cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
When Sociopolitical Events Strike Cultural Beliefs: Divergent Impact of Hurricane Katrina on African Americans' and European Americans' Endorsement of the Protestant Work Ethic

Can a single, powerful sociopolitical event (government's response to Hurricane Katrina) produce changes in prevalent cultural beliefs such as the Protestant work ethic (PWE)? In a cross-sectional study conducted before, immediately after, and 5 months after Katrina (Study 1: Part a), in a longitudinal study tracking participants immediately after Katrina and 3 months later (Study 1: Part b), and in an experiment that primed thoughts about Katrina (Study 2), thinking about Katrina reduced African Americans' (but not European Americans') endorsement of the PWE. Preliminary evidence suggested that the shift in African Americans' endorsement of the PWE was due to lower trust in the government.
INTERHEMISPHERIC REVERSAL OF MIRROR-IMAGE OBLIQUE LINES AFTER MONOCULAR TRAINING IN PIGEONS.

Pigeons, with one eye open, were reinforced for pecking at a 45° oblique line (/). When the opposite, untrained, eye alone was open, pigeons responded maximally to the mirror-image (135° [unknown]) of the training stimulus (45° [unknown]). This unexpected interocular reversal of mirror-image stimuli has not been reported for any other species.
Studies of somatostatin-induced barrel rotation in rats

Abstract Somatostatin (SRIF) has been reported to induce abnormalities of motor behavior in rats when injected intraventricularly. Following an injection, non-lesioned rats develop unilateral extension of the limbs, a twist about the long axis, and repeated lateral rolling, called “barrel rotation”. It has not been clear whether this behavior is due to a pharmacologic action of SRIF, such as an effect of SRIF on systems of motor control. Prior reports observed the response only at high doses of SRIF, and found no dose-response relationship for it. We have investigated whether this response is due to a pharmacologic effect of SRIF. We have also studied where SRIF acts, when injected intraventricularly, to induce this response. We have found that SRIF-induced rotation increases linearly with doses up to 10 μg and thereafter declines. Biologically inactive analogues of SRIF did not induce barrel rotation. Dose-response studies of intraventricular and intracerebral microinjections indicated that SRIF acts at the vestibular nuclear complex (VNC) to induce rotation. At VNC, 0.25 μg SRIF produced postural abnormalities. We conclude that barrel rotation is due to a pharmacologic action of SRIF, and that SRIF does act upon a system of motor control, the VNC, to induce this response.
Something to hide? Consent-granting for release of standardized test scores

Abstract This research tested for possible self-serving biases in willingness to “participate” in research on intellectual variables. Two studies ( N =47 and 118) showed that students who gave permission for access to their standardized test records scored higher on measures of reasoning and reading comprehension. Moreover, in the main study, differences in the consent form led to different rates of consent-granting by men: 40% consented in a control condition, whereas 70% consented when the form implied that the researchers were biased against standardized tests. In the main sample, the ACT composite (from those who granted permission) correlated significantly with measures of reading comprehension, reasoning ability, and academic achievement. The results, discussed in terms of several social psychological theories, suggest that those who withold consent do indeed have something to hide.
Gastrointestinal abnormalities in the collagen diseases.

Gastrointestinal manifestations of the collagen diseases (systemic lupus erythematosus, polyarteritis, progressive systemic sclerosis, and dermatomyositis) have been presented as demonstrated in 61 patients. These manifestations indicate in terms of the clinical, radiologic, and pathologic findings, extensive gastrointestinal damage by a severe progressive process.
Field Investigation into Effects of Vehicle Speed and Tire Pressure on Asphalt Concrete Pavement Strains

An asphalt concrete section on a test track in the PACCAR Technical Center in Mount Vernon, Washington, was fitted with strain gauges at the surface and in pavement cores and tested using an instrumented truck operated at different speeds and with different tire pressures. The field test results are presented. The results indicate that the effects of both vehicle speed and tire pressure-contact area on pavement strains are significant: increasing vehicle speed from 2.7 Km/hr (1.7 mi/hr) to 64 km/hr (40 mi/hr) caused a decrease of approximately 30 to 40 percent in longitudinal strains at the bottom of the asphalt concrete layer, which was 137 mm (5.4 in.) thick. The speed effect on transverse strains is lower, causing only a 15 to 30 percent decrease. Reducing tire pressure from 620 kPa (90 psi) to 214 kPa (30 psi) caused a decrease of approximately 20 to 45 percent in the horizontal strains at the bottom of the asphalt concrete layer. The pressure effect on surface strains was significantly lower, causing...
Tumor response and patient outcomes of radioembolization for hepatic GI metastasis as it relates to hypervascularity pattern on spect

