cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Community/public health nursing faculty's knowledge, skills and attitudes of the Quad Council Competencies for Public Health Nurses.

A multisite collaborative team of community/public health nursing (C/PHN) faculty surveyed baccalaureate nursing faculty to explore their knowledge, skills, attitudes, and application of the Quad Council Competencies for Public Health Nurses (QCC-PHN). Objectives (1) Evaluate the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of the 2011 QCC-PHN by academic C/PHN faculty; (2) Evaluate the application of 2011 QCC-PHN by C/PHN faculty in the clinical practicum for undergraduate baccalaureate C/PHN students; and (3) Determine if a significant difference existed in the knowledge for each domain. Design A mixed methods descriptive research design was used to answer three specific hypotheses related to the study objectives. A convenience sample of 143 faculty teaching C/PHN in baccalaureate schools of nursing completed an online survey. Measurements ANOVA was used to determine the difference between knowledge, skills, attitudes, and application of nursing faculty regarding the QCC-PHN based on years of nursing experience, C/PHN experience, and nursing specialty preparation. Participants' qualitative comments for each domain were analyzed for themes. Results C/PHN nursing faculty are described and differences in knowledge, skills, and attitudes delineated. A statistically significant difference was found in skills based on years of experience in C/PHN and in the application of the competencies based on nursing specialty preparation. Variations in knowledge of the QCC-PHN are identified. Conclusions Ten recommendations are proposed for key skill sets and necessary preparation for faculty to effectively teach C/PHN in baccalaureate schools of nursing.
Photophysical Properties of Pt(II) Polypyridines with Five- versus Six-Membered Chelate Rings: Trade-Offs in Angle Strain

This report describes the synthesis and characterization of a series of eight [Pt(NNN)X]+ complexes where the tridentate NNN ligand is (2,2′-bipyrid-6-yl)(pyrid-2-yl)sulfide (btp) or methyl(2,2′-bipyrid-6-yl)(pyrid-2-yl)amine (bmap) and X is OMe, Cl, phenylethynyl (C2Ph), or cyclohexylethynyl (C2Cy). The expectation was that inserting a heteroatom into the backbone of 2,2′:6′,2″-terpyridine (trpy) would expand the overall intraligand bite angle, introduce ILCT character into the excited states, and improve the photophysical properties. Crystal structures of [Pt(bmap)C2Ph]+ and [Pt(btp)Cl]+ reveal that atom insertion into the trpy backbone successfully expands the bite angle of the ligand by 8–10°. However, the impact on the photophysics is minimal. Indeed, of the eight systems investigated, only the [Pt(bmap)C2Ph]+ and [Pt(btp)C2Ph]+ complexes display appreciable emission in fluid solution, and they exhibit shorter emission lifetimes than [Pt(trpy)C2Ph]+. One reason is that the bond angle preferences of p...
Time-resolved fluorescence polarization spectroscopy and optical imaging of smart receptor-targeted contrast agents in tissues for cancer detection

Abstract: This chapter focuses on time-resolved spectroscopy and enhanced near infrared (NIR) imaging using receptor-targeted contrast agents for prostate cancer detection. Two smart receptor-targeted contrast agents, Cybesin and Cytate, in aqueous solution and cancerous and normal prostate tissues were investigated using time-resolved spectroscopy. The time evolution of the fluorescence emitted from the contrast agents in solution was described using a set of first-order linear differential equations. An analytical polarization model was developed and used to extract rotational times and fluorescence anisotropies of the contrast agents in prostate tissues. Differences of rotational times and polarization anisotropies were observed for Cybesin (Cytate) in cancerous and normal prostate tissue, due to the preferred bonding of contrast agents with cancerous tissue cells, which offers high-contrast smart agents for imaging and distinguishing cancerous prostate tissues from normal tissues.
Evaluation of the Concept of “Hypoxic Fraction” as a Descriptor of Tumor Oxygenation Status

