cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Lessons from the History of Ivermectin and Other Antiparasitic Agents

The twentieth century's arsenal of chemical anthelmintics brought manifold improvement in human health and, more abundantly, in animal health. The benefits were not only in health per se but also in agricultural economics, livestock management, and the overall production of food and fiber to support expanding human populations. Nevertheless, there remains (due in large part to drug resistance and paucity of available vaccines) a great need for new means of controlling disease caused by parasitic worms. Prudence should persuade us to look to our past for lessons that might help in our quest for new drugs. The lessons suggested here derive from the history of ivermectin and other anthelmintics. They deal with the means of finding substances with useful antiparasitic activity and with alternative approaches to drug discovery.
Detecting and tracking human faces in videos

A method for detecting and tracking human faces in color videos is presented. The method first uses a chroma chart with information about skin colors of various races to determine regions of skin color in the first frame of a video. A new chroma chart is computed for each region, which more precisely represents the colour contents of that region. Chroma charts for different regions that are similar are combined, while those that are considerably different are kept separate. Model facial patterns are then used to detect faces within the skin regions. Once a face is detected, the particular pattern and color of the face are used to track the face. Regions where facial patterns are not detected are expected to correspond to exposed parts of the body or of the background and are ignored. The proposed method can track faces with a high degree of accuracy once they are identified.
Endorectal magnetic resonance imaging has limited clinical ability to preoperatively predict pT3 prostate cancer.

Study Type – Diagnostic (non-consecutive case series) Level of Evidence 3b What’s known on the subject? and What does the study add? A wide range of performance characteristics has been reported for the preoperative prediction of extraprostatic extension by erMRI, with sensitivities as high as 90%. Our study differs in design from previous investigations in three ways: we examined the performance characteristics of the erMRI on patients with clinical parameters of prostate cancer worrisome for advanced disease; we dichotomized erMRI reports as “positive” or “negative”; and erMRIs were conducted at both academic and community radiology centers, which we believe is more reflective of current practice patterns in the USA. We found the overall accuracy of erMRI to be 62%, with a positive predictive value of 50%, suggesting that pretreatment erMRI offers minimal clinical information. OBJECTIVE • To assess the clinical value of preoperative knowledge of the presence of extracapsular extension (ECE) or seminal vesicle invasion (SVI) in the planning for prostatectomy. MATERIALS AND METHODS • An institutional database of 1161 robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomies (RALP) performed by a single surgeon (D.B.S.) was queried for those who underwent endorectal coil magnetic resonance imaging (erMRI) before robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy. • erMRI reports were dichotomized into positive or negative and compared with the final histopathology. The erMRIs performed at academic centres were compared with those performed in non-academic settings. • A sub-group of high-risk patients was also analyzed for erMRI accuracy. RESULTS • The 179 patients who underwent erMRI had significantly worse disease compared to the 982 patients without imaging. Of the 110 patients with histopathologically organ-confined disease, 81 (74%) were correctly diagnosed as such on erMRI, whereas 29 (26%) were felt to have cT3 disease and constituted false-positives. Among the 69 patients with pT3 disease, erMRI correctly predicted 30 (43%), whereas 39 (57%) were incorrectly considered organ-confined. • The overall sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing pT3 disease was 43% and 73%. • When stratified by pT3a and pT3b, the sensitivity and specificity of erMRI to accurately diagnose ECE is 33% and 81%, respectively. In evaluating SVI, erMRI has a sensitivity and specificity of 33% and 89%, respectively. The positive predictive value of erMRI to assess for ECE and SVI is 50% in both, with a negative predictive value of 61% and 63%, respectively. • erMRIs performed at academic centres compared to non-academic locations demonstrated similar rates of sensitivity at 67% vs 77% and specificity at 39% vs 54%, respectively (P= 0.33). CONCLUSIONS • In the setting of the present study, which was designed to be more reflective of current practice patterns in the USA, erMRI has limited clinical value in preoperatively detecting ECE and SVI. • The accuracy of detecting T3 disease did not improve in academic centres or in high-risk patients.
The corticotropin-releasing factor1 receptor antagonist R121919 attenuates the behavioral and endocrine responses to stress.

Corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) is the major physiological regulator of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and serves to coordinate the mammalian endocrine, autonomic, and behavioral responses to stress. Considerable literature from clinical and preclinical data suggests that hypersecretion of hypothalamic and/or extrahypothalamic CRF systems is a major factor in the pathogenesis of affective and anxiety disorders. Based on this premise, a CRF(1) receptor antagonist has been hypothesized to possess anxiolytic and/or antidepressant properties. In this study, an acute dose of the lipophilic CRF(1) receptor antagonist 3-[6-(dimethylamino)-4-methyl-pyrid-3-yl]-2,5-dimethyl-N,N-dipropyl-pyrazolo[2,3-a]pyrimidin-7-amine (R121919), administered i.v. to rats with surgically implanted jugular cannula 60 min before a 5-min restraint stress, dose dependently attenuated peak plasma adrenocorticopin hormone (ACTH) and corticosterone concentrations by 91 and 75%, respectively. In a second study, acute administration of R121919 reduced measures of anxiety in a rodent defensive withdrawal paradigm. R121919 dose dependently decreased latency to exit the tube, and total time spent in the tube 60 min after a single subcutaneous administration. In addition, the ACTH and corticosterone response to novelty was decreased by 82 and 97%, respectively, at the 10-mg/kg dose of R121919. In another study, this dose was associated with approximately an 85% occupancy of the CRF(1) receptor in the cortex measured 75-min postsubcutaneous injection. These data confirm that R121919 acts as a CRF(1) receptor antagonist in vivo, attenuates HPA axis responsivity, and possesses anxiolytic properties.
Introduction of a Novel Swine-Origin Influenza A (H1N1) Virus into Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2009

On 17 April 2009, novel swine origin influenza A virus (S-OIV) cases appeared within the United States. Most influenza A diagnostic assays currently utilized in local clinical laboratories do not allow definitive subtype determination. Detailed subtype analysis of influenza A positive samples in our laboratory allowed early confirmation of a large outbreak of S-OIV in southeastern Wisconsin (SEW). The initial case of S-OIV in SEW was detected on 28 April 2009. All influenza A samples obtained during the 16 week period prior to 28 April 2009, and the first four weeks of the subsequent epidemic were sub typed. Four different multiplex assays were employed, utilizing real time PCR and end point PCR to fully subtype human and animal influenza viral components. Specific detection of S-OIV was developed within days. Data regarding patient demographics and other concurrently circulating viruses were analyzed. During the first four weeks of the epidemic, 679 of 3726 (18.2%) adults and children tested for influenza A were identified with S-OIV infection. Thirteen patients (0.34%) tested positive for seasonal human subtypes of influenza A during the first two weeks and none in the subsequent 2 weeks of the epidemic. Parainfluenza viruses were the most prevalent seasonal viral agents circulating during the epidemic (of those tested), with detection rates of 12% followed by influenza B and RSV at 1.9% and 0.9% respectively. S-OIV was confirmed on day 2 of instituting subtype testing and within 4 days of report of national cases of S-OIV. Novel surge capacity diagnostic infrastructure exists in many specialty and research laboratories around the world. The capacity for broader influenza A sub typing at the local laboratory level allows timely and accurate detection of novel strains as they emerge in the community, despite the presence of other circulating viruses producing identical illness. This is likely to become increasingly important given the need for appropriate subtype driven anti-viral therapy and the potential shortage of such medications in a large epidemic.
High resolution imaging through integrated nanoholes image sensor

A new imaging sensor with high resolution independent of the image sensorpsilas pixel size is presented. This sensor combines an integrated nanohole patterned in the first metal layer within each pixel and it can be fabricated in any standard submicron CMOS process. The final high resolution image requires a relative scanning motion between the sensor and the object under test; this relative motion can be achieved in an optofluidic microscopy system whereas the sample flows in a microfluidic channel while the image sensor acquires the high resolution image. Here, we describe the concept of the presented high resolution imaging sensor and elaborate on the optofludic microscopy system as one example of its implementation for a real biomedical imaging application.
A Simplified Vacuumless Faraday Cup for the Experimental Beamline at the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center

We describe a simplified, vacuumless, Faraday cup and compare it with a traditional Faraday cup under various beam conditions. We show that the new design agrees with the traditional design to an accuracy of 1% to 5%.
MIG6 Is MEK Regulated and Affects EGF-Induced Migration in Mutant NRAS Melanoma

Activating mutations in neuroblastoma RAS viral oncogene homolog (NRAS) are frequent driver events in cutaneous melanoma. NRAS is a guanosine triphosphate-binding protein whose most well-characterized downstream effector is RAF, leading to activation of mitogen-activated protein kinase (MEK)-extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase 1/2 signaling. Although there are no Food and Drug Administration-approved targeted therapies for melanoma patients with a primary mutation in NRAS, one form of targeted therapy that has been explored is MEK inhibition. In clinical trials, MEK inhibitors have shown disappointing efficacy in mutant NRAS patients, the reasons for which are unclear. To explore the effects of MEK inhibitors in mutant NRAS melanoma, we used a high-throughput reverse-phase protein array platform to identify signaling alterations. Reverse-phase protein array analysis of phospho-proteomic changes in mutant NRAS melanoma in response to trametinib indicated a compensatory increase in v-akt murine thymoma viral oncogene homolog signaling and decreased expression of mitogen-inducible gene 6 (MIG6), a negative regulator of epidermal growth factor receptor/v-erb-b2 erythroblastic leukemia viral oncogene homolog receptors. MIG6 expression did not alter the growth or survival properties of mutant NRAS melanoma cells. Rather, we identified a role for MIG6 as a negative regulator of epidermal growth factor-induced signaling and cell migration and invasion. In MEK-inhibited cells, further depletion of MIG6 increased migration and invasion, whereas MIG6 expression decreased these properties. Therefore, a decrease in MIG6 may promote the migration and invasiveness of MEK-inhibited mutant NRAS melanoma, especially in response to epidermal growth factor stimulation.
B-A translocations in maize I. Use in locating genes by chromosome arms

