cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Health and Social Conditions of the Poorest Versus Wealthiest Counties in the United States.

Objectives. To more clearly articulate, and more graphically demonstrate, the impact of poverty on various health outcomes and social conditions by comparing the poorest counties to the richest counties in the United States and to other countries in the world.Methods. We used 5-year averages for median household income to form the 3141 US counties into 50 new “states”—each representing 2% of the counties in the United States (62 or 63 counties each). We compared the poorest and wealthiest “states.”Results. We documented dramatic and statistically significant differences in life expectancy, smoking rates, obesity rates, and almost every other measure of health and well-being between the wealthiest and poorest “states” in the country. The populations of more than half the countries in the world have a longer life expectancy than do US persons living in the poorest “state.”Conclusions. This analysis graphically demonstrates the true impact of the extreme socioeconomic disparities that exist in the United Sta...
Pathophysiology of Vision

The visual system is tasked with the function of processing visual impulses and recognizing visual images that incorporate associated memories. This system also mediates associated visual reflexes. To attain proper visual images, several neuronal stations at various areas of the central nervous system are utilized. Non-neuronal structures, such as the cornea, iris, anterior and posterior chambers of the eye, and the vitreous body, are also involved in directing visual images to the retina. Images that project to the retina are further transmitted through the optic nerve and optic tract and then through specific thalamic neurons to the visual cortex.
Update on Listeria monocytogenes: reducing cross-contamination in food retail operations

Abstract: Listeria monocytogenes is a leading cause of severe foodborne illness in the developed world. This chapter reviews cross-contaminatiocpn with L. monocytogenes at retail points, drawing upon what has been learned during two decades of research in food processing settings where appropriate. In particular, insights derived from a quantitative microbial risk assessment of L. monocytogenes in US retail delicatessens are reviewed, and the efficacy of selected mitigation options predicted by this risk assessment is highlighted. In addition, relevant guidance documents are summarized, and data gaps and areas for future research are identified.
Induction of abortion in mares with equimate: effect on secretion of progesterone, PMSG and reproductive performance

Thirty-two light-horse mares were confirmed to be pregnant and assigned to one of four treatments: (1) injected with 250 micrograms of Equimate on day 70 and again on day 77 if abortion had not occurred; (2) injected with 250 micrograms of Equimate on day 70 and every 24 hr until abortion occurred (maximum four injections); (3) injected with 250 micrograms of Equimate on day 70 and every 12 hr until abortion (maximum eight injections); and (4) injected with 250 micrograms of Equimate once only on day 35 of gestation. Mares were observed four times daily for incidence of abortion or side effects. Estrual behavior was monitored daily and follicular activity either daily or every third or fourth day until estrus and ovulation. Samples of jugular blood were obtained at 0600 hr day -1 and every 6 hr until the first day of estrus after abortion, or for 2 weeks after abortion if estrus had not occurred, or for 1 week after treatment for mares that had not aborted. A single injection of Equimate terminated pregnancy in all but one mare injected on day 35, but none of the mares given an injection on day 70 and 77 aborted. Multiple injections of Equimate beginning on day 70 of gestation terminated pregnancy in all mares. Fewer (P less than .05) injections were required for abortion of mares injected daily. During the immediate week post-treatment, concentrations of progesterone decreased (P less than .05) in all mares injected with Equimate, but overall concentrations were greater (P less than .05) for mares injected once on day 70 than for those in the other three groups. Equimate did not affect secretion of PMSG in the day 70 group of mares. Estrus and ovulation after abortion were delayed (P less than 0.05) for mares injected daily or twice daily beginning on day 70 compared to those injected once on day 35. Thus, rebreeding of these mares during the same breeding season in which they were aborted would be difficult.
Leaving Office: The U.S. Senator’s Representation, Ideological Adoption, and Strategic Retirement

This study focuses on the incumbent senator’s ideological congruence causing strategic retirement in the United States. The extent of ideological congruence between a senator and her constituency can be interpreted as the degree of electoral vulnerability. Senators out of steps with constituents are more likely than those toeing the line with constituents’ preferences to choose voluntary retirement over being risk losing the general election. This study finds that senators with legislative records of relatively ideological incongruence to her state ideology will be more likely to decide to retire strategically.
Liver Transplantation Hemorrhage: Taking Bleeding to Another Level

Liver transplantation creates the perfect storm for the development of massive, uncontrolled hemorrhage. The pathophysiology of liver disease, including portal hypertension, leads to high-pressure collaterals that course through all of the abdominal tissue planes. In addition, liver disease also results in severe coagulopathy from the lack of clotting synthesis and platelet sequestration in the spleen. The location of liver makes things worse, as it is located in the “surgical soul” of the abdomen where all of the major blood vessels convene. Over the last several decades, improvements in the technical skill set needed for liver transplantation, as well as anesthesiology techniques and understanding of coagulation, have all led to liver transplantation being a successful operation and the only cure for end-stage liver disease and hepatocellular carcinoma in patients with cirrhosis. The chapter will discuss the treatment of hemorrhage in patients undergoing liver transplantation.
Fiscal Sustainability: A Cross-Country Analysis

