cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Mathematical and computational modelling of spatio-temporal signalling in rod phototransduction.

Rod photoreceptors are activated by light through activation of a cascade that includes the G protein-coupled receptor rhodopsin, the G protein transducin, its effector cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP) phosphodiesterase and the second messengers cGMP and Ca2+. Signalling is localised to the particular rod outer segment disc, which is activated by absorption of a single photon. Modelling of this cascade has previously been performed mostly by assumption of a well-stirred cytoplasm. We recently published the first fully spatially resolved model that captures the local nature of light activation. The model reduces the complex geometry of the cell to a simpler one using the mathematical theories of homogenisation and concentrated capacity. The model shows that, upon activation of a single rhodopsin, changes of the second messengers cGMP and Ca2+ are local about the particular activated disc. In the current work, the homogenised model is computationally compared with the full, non-homogenised one, set in the original geometry of the rod outer segment. It is found to have an accuracy of 0.03% compared with the full model in computing the integral response and a 5200-fold reduction in computation time. The model can reconstruct the radial time-profiles of cGMP and Ca2+ in the interdiscal spaces adjacent to the activated discs. Cellular electrical responses are localised near the activation sites, and multiple photons sufficiently far apart produce essentially independent responses. This leads to a computational analysis of the notion and estimate of ‘spread’ and the optimum distribution of activated sites that maximises the response. Biological insights arising from the spatio-temporal model include a quantification of how variability in the response to dim light is affected by the distance between the outer segment discs capturing photons. The model is thus a simulation tool for biologists to predict the effect of various factors influencing the timing, spread and control mechanisms of this G protein-coupled, receptor-mediated cascade. It permits ease of simulation experiments across a range of conditions, for example, clamping the concentration of calcium, with results matching analogous experimental results. In addition, the model accommodates differing geometries of rod outer segments from different vertebrate species. Thus it represents a building block towards a predictive model of visual transduction.
Temporal variations in organic carbon species and fluxes from the Chena River, Alaska

Water samples were collected biweekly from the Chena River, Alaska, during 2005–2006 for analysis of dissolved organic carbon (DOC), dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), total dissolved carbohydrate (TCHO), including monosaccharide (MCHO) and polysaccharide (PCHO), particulate organic carbon (POC) and its isotopic compositions, and Si(OH)4. Carbon species exhibit strong temporal variations with elevated DOC, POC, and TCHO but depleted DIC and Si(OH)4 during the spring freshet and decreased DOC, POC, and TCHO but elevated DIC and Si(OH)4 concentrations under winter ice. Organic matter is mostly derived from surface soil leaching, whereas DIC and Si(OH)4 are associated with groundwater and mineral layer leaching. On average, DIC was the predominant carbon species, accounting for 77% 6 13% of the total carbon pool, whereas DOC and POC comprised 19% 6 10% and 4% 6 4%, respectively. However, DOC became the dominant carbon species during the spring freshet. TCHO comprised 15% 6 4% of DOC with higher CHO : DOC ratios during spring runoff and summer. Within the TCHO pool, MCHO was the predominant CHO component (89% 6 10%), leaving 11% 6 10% as PCHO. The particulate organic matter source during the summer drought season was mostly autochthonous, with low POC : chlorophyll a and C : N but high POC : suspended particulate matter ratios and depleted d13C values. The annual yields of DOC, DIC, and POC from the basin are 133 6 8, 361 6 7, and 27 6 4 3 103 mol C km22, corresponding to an export flux of 6.9 6 0.4, 18.8 6 0.4, and 1.4 6 0.2 3 108 mol C yr21, respectively. Anticipated changes in hydrological and biogeochemical cycles in high-latitude watersheds undergoing climate warming will likely be reflected in the chemical and phase speciation of carbon and other elements.
Implementation of Neural Networks for the Identification of Single Molecules

The effectiveness of neural networks and the optimization of parameters for implementing neural networks were evaluated for use in the identification of single molecules according to their fluorescence lifetime. The best network architecture and training parameters were determined for both ideal and nonideal single-molecule fluorescence data. The effectiveness of the neural network is compared to that of the maximum likelihood estimator on the basis of its ability to correctly identify single molecules. For ideal single-molecule data, it was found that the neural networks and the maximum likelihood estimator perform approximately equally well. For nonideal single-molecule fluorescence data, neural networks were able to correctly identify a larger percentage of single-molecule events than the MLE method.
Motion layer extraction in the presence of occlusion using graph cut

Extracting layers from video is very important for video representation, analysis, compression, and recognition. Assuming that a scene can be approximately described by multiple planar regions, this paper describes a robust novel approach to automatically extract a set of affine transformations induced by these regions, and accurately segment the scene into several motion layers. First, a number of seed regions are determined by using two frame correspondences. Then the seed regions are expanded and refined using the level set representation and employing graph cut method. Next, these initial regions are merged into several initial layers according to the motion similarity. Third, after exploiting the occlusion order constraint on multiple frames the robust layer extraction is obtained by graph cut algorithm, and the occlusions between the overlapping layers are explicitly determined. Several examples are demonstrated in the experiments to show that our approach is effective and robust.
Perceived Mental Illness Stigma Among Youth in Psychiatric Outpatient Treatment.

