cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of Wolbachia on mtDNA variation in two fire ant species.

Wolbachia are endosymbiotic bacteria that infect arthropods. As they are maternally transmitted, the spread of Wolbachia variants within host populations may affect host mtDNA evolution. We sequenced a portion of the mitochondrial cytochrome oxidase I gene from numerous individuals of two Wolbachia-infected fire ant species, Solenopsis invicta and S. richteri, to determine how these bacteria influence patterns of mtDNA variation. As predicted, there was a strong association between Wolbachia strain and host mtDNA lineage within and between these fire ant species. However, there was no consistent association between the presence of Wolbachia and a reduction in mtDNA diversity. Moreover, patterns of mtDNA variation within Wolbachia-infected populations did not differ consistently from neutral expectations, despite our prediction that strong positive selection acting on Wolbachia influences the evolutionary dynamics of other cytoplasmic genomes. Specifically, while values of Tajima’s D consistently were less than zero for all six samples of fire ants harbouring Wolbachia, MacDonald–Kreitman tests suggested that the patterns of variation were different from those expected under neutrality in only two of the samples. We conclude that these neutrality tests do not unambiguously reveal a clear effect of Wolbachia infection on patterns of mtDNA variation and substitution in fire ants. Finally, consistent with an earlier study, our data revealed the presence of two divergent mtDNA haplotype lineages and Wolbachia strains within S. invicta. Recognition of these two lineages has important consequences for interpreting patterns of mtDNA evolution and genetic differentiation between conspecific social forms of this species.
3-2-1 contact: an experimental approach to the analysisof contacts in 45 nm and below

45 nm technology has brought another beast to fight against, i.e., the contact resistance. While in 65 nm less than 4% impact on device current was present, higher contact resistance in 45 nm has raised this value to 10%. 32 nm and 22 nm will show increased impact. To remedy this problem, contact bars (trenches) and contact-level routing are also used. In this paper, we provide 45 nm silicon results and draw attention to the contact resistance problem and show ways to overcome this problem. We supplement our silicon data with TCAD simulations as well as circuit analysis of contact bars and contact-level routing for a ring oscillator we have designed. We provide a library mapping methodology for contact routes. Proposed test structures, methodologies, and modeling scheme provide a direction towards tackling the contact resistance problem in 45 nm and below.
On the need for attention-aware systems : Measuring effects of interruption on task performance, error rate, and affective state

Abstract This paper reports results from a controlled experiment (N = 50) measuring effects of interruption on task completion time, error rate, annoyance, and anxiety. The experiment used a sample of primary and peripheral tasks representative of those often performed by users. Our experiment differs from prior interruption experiments because it measures effects of interrupting a user’s tasks along both performance and affective dimensions and controls for task workload by manipulating only the time at which peripheral tasks were displayed – between vs. during the execution of primary tasks. Results show that when peripheral tasks interrupt the execution of primary tasks, users require from 3% to 27% more time to complete the tasks, commit twice the number of errors across tasks, experience from 31% to 106% more annoyance, and experience twice the increase in anxiety than when those same peripheral tasks are presented at the boundary between primary tasks. An important implication of our work is that attention-aware systems could mitigate effects of interruption by deferring presentation of peripheral information until coarse boundaries are reached during task execution. As our results show, deferring presentation for a short time, i.e. just a few seconds, can lead to a large mitigation of disruption.
THRIPS CONTROL ON DRY BULB ONIONS IN WASHINGTON STATE, 2011

Onion thrips are the key pest for dry bulb onion production in Washington State. The trial was initiated on June 8, 2012, in Pasco, WA, in a yellow onion field under drip irrigation. Plots were 7.33 feet wide and 25 feet long in an RCB design with four replicates. Applications were made with a …
Are direct measures of tumor oxygenation reflective of changes in tumor radiosensitivity following oxygen manipulation

The present study investigates the correlation between tumor oxygen availability and radiosensitivity following oxygen manipulation. Previous work has shown that tumors may contain both diffusion- and perfusion-limited hypoxic cells. Recently, the combination of nicotinamide (NIC) administration plus carbogen breathing has been proposed as a means of targeting both hypoxic cell subpopulations. Intravascular HbO2 saturations were measured for KHT murine sarcomas following either NIC, carbogen breathing, or the combination, and compared with determinations of tumor cell survival under matched conditions. The percentage of vessels ≥ 25% HbO2 increased significantly for both the carbogen and NIC-carbogen combination, while remaining unchanged from controls following NIC. These findings contrast with the survival data, where all treatments showed identical cell survival. A possible explanation is that different proportions of clonogenic versus nonclonogenic cells may be oxygenated by the alternative treatments...
S‐adenosyl L‐methionine inhibits azoxymethane‐induced colonic aberrant crypt foci in F344 rats and suppresses human colon cancer Caco‐2 cell growth in 3D culture