The presence and significance of tumor hypoxia has been recognized since the 1950’s. Hypoxic cells in vitro and in animal tumors in vivo are documented to be three times more resistant to radiation-induced killing compared to aerobic cells. There is now evidence that tumor hypoxia is treatment-limiting in many human cancers. One common way to describe the extent of hypoxia in individual and groups of tumors is the “hypoxic fraction.” This measurement infers that cells are present in only two radiobiologically significant states: oxygenated and hypoxic. In this paper, we demonstrate the qualitative and quantitative presence of hypoxic tumor cells using the oxygen dependent metabolism of the 2-nitroimidazole, EF5. Two assumptions concerning the calculation and interpretation of the hypoxic fraction are considered. The first is the use of multiple animals to describe the radiation response at a given radiation dose. We hypothesize that the presence of intertumor variability in radiation response due to hypoxia could negatively influenced the characterization of the change in slope required to calculate the hypoxic fraction. The studies presented herein demonstrate heterogeneity of radioresponse due to hypoxic fraction within and between tumor lines. The 9L subcutaneous tumor studied in air-breathing rats demonstrates a 2 log variation in surviving fraction at 17 Gy. The Morris 7777 hepatoma, in contrast, showed little variability of radiation response. Our second question addresses the limitations of using the “hypoxic fraction” to describe the radiation response of a tumor. This calculated value infers that radiobiological hypoxia is a binary measurement: that a tumor contains two cell populations, aerobic cells with maximal radiosensitivity and hypoxic cells with maximal radioresistance. The classic work of Thomlinson and Gray, however, implies the presence of an oxygen gradient from tumors vessel through the tissues. In both the 9L and Q7 tumors, flow cytometric analysis of EF5 binding demonstrates a continuous range of cellular pO2 levels. These studies suggest that: 1) there is extensive intertumor variability of radiation response in certain tumor lines; 2) the variability in radiation response between individual tumors in a group may affect the ability to describe a particular tumor type’s “hypoxic fraction” and 3) The oxygen status of tumor cells is a continuum. This realization affects the ability to apply a binary concept such as the “hypoxic fraction” effectively in radiobiology.
Microfluidic Immunoprecipitation for Post-Translational Modified Protein Purification

We here report an antibody functionalized microimmunoprecipitation (μIP) method used for enrich lowabundant post-translational modified (PTM) proteins. The device is a fabricated by inert, nontoxic and disposable polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) using a silane-based chemical modification protocol, which yield an antibody-terminated PDMS surfaces. In this study, the μIP device is specifically designed for purification of carbonylated protein, a representative example here to illustrate the potential applications for any other PTMs, which could be immuno-tagged by specific antibodies. The test model- in vitro oxidized Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) was first derivitized by dinitrophenylhydrazide (DNPH) and then captured by the anti-DNP immobilized on this μIP device. The surface functional group mapping was systematically analyzed and validated by fluorescence microscopy. Quantitative study of DNP-derivatized carbonylated protein capture recovery and elution efficiency of the device was also studied. We also envision that this proteome enrichment μIP device can be assembled with other lab-on-a-chip components, such as microelectrophoresis or micro-chromatographic devices for follow-up protein analysis. This selective enrichment of modified proteins greatly facilitates the study of low abundant protein biomarkers discovery.
The Primal-Dual Gradient Method for Non-Convex Robust Optimization with an Application to the Robust AC-OPF

The recent large-scale penetration of renewable energy in power networks has also introduced with it a risk of random variability. This new source of power uncertainty can fluctuate so substantially that the traditional base-point forecast and control scheme may fail to work. To address this challenge, we study the so-called robust AC optimal power flow (AC-OPF) so as to provide robust control solutions that can immunize the power system against the intermittent renewables. In this paper we generalize the continuous-time primal-dual gradient dynamics approach to solve the robust AC-OPF. One advantage of the proposed approach is that it does not require any convexity assumptions for the decision variables during the dynamical evolution. This paper first derives a stability analysis for the primal-dual dynamics associated with a generic robust optimization, and then applies the primal-dual dynamics to the robust AC-OPF problem. Simulation results are also provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Bone Fractures in Children With Cholestatic Liver Disease May Mimic Those Seen in Child Abuse.

ABSTRACT Certain fractures in children are highly specific for child abuse. Metabolic bone disease frequently develops in patients with cholestatic liver disease (CLD); this can result in weakened bones and a predisposition to pathologic fractures. Fractures that occur in patients with rickets and osteopenia may mimic a bone response to inflicted injury, which in children raise the concern of child abuse. Here we report a series of 15 patients with CLD who developed pathologic fractures in the setting of metabolic bone disease. During initial evaluation, the caretakers of 5 of these 15 patients were reported to child protective services and investigated for child abuse. Pediatricians should be aware that children with CLD have an increased incidence of pathologic fractures, even after the cholestasis has resolved.
Measuring Tumor Mutational Burden Using Whole-Exome Sequencing

Cancer immunotherapy, particularly a class of antibodies targeting the CTLA4 and PD-1/PD-L1 negative regulators of immune response (collectively called the immune checkpoint), is one of the most promising approaches for cancer treatment and the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) has demonstrated remarkable success in several types of cancer. In studies of unselected patient populations, it was shown that melanoma, non small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), renal cell carcinoma and urothelial carcinoma patients treated with CTLA-4, PD-1 or PD-L1 inhibitors had an improved objective response and overall survival relative to chemotherapy or historical trends, and several ICIs have been approved for the treatment of these and other indications.More recently, several groups found that response to ICI therapy strongly correlates with a high burden of single nucleotide variant (SNV) mutations in the tumor genome, termed tumor mutational burden (TMB), usually expressed as the number of nonsynonymous single nucleotide variants per megabase of sequenced genome. These studies showed that TMB is a promising predictive biomarker for ICI response in melanoma, urothelial carcinoma and a subset of NSCLC patients. High TMB relates to ICI response via the production of increased numbers of novel, mutant peptide antigens (neoantigens), resulting in enhanced recognition and killing of neoantigen-presenting tumor cells by cytotoxic CD8+ T cells.In this chapter I describe the current best-practice methods for measuring TMB in tumor specimens using whole-exome sequencing (WES).
The prevalence, evolution and chromatin signatures of plant regulatory elements

