cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Art and Mindfulness Behind Bars

Engaging in art and mindfulness activities has been found to have numerous positive effects on individuals regardless of age or setting. In recent years there have been an increased number of these...
A generalized self-consistent model for quantum tunneling current in dissimilar metal-insulator-metal junction

We study the current density-voltage (J − V) characteristics of dissimilar metal-insulator-metal (MIM) nanoscale tunneling junctions using a self-consistent quantum model. The model includes emissions from both cathode and anode, and the effects of image charge potential, space charge and exchange correlation potential. The J − V curves span three regimes: direct tunneling, field emission, and space-charge-limited regime. Unlike similar MIM junctions, the J − V curves are polarity dependent. The forward (higher work function metal is negatively biased) and reverse (higher work function metal is positively biased) bias J − V curves and their crossover behaviors are examined in detail for various regimes, over a wide range of material properties (work function of the electrodes, electron affinity and permittivity of the insulator). It is found that the asymmetry between the current density profiles increases with the work function difference between the electrodes, insulator layer thickness and relative permittivity of the insulator. This asymmetry is profound in the field emission regime and insignificant in the direct tunneling, and space charge limited regimes.
Considerations of Exceptionlessness in Philosophy: Or, “Everything …”

It can seem that the apparent exceptionlessness of science, part of its 'dazzling image' applied to human beings, should reappear in philosophy—surely philosophy too requires exceptionless conclusions (especially once its conceptual character is stressed). But, given our general rejection (throughout) of the demand for exceptionlessness, philosophy cannot import the requirement for exceptionless generalizations: yet conceptual connections central to philosophy can seem exceptionless—as, say, the use of counter-examples might demonstrate. Could one reject this demand for exceptionlessness in philosophy? What would philosophical enquiries look like with this demand rejected? Following Paul Ziff, the required overview of the pervasive and pernicious ideal of exceptionlessness discusses claims that, while obviously not exceptionless on investigation, seem true nonetheless. Exploring such ideas connects our general contextualism with our particular practice here.
Design and fabrication of crotch absorbers with beryllium diffuser for Cornell high energy synchrotron source upgrade

With the CHESS-U upgrade in 2018, the south arc region of Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR) has been replaced with new magnets and vacuum chambers, and CESR will operate with higher beam energy and beam current at lower beam emittance. A new crotch absorber has been designed for the upgrade, based on previous CHESS crotch absorbers. The main body of the crotch absorber is a water-cooled hollow cylinder made of oxygen-free high-conductivity copper, and it has a 5-mm thick beryllium band brazed on the outside in the middle section to reduce the power density it absorbs on the surface. In this paper, we describe the mechanical design, present finite element thermal and structural analysis results with a focus on the region with high temperature and high thermal stress, and discuss the fatigue lifetime of the absorber. For typical operation with 6 GeV beam energy and a 200 mA beam current, the highest temperature on the crotch is approximately 300 °C based on the thermal analysis. Correspondingly, the fatigue lifetime is conservatively estimated to be around 4 × 104 cycles. We also show some details in the fabrication of the crotch assembly, especially about the vacuum furnace brazing joint between the beryllium band and the copper main body, including X-ray fluorescence inspection of the brazing joint. In addition, in order to have a relevant comparison in an effort to estimate the fatigue lifetime, we carry out finite element analyses (FEA) for the low cycle fatigue experiment with beryllium tiles using electron-beam heating of Watson et al. [Fusion Eng. Des. 37, 553 (1997)] in 1990s and provide new understanding for some of their experimental observations. These analyses assure the effectiveness of the design.
Contract Negotiation Skills: A Workshop for Women in Medicine.

Introduction Contract negotiation is a high-stakes interaction, yet most physicians are never taught negotiation skills. Studies suggest that women, as compared with men, display a lower propensity...
Heterogeneity in zooplankton distributions and vertical migrations: Application of a laser optical plankton counter in offshore Lake Michigan

