cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Numerical Simulation of Steady Liquid-Metal Flow in the Presence of a Static Magnetic Field

We describe a novel approach to the mathematical modeling and computational simulation of fully three-dimensional, electromagnetically and thermally driven, steady liquid-metal flow. The phenomenon is governed by the Navier-Stokes equations, Maxwell's equations, Ohm's law, and the heat equation, all nonlinearly coupled via Lorentz and electromotive forces, buoyancy forces, and convective and dissipative heat transfer. Employing the electric current density rather than the magnetic field as the primary electromagnetic variable, it is possible to avoid artificial or highly idealized boundary conditions for electric and magnetic fields and to account exactly for the electromagnetic interaction of the fluid with the surrounding media. A finite element method based on this approach was used to simulate the flow of a metallic melt in a cylindrical container, rotating steadily in a uniform magnetic field perpendicular to the cylinder axis. Velocity, pressure, current, and potential distributions were computed and compared to theoretical predictions.
Bone breaking stress as a function of weight bearing in bipedal rats.

The effect of bipedal stance on the breaking stress in compression of rat femora is investigated as a function of animal weight. It is shown that the breaking stress is a linear function of body weight, bone density and specific calcium content of the femur. In all cases investigated, bipedal femora are shown to have a higher breaking stress than controls. It is concluded that there is a continuous change in the quality as well as the quantity of bone in the rat femur with age and that the increased strength of bone material found in bipedal animals compared to controls as well as large animals as compared to small ones, cannot be explained on the basis of bone mineral content alone.
Use of organic amendments to increase the productivity of sand and gravel spoils: Effect on yield and composition of sweet corn

Crops grown on sand and gravel spoil areas are subject to temperature, moisture, and nutrient stresses due to the infertile, acidic, and coarse-textured properties of the spoil material. Additions of organic materials such as feedlot manure and sewage sludge compost applied at rates of 40, 80, and 160 Mg/ha were found to improve these spoil areas by providing (1) a more favorable pH for seedling germination and root development, (2) essential crop nutrients, and (3) a greatly increased water content of the spoils in the treated plots compared to fertilized controls. The manure-treated spoil plots had a higher water content than either the compost-treated spoils or the limed and fertilized control plots. In a drought year when the wastes were reapplied, both grain and stalk yields of sweet corn were highest for the manure-treated plots. The low heavy metal content makes these organic materials safe for use as soil conditioners. In addition, uptake and accumulation of toxic metals by sweet corn is generally less than other crops. The interaction between the kind and rate of organic amendment applied, the amount of rainfall in any given growing period, and the water content of the treated spoils determined the final nutrient composition of the stalks, leaves, and grain, as well as the grain and stalk yield.
Low-frequency scattering by rectangular dielectric particles

The field scattered by a homogeneous isotropic dielectric particle illuminated by a low-frequency plane electromagnetic wave is expressed in terms of a single polarizability tensor which is a function of only the geometry of the particle and a material parameter r representing either the relative permittivity or permeability of the dielectric. The mathemati- cal formulation is specialized to the case of a rectangular parallelepiped and numerical techniques are developed for computing the tensor elements. Specific data are presented for the tensor elements of rectangular parallelepipeds having square cross sections and are compared to the results obtained for spheroids and right circular cylinders of similar dimensions.
Sterol distribution within green and air cured tobacco

Abstract Stigmasterol and β-sitosterol varied greatly within the tobacco plant. Stigmasterol increased significantly in the shaded leaves. It was the predominant sterol at the plant base and in the basal leaf sections. β-Sitosterol predominated at the plant apex and in the leaf tip where light intensities were the highest. The other two major sterols in tobacco, campesterol and cholesterol, increased slightly from the base to plant apex. These same sterols increased slightly from basal to tip leaf sections. In the green plant, they decreased from the base to the plant apex. Light does not appear to have a large effect on the distribution of campesterol and cholesterol. There was a general decrease in total sterol during the final maturation and curing phases.
Factors influencing the link between social anxiety and peer acceptance: Contributions of social skills and close friendships during middle childhood

Childhood social anxiety consistently has been linked with low levels of peer acceptance, yet little is known about the factors contributing to this association. We therefore examined the mediating and moderating role of social skills and close friendships, two conceptually and empirically relevant variables which were hypothesized to contribute to the social anxiety-peer acceptance relationship. Fifty teachers and 333 children (M = 9.54 years) participated in this study. Sociometric procedures and standardized questionnaires were used to assess: (a) self-reported social anxiety and friendship quality, (b) teacher-rated social skills, and (c) peer-derived acceptance and friendship quantity scores. As expected, childhood social anxiety was associated with low levels of peer acceptance, and this relation was mediated in part by social skills difficulties. Friendship quality (but not quantity) moderated this process for girls, suggesting that high negativity within girls' best friendships may exacerbate risk for undesirable peer outcomes. Interestingly, friendship quantity and positive friendship quality did not serve a protective function for boys or girls. Some implications, methodological limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.
Glucocorticosteroid therapy for multiple sclerosis: A critical review

