cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Experimental Investigation of Flame Extinction Limits of Propane and Jet A Fuel

Flame extinction experiments were conducted using propane (with and without additives) and Jet A (in partially premixed and diffusion flame modes). A single-flame counter-flow burner configuration was used to measure the extinction limits. The set-up consisted of two contoured nozzles (exit diameter of 6.4 mm), designed to produce top-hat velocity profiles at the exit with a separation distance of 12.7 mm between them. A cooling system, which consisted of a submersible water pump, water reservoir and a split aluminum cooling jacket, was used to cool the top burner and avoid heating of the top burner by the hot buoyant flame products. A nitrogen shield was used to protect the flame from air entrainment and perturbations from the surroundings. A heating system was used to vaporize the liquid Jet A fuel in air or nitrogen maintained at a temperature up to 325 °C. For premixed propane flames, as the stretch rate increased from 364 s−1 to 462 s−1, the volumetric percentage of propane varied from 2.23% to 2.83% at lean extinction. These results, when modified suitably to take into account that only air was fed from the top burner, agreed well with previous results obtained from twin-flame configurations. For a given stretch rate, the propane flame extinguished at a richer condition when nitrogen or carbon dioxide was added to the air stream. Also, carbon dioxide was more effective in extinguishing the flat flame than nitrogen. The flame extinction limits were measured for Jet A for stretch rates varying between 218.7 s−1 and 412.9 s−1. It was found that the Jet A flames in diffusion mode were more resistant to extinction than those in the premixed mode.Copyright © 2012 by ASME
The enterohepatic circulation of thyroxine in the rat.

It was reported previously that, in the rat, thyroxine is excreted primarily by way of the bile and that the excretion product is a thyroxinecontaining compound which we have designated “Compound U” (Taurog, Briggs, and Chaikoff, 1951, 1952). This compound is the normal, physiological excretion product of thyroxine in the rat, and has tentatively been identified as the glucuronide of thyroxine. The existence of such a mechanism for the excretion of thyroxine raises the question as to its effect on the reabsorption of the hormone from the gut. In our earlier work, it was found that a large fraction of injected thyroxine appeared in the feces. This finding, together with the observation that there is no discernible Compound U in rat plasma, led us to suspect that thyroxine, in the form of Compound U, is not well absorbed from the intestinal tract.
Failure to stimulate significant cortisol or growth hormone secretion in man by ether infusion.

Bei endokrin gesunden Menschen wurde die Wirkung einer intravenosen ather-NaCl-Infusion auf den Gehalt an Cortisol im Plasma untersucht. Es erfolgte keine Stimulation von ACTH, respektive Cortisol oder Wachstumshormon.
Palpable breast cancers are inherently different from nonpalpable breast cancers.

Background: We examined the clinicopathologic profile of T1 cancers to determine whether palpable cancers are different from nonpalpable cancers. Methods: A prospective database was reviewed. Palpable T1 cancers were compared with nonpalpable T1 cancers. Initial significance was determined by χ2 analysis. Factors found to be significant were then reanalyzed, controlling for tumor size by logistic or linear regression, as appropriate. Results: Of 1263 T1 cancers treated between 1981 and 2000, 857 (68%) were palpable and 401 (32%) were nonpalpable. Palpability correlated with pathologic tumor size, mitotic grade, nuclear grade, high S-phase, lymphovascular invasion, nodal positivity, and lack of extensive intraductal component, multifocality, and multicentricity. There was no significant difference in estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor or Her-2/neu status, ploidy, or DNA index. Breast cancer-specific survival was worse for patients with palpable cancers. Conclusions: Palpable cancers are inherently different from nonpalpable cancers, with a less diffuse growth pattern, higher metastatic potential, higher proliferative activity, more nuclear abnormalities, and a worse prognosis.
WHICH COMES FIRST, CAUSE OR EFFECT?

This is a short introduction to Rubin's model for the study of causal inference in experiments and observational studies. More details, proofs of mathematical assertions, and expanded discussions can be found in the references.
Robot navigation in an unexplored terrain

Navigation planning is one of the most vital aspects of an autonomous mobile robot. Robot navigation for completely known terrain has been solved in many cases. Comparatively less research dealing with robot navigation in unexplored obstacle terrain has been reported in the literature. In recent times this problem has been addressed by adding learning capability to a robot. The robot explores terrain using sensors as it navigates, and builds a terrain model in an incremental manner. In this article we present concurrent algorithms for robot navigation in unexplored terrain. The performance of the concurrent algorithms is analyzed in terms of planning time, travel time, scanning time, and update time. The analysis reveals the need for an efficient data structure to store an obstacle terrain model in order to reduce traversal time, and also to incorporate learning. A modified adjacency list is proposed as a data structure for storing a spatial graph that represents an obstacle terrain. The time complexities of the algorithms that access, maintain, and update the spatial graph are estimated, and the effectiveness of the implementation is illustrated.
Airport stops and flights on small airplanes as inhibitors of tourism-related air travel: A case study