S-adenosyl L-methionine (SAM) is a universal methyl group donor to various intermediary metabolites, hormones, proteins, neurotransmitters, phospholipids and nucleic acids. Deficiency of folate, which plays a role in the synthesis of SAM leads to increased risk for colon cancer. This study tested the effectiveness of SAM supplementation in protecting against azoxymethane (AOM)-induced colon carcinogenesis in male F344 rats. We also tested the effect of SAM on cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) in a macrophage cell line. Further, we developed a 3-D culture model using Caco-2 cells to test the effect of SAM on tumor spheroid size and number. Groups of rats were given the experimental diet containing either 0-, 400- or 800-ppm SAM, 1 week before the first AOM injection and continued until 8 weeks. In the control group, AOM produced a substantial number of aberrant crypt foci (ACF) (96 +/- 8). Dietary administration of SAM significantly reduced the number of total ACF (400 ppm SAM, 68 +/- 7.3, p < 0.01 and 800 ppm SAM, 57 +/- 7.1, p < 0.001). SAM significantly decreased AOM-induced colonic multicrypt foci in a dose-dependent manner. Suppression of Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced COX-2 protein expression was observed in a RAW264.7 cell line. We established growth of Caco-2 cells as spheroids, in a 3D matrix of collagen and matrigel. Treatment with SAM decreased both size and number of spheroids in a dose-dependent manner (p < 0.0001). These observations demonstrate for the first time that SAM can reduce the occurrence of ACF in AOM treated male F344 rats and suppress formation of human tumor spheroids and expression of COX-2.
Parametric Performance Evaluation of Wavelet-Based Corrosion Detection Algorithms for Condition Assessment of Civil Infrastructure Systems

Corrosion is a crucial defect in structural systems that can lead to catastrophic effects if neglected. Current structure inspection standards require an inspector to visually assess the conditions of a target structure. A less time-consuming and inexpensive alternative to current monitoring methods is to use a robotic system, which can inspect structures more frequently and perform autonomous damage detection. The feasibility of using image processing techniques to detect corrosion in structures has been acknowledged by leading experts in the field; however, there has not been a systematic study to evaluate the effects of different parameters on the performance of vision-based corrosion detection systems. This study evaluates several parameters that can affect the performance of color wavelet-based texture analysis algorithms for detecting corrosion. Furthermore, an approach is proposed to utilize the depth perception for corrosion detection. The proposed approach improves the reliability of the corrosion detection algorithm. The integration of depth perception with pattern classification algorithms, which has never been reported in published studies, is part of the contribution of the current study. Several quantitative evaluations are presented to scrutinize the performance of the investigated approaches.
Playfulness: A Motivator in Elementary Science Teacher Preparation

Research suggests that teacher preparation courses should model hands-on activities promoting positive attitudes toward science. This study investigated the qualities of activities in a field-based science methods course that motivate preservice elementary teachers to implement them in their own classrooms. Ratings of the activities as fun, interesting, and having a high potential for learning were highly correlated, and the preservice teachers predicted that they would more likely implement activities they rated high on these qualities. A comparison of activities ranked high and low in fun suggests that activities ranked high tended to be exploratory in nature, taught process skills in context, enabled the preservice teachers to experience something new in a nonthreatening way, and promoted social interactions.1
Potent depressant effects of adenosine analogs on hippocampal slow-wave activity in the unanesthetized rat.

Adenosine and its analogs have previously been shown to exert a depressant effect on several measures of hippocampal excitability in the hippocampal slice and intact anesthetized preparation. In the present report, we examined the effects of intraventricular injections of adenosine analogs on hippocampal slow-wave activity in the freely moving rat. Each of three adenosine analogs— 5′-N-ethylcarboxamidoadenosine (NECA) and N6-(phenylisopropyl) adenosine (L- and D-PIA) — were found to strongly suppress hippocampal electroencephalographic (EEG) activity. For instance, low doses of NECA (0.5 μg) produced an 80–90% decrease in the amplitude of the hippocampal EEG. NECA was approximately 20-fold more potent than L-PIA, and L-PIA was twice the potency of D-PIA. In separate experiments in the anesthetized rat, NECA and L-PIA were found to block completely the activation of the hippocampal theta rhythm elicited with brainstem stimulation. The effects of adenosine analogs on both the hippocampal EEG and theta rhythm were very effectively reversed with methylxanthine, 8-para-sulphophenyl-theophylline (8-PSPT). The present findings demonstrate that adenosine analogs exert a powerful depressant effect on the hippocampal EEG in the natural unanesthetized state, and suggest that changes in the levels of endogenous adenosine may play a significant role in modulating the normal activity and function of the hippocampus.
A note on the use of Chandrasekhar equations for the calculation of the Kalman gain matrix (Corresp.)

