cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Age-Related Macular Degeneration and Mortality in the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS): The Effect of Sex and Time.

Purpose Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) shares similar risk factors and pathogeneses with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs). Epidemiologic studies over the past 2 decades analyzing the association between AMD and all-cause and CVD-specific mortality have failed to yield conclusive results. The purpose of this analysis is to investigate the sex-specific association between AMD and all-cause and CVD-specific mortality, and to assess whether duration of follow-up alters the strength of association. Design The database of Genotypes and Phenotypes (dbGaP) data set for the Age-Related Eye Disease Study, a randomized clinical trial of high-dose antioxidants in AMD prevention, with participants enrolled from 1992 to 1998 and followed through 2005, was used in the analysis. Participants There were 4757 Age-Related Eye Disease Study participants aged 55 through 80 years (mean, 69.4 years; 44.1% male) recruited from 11 retinal specialty clinics. Participants had standard Age-Related Eye Disease Study AMD categories (category 1, n = 1117; category 2, n = 1062; category 3, n = 1621; category 4, n = 957). Methods The sex-specific adjusted hazard ratio (HR adj ) between baseline AMD and all-cause and CVD-specific mortality was determined at multiple time points (e.g., 5, 7, 10, and all years), adjusting for age, race, diabetes, hypertension, angina, cancer, smoking, obesity, clinical trial antioxidant treatment category, and education. Main Outcome Measures Sex-specific all-cause and CVD-specific mortality. Results Mean follow-up was 9.6 years (range, 0.5–12.5 years), with 1087 deaths (category 1, n = 197 [17.6%]; category 2, n = 200 [18.8%]; category 3, n = 356 [22.0%]; category 4, n = 326 [34.1%]). Sex-stratified models demonstrated sex differences; in women, a significant association between AMD category 4 and all-cause mortality existed compared with category 1 at each period (HR adj , 1.5-2.3; all P ≤ 0.005); similar category 4 findings were present with CVD-specific mortality, strengthening with shorter periods (HR adj , 1.9-4.6; all P ≤ 0.01). Among men, a significant association between all AMD stages and all-cause (HR adj , 1.5-2.3; all P ≤ 0.05) and CVD-specific mortality (HR adj , 1.6-4.0; all P ≤ 0.05) existed for nearly all periods. Conclusions Substantial late AMD cases and deaths exceed those in previous population-based studies to better test mortality-related hypotheses. Age-related macular degeneration was significantly associated with all-cause and CVD-specific mortality. Relationships weakened over a longer duration of follow-up, and sex seems to modify the association. Future analyses are warranted to interrogate the possible clinical usefulness of these relationships.
Earthquake Visualization Using Large-scale Ground Motion and Structural Response Simulations

Earthquakes are not predictable with current technology. However, it is possible to simulate different scenarios by making certain assumptions, such as the location of the epicenter, the type and magnitude of the eruption, and the location of a fault line with respect to buildings of a particular type. The effects of various earthquakes can be studied, and the aftermath of the simulation can be used by first responders and emergency management agencies to better prepare and plan for future disasters.
The Post-endodontic Adhesive Interface: Theoretical Perspectives and Potential Flaws.

Abstract Introduction The aim of this review was to analyze the potential of successful bonds of endodontic posts to radicular dentin as well as the limitations of the post–endodontic adhesive interface. Methods The MEDLINE/PubMed and Web of Science electronic databases were searched. The search was augmented by a manual search of the pertinent bibliographies. Results The post–endodontic adhesive interface finds application in the endodontic cohesive units. Many techniques and materials exist to improve the bond between endodontic posts and resin-based materials as well as between resin-based materials and radicular dentin. Different techniques used for the adhesion of metallic and fiber-reinforced posts are discussed and critically analyzed. Conclusions Although adhesive cementation of endodontic posts is popular, a long-term predictable bond may be compromised because of procedures related to the endodontic treatment and/or the adhesive cementation procedures. Microleakage and degradation phenomena may further jeopardize the post–endodontic adhesive interface.
Estimates of prevalence, demographic characteristics and social factors among people with disabilities in the USA: a cross-survey comparison.

Objective A national priority for disability research in the USA is the standardised identification of people with disabilities in surveillance efforts. Mandated by federal statute, six dichotomous difficulty-focused questions were implemented in national surveys to identify people with disabilities. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence, demographic characteristics and social factors among people with disabilities based on these six questions using multiple national surveys in the USA. Setting American Community Survey (ACS), Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS-ASEC), National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Participants Civilian, non-institutionalised US residents aged 18 and over from the 2009 to 2014 ACS, 2009 to 2014 CPS-ASEC, 2009 to 2014 NHIS and 2008 SIPP waves 3, 7 and 10. Primary and secondary outcome measures Disability was assessed using six standardised questions asking people about hearing, vision, cognition, ambulatory, self-care and independent living disabilities. Social factors were assessed with questions asking people to report their education, employment status, family size, health and marital status, health insurance and income. Results Risk ratios and demographic distributions for people with disabilities were consistent across survey. People with disabilities were at decreased risk of having college education, employment, families with three or more people, excellent or very good self-reported health and a spouse. People with disabilities were also consistently at greater risk of having health insurance and living below the poverty line. Estimates of disability prevalence varied between surveys from 2009 to 2014 (range 11.76%–17.08%). Conclusion Replicating the existing literature, we found the estimation of disparities and inequity people with disabilities experience to be consistent across survey. Although there was a range of prevalence estimates, demographic factors for people with disabilities were consistent across surveys. Variations in prevalence estimates can be explained by survey context effects.
Chemical looping at the nanoscale — challenges and opportunities

