cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Hydro-Economic Analysis for Water Resources Management in a Changing Climate

Water is potentially one of the most affected resources as climate changes. The impact of climate change in hydrologic regimes will affect water quantity, water quality and the occurrence of extreme events such as floods and droughts. Future water availability will also depend on the evolution of water use and water demands which are influenced by socioeconomic factors such as population growth, technological progress, infrastructure development, land use changes, and institutions. Climate change analysis for water resources management has traditionally focused on the physical impacts of different climate regimes on water availability with a limited representation of the socioeconomic dynamics within water systems. At the same time, economic analysis of climate change impacts on water resources has lacked a careful treatment of the physical aspects of water resource systems. Hydro-economic models have the potential to bridge the gap between these two types of analysis by integrating economic analysis into detailed water resource system analysis. A hydro-economic framework of analysis can be instrumental in studying how climate-related changes in water availability affect social welfare and how different policy interventions and investments can help reduce risks and take advantage of possible opportunities in the water sector resulting from climate change. This framework can be a useful tool for planners and decision-makers in the water management sector. Hydro-economic assessments integrate models describing the physical effects of climate change (e.g. hydrologic changes) with models describing engineering, economic and institutional responses at appropriate scales, providing a robust framework to study whether the broad range of water uses might remain compatible under future climate scenarios. We review case studies of different river basins around the world where applications of hydro-economic models were used to assess climate change impacts and adaptation strategies in water resources management. The cases under review address climate change adaptation strategies such as water allocation for agriculture and other uses in a river basin, water storage infrastructure expansion, flood control investments, and institutional barriers to adaptation.
Effective Patient-Provider Communication For Newly Diagnosed Patients In A Primary Care Setting: A Quantitative Study

Ralston Lockett, BSN, RN - FNP StudentMyra Michelle DeBose, PhD, MSN, MSEd, RN - Faculty AdvisorPrairie View A & M University - College of Nursing - Graduate Program - Houston, TXBackground: There are newly diagnosed patients in primary care settings with depressive symptomsdue to lack of communication from providers. The aim of this proposed study is to assess newlydiagnosed patients who may express depressive symptomology. Establishing a sound relationshipbetween patients and providers is essential for a trusting relationship. Patient-centeredcommunication increases better health outcomes in primary care settings. There is reason to believethat missed opportunities between patient-providers can decrease patient compliance and increasedepression.Research Hypothesis: Newly diagnosed patients that receive effective provider communication willhave a decrease in depressive symptoms as compared to newly diagnosed patients who do not receiveeffective communication.Methodology: This study uses a longitudinal, quasi-experimental research design, conveniencesampling. Up to 80 newly diagnosed patients who did not receive effective communication will beevaluated for approximately six months. The primary setting will be 2 urban area clinics in Houston,Texas. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), will be used within 30 days afterthe initial healthcare provider visit to assess depressive symptoms.Results: Depressive symptoms will be measured using the (CES-D) assessment tool of 20 – items. Thetool assesses how frequently an individual experienced depressive symptoms within a week. Inaddition, a 45 min post visit survey regarding provider communication will be sent after 30 days.Sample analysis will include diagnosis and literacy level. Participants will be asked to identify preferredmethods of communicating with their provider.Significance: There is a correlation between depressive symptoms and lack of effective communicationwith patients in a primary care setting. Poor identification of patient’s mental health status andengagement in plan of care can lead to poor patient health outcomes, increase health care costs, anddisparities to under-privilege communities.
Empowering end-use consumers of electricity to aggregate for demand-side participation

Abstract End-use consumers (peers) are being empowered to aggregate for direct demand-side participation through load scheduling and energy sharing. This is the result of the growth of Internet of Things (IoT) enabled loads, availability of advanced metering infrastructure, and the move towards real-time (RT) pricing of electricity. Peer-to-peer (P2P) cooperation has received significant interest in recent years, though the focus of this growing body of research is on modeling prosumer behavior in microgrids. Hence, there is a need for new methodologies to examine empowerment of all end-use consumers (not limited to prosumers) to form aggregations and develop fair rules of cooperation to reduce cost. This paper offers an optimization based methodology to address the above need for power systems. It minimizes the total cost and considers fairness using a Nash bargaining approach. Since cost and fairness are often in conflict, trade-off strategies are also presented. The model to asses fairness is nonlinear. Hence, it is transformed into a second order cone program (SOCP) and solved using GUROBI software version 7.5.2. The methodology is implemented on a sample 5-bus network, built using price and demand data from one of the load zones of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Maryland (PJM) power network in the United States. It is shown that two aggregations of peers participating in the sample network can reduce their total cost by 14.17% and 22.7%, while maintaining fairness. Concluding remarks highlight some of the limitations of the methodology.
Evaluation of Transportation System Resilience in the Presence of Connected and Automated Vehicles

