cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Decrease in Intercourse Satisfaction in Men Who Recover Erections After Radical Prostatectomy.

Abstract Introduction Recovery of erections after radical prostatectomy (RP) is assumed to lead to recovery in sexual satisfaction. Although data suggest a relationship between sexual function and sexual satisfaction, it is unclear whether presurgical levels of sexual satisfaction are attained for men who “recover” erections post-RP. Aim The goal of this analysis is to determine whether the recovery of erectile function restores presurgical levels of sexual satisfaction. Methods We assessed 229 men pre-RP and 24-months post-RP. At both time points, participants completed the Erectile Function Domain (EFD) and the Intercourse Satisfaction Domain (ISD) of the International Index of Erectile Function (IIEF). Erectile function recovery at 24 months was defined as (1) (EFD≥24) or (2) EFD back to baseline (BTB). One hundred sixty-six men with penetration hardness erections (PHEs) at baseline (EFD >24) were included in the analyses. Repeated measure t-tests were used to compare changes in ISD scores and effect size (Cohen's d) was calculated to determine the clinical significance of these changes. Multivariable analyses (MVA) were used to test the relationship between EFD and ISD. Results The mean age of men was 58 (SD = 7) years. The mean EFD score at baseline was 29 (SD = 2), which declined significantly to 20 (SD = 10) at 24 months. ISD also decreased significantly between baseline and 24 months (12 to 8.3, P Clinical Implications These findings underscore the importance of the integration of psychological support and medical care to best meet the needs of patients. Furthermore, these results can be used to facilitate pre-RP communication and counseling with patients to improve understanding and manage post-RP expectations. Strengths & Limitations The study methodology, specifically the use of BTB as a means of defining erectile function and the longitudinal, prospective study design are relative strengths. Despite the longitudinal design, the study did not include a control group of healthy, age-matched men. Conclusion Results highlight the enduring impact of sexual dysfunction, namely erectile dysfunction, on intercourse satisfaction following RP and suggest that restoration of function in and of itself does not ensure the restoration of satisfaction. Terrier JE, Masterson M, Mulhall JP, et al. Decrease in intercourse satisfaction in men who recover erections after radical prostatectomy. J Sex Med 2018;15:1133–1139.
On certain degenerate and singular elliptic PDEs II: Divergence-form operators, Harnack inequalities, and applications

Abstract By means of the Monge–Ampere real-analysis and PDE techniques associated to certain convex functions, an approach towards Harnack inequalities is developed that simultaneously extends the one for uniformly elliptic operators from the De Giorgi–Nash–Moser theory and the one for the linearized Monge–Ampere operator from the Caffarelli–Gutierrez theory. Applications include regularity properties for solutions to divergence-form elliptic equations with power-like singularities and C 2 -estimates for solutions to the Monge–Ampere equation.
Civic Recreation: Outdoor Recreationists as Advocates, Stewards, and Managers of Natural Resources

Recently, groups representing the human-powered outdoor recreation community are playing an important role in natural resource management and conservation. Such civic recreation-recreation-based stewardship and advocacy aimed at preserving, creating, and restoring recreational resources-offers promise in an era of limited capacity on the part of land managers and efforts to promote innovative, participatory, and collaborative civic environmentalism. Despite this growing trend, little research has looked at these civic recreation organizations or their role in natural resource management. Drawing from a mixed-method research design combining an exploratory case study of local civic recreation organizations with survey research, this article aims to describe civic recreation in practice and explores how it fits into natural resource management of the twenty-first century. Specifically, the goal is to understand why, how, and to what end these organizations emerge and function. The findings reveal that civic recreation organizations often emerge as grassroots initiatives to either address a threat to access or implement the vision of an innovative leader who seeks to create a recreational resource. These organizations primarily focus on direct stewardship, collaboration with land managers, and innovative private-public partnerships for the purposes of preserving or creating recreational resources. Outcomes and benefits span environmental, community, and management domains, offering promise to an era of collaborative and community-based natural resource management.
Employees' Prior Affiliations Constrain Organizational Network Change: Evidence from U.S. Venture Capital and Private Equity

I theorize that in order to alleviate information asymmetries organizations embed both employment relationships and inter-organizational relationships in their employees’ prior education and employment affiliations. Analyses of employment and investment data from U.S. venture capital and private equity firms support the theory. First, increasing educational prestige differentials decrease both inter-individual co-employment rates and inter-organizational co-investment rates. Second, two individuals who share a prior education or a prior employment affiliation are more likely to be employed by the same organization than are two individuals who do not share such an affiliation. Third, the likelihood of two organizations forming a co-investment relationship increases with the number of prior education or employment affiliations shared by their employees. I propose that these tendencies constrain inter-organizational network change by stabilizing advantaged organizations’ positions and limiting disadvantaged organizations’ positional mobility. Implications for studies of network evolution and socioeconomic inequality are discussed.
Measurements of distributed operating systems