The activity and long-term performance of oxygen carrier particles, which undergo cyclic reduction–oxidation (redox) reactions at elevated temperatures, are of critical importance to chemical looping processes. Although the significant thermal and redox stresses in chemical looping reaction make it challenging to stabilize metal oxide based oxygen carriers at the nanoscale, a number of promising approaches have been proposed and investigated over the past decade. This article summarizes recent advances in nanoscale oxygen carrier development. Mechanistic insights in the redox reactions of the oxygen carriers and their implications for the design and optimization of oxygen carriers for chemical looping combustion and partial oxidation reactions are also discussed.
Isolation of Insect Genes Coding for Voltage-Sensitive Sodium Channels and Ligand-Gated Chloride Channels by PCR-Based Homology Probing

Two important insecticide target sites in the insect nervous system are the voltage-sensitive sodium channel and the GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid) receptor/chloride ionophore complex.1 The former molecule is a critical component of nerve excitation, mediating the transient inward flux of sodium ions during the nerve action potential. The latter mediates synaptic inhibition in response to GABA, the major inhibitory neurotransmitter of vertebrate and invertebrate nervous systems. Target site insensitivity to insecticidal compounds acting at these sites has been described and genetically isolated in a number of insect species.2 The isolation and characterization of the genes encoding these nerve membrane macromolecules in insects is, therefore, of critical importance for understanding the molecular basis of target site resistance mechanisms as well as the modes of action of insecticides in susceptible insects.
New Leadership Skills for Success in a Global Business Environment: Lessons from Executive Coaching

To be effective, leaders over the next decade will need to develop new skills to address the increase in business volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity that they confront. Executive coaching has a distinct role to play in developing these skills and abilities as it extends to multiple life domains and has the potential to affect leader performance. By reflecting on that which is hidden or taken for granted, leaders become more aware of they see situations, deal with paradoxes and dilemmas and so on. A recent research project on the development of executive coaches sheds light on the events that lead to productive change and suggests that coach development has implications for the ways in which we develop leaders.
Risks perceived by husbands and wives in giving clothing gifts within the family

81 Giving Gifts of Clothing: Risk Perception of Husbands and Wives 82 Objectives 86 Procedure 86 Data Analysis 88 The Sample 89 Findings and Discussion 89 Main Effects 90 Couple 90 Spouse 90 Recipient 91 Garment 92 Interactions 93 Spouse by Recipient 93 Spouse by Garment 94 Recipient by Garment 94 Spouse by Recipient by Garment 96 Conclusion and Implications 97 References 101
The sigma virus infection of Drosophila melanogaster.

The sigma virus infection of Drosophila melanogaster has been the most extensively studied virus infection of multicellular animals from the point of view of genetics. The work has been possible largely because the Drosophila host is particularly suitable for laboratory studies, and a great deal of information has been gathered concerning virus transmission patterns and interactions between virus and host genomes. Our present understanding of the infection reveals it to be a hereditary infection, unique in being transmitted by both the egg and sperm of the fly, sometimes in a latent form, sometimes in a virulent form.
Flare: optimizing apache spark with native compilation for scale-up architectures and medium-size data

In recent years, Apache Spark has become the de facto standard for big data processing. Spark has enabled a wide audience of users to process petabyte-scale workloads due to its flexibility and ease of use: users are able to mix SQL-style relational queries with Scala or Python code, and have the resultant programs distributed across an entire cluster, all without having to work with low-level parallelization or network primitives.However, many workloads of practical importance are not large enough to justify distributed, scale-out execution, as the data may reside entirely in main memory of a single powerful server. Still, users want to use Spark for its familiar interface and tooling. In such scale-up scenarios, Spark's performance is suboptimal, as Spark prioritizes handling data size over optimizing the computations on that data. For such medium-size workloads, performance may still be of critical importance if jobs are computationally heavy, need to be run frequently on changing data, or interface with external libraries and systems (e.g., TensorFlow for machine learning).We present Flare, an accelerator module for Spark that delivers order of magnitude speedups on scale-up architectures for a large class of applications. Inspired by query compilation techniques from main-memory database systems, Flare incorporates a code generation strategy designed to match the unique aspects of Spark and the characteristics of scale-up architectures, in particular processing data directly from optimized file formats and combining SQL-style relational processing with external frameworks such as TensorFlow.
Should donors who have used marijuana be considered candidates for living kidney donation