Abstract Zooplankton distributions are patchy due to multiple physical, chemical, and biological processes, including diel vertical migration (DVM) behavior. Heterogeneity in the offshore environment is difficult to study with net tows, but newer technologies measure finer-scale distributions. Here, we use laser optical plankton counter (LOPC) data, informed by net tows, to study distributions and DVM of zooplankton in offshore Lake Michigan during July and September 2015. Water column (5–60 m) zooplankton biomass varied by an order of magnitude among transects and a factor of two within individual transects (6–19 km distances); transect coefficients of variation (SD/mean) ranged from 7 to 22% (~0.5 km scale). Horizontal patterns in zooplankton biomass varied among size groups but were consistent from day to night, suggesting that processes driving heterogeneity persist for hours to days. Fine-scale LOPC data show that zooplankton often aggregate in thin layers (1–3 m) within the metalimnion, a feature undetectable by coarser net sampling. Although DVM was not consistently observed, some patterns emerged. Small zooplankton including copepodites, diaptomids (Leptodiaptomus ashlandi, L. minutus), and Diacyclops thomasi often migrated to surface waters at night, and large zooplankton (Limnocalanus macrurus) migrated upward at night in most cases. Beam attenuation coefficient (proxy for phytoplankton biomass) was a significant predictor for zooplankton mean depth (p
Cerebellar Haemorrhage Leading to Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Introduction Intracranial haemorrhage (ICH) is a known, but a rare cause of out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). It results in the development of non-shockable rhythms such as asystole or pulseless electrical activity (PEA). Case Report A 77- years old male had an OHCA without any prodrome. An emergency medical services (EMS) team responded to an emergency call and intubated the patient at the site before transporting him to the Acute Care Hospital, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA. On admission, a non-contrast computed tomography scan of the head revealed a large cerebellar haemorrhage. Non-traumatic ICH is a rare cause of OHCA. Although subarachnoid haemorrhage causing cardiac arrest has been described in the literature, cerebellar haemorrhage leading to cardiac arrest is rare. The mechanism by which ICH patients develop cardiac arrest is likely explained by a massive catecholamine surge leading to cardiac stunning. Conclusion A non-shockable rhythm in the seting of a sudden cardiac arrest should raise alarms for a primary non-cardiac ethology, especially a primary cerebrovascular event. The absence of brainstem reflexes increases the likelihood of an intracranial process.
A geographically weighted regression approach to investigating local built-environment effects on home prices in the housing downturn, recovery, and subsequent increases

The 2007 financial crisis profoundly affected most American metropolitan areas. Over the past 10 years, Columbus, Ohio, has experienced a housing downturn, recovery, and subsequent increases. This allows to investigate the response of housing market in different periods of the recession. Ordinary and geographically-weighted regression (GWR) models were developed to examine global and local built-environment effects on home-price appreciations for the three periods while controlling for other physical and socioeconomic variables. The results found that home buyers showed an unchanged preference for residential privacy and amenity and avoided those features that might attract negative external effects from a period to another. The home-price appreciation rates showed different spatial patterns across the study region in the three periods. Nevertheless, the results suggested that suburban areas, particularly those in northern Columbus, better resisted, recovered from, and adapted to the recession. In the wake of the recession, a smaller house was preferred by home buyers. GWR models also provided some interesting findings. In the downturn, accessibility to a park or library helped sustain home prices in the northwest. Bus stop density had a positive effect in eastern Columbus in the recovery, most likely due to the high fuel price at that time. Neighborhoods with a higher income better retained their home value in the downturn, especially those in southern Columbus. Finally, this study found that the recession hit harder on minority neighborhoods in all three periods. This finding suggests that housing policies should focus on these neighborhoods with other social support.
CSTNet: Contrastive Speech Translation Network for Self-Supervised Speech Representation Learning.

More than half of the 7,000 languages in the world are in imminent danger of going extinct. Traditional methods of documenting language proceed by collecting audio data followed by manual annotation by trained linguists at different levels of granularity. This time consuming and painstaking process could benefit from machine learning. Many endangered languages do not have any orthographic form but usually have speakers that are bi-lingual and trained in a high resource language. It is relatively easy to obtain textual translations corresponding to speech. In this work, we provide a multimodal machine learning framework for speech representation learning by exploiting the correlations between the two modalities namely speech and its corresponding text translation. Here, we construct a convolutional neural network audio encoder capable of extracting linguistic representations from speech. The audio encoder is trained to perform a speech-translation retrieval task in a contrastive learning framework. By evaluating the learned representations on a phone recognition task, we demonstrate that linguistic representations emerge in the audio encoder's internal representations as a by-product of learning to perform the retrieval task.
Magnesium abundances in cool metal-polluted white dwarfs

The accretion of rocky material is responsible for the presence of heavy elements in the atmospheres of a large fraction of white dwarf stars. Those objects represent a unique opportunity to infer the bulk composition of exoplanetesimals. This chemical characterization requires the use of detailed atmosphere models to determine the elemental abundances at the photospheres of white dwarfs. In this work, we use a state-of-the-art model atmosphere code to reanalyse the first large survey of metal-polluted white dwarfs for which abundances are found for multiple elements. We show that the improved constitutive physics of our models lead to systematically higher Mg abundances than previous analyses. We find an average log Mg/Ca number abundance ratio of 1.5. This value is significantly above the reference abundance for chondrites, which is expected as current diffusion models predict that for the cool helium-atmosphere white dwarfs of our sample Mg should remain in the atmosphere longer than Ca. This helps resolve a recently identified Mg depletion problem, where the planetesimals accreted by white dwarfs were reported to be Mg-deficient compared to the expected composition of their planetary systems.
Nitrogen Oxides and Ozone in Urban Air: A Review of 50 Plus Years of Progress