Chromatin accessibility and modification is a hallmark of regulatory DNA, the study of which led to the discovery of cis-regulatory elements (CREs). Here, we characterize chromatin accessibility, histone modifications and sequence conservation in 13 plant species. We identified thousands of putative CREs and revealed that distal CREs are prevalent in plants, especially in species with large and complex genomes. The majority of distal CREs have been moved away from their target genes by transposable-element (TE) proliferation, but a substantial number of distal CREs also seem to be created by TEs. Finally, plant distal CREs are associated with three major types of chromatin signatures that are distinct from metazoans. Taken together, these results suggest that CREs are prevalent in plants, highly dynamic during evolution and function through distinct chromatin pathways to regulate gene expression.
The Geography and Disparities of Community Philanthropy: A Community Assessment Model of Needs, Resources, and Ecological Environment

Community foundations exemplify a growing form of place-based philanthropic efforts for addressing public problems. However, why do such efforts occur in some places, but not in others? Using an original population dataset of community foundations that combines community characteristics with service area data across 3130 US counties, the empirical analyses of hurdle negative binomial models reveal distinct patterns in explaining their locational distribution and philanthropic activities. Community foundations tend to emerge or flourish in urban communities which are White-dominant, ethnically homogeneous, and less religious but have more social and human capital. Crossing the zero hurdle, their philanthropic activities tend to bloom in ethnically diverse and unequal communities but plummet in highly educated communities with more high-income earners, whereas rural and vulnerable communities with high proportions of residents who are young, old, unemployed, and disabled exemplify potential service gaps of community foundations associated with their rarity and/or fewer philanthropic activities. This study presents a community assessment model and empirical evidence of what might promote and inhibit the occurrence of community philanthropic efforts.
Review of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Epilepsy

Abstract Purpose Despite the availability of numerous pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic antiseizure therapies, a fraction of patients with epilepsy remain refractory to current treatment options, underscoring the need for novel drugs and neuromodulatory therapies. Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), coupled with either electromyography or electroencephalography, enables rapid measurement of the cortical excitation/inhibition ratio, which is pathologically shifted toward excess excitability in patients with epilepsy. In this review, we summarize: (1) TMS protocols that have been deployed to identify promising compounds in the antiepilepsy drug (AED)-development pipeline, and (2) the therapeutic potential of TMS in the treatment of drug-resistant seizures. Methods A focused literature review of the use of TMS in epilepsy, using a PubMed search, was performed. Over 70 articles were included that pertained to: (1) the use of TMS-EMG and TMS-EEG in elucidating the mechanisms of action of AEDs and in discovering potential new AEDs; and (2) the use of repetitive TMS in the treatment of seizures. Findings Studies from the literature have reported that AEDs alter TMS-derived metrics, typically by leading to a net increase in cortical inhibition with successful therapy. Preclinical TMS work in rodent models of epilepsy has led to the development of novel antiseizure drug compounds. Clinical translational studies of TMS have been used to determine guidelines on the dosages of other agents in the AED pipeline in preparation for clinical trials. Several studies have described the use of therapeutic repetitive TMS in both the ictal and interictal states of epilepsy, with inconsistent results. Implications TMS has diagnostic and therapeutic potential in epilepsy. TMS-derived markers can enable early-stage measures of AED target engagement, and can facilitate studies of the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties of AEDs. TMS may also be used in the early prediction of the efficacy of different AEDs in treating patients, and in direct neuromodulation of epileptic networks. From the therapeutics perspective, despite favorable results in some trials, the optimization of treatment paradigms and the determination of ideal candidates for TMS are still needed. Finally, preclinical experiments of TMS have provided mechanistic insight into its effects on the excitation/inhibition ratio, and may facilitate rational drug–device coupling paradigms. Overall, the capacity of TMS in both the modulation and measurement of changes in cortical excitability highlights its unique role in advancing antiepilepsy therapeutics
Attitudes towards mental illness in American Evangelical communities, supernaturalism, and stigmatisation

Social-cognitive variables and religious attributions regarding mental illness were examined with a homogeneous sample of 180 American Evangelical Christians, using a novel tool and the Mental Heal...
PET/CT imaging of EphB4 receptors in melanoma xenograft with a 68Ga-labeled cyclic TNYL-RAW peptide