Background The use of marijuana in the USA has been steadily increasing over the last 10 years. This study is the first to investigate the effect of marijuana use by live kidney donors upon outcomes in both donors and recipients. Methods Living kidney donor transplants performed between January 2000 and May 2016 in a single academic institution were retrospectively reviewed. Donor and recipient groups were each divided into two groups by donor marijuana usage. Outcomes in donor and recipient groups were compared using t-test, Chi-square and mixed linear analysis (P Results This was 294 living renal donor medical records were reviewed including 31 marijuana-using donors (MUD) and 263 non-MUDs (NMUD). It was 230 living kidney recipient records were reviewed including 27 marijuana kidney recipients (MKRs) and 203 non-MKRs (NMKR). There was no difference in donor or recipient perioperative characteristics or postoperative outcomes based upon donor marijuana use (P > 0.05 for all comparisons). There was no difference in renal function between NMUD and MUD groups and no long-term difference in kidney allograft function between NMKR and MKR groups. Conclusions Considering individuals with a history of marijuana use for living kidney donation could increase the donor pool and yield acceptable outcomes.
Épigénétique et dégénérescence maculaire liée à l’âge (DMLA)

Resume La DMLA est une pathologie multifactorielle complexe comportant des facteurs genetiques multiples, environnementaux et constitutionnels. L’inflammation, le stress oxydatif et le metabolisme des lipides semblent des elements preponderants dans la pathogenie de la maladie. L’importance des facteurs genetiques a surtout ete revelee avec l’influence des variations du facteur H d’histocompatibilite (CFH) et celle du gene de susceptibilite ARSM. Une autre composante, l’epigenetique, pourrait permettre d’expliquer certaines des relations entre les facteurs environnementaux et les facteurs genetiques. L’epigenetique est definie comme l’etude des modulations de l’activite des genes qui peuvent etre transmises au fil de divisions cellulaires sans impliquer de mutation de la sequence de l’ADN. Les molecules qui sont impliquees dans ces mecanismes sont designees par le terme epigenome. Les mecanismes font intervenir la methylation de l’ADN, une modification des histones, un remodelage de la chromatine, une inhibition des genes par de l’ARN non codant. L’epigenetique pourrait expliquer comment l’environnement peut induire des changements relativement stables de caracteres, voire des maladies, eventuellement heritables sur plusieurs generations. Des traits epigenetiques etablis pendant le developpement, et/ou acquis sous l’influence de facteurs nutritionnels ou d’autres facteurs environnementaux influenceraient les interactions entre les genes et l’environnement. Plusieurs auteurs ont recemment montre l’influence de facteurs epigenetiques dans la pathogenie de maladies oculaires telles que la cataracte, l’œil sec, le glaucome, la retinopathie diabetique et plus recemment la DMLA. Une meilleure comprehension de l’implication des variants genetiques a risque, de leur relation avec l’epigenetique et les facteurs environnementaux permettrait certainement de mieux quantifier le risque de developper une DMLA ou de mieux comprendre les variations recentes de l’incidence de la maladie.
110th Anniversary: Fabrication of Inverted Pd@TiO2 Nanostructures for Selective Catalysis

Inverted catalytic systems, in which metal oxide films are deposited on top of metallic substrates, present significant potential for catalysis, because of the ability to enhance the metal/metal oxide interface. Most of the reported methods for synthesizing these structures involve thermal treatment of the oxide film, which presents a significant challenge for reducible metal oxides, because of strong metal-oxide interactions, often leading to blocking of metal active sites. Herein, a solution-phase method is developed to synthesize Pd@TiO2 inverted catalytic structures where encapsulation is conducted at room temperature using a sol–gel reaction of Ti alkoxide precursors to circumvent thermal treatment. We show that key synthesis parameters can be used to control the desired physical properties of the inorganic encapsulating film to achieve enhanced catalytic performance. Significant effects on catalytic performance toward a probe reaction, hydroisomerization of 1-hexene, are reported as a function of th...
Right-wing populisms north and south: Varieties and gender dynamics

Abstract Populist and nationalist movements have long histories and ideologically may appear as left-wing or right-wing. Feminist scholars have explored the gender dynamics of conservative nationalist movements or national-identity projects, revealing the social-reproductive burdens placed on women as well as the reasons why such movements resonate with some women, but gendered populism remains largely unexplored outside Europe. Through feminist and world-systems lenses, we put the spotlight on the contemporary wave of right-wing populist-nationalist movements, including Islamist movements, providing country vignettes and a closer look at Turkey to identify links to economic and cultural aspects of neoliberal capitalist globalization and to explore varieties and gender dynamics. Prospects for renewed progressive mobilizations against the wave of right-wing movements are also considered.
Shouldn’t Leisure Scholars Know Better? How the Work/Leisure Dichotomy Affects Policy and Culture for Academic Mothers

AbstractThis study was designed to understand the impact of university policy and departmental culture on academic mothers’ employment, family, and leisure experiences. Telephone interviews were co...
Shark Fin Regulations in the United States: Animal Welfare, Cultural, and Policy Considerations

