detailed protocol for the production of high-titer and high-purity viral stocks, from initial generation of infectious virus from cDNA through amplification on complementing cell lines, pseudotyping if desired, purification by ultracentrifugation and titering. The procedure requires 3-4 weeks to complete.
Optimal Risk Sharing and the Leasing of Natural Resources, with Application to Oil and Gas Leasing on the OCS

Future natural resource discoveries will most likely take place on public lands. Rights to potential oil and gas resources are transferred from the public to private firms through a lease; the lease specifies the nature of the rights granted. Federal offshore leases have specified that firms pay a royalty equivalent to one-sixth of the value of production. This royalty has remained unchanged since offshore leasing began, despite the significant changes in the value of tracts as reflected in winning bids. Leases of other countries specify quite-different payment schedules, with profit rather than production often determining the amount to be paid. Clearly, alternative forms of conditional payments have differing implications on risk sharing and on the exploration, development, and production decisions of firms. This paper develops a general theory of optimal lease payments, paying special attention to royalty and profit-share payments, since they are featured prominently in proposals for new Federal leasing policies.
Kinetics, products, and mechanisms of secondary organic aerosol formation

Secondary organic aerosol (SOA) is formed in the atmosphere when volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from anthropogenic and biogenic sources are oxidized by reactions with OH radicals, O3, NO3 radicals, or Cl atoms to form less volatile products that subsequently partition into aerosol particles. Once in particles, these organic compounds can undergo heterogenous/multiphase reactions to form more highly oxidized or oligomeric products. SOA comprises a large fraction of atmospheric aerosol mass and can have significant effects on atmospheric chemistry, visibility, human health, and climate. Previous articles have reviewed the kinetics, products, and mechanisms of atmospheric VOC reactions and the general chemistry and physics involved in SOA formation. In this article we present a detailed review of VOC and heterogeneous/multiphase chemistry as they apply to SOA formation, with a focus on the effects of VOC molecular structure on the kinetics of initial reactions with the major atmospheric oxidants, the subsequent reactions of alkyl, alkyl peroxy, and alkoxy radical intermediates, and the composition of the resulting products. Structural features of reactants and products discussed include compound carbon number; linear, branched, and cyclic configurations; the presence of CC bonds and aromatic rings; and functional groups such as carbonyl, hydroxyl, ester, hydroxperoxy, carboxyl, peroxycarboxyl, nitrate, and peroxynitrate. The intention of this review is to provide atmospheric chemists with sufficient information to understand the dominant pathways by which the major classes of atmospheric VOCs react to form SOA products, and the further reactions of these products in particles. This will allow reasonable predictions to be made, based on molecular structure, about the kinetics, products, and mechanisms of VOC and heterogeneous/multiphase reactions, including the effects of important variables such as VOC, oxidant, and NOx concentrations as well as temperature, humidity, and particle acidity. Such knowledge should be useful for interpreting the results of laboratory and field studies and for developing atmospheric chemistry models. A number of recommendations for future research are also presented.
Numerical potential field techniques for robot path planning

An approach to robot path planning that consists of incrementally building a graph connecting the local minima of a potential field defined in the robot's configuration space and concurrently searching this graph until a goal configuration is attained is proposed. Unlike the so-called global path planning methods, this approach does not require an expensive computation step before the search for a path can actually start, and it searches a graph that is usually much smaller than the graph searched by the so-called local methods. A collection of effective techniques to implement this approach is described. They are based on the use of multiscale pyramids of bitmap arrays for representing both the robot's workspace and configuration space. This distributed representation makes it possible to construct potential fields numerically, rather than analytically. A path planner based on these techniques has been implemented. Experiments with this planner show that it is both very fast and capable of handling many degrees of freedom. >
Tuning of optical band gaps: Syntheses, structures, magnetic properties, and optical properties of CsLnZnSe3 (Ln = Sm, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, and Y)

