cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Is It Wrong or Illegal? Situating the Gaza Blockade between International Law and the UN Response

The legal nature of Israel’s blockade regime, imposed on Gaza since Hamas’s ouster of Fatah from the Gaza Strip in June 2007, became a pressing question for scholars and international media alike in the aftermath of Israel’s fatal attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in May 2010. The ongoing legal debate revolves about the prohibition of collective punishment, as enshrined in Article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and consequently scrutinizes the manner in which Israel has administered its blockade. This article examines the Gaza blockade in international law and demonstrates its illegality for violating the Laws of Occupation, which delimit the use of permissible force available to an Occupying Power, irrespective of the manner in which it is imposed. Accordingly, by maintaining its blockade, Israel also challenges the existing legal order, namely the scope of legal self-defense as well as the permissible use of force under the Laws of Occupation. This legal challenge works to embolden states at the expense of protections that should be afforded to civilians during armed conflict. Rather than resist this critical attempt to shift the law, the United Nations’ Security Council has perpetuated this confusion at best and, at worst, has colluded in the redefinition of the law thereby undermining its own legitimacy as well as the force of international humanitarian law. This article concludes by recommending that the UN both uphold the rule of law and restore its legitimacy by responding substantively to Israel’s behavior and structurally to its own procedural mechanisms that have facilitated such an outcome.
Fetal Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Head and Neck Anomalies

Fetal head and neck (HN) anomalies represent complex diagnostic and management challenges, often requiring serial imaging and a multidisciplinary team approach. In this article, we will review the prenatal magnetic resonance imaging diagnosis of HN malformations, with ultrasound and postnatal imaging correlation. Key topics to be discussed include craniofacial abnormalities, posterior fossa malformations, neural tube defects, cervicofacial masses, and airway anomalies.
Competition in the Telecommunications Sector: Delineation of Competences between the NCA and the NRA — the Example of Greece

Since the late 1990s, the telecommunications sector in all EU countries has shown a significant structural transformation from national monopolies to competition. Before that, public authorities were responsible to guarantee that telephony services were available to every citizen at prices that were not monopolistic, as communications were considered an essential service. Since the liberalisation process begun, competition has become the ultimate goal of every act of privatisation. While the national competition authorities (NCAs) increase their role in the partially deregulated markets, the established national regulatory authorities (NRAs) ensure the smooth transition of the monopoly sector to full liberalisation. To this end, the national legislator has often entrusted the monitoring of compliance with the provisions for the protection of free competition (also) to the national regulatory authorities. As a result, and during the liberalisation process, various issues arise as regards neighbouring competences of the NRAs and the NCAs. This article presents some of the past and current difficulties in the delineation of competencies between the Greek national regulatory authority and the Greek national competition authority and pleads for the need to overcome them. It also proposes the adoption of a statutory collaboration scheme, which the two authorities should be required to apply until the liberalisation of the relevant sector has been completed, and the competency for the ex post review of competition law compliance returns to the national competition authority.
Chapter 19 – Knowledge communication

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of knowledge communication. Knowledge communication can be defined as the instigation of modifications in a student's knowledge state via an alternation of diagnostic and didactic steps. These active communication functions require expertise that can also take the form of computer-based process models. The chapter also describes the components of knowledge communication: (1) the presentation level, (2) the communication level, and (3) the communication model. As knowledge communication unfolds over time, a system requires information about its interaction with a given student to maintain consistency. The need to record this information has motivated the notion of a communication model, proposed in GUIDON and adopted in MENO-TUTOR. The communication model can be viewed as a student-specific database maintained by communication processes to support further decisions. It can be divided into a number of submodels, each of which is logically associated with one module of the abstract architecture.
Body composition predictors of therapy response in patients with primary extremity soft tissue sarcomas.

Background Recent studies have suggested that the quantity and quality of adipose tissue and muscle, assessed on non-contrast computed tomography (CT), may serve as imaging biomarkers of survival in patients with and without neoplasms. Purpose To assess body composition measures that could serve as predictors of therapy response in patients with extremity soft tissue sarcomas treated with radiation therapy and surgery. Material and Methods The study was IRB-approved. Sixty patients had a history of extremity soft tissue sarcoma and underwent FDG-PET/CT prior to radiation therapy and surgical resection. Cross-sectional areas and CT attenuation (HU) of abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), visceral adipose tissue (VAT), and psoas muscle were assessed on non-contrast CT. Clinical information on predictors of tumor recurrence and post-surgical wound infections were recorded. Cox proportional hazard models were used to determine longitudinal associations between body composition and tumor recurrence/wound infections. Results Twenty-three tumor recurrences occurred over a follow-up period of 43 ± 35 months. Higher SAT and lower psoas attenuation were associated with tumor recurrence which remained significant after adjustment for covariates ( P ≤ 0.01). There were 13 post-surgical wound infections. Higher VAT and SAT attenuation were associated with post-surgical wound infections ( P < 0.04); however, VAT attenuation lost significance after adjustment for covariates. Conclusion Abdominal adipose tissue and psoas muscle attenuation assessed on non-contrast CT may predict tumor recurrence and post-surgical infections in patients with extremity soft tissue sarcomas.
Ionization waves of arbitrary velocity driven by a flying focus