HE B-A TRANSLOCATIONS of maize (Za mayvs L.) provide a most efficient method for T locating recessive mutants to the proper chromosome arm. More comprehensive knowledge of gene location should permit efficient assembly of genotypes for improving photosynthetic rate and disease reaction and for other practical goals.
A Comparative Analysis of Judicial Bribery in the United States and China

This paper provides a comparative assessment of judicial bribery in the United States and China. It shows that bribery is much more rampant in China’s judiciary. Moreover, this paper identifies several factors that contribute to the occurrence of judicial bribery: the judges’ discretionary power; lack of transparency in the judicial decision-making process; the “underdevelopment” of legal professionalism; low level of judicial independence; and the social context in which the judiciary operates. Among the factors, the lack of judicial independence is the most important one that helps to explain why the problem is more severe in China. Generally, if the judiciary lacks independence, then the parties would have more opportunities to pay bribes because numerous entities and individuals could interfere with the case. At the same time, the interferences undermine the authority and integrity of the judiciary, making the judges more willing to accept bribes.
New evidence about the benefits of PCI with regard to mortality

Having had two stents inserted into a 3.5 cm, angled, and heavily calcified 80% stenosis of my right anterior descending coronary artery at the end of July this year, this subject is close to my heart. My symptoms were not severe but I had some exertional breathlessness and more recently chest tightness on exertion, probably angina. The cardiologist offered percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and said that it …
Neural Basis for Dyslexia and Picture Naming Deficits

Eight dyslexic subjects, aged 20 +/-0.9 years, university students who were impaired on measures of reading, spelling and naming speed, matched for age and general ability with 10 control subjects, were scanned using PET while reading words and naming pictures, in a study at the Institute of Psychiatry, University College, and the Institute of Neurology, London, UK.
Additive Surface Complexation Modeling of Uranium(VI) Adsorption onto Quartz-Sand Dominated Sediments

Many aquifers contaminated by U(VI)-containing acidic plumes are composed predominantly of quartz-sand sediments. The F-Area of the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina (USA) is an example. To predict U(VI) mobility and natural attenuation, we conducted U(VI) adsorption experiments using the F-Area plume sediments and reference quartz, goethite, and kaolinite. The sediments are composed of ∼96% quartz-sand and 3-4% fine fractions of kaolinite and goethite. We developed a new humic acid adsorption method for determining the relative surface area abundances of goethite and kaolinite in the fine fractions. This method is expected to be applicable to many other binary mineral pairs, and allows successful application of the component additivity (CA) approach based surface complexation modeling (SCM) at the SRS F-Area and other similar aquifers. Our experimental results indicate that quartz has stronger U(VI) adsorption ability per unit surface area than goethite and kaolinite at pH ≤ 4.0. Our modeling results indicate that the binary (goethite/kaolinite) CA-SCM under-predicts U(VI) adsorption to the quartz-sand dominated sediments at pH ≤ 4.0. The new ternary (quartz/goethite/kaolinite) CA-SCM provides excellent predictions. The contributions of quartz-sand, kaolinite, and goethite to U(VI) adsorption and the potential influences of dissolved Al, Si, and Fe are also discussed.
Analysis of Multi-Layer Mini- and Micro- Channel Heat Sinks in Single Phase Flow Using One and Two Equation Porous Media Models

Research in liquid cooled mini- and micro-channel heat sinks is growing due to the potentially high heat fluxes that can be dissipated with such devices. Deterministic mini- or micro-channel heat sinks with rectilinear channels are derivatives of more generalized porous structures. The present paper is devoted to an examination of the application of one and two equation porous media theory for modeling the thermal-fluid behavior of stacked multi-layer micro- or mini-channel heat sinks. One surface of the heat sink is exposed to high heat flux, while the other is insulated. The objectives of the paper are to examine generalizations of the geometric scaling that is elucidated by adopting a porous media approach, and the unification of models for apparently dissimilar geometries. This paper examines the relative accuracy and computational efficiency of one and two equation approaches. The error between the two models and the experimental data are examined by an error map given as a function of conductivity ratios, Darcy number (Da) and Reynolds number (Re).Copyright © 2009 by ASME
Determinants Of Mortality and Survival In Children With Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) In Sub Saharan Africa

In Africa, the natural history of SCD is often assumed to be same to the African Diaspora in the US, Jamaica, Europe or Latin America. Yet the environment can be different, including different pathogen exposure, such as malaria. To help better understand this, over 2000 references were identified using the names of all current or past names of African continent countries and the truncated word sickl$, followed by secondary nested and cross reference searches. Six cases series describing causes of death were identified, representing 182 children (Ndugwa, 1973, Athale, 1994, Koko, 1998, Diagne, 2000, Rahimy, 2003, Van-Dunem, 2007). Gender was reported in 172, 73 were female (42%). Age was reported in 118, 52 were Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.
Improving consumer commitment through the integration of self-service technologies: A transcendent consumer experience perspective