Sharks play critical roles in the marine ecosystem, and they face serious threats due to overfishing. Conservation efforts have focused on the consumption of shark fins, especially the “finning” practice that removes the fins of a shark and discards the carcass at sea. This article reviews the shark fin legislation in the United States, including the “finning ban” which outlaws finning practices and the “fin ban” that prohibits the use of shark fins entirely. Our case study specifically focuses on the animal welfare, cultural, and policy debates surrounding these bans. We discuss how and why shark finning is regarded as a cruel practice and whether shark fin bans discriminate against Chinese Americans. At the policy level, there is an ongoing policy debate whether a ban on shark fins in the United States would lead to increased protection of sharks or it would have little effect on the global trade. Due to the lack of detailed information on shark fisheries, the policy discussion is likely to persist. Although this case study focuses only on regulations on shark fins, we would like to emphasize that shark fin industry is not the only threat to sharks. Conservationists also need to consider other issues such as bycatch, habitat destruction, and a wider array of policy tools to protect sharks.
Buckshot for Brains: Cultivating the American Indian Mind

The human skull became a symbol of character in the 1800s when scientists and practitioners of phrenology linked the brain to race. Social discourse at the time cultivated the Caucasian mind as sophisticated and clever, and the Indian mind as savage and stubborn, paving the way for social policies that would treat Native peoples as subhuman and setting the stage for environmental conflicts between Indians and settlers.
Academic language: is this really (functionally) necessary?

In this article we critically evaluate the case made by proponents of academic language (AL) that AL is functionally necessary for schooling due to specific functional advantages of AL. We consider...
Glutamine restores mitochondrial respiration in bleomycin-injured epithelial cells.

Abstract Whether from known or unknown causes, loss of epithelial repair plays a central role in the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis. Recently, diminished mitochondrial function has been implicated as a factor contributing to the loss of epithelial repair but the mechanisms mediating these changes have not been defined. Here, we investigated the factors contributing to mitochondrial respiratory dysfunction after bleomycin, a widely accepted agent for modeling pulmonary fibrosis in mice and in vitro systems. In agreement with previous reports, we found that mitochondrial respiration was decreased in lung epithelial cells exposed to bleomycin, but we also observed that responses differed depending on the type of metabolic fuel available to cells. For example, we found that mitochondrial respiration was dramatically reduced when glucose served as the primary fuel. Moreover, this associated with a marked decrease in glucose uptake, expression of glucose uptake transport 1 and capacity to augment glycolysis to either glucose or oligomycin. Conversely, mitochondrial respiration was largely preserved if glutamine was present in culture medium. The addition of glutamine also lead to increased intracellular metabolite levels, including multiple TCA cycle intermediates and the glycolytic intermediate lactate, and was associated with reduced DNA damage and cell death to bleomycin. In summary, our findings indicate that glutamine, rather than glucose, supports mitochondrial respiration and metabolite production in injured lung epithelium, and suggest that this shift away from glucose utilization serves to protect the lung epithelium from bleomycin injury.
Design Research on Learning and Thinking in Educational Settings : Enhancing Intellectual Growth and Functioning

Dedication Preface 1. From Smart Person to Smart Design: Cultivating Intellectual Potential and Promoting Intellectual Growth through Design Research, David Yun Dai 2. Intelligent Action as a Shared Accomplishment, Melissa Gresalfi, Sasha Barab, and Amanda Sommerfeld 3. The Interplay of Creative and Critical Thinking in Instruction, Judith A. Langer 4. Developing Validity and Reliability Criteria for Assessments in Innovation and Design Research Studies, Anthony E. Kelly 5. Design Research and Twice Exceptional Children: Toward an Integration of Motivation, Emotion and Cognition Factors for a Technology-based Intervention, Brenda Bannan 6. Designing a Learning Ecology to Support the Development of Rational Number: Blending Motion and Unit Partitioning of Length Measures, Richard Lehrer and Erin Pfaff 7. The Productive Disciplinary Engagement Framework: Origins, Key Concepts, and Developments, Randi A. Engle 8. Designing Adaptive Collaboration Structures for Advancing the Community's Knowledge, Jianwei Zhang 9. Trajectories of Participation and Identification in Learning Communities Involving Disciplinary Practices, Joseph L. Polman 10. Does Playing the World of Goo Facilitate Learning? Valerie J. Shute, and Yoon Jeon Kim Epilogue: Where Are We, and Where Are We Going?, David Yun Dai, Jianwei Zhang, and Zheng Yan About the Editor and Authors
Reactive Scattering: Recent Advances in Theory and Experiment

Publisher Summary This chapter reports some of the significant recent advances, both theoretical and experimental, in the field of reactive molecular scattering made during the 1970s. Most of the attention is devoted to systems of atoms and small molecules. The chapter offers a glimpse of these developments, thus serving as a 1979 footnote (or postscript) to Sir Harrie Massey's great treatise on slow collisions of heavy particles. Several recent reviews deal quite extensively with various aspects of the reactive scattering of neutral particles. The chapter discusses classical trajectory methods and results and focuses on potential-energy surfaces, collisional ionization, and new developments in the transition-state theory. The information-theoretic (IT) approach to molecular reaction dynamics that was introduced 1972 and applied to the codification, compaction, and correlation of a considerable body of experimental (and computer-generated) reactive-scattering data is discussed in the chapter. The chapter describes molecular-beam chemistry, crossed-beam chemiluminescence, and state-to-state chemistry and concludes with a discussion on the influence of different forms of energy upon reactivity and translational thresholds.
Adherence to medication for attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: does time frame matter?