Message-based operating systems consisting of a small message-passing kernel supporting a collection of system-server processes are considered. For such an architecture to be practical, it is essential that basic messages be fast, since they often replace a kernel call in a traditional system. The design and implementation of such operating systems have been studied. It is shown that the limiting factor, especially for small messages, is typically not network bandwidth but processing overhead. A quantitative breakdown of the time spent in kernel into the different message-passing function is presented. It is found that a large percentage of the round-trip time can be attributed to short-term scheduling and control-block manipulation functions. Further, measurements of services times for typical services on Unix suggests that server computation times are comparable to communication times incurred in the message kernel. These results are useful for system architects, especially for evaluating hardware support for interprocess communication in such environments. >
Inducing electron spin coherence in GaAs quantum well waveguides: Spin coherence without spin precession

We demonstrate the generation and detection of electron spin coherence in a quantum well waveguide without either an external or internal dc magnetic field. In the absence of spin precession, the induced spin coherence is detected through effects of quantum interference in the spectral domain coherent nonlinear optical response. We interpret the experimental results qualitatively using a few-level model with optical selection rules as its basic ingredient.
A major symbiont shift supports a major niche shift in a clade of tree-killing bark beetles

1. One small clade of bark beetles, out of thousands of species worldwide, has shifted from using phloem to using a combination of phloem and outer bark, or to completely using outer bark. 2. The shift to outer bark has been accompanied by a shift to non‐typical bark beetle mutualist fungi in Entomocorticium (Basidiomycota) and Ceratocystiopsis (Ascomycota). 3. This study compared the growth and metabolic capabilities of fungi associated with a nearly phloem‐independent species, Dendroctonus brevicomis, with those of mutualist fungi of Dendroctonus ponderosae, a completely phloem‐colonising beetle in a sister clade associated with more typical Ascomycota in Grosmannia and Ophiostoma. 4. Only the basidiomycete associated with D. brevicomis could degrade cellulose and lignin, whereas both the ascomycete and basidiomycete could grow in outer bark. Ascomycetes associated with D. ponderosae could not degrade cellulose or lignin or grow in outer bark. 5. Beetles and fungi in these mutualisms may best be considered as co‐niche constructors. For niche construction, one organism must modify a resource in a way that enhances its fitness while also influencing fitness of other organisms using the resource. Here, the beetles kill the tree, transport the fungi into the tree, and modify the woody substrate for use by the fungi. They have also evolved mycangia to ensure vertical dissemination of the fungi. In turn, the fungi modify tree tissues and provision nutrients to the host and have evolved traits that support their acquisition and transport by the beetle host in mycangia.
Investigating Chaperonin-Containing TCP-1 subunit 2 as an essential component of the chaperonin complex for tumorigenesis

Chaperonin-containing TCP-1 (CCT or TRiC) is a multi-subunit complex that folds many of the proteins essential for cancer development. CCT is expressed in diverse cancers and could be an ideal therapeutic target if not for the fact that the complex is encoded by eight distinct genes, complicating the development of inhibitors. Few definitive studies addressed the role of specific subunits in promoting the chaperonin's function in cancer. To this end, we investigated the activity of CCT2 (CCTβ) by overexpressing or depleting the subunit in breast epithelial and breast cancer cells. We found that increasing total CCT2 in cells by 1.3-1.8-fold using a lentiviral system, also caused CCT3, CCT4, and CCT5 levels to increase. Likewise, silencing cct2 gene expression by ~50% caused other CCT subunits to decrease. Cells expressing CCT2 were more invasive and had a higher proliferative index. CCT2 depletion in a syngeneic murine model of triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) prevented tumor growth. These results indicate that the CCT2 subunit is integral to the activity of the chaperonin and is needed for tumorigenesis. Hence CCT2 could be a viable target for therapeutic development in breast and other cancers.
Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis in pregnant patients: A systematic review.