A chirped laser pulse focused by a chromatic lens exhibits a dynamic, or flying, focus in which the trajectory of the peak intensity decouples from the group velocity. In a medium, the flying focus can trigger an ionization front that follows this trajectory. By adjusting the chirp, the ionization front can be made to travel at an arbitrary velocity along the optical axis. We present analytical calculations and simulations describing the propagation of the flying focus pulse, the self-similar form of its intensity profile, and ionization wave formation. The ability to control the speed of the ionization wave and, in conjunction, mitigate plasma refraction has the potential to advance several laser-based applications, including Raman amplification, photon acceleration, high-order-harmonic generation, and THz generation.
Helmholtz on Perceptual Properties

Hermann von Helmholtz’s work on perceptual science had a fundamental impact on Neo-Kantian movements in the late nineteenth century, and his influence continues to be felt in psychology and analytic philosophy of perception. As is widely acknowledged, Helmholtz denied that we can perceive mind-independent properties of external objects, a view I label Ignorance . Given his commitment to Ignorance, Helmholtz might seem to be committed to a subjectivism according to which we only perceive properties of our own representations. Against this, I argue that for Helmholtz, the properties we perceive are not monadic properties of either the subject or the object. Rather, Helmholtz endorsed a relationalism about the properties we perceive: the properties of objects we perceive are all relational properties. I then suggest that once we take into account oft-neglected terminological distinctions in Helmholtz’s corpus, we are better able to make sense of his commitment to relationalism.
Metabolomics Based Identification of SIRT5 and Protein Kinase C Epsilon Regulated Pathways in Brain.

The role of Sirtuins in brain function is emerging, yet little is known about SIRT5 in this domain. Our previous work demonstrates that protein kinase C epsilon (PKCe)-induced protection from focal ischemia is lost in SIRT5-/- mice. Thus, metabolic regulation by SIRT5 contributes significantly to ischemic tolerance. The aim of this study was to identify the SIRT5-regulated metabolic pathways in the brain and determine which of those pathways are linked to PKCe. Our results show SIRT5 is primarily expressed in neurons and endothelial cells in the brain, with mitochondrial and extra-mitochondrial localization. Pathway and enrichment analysis of non-targeted primary metabolite profiles from Sirt5-/- cortex revealed alterations in several pathways including purine metabolism (urea, adenosine, adenine, xanthine), nitrogen metabolism (glutamic acid, glycine), and malate-aspartate shuttle (malic acid, glutamic acid). Additionally, perturbations in β-oxidation and carnitine transferase (pentadecanoic acid, heptadecanoic acid) and glutamate transport and glutamine synthetase (urea, xylitol, adenine, adenosine, glycine, glutamic acid) were predicted. Metabolite changes in SIRT5-/- coincided with alterations in expression of amino acid (SLC7A5, SLC7A7) and glutamate (EAAT2) transport proteins as well as key enzymes in purine (PRPS1, PPAT), fatty acid (ACADS, HADHB), glutamine-glutamate (GAD1, GLUD1), and malate-aspartate shuttle (MDH1) metabolic pathways. Moreover, PKCe activation induced alternations in purine metabolites (urea, glutamine) that overlapped with putative SIRT5 pathways in WT but not in SIRT5-/- mice. Finally, we found that purine metabolism is a common metabolic pathway regulated by SIRT5, PKCe and ischemic preconditioning. These results implicate Sirt5 in the regulation of pathways central to brain metabolism, with links to ischemic tolerance.
Examples of Active Interrogation Systems

In this chapter we briefly describe some of the prototype active interrogation systems that have reached a reasonable level of integration and testing readiness, and we summarize their performance. The focus is on the Nuclear Carwash system developed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, but we also include the Pulsed Neutron Fast Analysis system developed by Rapiscan Systems, the advanced scanner developed by Passport Systems, and the prototype laser-based scanner based on inverse Compton scattering.
Foxo3 Promotes Apoptosis of B Cell Receptor-Stimulated Immature B Cells, Thus Limiting the Window for Receptor Editing.