Abstract An increasing number of hospitality firms have integrated self-service technologies (SSTs), yet limited studies exist concerning consumers’ experience of using SSTs. The present research theorizes SSTs experience as a bi-dimensional (i.e., extrinsic and intrinsic ) construct and tests its impact on consumer commitment (i.e., affective , temporal , and instrumental commitment). This research further examines the potential mediating effect of transcendent consumer experience (TCE) on the tested relationships. Results of Structural Equation Modeling using a sample of 223 hotel and restaurant consumers reveal that TCE fully mediates the impacts of SSTs’ extrinsic attributes on the instrumental commitment as well as the impacts of SSTs’ intrinsic attributes on the instrumental and the temporal commitment. In contrast, TCE partially mediates the impacts of SSTs’ extrinsic attributes on the affective and the temporal commitment as well as the impacts of SSTs’ intrinsic attributes on the affective commitment. The paper concludes with theoretical implications and managerial implications.
Selective Aerobic Oxidation of Alcohols over Atomically‐Dispersed Non‐Precious Metal Catalysts

Catalytic oxidation of alcohols often requires the presence of expensive transition metals. Herein, it is shown that earth-abundant Fe atoms dispersed throughout a nitrogen-containing carbon matrix catalyze the oxidation of benzyl alcohol and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural by O2 in the aqueous phase. The activity of the catalyst can be regenerated by a mild treatment in H2 . An observed kinetic isotope effect indicates that β-H elimination from the alcohol is the kinetically relevant step in the mechanism, which can be accelerated by substituting Fe with Cu. Dispersed Cr, Co, and Ni also convert alcohols, demonstrating the general utility of metal-nitrogen-carbon materials for alcohol oxidation catalysis. Oxidation of aliphatic alcohols is substantially slower than that of aromatic alcohols, but addition of 2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-1-piperidinyloxy as a co-catalyst with Fe can significantly improve the reaction rate.
Simulation-Guided Optimization of Electrode Arrays for Electrochemical Imaging of Quantal Exocytosis

Fluorescence imaging can provide important information about the mechanisms of exocytosis at the single-vesicle level, e.g., conformational changes in SNARE proteins reported via FRET. FRET signals are very small and therefore the time and location of the fusion events are not readily apparent to allow signal analyses. The Lindau lab has pioneered the use of “electrochemical imaging” to identify the time and location of quantal exocytosis by comparing the amperometric signal between 4 electrodes arranged around a cell. Since it is necessary to obtain a measurable signal in at least three electrodes in order to “triangulate” the position, a limitation of this method is that it can only localize exocytosis events that originate near the center of the electrode arrays. We therefore carried out finite-element-array (COMSOL) reaction-diffusion simulations to guide the design of electrode arrays that can maximize the area on the cell surface where a release event can be localized with high precision. The number and placement of electrodes around the cell were varied and the SD of localization precision was simulated. Our results indicate that as the number of electrodes arranged circumferentially around the cell increases, the detectable area further from the center of the array increases, however, the precision of localization in the center decreases because the amperometric charge is divided between more electrodes. Thus the optimal number of electrodes depends on the signal-to-noise ratio of the amperometric recordings and the acceptable location precision. Under our simulation conditions, if a localization precision (SD) less than 0.23 μm is needed, an array of 4 electrodes will give the largest detectable area. However, if slightly less precision is acceptable, 5 or 6 electrodes allows a larger detectable area than 4 or 3 electrodes. Supported by NIH R44MH096650.
Two new endemic cave-living moths from Hawai‘i Island: a new species of Pseudoschrankia (Erebidae), and a new species of Mestolobes Crambidae)

Two new endemic Hawaiian Lepidoptera species are herein described; both are associated with caves. The new species, Pseudoschrankia nohoana sp. nov. and Mestolobes olali sp. nov., have been found exclusively in caves or cave entrances on the Big Island of Hawai‘i, although neither species appears to possess any specializations for living in caves.
A phoneme clustering algorithm based on the obligatory contour principle

This paper explores a divisive hierarchical clustering algorithm based on the well-known Obligatory Contour Principle in phonology. The purpose is twofold: to see if such an algorithm could be used for unsupervised classification of phonemes or graphemes in corpora, and to investigate whether this purported universal constraint really holds for several classes of phonological distinctive features. The algorithm achieves very high accuracies in an unsupervised setting of inferring a consonant-vowel distinction, and also has a strong tendency to detect coronal phonemes in an unsupervised fashion. Remaining classes, however, do not correspond as neatly to phonological distinctive feature splits. While the results offer only mixed support for a universal Obligatory Contour Principle, the algorithm can be very useful for many NLP tasks due to the high accuracy in revealing consonant/vowel/coronal distinctions.
An arbitrary-order Runge–Kutta discontinuous Galerkin approach to reinitialization for banded conservative level sets