Nitrogen oxides and ozone impact air quality in many parts of the United States (U S ), Europe, China, and many other countries The greatest air quality challenge in Los Angeles, some other areas of California, and some parts of China is to reduce ozone levels to meet regulations Background ozone is a major factor which makes it more difficult to reduce urban concentrations in Los Angeles and some other locations Air pollution from China affects the background ozone entering California More than 50?years of history are reviewed with an emphasis on reducing concentrations of nitrogen oxides and ozone During this time period, there has been significant progress in reducing levels of these pollutants in urban air in the U S and Europe;however, ozone concentrations in China have increased since 2013 Cost and benefit analysis has shown that benefits associated with the Clean Air Act of 1970 have greatly exceeded costs to improve air quality in the U S over the past 50?years Further actions to consider to improve air quality include reducing combustion of coal and petroleum products and transitioning to renewable energy Public education is recommended to inform citizens that the benefits of reducing emissions far exceed costs This article is protected by copyright All rights reserved
Social Media Representations of Law Enforcement within Four Diverse Chicago Neighborhoods

The perception of excessive use of force by law enforcement towards minorities has become an increasing focus of attention in the national media and public consciousness. With greater ability to re...
Controlling transitional time of DMD mirror array by physical and electrical methods

Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) is a commercial and mass-produced Micro Electromechanical System (MEMS) spatial light modulator (SLM) consisting of millions of mirrors that spatially modulate lights by switching it between on and off states. Between the on- and off-states, transitional states exist where micromirror changes tilt angle. We report a method to control the transitional time of the mirror array by controlling the pressure of the ambient air. The increased air pressure to 100 psi increases mirrors transitional time by 20%. We also address the possibility of controlling the transitional time electrically.
A Dedicated Guideline Directed Medical Therapy Clinic Improves Quality of Care and Outcomes In Patients with Heart Failure and Reduced Ejection Fraction

Introduction Congestive heart failure is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Based on the results of landmark trials, current guidelines recommend that patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) be treated with a regimen of medications, referred to as guideline directed medical therapy (GDMT), at target doses. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown that GDMT at target doses is only achieved in 1% of eligible patients. Hypothesis Enrollment into a dedicated GDMT Clinic will increase the proportion of patients with HFrEF on GDMT at target doses and improve several heart failure parameters. Methods A prospective pilot cohort study was conducted enrolling 19 patients with HFrEF (EF ≤ 40%) into a GDMT Clinic. The proportion of patients on GDMT at target doses as well as heart failure parameters including ejection fraction (EF), LV end-diastolic diameter (LVIDd), 6 minute walk test (6MWT), Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLWHFQ) and PHQ-9 scores were compared at baseline and 3 months post intervention. Results The mean age of our cohort was 66.4 ± 8.6 years and the median duration of heart failure diagnosis was 15 months. 21% were female, 84% were Caucasian, 63% had non-ischemic cardiomyopathy, and 68% were NYHA class II. At baseline, 0% of eligible patients were on target doses of beta-blocker or ACEi/ARB/ARNI and 67% were on target doses of MRA. After enrolling in the GDMT Clinic, there was a substantial increase in the number of patients on target doses of beta-blocker (26%), ACEi/ARB/ARNI (26%) and MRA (89%). 11% of patients were simultaneously on target doses of all three drug classes. The number of patients on an ARNI increased by 58%. All patients were on maximally tolerated GDMT post intervention, with further up-titration limited by medication side effects. At 3 months post intervention, average EF significantly increased from 27.7 ± 7.3% to 34.8 ± 7.6% (p = 0.002). Mean LVIDd significantly decreased from 6.1 ± 0.8 cm to 5.7 ± 0.8 cm (p = 0.04). Median 6MWT results increased from 304.8 m [IQR: 240.4 - 404.6] to 318.4 m [IQR: 261.3 - 428.8] (p = 0.99). Median MLWHFQ scores improved from 15.5 [IQR: 5.0 - 44.5] to 11.5 [IQR: 3.5 - 23.5] (p = 0.79). Median PHQ-9 scores increased from 1.5 [IQR: 0.5 - 5.0] to 2.0 [IQR: 0.5 - 5.0] (p = 0.79). Conclusions Enrollment of patients with HFrEF into a dedicated GDMT Clinic is an effective strategy to increase the proportion of patients on target doses of GDMT and improve clinical outcomes.
A Case of Vanishing Bones.

1. Aarti Kamat, MD* 2. Brett Leingang, MD* 1. *Department of Pediatrics, Helen Devos Children’s Hospital, Grand Rapids, MI Our patient is a 2-year-old boy with a 4-month history of left-sided chest pain presenting to an urgent care center with cough, dyspnea, and increased work of breathing for 2 days. His parents state that his respiratory symptoms started slowly; he had even been well enough to attend child care earlier that day. He was sent home early due to worsening respiratory distress and an episode of emesis. His parents do not think that he was febrile throughout his illness but note that he complained of left-sided chest pain for the past few months. This chest pain had never been evaluated, and the patient had never had any significant injuries. The pain is only present when he is being lifted, so his parents had been unconcerned about it until now. His parents believe that the pain has worsened in the past few days. Other than the chest pain and newly developed difficulty breathing, the patient has not experienced any other associated symptoms. He has not had any weight loss, decreased physical activity, night pain, or night sweats. At the urgent care center he is noted to have significant increased work of breathing. On auscultation his lungs have decreased breath sounds in the left middle and lower lung fields. Consequently, he is sent to the emergency department for imaging studies. Clinically, he is afebrile with a respiratory rate of 40 breaths/min, heart rate of 158 beats/min, blood pressure of 108/61 mm Hg, and oxygen saturation of 98% on room air. He is in significant respiratory …
Population Heath Informatics Can Advance Interoperability: National Program of Cancer Registries Electronic Pathology Reporting Project.

