cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Reshaping nursing through excellence in education.

DUQUESNE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF NURSING earned its designation as a NLN Center of Excellence for creating environments that enhance student learning and professional development. With its unique integration of community-based nursing in the neighborhoods of Pittsburgh, as well as the immense support its faculty offer to students, Duquesne provides opportunities to apply classroom skills in clinical settings that make a difference in the lives of its Pittsburgh neighbors and empower its students to become leaders among their peers. Many consider Duquesne's program unique because of the way it integrates community-based nursing throughout all four years of the curriculum. By including the Pittsburgh community in its program to such a great extent, Duquesne provides students with experiences that help them think critically and compassionately while considering each individual as a member of a larger community. Duquesne's commitment to its community extends beyond the typical activities nursing students perform. As a sophomore, for example, my clinical group visited the local Allegheny County Jail during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Teaching female inmates the importance of performing breast self-exams helped me develop my critical thinking skills as well as the effective communication skills I need as a nurse. Nurses who possess such skills will lead nursing in a positive direction for the future while providing high quality care to patients and their families. My experiences in the community as a Duquesne student have had a significant impact on the way I practice in the hospital setting. The common goal of treating patients in the hospital is to reintegrate them back into their communities and to their previous levels of functioning. With my background in a community-integrated curriculum, I am able to consider each patient as a small part of the larger community. These experiences have also made me more aware of resources that are available in the community. Knowing how to navigate within a community has allowed me to find information more efficiently, enabling me to effectively manage and tailor information resources to fit the needs of particular patients. I believe graduates from nursing education programs need to possess these skills to provide the best outcome for the patient after discharge. What I feel is most important about my Duquesne education is the exceptional guidance I have received from well-prepared faculty instructors and program advisers. …
Analysis and numerics for multiphase flow in porous media

Publisher Summary This chapter addresses some developments of analysis and numerics for multiphase flow in porous media. Mathematical properties and numerical analysis for a degenerate elliptic–parabolic partial differential system that describes the flow of two incompressible, immiscible fluids in porous media are discussed. The objective of porous media simulation is to understand the complex chemical and physical fluid flow and transport processes occurring in a porous medium sufficiently well to be able to optimize the recovery of hydrocarbon. A numerical model is determined that has the required properties of accuracy and stability and that produces solutions representing the basic physical features as well as possible without introducing spurious phenomena associated with the specific numerical scheme. A computer code capable of efficiently performing the necessary computations for the numerical model is developed. The processes of multiphase flow and transport involve convection, or physical transport, of fluids through a heterogeneous porous medium. The equations used to simulate them at a macroscopic level are variations of Darcy's law.
The prevalence of human papillomavirus in oropharyngeal cancer is increasing regardless of sex or race, and the influence of sex and race on survival is modified by human papillomavirus tumor status

Background The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of sex and race/ethnicity upon prevalence trends of human papillomavirus (HPV) in oropharyngeal cancer (OPC) and survival after OPC. Method This was a cohort study of patients included in the United States National Cancer Database who had been diagnosed with OPC between 2010 and 2015. Outcomes were HPV status of tumor specimens and overall survival. Sex- and race-stratified trends in HPV prevalence were estimated using generalized linear modeling. The influence of sex, race, and HPV tumor status on overall survival was compared by Kaplan-Meier method and Cox Proportional Hazards models. Results This analysis included 20,886 HPV-positive and 10,364 HPV-negative OPC patients. The prevalence of HPV-positive tumors was higher among men (70.6%) than women (56.3%) and increased significantly over time at a rate of 3.5% and 3.2% per year among men and women, respectively. The prevalence of HPV-positive tumors was highest among whites (70.2%), followed by Hispanics (61.3%), Asians (55.8%), and blacks (46.3%). Blacks and Hispanics experienced significantly more rapid increases in prevalence of HPV-positive tumors over time compared with whites (6.5% vs 5.6% vs 3.2% per year, respectively). In HPV-positive OPC, neither sex nor race/ethnicity was associated with survival among patients with HPV-positive OPC. In contrast, for HPV-negative OPC, risk of death was significantly higher for women versus men (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.17; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.08-1.26) and blacks versus whites (aHR, 1.21; 95% CI, 1.10-1.33). Conclusion The prevalence of HPV-positive tumors is increasing for all sex and race/ethnicity groups in the United States. Sex and race are independently associated with survival for HPV-negative but not HPV-positive OPC.
Analysis of the Clinical Education Situation framework: a tool for identifying the root cause of student failure in the United States

