cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
How Special Is Language Production? Perspectives From Monitoring and Control

Abstract In his seminal essay, “The Modularity of Mind” Fodor (1983) , presents arguments in favor of language comprehension as a special module along with other input processing systems. His view on language production is less clear. In this chapter, I first demonstrate that language production and comprehension are quite similar when evaluated in light of Fodor's criteria for modules: both meet a subset of those criteria in that their behavior resembles automatic processing; neither, however, is informationally encapsulated. This partial conformity with the criteria for specialized modules, leaves the question “How special is language production?” unanswered. I will then propose that this question can be answered by re-examining the origin of what resembles the behavior of an automatic system. I will argue that language production is, in fact, an efficiently monitored and controlled system, and that such monitoring and control mechanisms are shared between language production and other systems. These domain-general mechanisms, however, operate on domain-specific representations, creating specialized monitoring-control loops that can be selectively trained and selectively damaged.
Who loses public health insurance when states pass restrictive omnibus immigration-related laws? The moderating role of county Latino density.

Abstract In the United States, there is widespread concern that state laws restricting rights for noncitizens may have spillover effects for Latino children in immigrant families. Studies into the laws’ effects on health care access have inconsistent findings, demonstrating gaps in our understanding of who is most affected, under what circumstances. Using comparative interrupted time series methods and a nationally-representative sample of US citizen, Latino children with noncitizen parents from the National Health Interview Survey (2005–2014, n = 18,118), this study finds that living in counties with higher co-ethnic density placed children at greater risk of losing Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program coverage when their states passed restrictive state omnibus immigrant laws. This study is the first to demonstrate the importance of examining how the health impacts of immigration-related policies vary across local communities.
Vehicle Routing to Mitigate Human Exposure to Traffic-Related Air Pollutants

Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) technology often aims at improving traffic safety and mobility. In recent years, a number of ITS applications have also been developed to reduce environmental impacts from greenhouse gases and pollutant emissions. Typical eco-friendly ITS applications (e.g., eco-routing) focus on reducing overall vehicle emissions. However, pollutant emissions from vehicles would cause more adverse impacts on public health where there are more population living closer to the emission sources (i.e., roadways). To date, eco-friendly ITS applications have not been developed from a pollutant exposure point of view. In this paper, we introduce a new vehicle routing method that goes beyond minimizing overall pollutant emissions; instead, we aim to minimize pollutant exposure to the localized population along the roadways. As part of the method, the human inhaled mass of pollutants is modeled and used as part of the routing cost. Modeling results show that the inhaled mass of fine particulate matter for the selected susceptible population can be reduced by approximately 30% – 80% on a typical workday with the implementation of the proposed vehicle routing method.
Impact of Incentives on Academic Achievement and Household Behavior: Evidence From a Randomized Trial in Nepal

I present evidence on the impact of financial incentives on students’ outcomes from a randomized field experiment in Nepal. My optimistic estimate of the impact of incentives is 0.09 standard deviations gains in average aggregate scores, while the pessimistic estimate of treatment effects is 0.07, where the former finding is marginally statistically significant and the latter is insignificant. The result is meaningful given that several experimental and institutional factors in the study make it less likely to find a significant treatment effect. Looking beyond the aggregate grades, I find large significant gains in some subjects, no gains in other subjects, and significant losses in yet other subjects. This observation is consistent with the hypothesis that instead of increasing total effort in response to cash incentives, students reallocate effort towards the subjects in which the returns to effort are the highest. There are no noticeable differences in gains between males and females and students from different socioeconomic background, and cash incentives have a relatively higher impact on students from the lower quartiles. My study contributes to the growing literature on academic incentives by recording household responses to the incentive scheme. I find that incentives increase the probability that a student receives private tutoring after school, but decrease the probability that a household member helps students with schoolwork. Finally, financial rewards do not have an adverse impact on students’ intrinsic motivation to learn.
High-dose heparin is associated with higher bleeding and thrombosis rates in pediatric patients following cardiac surgery