Author(s): Sharma, Ajay N; Hedayati, Bobak; Mesinkovska, Natasha A; Worswick, Scott | Abstract: BackgroundStevens-Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN) are two of the most severe dermatologic emergencies. Although pregnant women comprise a subset of individuals at risk for SJS and TEN development, little is known with regard to outcomes and treatment.ObjectiveThis study aimed to conduct a systematic review to characterize the risk factors, outcomes, and treatment of SJS and TEN in pregnant patients and newborns.MethodsA primary literature search was conducted using PubMed in September 2019, using the following search terms entered in separate pairs: pregnant or pregnancy and stevens-johnson or SJS or toxic epidermal necrolysis. Reviews, studies in a language other than English, and articles not including pregnant patients were excluded.ResultsTwenty-six articles were included for review, including a total of 177 patients. The average maternal age for a reaction was 29.9 years, gestational age was 24.9 weeks, and time to reaction after drug initiation was 27.5 days. Approximately 85% of pregnant women in this review were infected with HIV. The most common causative medications were antiretroviral therapy (90% of all cases), antibiotics (3%), and gestational drugs (2%). Of the 94 cases in which outcome data were available, the survival rates of pregnant women and newborns after delivery were 98% and 96%, respectively. Withdrawal of the offending agent and supportive care was often sufficient for treatment, but antibiotics, steroids, and intravenous immunoglobulin were implemented in some cases. Complications included preterm labor, vaginal stenosis, and vaginal adhesions.ConclusionGiven the predominance of studies focusing on the subset of pregnant patients who are infected with HIV, SJS and TEN is most commonly reported in young patients after antiretroviral therapy, primarily nevirapine. Overall mortality is lower than that of the general population, but similar to the expected mortality rates of younger adults. Early recognition and withdrawal of the offending agent is essential to mitigate the distinct consequences of these conditions in the pregnant population.
Zircon 4He/3He fractional loss step-heating and characterization of parent nuclide distribution

Abstract The radiogenic ingrowth and diffusive loss of 4He in accessory minerals is used to determine the timing of low-temperature thermal processes such as shallow tectonic, magmatic, hydrothermal, and geomorphic events. While the thermal history experienced by a sample cannot be directly constrained by a single (U Th)/He total gas age, 4He concentration profiles, normalized against irradiation-induced spallogenic 3He, have been shown to reliably recover continuous thermal history constraints if the parent nuclide distribution is either spatially uniform or can be determined. As such, 4He/3He thermochronometry has been successfully applied to apatite. However, individual zircon grains can contain complex parent nuclide zonation. Using moderately zoned, euhedral zircon grains from the rapidly cooled, distal Fish Canyon Tuff, we investigated the potential of the zircon 4He/3He thermochronometer through combining 4He/3He diode laser fractional loss step-heating with detailed analysis of parent element zonation. We present a routine method for the quantitative characterization of parent nuclide zonation by LA-ICP-MS depth-profiling. This study also demonstrates the importance of thermal control and avoidance of intra-sample thermal gradients during laser step-heating fractional loss experiments. Accurate and stable thermal control was achieved with an optimized sample-holder design, laser defocusing, and PID control loops to minimize temperature overshoot, failure to reach set-point, and temperature drop-offs. These analytical developments illustrate both the pitfalls and promise of zircon 4He/3He thermochronometry and create a reproducible methodology for 4He/3He thermochronometric applications to zoned and slowly cooled zircon.
The effects of venting and capsulotomy on traction force and hip distraction in hip arthroscopy.

This study evaluated the effects of venting and capsulotomy on the ratio of normalized distraction distance to traction force, correlating this trend with patient demographic factors. A ratio was chosen to capture the total effect of each intervention on the hip joint. During primary hip arthroscopy, continuous traction force was recorded, and fluoroscopic images were acquired to measure joint distraction before and after the application of traction, venting and interportal capsulotomy. Distraction-traction force ratios were compared using a one-sided paired t-test. A linear regression model was used to determine the relationship between age, sex and body mass index and pre- and post-intervention distraction-traction force ratios. Seventy-two adult patients and 73 hips were included. There was an increase in hip distraction with a decrease in traction force post-venting and capsulotomy (both P's <0.001). Mean normalized distraction distance increased 1.5% of femoral head size after venting and an additional 2.2% of femoral head size after capsulotomy. Mean traction force decreased 2.2% (14.7 N) after venting and 2.3% (15.3 N) after capsulotomy. Female sex significantly correlated with larger differences in both pre- and post-venting capsulotomy ratios. Venting and capsulotomy both independently improve the ratio of normalized distraction distance to traction force when performed in vivo. However, the effect sizes of each intervention are small and of questionable clinical significance. Specifically, when adequate distraction for safe surgical hip access cannot be obtained despite application of significant traction force, venting and capsulotomy after the application of traction may not afford substantial improvement.
Does the Union Make Us Strong? Labor-Union Membership, Self-Rated Health, and Mental Illness: A Parametric G-Formula Approach

Union members enjoy better wages and benefits and greater power than nonmembers, which can improve health. However, the longitudinal union-health relationship remains uncertain, partially because of healthy-worker bias, which cannot be addressed without high-quality data and methods that account for exposure-confounder feedback and structural nonpositivity. Applying one such method, the parametric g-formula, to US-based Panel Study of Income Dynamics data, we analyzed the longitudinal relationships between union membership, poor/fair self-rated health (SRH), and moderate mental illness (Kessler 6-item score of ≥5). The SRH analyses included 16,719 respondents followed from 1985-2017, while the mental-illness analyses included 5,813 respondents followed from 2001-2017. Using the parametric g-formula, we contrasted cumulative incidence of the outcomes under 2 scenarios, one in which we set all employed-person-years to union-member employed-person-years (union scenario), and one in which we set no employed-person-years to union-member employed-person-years (nonunion scenario). We also examined whether the contrast varied by sex, sex and race, and sex and education. Overall, the union scenario was not associated with reduced incidence of poor/fair SRH (relative risk = 1.01, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.95, 1.09; risk difference = 0.01, 95% CI: -0.03, 0.04) or moderate mental illness (relative risk = 1.02, 95% CI: 0.92, 1.12; risk difference = 0.01, 95% CI: -0.04, 0.06) relative to the nonunion scenario. These associations largely did not vary by subgroup.
ATTENDING TO REASONS