Abstract We present a Runge–Kutta discontinuous Galerkin method for solving conservative reinitialization in the context of the conservative level set method [18] , [19] . This represents an extension of the method recently proposed by Owkes and Desjardins [21] , by solving the level set equations on the refined level set grid [9] and projecting all spatially-dependent variables into the full basis used by the discontinuous Galerkin discretization. By doing so, we achieve the full k + 1 order convergence rate in the L 1 norm of the level set field predicted for RKDG methods given kth degree basis functions when the level set profile thickness is held constant with grid refinement. Shape and volume errors for the 0.5-contour of the level set, on the other hand, are found to converge between first and second order. We show a variety of test results, including the method of manufactured solutions, reinitialization of a circle and sphere, Zalesak's disk, and deforming columns and spheres, all showing substantial improvements over the high-order finite difference traditional level set method studied for example by Herrmann [9] . We also demonstrate the need for kth order accurate normal vectors, as lower order normals are found to degrade the convergence rate of the method.
Implementation and evaluation of an automated surveillance system to detect hospital outbreak.

Background The timely identification of a cluster is a critical requirement for infection prevention and control (IPC) departments because these events may represent transmission of pathogens within the health care setting. Given the issues with manual review of hospital infections, a surveillance system to detect clusters in health care settings must use automated data capture, validated statistical methods, and include all significant pathogens, antimicrobial susceptibility patterns, patient care locations, and health care teams. Methods We describe the use of SaTScan statistical software to identify clusters, WHONET software to manage microbiology laboratory data, and electronic health record data to create a comprehensive outbreak detection system in our hospital. We also evaluated the system using the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's guidelines. Results During an 8-month surveillance time period, 168 clusters were detected, 45 of which met criteria for investigation, and 6 were considered transmission events. The system was felt to be flexible, timely, accepted by the department and hospital, useful, and sensitive, but it required significant resources and has a low positive predictive value. Conclusions WHONET-SaTScan is a useful addition to a robust IPC program. Although the resources required were significant, this prospective, real-time cluster detection surveillance system represents an improvement over historical methods. We detected several episodes of transmission which would have eluded us previously, and allowed us to focus infection prevention efforts and improve patient safety.
Surgical Therapy for Myocardial Infarction and Its Sequelae

Infarctectomy with or without revascularization procedures has been reported for some cases with ventricular tachyarrhythmias or pump failure and cardiogenic shock. As the latter situation is usually associated with a large portion of Myo being destroyed, infarctectomy obviously would be at high risk and the principles underlying such an intervention debatable.
Ketamine and Dexmedetomidine Coma in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (P02.011)

OBJECTIVE: Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) is a debilitating disease which can persist despite aggressive treatment. We report the case of an induced ketamine and dexmedetomidine coma for refractory CRPS. BACKGROUND: CRPS is defined as pain with allodynia and autonomic dysregulation. The etiology is likely related to multiple factors including central pain sensitization through NMDA receptor up-regulation. Ketamine at sub-anesthetic doses has demonstrated improvement in pain, however anesthetic dose ketamine may have better long term efficacy. The alpha2-adrenergic effects of dexmedetomidine should synergistically enhance the analgesic effect of ketamine, while reducing the cardiovascular side effects. DESIGN/METHODS: 45 year-old Caucasian male presented with a 2-year history of left hand allodynia, edema, and hyperhidrosis, 6 months after peripheral IV insertion. The pain spread from the left hand to his entire left side, scrotum, rectum and scalp. Prior failed therapy included steroids, neuropathic medications, and sympathetic ganglion blockade. He maintained pain control with 120mg of morphine ER twice daily. Due to the rapid spread of his pain and minimal response to standard treatments, we initiated treatment with a medically induced coma with Ketamine 7mg/kg/hr, Dexmedetomidine 1.5 mcg/kg/hr and Midazolam 17mg/hr. Fentanyl was given for the first day, then weaned. Level of sedation was maintained at a Ramsay score of -4 to -5 with 24 hour EEG monitoring to verify deep coma. RESULTS: After a five day coma, our patient reported 100% resolution of pain without analgesic or opioid usage. He developed severe hallucinations and anxiety as an expected side effect of ketamine, which were treated with a chlordiazepoxide taper. To date, our patient remains pain free (45 days post treatment). CONCLUSIONS: We report the novel combination of anesthetic doses of ketamine and dexmedetomidine to treat refractory CRPS. Continued investigation into this therapy is warranted as a potential treatment regimen for CRPS. Disclosure: Dr. Rasmussen has nothing to disclose. Dr. Malave has nothing to disclose. Dr. Soto-Gomez has nothing to disclose. Dr. Romero has received personal compensation for activities with Novartis, Questcor, and Teva Neuroscience as a consultant. Dr. Eckmann has nothing to disclose.
Risk Sensitive Asset Management: Two Empirical Examples

