cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Yoruba Iyalode

This two-part essay examines the high-ranking roles of two Yoruba female chiefs who influenced cultural, economic, religious, and political institutions of royalty and chieftaincy emphasizing limited power within Yoruba socio-economic structures. Yoruba social institutions represent gendered and complementary realms of power (authority) and governance (traditional political structure). In the 1800s, Efunsetan Aniwura and Madame Tinuubu, the two exemplary principals of this essay, rose through the ranks of Yoruba society and political economy to become the Iyalode, the female representatives to the all-male Council of Chiefs. In their time, these two women epitomized the most notable, successful, industrious, and wealthy Yoruba in a colonial economic regime. Both defied Yoruba and colonial patriarchies. Efunsetan Aniwura, challenged her male counterparts, her fellow chiefs, but she lost her life and the power she garnered. Madame Tinuubu, on the other hand, triumphed in her position of authority, even though she defied the chiefs and colonial masters.
The Language Performance of the Oral Deaf

Publisher Summary The term “language” refers to a learned code, which is used for the purpose of verbal communication. Important characteristics of this code are that variations in meaning can be achieved by creative changes in the arrangement of words. Spoken and written symbols potentially are involved, and the rules governing word usage and order are shared by more than one person. Non-verbal communication through facial expression and body gesture is not a part of the language system. This chapter describes the language impairments of school-aged, deaf children that have been reported for three major modalities: reading, writing, and oral expression. The classification of children with hearing loss is complicated and must include variables, such as hearing threshold levels, and time of onset of the hearing loss. An orientation is required as to the characteristics of the children who have been included in the studies that have been reviewed. Investigators of the language of deaf children have employed the instruments that are being used with hearing children.
DUALITY IN OPERATOR SPACES

It is well known that for any Hilbert space H the second dual of the space of all compact operators K(H) on H coincides with the space of all bounded operators L(H). In this note we generalize this statement to Banach spaces.
Definitions and Terminology

While belief in God has remained stable in the United States, the religious landscape continues to shift. Among the notable shifts is the change in how Americans are choosing to identify with religious faith. In 2012, 59% of those surveyed considered themselves “Religious and Spiritual,” but only 48% of those surveyed by Pew Research Center in 2017 did so, an 11% decline. What is of more interest is that in 2012 19% identified themselves as “Spiritual but not Religious,” and in 2017, the numbers grew to 27% of those surveyed (Lipka & Gecewicz, 2017). Within the group that identified as spiritual but not religious, 35% of this group also identified as being Protestant. What’s going on? Sociologists and theologians continue to argue through the causations and implications of these two ways people identify themselves and their transcendence, many Christians nuance these terms differently than one would think. However, this group of “nones” represents potential for others who are serious about integrating their faith in the workplace because, for this growing number of unchurched, work may be the only context in which they hear the gospel or see it in action.
Patient Falls in Radiology

Falls are a common devastating complication that can occur when providing medical care. Regulatory agencies share that thousands of people in the United States suffer a hospital fall yearly with a significant percent of the falls resulting in injury. Radiology departments provide care for patients across the age spectrum in inpatient and outpatient settings. This situation can provide a unique opportunity in the radiology department to prevent and educate patients about falls risk.
Ontogenetic scaling of phloem sieve tube anatomy and hydraulic resistance with tree height in Quercus rubra.

PREMISE The dimensions of phloem sieve elements have been shown to vary as a function of tree height, decreasing hydraulic resistance as the transport pathway lengthens. However, little is known about ontogenetic patterns of sieve element scaling. Here we examine within a single species (Quercus rubra) how decreases in hydraulic resistance with distance from the plant apex are mediated by overall plant size. METHODS We sampled and imaged phloem tissue at multiple heights along the main stem and in the live crown of four size classes of trees using fluorescence and scanning electron microscopy. Sieve element length and radius, the number of sieve areas per compound plate, pore number, and pore radius were used to calculate total hydraulic resistance at each sampling location. RESULTS Sieve element length varied with tree size, while sieve element radius, sieve pore radius, and the number of sieve areas per compound plate varied with sampling position. When data from all size classes were aggregated, all four variables followed a power-law trend with distance from the top of the tree. The net effect of these ontogenetic scalings was to make total hydraulic sieve tube resistance independent of tree height from 0.5 to over 20 m. CONCLUSIONS Sieve element development responded to two pieces of information, tree size and distance from the apex, in a manner that conserved total sieve tube resistance across size classes. A further differentiated response between the phloem in the live crown and in the main stem is also suggested.
What Do Recent Clinical Trials Teach Us About the Etiology of AD.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia caused by severe neurodegeneration in the hippocampus and neocortical regions of the brain. In addition to neurodegeneration, AD brains contain high levels of amyloid plaques (APs) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) which are used as neuropathological hallmarks of the disorder. Despite intense research efforts, the mechanism(s) of the AD neurodegeneration are imperfectly understood, hampering efforts for the development of efficient therapeutics. Furthermore, failure of clinical trials to benefit AD patients suggests that AD hallmarks are poor therapeutic targets and supports the suggestion that these hallmarks are sequelae of neurodegeneration. Although genetic evidence seem to support the amyloid theory of AD, additional empirical observations and experimental data are inconsistent with the amyloid/Aβ theories of AD [Robakis and Neve (1998), TINS vol. 21 pp.15–19; Robakis (2011) NBA vol. 32, pp 372–379]. This possibility is further supported by data that amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are found in a number of distinct neurodegenerative disorders and that animal models expressing high levels of AD pathological structures show little neuronal loss. Furthermore, genetic evidence linking genetic loci to disease reveal little about the molecular mechanisms involved. Mutants of APP, PS1, and PS2 cause familial AD (FAD) suggesting these mutants can be used as models to study mechanisms of neurodegeneration. Recent reports show that the ability of efnB1 and BDNF (factors) to rescue neurons from excitotoxicity depends on PS1 but is independent of γ-secretase. Interestingly, PS1 FAD mutations block the ability of factors to protect neurons from toxicity suggesting that FAD mutants may increase neuronal death by blocking neuroprotective activities of brain neurotrophins. Other reports also suggest that proteins involved in FAD have Aβ-/γ-secretase-independent functions that can play important roles in AD. Furthermore, non-neuronal brain cells like microglia are implicated in AD pathology.
Iterative hard thresholding in genome-wide association studies: Generalized linear models, prior weights, and double sparsity.