Purpose Radioembolization has shown promising results in the treatment of unresectable metastatic gastrointestinal cancer to the liver, however the tumor response is unpredictable. The importance of predicting the outcome of selective internal radiotherapy (SIRT) in these patients cannot be over emphasized. This retrospective review was conducted to determine if the radionuclide uptake on SPECT can predict the outcome in these patients treated with Yttrium-90 glass microsphere radioembolization. Materials and Methods 26 patients with known history of SIRT for hepatic metastasis from GI tumors (colorectal, pancreatic etc.) were included in the study. Baseline and post-SIRT CT images (1 month, 3 months and 6 months post-SIRT) were analyzed to find out the progression free survival (PFS). Overall Survival(OS) was also calculated.The radionuclide uptake was then stratified into one of the four categories: Hypovascular tumor, Halo of activity around the tumor, peripheral activity within the tumor and Central/diffuse activity. Kaplan-Meier methods were used to estimate survival curves. Results Twenty-six patients (64% M; average age of 60 years) were included in the study. On evaluation of the SPECT characteristics, 15 pts (57.7%) had a halo of activity around the lesion, 8 pts (30.8%) demonstrated peripheral activity within the tumor itself, 2 patients (7.7%) demonstrated diffuse/central activity and only 1(3.8%) was hypovascular with no significant activity. No statistically significant correlation was demonstrated between the SPECT characteristics and OS and PFS. 17 (68%) patients demonstrated increase in the size of the target lesions after one month of SIRT, thus demonstrating progression according to the RECIST 1.1 criteria. Conclusion There is no significant correlation between the hypervascularity pattern on SPECT and overall survival. 68% of the lesions demonstrated increase in the size after one month of therapy, though many of these patients had prolonged survival; thus, RECIST 1.1 criteria may not be sufficient to access tumor progression in these patients.
Note on Mr. Wood's Method of Illustrating Planetary Orbits

I FEAR that Mr. Wood's beautiful method of illustrating planetary orbits by means of a bicycle ball rolling on a glass plate about the pole of an electro-magnet (NATURE, April 29, 1897), has rather fallen into disrepute in the minds of many physicists since its criticism by Mr. Anderson in NATURE, May 13, 1897. Mr. Anderson there states that the law of attraction in such a case would be that of the inverse fifth power of the distance. This could only be true if the ball were of very soft iron. A bicycle ball is far from this, and becomes strongly magnetised after brief use in the experiment, behaving like a permanent magnet of great coercive force. Under these conditions the attraction between the pole and the ball will vary approximately as the inverse third power. There is also another factor to be considered. If the true pole lies below the glass plate, only a certain component of the total force is active in producing the attraction towards the centre of motion. To determine what the law of variation of this component will be, I have had one of my students take a number of series of observations on the attraction of a bicycle ball along a plane perpendicular to the axis of a magnet.
System Architecture For Telerobotic Servicing And Assembly Tasks

The architecture of an integrated telerobotics laboratory which is being used for research on the mechanisms, controls, sensing, and operator interface required to accomplish space telerobotic tasks is described. The laboratory hardware is considered, including manipulator and controller, end effector, and vision. The virtual architecture, a common reference model for most of the laboratory applications, is discussed. Teleoperator and robotics system simulations which have been performed using the system are discussed.
Laser densification of optical films

Sol-gel derived SiO2-TiO2 and WO3 films were densified with a CO2 laser. Laser fired SiO2-TiO2 films had higher optical loss (6 dB/cm) than similar films fired in a furnace (< 1 dB/cm). For coating shrinkages up to about 40% the increase in refractive index during firing was similar for both laser and furnace fired SiO2-TiO2 coatings. At higher shrinkages both anatase and rutile were observed in the laser fired coatings. Loss measurements of laser fired samples in this and, likely, in previous studies were made in crystalline coatings. It is proposed that this, at least in part, is the cause of the high optical losses typically measured in laser densified silica-titania waveguides. The electrochromic coloring behavior of the WO3 films was examined using proton insertion. The coloring characteristics (< 20 s for 90% coloring) and bleaching characteristics (< 3 s for 90% bleaching) of laser fired WO3 films were comparable to the coloring and bleaching characteristics of high-quality sol-gel derived films fired in a furnace. Optimal coloring was obtained using moderate laser energy densities (approximately 50 - 100 J/cm2). This optimum occurred with less shrinkage than for furnace fired electrochromic films with similar coloring behavior.
Sorghum midge (Diptera: Cecidomyiidae) management with resistant sorghum and insecticide.

Field evaluations were conducted in 1982 and 1984 to compare the efficacy of diazinon for control of sorghum midge, Contarinia Sorghicola (Coquillett), infesting resistant and susceptible sorghum hybrids. In 1982, diazinon application resulted in significantly higher yields of the resistant hybrid than the susceptible hybrid when the same treatments were made and midge density was high (ca. 50 per panicle). Highest yields of the resistant hybrid occurred when plants were treated five times at 3-day intervals, but greatest economic returns were obtained when plants were treated three times at 5-day intervals. Even when untreated, the resistant hybrid produced higher net returns than the susceptible hybrid following any of the diazinon treatments. Although percent yield improvement of treated sorghum was higher for the susceptible hybrid than the resistant, the susceptible hybrid yielded only as much as the untreated resistant hybrid, and only ca. 50% as much as the treated resistant hybrid. When midge densities were low, but above the economic injury level, yields of the resistent hybrid were about equal whether treated or untreated with insecticide. The susceptible hybrid yielded 50% as much as the untreated resistant hybrid and 25–50% less when both hybrids were treated the same. When variable diazinon applications were based on percent panicle flower, and when midge density was high, the resistant hybrid responded more efficiently to the diazinon treatments in terms of yield and net value compared with the susceptible hybrid.
Use of a biodegradable patch for reconstruction of large thoracic cage defects in growing children.