Central tolerance checkpoints are critical for the elimination of autoreactive B cells and the prevention of autoimmunity. When autoreactive B cells encounter their Ag at the immature B cell stage, BCR cross-linking induces receptor editing, followed by apoptosis if edited cells remain autoreactive. Although the transcription factor Foxo1 is known to promote receptor editing, the role of the related factor Foxo3 in central B cell tolerance is poorly understood. We find that BCR-stimulated immature B cells from Foxo3-deficient mice demonstrate reduced apoptosis compared with wild type cells. Despite this, Foxo3 −/− mice do not develop increased autoantibodies. This suggests that the increased survival of Foxo3 −/− immature B cells allows additional rounds of receptor editing, resulting in more cells “redeeming” themselves by becoming nonautoreactive. Indeed, increased Igλ usage and increased recombining sequence recombination among Igλ-expressing cells were observed in Foxo3 −/− mice, indicative of increased receptor editing. We also observed that deletion of high-affinity autoreactive cells was intact in the absence of Foxo3 in the anti–hen egg lysozyme (HEL)/membrane-bound HEL model. However, Foxo3 levels in B cells from systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients were inversely correlated with disease activity and reduced in patients with elevated anti-dsDNA Abs. Although this is likely due in part to increased B cell activation in these SLE patients, it is also possible that low-affinity B cells that remain autoreactive after editing may survive inappropriately in the absence of Foxo3 and become activated to secrete autoantibodies in the context of other SLE-associated defects.
Evaluation of the “twomey effect” with numerical cloud models and comparisons with observations

Publisher Summary Assessments of the effects of increased aerosol concentrations on cloud albedo, and hence on the global radiative heat budget, are highly uncertain. Estimates and measurements of the sensitivity of cloud albedo to local changes in droplet concentrations indicate that the greatest absolute changes in albedo are found where concentrations of cloud droplets (and aerosols) are the lowest. However, determination of effects of pollution sources on the albedo of clouds downwind requires an evaluation of changes in aerosol concentrations during transport from their source regions. This chapter uses results from a numerical model to calculate the sensitivity of cloud albedo to changes in aerosol concentrations from an upwind source of pollution. It reveals increases in cloud albedo to occur close to pollution sources, rather than well downwind in comparatively clean regions.
High resolution segmentation of neuronal tissues from low depth-resolution EM imagery

The challenge of recovering the topology of massive neuronal circuits can potentially be met by high throughput Electron Microscopy (EM) imagery. Segmenting a 3-dimensional stack of EM images into the individual neurons is difficult, due to the low depth-resolution in existing high-throughput EM technology, such as serial section Transmission EM (ssTEM). In this paper we propose methods for detecting the high resolution locations of membranes from low depth-resolution images. We approach this problem using both a method that learns a discriminative, over-complete dictionary and a kernel SVM. We test this approach on tomographic sections produced in simulations from high resolution Focused Ion Beam (FIB) images and on low depth-resolution images acquired with ssTEM and evaluate our results by comparing it to manual labeling of this data.
In the Battle Over TV Violence, The Communications Act Should Be Cheered, Not Changed!

This was not the first time Congress, exercising its constitutional role under the Communications Act, had cajoled television broadcasters on this topic. The issue, in fact, is almost as old as the medium itself. In 1952, a House subcommittee held hearings on television violence prompted, in part, by the fear of copycat behavior by children arising from the original TV Superman series. In 1954, a Senate subcommittee on juvenile delinquency chaired by Senator Estes Kefauver began exploring possible links between juvenile crime and violence shown on television. And a decade later in 1964, the same issue was revisited by the same subcommittee, then chaired by Senator Thomas Dodd.
Error-augmented bimanual therapy for stroke survivors.

BACKGROUND Stroke recovery studies have shown the efficacy of bimanual training on upper limb functional recovery and others have shown the efficacy of feedback technology that augments error. OBJECTIVE In a double-blinded randomized controlled study (N = 26), we evaluated the short-term effects of bilateral arm training to foster functional recovery of a hemiparetic arm, with half of our subjects unknowingly also receiving error augmentation (where errors were visually and haptically enhanced by a robot). METHODS Twenty-six individuals with chronic stroke were randomly assigned to practice an equivalent amount of bimanual reaching either with or without error augmentation. Participants were instructed to coordinate both arms while reaching to two targets (one for each arm) in three 45-minute treatments per week for two weeks, with a follow-up visit after one week without treatment. RESULTS Subjects' 2-week gains in Fugl-Meyer score averaged 2.92, and we also observed improvements Wolf Motor Functional Ability Scale average 0.21, and Motor Activity Log of 0.58 for quantity and 0.63 for quality of life scores. The extra benefit of error augmentation over the three weeks became apparent in Fugl-Meyer score only after removing an outlier from consideration. CONCLUSIONS This modest advantage of error augmentation was detectable over a short interval encouraging further research in interactive self-rehabilitation systems that can enhance error motor recovery.
A Robust Transposon-Endogenizing Response from Germline Stem Cells.