Controversy remains as to the efficacy, route of administration and dose of glucocorticosteroid (GCS) in multiple sclerosis (MS) therapy. With the recent approval of new disease modifying treatments and increasing interest in cost-benefit assessments, it is timely to critically consider their role in MS therapeutics. In this paper we review our current understanding of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of action of GCS as they relate to the postulated pathophysiology of MS. We also critically review the use of glucocorticosteroid therapy to: (1) improve recovery from exacerbations of MS, (2) delay the onset of MS in patients who experience a first episode of monosymptomatic optic neuritis, and (3) delay the time to onset of sustained progression of disability in patients with clinically definite MS.
Neural network representation of continuous 3-D distance transform for invariant object recognition

Invariant 3-D object recognitions under detection noise and partial object viewing are difficult pattern recognition tasks. On the other hand, humans are extremely adept in performing these functions. It has been suggested by the studies of experimental psychology that the task of matching rotated and translated 3-D objects by humans is done by mentally rotating and translating gradually one of the objects into the orientation of the other and then testing for a match. Motivated by these studies, the authors present a novel and robust neural network solution for these tasks based on detected range data from 3-D objects. The method operates in two stages: the object is first parametrically represented by a continuous distance transform network (CDTN) which converts the range data (surface points) into a continuous distance transform representation of the 3-D object. When later presented with range data obtained from the distorted and partially-viewed object without point correspondence, this 3-D distance transform representation allows the mismatch information to backpropagate through the CDTN so as to gradually align the best similarity transform of the distorted object. Based on the use of distance transform representation, the distance measure between the exemplar object and the aligned distorted object can be easily computed. >
Tratamiento endovascular de un pseudoaneurisma carotídeo postraumático mediante liberación de un stent y embolización con coils

Los pseudoaneurismas postraumaticos de la arteria carotida interna son lesiones poco frecuentes pero potencialmente mortales que se presentan en aproximadamente un tercio de las contusiones carotideas. Otro tipo de lesiones asociadas son la diseccion, la trombosis, y la rotura arterial completa. Historicamente, los pseudoaneurismas carotideos se han tratado quirurgicamente mediante correccion, ligadura y/o anticoagulacion, emergiendo durante la pasada decada tecnicas de angioplastia percutanea e implantacion de stents. Presentamos el caso de una paciente de 19 anos con un pseudoaneurisma postraumatico de la carotida interna que aumento de tamano tras tratamiento conservador y que fue finalmente corregido mediante embolizacion con coils y la implantacion de un stent.
A method for estimating the effective number of loci affecting a quantitative character.

Abstract A likelihood method is introduced that jointly estimates the number of loci and the additive effect of alleles that account for the genetic variance of a normally distributed quantitative character in a randomly mating population. The method assumes that measurements of the character are available from one or both parents and an arbitrary number of full siblings. The method uses the fact, first recognized by Karl Pearson in 1904, that the variance of a character among offspring depends on both the parental phenotypes and on the number of loci. Simulations show that the method performs well provided that data from a sufficient number of families (on the order of thousands) are available. This method assumes that the loci are in Hardy–Weinberg and linkage equilibrium but does not assume anything about the linkage relationships. It performs equally well if all loci are on the same non-recombining chromosome provided they are in linkage equilibrium. The method can be adapted to take account of loci already identified as being associated with the character of interest. In that case, the method estimates the number of loci not already known to affect the character. The method applied to measurements of crown–rump length in 281 family trios in a captive colony of African green monkeys ( Chlorocebus aethiopus sabaeus ) estimates the number of loci to be 112 and the additive effect to be 0.26 cm. A parametric bootstrap analysis shows that a rough confidence interval has a lower bound of 14 loci.
Toward biodegradable nanogel star polymers via organocatalytic ROP

Organocatalytic ring opening polymerization (OROP) is used to effect the rapid, scalable, room temperature formation of size-controlled, highly uniform, polyvalent, nanogel star polymer nanoparticles of biodegradable composition.
Symptom Incongruence Trajectories in Lung Cancer Dyads

Abstract Context There is little known about the pattern of change in patient-family member symptom incongruence across the lung cancer trajectory. Objectives This study examined trajectories of patient-family member incongruence in perceptions of patient physical function, pain severity, fatigue, and dyspnea in lung cancer dyads and explored the association with family member grief after patient death. Methods Lung cancer patients and their family members providing care ( n = 109 dyads) rated patient symptoms and physical function five times over 12 months. Symptom incongruence trajectories were analyzed using multilevel modeling. Results Patient-family member incongruence did not significantly change over time, on average, except in the case of patient physical function where incongruence significantly declined. There was significant variability around trajectories of incongruence for all symptoms except fatigue. Exploratory analysis on a subsample of 22 bereaved family members found that incongruence regarding patient fatigue was associated with family member grief two months after patient death. Conclusion Findings suggest the importance of modeling symptom incongruence over time and taking a dyadic approach to the illness context to identify interventions that promote adjustment and quality of life for both patient and family member.
On Mechanosensation in Bone Under Microgravity

