cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Maximizing the precision of the mathematically ideal radioimmunoassay at a specified dose

Mathematical analysis of the equation for the radioimmunoassay, R2+R(1+Kp+Kp*−Kq)−Kq=0, gives a general solution for the dose of maximum precision, ∂2R/∂p2, of the assay. This solution, (R−c1+Kp)(R−c2), and the radioimmunoassay equation can be used to determine theoretical conditions for maximum precision of a radioimmunoassay at any dose p. A theoretically optimal antibody concentration, q, can be calculated for precision at a critical concentration of interest, p. This is dependent on the affinity constant, K, of the particular antibody being used and, potentially, the amount of labeled tracer, p*. This solution idealizes the radioimmunoassay to a one affinity constant system. Though this may be achievable, particularly with monoclonal antibodies or receptors, the applicability needs to be explored experimentally.
Thoracoscopic maneuvers for chest wall resection and reconstruction

Objective The aim of this report is to describe technical maneuvers used to complete minimally invasive resections of the chest wall successfully. Methods Case videos of advanced thoracoscopic chest wall resections performed at a comprehensive cancer center were reviewed, as were published reports. These were analyzed for similarities and also categorized to summarize alternative approaches. Results Limited chest wall resections en bloc with lobectomy can be accomplished with port placement similar to that used for typical thoracoscopic anatomic resections, particularly when the utility incision is close to the region of excision. Generally, chest wall resection precedes lobectomy. Ribs can be transected with Gigli saws, endoscopic shears, or high-speed drills. Division of bone and overlying soft tissue can be planned precisely using thoracoscopic guidance. Isolated primary chest wall masses may require different port position and selective reconstruction using synthetic materials. Patch anchoring can be accomplished by devices that facilitate laparoscopic port site fascial closure. Conclusions Thoracoscopic chest wall resections have been accomplished safely using tools and maneuvers summarized here. Further outcomes research is necessary to identify the benefits of thoracoscopic chest wall resection over an open approach.
Water use efficiency among dry bean landraces and cultivars in drought-stressed and non-stressed environments

The agricultural use of water is higher than 85% in the western USA, resulting in an increasing water deficit in the region; this situation is commonly encountered throughout the world where irrigated and irrigation-assisted production systems are operational. The objective of this study was to examine differences among dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) landraces and cultivars in terms of water use efficiency (WUE), subsequently identifying those with a high water use efficiency. Six medium-seeded (25–40 g 100 seed wt−1) landraces and cultivars of pinto and red market classes were evaluated in intermittent drought-stressed (DS) and non-stressed (NS) environments at Kimberly, Idaho, USA in 2003 and 2004. Each market class comprised one each of a landrace and old and new cultivars. Mean evapotranspiration (ET) in the NS environment was 384 mm in 2003 and 432 mm in 2004; the respective ET values in the DS environment were 309 and 268 mm. Mean seed yield was higher in the DS (2678 kg ha−1) and NS (3779 kg ha−1) environments in 2004 than in 2003 (688 and 1800 kg ha−1, respectively). Under severe drought stress in 2003, WUE in the pinto bean ranged from 1.5 for the Common Pinto landrace to 4.4 kg ha−1 mm−1 water for cv. Othello. The Common Red Mexican landrace had the highest WUE (3.7), followed by cvs. NW 63 (2.8) and UI 259 (1.4) in the red market class. Under favorable milder climatic conditions in 2004, the mean WUE value was 10 kg ha−1 mm−1 water in the DS environment and 8.7 kg ha−1 mm−1 water in the NS environment. We conclude that dry bean landraces and cultivars with high WUE should be used to reduce dependence on irrigation water and to develop drought-resistant cultivars to maximize yield and WUE.
Blood Citric Acid Concentration as Affected by Heat and Cold Stress and Adrenocorticotrophic Hormone

Abstract THE citric acid concentration of various tissues has been found to increase in chicks and mice infected with salmonella organisms (Berry et al., 1954; Gilfillan et al., 1956). However, in chicks, the increase in citric acid concentration observed under conditions of infection with Salmonella gallinarum was accounted for mostly by the decrease in feed intake resulting from the anorexia which accompanies the disease (Hill et al., 1960). The mechanism whereby the reduced feed intake increases the tissue citric acid concentration was difficult to understand. However, since it is known that fasting or starvation elicits the “stress” syndrome involving the pituitary-adrenal interrelationships, the possibility exists that the citric acid concentration is responsive to hormonal changes involved in this syndrome. If this hypothesis were so, other stressors besides starvation should have the same effect, i.e. an increase in citric acid concentration. The work presented in this report was undertaken to determine the …
Properties of the urn randomization in clinical trials