Eight new quaternary selenides CsSmZnSe 3 , CsTbZnSe 3 , CsDyZnSe 3 , CsHoZnSe 3 , CsErZnSe 3 , CsTmZnSe 3 , CsYbZnSe 3 , and CsYZnSe 3 have been synthesized with the use of high-temperature solid-state experimental methods. These compounds are isostructural with KZrCuS 3 , crystallizing with four formula units in the orthorhombic space group Cmcm. The structure of these CsLnZnSe 3 compounds is composed of 2 ∞ [LnZnSe 3 - ] layers separated by Cs atoms. The Ln atom is octahedrally coordinated by six Se atoms, the Zn atom is tetrahedrally coordinated by four Se atoms, and the Cs atom is coordinated by a bicapped trigonal prism of eight Se atoms. Because there are no Se-Se bonds in the structure, the oxidation state of Cs is 1+, that of Ln is 3+, and that of Zn is 2+. CsYbZnSe 3 exhibits an antiferromagnetic transition at 11 K, whereas CsSmZnSe 3 does not follow a Curie-Weiss law. The remaining rare-earth compounds are paramagnetic, and the calculated effective magnetic moments of the rare-earth ions agree well with their theoretical values. Optical absorption data on face-indexed single crystals of CsSmZnSe 3 , CsErZnSe 3 , CsYbZnSe 3 , and CsYZnSe 3 demonstrate that the optical band gap changes by more than 0.75 eV with the composition and by as much as 0.20 eV with the crystal orientation. The optical band gaps range from 2.63 eV (CsSmZnSe 3 , CsErZnSe 3 ) to 1.93 eV (CsYbZnSe 3 ) for the (010) crystal face and 2.56 eV (CsErZnSe 3 ) to 1.88 eV (CsYbZnSe 3 ) for the (001) crystal face. The difference in the optical band gap of the (010) face vs the (001) face varies from +0.05 eV (CsYbZnSe 3 ) to +0.20 eV (CsSmZnSe 3 ).
Oral Contraceptive Use and the Occurrence of Pituitary Prolactinoma

To determine whether prior oral contraceptive (OC) use is a risk factor for pituitary prolactinoma, we attempted to identify all women (n=72) with a prolactinoma diagnosed between 1976 and 1980 in three counties in western Washington. A control group of 303 women was selected by dialing random telephone numbers from the same counties. Prior OC use, according to OC indication, was ascertained during a standardized telephone interview. Relative to the risk for women who had never used an OC, the risk of prolactinoma for women who had used OCs for birth control was 1.3 (95% confidence interval, 0.7 to 2.6). This risk was 7.7 for women who used OCs for menstrual regulation (95% confidence interval, 3.7 to 17.0). Previous findings of an association between OC use and prolactinoma may have resulted from OC treatment of menstrual irregularity in women with an undiagnosed prolactinoma. (JAMA1983;249:2204-2207)
Insurance discrimination on the basis of health status: an overview of discrimination practices, federal law, and federal reform options.

This is an important time to focus on the question of insurance discrimination based on health status. The nation once again is poised to embark on a major health care reform debate. Even as the number of uninsured stands at some 45 million persons, millions more may be poised to lose coverage during the worst economic downturn in generations. In addition, a large number of persons may be seriously under-insured, with coverage falling significantly below the cost of necessary health care. In recent years, the proportion of insured persons who are underinsured has grown by 60% since 2003, reaching an estimated 25 million persons in 2007. Health care costs experienced by insured persons now account for more than 75% of all personal bankruptcies related to medical care. Underlying these figures is a national approach to health care financing for the non-elderly that effectively increases the odds that those who are in poor health status will be uninsured or underinsured.
Helicopter impulsive noise: Theoretical and experimental status

The theoretical and experimental status of helicopter impulsive noise is reviewed. The two major source mechanisms of helicopter impulsive noise are addressed: high-speed impulsive noise and blade- vortex interaction impulsive noise. A thorough physical explanation of both generating mechanisms is presented together with model and full-scale measurements of the phenomena. Current theoretical prediction methods are compared with experimental findings of isolated rotor tests. The noise generating mechanisms of high speed impulsive noise are fairly well understood—theory and experiment compare nicely over Mach number ranges typical of today’s helicopters. For the case of blade-vortex interaction noise, understanding of noise generating mechanisms and theoretical comparison with experiment are less satisfactory. Several methods for improving theory/experiment are suggested.
Rent Sharing, Aggregate Saving, and Growth