Summary The heavy occupancy of transposons in the genome implies that existing organisms have survived from multiple, independent rounds of transposon invasions. However, how and which host cell types survive the initial wave of transposon invasion remain unclear. We show that the germline stem cells can initiate a robust adaptive response that rapidly endogenizes invading P element transposons by activating the DNA damage checkpoint and piRNA production. We find that temperature modulates the P element activity in germline stem cells, establishing a powerful tool to trigger transposon hyper-activation. Facing vigorous invasion, Drosophila first shut down oogenesis and induce selective apoptosis. Interestingly, a robust adaptive response occurs in ovarian stem cells through activation of the DNA damage checkpoint. Within 4 days, the hosts amplify P element-silencing piRNAs, repair DNA damage, subdue the transposon, and reinitiate oogenesis. We propose that this robust adaptive response can bestow upon organisms the ability to survive recurrent transposon invasions throughout evolution.
Interactive Machine Learning by Visualization: A Small Data Solution

Machine learning algorithms and traditional data mining process usually require a large volume of data to train the algorithm-specific models, with little or no user feedback during the model building process. Such a "big data" based automatic learning strategy is sometimes unrealistic for applications where data collection or processing is very expensive or difficult, such as in clinical trials. Furthermore, expert knowledge can be very valuable in the model building process in some fields such as biomedical sciences. In this paper, we propose a new visual analytics approach to interactive machine learning and visual data mining. In this approach, multi-dimensional data visualization techniques are employed to facilitate user interactions with the machine learning and mining process. This allows dynamic user feedback in different forms, such as data selection, data labeling, and data correction, to enhance the efficiency of model building. In particular, this approach can significantly reduce the amount of data required for training an accurate model, and therefore can be highly impactful for applications where large amount of data is hard to obtain. The proposed approach is tested on two application problems: the handwriting recognition (classification) problem and the human cognitive score prediction (regression) problem. Both experiments show that visualization supported interactive machine learning and data mining can achieve the same accuracy as an automatic process can with much smaller training data sets.
Coupling Nucleotide Binding and Hydrolysis to Iron–Sulfur Cluster Acquisition and Transfer Revealed through Genetic Dissection of the Nbp35 ATPase Site

The cytosolic iron–sulfur cluster assembly (CIA) scaffold, comprising Nbp35 and Cfd1 in yeast, assembles iron–sulfur (FeS) clusters destined for cytosolic and nuclear enzymes. ATP hydrolysis by the CIA scaffold plays an essential but poorly understood role in cluster biogenesis. Here we find that mutation of conserved residues in the four motifs comprising the ATPase site of Nbp35 diminished the scaffold’s ability to both assemble and transfer its FeS cluster in vivo. The mutants fall into four phenotypic classes that can be understood by how each set of mutations affects ATP binding and hydrolysis. In vitro studies additionally revealed that occupancy of the bridging FeS cluster binding site decreases the scaffold’s affinity for the nucleotide. On the basis of our findings, we propose that nucleotide binding and hydrolysis by the CIA scaffold drive a series of protein conformational changes that regulate association with other proteins in the pathway and with its newly formed FeS cluster. Our results pro...
Acculturation profiles and alcohol use among Hispanic Americans.

Hazardous alcohol use among Hispanics makes for a critical public health issue that warrants empirical examination. Whereas research shows positive associations between alcohol-related outcomes and...
Racial disparity in the utilization of multiparametric MRI-ultrasound fusion biopsy for the detection of prostate cancer.

Black men have significantly higher incidence and are up to three times more likely to die of prostate cancer (PCa) than White men. Multiparametric magnetic resonance imaging-ultrasound fusion biopsy (FBx) has emerged as a promising modality for the detection of PCa. The goal of our study is to identify differences in utilization of FBx between Black and White men presenting with suspicion of PCa. We performed a retrospective review of Black and White men who presented with suspicion of PCa and required biopsy from January 2014 to December 2018. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was done to study the influence of race on the utilization of FBx. Six hundred nineteen (Black: 182, White: 437) men were included in the study. Forty-one out of 182 (22.5%) Black men underwent FBx compared with 225/437 (51.5%) of White men (P < 0.001). After adjusting for age, race, prostate-specific antigen level, digital rectal exam, family history of PCa and health insurance provider, Black race was found to be a significant negative predictor of obtaining FBx (OR:0.32, 95% CI: 0.21–0.51, P < 0.001). Black race stayed an independent negative predictor (OR: 0.36, 95% CI: 0.20–0.64, P < 0.001) in the cohort of patients who were biopsy naive; however, although reduced, there was no significant difference in the cohort with a prior negative biopsy (OR: 0.51, 95% CI: 0.19–1.36, P = 0.179). Although FBx is a superior modality for early detection of PCa, we found that Black men were less likely to undergo FBx when presenting with PCa suspicion. Further investigation is needed to evaluate if this difference is patient preference or if there are underlying socioeconomic, cultural or provider biases influencing this disparity.
A robust two-sample Mendelian Randomization method integrating GWAS with multi-tissue eQTL summary statistics