Author(s): Chu, Benjamin B; Keys, Kevin L; German, Christopher A; Zhou, Hua; Zhou, Jin J; Sobel, Eric M; Sinsheimer, Janet S; Lange, Kenneth | Abstract: BackgroundConsecutive testing of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) is usually employed to identify genetic variants associated with complex traits. Ideally one should model all covariates in unison, but most existing analysis methods for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) perform only univariate regression.ResultsWe extend and efficiently implement iterative hard thresholding (IHT) for multiple regression, treating all SNPs simultaneously. Our extensions accommodate generalized linear models, prior information on genetic variants, and grouping of variants. In our simulations, IHT recovers up to 30% more true predictors than SNP-by-SNP association testing and exhibits a 2-3 orders of magnitude decrease in false-positive rates compared with lasso regression. We also test IHT on the UK Biobank hypertension phenotypes and the Northern Finland Birth Cohort of 1966 cardiovascular phenotypes. We find that IHT scales to the large datasets of contemporary human genetics and recovers the plausible genetic variants identified by previous studies.ConclusionsOur real data analysis and simulation studies suggest that IHT can (i) recover highly correlated predictors, (ii) avoid over-fitting, (iii) deliver better true-positive and false-positive rates than either marginal testing or lasso regression, (iv) recover unbiased regression coefficients, (v) exploit prior information and group-sparsity, and (vi) be used with biobank-sized datasets. Although these advances are studied for genome-wide association studies inference, our extensions are pertinent to other regression problems with large numbers of predictors.
Kant and Privacy

“Perhaps,” J. J. Thomson argues in her classic article on privacy, “the most striking thing about the right to privacy is that nobody seems to have any very clear idea what it is.” Varden agrees with Thomson that there is no one distinct right to privacy. Instead, our normative concerns regarding privacy encompass central emotional, ethical, and legal ones. Nonetheless, Varden argues that there is a distinct judicial idea of right to privacy, and that Kant’s legal–political philosophy is particularly useful in that it enables us to see it as a cluster of enforceable rights that enable personal spheres internally connected with respecting each person’s right to freedom. This judicial idea of privacy is then distinguished from a legal–political ideal of privacy, which takes our embodied, social human natures into account as we seek to specify the general principles constitutive of improving our inherited, dysfunctional legal–political frameworks so that they better protect privacy.
Clinical Features and Outcome of Thrombotic Microangiopathies: Comparison between Patients with and without Malignancy.

Thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA) is an uncommon complication of cancers, related to the malignancy itself, antineoplastic drugs, or hematopoietic stem cell transplant. It was reported mostly as case series but large data are lacking. We used the large U.S. MarketScan database to compare TMA between patients with and without malignancy. Adult patients hospitalized between 2005 and 2014 with a diagnosis of TMA were included; cancer patients were defined by a diagnosis of cancer within 1 year prior to or during the admission with TMA. Associated inpatient diagnoses, procedures, hospital mortality, and long-term survival were collected. We included 3,227 patients; 617 (19.1%) had cancer (age 54 [44–60] years, 58% female), which was a new diagnosis for 23% of patients. Two-thirds of cancer patients had solid tumors (mostly pancreas, lung, breast, colorectal, and hepatobiliary, half of them metastatic) and one-third had hematological malignancies (lymphoma, acute leukemia, and multiple myeloma); TMA patients with cancer were older, more often men, had more noncancer-related comorbidities, and developed more sepsis and coagulopathy than TMA patients without cancer. Hospital mortality was significantly higher in cancer patients (16.6% vs. 6.1%, p
Security of Distributed Machine Learning