INTRODUCTION First published in 1994, John McDowell's book, Mind and World , has already won recognition as a philosophical classic. Few works of the past 100 years have managed to challenge so profoundly the host of preconceptions that prevent modern empiricism from truly being the philosophy of experience it aims to be. Ever since Locke, empiricist appeals to “experience” have remained trapped behind a “veil of ideas,” unable to make contact with the world itself. The mind has been understood as having immediate experience, not of things themselves, but only of its own impressions, and as therefore having to build up from these givens a picture of the reality beyond. Yet every attempt to bridge this gap between inner and outer has fallen short. In fact, the very notion of something simply “given” in experience has proven impossible to articulate clearly. Others before have tried to forge a way out of this cul-de-sac, though often at the price of abandoning the idea that experience forms a tribunal for our beliefs about the world. McDowell presents a new understanding of mind and world that looks better poised to redeem the empiricist ideal. Despite my admiration for his accomplishment, the two of us differ greatly in our conceptions of philosophy itself, however. This difference in outlook colors my large measure of agreement with the details of his remodeled empiricism, leading me to see new problems arising where McDowell believes he need not push further.
Moderate prenatal alcohol exposure increases total length of L1 axons in E15.5 mice

Abstract Public health campaigns broadcast the link between heavy alcohol consumption during pregnancy and physical, cognitive, and behavioral birth defects; however, they appear less effective in deterring moderate consumption prevalent in women who are pregnant or of childbearing age. The incidence of mild Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) is likely underestimated because the affected individuals lack physical signs such as retarded growth and facial dysmorphology and cognitive/behavioral deficits are not commonly detected until late childhood. Sensory information processing is distorted in FASD, but alcohol effects on the development of axons that mediate these functions are not widely investigated. We hypothesize that alcohol exposure alters axon growth and guidance contributing to the aberrant connectivity that is a hallmark of FASD. To test this, we administered alcohol to pregnant dams from embryonic day (E) 7.5 to 14.5, during the time that axons which form the major forebrain tracts are growing. We found that moderate alcohol exposure had no effect on body weight of E15.5 embryos, but significantly increased the length of L1+ axons. Our findings support our hypothesis. Future studies will investigate cellular, molecular, and functional mechanisms that underlie these effects.
Say What? Quantifying and Classifying Jargon Use During Inpatient Rounds.

BACKGROUND: Although plain language is recognized as essential for effective communication, research reveals that medical providers regularly use jargon terminology that may be misunderstood by patients. Little is known, however, about the types and frequency of jargon used in the pediatric inpatient setting. We aimed to quantify jargon use by medical team members during inpatient family-centered rounds (FCRs) and to identify the most common categories of jargon used. METHODS: One of 3 trained medical students audited FCRs on a general pediatric service once weekly for 12 weeks, recording and categorizing jargon used with a published classification framework. Jargon usage was classified by category and quantified by using descriptive statistics. Rates were calculated by patient encounter and per minute. Feedback was provided to rounding teams after each observation. RESULTS: During 70 observed FCR patient encounters, there were a total of 443 jargon words or phrases spoken, of which 309 (70%) were not explicitly defined to the patient or family by the health care provider team. The mean number of undefined jargon words or phrases used per patient was 4.3 (±1.7), with a mean of 0.4 (±0.1) uses of undefined jargon per minute. The most common categories of undefined jargon used include technical terminology (eg, bronchiolitis), medical vernacular (eg, cultures), and abbreviations and acronyms (eg, NPO for “nothing by mouth”) at 34%, 30%, and 17%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Undefined medical jargon was used frequently by health care providers during pediatric FCRs. We found it was feasible to measure provider jargon use and to use a jargon classification scheme to provide real-time, concrete feedback.
RadPC: A Novel Single-Event Upset Mitigation Strategy for Field Programmable Gate Array–Based Space Computing

This paper presents a computer architecture with the ability to respond to radiation-induced faults. The architecture presented advances the state-of-the-art by implementing a redundant multiproces...
Multiscale analysis of elastic waves in soft materials: From molecular chain networks to fiber composites