Abstract Background/Purpose At our institution, procedures were developed to enlarge and stabilize the thoracic cavity of children born with severe-enough abnormalities of the thoracic cage as to result in lack of normal lung growth and function. In addition to the device known as the vertical expandable prosthetic titanium rib (VEPTR), some type of patch material was needed to cover large congenital defects of the chest cage owing to rib absence or to cover defects created because of the expansion process. Initially, synthetic material, polytetrafluorethylene (Gore-Tex, WL Gore and Associates, Flagstaff, Ariz) was used, but this proved itself to be restrictive over time and required removal. Thus, a nonsynthetic biodegradable patch material was adopted for coverage of the defects (Surgisis, Cook, Bloomington, Ind). Methods From October 2001 through October 2004, 26 growing children undergoing thoracic cage reconstruction received the biodegradable extracellular matrix patch derived from porcine SIS (Cook). A patch was deemed necessary if any one of the following conditions was obtained: ( a ) herniation of the lung was likely; ( b ) chest wall musculature was significantly diminished; ( c ) injury to the lung was likely at reoperation; ( d ) the defect was greater than 2 × 2 cm. Results During the follow-up period, 41 months thus far, each of the 26 children has undergone routine, scheduled expansions or change-out procedures every 6 months. The SIS has not required removal for any reason and has not restricted growth of the thoracic cage. Conclusions Compared with synthetic soft tissue patch material, the nonsynthetic, biodegradable soft tissue patch (SIS) has proven to be a superior alternative, thus far, to others for use in our population of patients for reconstruction of the thoracic cage in the growing child.
Thalamic involvement in multiple sclerosis: a diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging study.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Injury to deep gray matter structures in multiple sclerosis (MS) has been suggested by recent neuro-imaging and neuropathology studies. Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can assess tissue damage with greater sensitivity than conventional MRI. The authors' objective was to assess thalamic gray matter damage by diffusion-weighted imaging in MS patients. METHODS This was a retrospective study performed at a tertiary care, university-affiliated comprehensive MS center of 82 MS patients and 43 controls. The main outcome measures were thalamic apparent diffusion coefficients (ADCs), whole-brain atrophy (brain parenchymal fraction), fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) hypertense lesion volume, and clinical course. RESULTS ADCs in the left thalamus were higher in MS patients (0.741 +/- 0.044 x 10(-3) mm2/s) than controls (0.723 +/- 0.036 x 10(-3) mm2/s) (P = .027) and higher in secondary progressive MS patients (0.761 +/- 0.044 x 10(-3) mm2/s) than relapsing-remitting MS patients (0.735 +/- 0.032 x 10(-3) mm2/s) (P = .029). ADCs in the right thalamus were higher in secondary progressive MS patients (0.784 +/- 0.069 x 10(-3) mm2/s) than controls (0.757 +/- 0.038 x 10(-3) mm2/s) (P = .033). In the MS group, left thalamus ADCs correlated negatively with brain parenchymal fraction (r = -0.30, P = .008), total left hemispheric FLAIR lesion volume correlated with ADCs in the left (r = 0.35, P = .001) and right (r = 0.39, P < .001) thalami, and total right hemispheric FLAIR lesion volume correlated with ADCs in the left (r = 0.31, P = .006) and right thalami (r = 0.22, P = .048). CONCLUSION MS patients have increased water diffusion in the thalamus that is partly associated with clinical course, lesion load, and whole-brain atrophy. Both indirect and direct mechanisms of gray matter injury may play a role in the pathophysiology of MS.
Electrophysiological properties of onion guard cells.

Intracellular electrical recordings in onion (Allium cepa L.) guard cells show that they maintain a membrane potential difference (MPD), inside negative. The MPD of intact cells averaged -72±29 mV (n=45); MPD of cells partially digested with a cellulolytic enzyme, -39±7 mV (n=65). Evidence indicates that the guard cells have two electrically distinct compartments, presumably delimited by the plasmalemma and tonoplast. Epidermal cells in partially digested preparations also showed MPD that could be either positive (+15±7 mV; n=23) or negative (-15 ±8 mV; n=13). Guard cells exposed to light-dark cycles hyperpolarized in the light and depolarized in the dark. The largest observed voltage changes reached 52 mV during hyperpolarizations and 60 mV during depolarizations. The light responses saturated with roughly exponential kinetics, with the depolarizations exhibiting a slower second phase that might be related to the contracting movements of the guard cells. Initial rates of the responses averaged about 14 mV min-1 in the dark and about 8 mV min-1 in the light. The results can be interpreted as electrical correlates of fluctuations in intracellular potassium concentration, as light-induced changes in membrane permeability, or as the photoactivation of an electrogenic proton pump. The last possibility seems to be the simplest interpretation of the data that also provides us with a mechanism driving the ion fluxes associated with stomatal function.
U.S. trade dispute with China over rare earth elements

