cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Impacts of IT Resources on Business Performance Within the Context of Mergers and Acquisitions

INTRODUCTION In growing their business, firms engage in different strategies. While some firms engage in internal growth, others engage in series of mergers and acquisitions (MA Gillis & Combs, 2009). Information Technology (IT) has been recognized as one of the critical factors that influence mergers success. IT and IT-dependent synergies account for about 40 percents of value created by mergers (Chabrow, 2006). In another estimate by Forrester consulting, IT potentially contributes to 10% of operating profit by delivering common processes and systems after mergers (Wailgum, 2010). Not only does IT significantly influence post-merger organizational success, different types of IT investments induce distinct performance effects through their differential impacts on firms' structures, processes, capabilities and product-markets (Weill, 1992; Barua, Kriebel, & Mukhopadhyay, 1995; Aral & Weill, 2007). Despite the recognized importance of IT in enabling firms to maximize benefits gained from their acquisitions, my literature review found little research examining the impacts of different types of IT resources on post-merger firm performance. To address such knowledge gap, I develop a theoretical framework to examine the impacts of different types of IT resources on post mergers firm performance for firms adopting growth strategy via MA Bharadwaj et al., 2007; Kohli & Grover, 2009). Secondly, my insight provides a theoretical framework that help guide future research and management practices in aligning IT strategy and M&A strategy to help firms maximize potential synergies from their mergers and improve firm performance. The following section will describe different types of M&A that firms engage in as well as different types of IT resources that are related to firms' IT strategy. Afterwards, the research model and propositions regarding the performance impacts of different types of IT resources within the context of different merger types will be proposed. I finish with discussions on my research's contributions and the implications of my ideas for future research and management practice regarding the role and performance impacts of IT within mergers and acquisition context. MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS AND IT RESOURCES It is widely agreed that the "success" of a merger or acquisition may be defined as the creation of synergy: the value of the combined firm is greater than that of the two firms operating separately. …
Health Care Autonomy of Women Living with HIV

Health Care Autonomy of Women Living with HIV HIV policy discussions have focused on a potential link between dolutegravir-based HIV treatment in pregnant women and neural-tube defects in infants, ...
Designing to Enhance Student Participation in Campus Heritage Using Augmented Reality

This paper presents Capsule, a design prototype using augmented reality to encourage students to learn the cultural heritage on campus. Based on a pilot study with prospective and current students, Capsule not only provides students the cultural histories of campus but strengthens the connection between students and heritage by adding features of improving the interaction between students and the heritage. The performance of the prototype was evaluated in a user study with 10 students, which provides design implications for future cultural heritage.
Protecting the Well-Being of Medical Residents and Faculty Physicians During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Making the Case for Accessible, Comprehensive Wellness Resources

Accounts of frontline health care workers experiencing distress in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic highlight the need for accessible psychological support for them. Prior to the pandemic, medical residents and physicians often experienced difficulty receiving counseling due to concerns about confidentiality, stigma, cost, time, and reportability to licensure/credentialing bodies. Since 2004, the OHSU Resident and Faculty Wellness Program (RFWP) team has sought to reduce these barriers by providing on-site free, confidential, individual counseling and medication management. Utilization of this program is high with over 500 physicians a year seeking care; 38% of all OHSU residents/fellows and 7% of all faculty eligible for our services participated in 2019-20. In the present essay, we describe how our model of care for trainees and faculty was a key wellness resource during COVID-19. Similar to other accounts of lower help-seeking by health professionals initially during the pandemic, we experienced a slight downturn in utilization rates during the initial weeks of when the pandemic struck our area, but quickly returned to normal and exceeded prior levels. All appointments shifted to telehealth visits and a number of physicians expressed gratitude for the opportunity to talk through concerns and strengthen coping. A number of physicians requested medication consultations to address severe insomnia, anxiety, and depression. We hope that being present in our physicians' lives when they are exposed to COVID-related stress or trauma will keep them safe, help them cope with difficult experiences and losses, and ultimately facilitate both recovery and post-traumatic growth.
Fiscal Implications of Social Security-Financed Parental Leave

We discuss the fiscal implications of a recent proposal to give workers an option to receive a parental leave benefit funded by the Social Security system if they accept an offsetting retirement benefit reduction with the same present discounted value. In principle, the proposal could avoid the harmful fiscal consequences that would arise from other parental leave proposals. We are skeptical, however, that things will work out quite that well. We are concerned that the proposal may shift fiscal burdens to future generations, reduce national saving, and undermine the retirement income function and the earmarked financing of the Social Security program.
BRAF-MEK inhibitors as steroid-sparing bridge prior to checkpoint blockade therapy in symptomatic intracranial melanoma