Doctor of Physical Therapy preparation requires extensive time in precepted clinical education which involves multiple stakeholders. Student outcomes in clinical education are impacted by many factors, and, in the case of failure, it can be challenging to determine which factors played a primary role in the poor result. Using existing root-cause analysis processes, the authors developed and implemented a framework designed to identify the causes of student clinical education failure. The framework, when applied to a specific student failure event, identified specific factors that contributed to the situation and revealed opportunities for improvement in both the clinical and academic environments. A root-cause analysis framework can help to drive change at the programmatic level, and future studies should focus on the framework's application to a variety of clinical and didactic settings.
Reliability experimentation of 1200 V SiC power n -MOSFETs by accelerated thermal aging and bias temperature instability

This paper describes reliability experiments on 1200 V SiC power n-MOSFETs manufactured by three different manufacturers utilizing two different mechanisms: accelerated thermal aging and bias temperature instability. Each of the devices was electrically tested for evaluating variation of pre- and post-stress I–V characteristics. Pre-stress evaluation of threshold voltage (Vth) for 25 cycles showed transient behavior and a saturation toward an average value. For thermal aging reliability test, devices were stressed at 120 °C for 200 h and 3.33% of the devices showed significant shift in threshold voltage (Vth). For bias temperature instability measurement, devices were stressed at 120 °C for 200 h and a bias voltage of 20 V was applied across the gate–source terminals. For 96.7% device, Vth demonstrated an increment with stressing time and a movement toward saturation.
Principles and procedures for data and safety monitoring in pragmatic clinical trials

All clinical trial investigators have ethical and regulatory obligations to monitor participant safety and trial integrity. Specific procedures for meeting these obligations, however, may differ substantially between pragmatic trials and traditional explanatory clinical trials. Appropriate monitoring of clinical trials typically includes assessing rate of recruitment or enrollment; monitoring safe and effective delivery of study treatments; assuring that study staff act to minimize risks; monitoring quality and timeliness of study data; and considering interim analyses for early detection of benefit, harm, or futility. Each of these responsibilities applies to pragmatic clinical trials. Just as design of pragmatic trials typically involves specific and necessary departures from methods of explanatory clinical trials, appropriate monitoring of pragmatic trials typically requires specific departures from monitoring procedures used in explanatory clinical trials. We discuss how specific aspects of pragmatic trial design and operations influence selection of monitoring procedures and illustrate those choices using examples from three ongoing pragmatic trials conducted by the Mental Health Research Network. Pragmatic trial investigators should not routinely adopt monitoring procedures used in explanatory clinical trials. Instead, investigators should consider core principles of trial monitoring and design monitoring procedures appropriate for each pragmatic trial.
8.20 – Radon

Radon is an inert gas resulting naturally from the decay of radium, a part of the decay series of uranium. It was the first environmental respiratory carcinogen to be identified, and the evidence on radon and lung cancer is available from many different epidemiologic studies of underground miners, including studies that have provided quantitative information for pooled analysis on the exposure–response relationship between exposure to radon progeny and lung cancer risk. Newer studies have added to this evidence, as well as to the evidence on key uncertainties with regard to the lung cancer risk associated with radon. Radon became a topic of controversy because it was found to be a ubiquitous indoor air pollutant in homes, and broad control strategies were implemented, including testing of most homes and mitigation of those exceeding guideline levels. Risk assessments based on the studies of miners indicate that indoor radon should be considered a public health problem. Current uncertainties may be best addressed through further research on the mechanisms by which alpha particles cause lung cancer.
A Question of Style

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the German Architect and writer Hermann Muthesius (Fig. 1) proposed to get rid of the architecture discipline entirely from the term Style and to replace it rather with the notion of Type [1].
Social media alcohol advertising among underage minors: effects of models’ age

Despite U.S. alcohol industry self-regulatory guidelines prohibiting the use of models under the age 25 in alcohol advertising, brands include younger-looking models in their ads. Using social cogn...
Assessing Uncertainties and Approximations in Solar Heating of the Climate System