This research explores the experiences of mental illness stigma in 24 youth (58.3% male, 13-24 years, 75% Latino) in psychiatric outpatient treatment. Using Link and Phelan’s (2001) model of stigma...
Control and Stability of Systems with Structured Nonlinearity

In this paper a synthesis technique is developed for the design of a robust linear controller to control a system which is characterized by structured nonlinearities and has external disturbance of finite spectrum. The design method assures the robust stabilization of the system and guarantees a bound to the induced norm of the operator between the disturbance vector and the output vector. The relevant design equations are developed for state feedback and output feedback controllers.
Perceptions of teen pregnancy among high school students in Sweet Home, Oregon

Background: The purpose of this study was to gain insights into the perceptions and attitudes about teen pregnancy among high school students in a rural area with high teen pregnancy rates.Methods: Five focus groups were conducted with: (1) females in 9th—10th grades; (2) females in 11th—12th grades; (3) males in 9th—10th grades; (4) males in 11th—12th grades; and (5) pregnant/parenting females in 9th—12th grades.Results: Common themes among the students were that: (1) the number of teen pregnancies was increasing and was a growing concern; (2) financial difficulties and harm to education were associated with teen pregnancies; (3) teen females had many reasons for wanting a baby, but teen males just wanted to have sex; and (4) pregnancy happened by chance, or was simply an inadvertent consequence of having sex.Conclusions: To reduce teen pregnancy, the developmental asset model offers community members, teachers and parents guidelines to work together to develop key assets in youth that may protect agains...
Parental Concerns About Their Children

The need for education programs for parents has recently been discussed in a wide variety of places such as The American Academy of Pediatrics (Note 1), the Salvation Army (Cole, Note 2), and the popular media (Brown, 1976). This deep concern of so many people reflects the importance that is attached to this educational need. Presently the need for parent training to help prevent child abuse, mental retardation, and emotional problems as well as to help parents deal with the many unanticipated questions and problems a child presents is being met by the parent education programs that are emerging everywhere (Brown, 1976). Most of these programs instruct parents in single techniques (e.g., behavior modification or PET) and do not systematically emphasize specific issues of concern to a large number of parents. In addition, little thought or attention is being given to unresolved issues such as who should provide this parent education and what should be their training.
Concerns regarding a randomized study of the timing of antiretroviral therapy in zimbabweans with AIDS and acute cryptococcal meningitis.

This letter to the editor comments on a study that showed increased mortality with early initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the treatment of Zimbabweans with AIDS who have acute cryptococcal meningitis. The authors of the letter question the validity of the study and the authors interpretation of the data in addition to concerns regarding a small sample size and the studys early termination.
Carfilzomib: A Second-Generation Proteasome Inhibitor for the Treatment of Relapsed and Refractory Multiple Myeloma

OBJECTIVETo review and summarize data on carfilzomib, which was approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in July 2012 for the treatment of patients with relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma (MM) who received prior bortezomib and thalidomide or lenalidomide.DATA SOURCESA literature search through PubMed was conducted through October 2012 using the terms carfilzomib, PR-171, proteasome inhibitor (PI), and MM. Data were also obtained through the American Society of Clinical Oncology and American Society of Hematology abstracts and FDA briefing documents.STUDY SELECTION AND DATA EXTRACTIONThe literature search was limited to human studies published in English. Priority was placed on trials of carfilzomib in relapsed and refractory MM.DATA SYNTHESISCarfilzomib is a new PI that differs in pharmacology and pharmacokinetics from bortezomib, the first-in-class PI. The FDA approval was based on efficacy data from a Phase 2 study of carfilzomib in patients with relapsed and refractory MM (n = 266). All...
Zomepirac-Aspirin Interactions in Man

: The pharmacokinetic interaction between zomepirac and aspirin was studied in 12 healthy males who received a single dose of 100 mg zomepirac sodium on days 1 and 5 and 975 mg aspirin every 6 hours on days 2 to 5. The results indicated that in the presence of salicylate, the peak concentration of zomepirac was depressed; peak time, AUC(0–24 hr), and clearance of total drug remained unchanged. Percentage unbound zomepirac was increased twofold. In the presence of zomepirac, the peak concentration and AUC of salicylate were increased and clearance decreased. The data suggest that zomepirac and salicylate compete with each other for the enzymes and/or cofactors involved in glucuronidation. This competition for metabolic clearance offsets the consequences of the zomepirac-salicylate interactions at the plasma protein binding sites. However, in light of increased unbound zomepirac as well as decreased clearance of unbound drug, concomitant therapy of zomepirac and aspirin is not advised.
‘When Your Powers Combine, I am Captain Planet’: The Developmental Significance of Individual- and Group-Authored Stories by Preschoolers