The introduction of immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) and BRAF-MEK inhibitors has substantially improved outcomes in patients with metastatic melanoma. However, several challenging factors may hinder the efficacy of ICB in patients with symptomatic intracranial metastatic melanoma who are immunosuppressed due to the use of steroids prior to the administration of ICB. This has resulted in the exclusion of patients treated with high dose steroid at baseline from the majority of ICB clinical trials. In addition, despite the high efficacy of BRAF-MEK inhibitors in BRAF-mutant intracranial metastatic melanoma, most tumors will eventually progress. This demonstrates a gap in addressing the best management in such patients. Here, we present a case demonstrating our approach in this patient population.
ChameleonDB: a key-value store for optane persistent memory

The emergence of Intel's Optane DC persistent memory (Optane Pmem) draws much interest in building persistent key-value (KV) stores to take advantage of its high throughput and low latency. A major challenge in the efforts stems from the fact that Optane Pmem is essentially a hybrid storage device with two distinct properties. On one hand, it is a high-speed byte-addressable device similar to DRAM. On the other hand, the write to the Optane media is conducted at the unit of 256 bytes, much like a block storage device. Existing KV store designs for persistent memory do not take into account of the latter property, leading to high write amplification and constraining both write and read throughput. In the meantime, a direct re-use of a KV store design intended for block devices, such as LSM-based ones, would cause much higher read latency due to the former property. In this paper, we propose ChameleonDB, a KV store design specifically for this important hybrid memory/storage device by considering and exploiting these two properties in one design. It uses LSM tree structure to efficiently admit writes with low write amplification. It uses an in-DRAM hash table to bypass LSM-tree's multiple levels for fast reads. In the meantime, ChameleonDB may choose to opportunistically maintain the LSM multi-level structure in the background to achieve short recovery time after a system crash. ChameleonDB's hybrid structure is designed to be able to absorb sudden bursts of a write workload, which helps avoid long-tail read latency. Our experiment results show that ChameleonDB improves write throughput by 3.3× and reduces read latency by around 60% compared with a legacy LSM-tree based KV store design. ChameleonDB provides performance competitive even with KV stores using fully in-DRAM index by using much less DRAM space. Compared with CCEH, a persistent hash table design, ChameleonDB provides 6.4× higher write throughput.
Punctuated decadal morphodynamics and coupled vegetation succession along a nontidal, wave-dominated Great Lakes barrier spit, Gull Point, Lake Erie, U.S.A.

Abstract The Presque Isle Peninsula is a compound barrier-spit system perched atop a recessional moraine along Lake Erie’s southeastern coast. Its distal terminus, Gull Point, has grown to an extent of around 0.6 km2 since the early 1900s, promoted by beach nourishment along the peninsula proper and later influenced by a change in local hydrodynamic regime following breakwater installation near the attachment point. This coastal setting has set the stage for an analysis of ridge landform- and vegetation-succession dynamics using historical aerial images, a series of high-resolution LiDAR datasets, transect/quadrat surveys of vegetation, and increment core dates of tree cohorts on dune ridges separated by swales and lagoons. The general evolutionary model is one of punctuated landform growth to the east by lateral accretion, interspersed with erosional events and ridge recurving towards the backbarrier. Eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides), with its minimally provisioned wind- and water-dispersed seeds, colonizes the margins of newly deposited sand ridges as discrete cohorts, and dominates the tree stratum of Gull Point. These cohorts are increasingly mature moving from distal to proximal zones, and consistently reflect the temporal sequence of ridge morphology. Vegetation communities, representing a primary successional chronosequence, are delineated into four phases extending back to the 1950s, which are roughly demarcated by erosional ridgelines of topographic prominence, revealing a tight coupling of lake-level trends, geomorphology, and vegetation dynamics. This provides coastal researchers with a means of understanding landform-age relationships across structurally complex strand areas for which age-relationships cannot be ascertained by aerial photographic records alone.
Persistence of asthma biologic use in a US claims database.

Abstract Background Little is known on the persistence of asthma biologic use in clinical practice. Objective To evaluate the persistence of asthma biologic use and time to clinical response in clinical practice. Methods A cohort of people with asthma who used at least 1 asthma biologic was constructed using data from 2003 to 2019 in the OptumLabs Data Warehouse. Treatment persistence was defined by the length of time that a person continuously used an asthma biologic, allowing for a lapse in use up to 4 months before confirming that a person stopped. Clinical response to treatment (defined as a decline in asthma exacerbations of at least 50% compared with the 6 months before starting an asthma biologic) was described over time and in relation to biologic persistence. Results There were 9575 people who had at least 1 episode of asthma biologic use. There were 5319 people (64%, 95% confidence interval, 63%-65%) who completed 6 months or more on an asthma biologic and 3284 (45%, 95% confidence interval, 44%-46%) who completed 12 months or more. Of people with 1 or more asthma exacerbation 6 months before index biologic use, 63%, 76%, 80%, and 81% realized a 50% or more reduction in postindex asthma exacerbations in the first 6 months, 6 to 12 months, 12 to 18 months, and 18 to 24 months, respectively. Conclusion Between 48% and 64% of people remained on an asthma biologic for 6 months or more after first use. Most people who achieved a reduction in asthma exacerbations did so in the first 6 months of treatment.
Three-In-One Gown