PURPOSEGiven the reach, breadth, and volume of data collected from multiple clinical settings and systems, US central cancer registries (CCRs) are uniquely positioned to test and advance cancer hea...
A Pioneering Paper That Provided a Tool for Accurate, Observer-Independent Analysis of 18F-FDG Brain Scans in Neurodegenerative Dementias (perspective on “A Diagnostic Approach in Alzheimer’s Disease Using Three-Dimensional Stereotactic Surface Projections of Fluorine-18-FDG PET” J Nucl Med. 1995;36:1238–1248)

Minoshima’s innovative paper included in this anniversary issue of JNM built on advances in basic research and clinical brain imaging to present an objective, automated method to assess 18F-FDG PET scans in individual patients with cognitive decline ([1][1]). With the widespread use of 18F-FDG in
Cardiovascular outcomes and rates of fractures and falls among patients with brand-name versus generic L-thyroxine use.

To compare cardiovascular outcomes and rates of fractures and falls among patients with persistent brand-name versus generic L-thyroxine use. Retrospective, 1:1 propensity-matched longitudinal study using a national administrative claims database to examine adults (≥18 years) who initiated either brand or generic L-thyroxine between 2008 and 2018, censored at switch or discontinuation of L-thyroxine formulation or disenrollment from the health plan. Main outcome measures included rates of hospitalization for atrial fibrillation, myocardial infarction, congestive heart failure, stroke, spine and hip fractures, and rate of falls in the outpatient or inpatient setting. Hospitalizations for pneumonia were used as a negative control. 195,046 adults initiated treatment with L-thyroxine between 2008 and 2017: 87% generic and 13% brand formulations. They were mostly women (76%), young (94.6% under age 65), white (66%), and 47% had baseline thyroid stimulating hormone levels between 4.5 and 9.9 mIU/L. Among 35,667 propensity-matched patients, there were no significant differences between patients treated with brand versus generic L-thyroxine in atrial fibrillation (HR 0.96, 0.58–1.60), myocardial infarction (HR 0.66, 0.39–1.14), congestive heart failure (HR 1.30, 0.78–2.16), stroke (0.72, 0.49–1.06), spine (HR 0.87, 0.38–1.99) and hip fractures (HR 0.86, 0.26–2.82), or fall outcomes (HR 1.02, 0.14–7.32). Hospitalization rates for pneumonia (used as negative control) did not differ between groups (HR 0.85, 0.61–1.19). There were no interactions between brand versus generic L-thyroxine, these outcomes, and thyroid cancer, age, or L-thyroxine dose subgroups. We found no significant differences in cardiovascular outcomes and rates of falls and fractures for patients who filled brand versus generic L-thyroxine.
The use of earnings and cash flows in investment decisions in the U.S. and Mexico: Experimental evidence

Abstract In this study, we investigate which of two accounting performance measures, earnings or cash flows, is used more in valuation decisions by non-professional investors in the United States and in Mexico. This issue is relevant for the Mexican Stock Market (Bolsa Mexicana de Valores) because the Bolsa's growth has stagnated compared with markets of other Latin American countries. Results of the study reveal that the majority of participants in the U.S. rely on earnings while the majority of participants in Mexico rely on cash flows. Results also suggest that the users’ predisposition can be dysfunctional to the extent that they do not consider using the other accounting measure, even when doing so made it easier to arrive at the correct valuation result (i.e. they did not choose to use the more persistent and therefore easier to forecast accounting measure). However, results are mixed for participants using earnings, since we document a higher chance of forecasting errors for participants in both countries when using earnings rather than cash flows in their calculations for the failure of these participants to adjust earnings for depreciation. This study extends the existing international literature by documenting a country-specific predisposition to use cash flows or earnings as a valuation tool by non-professional investors. Moreover, this study also shows that this predisposition can be dysfunctional, leading participants to make incorrect valuation decisions as a result of their failure to consider the differential persistence of the two accounting measures presented in the experiment.
Optical Scanning Aid with Tactual Feedback

A monthly section highlighting the impact of technological development on consumers and the blindness/visual impairment field. We need your support. Please send news, reviews, and descriptions of n...
Ultrafast EEG frequencies - Not to be neglected in the future