This study analyzed 328 single- and group-authored stories composed by nine 4-year-olds in a mixed-age preschool class participating in a peer-oriented storytelling and story-acting practice. Group-authored stories (33 percent) were overwhelmingly told by same-gender groups. The frequencies, developmental trajectories, and functions of group-authored stories were different for girls and boys. Girls told mostly group-authored stories in the fall and single-authored stories in the spring. Group-authoring provided ‘brain-storming sessions’ for narrative experimentation; these stories were longer, with more dramatic problems and more sophisticated character portrayals. By the spring, girls’ single-authored stories also included these features, suggesting internalized narrative gains. Boys consistently preferred single-authored stories, though in the spring the frequency and quality of their group-authored stories increased. These were longer, with more sophisticated character portrayals, than single-authored ...
The nature of complications following liver biopsy in transplant patients with Roux‐en‐Y choledochojejunostomy

Liver biopsy is an important diagnostic tool in the management of patients following orthotopic liver transplant. We evaluated complications following percutaneous liver biopsy in a group of liver transplant patients who had Roux-en-Y choledochojejunostomies fashioned as part of their biliary reconstruction during liver transplantation. Complications were divided into two major groups: septic complications (including fever, symptomatic bacteremia, cholangitis, infected hematoma and hypotension related to sepsis) and bleeding (defined as hypotension requiring volume expansion greater than 500 cm3 or blood transfusion, hemothorax, intrahepatic or peritoneal hemorrhage and hemobilia occurring within 1 wk of liver biopsy). One hundred ninety-two biopsies were performed in 46 patients with choledochojejunostomies, and 118 biopsies were carried out in an age- and sex-matched control group of patients with choledochocholedochostomy biliary anastomosis. There were no septic complications in the choledochojejunostomy patients and one (0.32%) septic complication in the choledochocholedochostomy patients (NS). Eight bleeding complications occurred (2.6%) in eight patients (8.3%). Five (2.6%) occurred in five (10.8%) of the choledochojejunostomy patients, vs. three (2.5%) in three (6.5%) choledochocholedochostomy patients (NS). None of the bleeding complications required surgical intervention or was fatal. We conclude that liver biopsy in posttransplant patients with Roux-en-Y choledochojejunostomies is a safe procedure and that the incidences of complications were similar in our two groups. The negligible incidence of septic complications in the choledochojejunostomy patients does not appear to warrant the administration of prophylactic antibiotics, as has been previously suggested.
Poster: Updating an obsolete trainer using passive haptics and pressure sensors

Training systems based on hardware mockups provide physical fidelity at the expense of flexibility. Maintaining concurrency in these mock-ups can be time-consuming and expensive. Over the past several years, Southwest Research Institute (SwRI®) has worked with the United States Air Force to develop a generalized approach which uses purely virtual assets to provide training in a flexible environment in which configuration changes are made solely through software modifications. While a purely virtual approach has proven effective and flexible, it lacks the realistic interactions supported by the physical constraints present in mock-ups. This paper describes a novel approach to provide a more realistic interface while also extending the useful life of a training system which might otherwise be rendered obsolete. The technique combines virtual and real assets to provide haptic feedback. The interaction technique uses precision finger tracking combined with tactile sensors attached to the finger tip.
A Concurrent Mixed Methods Approach to Examining the Quantitative and Qualitative Meaningfulness of Absolute Magnitude Estimation Scales in Survey Research.

This small n observational study used a concurrent mixed methods approach to address a void in the literature with regard to the qualitative meaningfulness of the data yielded by absolute magnitude estimation scaling (MES) used to rate subjective stimuli. We investigated whether respondents’ scales progressed from less to more and provided for meaningful discriminations, similarities and differences in how they defined their scales, and whether their definitions were congruent with how they used their scales. The respondents completed a think-aloud task while using MES and a follow-up interview regarding how they used MES and defined their scales. The respondents’ scales did not yield meaningful data. Implications for survey research and the use of mixed methods in rating scale construction are discussed.
Cancer Prevention: Strong Science and Real Medicine

Many of us working in cancer prevention over the past two decades have begun our primary papers with something resembling the following remarks: ‘‘It is estimated that x cancer will account for y new cancer diagnoses and z deaths in the United States alone this year. These grim statistics persist despite advances in cancer therapy, arguing forcibly for a new approach, such as in cancer prevention, to help in controlling this devastating disease.’’ Alas, this general rationale for cancer prevention is still relevant. In 2004, it is estimated that cancers of the breast, prostate, bladder, colon/rectum, lung/bronchus, and oral cavity/pharynx will account for 856,760 new cancer diag
The electric resistance and the transport properties of carbon nanotube with a Cu chain: A First-Principle study

The electric resistance and the transport properties of a carbon nanotube (5,5) adsorbed with a copper chain connected with two copper end electrodes have been calculated by employing the nonequilibrium Green’s function and the Density Function Theory. The properties of the pure carbon nanotube (5,5) with the Cu electrodes have also been calculated as a reference. Both the equilibrium and the nonequilibrium conditions have been investigated. The results have shown that the electrical resistance of the metallic CNT (5,5) has been reduced by the adsorption of the Cu chain due to the interaction between the Cu and the CNT. The change of the I-V curve slope is also explained in terms of the transmission spectrum.
Synthesis, Chracterization and Pseudo-Capacitive Performance of MnO x /CNT Heteronanostructures

