cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Virginity for Sale: A Foucauldian Moment in the History of Sexuality

Natalie Dylan attempted to auction her virginity through the website of a legal Nevada brothel. Public discourses surrounding Dylan’s auction have characterized it as everything from a smart business transaction to the sale of her self-respect. Using a theoretical frame from Foucault, methods of textual construction, and rhetorical methods of analysis guided by cluster criticism, our paper explores how online discourses surrounding the auction enact problematics concerning the concepts of virginity and the interrelationships among women, sex, money, and power in American society. While Dylan’s discourse attempts to create space for sexual women and commodified sexuality as empowering for women, responses to her enterprise indicate there is little room for a woman’s unapologetic offer of her commodified virginity.
Economic determinants of the correlation structure across international equity markets

Abstract This study investigates whether, how, and why the matrix of correlations across international equity markets changes over time. A theoretical model is proposed to specify potential economic determinants of this correlation structure. The empirical validity of this economic model is investigated by employing daily returns for different national stock indexes, from 1972 through 1993, to construct a quarterly time series of the correlation matrix. This quarterly time series is used to investigate the stability of the correlation matrix over time, and to estimate the economic model. The model is then applied to generate out-of-sample forecasts of the correlation structure. Keywords: International market integration JEL classification: F36, G15.
Dynamic considerations in pavement layers moduli evaluation using falling weight deflectometer

Falling weight deflectometer (FWD) test is employed by many state highway agencies for the nondestructive evaluation of pavement layers moduli. The accuracy of test results changes significantly for different pavement systems and may results in misleading conclusions. In this study, explicit finite element analysis was used to investigate the behavior of pavement layers under the action of an impact load. The time dependent dynamic responses of origin and flexible pavements were compared and significant differences in behavior were observed. Analysis of the time-histories of vertical deformations propagating through the pavement depth reveals that the displacements measured on the surface layer at standard FWD sensors' positions may not be indicative of the displacements of underlying layers. Computer results are provided for the extreme cases of fully bonded and unbonded pavement layers' interfaces. The results of the analysis reveal that the dynamic displacement patterns are much more complicated than the static ones. Animation of the model results indicates that near-surface pavement layers may behave as a set of composite plates resting on an elastic foundation in absence of bonds between the layers interfaces. If there are strong bonds, the near surface layers behave as a single composite solid resting on elastic foundation.
Worst case analysis for evaluating VLSI circuit performance bounds using an optimization method

The process variations are unavoidable in today's VLSI circuits due to the continuing scaled IC technologies, therefore, the likely behaviors of VLSI circuits with process variations may fail to meet the performance specifications. This paper addresses an efficient method to evaluate the performance bounds of VLSI circuits with process variations in time domain. The described approach proceeds by solving a Nonlinear Programming (NLP) problem to find the upper and lower bounds of the interested outputs, either a node voltage or a branch current, constrained by linearlized equations, circuit equations and parameter variations. The preliminary result shows the performance bounds from the proposed method are sufficiently tight comparing with the bounds obtained from intensive Monte Carlo samplings in SPICE.
Cystic Fibrosis in an Elderly Woman

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is thought of by most physicians as a disease of children. Advances in therapy have extended the life span of patients so that many pulmonary internists have responsibility for the care of young adults with CF. Nevertheless, the initial diagnosis of CF after the age of 30 years is unusual, and a diagnosis after the age of 60 years is rare. Such a case is reported here.
Constitution of the Ionosphere and the Lorentz Polarization Correction

SOME years ago considerable discussion took place concerning the relation between the constitution of the ionosphere and its refractive index for radio waves. The question at issue was whether the force per unit charge exerted by the electric field of a radio wave upon an elementary charged particle in the ionosphere should be taken simply as the Maxwellian electric intensity E (the Sellmeyer theory), or whether there should be added a contribution (4π/3)P (the Lorentz theory), P being the electric moment per unit volume produced by the radio wave in the neighbourhood of the charged particle under consideration. The discussion culminated in a paper by Darwin1 which is the most exhaustive treatment of the subject so far published. This seemed to point to the conclusion that on theoretical grounds one should expect the Sellmeyer theory to hold good in the ionosphere at radio frequencies.
Reaching Hard to Reach Populations with Hard to Communicate Messages: Efficacy of a Breast Health Research Champion Training Program