Abstract We provide a multiscale analysis of elastic waves in soft microstructured materials including the underlying molecular chain network mechanisms and micromechanics of hyperelastic fiber composites. First, we examine the interplay between the crosslinked and entangled polymer chains and elastic wave characteristics in finitely deformed materials. Next, we study the shear wave propagation in a class of heterogeneous hyperelastic composites. In particular, we consider the transversely isotropic fiber composites with phases characterized by the stiffening behavior stemming from the non-Gaussian statistics of polymer chains. By employing a micromechanics-based approach, we derive explicit expressions for phase velocities in terms of material properties and volume fraction of the phases. Our results indicate the significant influence of the variety of length-scales mechanisms on the elastic wave characteristics. We provide examples to illustrate the influence of the mechanisms under different loading conditions, wave propagation directionality, and material microstructure parameters.
Other People's Letters: Simulating Archival Intimacy Through Theater

Abstract This is an account of one archivist and her interest in communicating the experience of interacting with a collection of personal material. To this end she creates a reading of letters, diaries, and other primary source documents, specifically with an audience in mind. The article describes, in some detail, what steps one might go through to create this sort of outreach event, but also relates the personal feelings and introspections on the subject of archival work and what it means for society.
Fetal imaging prompts maternal diagnosis: autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is a common inherited disorder. Ultrasound (US) findings can include enlarged echogenic kidneys in utero and cysts in multiple organs in adults. Though a highly penetrant disease, due to varied clinical expression and the typical late onset of symptoms, reproductive-aged women may not know their carrier status. We present two cases in which fetal US findings suggested ADPKD and additional evaluation identified likely maternal ADPKD as well.
Modeling and Stability Issues in Hybrid Systems

Classical modeling of physical systems relies on differential-difference type equations. However many systems today contain logical quantities and discrete decision makers. For these type of systems the classical modeling approach is either not sufficient or only represents some portion of the system. We develop a hybrid system formulation to study systems with both discrete and continuous quantities.
Cloud Computing for Science

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) style cloud computing is emerging as a viable alternative to the acquisition and management of physical resources. This raises several questions. How can we take advantage of the opportunities it offers? Are the current commercial offerings suitable for science? What cloud capabilities are required by scientific applications? What additional infrastructure is needed to take advantage of cloud resources? In this talk, I will describe several application projects using cloud computing in commercial and academic space and discuss the challenges and benefits of this approach in terms of performance, cost, and ease-of-use. I will also discuss our experiences with configuring and running the Science Clouds - a group of clouds in academic domain available to scientific projects configured using the Nimbus Toolkit. Finally, I will discuss the emerging trends and innovation opportunities in cloud computing.
Agrobacterium-mediated sorghum transformation.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens was used to genetically transform sorghum. Immature embryos of a public (P898012) and a commercial line (PHI391) of sorghum were used as the target explants. The Agrobacterium strain used was LBA4404 carrying a `Super-binary' vector with a bar gene as a selectable marker for herbicide resistance in the plant cells. A series of parameter tests was used to establish a baseline for conditions to be used in stable transformation experiments. A number of different transformation conditions were tested and a total of 131 stably transformed events were produced from 6175 embryos in these two sorghum lines. Statistical analysis showed that the source of the embryos had a very significant impact on transformation efficiency, with field-grown embryos producing a higher transformation frequency than greenhouse-grown embryos. Southern blot analysis of DNA from leaf tissues of T0 plants confirmed the integration of the T-DNA into the sorghum genome. Mendelian segregation in the T1 generation was confirmed by herbicide resistance screening. This is the first report of successful use of Agrobacterium for production of stably transformed sorghum plants. The Agrobacterium method we used yields a higher frequency of stable transformation that other methods reported previously.
Cutaneous and muscle afferents: interactions with potential targets in vitro

Previous studies suggest that cutaneous and muscle afferents use different environmental cues in growing to their peripheral targets. As a first approach to learning whether these earlier observations reflect differences in the behavior of individual growth cones, trigeminal cutaneous and muscle afferents of embryonic day 10 chicks were cocultured with explants of epidermis or dermis or with myotubes, and interactions of their growth cones with these potential targets were followed with time lapse video microscopy. Cutaneous and muscle afferents differed in their response to all three targets. In birds, few cutaneous afferents innervate epidermis. Accordingly, most cutaneous neurites retracted within minutes of touching an epidermal cell. In contrast, most muscle afferents stopped growing but remained in contact with epidermis for as long as they were observed (> 1 hr). Further, most cutaneous afferents grew readily across explants of dermis, their normal target, at rates comparable to their growth on the substrate. In contrast, most muscle afferents advanced only poorly on dermis. Finally, most cutaneous afferents grew readily across myotubes, the normal targets of muscle afferents. In contrast, few muscle afferents grew across myotubes; most either retracted or changed course and grew along the myotube. Overall, muscle afferents stayed in contact with myotubes longer than cutaneous afferents. These cell-type-specific responses reflect in large part the patterns of cutaneous and muscle afferent growth in vivo. Further studies are required to determine whether these observed differences between the behavior of regenerating cutaneous and muscle afferent growth cones could potentially play a role in the selection of targets or pathways during embryonic development.
An Odd Partnership: Understanding the Relationship between Authoritarian Unions and Democratic Unions in Korea and Taiwan