Manganese oxide based nanoparticles were synthesized by sol-gel process. Methanol, propanol and methanol+propanol were used as alternative solvent during sol-gel process with manganese acetate as precursor for the preparation of pristine manganese oxide. Hybrid MnOx modified by additions of carbon nanotubes was further prepared. The mean particle sizes ranged between 9 and 15 nm. XRD results showed that the as prepared manganese oxide based samples at calcination temperature of 300°C and above were composed of Mn2O3 as dominant phase, with Mn3O4 as minor phase. Specific capacitance measured from two electrode systems of manganese oxide prepared from methanol, propanol and methanol+propanol at scan rate of 10 mV/s were 80.9, 104.8, 331.7 F/g and the result for the hybrid sample prepared in methanol was 140.5 F/g. Manganese oxide nanofibers prepared by electrospinning method yielded a specific capacitance of 161.22 F/g at a scan rate of 10 mV/s. The hybrid MnOx/CNT nanofibers showed only a negligible improvement in specific capacitance to 182.2 F/g. However, the MnOx with 1 % SnO2 nanofibers showed a tremendous improvement in the specific capacitance. The MnOx/SnO2 nanofibers exhibited a capacitance of 472.31 F/g. While the above analysis was carried out in a 2 electrode button cell, additional characterization in a 3-electrode cell showed that the observed capacitances are significantly higher than the 2-electrode cells. For example the MnOx and MnOx/CNT cyclic voltammetry conducted in a 3 electrode cell showed specific capacitances of 299.14 F/g and 349.53 F/g, respectively.
Hurricane Winds for Design along the New England Coast

Description of hurricanes during past 25 yr and of resulting damages; detailed estimates of wind fields that existed in these hurricanes lead to some reasonable judgments as to severity of hurricanes that might be expected in future.
The “Contact of Living Souls”: Shepard Gilbert’s Civics Education in Reconstruction South Carolina

Abstract Just after the Civil War, a Harvard graduate from Massachusetts receives a civics education from former slaves in South Carolina that radically transforms his life and his beliefs. It is a...
Enhanced endothelialization and microvessel formation in polyester grafts seeded with CD34(+) bone marrow cells.

The authors have shown accelerated endothelialization on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) grafts preclotted with autologous bone marrow. Bone marrow cells have a subset of early progenitor cells that express the CD34 antigen on their surfaces. A recent in vitro study has shown that CD34+ cells can differentiate into endothelial cells. The current study was designed to determine whether CD34+ progenitor cells would enhance vascular graft healing in a canine model. The authors used composite grafts implanted in the dog's descending thoracic aorta (DTA) for 4 weeks. The 8-mm × 12-cm composite grafts had a 4-cm PET graft in the center and 4-cm standard ePTFE grafts at each end. The entire composite was coated with silicone rubber to make it impervious; thus, the PET segment was shielded from perigraft and pannus ingrowth. There were 5 study grafts and 5 control grafts. On the day before surgery, 120 mL bone marrow was aspirated, and CD34+ cells were enriched using an immunomagnetic bead technique, yielding an average of 11.4 ± 5.3 × 106. During surgery, these cells were mixed with venous blood and seeded onto the PET segment of composite study grafts; the control grafts were treated with venous blood only. Hematoxylin and eosin, immunocytochemical, and AgNO3staining demonstrated significant increases of surface endothelialization on the seeded grafts (92% ± 3.4% vs 26.6% ± 7.6%; P = .0001) with markedly increased microvessels in the neointima, graft wall, and external area compared with controls. In dogs, CD34+ cell seeding enhances vascular graft endothelialization; this suggests practical therapeutic applications.
Joint estimation of activity and attenuation in PET/MR using MR-constrained Gaussian priors

The maximum likelihood estimation of attenuation and activity (MLAA) has been proposed to jointly estimate activity and attenuation from emission data only. In this paper, we proposed an improved MLAA algorithm by imposing MR spatial and CT statistical constraints on the estimation of attenuation using a constrained Gaussian mixture model (GMM) and a Markov random field (MRF) smoothness prior. We compare the proposed MLAA-GMM algorithm with the MLAA algorithms proposed by Rezaei et al and Salomon et al as well as 4-class MRAC method. Dixon MR images were segmented into outside air, fat and soft tissue classes and an MR low-intensity class corresponding to air cavities, bone and susceptibility artifacts. To eliminate the miss-classification of bones with surrounding tissue, the unknown class was expanded by a co-registered bone probability map. A mixture of 4 Gaussians (air, fat/soft and bone) was used for the unknown class, while unimodal Gaussians were used for others. The algorithms were evaluated using simulation and clinical datasets. The bias in estimated attenuation and activity was evaluated against CT-based attenuation correction. Our results show that MLAA-Rezaei suffers from scale and noise problems. The performance of MLAA-Salomon algorithm is also affected by the scale and depends highly on MR quality and segmentation, especially at air/bone interfaces and vertebra. It was demonstrated the MLAA-GMM effectively exploits MR prior information, thereby results in noise-, crosstalk- and scale-free attenuation maps. The PET bias analyses showed that the MLAA-GMM outperformed the scale corrected MLAA-Rezaei and MLAA-Salomon algorithms as well as the 4-class MRAC method. Therefore, the proposed method can pave the way toward accurate emission-based estimation of attenuation in TOF PET/MR imaging.
Family, households, and care arrangements of frail older women: A structural analysis