A Breast Health Research Champion training program was a developed targeting self-identified community breast health advocates from a predominant African-American community with a significant breast cancer mortality disparity. Twelve individuals completed the program that provided training in breast cancer risk and screening, breast cancer research, biospecimen in cancer research, and human research subject protection. The training emphasized four key messages to be disseminated to the community. Trainees hosted a minimum of two social chats with individuals from their social networks and functioned as community researchers, acquiring consent and gathering follow-up data from attendees. Trainees reached 199 individuals from their social networks, and chats were diverse in the venue selected, mode of message transmission, and the audience reached. Post/pre questionnaire data from attendees at the chats showed significant improvement in knowledge, attitudes, and intended behaviors as it relates to breast cancer screening, clinical research, and biospecimen in research. Forty percent of attendees provided 4-week follow-up information. Of respondents eligible for mammography, 38 % had taken action to be screened, and 86 % of respondents had spoken about the information to someone else in their social network. Trainees expressed feelings of empowerment after completing the project, “feeling like the expert,” and all trainees were surprised at the enthusiastic response from attendees of their chats. Trainees continued to disseminate the information learned from the training program during the 6 months following the training, reaching an additional 786 individuals in the community.
SOCIOLOGY, RELIGION, AND HISTORIANS

(1973). SOCIOLOGY, RELIGION, AND HISTORIANS. Historical Methods Newsletter: Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 161-169.
A remark on null infinity

It is shown that to each choice of conformal factor for the conformal metric on future null Infinity (ℐ+) there is associated an equivalence class of slicings of ℐ+. Each slicing in turn gives rise to a family of null hypersurfaces in the physical space-time.
Localization and Geometric Depletion of Vortex-Stretching in the 3D NSE

Vortex-stretching and, consequently, the evolution of the vorticity is localized on an arbitrarily small space-time cylinder. This yields a complete localization of the geometric condition(s) for the regularity involving coherence of the vorticity direction. In particular, it implies the regularity of any geometrically constrained Leray solution independently of the type of the spatial domain or the boundary conditions.
The Effect of Dose Rate on the Frequency of Specific-Locus Mutations Induced in Mouse Spermatogonia is Restricted to Larger Lesions; a Retrospective Analysis of Historical Data

A series of 19 large-scale germ-cell mutagenesis experiments conducted several decades ago led to the conclusion that low-LET radiation delivered to mouse spermatogonia at dose rates of 0.8 R/min and below induced only about one-third as many specific-locus mutations as did single, acute exposures at 24 R/min and above. A two-hit origin of the mutations was deemed unlikely in view of the then prevailing evidence for the small size of genetic lesions in spermatogonia. Instead, the dose-rate effect was hypothesized to be the result of a repair system that exists in spermatogonia, but not in more mature male reproductive cells. More recent genetic and molecular studies on the marker genes have identified the phenotypes associated with specific states of the mutant chromosomes, and it is now possible retrospectively to classify individual past mutations as “large lesions” or “other lesions”. The mutation-frequency difference between high and low dose rates is restricted to the large lesion mutations, for whic...
The varied manifestations of Wilson's disease.

Eleven additional cases of Wilson's disease are reported. Delay in diagnosis may stem from the varied modes of presentation of this disease. Hepatic involvement remains the most likely manner for presentation in the pediatric age group, and therefore the diagnosis needs serious consideration in any child with signs and symptoms of liver disease, acute or chronic. Other patients with a predominance of neurologic involvement and one with severe hemolytic crises are also described. Increased awareness of the possibility of Wilson's disease in the pediatric population should lead to earlier diagnosis and improve the prognosis of this serious, but treatable, inborn error of metabolism.
Dimerization of the PTEN Tumor Suppressor and its Structural Characterization by SAXS

The PTEN tumor suppressor is a dual-specificity phosphatase whose main target is the phosphatidylinositoltriphosphate (PI(3,4,5)P3) pool in the inner plasma membrane. It acts as the PI3K antagonist in the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway that controls cell growth and apoptosis and is the second most frequently mutated protein in human cancers. Because the propensity for tumor formation depends on PTEN dose in a way that is inconsistent with the “two-hit hypothesis”, it was postulated that PTEN multimers may form the active species of the phosphatase, and recently strong evidence has been presented for the formation of functional PTEN dimers in the cell (Papa et al., Cell 157, 2014, 595). Here, we use SAXS to investigate the multimerization of PTEN in buffer and show that it indeed forms dimers following elution from a size-exclusion column as a monomer. Electron density envelopes for the PTEN monomer and dimer obtained from SAXS could clearly be distinguished and were assigned by placing the PTEN crystal structure which was earlier determined for a truncated protein. In addition, the monomer envelope was validated by μs-long all-atom MD simulations of full-length PTEN. In these simulations, the auto-inhibitory, flexible C-terminal tail associates closely with the PTEN core domains while hopping between different bound conformations. The equilibrium ensemble of the resulting structures is in excellent agreement with the SAXS data. A structure prediction using the Rosetta docking protocol revealed a putative dimer arrangement that fits the dimer envelope derived from SAXS very well and is consistent with neutron reflectometry results for membrane-bound PTEN.
The use of tissue expansion techniques in burn reconstruction.