This paper is concerned with applications of risk sensitive control theory in financial decision making. In earlier work a variation of Merton’s continuous-time intertemporal capital asset pricing model was developed where the infinite horizon objective is to maximize the portfolio’s risk adjusted growth rate. Here the model is illustrated by applying it to two portfolio management problems based upon historical data. In the first there are four assets (a bank account, the Dow Jones Industrials index, the SP in addition to the usual bank account the other assets are rolling horizon bonds corresponding to the factors. These examples demonstrate that the risk sensitive asset management model is tractable and provides economic insight as well as useful results, although the optimal strategies sometimes involve high levels of leverage.
Quantitative Inheritance in Plant Breeding

The examples of inheritance that we have considered thus far have dealt with traits that are simply inherited, mostly by single genes with recognizable effects. With respect to any one of these traits, the phenotypes can be classed into a small number of easily distinguished discrete classes. For example, a barley plant may have black or white hulls, two or six rows, rough or smooth awns, rust resistance or rust susceptibility. Characters controlled by few genes with major effects on the phenotype are said to be qualitative characters and their inheritance is referred to as qualitative inheritance. Many of the traits with which the breeder works are not inherited in this simple manner. Their inheritance is dependent upon several to many genes at different loci, each gene contributing a small effect to the phenotypic expression of the character. Characters controlled by a number of genes with small effects that may be measured in metric units are said to be quantitative characters and their inheritance is referred to as quantitative inheritance. The distinction between qualitative and quantitative characters is not always clear, since expression of qualitative characters may sometimes be modified by the environment.
Mitigating Choice Overload: An Experiment in the U.S. Beer Market

This study tests the prevalence of choice overload (CO) in the U.S. beer market. We reveal that even if CO exists, sellers have mechanisms to reduce CO's negative consequences. The article describes the implementation of search cost-reducing private nudges (i.e., product quality scores and prominently listed specials) sellers commonly utilize to minimize CO's negative consequences. Our results suggest that, while CO exists for some buyers, it can be eliminated by market interactions on the part of the seller. (JEL Classifications: C93, D03, Q13)
Post-spruce beetle timber salvage drives short-term surface fuel increases and understory vegetation shifts

Abstract Recent, widespread spruce beetle (Dendroctonus rufipennis) outbreaks have driven extensive tree mortality across western North America. Post-disturbance forest management often includes salvage logging to capture economic value of dead timber, reduce fire hazard, and meet other social or ecological objectives. Little is known about effects of salvage logging on surface fuel loads or plant understory communities in Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii)-dominated forests. We sampled fine and coarse woody debris, ground cover, and plant species composition along transects in spruce-beetle impacted stands in southwestern Colorado, USA. Twenty stands had been subject to clearcut 1–2 years prior to sampling; 32 stands were unlogged controls. Salvage logged stands exhibited altered surface fuels, ground cover, plant species cover, and community composition. Salvage increased 1-, 10-, and 100-hr fuels, and cover by bare ground and woody debris; cover by litter and cryptogams was reduced. Understory plant cover was reduced in salvaged stands, primarily due to losses of shrub cover. We found no difference in species diversity or richness between treated stands and controls. Salvage logging also drove shifts in plant community composition. Mean cover by non-native species was low, and not different, between control and salvage stands. Our study characterizes short-term effects that will undoubtedly change substantially over longer periods, in particular due to anticipated tree seedling growth and movement of standing dead wood from the canopy to the surface. In the near term, abundant fine woody surface fuels at salvage sites could influence the likelihood and rate of spread of surface fires, though over time we expect surface fuels in untreated stands to increase to comparable or greater levels than in salvaged stands. Differences in vascular plant cover and composition imparted by salvage harvests is also expected to change over time, though whether treated and untreated communities diverge or converge is not known. As such, we recommend that salvage harvest effects be monitored over extended time frames in order to detect longer-term trends.
Abstract P261: Dietary Sodium, Potassium, and Blood Pressure in Normotensive Pregnant Women: The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Dietary sodium, potassium, and the sodium-to-potassium ratio are linearly associated with blood pressure in non-pregnant adults in a dose-response manner. Earlier investigations suggested null or i...
What is strategic leadership? Developing a framework for future research

Abstract We attempt to bring clarity to the concept of strategic leadership and guide its development by reviewing and synthesizing the existing management literature on how top managers and board directors influence organizations. We propose a new definition of strategic leadership and offer a framework organized around the essential questions of what strategic leadership is, what strategic leaders do, why they do it, and how they do it. To answer these questions, we organize our review around the eight functions strategic leaders serve, the key attributes of strategic leaders, the theories scholars have used to relate these functions and attributes to outcomes, contextual factors, and the organizational outcomes that strategic leaders affect. We identify how strategic leadership research is concentrated in five streams that rarely interact with each other, and offer suggestions for connecting these streams. Our review provides a big picture of what is known about individuals at the top levels of organizations and highlights the key areas where future investigation is essential.
Precision Agriculture: Renewable Energy Based Smart Crop Field Monitoring and Management System Using WSN via IoT