Previous research has examined determinants of the living arrangements and the informal-care arrangements of older women; research on care arrangements has often taken living arrangements as given. Here we consider each separately, then go on to analyze the simultaneous determinants of living and care arrangements. Factors influencing these outcomes can be categorized as indicators of opportunities, resources, needs, or preferences. Of particular interest is the extent to which kin availability--specifically, the existence of living children--constrains opportunities, the role of financial resources, and the consequences of needs as revealed by levels of physical and mental disability. Our analysis consists of multinomial-logit models estimated with data from the 1982 National Long-Term Care Survey. The results indicate the importance of kin availability, with striking differences in the living and care arrangements between childless and other older women. Among those with children, there are less striking but consistent differences according to the number and sex composition of living children. Finally, variables representing needs for care are generally the strongest predictors of all the outcomes analyzed.
Formation of Hydrate Slurries in a Once-Through Operation

The major parameters for a hydrate slurry flow model are suggested. A field trial in a once-through pipeline indicated a significantly confined operating region without plugging. The implication of these results is that current versions of hydrate cold flow will need to address hydrate film growth and deposition on pipewalls. Flow loop tests alone do not simulate the extent of plugging because of film growth or deposition. A unique learning in this work is that emulsified droplet distributions were measured as a function of watercut, surfactant concentration, and fluid velocity. Droplet size and droplet size distribution increased with an increasing watercut below the inversion point. Droplet size and droplet size distribution decreased with an increasing surfactant concentration. An increasing surfactant concentration limited wall deposits to some extent. An increasing fluid velocity reduced wall deposits and hydrate slurry viscosity. Wall deposits decreased with a decreasing gas void fraction.
Rethinking Internal Consistency in Cronbach's Alpha

ABSTRACTCronbach's alpha estimates the internal consistency of responses in multi-item bipolar scales. This article examined three research questions (RQ): (1) To what extent do inconsistencies exist in data (e.g., responses of −2 −2 2 2)? (2) Does the number of scale items influence the amount of inconsistency? (3) Does Cronbach's alpha mask inconsistencies? Data were obtained from 29 research projects (n = 10,616). Each survey had place attachment questions comprising two concepts: place identity and place dependence. Respondents were classified as consistent or inconsistent based on their responses to the place attachment questions. Results demonstrated that: (a) inconsistent response patterns existed in the data (RQ1), (b) number of scale items influenced amount of inconsistency (RQ2), and (c) alpha masked these inconsistencies (RQ3). Discussion focused on implications of these findings.
ȜRainbow” trapping and temperature tunable structures for telecom waves

We show that graded metallic gratings are capable of trapping electromagnetic waves at multiple frequencies within a certain band, manifesting itself as a trapped rainbow in the telecom frequency range. Thermo-optic material could be employed to make the structure to be temperature tunable.
Resveratrol and the viniferins, their application to screening for disease resistance in grape breeding programs

We have confirmed the findings of LANGCAKB and PRYCE and extended them to include species which have significant resistance to disease. Using these species we have observed differential production of resveratrol both within and among clones in relation to the incidence of disease. The techniques we have used fit the requirements of a screening technique. Unlike the analytic technique most recently used by LANGCAKE and McCARTHY (6) resveratrol and the viniferins are separated in our procedures. Minimal amounts of tissue are required, and TLC combined with either UV or fluorescence spectrophotometry give rapid quantitative results. The use of UV to induce the production of these "stress metabolites" would free the breeder from the necessity of maintaining fungus cultures for inoculation tests. Further study must be done to elaborate the role of these compounds in disease resistance and the efficacy of their role in predicting resistance. Resveratrol und die Viniferine - ihre Verwendbarkeit bei der Bonitierung der Pilzresistenz im Rahmen von Rebenzuchtungsprogrammen Die Ergebnisse von LANGCAKE und PRICE bezuglich der Phytoalexinbildung bei Reben wurden bestatigt; entsprechende Befunde liesen sich auch bei einer Ausdehnung der Untersuchungen auf Rebenarten, die eine hohe Pilzresistenz besitzen, aufzeigen. Bei diesen Species wurde sowohl innerhalb der Klone wie auch zwischen den Klonen eine abgestufte Resveratrolbildung beobachtet, die in Beziehung zum Auftreten von Pilzkrankheiten stand. Die angewandte Technik erfullt die Anforderungen, die an eine Bonitierungsmethode zu stellen sind. Resveratrol und die Viniferine konnten nunmehr gesondert bestimmt werden. Hierzu sind nur geringe Mengen von Rebenmaterial erforderlich, und mittels Dunnschichtchromatographie in Verbindung mit UV- oder Fluoreszenzspektrophotometrie lassen sich rasch quantitative Ergebnisse erzielen. Die Verwendung von UV-Licht zur Induktion der „Stresmetabolite" wurde den Zuchter der Notwendigkeit entheben, Pilzkulturen fur Inokulationstests zu halten. Zum besseren Verstandnis der Rolle, die diese Verbindungen bei der Pilzresistenz spielen, sind ebenso wie bezuglich ihrer Verwendung zur Resistenzvorhersage weitere Untersuchungen erforderlich.
Whether disturbances alter salt marsh soil structure dramatically affects Spartina alterniflora recolonization rate