Recent research has illuminated the biological response of bone to mechanical loading at the cellular level, but the precise mechanosensory system that signals bone cells to deposit or resorb tissue has not been identified. The purpose of this paper is to describe the current status of this research and to suggest some possible mechanosensory systems by which bone cells might sense environmental loads. The question of whether the mechanosensory system in bone tissue is at the level of the cell or whether it is at the tissue level and involving the cells is considered here. More precisely, the following question is addressed: can an osteocyte or an osteoblast read the gravitational field changes directly (and independent of changes in its environment), or does it detect those changes indirectly from its environment by contact stresses as it must detect other changes in mechanical loading on the surface of the earth? Our strategies for coping with the decay of the musculoskeletal system in long term space flight are somewhat dependent upon the answer to this question.
Reservation versus nonreservation American Indians' loci of control and consumption of alcohol.

Rotter's Internal-External Control Scale was administered to 85 adult American Indians. The reservation group included 44 subjects, 18 of whom were heavy drinkers. The nonreservation group was composed of 41 subjects, 15 of whom were heavy drinkers. Subjects living on the reservation had scores more internal than subjects living outside the reservation. Heavy drinkers were more internal than light drinkers.
THE PLIGHT OF HIGH SCHOOL PHYSICS

…The school is simply that form of community life in which all those agencies are concentrated that will be most effective in bringing the child to share in the inherited resources of the race, and to use his own powers for social ends. …Most people never find out from the science teaching to which they are exposed why they do not share adequately the obvious benefits of science. Many acquire deep feelings of resentment and hostility toward this “science” which does indeed create new kinds of gadgets and comforts and jobs, but which also arouses desires doomed to disappointment and creates unemployment, insecurity, and bewilderment. Science promises everything, but leaves the individual in many cases empty handed.
Devonian and Mississippian Stratigraphy and Depositional Environments in Big Hatchet Mountains of Southwestern New Mexico: ABSTRACT

In the Big Hatchet Mountains the Upper Devonian Percha Shale rests unconformably on the Upper Ordovician Montoya Formation and is overlain by strata referred to the upper part of Sabin's Portal Formation. To date, this is the farthest east the Portal has been observed. Devonian rocks record a shallowing-up sequence from the lower Percha (Ready Pay-Box Members) deposited in quiet water to the Portal grainstone deposited at or above wave base. The Portal contains Upper Devonian (Famennian) conodonts indicative of Sandberg's shallow-water polygnathid-icriodid biofacies. Mississippian strata, represented by the Escabrosa Group, contain Early Mississippian (Osagean) conodonts at the base. Lower Mississippian strata record 2 Osagean cycles of submergence and emergence. Encroachment began in the early Osagean (isosticha-upper crenulata Zone) when the basal oolitic grainstones of the Bugle member of the Keating Formation were deposited. A shallowing-up sequence followed, culminating in the deposition of high-energy grainstones of the upper Bugle. The end of Bugle deposition is marked by a second submergence (lower typicus-Anchoralis latus Zone) when argillaceous wackestones were deposited. This deepening continued during deposition of the basal Witch member. Regression began during deposition of the Witch, as suggested by the vertical sequence from fine-g ained mudstones to high-energy grainstones. This shallowing sequence continues into the lower Hatchita Formation. End_of_Article - Last_Page 509------------
Requirements for noncovalent binding of vaccinia topoisomerase I to duplex DNA

Vaccinia DNA topoisomerase binds duplex DNA and forms a covalent adduct at sites containing a conserved sequence element 5'(C/T)CCTT decreases in the scissile strand. Distinctive aspects of noncovalent versus covalent interaction emerge from analysis of the binding properties of Topo(Phe-274), a mutated protein which is unable to cleave DNA, but which binds DNA noncovalently. Whereas DNA cleavage by wild type enzyme is most efficient with 'suicide' substrates containing fewer than 10 base pairs distal to the scissile bond, optimal noncovalent binding by Topo(Phe-274) requires at least 10-bp of DNA 3' of the cleavage site. Thus, the region of DNA flanking the pentamer motif serves to stabilize the noncovalent topoisomerase-DNA complex. This result is consistent with the downstream dimensions of the DNA binding site deduced from nuclease footprinting. Topo(Phe-274) binds to duplex DNA lacking the consensus pentamer with 7-10-fold lower affinity than to CCCTT-containing DNA.
Formal methods applied to high-performance computing software design: a case study of MPI one-sided communication-based locking