In this article, the author proposed a framework of fiscal limits to quantify the maximum level of debt a government can sustain given its economic and policy environment. {{p}} The author found that countries with relatively low government expenditures, such as Japan and the United States, have significantly higher fiscal limits than countries with relatively high government expenditures; and that emerging market economies may have lower fiscal limits than advanced economies.
Reconciling S-LDSC and LDAK models and functional enrichment estimates

Recent work has highlighted the importance of accounting for linkage disequilibrium (LD)-dependent genetic architectures in analyses of heritability, motivating the development of the baseline-LD model used by stratified LD score regression (S-LDSC) and the LDAK model. Although both models include LD-dependent effects, they produce very different estimates of functional enrichment (with larger estimates using the baseline-LD model), leading to different interpretations of the functional architecture of complex traits. Here, we perform formal model comparisons and empirical analyses to reconcile these findings. First, by performing model comparisons using a likelihood approach, we determined that the baseline-LD model attains likelihoods across 16 UK Biobank traits that are substantially higher than the LDAK model. Second, we determined that S-LDSC using a combined model (unlike methods that use the LDAK or baseline-LD models) produces robust enrichment estimates in simulations under both the LDAK and baseline-LD models, validating the combined model as a gold standard. Third, in analyses of 16 UK Biobank traits, we determined that enrichment estimates obtained by S-LDSC using the combined model were nearly identical to those obtained by S-LDSC using the baseline-LD model (concordance correlation coefficient ρ c = 0.99), but were larger than those obtained using LDAK (ρ c = 0.54). Notably, LDAK enrichment estimates were much higher for a non-default version of LDAK that models SNPs in perfect LD differently by assigning non-zero weights to all SNPs. Our results support the use of the baseline-LD model and confirm the existence of functional annotations that are highly enriched for complex trait heritability.
Integration of Forms and de Rham Cohomology

In Chapter 6, we studied the first de Rham cohomology H 1 (M) of a manifold This measures the difference between exactness and local exactness of 1-forms on M and was shown to have interesting topological applications. Here we generalize these ideas, using the full Grassmann algebra A* (M) to produce a graded algebra H* (M), the de Rham cohomology algebra. The proper generalization of “locally exact 1-form” is “closed p-form”, defined as a p-form that is annihilated by “exterior differentiation”. Exact forms are closed and H P (M) measures the extent to which closed p-forms may fail to be exact. By Stokes’ theorem, the geometric boundary operator and exterior differentiation of forms are mutually adjoint operations in a certain precise sense. This is a generalization of the fundamental theorem of calculus and a powerful tool for computing cohomology. The reader who would like to pursue this theory further could hardly do better than to consult [5].
Classification and Control of Cognitive Radios Using Hierarchical Neural Network

This paper proposes a method to protect the communication band through machine learning in cognitive networks. A machine learning cognitive radio (MLCR) extracts features from the signal waveforms received from various radios. A machine learning radio user (MLRU) assigns the states, i.e., unauthorized/authorized, and the associated actions, i.e., interfering/no interfering, to each waveform. The MLCR learns through a proposed hierarchical neural network to classify the signal states based on their features. The {signal, action} pairs are stored in the knowledge base and can be retrieved by MLCR automatically based on its prediction of the signal state related to the presented signal waveform. A case study of protecting the band of a legacy radio using our proposed method is provided to validate the effectiveness of this work.
The World of Nuclei

The nuclear story began with the discovery of the phenomenon of radioactivity, although nobody saw radioactivity as part of “nuclear” physics those days. It continued to unfold with the coming of the 20th century with the discovery of the nucleus by Ernest Rutherford. It stayed dormant for a while during a glorious period of physics that saw the rise of quantum mechanics and the explanation of the structure of atoms. It was revived in the 1930s and enjoyed a spectacular period of startling, epoch-making experimental discoveries followed by very successful application of quantum physics toward the explanation of nuclear structure. Toward the end of World War II, a controversy was stirred by the development of the atomic bomb. The controversy has continued although, at least in part, nuclear technology has shifted to peaceful uses, namely, generation of power in an energy-hungry world. But peaceful uses may have their own perils, and thus the debate continues.
Effect of hypoxia on SUV in patients with NSCLC – Retrospective comparison between hypoxic and normoxic patients