This correspondence discusses some possible limitations on the application of a new algorithm for recursive linear estimation. An algorithm proposed by Kailath using Chandrasekhar equations to calculate the Kalman gain matrix has been shown to be computationally advantageous in some special cases. This correspondence considers the case of controllable and observable linear systems and shows that the conditions required for the algorithm to be advantageous form a closed set of Lebesgue measure zero.
Impedance boundary conditions for a metal film with a rough surface

We have obtained local impedance boundary conditions for a metal film characterized by an isotropic, frequency-dependent, complex dielectric function ∊(ω) that occupies the region ζ(x1) < x3 < D. The surface-profile function ζ(x1) is assumed to be a single-valued function of x1 that is differentiable as many times as is necessary. The electromagnetic field in the system is assumed to be p polarized with the plane of incidence, the x1x3 plane. The results are used to study the scattering of p-polarized light from and its transmission through the metal film when the surface-profile function ζ(x1) in these calculations is assumed to be a stationary, zero-mean, Gaussian random process. These calculations are approximately four times faster than rigorous computer simulations, and their results are qualitatively and quantitatively in good agreement with those of the latter simulations.
Recursive algorithm for motion primitive estimation

The need for knowing future manipulator motion arises in several robotics applications, including notification or avoidance of imminent collisions and real-time optimization of velocity commands. This paper presents a real-time, low overhead algorithm for identification of future manipulator motions, based on measurements of prior motions and the instantaneous sensed actuator velocity commanded by an operator. Experimental results with a human-controlled, two degree-of-freedom manipulator demonstrate the ability to quickly learn and accurately estimate future manipulator motions.
Normal Galaxies in the Infrared

A normal galaxy is one that derives its luminosity primarily from nuclear burning in stars, and is at neither the high nor the low extreme of the luminosity distribution. In such galaxies, the visible and ultraviolet is the only direct window onto the photospheres of stars, whereas the rest of the spectrum reflects reprocessed light from stars (Fig. 1). Dust in the interstellar medium reprocesses part of the stellar luminosity into infrared emission from a few μm to 1 mm or longer wavelengths. The radio emission at millimeter wavelengths derives from thermal emission from ionized plasmas in HII regions, whereas the synchrotron emission from cosmic ray electrons (CR e-) trapped in the magnetic field of the galaxy fill in the cm-wavelength spectrum. In the X-rays, the luminosity is dominated by very hot plasmas at T ≳ 10 K6 created by shocks from supernova explosions. The global spectrum of normal galaxies has some very stable signatures, and other quite variable aspects. Much of this article is an attempt to understand what makes for stability in the spectrum, and what significance to attach to the variable parameters.
Credit Hours With No Set Time: A Study of Credit Policies in Asynchronous Online Education

U.S. public university system policies were examined to learn how credit hours were determined for asynchronous online education. Findings indicated that (a) credit hour meaning and use are not consistent, (b) primary responsibility for credit hour decisions was at the local level, and (c) no policies exist to guide credit hour application for asynchronous online education. An unexpected finding indicated that an alternative was possible: a potential new method to track learning may be competency-based education.
Self-patterning, pre-applied underfilling technology for stack-die packaging

Die stacking is one of the next-generation 3D IC packaging methods, but its stringent material requirements are unlikely to be met by traditional underfills. Moreover, filler trapping is becoming an increasingly serious issue in no-flow and wafer-level underfills. In this report, we demonstrate a novel underfilling technology for the reduction of filler trapping in fine-pitch interconnects. In our method, we fabricate superhydrophobic bond pads, and control the flow of the underfill material by the surface energy difference between the bond pads and the Si 3 N 4 substrate. The superhydrophobic bond pads are shown to have no effect on the bonding of soldering materials to the pads.
The Morphology of Regenerated Cellulose

The morphotogy of three different regenerated celluloses has been investigated using electron microscopy. Fortisan rayon consists entirely of microlihrils, ∼40-50 nm in width, which are usually aggregated into larger fibers. The sub structure of the microfibrils is a parallel array of protofibrils ∼1.5-4.0 nm in width. The cellulose regenerated from a solution of dimethylsulfoxide and paraformaldehyde (DMSO/PF cellulose) exhibits a predominaritly fibrous morphology, but the microfibrits are often less, perfect than those observed for Fortisan. In addition, unoriented mats composed of short rodlets (∼12 nm wide) are occasionaly observed. The cellulose regenerated fromhydrazine (N2H4/H2O cellulose) consists primarily of unoriented mats of rodlets and occasional fihers. Both the mats and fibers are shown to be assemblies of the rodlets. High-magnification micrographs of the latter suggest that they are tiny cellulose crystals of approximate dimensions 2 × 6 × 25 nm.The differences observed in the morphology ...
The dead sea, the lake and its setting

I cannot think of a subject more befitting the description of interdisciplinary research with societal relevance than the study of the Dead Sea, a terminal lake of the Jordan River in Israel and Jordan. The scientific study of the Dead Sea is intimately connected with politics, religion, archeology, economic development, tourism, and environmental change. The Dead Sea is a relatively closed geologic and limnologic system with drastic physical changes often occurring on human timescales and with a long human history to observe these changes. Research in this unique area covers diverse aspects such as active subsidence and deformation along strike-slip faults; vertical stratification and stability of the water column; physical properties of extremely saline and dense (1234 kg/m3) water; spontaneous precipitation of minerals in an oversaturated environment; origin of the unusual chemical composition of the brine; existence of life in extreme environments; use of lake level fluctuations as a paleoclimatic indicator; and effects on the environment of human intervention versus natural climatic variability. Although the Dead Sea covers a small area on a global scale, it is nevertheless one of the largest natural laboratories for these types of research on Earth. These reasons make the Dead Sea a fascinating topic for the curious mind.
The Macromolecular Workbench and its application to the study of collagen