Abstract This article discusses the extent to which prospective tourists' concerns about airport stops and flights on small airplanes inhibit air travel to tourist destinations, drawing on data from telephone surveys conducted in the Dallas–Fort Worth, Texas area. Respondents were queried about the extent to which one airport stop, two airport stops, and one airport stop followed by a flight on a small, propeller-powered airplane, respectively, would deter them from flying to a destination 1096 miles (1764 km) away. Findings suggest that marketers of similar destinations in similarly distant markets that are accessible by air only after two airport stops risk having their promotional appeals ignored by roughly half those who would prefer to reach such destinations by air. Moreover, those most concerned about such flight schedules were more likely than other respondents to have high incomes and to use the Internet to obtain vacation or travel information.
Primary failure of tooth eruptionA unique case

Primary failure of tooth eruption rarely occurs. This case represents a rare clinical situation and appears to reflect a generalized disturbance in the eruptive process, inasmuch as (1) deciduous and permanent dentition are affected, (2) incisors, molars, and premolars are involved in all quadrants, (3) skeletal and craniofacial growth are within normal limits, and (4) no systemic/genetic anomalies were detected. This is the first such case reported in the literature; diagnosis and management are discussed.
Delphi: A brief look backward and forward

Abstract In response to a request by the guest editors, we have set down our thoughts regarding the evolution of Delphi, beginning with our immersion in the subject in the late 1960s and concluding with some rumination about its future. Our focus is on the changing roles of Delphi. Most importantly, with the profound impact of the internet on organizational and community planning systems, it will foster a new age of participation through communication, coordination, and collaboration.
Real-time Non-contact Millimeter Wave Characterization of Water-Freezing and Ice-Melting Dynamics

We applied millimeter wave radiometry for the first time to monitor water-freezing and ice-melting dynamics in real-time non-contact. The measurements were completed at a frequency of 137 GHz. Small amounts (about 2 mL) of freshwater or saltwater were frozen over a Peltier cooler and the freezing and melting sequence was recorded. Saltwater was prepared in the laboratory that contained 3.5% of table salt to simulate the ocean water. The dynamics of freezing-melting was observed by measuring the millimeter wave temperature as well as the changes in the ice or water surface reflectivity and position. This was repeated using large amounts of freshwater and saltwater (800 mL) mimicking glaciers. Millimeter wave surface level fluctuations indicated as the top surface melted, the light ice below floated up indicating lower surface temperature until the ice completely melted. Our results are useful for remote sensing and tracking temperature for potentially large-scale environmental applications, e.g., global warming.
Do Actions Speak Louder than Words? An Effect of the Functional Use of Language on Dominant Sex Role Behavior in Boys and Girls.

Abstract Although a number of studies document the fact that adult males interrupt females more often than females interrupt males, less is known about whether this behavior is also true of younger boys and girls. This study examined some aspects of dominant-submissive sex role behavior in preschool children and their teachers during conversation at the snack table. It asked whether there was any difference in the number of times girls and boys interrupted their teacher, and whether there was any difference in the number of times the teacher interrupted boys or girls. In succeeding observations, researchers investigated whether girls or boys were assigned the privilege of passing snack more frequently. In Investigation 1 nine boys and nine girls, 4 years of age, were observed talking with a variety of student teachers in a naturalistic snack setting, and checklists were kept of the number of teacher-child, child-teacher interruptions during conversation. In Investigation 2, tallies were kept of the number of times boys and girls assumed the dominant roles of distributing snacks and snack materials. Results indicted that during conversation, boys interrupted their teachers more frequently than the girls did ( p > .03). Teachers interrupted girls more frequently than they interrupted boys ( p > .02). No significant differences were found in the frequency of participation by boys or girls in passing snack. Results are discussed in relation to the teacher's role in teaching dominant-submissive sex role behaviors to children.
Abstract 2853: Discovery of phosphatases that regulate growth and tumorigenicity of ER-negative breast cancers