In the post-genome-wide association era, two-sample Mendelian Randomization (MR) methods have been applied to detect genetically-regulated risk factors for complex diseases. Two-sample MR considers single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with a putative exposure as instrumental variables (IVs) to assess the effect of the exposure on an outcome by leveraging two sets of summary statistics: IV-to-exposure and IV-to-outcome statistics from existing GWASs. Traditional MR methods impose strong assumptions on the validity of IVs, and recent literature has relaxed the assumptions allowing some IVs to be invalid but generally requiring a large number of nearly independent IVs. When treating expression-quantitative-trait-loci (eQTLs) as IVs to detect gene expression levels affecting diseases, existing methods are limited in applicability since the numbers of independent eQTLs for most genes in the genome are limited. To address those challenges, we propose a robust two-sample MR framework that requires fewer IVs and allows moderate IV correlations and some IVs to be invalid. This is achieved by leveraging existing multi-tissue eQTL summary statistics (multiple sets of IV-to-exposure statistics) and GWAS statistics in a mixed model framework. We conducted simulation studies to evaluate the performance of the proposed method and apply it to detect putative causal genes for schizophrenia.
Prolonged Exposure Therapy With an Older Adult: An Extended Case Example

Abstract Prolonged exposure therapy (PE) has gained strong empirical support for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the general population. However, some authors have suggested that exposure therapies may be less effective for the treatment of PTSD in older adults. There is a paucity of empirical treatment studies for older adults with PTSD. The extant studies are briefly reviewed. There are indications that exposure therapies can be feasible, safe, and efficacious for older adults. However, the degree and maintenance of gains may be reduced in older adults relative to younger adults. A case example is presented to provide a detailed illustration of PE conducted with an older adult. The treatment is presented in five phases, including standard treatment components and suggested modifications for older adults. The modifications include careful use of terminology, slowing down the presentation of some information, involvement of family members, and utilizing technology to minimize the negative effects of physical impairments and stigma.
The Sealing Mechanisms of a Fracture in Opalinus Clay as Revealed by in situ Synchrotron X-Ray Micro-Tomography

Author(s): Voltolini, M; Ajo-Franklin, JB | Abstract: The detailed mechanisms of the sealing of a single fracture, from hydration to almost complete closure by increase of confining pressure, as monitored from in situ synchrotron X-ray microtomography during the flow of carbonated water, is here shown for the first time. Different mechanisms play the key role at different stages in the evolution of the fracture. Hydration mechanically weakens the surfaces of the fracture and induces a first closure due to microcracking at the asperity contacts, increasing their size and creating choke points. Increase in confining stress promptly hydraulically seals the fracture by closing the main choke point, with a relative small deformation of the sample. Finally, the more pervasive mechanical deformation observed at higher stresses almost completely seals the whole fracture. The evolution of the sample has been described and quantified using 4D image processing, focusing on the evolution of aperture and digital volume correlation. Hydraulic properties of the sample at different stages have been modeled via Stokes flow simulation, and the results compared to the morphometric analysis, finding positive correlations with the average fracture aperture variation along the flowpath in function of confining pressure. Opalinus Clay is found to be a rock markedly prone to sealing in case of flow with carbonated water; this behavior is the result of the large fraction of clays and of its microstructure, lacking both cementing phases and large stiff particles. CO2 in this sample has no evident role in the evolution of the fracture; chemically induced weathering on the surface has not been detected, in contrast with the behavior observed in samples with carbonates as cementing phase.
Do Carotid Plaque Ulcers Heal? Potential Detection of Carotid Artery Plaque Healing by Carotid Ultrasound Imaging.

OBJECTIVES Carotid plaque ulcers confer an increased risk for stroke/ transient ischemic attacks in both symptomatic and asymptomatic carotid artery stenosis. Little is known about the healing rates of ulcers or the development of new ulcers. Carotid Duplex studies are noninvasive and easily repeatable tests to monitor progression of carotid stenosis and plaque morphology. Our aim was to determine the prevalence and healing rates of ultrasound-detected carotid plaque ulcers. METHODS We retrospectively reviewed 5837 carotid Duplex studies performed in an outpatient ultrasound laboratory affiliated with the neurological department of an academic center. A total of 3215 patients underwent a first carotid ultrasound Duplex study, and 2622 follow-up studies were done. Carotid ulcer was defined as a 2 mm deep surface indentation in a carotid plaque with a well-defined back wall, as determined by multimodal ultrasound imaging techniques. RESULTS The prevalence of carotid plaque ulcers among the 3215 patients with a first ultrasound study was 3% (82/3215). The mean follow-up was 42 ± 30 months, and the median number of follow-up studies was 6. Among patients with ulcers, follow-up studies were available in 65/82 patients. During the follow-up period, 28/65 (43%) ulcers healed. Among all 2622 follow-up studies, 45 patients developed a new ulcer. CONCLUSIONS Duplex-detected carotid plaque ulcer prevalence is low. The carotid ulcers healed in approximately half of patients during follow-up. Factors associated with ulcer healing and development remain poorly understood.
Natural, Accelerated, and Simulated Weathering of Wood: A Review