1719 Objectives FDG uptake in tumor is based on enhanced glycolysis and is associated with tumor hypoxia. We aimed to retrospectively answer the question whether SUV of the lung primary would be further increased in patients (pts.) with hypoxia compared to those with normoxia. Methods N =60 pts. with NSCLC underwent whole-body FDG PET/CT which was done within 3 months before or after their blood gas analysis (BGA). 18 pts. were hypoxic (PaO2 65 mmHg). The size of the lung primary was grouped in A (size 0.5-3.0 cm) and B (size > 3.0 cm); the mean and SD of group A and B was approximately matched between hypoxic and normoxic pts. from previous larger data bases, to allow for appropriate size comparison. The largest diameter and maximum SUV of the primary lesion were measured and compared using independent t-tests. Results PaO2 were 60 ± 3 for hypoxic pts. and 78 ± 5 for normoxic pts., p Conclusions Hypoxia can result in incremental SUV increase in pts. with NSCLC as compared to those with normoxia; this affect is evident in primary lesions of 0.5- 3.0 cm, likely due to their relatively small sizes that contain substantial viable tumor cells. However, there may be no further SUV increase in lesions > 3.0 cm, probably due to drastic tumor necrosis both in hypoxic and normoxic pts.
Analysis of Photosystem II Proteins by Two-Dimensional Electrophoresis

Photosystem II preparations with high rates of 02 evolving activity were first purified by solubilization with Triton X-100 of stacked (1) or unstacked (2) thylakoids. These PSII preparations contain an abundance of light harvesting complex (LHC) proteins as well as the PSII reaction center (RC) and the oxygen evolving complex (OEC). Solubilization of PSII preparations with 1-O-n-octyl-s-D-glucopyranoside has been found to purify the PSII RC and OEC further from the LHC proteins (3–5).
Trends in computer navigation and robotic assistance for total knee arthroplasty in the United States: an analysis of patient and hospital factors

Abstract Background Computer navigation and robotic assistance technologies are used to improve the accuracy of component positioning in total knee arthroplasty (TKA), with the goal of improving function and optimizing implant longevity. The purpose of this study was to analyze trends in the use of technology-assisted TKA, identify factors associated with the use of these technologies, and describe potential drivers of cost. Methods The Nationwide Inpatient Sample database was used to identify patients who underwent TKA using conventional instrumentation, computer navigation, and robot-assisted techniques between 2005 and 2014. Variables analyzed include patient demographics, hospital and payer types, and hospital charges. Descriptive statistics were used to describe trends. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to identify differences between conventional and technology-assisted groups. Results Our analysis identified 6,060,901 patients who underwent TKA from 2005 to 2014, of which 273,922 (4.5%) used computer navigation and 24,084 (0.4%) used robotic assistance. The proportion of technology-assisted TKAs steadily increased over the study period, from 1.2% in 2005 to 7.0% in 2014. Computer navigation increased in use from 1.2% in 2005 to 6.3% in 2014. Computer navigation was more likely to be used in the Western United States, whereas robot-assisted TKAs were more likely to be performed in the Northeast. Increased hospital charges were associated with the use of technology assistance ($53,740.1 vs $47,639.2). Conclusions The use of computer navigation and robot-assisted TKA steadily increased over the study period, accounting for 7.0% of TKAs performed in the United States in 2014. Marked regional differences in the use of these technologies were identified. The use of these technologies was associated with increased hospital charges.
Association Between Bone Marrow Lesions, Chondral Lesions, and Pain in Patients Without Radiographic Evidence of Degenerative Joint Disease Who Underwent Arthroscopic Partial Meniscectomy.

Background:Bone marrow lesions (BMLs) have been found on magnetic resonance imaging in patients with meniscal tears.Purpose:We sought to determine the prevalence and location of BMLs, the associati...
Impaired frontostriatal functional connectivity among chronic opioid using pain patients is associated with dysregulated affect

Preclinical studies have shown effects of chronic exposure to addictive drugs on glutamatergic-mediated neuroplasticity in frontostriatal circuitry. These initial findings have been paralleled by human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research demonstrating weaker frontostriatal resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) among individuals with psychostimulant use disorders. However, there is a dearth of human imaging literature describing associations between long-term prescription opioid use, frontostriatal rsFC, and brain morphology among chronic pain patients. We hypothesized that prescription opioid users with chronic pain, as compared with healthy control subjects, would evidence weaker frontostriatal rsFC coupled with less frontostriatal gray matter volume (GMV). Further, those opioid use-related deficits in frontostriatal circuitry would be associated with negative affect and drug misuse. Prescription opioid users with chronic pain (n = 31) and drug-free healthy controls (n = 30) underwent a high-resolution anatomical and an eyes-closed resting-state functional scan. The opioid group, relative to controls, exhibited weaker frontostriatal rsFC, and less frontostriatal GMV in both L.NAc and L.vmPFC. Frontostriatal rsFC partially mediated group differences in negative affect. Within opioid users, L.NAc GMV predicted opioid misuse severity. The current study revealed that prescription opioid use in the context of chronic pain is associated with functional and structural abnormalities in frontostriatal circuitry. These results suggest that opioid use-related abnormalities in frontostriatal circuitry may undergird disturbances in affect that may contribute to the ongoing maintenance of opioid use and misuse. These findings warrant further examination of interventions to treat opioid pathophysiology in frontostriatal circuitry over the course of treatment.
Just a bit of cushion: The role of a simple savings device in meeting planned and unplanned expenses in rural Niger