Proceedings: AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012‐‐ Mar 31‐Apr 4, 2012; Chicago, IL Background: As the leading cause of cancer-related death in women, there is an urgent need to identify therapeutic means for breast cancer in women. 60-70% of breast cancers express the estrogen receptor (ER) and respond to therapies targeting this receptor. The remaining 30-40% of breast cancers that do not express this receptor are cannot be treated with these therapies. To identify novel targets for treatment, we are investigating growth-regulatory pathways in ER-negative breast cancers. The goal is to identify phosphatases that are critical for the growth and tumorigenicity of ER-negative breast cancer. Methods: To identify signaling pathways important in ER-negative breast cancer, we used Affymetrix microarray data obtained from profiling 221 ER-negative and 56 ER-positive breast cancers from the Baylor College of Medicine Tumor Bank. We then performed supervised cluster analysis to identify phosphatases that were differentially expressed in ER-negative and ER-positive breast cancers. This analysis identified 20 phosphatases upregulated (>1.5-fold; FDR=0.05), and 29 phosphatases down-regulated (< 0.66-fold, FDR=0.05) in ER-negative breast cancers as compared to ER-positive breast cancers. Specific siRNA were used to knock-down each of the 20 highly expressed phosphatases in 4 ER-negative, 4 ER-positive breast cancer cell lines, HMECs immortalized with TERT, and HMECs. Cell growth was measured by cell count, and anchorage-independent growth was tested with the soft agar assay. Colonies were counted after 14 days with the Gelcount software. Results: Of the 20 overexpressed phosphatases, 9 showed significant growth reduction after treatment with siRNA in at least 2 of the 4 ER-negative breast cancer cell lines. These 9 phosphatases are now being tested in anchorage-independent growth assays. Based on our results, 3 phosphatases (ACP1, PTP4A3, and CDC25B) have been selected for further study. These are now being tested for their transforming capability in in vitro and in vivo transformation and tumorigenicity assays. Conclusion: We identified a set of phosphatases highly over-expressed in ER-negative breast cancer, and showed that a sub-set of these phosphatases are critical for anchorage-dependent and -independent breast cancer cell growth. These studies have identified critical growth-regulatory phosphatases in ER-negative breast tumors that may be novel targets for the treatment of ER-negative breast cancer. Supported by Komen Promise grant KG081694 (PHB) & Komen SAB grant SAB08-00006 (PHB). Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2853. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-2853
737–6 Combining Myoglobin and Clinical Variables for Assessing Coronary Reperfusion After Thrombolytic Therapy

Myoglobin (MYO), measured using a quantitative 10 minute assay, was examined in combination with clinical variables for assessing infarct related artery (IRA) patency in 96 MI pts, all of whom received front-loaded thrombolytic therapy (TT) at a median (25 th , 75 th percentile) of 162 (113, 226) mins after onset of symptoms. All pts had acute angiography (Cath) at 142 (96, 195) mins after TT; flow in the IRA was graded as either “OPEN”, TIMI 2 – 3 (n = 71), or “CLOSED”, TIMI 0 – 1 (n = 25). MYO was determined in serial samples collected before TT (Baseline) and within 10 mins of Cath. MYO values, in ng/mL, in Baseline samples were similar for the OPEN and CLOSED groups at 112 (51,275) and 81 (47, 195), respectively; for samples collected at Cath, values were 915 (501, 2237) for the OPEN group and 273 (159, 855) for the CLOSED group. MYO strategies based on: 1. MYO Value at Cath, 2. change from baseline to Cath (Delta), and 3. rate of release (slope) were each combined with clinical variables for discriminating OPEN from CLOSED pts. The clinical variables examined were: time from Chest Pain (CP) to TT, time from TT to Cath, pt weight, pt age, Mllocation, race, and intensity of CP at Cath graded 0 – 10. By logistic regression, the best model for discriminating OPEN from CLOSED pts resulted from combining the following: Stratergy X 2 p-value MYO value at Cath 17.97 0.0002 CP at Cath (0-10) 7.46 0.006 Combined Model 23.95 g 0.000001 This combined model yielded a C-Index of 0.82, indicating that the strategy could be clinically useful fordiscriminating between the OPEN from CLOSED pt groups. This combined strategy is convenient for noninvasively assessing reperfusion status after TT because it involves a single MYO measurement and a straightforward clinical indicator.
Challenging oneself intermittently to improve health.

Humans and their predecessors evolved in environments where they were challenged intermittently with: 1) food scarcity; 2) the need for aerobic fitness to catch/kill prey and avoid or repel attackers; and 3) exposure to biological toxins present in foodstuffs. Accordingly, cells and organ systems acquired and retained molecular signaling and metabolic pathways through which the environmental challenges enhanced the functionality and resilience of the cells and organisms. Within the past 60 years there has been a precipitous diminution of such challenges in modern societies because of the development of technologies that provide a continuous supply of energy-dense processed foods and that largely eliminate the need for physical exertion. As a consequence of the modern ‘couch potato’ lifestyle, signaling pathways that mediate beneficial effects of environmental challenges on health and disease resistance are disengaged, thereby rendering people vulnerable to obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancers and neurodegenerative disorders. Reversal of the epidemic of diseases caused by unchallenging lifestyles will require a society-wide effort to re-introduce intermittent fasting, exercise and consumption of plants containing hormetic phytochemicals into daily and weekly routines.
Transformation Between Continuous and Discrete Representations of Images: A Perceptual Approach

The transformation of image signals between the continuous domain of the real world and the discrete domain of modern data processing can have a significant effect on quality and efficiency. Analysis based on perceptual rather than mathematical considerations has been carried out. A series of experiments based on the analysis has shown that substantial improvement over usual techniques can be achieved by the use of a cascade of a presharpening filter combined with Gaussian presampling and interpolation filters. The resulting ``sharpened Gaussian'' filter, although not exactly circularly symmetrical, gives a high degree of isotropy. Each element in the cascade is separable, so that computational efficiency is high. A favorable tradeoff is achieved among sharpness, smoothness, and the effects of aliasing. Subjective testing, in comparison with other commonly used filters, has shown the clear superiority of this filter.
Models for life cycle assessment of manufactured products