The U.S. government has brought a new trade case against China over rare earth elements (REE) as well as tungsten and molybdenum, President Barack Obama announced on 13 March. Japan and the European Union also have taken similar actions against China about REEs, which are a group of 17 chemically similar metallic elements that are used in a variety of electronic, optical, magnetic, and catalytic applications. REEs are plentiful in the Earth's crust, although China currently has about 37% of the world's reserves and accounts for more than 95% of the world's production of the elements, according to the British Geological Survey. The United States has requested consultations with China at the World Trade Organization (WTO) concerning “China's unfair export restraints on rare earths, as well as tungsten and molybdenum,” the Office of the United States Trade Representative announced in a 13 March statement.
Design and tests of an efficient search algorithm for accurate linear valuation systems

. A valuation system partitions the set of goods to be valued into multiple disjoint subsets and the current value of the goods is estimated via price indexes covering these subsets. Efficient valuation systems yield a relatively small economy-wide average of mean squared errors with respect to the true total current cost of the goods. Several algorithms have been designed to search for efficient valuation systems. These algorithms, however, do not take advantage of the information contained in the characteristic parameters of the goods to be valued. We present the design and test of a search algorithm that is substantially more efficient than those in the literature. The relative efficiency of the algorithm is gained through the use of information contained in the weights, the expected values, and the variance-covariance structure of the price changes of the goods. Resume. Un systeme d'evaluation subdivise l'ensemble des biens a etre evalues en plusieurs sous-ensembles disjoints et la valeur actuelle des biens est estimee grâce a des indices de prix couvrant ces sous-ensembles. Des systemes d'evaluation efficaces produisent, pour l'ensemble de l'economie, une moyenne relativement faible des erreurs moyennes au carre, par rapport au cout actuel reel total des biens. Plusieurs algorithmes ont ete concus pour decouvrir des systemes d'evaluation efficaces. Toutefois, ces algorithmes n'integrent pas l'information que renferment les parametres caracterisant les biens a evaluer. Nous presentons la conception et le test d'un algorithme de recherche qui s'avere considerablement plus efficace que ceux mentionnes dans les recherches anterieures. L'efficacite relative de cet algorithme est obtenue grâce a l'integration de l'information contenue dans les ponderations, les valeurs esperees et la structure de variance-covariance des fluctuations de prix des biens.
A retrospective commentary on “discounting in the hotel industry: a new approach”

Abstract The hotel industry is gradually catching on to this revenue-enhancing technique.
Mining the LIPG Allelic Spectrum Reveals the Contribution of Rare and Common Regulatory Variants to HDL Cholesterol

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have successfully identified loci associated with quantitative traits, such as blood lipids. Deep resequencing studies are being utilized to catalogue the allelic spectrum at GWAS loci. The goal of these studies is to identify causative variants and missing heritability, including heritability due to low frequency and rare alleles with large phenotypic impact. Whereas rare variant efforts have primarily focused on nonsynonymous coding variants, we hypothesized that noncoding variants in these loci are also functionally important. Using the HDL-C gene LIPG as an example, we explored the effect of regulatory variants identified through resequencing of subjects at HDL-C extremes on gene expression, protein levels, and phenotype. Resequencing a portion of the LIPG promoter and 5′ UTR in human subjects with extreme HDL-C, we identified several rare variants in individuals from both extremes. Luciferase reporter assays were used to measure the effect of these rare variants on LIPG expression. Variants conferring opposing effects on gene expression were enriched in opposite extremes of the phenotypic distribution. Minor alleles of a common regulatory haplotype and noncoding GWAS SNPs were associated with reduced plasma levels of the LIPG gene product endothelial lipase (EL), consistent with its role in HDL-C catabolism. Additionally, we found that a common nonfunctional coding variant associated with HDL-C (rs2000813) is in linkage disequilibrium with a 5′ UTR variant (rs34474737) that decreases LIPG promoter activity. We attribute the gene regulatory role of rs34474737 to the observed association of the coding variant with plasma EL levels and HDL-C. Taken together, the findings show that both rare and common noncoding regulatory variants are important contributors to the allelic spectrum in complex trait loci.
α-β-γ transformations in Mg2SiO4 in Earth's transition zone

ARTICLE I NFO Phase relations in α-β-γ Mg2SiO4 have been investigated by first principles quasi-harmonic free energy computations. The computed phase boundaries obtained using the local density approximation (LDA) and the generalizedgradientapproximation(GGA)brackettheexperimentalones,withLDA(GGA)calculationsgivingthe lowest (highest) bound, while the Clapeyron slopes are in good agreement with the experimentally determined ones. This is the same trend displayed by previous similar computations. Further analyses reveal that despite the uncertaintiesinphaseboundary determination, thecalculated discontinuitiesindensity, bulk modulus, and bulk sound velocity are quite insensitive to pressure and have small uncertainties and useful accuracy to discriminate potential sources of discontinuities in the mantle. We verify that ∼3% density discontinuity at 410-km depth can be produced primarily by the α to β transition in an aggregate with pyrolite composition, i.e. ∼60 vol.% of Mg2SiO4. However, the 1.3-2.9% density discontinuity observed in some places at 520-km depth cannot be accounted for solely by the β to γ transition but also requires changes in the coexisting pyroxene/garnet/Ca- perovskite system.
INTEGRIN α6 CLEAVAGE: A NOVEL MODIFICATION TO MODULATE CELL MIGRATION