1042 Objectives Expression of EphB4 receptors is common in a variety of tumors including melanoma, prostate, ovary, and breast cancers. Radiolabeled peptides that can bind to EphB4 with high affinity represent promising agents for noninvasive imaging of EphB4-expressing tumors, and for monitoring response to targeted therapies directed at EphB4. The purpose of this study was to perform conformational constraint to further improve the stability and clearance of TNYL-RAW binding peptides. Methods The lactam formation of the side chain-to-side chain cyclization was utilized to reduce degradation of peptides in the presence of peptidases and proteinases. Surface plasma resonance (SPR) assay was used to screen the binding affinity of the resulting peptides with EphB4. The selected cyclized peptide was conjugated with 1,4,7-triazacyclononanetriacetic acid (NOTA) and labeled with 68Ga. Biodistribution, and small-animal PET/CT studies were performed in nude mice bearing EphB4+ A375SM melanoma. Results We identified candidate peptides with binding affinity (Kd) in the lower nanomolar range with significantly improved stability in mouse plasma, increased blood circulation time, and reduced retention in the liver and the spleen. microPET/CT studies clearly delineated A375SM melanoma. Conclusions 68Ga-labeled cyclic(TNYL-RAW) peptides could be used as a PET/CT tracer to image tumor expression of EphB4, with a high tumor-to-background ratio. The improved metabolic stability, along with favorable pharmacokinetic profile and high receptor binding affinity, suggest that these peptides are promising candidate as novel therapeutic and imaging agents targeted to EphB4 receptors.
Alethic undecidability and alethic indeterminacy

The recent, short debate over the alethic undecidability of a Liar Sentence between Stephen Barker (Barker 2012, 2014) and Mark Jago (Jago 2016) is revisited. It is argued that Jago’s objections succeed in refuting Barker’s alethic undecidability solution to the Liar Paradox, but that, nevertheless, this approach may be revived as the alethic indeterminacy solution to the Liar Paradox. According to the alethic indeterminacy solution, there is genuine metaphysical indeterminacy as to whether a Liar Sentence bears an alethic property, whether truth or falsity. While the alethic indeterminacy solution is presented here, and some revenge cases are considered and addressed, the primary aim of this paper is to revive and defend this underexplored and auspicious approach to solving the Liar Paradox.
Goodwill impairment and CEO overconfidence

Abstract We examine how CEO overconfidence affects goodwill impairments after the adoption of SFAS 142 in US firms. Consistent with the nature of the cognitive position of overconfident CEOs, we find that both the likelihood and the magnitude of goodwill impairment recognition decrease when CEO overconfidence is elevated, providing evidence that SFAS142 is not applied consistently across firms. Overconfident CEOs are reluctant to book goodwill impairment losses. The results are robust with various model specifications, proxies for CEO overconfidence, and subsamples, suggesting that biased and less transparent financial reporting on goodwill impairment in firms with overconfident CEOs is an unintended consequence of SFAS142.
Economic impact of natural disasters: a myth or mismeasurement?

This study sheds light on possible spatial aggregation bias and mismeasurement in natural disaster impacts on economic growth when adopting the synthetic control method. Using the impacted US areas...
Impact of the Old and Effect of the New Rural Development Programme in Hungary

In Hungary, over the past decade, the development and up-grading of the infrastructure and basic services caused a decrease in regional differences and a decline in the characteristic differences between rural and urban lifestyles, and farms in various regions developed differently, depending on their conditions. The rural development programmes of the past decade provided opportunities for the rural economy, the regions and the society, they assisted to safeguard the environmental values, induced community initiatives and encouraged the actions of the rural population both financially and mentally. The main shortcoming of the present programmes is that they relieve the symptoms but do not encourage creative solutions and sustainable developments. The developments in rural areas are mainly driven by social needs and basic infrastructural requirements and not by the claim of economic development. The lesson learnt is that the investments are generated by the demand of the market and the rural development by itself is unable to stop the unfavourable regional processes and thus the lagging behind of the disadvantageous regions. Unlike the earlier programmes the present programme focuses on sectors, which produce high value added and ensure significant employment for the rural population. It also supports the development of food processing, livestock farming and horticulture. In the present paper we provide an overview of the main results and impacts of the rural development measures up to now and present the main parts and the new focus areas of the investment measures in the Rural Development Programme of 2014-2020.
Deposition and characterization of AlMgB14 thin film coatings

Boron-rich borides are a special group of materials possessing complex structures typically comprised of B12 icosahedra. All of the boron-rich borides sharing this common structural unit exhibit a variety of exceptional physical and electrical properties. In this work, a new ternary boride compound AlMgBn, which has been extensively studied in bulk form due to its novel mechanical properties, was fabricated into thin film coatings by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technology. The effect of processing conditions (laser operating modes, vacuum level, substrate temperature, and postannealing, etc.) on the composition, microstructure evolution, chemical bonding, and surface morphology of AlMgBn thin film coatings has been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry; the mechanical, electrical, and optical properties of AlMgBn thin films have been characterized by nanoindentation, fourpoint probe, van der Pauw Hall measurement, activation energy measurement, and UV-VIS NIR spectrophotometer. Experimental results show that AlMgBn films deposited in the temperature range of 300 K 873 K are amorphous. Depositions under a low vacuum level (5 x 10~5 Torr) can introduce a significant amount of C and O impurities into AlMgBn films and lead to a complex oxide glass structure. Orthorhombic AlMgBn phase cannot be obtained by subsequent high temperature annealing. By contrast, the orthorhombic AlMgBn crystal structure can be attained via high temperature-annealing of AlMgBn films deposited under a high vacuum level (< 3 x 10"6 Torr), accompanied by strong texture formation. Low vacuum level-as deposited AlMgBn films have low hardness (10 GPa), but high vacuum level-as
Elastic, Viscoelastic, and Fracture Properties of Bone Tissue Measured by Nanoindentation