The MacroMolecular WorkBench (MMWB) is a software platform designed to integrate a diverse set of software and computer hardware to meet the needs of scientist performing molecular modeling. The authors used the study of collagen to test the functionality of MMWB. >
Seasonal and diurnal variation of Dst dynamics

[1] In recent years the debate over the causes of seasonal and diurnal variations in magnetic activity has been revived. Popular explanations rely primarily on the orientation of the terrestrial magnetic dipole relative to heliospheric topology. We investigate the signatures of this geometry in the dynamics of Dst, the ring current index. We show that the Russell-McPherron effect is present; however, enhancements in Dst, as measured by the Dst index, exhibit a seasonal and diurnal pattern that is significantly different from the Russell-McPherron (RM) effect. Specifically, the dynamics of Dst, which accommodate the RM effect, demonstrate seasonal and diurnal variations associated with ψ the magnetic colatitude of the subsolar point. Specifically, it is primarily the diurnal signature that distinguishes between various mechanisms for semiannual variations. We suggest that these variations are most consistent with the hypothesis that ψ modulates the depth of penetration of the magnetosheath field into the magnetopause and thereby the amount of magnetic merging and the strength and orientation of magnetopause currents.
Integrated magnetics scheme for ZVS hybrid converter with improved performance

This paper proposes a new integrated magnetics scheme for the ZVS hybrid DC-DC converter. The basic hybrid converter achieves significant reduction in filter requirement, while simultaneously achieving ZVS under all operating conditions. This paper attempts to remove one of the main drawbacks of the hybrid converter, namely the requirement of two power transformers, by combining them into a single magnetic structure with reduced volume. The proposed scheme also results in reduction of cores losses under a wide operating range. In addition, the integrated magnetics scheme improves the ZVS characteristics of the right-most leg switches at light loads, thus eliminating the extra LC circuit needed in the basic hybrid converter. The principle of operation of the proposed scheme is analyzed using the gyrator-capacitor model. Savings in core size and core losses compared to the basic hybrid converter are discussed. Experimental results from a 100 V/5 A proof-of-concept prototype validate the analysis, and demonstrate the advantages of the proposed scheme.
Effects of microstructure and shock loading conditions on the damage behavior of polycrystalline copper

A suite of plate-impact experiments have been conducted to determine the dominant factors in dynamic damage evolution in uniaxial strain tensile (spall) experiments. The first group of experiments addresses the effect of microstructure by using copper samples with varying grain sizes while maintaining similar loading conditions (peak compressive stress ∼ 1.5 GPa ). In a second set, the density of grain boundaries in copper samples and the compressive stress (∼ 1.6 GPa ) were held constant while the tensile loading characteristics were tailored by controlling the geometry of flyers and targets. For similar loading conditions, the damage fields were observed to depend on the grain size: void growth and coalescence were observed to dominate the damage behavior in samples with either small (30μm) or large grain size (200μm); whereas in samples with intermediate grain size (60 and 100μm), most of the damage was restricted to individual voids. For the second portion of the study the characteristics of the damage fields were observed to strongly depend on the characteristics of the tensile pulse. In this case, an increasing large plastic dissipation, in the form of grain misorientation, and more advanced stages of damage were observed in the samples deformed at lower tensile stress rates.
Thermodynamic insights on macroemulsion stability

Abstract Experiments reported in the literature for nonionic surfactants have revealed that: (1) the interfacial tension at the planar surface between oil and water, at a constant amount of surfactant and equal volumes of water and oil, passes through a minimum when plotted against the HLB (the hydrophilic–lipophilic balance); (2) under the same conditions, the emulsion stability against HLB passes through two maxima, one in the W/O range and the other in the O/W range, and a minimum between the two at the phase inversion point; (3) the minima under (1) and (2) coincide; (4) the phase inversion temperatures of emulsions, formed of oil and water as distinct phases, or microemulsions and their excess phase, and the corresponding microemulsions are the same. These observations are explained on the basis of thermodynamics. It is also shown that the stability of emulsions can be correlated with the surface excess of surfactant, which also passes through two maxima and a minimum between the two when plotted against HLB or temperature. In addition, a two ratio approach is used to determine when the Bancroft rule is obeyed or violated in microemulsions.
The inverse source problem based on the radiative transfer equation in optical molecular imaging