Abstract Objective To determine the association between unfractionated heparin (UFH) dose and the rate of postoperative bleeding and thrombosis events in pediatric cardiac patients. We tested the hypothesis that high-dose UFH is associated with higher rates of bleeding and thrombosis. Methods This is a retrospective review of pediatric patients admitted to the cardiac intensive care unit following cardiac surgery between November 2016 and December 2017. Peripheral venous thrombosis was excluded from analysis. Bleeding was defined as spontaneous bleeding remote from procedural manipulation. Postoperative UFH dosing strategy was categorized into 3 groups: no UFH, low-dose UFH ( Results We observed 966 consecutive patients (median age, 1.37 years; interquartile range, 0.27-5.50 years) during their stay in the cardiac intensive care unit. There were 94 patients (10%) with bleeding and 52 patients (5%) with thrombosis during follow-up. Patients receiving high-dose UFH experienced significantly more bleeding (odds ratio, 2.35; 95% confidence interval, 1.45-3.95) and thrombosis events (odds ratio, 3.65; 95% confidence interval, 1.81-7.38) compared with patients receiving low-dose UFH. The odds of bleeding (odds ratio, 0.81; 95% confidence interval, 0.45-1.47) and thrombosis (odds ratio, 0.59; 95% confidence interval, 0.26-1.35) were similar in the low-dose UFH and no-UFH groups. Conclusions Bleeding remote from immediate postsurgical bleeding occurs uncommonly in pediatric patients following cardiac surgery. Anticoagulation with high-dose UFH is associated with higher bleeding rates as well as higher thrombosis rates. Indications for high-dose UFH should be carefully considered to reduce the rate of bleeding in this population.
Landscape and management factors influence the occupancy dynamics of sympatric salamanders in an urban preserve system

Abstract Conserving amphibian populations living in urban areas is challenging due to a lack of information about urban amphibian natural history, ecology, and responses to habitat management. To address these knowledge gaps, we used 10 years of monitoring data to investigate patterns of occupancy, detectability, and population turnover for sympatric Ambystoma laterale (Blue-spotted Salamanders) and A. tigrinum (Eastern Tiger Salamanders; hereafter Tiger Salamanders) inhabiting 26 suburban preserves in the third largest metropolitan area in the United States, Chicago. From 2009 to 2018 we conducted 2181 artificial cover object surveys at 158 randomly distributed monitoring points and detected Blue-spotted Salamanders 375 times and Tiger Salamanders 85 times. We constructed dynamic occupancy models and used an information theoretic approach to rank a priori candidate models containing landscape, survey, and management covariates. Blue-spotted Salamander occupancy was more than twice as high as Tiger Salamander occupancy. Detection probability for both species was substantially
Low Intensity Pulsed Ultrasound and Articular Cartilage Repair

Low intensity pulsed ultrasound [LIPUS], a physical modality that has demonstrated utility in bone healing contexts including non union fracture situations has been proposed to also impact articular cartilage chondrocyte cell metabolism in a favorable way. This current review focuses on two questions: a) whether LIPUS produces any clinically significant impact on chondrocyte structure or function; b) whether the impacts observed support a role for LIPUS in efforts to foster cartilage regeneration and healing applications. Drawn from the English language literature published over the last 35 years, the majority of the available basic or preclinical studies presently reviewed demonstrate LIPUS applications to consistently yield favorable cartilage chondrogenic responses, regardless of substrate, and to be worthy of further exploration in the clinical realm for promoting much sought after osteoarthritic reparative and repair effects.
The Effect of Race on Short-Term Pituitary Tumor Outcomes.

Background The relationship between race and neurosurgical outcomes is poorly characterized despite its importance. The influence of race on short-term patient outcomes in a pituitary tumor surgery population was assessed. Methods Coarsened exact matching was used to retrospectively analyze 567 consecutive pituitary tumor cases from a 6-year period (June 7, 2013, to April 29, 2019) at a single, multihospital academic medical center. Outcomes studied included 30-day readmission, mortality, and reoperation. Results There were 92 exact-matched cases suitable for analysis. There was a significant difference in 30-day emergency department visits between the 2 races (black/African American vs. white odds ratio = 4.5, 95% confidence interval = 1.072–30.559, P = 0.0386). There was no observed mortality over the 30-day postoperative period. There was no significant difference in 30-day readmission between the 2 race cohorts (P = 0.3877), in return to surgery after index admission within 30 days (P = 1.000), or in return to surgery within 30 days (P = 0.3750). Conclusions This study suggests that the effect of race on outcomes is partly mitigated for individuals who can attain access, and when socioeconomic factors and comorbidities are controlled for. The noted significant difference in emergency department visits could be indicative of confounding variables that were not well controlled for and requires further exploration.
Removal of high frequency contamination from motion estimates in single-band fMRI saves data without biasing functional connectivity