One of the objectives of the life cycle is to evaluate environmental burdens with a product, process or activity by quantifying energy and materials used and wastes released to the environment. The assessment includes the entire life cycle of the product encompassing extraction and processing raw materials, manufacturing, transportation, recycling and disposal. This paper describes a set of mathematical models and a logic framework to systematically arrive at these assessments. This is done by emphasizing the physical aspect of manufacturing systems whose function is to transform raw materials into useful products using physical energy and skill specific human time. Under this theoretical structure, the production system is modularized into networks of processing centers, each of which is represented mathematically by models derived from material and energy balance equations. >
WHO MONICA Project: What Have We Learned and Where to Go from Here?

The decline in infectious diseases and a rise in chronic diseases, particularly cardiovascular disease (CVD), underlies the health trajectory of the 20th century. While much was known about CVD, particularly myocardial infarction and stroke, population data were problematic. Importantly, the peak and decline of the CVD epidemic in the 1960s and 1970s in some countries was not well recognized, leading to calls for more population-based disease surveillance. The WHO Multinational MONItoring of Trends and Determinants in CArdiovascular Disease (MONICA) Project was the most comprehensive approach to better understanding disease etiology, incidence and trends at the population level. For a period of ten years or more in each center, from the early 1980s to the mid 1990s, MONICA implemented CVD surveillance in 21 countries. It included mortality, morbidity, coronary care, and population-based risk factor surveillance. The study is characterized by well-described methods and high quality data. The findings show large differences between different centers in 21 countries and provide information for disease treatment and prevention. Many MONICA centers continued to actively collect data on populations within their countries. This experience provides a comprehensive approach for CVD patterns in the developed countries and the oncoming epidemic in the developing world.
An International Relations Perspective on the Convergence of Corporate Governance: German Shareholder Capitalism and the European Union, 1990-2000

The corporate convergence debate is usually presented in terms of competing efficiency and political claims. Convergence optimists assert that an economic logic will promote convergence on the most efficient form of economic organization, usually taken to be the public corporation governed under rules designed to maximize shareholder value. Convergence skeptics counterclaim that organizational diversity is possible, even probable, because of path dependent development of institutional complementarities whose abandonment is likely to be inefficient. The skeptics also assert that existing elites will use their political and economic advantages to block reform; the optimists counterclaim that the spread of shareholding will reshape politics. This article tries to move the corporate governance convergence debate away from these familiar (and important) arguments towards an international relations perspective. This move has two implications. First, the pace of convergence in corporate governance is understood to depend crucially on a country's, or, perhaps more importantly, on a group of countries' commitment to a project of transnational economic and political integration. Second, this transnational project may be best advanced by the spread of diffusely-held public firms on the Anglo-American model, because such ownership structures facilitate the contestability of corporate control, which, crucially, helps curb economic nationalism. In particular, such contestability may be necessary for state-level acquiescence to crossborder merger activity, which creates economic organizations that are special conduits for the transnational flow of capital, good, services, and people, and, no less, a transnational attitude. So both as a positive and normative matter, strong form convergence responds to a particular sort of political aspiration, not necessarily efficiency objectives conventionally understood. Examples drawn from the evolution of German shareholder capitalism during the 1990s in the context of the European Union project will illustrate the argument.
Spatial structure of agricultural production in China

The spatial structure of county-level agricultural production in China in 1999 is analysed. A convenient simple method that corrects for both spatial autocorrelation and spatial heterogeneity in the input–output relationships using spatial lag models and an allowance for the response coefficients to vary across relatively homogeneous regions are described. Empirical results suggest an abundant labour supply and extensive use of agricultural machinery reflected in its declining price. Although mechanization is relatively new, machines have replaced fertilizer in agricultural production in the North, Northeast, Northwest and East regions while irrigation and fertilizer are the significantly important inputs in the Central and Southwest regions.
PREFERENCES AMONG GEOMETRIC FORMS.

The method of paired comparisons was used to determine the aesthetic preferences of 100 college students for 13 common polygons and curved-line forms. An empirical order of preference among the forms was established, and a “straight p–z conversion” scaling procedure was employed for assigning relative distances between the forms. Approximately half of the 78 comparisons are significantly different (0.05 level) from selections based on chance. A highly significant rank-order correlation of 0.68 was found between the order of preference for men and women. From these results one may conclude that people have some definite aesthetic preferences among common geometric forms.
RIFFA 2.1: A Reusable Integration Framework for FPGA Accelerators