We present the first tomographic reconstruction algorithm for optical molecular imaging that is based on the equation of radiative transfer. The reconstruction code recovers the spatial distribution of fluorescent sources in highly scattering biological tissue. An objective function, which describes the discrepancy of measured near-infrared light with predicted numerical data on the tissue surface, is iteratively minimized to find a solution of the inverse source problem. At each iteration step the predicted data are calculated by a forward model for light propagation based on the equation of radiative transfer. The unknown source distribution is updated along a search direction that is provided by an adjoint differentiation technique.
A common framework for curve evolution, segmentation and anisotropic diffusion

In recent years, curve evolution has developed into an important tool in Computer Vision and has been applied to a wide variety of problems such as smoothing of shapes, shape analysis and shape recovery. The underlying principle is the evolution of a simple closed curve whose points move in the direction of the normal with prescribed velocity. A fundamental limitation of the method as it stands is that it cannot deal with important image features such as triple points. The method also requires a choice of an "edge-strength" function, defined over the image domain. Indicating the likelihood of an object boundary being present at any point in the image domain. This implies a separate preprocessing step, in essence precomputing approximate boundaries in the presence of noise. One also has to choose the initial curve. It is shown here that the different versions of curve evolution used in Computer Vision together with the preprocessing step can be integrated in the form of a new segmentation functional which overcomes these limitations and extends curve evolution models. Moreover, the numerical solutions obtained retain sharp discontinuities or "shocks", thus providing sharp demarcation of object boundaries.
Predictors of Smoking Patterns After First Stroke

Persistent smoking following stroke is associated with poor outcomes including development of secondary stroke and increased mortality risk. This study uses longitudinal data from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study (1992–2008) to investigate whether depression and duration of inpatient hospital care impact smoking outcomes among stroke survivors (N = 745). Longer duration of care was associated with lower likelihood of persistent smoking. Depression was associated with greater cigarette consumption. Interaction effects were also significant, indicating that for survivors who experienced longer inpatient care there was a weaker association between depression and cigarette consumption. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
Pre-clinical diastolic dysfunction in diabetic patients: where do we go from here?

Heart failure (HF) prevalence is increasing in the U.S. and throughout the rest of the world ([1,2][1]). Although therapeutic advances have improved outcomes over the past several decades, HF patients continue to experience diminished quality of life as well as a substantial reduction in their
ESRP2 controls an adult splicing programme in hepatocytes to support postnatal liver maturation

Although major genetic networks controlling early liver specification and morphogenesis are known, the mechanisms responsible for postnatal hepatic maturation are poorly understood. Here we employ global analyses of the mouse liver transcriptome to demonstrate that postnatal remodelling of the liver is accompanied by large-scale transcriptional and post-transcriptional transitions that are cell-type-specific and temporally coordinated. Combining detailed expression analyses with gain- and loss-of-function studies, we identify epithelial splicing regulatory protein 2 (ESRP2) as a conserved regulatory factor that controls the neonatal-to-adult switch of ∼20% of splice isoforms in mouse and human hepatocytes. The normal shift in splicing coincides tightly with dramatic postnatal induction of ESRP2 in hepatocytes. We further demonstrate that forced expression of ESRP2 in immature mouse and human hepatocytes is sufficient to drive a reciprocal shift in splicing and causes various physiological abnormalities. These findings define a direct role for ESRP2 in the generation of conserved repertoires of adult splice isoforms that facilitate terminal differentiation and maturation of hepatocytes.
Reassessing Jacksonian Political Culture: William Leggett’s Egalitarianism

AbstractScholars have long debated the character of Jacksonian political culture. Many have argued that the Democrats were individualist in political culture, and those who recognize an egalitarian aspect still describe the Jacksonian view of society as “atomistic.” The article focuses on the political thought of William Leggett, “Spokesman” of Jacksonian Democracy. It distinguishes between universalist and particularist varieties of egalitarianism and argues that Leggett’s universalist egalitarianism has been frequently misunderstood as individualist. In fact Leggett, like all egalitarians, started from a negative reference group bias against elites. His positive reference group identifications were broad and deracinated; they included as civically worthy both African Americans and women. This broadly inclusive view has often been conflated with the individualist view of equality, which is horizontal or reciprocity based. Leggett’s literary writings provide a context for reconstructing his vertical equal...
Understanding Technology-Structure Relationships: Theory Development and Meta-Analytic Theory Testing

Theoretical models concerning technology-structure relationships typically are limited to one technology variable, one structure variable, and one contingency variable. This study draws on three de...
Comparison of magnesium deficiency in the rat and mouse.