Distributed machine learning algorithms play a significant role in processing massive data sets over large networks. However, the increasing reliance on machine learning on information and communication technologies (ICTs) makes it inherently vulnerable to cyber threats. This work aims to develop secure distributed algorithms to protect the learning from data poisoning and network attacks. We establish a game-theoretic framework to capture the conflicting goals of a learner who uses distributed support vector machines (SVMs) and an attacker who is capable of modifying training data and labels. We develop a fully distributed and iterative algorithm to capture real-time reactions of the learner at each node to adversarial behaviors. The numerical results show that distributed SVM is prone to fail in different types of attacks, and their impact has a strong dependence on the network structure and attack capabilities.
A Review of the Year in Family Law 2013­–2014: Same-Sex Couples Attain Rights to Marry and Parent

By the end of the reporting year, thirty-seven states had recognized same-sex marriage and additional states granted nonbiological same-sex partners parental rights. Also this year, Congress passed three important family-law-related acts. In September, Congress passed (1) legislation to implement the 2007 Hague Convention on the International Recovery of Child Support and Other Forms of Family Maintenance. The new law requires states to adopt the 2008 amendments to the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act by 2018. (2) The Sean and David Goldman International Child Abduction and Return Act of 2014 requires the State Department to become more aggressively involved in assisting parents of abducted children. The Secretary of State must designate at least one senior official in each diplomatic and consular mission abroad to assist left-behind parents from the United States and monitor developments in access cases. (3) The Accuracy for Adoptees Act requires federal agencies to recognize amended birth dates as issued by state courts. A judge can now correct an erroneous birth certificate. The year had its share of ther exciting cases as well.
Abstract MP59: Soluble Protein Oligomers Induce Endoplasmic Reticulum Stress In Mesenteric Resistance Arteries From Male And Female Mice

Amyloid β proteins, including toxic soluble oligomers (SPOs) are not only found in the brain duringAlzheimer’s, but also in the peripheral vascular system. The precise mechanism linking increasedci...
The Boston Legal Aid Society, 1900-1925

This article examines the history of the Boston Legal Aid Society from its founding in 1900 through 1925. In so doing I explore why was Boston Legal Aid started. Depending upon what sources you consult the Boston Legal Aid Society was either the third or fourth legal aid organization started in the United States. The first was New York in 1876 and the second was in Chicago, in the 1880's. My question is why Boston in 1900? What were the forces that led to the founding of this organization at that point in time? Was it part of the effort of elite lawyers to legitimize their representation of corporate interests? Was it related to other social service efforts in Boston? Or was it an outgrowth of the Progressive movement? The second question I explore, which is related to this first question, is what goals did the Boston Legal Aid Society see itself pursuing. Was it simply another charitable organization? Was its goal access to justice or did it see itself as accomplishing substantive social reform? In answering this question, I explore the work of the Boston Legal Society during these first twenty-five years. I look at the kinds of cases it accepted and its methods of handling its cases. In examining the work of the Boston Legal Aid Society I discover a significant shift in the type of work and its attitude toward the work. In its early years Boston Legal Aid Society fit the image of a traditional legal aid society. It viewed providing legal services as charity and did not see substantive social reform as a legitimate part of its agenda. However, post 1913, a shift occurred. Reginald Heber Smith, author of Justice and the Poor, became its General Counsel. Although the Society continued to do individual casework, it also began engaging in what Smith call preventive law. The Boston Legal Aid Society was willing to be aggressive in bringing legislative proposals and engage in law reform efforts, as well as having a commitment to community education. Post World-War I, however, the work of the Boston Legal Aid Society returned to a more traditional type of legal aid that focused primarily on domestic relations cases. This history of the first twenty five years of the Boston Legal Aid Society reveals there are contradictory impulses that have been part of legal aid from the beginning and that perhaps will always be with us. It also illustrates that legal aid has a more progressive past than has been commonly thought and perhaps we still have lessons to learn from that past.
Free Vibration of Single Degree of Freedom Systems

The term free vibration is used to indicate that there is no external force causing the motion, and that the motion is primarily the result of initial conditions, such as an initial displacement of the mass element of the system from an equilibrium position and/or an initial velocity. The free vibration is said to be undamped free vibration if there is no loss of energy throughout the motion of the system. This is the case of the simplest vibratory system, which consists of an inertia element and an elastic member which produces a restoring force which tends to restore the inertia element to its equilibrium position. Dissipation of energy may be caused by friction or if the system contains elements such as dampers which remove energy from the system. In such cases, the oscillation is said to be free damped vibration. The mathematical models that govern the free vibration of single degree of freedom systems can be described in terms of homogeneous second-order ordinary differential equations that contain displacement, velocity, and acceleration terms. The displacement coefficients describe the stiffness of the elastic members or the restoring forces. The velocity coefficients define the damping constants and determine the amount of energy dissipated, and the acceleration coefficients define the inertia of the system.
HACC: an architecture for cluster-based web servers

This paper presents the design, implementation, and performance of the Harvard Array of Clustered Computers (HACC), a cluster-based design for scalable, cost-effective web servers. HACC is designed for locality enhancement. Requests that arrive at the cluster are distributed among the nodes so as to enhance the locality of reference that occurs on individual nodes in the cluster. By improving locality on individual cluster nodes, we can reduce their working set sizes and achieve superior performance for less cost than conventional approaches. We implemented HACC on Windows NT 4.0 and evaluated its performance for both static documents and workloads of dynamically generated documents adapted from logs of commercial web servers. Our performance results show that HACC's locality enhancement can improve performance by up to 121% for our stochastically generated static file case, by up to 40% for our trace-based static file case, and by up to 52% for our trace-based dynamic document case, compared to an IP-Sprayer approach to building cluster-based web servers.
The structure of Aerobacter aerogenes capsular polysaccharide.