Abstract The welfare impacts of expanding access to new financial services depend upon whether such services better meet households’ financial needs in terms of savings, investment and insurance. We report the results of a randomized control trial in Niger, whereby households were provided with access to a simple savings device – an individual lockbox – or SMS reminders. Overall, take-up and usage of the lockbox was high. Overall savings in the lockbox treatments was higher at endline, although this is not statistically significant at conventional levels. The lockboxes did not affect households’ ceremonial or overall health expenditures, but did partially help households to cope with the negative impacts of a health shock. Overall, there were no additional effects of the SMS reminders. Taken together, these results provide further evidence that simple savings devices can meet an unmet demand for a secure place to save.
Rheological and Tribological Behavior of Gels and Emulsions Containing Polymer and Phospholipid

Oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions are widely used in food, pharmaceutical, and personal care applications. These types of systems often contain hydrophobically modified polymers and phospholipids, where...
Scaling trends of bird's alular feathers in connection to leading-edge vortex flow over hand-wing.

An aerodynamic structure ubiquitous in Aves is the alula; a small collection of feathers muscularized near the wrist joint. New research into the aerodynamics of this structure suggests that its primary function is to induce leading-edge vortex (LEV) flow over bird’s outer hand-wing to enhance wing lift when manuevering at slow speeds. Here, we explore scaling trends of the alula’s spanwise position and its connection to this function. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that the relative distance of the alula from the wing tip is that which maximizes LEV-lift when the wing is spread and operated in a deep-stall flight condition. To test this, we perform experiments on model wings in a wind tunnel to approximate this distance and compare our results to positional measurements of the alula on spread-wing specimens. We found the position of the alula on non-aquatic birds selected for alula optimization to be located at or near the lift-maximizing position predicted by wind tunnel experiments. These findings shed new light on avian wing anatomy and the role of unconventional aerodynamics in shaping it.
Endoscopic therapy of children with high-risk gastrointestinal foreign bodies and complications

Gastrointestinal foreign body is a common emergency in children, especially the esophageal foreign bodies or the sharp, corrosive, magnetic bodies, which highly induce the complications and urgently need treatment with endoscope.Moreover, the complications, including gastrointestinal bleeding, perforation, fistula and luminal stenosis, can be treated by using endoscope.Therefore, the characteristics and the therapy of high-risk gastrointestinal foreign bodies are illustrated. Key words: High-risk gastrointestinal foreign bodies; Complications; Edosopic therapy; Child
More on HOD-supercompactness

Abstract We explore Woodin's Universality Theorem and consider to what extent large cardinal properties are transferred into HOD (and other inner models). We also separate the concepts of supercompactness, supercompactness in HOD and being HOD -supercompact. For example, we produce a model where a proper class of supercompact cardinals are not HOD -supercompact but are supercompact in HOD . Additionally we introduce a way to measure the degree of HOD -supercompactness of a supercompact cardinal, and we develop methods to control these degrees simultaneously for a proper class of supercompact cardinals. Finally, we also produce a model in which the unique supercompact cardinal is also the only strongly compact cardinal, no cardinal is supercompact up to an inaccessible cardinal, level by level inequivalence holds and the unique supercompact cardinal is not HOD -supercompact.
Abstract PO-012: Metastatic bottleneck in osteosarcoma selects for certain clonal populations, while metastatic lesions exhibit diverse phenotypes

This study focuses on identifying if the metastatic niche in osteosarcoma (OS) enriches for cells that have a survival advantage either from pre-defined genetic programs or adaptive responses to environmental cues. OS patients who develop metastases experience a dismal survival rate that is lower than twenty percent, a statistic that remains unchanged despite four decades of efforts to improve these outcomes. While therapies that treat metastasis could dramatically improve outcomes, we understand too little about the mechanisms of lung colonization to propose any rational intervention. To simultaneously evaluate changes in clonal diversity and phenotype during the metastatic bottleneck, cell by cell, we combined prospective lineage tracing with single cell transcriptomics in several murine models of metastatic OS. Single cell suspensions of metastatic tumor tissues were processed for single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-Seq). For lineage tracing studies, OS cells were virally-transduced to contain a high diversity, heritable and scRNA-Seq compatible lineage tag before inoculating mice. Single-cell libraries were processed bioinformatically to overlay phenotype and lineage information for each cell. Our findings support the following conclusions: First, that the metastatic bottleneck selects for certain clones with increased colonizing capacity, but this selection does not narrow the overall phenotypic diversity of those cells–clones of many different phenotypes can be found within the metastases. Second, the metastatic lung enriches for certain features that are conserved across different cell line and PDX models of metastatic OS. Gene set enrichment analysis of genes enriched within the surviving clones identified novel activated signaling pathways and upstream regulators that appear critical for metastatic progression. This signature includes activated IL6, TGF-β, PDGF signaling, response to a previously unidentified upstream regulator, IL-1β, and the acquisition of enhanced glycolytic activity. Whether each lesion becomes colonized by a phenotypically-distinct clone giving rise to phenotypically-diverse lesions or whether cooperation between phenotypically-distinct clones is required to effect colonization remains a point of active study. In summary, metastatic colonization of the lung by OS involves the selection of phenotypically-diverse tumor cell clones that share characteristics that engender fitness within the lung microenvironment. Citation Format: Sanjana Rajan, Maren Cam, Amy Gross, James Reinecke, Cenny Taslim, Ryan Roberts. Metastatic bottleneck in osteosarcoma selects for certain clonal populations, while metastatic lesions exhibit diverse phenotypes [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Special Conference on Tumor Heterogeneity: From Single Cells to Clinical Impact; 2020 Sep 17-18. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2020;80(21 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-012.
Transforming the narrative of aging and dementia in faith communities: toward a new paradigm of inclusion