This review considers three aspects of the weathering of wood – natural weathering, accelerated weathering, and simulated weathering. Natural weathering begins when unprotected wood, such as an unpainted board, is exposed to cycles of solar radiation and rain. Unpainted barns and fenceposts take on a gray coloration and their surfaces may become rough, loosened, or checked with the passage of time. The underlying causes of such changes involve ultraviolet light, the effects of cyclic wetting and drying, and the action of certain fungi. Accelerated weathering tests have been used not only to evaluate the effectiveness of varnishes and paints, but also to aid in the understanding of factors affecting natural weathering. Simulated weathering usually has the goal of quickly and conveniently changing the appearance of fresh wood to give the impression of weathering. This might increase its appeal for various decorative purposes. Information about simulated weathering, though largely absent from the scientific literature, is very much alive in social media. This article considers the science behind all three types of weathering in the light of published accounts.
Correspondence on 'Blood-brain barrier leakage in systemic lupus erythematosus is associated with gray matter loss and cognitive impairment'.

We read the article by Kamintsky et al 1 with great interest. The study used dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI to calculate cross Blood–brain barrier (BBB) leakage rates in patients with neuropsychiatric systemic lupus erythematosus (NPSLE). This article reported that patients with SLE had higher BBB leakage compared with controls. Almost a quarter of patients with SLE showed extensive BBB leakage and this SLE group had smaller cerebral grey matter volumes and impaired global cognitive function. The study provided objective evidence of impaired BBB in NPSLE. However, the exact mechanisms resulting in BBB leakage in NPSLE remain elusive. The authors have suggested a role of antiribosomal P and anti-NR2 antibodies and complement activation products as possible contributing factors to BBB leakage. …
The population genetics of nonmigratory Allen's Hummingbird ( Selasphorus sasin sedentarius) following a recent mainland colonization

Allen's Hummingbird comprises two subspecies, one migratory (Selasphorus sasin sasin) and one nonmigratory (S. s. sedentarius). The nonmigratory subspecies, previously endemic to the California Channel Islands, apparently colonized the California mainland on the Palos Verdes Peninsula some time before 1970 and now breeds throughout coastal southern California. We sequenced and compared populations of mainland nonmigratory Allen's Hummingbird to Channel Island populations from Santa Catalina, San Clemente, and Santa Cruz Island. We found no evidence of founder effects on the mainland population. Values of nucleotide diversity on the mainland were higher than on the Channel Islands. There were low levels of divergence between the Channel Islands and the mainland, and Santa Cruz Island was the most genetically distinct. Ecological niche models showed that rainfall and temperature variables on the Channel Islands are similar in the Los Angeles basin and predicted continued expansion of nonmigratory Allen's Hummingbird north along the coast and inland. We also reviewed previous genetic studies of vertebrate species found on the Channel Islands and mainland and showed that broad conclusions regarding island-mainland patterns remain elusive. Challenges include the idiosyncratic nature of colonization itself as well as the lack of a comprehensive approach that incorporates similar markers and sampling strategies across taxa, which, within the context of a comparative study of island-mainland relationships, may lead to inconsistent results.
Fluid Filtration in the Microcirculation

Passive filtration from blood to tissue is determined by the difference between the hydrostatic pressure in microvessels and the effective colloid osmotic pressure of the plasma proteins. Most textbooks show the incorrect picture that filtration on the arterial side of a microvascular beds is balanced mainly by reabsorption on the venular side. Here the experimental and theoretical basis for the revised Starling principle is described. The key insight is that capillary pressure determines not only filtration rate but also the colloid osmotic pressure difference opposing filtration across the endothelial glycocalyx. Although a sudden drop in capillary pressure results in fluid reabsorption, this cannot be sustained and steady state slow filtration across the microvascular bed is the normal state. The hockey-stick-shaped relation between filtration rate and capillary pressure derived from the revised Starling principle suggests new strategies for fluid replacement therapy. In kidney and intestinal mucosa, reabsorption of large filtered volumes requires a continuous supply of plasma protein-free fluid from adjacent (energy dependent) epithelial transport to maintain the classical Starling forces favoring reabsorption. In all cases, the primary osmotic barrier at the endothelial barrier is the glycocalyx closely associated with the endothelial surface. An important area for further research is evaluation of methods to detect early loss of endothelial glycocalyx.
Dysregulated overexpression of Sox9 induces fibroblast activation in pulmonary fibrosis