Abstract Denoising fMRI data requires assessment of frame-to-frame head motion and removal of the biases motion introduces. This is usually done through analysis of the parameters calculated during retrospective head motion correction (i.e., ‘motion’ parameters). However, it is increasingly recognized that respiration introduces factitious head motion via perturbations of the main (B0) field. This effect appears as higher-frequency fluctuations in the motion parameters (>0.1 ​Hz, here referred to as ‘HF-motion’), primarily in the phase-encoding direction. This periodicity can sometimes be obscured in standard single-band fMRI (TR 2.0–2.5 ​s) due to aliasing. Here we examined (1) how prevalent HF-motion effects are in seven single-band datasets with TR from 2.0 to 2.5 ​s and (2) how HF-motion affects functional connectivity. We demonstrate that HF-motion is more common in older adults, those with higher body mass index, and those with lower cardiorespiratory fitness. We propose a low-pass filtering approach to remove the contamination of high frequency effects from motion summary measures, such as framewise displacement (FD). We demonstrate that in most datasets this filtering approach saves a substantial amount of data from FD-based frame censoring, while at the same time reducing motion biases in functional connectivity measures. These findings suggest that filtering motion parameters is an effective way to improve the fidelity of head motion estimates, even in single band datasets. Particularly large data savings may accrue in datasets acquired in older and less fit participants.
Fine-needle aspiration biopsy for the diagnosis of bone and soft tissue lesions: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Introduction The workup of musculoskeletal (MSK) lesions utilizes a range of diagnostic tests including incisional biopsy, core needle biopsy, and fine-needle aspiration (FNA). FNA is the most cost-effective and least invasive biopsy method, but variation in its reported diagnostic performance has constrained its use for MSK lesions. Herein, we undertake a meta-analysis to clarify the diagnostic performance of FNA for bone and soft tissue lesions. Materials and methods A systematic search was run in MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL. Included studies were aggregated for pooled estimates of adequacy, accuracy, and sensitivity/specificity for all MSK lesions as well as bone and soft tissue independently. Analysis of heterogeneity and risk of bias were assessed across studies. Covariate subgroup analyses were attempted to investigate potential influences on diagnostic accuracy. Results Twenty-five articles met inclusion criteria, representing 4604 FNAs. Adequacy was 92.3% (range: 59.2%-98.0%, S = 9.4%), and sensitivity/specificity for the nature (malignant or benign) of the lesion was 95.6% (95% CI: 94.5%-96.5%) and 96.9% (95% CI: 95.9%-97.7%). FNA was 75.8% accurate (range: 42.5%-99.3%, S = 17.3%) for definitive diagnosis. FNA provides higher accuracy for benign versus malignant nature in bone lesions but achieves a definitive diagnosis more frequently in soft tissue lesions. Conclusions The results of this meta-analysis support the expanded use of FNA in the diagnostic workup of bone and soft tissue lesions, particularly in light of a sensitivity and specificity comparable to incisional and core needle biopsy.
Work-In-Progress: Fault Tolerance in a Two-State Regularity-Based Checkpointing System

Embedded real-time virtualized systems serve a wide range of functions for many important industries. They can encompass multiple independent applications sharing limited computational resources. Many models have been introduced to ensure reliability and energy efficiency for these systems. Hierarchical Real-Time Scheduling (HiRTS) is a framework to enable the sharing of resources. It is used alongside the Regularity-Based Resource Partition model (RRP) to achieve transparent scheduling. A checkpointing system is an effective method to resolve transient faults. However, checkpoint insertions are known to incur high time and energy overheads. This paper proposes a two-state regularity-based checkpointing model within the HiRTS framework. It will ensure fault tolerance when scheduling independent, mixedcriticality real-time task sets on limited resources. By reducing checkpoint insertions before the first fault, the system will achieve higher utilization and less overhead while still ensuring fault tolerance. The simulation-based experiments presented suggest the model could offer a significant increase in utilization and reliability. They will be used as a guideline for future simulations using more complex schedules.
Evaluation of a treatment algorithm for patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome: a pilot study.

Background: Treatment of patellofemoral pain syndrome (PFPS) has been extensively studied in physical therapy literature. Patients with PFPS demonstrate quadriceps and hip musculature weakness, altered lower extremity (LE) kinematics, and decreased LE flexibility. Psychosocial factors have also been identified as an important factor in patients with PFPS. The authors hypothesize that an ordered approach addressing each of these impairments sequentially will result in greater improvement in PFPS symptoms. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the feasibility of performing a randomized trial and to determine the sample size necessary to examine the validity of this hypothesis.
Resisting the European Court of Justice: West Germany's Confrontation with European Law, 1949–1979

The European Union's (EU) powerful legal framework drives the process of European integration. The Court of Justice (ECJ) has established a uniquely effective supranational legal order, beyond the original wording of the Treaty of Rome and transforming our traditional understanding of international law. This work investigates how these fundamental transformations in the European legal system were received in one of the most important member states, Germany. On the one hand, Germany has been highly supportive of political and economic integration; yet on the other, a fundamental pillar of the post-war German identity was the integrity of its constitutional order. How did a state whose constitution was so essential to its self-understanding subscribe to the constitutional practice of EU law? How did a country who could not say 'no' to Europe become the member state most reluctant to accept the new power of the ECJ?
Immunochemical Characterization of the Leishmania Donovani 3′-Nucleotidase