Abstract Integrins play a major role in cell adhesion and migration. Previous work reported that a cleaved form of integrin α6 (α6p) was detected in invasive human prostate cancer tissue, absent in normal prostate tissue and was produced by urokinase-type Plasminogen Activator (uPA) in a plasmin-independent manner. Using site-directed mutagenesis we identified amino acid residues R594 and R595, located in the “stalk” region of integrin α6, as essential for cleavage. The cleavage site is located on the extracellular region of the protein between the β-barrel domain and the thigh domain. Prostate cancer cells (PC3N) were stably transfected to overexpress the cleavable, wild-type (PC3N-α6-WT) or the non-cleavable form of integrin α6 (PC3N-α6-RR). The number of cells invading laminin 111- and laminin 332-coated filters by PC3N-α6-WT cells increased by threefold as compared to PC3N-α6-RR cells. Plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) reduced the invasion of PC3N-α6-WT cells by approximately 42% through laminin 332-coated filters and plasmin inhibitor aprotinin had no significant effect. Linear cell migration increased production of integrin α6p in the PC3N-α6-WT cells and not in the PC3N-α6-RR cells and 32% of the PC3N-α6-WT cells migrated on laminin 111 in the linear migration assay as compared to the 5% PC3N-α6-RR cells. These data taken together suggest that the uPA-mediated cell surface cleavage of the α6 integrin extracellular domain is involved in tumor cell invasion and migration on laminin.
Homeownership, the Great Recession, and Wealth: Evidence From the Survey of Consumer Finances

The owned home is central to both the American Dream and the financial lives of U.S. households. This article explores the typical financial trajectories of homeowners during the Great Recession, assessing the viability of positioning home equity at the core of a household's balance sheet. Using the 2007–2009 reinterview panel of the Survey of Consumer Finances, we describe the diverse balance sheets of groups of homeowning households. While some homeowners lost equity and wealth in the Great Recession, we find that an owned home introduced severe risk of loss, but homeowners were less likely than renters to lose very large proportions of their wealth. The experience of homeowners' balance sheets during the downturn was diverse, and the typical experiences of different groups are compared and contrasted.
The effect of gases on the recovery of human red blood cells

Abstract The freezing of blood in several types of small tubes is studied. The gas content of the blood in the tubes was controlled. The damage during freezing while in equilibrium with a given gas does not appear to depend upon the gas itself, but upon the change in volume that the gas produces in the cell. Heat transfer calculations indicate that the damage does not appear to be caused by supercooling or by intracellular ice formation, but by an as yet undetermined sequence of events.
Radiology-pathology conference: primary perinephric and renal extraosseous Ewing's sarcoma

Ewing's sarcoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumor is a rare entity belonging to a family of neoplasms of neuroectodermal origin. These highly aggressive neoplasms overwhelmingly affect children and young adults. A quarter of Ewing's sarcomas occur principally in the soft tissues with primary involvement of the perinephric fat and kidney being exceptionally rare. We present a 38-year-old man with primary Ewing's sarcoma of the perinephric fat and kidney diagnosed 2 years earlier who subsequently developed an infiltrating left renal and perinephric mass.
SYNTHETICALLY USEFUL INTERMEDIATES BY DIAZOSULFONE AND SULFONATE C-H INSERTION.

Abstract Intramolecular C–H insertion on diazosulfone and diazosulfonate substrates was used to prepare synthetically useful intermediates from easily available starting materials.
Shared Decision Making and Serious Mental Illness

This study examined medication decision making by 84 persons with serious mental illness, specifically examining relationships among perceived coercion, decisional capacity, preferences for involvement and actual participation, and the outcomes of medication adherence and quality of life (QoL). Multiple and logistic regression analysis were used in this cross-sectional, descriptive study, controlling for demographic, socioeconomic, and utilization variables. Appreciation was positively related to medication adherence behaviors for the past 6 months. Women, older individuals, and those living independently were more likely to have taken all their medications over the past 6 months. Neither client participation, preference, nor preference–participation agreement was found to be associated with better medication adherence or QoL.
Genetic Alterations That Inhibit In Vivo Pressure-Overload Hypertrophy Prevent Cardiac Dysfunction Despite Increased Wall Stress

Background— A long-standing hypothesis has been that hypertrophy is compensatory and by normalizing wall stress acts to maintain normal cardiac function. Epidemiological data, however, have shown that cardiac hypertrophy is associated with increased mortality, thus casting doubt on the validity of this hypothesis. Methods and Results— To determine whether cardiac hypertrophy is necessary to preserve cardiac function, we used 2 genetically altered mouse models that have an attenuated hypertrophic response to 8 weeks of pressure overload. End-systolic wall stress (ςes) obtained by sonomicrometry after 1 week of pressure overload showed complete normalization of ςes in pressure-overloaded wild-type mice (287±39 versus sham, 254±34 g/cm2), whereas the blunted hypertrophic response in the transgenic mice was inadequate to normalize ςes (415±81 g/cm2, P<0.05). Remarkably, despite inadequate normalization of ςes, cardiac function as measured by serial echocardiography showed little deterioration in either of the...
NGOs, HIV/AIDS control and reproductive health in East Africa