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal fibrotic lung disease associated with unremitting fibroblast activation including fibroblast-to-myofibroblast transformation (FMT), migration, resistance to apoptotic clearance, and excessive deposition of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins in the distal lung parenchyma. Aberrant activation of lung-developmental pathways is associated with severe fibrotic lung disease; however, the mechanisms through which these pathways activate fibroblasts in IPF remain unclear. Sry-box transcription factor 9 (Sox9) is a member of the high-mobility group box family of DNA-binding transcription factors that are selectively expressed by epithelial cell progenitors to modulate branching morphogenesis during lung development. We demonstrate that Sox9 is upregulated via MAPK/PI3K-dependent signaling and by the transcription factor Wilms' tumor 1 in distal lung-resident fibroblasts in IPF. Mechanistically, using fibroblast activation assays, we demonstrate that Sox9 functions as a positive regulator of FMT, migration, survival, and ECM production. Importantly, our in vivo studies demonstrate that fibroblast-specific deletion of Sox9 is sufficient to attenuate collagen deposition and improve lung function during TGF-α-induced pulmonary fibrosis. Using a mouse model of bleomycin-induced pulmonary fibrosis, we show that myofibroblast-specific Sox9 overexpression augments fibroblast activation and pulmonary fibrosis. Thus, Sox9 functions as a profibrotic transcription factor in activating fibroblasts, illustrating the potential utility of targeting Sox9 in IPF treatment.
Escaping Liability Via Forum Non Conveniens: ConocoPhillips's Oil Spill in China

Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarship.law.upenn.edu/jlasc Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons, Constitutional Law Commons, Criminal Law Commons, Criminal Procedure Commons, Disability Law Commons, Education Law Commons, Environmental Law Commons, Family Law Commons, Fourteenth Amendment Commons, Fourth Amendment Commons, Health Law Commons, Housing Law Commons, Human Rights Law Commons, Immigration Law Commons, Juveniles Commons, Labor and Employment Law Commons, Law and Society Commons, Law Enforcement and Corrections Commons, Legal History, Theory and Process Commons, Legislation Commons, Litigation Commons, Other Law Commons, Public Law and Legal Theory Commons, Sexuality and the Law Commons, Social Welfare Law Commons, and the Women Commons
Atomic and Molecular Polarizabilities-A Review of Recent Advances

Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on the recent developments in the experimental and theoretical determination of the polarizabilities of simple atoms and molecules. Polarizability values (related to the “quadratic Stark effect”) are accurately known for the noble gas atoms and for hydrogen, in theory, but the remainder of the periodic table has proven much more difficult to deal with, both theoretically and experimentally. The static electric dipole polarizability of the ground-state hydrogen atom is almost exactly 4.5a30, where a0 is the Bohr radius. Across rows of the periodic table, polarizabilities range from hundreds (of a30 units) for the alkali metal atoms generally monotonically down to a few for noble gas atoms. Excited atoms have much larger polarizabilities; recent polarizability measurements for atoms in Rydberg orbits have yielded values on the order of 1010a30. Further research on molecular polarizabilities can help in the determination of polarizability anisotropies whether through state selection or with beams of different temperatures. Supersonic molecular beams are found to have low internal energies, and the internal energy can be controlled somewhat in “seeded” beams.
Positive Accounting Theory

This book reviews the theory and methodology underlying the economics-based empirical literature in accounting. An accounting theory theory is an explanation for observed accounting and auditing practices. Such an explanation is necessary for interpretation of empirical associations between variables. The book discusses the role of theory in empirical work. It then reviews accounting theories involved in empirical studies of the use of accounting in capital markets, contracting and the political process and the extent to which the theories are consistent with those studies' evidence. Empirical studies in auditing are also reviewed. The book finishes with a discussion of the role of accounting research and a summary and evaluation of the research up until the mid-1980s.
Xi Jinping Visits Seoul: The Bigger Picture 習近平のソウル訪問 大局をみすえて

China and Korea watchers jumped to attention when it was announced that Xi Jinping would visit South Korea from July 3-4, rather than visit North Korea first. Although the trip could have been seen as reciprocating ROK President Park Geun-hye’s visit to China in June 2013, the Chinese side surely was aware that the trip would be viewed abroad as a departure from standard Chinese protocol and would probably upset Kim Jong-un and his colleagues. But while the trip can be judged a success for China, the North Koreans may have less to worry about than might at first appear.
Mercury telluride as an ohmic contact to efficient thin film cadmium telluride solar cells

The use of contact materials with a higher work function than p-CdTe is investigated using p-HgTe as the contact material. The deposition of p-HgTe on p-CdTe is carried out by the direct combination of the elemental vapors in a gas-flow system and by the close-spaced sublimation (CSS) technique. The process parameters in the direct combination technique are more readily controlled than those in the CSS technique. The p-HgTe/p-CdTe contact resistance was found to be very similar to the Au/p-CdTe contact resistance. >
Preparation of uniform colloidal dispersions by chemical reactions in aerosols: III. Mixed titania/alumina colloidal spheres☆

Abstract Uniform colloidal spheres of mixed aluminum-titanium (hydrous) oxides in the tenth micron diameter range were obtained by the hydrolysis of mixed aluminum sec.-butoxide-titanium ethoxide aerosol droplets. The latter were prepared in a flow system using two condensation type generators operated in series designed to promote complete mixing of the vapors. The liquid aerosols were reacted by the introduction of water vapor into the aerosol stream. The particle composition could be reproducibly controlled by varying the operating parameters (temperature, flow rate). The mixed (hydrous) oxide particles show an enhanced surface concentration of titanium over the bulk value and do not develop microporosity on heating as do pure titanium or aluminum (hydrous) oxide particles prepared in an analogous way.
Error detection in diffusion-based molecular communication