Although economy of the 21st century is exceedingly reliable on industrialization, agriculture works as an unavoidable driving force for economic growth of the country like Bangladesh where advancement of wireless technologies, computational techniques and system engineering have rendered new opportunities to promote our existing agricultural system. This paper work depicts the design and implementation of a solar energy based precision agriculture (PA) with wireless sensory network (WSN) via Internet of Things (IoT) architecture to meet the demand of finding highly efficient methods for smart agricultural monitoring and management system. Our proposed system will provide valuable data about salt water intrusion, soil moisture, water level, humidity, temperature as well as the general condition of the crop field to the farmers in a user friendly, easily accessible manner with real time data communication via IoT. We can monitor the crop field conditions by using smartphone and will be able to take the necessary steps remotely on the basis of present conditions. We have utilized our proposed system and collected experimental data from south-western and southeastern part of Bangladesh.
NMR spectral assignments of two ent-kaurane diterpene glycosides

The complete 1H and 13C NMR assignments for the two diterpene glycosides 13-[(2-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-b-D- glucopyranosyl)oxy]-16β-hydroxy-ent-kauran-19-oic acid b-D-glucopyranosyl ester and 13-[(2-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-3-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-b-D-glucopyranosyl)oxy]-16β-hydroxy-ent-kauran-19-oic acid b-D-glucopyranosyl ester obtained from the sunlight stability study of stevioside and rebaudioside-A respectively were achieved by the extensive NMR (1H and 13C, COSY, HSQC, HMBC) and MS spectral data as well as chemical studies.
Integration of the Arts and Humanities with Environmental Science in the LTER Network

A broad spectrum of arts and humanities activities has emerged organically within the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program including disciplines such as philosophy and ethics, creative writing, and the visual, multimedia, musical, and performing arts. The majority of LTER sites now hosts activities that integrate the environmental sciences with the arts and humanities (eSAH). These programs serve important functions central to the LTER mission, including, but not limited to, public engagement, outreach, and education. Some LTER eSAH programs additionally consider these activities as steps toward the aspirational goal of helping society address grand social-ecological challenges of the twenty-first century, challenges that science alone cannot overcome. The arts and humanities can offer critical dimensions to this mission and to outreach, education, and general edification, such as awakening and engaging ethics, values, empathy, and wonder in individuals and societies. In this chapter, we reflect upon eSAH efforts across the LTER network, including their history, value to LTER’s mission, challenges, and aspirations and share case studies of eSAH activities from several LTER programs, including their objectives, organizational models, audiences, and outcomes.
Dynamic Deformities and Lever Arm Considerations

Thus far, the text has concentrated primarily on static deformities of the lower limbs: bone deformities and joint contractures. In comparison, dynamic deformities are related to joint position, muscle function, and lever arm length. Left untreated, dynamic deformities can become static, because of either secondary deformities in the bone or fixed joint contractures.
Learning of rules in an expert system with a probabilistic expert

The authors deal with a theory of learning in expert systems. An environment is considered in which the expert is susceptible to the process of learning. To describe the state of such an expert during the formulation of rules, a notion of a human expert in learning phase is introduced. The modeling of knowledge is done by condition-action-type probabilistic rules. The forms as well as the parameters of these rules are furnished by the expert. An algorithm is presented for automatically learning the parameters of the rules with the help of a probabilistic expert. This algorithm is computationally feasible, and the results of simulation show the expedient learning of parameters of the rules. >
Structure and composition of (GaIn)(NAsSb)/GaAs multi quantum well structures grown by MBE

Mixed III-V nitride semiconductor alloys have a theoretically predicted large bandgap bowing, which would allow 1.3 to 1.55 /spl mu/m wavelength emission. In this study, the novel quaternary (GaIn)(NAs) and pentenary (GaIn)(NAsSb) material systems were grown compressively strained on GaAs substrates at low substrate temperatures by MBE.
Outliers and robust parameter estimation.

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the outliers and robust parameter estimation. The chapter also discusses one method of fitting data in the presence of outliers. This method is “robust,” in that it is less sensitive than least squares methods to the presence of outliers. Least squares parameter estimation procedures automatically adjust the parameters of a fitting equation, until the weighted sum of the squared residuals is minimum. The statistical basis of the least squares procedures is dependent on a series of assumptions about the experimental data and the fitting function. Biomedical researchers are frequently faced with the task of estimating a series of parameters, from a set of experimental data. This is commonly done, by selecting a set of parameters of an equation, such that the equation provides a good description of the data. A sufficient number of data points to provide a good sampling of the experimental uncertainties are required, for example, this implies that the data should not be smoothed to remove the noise components.
Chronic valproate treatment decreases the in vivo turnover of arachidonic acid in brain phospholipids: a possible common effect of mood stabilizers