In this article we review the important statistical properties of the urn randomization (design) for assigning patients to treatment groups in a clinical trial. The urn design is the most widely studied member of the family of adaptive biased-coin designs. Such designs are a compromise between designs that yield perfect balance in treatment assignments and complete randomization which eliminates experimental bias. The urn design forces a small-sized trial to be balanced but approaches complete randomization as the size of the trial (n) increases. Thus, the urn design is not as vulnerable to experimental bias as are other restricted randomization procedures. In a clinical trial it may be difficult to postulate that the study subjects constitute a random sample from a well-defined homogeneous population. In this case, a randomization model provides a preferred basis for statistical inference. We describe the large-sample permutational null distributions of linear rank statistics for testing the equality of treatment groups based on the urn design. In general, these permutation tests may be different from those based on the population model, which is equivalent to assuming complete randomization. Poststratified subgroup analyses can also be performed on the basis of the urn design permutational distribution. This provides a basis for analyzing the subset of patients with observed responses when some patients' responses can be assumed to be missing-at-random. For multiple mutually exclusive strata, these tests are correlated. For this case, a combined covariate-adjusted test of treatment effect is described. Finally, we show how to generalize the urn design to a prospectively stratified trial with a fairly large number of strata.
In the face of tragedy: Placing children's reactions to trauma in a new context

The terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, 2001, have moved our country into a new era. In the aftermath of the attacks, and with the threat of terrorism continuing, it is important to better understand how children may be affected by these events. Common reactions of children following trauma have been examined in the literature; however, mediating variables, problems with assessment, and current diagnostic criteria related to PTSD may temper our understanding of the issues. Furthermore, the unprecedented nature of the terrorist actions raises new issues regarding how children may respond to and cope with trauma. Because of the enormity of these events, mental health services are available in an unprecedented fashion. As these services are developed and implemented, and as future services are planned, it is critical that intervention issues and ideas be examined in order to provide the most efficacious treatments to terrorism's youngest victims.
The design and evaluation of a shared object system for distributed memory machines

This paper describes the design and evaluation of SAM, a shared object system for distributed memory machines. SAM is a portable run-time system that provides a global name space and automatic caching of shared data. SAM incorporates mechanisms to address the problem of high communication overheads on distributed memory machines; these mechanisms include tying synchronization to data access, chaotic access to data, prefetching of data, and pushing of data to remote processors. SAM has been implemented on the CM-5, Intel iPSC/860 and Paragon, IBM SP1, and networks of workstations running PVM. SAM applications run on all these platforms without modification.This paper provides an extensive analysis on several complex scientific algorithms written in SAM on a variety of hardware platforms. We find that the performance of these SAM applications depends fundamentally on the scalability of the underlying parallel algorithm, and whether the algorithm's communication requirements can be satisfied by the hardware. Our experience suggests that SAM is successful in allowing programmers to use distributed memory machines effectively with much less programming effort than required today.
Hydraulic Fracturing: A Critical Physical Geography Review

Taking a critical physical geography approach, this article provides the first side-by-side review of the physical and social literature on hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” as it is frequently referred to. We note the striking disparities between the physical science literature's description of the relatively manageable impacts of fracking and the almost apocalyptic tone taken in some popular press and critical social science literature. We argue that these disparities may be a result of the dramatic shift in the geography of energy production in the US. The rise of fracking has redistributed environmental injustices beyond traditional national sacrifice zones, such as Appalachia, and towards regions that in many cases are wealthier than Appalachia and have not recently borne the brunt of energy production, causing profound social, cultural, and economic shocks. Reviewing the physical and social science literature together suggests that we reconsider the fracking research agenda. Studies of the physical impacts of hydraulic fracturing should be expanded to address communities' concerns about habitat fragmentation and the impacts of the myriad truck trips required to service fracking wells, neither of which currently are given much attention. Social science research on fracking could benefit from an increase in comparative work, assessing the relative economic and social impacts in regions where energy production is ramping up in relation to regions where it is declining.
Vertebrate Neural Induction: Inducers, Inhibitors, and a New Synthesis

Progress has finally been made on one of the oldest and most important problems in vertebrate developmental biology, neural induction. The union of amphibian embryology and increasingly sophisticated molecular biological techniques has led to the discovery of several promising neural inducing factors, including noggin, chordin, and follistatin. All three are produced in the organizer region of the early embryo, identified by Mangold and Spemann seventy years ago as the source of neuralizing signals. At the same time, a variety of unexpected observations has forced a fundamental rethinking of the cellular choices underlying this inductive event. In the neural default model derived from these new findings, cell-autonomous mechanisms of neural specification are suppressed by local inhibitory signaling, except where the inhibition is itself blocked by organizer-produced antagonists. Members of the BMP family of peptide growth factors have been identified as the likely mediators of this local inhibitory signaling. Finally, the candidate organizer factors have been granted a mechanism of action, and the neural default model has been strengthened, by the demonstration that these factors act by blocking BMP signaling.These discoveries, satisfying as they are, represent only a first step in understanding the earliest events in vertebrate neural development. It remains to be seen if the new model of neural induction, built almost entirely on Xenopus work, can be extended to other vertebrates. Even within the amphibian context, many surprises are possible, and BMP antagonism may yet prove only one of several paths to neural fate. Moreover, we know almost nothing of how initial neural specification leads into the fundamental processes of neural development that follow soon on its heels, such as regional patterning, neurogenesis, and morphogenesis. The emergence of the neural default model will require reevaluation of these links, and of the relative roles of cell-autonomous and inductive mechanisms.
Design and analysis of a sun sensor for planetary rover absolute heading detection