The Three-In-One Gown was designed with the intention to create a Met Gala worthy look that was sustainable. This gown was the result of an in-depth design process including the idea conception, colorway research, computer-aided design, advanced pattern making, and couture technique. The Three-In-One Gown is innovative and sustainable because it can be worn for at least three different occasions where generally, it would be worn once and thrown out to make room for another. It can be worn as a showstopper at a formal red carpet event such as a Met Gala or even for a bride. It can be slightly dressed down with the tulle skirt removed revealing a column-shaped evening dress for an after-party. And finally, the column skirt can also be removed leaving a flirty cocktail dress that is perfectly suited for a romantic evening on the town.
Propuesta: programa de tutoría para desarrollar habilidades socioafectivas en los estudiantes

La investigacion se concentra principalmente en mostrar las contradicciones que existe en la formacion de habilidades socioafectivas adquiridas en las escuelas por los alumnos del nivel primario, y las conductas y habitos en el entorno familiar. La justificacion se basa en Valle (2020) que, en todas las ramas del saber humano, el tutor ha constituido una pieza clave en la formacion intelectual y cultural de los individuos durante su etapa de formacion. El objetivo es proponer un programa de tutoria academica para desarrollar las habilidades socioafectivas en los estudiantes. Metodo de investigacion cualitativa ya nos permitio entender el significado del fenomeno. Como tecnicas de recoleccion de datos se recurrio a la entrevista semiestructurada a docentes y padres de familia, como tambien la entrevista. En tal sentido se obtuvo como resultado que la preparacion para orientar el desarrollo de competencias de los alumnos todavia requiere de profundidad por parte de los tutores; no existe una insercion lo suficientemente estrecha de los padres de familia con la institucion educativa y escaza capacitacion oportuna de los tutores.
Whether-conditionals

In this paper I look at indicative nested whether-conditionals, sentences like: If I pass the exam, I will pass whether I pray or not. The behavior of ‘if’ in these examples is to be contrasted with the behavior of ‘if’ in or-to-if conditionals: If Mary is at home or at work, then if she is not at home, she is at work. I argue that no currently available semantics for indicative conditionals can explain both the behavior of ‘if’ in nested whether-conditionals and the behavior of ‘if’ in or-to-ifs. We need a theory that predicts both. While no currently available theory makes the right predictions, one theory comes close—Heim’s rendition of Stalnaker’s semantics (Heim in J Semant 9(3):183–221, 1992). I show how to fix Heim’s view to get the right results for all cases. In sum, the paper argues for a particular development of Stalnaker’s semantics, and shows that whether-conditionals cannot be dealt with on other approaches.
A new extinct species of alligator lizard (Squamata: Elgaria) and an expanded perspective on the osteology and phylogeny of Gerrhonotinae.

BACKGROUND Alligator lizards (Gerrhonotinae) are a well-known group of extant North American lizard. Although many fossils were previously referred to Gerrhonotinae, most of those fossils are isolated and fragmentary cranial elements that could not be placed in a precise phylogenetic context, and only a handful of known fossils are articulated skulls. The fossil record has provided limited information on the biogeography and phylogeny of Gerrhonotinae. RESULTS We redescribe a nearly complete articulated fossil skull from the Pliocene sediments of the Anza-Borrego Desert in southern California, and refer the specimen to the alligator lizard genus Elgaria. The fossil is a representative of a newly described species, Elgaria peludoverde. We created a morphological matrix to assess the phylogeny of alligator lizards and facilitate identifications of fossil gerrhonotines. The matrix contains a considerably expanded taxonomic sample relative to previous morphological studies of gerrhonotines, and we sampled two specimens for many species to partially account for intraspecific variation. Specimen-based phylogenetic analyses of our dataset using Bayesian inference and parsimony inferred that Elgaria peludoverde is part of crown Elgaria. The new species is potentially related to the extant species Elgaria kingii and Elgaria paucicarinata, but that relationship was not strongly supported, probably because of extensive variation among Elgaria. We explored several alternative biogeographic scenarios implied by the geographic and temporal occurrence of the new species and its potential phylogenetic placements. CONCLUSIONS Elgaria peludoverde is the first described extinct species of Elgaria and provides new information on the biogeographic history and diversification of Elgaria. Our research expands the understanding of phylogenetic relationships and biogeography of alligator lizards and strengthens the foundation of future investigations. The osteological data and phylogenetic matrix that we provided will be critical for future efforts to place fossil gerrhonotines. Despite limited intraspecific sampled sizes, we encountered substantial variation among gerrhonotines, demonstrating the value of exploring patterns of variation for morphological phylogenetics and for the phylogenetic placement of fossils. Future osteological investigations on the species we examined and on species we did not examine will continue to augment our knowledge of patterns of variation in alligator lizards and aid in phylogenetics and fossil placement.
The impact of a smartphone meditation application on anesthesia trainee well-being.