SummaryA comparative study has been made of the reactions of mice and rats subsisting on the same magnesium-deficient diet. Deficient young male rats developed the classical erythema, hyperirritability and tonic-clonic convulsions. While there was a high mortality with the convulsions, a good proportion recovered. Deficient male mice did not develop erythema or hyperirritability; they did convulse, but it was a single violent spasm wtih almost immediate death and rare survival. The deficient rats were either normocalcemic or hypercalcemia whereas the mice were hypocalcemic. There was a positive correlation between the plasma magnesium and calcium in the deficient mice. Although growth of mice receiving 5 mg% of magnesium in their diet was close to that of controls with 40 mg%, the plasma magnesium and calcium remained low for approximately 5 weeks.Renal glomerular dysfunction and calcification did not occur in depleted animals in either species.
Rayleigh-Brillouin Gain Spectroscopy in Gases

Over the past decade, we have seen extensive research on and application with Raman gain and other types of coherent Raman spectroscopies. These activities have made clear the advantages of coherent spectroscopy:high signal-to-noise, excellent discrimination from stray light and fluorescence backgrounds, and high spectral resolution. While Raman spectroscopy probes frequency shifts typically 10 cm−1 to 3000 cm−1 from the exciting laser line, information on thermal properties of the medium, which include thermal conductivity, shear and bulk viscosities, and lower-frequency excitations may be obtained from quasi-elastic Rayleigh-Brillouin scattering.
Study on power grid probabilistic optimal dispatch of coordinating wind power accommodation capability

Considering grid transmission component N-0 or N-1 contingency by deterministic way to make dispatching plan, while ignoring their failure probability, the dispatching plan will be inevitably conservative or aggressive in wind power accommodation during grid operating condition. Therefore, the transmission component contingency probability is taken into consideration, and a probabilistic optimal dispatching model of balancing grid security and wind power accommodation capability is established. Through the analysis of wind farm reported forecasting power scenarios under different wind energy conditions, comparing the grid maximum accepting wind power of deterministic and probabilistic network security, the recommended model is demonstrated effectively to coordinate the power grid static security and wind power accommodate capability by the risk balanced mode, so the power system dispatching plan can be more scientific.
Subacute Bacterial Endocarditis as an Immune Disease

Among the numerous immunologic changes occurring in s BE, one of the most significant appears to be the development of anti-gamma globulin (rheumatoid) factors in many patients. These factors react with 7S opsonic gamma G antibodies to inhibit phagocytosis of the invading bacteria; they may thus hold the key to the chronicity of the disease. Relevantly, with effective treatment of SBE, antiglobulin factors disappear.
Japan and Southeast Asia

Since 1945 Japan has been engaged in an economic’ southward Drive Diplomacy’ (nanshin gaiko) into Southeast Asia that has been just as single-minded as its military invasion of 1941–5, and certainly much more successful. By the mid-1970s Japan replaced the United States as the region’s most important source of trade, investment and aid, and Tokyo’s economic hegemony over Southeast Asia has steadily deepened since. Most analysts agree that Japan’s war-time vision of the Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere is now a peace-time reality, thanks to reparations, John Foster Dulles and the Cold War, the World Bank, IMF, ADB, and other modern instruments for economically dominating formerly independent countries, namely: foreign trade, foreign investments, and foreign aid.1
Collateral Constraints, Wealth Effects, and Volatility: Evidence from Real Estate Markets

We document that, within-region, lower-income zip codes have more volatile returns to housing than do higher-income zip codes, without any corresponding higher returns. We rationalize this finding with a simple model that features a collateral constraint on borrowing and non-homothetic preferences over housing. Shocks to the representative household's marginal rate of substitution lead to volatility in the return to housing via the collateral constraint. We argue that lower-income households have a more volatile marginal rate of substitution, and thus more volatile returns to housing, consistent with our empirical findings. We provide further evidence for our mechanism using (1) variation in wealth induced by lagged housing returns; (2) cross-sectional data on the housing expenditure share; and (3) state-level non-recourse status, which instruments for the tightness of collateral constraints. Finally, we observe that endogenous volatility in housing returns may limit the available supply of housing, via producers' option to delay. Consistent with this hypothesis, the age of the housing stock is monotonically decreasing in local income levels.
Gap junctional connexin messenger RNA expression in the ovine uterus and placenta: effects of estradiol-17β-treatment, early pregnancy stages, and embryo origin.

Gap junctions play a major role in direct, contact-dependent cell-cell communication, and they have been implicated in the regulation of cellular metabolism and the coordination of cellular functions during growth and differentiation of organs and tissues. Gap junctional channels, composed of connexin (Cx) proteins, have been detected and shown to be influenced by hormones (eg, estrogen and progesterone) in uterine and placental tissues in several species. We hypothesized that (1) the messenger RNA (mRNA) for Cx26, Cx32, Cx37, and Cx43 is expressed in the uterus of ovariectomized sheep treated with estradiol-17β (E2) and in ovine placenta during early pregnancy, (2) E2-treatment of ovariectomized ewes would cause time-specific changes in Cx26, Cx32, Cx37, and Cx43 mRNA expression (experiment 1), and (3) expression of these 4 Cx would vary across the days of early pregnancy (experiment 2) and will be affected by embryo origin (ie, after application of assisted reproductive technologies [ARTs]; experiment 3). Thus, we collected uterine tissues at 0 to 24 h after E2 treatments (experiment 1), and placental tissues during days 14 to 30 of early pregnancy after natural (NAT) breeding (experiment 2) and on day 22 of early pregnancy established after transfer of embryos generated through natural breeding (NAT-ET), in vitro fertilization (IVF), or in vitro activation (IVA, parthenotes; experiment 3). In experiment 1, the expression of Cx26, Cx37, and Cx43 mRNA increased (P < 0.05) and Cx32 mRNA decreased (P < 0.06) in both caruncular and intercaruncular tissues after E2 treatment. In experiment 2, during early pregnancy, there were significant changes (P < 0.01) across days in the expression of Cx26, Cx37, and Cx43 mRNA in the maternal placenta, accompanied by changes (P < 0.001) in Cx37 and Cx43 mRNA in the fetal placenta. In experiment 3, in maternal placenta, Cx32 mRNA expression was decreased (P < 0.001) in NAT-ET, IVF, and IVA groups compared to the NAT group; but in fetal placenta, Cx32 mRNA expression was increased (P < 0.05) in NAT-ET, IVF and IVF groups, and Cx26 mRNA expression was increased (P < 0.05) in IVA compared to NAT group. These data suggest that Cx26, Cx32, Cx37, and Cx43 play specific roles in E2-regulated uterine function and in placental development during early gestation both after natural mating and with application of ART.
Hazardous Materials Incidents: A One-Year Retrospective Review in Central California