The paper describes a new sun sensor for absolute heading detection developed for the Field Integrated, Design and Operations (FIDO) rover. The FIDO rover is an advanced technology rover that is a terrestrial prototype of the rovers NASA/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) plans to send to Mars in 2003. Our goal was to develop a sun sensor that fills the current cost/performance gap, uses the power of subpixel interpolation, makes use of current hardware on the rover, and demands very little computational overhead. The need for a sun sensor on planetary rovers lies in the fact that current means of estimating the heading of planetary rovers involves integration of noisy rotational-speed measurements. This noise causes error to accumulate and grow rapidly. Moreover, the heading error affects the estimate of the x and y position of the rover. More importantly, incremental odometry heading estimation is only reliable over relatively short distances. There is an urgent need to develop a new heading-detection sensor for long traverses [for example, 100 m per Sol (Martian Day)], as requested for future Mars mission. Results of a recent FIDO field trial at Black Rock Summit in Central Nevada and several operations readiness tests at the JPL MarsYard using the sun sensor have demonstrated threefold to fourfold improvement in the heading estimation of the rover compared to incremental odometry.
A large deviations approach to error exponents in source coding and hypothesis testing

It is pointed out that the basic results can be proved fairly easily if one uses a Sanov theorem for the distribution of types. Such a theorem comes easily from large deviation theory. A caveat is that this technique only identifies the error exponent up to terms o(n) in the exponent, whereas the combinatorial arguments give an estimate up to terms O(log n) in the exponent. >
The chemisorption and decomposition of ethylene and acetylene on Ni(110)

Abstract High resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy (HREELS), low energy electron diffraction (LEED), and thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS) have been used to study the adsorption and decomposition of ethylene and acetylene on a Ni(110) surface. HREEL spectra are reported as a function of hydrocarbon exposure, temperature (80–500 K), and scattering angle for protonated and deuterated ethylene, and at 80 K for protonated and deuterated acetylene. Both ethylene and acetylene adsorb molecularly at 80 K, but both show rehybridization from the gas phase: ethylene to ~ sp 3 and acetylene to ~ sp 2.5 . All of the observable vibrational modes of ethylene are excited to different degrees by the dipole scattering mechanism, and its site group symmetry at 80 K is lower than C 2v . Ordered LEED patterns are formed on adsorption at low temperatures; a complex pattern for ethylene and a c(2 × 2) for acetylene. Ethylene begins to decompose above 200 K to form CCH intermediates with evolution of hydrogen. On additional heating the CCH species decompose to CH species. Finally by 500 K atomic carbon remains on the surface and forms a (4 × 5) ordered overlayer. The thermal decomposition of acetylene is more complex than that of ethylene, as evidenced by the TDS results. Possible bonding models of acetylene and the CCH species on Ni(110) are proposed.
Real time vehicle speed predition using gas-kinetic traffic modeling

Prediction of the traffic information such as flow, density, speed, and travel time is important for traffic control systems, optimizing vehicle operations, and the individual driver. Prediction of future traffic information is a challenging problem due to many dynamic contributing factors. In this paper, macroscopic and kinetic traffic modeling approaches are investigated. We present a speed prediction algorithm, KTM-SP, based on gas-kinetic traffic modeling. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm gave good prediction results on real traffic data.
Security issues in policy routing

Most routing protocols, including proposed policy routing protocols, focus on environments where detection of an attack after it has taken place is sufficient. The authors explore the design of policy routing mechanisms for sensitive environments where more aggressive preventative measures are mandated. In particular, they detail the design of four secure protocol versions that prevent abuse by cryptographic checks of data integrity. They analyze and compare these schemes in terms of their prepacket processing overhead. It is concluded that preventative security is feasible, although the overhead cost is quite high. Consequently, it is critical that prevention-based schemes coexist with detection-based schemes. >
Competition between forward- and backward-stimulated photorefractive scattering in BaTiO 3