Adjacent normal tissue has always been the ideal tissue for reconstruction of deformity from scars in the face, head, and neck region. Tissue expansion increases the amount of available tissue and increases the safety with which it can be transferred. The technique requires at least two operations and multiple office visits and is attended by potential problems. Although there were complications in 48% of expanders inserted, 81% of cases were managed successfully by this technique, and there was a high degree of patient satisfaction. The results were often far superior to those in available alternative techniques. With its limitations and potential pitfalls in mind, the technique of tissue expansion should be added to our reconstructive practice.
Learning by doing, vintage, and selection: Three pieces of the puzzle relating teaching experience and teaching performance

Abstract This article points out that the puzzling nature of the evidence concerning the relationship between teaching experience and teaching performance is due at least in part to the research methodology used to study this relationship, in particular to the use of cross-sectional data on teachers. With cross-sectional data, the variable of interest—years of teaching experience—reflects three different phenomena: learning by doing, vintage and selection. These phenomena are explained and their influence on the relationship between experience and performance observed in a cross section of teachers is discussed. It is then shown that the impact of learning by doing on teaching performance is significantly increased when the impact is estimated in a model that explicitly accounts for vintage effects.
Use of Simulation to Develop a Medication Administration Safety Assessment Tool

Abstract Background This pilot study describes the use of human patient simulation (HPS) to develop a performance-based competency measure of medication administration safety. Method The instrument was developed using a content-validity approach and pilot tested through independent raters (n = 4) evaluating student nurse research participant (n = 14) performance in the HPS. Rating accuracy was evaluated using three HPS-based standard performances. Results Using four raters, interrater reliability was 0.83 to 0.90, Cronbach's alpha was 0.90, and the rating accuracy averaged 95%. Conclusions HPS provides unique features to facilitate development of performance-based clinical measures. These include an ability to test the measure on both high-consequence behaviors (such as medication errors) and "standard" performances with predetermined errors.
Blunting of a Plane Strain Crack Tip Into a Shape With Vertices

When monotonically increasing tensile opening loads are applied to a cracked, plane strain, elastic-plastic body, the crack tip will blunt until fracture occurs. The blunted tip shape may have two or more sharp corners, or be smoothly curved. When the shape involves corners, the opening is predominantly accommodated by shearing of the material at the corners. This shearing transports material from the interior of the body onto the crack surface. In contrast, the smoothly blunted crack tip involves no transfer of material points from the interior. However, the smoothly blunted crack, which was originally sharp, involves infinite strains on the crack tip surface. The crack with corners on the tip has large but finite strains on the crack tip surface. The stress and deformation field in front of a crack with two corners and with three corners on the tip, as calculated using the slip line method, is presented for the non-hardening, fully plastic, deeply cracked, double edge-notched thick panel. As in the case of the smoothly blunted crack tip, the elevated stress between the crack tips cannot be maintained very close to the crack tip, due to a lack of constraint. The stress distribution in the case of themore » crack tip with vertices on it differs from that of the smoothly blunted crack tip case. Immediately in front of the crack tip with three corners, the stress is higher than that immediately in front of the smoothly blunted crack tip. An approximation for a power law hardening material indicates that the maximum stresses near the blunted crack tip are much the same for a crack with vertices on the tip as for a smoothly blunted crack tip. The details of the stress distribution will depend on the mechanism by which the crack blunts. Results for stress and strain and some calculations of the growth of voids near the crack tips indicate the same fracture process could lead to different fracture toughnesses, depending on the type of mechanism by which the crack blunts.« less
Relationship of sire fertility to acrosome-reacted and motile spermatozoa after treatment with liposomes.

Abstract The relationship between bull nonreturn rate and percent acrosome-reacted and percent motile sperm treated with 24.8, 34.8, and 44.8 μM dilauroylphos-phatidylcholine liposomes was examined. Frozen-thawed spermatozoa from six bulls, with fertility ranging from 64 to 78%, were incubated at 39°C with the liposomes for 0, 7, and 15min. Bulls differed in percentages of motile sperm, and this decreased over time, especially at the highest concentration of lipids (44.8 μM ). Bulls differed initially in their percentage of sperm with intact acrosomes and in their linear rate of increase in percent acrosome-reacted sperm. At 24.8 μM of lipid the rate of increase was nearly linear, whereas at higher concentrations the maximum acrosome reaction was approached during short incubations. The variables 1) decline in percent motile sperm and 2) increase in percent acrosome-reacted sperm, used singly, predicted fertility most accurately when measured on sperm treated with 44.8 and 24.8 μM of lipids, respectively. However, the highest relationship (R 2 ≥ .97) was established by combining the acrosome and motility measurements of sperm exposed to 34.8 μM of lipids. Thus, potential fertility of bulls may be predicted by application of this assay to frozen-thawed semen.
Effects of friction in an optimum relay servomechanism