This conceptual paper will examine the role of faith communities in promoting inclusivity of persons living with dementia (PLWD) and their caregivers. It will review the context for the faith commu...
Impact of the Federal Conservation Program Participation on Conservation Practice Adoption Intensity in Louisiana, USA

Conservation practices focusing on improving the soil and water quality of working lands are implemented across the United States, supported partially through the United States Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service cost-share or incentive payment programs. We assess whether participation in federal conservation support programs induces a change in the number of conservation practices adopted by farmers. We also identify the factors that affect the adoption intensity of different best management practices. We use survey data collected from Louisiana farmers and estimate models using the matching method and Poisson quasi-likelihood model. We find that participation in the cost-share or incentive program leads to an increase in the number of conservation practices on the farms. Similarly, the use of precision technology application and farm being integrated are likely to have a higher number of on-farm conservation practices. Results have implications for federal working lands conservation support programs in the United States.
Constraining the date of a seasonally ice-free Arctic using a simple model

State-of-the-art climate models simulate a large spread in the projected decline of Arctic sea-ice area (SIA) over the 21st century. Here we diagnose causes of this intermodel spread using a model ...
Epigenetics of major depressive disorder

Abstract The etiology of major depressive disorder (MDD) is complex, with both genetic susceptibility and exposure to stressful life events being contributing factors. Stressors can change epigenetic marks, sometimes enduringly, and these changes may play an important role in the development of MDD. Because stress is so closely related to the development of MDD, we review here both the epigenetics of stress and the epigenetics of depression. Although candidate genes have been interrogated frequently in epigenetic studies, there has been little consistency in MDD association, with the one exception being BDNF, where increased methylation has been repeatedly found. There have now been 20 unbiased studies investigating DNA methylation changes across the genome in MDD, and while their top findings have differed, the possibility of convergence across these studies requires further attention. While much remains to be learned about the role of epigenetics in the pathogenesis of MDD, a summary methylation risk score in MDD patients might provide an opportunity for clinical applications of epigenetic data.
The Causal Effect of Faculty Unions on Institutional Decision-Making

The author's goal in this article is to estimate the causal effect of unionization on institutional decision- making, using a national survey of presidents and faculty senate leaders to measure the level of shared governance at 341 public universities in 15 different areas. To handle the endogeneity of faculty unionization, an index of state employee collective bargaining rights is used as an instrument for unionization. Findings indicate that unionization greatly increases faculty influence over institutional decision- making, both in compensation and in areas outside of compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Antenna Selection in Polarization Reconfigurable MIMO (PR-MIMO) Communication Systems

Adaptation of a wireless system to the polarization state of the propagation channel can improve reliability and throughput. This paper in particular considers polarization reconfigurable multiple input multiple output (PR-MIMO) systems, where both transmitter and receiver can change the (linear) polarization orientation at each element of their antenna arrays. We first introduce joint polarization pre-post coding to maximize bounds on the capacity and the maximum eigenvalue of the channel matrix. For this we first derive approximate closed form equations of optimal polarization vectors at one link end, and then use iterative joint polarization pre-post coding to pursue joint optimal polarization vectors at both link ends. Next we investigate the combination of PR-MIMO with hybrid antenna selection / maximum ratio transmission (PR-HS/MRT), which can achieve a remarkable improvement of channel capacity and symbol error rate (SER). Further, two novel schemes of element wise and global polarization reconfiguration are presented for PR-HS/MRT. Comprehensive simulation results indicate that the proposed schemes provide 3 to 5 dB SNR gain in PR-MIMO spatial multiplexing and approximately 3 dB SNR gain in PRHS/ MRT, with concomitant improvements of channel capacity and SER.
Plastic Deformation in High Pressure, High Strain Rate Shocked Materials: Dislocation Dynamics Analyses