The gain–length product for two-wave mixing in photorefractive BaTiO3 is calculated as a function of the angles between a pump beam and a scattered beam and the crystal c axis. The gain–length product at times shortly after the pump is turned on often shows a maximum for backscattering, whereas the steady-state gain–length product is usually maximized for near-forward scattering (an angle of about 10° between the pump and scattered beams). The calculations suggest that backscattering will be optimized in a hole-dominated crystal with a large trap density.
Habits of Study and Test Performance

A study habits inventory was administered to ninth- and tenth-grade students. The data were factor-analyzed to yield three constituents of study practices: distractibility, compulsiveness, and inquisitiveness. These factors satisfactorily replicated factors found in previous research and accounted for over 50% of the total variation of the items in the inventory. Tests of hypothesized relationships between habits of study and test performance suggest that test performance is monotonically related to study behaviors associated with inquisitiveness, particularly for studying as part of homework preparation. Compulsivity is also related to performance but only in the distinction between "A" students and those receiving other test scores. Distractibility, though it was the most reliable study habits scale, bears virtually no relationship to test performance. Possible explanations for all results are explored and implications for teaching are drawn. Most researchers of study skills have focused on the effects of training programs. Mainly, the attempt has been to use the findings of psychological research on memory in the development of procedures that could be used in classrooms (Adams, Camine, & Gersten, 1982). The major question of interest has been whether or not training in experimental settings would transfer to actual study practice. Since Robinson's publication of the SQ3R procedure in 1941, few studies have been conducted to answer the basic questions of what constitutes the skills of study and whether certain study behaviors directly affect school performance. Two exceptions are the research of Dansereau (1978, 1980) and Brown, Campione, and Day (1980). In keeping
POLITICS AND POETICS OF THE BODY IN EARLY MODERN JAPAN

This essay examines the political implications of Edo (present-day Tokyo) popular culture in early modern Japan by focusing on the interface between distinct forms of literary and visual representation and the configuration of social order (the status hierarchy and the division of labor), as well as moral and ideological discourses that were conducive to the reproduction of the order. Central to the forms of representation in Edo popular culture was the overarching literary and artistic principle, which I call “dialogic imagination,” a phrase adapted from M.M. Bakhtin's work on Fyodor Dostoevsky. By creating a dialogical interaction of divergent voices and perspectives, Edo popular culture created pluralized, contentious images of Tokugawa society, images that underlined contradictory realities that had become widely discernible around the turn of the eighteenth century. The most salient of all the contradictions was the growing disjuncture between the ideological premise of social and economic hierarchies and their actual reversals. The dialogic imagination captured and accentuated the fluid and dynamic social interactions that threw the formal arrangements of social order into disarray, as well as the widely perceived tensions originating from these interactions, by supplying images that sharply contrasted with those that the Tokugawa authorities worked hard to foster and defend: of a harmonious, self-contained, and perfectly functioning society.
Rapid regression of primary pulmonary hypertension.

A 14 month old child presented for investigation of tachypnoea. No parenchymal lung disease was shown on chest x ray. On echocardiography there was normal intracardiac anatomy with significant pulmonary hypertension. At cardiac catheterisation the presence of primary pulmonary hypertension was confirmed, with a partial response to inhaled nitric oxide (80 ppm) and 100% oxygen. The child was referred for assessment for heart-lung transplantation while maintained on oxygen, inhaled nitric oxide, and nifedipine. Repeat cardiac catheterisation two months after presentation showed complete normalisation of the pulmonary artery pressures. Keywords: pulmonary hypertension; infancy; resolution
Exercise Preconditioning Provides Long-Term Protection Against Early Chronic Doxorubicin Cardiotoxicity

Acute doxorubicin (DOX) cardiotoxicity can be attenuated by exercise preconditioning, but little is known of whether this cardioprotection continues beyond 10 days post-DOX administration. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of exercise preconditioning on early chronic DOX-induced cardiotoxicity. Male rats were randomly assigned to sedentary, treadmill, or wheel running groups. Treadmill and wheel running animals participated in a progressive treadmill training protocol or voluntary wheel running, respectively, for 10 weeks. Following the intervention, animals were further randomized to receive either DOX (sedentary + DOX, treadmill + DOX, wheel running + DOX) or saline (sedentary + saline, treadmill + saline, wheel running + saline). All animals then remained sedentary for 4 weeks. A 22% reduction in fractional shortening was observed in left ventricles from previously sedentary animals receiving DOX when compared with sedentary + saline. This degree of decline was not observed in treadmill + DOX and wheel running + DOX. Sedentary + DOX possessed significantly depressed mitral and aortic valve blood flow velocities when compared with sedentary + saline, but these decrements were not observed in treadmill + DOX and wheel running + DOX. Ex vivo analysis revealed that left ventricular developed pressure and maximal rate of pressure development were significantly lower in sedentary + DOX when compared to sedentary + saline. Treadmill and wheel running prior to DOX treatment protected against these decrements. Exercise cardioprotection was associated with preserved myosin heavy chain but not sarcoendoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+) ATPase 2a expression. In conclusion, 10 weeks of prior exercise protected against early chronic DOX cardiotoxicity suggesting that training status may be a determining factor in the degree of late-onset cardiotoxicity experienced by cancer patients undergoing treatment with DOX.
In vivo and in vitro techniques for comparative study of antiviral T-cell responses in the amphibian Xenopus.