Large-scale natural disasters challenge the resilience of the surface transportation system. The objective of this research was to develop a resilience model of the surface transportation system wi...
Stigma and Acceptance of Sierra Leone’s Child Soldiers: A Prospective Longitudinal Study of Adult Mental Health and Social Functioning

Objective To investigate the associations of war and postconflict factors with mental health among Sierra Leone’s former child soldiers as adults. Method In 2002, we recruited former child soldiers from lists of soldiers (aged 10–17 years) served by Disarmament, Demobilization, Reintegration centers and from a random door-to-door sample in 5 districts of Sierra Leone. In 2004, self-reintegrated child soldiers were recruited in an additional district. At 2016/2017, 323 of the sample of 491 former child soldiers were reassessed. Subjects reported on war exposures and postconflict stigma, family support, community support, anxiety/depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Results Of the subjects, 72% were male, with a mean age of 28 years. In all, 26% reported killing or injuring others; 67% reported being victims of life-threatening violence; 45% of female subjects and 5% of male subjects reported being raped; and 32% reported death of a parent. In 2016/2017 (wave 4), 47% exceeded the threshold for anxiety/depression, and 28% exceeded the likely posttraumatic stress disorder threshold. Latent class growth analysis yielded 3 trajectory groups based on changes in stigma and family/community acceptance; “Improving Social Integration” (n = 77) fared nearly as well as the “Socially Protected” (n = 213). The “Socially Vulnerable” group (n = 33) had increased risk of anxiety/depression above the clinical threshold and possible PTSD, and were around 3 times more likely to attempt suicide. Conclusion Former child soldiers had elevated rates of mental health problems. Postconflict risk and protective factors related to outcomes long after the end of conflict. Targeted social inclusion and family interventions could benefit the long-term mental health of former child soldiers.
Credit Unions’ Rising Share of Small Business Loans

Credit unions are increasing their share of small business loans. Over the period of 2010-2014, business loans from credit unions increased by 39.2 percent while their assets increased by 22.7 percent. Community banks reduced their business lending by 5.6 percent over the same period. A mixed cross- section/time-series (panel) model is developed to identify significant determinants of credit union business loans. Business loans as a proportion of assets are a function of asset percentages of liquidity, mortgage loans, and consumer loans, as well as the ratio of total loans to share deposits and a time trend. Average deposits per competitor has a positive, statistically significant coefficient. In markets where their competitors are larger, credit unions are supplying more credit to business.
Nonstationary spatiotemporal Bayesian data fusion for pollutants in the near‐road environment

Concentrations of near‐road air pollutants (NRAPs) have increased to very high levels in many urban centers around the world, particularly in developing countries. The adverse health effects of exposure to NRAPs are greater when the exposure occurs in the near‐road environment as compared to background levels of pollutant concentration. Therefore, there is increasing interest in monitoring pollutant concentrations in the near‐road environment. However, due to various practical limitations, monitoring pollutant concentrations near roadways and traffic sources is generally rather difficult and expensive. As an alternative, various deterministic computer models that provide predictions of pollutant concentrations in the near‐road environment, such as the research line‐source dispersion model (RLINE), have been developed. A common feature of these models is that their outputs typically display systematic biases and need to be calibrated in space and time using observed pollutant data. In this paper, we present a nonstationary Bayesian data fusion model that uses a novel data set on monitored pollutant concentrations (nitrogen oxides or NOx and fine particulate matter or PM2.5) in the near‐road environment and, combining it with the RLINE model output, provides predictions at unsampled locations. The model can also be used to evaluate whether including the RLINE model output leads to improved pollutant concentration predictions and whether the RLINE model output captures the spatial dependence structure of NRAP concentrations in the near‐road environment. A defining characteristic of the proposed model is that we model the nonstationarity in the pollutant concentrations by using a recently developed approach that includes covariates, postulated to be the driving force behind the nonstationary behavior, in the covariance function.
Risk-based portfolio management of civil infrastructure assets under deep uncertainties associated with climate change: a robust optimisation approach

Managers of civil infrastructure systems are facing the challenge to effectively and efficiently manage the ageing and deteriorating asset portfolio while accommodating ever increasing demand resul...
Manipulatives in nursing education: A concept analysis

