cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Dynamics of stigma for alcohol and mental health treatment among army soldiers

Stigma associated with substance abuse is less understood than stigma of mental health. Moreover, neither issue has been studied in depth within the military. We conducted focus groups with soldier...
Derivation and validation of a clinical prediction score for isolation of inpatients with suspected pulmonary tuberculosis.

Background The use of a clinical prediction score to improve the practice of instituting airborne-transmission precautions in patients with suspected tuberculosis holds promise for increasing appropriate isolation and decreasing unnecessary isolation. The objective of this study was to derive and validate a clinical prediction score for patients with suspected tuberculosis. Methods We used a case-control study design to evaluate differences between patients with a diagnosis of tuberculosis and those placed under airborne precautions who had negative culture results. We developed risk scores based on a multivariable analysis of independently significant factors associated with tuberculosis. Subsequently, we evaluated the sensitivity and specificity of the score in a separate (validation) cohort of patients. Results Within our population, we found 4 clinical factors associated with tuberculosis: chronic symptoms (odds ratio [OR], 10.2 [95% confidence interval {CI}, 2.95-35.4]), upper lobe disease on chest radiograph (OR, 5.27 [95% CI, 1.6-17.23]), foreign-born status (OR, 7.01 [95% CI, 2.1-23.8]), and immunocompromised state other than human immunodeficiency virus infection (OR, 8.14 [95% CI, 2.08-31.8]). Shortness of breath (OR, 0.13 [95% CI, 0.04-0.45]) was found to be associated with non-tuberculosis diagnoses and considered a negative predictor in the model. Using a cut-off point to maximize sensitivity, we applied the prediction rule to the validation cohort, resulting in a sensitivity of 97% and a specificity of 42%. Conclusion The tuberculosis prediction rule derived from our patient population could improve utilization of airborne precautions. Clinical prediction rules continue to show their utility for improvement in isolation practices in different demographic areas.
Give ’Em What They Want: A One-Year Study of Unmediated Patron-Driven Acquisition of e-Books

In September 2009, the University of Iowa Libraries embarked on an experiment with patron-driven acquisition (PDA) of e-books with ebrary and YBP. An e-book–only PDA plan was initiated, entirely unmediated and with instantaneous access to the content. MARC records were loaded for each title, determined by our YBP approval profile and other limitations, for a total of 12,000 PDA records. Usage, cost, subject, and publisher data were analyzed for 850 purchased PDA e-books and thousands of other ebrary subscription titles. Results indicate that PDA can be a useful and effective tool for meeting user needs and building the local collection, but the role of PDA in the library’s collection management program presents challenges as well as opportunities.
Anomalous Fermi-liquid phase in metallic skyrmion crystals

In noncentrosymmetric crystals such as MnSi, magnetic order can take the form of a skyrmion crystal (SkX). In this phase, conduction electrons coupled to the local magnetic moments acquire a Berry phase, leading to an emergent electromagnetism. Motivated by experimental reports of a non-Fermi-liquid phase in MnSi, in which resistivity is observed to scale as $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\rho}\ensuremath{\sim}{T}^{3/2}$, here we examine the effect of coupling phonons of an incommensurate SkX to electrons. Despite the formal similarity to a system consisting of a Fermi surface coupled to an electromagnetic field, the Berry phase fluctuations do not lead to non-Fermi-liquid behavior. Instead, we propose a different mechanism in which electrons scatter off columnar fluctuation in a three-dimensional SkX. When the effects of lattice-induced anisotropy are neglected, these fluctuations are ultrasoft and induce an ``anomalous Fermi liquid'' in which Landau quasiparticles survive but with an anomalous $\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\rho}(T)\ensuremath{\sim}{T}^{7/4}$ resistivity perpendicular to the columns, and a Fermi-liquid resistivity along them.
Breast cancer screening of underserved women in the USA: results from the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program, 1998–2012

Objective To describe the number and proportion of eligible women receiving mammograms funded by the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP).
Convolutional networks and applications in vision

Intelligent tasks, such as visual perception, auditory perception, and language understanding require the construction of good internal representations of the world (or "features")? which must be invariant to irrelevant variations of the input while, preserving relevant information. A major question for Machine Learning is how to learn such good features automatically. Convolutional Networks (ConvNets) are a biologically-inspired trainable architecture that can learn invariant features. Each stage in a ConvNets is composed of a filter bank, some nonlinearities, and feature pooling layers. With multiple stages, a ConvNet can learn multi-level hierarchies of features. While ConvNets have been successfully deployed in many commercial applications from OCR to video surveillance, they require large amounts of labeled training samples. We describe new unsupervised learning algorithms, and new non-linear stages that allow ConvNets to be trained with very few labeled samples. Applications to visual object recognition and vision navigation for off-road mobile robots are described.
Frequency response and bandwidth of a spherical random array

Exact results for the expected frequency response of a spherical, sparse random array are determined, when focused at any point, including points within the sphere. Related bandwidth results are given.
Con: All elective coronary artery bypass grafting patients are not American Society of anesthesiologists' physical status IV