We present RIFFA 2.1, a reusable integration framework for Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) accelerators. RIFFA provides communication and synchronization for FPGA accelerated applications using simple interfaces for hardware and software. Our goal is to expand the use of FPGAs as an acceleration platform by releasing, as open source, a framework that easily integrates software running on commodity CPUs with FPGA cores. RIFFA uses PCI Express (PCIe) links to connect FPGAs to a CPU’s system bus. RIFFA 2.1 supports FPGAs from Xilinx and Altera, Linux and Windows operating systems, and allows multiple FPGAs to connect to a single host PC system. It has software bindings for C/C++, Java, Python, and Matlab. Tests show that data transfers between hardware and software can reach 97p of the achievable PCIe link bandwidth.
Bidirectional Partner Violence Among Homeless Young Adults Risk Factors and Outcomes

One of the most prevalent forms of violence in contemporary society is the victimization of intimate partners. Although it has been established that homeless young people experience high levels of victimization on the street, little is known about partner violence (PV) experiences among this group, especially bidirectional violence. As such, the purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of PV and bidirectional violence and to investigate risk factors and outcomes of this form of violence using a sample of homeless young adults. Overall, 59% of the sample experienced bidirectional violence. Multivariate results reveal that sexual abuse and neglect are significant correlates of PV. In addition, being either a victim or perpetrator of PV is associated with more severe substance use and higher levels of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Finally, there is support for bidirectional violence among homeless young adults even after controlling for early histories of maltreatment.
Activation of E–H and E–E (E = S, O) Bonds by Heterobimetallic Zr/Co Complexes: Evidence for Both One‐ and Two‐Electron Processes

The reactivity of the reduced ZrIIICo0 heterobimetallic complex [(thf)Zr(MesNPiPr2)3CoN2] (1a) towards O–H, S–H, S–S, and O–O bonds has been investigated. Complex 1a reacts readily with PhOH, EtOH, and H2O to generate the one-electron-oxidized complexes [(RO)Zr(MesNPiPr2)3CoN2] [R = Et (2), Ph (3), H (4)]. In contrast, PhSH and PhS–SPh react by means of overall two-electron processes to form [(η2-MesNPiPr2)Zr(μ-SPh)(MesNPiPr2)2Co(SPh)] (5a). Addition of stoichiometric diethyl peroxide to 1a generates 2, but further equivalents lead to the two-electron oxidized product [(EtO)Zr(MesNPiPr2)3Co(OEt)] (6). More sterically hindered peroxides such as dicumyl peroxide or di-tert-butyl peroxide do not react with 1a under ambient conditions, but upon photolysis, di-tert-butyl peroxide reacts with 1a to form [(tBuO)Zr(MesNPiPr2)3CoN2] (7). These results imply that an inner-sphere electron-transfer process is occurring at the Zr site of 1a upon treatment with these chalcogen-based substrates, and a dissociative electron-transfer mechanism is proposed.
A Conditional Multinomial Mixture Model for Superset Label Learning

In the superset label learning problem (SLL), each training instance provides a set of candidate labels of which one is the true label of the instance. As in ordinary regression, the candidate label set is a noisy version of the true label. In this work, we solve the problem by maximizing the likelihood of the candidate label sets of training instances. We propose a probabilistic model, the Logistic Stick-Breaking Conditional Multinomial Model (LSB-CMM), to do the job. The LSB-CMM is derived from the logistic stick-breaking process. It first maps data points to mixture components and then assigns to each mixture component a label drawn from a component-specific multinomial distribution. The mixture components can capture underlying structure in the data, which is very useful when the model is weakly supervised. This advantage comes at little cost, since the model introduces few additional parameters. Experimental tests on several real-world problems with superset labels show results that are competitive or superior to the state of the art. The discovered underlying structures also provide improved explanations of the classification predictions.
Measuring science or religion? A measurement analysis of the National Science Foundation sponsored science literacy scale 2006–2010:

High scientific literacy is widely considered a public good. Methods of assessing public scientific knowledge or literacy are equally important. In an effort to measure lay scientific literacy in the United States, the National Science Foundation (NSF) science literacy scale has been a part of the last three waves of the General Social Survey. However, there has been debate over the validity of some survey items as indicators of science knowledge. While many researchers treat the NSF science scale as measuring a single dimension, previous work (Bann and Schwerin, 2004; Miller, 1998, 2004) suggests a bidimensional structure. This paper hypothesizes and tests a new measurement model for the NSF science knowledge scale and finds that two items about evolution and the big bang are more measures of a religious belief dimension termed “Young Earth Worldview” than they are measures of scientific knowledge. Results are replicated in seven samples.
Estimating human long bone cross-sectional geometric properties: a comparison of noninvasive methods