3′-nucleotidase (3′N”Q is an externally oriented surface membrane enzyme of Leishmania donovani.1,2 The enzyme is a glycoprotein of apparent Mr=43,000, capable of hydrolyzing 3′-nucleotides and also exhibits exonuclease activity.1–3 As Leishmania have an absolute requirement for preformed purines, it has been suggested that the 3′NT might function in the acquisition of these essential nutrients from the growth medium.1,2 It was recently shown, in a related trypanosomatid, Crithidia fasciculate, that 3′NT activity was regulated by the levels of exogenously supplied purines.4 Similar regulation of 3′NT activity was observed with L. donovani in the current study. To facilitate the further characterization of this enzyme, a rabbit antiserum was rasied against the 3′NT isolated from L. donovani promastigotes. Results of immunochemical studies with this antiserum are presented in this report.
Modeling watershed-scale solute transport using an integrated, process-based hydrologic model with applications to bacterial fate and transport

Summary Distributed hydrologic models that simulate fate and transport processes at sub-daily timescales are useful tools for estimating pollutant loads exported from watersheds to lakes and oceans downstream. There has been considerable interest in the application of integrated process-based hydrologic models in recent years. While the models have been applied to address questions of water quantity and to better understand linkages between hydrology and land surface processes, routine applications of these models to address water quality issues are currently limited. In this paper, we first describe a general process-based watershed-scale solute transport modeling framework, based on an operator splitting strategy and a Lagrangian particle transport method combined with dispersion and reactions. The transport and the hydrologic modules are tightly coupled and the interactions among different hydrologic components are explicitly modeled. We test transport modules using data from plot-scale experiments and available analytical solutions for different hydrologic domains. The numerical solutions are also compared with an analytical solution for groundwater transit times with interactions between surface and subsurface flows. Finally, we demonstrate the application of the model to simulate bacterial fate and transport in the Red Cedar River watershed in Michigan and test hypotheses about sources and transport pathways. The watershed bacterial fate and transport model is expected to be useful for making near real-time predictions at marine and freshwater beaches.
Dual reservoir structure at Soufrière Hills Volcano inferred from continuous GPS observations and heterogeneous elastic modeling

[1] Most inversions of geodetic data for volcanic systems assume homogeneous media. Here we examine the effect of inhomogeneous media using axisymmetric finite element models of Soufriere Hills Volcano (SHV), to show that homogeneous elastic crustal models underestimate both the depth and excess pressure of the deformation source. Continuous GPS data from 1999 to 2009 are then used to infer that the SHV system has multiple crustal pressure sources. For a dual reservoir volcanic model, a deep reservoir located within the mid crust undergoes volume changes approximately an order of magnitude larger than those of the shallow reservoir.
Rational Bubbles in Individual Stock Prices and Implications for Investment Management

Over the years, many stocks in emerging industries, with hindsight, have been overvalued. Stock prices relative to revenue, earnings, book values, or other measures often do not seem consistent with fundamental value. I illustrate a model in which the overvaluation of stocks is not necessarily due to excessively optimistic investors who create a bubble in stock prices, but could simply reflect uncertainty about which stocks will survive consolidation in the industry. I then discuss the implications of this for active investment management.
Photovoltaic power - An important new energy option

A review of photovoltaic (PV) power technology is presented with an emphasis of PV as an economical and technically feasible alternative source of energy. The successful completion of the development and transfer of emerging low-cost technologies into a fully commercialized status are identified as the means to the realization of this option's full potential. The DOE National Photovoltaics Program, a significant sponsor of PV R&D, expects both flat-plate and concentrator collectors to meet established cost targets. Citing the DOE large flat-plate grid-connected system project of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District, current technology modules priced at near $5/Wp (1983 dollars) are steadily reducing costs. A recent DOE study suggests that PV-generated electricity produced at a 30-year levelized cost of 15 cents per kWh would represent a viable energy supply alternative for the nation.
Plato's Phaedo theory of relations

Here is a fragment of an investigation into Plato’s Phaedo General Theory of Forms, Relations, and Particulars. Here I report on two small related discoveries. First, I offer the historico-philosophical report that in the Phaedo Plato did put forward a theory of relations and relational facts, and I set forth that theory. Second, I offer the purely philosophical result that such a theory is logically sound and ontologically viable.
Finance and American Inequality in the Last Century

Rising top income shares in the US have received increased attention both within and outside of academia. In this paper, we argue that the size of the top income share in the US has been consistently shaped by the evolution of the financial sector. We test our hypotheses connecting finance and the top income share over time using empirical methods that probe the co-evolution of historical time series data: Granger causality tests, cointegration tests, and error correction model analysis. We find that the growth of the financial sector has had negative impacts on the equal distribution of market incomes in the US during the last century. Specifically, financial developments have increased the portion of national income accruing to the richest 1%, and the richest 0.01% in particular, as well as increasing the level of poverty in the US during the last century.
INTERACTION OF DNA POLYMERASE III γ AND β SUBUNITS IN VIVO IN SALMONELLA TYPHIMURIUM