T HE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS (ASA) developed the ASA Physical Status Classification in the early 1960s (Table 1). ~ The purpose of the physical status classification was to standardize the extent of disease in patients presenting for surgery and to promote a common language among different institutions for subsequent examination of anesthetic morbidity and mortality. 2 The intent was that the physical status classification should be independent of the proposed surgery. Thus, a patient with end-organ manifestations of diabetes mellitus may be an ASA Physical Status III regardless of whether the proposed surgery is a hernia repair or a femoral-popliteal bypass. Predictably, anesthetic morbidity and mortality in large groups of patients with a variety of comorbid diseases have consistently correlated well with perioperative morbidity and mortality. However, factors other than the physical status have been used to define risk of surgery with improved positive predictive value. Some are algorithms or point-scoring systems that try to identify perioperative cardiac risk for such adverse outcomes as myocardial infarction (MI), congestive heart failure, or death. 3-5 Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common cause of death in the United States. 6 It is prevalent in large numbers of patients, and its prevalence will only increase as the proportion of elderly patients in the population continues to grow. The prevalence of CAD in the population is challenged only by that of hypertension. Unfortunately, hypertension often is more silent than CAD, and as many as 50% of the millions of patients with hypertension in the United States remain untreated. 7 The mortality from acute MI, however, has seen a dramatic decline in the past decade, a decrease of approximately 3% per year. 8 The leading reasons for this decrease include control of hypercholesterolemia, aggressive medical treatment of CAD, intensive care of the patient with an acute MI, and modest changes in the pattern of cigarette abuse. Thus, although MI is still the leading cause of sudden death in the United States, the feeling of gloom and doom surrounding this event is slowly being replaced by a sense of optimism, especially if the patient with acute myocardial ischemia has early access to hospital care. The optimistic outlook for the patient with MI has prompted the rethinking of the risk of elective surgery after MI. The data reported by Tarhan et al9 in 1972 and by Rao et al 1° in 1983 were the basis for recommendations to delay elective surgery for several months after acute MI. The current recommendation of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) is to assess the functional status of patients as early as 4 weeks after MI and to proceed with
Physiognomic Perception and Flexibility of Concept Formation

40 junior high school boys were rated as high or low physiognomic and administered a flexibility of concept-formation task. Results supported the hypothesis that those individuals who demonstrated higher physiognomic perception would show greater flexibility in concept formation. The demonstrated relationship is evidence for the role of physiognomic perception as a cognitive control principle.
Sensitivity of operating conditions and material properties for thermoforming process

Abstract The thermoforming process involves three stages: sheet reheat; forming; and solidification. A polymeric sheet is heated in an oven to the desired forming temperature distribution. The sheet is then deformed to take the shape of the mould cavity and subsequently solidified. The deformation of the sheet is assisted by the application of a pressure differential and/or the use of a moving plug.
Small business disaster recovery: a research framework

Exogenous, non-normative shocks to small businesses such as natural disasters have been understudied. Moreover, most disaster research on small businesses has focused on business recovery as a dichotomy at one point in time. However, disaster recovery for small businesses is an iterative process set in the context of individual, family/household, and community recovery over time. A new dynamic research framework for small business recovery is proposed which allows for a shared framework and vocabulary.
Investigating the role of student motivation in computer science education through one-on-one tutoring

The majority of computer science education research to date has focused on purely cognitive student outcomes. Understanding the motivational states experienced by students may enhance our understanding of the computer science learning process, and may reveal important instructional interventions that could benefit student engagement and retention. This article investigates issues of student motivation as they arise during one-on-one human tutoring in introductory computer science. The findings suggest that the choices made during instructional discourse are associated with cognitive and motivational outcomes, and that particular strategies can be leveraged based on an understanding of the student motivational state.
Lipid metabolism related gene-expression profiling in liver, skeletal muscle and adipose tissue in crossbred Duroc and Pietrain Pigs.

Abstract Body-weight differences in animals may be ascribed to genetic and environmental factors. Here we utilized two divergent porcine genotypes, the highly muscled, leaner Pietrian × Yorkshire pigs and less muscled, fatter Duroc × Yorkshire growing pigs (75–110 kg), to examine the role of genetic background on expression of genes associated with anabolic (Fatty acid synthase, FAS; glucose transporter 4, GLUT-4; stearoyl CoA desaturase, SCD; Sterol regulatory binding protein-1, SREBP-1; leptin) and catabolic lipid metabolism (Carnitine palmitoyltransferase-1B, CPT-1B; acyl-CoA dehydrogenase, ACDH) in adipose tissue (AT), liver (L) and skeletal muscle (SKM). Pietrain pigs had lower mRNA abundance for FAS, SREBP-1, SCD and leptin in AT and L, but higher mRNA abundance for L ACDH and SKM ACDH and CPT-1B than Durocs. Duroc pigs exhibited higher expression of FAS, SREBP-1, SCD, leptin in AT and FAS in L and lower expression of ACDH and CPT-1B in L SKM. GLUT-4 expression did not differ in SKM between the two genotypes. Feeding of a beta adrenergic agonist (Paylean) for 52 days lowered expression of lipid anabolic and enhanced lipid catabolic genes expressions similarly in both genotypes. Overall, the lipid metabolism genes differential expression patterns documented here showed that in Pietrain pigs mRNA abundances of synthesis genes were lower and of catabolic genes were higher than in Duroc pigs.
Lidar observations of a breaking mountain wave associated with extreme turbulence