A recently proposed relay servo-mechanism employs maximum torque at all times, with the sense of the torque determined by a comparison of the error and the square of the error rate. With correct switching and no friction, this system gives the minimum possible response time for a step input with the specified inertia and maximum torque. A theoretical study of the effects of Coulomb or viscous friction is described in this paper. The degradation of the step-function response as a result of friction is measured by the change in response time, integrated absolute error, and integrated squared error. It is found that moderate amounts of friction can be tolerated with only a small loss in performance, if a slight change is made in the switching device.
Prognosis for juvenile diabetics with nephropathy and failing renal function.

. A total of 157 consecutive patients with juvenile diabetes (onset before the 31st birthday), diabetic nephropathy, and impaired renal function were followed up until 1.1.1976. All the patients had been admitted to the Steno Memorial Hospital, Copenhagen, between 1934 and 1972. Independently of the patients' age at onset of diabetes, it was found that persistent proteinuria appeared after an average of 19 years, and that death ensued 5–6 years thereafter. Division of the patients into two groups, according to whether the diabetes had set in before or after 1940, showed no signs of an improved prognosis during the past few decades. Once the serum creatinine has started to rise, the prognosis is very grave. Only 50% were alive 21 months after serum creatinine levels of 2–5 mg/100 ml had been ascertained. Among patients whose serum creatinine exceeded 5 mg/100 ml, 50% succumbed in 9 months. It is concluded that renal transplantation, if it is to be done, should be instituted early.
Adaptive segmentation of an x-ray CT image using vector quantization

This paper is part of a feasibility study of using an image segmentation method to automatically identify the tumor or target boundaries in each axial slice or to assist an expert physician to manually draw these boundaries.A two-stage segmentation method is proposed. In the first step, the outlying bone structure is removed from the raw CT data and the brain parenchymal area is extracted. Then a VQ-based method is applied for the segmentation of the soft tissue inside the brain area. Representative results for two sets of x-ray CT axial slice images from tow patients are presented. Problems and further modifications are discussed.
A developmental approach to diagnosis and treatment in a transitional living program

We hope that the reader has been able to vicariously share with us in the excitement of work in a transitional living program. The young people with whom we share this environment stand on the threshold of adult life. They have suffered medical, psychological, environmental, and social insults. Psychosocial developmental assessment helps us define the details of threats to the foundations of adult personality functioning. These young men and women are woefully unprepared for self-care, social interaction, occupational choice, and adult personal relationships. The premise of transitional living is that relationship-based milieu therapy,guided by psychoanalytic develop mental principles, provides an opportunity to heal these conflicted and immature young people to a degree that can tip the scale of their future lives toward productivity, self-esteem, and commitment. Like residential therapy, transitional living provides milieu therapy, corrective education, and psychotherapy. Unlike residential therapy, transitional living is also embedded in the urban community. It facilitates the transition from dependent childhood to independent living by intensive work with the psychological conflicts and physical and social barriers to success in making this important step.
A Markov Stochastic Process Theory of Cosmic-Ray Modulation

This paper introduces the use of Markov stochastic process theory to study heliospheric modulation of cosmic rays. The basic cosmic-ray transport equation is reformulated with a set of stochastic differential equations that describe the guiding center and momentum of individual charged particles randomly walking in the heliospheric magnetic field. The Fokker-Planck diffusion equation for the cosmic-ray isotropic distribution function can be derived from these stochastic differential equations of basic cosmic-ray transport. General exact solutions to the initial-boundary value problems of the Fokker-Planck diffusion equation are obtained in terms of time-backward Markov stochastic processes. It is demonstrated with a few examples that modulated cosmic-ray spectra can be calculated with Monte-Carlo simulation of stochastic processes, and the results from the stochastic process simulation are completely consistent with those from calculations that numerically solve the Fokker-Planck diffusion equation. In addition to the capability of modulation spectrum calculation, the stochastic process simulation reveals new information about the behavior of individual particles during their transit through the heliospheric magnetic field, which includes the trajectory of particles, momentum-loss history, source particle distribution as functions of location and momentum, and distribution of transport time or path length, all of which are normally not available by just solving the Fokker-Planck diffusion equation. This method will allow us to tackle very complicated time-dependent cosmic-ray modulation problems that are impossible by numerically solving the Fokker-Planck diffusion equation. Diffusive particle acceleration and interstellar propagation of Galactic cosmic rays may also be studied with this stochastic process method.
Truncation of scales by time relaxation