We show that temperature-sensitive mutations in dnaZ, the gene for the γ subunit of DNA polymerase III holoenzyme, can be suppressed by mutations in the dnaN gene, which encodes the β subunit. These results support a direct physical interaction of these two subunits during polymerase assembly or function. The suppressor phenotype is also sensitive to modulation by the dnaA genotype. Since dnaA is organized in an operon with dnaN, and dnaA is a regulatory gene of this operon, we propose that the dnaA effect on suppression can best be explained by modulation of suppressor dnaN levels.
GRIEVING IN THE MUSCOGEE CREEK TRIBE

A qualitative, collective case study explores grieving in the Muscogee Creek tribe. Data from interviews with 27 participants, all adult members of the tribe, reveal tendencies in patterns of grieving. Commonalities include (a) individual strength and certainty of recovery; (b) focus on giving to others in the family and coping as a family unit; and (c) support mainly received from family. Cultural factors of belief in nature's balance, family, community, and Indian medicine influence the meaning Creeks associate with death, which, in turn, contributes to grieving patterns.
Field Observations of the Bering Sea Ice Edge Properties during March 1979

Abstract During March 1979 field observations in the Bering Sea show that because of the interaction of winds and ocean swell with the ice, the ice edge divides into three distinct zones. First, adjacent to the open ocean is an “edge" zone, 1–15 km in width, which consists of heavily rafted and ridged floes with thicknesses of 1–5 m and measuring 10–20 m on a side. Second is a “transition” zone measuring ∼5 km in width, which consists of rectangular ice floes with thicknesses of ∼0.5 m and measuring 20–40 m on a side. Third is the “interior” zone, which extends over hundreds of kilometers and consists of very large, relatively flat floes with thicknesses of ∼0.3 m. In the edge zone the incident swell causes the floes to fracture, raft and form pressure ridges, resulting in small thick floes. In the transition zone the swell amplitude is reduced to the point that the floes fracture in a rectangular pattern with very little rafting or ridging taking place. In the interior zone the swell amplitude is further...
A Dynamically Regulated Transformation of a Bacterial Bilayer Membrane to a Cross-linked 2-Dimensional Sheet during Adaptation to Unfavorable Environmental Pressures

To maintain an optimum dynamic range, membranes of living systems must have the ability to regulate their translational and vibrational motion in the face of environmental changes that might offset them. This is done through structural modifications of the lipids. Sarcina ventriculi was used as a case study to explore membrane structural reorganizations which allow some organisms to adapt to extreme environmental changes. It is capable of a variety of unusual and dramatic chemical processes including lipid alkyl chain tail-to-tail and lipid head-to-head coupling. There is also interlipid headgroup transfer or shuffling. The tail-to-tail coupling activity is capable of joining foreign (exogenously added) hydrocarbon chains to the native chains. The adaptative processes occur dynamically and instantaneously and render this organism tolerant to low and high pH, moderately high temperatures, the presence of organic solvents, and a wide spectrum of antibiotics at concentrations as high as 200 μg/mL. Chemical a...
Experimental pain sensitivity differs as a function of clinical pain severity in symptomatic knee osteoarthritis

Summary Objective Pain in knee osteoarthritis (OA) has historically been attributed to peripheral pathophysiology; however, the poor correspondence between objective measures of disease severity and clinical symptoms suggests that non-local factors, such as altered central processing of painful stimuli, also contribute to clinical pain in knee OA. Consistent with this notion, recent evidence demonstrates that patients with knee OA exhibit increased sensitivity to painful stimuli at body sites unaffected by clinical pain. Design In order to further investigate the contribution of altered pain processing to knee OA pain, the current study tested the hypothesis that symptomatic knee OA is associated with enhanced sensitivity to experimental pain stimuli at the knee and at remote body sites unaffected by clinical pain. We further anticipated that pain sensitivity would differ as a function of the OA symptom severity. Older adults with and without symptomatic knee OA completed a series of experimental pain assessments. A median split of the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Index of Osteoarthritis (WOMAC) was used to stratify participants into low vs high OA symptom severity. Results Compared to controls and the low symptom group, individuals in the high symptom group were more sensitive to suprathreshold heat stimuli, blunt pressure, punctuate mechanical, and cold stimuli. Individuals in the low symptomatic OA group subgroup exhibited experimental pain responses similar to the pain-free group on most measures. No group differences in endogenous pain inhibition emerged. Conclusions These findings suggest that altered central processing of pain is particularly characteristic of individuals with moderate to severe symptomatic knee OA.
Mannosylated poly(beta-amino esters) for targeted antigen presenting cell immune modulation