Observations from a Doppler lidar, which are enhanced by stratospheric aerosols from Mount Pinatubo's eruption, provide unique measurements of mountain waves over the Rocky Mountains, including nearly instantaneous observations of wave breaking in the lower stratosphere. The wave breaking is revealed by a flow-reversal aloft that marks a localized critical layer created when the wave amplitude was great enough to cause overturning. The altitude, spatial scale, and duration of this wave-induced critical layer are documented. The mountain waves led to turbulence affecting commercial aircraft, including one accident in which a cargo jet lost an engine and part of a wing in extreme turbulence at the same time the lidar was making observations nearby. Although earlier observations of mountain-wave drag assumed wave stationarity over 3–5 h, significant changes over less than 2 h are documented here. Such nonstationarity could contribute to discrepancies remaining between observations and simulations of mountain-wave drag.
A Probabilistic Approach to Photovoltaic Generator Performance Prediction

This paper describes a methodology to predict the performance of photovoltic (PV) generator based on long term climatological data and expected cell performance. The methodology uses long term historical data on insolation to calculate the probability distribution function parameters for each hour of a typical day of any season, week or day. Once the probability distribution function parameters are calculated, they are used to evaluate the predicted hourly, daily, weekly and seasonal capacity factors of a particular design of a PV panel/array at a particular site. Long term insolation data from Sterling, Virginia have been utilized with Solarex SX-110 panel designs to predict PV array performance.
Synthesis, spectroscopic characterization, and observation of massive metal-insulator transitions in nanowires of a nonstoichiometric vanadium oxide bronze.

Metal—insulator transitions in strongly correlated materials, induced by varying either temperature or dopant concentration, remain a topic of enduring interest in solid-state chemistry and physics owing to their fundamental importance in answering longstanding questions regarding correlation effects. We note here the unprecedented observation of a four-orders-of-magnitude metal—insulator transition in single nanowires of δ-KxV2O5, when temperature is varied, which thus represents a rare new addition to the pantheon of materials exhibiting pronounced metal—insulator transitions in proximity to room temperature.
Movements: Confrontation as rhetorical form

The author of this essay argues the thesis that the true movement is a kind of “agonistic ritual” whose most distinguishing form is confrontation.
Insulin downregulates the steady-state level of its receptor's messenger ribonucleic acid

The effects of insulin on the steady-state level of human insulin receptor (hIR) mRNA were examined in the HepG2 human liver cell line using Northern blot analysis of either total cellular or poly(A)+ RNA. In control cells, up to six (4.5, 5.2, 7.4, 8.5, 9.4 and 10.8 kb) hybridizable species of hIR mRNA were identified, with the 8.5 and 10.8 kb species being most prominent. Incubation for 18 hrs with 1 microM insulin resulted in a similar decrease (to approximately 35% of control) of all the hIR mRNA species. The insulin effect was dose-dependent and was half-maximal by 2-3 hrs and maximal by 4-6 hrs of incubation at 37 degrees C. The hIR mRNA levels remained maximally insulin suppressed for up to 18 hrs but thereafter the effect became attenuated. These results indicate that insulin downregulates the level of hIR mRNA with a biphasic time-course and that this process is most likely part of the general mechanism by which insulin maintains the homeostatic control of its cellular receptor levels.
Isotopic fractionation: A kinetic model for crystals growing from magmatic melts

Abstract Recent experiments in the fields of crystal growth, crystal-melt element partitioning, and diffusion in magmatic melts make it possible to estimate disequilibrium partitioning for many species between liquid and crystals and to compute quantitative models which take into account partition coefficients, diffusivities and rates of crystal growth. A slight difference in the diffusivities of two isotopes should lead to selective depletion (or enrichment) in the crystals as they grow, resulting in varying isotopic ratios as crystallization proceeds. Reasonable hypotheses permit under general kinetic conditions an estimation of magnitude of possible effects. The resulting isotopic fractionation for major elements (like oxygen) may exceed the per ml level; for trace elements the effects may be more significant (5–10 per ml), especially in the case of low partition coefficients, but analytical difficulties are formidable at present.
Research overview for doctoral colloquium

I provide a brief research statement describing the broad goals of my work, and discuss results from a few recent empirical studies into the economic impact of information and communications technologies in developing regions.
How managerial wealth affects the tender offer process