Nanoindentation is a sophisticated technique that has been used to characterize a wide selection of materials, including bone. Given the complex and hierarchical nature of bone, nanoindentation allows for assessment of composite material properties at the nano-range of bone tissue. These nanoindentation-based measures can provide important baseline information to aid in understanding the overall mechanical behavior, the pathologic changes of disease, and the pharmaceutical response of bone. In this review, the challenges and limitations of our current knowledge related to nanoindentation are presented as well as the future directions for its application to bone biology.
Building Community Organizations: Credible Commitment and the New Institutional Economics

Community organizations can play an important role in governing and managing local common-pool resources. Based on the emerging literature in the New Institutional Economics, this article examines the role of credible com­ mitment in building community organizations. It discusses three factors that affect credible commitment among organ­ izational participants - interactive processes, leadership, and structural design. The arguments are illustrated by field experiences in irrigation projects.
Conspiracy Theories and the Paranoid Style(s) of Mass Opinion

Although conspiracy theories have long been a staple of American political culture, no research has systematically examined the nature of their support in the mass public. Using four nationally representative surveys, sampled between 2006 and 2011, we find that half of the American public consistently endorses at least one conspiracy theory and that many popular conspiracy theories are differentiated along ideological and anomic dimensions. In contrast with many theoretical speculations, we do not find conspiracism to be a product of greater authoritarianism, ignorance, or political conservatism. Rather, the likelihood of supporting conspiracy theories is strongly predicted by a willingness to believe in other unseen, intentional forces and an attraction to Manichean narratives. These findings both demonstrate the widespread allure of conspiracy theories as political explanations and offer new perspectives on the forces that shape mass opinion and American political culture.
Efficient Distributed Resource Scheduling for Adaptive Real-Time Operation Support

In this paper we are concerned with real-time operating system services which provide for deadlock-free and starvation-free access to distributed resources that may be replicated or exist in different versions. We define and discuss novel distributed resource scheduling algorithms which provide the support for efficient real-time operations on replicated distributed files, realizing them in the manner of distributed atomic real-time transactions. After constructing a base line algorithm, called Simultaneous Enqueuing, we state formally its relevant properties: starvation-freeness and a minimal message overhead. We then enhance this algorithm by mechanisms whichallow for promoting tasks ahead of resource competitors, e.g. because of an earlier deadline. This leads to the Hurry-Up version of Simultaneous Enqueuing. We performed a first series of simulation experiments under varying resource contention and with varying upper bounds for the task laxity, using Partial Ordering resource scheduling as a benchmark. The results are very favorable for the new algorithms which are implemented as part of the kernel services of the real-time version of the distributed operating system DRAGON SLAYER, designed to support its distributed and adaptive replicated file system MELODY.
Fractographic analysis of the low energy fracture of an aluminum alloy

A study of the fracture process in a high strength aluminum alloy, 2014T6, was undertaken to identify the void nucleating particles in this material, to determine their composition, and to suggest means by which they might be eliminated without loss of strength.
Radiation resistance studies of amorphous silicon films

A study of hydrogenated amorphous silicon thin films irradiated with 2.00 MeV helium ions using fluences ranging from 1E11 to 1E15 cm/sup -2/ is presented. The films were characterized using photothermal deflection spectroscopy, transmission and reflection spectroscopy, and photoconductivity and annealing measurements. Large changes were observed in the subband-gap optical absorption for energies between 0.9 and 1.7 eV. The steady-state photoconductivity showed decreases of almost five orders of magnitude for a fluence of 1E15 cm/sup -2/, but the slope of the intensity dependence of the photoconductivity remained almost constant for all fluences. Substantial annealing occurs even at room temperature, and for temperatures greater than 448 K the damage is completely annealed. The data are analyzed to describe the defects and the density of states function. >
The Effectiveness of Customer Participation in New Product Development: A Meta-Analysis