Abstract We study a time relaxation regularization of flow problems proposed and tested extensively by Stolz and Adams. The aim of the relaxation term is to drive the unresolved fluctuations in a computational simulation to zero exponentially fast by an appropriate and often problem dependent choice of its coefficient; this relaxation term is thus intermediate between a tunable numerical stabilization and a continuum modeling term. Our aim herein is to understand how this term, by itself, acts to truncate solution scales and to use this understanding to give insight into parameter selection.
A dissimilarity function for clustering geospatial polygons

The traditional point-based clustering algorithms when applied to geospatial polygons may produce clusters that are spatially disjoint due to their inability to consider various types of spatial relationships between polygons. In this paper, we propose to represent geospatial polygons as sets of spatial and non-spatial attributes. By representing a polygon as a set of spatial and non-spatial attributes we are able to take into account all the properties of a polygon (such as structural, topological and directional) that were ignored while using point-based representation of polygons, and that aid in the formation of high quality clusters. Based on this framework we propose a dissimilarity function that can be plugged into common state-of-the-art spatial clustering algorithms. The result is clusters of polygons that are more compact in terms of cluster validity and spatial contiguity. We show the effectiveness and robustness of our approach by applying our dissimilarity function on the traditional k-means clustering algorithm and testing it on a watershed dataset.
First energetic neutral atom images from Polar

Energetic neutral atoms are created when energetic magnetospheric ions undergo charge exchange with cold neutral atoms in the Earth's tenuous extended atmosphere (the geocorona). Since they are unaffected by the Earth's magnetic field, these energetic neutrals travel away in straight line trajectories from the points of charge exchange. The remote detection of these particles provides a powerful means through which the global distribution and properties of the geocorona and ring current can be inferred. Due to its 2 × 9 RE polar orbit, the Polar spacecraft provides an excellent platform from which to observe ENAs because it spends much of its time in the polar caps which are usually free from the contaminating energetic charged particles that make observations of ENAs more difficult. In this brief report, we present the first ENA imaging results from Polar. Storm-time ENA images are presented for a northern polar cap apogee pass on August 29, 1996 and for a southern polar cap perigee pass on October 23, 1996. As well, we show with a third event (July 31, 1996) that ENA emissions can also be detected in association with individual substorms.
A finite algorithm for concave minimization over a polyhedron

We present a new algorithm for solving the problem of minimizing a nonseparable concave function over a polyhedron. The algorithm is of the branch-and-bound type. It finds a globally optimal extreme point solution for this problem in a finite number of steps. One of the major advantages of the algorithm is that the linear programming subproblems solved during the branch-and-bound search each have the same feasible region. We discuss this and other advantages and disadvantages of the algorithm. We also discuss some preliminary computational experience we have had with our computer code for implementing the algorithm. This computational experience involved solving several bilinear programming problems with the code.
Displacement Errors in the Application of Portable X-Ray Diffraction Stress Measurement Instrumentation

The role of residual stresses in the premature failure of metallic components has long been recognized. However, the most prevalent methods of measuring these stresses are at least partly, if not completely, destructive. This, as well as the availability of more rapid and portable x-ray diffraction instrumentation, has led to a renewed interest in this nondestructive residual stress measurement methodology.
Exploring the characteristics of Internet security breaches that impact the market value of breached firms

The impact of Internet security breaches on firms has been a concern to both researchers and practitioners. One measure of the damage to the breached firm is the observed cumulative abnormal stock market return (CAR) when there is announcement of the attack in the public media. To develop effective Internet security investment strategies for preventing such damage, firms need to understand the factors that lead to the occurrence of CAR. While previous research have involved the use of regression analysis to explore the relationship between firm and attack characteristics and the occurrence of CAR, in this paper we use decision tree (DT) induction to explore this relationship. The results of our DT-based analysis indicate that both attack and firm characteristics determine CAR. While each of our results is consistent with that of at least one previous study, no previous single study has provided evidence that both firm and attack characteristics are determinants of CAR. Further, the DT-based analysis provides an interpretable model in the form of understandable and actionable rules that may be used by decision makers. The DT-based approach thus provides additional insights beyond what may be provided by the regression approach that has been employed in previous research. The paper makes methodological, theoretical and practical contribution to understanding the predictors of damage when a firm is breached.
The effect of piroxicam on locomotor activity in rats with adjuvant-induced arthritis