Abstract We present empirical evidence on the relation between changes in managerial wealth and tender offer characteristics. Changes in managerial wealth resulting from a tender offer are negatively related to the likelihood of managerial resistance to a tender offer and positively related to the likelihood of tender offer success. We also document that the abnormal returns to tender offers are lower for hostile than for friendly offers if we control for the tender offer premium. Finally, we find that the top executive gains, whereas outside shareholders do not gain, from management's decision to resist the tender offer.
The enduring importance of national identity in cooperative European Union Borderlands: Polish university students' perceptions on cross-border cooperation in the Pomerania euro-region

European integration, through euro-regions, voluntary zones of cooperation across national borders, and the eastward expansion of the Schengen Zone have transformed Europe borderlands into sites of bi-national collaboration. This study evaluates how a group of Polish university students living in the Pomerania euro-region view the new ease of cross-border mobility and the types of cross-border activities they engage in. If the experience of students in the border city of Szczecin is reflective of other European borderlands, than cross-border cooperation has not diminished the importance of the border as a mental marker of nation-state boundaries or the importance of national identity.
Childhood malnutrition and the intestinal microbiome

Malnutrition contributes to almost half of all deaths in children under the age of 5 y, particularly those who live in resource-constrained areas. Those who survive frequently suffer from long-term sequelae including growth failure and neurodevelopmental impairment. Malnutrition is part of a vicious cycle of impaired immunity, recurrent infections, and worsening malnutrition. Recently, alterations in the gut microbiome have also been strongly implicated in childhood malnutrition. It has been suggested that malnutrition may delay the normal development of the gut microbiota in early childhood or force it toward an altered composition that lacks the required functions for healthy growth and/or increases the risk for intestinal inflammation. This review addresses our current understanding of the beneficial contributions of gut microbiota to human nutrition (and conversely the potential role of changes in that community to malnutrition), the process of acquiring an intestinal microbiome, potential influences of malnutrition on the developing microbiota, and the evidence directly linking alterations in the intestinal microbiome to childhood malnutrition. We review recent studies on the association between alterations in the intestinal microbiome and early childhood malnutrition and discuss them in the context of implications for intervention or prevention of the devastation caused by malnutrition.
A Bi-Phase MEMS Resonator Modulator

The high-electric field piezoelectric properties of a PZT-transduced, two-port, acoustic resonator are utilized to create a binary phase shift modulator. The modulator operates at frequencies below 100 MHz in a length extensional mode. Typical peak modulation voltage levels are 7 V. The design is configured as a subsystem with separate RF and data ports for use in low data rate, battery-powered networks.
The complement component C3 plays a critical role in both Th1 and Th2 responses to antigen.

Background Complement component C3 is synthesized by keratinocytes and is activated after skin injury. C3 is also synthesized by peritoneal macrophages, which are activated by the adjuvant alum. Objective We sought to investigate the role of C3 in inciting allergic skin Inflammation and systemic immune responses after epicutaneous sensitization or intraperitoneal sensitization with antigen. Methods C3-deficient (C3 −/− ) mice and wild-type (WT) control animals were subjected to epicutaneous sensitization with the antigen ovalbumin (OVA) on shaved and tape-stripped skin or intraperitoneal immunization with OVA in alum. Results Skin Infiltration by eosinophils and expression of mRNA encoding the T H 2 cytokines IL-4 and IL-5 in OVA-sensitized skin sites was impaired in C3 −/− mice. Splenocytes from epicutaneously sensitized C3 −/− mice secreted less IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, and IFN-γ in response to OVA stimulation than splenocytes from WT control animals. The defect in cytokine secretion by splenocytes was also observed after intraperitoneal immunization of C3 −/− mice. C3 −/− mice had impaired IgG1, IgG2a, and IgE antibody responses after both epicutaneous and intraperitoneal immunization. The defect in cytokine secretion of C3 −/− mice was not due to defective proliferation to antigen, was not observed after anti-CD3 stimulation, and was corrected by the addition of purified C3 protein. Conclusion These results suggest that C3 plays an important role in both the T H 1 and T H 2 response to antigen in vivo . Clinical implications The complement pathway might be a potential target in the therapy of allergic diseases.
Calcium phosphate-coated porous titanium implants for enhanced skeletal fixation.

Porous titanium fiber implants for cementless skeletal fixation by bone ingrowth were treated with a calcium phosphate coating applied by a plasma flame-spray technique. In a paired experiment, treated and control implants were inserted in the humeri and olecranons of 36 adult dogs for periods of 1, 2, 4, and 6 weeks. After the animals were sacrificed, a biomechanical evaluation of the strength of skeletal fixation of the implants and a histologic evaluation of bone ingrowth was done. The mean shear strength of skeletal fixation at four weeks for the calcium phosphate-coated implants was 24% greater (P less than .01) than for paired controls. No difference in strength of fixation between treated and control implants was present at other time periods. The osteoconductive properties of the ceramic coating were demonstrated by bone forming in direct contact with the calcium phosphate coating on the metal fibers of the treated implants. No significant increase for the volume of bone ingrowth was established for treated implants compared to paired controls at any time period.
The effect of postnatal age on the adherence of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli to rabbit intestinal cells.