Given the rise of antibiotic resistance and other difficult-to-treat diseases, genetic vaccination is a promising preventative approach that can be tailored and scaled according to the vector chosen for gene delivery. However, most vectors currently utilized rely on ubiquitous delivery mechanisms that ineffectively target important immune effectors such as antigen presenting cells (APCs). As such, APC targeting allows the option for tuning the direction (humoral vs cell-mediated) and strength of the resulting immune responses. In this work, we present the development and assessment of a library of mannosylated poly(beta-amino esters) (PBAEs) that represent a new class of easily synthesized APC-targeting cationic polymers. Polymeric characterization and assessment methodologies were designed to provide a more realistic physiochemical profile prior to in vivo evaluation. Gene delivery assessment in vitro showed significant improvement upon PBAE mannosylation and suggested that mannose-mediated uptake and processing influence the magnitude of gene delivery. Furthermore, mannosylated PBAEs demonstrated a strong, efficient, and safe in vivo humoral immune response without use of adjuvants when compared to genetic and protein control antigens. In summary, the gene delivery effectiveness provided by mannosylated PBAE vectors offers specificity and potency in directing APC activation and subsequent immune responses.
Cascaded H-bridge Multilevel Inverters -A Reexamination

Multilevel converters have gained popularity in high-power applications due to their low switch voltage stress and modularity. Cascaded H-bridge converters are a promising breed of multilevel converters which generally require several independent dc sources. Recently, existence of a redundant switching state has been utilized to replace the independent voltage sources with capacitors except for the one with the highest voltage level. Redundancy in the charge and discharge modes of the capacitors is assumed to be adequate for their voltage regulation. However, output current of the inverter as well as the time duration of the redundant switching states have been neglected. In this paper, the impacts of connected load to the cascaded H-bridge converter as well as the switching angles on the voltage regulation of the capacitors are studied. This study proves that voltage regulation is only attainable in a much limited operating conditions that it was originally reported.
Targeting of Splice Variants of Human Cytochrome P450 2C8 (CYP2C8) to Mitochondria and Their Role in Arachidonic Acid Metabolism and Respiratory Dysfunction

In this study, we found that the full-length CYP2C8 (WT CYP2C8) and N-terminal truncated splice variant 3 (∼44-kDa mass) are localized in mitochondria in addition to the endoplasmic reticulum. Analysis of human livers showed that the mitochondrial levels of these two forms varied markedly. Molecular modeling based on the x-ray crystal structure coordinates of CYP2D6 and CYP2C8 showed that despite lacking the N-terminal 102 residues variant 3 possessed nearly complete substrate binding and heme binding pockets. Stable expression of cDNAs in HepG2 cells showed that the WT protein is mostly targeted to the endoplasmic reticulum and at low levels to mitochondria, whereas variant 3 is primarily targeted to mitochondria and at low levels to the endoplasmic reticulum. Enzyme reconstitution experiments showed that both microsomal and mitochondrial WT CYP2C8 efficiently catalyzed paclitaxel 6-hydroxylation. However, mitochondrial variant 3 was unable to catalyze this reaction possibly because of its inability to stabilize the large 854-Da substrate. Conversely, mitochondrial variant 3 catalyzed the metabolism of arachidonic acid into 8,9-, 11,12-, and 14,15-epoxyeicosatrienoic acids and 20-hydroxyeicosatetraenoic acid when reconstituted with adrenodoxin and adrenodoxin reductase. HepG2 cells stably expressing variant 3 generated higher levels of reactive oxygen species and showed a higher level of mitochondrial respiratory dysfunction. This study suggests that mitochondrially targeted variant 3 CYP2C8 may contribute to oxidative stress in various tissues.
Polyamines eliminate an extreme size bias against transformation of large yeast artificial chromosome DNA.

Abstract The recent development of vectors and methods for cloning large linear DNA as yeast artificial chromosomes (YACs) has enormous potential in facilitating genome analysis, particularly because of the large cloning capacity of the YAC cloning system. However, the construction of comprehensive libraries with very large DNA segments (400–500 kb average insert size) has been technically very difficult to achieve. We have examined the possibility that this difficulty is due, at least in part, to preferential transformation of the smaller DNA molecules in the yeast transformation mixture. Our data indicate that the transformation efficiency of a 330-kb linear YAC DNA molecule is 40-fold lower, on a molar basis, than that of a 110-kb molecule. This extreme size bias in transformation efficiency is dramatically reduced (to
Detecting Treatment Differences in Soil Carbon and Nitrogen Resulting from Forest Manipulations