Both (Li(+)) and valproic acid (VPA) are effective in treating bipolar disorder, but the pathway by which either works, and whether it is common to both drugs, is not agreed upon. We recently reported, using an in vivo fatty acid model, that Li(+) reduces the turnover rate of the second messenger arachidonic acid (AA) by 80% in brain phospholipids of the awake rat, without changing turnover rates of docosahexaenoic or palmitic acid. Reduced AA turnover was accompanied by down-regulation of gene expression and protein levels of an AA-specific cytosolic phospholipase A(2) (cPLA(2)). To see if VPA had the same effect on AA turnover, we used our in vivo fatty acid model in rats chronically administered VPA (200 mg/kg, i.p. for 30 days). Like Li(+), VPA treatment significantly decreased AA turnover within brain phospholipids (by 28-33%), although it had no effect on cPLA(2) protein levels. Thus, both mood stabilizers, Li(+) and VPA have a common action in reducing AA turnover in brain phospholipids, albeit by different mechanisms.
Subsurface Wilcox Lignite In West-Central Louisiana

ABSTRACT The Wilcox Group in west-central Louisiana occurs as a wedge of terriginous clastic sediment of Paleocene age which prograded into the northern margin of the ancestral Gulf of Mexico. In this study, subsurface correlations provide the basis for dividing the Wilcox Group into three primary intervals. Proceeding upsection, these intervals are the lower Wilcox, upper Wilcox, and Carrizo Formation. The lower Wilcox is further subdivided into four regional lithologic units, informally referred to as Intervals 1, 2, 3, and 4. Lignite occurs as component facies of alluvial valley, deltaic, and lagoonal rocks. Lignite is identified from electric-log response on the basis of an "operational" definition, and environmental interpretations of associated facies are derived from log responses characteristic of deltaic environments. Expected properties of lignites are predicted by analogy with modern peat deposition and comparison with other ancient lignite accumulations. The Carrizo Formation was deposited as meanderbelt facies within an alluvial plain, but is devoid of any significant lignite accumulation because of destruction of overbank deposits. The upper Wilcox is a lagoon barrier-bar complex characterized by deposition of fine-grained sediment updip and strike-oriented accumulation of coarse-grained sediment downdip. The interval is basically not lignite bearing. A maximum of 8 seams occur updip of major strike-oriented sandstone. These lignites are expected to be of lagoonal origin and of poor quality. The lower Wilcox is a typical progradational deltaic complex to the east and marginal delta plain to the west. The lower Wilcox is the major lignite-bearing interval of the Wilcox Group and contains up to 35 lignite seams. The lignites are associated with interdistributary flood-basin deposits and should be of good quality, based on similarity to analogous deposits elsewhere.
Cell Fusion, Prematurely Condensed Chromosomes, and the Origin of Allocyclic Chromosomes

Fusion of normal, untreated mammalian cells has been described only in the development of bone, muscle, and trophoblast tissues. Otherwise, at least one of the fusing cells has been malignant. Early studies on cell fusion have been reviewed, for example by Otto and Therman (1982). Cell fusion was originally detected in vitro, but has been found in an increasing number of malignant diseases in vivo (for instance, Kovacs, 1985; Sandberg, 1987). It is not clear whether fusion, malignant-malignant or malignant-host cell, plays any significant role in the creation of aneuploid-polyploid chromosome constitutions in cancer (Sreekantaiah et al., 1987). Spontaneous fusion of nonmalignant lymphocytes and fibroblasts has so far been observed only in Bloom syndrome (Otto and Therman, 1982).
The Limits of Sensible Centrism: Review of 'It's Even Worse Than It Looks' by Mann and Ornstein

Review of "It's Even Worse Than It Looks" by Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein. In this book, Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein provide a sobering description of how politics in Washington has coarsened over the span of a generation. Today, the authors warn, "America's capacity to govern" is under threat. They have some practical suggestions on how to make Washington work better. But the remedies may be unequal to the underlying problem: a profound shift in the structure of American politics, and attitudes about the role of the federal government in American life.
Chronic Poverty and Older People in South Africa

This report is one of two commissioned by HelpAge International (HAI), which investigates the extent, distribution and nature of chronic poverty among older people in South Africa. In response to the terms of reference provided by HAI, the report includes a comprehensive review of existing research, both published and unpublished. In addition to this review, quantitative datasets were examined, and a new database containing information related to 26,918 people, 50 years of age and older was constructed.
Realidad y técnica en Zubiri

This article deals with a very relevant topic today, that is, what is art, what happens, how it develops, how it fits and how the man with nature. Such a conception of art, Xavier Zubiri left explicitly outlined in the 50s of the last century (in one of his many courses), but this conception was absolutely renovated in the '80s through his trilogy Intelligence and sentient new philosophical horizon it open: the «noologia». And in such renewal around what is a technical way of being own technical man happens in the same intellection of reality and so is what allows us to be viable in this world rises.