ABSTRACT: Enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) are associated with hemorrhagic colitis and hemolytic uremic syndrome. These illnesses are typically seen in young children, but are rare before 6 mo of age. The cause of this age restriction is unclear. Because bacterial adherence to intestinal mucosa is considered a critical initial event in pathogenesis, we studied the ontogeny of the adherence of EHEC (0157:H7 and other serotypes) isolated from children with diarrhea, hemorrhagic colitis, or hemolytic uremic syndrome. Adherence was quantitatively determined by incubating radiolabeled bacteria with viable rabbit intestinal cells, which were prepared by treating loops of distal ileom and proximal colon with EOTA, DTT, and citrate. Cells obtained from animals of different ages were studied simultaneously. The adherence of the various EHEC strains varied significantly. A non-0157:H7 E. coli strain 43–12 bound best (35 and 32 bacteria/cell to ileal and colonic cells, respectively) with 48–60% inhibition by D-mannose and α-methyl mannoside (p < 0.01) and 20–28% inhibition by L-fucose (p < 0.05), but no significant inhibition by other carbohydrates. Analysis of variance and polynomial regression showed that postnatal age significantly affected the adherence to ileal and colonic cells. Adherence during the 1st wk of life was 13–19% of that in the adult animal; it increased gradually, reaching the adult level at about 4 wk of age. Our study shows that postnatal age affects the adherence of EHEC to intestinal cells. These findings are compatible with postnatal development of gut receptors and may be relevant to the age-related risk of EHEC disease in children.
Analysis of singular cylindrical shells by p-version of FEM

Abstract A new hierarchic p-version cylindrical shell element based on exact mapping is presented. Its rigid-body modes, round-off error, and convergence characteristics are investigated. Its performance in the presence of singularities is demonstrated with the help of three test problems, namely pinched cylinder problem, Lockheed test problem 2, and cracked cylinder problem.
Parallelized benchmark-driven performance evaluation of SMPs and tiled multi-core architectures for embedded systems

With Moore's law supplying billions of transistors on-chip, embedded systems are undergoing a transition from single-core to multi-core to exploit this high transistor density for high performance. However, there exists a plethora of multi-core architectures and the suitability of these multi-core architectures for different embedded domains (e.g., distributed, real-time, reliability-constrained) requires investigation. Despite the diversity of embedded domains, one of the critical applications in many embedded domains (especially distributed embedded domains) is information fusion. Furthermore, many other applications consist of various kernels, such as Gaussian elimination (used in network coding), that dominate the execution time. In this paper, we evaluate two embedded systems multi-core architectural paradigms: symmetric multiprocessors (SMPs) and tiled multi-core architectures (TMAs). We base our evaluation on a parallelized information fusion application and benchmarks that are used as building blocks in applications for SMPs and TMAs. We compare and analyze the performance of an Intel-based SMP and Tilera's TILEPro64 TMA based on our parallelized benchmarks for the following performance metrics: runtime, speedup, efficiency, cost, scalability, and performance per watt. Results reveal that TMAs are more suitable for applications requiring integer manipulation of data with little communication between the parallelized tasks (e.g., information fusion) whereas SMPs are more suitable for applications with floating point computations and a large amount of communication between processor cores.
Sequence analysis of a DNA fragment from Buchnera aphidicola (Aphid Endosymbiont) containing the genes dapD-htrA-ilvI-ilvH-ftsL-ftsI-murE

Buchnera aphidicola is a prokaryotic endosymbiont of the aphid Schizaphis graminum. One of the endosymbiont's functions is the synthesis of branched-chain amino acids. A 9.7-kilobase B. aphidicola chromosomal DNA fragment was cloned and sequenced and found to contain genes encoding acetohydroxy acid synthase (ilvIH), the first enzyme of the parallel pathway of isoleucine and valine biosynthesis. Previously we have detected ilvC and ilvD, encoding the two other enzymes of this pathway. In addition the DNA fragment contained genes for cell division (ftsL, ftsI), murein biosynthesis (murE), lysine biosynthesis (dapD) and a periplasmic protease (htrA). In these properties B. aphidicola resembles free-living bacteria.
Inner ear pathology associated with Reye's syndrome

Severe pathological changes were observed in the inner ear tissues of a 2-month-old patient who died of Reye's syndrome after 5 days of hospitalization. In the organ of Corti, the inner hair cells appeared to be more severely damaged than the outer hair cells. Various degrees of degeneration were observed in all non-sensory epithelial cells lining the cochlear duct. In most turns of the cochlear duct, Reissner's membrane was ruptured and/or collapsed onto the organ of Corti. Likewise, both sensory and non-sensory cells of the vestibular end organs were markedly degenerated. These observations suggest that the inner ear tissues are acutely affected in patients with Reye's syndrome, and that the changes may cause impairment of hearing and/or equilibrium in patients who recover.
Using the extreme groups strategy when measures are not normally distributed