There is a growing need to address the complexity of verifying the numerous concurrent protocols employed in the high-performance computing software. Today's approaches for verification consist of testing detailed implementations of these protocols. Unfortunately, this approach can seldom show the absence of bugs, and often results in serious bugs escaping into the deployed software. An approach called Model Checking has been demonstrated to be eminently helpful in debugging these protocols early in the software life cycle by offering the ability to represent and exhaustively analyze simplified formal protocol models. The effectiveness of model checking has yet to be adequately demonstrated in high-performance computing. This paper presents a case study of a concurrent protocol that was thought to be sufficiently well tested, but proved to contain two very non-obvious deadlocks in them. These bugs were automatically detected through model checking. The protocol models in which these bugs were detected were also easy to create. Recent work in our group demonstrates that even this tedium of model creation can be eliminated by employing dynamic source-code-level analysis methods. Our case study comes from the important domain of Message Passing Interface (MPI)-based programming, which is universally employed for simulating and predicting anything from the structural integrity of combustion chambers to the path of hurricanes. We argue that model checking must be taught as well as used widely within HPC, given this and similar success stories. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. A shorter version of this paper was published in [1].
Message Order Effects and Gender Differences in Advertising Persuasion

ABSTRACT This article demonstrates how presentation order, gender, and value relevance can influence advertising processing under different viewing situations. One study found that message order and gender influenced message persuasion: under situational low involvement, females (males) exhibited primacy (recency) effects when viewing two advertisements differing in values (help-self versus help-others) for a charity. In a second study, with higher situational involvement, all respondents appeared to process advertising messages systematically and considered the value content within the message in their evaluations. Thought-listing data revealed that females continued to exhibit primacy effects regardless of message appeal, but the recency effects with males disappeared when the advertisement (help-self) matched their values. Relevance for advertising effectiveness and media planning is discussed.
Radiation-Induced Soft Error Rates of Advanced CMOS Bulk Devices

This work provides a comprehensive summary of radiation-induced soft error rate (SER) scaling trends of key CMOS bulk devices. Specifically we analyzed the SER per bit scaling trends of SRAMs, sequentials and static combinational logic. Our results show that for SRAMs the single-bit soft error rate continues to decrease whereas the multi-bit SER increases dramatically. While the total soft error rate of logic devices (sequentials and static combinational devices) has not changed significantly, a substantial increase in the susceptibility to alpha particles is observed. Finally, a novel methodology to extract one-dimensional cross sections of the collected charge distributions from measured multi-bit statistics is introduced.
The Normative Anticipation of Retirement by Older Workers

The scope of explanation for retirement behavior could be greatly enlarged by acknowledging workers’ extended engagement with the question before the event—its “givenness” in their future, and their course of action toward it. This study provides evidence for such extended involvement among workers aged 51 to 61 in the 1992 Health and Retirement Study (HRS) who saw themselves being within 15 years of retiring. To the extent that workers foresaw less time left at work, they reported more frequent thinking and talking about retirement. This pattern was quite general. The consideration given to retirement was, as expected, more frequent in circumstances that might orient workers toward the future. However, even absent these circumstances, subjective proximity still predicted the topicality of retirement. Widely held, albeit individual, timetables for retirement demonstrate its embeddedness in the subjective life course of older workers.
Mesenchymal stem cells stimulate protective genetic reprogramming of injured cardiac ventricular myocytes

Since massive irreversible loss of cardiac myocytes occurs following myocardial injury, injection of human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) has emerged as a promising therapeutic intervention. Despite the growing enthusiasm for this approach, the understanding of how hMSCs evoke cardiac improvement is ever more controversial. The present study critically tests hypothesis that hMSCs provide specific benefit directly to damaged ventricular myocytes. Cultures of neonatal mouse ventricular cardiac myocytes (nMCM) were subjected to two distinct acute stress protocols; incubations with either endotoxin, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or toxic cytokine, IL-1β. Myocyte injury was assessed in intracellular Ca(2+) signaling assays in fluo-3-loaded nMCMs that were imaged with high temporal resolution by fluorescent microscopy. Following LPS or IL-1β treatment there was profound myocyte injury, manifest by chaotic [Ca(2+)](i) handling, quantified as a 3- to 5-fold increase in spontaneous [Ca(2+)](i) transients. Antibody neutralization experiments reveal such damage is mediated in part by interleukin-18 and not by tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). Importantly, normal [Ca(2+)](i) signaling was preserved when cardiomyocytes were co-cultured with hMSCs. Since normal [Ca(2+)](i) handling was maintained in transwell cultures, where nMCMs and hMSCs were separated by a permeable membrane, a protective paracrine signaling cascade is operable. hMSCs provoke a genetic reprogramming of cardiomyocytes. LPS provokes release of TNFα from nMCMs which is blocked by hMSCs grown in co- or transwell cultures. Consistent with cytokine release, flow cytometry analyses reveal that hMSCs also block the LPS- and IL-1β-dependent activation of cardiac transcription factor, NF-κB. Importantly, hMSC-conditioned medium restores normal Ca(2+) signaling in LPS- and IL-1β-damaged nMCMs. These results reveal new evidence that hMSCs elicit protective and reparative effects on cardiac tissue through molecular reprogramming of the cardiac myocytes themselves. Thus these studies provide novel new insight into the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the therapeutic benefit of hMSCs in the setting of heart failure. This article is part of a special issue entitled, "Cardiovascular Stem Cells Revisited".
Adult criminal involvement: a cross-sectional inquiry into correlates and mechanisms over the life course