Use of manipulatives is an active learning strategy that relies on student interaction with objects to help them understand abstract concepts. Manipulatives are frequently used in elementary and middle schools but literature demonstrates that they are also effective tools for adult learners. The aim of this concept analysis is to evaluate the use of manipulatives in education and its applicability to nursing education. Walker and Avant's eight-step concept analysis process was used for this evaluation. Google Scholar, EPSCO, PubMed, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature databases were searched using the terms manipulative and manipulatives, college or higher education, and teaching strategies. Three defining attributes emerged from the analysis: manipulatives must be positively engaging to students, learners must interact with objects or virtual graphics, and objects or graphics must be used to facilitate learning. Based on these defining attributes an operational definition is proposed. The model case provides an example of the use of manipulatives in nursing education, whereas additional cases support the defining attributes and the operational definition. Empirical referents describe uses of manipulatives in nursing education, both in academic and clinical settings. The concept of manipulatives and their defining attributes can be used by nurse educators to plan, organize, and evaluate education programs.
Parents' Perceptions of Adolescent Exposure to Marijuana Following Legalization in Washington State.

AbstractObjective: Parenting attitudes about marijuana and parent practices such as monitoring youth marijuana exposure are strongly linked to adolescent use. This study examines how parents’ attit...
The conceptualization of nature in Tonga (Polynesia): cultural model theory and its methodological path

One of the most noteworthy developments in cognitive anthropology, if not in anthropology, is the proposal to adopt cultural model theory in investigating culture. The theory conceives of culture as mental knowledge shared within a community. This constitutive knowledge is organized in a number of mental models that are called ‘cultural models.’ Here I demonstrate what adopting cultural model theory entails by describing part of my research about the Tongan cultural model of Nature as an example. Cultural model theory requires the implementation of a methodology that demands ethnographic, linguistic and cognitive data acquired by participant-observation, semi-structured interviews, and cognitive tasks. The ensuing cultural model consists of a list of propositions that emerge from the results of the qualitative and quantitative analyses conducted. The methodology guarantees a systematic process that supports the emic validity of the suggested content of the cultural model. In addition, while consensus analysis is typically used to discover cultural models, I show here that it has an additional role as a procedure to validate the discovered models. These two roles characterize two distinct moments of the study: the analysis of some cognitive data and the verification of the cultural model suggested.
Computational Methods for Analysis of Large-Scale CRISPR Screens

Large-scale CRISPR-Cas pooled screens have shown great promise to investigate functional links between genotype and phenotype at the genome-wide scale. In addition to technological advancement, the...
Archaeological Collecting at the Museum of Northern Arizona: From Past to Present:

The Museum of Northern Arizona (MNA) is a private institution yet an estimated 89 percent of its archaeological holdings are not owned by the museum. The story of how MNA acquired these collections...
Magnetized accretion flows: effects of gas pressure

We study how axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) accretion flows depend on γ adiabatic index in the polytropic equation of state. This work is an extension of Mo´ scibrodzka & Proga, where we investigated the γ dependence of two-dimensional Bondi-like accretion flows in the hydrodynamical (HD) limit. Our main goal is to study if simulations for various γ can give us insights into the problem of various modes of accretion observed in several types of accretion systems, such as black hole binaries (BHBs), active galactic nuclei (AGN) and gamma-ray bursts. We find that for γ 4/3, the fast-rotating flow forms a thick torus that is supported by rotation and gas pressure. As shown before for γ = 5/3, such a torus produces a strong, persistent bipolar outflow that can significantly reduce the polar funnel accretion of a slowly rotating flow. For low γ , close to 1, the torus is thin and is supported by rotation. The thin torus produces an unsteady outflow which is too weak to propagate throughout the polar funnel inflow. Compared to their HD counterparts, the MHD simulations show that the magnetized torus can produce an outflow and does not exhibit regular oscillations. Generally, our simulations demonstrate how the torus thickness affects the outflow production. They also support the notion that the geometrical thickness of the torus correlates with the power of the torus outflow. Our results, applied to observations, suggest that the torus ability to radiatively cool and become thin can correspond to a suppression of a jet as observed in the BHBs during a transition from a hard/low to soft/high spectral state and a transition from a quiescent to hard/low state in AGN.
Contemporary methods for generation of aryl radicals.