Disturbance regimes are shifting in response to climate change, land-use change, species' invasions, and other stressors, challenging ecologists to improve understanding of the mechanisms controlling plant recovery under different conditions. In this study, we investigate mechanisms that underpin plant recolonization of two types of disturbance: disturbances that remove standing plant biomass, but leave the underlying soil structure largely intact, and those that remove standing biomass and physically disrupt soil structure. In the southeastern United States, salt marshes, drought and invasive feral hogs (Sus scrofa) are associated with disturbances of these respective types and both leave behind mudflats dotted with patches of cordgrass (Spartina alterniflora), the system's dominant foundation species. To test how disturbance type and remnant patch size may interact to affect cordgrass recolonization, we transplanted replicate cordgrass patches of three sizes into one mudflat that experienced vegetation-only disturbance (VD) during a recent drought, and a second mudflat where hog activities had disrupted the soil structure creating a soil + vegetation disturbance (soil + VD). Over one year, we monitored plant performance and properties of soil. Compared with the drought-associated VD where patches, regardless of their size, expanded vigorously, large and medium patches grew little and smaller patches even less in the hog-associated soil + VD mudflat. Moreover while biogeochemical properties varied little in the VD compared with adjacent vegetated marsh areas, the mudflats with soil + VD had less soil-binding organic matter and, hence, were too soft to support crab burrows, leading to a reduction in oxygen availability and cordgrass expansion. These results indicate that cordgrass recovery is far faster from disturbances that do not degrade soil structure than those that do and therefore advocate for disturbance-specific management strategies. Specifically, while transplanting patches is effective in restoring marshes disturbed by drought, wrack, or other factors that leave soil structure intact, preventative measures, like hog population culling, are essential to mitigating the ecological impacts of soil structure-altering disturbances.
MECHANISMS IN ENDOCRINOLOGY: Lessons from growth hormone receptor gene disrupted mice: Are there benefits of endocrine defects?

Growth hormone (GH) is produced primarily by anterior pituitary somatotroph cells. Numerous acute human (h) GH treatment and long-term follow-up studies and extensive use of animal models of GH action have shaped the body of GH research over the past 70 years. Work on the GH receptor (R)-knockout (GHRKO) mice and results of studies on GH-resistant Laron Syndrome (LS) patients have helped define many physiological actions of GH including those dealing with metabolism, obesity, cancer, diabetes, cognition and aging/longevity. In this review, we have discussed several issues dealing with these biological effects of GH and attempt to answer the question of whether decreased GH action may be beneficial.
Stray Grain Formation and Solidification Cracking Susceptibility of Single Crystal Ni-Base Superalloy CMSX-4

The stray grain formation behavior and susceptibility to solidification cracking in autogenous welds on single crystal alloy CMSX-4 have been investigated. Welds were prepared using the electron beam (EB) and gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) processes. The stray grain area fraction and cracking susceptibility were determined and correlated to the processing parameters and process type. The stray grain content initially increased and then decreased with increasing travel speed. This effect is attributed to the complex effect of travel speed on the temperature gradient and growth rate and resulting amount of constitutional supercooling in the weld. The stray grain content decreased with decreasing weld power. In general, the amount of stray grains and resultant cracking susceptibility were observed to decrease by the use of low heat inputs. The stray grain content and cracking susceptibility of welds prepared with the GTA process was always higher than welds made with the EB process. This difference is attributed to differences in power density and concomitant temperature gradient, where the EB process produced a higher temperature gradient that reduced the amount of stray grains and resultant susceptibility to cracking. For the conditions evaluated in this work, EB welds produced at heat inputs below ~ 13 J/mm produced welds that were crack-free with stray grain contents <5%.
Microfluidic Membrane Networks

The miniaturization of technical components and machines has been one of the most powerful motors of advancement in both science and technology for the past four decades.
Splicing plans to achieve misordered goals