A capsular polysaccharide produced by Aerobacter aerogenes has been purified and shown to consist of galactose, mannose, and glucuronic acid in a molar ratio of 2:1:1, respectively. Partial acid hydrolysis liberated an aldobiouronic acid identified as 2-O-β- d -glucuronosyl- d -mannose. Analysis of capsular polysaccharide by Smith periodate degradation further indicated that all of the galactose residues are linked through C-3, all of the mannose residues are linked through both C-2 and C-3, and all of the glucuronic acid is at terminal, nonreducing positions. Digestion of capsular polysaccharide with a specific phage-induced polysaccharide depolymerase resulted in its nearly quantitative conversion to two limit oligosaccharides, termed A and B. Partial acid hydrolysis, methylation analysis, and periodate degradation indicated that A is the tetrasaccharide, Gal-1 → 3-(GlcUA-1 → 2)-Man-1 → 3-Gal. B was characterized as an octasaccharide composed of two units of A by the following procedure: Smith periodate degradation of B yielded the pentasaccharide mannosyl (α)/→ galactosyl (α)/→ galactosyl (α)/→ mannosyl (α)/→ lyxitol. This pentasaccharide was characterized and the anomeric configuration of the glycosidic bonds determined by sequential enzymatic degradation with specific exoglycosidases. Further analyses indicated that B is the octasaccharide, Gal-1 (α)/→ 3-(GlcUA-1 (β)/→ 2)-Man-1 (α)/→ -3-Gal-1 (α)/→ 3-Gal-1 (α)/→ 3-(GlcUA-1 (β)/→ 2)-Man-1 (α)/→ 3-Gal. A third oligosaccharide, termed C, was present in small amounts in extensive depolymerase digests of capsular polysaccharide. This oligosaccharide was shown to be a dodecasaccharide composed of three units of A. Exhaustive depolymerase digestion of C resulted in its slow degradation to yield equimolar amounts of A and B. These results indicate that Aerobacter aerogenes capsular polysaccharide is composed of repeating sequences of the following tetrasaccharide. [see PDF for sequence] Moreover, they also indicate that the phage-induced polysaccharide depolymerase is a glycanohydrolase which specifically cleaves the galactosyl-1 (α)/→ 3-galactose linkages in the capsular polysaccharide.
Studies elucidating the mechanisms of calcium induced mitochondrial depolarization in individual isolated brain mitochondria

Among other mitochondrial functions, energy production and Ca2+ uptake are crucial for maintaining neuronal viability. Both of these functions are critically dependent on mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨm). Mitochondrial Ca2+ overload causing a dissipation of ΔΨm is a key component of several neuronal pathologies. However, the mechanism of Ca2+-induced depolarization in neuronal mitochondria remains unclear. Typically, ΔΨm has been evaluated as a single overall estimate from all mitochondria present in a given cell or tissue. However, recent data showed that the population of mitochondria isolated from tissues is not homogeneous, and averaged parameters from the whole population do not necessarily reflect the processes taking place in a single organelle. This review summarizes our recent studies of Ca2+-induced depolarization in individual mitochondria isolated from rat forebrain and immobilized to coverslips. Fluorescence imaging techniques and potentiometric fluorescent dyes were effectively used to study ΔΨm changes. The data have shown that Ca2+ triggers ΔΨm oscillations in brain mitochondria followed by a complete depolarization. Further investigation of this phenomenon led us to suggest that Ca2+-induced ΔΨm oscillations can represent an intermediate unstable state that may lead to irreversible mitochondrial dysfunction. Therefore, further study of this phenomenon would help to understand what causes the irreversible damage of mitochondria during cytosolic/mitochondrial Ca2+ overload. Here we discuss the effects of different modulators of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore on Ca2+-induced depolarization in brain mitochondria and in liver mitochondria, where the mechanism of Ca2+-depolarization is better understood. A comparison of these effects in brain and liver mitochondria led us to conclude that Ca2+ can induce reversible “low conductance” permeability transition in brain mitochondria, the phenomenon which requires a transient conformational change of the adenine nucleotide translocator from a specific transporter to a non-specific pore.
The X chromosome: not just her brother's keeper.

The X chromosome has traditionally been characterized as a conscientious sister to her derelict brother that is the Y. Beyond dutifully maintaining the family heritage, however, the X has developed its own unique identities. Now, the complete sequence of the human X allows us to appreciate its distinctiveness at an unprecedented resolution.
The effect of oral feeding at different levels on theabsorption of foodstuffs in infantile diarrhea

Summary The absorption of nitrogen, fat, total ash, sodium, potassium, calcium, andchloride has been followed in six subjects with infantile diarrhea on normal and on reduced food intakes. It was found that absorption of each food ingredient was improved on the higher intakes, even though the fecal loss was increased. From the point of view of absorption it would seem desirable not to restrict food in infantile diarrhea.
[Double the trouble: bidirectional expression of the SCA8 CAG/CTG expansion mutation - evidence for RNA and protein gain of function effects].