To evaluate the effectiveness of piroxicam, a clinically effective, long-acting, nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug, in a potential animal model of chronic nociception, the locomotor activity of arthritic rats was monitored over long periods of time by computer. Rats injected with complete Freund's adjuvant (CFA) displayed locomotor deficits as measured by both horizontal and vertical activity. In experiment 1, to test the effectiveness of piroxicam therapy in severely arthritic animals, administration of piroxicam (1--10 mg/kg/day) was initiated 14 days after CFA injection and activity was recorded for 5 days. It was found that a single treatment significantly increased the mobility of the arthritic animals and the 4 additional days of treatment induced continued improvement in mobility and reduction in paw swelling. In experiment 2, to assess the effect of piroxicam on the development of the immobility associated with CFA-induced arthritis, piroxicam administration (0.3--3.3 mg/kg/day) was initiated prior to CFA injection and locomotor activity was monitored for 16 days. It was demonstrated that the activity of CFA-injected rats severely and progressively decreased and that piroxicam significantly increased the activity of the arthritic rats, while having no effect on the activity of the nonarthritic control animals. These studies demonstrate the efficacy of piroxicam in arthritic rats and, although further investigation is necessary, demonstrate that the measurement of locomotor activity in arthritic rodents may be an important tool for the identification and evaluation of antiinflammatory/analgetic agents.
Convergence of Faddeev partial-wave series for triton ground state

An iterative technique was used to solve the Faddeev equations, which determine the bound state of the triton, for the Reid soft core, Argonne v/sub 14/, super soft core (C), and de Tourreil-Rouben-Sprung (B) potential models. Separate solutions for each model were generated for 5, 9, 18, 26, and 34 three-body channels, the latter corresponding to all two-nucleon partial waves with J 4 partial waves probably contribute less than 10 keV. Coulomb energies, radii, and probability percentages of various wave function components were also calculated.
Security across the curriculum and beyond

Society's dependency on information technology has drastically outpaced educational curricula and the opportunities that universities and higher education institutes provide to students from both technical (e.g., computer engineering, computer science) and non-technical majors. To increase the opportunities for all students to learn how protect themselves as individuals and others as professionals from numerous cyber threats the focus of this work is to identify gaps in engineering curricula and present novel approaches to fulfill the growing and diverse needs of cyber security education. The overall objective of this paper is to make security education accessible, relevant, and tangible across educational curricula, as well as to provide the framework to extend these efforts beyond university classrooms and into community colleges and high schools. While the predominant focus, research, and innovative practices in the area of cyber security have focused on technical students at the university level, this work instead concentrates on the demographic of students that desire to learn about cyber security without having to major in computer engineering, for example. In this paper we present a three-tiered framework that provides breadth and depth to security education across multiple education levels. This all-encompassing framework for security education includes providing (1) formal literacy-based training for students of all backgrounds, (2) inquiry-based learning through security- and technically-focused student groups and activities, and (3) classical technical·based initiatives. For each of these respective areas, previous research and efforts are discussed as well as the innovative practices that we have developed to address identified educational gaps.
Influence of crystallography upon critical nucleus shapes and kinetics of homogeneous f.c.c.-f.c.c. nucleation—V. The origin of GP zones in AlAg and AlCu alloys

Abstract GP zone formation in aluminum-base alloys has been proposed, by previous investigators, to take place by spinodal decomposition or by homogeneous nucleation and growth. The possibilities of these two mechanisms are examined here for two alloy systems, Al Ag and Al Cu, representing two extreme cases, a narrow and a (potentially) very wide miscibility gap, respectively, resulting in low and high interphase boundary energies. The coherent spinodal and the temperature-composition curve corresponding to abundant homogeneous f.c.c.-f.c.c. nucleation were calculated for both systems. In Al Ag alloys, the nucleation barrier is so low that negligible undercooling is needed to achieve abundant nucleation. Hence cooling into the spinodal region with ordinary quenching rates is virtually impossible. In Al Cu, however, the inverse situation is present and GP zone formation by (or aided by) spinodal decomposition should be feasible if the diffusivity remains sufficiently high in the spinodal region. Detailed evaluation of the latter proposal is prevented, however, by the incompleteness of thermodynamic information on f.c.c. Al Cu alloys.
Election Timing and Public Policy

There are nearly half a million elected officials in American local governments, and the timing of local elections varies enormously even within the same state. Some local elections are held simultaneously with major federal and state races, while others are held at times when no higher level elections coincide. We analyze the effect of election timing by exploiting a 1980s change in the California Election Code, which allowed school districts to change their elections from off-cycle to on-cycle. Because we are able to observe very large within-district changes in voter turnout resulting from changes in election timing, we are able to isolate the effect of turnout on policy outcomes, including teacher salaries and student achievement tests. Our analysis demonstrates that while election timing produces dramatic changes in voter turnout, resulting changes in public policy are modest in size and not robust statistically.
Reducing the Visibility of the Vector/DNA Nanocomplexes to the Immune System by Elastin-Like Peptides