Forest management practices may alter soil properties, but experimental evaluation of treatment effects is often difficult because large soil variability yields poor statistical sensitivity. This study was conducted to determine if pretreatment soil sampling enhances our ability to detect treatment differences in Pacific Northwest forests. We used statistical simulation and data from 271 pretreatment 30-cm-deep soil cores taken from 70- to 100-yr-old post-fire Douglas-fir [Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco] stands at the Siskiyou National Forest in southwestern Oregon. At this site, an unmanipulated control and six treatments of overstory species and woody debris are being established on 6-ha plots and replicated in three blocks. If only post-treatment measurements were made, the minimum detectable difference (MDD) between extreme treatments would be 26 to 57% of current soil C and N concentrations (g kg -1 ) and masses (kg m -2 ), with C generally having smaller relative MDDs than N. In contrast, if the differences between post- and pretreatment were evaluated, relative MDDs for C properties would remain the same, but those for N would decrease by as much as one-half because N has greater pretreatment variability among plots than C. Masses of C and N, which incorporate information about rock volume and either soil mass or bulk density, have relative MDDs as small as one-half of those associated with concentrations. Evaluation of other sites is required to determine if these observations are consistent for forests in general and, thus, applicable to the design of sampling strategies in large-scale experiments.
Nominations and Party Development in Ethiopia: The Opposition and the 2005 Parliamentary Election

To what extent do parties in Africa behave in ways similar to parties in new democracies elsewhere in the world? Although a complete answer to this question is far beyond the intended scope of this piece, this article seeks to examine one important aspect of party behavior in one sub Saharan country – the candidate nomination behavior of the two major opposition party formations in Ethiopia. I examine the nomination behavior of the main opposition parties using a binary logistic regression technique. Th is paper finds that the primary Ethiopian opposition parties, the CUD (the Coalition for Unity and Democracy) and UEDF (the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces) were quite different in their nomination behavior, and that the CUD (more than the UEDF), exhibited nomination patterns similar to party nomination behavior in other new democracies.
Lagrange Multipliers for Nonconvex Generalized Gradients with Equality, Inequality, and Set Constraints

A Lagrange multiplier rule for finite dimensional Lipschitz problems that uses a nonconvex generalized gradient is proven. This result uses either both the linear generalized gradient and the generalized gradient of Mordukhovich or the linear generalized gradient and a qualification condition involving the pseudo-Lipschitz behavior of the feasible set under perturbations. The optimization problem includes equality constraints, inequality constraints, and a set constraint. This result extends known nonsmooth results for the Lipschitz case.
Fringe pattern suppression in intracavity laser spectroscopy

Absorption spectra obtained by intracavity laser spectroscopy (ILS) often contain fringe patterns that significantly mask absorption features and hamper the quantitative analysis of ILS data. Both the parasitic etalon fringes and the fringes that originate from spatially localized losses can be suppressed by a low-amplitude audio-frequency vibration of a folding mirror in the laser cavity. Using this methodology, we show that ILS spectra recorded with multimode lasers that contain nonideal intracavity surfaces have essentially no fringe contamination. The elimination of fringe contamination improves the detection sensitivity of ILS under normal experimental conditions and thus expands the potential for ILS applications.
Non-arginine-aspartate (non-RD) kinases are associated with innate immune receptors that recognize conserved microbial signatures.

An important question in the field of plant–pathogen interactions is how the detection of pathogens is converted into an effective immune response. In recent years, substantial insight has been gained into the identities of both the plant receptors and the microbial molecules they recognize. Likewise, many of the downstream signaling proteins and transcriptions factors that activate defense responses have been characterized. However, the early molecular events that comprise ‘recognition’ and how defense signaling specificity is achieved are not as well understood. In this review we discuss the significance of non-arginine-aspartate (non-RD) kinases, a subclass of kinases that are often found in association with pattern recognition receptors (PRRs).
Challenges to Children’s Independent Citizenship Immigration, family and the state

This article explores how recent federal legislation has increased the extent to which US children’s citizenship is dependent upon their parents’ citizenship, by contrasting children who are adopted internationally by US citizens and second-generation US children. Two interconnected phenomena are examined: (1) the broader material and theoretical relationships between children’s membership in families and the state; and (2) the social, political and economic inequalities that exist between these two groups of child citizens. The article also discusses some practical and theoretical implications of these analyses, regarding the dependence of child citizenship and the multidimensionality of citizenship.
When in doubt, chimpanzees rely on estimates of past reward amounts

Many animals can repeatedly judge the larger of two sets of food items. However, it remains unclear as to what information might accrue regarding the relative rates of return from these repeated responses. Information about overall rates of return is, in fact, unnecessary to perform well at the task itself. However, if an uncertain situation arose, such as when the quantity in one set was unknown, that information would be useful in determining whether to select a known quantity or an unknown quantity. We gave chimpanzees this test. First, they made multiple judgements between two visible food sets that varied in the number of items across trials. Then, they were faced with the same combinations of set sizes, but only one set was revealed while the other remained unknown. Rather than using a specific quantity as a threshold for choosing the known or the unknown set, the chimpanzees' choice of the unknown set varied in relation to the rate of return from responses in the first phase (when both sets were known). This indicated that the chimpanzees' decisions in the face of uncertainty were guided by a sense of how well they were rewarded overall during the session.
Spatial Variability of Heavy-Metal Storage in the Floodplain of the Alamosa River, Colorado