Objective:This study describes the epidemiology of hazardous materials (hazmat) incidents in Fresno County, California, and analyzes the emergency medical services (EMS) response to these incidents.Setting:The study area has a population of 635,000 people living in an area of 6,004 square miles.Design:All Hazmat Emergency Response Team (HERT) reports and related prehospital, emergency department, and inpatient records from ljuly 1988 through 30 June 1989 were reviewed retrospectively.Results:There were 107 hazmat incidents involving 156 materials consisting of pesticides (24.4%), miscellaneous chemicals (17.3%), corrosives (16.7%), petroleum products (13.5%), airborne toxins (10.2%), organic solvents (7.7%), unidentified chemicals (5.1%), infectious medical waste (1.9%), empty containers with radioactive warning symbols but without detectable radiation (1.3%), heavy metals (1.3%), and alkali metals (0.6%). In ten (9%) of the 107 incidents, 68 patients required on-scene evaluation and 26 patients were transported to emergency departments. Four of these patients required admission, three because of injuries due to vehicular accidents, and one because of a coincidental cere-brovascular accident. Five incidents produced multiple victims from exposures to airborne toxins, accounting for 63 (93%) of 68 patients. Spills of solid or liquid pesticides occurred in four incidents involving patients. Ambulance personnel and/or equipment became contaminated in three of these four incidents.Conclusions:1) Ambulances should be dispatched selectively to hazmat incidents because only 9% of incidents involved patients. 2) training should emphasize personnel protection and proper patient decontamination to help prevent contamination of EMS personnel and equipment. 3) Preparation of EMS personnel should emphasize exposure to airborne toxins because these produced 93% of patients.
The Teller Acuity Card Procedure: Three Testers in a Clinical Setting

Purpose: The Teller acuity card procedure provides a quantitative measure of grating acuity in infants and young children and has been used in clinical and laboratory settings. The purpose of this study is to address the influence of the individual testers in a clinical setting. The authors report a comparison of acuity results obtained by three well-trained, experienced testers in a busy hospital-based clinical practice. Methods: Three different testers (A, B, C) performed 971 consecutive acuity assessments using the Teller acuity card procedure on 570 patients. The testers used similar techniques and adaptations, depending on clinical need. Diagnostic categories include nystagmus, aphakia, strabismus, glaucoma, retinopathy of prematurity (ROP), ptosis, optic nerve abnormalities, etc. Patients ranged in age from 2 weeks to 17 years (mean ± standard deviation, 23 ± 20 months). Results: When each patient was represented only once, A tested 144 patients; B, 251; and C, 175. The geometric mean right eye acuity scores of A were 3.00 cycles/ degree (cy/deg) (0.34 octaves, standard error [SE]; n=134); B, 4.05 cy/deg (0.20 octave, SE; n=225); and C, 3.71 cy/deg (0.30 octave, SE; n=163). An analysis of covariance showed a significant difference in the mean log scores across testers ( P = 0.02 adjusted for both age and diagnosis). Age was a strong predictor of acuity ( P = 0.0001), and the interactions between tester and age and tester and diagnosis were not significant. The geometric mean left eye acuity scores for A were 2.86 cy/deg (0.33 octave, SE; n=132); B, 3.46 cy/deg (0.23 octave, SE; n=218); and C, 3.32 cy/deg (0.30 octave, SE; n=160). The differences for left eyes among testers were not significant ( P = 0.37 adjusted for age and diagnosis). Conclusions: These results suggest that the tester may influence the acuity results measured by the Teller acuity card procedure in a clinical setting. Evaluation of interobserver reliability in clinical subjects should be a high priority of further work using the Teller acuity card procedure.
Health concerns of transgender and gender nonconforming youth and their parents upon presentation to a transgender clinic