Purpose One of the major hurdles facing nanomedicines is the antibody production against nanoparticles that subsequently results in their opsonization and clearance by macrophages. The objective of this research was to examine and identify the sequence of a low-immunogenic peptide based on recombinant elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) that does not evoke IgG response and can potentially be used for masking the surfaces of the nanoparticles.
EMG-based Control for a C5/C6 Spinal Cord Injury Upper Extremity Neuroprosthesis

The goal of this project is to enhance the benefits of functional electrical stimulation (FES) for individuals with cervical mid-level spinal cord injury (C5-C6 SCI) by providing upper arm function that complements the hand function provided by current FES systems. As a result of stimulation to selected shoulder and elbow muscles, individuals are able to increase their range of motion, their reaching ability, and improve their overall shoulder stability. An approach that provides a natural way of controlling arm stimulation is proposed. The controller extracts information from recorded EMG activity of muscles under retained voluntary control and processes these signals to generate the appropriate stimulation levels for the stimulated paralyzed muscles. One subject with complete C5 paralysis has been implemented with this advanced neuroprosthesis which includes four implanted EMG electrodes and 24 channels of stimulation. Eight of these channels were used for hand grasp and six were used for trunk stimulation to provide posture control, trunk stability and weight relief. The shoulder and elbow implanted stimulation channels include the suprascapular, thoracodorsal and radial nerves (via nerve-cuff electrodes) and the pectoralis major, rhomboids and pronator quadratus muscles (via muscle-based electrodes). The thoracic portion of the pectoralis major was transferred to the scapula to restore the actions of the denervated serratus anterior muscle, essential for reaching tasks and shoulder stability. The four EMG channels implanted include the trapezius, biceps, deltoids and extensor carpi radialis longus. Currently, the EMG control strategy is being refined and tested with the subject including evaluation of the functional benefits of the intervention.
Role of astrocytes and altered regulation of spinal glutamatergic neurotransmission in stress-induced visceral hyperalgesia in rats

Glutamate (Glu) is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system and plays a critical role in the neuroplasticity of nociceptive networks. We aimed to examine the role of spinal astroglia in the modulation of glutamatergic neurotransmission in a model of chronic psychological stress-induced visceral hyperalgesia in male Wistar rats. We assessed the effect of chronic stress on different glial Glu control mechanisms in the spinal cord including N-methyl-d-aspartate receptors (NMDARs), glial Glu transporters (GLT1 and GLAST), the Glu conversion enzyme glutamine synthetase (GS), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP). We also tested the effect of pharmacological inhibition of NMDAR activation, of extracellular Glu reuptake, and of astrocyte function on visceral nociceptive response in naive and stressed rats. We observed stress-induced decreased expression of spinal GLT1, GFAP, and GS, whereas GLAST expression was upregulated. Although visceral hyperalgesia was blocked by pharmacological inhibition of spinal NMDARs, we observed no stress effects on NMDAR subunit expression or phosphorylation. The glial modulating agent propentofylline blocked stress-induced visceral hyperalgesia, and blockade of GLT1 function in control rats resulted in enhanced visceral nociceptive response. These findings provide evidence for stress-induced modulation of glia-controlled spinal Glu-ergic neurotransmission and its involvement in chronic stress-induced visceral hyperalgesia. The findings reported in this study demonstrate a unique pattern of stress-induced changes in spinal Glu signaling and metabolism associated with enhanced responses to visceral distension.
Rhesus enteric calicivirus surrogate model for human norovirus gastroenteritis

Human noroviruses are one of the major causes of acute gastroenteritis worldwide. Due to the lack of an efficient human norovirus cell culture system coupled with an animal model, human norovirus research mainly relies on human volunteer studies and surrogate models. Current models either utilize human norovirus-infected animals including the gnotobiotic pig or calf and the chimpanzee models, or employ other members of the family Caliciviridae including cell culture propagable surrogate caliciviruses such as the feline calicivirus, murine norovirus and most recently the Tulane virus. One of the major features of human noroviruses is their extreme biological diversity, including genetic, antigenic and histo-blood group antigen binding diversity, and possible differences of virulence and environmental stability. This extreme biological diversity and its effect on intervention/prevention strategies cannot be modelled by uniform groups of surrogates, much less by single isolates. Tulane virus, the prototype recovirus strain, was discovered in 2008. Since then, several other novel recoviruses have been described and cell culture adapted. Recent studies indicate that the epidemiology, the biological features and diversity of recoviruses and the course of infection and clinical disease in recovirus-infected macaques more closely reflect those properties of human noroviruses than any of the current surrogates. This review aims to summarize what is currently known about recoviruses, highlight their biological similarities to human noroviruses and discuss applications of the model in addressing questions relevant for human norovirus research.
Teaching operating systems using virtual appliances and distributed version control