Microsatellite expansions cause a number of dominantlyinherited neurological diseases including myotonic dystrophy (DM1 and DM2), Huntington’s disease (HD and HDL2) and several forms of spinocerebellar ataxia (SCA) . Expansions located in coding-regions cause dominant protein gainof-function effects and non-coding expansions (DM and DM2) produce toxic RNA gain-of-function effects that in muscle have been shown to alter RNA splicing activities of MBNL and CELF proteins. We previously reported that a (CTG)n expansion causes spinocerebellar ataxia type 8 (SCA8). Because the SCA 8 expansion is transcribed, alternatively spliced, and polyadenylated in the CTG orientation we initially proposed that SCA8 is caused by an RNA gain-offunction mechanism similar to myotonic dystrophy. To elucidate the molecular events that cause SCA8, we developed a BAC transgenic mouse model in which the full length human SCA8 gene is expressed using its endogenous promoter. (CTG)116 expansion, but not (CTG)11 control lines, develop a progressive neurological phenotype and a loss of cerebellar cortical inhibition. Surprisingly, we found 1C2-intranuclear inclusions in Purkinje cells in SCA8 expansion mice and human SCA8 autopsy tissue result from translation of a nearly pure polyglutamine protein encoded on a previously unidentified anti-parallel transcript spanning the repeat in the CAG direction. The neurological phenotype found in the SCA8 BAC expansion lines but not BAC control lines demonstrates the pathogenicity of the (CTG・CAG)n expansion. We discussed three lines of evidence that SCA8 CUG transcripts cause RNA gain of function effects in the CNS. First, we demonstrate SCA8 CUG transcripts form ribonuclear inclusions that co-localize with MBNL1. Second, we show that genetic loss ofMbnl1 enhances motor coordination deficits in SCA8 mice. Third we show the GABA-A transporter-4 (Gabt4) gene, which is dramatically upregulated in SCA8, is a misregulated MBNL CELF splicing target. These data demonstrate for the first time that CUG transcripts dysregulate MBNL CELF regulated pathways in the brain and provide mechanistic insight into the CNS effects of other CUG disorders (DM, HDL2) . While functional evidence for RNA gain-of-function effects is presented here, the additional discovery of intranuclear polyglutamine inclusions in SCA8 suggests disease pathogenesis is mediated by toxic gain-of-function mechanisms at both the protein and RNA levels. Additionally, the growing number of bidirectionallyexpressed genes in the genome suggests unrecognized CUG RNAs contribute to some of the polyglutamine CAG・CTG disorders Please see Daughters et al. , Plos Genetics. Funding from the NIH (PO1NS058901, NS40389, AR46799), the Muscular Dystrophy Association and the National Ataxia Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.
The Effect of Urbanization on Ant Abundance and Diversity: A Temporal Examination of Factors Affecting Biodiversity

Numerous studies have examined the effect of urbanization on species richness and most studies implicate urbanization as the major cause of biodiversity loss. However, no study has identified an explicit connection between urbanization and biodiversity loss as the impact of urbanization is typically inferred indirectly by comparing species diversity along urban-rural gradients at a single time point. A different approach is to focus on the temporal rather than the spatial aspect and perform “before and after” studies where species diversity is cataloged over time in the same sites. The current study examined changes in ant abundance and diversity associated with the conversion of natural habitats into urban habitats. Ant abundance and diversity were tracked in forested sites that became urbanized through construction and were examined at 3 time points - before, during, and after construction. On average, 4.3±1.2 unique species were detected in undisturbed plots prior to construction. Ant diversity decreased to 0.7±0.8 species in plots undergoing construction and 1.5±1.1 species in plots 1 year after construction was completed. With regard to species richness, urbanization resulted in the permanent loss of 17 of the 20 species initially present in the study plots. Recovery was slow and only 3 species were present right after construction was completed and 4 species were present 1 year after construction was completed. The second objective examined ant fauna recovery in developed residential lots based on time since construction, neighboring habitat quality, pesticide inputs, and the presence of invasive ants. Ant diversity was positively correlated with factors that promoted ecological recovery and negatively correlated with factors that promoted ecological degradation. Taken together, these results address a critical gap in our knowledge by characterizing the short- and long-term the effects of urbanization on the loss of ant biodiversity.
Comparing Current and Former Student Evaluations of Course and Instructor Quality

Halo error, ratings of instruction quality, and attitudes toward completing teaching evaluations were examined across two studies of undergraduate communication students. In both studies, comparisons between current students (i.e., students currently enrolled in a given instructor's course) and former students (i.e., students who took an instructor more than one semester ago) were made along evaluative criteria. Results indicated former students rated instructors and course content less positively and exhibited greater variability (i.e., less halo) among study factors compared to current students. Attitudes toward completing student evaluations were positively related to ratings of course instruction. Partial support was found for the hypothesis that proposed current students would use dispositional cues (e.g., instructor immediacy), whereas former students would use more situational cues (e.g., course difficulty) when rating course and instructor quality.
Toxicology of food dyes

Background: Food dyes, synthesized originally from coal tar and now petroleum, have long been controversial because of safety concerns. Many dyes have been banned because of their adverse effects o...
Investigation of surface structures by powder diffraction: a differential pair distribution function study on arsenate sorption on ferrihydrite.