Deformation of crystalline materials is determined to a large extent by underlying microscopic processes involving various defects such as dislocations, point defects, and clusters. The interaction among these defects and the manner in which they interact with external agencies determine material strength and durability. The chapter presents the investigations of the effects of high pressure, high strain rate, shock pulse duration, crystal anisotropy, and the dependence of elastic properties on pressure. The chapter explains multi-scale simulations to study the pressure wave propagation and interaction with dislocations in FCC single crystals. These simulations were designed to mimic the loading conditions in recent laser based experiments, where the pulse duration is few nanoseconds. The avalanche of dislocations is a natural consequence of the interaction between dislocations and stress waves, which is also illustrated. The chapter also describes that computer simulations of dislocation motion under impact loading hold a great promise for investigating deformation process of metals in regimes that cannot be probed by current experiments.
Examination of Contemporary Electromagnetic Software Capable of Modeling Problems of Microwave Heating

Despite all the progress in numerical mathematics and computational technologies, computer simulation of processes and systems of microwave power engineering remains a new and unexplored arena for most practitioners. Engineers dealing with microwave non-communication applications currently seem to lack not specific technical data but general information on modern computational opportunities. At the same time, a number of modeling tools do allow one to get valuable data about the characteristics of the considered system prior to constructing a physical prototype. The goal of the present paper is to update the database of the modern electromagnetic (EM) software suitable for the modeling of microwave heating and outline a few conceptual and practical issues associated with the efficient use of these simulators.
Enforcing Nonenforcement: Countering the Threat Posed to Sanctuary Laws by the Inclusion of Immigration Records in the National Crime Information Center Database

Across the United States, local police officers are playing an increasingly active role in the enforcement of federal immigration laws against the nation’s estimated 12 million illegal immigrants. Immigration-related detentions resulting from contact with local officers have dramatically increased in recent years. In some jurisdictions, local enforcement initiatives have resulted in the arrests of hundreds of illegal immigrants in a matter of days. The National Crime Information Center database (“NCIC”) is making
Modulation of GLUT4 and GLUT1 recycling by insulin in rat adipocytes: kinetic analysis based on the involvement of multiple intracellular compartments.

The trafficking kinetics of GLUT4 and GLUT1 in rat epididymal adipocytes were analyzed by a four-compartment model based upon steady-state pool sizes of three intracellular fractions and one plasma membrane fraction separated and assessed under both basal and insulin-stimulated states. The steady-state compartment sizes provided relative values of the kinetic coefficients characterizing the rate of each process in the loop. Absolute values of these coefficients were obtained by matching the simulated half-times to those observed experimentally and reported in the literature for both basal and insulin-stimulated states. Our analysis revealed that insulin modulates the GLUT4 trafficking at multiple steps in the rat adipocyte, not only reducing the endocytotic rate constant 3−4-fold and increasing the exocytotic rate 8−24-fold but also increasing the two rate coefficients coupling the three intracellular compartments 2−6-fold each. Furthermore, GLUT1 was completely segregated from GLUT4 in two of the three i...
Optical system performance of large-scale photonic integrated circuits

Four monolithically integrated LS-PICs, each consisting often channels operating at 11.1 Gb/s, for an aggregate rate >400 Gbit/s, have been operated over long distance transmission systems. Performance data of the PICs and system will be presented.
A chemoenzymatic synthesis of 9(11)-secosteroids using an enzyme extract of the marine gorgonian Pseudopterogorgia americana

Abstract A fortified enzyme preparation of the gorgonian Pseudopterogorgia americana has been developed which efficiently transforms a variety of sterols to their 9(11)-secosteroid derivative in high yield. NAD, NADP and glutamate dehydrogenase are key additives in this enzymatic conversion. In addition to naturally occurring metabolites, novel secosteroids have been prepared.
Reactions of arenetricarbonyl-group vib metals with halide and pseudohalide ion̈s

Abstract A variety of compounds of general formula (R 4 N) 3 [(CO) 3 MX 3 M(CO) 3 ](M = Cr, Mo, W; X = F, Cl, Br, I, OH, SCN, N 3 , OC 2 H 5 ) were prepared from AreneM(CO) 3 and tetraalkylammonium halide. A few compounds were prepared with two-member bridges with the formula (R 4 N) 2 [(CO) 3 MX 2 M(CO) 3 ]. These very rapid reactions of AreneM(CO) 3 with free halide and pseudohalide ions demonstrate the strong Lewis acid properties of AreneM(CO) 3 , and provide support for the contention that AreneM(CO) 3 serve as effective catalysts in Friedel-Crafts reactions by promoting ionic-type reactions.
ANALYSIS OF COFFEE, TEA AND ARTIFICIALLY FLAVORED DRINKS PREPARED FROM MINERALIZED WATERS

— Coffee, black tea and artificially flavored and artificially sweetened orange and grape soft drinks were prepared from solutions of 8 minerals each at 750 ppm. Additionally, coffee and tea were brewed, using 6 natural drinking waters which ranged from 42–1,725 ppm of total dissolved solids. Beverages made from solutions containing carbonates were the least desirable, having flat, insipid characteristics. Although distilled water resulted in an acceptable soft drink, coffee and tea prepared from it were excessively sour and astringent, respectively. The recommended formula of 53.3 g of coffee per liter of water was considered too strong and “burnt’ for the panel of trained judges, so that the experiments were repeated at a lower concentration of 47 g coffee/liter water. Large differences in the direction and magnitude of the visual characteristics of the coffee and tea brewed from the various waters also were observed in the marked changes in luminous transreflectance, purity and shifts in dominant wavelengths measured by thin-layer reflectometry.
NIS07-1: Efficient transmission of MP3 streams over VPNs