Activation of lymphocytes in mammals is often quantified by measuring the amount of proliferation during the expansion phase of an immune response. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) incorporation and carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFSE) dilution assays are some of the techniques widely used in mammalian studies of pathogeninduced proliferation and provide a convenient way of quantifying the cellular response. We have extended the use of these proliferation assays to the amphibian Xenopus laevis. We have developed this species as a valuable comparative model to study immunity against a wellknown amphibian pathogen, Frog Virus 3 (FV3). Fluorescence activated cell sorting was used to assess the level of BrdU incorporation of lymphocytes in vivo and CFSE dilution in an in vitro activation assay. Both techniques have shown that splenic lymphocytes proliferate specifically upon FV3 challenge. This indicates that common methods for detection of proliferation upon immunologic challenge are easily applied to other vertebrate species, as it highlights the evolutionary conservation of the proliferative nature of immune responses throughout vertebrate phyla.
Neuropeptide Y immunoreactivity of a projection from the lateral thalamic nucleus to the optic tectum of the leopard frog

Using rhodamine-labelled latex beads as a retrograde tracer, we have shown that a subset of the neurons projecting from the lateral thalamic nucleus to the optic tectum of the leopard frog are neuropeptide Y-like immunoreactive (NPY-IR). In juvenile frogs, approximately twice as many lateral thalamic nucleus cells from this area project to the ipsilateral tectum as project to the contralateral tectum. NPY-IR cells make up 25% of the projection to the ipsilateral tectum and 13% of the projection to the contralateral tectum. The ipsilateral NPY-IR projection from the lateral nucleus was present in tadpoles and was similar in its characteristics to that found in the juvenile frog. However, the contralateral tectal projection was virtually nonexistent in these animals. The results of these experiments suggest that NPY from the lateral nucleus is released into the ipsilateral tectal neuropil in both the developing and adult frog.
Peripheral blood gene expression and airway morphology on CT scan: The MESA COPD study

RATIONALE: Small studies of the airway transcriptome in bronchial brushings from subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) suggest a role for oxidative response genes and notch pathways. We hypothesized that gene expression of these pathways in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) would be associated with airway dimensions on CT scan. METHODS: The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) COPD recruited participants with COPD and controls age 50–79 years with ≥10 packyears without clinical cardiovascular disease. Airway wall thickness and lumen area were measured using APOLLO software (VIDA Diagnostics) on full-lung CTs. mRNA expression in PBMCs was measured using Hu 133 Plus 2.0 array (Affymetrix). Models regressed airway dimensions on gene expression measures adjusting for age, sex, and race/ethnicity, cohort, cigarette smoking status, pack-years, height and weight and FDR was used to adjusted for multiple corrections. RESULTS: Among 101 participants, airway lumen area was associated with altered expression of histone cluster 1, H2ab (HIST1H2AB) (q=0.01), which is implicated in DNA repair-induced chromatin remodeling. Airway wall thickness was associated with altered expression of coiled-coil domain containing 24 (CCDC24) (q=0.002) and KIAA1244 (q=0.005). Less is known about the function of these two genes. There were (n=57) and (n=192) probe sets with differential expression related to lumen area and wall thickness, respectively, in genes such as dual specificity phosphatases, myosin light chain, and metallopeptidase inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS: Airway dimensions on CT scan were associated with altered gene expression levels in PBMCs of HIST1H2AB, CCDC24 and KIAA1244.
Observation of Cathode-Spot Phenomena at the Surface of a Dielectric Powder-Covered Electrode in the Presence of a Background Plasma and Applied Magnetic Field

An electrode containing a layer of micrometer-sized ceramic powder was exposed to a low-pressure background argon plasma. Negative biasing of the electrode resulted in the formation of localized arcs which manifested attributes similar to that observed in vacuum cathode-spot discharges. The arcing action on the electrode in the presence of an applied magnetic field ejected particles and metal vapor, eventually etching repeatable tracks into the electrode surface. The regular tracks left by the action of the cathode spots on the electrode surface suggest J times B effects. The cathode-spot waveforms and erosion tracks with and without an applied magnetic field were documented using a fast frame rate camera and oscilloscope.
LOCAL AND LANDSCAPE-LEVEL INFLUENCES ON WETLAND BIRD COMMUNITIES OF THE PRAIRIE POTHOLE REGION OF IOWA, USA