Differential pair distribution function (d-PDF) analysis of high energy powder X-ray diffraction data was carried out on 2-line ferrihydrite nanoparticles with arsenate oxyanions adsorbed on the surface to investigate the binding mechanism. In this analysis, a PDF of ferrihydrite is subtracted from a PDF of ferrihydrite with arsenate sorbed on the surface, leaving only correlations from within the surface layer and between the surface and the particle. As−O and As−Fe correlations were observed at 1.68 and 3.29 A, respectively, in good agreement with previously published EXAFS data, confirming a bidentate binuclear binding mechanism. Further peaks are observed in the d-PDF which are not present in EXAFS, corresponding to correlations between As and O in the particle and As-2nd Fe.
Antioxidative phenolic glycosides from sage (Salvia officinalis).

An investigation of Salvia officinalis L. has led to the isolation of three new phenolic glycosides, 6-O-caffeoyl-β-d-fructofuranosyl-(2→1)-α-d-glucopyranoside (1), 1-O-caffeoyl-β-d-apiofuranosyl-(...
Ulcerative colitis and protein losing enteropathy associated with intestinal salmonellosis and histoplasmosis in a horse

Summary Ulcerative colitis, protein losing enteropathy and intestinal histoplasmosis-salmonellosis were diagnosed in a six-year-old Quarterhorse stallion. For six months before examination, the horse experienced a slow continual loss of weight. During the 17 day period of hospitalisation the horse developed progressive generalised oedema. On the 12th day of hospitalisation a severe profuse watery diarrhoea began; the horse was killed five days later.
A 'zebra' chromosome arising from multiple translocations involving non-homologous chromosomes

An alloplasmic wheat line carrying a ‘zebra’ chromosome z5A was isolated from the derivatives of an Elymus trachycaulus x Triticum aestivum cv Chinese Spring hybrid. Chromosome z5A was named zebra because of its striped genomic in situ hybridization pattern. z5A consists of four chromosome segments derived from E. trachycaulus and four chromosome segments, including the centromere, from wheat. The short arm of z5A paired with the telocentric chromosome 1HtS of E. trachycaulus and the long arm with the long arm of normal 5A. z5A also carried several genetic markers derived from 1HtS. Chromosome 1Ht was the only E. trachycaulus chromosome found in the sib plants of a previous generation from which z5A was derived. Monosomic 5A and telocentric chromosome 5AL were also found in most of the sib plants. The zebra chromosome most probably originated from spontaneous multiple translocations between chromosomes 5A and 1HtS or 5A and 1Ht.
Studies of intraocular lens sterilization: the effect of NaOH on B. subtilis spores

The Ridley method for intraocular lens sterilization employs 10% NaOH for one hour followed by long-term storage in 0.1% NaOH. Ten percent NaOH for one hour was found to be ineffective when 106 B. subtilis spores were used for study in the presence of a looped lens system. A three-hour period was found to be effective. Similar concentrations of organisms were not killed by 0.1% NaOH even after 30 days. Consequently, the standard Ridley method would be inadequate for looped lens systems and would not fulfill the requirements for terminal sterilization. Teh percent NaOH for three hours would appear to be an acceptable terminal sterilization method.
Kinetic characterization of the catalysis of "activated" cyclophosphamide (4-hydroxycyclophosphamide/aldophosphamide) oxidation to carboxyphosphamide by mouse hepatic aldehyde dehydrogenases.

Abstract A spectrophotometric assay was developed and utilized to directly characterize aldehyde dehydrogenase-catalyzed oxidation of aldophosphamide to carboxyphosphamide by soluble and solubilized particulate fractions prepared from mouse liver homogenates. V max values of 3310 and 1170 nmol/min/g liver were obtained for the soluble and solubilized particulate fractions respectively. K m values were 22 and 84 μM respectively. Alkaline pH optimums were observed in each case. Aldehyde dehydrogenase-catalyzed oxidation of aldophosphamide by the soluble fraction was markedly more temperature responsive. Catalysis of aldophosphamide and acetaldehyde or benzaldehyde oxidation was apparently by the same isozyme(s) in the soluble fraction. Similarly, low K m (acetaldehyde/benzaldehyde) and high K m (acetaldehyde/benzaldehyde) isozymes each apparently catalyzed the oxidation of aldophosphamide in the solubilized particulate fraction. Our findings suggest that (1) oxidation of aldophosphamide to carboxyphosphamide by mouse liver is catalyzed largely by the predominant aldehyde dehydrogenase isozyme present in the soluble fraction (cytosol) of this tissue, and (2) isozymes that catalyze aldophosphamide oxidation are not different from those that catalyze the oxidation of acetaldehyde and benzaldehyde, though the relative contribution of each isozyme within the solubilized particulate fraction to the catalysis of aldophosphamide oxidation remains to be determined.
Application of gas analysis of jasperoid inclusion fluids to exploration for micron gold deposits