Multimedia applications communicating over a VPN, can leverage the security properties of a VPN with its performance drawbacks by securing only a part of its data. Selecting appropriate packets for security, however, is still an open research problem and novel methods need to be developed that can guarantee the privacy of a conversation even when a relatively large percentage of data is sent in the open. In this paper, we discuss one approach for securing MP3 audio. Here, we capitalize on the fundamental structure of data as defined in the MP3 standard and identify key fields that are necessary for decoding. We conjecture that the privacy of an MP3 stream can be guaranteed, if only these fields are secured. Since these fields are 17 to 32 bytes per MP3 frame, they constitute only 4% to 7.6% of a typical stream sampled/encoded at 44.1 Khz/128 Kbps. We prove this conjecture and demonstrate the performance gains of this approach when streaming over VPNs.
Human serum α-1-lipoprotein patterns revealed by starch gel electrophoresis

The recognition of different serum α-1-lipoproteins patterns was made possible by improved lipoprotein staining and separation methods. Three common and some less common patterns were found. The common α-1-lipoprotein patterns, here called S, M and F, were found to differ in their relative frequency in men and women, and to be associated with significantly different serum α-1-lipoprotein concentrations.
Effects of collagen and artificial surfaces on platelets that influence blood coagulation.

Abstract Human platelets were isolated by albumin density gradient technique. Isolated platelets were exposed to collagen or particles of polymeric and other materials and then assayed for the effects that this exposure might have upon the clotting time when the various mixtures were added to platelet-poor plasmas. Normal plasma and plasmas from patients deficient in factors VII, IX, or XII were tested. Normal platelets and platelets from patients deficient in factors XI or XII were used in these studies. Collagen, Silastic, and silicone shortened clotting times of platelet-poor plasmas primarily through their effect on factor XI present on the surface of test platelets. Cuprophane, glass, kaolin, polyethylene, polyvinyl chloride, and Teflon produced shortening of clotting times of platelet-poor plasma by diverse means. These means included probable activation of factor XI on the platelet surface, probable activation of plasma factor XII, activation of platelet factor 3 and activation or unmasking of a tissue factor-like activity in the platelet preparation. These findings indicate the complexity of the interaction of artificial surfaces with blood and point out that a truly blood compatible artificial surface may be nearly impossible to fabricate.
Condensation energy in the spin-fermion model for cuprates

We compute the condensation energy in the spin-fermion model using Scalapino-White relation between the condensation energy and the change in the dynamical structure factor in the normal and the superconducting states. We show that for parameters relevant to cuprates, the extra low-frequency spectral weight associated with the resonance peak in the dynamical structure factor in a superconductor is not compensated up to energies $\ensuremath{\sim}J$ which are much larger than the superconducting gap $\ensuremath{\Delta}.$ We argue that in this situation, the condensation energy is large and well accounts for the data for cuprates.
Redox-Triggered Secondary Structure Changes in the Aggregated States of a Designed Methionine-Rich Peptide

We have previously shown that methionine can be used as a “switchable” residue for the design of peptides with alternative secondary structure preferences in the aggregated state (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1993, 115, 12609). Redox-induced secondary structure changes in the 18-residue peptide Ac-YLKAMLEAMAKLMAKLMA-NH2 result from conversion of lipophilic methionine (M) to hydrophilic methionine sulfoxide (M°), which transforms a peptide capable of adopting an amphiphilic α-helical conformation into a peptide capable of adopting an amphiphilic β-strand conformation. Here we present a detailed characterization of the third oxidation state of this peptide, in which the methionine residues are oxidized to the sulfone state. The sulfone form behaves similarly to the sulfoxide form, even though the sulfone group is somewhat less hydrophilic than the sulfoxide group. These results provide support for the concept that the conformational preferences of peptides and proteins are strongly dependent upon the linear ordering o...
Trading costs around M&A announcements

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine trading costs of both acquiring firms and target firms differentiated by method of payment, mode of acquisition, and deal attitude around merger and acquisition (M&A) announcements. The author calculates four spread measures of trading costs: quoted spread, percentage quoted spread, effective spread, and percentage effective spread.Design/methodology/approach – Differences in spreads differentiated by M&A characteristics are calculated and two‐sample t‐tests applied. A linear regression model is developed to test whether changes in trading costs are related to acquiring firm's post‐merger price performance. The regression is estimated by OLS method.Findings – It is found that various methods of payment affect the spreads of target firm differently on certain days around M&A announcement. For acquiring firms, significant differences are found in spreads between cash offers and stock offers, and between stock offers and mix offers. Significant difference was...
Cytoarchitecture of spinal-projecting neurons in the brain of the larval sea lamprey.