Cross-sectional properties (areas, second moments of area) have been used extensively for reconstructing the mechanical loading history of long bone shafts. In the absence of a fortuitous break or available computed tomography (CT) facilities, the endosteal and/or periosteal boundaries of a bone may be approximated using alternative noninvasive methods. The present study tests whether cross-sectional geometric properties of human lower limb bones can be adequately estimated using two such techniques: the ellipse model method (EMM), which uses biplanar radiography alone, and the latex cast method (LCM), which involves molding of the subperiosteal contour in combination with biplanar radiography to estimate the contour of the medullary canal. Results of both methods are compared with "true" cross-sectional properties calculated by direct sectioning. The study sample includes matched femora and tibiae of 50 Pecos Pueblo Amerindians. Bone areas and second moments of area were calculated for the midshaft femur and tibia and proximal femoral diaphysis in each individual. Percent differences between methods were derived to evaluate directional (systematic) and absolute (random) error. Multiple regression was also used to investigate the sources of error associated with each method. The results indicate that while the LCM shows generally good correspondence to the true cross-sectional properties, the EMM generally overestimates true parameters. Regression equations are provided to correct this overestimation, and, when applied to another sample, are shown to significantly improve estimates for the femoral midshaft, although corrections are less successful for the other section locations. Our results suggest that the LCM is an adequate substitute for estimating cross-sectional properties when direct sectioning and CT are not feasible. The EMM is a reasonable alternative, although the bias inherent in the method should be corrected if possible, especially when the results of the study are to be compared with data collected using different methods.
The Role of the Inner Shell Membrane in Bacterial Penetration of Chicken Eggs

Abstract A NUMBER of research papers have demonstrated that the egg shell membranes are more impervious to bacteria than the shell. The work of Florian and Trussel (1957) stressed the primacy of the inner shell membrane. Lifshitz et al. (1964) stated that the inner shell membrane was a more effective barrier to bacteria than either the shell or outer shell membrane. Garibaldi and Stokes (1958) left suspensions of bacteria in contact with egg shell with the membranes removed, egg shell retaining only the outer membrane, and egg shell retaining both of the shell membranes. After different exposure times, some of the fluid from the bacterial suspensions was filtered through the egg exterior structures using a negative pressure and the filtrate was examined for bacteria. They found that the shell allowed immediate and extensive passage of bacteria. In combination with the shell, the outer membrane removed 98% of the bacteria from suspension,…
Speedup performance analysis of parallel Katsevich algorithm for 3D CT image reconstruction

The first exact spiral cone-beam CT reconstruction algorithm was developed by Katsevich (2002, 2004). Recently, Yu and Wang (2004a, 2004b) implemented the algorithm numerically. Although the method is very promising, the computation is very intensive. It requires huge amounts of computational time. Recently, people (Deng et al., 2006; Yang et al., 2006) began to parallelise the algorithm for achieving high performance computing (HPC). This paper presents a performance analysis of the parallel Katsevich algorithm (Deng et al., 2006) by developing an analytical expression to evaluate the performance of the algorithm parallelism. The results from the analytical model and numerical experiments are compared in a fair agreement. The analytical model provides a useful tool to estimate HPC benchmarks in the parallel Katsevich algorithm.
Alterations in the production and concentration of selected alkaloids as a function of rising atmospheric carbon dioxide and air temperature: implications for ethno‐pharmacology

The influence of recent and projected changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration [CO2] with and without concurrent increases in air temperature was determined with respect to growth characteristics and production of secondary compounds (alkaloids) in tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) and jimson weed (Datura stramonium L.) over a ca. 50-day period. Rising [CO2] above that present at the beginning of the 20th century resulted in consistent, significant increases in leaf area, and above ground dry weight (both species), but decreased leaf area ratio (LAR) and specific leaf area (SLA) in jimson weed. Increased temperature resulted in earlier development and increased leaf area for both species, but increases in above ground final dry weight were observed only for jimson weed. The secondary compounds evaluated included the alkaloids, nicotine, atropine and scopolamine. These compounds are generally recognized as having impacts with respect to herbivory as well as human physiology. Rising [CO2] reduced the concentration of nicotine in tobacco; but had no effect on atropine, and increased the concentration of scopolamine in jimson weed. However, because of the stimulatory effect of [CO2] on growth, the amount of all three secondary compounds increased on a per plant basis in both species. Temperature per se had no effect on nicotine or scopolamine concentration, but significantly increased the concentration and amounts of atropine per plant. Overall, the underlying mechanism of CO2 induced changes in secondary compounds remains unclear; however, these data suggest that the increase in [CO2] and temperature associated with global climate change may have significant effects not only with respect to herbivory, but on the production of secondary compounds of pharmacological impact.
APC mutations lead to cytokinetic failures in vitro and tetraploid genotypes in Min mice.