Most parallel planners are sensitive to the order in which goals and activity preconditions are specified. A "wrong" ordering can easily cause a solution to be missed. Permuting goals and preconditions on failure in hopes of finding a soluble order is in general computationally unacceptable. Plan splicing is a solution to this problem. Splicing is a violent conflict resolution procedure which involves the cutting of assertion dependencies, recursive demotion or excision of selected activities around the cut, and reinsertion of deachieved goals back into the middle of the planner's goal stack so that they can be replanned later to mend the plan around the splice. In a temporal planner, after an excision it is further necessary to relieve the "temporal stress" induced on surviving activities by the activities which were excised. This is an important capability for two reasons: first, because the order of achievement can of course not always be known in advance, and secondly because it is desirable to be able to present goals in priority order.
Mutagenic Effects of Oxidized Lipids

Oxidized lipids are suspected as being mutagenic, the mutagenicity being associated in concept with carcinogenicity as well. However, although mutagenic responses for more highly oxidized lipid degradation products have been obtained in a variety of bioassays, convincing demonstration of mutagenicity of early formed products of lipid oxidation has not been readily achieved. In many of the studies conducted todate mutagenicity has been assessed using test strains of Salmonella typhimurium in the Ames test, the bioassay emphasized in the present report.
Middle-Aged Children's Coping Strategies With Tensions in the Aging Parent-Child Tie.

Middle-aged children may cope in different ways with interpersonal tensions with their aging parents. This study examined coping strategies as a function of parent’s age and disability and children...
The Associated Friends in Volume 5:2

Includes an excerpt from the university librarian's (George Osborne's) annual report for 1940-1941 on "Library Procedures." Gifts. New Members.
Waste-heat driven ammonia-water absorption chiller for severe ambient operation

Abstract A packaged ammonia-water absorption chiller using a waste-heat stream and operating at severe ambient conditions is developed and experimentally evaluated. The chiller is designed to provide 2.6 kW of cooling at an ambient temperature of 51.7 °C. The system is directly coupled to exhaust gas from a diesel generator to drive the absorption cycle. The absorber and condenser reject heat directly to ambient air. Direct coupling to the heat source and the ambient heat sink leads to reduced system size and minimization of parasitic electrical power required for coupling fluid pumps. The dimensions of the unit are: 0.66 m × 0.61 m × 0.48 m (L × W × H). An autonomous control system is also developed and demonstrated experimentally. System performance is measured at ambient temperatures of 40–52 °C, delivering cooling duties of 2.5–1.8 kW, with overall coefficients of performance (COPs) of 0.38–0.3. Performance limitations and areas for future development are discussed.
Use of Observation Status Versus Readmission in Elective Total Knee and Hip Arthroplasty Returns to Hospital: A Single-Institution Perspective.

Abstract Background The Affordable Care Act’s Readmission Reduction Program (RRP) and ongoing transparency efforts to promote consumer-driven competition place significant institutional focus on improving 30-day readmission rates. It remains unclear whether the reduction in readmission rates subsequent to the RRP occurred due to improved quality and/or partly due to increased use of observation status in conditions that may have been classified as readmissions prior to the RRP. We hypothesize that a significant percentage of our institution’s 30-day readmissions after elective total knee and hip arthroplasty (TKA/THA) overestimate the needs, duration, and complexity of the hospital-based intervention and inaccurately reflect the quality of service provided. Methods We performed a retrospective review of prospectively collected quality control data for 30-day returns to hospital after elective TKA/THA at our institution over a 2-year period. After stratification of the readmissions to under 48-hour and over 48-hour length of stay, we calculated the financial implications to our institution if the under 48-hour length of stay admissions were reclassified as an observation by applying discharge-weighted and payment-weighted analyses to the 2017 RRP report. We then calculated the out-of-pocket expenses for the under 48-hour Medicare subpopulation. Results We found that 16.7% of the 30-day readmissions after elective TKA/THA required a length of stay under 48 hours. If the short length of stay TKA/THA readmissions were reclassified as observations, our institution’s 2018 RRP penalty would have been reduced to 39% or $334,512.28. However, this reclassification would result in an increase in out-of-pocket expenses by $540.25 (range $291.56-$1105.08) per patient. Conclusion A subpopulation of 30-day readmissions does not require a level of care consistent with inpatient admission services. Classification of this short length of stay subpopulation as an observation vs an admission per Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services guidelines would have removed our institution from the TKA/THA-specific RRP penalty. However, this would result in the unintended consequence of shifting costs, particularly self-administered drug costs, to patients.
Aging effects on pelvic floor support: a pilot study comparing young versus older nulliparous women