The paper investigates the effects on saving and growth of the rent sharing between firm owners and workers documented in recent empirical work. In an overlapping-generations framework, more rent sharing is found to increase growth. This result also holds in a model with a single generation of infinitely lived consumers in which some consumers are patient and save and others are impatient but credit-constrained and simply consume all their current income. This latter result is surprising since rent sharing effectively redistributes income from savers to nonsavers, yet raises aggregate saving.
Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows as Probes of Galactic and Intergalactic Dust

The amount and properties of high-redshift galactic and intergalactic (IG) dust are largely unknown but could be investigated using multiwavelength photometry of high-z objects that have a known intrinsic spectrum. Observations of γ-ray burst (GRB) afterglows appear to support the theoretical model of an adiabatic blast wave expanding into an external medium. In this model the synchrotron peak flux is independent of frequency, providing a flat spectrum when observed over time, and therefore allowing straightforward measurement of the relative attenuation of afterglow flux in widely separated bands. Applying this method to dust extinction, we show that for a sample of afterglows that have been corrected by galactic extinction comparison between the number counts of peak fluxes in X-ray versus optical can provide constraints on an intergalactic component of dust. A similar technique can probe the redshift dependence of extinction in GRB-forming regions without requiring an assumed relation between extinction and reddening by the dust. Probing systematic changes in extinction with redshift, particularly in IG and/or nonreddening dust, is crucial to a proper interpretation of the Type Ia supernova Hubble diagram and similar observations and useful for understanding GRB progenitor environments.
Pluggable AOP: designing aspect mechanisms for third-party composition

Studies of Aspect-Oriented Programming (AOP) usually focus on a language in which a specific aspect extension is integrated with a base language. Languages specified in this manner have a fixed, non-extensible AOP functionality. This paper argues the need for AOP to support the integration and use of multiple domain-specific aspect extensions together. We study the more general case of integrating a base language with a set of third-party aspect extensions for that language. We present a general mixin-based semantic framework for implementing dynamic aspect extensions in such a way that multiple, independently developed aspect mechanisms can be subject to third-party composition and work collaboratively. Principles governing the design of a collaborative aspect mechanism are aspectual effect exposure and implementation hiding.
Secrecy Outage Capacity of Fading Channels

This paper considers point-to-point secure communication over flat fading channels under an outage constraint. More specifically, we extend the definition of outage capacity to account for the secrecy constraint and obtain sharp characterizations of the corresponding fundamental limits under two different assumptions on the transmitter channel state information (CSI). First, we find the outage secrecy capacity assuming that the transmitter has perfect knowledge of the legitimate and eavesdropper channel gains. In this scenario, the capacity achieving scheme relies on opportunistically exchanging private keys between the legitimate nodes. These keys are stored in a key buffer and later used to secure delay sensitive data using the Vernam's one time pad technique. We then extend our results to the more practical scenario where the transmitter is assumed to know only the legitimate channel gain. Here, our achievability arguments rely on privacy amplification techniques to generate secret key bits. In the two cases, we also characterize the optimal power control policies which, interestingly, turn out to be a judicious combination of channel inversion and the optimal ergodic strategy. Finally, we analyze the effect of key buffer overflow on the overall outage probability.
Nonaxisymmetric Neutral Modes in Rotating Relativistic Stars

We study nonaxisymmetric perturbations of rotating relativistic stars modeled as perfect-fluid equilibria. Instability to a mode with angular dependence exp (im) sets in when the frequency of the mode vanishes. The locations of these zero-frequency modes along sequences of rotating stars are computed for the first time in the framework of general relativity. We consider models of uniformly rotating stars with polytropic equations of state, finding that the relativistic models are unstable to nonaxisymmetric modes at significantly smaller values of rotation than in the Newtonian limit. Most strikingly, the m = 2 bar mode can become unstable even for soft polytropes of index N ≤ 1.3, while in Newtonian theory it becomes unstable only for stiff polytropes of index N ≤ 0.808. If rapidly rotating neutron stars are formed by the accretion-induced collapse of white dwarfs, instability associated with these nonaxisymmetric, gravitational-wave driven modes may set an upper limit on neutron-star rotation. Consideration is restricted to perturbations that correspond to polar perturbations of a spherical star. A study of axial perturbations is in progress.
A versatile new catalyst for the enantioselective isomerization of allylic alcohols to aldehydes: scope and mechanistic studies.