The customarily recorded EEG frequency range of 0.3-80 Hz can be rather easily extended to 500 or even 1000 Hz. The study of such ultrafast frequencies provides new insights into epileptic activities and also into physiological conditions. The realtionship between ultrafast epileptic ripples in the 100 to 400 Hz range (and other superfast patterns) to classical spikes may demonstrate a new landscape of paroxysmal manifestations. This might be also true for physiological activities. Our personal experiences on ultrafast activities are based upon rats with pentylenetetrazol-induced seizures. An EEG view enriched with ultrafast frequencies may lead to a rapprochement of EEG and evoked potentials since there is also an ultrafast component in EPs. The recording of the ultrafast component will gradually become a part of clinical EEG work. Joining forces with basic EEG researchers will be needed in order deepen our understanding of the significance of ultrafast activities. This is just another entrance gate into the 21st century.
The Neurobiology of Epileptiform Discharges

ABSTRACT.Properly classifying epileptic seizures and epileptic syndromes is important for developing treatment strategies and determining prognoses for individual patients. Among the many factors important in such classification are the electrographic features of paroxysmal discharges. While many forms of paroxysmal discharges are described in the clinical and EEG literature, current understanding of the basic neurobiological events behind these discharges is limited to a few of them. In the review given below, three “prototypical” epileptiform events–interictal events, tonic-clonic electrographic seizures, and spike-wave seizures–are identified and the basic mechanisms by which they arise are discussed. The information provided considers functional anatomy in terms of major networks within the brain, a “fundamental local circuit” consisting of an excitatory neuron and the inhibitory neuron it is coupled to in a feedback circuit, and cellular processes of inhibition and excitation. The ways in which amino...
How to "Shout South"

Every morning, before going out for the day, I always greet my internal organs?I shout a "hello"; only in stead of shouting out, I shout in. How do you shout in? Don't ask me, you just have to start doing it, you just have to let yourself go and begin to "shout south." And once you've done it, believe me, you'll know how to do it. Soon you'll be an expert at "shout ing south"; in fact, pretty soon, perhaps you won't be able to stop. What I imagine happening is the voice descending into the great body cavities like some kind of intrepid explorer, suspended from solid silence only by a rope of thin sine waves ... a rope braided of vibration, so supple, so delicate, that it resembles the pigtails of sound's smaller sister, Little Miss Whisper. Meanwhile, the explorer reaches the floor of the body cavity, thanks to body gravity. Hello, hello, anybody there? Isn't this supposed to be the place where the kidney, heart and liver live? But they aren't here, or home, at the moment; they must have fallen down into the leg, which is of course hollow. Maybe that's where the other organs have gone, too; or else they've left for the lungs, along with the Haschich smoke. And so it was that we came
Service architectures for e-Science grid gateways: opportunities and challenges

An e-Science Grid Gateway is a portal that allows a scientific collaboration to use the resources of a Grid in a way that frees them from the complex details of Grid software and middleware. The goal of such a gateway is to allow the users access to community data and applications that can be used in the language of their science. Each user has a private data and metadata space, access to data provenance and tools to use or compose experimental workflows that combine standard data analysis, simulation and post-processing tools. In this talk we will describe the underlying Grid service architecture for such an eScience gateway. In this paper we will describe some of the challenges that confront the design of Grid Gateways and we will outline a few new research directions.
Desmoplastic Small Round Cell Tumor, a “Floating Island” Pattern in Pleural Fluid Cytology: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Desmoplastic small round cell tumor (DSRCT) is a rare aggressive sarcoma with characteristic clinical and pathologic features. It typically involves pelvic and abdominal organs of young male patients, and patients usually present at advanced stage with poor prognosis. A few reports are available describing the cytopathologic features of DSRCT in serous effusions, with the majority of published cases depicting undifferentiated small blue cells that need to be distinguished from other small blue cell tumors. We report an interesting case of DSRCT involving a pleural effusion with a "floating island" pattern that has been described in hepatocellular carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, and adrenal cortical carcinoma. In our case, the epithelioid tumor cells form cohesive aggregates surrounded by a single layer of spindle cells, mimicking the "endothelial wrapping" in other tumors with "floating island" patterns. We demonstrate, by ancillary testing, that these peripheral spindle cells are tapered/flattened DSRCT cells, in contrast to endothelial wrapping cells, as seen in other tumors with this unique cytomorphology. To our knowledge, this is the first case report describing DSRCT showing a "floating island" pattern that needs to be differentiated from metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma, renal cell carcinoma, and adrenal cortical carcinoma in effusion cytology.
Secret life of cytochrome bc1

Several enormous protein complexes in the inner mitochondrial membrane provide power for the cell--and for all of life. In her Perspective, Smith outlines recent progress in understanding the structure of one of these, cytochrome bc, including a research article in this issue by Iwata et al. The new structures allow unexpected inferences about how these essential proteins work.
Centenarians and the genetics of longevity.