Previous research has proposed that genomic instability contributes to cancer progression, with its initiation linked to tetraploid cell formation (Duesberg, P., and R. Li. 2003. Cell Cycle. 2:202–210; Ganem, N.J., Z. Storchova, and D. Pellman. 2007. Curr. Opin. Genet. Dev. 17:157–162). However, there is little direct evidence linking cancer-causing mutations with such events, and it remains controversial whether genomic instability is a cause or an effect of cancer. In this study, we show that adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) mutations found in human colorectal cancers dominantly inhibit cytokinesis by preventing mitotic spindle anchoring at the anaphase cortex and, thus, blocking initiation of the cytokinetic furrow. We find that dividing crypt cells in the small intestines of APCMin/+ mice exhibit similar mitotic defects, including misoriented spindles and misaligned chromosomes. These defects are observed in normal crypt cells with wild-type levels of β-catenin and, importantly, are associated with tetraploid genotypes. We provide direct evidence that the dominant activity of APC mutants induces aneuploidy in vivo. Our data support a model whereby tetraploid cells represent a first step in the onset of genomic instability and colorectal cancer.
Congenital Anomalies of the Kidney and the Urinary Tract (CAKUT)

This article reviews the majority of Congenital Anomalies of the Kidney and Urinary Tract (CAKUT) with emphasis in Pediatric Pathology describing and illustrating lesions as varied as ureteral duplications, ureteropelvic junction obstruction, horseshoe kidney, posterior urethral valve and prune belly syndrome, obstructive renal dysplasia, nonmotile ciliopathies and several syndromes associated with renal malformations (Meckel-Joubert, short rib, Bardet-Biedl, asplenia/polysplenia, hereditary renal adysplasia, Zellweger, trisomies, VACTER-L, Potter, caudal dysplasia, and sirenomelia), as well as ADPK, and ARPK. The purpose of this review is not only to describe the congenital renal anomalies, but also to analyze the more recent therapeutic interventions that may modify the natural history of some of these severe conditions.
Critical Salt Bridges Guide Capsid Assembly, Stability, and Maturation Behavior in Bacteriophage HK97

HK97 is a double-stranded DNA bacteriophage that undergoes dramatic conformational changes during viral capsid maturation and for which x-ray structures, at near atomic resolution, of multiple intermediate and mature capsid states are available. Both amide H/2H exchange and crystallographic comparisons between the pre-expanded Prohead II particles and the expanded Head II of bacteriophage HK97 revealed quaternary interactions that remain fixed throughout maturation and appear to maintain intercapsomer integrity at all quasi- and icosahedral 3-fold axes. These 3-fold staples are formed from Arg and Glu residues and a metal binding site. Mutations of either Arg-347 or Arg-194 or a double mutation of E344Q and E363A resulted in purification of the phage in capsomer form (hexamers and pentamers). Mutants that did assemble had both decreased thermal stability and decreased in vitro expansion rates. Amide H/2H exchange mass spectrometry showed that in the wild type capsid some subunits had a bent “spine” helix (highly exchanging), whereas others were straight (less exchanging). Similar analysis of the never assembled mutant capsomers showed uniform amide exchange in all of these that was higher than that of the straight spine helices (characterized in more mature intermediates), suggesting that the spine helix is somewhat bent prior to capsid assembly. The result further supports a previously proposed mechanism for capsid expansion in which the delta domains of each subunit induce a high energy intermediate conformation, which now appears to include a bent helix during capsomer assembly.
Analysis Of The Sustainability Of Endowment Fund Spending Rates From Domestic And Internationally Diversified Portfolios

Portfolio success rates do not diminish greatly when spending is increased from 5% to 7% in equity-heavy portfolios. Foreign equities increase the sustainability of spending rates in shorter planning periods. Portfolio success rate analyses were completed for hypothetical endowment portfolios of S&P 500 stocks, MSCIs Developed World x USA Index, and high-grade corporate bonds for planning periods of 1, 5, 10, and 15 years using overlapping samples of quarterly returns from the first quarter of 1970 through the fourth quarter of 2003. A portfolio is considered a success if at the end of the planning period the portfolios nominal value in Table 1 or deflated value in Table 2 net of spending is equal to or greater than its value at the beginning of the planning period. Higher portfolio success rates suggest greater sustainability of spending rates.
The Effect of Glucagon, Phenmetrazine and Epinephrine on Hunger, Food Intake and Plasma Nonesterified Fatty Acids

data suggest that some humoral substance may exist which signals the hypothalamic ‘ ‘centers’ ‘ responsible for feeding behavior and thus takes part in the control of food intake. Since hunger is predictably relieved by the ingestion of food, investigations to identify this substance have centered upon the study of the products of digestion. The general hypothesis is that between feedings the supply of some substance becomes depleted and its concentration in the blood lowered ; therefore, hunger ensues. It has been assumed that when a meal is eaten, the absorption of this substance raises its level in the blood, and satiety results. In this context, the blood glucose and the blood glucose arteriovenous difference have been investigated extensively by a variety of methodst3 However, work from this laboratory4 has raised serious doubt that either the blood glucose or the blood glucose arteriovenous difference directly mediates the control of hunger. Observations on the role of fatty substances5 and amino acids6 in this connection have been inconclusive. In the course of our investigations, we have noted that the pancreatic hormone, glucagon, exerts a powerful depressing effect on the appetite of healthy men and that this effect is temporally unrelated to its effect on blood
A Distance Measure for the Analysis of Polar Opinion Dynamics in Social Networks