A new planar-chiral bidentate phosphaferrocene ligand (2) has been synthesized and structurally characterized. The derived rhodium complex, [Rh(cod)(2)]BF4, serves as an effective catalyst for asymmetric isomerizations of allylic alcohols to aldehydes, furnishing improved yields, scope, and enantioselectivities relative to previously reported methods. The catalyst is air-stable and can be recovered at the end of the reaction. Mechanistic studies establish that the isomerization proceeds via an intramolecular 1,3-hydrogen migration and that the catalyst differentiates between the enantiotopic C1 hydrogens.
Semi-topological K-theory for certain projective varieties

In this paper we compute Lawson homology groups and semi-topological K-theory for certain threefolds and fourfolds. We consider smooth complex projective varieties whose zero cycles are supported on a proper subvariety. Rationally connected varieties are examples of such varieties. The computation makes use of different techniques of decomposition of the diagonal cycle, of the Bloch–Kato conjecture and of the spectral sequence relating morphic cohomology and semi-topological K-theory.
Averaging of Legendrian submanifolds of contact manifolds

We give a procedure to ‘average’ canonically C1-close Legendrian submanifolds of contact manifolds. As a corollary we obtain that, whenever a compact group action leaves a Legendrian submanifold almost invariant, there is an invariant Legendrian submanifold nearby.
How Do Leaders Make Decisions?: A Poliheuristic Perspective

Poliheuristic theory (PH) bridges the gap between cognitive and rational theories of decision making. PH postulates a two-stage decision process. During the first stage, the set of possible options is reduced by applying a “noncompensatory principle” to eliminate any alternative with an unacceptable return on a critical, typically political, decision dimension. Once the choice set has been reduced to alternatives that are acceptable to the decision maker, the process moves to a second stage, during which the decision maker uses more analytic processing in an attempt to minimize risks and maximize benefits. In this article, the author applies poliheuristic theory to individual, sequential, and interactive decision settings. Subsequent articles in this issue offer theoretical extensions and multiple tests of the theory using multiple methods (formal, statistical, experimental).
Increasing organ donation via changes in the default choice or allocation rule

This research utilizes a laboratory experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of alternative public policies targeted at increasing the rate of deceased donor organ donation. The experiment includes treatments across different default choices and organ allocation rules inspired by the donor registration systems applied in different countries. Our results indicate that the opt-out with priority rule system generates the largest increase in organ donation relative to an opt-in only program. However, sizeable gains are achievable using either a priority rule or opt-out program separately, with the opt-out rule generating approximately 80% of the benefits achieved under a priority rule program.
An Experimental Study of Information Revelation Policies in Sequential Auctions

Theoretical models of information asymmetry have identified a trade-off between the desire to learn and the desire to prevent an opponent from learning private information. This paper reports a laboratory experiment that investigates if actual bidders account for this trade-off, using a sequential procurement auction with private cost information and varying information revelation policies. Specifically, the Complete Information Revelation Policy, where all submitted bids are revealed between auctions, is compared to the Incomplete Information Revelation Policy, where only the winning bid is revealed. The experimental results are largely consistent with the theoretical predictions. For example, bidders pool with other types to prevent an opponent from learning significantly more often under a Complete Information Revelation Policy. Also as predicted, the procurer pays less when employing an Incomplete Information Revelation Policy only when the market is highly competitive. Bids are usually more aggressive than the risk-neutral quantitative prediction, which is broadly consistent with risk aversion. This paper was accepted by Teck Ho, decision analysis.
The COBE Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment Search for the Cosmic Infrared Background. IV. Cosmological Implications