In this article, the authors examine the relative contribution of four domains of predictors that have been linked to adult criminal involvement: (a) sociodemographic characteristics, (b) family-of...
Managerial Span of Control: A Pilot Study Comparing Departmental Complexity and Number of Direct Reports

Nurse managers play pivotal roles in hospitals. However, restructuring has resulted in nurse managers having wider span of control and reduced visibility. The purpose of this pilot study was to compare two methods of measuring span of control: departmental complexity and number of direct reports. Forty-one nurse managers across nine hospitals completed The Ottawa Hospital Clinical Manager Span of Control Tool (TOH-SOC) and a demographic survey. A moderate positive relationship between number of direct reports and departmental complexity score was identified (r=.49, p=<.01). Intensive care departments were more likely to be classified differently, using departmental complexity compared to number of direct reports (54%). TOH-SOC is a reliable instrument (Cronbach's alpha = .838). Using departmental complexity rather than direct reports may more accurately reflect the full scope of nurse managers' responsibility.
REACTION OF CHORIONIC GONADOTROPIN WITH PHENYLISOCYANATE

EVIDENCE HAS been presented by Hopkins and Wormall (1933), and Gaunt and Wormall (1936), which indicated that, under certain mild conditions of reaction, phenylisocyanate reacts only with the free amino group of proteins, and the conditions of this reaction have been found to produce inactivation of the pregnant mare-serum gonadotropin (Evans, et al., 1942). This evidence has, however, been considerably weakened by recent work on the tobacco mosaic virus in which hydroxy-groups of tyrosine were readily covered by reaction with phenylisocyanate (Miller and Stanley, 1941). In view of the disagreement concerning the essentiality of free amino groups for the physiologic activity of chorionic gonadotropin (Li, et al, 1939, 1940; Bischoff, 1941, 1942) we have extended the study of the phenylisocya-nate reaction to chorionic gonadotropin under the specifically mild conditions of reaction as described by Hopkins and Wormall (1933) and by Evans, Nelson, and Cartland (1942).
Motion Enslaving among Multiple Fingers of the Human Hand

The purpose of the current study was to examine motion enslaving characteristics of multiple fingers during isolated flexion of the distal interphalangeal joints. Because the distal interphalangeal joints are flexed by multiple tendons of the single flexor digitorum profundus, the current experimental design provided a unique advantage to understand inter-finger enslaving effects due to the flexor digitorum profundus. Eight subjects were instructed to flex the distal interphalangeal joint of each individual finger from the fully extended position to the fully flexed position as quickly as possible. Maximal angular displacements, velocities, or accelerations of individual fingers were used to calculate the enslaving effects. An independence index, defined as the ratio of the maximal displacement of a master finger to the sum of the maximal displacements of the master and slave fingers, was used to quantify relative independence of each finger. The angular displacements of the index, middle, ring, and little fingers were 68.6° (±7.7), 68.1° (±10.1), 68.1° (±9.7), and 74.7° (±13.3), respectively. The motion of a master finger was invariably accompanied by motion of 1 or 2 slave fingers. Angular displacements of master and slave fingers increased to maximum values with time monotonically. Velocity curves demonstrated bellshaped profile, and the acceleration curves were sinusoidal. Enslaving effects were generated mainly on the neighboring fingers. The amount of enslaving on the middle and ring fingers exceeded more than 60% of their own maximum angular displacements when a single adjacent finger moved. The index finger had the highest level of independence as indicated by the lowest enslaving effects on other fingers or by other fingers. The independence indices of the index, middle, ring, and little fingers were 0.812 (±0.070), 0.530 (±0.051), 0.479 (±0.099), and 0.606 (±0.148), respectively. In all tasks, motion of slave fingers always lagged with respect to the master finger. Time delays, on aver age, ranged from 7.8 (±5.0) to 35.9 (±22.1) ms. Our results suggest that there exist relatively large enslaving effects among the compartments of the flexor digitorum profundus, and functional independence of fingers in daily activities
Automatic Generation of Music Thumbnails

Automatic generation of music thumbnails based on content analysis is important for efficient management and better consumption of digital music. In this paper, a unique method for extracting thumbnails from a song based on structure analysis of the music piece is presented. First, paragraphs in the song with repeated melody are detected; next, vocal portions in the song are identified. With such information, the structure of the song is derived. Then, one or more thumbnails of the song can be selected according to the song structure and heuristic rules. This approach has proved to be effective when tested on a variety of music pieces. It takes only a couple of seconds to process each song. The method was integrated into a music search system. Also, a demo was built based on it, which lets the user instantly view the structure and thumbnails of any song he selects.
Differences in the delivery of health education to patients with chronic disease by provider type, 2005-2009.