AbstractAlthough the returns of customer participation on new product development (NPD) performance can vary substantially, the current literature lacks a systematic conceptual and empirical integration showing when customer participation is valuable in enhancing NPD performance. Building on knowledge management theory, the authors present a conceptual framework that synthesizes a variety of contingency factors. A meta-analysis empirically examines the moderating effects of contextual factors between customer participation and NPD performance. The analysis reveals that involving customers in the ideation and launch stages of NPD improves new product financial performance directly as well as indirectly through acceleration of time to market, whereas customer participation in the development phase slows down time to market, deteriorating new product financial performance. Furthermore, the benefits of customer participation on NPD performance are greater in technologically turbulent NPD projects, in emerging...
Prey Capture Success by Established and Introduced Populations of the Venus Flytrap (Dionaea muscipula)

We examined whether the ecological function (i.e., prey capture) of a rare, endemic carnivorous plant, Venus flytrap ( Dionaea muscipula ), was maintained in managed habitats along the sand rims of Carolina bay wetlands at a preserve in the coastal plain of South Carolina, U.S.A. We hypothesized that prey capture would be similar between established and introduced plants because environmental conditions were similar. Number of traps, trap length, trap width, and prey length did not significantly differ between introduced and established populations, and most indicators of prey capture success significantly favored plants growing in introduced sites. Plants in introduced sites had almost 10% more closed traps, had significantly more traps with prey, had more traps with multiple prey items, and had a greater proportion of closed and total traps containing prey. When combined across sampling dates, ants and spiders composed the majority of captured invertebrates; spiders predominated in established sites while ants predominated in introduced sites. Prey availability on one date at a subset of sites was significantly greater in introduced sites. Our data supported the effectiveness of the clearing and transplanting restoration activity for Venus flytraps by showing that individual plants growing in introduced sites have similar structure and function as those in established sites. Consistently greater prey capture success by introduced plants likely contributed to their growth, although underlying reasons for differences in prey capture between introduced and established plants remain uncertain. Evaluating prey capture of carnivorous plant populations provides insight into mechanisms underlying restoration success.
Performance comparison of switched reluctance motor with sinusoidal and conventional excitation

Switched reluctance motors (SRMs) are popular due to their advantages of simple and robust construction, wide speed range, and fault tolerance. Commonly cited limitations of SRMs are acoustic noise and the need for a different inverter configuration. It has been reported that when the SRM phases are excited with sinusoidal bipolar currents, there is significant reduction in acoustic noise. Further, with this excitation scheme, the voltage source inverter (VSI) configuration commonly used for all AC drives can be used for this motor. Another advantage of sinusoidal excitation is that well established position sensor-less control schemes used for other AC machines can be used. This paper discusses a sinusoidally excited fractional HP switched reluctance motor (SRM) for use in appliances. It is found that the advantages mentioned above are achieved at the cost of other performance parameters. Simulation results comparing efficiency, inverter VA rating, width of constant power region and radial forces for sinusoidal and conventional excitation schemes are presented. Further, a prototype of the motor is fabricated, and experimental results are presented.
Quick Estimation of Kinetic Parameters for a Compartment with Exponential Absorption Rate and First‐Order Elimination Rate

Abstract Two methods are presented for the quick estimation of kinetic parameters for a compartment with an exponential absorption rate and a first‐order elimination rate. The first method is by direct computation from the observed levels of substance in the compartment at times t , 2 t and 3 t , where t is arbitrary. The second method uses a numerical table to estimate the parameters from the observed peak level, the time of the peak level (or the time when the level rises to half of the peak level) and the time when the level has declined to half of its peak value. Some approximation equations also are given.
Influence of early pregnancy on reproductive rate in lines of mice selected for litter size.

The influence of male-induced early puberty on female reproductive rate was determined in three lines of mice differing in litter size and body weight. The lines originated from a single base population and had undergone 20 generations of selection for the following criteria: large litter size at birth (L+), large litter size and small 6-week body weight (L+W−), or small litter size and large 6-week body weight (L−W+). Females were paired with a mature intact male of the same line at 3, 5 or 7 weeks of age. Mean mating age, averaged over lines, was 26.5 ± .3, 38.3 ± .3 and 52.7 ± .3 days. Exposure to a mature male accelerated female sexual maturation in each line. When contrasted with their sibs mated at a later age, early-pregnant females from each line exhibited a decline in one or more component of reproductive performance, suggesting that the physiological state of the very young female was not optimum for normal pregnancy. In comparisons of early and later mating ages, all three lines showed a decreased littering rate at first mating, number born alive, and individual birth weight of progeny adjusted for litter size; L+ and L+W− mice showed an increased perinatal mortality rate; L+ and L−W+ had a reduction in litter size at birth. When the L+, L+W− and L−W+ lines were compared with an unselected strain and a line selected for high postweaning gain in similar experiments, a genotype by environment interaction was apparent since all lines did not respond in a similar manner to early mating. The line ranking for litter size at birth for each age at male-exposure was L+>L+W−>L−W+, despite the significant line by age interaction. When litter size was adjusted by covariance for body weight at mating, the significant effects of age at male-exposure and line by age interaction were eliminated. All fertile females were remated after they had weaned their first litter to obtain information on litter size in parity two. Line differences in litter size at birth and number born alive were uniform across parities. An age by parity interaction was evident since the decreased fecundity at younger ages of male exposure in the L+ and L−W+ litters of parity one was not evident in parity two. Litter feed efficiency during first parity gestation was defined as litter birth weight divided by either cumulative feed intake of the dam from mating to parturition (GEI) or cumulative feed intake from weaning to parturition (GEII). The ranking of lines for GEI and GEH was L+> L+W−>L−W+, but when feed efficiency was adjusted for littering rate, L+W− and L−W+ were not significantly different. With regard to age at mating, the ranking for GEI (7 wk > 5 wk > 3 wk) was reversed from GEII (3 wk >5 wk > 7 wk) and these significant differences were maintained after adjustment for littering rate.
Abstract 101: Pilot study of oral microbiome and risk of pancreatic cancer.

Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC Previous studies showed that periodontitis and tooth loss are associated with increased risk of pancreatic cancer, suggesting possible role of oral bacteria in the pancreatic cancer etiology. We evaluated whether oral microbiome is associated with risk of pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis. Oral wash samples were collected from 13 pancreatic cancer patients, 3 pancreatitis patients and 12 healthy controls at NYU Langone Medical Center, New York. Ribosomal 16S rRNA genes from oral wash DNA were amplified by universal primers, barcoded, and sequenced with 454 FLX technology. The bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences were binned into operational taxonomic units (OTUs) with 97% identify and further classified by taxonomy. Non-parametric Wilcoxon Mann Whiteney U test and Kuskal-Wallis test were conducted to compare the relative abundance of taxa across pancreatic cancer, pancreatitis and control groups. A total of 250,008 sequence reads (average 8,928 reads per sample) were observed. Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria are major phyla, accounting for 96.5% of oral microbiota. We found that bacteroides genus was significantly more abundant in both pancreatic cancer patients (p = 0.002) and pancreatitis patients (p = 0.004) compared with control group. Further, BLAST search results indicate that the species most closely represented by the Bacteroides OTUs were oral pathogen. In addition, Corynebacterium (p = 0.033) and Aggregatibacter (p = 0.019) were less abundant in pancreatic cancer and pancretitis groups compared with controls. Data from this pilot study of oral microbiome and pancreatic cancer suggest that the differential abundance in bacteriodates and possibly Corynebacterium and Aggregatibacter, are associated with risk of pancreatic cancer. Bacteroides, Gram-negative bacillus bacteria, plays an important role in oral inflammation, including periodontitis. Further larger studies are warranted to confirm these preliminary findings. Citation Format: I-Hsin Lin, Jing Wu, Steven M. Cohen, Calvin Chen, Darren Bryk, Mollie Marr, Marcovalerio Melis, Elliot Newman, H Leon Pachter, Alexander V. Alekseyenko, Richard B. Hayes, Jiyoung Ahn. Pilot study of oral microbiome and risk of pancreatic cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 101. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-101
Genetic nets and dissipative structures: an algebraic approach.

Genetic nets represent an attempt to model genome structure. Depending on the interaction dynamics assumed, they can constitute highly non-linear chemical systems having multiple steady states; hence their relevance to the theory of dissipative structures. Their typical size and possible complexity makes it difficult to study them by means of customary analytical techniques based on differential equations. We have therefore considered an algebraic approach derived from regarding the nets as finite-state automata. This view has revealed a surprisingly rich algebraic structure which can be used to investigate problems concerned with the relation between biological structure and function. This algebraic structure is described with particular reference to the genetic nets of Tsanev and Sendov.
Preliminary testing of eastern cottonwood clones

Broad-sense heritabilities were 0.44 to 0.47 for height, 0.24 to 0.28 for diameter, 0.26 to 0.29 for volume, 0.69 to 0.70 for specific gravity, 0.36 for fiber length, and 0.83 to 0.89 for resistance toMelampsora rust in a breeding population of 100 eastern cottonwood clones from central Mississippi grown for 1 year on Commerce loam and Sharkey clay in 10×10 triple lattice designs.
Maturation of Brain Function Associated With Response Inhibition

ABSTRACT Objective: To investigate the developmental trajectory of response inhibition and, more specifically, whether there is a dissociation of function in the prefrontal cortex over the course of development of executive function and associated response inhibition abilities. Method: Nineteen typically developing subjects, ranging in age from 8 to 20, performed a Go/NoGo task while behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected. Results: All subjects performed the task with few errors of omission and commission. No relationship between accuracy and age emerged, but the ability to inhibit responses more quickly significantly improved with age. Analyses of fMRI data revealed a positive correlation between activation and age in the left inferior frontal gyrus/insula/orbitofrontal gyrus, and a negative correlation between activation and age in the left middle/superior frontal gyri. Conclusions: These data provide the first evidence of dissociable processes occurring in the prefrontal cortex during development of executive functions associated with response inhibition: (1) Younger subjects activate more extensively than older subjects in discrete regions of the prefrontal cortex, presumably due to increased demands and inefficient recruitment of brain regions subserving executive functions including working memory. (2) Older subjects show increasingly focal activation in specific regions thought to play a more critical role in response inhibition.
High performance parallel and distributed computation in compositional CC