Catalogues how Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are meeting, individually, the AIDS epidemic with governmental and non‐governmental organizations (NGOs). Uses data from the United Nations and World Bank. Gives background of NGOs in East Africa and their field work. Concludes that the social dimensions of each country are very restrictive in slightly differing ways, with the various religious beliefs also having an effect which is deleterious in nature. States that, even so, there are more similarities than there are differences in the three countries.
Renal duplication and dysplasia

Abstract Seventeen patients with duplication and coexisting ureteroceles have been studied. In sixteen instances renal dysplasia was also present. This entity has been shown to lead to disability and continued sepsis and therefore dictates direct extirpative surgery.
Novel Physics-Based Protein Structure Refinement Method

Refinement of low-resolution protein structures is still a major problem despite the advancements in structure prediction and refinement methods. We have recently developed a new approach, which mimics the mechanism of chaperones that rehabilitate misfolded proteins by causing them to unfold, and then giving them a new chance to refold. The target protein is unfolded by selectively pulling different ends, using geometric based simulation techniques, FRODA (1), and then refolded by the zipping and assembly method (ZAM) (2-3). During these steps, the unfolded trajectories are used to identify conserved backbone dihedral angles and hydrophobic-hydrophobic contacts, and then this acquired information is used as energetic restraints to enforce contacts and dihedral angles during refolding, through 10ns of replica-exchange molecular dynamics using the AMBER force field with implicit solvation. We have tested this refinement method on CASP9 and CASP10 targets, and observed that usually misfolded parts of the chain unfold first and most importantly refolds to produce a better refined structure.1. de Graff, Adam M.R.; Shannon, Gareth; Farrell Daniel W.; Williams, Philip M.; Thorpe, M.F. Biophys J. (2011) 101(3):736-7442. Ozkan, SB; Wu, GA; Chodera, JD; Dill, KA Proc. Natl Acad. Sci USA (2007) 104:11987-11992.3. Glembo, TJ and Ozkan SB, Biophys. J. (2011) 98:1046-1054
Chapman-Cook Speed of Reading Test: Performance of College Students

The performance of 116 college students on the Chapman-Cook Speed of Reading Test on three different occasions was investigated. Descriptive statistics, test-retest reliability measures, and correlations with other tests of reading and verbal ability are provided. Analyses suggest that the Chapman Cook test provides some information not available from tests currently used to assess reading and verbal ability.
Beyond National Citizenship: Turkish Immigrants and the (RE)Construction of Citizenship in Germany

In this paper, we propose a relational perspective on citizenship that captures the meanings and practices of citizenship, and their geographies in the contemporary period of accelerated and globalized movement of people across national boundaries. A relational perspective makes it possible to tease out both the complex articulations of state and civil society in the construction of citizenship, and the intricate local, national and transnational interconnections shaping contemporary state conceptions and social practices of citizenship. Using Turkish immigration to Germany as a case study, we examine the complex negotiations between state and civil society in the (re)construction of German citizenship law, paying particular attention to the role of immigrant institutions in this process. Drawing on an ethnography of Turkish immigrants' social practice of citizenship in Duisburg Marxloh, we show that they simultaneously engage with multiple states and public spheres to express their identities, and confro...
Fundamental processes in sputtering of relevance to the fabrication of thin film solar cells

Abstract If thin film photovoltaic cells are to have a significant impact on U.S. electrical energy needs, facilities with production capabilities in the range of 25 – 50 MW per year are required. The deposition sections in these facilities must provide large deposition areas, large storage of coating material and reasonable deposition rates. D.c. reactive sputtering using magnetron sources shows promise for meeting all three of these requirements for the deposition of both CuInSe 2 and amorphous hydrogenated silicon (a-Si:H). The question thus is whether films with properties suitable for fabricating high performance photovoltaic devices can be fabricated by reactive sputtering. This paper briefly reviews several of the atomic level processes that occur during sputter deposition and that influence film properties. Particular attention is given to target processes that lead to the formation of selenide surface layers during CuInSe 2 reactive sputtering, and to substrate reactions which appear to control film properties in the CuInSe 2 case and to a significant degree in the a-Si:H case. Experiments which are under way at the University of Illinois to investigate the critical issues in CuInSe 2 and a-Si:H reactive sputtering are described. None of the processes discussed appears to preclude the deposition of high quality CuInSe 2 and a-Si:H films by reactive sputtering.
Complement fixation with Leptospiral antigens.