Health education provided to patients can reduce mortality and morbidity of chronic disease. Although some studies describe the provision of health education by physicians, few studies have examined how physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners differ in the provision of health education. The objective of our study was to evaluate the rate of health education provision by physicians, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners/certified midwives.
Using Learning Analytics to Understand the Learning Pathways of Novice Programmers

Many have suggested that tinkering plays a critical role in novices learning to program, and recent work in learning analytics (Baker & Yacef, 2009 Blikstein, 2011) allows us to describe new relationships in the process. Using learning analytics, we explore how students progress from exploration, through tinkering, to refinement, a pathway that we term EXTIRE. The work contributes to learning sciences by: showing empirical support for previously theorized processes; identifying a role of tinkering in novices' learning; and presenting a data-driven approach to creating process descriptions. Furthermore, our findings illuminate how tinkering can be a valuable approach for novices.
Radicalization of Religious Discourse in El Salvador: The Case of Oscar A. Romero

The late 1970s and early 1980s were a period of great conflict in El Salvador. It was a remarkable time for the Catholic Church. Like elsewhere in Latin America, the Church had conservative history. With the courageous ministry of Archbishop Oscar Romero, the Church became a key member of the popular movement fighting for social justice. The discourse of the popular church was prophetic. Content coding reveals that the discourse became more concrete, material and active during the Romero's tenure. Prophetic religious discourse represents a heterodox ideological force. Analysis of the rhetorical strategies shows how prophetic religion in El Salvador was related to the political struggle between the oligarchy and the popular movements as the country descended into civil war.
Teaching communication skills using role-play: an experience-based guide for educators.

Abstract Teaching advanced communication skills requires educators who are not only excellent communicators themselves but have the ability to deconstruct the components of the interaction and develop a cognitive approach that can be used across a variety of learners, diverse content, and under different time constraints while helping the learner develop the skill of self-reflection in a ‘safe’ and effective learning environment. The use of role-play in small groups is an important method to help learners cultivate the skills required to engage in nuanced, often difficult conversations with seriously ill patients. To be effective, educators utilizing role-play must help learners set realistic goals and know when and how to provide feedback to the learners in a way that allows a deepening of skills and a promotion of self-awareness. The challenge is to do this in a manner that does not cause too much anxiety for the learner. In this article we outline an approach to teaching communication skills to advance...
Design and development of mechanical embolic protection devices

Carotid angioplasty and stenting (CAS) is rapidly becoming an acceptable alternative to carotid endarterectomy in many patients. Much of the success of CAS is credited to advances in equipment dedicated to this minimally invasive approach. Lower profile delivery systems, tapered stent designs and most importantly, development of mechanical cerebral embolic protection devices (EPDs) have contributed to a reduction in periprocedural neurological complications that now rival results of carotid endarterectomy. Despite a lack of level one evidence in support of EPDs, a meta-analysis as well as two recent institutional reports of CAS with and without EPDs suggest a reduced stroke risk when a mechanical protection device is incorporated as part of the procedure. Since the original description by Theron and colleagues, embolic protection systems are markedly improved in ease of use and effectiveness. The three primary groups of EPDs are distal balloon occlusion, distal filtration and proximal occlusion. Although ...
Physics Of Computational Abstraction

This paper will discuss the idea that eficient computation depends on local space and time costs as seen by the services provided to the current layer of abstraction. The approach taken will be to replace the classical notions of space and time with the unified notion of SpaceTime from modern physics. The rest of the paper will be organized as follows. The history of key topics and their perspective of space and time will be discussed. Then I will jushh the need for U unified notion of SpaceTime in order to show computation and information are not the same. Finally the conclusions and other issues will be discussed.
Geothermal Anomalies in Western Trans-Pecos Texas: ABSTRACT