Bird species richness and individual species densities were measured in wetland complexes in 1998. These values were then related to habitat variables within the complexes and to area of wetland habitat in the surrounding landscape. The percentage of wetland area within a complex that was covered with emergent vegetation and the total area of wetland habitat in the 3 km surrounding each complex were significant predictors of species richness. A perimeter-to-area ratio was the most frequently selected variable for inclusion in species-density models, being selected for 8 of 15 models. Five species’ densities were related to the percentage of the wetland area that was covered by emergent vegetation, and 4 densities were related to the area covered by weak-stemmed wet-meadow vegetation. Densities of 5 species, as well as the overall species richness, were associated with a measure of the amount of wetland habitat within a 3-km buffer surrounding the wetland complexes. This indicates that the presence and abundance of some wetland bird species may be influenced by the amount of wetland habitat nearby. Thus, programs that encourage restoration of tracts of land that contain multiple wetland basins should be emphasized to maximize benefits to the wetland bird community.
Más allá del teorema de la imposibilidad política de la reforma agraria

The purpose of this piece is to explore how we might go about understanding the political conditions for poverty alleviation via agrarian reform. It argues that the traditional conceptualization of agrarian reform and its politics –which presents a near impossibility in typical political configurations- is too limiting. The traditional economic focus on intersection of landed rights, agriculture and poverty needs broadening to incorporate technological change enabled by the biological revolution and the importance of ecological system that support both agriculture and survival strategies of the poor. The traditional political focus on agrarian classes needs broadening to incorporate new social forces interested in the correlates of agrarian inequality and the social correlates of land –based inequality- “new social movements” and their domestic and international allies. The argument nevertheless reaffirms the importance of classic agrarian reform in its dual contributions to direct relief of poverty and democratizing effects, which enable other pro- poor reforms to work more efficiently. The surest way to poverty reduction in most rural societies is reformation the property system. Though there are other roads to government to alleviate poverty, all are subject to distortions induced by inequality, a major component of which is skewed distribution of property. Asset redistribution also enables social democracy, and even populist distributive programs work better with social democracy that without. Social democracy is, however, not a direct policy choice; there is historical contingency at work. A conundrum of land reform policy generally is that it is a statist project –as all policy is- and as such has often-increased state power and patronage in ways that are inconsistent with reform objectives. Without reform of the state, its alleged beneficiaries are seldom the driving force and may become its victims. Yet it is agrarian reform, particularly in its expanded conceptualization, which enables more broadly based rural power vis-a-vis the state by changing the incentive structure of state operatives through altering the rural distribution of power. Thus, a policy agenda for pro-poor reform must retain elements of the venerable core of the agrarian project and yet recognize the potential of larger coalitions for the poor. These elements include environmental integrity and regeneration, women’s rights, human rights, cultural survival and democratization. This analysis is not meant to replace class with postmodernist identify politics, but rather to emphasize the reality of new coalitional possibilities.
Oncogenomics/Proteomics of Head and Neck Cancers

Head and neck cancer treatment has experienced great advances in surgical techniques, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and molecular targeted strategies through the years. In addition, there has been explosive growth in our understanding of tumor biology through research focusing on individual genes and their gene products. However, poor overall survival persists despite this progress, in large part because treatment decisions continue to be based on traditional parameters, such as tumor size, tumor site, and presence of regional or distant metastases. Head and neck cancer represents an extremely heterogeneous disease with dysregulation of multiple interrelated cellular pathways, including differentiation, apoptosis, angiogenesis, and metastasis. The complexity of interactions between genes and proteins and the environment and the difficulty of finding the right combinations of targets to study pose fundamental problems with successful identification of therapeutic targets and predictive elements. Oncogenomic and proteomic analyses offer the opportunity to accelerate the pace of discovery for clinically relevant targets. A variety of high-throughput technologies including expression profiling and mass spectrometry technologies are being used to analyze cancer genomes and proteomes with the ultimate goal of identifying new cancer genes and therapeutic targets. Potentially, the identification of disease-associated proteins and protein signatures could be used as tumor markers for early detection, response to therapy, or relapse. A greater understanding of the molecular events underpinning clinical outcomes will provide useful tools in the identification of new targets for future therapy. These advances have already begun to manifest in several key areas of treatment including early detection of cancer, evaluation of surgical margins, determination of necessary extent of surgery, and predictions of outcome and recurrence. In this chapter we review key technological advances leading to these recent changes as well as many of the studies helping to implement these technologies and apply them to patients with head and neck cancer.
Abstract WMP101: Stroke Performance Measures are Improved at Hospitals Certified as Primary Stroke Centers Compared to Other Accredited Hospitals

Background: Primary Stroke Centers (PSCs) certified by The Joint Commission (TJC) have been recognized since 2003, yet doubt still exists regarding the extent they improve patient care compared to ...
International Strategy and Institutional Environments