The synthetic utility of aryl radicals has been established in the last century, however, their broad applications were hampered by ineffective generation methods. It was in the last decade, that a rapid development of various redox systems took place, thus triggering a renaissance of aryl radical chemistry. This tutorial review focuses on the start-of-the-art methods for generation of aryl radicals. Primarily, various light-induced systems, including photoredox catalysis, visible light transition metal catalysis, and chemistry of electron donor–acceptor complexes, are reviewed. The main current precursors of aryl radicals are evaluated together with the selected examples of their modern applications.
Bilingualism and COVID-19: using a second language during a health crisis

Background: It is probable that billions of people have received information about COVID-19 in their second-acquired language (i e L2), given the global breadth of both bilingualism and the novel coronavirus The use of an L2 could have relevance to a massive disease outbreak because L2 use influences the psychological processing of health information Method: We conducted a search of the literature on the psychological effects of processing information in an L2 We included studies that examined how spoken and written processing of health- and disease-related information in an L2 influences (a) fear and anxiety, as indexed by physiological measures of emotional arousal, (b) decision-making, as measured by susceptibility to cognitive biases, and (c) language comprehension, as indexed by understanding complex information In reviewing this literature, we engage in the thought experiment of contemplating what consequences these findings could have for a massive disease outbreak, such as COVID-19 Results: The research indicates that using an L2 decreases fear and anxiety (and thus could reduce the emotional response to a disease outbreak), increases rational decision-making (and thus could minimize disease-related cognitive biases), and decreases language comprehension (and thus could lower compliance to disease outbreak mitigation measures) Conclusions: When a bilingual listens to or reads information in their L2, it reliably affects their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors in ways that are relevant to a health crisis Health communication specialists therefore should take into account the mental effects of using a second language © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
National Status in a Global Pandemic: Is (Mis)handling COVID-19 a Turning Point or a Revelation?

[ ]mask wearing as a public health behavior in Asia came with the experience of fighting the 1918 flu pandemic, which took 50 to 100 million lives worldwide Americans wore masks during the 1918 flu pandemic as a preventive measure and as a patriotic act during World War I That experience, somehow, was not turned into a habitual public health behavior in the United States, as it was in Asia, to fight airborne disease Some people have put personal freedom above public well-being during the current pandemic, seriously undermining the effort to control the spread of the virus Because new viruses always come long before scientists can figure out how to concoct new vaccines to counter them, preventive actions must be taken
Arterial Line Access and Monitoring

Percutaneous arterial cannulation is a common procedure which can allow for the measurement of beat-to-beat blood pressure. Assessment of hemodynamic stability in critically ill patients can be accomplished through arterial monitoring. An intra-arterial catheter can be inserted via a number of superficial and deep arteries. Complications of arterial cannulation can include bleeding, infection, ischemia, thrombosis, embolization, and damage to adjacent structures. Many organizations credential advanced practice providers for arterial line placement. In order for proper placement to occur, it is imperative to have a basic technical understanding of the procedure as well as a deep knowledge of indications and complications of the procedure. This chapter outlines the steps needed for arterial line placement and monitoring.
Ozone responsive gene expression as a model for describing repeat exposure response trajectories and inter-individual toxicodynamic variability in vitro.

Inhaled chemical/material exposures are a ubiquitous part of daily life around the world. There is a need to evaluate potential adverse effects of both single and repeat exposures for thousands of chemicals and an exponentially larger number of exposure scenarios (e.g., repeated exposures). Meeting this challenge will require the development and use of in vitro new approach methodologies (NAMs); however, two major challenges face the deployment of NAMs in risk assessment are (1) characterizing what apical outcome(s) acute assays inform regarding the trajectory to long term events, especially under repeated exposure conditions, and (2) capturing inter-individual variability as it informs considerations of potentially susceptible and/or vulnerable populations. To address these questions, we used a primary human bronchial epithelial cell air-liquid interface model exposed to ozone (O3), a model oxidant and ubiquitous environmental chemical. Here we report that O3-induced pro-inflammatory gene induction is attenuated in repeated exposures thus demonstrating that single acute exposure outcomes do not reliably represent the trajectory of responses after repeated or chronic exposures. Further, we observed 10.1-, 10.3-, 14.2-, and 7-fold ranges of induction of IL-8, IL-6, HMOX1, and COX2 transcripts, respectively, within in our population of 25 unique donors. Calculation of sample size estimates that indicated that 27, 24, 299, and 13 donors would be required to significantly power similar in vitro studies to identify a two-fold change in IL-8, IL-6, HMOX1, and COX2 transcript induction, respectively, to inform considerations of the uncertainty factors to reflect variability within the human population (UFH) for in vitro studies.
Longitudinal Predictive Curves of Health Risk Factors for American Adolescent Girls