People have always been fascinated with extreme longevity. The ability to achieve extreme old age has been viewed as a miracle, as in the case of Methuselah, who lived 969 years, and as a curse in the case of Jonathan Swift’s strudleburgs, in his book Gulliver’s Travels. Claims of supercentenarians (age greater than 110 years) still capture the attention of the popular media and are accepted as valid without further investigation. Scientists and the lay public usually ask, “What’s their trick?”, expecting or perhaps hoping that there is a magic environmental factor that can be manipulated into a fountain of youth. Unsubstantiated and dangerous promises of eternal youth by antiaging practitioners who sell $20,000-per-year regimens of human growth hormone also profit from the belief held by many that immortality is a simple game of resetting the endocrinologic thermostat.
Swarming distributed pattern detection and classification

Swarming agents in networks of physically distributed processing nodes may be used for data acquisition, data fusion, and control applications. We present an architecture for active surveillance systems in which simple mobile agents collectively process real-time data from heterogeneous sources at or near the origin of the data. We motivate the system requirements with the needs of a surveillance system for the early detection of large-scale bioterrorist attacks on a civilian population, but the same architecture is applicable to a wide range of other domains.The pattern detection and classification processes executed by the proposed system emerge from the coordinated activities of agents of two populations in a shared computational environment. Detector agents draw each other's attention to significant spatio-temporal patterns in the observed data stream. Classifier agents rank the detected patterns according to their respective criterion. The resulting system-level behavior is adaptive, robust, and scalable.
Evaluation of peripheral blood neutrophil function in tumor-bearing dogs

Background: Peripheral blood neutrophils of untreated human cancer patients have been shown to have normal, increased, and decreased phagocytic activity, killing capacity, and/or oxidative burst activities. Objectives: The objectives of this study were to evaluate oxidative burst and phagocytic activities of peripheral blood neutrophils from tumor-bearing dogs before therapy and compare them with neutrophil function of healthy control dogs. Methods: Heparinized whole blood was obtained from dogs with high-grade lymphoma (n=23), sarcoma (n=13), or carcinoma (n=11), and healthy control dogs (n=11) for flow cytometric evaluation of oxidative burst and phagocytic activities. Percentage of bursting cells and amount of oxidative burst activity were determined after stimulation with phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA) or Escherichia coli. Percentage of phagocytic cells and amount of phagocytic activity were determined after incubation with fluorescent E. coli. Results: Compared with control dogs, dogs with sarcoma (P=.004) and carcinoma (P=.05) had a lower percentage of neutrophils exhibiting oxidative burst activity after stimulation with PMA. Phagocytic activity was significantly lower in dogs with sarcomas compared with control dogs (P<.0001) and dogs with lymphoma (P=.01). Conclusions: Untreated carcinomas and sarcomas in dogs may suppress the percentage of neutrophils capable of oxidative burst when stimulated by PMA. Furthermore, sarcomas also may suppress the amount of phagocytic activity per neutrophil. Until further studies can be performed, the clinical significance of these findings is unknown.
Imagining New Social Legal Futures: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Pre-Law Students’ Experiences with Discourse Communities of Legal Practice

This paper considers the ways that concepts such as social justice and law were used as semiotic objects-in-tension by a group of five US undergraduates considering law school to make sense of their ideas about entering the discourse communities and communities of practice associated with being a lawyer. This group was made up of undergraduate women who had completed a summer residency program sponsored by the Law School Admissions Council to increase enrollment of students from under-represented groups. Of the five participants, two were US-born; the others immigrated to the US as teenagers; each was aware of her position as multiply marginalized, by gender as well as other factors, including refugee or immigrant status, religious affiliation, sexual identity, and/or association with “at risk” labeling. Data analyzed reflect a 3-year study of their changing perceptions of their relationships to law school discourse communities, using text, interviews, individual video narratives, and informal, face-to-face group meetings. A sociolinguistic approach to multimodal discourse analysis is used to examine the ways that the women, each in a unique way, articulated an increased investment in direct and embodied engagement, lived experience, and personal testimony—not as supplements to doing/being a lawyer, but as necessary and expected practices therein. Over time and through various modalities, they used their vantage point from outside the dominant discourse communities of law to stage social critique and to contest the binary logic and normative criteria that forge the boundaries of exclusion from and inclusion in these communities. Specifically, they resemiotized notions of being a lawyer from the margins in ways that demanded a more fluid and polysemous interpretation of what it means to do ethically rigorous social justice work—hence reworking the relationships between justice (as an abstract ideal) and the law (as an institutionalized regime) and widening the semiotic potential of their own future work. Particularly significant are the ways that semiotic trajectories progressed from an emphasis on what Halliday identifies as textual (fixed and highly abstract) functions of language to interpersonal (embodied, relational) and ideational (expressive, experiential) functions. Such a trajectory away from entextualization suggests that voices and perspectives from the margins may be using those imaginary margins tactically as sites from which to contest the boundaries that define whose voices count within the legal system and to contest normative limits on semiotic potentialities for lawyers working toward more just social futures.
Domino Diels–Alder Reaction: 3,3a,3b,4,6a,7a‐Hexahydro‐3,4,7‐metheno‐7H‐cyclopenta[a]pentalene‐7,8‐dicarboxylic Acid