Country institutions have become of heightened importance for firms’ international strategies in recent years. Herein, I review the reasons for the growing importance of institutional environments and examine how they influence the international strategies of multinational enterprises (MNEs). There have been significant changes in the global, economic and competitive landscapes in recent years. These changes are examined.,Three critical and interrelated changes in the global competitive landscape are identified. They include (1) more interconnected (interdependent) national economies, (2) a significantly larger number of multinational firms and (3) growing importance of emerging economies (and their MNEs). These changes have increased the importance of countries institutional environments. Country institutions, both formal institutions (codified and explicit rules and standards that shape behavior) and informal institutions (Shared norms that guide cohesive behaviors) are examined. I explain the influences of institutional complexity, institutional distance and geographic regions on firms’ international strategies.,Research has shown that both culture (informal institution) and formal institutions are interrelated and affect firms’ strategies. And, while specific institutions such as intellectual property protection (law and enforcement) are important, the collective influence of institutions has a critical influence on firms’ international strategies. And, institutions are multilevel (national, regional and local-municipal). The institutional complexity (combined effects of multiple institutions and their diversity) is carefully considered in executives’ strategic decisions. When firms consider entering a new foreign market, they also consider the institutional distance between the home and host countries. The differences in culture and in formal institutions compose the institutional distance and affect whether and how firms enter these markets. Greater institutional distance contributes to the liabilities of foreignness the challenges of which must be managed effectively to succeed in the new market. And the effects of institutional distance are asymmetric depending on whether the firm’s home country institutions are stronger/more developed or weaker/less developed than the host country institutions. Finally, many firms follow regional international strategies in which they invest in selected regions of the world. Recent research suggests firms enter regions that have attractive institutional profiles and engage in institutional arbitrage across the countries in those regions.,This essay provides the base for additional research by identifying a number of important research questions on institutions and international strategy.,This essay highlights the importance of institutions for firms’ strategies. Understanding institutions and their influence contributes to more effective executives’ strategic decisions and more effective national and international policies.
Photographs and Descriptions of Cup-Fungi—IX: North American Species of Discina

The genus Discina was established by Fries in I849 as a monotypic genus, having been segregated from the old genus Pcziza and based on Peziza perlata of Fries which, so far as we can see, is identical with Peziza ancilis of Persoon. The species is characterized by the thick waxy consistency and the expanded form of the apothecia. The spores of the species also furnish important diagnostic characters, although these were not mentioned by Fries when the genus was proposed. The spores are unusually large, strongly roughened at maturity, and provided with an apiculate appendage at either end. Although the genus originally contained a single species, it has been gradually enlarged until at present it contains a score or more of species. In fact, almost every species which shows a tendency to become repand or flattened has finally come to be placed in the genus Discina. After an extended study the writer, while recognizing the genus, is inclined to use it in a more restricted sense to include those large forms of cup-fungi which have appendiculate spores since the spore characters are more fixed and reliable than the mere form of the apothecia which is so susceptible to change. The genus would then include comparatively few but well marked species.
Dispersion of the nonlinear second-order optical susceptibility of organic systems

Dispersion experiments of the second-order nonlinear optical susceptibility are reported for two fundamentally important organic systems $p$-nitroaniline and 2-methyl-4-nitroaniline for which detailed quantum-mechanical calculations have been completed. The frequency-dependent measurements were performed by dc-induced second-harmonic generation in liquid solutions with the use of a tunable (0.2-2 \ensuremath{\mu}m) laser source by stimulated Raman scattering from hydrogen gas. Accounting for dipole-mediated interactions between the molecular sites and the surrounding solvent medium provides quite satisfactory agreement between the experimental and theoretical results, demonstrating that the origin of exceptional nonlinear optical responses of organic systems resides in special highly charge-correlated electron states.
Narrow Resonances in CdSSe Doped Glasses: An Application of Frequency Domain 4-Wave Mixing

Nonlinear laser spectroscopy enables the measurement of various relaxation rates in materials associated with states and superposition states and is based on the study of the temporal and spectral properties of the third order nonlinear optical susceptibility. The method enables the measurement of relaxation rates which cannot necessarily be measured by linear optical spectroscopy. In this work, we use cw frequency domain backward nearly degenerate 4-wave mixing (NDFWM) [1] to study relaxation in glasses doped with microcrystallites of CdSSe.
Classes of Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior in 5th Grade Children.