Objectives Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medication users frequently take ‘drug holidays’ during the summer months. The study objective was to compare ADHD medication adherence for the school year (SY, 270 days) and for the entire year (EY, 365 days) by medication type, medication class and duration of action. Methods Continuously enrolled Texas Medicaid children (≤18 years) who had two or more prescription claims for an ADHD medication served as the study population. SY (1 September–31 May) and EY (1 January–31 December) prescription claims were extracted from July 2002 to December 2008. Key findings Overall mean (±SD) adherence for SY (n = 50 842) and EY (n = 62 789) time frames was 62.2% (±26.2%) and 49.8% (±30.3%), respectively. The overall frequency of patients who were adherent (medication possession ratio, ≥80%) was higher during SY (28.3%) than during EY (22.1%). Regarding medication type, mean adherence for immediate-release stimulants (52.8 versus 37.2%), extended-release stimulants (63.7 versus 52.1%), pro-drug stimulants (63.5 versus 47.6%) and non-stimulants (62.9 versus 52.5%) was higher during SY than EY, respectively. Regarding medication class, mean adherence for stimulants (62.1 versus 49.4%) and non-stimulants (62.9 versus 52.5%) was higher during SY than EY. Similarly, regarding duration of action, mean adherence for short-acting agents (52.2 versus 37.2%) and long-acting agents (63.4 versus 52.2%) was higher during SY than EY, respectively. Conclusions Patients were more adherent during the SY compared to the EY. Due to unique patient medication-taking behaviors, ADHD medication adherence differs depending on the time frame used.
Imprecise Exceptions in Distributed Parallel Components

Modern microprocessors have sacrificed the exactness of exceptions for improved performance long ago. This is a side effect of reordering instructions so that the microprocessor can execute instructions which were not to be executed due to an exception. By throwing more circuits at the problem, microprocessors are designed so that they are able to roll back to the instruction causing the exception. However, some microprocessors, like the HP Alpha, do not roll back and impose a paradigm of inaccurate exceptions. This decision can reduce circuit complexity and increase speed. We propose a similar method of handling exceptions in a component environment that achieves high performance by sacrificing exception accuracy when dealing with parallel Single Program Multiple Data (SPMD) components. The particular domain this design is intended for is high performance computing, which requires maximum resource use and efficiency. A performance-centric way to handle exceptions is explained as well as additional methodology to enforce exception strictness if required.
Chapter 24 Achromatopsia and chromatic blindsight

Publisher Summary Disorders of color vision can occur from retinal and cortical disorders. The most frequent abnormality in color perception (dyschromatopsia) is seen in color blindness because of photoreceptor genetic disorders. This chapter discusses the abnormalities in color perception because of the central nervous system lesions (acquired central achromatopsia or dyschromatopsia). Acquired central dyschromatopsia has been reported in disorders of the optic nerve and chiasma or in cerebral lesions (acquired cerebral achromatopsia). Cerebral achromatopsia has been reported limited to one hemifield (hemiachromatopsia) or involving all spared visual fields. The most frequent acquired central dyschromatopsia (ACD) is because of the optic neuritis, with desaturation in color appearance, abnormalities in the Ishihara plate test and other discrimination tests. In a prospective study on optic neuritis, Celesia et al. found that during the acute phase of the disease, all patients had abnormalities on color vision as tested with L’Anthony new color test. Recovery of vision varied for different visual functions. This differential recovery may reflect the patchy recovery of the optic nerve fibers and the persistence of isolated nerve fiber pathology, and is consistent with the concept of independent channels within the visual pathways. Other pathology affecting the optic nerve or the chiasma may produce ACD..
Continuous Time Group Discovery in Dynamic Graphs

With the rise in availability and importance of graphs and networks, it has become increasingly important to have good models to describe their behavior. While much work has focused on modeling static graphs, we focus on group discovery in dynamic graphs. We adapt a dynamic extension of Latent Dirichlet Allocation to this task and demonstrate good performance on two datasets. Modeling relational data has become increasingly important in recent years. Much work has focused on static graphs - that is fixed graphs at a single point in time. Here we focus on the problem of modeling dynamic (i.e. time-evolving) graphs. We propose a scalable Bayesian approach for community discovery in dynamic graphs. Our approach is based on extensions of Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA). LDA is a latent variable model for topic modeling in text corpora. It was extended to deal with topic changes in discrete time and later in continuous time. These models were referred to as the discrete Dynamic Topic Model (dDTM) and the continuous Dynamic Topic Model (cDTM), respectively. When adapting these models to graphs, we take our inspiration from LDA-G and SSN-LDA, applications of LDA to static graphs that have been shown to effectively factor out communitymore » structure to explain link patterns in graphs. In this paper, we demonstrate how to adapt and apply the cDTM to the task of finding communities in dynamic networks. We use link prediction to measure the quality of the discovered community structure and apply it to two different relational datasets - DBLP author-keyword and CAIDA autonomous systems relationships. We also discuss a parallel implementation of this approach using Hadoop. In Section 2, we review LDA and LDA-G. In Section 3, we review the cDTM and introduce cDTMG, its adaptation to modeling dynamic graphs. We discuss inference for the cDTM-G and details of our parallel implementation in Section 4 and present its performance on two datasets in Section 5 before concluding in Section 6.« less
Life-cycle energy savings potential from aluminum-intensive vehicles