Domino Diels–Alder Reaction: 3,3a,3b,4,6a,7a-hexahydro-3,4,7-metheno-7H-cyclopenta[a]pentalene-7,8-dicarboxylic acid product: 3,3a,3b,4,6a,7a-Hexahydro-3,4,7-metheno-7H-cyclopenta[a]pentalene-7,8-dicarboxylic acid Keywords: alkylation, C-alkylation; annulation, carbocyclic-[M,N]; cyclization, cycloaddition; Diels-Alder reactions; hydrolysis, esters and lactones; tetrahydrofuran; sodium hydride, handling; lubricant for stirrer shaft
Stock-Specific Size and Timing at Ocean Entry of Columbia River Juvenile Chinook Salmon and Steelhead: Implications for Early Ocean Growth

AbstractJuvenile salmon transitioning from freshwater to marine environments experience high variation in growth and survival, yet the specific causes of this variation are poorly understood. Size at and timing of ocean entry may contribute to this variation because they influence both the availability of prey and vulnerability to predators. To explore this issue, we used stock assignments based on genetic stock identification and internal tags to document the stock-specific size and timing of juvenile hatchery and presumed wild Columbia River Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha and steelhead O. mykiss at ocean entry during 2007–2011. We found that juvenile salmon and steelhead had consistent stock-specific capture dates, with lower-river stocks typically having earlier timing than those originating farther upstream. Mean size also varied among stocks and was related to hatchery practices. Hatchery yearling Chinook Salmon and steelhead were consistently larger than wild fish from the same stocks, alth...
Distinctive sequence features in protein coding genic non-coding, and intergenic human DNA.

Abstract We have studied the behavior of a number of sequence statistics, mostly indicative of protein coding function, in a large set of human clone sequences randomly selected in the course of genome mapping (randomly selected clone sequences), and compared this with the behavior in known sequences containing genes (which we term genic sequences). As expected, given the higher coding density of the genic sequences, the sequence statistics studied behave in a substantially different manner in the randomly selected clone sequences (mostly intergenic DNA) and in the genic sequences. Strong differences in behavior of a number of such statistics are also observed, however when the randomly selected clone sequences are compared with only the non-coding fraction of the genic sequences, suggesting that intergenic and genic non-coding DNA constitute two different classes of non-coding DNA. By studying the behavior of the sequence statistics in simulated DNA of different C + G content, we have observed that a number of them are strongly dependent on C + G content. Thus, most differences between intergenic and genic non-coding DNA can be explained by differences in C + G content. A + T-rich intergenic DNA appears to be at the compositional equilibrium expected under random mutation, while C+G richer non-coding genic DNA is far from this equilibrium. The results obtained in simulated DNA indicate, on the other hand, that a very large fraction of the variation in the coding statistics that underlie gene identification algorithms is due simply to C + G content, and is not directly related to protein coding function. It appears, thus, that the performance of gene-finding algorithms should be improved by carefully distinguishing the effects of protein coding function from those of mere base compositional variation on such coding statistics.
Nanotoxicology: Advanced Optical Imaging Reveals the Dependence of Particle Geometry on Interactions Between CdSe Quantum Dots and Immune Cells (Small 3/2011)

The biocompatibility and possible toxicological consequences of engineered nanomaterials, including quantum dots (QDs) due to their unique suitability for biomedical applications, remain intense areas of interest. We utilized advanced imaging approaches to characterize the interactions of CdSe QDs of various sizes and shapes with live immune cells. Particle diffusion and partitioning within the plasma membrane, cellular uptake kinetics, and sorting of particles into lysosomes were all independantly characterized. Using high-speed total internal reflectance fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy, we show that QDs with an average aspect ratio of 2.0 (i.e., rod-shaped) diffuse nearly an order of magnitude slower in the plasma membrane than more spherical particles with aspect ratios of 1.2 and 1.6, respectively. Moreover, more rod-shaped QDs were shown to be internalized into the cell 2-3 fold more slowly. Hyperspectral confocal fluorescence microscopy demonstrates that QDs tend to partition within the cell membrane into regions containing a single particle type. Furthermore, data examining QD sorting mechanisms indicate that endocytosis and lysosomal sorting increases with particle size. Together, these observations suggest that both size and aspect ratio of a nanoparticle are important characteristics that significantly impact interactions with the plasma membrane, uptake into the cell, and localization within intracellular vesicles. Thus, rather than simply characterizing nanoparticle uptake into cells, we show that utilization of advanced imaging approaches permits a more nuanced and complete examination of the multiple aspects of cell-nanoparticle interactions that can ultimately aid understanding possible mechanisms of toxicity, resulting in safer nanomaterial designs.
Gender integration of a core content area teacher/athletic coach in the rural southeastern United States