Graney, J.R., Kesler, S.E. and Jones, H.D., 1991. Application of gas analysis ofjasperoid inclusion fluids to exploration for micron gold deposits. In: S.E. Kesler (Editor), Fluid Inclusion Gas Analyses in Mineral Exploration. J. Geochem. Explor., 42: 91-106. Quadrupole mass spectrometric analyses of inclusion gases in jasperoid from the Carlin and Standard sediment-hosted micron gold deposits in Nevada show that mineralized areas exhibit better correlations between H20-CO2 and H20-N2, higher H2S/CO., and higher 02 ratios than dojasperoids from unmineralized areas. N2 and Ar in all jasperoids are strongly correlated, with an average ratio near that of air-saturated meteoric water. Speciation and reaction progress calculations show that fluids with high H2S/CO., ratios, such as are associated with mineralization in these deposits, would carry more gold than fluids with lower H2S/CO2 ratios. These calculations confirm that boiling would be a more efficient depositional mechanism than cooling or mixing ofthe ore fluid with groundwater. Although poor optical resolution makes it impossible to determine whether the jasperoids contain distinct liquid-rich and gas-rich fluid inclusions, the strong H20-CO2 and H20-N2 correlations in mineralized areas could be of that origin. Thus, jasperoids associated with mineralization could be recognized by high H2S: (02 ratios, which reflect a strong gold-carrying capacity for the fluid, and strong H:O-CO, and H20-N., correlations, which probably reflect gold deposition by boiling.
Cancer in the augmented breast : diagnosis and prognosis

Background. The stage of breast cancer at diagnosis in women who have undergone augmentation mammoplasty has been examined with conflicting results. Additional evaluation of this population is needed. Methods. A retrospective review of a large cancer center's breast cancer registry for a 116-month period was performed. Comparisons of patient age, method of detection, and pathologic stage of disease at presentation were performed for 33 patients with augmented breasts and 1735 patients with nonaugmented breasts who were treated. Results. Twenty-four percent of the patients with augmented breasts and 42% of those with nonaugmented breasts had mammographically detected cancers (P = NS). The incidence of ductal carcinoma in situ in the two groups was similar (18% versus 15%). Sizes of the mammographically detected tumors in the two groups were comparable; however, palpable tumors in the augmented group were significantly smaller than were those in the nonaugmented group. Overall, a significant difference in axillary lymph node involvement was detected, with 19% of the augmented group and 41% of the nonaugmented group having positive lymph nodes. In patients with palpable tumors, axillary lymph node involvement also was significantly different, with 22% of the patients with augmented breasts and 58% of those with nonaugmented breasts having axillary lymph node metastases. In the mammographically detected tumors, there was no significant difference in axillary lymph node metastases between the patients with augmented (13%) and those with nonaugmented (15%) breasts. Conclusions. Early detection of breast cancer is possible in the patient who has undergone augmentation mammoplasty. Mammography was successful in detecting occult lesions, and palpation detected smaller tumors. In this cohort, there was no evidence to suggest that the patients with augmented breasts had more advanced disease at presentation.
Flame capturing with an advection–reaction–diffusion model

We conduct several verification tests of the advection–reaction–diffusion flame-capturing model, developed by Khokhlov in 1995 for subsonic nuclear burning fronts in supernova simulations. We find that energy conservation is satisfied, but there is systematic error in the computed flame speed due to thermal expansion, which was neglected in the original model. We decouple the model from the full system, determine the necessary corrections for thermal expansion, and then demonstrate that these corrections produce the correct flame speed. The flame-capturing model is an alternative to other popular interface tracking techniques, and might be useful for applications beyond astrophysics.
MO‐E‐332‐01: DXS a Diagnostic X‐Ray Spectra Generator

Purpose: To numerically generate radiographic x‐ray spectra that can be conveniently employed in radiation transport simulations or other radiation detection applications. Method and Materials: Based initially on the Tucker, et al model, we developed and evaluated a new code, DXS (Diagnostic X‐Ray Spectra), to numerically generate spectra for tungsten‐target x‐ray tubes spanning the radiographic energy range. The model parameters in our code were adjusted by comparison with corresponding MCNP5 simulated spectra; we modified the semi‐analytical formulation for the characteristic x‐ray production, a caveat of Tucker's model, by incorporating a factor that better accounts for the dependence of the K‐peaks on the tube potential. Parametric fitting functions are used to model the self‐attenuation in the target and attenuation due to inherent and added filtration (aluminum,beryllium,copper,tantalum are the options implemented in the code), as well as for the tungsten mass stopping power and the Thomson‐Whiddington constant. Comparison with Monte Carlo simulated and published measured spectra were used to validate the new code. Results: Normalized to unit area DXS code‐generated spectra for several tube potentials from 50 to 140 kVp agree well, less than 2% relative difference in nearly all energy bins (2 keV), with corresponding MCNP5 simulated spectra for similar tube parameters. Few exceptions are noted and may be attributed to either poorer statistics in the low and high energy tails of the spectrum, or to insufficient accuracy of the numerical computations for the steepest part of the spectra at high accelerating potentials. Good agreement is seen between the DXS and Bhat et al measured spectra. Conclusion: The DXS code generates the spectra, according to user specified input parameters (tube potential, anode angle, filtratation) and energy intervals, and augments them into any discretized energy group structure. Hence, the code can be of great benefit in radiation transport simulations.
Nucleic acid purification using microfabricated silicon structures