Students learn more through hands-on project experience for computer science courses such as operating systems, but providing the infrastructure support for a large class to learn by doing can be hard. To address this issue, we introduce a new approach to managing and grading operating system homework assignments based on virtual appliances, a distributed version control system, and live demonstrations. Our solution is easy to deploy and use with students' personal computers, and obviates the need to provide a computer laboratory for teaching purposes. It supports the most demanding course projects, such as those that involve operating system kernel development, and can be used by both on-campus and remote distance learning students even with intermittent network connectivity. Our experiences deploying and using this solution to teach operating systems at Columbia University show that it is easier to use, more flexible, and more pedagogically effective than other approaches.
Insights into novel cellular injury mechanisms by gene expression profiling in nephropathic cystinosis

Nephropathic cystinosis is a rare, inherited metabolic disease caused by functional defects of cystinosin associated with mutations in the CTNS gene. The mechanisms underlying the phenotypic alterations associated with this disease are not well known. In this study, gene expression profiles in peripheral blood of nephropathic cystinosis patients (N = 7) were compared with controls (N = 7) using microarray technology. In unsupervised hierarchical clustering analysis, cystinosis samples co-clustered, and 1,604 genes were significantly differentially expressed between both groups. Gene ontology analysis revealed that differentially expressed genes in cystinosis were enriched in cell organelles such as mitochondria, lysosomes, and endoplasmic reticulum (p ≤ 0.030). The majority of the differentially regulated genes were involved in oxidative phosphorylation, apoptosis, mitochondrial dysfunction, endoplasmic reticulum stress, antigen processing and presentation, B-cell-receptor signaling, and oxidative stress (p ≤ 0.003). Validation of selected genes involved in apoptosis and oxidative phosphorylation was performed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Electron microscopy and confocal imaging of cystinotic renal proximal tubular epithelial cells further confirmed anomalies in the cellular organelles and pathways identified by microarray analysis. Further analysis of these genes and pathways may offer critical insights into the clinical spectrum of cystinosis patients and ultimately lead to novel links for targeted therapy.
Mouse MRI: concepts and applications in physiology

The purpose of this review is to provide an introduction to the rapidly expanding field of mouse magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). It is by no means meant to be all-inclusive but rather to provide a brief introduction to the basics of MRI theory, provide some insight into the basic experiments that can be performed in mice by using MRI, and bring to light some factors to consider when planning a mouse MRI experiment.
Career Decisions of Senior Athletic Training Students and Recent Graduates of Accredited Athletic Training Education Programs

Context: Athletic training students and graduates are faced with many factors that direct them into or away from the athletic training profession as a final career choice.Objective: The purpose of the study was to determine the career decisions made by athletic training students following graduation from an accredited professional athletic training edcuation program (ATEP) and what work-related and ATEP program factors influenced their career decisions. Design: A 42-question self-reporting web-based survey was used.Setting: CAATE/CAAHEP-accredited ATEP programs. Participants: Seventeen hundred and ninety-two seniors and recent graduates of CAATE/CAAHEP-accredited programs from May 2005 through June 2007. Outcome Measures: Descriptive statistics were utilized to obtain frequency counts of the participants’ responses. Results: The majority of the participants (82.4%) chose to pursue a career as an athletic trainer (AT), while the remainder (17.6%), indicated they did not seek employment as an AT. The college/university setting was the most frequently selected by those employed (45.6%) and those seeking employment (35.6%) as an AT. All 8 ATEP factors (clinical experience hours, clinical experience variety, roles/functions of a clinical instructor [CI] or approved clinical instructor [ACI], preparation to enter the field, level of confidence, CI or ACI attitude toward work setting, CI or ACI demonstration of professionalism, and encouragement from faculty, CI or ACI) were found to be influential in the participants’ decisions to pursue a career as an AT. Salary, number of work hours per week, found another profession more interesting, and uncertain or changing work schedule were the most influential factors reported for choosing to not pursue a career as an AT. Conclusions: The decision to pursue a career as an AT is influenced by ATEP faculty, ACIs, and CIs. Key Words: career choice, work factors, ATEP factors, professional socialization, MillennialsFull Citation:Neibert P, Huot C, Sexton P. Career decisions of senior athletic training students and recent graduates of accredited athletic training education programs. Athl Train Educ J. 2010;5(3):101-108.