Labor unions in pre-democratized Korea and Taiwan were directly organized and financially sponsored by authoritarian regimes. South Korea’s Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) and Taiwan’s Chinese Federation of Labor (CFL) enjoyed a privileged status until the late 1980s when their monopoly of union organizing was challenged by new democratic unionists (the Korea Confederation of Trade Unions and the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions). This paper intends to examine the relationship between these authoritarian unions and democratic unions in the post-democratization decades (1987-2007). Union competition has been a key variable in explaining the behavioral logic of labor unions in the existing literature of labor politics (Murillo 2001, Burgess 2004, Etchmendy 2004, Robertson 2004). These studies, however, failed to take into consideration the fact that union competition does not take place on the level ground. The existence of early/authoritarian unions critically shapes the conditions under which late/democratic unions emerge and develop. This paper thus investigates how the former has affected the latter’s identity and mobilization strategies as a labor movement. By comparing union actors’ discourse (based on interview data) and mobilization patterns (based on labor dispute data) between Korean unions and Taiwanese unions, this paper argues that it is not just union competition that drives labor militancy but the reaction of democratic unions to the path set by authoritarian unions that undergirds the behavioral logic of union mobilization.
"To Take Them at Their Word": Language Data in the Study of Teachers' Knowledge

In this article, Donald Freeman traces how the field of research on what teachers know and how they act in classrooms, including studies of teacher thinking, teacher learning, and teacher socialization, has assumed that words can represent thought, and have thus focused on language as a way "into" understanding the inner worlds of teachers. Freeman argues that this view of language as providing a vehicle for thought — what he terms a representational view of language data — only provides part of the story. Drawing on concepts from linguistic theory, he argues that a presentational view of language data is necessary as well if we are to more fully understand the concealed relationships and social context that language embodies. He proposes an integrated approach to research on teacher knowledge that uses both views to develop a fuller understanding of teachers in relation to social context, the ways in which their thinking changes and evolves, and the role that the research process plays in shaping the dat...
Estimation of cholesterol in small quantities of cerebrospinal fluid.

A method is described for the estimation of cholesterol in spinal fluid using the Tschugaeff reaction to produce a pink color proportional to the cholesterol concentration. The reproducibility and accuracy of the method are of a satisfactory order. The authors feel that, providing elementary safety precautions are observed, the method is suitable for the rapid routine estimation of cholesterol in small samples of spinal fluid.
Piezoelectric mechanical pump with nanoliter per minute pulse-free flow delivery for pressure pumping in micro-channels

A novel computer-controlled mechanical syringe pump is described which uses a piezoelectric actuator and a pivoted lever for amplification of the linear displacement of the piezo-actuator to deliver solvents free from pump pulsations at volumetric flow rates approaching 1 nl min–1 even at high loading levels (high output pressures). The flow patterns can be programmed by controlling the voltage waveform to the piezo-actuator to produce a linear displacement of 72 µm. By using the pivoted lever, a ninefold amplification of the piezo-expansion was achieved producing a total linear displacement of 648 µm. When a gas-tight glass syringe of 1.0 mm diameter was interfaced to the piezo-pump, the total volume delivered in a single pump stroke was 511 nl. Whereas the pumping profile was governed by the expansion behavior of the piezoelectric actuator, the flow rate was also slightly affected by the loading pressure on the pump as well. The piezo-pump was found to deliver adequately a stable flow of solutions with loading pressures as high as 3.79 × 105 Pa (actual loading pressure at the piezo-actuator = 3.41 × 106 Pa). Monitoring the flow stability using fluorescence indicated that the volume flow was fairly noise free at pumping rates from 4 to 150 nl min–1. Below a volume flow rate of 4 nl min–1, the pump exhibited extensive noise characteristics due to the step resolution of the DAC driving the piezo-actuator. A diffuser–nozzle system was fabricated which allowed automatic refilling of the syringe pump and was micromachined into Plexiglas (PMMA) using X-ray lithography. The diffuser–nozzle system contained channels that were 50 µm in depth and tapered from 300 to 30 µm. The diffuser–nozzle system was interfaced to the syringe pump by connecting conventional capillary tubes to the PMMA-based diffuser–nozzle, the piezo-pump and the chemical analysis system.
Palestinian refugees outside the occupied Palestinian territory