The extreme groups research strategy is a two- stage measurement procedure that may be employed when it is relatively simple and inexpen sive to obtain data on a psychological variable (X) in the first stage of investigation, but it is quite complex and expensive to measure subsequently a second variable (Y). This strategy is related to the selection of upper and lower groups for item dis crimination analysis (Kelley, 1939) and to the treatments x blocks design in which participants are first "blocked" on the X variable and then only the extreme (highest and lowest means) blocks are compared on the Y variable, usually by a t test or an analysis of variance. Feldt (1961) showed analytically that if the population correlation coefficient between X and Y is p = .10, the power of the t test is maximized if each extreme group consists of 27% of the population tested on the X variable. However, Feldt's derivation assumes that the X and Y variables are normally distributed. The present study employed a monte car...
Ropivacaine for peripheral nerve blocks: Are there advantages?

Abstract Many peripheral nerve block techniques require relatively large doses and volumes of a local anesthetic for their success. The traditional amide-type, long-acting local anesthetics have been associated with a risk of serious or lethal cardiotoxicity. A more recently introduced long-acting local anesthetic, ropivacaine, has a significantly greater safety margin over bupivacaine. The neuronal blocking characteristics of ropivacaine, when used in peripheral nerve blockade, seem to be equal or superior to bupivacaine. This report summarizes recently published data on the use of ropivacaine in peripheral nerve blockade. Copyright © 2001 by W.B. Saunders Company
X-ray diffraction of scrapie prion rods and PrP peptides.

Abstract Certain neurodegenerative diseases in humans and animals are caused by small proteinaceous infectious particles called prions. Limited proteolysis and detergent extraction of the prions containing PrPScgenerate prion rods that are composed of a polypeptide having an apparent molecular mass of 27 to 30 kDa. This polypeptide, termed prion protein PrP 27–30, has a ragged N terminus that begins at about residue 90, but retains scrapie infectivity. Moreover, the findings in a patient having an inherited prion disease of a truncated PrP with its C terminus at residue 145 suggest that the residues 90 to 145 may be of particular importance in the pathogenesis of prion diseases. To determine the three-dimensional organization of prion rods and to identify the core region involved in amyloid formation, we recorded X-ray diffraction patterns from rods purified from scrapie-infected Syrian hamster (SHa) brains which contain PrP 27–30, and from synthetic SHaPrP peptides. Three peptides were studied corresponding to residues 113 to 120 (peptide A8A, an octamer composed of glycines and alanines), 109 to 122 (H1, the first predicted α-helical region of PrPC), and 90 to 145 (a 56 residue peptide containing both H1 and the second predicted α-helical region of PrPC, H2). Electron microscopy, carried out in parallel with the X-ray measurements, revealed that all the samples formed linear polymers which were ∼60 to ∼200 A wide, with fibrillar or ribbon-like morphology. Gels and dried preparations of prion rods gave X-ray patterns that indicated a β-sheet conformation, in which the hydrogen bond distance was 4.72 A and the intersheet distance was 8.82 A. For the three PrP peptides, the intersheet spacings varied widely, owing to the side-chains of the residues involved in the formation of the β-sheet interactions, i.e., 5.13 A for A8A, 5.91 A for lyophilized H1, 7.99 A from solubilized and dried H1 and 9.15 A for the peptide SHa 90–145. The intersheet distance of PrP 27–30 was thus within the observed range for the peptides, and suggests that the amyloidogenic core of PrP is closely modeled by the peptide SHa 90–145.
On the editorial transition

For more than two decades, Constitutional Political Economy has occupied an important space in academia at the edges of economics, political science, law, and political philosophy. As new editors of the journal, we will do our best to assure that Constitutional Political Economy continues to play that role in the years to come. The field of Constitutional Political Economy is arguably one of the most important fields in the social sciences. The speed at which it has developed in particular in the past two decades is breathtaking. When the journal was founded, scholars in the field were primarily interested in normative and methodological issues. Positive empirical work on the cross-country, state, and communal effects of constitutions emerged in the decades after its founding. Recent work notes that constitutions are adopted at some point and revised. The new work explores the factors that make different societies choose very different—or very similar—constitutional rules. As editors, we look forward to receiving submissions from all areas and approaches in the field. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Alan Hamlin, Dennis Mueller, and Peter Ordeshook for all their work to establish Constitutional Political Economy as the premiere journal in this field. Our goal is to continue the fine work done by them in the past decade. We will continue to include and seek out significant empirical, theoretical, methodological, and philosophical contributions to the field. A journal naturally reflects its contributors more than its editors, so you—both readers and contributors—are the most important determinants of the journal’s continued success.
Rediscovery of Corythucha tuthilli Drake (Hemiptera: Tingidae): New Distribution Records and First Host-Plant Association