Abstract Purpose The purpose of the study was to determine the frequency of specific health concerns identified by transgender and gender nonconforming patients and their parents at initial clinic visit. Methods Checklists were developed in an iterative process and distributed to both patients and parents at their initial visit to a transgender clinic. Retrospective chart review and secondary data analyses were performed to determine the number of items endorsed, frequency with which each item was endorsed, and provider domain of each item endorsed: physician, social work, or both physician and social work. Results Checklists were collected from 118 patients and 103 parents. Patients endorsed a mean of 8.4 concerns (range 0–22) and parents 7.9 concerns (range 0–20). The most commonly endorsed patient concerns included use of gender-affirming hormones, steps for transition, gender-affirming surgery, restroom/dressing room use, and legal issues. Common parent concerns included general resources, child safety at school, acute mental health concerns, restroom/dressing room use, and steps for transition. Of the concerns endorsed by patients, 44% were in the social work domain, 37% in the physician domain, and 19% in both the social work and physician domain. Of the concerns endorsed by parents, 40% were in the social work domain, 31% in the physician domain, and 29% in the social work and physician domain. Conclusions Although patients and parents had similar numbers of concerns, they primarily focused on different topics. Youth were more interested in hormones and transition, while parents were more interested with transition and acceptance. Many concerns for both patients and parents fell within the social work domain.
End-to-End Architectures for Speech Recognition

Automatic speech recognition (ASR) has traditionally integrated ideas from many different domains, such as signal processing (mel-frequency cepstral coefficient features), natural language processing (n-gram language models), or statistics (hidden markov models). Because of this “compartmentalization,” it is widely accepted that components of an ASR system will largely be optimized individually and in isolation, which will negatively influence overall performance. End-to-end approaches attempt to solve this problem by optimizing components jointly, and using a single criterion. This can also reduce the need for human experts to design and build speech recognition systems by painstakingly finding the best combination of several resources—which is still somewhat of a “black art.” This chapter will first discuss several recent deep-learning-based approaches to end-to-end speech recognition. Next, we will present the EESEN framework, which combines connectionist-temporal-classification-based acoustic models with a weighted finite state transducer decoding setup. EESEN achieves state-of-the art word error rates, while at the same time drastically simplifying the ASR pipeline.
Suicide Risk Monitoring: the Missing Piece in Suicide Risk Assessment

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth aged 10–25 years and approximately 1-in-6 adolescents reported serious suicidal ideation in the past year. Schools are a unique environment in which to identify and respond to youth suicide risk. Although there are screening tools for identifying which youth are at risk and assessment measures for establishing the severity of suicide risk, an essential aspect of risk management is excluded: monitoring youth suicide risk. It is likely that this gap exists because most of the development and research on screening and assessment is in settings such as outpatient mental health clinics or hospitals where routine monitoring is difficult. The Suicide Risk Monitoring Tool (SMT) was developed so that school mental health professionals could quickly track changes in youth already identified at-risk for suicide, including youth who are assessed but remain in school, or those who are re-entering school after a hospitalization. The SMT includes factors known to correlate with youth suicide risk. This paper will review the research on suicide screening and risk assessment, identify and describe the empirical and theoretical basis for the SMT, relate monitoring to the comprehensive risk assessment within a school’s overall framework for suicide risk assessment procedures, and provide a detailed case study that demonstrates how the SMT can be used with students in a school setting. Implications for research and practice are included.
Ionothermal synthesis of magnetically-retrievable mesoporous carbons from alkyne-appended ionic liquids and demonstration of their use in selective dye removal

We have devised a simple, convenient, and template-free synthetic strategy to make inherently functional (magnetically-responsive) mesoporous carbons by single-step ionothermal cyclotrimerization of alkyne-functionalized ionic liquids (AFILs) comprising paramagnetic anions. During the carbonization process, bromotrichloroferrate(III) [FeBrCl3]− or tetrabromoferrate(III) [FeBr4]− anions act as catalysts in controlling the textural properties of carbon, whereas the cation acts as a carbon source. The resulting mesoporous carbons were probed using a host of tools, including X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, nitrogen porosimetry (BET analysis), and transmission electron microscopy. Depending on the nature of the parent anion, magnetically-responsive mesoporous carbons (Fe-AFILs@C) with specific surface areas as high as 544 m2 g−1 and good structural stability were obtained from the ionothermal synthesis. The current AFILs are shown to be viable precursors to mesoporous carbons with interesting potential applications. For instance, we demonstrate the sorption of the cationic dye methylene blue (MB) and the anionic dye thiazine red R (TRR) from a contaminated aqueous stream using Fe-AFILs@C as well as their subsequent degradation via Fenton chemistry. The detailed sorption kinetics and the isotherm model for the equilibrium process were investigated and are in accordance with pseudo-second-order kinetics for a Langmuir-type adsorption isotherm. Interestingly, the mesoporous carbons were also successfully applied as selective sorbents to separate a binary mixture of the MB and TRR dyes. Significantly, the Fe-AFILs@C can be easily separated from the aqueous solution following the sorption process and can be easily regenerated using a simple ethanol washing step which releases the dye.