Several major geothermal anomalies are present in Trans-Pecos Texas because of warm to hot water springs and wells, silica geochemical indicators, and shallow thermal gradient measurements. Forty-four thermal water (30°C or above) occurrences have been located in the area. The largest concentration of thermal waters is in southern Hudspeth and western Presidio Counties adjacent to the Rio Grande. The thermal waters range from slightly fresh to salty; total dissolved solids range from 275 to 11,500 ppm. Major ions in the high dissolved solid waters include sodium and chloride. As indicated by the silica geothermometer temperatures, subsurface waters above 125°C exist at seven locations in northeast El Paso, western and southeastern Jeff Davis, western and northern Presidio, and southern Brewster Counties. The areas having highest silica temperatures are (1) west of the Hueco Mountains in northeastern El Paso County and extending northward into southwestern Otero County, New Mexico; here maximum silica temperatures are 151°C and maximum measured water temperatures reach 71°C; and (2) north of Candelaria in western Presidio County where maximum silica temperatures reach 177°C and maximum measured water temperatures are 72°C. Geothermal gradients have been measured in over 70 wells and boreholes, most of these in Presidio County. Average gradient is 77°C/km in the Rio Grande Valley, with 30°C/km in the highlands east of the valley; this would seem to reflect the possible boundary of the Basin and Range and Great Plains tectonic provinces. In addition, a drilling program has been underway in northeastern El Paso County to investigate the geochemical anomaly west of the Hueco Mountains. Twelve to 14 holes drilled yielded gradients of over 100°C/km, and two of these penetrated the limestone bedrock, where the elevated gradients continued to increase with depth. Heat-flow values of 9 and 11 HFU were calculated for these latter two holes. On the basis of these gradients a geothermal resource may xist close to El Paso. End_of_Article - Last_Page 762------------
Creation and Characterization of a Renin Knockout Rat

The renin-angiotensin system plays an important role in the control of blood pressure (BP) and renal function. To illuminate the importance of renin in the context of a disease background in vivo, we used zinc-finger nucleases (ZFNs) designed to target the renin gene and create a renin knockout in the SS/JrHsdMcwi (SS) rat. ZFN against renin caused a 10-bp deletion in exon 5, resulting in a frameshift mutation. Plasma renin activity was undetectable in the Ren-/- rat, and renin protein was absent from the juxtaglomerular cells in the kidney. Body weight was lower in the Ren-/- rats (than in the Ren+/- or wild-type littermates), and conscious BP on low-salt diet (0.4% NaCl) was 58 ± 2 mm Hg in the Ren-/- male rats versus 117 mm Hg in the Ren+/- littermates, a reduction of almost 50 mm Hg. Blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and plasma creatinine levels were elevated in the Ren-/- strain (BUN 112 ± 7 versus 23 ± 2 mg/dL and creatinine 0.53 ± 0.02 versus 0.26 ± 0.02 mg/dL), and kidney morphology was abnormal with a rudimentary inner renal medulla, cortical interstitial fibrosis, thickening of arterial walls, and abnormally shaped glomeruli. The development of the first rat knockout in the renin-angiotensin system demonstrates the efficacy of the ZFN technology for creating knockout rats for cardiovascular disease on any genetic background and emphasizes the role of renin in BP regulation and kidney function even in the low-renin SS rat.
Compressive mobile sensing in robotic mapping

This paper presents a novel approach, compressive mobile sensing, to use mobile sensors to sample and reconstruct sensing fields based on compressive sensing. Compressive sensing is an emerging research field based on the fact that a small number of linear measurements can recover a sparse signal without losing any useful information. Using compressive sensing, the signal can be recovered by a sampling rate that is much lower than the requirements from the well-known Shannon sampling theory. The proposed compressive mobile sensing approach has not only the merits of compressive sensing, but also the flexibility of different sampling densities for areas of different interests. A special measurement process makes it different from normal compressive sensing. Adopting importance sampling, compressive mobile sensing enables mobile sensors to move adaptively and acquire more samples from more important areas. A motion planning algorithm is designed based on the result of sparsity analysis to locate areas of more interests. At last, experimental results of 2-D mapping are presented as an implementation compressive mobile sensing.
Electrophysiologic Studies in Tricuspid Atresia

Five patients with tricuspid atresia underwent His bundle studies with the recording catheter placed close to the mitral valve ring. Right atrial pacing and measurement of the refractory periods were performed in three. The prolonged intraatrial conduction time found in all patients is thought to be caused by a hypertrophied and dilated right atrium with increased internodal distance due to stretching of internodal pathways. The A-H interval was normal in all; the H-V interval was short in three and normal in two. The pattern of left axis deviation in the group with a short H-V interval is thought to be due to early origin of the posterior branches of the left bundle branch from the bundle of His and early activation of the posteroinferior parts of the left ventricle. The pattern of left axis deviation in the group with a normal H-V interval may be related to the previously reported anomalous course of the left bundle. Atrial pacing produced a normal response. The refractory periods were within normal range, suggesting functional integrity of conduction through the atrioventricular node and bundle branches.
Soil solution chemistry of ectomycorrhizal mats in forest soil