C++ was designed to support a wide range of programming styles. A parallel extension to C++ should support parallelism in all the different programming styles that a C++ program might exploit as well as support a broad range of parallel programming paradigms, such as message passing, active objects and shared memory concurrency. Compositional C++ (CC++) is a parallel C++ that was designed with these goals in mind. In this article, we motivate the design of CC++ and provide a brief overview of the language. We will illustrate how CC++ can be used to define a reusable parallel paradigm libraries and describe how one parallel application used CC++ language features to combine different types of parallelism in a single application.
Affine mappings of invertible operators

The infinite-dimensional analogues of the classical general linear group appear as groups of invertible elements of Banach algebras. Mappings of these groups onto themselves that extend to affine mappings of the ambient Banach algebra are shown to be linear exactly when the Banach algebra is semi-simple. The form of such linear mappings is studied when the Banach algebra is a C*-algebra.
Clinical assessment of the moment of stuttering

This article suggests a method for achieving increased precision in assessing behaviors that comprise the “moment of stuttering.” It is suggested that when the moment of stuttering is used as a global, molar construct important disfluency components are obliterated. Attention to specific behaviors that occur both during the pre-onset and the actual fluency disruption periods yields a better understanding of the sequential and cumulative behaviors which exist. This is particularly important since many behaviors related to stuttering occur simultaneously as well as successively. Examples of an assessment procedure for differentiating among complex molar and molecular components of fluency disruption are presented, as are ratios for determining the frequency of their occurrence. Methods for improving the clinician's ability to quantify behaviors related to the moment of stuttering, both for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes, are suggested.
Experimental determination of dosimetric characteristics of Best 125I brachytherapy source.

125 I brachytherapy sources are being used for interstitial implants in tumor sites such as the prostate. Recently, the Best® 125 I source became commercially available for interstitial brachytherapy treatment. Dosimetric characteristics (dose rate constant, radial dose function, and anisotropy function) of this source were experimentally determined, following the AAPM Task Group 43 recommendations, and were related to the NIST 1999 calibration assigned to this source. Measurements were performed in Solid Water™ phantom using LiF thermoluminescent dosimeters. The results indicated a dose rate constant, Λ, of 1.01±0.08 cGy h −1 U −1 for the new source. The radial dose function, g(r), of the new source was measured at distances ranging from 0.5 to 10.0 cm. The anisotropy function, F(r,θ), of the new source was measured at distances of 2, 5, and 7 cm from the source center. These data compare favorably with those from the Nycomed/Amersham Models 6711 and 6702 sources. The anisotropy constant, φ an , of the Best® 125 I source was found to be 0.982. Complete dosimetric parameters of the new source are presented in this paper.
Media Literacy Perspectives

Media literacy education involves cognitive processes used in critical thinking. Media workshops and curricula emphasize moral values (the defensive, inoculation approach), discriminating responsiveness (the critical viewer), antimedia resistance, and consumer revolution. Inductive media literacy programs promote independent critical thinking. Media content is a limited predictor of potential effects of media exposure. Meaning is situated in what audiences bring to their media experience (selective perception), the context in which they use media (accommodation), and how and why they use the medium (use and gratifications). To succeed, a curricular program of media literacy requires collaboration among teachers, administrators, specialists, and parents.
Draw resonance in film casting of viscoelastic fluids: A linear stability analysis

Abstract In order to understand the role of viscoelasticity on draw resonance in the isothermal film casting process, a steady state analysis and a linear stability analysis for three-dimensional flow disturbances have been conducted. The constitutive equation used is a modified convected Maxwell model, with shear-rate dependent viscosity and fluid characteristic time. The numerical results indicate that the flow is stable below a lower critical draw ratio and above an upper critical draw ratio. Shear thinning in viscosity reduces the lower critical draw ratio and somewhat increases the upper critical draw ratio—thereby enlarging the region of instability. Slower shear reduction in fluid characteristic time dramatically decreases the upper critical draw ratio but has no significant effect on the lower critical draw ratio; therefore, fluids with higher characteristic time are more stable.
Iodine-xenon studies of petrographically and chemically characterized Chainpur chondrules

INAA, noble gas, and petrographic studies conducted on samples of 18 chondrules and matric material from the Chainpur (LL3) indicate that the I-129/I-127 ratio, R(0), varies by a factor of more than 10 among the chondrules. This corresponds to a greater-than-50 Ma span in apparent I-Xe ages. Models which invoke either gas-dust mixing or nebular heterogeneity cannot satisfactorily explain these data, any more than can hypotheses which attribute the variations to differences in formation age, metamorphic rate, or time of aqueous alteration. It is alternatively suggested that the variations represent periods of low-grade shock events.