A microfluidic device has been designed, fabricated and tested for its ability to purify bacteriophage lambda DNA and bacterial chromosomal DNA, a necessary prerequisite for its incorporation into a biosensor. This device consists of a microfabricated channel in which silica-coated pillars were etched to increase the surface area within the channel by 300-600%, when the etch depth is varied from 20 to 50 microm. DNA was selectively bound to these pillars in the presence of the chaotropic salt guanidinium isothiocyanate, followed by washing with ethanol and elution with low-ionic strength buffer. Positive pressure was used to move solutions through the device, removing the need for centrifugation steps. The binding capacity for DNA in the device was approximately 82 ng/cm2 and on average, 10% of the bound DNA could be purified and recovered in the first 50 microl of elution buffer. Additionally, the device removed approximately 87% of the protein from a cell lysate. Nucleic acids recovered from the device were efficiently amplified by the polymerase chain reaction suggesting the utility of these components in an integrated, DNA amplification-based biosensor. The miniaturized format of this purification device, along with its excellent purification characteristics make it an ideal component for nucleic acid-based biosensors, especially those in which nucleic acid amplification is a critical step.
Comments on earthquake response spectra

Abstract Statistical summaries have been carried out on a large number of earthquake records to examine the influences of geological conditions, duration of strong motion, and peak ground acceleration on ground motion and response spectra. The results indicate that the peak ground velocity-acceleration ratio is substantially lower for records on rock deposits than those on alluvium, and it is lower for records with a peak ground acceleration greater than 0.20 g than those with acceleration less than 0.20 g . For each influence the spectral bounds defined as the product of mean ground motion and mean plus one standard deviation amplifications are computed for five damping coefficients and compared to those for alluvium deposits without consideration of duration and acceleration level.
Measurement of protein structure change in active muscle by hydrogen-tritium exchange

A hydrogen-tritium exchange method was developed to study protein structure changes at the molecular level in active muscle. Skinned rabbit psoas fibers mounted on a specially designed holder were selectively tritium labeled at peptide group NH sites that change from a highly protected form in rigor to an easily exchangeable, essentially random coil condition when muscle is activated. The number of sites found to show this behavior varies linearly with thick filament-thin filament overlap, and would correspond to 83 amino acids per myosin molecule in the muscle, although the experiments do not yet place these sites in any given protein. Half of the sensitive sites respond to relaxing conditions as well to activation.
Engineering selectivity into polymer-supported reagents for transition metal ion complex formation

Polymer-supported reagents are widely employed in the complexation of metal ions for applications in separations science, organic reactions (as catalysts) and in analytical chemistry (for processes requiring metal ion enrichment, detection and quantification). Various strategies for the continued development and optimization of polymer-supported reagents have evolved. This review cites ways in which polymer-supported reagents can be designed to achieve improved metal ion selectivities from the viewpoint of the mechanisms involved in the complexation of transition metal ions from aqueous solutions.
The effect of Er fraction on THz power generated by extrinsic-photoconductive ErAs:GaAs switches driven at 1550 nm

Two Er-doped-GaAs photoconductive (PC) switches have been studied in extrinsic mode with different Er fractions of 1% and 2%. The PC switches were driven with a 1550 nm ultrafast laser (hν = 0.56 UG, UG = 1.42 eV for GaAs) and exhibited different THz bandwidths and photoelectric responsivities. These experiments are aimed at optimizing the new extrinsic mode of generating THz radiation in ErAs:GaAs photoconductive devices. This is the first ever demonstration of generating THz power with extrinsic photoconductivity with a 2% Er ErAs:GaAs PC switch. We find that the PC switch with 2% Er concentration produced more THz power and the bandwidth was marginally better.
The influence of mental and motor load on handwriting movements in Parkinsonian patients

This experiment tested the hypothesis that Parkinson's disease (PD) patients are more vulnerable to a moderate level of secondary task load than elderly or young controls due to heightened variability in the motor system. PD patients, elderly, and young adults performed a handwriting task with different secondary tasks. The secondary task imposed motor load (i.e., speech) and/or a mental load (i.e., ignoring, repeating, or subtracting). The findings showed that, in contrast to young and elderly controls, PD patients tended to increase MT, accumulated pause time, and normalized jerk when the secondary task consisted primarily of motor load. Furthermore, it was shown that PD patients did not reduce writing sizes as result of a high level of mental load which finding suggests that writing in an automated fashion does not result in micrographia. The results are discussed in relation to strategies imposed to contend with reduced signal-to-noise levels in the motor system.