Abstract Study objective Physician burnout is a pervasive problem in the United States. The goal of this study was to investigate use of the smartphone meditation application Headspace® as a well-being improvement tool in anesthesia trainees. Design Prospective self-controlled observational study. Setting Anesthesia training program in an academic hospital. Subjects Resident and fellow trainees in the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Interventions Resident and fellow trainees were given a free 1-year subscription to the mindfulness application. Participation was voluntary and included questionnaires at baseline, 1 month, and 4 months for assessment of burnout and well-being. Questionnaires were linked with the use of de-identified codes and completed via REDCap. Questionnaires included the abbreviated Maslach Burnout Inventory, Becks Depression Index, Cohens Stress Score, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, and a Headspace® Self-Reporting Questionnaire. Measurements Depression, stress, sleep quality, emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and personal achievement. Main results Of 112 trainees eligible to participate, 71 completed baseline questionnaires, 54 created application accounts, and 29 completed the entire questionnaire protocol with 4 months of app use. Application use was associated with reduced depression scores and increased feelings of personal achievement at both 1 month (p = 0.003, p = 0.066) and 4 months (p = 0.011, p = 0.005). Burnout from feelings of depersonalization and emotional exhaustion did not improve with application use. Over the study period, trainees completed 786 meditation sessions, accounting for 6123 min of app engagement. Conclusions Findings of decreased depression scores and improved feelings of personal achievement suggest that Headspace® could serve as a mindfulness tool for incorporating meditation into the daily practice of anesthesia trainees in an effort to improve well-being.
Emergent Mental Phenomena

The possibilities, if any, of ‘artificial’ mental phenomena, including consciousness, depend on what the metaphysical nature of such phenomena are. I will outline a model of metaphysical emergence, and, based on that, emergent mental phenomena, with a focus on cognition and consciousness. This model suggests that ‘artificial’ mental phenomena are possible, though not with current technology. Furthermore, such ‘artificial’ mental phenomena would require, in effect, the creation of artificial life, at least in a metabolic sense.
Ron Zemke: A Leader on the Other Side of the Fence

The Educational Media and Technology Yearbook has continued to profile ground-breaking individuals that have made their mark in Academia. In this edition, EMTY will profile more leaders in the field of Instructional Technology; one of those leaders we will pay tribute to is an individual who made contributions to our field but from the business and industry realm. Ron Zemke was an Instructional Technologist who worked as a consultant, trainer, and an editor for Training: a professional development magazine that advocates training and workforce development as a business tool. The following tribute is dedicated to Mr. Ron Zemke who passed away on August 17th, 2004. His profile is an excerpt of a tribute written by Mr. Chris Lee, the former managing editor of Training Magazine and a colleague of Mr. Zemke.
Prevention and Education

Over the past decade, those of us involved in reducing substance abuse (e.g., marijuana, cocaine, opiates), have focused our efforts on creating a drug-free generation. The idea, of course, is that once we can break the cycle of use, the following generations will also follow the example of their now drug-free parents. This is an even more crucial goal for those involved in trying to prevent cigarette smoking. As is made clear in the preceding chapters, nicotine addiction begins when users are adolescents and threatens their health over decades. In order to break this cycle, physicians and other health care professionals will have to battle constantly against a clever and well-financed enemy.
Compiler Implementation of ADTs Using Profile Data

There are many possible implementations of some very useful programming abstractions (sets, lists, and maps, to name a few), and selecting from among them is currently one of the early tasks in the design of a software system. While programming discipline and/or language features may allow the user to change implementations of an abstraction relatively easily, there remains the inherent problem of selecting a consistent and efficient set of implementations for a particular program. A small set of extensions to existing languages allows the specification of the necessary profile data within that of the implementation of the abstraction. The TypeSetter system selects a consistent and efficient set of implementations for a program's abstractions based on the collected profile data.
The susceptibility of the postpartum and postabortal cervix and uterine cavity to infection with attenuated rubella virus

To determine the susceptibility of the postpartum and postabortal genital tract to infection with attenuated rubella virus, 30 patients with negative hemagglutination inhibition (HI) titers were studied. Following inoculation with Cendehill or RA 27/3 vaccine, viral cultures of the cervix and uterine cavity were obtained with blood specimens to evaluate serologic conversion. Attenuated rubella virus was not isolated in any patient; seropositive conversion was achieved in 24 women. The significance of these findings related to wild rubella virus infection is discussed.
Erythroderma: A clinico-etiological study of 58 cases in a tertiary hospital of North India