Abstract Corythucha tuthilli Drake, a lace bug described more than 65 years ago, has remained known only from its type locality (Creede, Mineral County, Colorado) in the southern Rocky Mountains. No host-plant information has been available. It is newly recorded from Arizona (Luna Lake, Apache County) and from an additional site in Mineral County, Colorado (SW of South Fork). At both sites, nymphs and adults were common on woolly cinquefoil (Potentilla hippiana Lehm.; Rosaceae). A diagnosis and photographs of the adult habitus are included to facilitate recognition of this obscure tingid in the fauna of western North America.
Management of industrial hazardous wastes

An organized hierarchy brings out techniques which will truly solve the problems of long-term storage of hazardous wastes.
The Canek Manuscript in Ethnohistorical Perspective

The Canek Manuscript describes a visit by Fray Andras de Avendano y Loyola, two Franciscan companions, and ten Maya sacristans from the town of Tipu to the towns of Chacan on the western shore of Lake Peten Itza and Noh Peten (Tah Itza or Tayasal) on the island that today is Flores, Peten, Guatemala. This visit probably occurred in January or February, 1695, two years before the Spanish conquest of Noh Peten. The four-folio manuscript is a fragment of a larger document, the remainder of which is lost. The Franciscan author, a lay brother, was probably Fray Alonso de Vargas. This contribution places the manuscript in its ethnohistorical context, describes it content, and discusses its significance.
Mate finding, dispersal, number released, and the success of biological control introductions

. 1 An analysis of published data and a mathematical model of the population dynamics of introduced parasitoids were used to explore the possibility that biological control introductions fail because an Allee effect drives small, introduced populations extinct. Such an Allee effect would arise because low densities, resulting from dispersal into a new environment, lead to failure to mate, which leads to a male-biased sex ratio, which, if extreme enough, could cause population extinction. 2 For chalcidoids, ichneumonoids and tachinids, the proportion of parasitoid populations that established when introduced for control of lepidopteran pests increased with the number of parasitoids per release, the total number released, and the number collected when each variable was analysed separately. For chalcidoids alone, establishment increased with the number of releases for this variable analysed separately. However, stepwise logistic regression of establishment on these variables included only the total number released for chalcidoids and the number per release for ichneumonoids and tachinids. This suggests that an Allee effect may limit the establishment of introduced parasitoids more than stochastic environmental variation or lack of genetic variation. 3 A reaction-diffusion model of parasitoid introductions was developed, which included mate finding, dispersal, reproduction and survival. Sensitivity analysis showed that the critical number of females needed to establish a population decreased hyperbolically as mate detection distance and net reproductive rate were increased, but the critical number increased linearly as mean-square displacement was increased. The critical number of females did not change when the gross distance traversed per generation was varied. This was because increased area searched by males compensated for increased displacement. Changing from virgin females producing all males (arrhenotoky) to virgin females producing no progeny increased the critical number of females by over 30%. 4 The analysis of past introductions and the sensitivity analysis of the reaction-diffusion model both suggested a threshold of about 1000 insects per release to ensure establishment of introduced parasitoids. The implications of our results for the design of biological control introductions are discussed. Limitations in retrospective analyses and current knowledge indicate the need for an experimental approach to introductions.
Foraging Games in a Random Environment

Current ecological theories of social organization rely on economic models to predict an individual’s rules for joining or leaving a group (e.g., Pulliam & Caraco 1984). These decision rules presumably are influenced by natural selection, so that variation in ecological circumstances might induce variation in sociality. For non-breeding individuals the propensity to join a group or remain solitary could depend on relative benefits and costs associated with avoiding predation (reviewed by Caraco & Pulliam 1984), meeting foraging requirements, or the interaction of these and any other factors affecting survival probabilities (e.g., Pulliam 1973, Caraco 1979, Barnard 1980).
Stable isotope analysis of dog, fox, and human diets at a Late Holocene Chumash village (CA-SRI-2) on Santa Rosa Island, California

Abstract Stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope analyses of dog (Canis familiaris), island fox (Urocyon littoralis), and human bone collagen from CA-SRI-2 (AD 130–1830) on Santa Rosa Island, California provide a proxy of diet and the relationships between humans and these animals. Carbon isotopic signatures indicate that Native Americans and their dogs at CA-SRI-2 subsisted almost exclusively on marine resources, while the island fox ate primarily terrestrial foods. Nitrogen isotopes and archaeofaunal remains indicate that humans and dogs also ate higher trophic level foods, including finfishes, marine mammals, and seabirds with smaller amounts of shellfish. The CA-SRI-2 island foxes appear to have eaten higher amounts of terrestrial foods, similar to the diets observed in modern fox populations. These data generally confirm the commensal relationship assumed to exist between domesticated dogs and people, but the carbon isotopic composition of dogs is enriched ∼2‰ compared to humans. We hypothesize that the difference in carbon isotopes between dogs and humans may have resulted from a higher consumption of C3 plants with lower δ13C values by humans, or less likely from the ingestion by dogs of significant amounts of bone collagen, which is enriched by ∼4‰ over associated muscle.
Bioinformatic identification of novel putative photoreceptor specific cis -elements