Research on the occupational socialization of teachers and coaches has largely centered on physical education teachers and rarely on teachers from core content areas (i.e. English, foreign language, mathematics, science and social studies) who also coach athletics. The primary purpose of this single-case study was to explore the socialization of a first-year, core content area teacher/athletic coach at a small high school in the rural southeastern United States. Various qualitative techniques were utilized during data collection, while data analysis consisted of a system of open, axial and selective coding. Four themes emerged and were viewed through the lens of teacher identity. Themes include gender and opportunity; interactions within the school culture; teaching and coaching expectations; and interrole conflict and complementarity. Findings from this study hope to shed light on the need for further research on core content area teacher-coaches, while adding to the existing literature on females in the...
Study on Flow Fields in Variable Area Nozzles for Radial Turbines

The flow behind the variable area nozzle which corresponds to the flow at the leading edge of the impeller was measured with a 3-hole yaw probe and calculated with CFD. Two nozzle throat-areas were investigated. One is the smallest and the other is the largest opening for the variable nozzle. Test results agreed with the calculated results qualitatively. The leakage flow through the tip clearance of the nozzle vane significantly affected the flow field downstream of the nozzle vane with the smallest opening. However, the effect on leakage flow on the flow field downstream of the nozzle vane with the largest opening was very weak and the effect of wake is dominant.
Probing the malate hypothesis of differential aluminum tolerance in wheat by using other rhizotoxic ions as proxies for Al

An Al-stimulated efflux of malate from the root apex has been proposed as the primary mechanism whereby some wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) genotypes demonstrate marked resistance to the rhixotoxic metal Al. Appealing in its simplicity, the model has not been unequivocally validated, and suffers from some significant discrepancies between estimated, steady-state concentrations of malate at the root surface and concentrations that are necessary to explain the resistance of the superior genotypes. Using two other rhizotoxic ions that are also chelated by malate, Cu(II) and La(III), we specifically probed whether the quantities of malate released by tolerant genotypes could effectively detoxify Al. Experiments with exogenous additions of malate to solution showed that ≥200 μM malate is required to account for the difference between Scout 66 (Al-sensitive) and Atlas 66 (Al-tolerant) wheats, and that this level of malate can also partially alleviate the toxicities of Cu and La. When simultaneously exposed to a mildly rhizotoxic level of Al (25 μM) to induce malate efflux, Atlas exhibited a pronounced reduction in sensitivity to Cu. When, La was used as the proxy ion, however, no such Al-induced tolerance to La was observed, a result that refutes the significance of malate efflux to Al tolerance. Additional experiments using Al, Cu, and La in combination suggested that a trivalent ion can alleviate Cu toxicity directly (i.e. via competition for apoplastic binding), providing an alternative explanation for the ability of Al to detoxify Cu in Atlas. Using a weight-of-evidence approach, we argue that malate efflux plays at most a minor role in the differential Al tolerance of wheat, and that a more integrative, multifaceted model of tolerance is needed.
Pleistocene glacial tectonism and sedimentation on a macrotidal piedmont coast, Ekuk Bluffs, southwestern Alaska

Extensive wave-cut exposures at Ekuk Bluffs in the Nushagak lowland of southwestern Alaska provide a 7-km longitudinal section through deposits related to advance of Pleistocene glaciers from the Ahklun Mountains onto the adjoining piedmont. Facies analysis of the proglacial sediments reveals the following successive depositional environments: (1) lower sandy tidal flats, (2) upper muddy tidal flats, (3) upper foreshore/beach face, and (4) braided sandur. Horizontal compression at the toe of the advancing glacier induced large-scale imbricate thrusting and folding of the proglacial sediments, producing a distally accreting wedge of deformed sediment beyond the ice margin. The presence of this topographic wedge subsequently dictated the over-all pattern of sediment dispersal, forward during ice advance and rearward during retreat, and led to extensive gravity-driven resedimentation. Previous studies of deposition in glacial-tectonic settings generally have not emphasized these consequences of glacial-tectonically produced relief. The major stratigraphic implication is that sediment flows related to a single ice advance can generate multiple till-like diamicton units, some of which are separated by angular unconformities.
The dimensionless score function for multiple hypothesis tracking

This paper discusses several theoretical issues related to the score function for the measurement-to-track association/assignment decision in the track oriented version of the Multiple Hypothesis Tracker (MHT). This score function is the likelihood ratio: the ratio of the pdf of a measurement having originated from a track, to the pdf of this measurement having a different origin. The likelihood ratio score is derived rigorously starting from the fully Bayesian (hypothesis oriented) MHT, which is shown to be amenable under some (reasonable) assumptions to the track oriented MHT. The latter can be implemented efficiently using multidimensional assignment. The main feature of a likelihood ratio is the fact that it is a (physically) dimensionless quantity and, consequently, can be used for the association of different numbers of measurements and/or measurements of different dimension. The explicit forms of the likelihood ratio are discussed both for the commonly used Kalman tracking filter, as well as for the Interacting Multiple Model estimator. The issues of measurements of different dimension and different coordinate systems are also discussed.