Background: Erythroderma (exfoliative dermatitis) is a cutaneous reaction pattern characterized by generalized erythema and scaling which can be seen in a wide range of cutaneous or systemic diseases. It is important to establish correct diagnosis whenever possible so that specific therapy may be initiated. The study was undertaken to evaluate the clinical profile and etiology of erythroderma and to correlate clinical diagnosis with histopathological findings. Methods: A retrospective study was done in the Department of Pathology. Fifty eight cases of erythroderma diagnosed clinically in the past 5 years were studied and their epidemiological, clinical, laboratory and histopathological findings were analyzed. Results: The mean age of presentation was 39.3 years and male to female ratio was 3:2. Apart from erythema and scaling that were present in all patients, pruritis (n=40,69%), edema (n=12,20.2%) and fever (n=11,19%) were the most common symptoms at presentation. The most common etiology of exfoliative dermatitis was drug reactions (n=19,32.7%) followed by atopic dermatitis (n=12,20.6%) and erythrodermic psoriasis (n=10,7.2%). Other causes were Mycosis Fungoides, Allergic/Air borne contact dermatitis, Lichen Planus, Pityriasis Rubra Pilaris. There was no significant contribution of laboratory data and all the patients were HIV negative. The best clinicopathological correlation (100%) was found in erythrodermic psoriasis and Mycosis Fungoides. Conclusion: Erythroderma often obscures the primary lesion. Clinicians should evaluate all cases of erythroderma by eliciting proper clinical history, taking biopsies and performing other ancillary haematological investigations. Hospitalization may be required as the disease carries risk of significant mortality. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v6i6.12265 Asian Journal of Medical Sciences Vol.6(6) 2015 20-24
Teaching robotics from a computer science perspective

Most introductory robotics textbooks have been written from the mechanical engineering perspective. These texts spend hundreds of pages studying gears, motors, sensors, and other related topics. While a computer scientist needs to know something about these topics, he or she certainly is not concerned with them to the degree that the texts cover. Meanwhile, the texts leave out many of the topics that are the most interesting to computer scientists. This paper presents some ideas, resources, and references for those who may want to teach a Junior/Senior level Introduction to Robotics course from a computer science perspective without a textbook.
Digital badges for deliberate practice: designing effective badging systems for interactive communication scenarios

This paper investigates the role of digital badging in technical and professional communication for supporting deliberate practice, or practice that is done with intent to improve a skill or ability. The focus is on deliberate practice as it relates to information design and writing within interactive environments. Deliberate practice is deconstructed into its required components with connections established between these components, badges, and best practices in the literature. Relevant theories are discussed and examples are used to demonstrate strategies for implementing badging systems for deliberate practice within technical and professional environments. The takeaway from this paper is that digital badging systems present opportunities to foster deliberate practice. This practice can then improve a variety of skills and abilities within complex environments, both for improving design and better training end users. Our paper synthesizes findings from the literature to suggest a number of best practices for designing opportunities for useful deliberate practice using digital badges.
THE EFFECT OF COGNITIVE TASKS AND VERBALIZATION INSTRUCTIONS ON HEART RATE AND SKIN CONDUCTANCE

This study investigated the effects of cognitive tasks and verbalization instructions on heart period (HP) and skin conductance (SC). Two tasks (imagining common scenes and solving mental arithmetic puzzles) were used to test the hypothesis that conditions requiring attention to internal processess (rejection of the environment) are accompanied by cardiac acceleration and SC increases. Each type of task was administered under three instruction conditions: no verbalization, later verbalization and concurrent verbalization. It was found that the imagination task was associated with no significant changes in HP or SC unless the S was preparing to talk or actually talking. Mental arithmetic resulted in cardiac acceleration and SC increase even when no verbalization was required; however, this result is perhaps due to the covert verbalization inherent in the process of solving mental arithmetic problems. Both later and concurrent verbalization also produced significant increases in physiological activation during the arithmetic task. The findings of this study do not support the notion that conditions requiring rejection of the environment are associated with specific physiological changes. Rather the changes are generally attributable to the verbalization requirement. The effects of instructions requiring S to verbalize later are interpreted as due to either a motor set phenomenon or fear of being evaluated while talking.
Design consideration for a nuclear electric propulsion system

A study is currently underway to design a nuclear electric propulsion vehicle capable of performing detailed exploration of the outer-planets. Primary emphasis is on the power subsystem. Secondary emphasis includes integration into a spacecraft, and integration with the thrust subsystem and science package or payload. The results of several design iterations indicate an all-heat-pipe system offers greater reliability, elimination of many technology development areas and a specific weight of under 20 kg/kWe at the 400 kWe power level. The system is compatible with a single Shuttle launch and provides greater safety than could be obtained with designs using pumped liquid metal cooling. Two configurations, one with the reactor and power conversion forward on the spacecraft with the ion engines aft and the other with reactor, power conversion and ion engines aft were selected as dual baseline designs based on minimum weight, minimum required technology development and maximum growth potential and flexibility.
Thermal Radiation Transport in a Cloud of Dry Water Particles