Cell specific gene expression is largely regulated by different combinations of transcription factors that bind cis-elements in the upstream promoter sequence. However, experimental detection of cis-elements is difficult, expensive, and time-consuming. This provides a motivation for developing bioinformatic methods to identify cis-elements that could prioritize future experimental studies. Here, we use motif discovery algorithms to predict transcription factor binding sites involved in regulating the differences between murine rod and cone photoreceptor populations.
Image segmentation via fuzzy additive hybrid networks

We have recently introduced a class of additive hybrid fuzzy set theoretic operators which can be inserted into neural network structures and trained to learn multicriteria decision making functions through a backpropagation-type algorithm. In this paper, we examine the use of such networks to aggregate evidence and perform supervised image segmentation. Such algorithms not only group like pixels together, but also provide class labels due to the training. The resultant network is used to segment a color image of a natural scene. >
Small-Firm Uniqueness and Signaling Theory

The purpose of this paper is two-fold. First, we develop a theory of small firm uniqueness. Instead of using an exogenous definition of firm size typical of the extant literature, we allow firms to choose whether they are a “small firm” through the instrument of the SEC’s SB-2 program. Second, we test empirical hypotheses that follow from the theory. We find strong empirical evidence in support of the small-firm uniqueness theory.
Investment in higher order central processing regions is not constrained by brain size in social insects

The extent to which size constrains the evolution of brain organization and the genesis of complex behaviour is a central, unanswered question in evolutionary neuroscience. Advanced cognition has long been linked to the expansion of specific brain compartments, such as the neocortex in vertebrates and the mushroom bodies in insects. Scaling constraints that limit the size of these brain regions in small animals may therefore be particularly significant to behavioural evolution. Recent findings from studies of paper wasps suggest miniaturization constrains the size of central sensory processing brain centres (mushroom body calyces) in favour of peripheral, sensory input centres (antennal and optic lobes). We tested the generality of this hypothesis in diverse eusocial hymenopteran species (ants, bees and wasps) exhibiting striking variation in body size and thus brain size. Combining multiple neuroanatomical datasets from these three taxa, we found no universal size constraint on brain organization within or among species. In fact, small-bodied ants with miniscule brains had mushroom body calyces proportionally as large as or larger than those of wasps and bees with brains orders of magnitude larger. Our comparative analyses suggest that brain organization in ants is shaped more by natural selection imposed by visual demands than intrinsic design limitations.
High sequence fidelity in a non-enzymatic DNA autoligation reaction.

The success of oligonucleotide ligation assays in probing specific sequences of DNA arises in large part from high enzymatic selectivity against base mismatches at the ligation junction. We describe here a study of the effect of mismatches on a new nonenzymatic, reagent-free method for ligation of oligonucleotides. In this approach, two oligonucleotides bound at adjacent sites on a complementary strand undergo autoligation by displacement of a 54-end iodide with a 34-phosphorothioate group. The data show that this ligation proceeds somewhat more slowly than ligation by T4 ligase, but with substantial discrimination against single base mismatches both at either side of the junction and a few nucleotides away within one of the oligonucleotide binding sites. Selectivities of >100-fold against a single mismatch are observed in the latter case. Experiments at varied concentrations and temperatures are carried out both with the autoligation of two adjacent linear oligonucleotides and with intramolecular autoligation to yield circular ‘padlock’ DNAs. Application of optimized conditions to discrimination of an H-ras codon 12 point mutation is demonstrated with a single-stranded short DNA target.
An electrowetting based microgripper

In this paper, we present a novel capillary microgripper that can pick up and release micro objects simply by electrowetting. Electrowetting on dielectric (EWOD), a phenomenon which uses electrical potential to manipulate the surface tension of a liquid droplet is utilized to control the lifting forces. A coplanar interdigitated gold electrode was employed to simplify the micromachining. The design, micromachining and the experimental characterization of the microgripper are presented.
From Newsroom to Classroom

Want a great example of evolution for your classroom? If we are guided by our textbooks, we should look to the radiation of Darwin’s finches (Grant and Grant 2008), the return of whales to the water (Thewissen 1998), the evolution of modern horses from their tiny ancestors (MacFadden 2005), or some similar well-established example for a case study. But are these sorts of illustrations the most compelling to students? Though such classic examples of evolution have more than earned their keep in the biology classroom, they are also removed from students’ everyday lives. Hyracotherium, for example, may fascinate some students but leave others wondering why they need to know this stuff. Just how relevant is a 50-million-year-old horse to a 14-year-old’s fastpaced media-driven world? For this curriculum-themed issue, “Views from Understanding Evolution” departs from our usual format to introduce Evo in the News (Fig. 1)—a collaborative project of the UC Museum of Paleontology and the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent). Evo in the News aims to help high school and college teachers bring current and relevant examples of evolution and evolutionary research into their classrooms to help teach basic concepts in evolutionary biology. Archives are freely available on the Understanding Evolution website (http://evolution.berkeley. edu/), and the latest updates can be received via a free subscription service (http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/ subscribe/email_signup.php).