Abstract Survival and productivity of Douglas-fir [ Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco] depend on close association between host trees and ectomycorrhizal fungi. Two of these fungi, Hysterangium setchellii (Fischer) and Gautieria monticola (Harkness), form extensive hyphal mats with the roots of Douglas-fir and other conifers in the surface of the ‘A’ horizon, often at the interface between mineral oil and litter. The fungal mat alters the chemistry and mineral nutrition of the soil microenvironment within the rhizosphere, producing conditions that favor increased tree growth by increasing nutrient availability. Forest soils with or without obvious ectomycorrhizal mats were sampled at two locations in the Pacific Northwest. Cation and anion chemistry, dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and oxalate anions were analyzed. Mean concentrations of DOC, oxalate, PO 4 , SO 4 , H, Al, Fe, Cu, Mn and Zn were significantly higher in mat than in non-mat soil solutions in both mat types and locations and on both sampling dates. Significant statistical correlations between DOC or oxalate and PO 4 indicate that organic acids influence weathering and solubility of PO 4 in the mat soils. Mean oxalate concentrations were significantly lower in soil solutions from Hysterangium mat soils than in those from Gautieria mat soils. Organic acids released to the rhizosphere by G. monilcola and H. setchellii may provide a local weathering environment that increases availability of PO 4 , SO 4 and trace nutrients.
What is the mechanism of action of praziquantel and how might resistance strike

Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia, is a neglected tropical disease affecting over 249 million people of which approximately 45% are school-aged children. Although there are significant numbers of people with the disease in Asia and South America, over 90% of those infected reside in Africa. The Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 estimated 11,700 deaths and 2,986,000 years lost to disability due to schistosomiasis in that year [1,2]. In 2012, the World Health Organization produced a ‘roadmap’ whose ultimate goal was the “...elimination of NTDs or reductions in their impacts to levels at which they are no longer considered public-health problems” [3]. Schistosomiasis was listed as a disease for potential elimination in the Eastern Mediterranean, Caribbean, Indonesia and Mekong River basin by 2015 and Brazil by 2020. Understandably, a more conservative note was sounded for Sub-Saharan Africa where worry over availability of medication was cited as the reason for failing to schedule elimination by 2020. The best-case scenario that could be made was with widespread availability of medication and strong political support schistosomiasis could be “...eliminated as a ‘public health problem’ in multiple countries in Africa by 2020.” The causative agents of schistosomiasis are digenetic trematode worms belonging the genus Schistosoma with Schistosoma mansoni, S. japonicum and S. haematobium being responsible for the majority of cases. Unfortunately, there is no vaccine available for the treatment of human schistosomiasis nor is the development of one on the horizon. Praziquantel (PZQ) is the only widely available drug for treatment of the disease and is thus at the heart of all control programs. It has been available for over 30 years yet the mechanism by which it kills schistosomes remains unknown and worries persist over the potential for mass administration campaigns to eventually diminish its usefulness. Here, we provide an introduction to schistosomiasis and discuss our current understanding of the mechanism of action of PZQ and the potential for widespread drug resistance.
Chemoselectivity and the Chan–Lam Coupling Reaction: Adding Amino Acids to Polymer-Coated Microelectrode Arrays

The placement of a peptide onto a microelectrode array is frequently complicated by the presence of multiple nucleophiles in the peptide. In the work reported here, we have found that the Chan–Lam coupling reactions used to site-selectively place thiol, alcohol, and amine nucleophiles onto diblock-copolymer-coated surfaces are chemoselective for the placement of thiol and alcohol nucleophiles on the arrays. This means that cysteine- and serine-containing peptides can be placed onto an array without any need to protect the N terminus of the peptide. Furthermore, it was found that placement of thiol groups onto an array with the Chan–Lam reaction using optimized reaction times leads to complete coverage of the electrodes. The extent of this coverage can be controlled by varying the reaction time in a manner that allows for the construction of arrays with a gradient of peptide concentrations.
Pneumothorax with prolonged chest tube requirement after CT-guided percutaneous lung biopsy: incidence and risk factors.

To evaluate the incidence and risk factors of pneumothoraces requiring prolonged maintenance of a chest tube following CT-guided percutaneous lung biopsy in a retrospective, single-centre case series. All patients undergoing CT-guided percutaneous lung biopsies between June 2012 and May 2014 who required chest tube insertion for symptomatic or enlarging pneumothoraces were identified. Based on chest tube dwell time, patients were divided into two groups: short term (0-2 days) or prolonged (3 or more days). The following risk factors were stratified between groups: patient demographics, target lesion characteristics, and procedural/periprocedural technique and outcomes. A total of 2337 patients underwent lung biopsy; 543 developed pneumothorax (23.2 %), 187 required chest tube placement (8.0 %), and 55 required a chest tube for 3 days or more (2.9 % of all biopsies, 29.9 % of all chest tubes). The median chest tube dwell time for short-term and prolonged groups was 1.0 days and 4.7 days, respectively. The transfissural needle path predicted prolonged chest tube requirement (OR: 2.5; p = 0.023). Other factors were not significantly different between groups. Of patients undergoing CT-guided lung biopsy, 2.9 % required a chest tube for 3 or more days. Transfissural needle path during biopsy was a risk factor for prolonged chest tube requirement. • CT-guided percutaneous lung biopsy (CPLB) is an important method for diagnosing lung lesions • A total of 2.9 % of patients require a chest tube for ≥3 days following CPLB • Transfissural needle path is a risk factor for prolonged chest tube time