Beginning in 1986, heavy metals were released from Summitville Mine into the headwaters of the Alamosa River, Colorado. Shortly thereafter, adverse effects on irrigation sprinklers and other metal components were noted downstream in the San Luis Valley, and elevated concentrations of heavy metals were measured in the river. We determined the spatial extent and degree of heavy-metal storage through sampling of the Alamosa River floodplain. Downstream from Terrace Reservoir, which was built in 1912, concentrations were more variable. No systematic trends in peak concentrations with distance downstream were discerned. Heavy metals found below the reservoir may have been released to the watershed and deposited before 1912 during a period of earlier mining activity, or during flooding in 1970 and 1971 when water overtopped the dam. The results of this study suggest the complex fashion in which heavy metals move through the fluvial system.
Impact of mobilization and remobilization strategies on achieving sufficient stem cell yields for autologous transplantation.

Abstract The purpose of this article was to examine historic institutional autologous stem cell mobilization practices and evaluate factors influencing mobilization failure and kinetics. In this retrospective study we analyzed clinical records of 1834 patients who underwent stem cell mobilization for autologous transplantation from November 1995 to October 2006 at the Washington University in St. Louis. Successful mobilization was defined as collection of ≥2 × 106 CD34+ cells/kg. From 1834 consecutive patients, 1040 met our inclusion criteria (502 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma [NHL], 137 Hodgkin's lymphoma, and 401 multiple myeloma [MM]). A total of 976 patients received granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) and 64 received G-CSF plus chemotherapy (G/C) for the initial mobilization. Although the median CD34+ cell yield was higher in G/C group than in G-CSF alone group, the failure rates were similar: 18.8% and 18.6%, respectively. Overall, 53% of patients collected ≥2 × 106 CD34+ cells/kg during the first apheresis with either mobilization regimen. Regardless of mobilization regimen used, MM patients had the highest total CD34+ cell yield and required less aphereses to collect ≥2 × 106 CD34+ cells/kg. Mobilized, preapheresis, peripheral blood CD34+ count correlated with first day apheresis yield (r = .877, P
Detecting memory leaks through introspective dynamic behavior modelling using machine learning

This paper expands staleness-based memory leak detection by presenting a machine learning-based framework. The proposed framework is based on an idea that object staleness can be better leveraged in regard to similarity of objects; i.e., an object is more likely to have leaked if it shows significantly high staleness not observed from other similar objects with the same allocation context. A central part of the proposed framework is the modeling of heap objects. To this end, the framework observes the staleness of objects during a representative run of an application. From the observed data, the framework generates training examples, which also contain instances of hypothetical leaks. Via machine learning, the proposed framework replaces the error-prone user-definable staleness predicates used in previous research with a model-based prediction. The framework was tested using both synthetic and real-world examples. Evaluation with synthetic leakage workloads of SPEC2006 benchmarks shows that the proposed method achieves the optimal accuracy permitted by staleness-based leak detection. Moreover, by incorporating allocation context into the model, the proposed method achieves higher accuracy than is possible with object staleness alone. Evaluation with real-world memory leaks demonstrates that the proposed method is effective for detecting previously reported bugs with high accuracy.
Automated maximum likelihood separation of signal from baseline in noisy quantal data.

Data recordings often include high-frequency noise and baseline fluctuations that are not generated by the system under investigation, which need to be removed before analyzing the signal for the system’s behavior. In the absence of an automated method, experimentalists fall back on manual procedures for removing these fluctuations, which can be laborious and prone to subjective bias. We introduce a maximum likelihood formalism for separating signal from a drifting baseline plus noise, when the signal takes on integer multiples of some value, as in ion channel patch-clamp current traces. Parameters such as the quantal step size (e.g., current passing through a single channel), noise amplitude, and baseline drift rate can all be optimized automatically using the expectation-maximization algorithm, taking the number of open channels (or molecules in the on-state) at each time point as a hidden variable. Our goal here is to reconstruct the signal, not model the (possibly highly complex) underlying system dynamics. Thus, our likelihood function is independent of those dynamics. This may be thought of as restricting to the simplest possible hidden Markov model for the underlying channel current, in which successive measurements of the state of the channel(s) are independent. The resulting method is comparable to an experienced human in terms of results, but much faster. FORTRAN 90, C, R, and JAVA codes that implement the algorithm are available for download from our website.