The political and economic situation, the recognition of refugee status, and the level and possibility of access to governmental services in the hosting countries strongly influence the quality of life and health status of Palestinian refugees living outside the occupied Palestinian territory. In Lebanon, UNRWA is assisting about 417 000 refugees who are exonerated from the national taxation system but excluded from social security, and are prevented from practising 70 different professions including medicine.2 All these factors contribute to making this refugee community the most vulnerable and financially dependent of those served by UNRWA outside the occupied Palestinian territory.3 Almost 2 million Palestinian refugees reside in Jordan where they are entitled to full citizenship except for those who arrived from the Gaza Strip, who face restrictions on access to higher education and civil services.4 About 457 000 refugees live in Syria where, even though they are not considered citizens, they enjoy full social rights. A particularly vulnerable group are 2700 Palestinians with refugee status who recently left Iraq and are stranded in camps in Syria and in the no-man's land between Syria and Iraq. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees and UNRWA provide them with basic relief while awaiting resettlement.
Helping Struggling Middle School Literacy Learners Achieve Success

Teachers can help minority children close the academic achievement gap in intermediate and middle school by combining literacy instruction and content-area material. This connection improves reading achievement and increases curriculum knowledge, even if students have previously experienced difficulty with primary school reading. Fortunately, upper-elementary and middle-level learners are still naturally curious, are developing cognitively, and have acquired some basic reading skills. Teachers can therefore extend students' previous learning by using a spiral curriculum, in which curricular concepts are introduced at an appropriate level and then revisited at more challenging levels. Teachers can also increase the academic complexity for students by using strategies that include picture books, word recognition skills, intensive subject matter, vocabulary in a meaningful context, Readers Theater, and after-school activities.
A nine-dimensional global potential energy surface for NH4(X2A1) and kinetics studies on the H + NH3 ↔ H2 + NH2 reaction

Extensive ab initio calculations of the stationary points in the NH4(X2A1) system are reported using both coupled cluster and multi-reference configuration interaction methods. In addition, more than 100 000 points are generated over a large configuration space and energy range (6 eV) using the explicitly correlated unrestricted coupled cluster method with single, double, and perturbative triple excitations with the augmented correlation-consistent polarized triple zeta basis set (UCCSD(T)-F12a/aug-cc-pVTZ). Using the recently proposed permutation-invariant polynomial neural network (PIP-NN) method, these points are accurately fit to an analytical form with a total root mean squared error (RMSE) of 3.4 meV (0.08 kcal mol−1). Both the abstraction and exchange channels as well as the metastable ammonium radical (NH4) are included in this potential energy surface. Transition-state theory and quasi-classical trajectory calculations have been performed to obtain the rate constants for the abstraction reaction and its reverse. Comparison with available experimental results is satisfactory, providing supporting evidence for the accuracy of the potential.
Educational backgrounds of high-tech salespeople

Abstract This study investigates the prevalance of technical degrees among salespersons working in the top 10 high-tech industries. Moreover, high-tech sales managers' perceptions of the importance of technical degrees for salespersons are reported. Relationships are investigated between the type of degree and sales managers' perceived importance of type of degree, and firm characteristics—type of industry, size of the firm, age of the firm, and stage of the product life cycle. Results indicate that the type of degree and high-tech sales managers' perceptions of the importance of the technical degree differ significantly contingent upon firm characteristics.
Microstructural modeling of ferroic switching and phase transitions in PZT.

Niobium doped Lead Zirconate Titanate (PZT) with a Zr/Ti ratio of 95/5 (i.e., PZT 95/5-2Nb) is a ferroelectric with a rhombohedral structure at room temperature. A crystal (or a subdomain within a crystal) exhibits a spontaneous polarization in any one of eight crystallographically equivalent directions. Such a material becomes polarized when subjected to a large electric field. When the electric field is removed, a remanent polarization remains and a bound charge is stored. A displacive phase transition from a rhombohedral ferroelectric phase to an orthorhombic anti-ferroelectric phase can be induced with the application of a mechanical load. When this occurs, the material becomes depoled and the bound charge is released. The polycrystalline character of PZT 95/5-2Nb leads to highly non-uniform fields at the grain scale. These local fields lead to very complex material behavior during mechanical depoling that has important implications to device design and performance. This paper presents a microstructurally based numerical model that describes the 3D non-linear behavior of ferroelectric ceramics. The model resolves the structure of polycrystals directly in the topology of the problem domain and uses the extended finite element method (X-FEM) to solve the governing equations of electromechanics. The material response is computed from anisotropic single crystal constants and the volume fractions of the various polarization variants (i.e., three variants for rhombohedral anti-ferroelectric and eight for rhomobohedral ferroelectric ceramic). Evolution of the variant volume fractions is governed by the minimization of internally stored energy and accounts for ferroelectric and ferroelastic domain switching and phase transitions in response to the applied loads. The developed model is used to examine hydrostatic depoling in PZT 95/5-2Nb.
Raman and infrared spectra, conformational stability, barriers to internal rotation and ab initio calculations of allyl cyanide