Purpose The aim of this study is to compare age-variant 18 health risk factors by constructing longitudinal predictive curves between African-American (AA) and Caucasian American (CA) adolescent girls. Methods A total of 2,379 girls (51% AA) from ages 9 to 10 were recruited in the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Growth and Health Study. The various health indicators and dietary habits of these girls were assessed annually for 10 years. We model 2nd, 5th, 95th, and 98th percentile values of the health risk factors to compare trajectories between AA and CA adolescents by employing novel kernel smoothing regression and global tests of equality for regression curves. Health risk factors such as dietary fiber, intake of sodium, sugar, and total calories, systolic blood pressure, weight, body fat percentage, and high-density lipoprotein levels were compared. Results Trajectories of sugar, sodium, and total calories intake and systolic blood pressure, weight, body fat percentage, and high-density lipoprotein among AA girls were significantly higher than those of CA girls throughout their adolescence. Conclusions AA girls exhibit several health risk factors that are significantly higher than those of CA adolescent girls at the 95th and 98th percentile. Interventions may be warranted for the purposes of ensuring access to health risk information as well as a greater ease of access to healthier food choices within the educational food system.
Culturally relevant schools : creating positive workplace relationships and preventing intergroup differences

The authors provide teachers and school leaders concrete suggestions to address workplace relationships; to respond to intergroup conflict; to create positive exchanges among different ethnic groups of teachers; and to create a strategic process to address diversity issues.
Bedrock Channel Morphology in Relation to Erosional Processes

Bedrock channel morphology reflects the interactions between erosive processes and the resistance of the channel substrate. The controls on these interactions change with spatial scale. Mineralogy, exposure age of the substrate, and local heterogeneities are particularly important in controlling substrate resistance at the micro scale (mm to cm). Substrate discontinuities created by bedding, joints, and lithologic contacts become progressively more important at the meso scale (cm to m), whereas regional structure and baselevel history may dominate substrate resistance at the macro scale (m to km). In a similar manner, turbulent fluctuations that create localized abrasion and cavitation are more important at the micro and meso scales, whereas longitudinal patterns of unit and total stream power exert a stronger influence on channel morphology at the macro scale. Most studies of bedrock channel morphology have described meso-scale erosional features. In the absence of direct measurements, investigators have inferred both the erosive processes that produced the observed features, and the controls on the location of the features. Fluvial erosion of bedrock may occur via; (1) corrosion, or chemical weathering and solution, (2) corrasion, or abrasion by sediment in transport along the channel, or (3) cavitation and other hydrodynamic forces associated with flow turbulence. Very few direct measurements of rate exist for any of these erosive processes. Bedrock channel morphologies may be divided into multiple or single flowpath channels, and subdivided on the basis of sinuosity, uniformity of bed gradient, and uniformity of erosion across a cross section. These categories may be used to infer dominant erosional processes and relative rates of erosion, but we cannot yet predict the occurrence of specific channel morphologies as a function of driving and resisting forces. In this context, the traditional assumption that substrate dominates bedrock channel morphology may be too restrictive.
Goods diversion and repressed inflation: Notes on the political economy of price liberalization

Most analyses of parallel markets in centrally-planned systems focus on queue-rationing as the mechanism whereby state-sector goods become available for second economy resale. This article takes into account employee diversion of goods as a second channel through which merchandise can move to private markets. Diversion of goods tends to temper the adverse distributional consequences of price liberalization. As repressed inflation increases, more goods are diverted out of the state sector, and the likelihood that an individual will be made worse off by a transition of free prices is diminished.
Adaptive filter-bank tree for power spectrum estimation

We propose a new nonparametric method for power spectrum estimation of a real random process which can be used in situations where the traditional periodogram estimate is the preferred choice over the relatively modern model based approaches, such as the autoregressive (AR), moving average (MA) and other related methods. The proposed technique uses an adaptively grown binary filter bank tree for estimating the spectrum, which results in a trade-off between subband spectral resolution and the variance of the estimate, a feature intuitively very satisfying and absent in the traditional schemes. This is especially valuable in cases where the target spectrum has a combination of relatively flat and non-flat subbands, which intrinsically demand different spectral resolutions. Experimental results are presented to illustrate and support the proposed scheme.
Theory of Ground- and Excited-State Properties of Solids, Surfaces, and Interfaces: Beyond Density Functional Formalism

A number of methods, going beyond pair-potentials, now exist for calculation of the structural and electronic properties of materials. These range from the use of classical many-body atomic potentials to the semiempirical quantum approaches to parameter-free ab initio methods.1 Among the first-principles methods, basically one of the following two approaches is employed in treating many-electron correlations: (1) the Hartree-Fock plus correlation corrections approach or (2) the local density functional formalism (LDA). The LDA is by far the more commonly employed approach. The Hartree-Fock-plus-corrections calculations have been mostly restricted to the lighter elements and to binding energies.
Readiness levels for spacecraft information technologies