The descending spinal projecting system of the lamprey is of interest because it includes axons that activate swimming pattern generatorsand because regeneration of this system is involved in the behavioral recovery of lampreys following spinal transection. However, little is known about the true size of this projection and of the distribution of its terminations along the spinal cord. Brain neurons with spinal projections were studied in larval sea lampreys by using wholemount preparations labeled retrogradely with horseradish peroxidase (HRP) from spinal injections at 10%, 15%, 25%, 50%, 70%, and 75% of body length from the anterior end. Neurons projecting to different levels of the spinal cord were mapped. A large number of descending axons terminated within nine segments caudal to the last gill. The spinal projection system was divided into 10 bilateral groups based on cytoarchitectural landmarks. All of the lateral nuclear groups had contralateral spinal projections. In addition to the 12 pairs of Muller cells, the pair of Mauthner cells, and the pair of auxiliary Mauthner cells described by previous authors, the study revealed four pairs of smaller neurons that were individually identifiable. © 1993 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Competing populations on fragmented landscapes with spatially structured heterogeneities: improved landscape generation and mixed dispersal strategies

Interactions between two species competing for space were studied using stochastic spatially explicit lattice-based simulations as well as pair approximations. The two species differed only in their dispersal strategies, which were characterized by the proportion of reproductive effort allocated to long-distance (far) dispersal versus short-distance (near) dispersal to adjacent sites. All population dynamics took place on landscapes with spatially clustered distributions of suitable habitat, described by two parameters specifying the amount and the local spatial autocorrelation of suitable habitat. Whereas previous results indicated that coexistence between pure near and far dispersers was very rare, taking place over only a very small region of the landscape parameter space, when mixed strategies are allowed, multiple strategies can coexist over a much wider variety of landscapes. On such spatially structured landscapes, the populations can partition the habitat according to local conditions, with one species using pure near dispersal to exploit large contiguous patches of suitable habitat, and another species using mixed dispersal to colonize isolated smaller patches (via far dispersal) and then rapidly exploit those patches (via near dispersal). An improved mean-field approximation which incorporates the spatially clustered habitat distribution is developed for modeling a single species on these landscapes, along with an improved Monte Carlo algorithm for generating spatially clustered habitat distributions.
Synthesis, Characterization, and Marked Polymerization Selectivity Characteristics of Binuclear Phenoxyiminato Organozirconium Catalysts

The new binuclear phenoxyiminato zirconium complex {1,7-(O)2C10H4-2,7-[CHN(2,6-iPr2C6H3)]2}Zr2Cl6(THF)2 (FI2-Zr2) polymerizes ethylene with greater activity (∼8×) than the mononuclear analogue. Also, this catalyst produces high molecular weight ethylene + 1-hexene copolymers, while the mononuclear analogue yields only traces of copolymer under identical conditions. This ability to produce copolymers suggests cooperativity between the two Zr centers which promotes 1-hexene co-enchainment.
Pulpal pathosis in mice infected with polyoma virus

Abstract Varying degrees of pulpal pathosis have been described in noncarious teeth of mice injected at birth with polyoma virus and sacrificed at 6 to 12 months, when parotid tumors had developed in many of the animals. In teeth with extensive carious involvement and carious exposures, the pulps were found to have undergone complete hemorrhagic necrosis in all cases.
Preparative Separation and Amino Acid Composition of Neurofilament Triplet Proteins

: Intact neurofilaments were isolated from bovine spinal cord white matter, washed by sedimentation in 0.1 m-NaCl, and extracted with 8 m-urea. Solubilized neurofilament triplet proteins of molecular weights approximately 68,000 (P68), 150,000 (P150), and 200,000 (P200) were purified by preparative electrophoresis, using an LKB 7900 Uniphor apparatus. The method provides for an enhanced yield of purified protein and has markedly reduced admixture of electrophoresed protein with acrylamide and associated protein contaminants. Amino acid compositions of the purified neurofilament triplet proteins are reported and compared.
On the failures of naturalism

This article examines philosophical naturalism—the chief rival to theism in the modern world—with contemporary apologetic concerns in view. The second section introduces the central claims of natur...
Effects of pulsatile perfusion upon left ventricular function

Abstract This study compares the effects of pulsatile and nonpulsatile perfusion upon myocardial contractility. After 2 hr of ventricular fibrillation, control animals demonstrated a 37% decrease in left ventricular force, a 48% decrease in left ventricular compliance, and an increase in endomyocardial water content. On the other hand, after 2 hr of ventricular fibrillation, animals undergoing pulsatile perfusion had no significant change in ventricular diastolic compliance and only a 14% decrease in left ventricular force. The results of this study show that the addition of pulsatile perfusion minimized the deleterious effects of ventricular fibrillation upon myocardial contractility.
R by Example: Numerical Solutions to Differential Equations (Soetaert, K., et al; 2012) [Book Review]

A review of Karline Soetaert, Jeff Cash, and Francesca Mazzia's book, "Solving Differential Equations in R".