Objectives We identified classes of physical activity (PA) and sedentary behaviors (SB) in 5th grade children, associated factors, and trajectories of change into 7th grade. Methods This study included N = 495 children (221 boys, 274 girls) who participated in the Transitions and Activity Changes in Kids (TRACK) Study. PA was assessed objectively as well as by self-report. Children, parents, and school administrators completed surveys to assess related factors. Latent class analysis, growth modeling, and adjusted multinomial logistic regression procedures were used to classify children based on self-reported PA and SB and examine associated factors. Results Three classes of behavior were identified: Class 1: Low PA/Low SB; Class 2: Moderate PA/ High SB; and Class 3: High PA/High SB (boys) or Class 3: High PA (girls). Class 3 children had higher levels of self-efficacy (boys), and enjoyment, parental support, and physical activity equipment at home (girls). Class 2 boys and Class 3 girls did not experience decline in PA (accelerometer) over time. Conclusions Self-efficacy (boys) and home environment (girls) may play a role in shaping patterns of PA in children. Findings may help to inform future interventions to encourage children to meet national PA guidelines.
Bulk manufacture of complex geometry millirod implants and their degradation and drug delivery characteristics

This study evaluated the impact of manufacturing process modifications aimed at the bulk manufacture of curcumin implants for diabetic neuropathy pain relief. Poly (caprolactone) (PCL) and curcumin were blended using cryomilling as an alternative to the solvent mixing method which has higher manufacturing and time delay costs. X-ray diffraction (XRD) was used to characterize the resulting mixture to determine the efficacy of cryomilling as an option for blending curcumin and PCL powders. By adopting compression molding as a manufacturing method we were able to create implant molds featuring threaded geometry on the millirod surface. Implants were subsequently evaluated in vitro for 30 days. Curcumin loaded millirod implants with a complex threaded surface geometry were found to have a higher, but not significant, percent mass loss after degradation and average daily curcumin release than the cylindrical implants. It can be concluded that the utilization of cryomilling for the creation of curcumin loaded implants in bulk is an easier to manipulate and more cost effective method of combining PCL and curcumin without sacrificing implant effectiveness.
Determination of volumetric changes at an underground stone mine: a photogrammetry case study

Abstract Photogrammetry, as a tool for monitoring underground mine deformation, is an alternative to traditional point measurement devices, and may be capable of accurate measurements in situations where technologies such as laser scanning are unsuited, undesired, or cost-prohibitive. An underground limestone mine in Ohio is used as a test case for monitoring of structurally unstable pillars. Seven pillars were photographed over in a 63 day period, punctuated by four visits. Using photogrammetry, point clouds of the mine geometry were obtained and triangulation surfaces were generated to determine volumes of change over time. Pillar spalling in the range of 0.29–4.03 m 3 of rock on individual rib faces was detected. Isolated incidents of rock expansion prior to failure, and the isolated failure of a weak shale band were also observed. Much of the pillars remained unchanged during the monitoring period, which is indicative of proper alignment in the triangulated surfaces. The photographs of some ribs were of either too poor quality or had insufficient overlap, and were not included. However, photogrammetry was successfully applied to multiple ribs in quantifying the pillar geometry change over time.
Freud's "narcissism of minor differences": a review and reassessment

Freud coined the name and briefly described the narcissism of minor differences. Although he initially regarded it as a form of individual behavior, he later came to see its implications for groups. This paper explores the manifestations of the narcissism of minor differences in psychoanalytic organizations and treatment. In contrast to Freud's observation that the narcissism of minor differences is relatively harmless, I suggest that in the social sphere it harbors the potential for a pernicious escalation into hostile and destructive actions on a widespread scale.
Association Between Early Life Growth and Blood Pressure Trajectories in Black South African Children

Early growth is associated with blood pressure measured on one occasion, but whether early life growth patterns are associated with longitudinal blood pressure trajectories is under-researched. Therefore, we sought to examine the association between early growth and blood pressure trajectories from childhood to adulthood. Blood pressure was measured on 7 occasions between ages 5 and 18 years in the Birth to Twenty cohort study, and conditional variables for growth in infancy and mid-childhood were computed from anthropometric measures (n=1937, 52% girls). We used a group-based trajectory modeling approach to identify distinct height-adjusted blood pressure trajectories and then tested their association with growth between birth and mid-childhood adjusting for several covariates. Three trajectory groups were identified for systolic and diastolic blood pressure: lower, middle, and upper in boys and girls, separately. In boys, predictors of the middle or upper systolic blood pressure trajectories versus the lower trajectory were in birth weight (odds ratio 0.75 [95% confidence interval 0.58–0.96] per SD) and relative weight gain in infancy (4.11 [1.25–13.51] per SD). In girls, greater relative weight gain and linear growth in both infancy and mid-childhood were consistently associated with an almost 2-fold higher likelihood of being in the upper versus lower systolic blood pressure trajectory. The associations for the diastolic blood pressure trajectories were inconsistent. These findings emphasize the importance of identifying children at risk of progression to high blood pressure. Accelerated growth in infancy and mid-childhood may be a key target for early life intervention in prevention of elevated blood pressure progression.