Author Institution: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry., University of South Carolina
Effect of Magnetic Field Dynamics on the Copper‐Constantan Thermocouple Performance

Abstract This paper presents some results of experimental research addressing the influence of magnetic field dynamics on the copper‐constantan thermocouple performance. There are challenges in measuring temperature by thermocouples in a time‐dependent magnetic field. Although there is considerable experience on the effect of a static magnetic field, there is a lack of awareness of the outcome of a varying field on thermocouple performance. We measured the accuracy of the thermocouple response in an alternating magnetic field for various operational parameters: frequency of the magnetic field, geometry, and length of the thermocouple wire in the field, and magnetic field strength. The effect of each of the operational parameters is discussed. Test results of temperature profile measure by a copper‐constantan thermocouple in a varying magnetic field system that was used in a room temperature magnetic refrigeration test bed are demonstrated.
The use of full-thickness skin grafts for the skin-abutment interface around bone-anchored hearing aids.

ObjectiveTo review the complication rate encountered with the use of full-thickness skin grafts to establish the skin-abutment interface around bone-anchored hearing aid implants.Study DesignRetrospective chart review.SettingTertiary referral center.PatientsFifteen patients who underwent bone-anchor
Effects of lactate-based and bicarbonate-based peritoneal dialysis solutions on neutrophilic oxygen consumption.

: Acidic lactate-based peritoneal dialysis solutions were found to impair neutrophil oxygen consumption markedly in sharp contrast to their pH 7.4 lactate-based or bicarbonate-based counterparts.
Electrophotographic Process Control Simulation

ABSTRACT A first order model of an electrophotographic process under the influence of several process control loops has been developed. The model is used to examine the transient behavior of the system over a range of control conditions. Results illustrate the potential benefits of process control to image quality stability. However, it is also shown that poorly designed controls can lead to significant degradation in performance. 1. INTRODUCTION The electrophotographic process consists of a series of steps which tpqether must produce a high-quality reproduction of some input image. Various models ' f3' have been developed to describe the process, beginning with document exposure, aerial image formation, electrostatic image formation and developed image formation. However, these models treat the system as time-invariant when in reality it is quite transient due to fluctuations in mechanisms, circuitry, and materials and due to ageing effects.Designers of electrophotographic equipment5' often attempt to stabilize the performance of the system by using one or more control loops. Control loops for exposure, initial photoconductor voltage, developer bias, and toner concentration are quite common. However, the effectiveness and robustness of such loops are difficult to understand and predict.This paper, the first of a series, illustrates the use of mathematical simulation as a method for studying the behavior of both uncontrolled as well as controlled systems under the influence of certain common transient phenomena.The simulation is used to assess the individual and collective performance of control loops. This is particularly valuable in instances where the design of process subsystems is decentralized. It is shown, that whereas individual control loops may perform quite well independently, interactions between loops can lead to a runaway degradation in image quality.
Satellite-observed sensitivity of weather condition for predicting malaria vector distribution in Bandarban district, Bangladesh

A better understanding of the relationship between malaria epidemics, satellite data and the climatic anomalies could help mitigate the world-wide increase in incidence of the mosquitotransmitted diseases. This paper analyzes correlation between malaria cases and vegetation health (VH) Indices (Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) and Temperature Condition Index (TCI)) computed for each week over a period of 14 years (1992-2005). Following the results of correlation analysis the principal components regression (PCR) method was performed on weather components (TCI, VCI) of satellite data and climate variability during each of the two annual malaria seasons to construct a model to predict malaria as a function of the VH. A statistically significant relation was found between malaria cases and TCI during the month of June-July and September-October. Furthermore the simulated results found from PCR model were compared with observed malaria statistics showing that the error of the estimates of malaria is 5%.
The Route to Change: Within-Session Predictors of Change Plan Completion in a Motivational Interview

This study is the first to examine within-session therapist and client language/process predictors of a client's decision to complete a written Change Plan in an alcohol-focused motivational interview (MI). Data were from an ongoing hospital-based clinical trial (N = 291). Trained raters coded audiorecorded MI sessions using the Motivational Interviewing Skill Code. Logistic regression analyses found that therapist MI-consistent behaviors (b = .023, p < .001) and client change talk (b = .063, p < .001) were positive predictors, and client counter change talk (b = -.093, p < .001) was a negative predictor of the decision to complete a Change Plan regarding alcohol use. Mean comparisons showed that compared to noncompletion, Change Plan completion did not result in significantly greater changes in client motivational readiness. Completion of a Change Plan is a proximal outcome in MI that is associated with client intention to change (change talk) and may predict follow-up alcohol outcomes. Analyses of such theory-driven proximal client mechanisms provide a more complete model of MI process and may inform MI providers of necessary treatment ingredients.