The life-cycle energy and fuel-use impacts of US-produced aluminum-intensive passenger cars and passenger trucks are assessed. The energy analysis includes vehicle fuel consumption, material production energy, and recycling energy. A model that stimulates market dynamics was used to project aluminum-intensive vehicle market shares and national energy savings potential for the period between 2005 and 2030. We conclude that there is a net energy savings with the use of aluminum-intensive vehicles. Manufacturing costs must be reduced to achieve significant market penetration of aluminum-intensive vehicles. The petroleum energy saved from improved fuel efficiency offsets the additional energy needed to manufacture aluminum compared to steel. The energy needed to make aluminum can be reduced further if wrought aluminum is recycled back to wrought aluminum. We find that oil use is displaced by additional use of natural gas and nonfossil energy, but use of coal is lower. Many of the results are not necessarily applicable to vehicles built outside of the United States, but others could be used with caution.
Motor Proficiency of Learning Disabled and Nondisabled Students

The motor proficiency of 55 learning disabled and 55 nondisabled students was compared on a comprehensive battery of motor-skills tests. Learning disabled students performed significantly lower than nondisabled students on measures of fine motor skills and on measures of gross motor skills. Their greatest deficiencies were on tasks requiring body equilibrium, controlled fine visual-motor movements, and bilateral coordination of movements involving different parts of the body. All of these areas include complex motor patterns that require the integration of visual and kinesthetic senses with motor responses. Implications of these findings for the development of motor training programs and for future research are discussed.
Impact of a full-time preceptor on the institutional outcome of laparoscopic colectomy.

Background Laparoscopic assisted colectomy (LAC) is a difficult operation with long learning curves and conversion rates inversely proportional to the surgeon’s experience. Methods to help train surgeons outside of residency or fellowship programs have been poorly analyzed. This study was undertaken to assess the impact of an experienced laparoscopic surgeon preceptor on the outcome of LAC in a single institution
Were the Wars of Religion about Religion

William Cavanaugh's The Myth of Religious Violence raises important questions about the role of religion in society. It challenges all-too-common misunderstandings about the relationship between religion and politics and, most valuably, warns against any assumption that religion is peculiarly prone to violence. This essay nevertheless takes issue with his attempt to disprove what he calls “the myth of religious violence” with evidence from the Wars of Religion in sixteenth-and seventeenth-century Europe and his claim that “the story of these wars serves as a kind of creation myth for the modern state” (10). The essay emphasizes the importance of understanding the religious dimensions of early modern Europe's wars but also of recognizing that, in both historical and contemporary situations, religious motivations are best understood not as independent variables but rather as catalysts that could exacerbate-or relieve-tensions rooted in other sorts of divisions or quarrels.
The mechanism of cis-trans isomerization of prolyl peptides by cyclophilin.

The mechanism of cis-trans isomerization of prolyl peptides catalyzed by cyclophilin (CyP) was studied computationally via molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of the transition state (TS) and the cis and trans forms of the ground state (GS), when bound to CyP and when free in aqueous solution. The MD simulations include four enzyme-bound species of tetrapeptide (Suc-Ala-XC([double bond]O)-NPro-Phe-pNA; X = Gly, Trp, Ala, and Leu). In water, the prolyl amide bond is favorably planar with the presence of conformers exhibiting +/-20 degrees twist of the C-N dihedral. In the active site a hydrogen bond between the cis-prolyl amide carbonyl O and the backbone amide N-H of Asn102 retains the 20 degrees twist of the C-N dihedral. The TS structure is characterized by a 90 degrees twist of the amide C-N bond and a more favorable interaction with Asn102 due to the shorter distance between Asn102(HN) and the amide carbonyl O. The conformational change of cis --> TS also involves pyramidalization of the amide N, which results in the formation of a hydrogen bond between the amide N and the guanidino group of Arg55. Both Asn102 and Arg55 are held in the same position in CyP.cis-isomer as in CyP.TS. In the ligand-free CyP the Arg55 guanidino group is highly disorganized and Asn102 is displaced 1 A from the position in the ligand-bound CyP. Thus, the organization of Arg55 and Asn102 occurs upon substrate binding. The geometrical complimentarity of the organized enzyme structure to the TS structure is a result of preferential binding of the proline N and the amide carbonyl of the TS compared to that of GS. However, the N-terminal part (Suc-Ala) becomes repositioned in the TS such that two hydrogen bonds disappear, one hydrogen bond appears and two other hydrogen bonds becomes weaker on the conversion of CyP.cis to CyP.TS. During this conversion, total hydrophobic contact between enzyme and the peptide is preserved. Thus, the interaction energies of GS and TS with enzyme are, as a whole, much alike. This does not support the contention that TS is bound more tightly than GS by K(m)/K(TS) = 10(6) in the cis --> trans reaction. Repositioning of the N-terminal part of the peptide on CyP.TS formation becomes more pronounced when the substrate X residue is changed from Gly trans and trans --> cis reaction in CyP. These NACs, found in CyP.cis and CyP.trans, resemble only one of the four possible TS configurations in the water reaction. The identity of this TS structure (syn/exo) is in accord with experimentally determined KIE values in the enzymatic reaction. However, the geometry of the active site was also complementary to another TS structure (anti/exo) that was not detected in the active site by the same KIE measurements, implying that the geometrical fitness of the TS cannot be a single determining factor for enzymatic reactions.
Infiltration flux distributions in unsaturated rock deposits and their potential implications for fractured rock formations