Despite the recent research activities in molecular communication among bio agents, the design of reliable schemes remains an open problem. One of the challenges is to develop suitable coding schemes which meet the molecular communication specific constraints in terms of reliability and complexity. In this paper, we consider diffusion-based molecular communication in which the information is encoded into the concentration (e.g., on/off keying). Such a communication system operates over a completely asymmetric channel where one of the bits can be transmitted without any error while the other can undergo a random error by the channel. Because of the limitations of bio agents, we focus on error-detecting schemes which require far less complexity at the receiver relative to error-correction codes. We model the detection process at the receiver via an erasure channel and propose an algorithm that obtains the optimal codewords efficiently. Then, we consider an error-free sub-family of such codes, namely constant weight codes, and propose an implementation specific to the molecular communication. We analyze the rate of the constant-weight coding scheme and specify the optimal weights and lengths of such codes. We also show that this coding scheme, by design, would enable the nodes to synchronize their communications.
“Optimum” Nonparametric Tests

The problem of “optimum” tests has two aspects: (1) the choice of a definition of “optimum,” and (2) the mathematical problem of constructing the test. The second problem may be difficult, but at least it is definite once an “optimum” test has been defined. But the definition itself involves a considerable amount of arbitrariness. Clearly, the definition should be “reasonable” from the point of view of the statistician (which is a very vague requirement) and it should be realizable, that is, an “optimum” test must exist, at least under certain conditions (which is trivial). Furthermore, even a theoretically “best” test is of no use if it cannot be brought into a form suitable for applications. When deciding which of two tests is “better” one ought to take into account not only their power functions but also the labor required for carrying out the tests.
RTS noise reduction of 1Y-nm floating gate NAND flash memory using process optimization

We report the random telegraph noise characteristics of 1Y-nm floating gate NAND Flash memory and behaviors of random telegraph noise generating traps. The location of selected traps are extracted and their behaviors in different temperature are also investigated. To reduce the threshold voltage fluctuations, we optimize the process conditions of 1Y-nm floating gate NAND Flash memories including tunnel oxide reduction and modification on annealing conditions. We successfully decrease the threshold voltage fluctuations as low as that of 2Y-nm floating gate NAND Flash memories.
Cysteamine Effects on Growth Hormone Secretion in the Male Rat

The thiol agent cysteamine (CSH) is reported to deplete immunoreactive somatostatin (SS) in the central nervous system and the gastrointestinal tract of rats. We investigated whether CSH, given sc, alters physiological GH secretion in chronically cannulated male rats. A dose of 300 mg/kg totally disrupted episodic GH secretion, causing an elevation of GH baseline levels and an absence of GH secretory bursts. CSH at a dose of 90 m/gg elevated GH trough levels and slightly reduced GH peak amplitudes, whereas a dose of 30 mg/kg did not affect episodic GH secretion. GH patterns remained disrupted in most animals on day 2 after drug administration, but returned to normal by 1 week. The administration of anti-SS serum resulted in a further elevation of GH levels in CSH-treated animals. Both clonidine and morphine induced a GH rise in treated animals. The GH response to stress was attenuated in CSH-treated animals. CSH at the highest dose given (300 mg/kg) markedly reduced norepinephrine (NE) concentrations (56%...
Interfirm Profitability Differences: Comment

Several studies have affirmed a significant statistical relation between the profit rates of large manufacturing companies and the market shares that they hold. Richard Mancke suggests that this relation may reveal nothing about market power or scale economies.1 Instead, "one of the most important determinants of many firms' ex post performance" is their respective successes with large and ex ante uncertain investments. Because the lucky firms under certain assumptions gain market share as well as profitability, the association between the two could reflect common random disturbances and bear no causal relation to market power or scale economies. Mancke establishes that his assumptions are logically sufficient to explain an observed share-profits relation. His simulated statistical results embody these assumptions and do nothing more than illustrate their sufficiency. But Mancke evidently believes that his randomprocess explanation is necessary as well as sufficient. The primary purpose of this note is to question this necessity. It is questionable because other sufficient explanations of the profit-share relation exist. Gale2 has advanced the behavioral explanation that a firm's share in an oligopolistic market is related to its ability to slant the oligopolistic bargain in a direction favorable to its own attributes and situation, and thus to its profitability. On that analysis market power within
Cinefluorographic equipment in cardiovascular studies.

Summary Cinefluorographic systems presently available have been described with respect to their components and methods of operation. Brief discussions of cameras, film, processing, projection, and optical reduction printing have been included. Some of the applications of cine technic to clinical and investigative areas have been summarized, and the advantages and disadvantages of cine compared with those of large rapid filming technics.