SummaryThe complement fixing activity of preparations from leptospiral cultures and from leptospira infected chick embryos has been studied in the presence of immune rabbit serum. The antigenicity of culture supernatant fluids was low but tended to increase as the temperature of incubation and the age of the cultures increased. The addition of sodium desoxycholate to cultures increased still further the ability of culture supernates to fix complement. Boiling infected allantoic fluids with N/5 NaOH yielded a soluble, non-dialyzable antigen. L. pomona culture supernates, alkali treated allantoic fluids and washed suspensions of leptospirae from allantoic fluids reacted specifically with L. pomona immune rabbit-serum in the dilutions employed.
Studies in cyclocopolymerization. III. Copolymerization of divinyl ether with certain nitrogen-containing alkenes

The copolymerization of divinyl ether with fumaronitrile (A), tetracyanoethylene (B), and 4-vinylpyridine (C) has been studied, azobisisobutyronitrile being used as initiator. The compositions of the copolymers were calculated from their nitrogen and unsaturation content. Over a wide range of initial monomer composition, the mole fraction of A in the copolymers lies in the range 0.55–0.63, and the copolymers contained only 2–3% unsaturation, indicating a high degree of cyclization. The composition of the copolymers of B indicated that cyclization occurred to only a small extent, as the copolymers contained rather high unsaturation content. The values of r1 = 0.23 and r2 = 0.12 were obtained. The mole fraction of C in the copolymers lies between 0.85 and 0.998. If the assumption is made that r1 ⋍ rc ⋍ 0 and there is predominant cyclization, r2 = 32.0 in this case. The difference in the composition of the copolymers is attributed to the difference between the electron density of the double bonds in A, B, and C.
Growth and atomic structure of chromium overlayers on W(110) and W(100)

Abstract The growth, structure and thermal stability of chromium overlayers vapor-deposited onto W(110) and W(100) substrates have been studied using Auger electron spectroscopy, temperature programmed desorption, work function measurements and low energy electron diffraction. Layer-by-layer growth is observed on both substrates in the 120–400 K temperature range, despite a 9% Cr : W bulk lattice mismatch. On W(110), a pseudomorphic (1 × 1) Cr monolayer (ML) forms at 100 K and remains stable up to desorption at 1290 K. A metastable surface structure of (2 × 2) symmetry is observed for ∼2 ML Cr W(110) in the 500 Cr W(100) overlayer exhibits no long range order but remains stable up to 1100 K, while thicker films are thermally unstable above 500 K, forming three-dimensional clusters on top of the pseudomorphic Cr W(100) monolayer.
Tides in a System of Connected Estuaries

AbstractThe spatial structure of tidal amplitude and phase in a simplified system of connected estuaries, an idealized version of Florida’s Intracoastal Waterway, is analyzed with a linear analytical model. This model includes friction, the earth’s rotation, and variable bathymetry. It is driven at the connection with the ocean by a co-oscillating tide. Model results compare well with observations of pressure and currents in a section of the Intracoastal Waterway on the east coast of Florida. The comparison suggests that the waterway is highly frictional, causing the amplitude of the water elevation and tidal velocity to decrease away from the inlets to a minimum in the middle of the waterway. The local phase relationship between velocity and water elevation changed nonlinearly from 90° with no friction to 45° with maximum friction. In moderately to highly frictional basins, the phase lag was consistently less than 45°.
Built-in Self Test of RF Transceiver SoCs: from Signal Chain to RF Synthesizers

Built-in self test techniques for local oscillator phase noise, RF front-end circuits, baseband building blocks and transceiver loop-back are described. CMOS implementation of integrated RF test components, including RF detectors and phase discriminators are introduced. These devices eliminate the need for expensive external test equipment. The presented test strategies can also be used at wafer-level for fault diagnosis, localization and yield estimation. Silicon characterization results verifying most of these techniques are provided.
Emergency medicine in China: present and future.

remarkable. METHODS: This paper is a critical and descriptive review on current situations in emergency medicine in China, based on the literature review, personal observations, interviews with many Chinese emergency medicine doctors and experts, and personal experience in both China and USA. RESULTS: The current practice of emergency medicine in China encompasses three areas: prehospital medicine, emergency medicine, and critical care medicine. Most tertiary emergency departments (EDs) are structurally and functionally divided into several clinical areas, allowing the ED itself to function as a small independent hospital. While Chinese emergency physicians receive specialty training through a number of pathways, national standards in training and certifi cation have not yet been developed. As a result, the scope of practice for emergency physicians and the quality of clinical care vary greatly between individual hospitals. Physician recruitment, diffi cult working conditions, and academic promotion remain as major challenges in the development of emergency medicine in China. CONCLUSION: To further strengthen the specialty advancement, more government leadership is needed to standardize regional training curriculums, elucidate practice guidelines, provide funding opportunities for academic development in emergency medicine, and promote the development of a system approach to emergency care in China.
The Employee Separation Process: Criterion-Related Issues Associated with Tenure and Turnover

The point is made that employee separation researchers have failed to distinguish among separation criteria, leading to inaccurate parameter estimation and evaluation. It is recommended that separation be viewed as either a dichotomous (e.g., avoidable vs. unavoidable or functional vs. dysfunctional) or a dichotomized variable (e.g., membership in a longor short-tenure group). Likewise, it is argued that type of separation criterion specified determines the appropriateness of a specific estimator. In the case of a truly dichotomous criterion, the point-biserial correlation is of interest, whereas in the case of a dichotomized criterion, the biserial correlation is the proper estimator. Related statistical issues are addressed.
Reactive Versus Proactive Attitudes Toward Domestic Violence A Comparison of Taiwanese Male and Female Police Officers