The New Millennium Program (NMP) seeks to advance space exploration through the maturation of promising spaceflight technologies. NMP, like many other organizations, relies upon Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs) as a key indication of technology advancement, and assesses development progress against this generalized metric. A given technology's TRL is based upon our ability to predict how the technology performs in various applications, and therefore depends on the environment in which the technology has been tested and validated. Testing begins in the laboratory, advancing through ever-improving simulations ad testbeds, until finally actual in-space validation is achieved. This process is well understood for space hardware and has been applied for many years. Presented in this paper is a modified interpretation of the traditional TRLs based on J. Markins (1995) aimed solely at information technologies. The intent of this new set of definitions is twofold: first, to enable a definitive measurement of progress among developing information technologies for spacecraft; and second, to clarify particular challenges and requirements that must be met as these technologies are validated in increasingly realistic environments. The first goal of this paper reflects NMP's need to verify clear and defensible progress of technology development on the path to spaceflight. The second goal serves to answer the question of what salient features of the space environment are important to technology developers. To answer this second question, we will revisit the notion of the "relevant environment", an environment that adequately stresses the technology to provide sufficient confidence in the results. This paper includes a direct comparison between the traditional TRLs and the modified definitions specific to information technologies. We also discuss two representative examples to illustrate this process.
Evaluation of the effects of Streptococcus mutans chaperones and protein secretion machinery components on cell surface protein biogenesis, competence, and mutacin production.

The respective contributions of components of the protein translocation/maturation machinery to cell surface biogenesis in Streptococcus mutans are not fully understood. Here we used a genetic approach to characterize the effects of deletion of genes encoding the ribosome-associated chaperone RopA (Trigger Factor), the surface-localized foldase PrsA, and the membrane-localized chaperone insertases YidC1 and YidC2, both singly and in combination, on bacterial growth, chain length, self-aggregation, cell surface hydrophobicity, autolysis, and antigenicity of surface proteins P1 (AgI/II, PAc), WapA, GbpC, and GtfD. The single and double deletion mutants, as well as additional mutant strains lacking components of the signal recognition particle pathway, were also evaluated for their effects on mutacin production and genetic competence.
Diversity, evolution, and therapeutic applications of small RNAs in prokaryotic and eukaryotic immune systems

Recent evidence supports that prokaryotes exhibit adaptive immunity in the form of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspersed Short Palindromic Repeats) and Cas (CRISPR associated proteins). The CRISPR-Cas system confers resistance to exogenous genetic elements such as phages and plasmids by allowing for the recognition and silencing of these genetic elements. Moreover, CRISPR-Cas serves as a memory of past exposures. This suggests that the evolution of the immune system has counterparts among the prokaryotes, not exclusively among eukaryotes. Mathematical models have been proposed which simulate the evolutionary patterns of CRISPR, however large gaps in our understanding of CRISPR-Cas function and evolution still exist. The CRISPR-Cas system is analogous to small RNAs involved in resistance mechanisms throughout the tree of life, and a deeper understanding of the evolution of small RNA pathways is necessary before the relationship between these convergent systems is to be determined. Presented in this review are novel RNAi therapies based on CRISPR-Cas analogs and the potential for future therapies based on CRISPR-Cas system components.
Alkaline phosphatase “constitutive” clones: Evidence for de-novo heterogeneity of established human skin fibroblast strains

Abstract Histochemical stains for alkaline phosphatase were performed on colonies derived from mass cultures of six strains of human fibroblasts grown under conditions of relative repression of the enzyme. Under these conditions, alkaline phosphatase “constitutive” clones (> 16 cells) appeared with frequencies varying from 0.38 × 10−3 to 19.1 × 10−3, depending upon the strain of fibroblast, its passage number, the nature of the cloning environment and the mode of scoring. Not a single constitutive clone was found among 52,457 sub-colonies from two strains with comparatively high frequencies of constitutive clones. Evidence is discussed which suggests that there is selection against constitutive clones during prolonged in vitro culture. Comparatively large numbers of such cells can be observed histochemically among the early migrating cells around an explant. These results indicate a de-novo hetero-geneity of established “diploid human fibroblast” cultures. In vivo histochemical studies suggest that the constitutive cells are endothelial cells. The constitutive clones of “fibroblasts” may therefore represent morphologically transformed endothelial cells which undergo replication in the presence of fibroblasts. Comparatively high frequencies of such clones can be found for at least 23 cell doublings after a culture has been established. In view of the observed heterogeneity, it is concluded that quantitative somatic cell genetic studies with such material require prior purification of the strains by cloning.
4-HNE inhibits tube formation and up-regulates chondromodulin-I in human endothelial cells.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal (4-HNE) on tube formation by human bone marrow endothelial cells (HBMEC). We found that 4-HNE at physiologically-achievable concentrations (5 and 10 μM) inhibited the formation of tubes. Western blot analysis revealed that inhibition of tube formation by 4-HNE was associated by increased expression of chondromodulin-I (CHM-I), a protein with well known anti-angiogenic properties. Cell viability assays showed that 4-HNE at concentrations of 10 μM or less did not cause HBMEC cell death. Luciferase reporter assays did not show any inducing effect of 4-HNE on the promoter activity of human CHM-I gene indicating that post-transcriptional or post-translational modifications may account for the up-regulation of CHM-I. Collectively, the results of the present study show for the first time that 4-HNE inhibits tube formation by HBMECs indicating a potential anti-angiogenic activity of 4-HNE. This inhibition occurs at least in part via 4-HNE-induced CHM-I protein expression.
Auditory event-related potentials and brain dysfunction in sleep apnea

Auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded from 14 subjects with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) before and after treatment with nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP). After 2 nights of treatment, there was dramatic improvement in the sleep patterns of the OSA patients, improvements in measures of apnea severity and oxygenation, and decrease in daytime sleepiness. The results of neuropsychological tests of a broad range of cognitive functions failed to confirm the patients' subjective reports of improvement in psychological functioning after treatment. The latencies of the N2 and P3 components were significantly prolonged prior to treatment, and there was a trend towards smaller N2 and P3 amplitude in the apneic subjects. The latency of P3 (but not N2) changed with treatment, decreasing almost to normative values. The results suggest that ERPs may be useful in documenting neural dysfunction in patients with OSA, in evaluating treatment efficacy, and possibly in determining the causes of the daytime symptoms of OSA.
Mechanism and activity in the scientific revolution: The case of Robert Hooke

Summary Recent ‘revisionist’ studies of the Scientific Revolution have utilized Robert Hooke as an example of a mechanical philosopher who incorporated active principles in his world system. This paper carefully examines Hooke's natural philosophy in order to determine the extent to which he employed active agents in his work. Thorough investigation reveals that although Hooke sometimes refrained from offering causal explanations of the phenomena he studied, there is no solid evidence that he believed active principles were at work in nature. Rather, his major tool for interpreting nature—his theory of congruity—follows wholly mechanical principles, as do his explanations of the essences of the fundamental constituents of the universe. Hooke emerges from this analysis as a purely mechanical philosopher.
Protein folding: with a little help...

Experiments and computer simulations are converging in their exploration of the timescales on which protein folding occurs. Such developments are a promising way forward in molecular biophysics.
Nuclear Magnetization in the Presence of Ultrasonic Excitation

The field gradient at the site of a nucleus resulting from a relative displacement of surrounding charge is expanded in a Taylor series. The resulting expression is used to calculate the transition probability induced by this displacement for transitions of quadrupolar nuclei between $\ensuremath{\Delta}m=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}2$ spin levels in a sodium chloride-type lattice. The equilibrium nuclear magnetization in the presence of ultrasonic and thermal lattice vibrations is derived on the assumption of fast mutual spin-flip processes. The derivation is also based on a strain-free lattice.
Microglia and the immune pathology of Alzheimer disease.

This work was supported through National Institutes of Health grants NS3400, NS35972, and AG12548; the Temple Discovery from the Alzheimer's Association; and the Baylor Alzheimer's Disease Research Center.
SU‐FF‐T‐629: XBeam: An Accurate, Easily Commissioned Radiotherapy X‐Ray Beam Model

Purpose: To develop a simple x‐ray beam model which is accurate in both fluence and dose and easy to commission, validating against recently developed gold standard Monte Carlo fluence benchmarks for Siemens and Varian clinical beams. Method and Materials:Dose distributions and relative output factors were measured in water for 6 and 18 MV clinical beams for 1–40 cm wide square fields. A compact ion chamber and photon diode was used to measure the profiles, a parallel‐plate chamber for percentage depth dose (PDD). The beam model consists of three sources: a spot and a ring for photons and a ring for electrons. The free parameters were adjusted based on select measurements. The central axis energy distribution was sampled from the thin‐target Schiff bremsstrahlung spectrum, and attenuated through a flattener of thickness adjusted to match the measured PDD in small fields. Particles statistical weights were adjusted at different positions to match the measured profiles. Analytical sampling procedures were developed to generate the full phase space above the jaws. Results: Spectral reconstruction resulted in a good match to the measured small field depth dose curves for the Siemens beams. The energy distribution is in good agreement with the fluence benchmark. XBeam fluence and dose along the diagonal of the largest field for the Siemens beams are in good agreement with measurements out to 25 cm. An overestimate outside of the penumbral region will be improved by adjusting the spot size. Comprehensive comparisons to fluence benchmarks for Siemens and Varian beams are in progress and will be presented. Conclusion: XBeam has a minimum number of free parameters, which are fitted to dose measurements within realistic limits. Preliminary results indicate the model will be easy to commission and accurate in both fluence and dose. The fluence benchmarks greatly facilitated development of the beam model.
Environmental and gender feedbacks in macroeconomics