We sought to determine age-related changes to the pelvic floor in the absence of childbirth effects. A case–control study was conducted from June 2017 to August 2018 comparing two groups of nulliparous women: <40 years old and ≥ 70 years old. Clinical evaluation included POP-Q, instrumented speculum testing, and handgrip strength. Dynamic 3D-stress MRI was performed on all women to obtain genital and levator hiatus (LH) lengths, LH area, and levator bowl volume. LH shape was quantified using a novel measure called the “V-U index.” Pubovisceral muscle (PVM) cross-sectional area (CSA) was also measured. Bivariate comparisons between the two groups were made for all variables. Effect sizes were calculated for MRI measurements. Twelve young and 9 older nulliparous women were included. Levator bowl volume at rest was 83% larger in older women (108.0 ± 34.5 cm3 vs 59.2 ± 19.3 cm3, p = 0.001, d = 1.82). MRI genital hiatus at rest was larger among the older group (2.7 ± 0.6 cm vs 3.5 ± 0.6 cm, p = 0.007, d = 1.34). V-U index, a measure of LH shape where 0 = “V” and 1 = “U,” differed between groups indicating a more “U”-like shape among older women (0.71 ± 0.23 vs 0.35 ± 0.18, p = 0.001, d = 1.72). Handgrip strength was lower in the older vs young group (23.2 ± 5.2 N vs 33.4 ± 5.2 N, p < 0.0001); however, the Kegel augmentation force and PVM CSA were similar (3.2 ± 1.1 N vs 3.3 ± 2.2 N, p = 0.89, and 0.8 ± 0.3 cm2 vs 0.7 ± 0.2 cm2, p = 0.23 respectively). Levator bowl volume at rest was over 80% larger among older women, reflecting a generalized posterior distension with age.
4D-CT Deformable Image Registration Using an Unsupervised Deep Convolutional Neural Network

Four-dimensional computed tomography (4D-CT) has been used in radiation therapy to allow for tumor and organ motion tracking throughout the breathing cycle. It can provide valuable information on the shapes and trajectories of tumor and normal structures to guide treatment planning and improve the accuracy of tumor delineation. Respiration-induced abdominal tissue motion causes significant problems in effective irradiation of abdominal cancer patients. Accurate and fast deformable image registration (DIR) on 4D-CT could aid the treatment planning process in target definition, tumor tracking, organ-at-risk (OAR) sparing, and respiratory gating. However, traditional DIR methods such as optical flow and demons are iterative and generally slow especially for large 4D-CT datasets. In this paper, we present our preliminary results on using a fast-unsupervised generative adversarial network (GAN) to generate deformation vector fields (DVF) for 4D-CT DIR to help motion management and treatment planning in radiation therapy. The proposed network was trained in an unsupervised fashion without the need of ground truth DVF or anatomical labels. A dilated inception module (DIM) was integrated into the network to extract multi-scale motion features for robust feature learning. The network was trained and tested on 15 patients’ 4D-CT abdominal datasets using five-fold out cross validation. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method could attain an accurate DIR between any two 4D-CT phases within one minute.
The Interstitial Ascent of Talcott Parsons: Cross-Disciplinary Collaboration and Careerism at Harvard, 1927–1951

The paper builds on Joel Isaac’s analysis of “interstitial” arrangements that generate scientific knowledge, and also draws upon the networking model of theory groups articulated by Nicholas and Caroline Mullins. I consider how the “interstitial academy” at Harvard, as well as Talcott Parsons’s navigation of it, facilitated his professional rise from a vulnerable young instructor in economics in 1927 to one of the most prominent social scientists in the United States in 1951. I examine Parsons’s engagement with curriculum-building committees in sociology and social ethics, in “the area of social science” and in social relations, as well as with undergraduate courses on institutions and on sociological theory, including a graduate student discussion circle, and with seminars on Pareto, on rationality and on “basic social science.” In some instances, Parsons’s involvement as a newcomer or junior participant led to important peer alliances, or to the support of higher-ranking faculty and administrators who sponsored his advancement. In other instances, especially as his ascent progressed, Parsons played the more powerful role of “indispensable hub” who gained stature by organizing cross-disciplinary interaction. Parsons’s interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration also placed him an initial administrative role that would prepare him to serve as chair of two academic departments. The final and most important outcome of the process of upward mobility was the creation of a “theory school” that elevated Parsons to a unique status as the most boundary-spanning theorist of the social sciences. The paper thus supplements existing accounts of the rise of Parsons while also offering a mode of analysis that might be widely applied to the careers of other social scientists, both contemporary and historical (e.g., to figures such as Jane Addams and W. E. B. DuBois), in diverse academic settings and national contexts.
Primal-Dual Block Generalized Frank-Wolfe

We propose a generalized variant of Frank-Wolfe algorithm for solving a class of sparse/low-rank optimization problems. Our formulation includes Elastic Net, regularized SVMs and phase retrieval as special cases. The proposed Primal-Dual Block Generalized Frank-Wolfe algorithm reduces the per-iteration cost while maintaining linear convergence rate. The per iteration cost of our method depends on the structural complexity of the solution (i.e. sparsity/low-rank) instead of the ambient dimension. We empirically show that our algorithm outperforms the state-of-the-art methods on (multi-class) classification tasks.
Microcontroller based acoustic signal processing

This paper aim to propose an alternative, cost efficient and innovative method for the processing of underwater acoustic signals. The proposed solution is based purely on a single microcontroller instead of data acquisition cards to carry out all the operations of the depth sounding system including the processing of the acoustic signal. This approach is more mature, cost efficient, reliable, and accurate requiring less space footprint than the other available methods.