This paper reports a numerical study on the thermal radiative transport in a cloud of dry water particles. Dry water is a water-in-air inverse foam which consists of micrometer-sized water droplets encapsulated by hydrophobic fumed-silica nanoparticles. The radiative properties of this novel material were estimated using the Mie theory for coated spheres. The radiative transport equation (RTE) was solved for a one-dimensional geometry using the discrete ordinates method. The effects of silica particle and water droplet size as well as the volume fraction of dry water particles on reducing radiative heat transfer were studied numerically. The results were compared with respect to two limiting cases: (i) system with no particles and (ii) silica particles with no water. The results showed that dry water reduced the local radiative heat flux as much as 20% more than that by silica particles alone. Additionally, reduction of the diameter of dry water particles from 75 to 25 μm reduced the radiative heat flux by 17%. Finally, parametric analysis showed that increasing the volume fraction of dry water by 10 times decreased the radiative heat flux by about 30% at the receiver end.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
Scanning Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy for investigation of charge transport in carbon-nanotube enhanced organic photovoltaics

As a powerful tool to study surface potential difference at nanometer scale, canning Kelvin Probe Force Microscopy (KPFM) has been applied to investigate the photoexcited charge transport in single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) enhanced organic solar cells. By comparing surface potential images of SWCNTs on regioregular poly 3-hesylthiophene (P3HT) and 6,6-phenyl C 61 -butyric acid methyl ester (PCBM) blended film in the dark and under illumination, it is observed that photoinduced holes flow from active layer to SWCNTs, which indicates that SWCNTs work as donor materials. The transport of holes from organic materials to SWCNTs verifies that the improved performance of P3HT/PCBM/SWCNTs bulk heterojunction solar cells is attributed to the increased hole mobility in ballistic pathways provided by SWCNTs instead of slow hopping and tunneling in disordered organic materials.
Realization of a Wiener optical spatial filter

Abstract A technique for experimentally obtaining a system function satisfying the Wiener minimum mean squared error criterion is presented. One component of the desired system function is complex; the required modifications of the standard techniques for making complex filters holographically are discussed for this special case.
Ionic Mechanisms for Prolongation of Refractoriness and Their Proarrhythmic and Antiarrhythmic Correlates

Drugs that prolong cardiac refractoriness exert antiarrhythmic effects, probably by reducing dispersion of refractoriness and thereby reducing the likelihood of reentrant excitation. This electrophysiologic effect can be achieved in fast-response tissues by sodium channel block or by action potential prolongation; drugs with either attribute can exert antiarrhythmic effects. However, both types of drugs can also cause proarrhythmic effects. For sodium channel blockers, proarrhythmic actions can be attributed to conduction slowing and include increased frequency of episodes of ventricular tachycardia as well as slowing of atrial flutter with 1:1 atrioventricular conduction and increases in ventricular rate. In addition, sodium channel block has been implicated as the mechanism underlying increased mortality with sodium channel blockers in the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST); some data suggest that intercurrent ischemia increases this risk. For drugs that prolong action potentials, torsades de pointes is the most common proarrhythmic syndrome, occurring most often with underlying bradyarrhythmias and hypokalemia. The mechanism(s) underlying normal refractoriness and its modulation by antiarrhythmic drugs, as well as the mechanism(s) underlying these proarrhythmic syndromes, are discussed.
Formation energies and equilibrium configurations of dislocation arrays with alternating Burgers vectors in layered heterostructures

Abstract Cubic layered heterostructures are indispensable features of many electronic devices; however, the lattice mismatch tends to induce defects, e.g. dislocations. Glissile 60° misfit dislocations (MDs) generally form in the early stage of strain relaxation. During annealing, each relaxing 60° dislocation compensated-pair (60DCP) (with canceling screw and interface-perpendicular edge components) may coalesce into a 90° (pure edge) dislocation, which is a possible mechanism for the reduction of threading dislocations (TDs) through annealing. In this paper, we calculate the formation energies of periodic one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) arrays on the basis of linear elasticity. Each 1D 60DCP array always has lower energy than its homogeneous counterpart. The situation of each 2D array (containing two mutually orthogonal 1D arrays) depends on the period difference δ between the two individual 1D arrays and the film thickness. If δ =0, each 2D 60DCP array has higher energy than its homogeneous counterpart, whereas the 2D 60DCP array is energetically more favorable for a larger δ and/or a thicker film. The analysis suggests a semiconductor-processing strategy to obtain 90° dislocation-dominant arrays and to reduce TDs. Furthermore, based on the criterion of zero energy change by inserting the last dislocation to complete an array, we calculate the equilibrium array period for various configurations, implying possible strain over-relaxation (>100%-relaxed condition) for a sufficiently thick film.
Thalidomide and dexamethasone therapy of myeloma in a patient with previously untreated B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia

A 67-year-old woman with previously untreated lambda-positive B-chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) had kappa-positive myeloma develop that was treated with daily thalidomide and intermittent dexamethasone. After 4 months, there was a marked reduction in marrow plasmacytosis, urine kappa chains, and peripheral blood and marrow lymphocytosis. She reduced her thalidomide (but not dexamethasone) doses after 6 months, because she had symptoms of peripheral neuropathy. Although blood lymphocyte concentrations remained normal, she had progression of myeloma and died. Thalidomide and dexamethasone therapy similar to that administered for myeloma alone may be effective treatment for myeloma in patients with preexisting B-CLL and may also have anti-B-CLL activity.
Myocardial perfusion defect on thallium-201 imaging in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Six patients with angina pectoris had reversible perfusion defects on stress and redistribution thallium imaging. Three patients had a positive electrocardiographic response to exercise. No significant coronary artery lesions were seen on coronary arteriography in any of the six patients. All had mild to moderate hypoxemia at rest and physiologic evidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as defined by the decrease in the ratio of forced expiratory volume at 1 second to forced vital capacity (FEV1/FVC x 100) or decrease in the forced midexpiratory flow rate (FEF25.75), or both. None had clinical findings suggestive of any of the reported causes of positive thallium scans in patients with normal coronary arteriograms. Cellular dysfunction produced by hypoxemia affecting the uptake of thallium seems to be the most likely mechanism of this abnormality.
Genetically obese (OB/OB) mice are hypersensitive to glucocorticoid stimulation of feeding but dramatically resist glucocorticoid-induced weight loss

The genetically obese (ob/ob) mouse is hyperphagic and hypercorticosteronemic; both hyperphagia and excessive weight gain are ameliorated by adrenalectomy. We report here that corticosterone or dexamethasone stimulate feeding in obese mice at one-fifth the dose needed to increase feeding in lean littermates. Metabolic weight loss, a measure of carbon dioxide and water lost due to respiration, is stimulated by glucocorticoids. Yet we find that obese mice are only one-seventh as sensitive as lean mice to the enhancement of metabolic weight loss following corticosterone. Therefore, hypersensitivity to glucocorticoid-induced feeding and hyposensitivity to glucocorticoid-stimulated weight loss may act in tandem to produce the ob/ob's exaggerated weight gain.
Lack of specificity of fibroblast-specific protein 1 in cardiac remodeling and fibrosis

Understanding the role of fibroblasts in pathologic conditions is hampered by the absence of specific markers. Fibroblast-specific protein (FSP)1 has been suggested as a fibroblast-specific marker in normal and fibrotic tissues; FSP1 reporter mice and FSP1-Cre-driven gene deletion are considered reliable strategies to investigate fibroblast biology. Because fibroblasts are abundant in normal and injured mammalian hearts, we studied the identity of FSP1+ cells in the infarcted and remodeling myocardium using mice with green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression driven by the FSP1 promoter. Neonatal and adult mouse hearts had low numbers of FSP1+ cells. Myocardial infarction induced marked infiltration with FSP1-expressing cells that peaked after 72 h of reperfusion. Using flow cytometry, we identified 50% of FSP1+ cells as hematopoietic cells; many endothelial cells were also FSP1+. Increased infiltration with FSP1+ cells was also noted in the pressure-overloaded myocardium. Although some FSP1+ cells had fibroblast morphology, >30% were identified as hematopoietic cells, endothelial cells, or vascular smooth muscle cells. In contrast, periostin did not stain leukocytes or vascular cells but labeled spindle-shaped interstitial cells and, as a typical matricellular protein, was deposited in the matrix. CD11b+ myeloid cells sorted from the infarcted heart had higher FSP1 expression than corresponding CD11b-negative cells, highlighting the predominant expression by hematopoietic cells. FSP1 is not a specific marker for fibroblasts in cardiac remodeling and fibrosis.
Differentiation, Distribution and γδ T Cell-Driven Regulation of IL-22-Producing T Cells in Tuberculosis

Differentiation, distribution and immune regulation of human IL-22-producing T cells in infections remain unknown. Here, we demonstrated in a nonhuman primate model that M. tuberculosis infection resulted in apparent increases in numbers of T cells capable of producing IL-22 de novo without in vitro Ag stimulation, and drove distribution of these cells more dramatically in lungs than in blood and lymphoid tissues. Consistently, IL-22-producing T cells were visualized in situ in lung tuberculosis (TB) granulomas by confocal microscopy and immunohistochemistry, indicating that mature IL-22-producing T cells were present in TB granuloma. Surprisingly, phosphoantigen HMBPP activation of Vγ2Vδ2 T cells down-regulated the capability of T cells to produce IL-22 de novo in lymphocytes from blood, lung/BAL fluid, spleen and lymph node. Up-regulation of IFNγ-producing Vγ2Vδ2 T effector cells after HMBPP stimulation coincided with the down-regulated capacity of these T cells to produce IL-22 de novo. Importantly, anti-IFNγ neutralizing Ab treatment reversed the HMBPP-mediated down-regulation effect on IL-22-producing T cells, suggesting that Vγ2Vδ2 T-cell-driven IFNγ-networking function was the mechanism underlying the HMBPP-mediated down-regulation of the capability of T cells to produce IL-22. These novel findings raise the possibility to ultimately investigate the function of IL-22 producing T cells and to target Vγ2Vδ2 T cells for balancing potentially hyper-activating IL-22-producing T cells in severe TB.
An Attempt to Correct the Faulty Intuition Perpetuated by the Wenzel and Cassie "Laws"