[1] Although water infiltration through unconsolidated rocks and fractured rock formations control flow and transport to groundwater, spatial distributions of flow paths are poorly understood. Infiltration experiments conducted on packs of rocks showed that a well-constrained distribution of fluxes develops despite differences in rock type (angular diabase and sandstone, and subangular serpentinite), rock size (30 to 200 mm), and packing (up to 42 rock layers). Fluxes stabilize into a geometric (exponential) distribution that keeps about half of the system depleted of flow, retains a small fraction of high flow regions, and has a characteristic scale determined by the rock size. Modification of a statistical mechanical model shows that gravity-directed, random flow paths evolve to the observed flux distribution, and that it represents the most probable distribution. Key similarities between infiltration in rock deposits and fractured rock formations indicate that the geometric flow distribution may also apply in the latter systems.
The development and application of an input-outcome moderator test on the perception and reduction of inequity

Addressing a lack of individual differences parameters in equity theory as presented by J. S. Adams, this thesis states that different individuals perceive the same ambiguous job elements differently (as inputs or outcomes); this, in turn, either facilitates or attenuates the predicted main effects of under- and over-reward in terms of job performance and attitudes. A 120-item moderator was empirically developed to test the thesis. It served to subgroup 91 male college students who had previously participated in a 7-day equity study. Their data were reanalyzed, separately. The results generally supported the thesis and its differential predictions. The differential results, using subgrouping, were discussed and related to earlier main effect results, using the total undifferentiated group.
On the optimal operation of groundwater basins: A calculus of variations approach

Abstract An ordinary differential equation for the groundwater allocation problem is derived by variational techniques and solved by specifying either the length of a mining period, or the total volume to be mined. Specifying either of these uniquely determines the other in terms of the economic parameters entering through the benefit function. An infinite mining period sets an upper limit to the total volume to be optimally extracted, and provides for the greatest economic benefit. As the mining period is shortened, the one-time exploitable volume is reduced. Although most of the calculations have been carried out for a quadratic benefit function, the detected competition between marginal productivity and the rate of interest insofar as they influence the optimal storage volume and its allocation through use rates appears to be valid in general.
Fishing in the Nuclear Pore

Cellular materials pass into and out of the nucleus of a eukaryotic cell through pores in the nuclear membrane. Each nuclear pore is a complex of ∼400 modular polypeptide chains [nucleoporins (Nups)] that form a cylindrical structure ( 1 ). The pore functions as a semipermeable filter that allows free diffusion of ions, small molecules, and macromolecules <40 kD in mass. Larger, soluble macromolecules that bear a nuclear localization signal (NLS) are ushered through by transport factors ( 2 ), but the molecular details of the mechanism remain mysterious. Even more perplexing is how membrane proteins transit from the outer to the inner nuclear membrane. Early models proposed either free diffusion and nuclear retention ( 3 ) or energy-dependent transport ( 4 ), whereas later results unexpectedly showed that the NLS-dependent transport mechanism for soluble proteins played a role ( 5 ). On page 90 of this issue, Meinema et al. ( 6 ) demonstrate an unprecedented mechanism for the latter model, showing that passage through the pore relies on the energetically unhindered, dynamic features of an intrinsically disordered (ID) domain in the membrane protein and the structural modularity and plasticity of the nuclear pore complex (NPC).
Brucella suis urease encoded by ure1 but not ure2 is necessary for intestinal infection of BALB/c mice