A direct measurement of the extragalactic background light (EBL) can provide important constraints on the integrated cosmological history of star formation, metal and dust production, and the conversion of starlight into infrared emission by dust. In this paper we examine the cosmological implications of the recent detection of the EBL in the 125 to 5000 ?m wavelength region by the Diffuse Infrared Background Experiment (DIRBE) and Far Infrared Absolute Spectrophotometer (FIRAS) on board the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE). We first show that the 140 and 240 ?m isotropic residual emission found in the DIRBE data cannot be produced by foreground emission sources in the solar system or the Galaxy. The DIRBE 140 and 240 ?m isotropic residuals, and by inference the FIRAS residuals as well, are therefore extragalactic. Assuming that most of the 140 and 240 ?m emission is from dust yields a 2 ? lower limit of ?I(?) ? 5 nW m-2 sr-1 for the EBL at 100 ?m. The integrated EBL detected by the COBE between 140 and 5000 ?m is ~16 nW m-2 sr-1, roughly 20%-50% of the integrated EBL intensity expected from energy release by nucleosynthesis throughout cosmic history. This also implies that at least ~5%-15% of the baryonic mass density implied by big bang nucleosynthesis has been processed through stars. The COBE observations provide important constraints on the cosmic star formation rate, and we calculate the EBL spectrum for various star formation histories. The results show that the UV and optically determined cosmic star formation rates fall short in producing the observed 140 to 5000 ?m background. The COBE observations require the star formation rate at redshifts of z ? 1.5 to be larger than that inferred from UV-optical observations by at least a factor of 2. This excess stellar energy must be mainly generated by massive stars, since it otherwise would result in a local K-band luminosity density that is larger than observed. The energy sources could either be yet undetected dust-enshrouded galaxies, or extremely dusty star-forming regions in observed galaxies, and they may be responsible for the observed iron enrichment in the intracluster medium. The exact star formation history or scenarios required to produce the EBL at far-IR wavelengths cannot be unambiguously resolved by the COBE observations and must await future observations.
Electronically monitoring biological interactions with carbon nanotube field-effect transistors

The year 2008 marks the 10th anniversary of the carbon nanotube field-effect transistor (NTFET). In the past decade a vast amount of effort has been placed on the development of NTFET based sensors for the detection of both chemical and biological species. Towards this end, NTFETs show great promise because of their extreme environmental sensitivity, small size, and ultra-low power requirements. Despite the great progress NTFETs have shown in the field of biological sensing, debate still exists over the mechanistic origins underlying the electronic response of NTFET devices, specifically whether analyte species interact with the carbon nanotube conduction channel or if interaction with the NTFET electrodes actually triggers device response. In this tutorial review, we describe the fabrication of NTFET devices, and detail several reports that illustrate recent advances in biological detection using NTFET devices, while highlighting the suggested mechanisms explaining the device response to analyte species. In doing this we hope to show that NTFET technology has the potential for low-cost and portable bioanalytical platforms.
Regioselective preparation of tricyclic terpene ring systems by cycloaddition of 1,3,3-trimethyl-2-vinylcyclohexene with unsymmetrical quinones

Abstract High pressure reactions of 1,3,3-trimethyl-2-vinylcyclohexene with unsymmetrical p -benzoquinones are accelerated by ZnBr 2 and regio- and stereoselectively produce substituted 4,4,10-trimethyl- and 4,4,8,10-tetramethyloctahydrophenanthrene ring systems.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Primary Bladder Neck Obstruction in Men

Although primary bladder neck obstruction was first described approximately 70 years ago, it is within the past 20 years that the symptoms, signs, and methods of diagnosis and treatment have been elucidated. This article describes its typical presenting symptoms and signs that commonly may lead to a missed diagnosis for a number of years in many cases. The treatments typically available are pharmacologic or surgical. Unfortunately, most treatments have not been studied in prospective, randomized trials to assess true efficacy. The natural history of this disorder, both treated and untreated, demands much further study to determine its effect on progression of symptoms and bladder and renal function.