We respond to a recent report in this journal that criticizes our experiments, which disproved the Wenzel and Cassie theories. The criticism is that we measured contact angles "with drops that were too small, ignoring the indications of existing theoretical understanding." We take a step back to give an explanation of what we believe to be the reason that the "existing theoretical understanding" is wrong. We explain that the teaching of surface science has led generations of students and scientists to a misunderstanding of the wetting of solids by liquids. This continues as evidenced by this recent criticism and numerous recent papers. We describe several demonstrations that were designed to help teachers, students, and scientists overcome the widespread learning disability that is rooted in their faulty intuition and to help them regard wetting from the perspective of lines and not areas.
Infant and toddler teachers as transmitters of culture

What role do infant and toddler teachers play in transmitting their culture? Symbolic and cultural mediation approaches suggest children learn how to be members of their culture through social interactions and that this process begins at least by 9 months of age if not from birth. In previous cross-cultural studies of early childhood programs, teachers’ practices seem to reflect and be a part of their culture’s system of meanings. Some would say that cultural values are a type of hidden curriculum. This article examines practices in American infant and toddler child care contrasting them with Swedish infant and toddler child care using a symbolic and cultural mediation approach in order to understand the ways that infant and toddler teachers are involved in transmitting their culture in the United States and to some extent in Sweden. The United States is a highly individualistic culture, while Sweden has a particular mix of individualistic and group-oriented values. These differences can be seen in how teachers react when toddlers have disagreements over possession of a toy. In the United States teachers emphasize a child’s right to possession if the child had the toy first, whereas in Sweden children are encouraged to feel solidarity with those who have less. In addition, daily activities, the structure of children’s groups, and the physical design and placement of child care centers are examined as aspects of child care programs through which American and Swedish teachers of infants and toddlers transmit their culture to young children.
Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome: models for intracellular vesicle formation.

Abstract Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome (HPS) is an autosomal recessive disorder characterized by pigment dilution, nystagmus, decreased visual acuity, a bleeding diathesis, and lysosomal accumulation of ceroid lipofuscin. Electron microscopic evidence demonstrating lack of platelet-dense bodies provides thesine qua nonfor diagnosing HPS. Ceroid lipofuscinosis is considered to cause several serious complications, including progressive pulmonary fibrosis leading to death in the fourth or fifth decades. Currently, only symptomatic treatment can be offered. Although rare in the general population, HPS occurs in northwest Puerto Rico with a prevalence of 1 in 1800.HPS1,the first gene found to be responsible for HPS, was mapped to chromosome 10q23 and subsequently isolated and sequenced. It consists of 20 exons encoding a 700-amino acid, 79.3-kDa peptide with no homology to any known protein. All 10HPS1mutations reported to date, including the 16-bp duplication found in all northwest Puerto Rican patients, result in truncated proteins. The two mutations in the mousepale eargene (ep), which is the murine homology ofHPS1,cause similarly truncated proteins. The pathologic nature of these truncation mutations may result from unstable mRNA. However, in combination with the absence of any disease-causing missense mutations, it may indicate that the C-terminus of the HPS1 peptide is functionally important. The disorder HPS displays locus heterogeneity, consistent with the existence of 14 mouse strains manifesting both hypopigmentation and a platelet storage pool deficiency. Two mouse models,pearlandmocha,have mutations in the β3A and δ subunits of the adaptor-3 complex, respectively. This suggests that defective vesicular trafficking, specifically cargo packaging, vesicle formation, vesicle docking, or membrane fusion, may comprise the basic defect in HPS. Studies of the proteins involved in intercompartmental transport for melanosomes, platelet-dense bodies, and lysosomes should lead to a better understanding of the mechanisms of organellogenesis and to more effective therapies for HPS.
On the matrix equation AX=B with applications to the generators of a controllability matrix

Abstract Given two matrices A and B over an arbitrary field for which AX = B is consistent, we determine all possible ranks for solutions X of AX = B . Given one solution X , we furthermore determine all possible ranks of other solutions of this matrix equation. We then apply the results to determine when a given n × nm matrix A with first m columns B occurs as a controllability matrix A = ( B , AB ,…, A n-1 B ) for some A . We determine all matrices A that generate A and find all their possible ranks and some bounds on their sparsity structure.