Analysis of opinion dynamics in social networks plays an important role in today's life. For applications such as predicting users' political preference, it is particularly important to be able to analyze the dynamics of competing opinions. While observing the evolution of polar opinions of a social network's users over time, can we tell when the network "behaved" abnormally? Furthermore, can we predict how the opinions of the users will change in the future? Do opinions evolve according to existing network opinion dynamics models? To answer such questions, it is not sufficient to study individual user behavior, since opinions can spread far beyond users' egonets. We need a method to analyze opinion dynamics of all network users simultaneously and capture the effect of individuals' behavior on the global evolution pattern of the social network. In this work, we introduce Social Network Distance (SND) - a distance measure that quantifies the "cost" of evolution of one snapshot of a social network into another snapshot under various models of polar opinion propagation. SND has a rich semantics of a transportation problem, yet, is computable in time linear in the number of users, which makes SND applicable to the analysis of large-scale online social networks. In our experiments with synthetic and real-world Twitter data, we demonstrate the utility of our distance measure for anomalous event detection. It achieves a true positive rate of 0.83, twice as high as that of alternatives. When employed for opinion prediction in Twitter, our method's accuracy is 75.63%, which is 7.5% higher than that of the next best method. Source Code: this https URL
Coping with Cross-Pressures: Electoral Choice and Political Perceptions among American Catholics

American Catholics are often described as a “cross-pressured” constituency, pulled toward Democrats on social welfare issues but toward Republicans on cultural issues like abortion. While research suggests that this image does not fit most Catholics, we know little about the characteristics and political behavior of Catholics that do share their bishops’ pro-life, pro-welfare views. This paper addresses that gap. Using the American National Election Studies pooled over 1992-2008, we first show that commitment to the Catholic faith increases the likelihood that Americans profess pro-life, pro-welfare policy preferences. We also describe the presidential voting of pro-life, pro-welfare Catholics and test hypotheses regarding how they cope with cross-pressures. We find that the relative salience of abortion and social welfare is an important predictor of the presidential votes of the most religiously committed among them. We also find that many appear to rationalize their votes by misperceiving their candidate’s policy position on the issue where they disagree.
A Civics Action: Interpreting 'Adequacy' in State Constitutions' Education Clauses

The antipathy of federal and state courts toward equal protection arguments in lawsuits challenging the public funding of education have forced education activists to search for alternative doctrinal hooks as they continue to seek reform in states' funding and management of schools. These activists have turned to state constitutions' education clauses, which impose duties on state governments to provide an "adequate" education for all children in the state. However, the art of defining and measuring an "adequate" education has advanced little beyond its state in 1973, when Justice Thurgood Marshall found the term unhelpful. This note surveys various means of defining and measuring adequacy used by state courts, including the use of existing legislative or executive standards, the use of future legislative or executive standards, a variety of educational outputs (such as standardized test scores), and educational inputs (such as quality of teachers, curricula, or school buildings). Applying scholars' theories of state constitutional interpretation and the history of state education clauses, Kagan argues that state courts should be aggressive in their use of educational inputs to define and measure educational adequacy. Unique factors of state governmental structure justify state court involvement in education policy questions that federal courts would consider inappropriate. These factors, coupled with the history of state education clauses, enable state courts to draw on a wide set of historical and current sources to define educational inputs required by state constitutions, and provide jurisprudential guidelines for this necessarily policy-laden analysis. Such an approach also encourages education activists to seek remedies other than reform to school financing systems; instead, activists can target states' provision of particular educational inputs.
Protecting Whiteness White Phenotypic Racial Stereotypicality Reduces Police Use of Force

Focusing on intergroup anti-non-White bias in the criminal justice system, little attention is given to how Whites may additionally be protected from negative police treatment. This study examines ...
Inaccuracies of Hemoglobin A1c in Liver Cirrhosis: A Case Report

Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) is the gold standard for the measurement of long-range glycemic control in patients with diabetes mellitus type 2 (T2DM). In a rare subset of patients, this measurement may not be reliable. Inaccuracies of HbA1c in liver cirrhosis are rare, but documented. The objective of this study was to increase awareness about low HbA1c in liver cirrhosis and discuss alternative biomarkers that can be used to measure glycemic control. We present the case of a 61-year-old Caucasian female, with history of hepatitis C and uncontrolled T2DM, who was admitted for evaluation of compensated liver cirrhosis. She was found to have blood glucoses greater than 500 mg/dL; however, her HbA1c was measured at 5.5%. Ultrasound of the abdomen showed liver cirrhosis, ascites, and splenomegaly. Blood work revealed acute kidney injury, anemia of chronic disease, normal albumin level, and low HbA1c. Fructosamine and glycated albumin were high, indicating a hyperglycemic status during the last 3 weeks. HbA1c can be falsely low in liver cirrhosis, and can give a false assumption about control of the diabetic disease process. In this case, other biomarkers can be used to monitor glycemic control; by far frequent finger stick monitoring is the best method. J Endocrinol Metab. 2016;6(1):30-32 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/jem326w