In prokaryotes, the ureases are multi-subunit, nickel-containing enzymes that catalyze the hydrolysis of urea to carbon dioxide and ammonia. The Brucella genomes contain two urease operons designated as ure 1 and ure 2. We investigated the role of the two Brucella suis urease operons on the infection, intracellular persistence, growth, and resistance to low-pH killing. The deduced amino acid sequence of urease-α subunits of operons-1 and -2 exhibited substantial identity with the structural ureases of alpha- and beta-proteobacteria, Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, fungi, and higher plants. Four ure deficient strains were generated by deleting one or more of the genes encoding urease subunits of B. suis strain 1330 by allelic exchange: strain 1330Δure 1K (generated by deleting ureD and ureA in ure 1 operon), strain 1330Δure 2K (ureB and ureC in ure 2 operon), strain 1330Δure 2C (ureA, ureB, and ureC in ure 2 operon), and strain 1330Δure 1KΔure 2C (ureD and ureA in ure 1 operon and ureA, ureB, and ureC in ure 2 operon). When grown in urease test broth, strains 1330, 1330Δure 2K and 1330Δure 2C displayed maximal urease enzyme activity within 24 hours, whereas, strains 1330Δure 1K and 1330Δure 1KΔure 2C exhibited zero urease activity even 96 h after inoculation. Strains 1330Δure 1K and 1330Δure 1KΔure 2C exhibited slower growth rates in tryptic soy broth relative to the wild type strain 1330. When the BALB/c mice were infected intraperitoneally with the strains, six weeks after inoculation, the splenic recovery of the ure deficient strains did not differ from the wild type. In contrast, when the mice were inoculated by gavage, one week after inoculation, strain 1330Δure 1KΔure 2C was cleared from livers and spleens while the wild type strain 1330 was still present. All B. suis strains were killed when they were incubated in-vitro at pH 2.0. When the strains were incubated at pH 2.0 supplemented with 10 mM urea, strain 1330Δure 1K was completely killed, strain 1330Δure 2C was partially killed, but strains 1330 and 1330Δure 2K were not killed. These findings suggest that the ure 1 operon is necessary for optimal growth in culture, urease activity, resistance against low-pH killing, and in vivo persistence of B. suis when inoculated by gavage. The ure 2 operon apparently enhances the resistance to low-pH killing in-vitro.
Associations between fish assemblages and environmental factors in nearshore habitats of a subtropical estuary

Salinity and inlet distance were the most consistent indicators of species groupings among the 40 most abundant fish species in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), Florida. In contrast to findings of other studies conducted on small juveniles and forage fishes in the IRL, this study suggested that distributions of the more mobile organisms are influenced more by physical conditions than by biological interactions. Consequently, environmentally-corrected single-species models will be more effective in assessing changes in stock abundance and habitat preferences of mobile species in the IRL. Because of the fluctuations in physical conditions in the IRL and other estuaries, it may be inappropriate to use biologically based methods that rely solely on species interactions to assess fish stocks in those systems.
Targeted Protein Engineering Provides Insights into Binding Mechanism and Affinities of Bacterial Collagen Adhesins

The collagen-binding bacterial proteins, Ace and Cna, are well characterized on the biochemical and structural level. Despite overall structural similarity, recombinant forms of the Ace and Cna ligand-binding domains exhibit significantly different affinities and binding kinetics for collagen type I (CI) in vitro. In this study, we sought to understand, in submolecular detail, the bases for these differences. Using a structure-based approach, we engineered Cna and Ace variants by altering specific structural elements within the ligand-binding domains. Surface plasmon resonance-based binding analysis demonstrated that mutations that are predicted to alter the orientation of the Ace and Cna N1 and N2 subdomains significantly affect the interaction between the MSCRAMM (microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecule) and CI in vitro, including affinity, association/dissociation rates and binding ratio. Moreover, we utilized this information to engineer an Ace variant with an 11,000-fold higher CI affinity than the parent protein. Finally, we noted that several engineered proteins that exhibited a weak interaction with CI recognized more sites on CI, suggesting an inverse correlation between affinity and specificity.
The culture of caregiving and aggression in psychiatric settings

Organizational culture was used as a general framework for a causal modeling study examining the relationships of work environment with staff beliefs about caregiving and aggression. Specifically, staff who perceived the organization as emphasizing control at the expense of growth and relationship issues would be more controlling in their approach to patients and perceive more aggression. A sample of 162 nursing staff participated from three hospitals. The results indicated that 10% of Aggression was predicted by two model variables indicating control. During exploratory model testing however, age, sex, socioeconomic status and satisfaction with the hospital were all predictive of a controlling belief about caretaking or aggression.
Short-term scheduling of thermal-electric generators using Lagrangian relaxation

This paper presents an expanded formulation of the unit commitment problem in which hundreds of thermal-electric generators must be scheduled on an hourly basis, for up to 7 days at a time. The underlying model incorporates the full set of costs and constraints including setup, production, ramping, and operational status, and takes the form of a mixed integer nonlinear control problem. Lagrangian relaxation is used to disaggregate the model by generator into separate subproblems which are then solved with a nested dynamic program. The strength of the methodology lies partially in its ability to construct good feasible solutions from information provided by the dual. Thus, the need for branch-and-bound is eliminated. In addition, the inclusion of the ramping constraint provides new insight into the limitations of current techniques. Computational experience with the proposed algorithm indicates that problems containing up to 100 units and 48 time periods can be readily solved in reasonable times. Duality gaps of less than 1% were achieved in all cases.