Although there has been a growing research interest in examining factors associated with police arrest decisions and victims’ perceptions of the police in handling domestic violence, very few studies have empirically assessed female and male officers’ attitudes toward domestic violence. Using survey data collected from 272 male and female officers from two metropolitan police departments in Taiwan, this research compared male and female police officers’ reactive and proactive attitudes toward handling domestic violence incidents. The findings indicated that male officers were more likely than female officers to support minimum police involvement and to tolerate domestic violence. With regard to proactive attitudes, there was no significant gender difference in officers’ endorsement of proarrest policy and the importance of domestic violence in police work. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.
Genetic Defects and Clinical Characteristics of Patients With a Form of Oculocutaneous Albinism (Hennansky-Pudlak Syndrome)

NEW ENGLAND JOURNAL OF MEDICINE Genetic Defects and Clinical Characteristics of Patients With a Form of Oculocutaneous Albinism (Hennansky-Pudlak Syndrome) William A. Gahl, M.D., Ph.D., Mark Brantly, M.D., Muriel I. Kaiser-Kupfer, M.D., Fumino Iwata, M.D., Senator Hazelwood, B.S., Vorasuk Shotelersuk, M.D., Lynn F. Duffy, M.D., Ernest M. Kuehl, James Troendle, Ph.D., and Isa Bernardini, M.Ed. Background Hermansky–Pudlak syndrome is characterized by oculocutaneous albinism, a storage-pool deficiency, and lysosomal accumulation of ceroid lipofuscin, which causes pulmonary fibrosis and granulomatous colitis in some areas. All identified affected patients in northwest Puerto Rico are homozygous for a 16-bp duplication in exon 15 of a recently cloned gene, HPS . We compared the clinical and laboratory characteristics of these patients with those of patients without the 16-bp duplication. Methods Forty-nine patients—27 Puerto Ricans and 22 patients from the mainland United States who were not of Puerto Rican descent—were given a diagnosis on the basis of albinism and the absence of platelet dense bodies. We used the polymerase chain reaction to determine which patients carried the 16-bp duplication. Results Twenty-five of the Puerto Rican patients were homozygous for the 16-bp duplication, whereas none of the non–Puerto Rican patients carried this mutation. Like the patients without the duplication, the patients with the 16-bp duplication had a broad variation in pigmentation. Nine of 16 adults with the duplication, but none of the 10 without it, had a diffusing capacity for carbon monoxide that was less than 80 percent of the predicted value. High-resolution computed tomography in 12 patients with the 16-bp duplication revealed minimal fibrosis in 8, moderate fibrosis in 1, severe fibrosis in 1, and no fibrosis in 2. Computed tomography in eight patients without the duplication revealed minimal fibrosis in three and no fibrosis in the rest. Inflammatory bowel disease developed in eight patients (four in each group) between 3 and 25 years of age. Conclusions The 16-bp duplication in exon 15 of HPS , which we found only in Puerto Rican patients, is associated with a broad range of pigmentation and an increased risk of restrictive lung disease in adults. 1998;338:1258-1264.
Effect of silhouette quality on hard problems in gait recognition

Gait as a behavioral biometric has been the subject of recent investigations. However, understanding the limits of gait-based recognition and the quantitative study of the factors effecting gait have been confounded by errors in the extracted silhouettes, upon which most recognition algorithms are based. To enable us to study this effect on a large population of subjects, we present a novel model based silhouette reconstruction strategy, based on a population based hidden Markov model (HMM), coupled with an eigen-stance model, to correct for common errors in silhouette detection arising from shadows and background subtraction. The model is trained and benchmarked using manually specified silhouettes for 71 subjects from the recently formulated HumanID Gait Challenge database. Unlike other essentially pixel-level silhouette cleaning methods, this method can remove shadows, especially between feet for the legs-apart stance, and remove parts due to any objects being carried, such as briefcase or a walking cane. After quantitatively establishing the improved quality of the silhouette over simple background subtraction, we show on the 122 subjects HumanID Gait Challenge Dataset and using two gait recognition algorithms that the observed poor performance of gait recognition for hard problems involving matching across factors such as surface, time, and shoe are not due to poor silhouette quality, beyond what is available from statistical background subtraction based methods.
Data-mining-based system for prediction of water chemistry faults

Fault monitoring and prediction is of prime importance in process industries. Faults are usually rare, and, therefore, predicting them is difficult. In this paper, simple and robust alarm-system architecture for predicting incoming faults is proposed. The system is data driven, modular, and based on data mining of merged data sets. The system functions include data preprocessing, learning, prediction, alarm generation, and display. A hierarchical decision-making algorithm for fault prediction has been developed. The alarm system was applied for prediction and avoidance of water chemistry faults (WCFs) at two commercial power plants. The prediction module predicted WCFs (inadvertently leading to boiler shutdowns) for independent test data sets. The system is applicable for real-time monitoring of facilities with sparse historical fault data.
Definitions of risk.

Risk-related terms such as risk factor, modifiable risk factor, demographic risk factor, risk indicator, determinant, and risk marker are often not well defined in the literature. This short report supports the use of a 1996 definition of risk factor, as probably the most commonly used term related to risk, for the Consensus Development Conference on Diagnosis and Management of Dental Caries Throughout Life, March 26-28, 2001.