Abstract Potential interactions between the macroeconomic and environmental and/or gender (EG) systems are traced out, drawing on insights from the other papers in this special issue and the EG literature more generally.
Simple Model of Collective Transport with Phase Slippage

We present a mean-field analysis of a many-body dynamical system which models charge-density-wave transport in the presence of random pinning impurities. Phase slip between charge-density-wave domains is modeled by a coupling term that is periodic in the phase differences. When driven by an external field, the system exhibits a first-order depinning transition, hysteresis, and switching between pinned and sliding states, and a delayed onset of sliding near threshold.
Philanthropic Funding in Higher Education: Carrot and/or Stick

This paper explored the impact of philanthropic funding on institutions of higher education. In the past, most philanthropic gifts to colleges and universities were undertaken to benefit society. However, today this type of giving has evolved into funding organizations with political agendas which take advantage of harsh economic realities in order to drastically influence the changing landscape of our institutions of higher education. Specifically, several major topics were covered: (a) historical background, (b) philanthropy and business initiatives, (c) today's venture philanthropy, (d) Massive Open Online Courses and (e) the impact of these factors on students in higher education. The paper concludes with a discussion of what happened at the University of Virginia last June and why it happened – when politics, power, and philanthropic givers combined in an attempted to remove Teresa Sullivan as the university's president. These are dangerous times where profitability is highly valued; we must remain v...
Technology liaisons: bridging the communications gap between users and support

The Technology Liaison Program at Furman University involves collaboration between members of Computing & Information Services (C&IS), and a designated member from each faculty and administrative staff department with the common purpose of improving communication toward the provision and support of technology. Evolving as a potential answer to the need for more effective communication and improved understanding between the User Services division of Computing & Information Services and its user community, the Technology Liaison Program incorporates personal, procedural and technical resources toward the objective of aligning the expectations of the users with the priorities of the technical support team.
Grad student speakout: Is it worth the challenge? Grad study requires that you postpone working, make financial sacrifices, and face rigorous academic requirements. Three students tell why they did it

The precariously low graduate enrollments in engineering of the late 1970s have been a major concern to those who worry about the future economic condition of the United States. But there is good news on the way. Today, the sizable undergraduate population in engineering contains a substantial number of people who are seriously considering obtaining graduate degrees. This represents a significant change from the situation in the '70s. In addition, many engineering colleges now have more graduate assistantships to offer than they have graduate students to support. The demand for people with master's or doctoral degrees in engineering should remain high for some time, and the starting salaries for these graduates are higher than ever before, compared to those for undergraduates with baccalaureate degrees.
Underwater acoustic absorption by collocated smart materials

Abstract Collocated smart structures provide the most effective technique of influencing the stimuli. Such systems can also be used for absorbing underwater acoustic waves. A collocated system is designed by mounting piezoelectric sensor on a multilayer PZT discs stack. Using PZT sensor for narrowband response and modified lead titanate sensor for broadband response, the effectiveness of these smart structures in absorbing acoustic waves is experimentally determined by using an acoustic tube.
A psychometric evaluation of Yourdon's structured design methodology

The outcome of any system design effort is typically assumed to be a function of the user's requirements specification. This study attempts to test the general hypothesis that the designer's psychological profile has a measurable impact on the system being designed. A simple experiment was designed and carried out to test the hypothesis and though the limited sample size prevents a strong statement of results, the hypothesis appears to be supported.
High efficiency white organic light emitting diodes employing blue and red platinum emitters

Platinum-based blue and red emitters were used to make stacked organic light-emitting diodes devices for potential use in solid-state lighting. The electroluminescence (EL) spectra were strongly dependent on the red layer thickness and relative position of the red and blue emissive layers. Although all devices had very little EL in the green region, a color rendering index (CRI) as high as 65 was achieved. Addition of a suitable phosphorescent green emissive layer should produce higher CRI values. All devices tested exhibited external quantum efficiencies greater than 20%, indicating that the Pt-based emitters reported here are potentially useful for solid-state lighting applications.