Author(s): Hsu, JC; Prather, MJ | Abstract: In calculating solar radiation, climate models make many simplifications, in part to reduce computational cost and enable climate modeling, and in part from lack of understanding of critical atmospheric information. Whether known errors or unknown errors, the community's concern is how these could impact the modeled climate. The simplifications are well known and most have published studies evaluating them, but with individual studies it is difficult to compare. Here, we collect a wide range of such simplifications in either radiative transfer modeling or atmospheric conditions and assess potential errors within a consistent framework on climate-relevant scales. We build benchmarking capability around a solar heating code (Solar-J) that doubles as a photolysis code for chemistry and can be readily adapted to consider other errors and uncertainties. The broad classes here include: use of broad wavelength bands to integrate over spectral features; scattering approximations that alter phase function and optical depths for clouds and gases; uncertainty in ice-cloud optics; treatment of fractional cloud cover including overlap; and variability of ocean surface albedo. We geographically map the errors in W m−2 using a full climate re-creation for January 2015 from a weather forecasting model. For many approximations assessed here, mean errors are ∼2nW m−2 with greater latitudinal biases and are likely to affect a model's ability to match the current climate state. Combining this work with previous studies, we make priority recommendations for fixing these simplifications based on both the magnitude of error and the ease or computational cost of the fix.
Pandemic Fiction Meets Political Science: A Simulation for Teaching Restorative Justice

We team teach an interdisciplinary political science and literature course titled “Violence and Reconciliation,” with case studies on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in South Africa and on debates about whether to develop a TRC in Northern Ireland. The course culminates in a two-week simulation in which students role play the experiences, strategies, and needs of victims, perpetrators, legal teams, government officials, and NGOs in the aftermath of a horrific event that has torn a society apart. We assessed the simulation through pre- and post-simulation writing exercises as well as observations of insights revealed by students during negotiations. We believe the simulation is an effective tool for helping students move from a scholarly engagement with the processes of restorative justice to employing them in response to hatred and violence. This article describes the simulation for use or adaptation in other courses.
Computational Benefits of Intermediate Rewards for Hierarchical Planning.

Many hierarchical reinforcement learning (RL) applications have empirically verified that incorporating prior knowledge in reward design improves convergence speed and practical performance. We attempt to quantify the computational benefits of hierarchical RL from a planning perspective under assumptions about the intermediate state and intermediate rewards frequently (but often implicitly) adopted in practice. Our approach reveals a trade-off between computational complexity and the pursuit of the shortest path in hierarchical planning: using intermediate rewards significantly reduces the computational complexity in finding a successful policy but does not guarantee to find the shortest path, whereas using sparse terminal rewards finds the shortest path at a significantly higher computational cost. We also corroborate our theoretical results with extensive experiments on the MiniGrid environments using Q-learning and other popular deep RL algorithms.
Energetic and entropic considerations for coarse-graining

Molecular dynamics simulations often adopt coarse-grained (CG) models to investigate length- and time-scales that cannot be effectively addressed with atomically detailed models. However, the effective potentials that govern CG models are configuration-dependent free energies with significant entropic contributions that have important consequences for the transferability and thermodynamic properties of CG models. This review summarizes recent work investigating the fundamental origin and practical ramifications of these entropic contributions, as well as their sensitivity to the CG mapping. We first analyze the energetic and entropic components of the many-body potential of mean force. By adopting a simple model for protein fluctuations, we examine how these components vary with the CG representation. We then introduce a “dual potential” approach for addressing these entropic considerations in more complex systems, such as ortho-terphenyl (OTP). We demonstrate that this dual approach not only accurately describes the structure and energetic properties of the underlying atomic model, but also accurately predicts the temperature-dependence of the CG potentials. Furthermore, by considering two different CG representations of OTP, we elucidate how these contributions vary with resolution. In sum, we hope this work will prove useful for improving the transferability and thermodynamic properties of CG models for soft materials.
Corpus Linguistics and Heller

In District of Columbia v. Heller, the Supreme Court sharply divided over the meaning of the twenty-seven words in the Second Amendment. Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion. He concluded that the Second Amendment “protects an individual right to possess a firearm unconnected with service in a militia, and to use that arm for traditionally lawful purposes, such as self-defense within the home.” In short, an “individual” right. Justice Stevens, in his dissent, contended that the Second Amendment “is most naturally read to secure to the people a right to use and possess arms in conjunction with service in a well-regulated militia.” That is, a “collective” right. Justice Scalia and Justice Stevens both made linguistic claims about four elements of the Second Amendment: “right of the people,” “keep and bear arms,” “keep arms,” and “bear arms.” Both the majority and the dissent used various textualist approaches to consider these four phrases, but their toolkit in 2008 was limited. They considered only a fairly narrow range of sources to interpret the text. Today, we can do better. In this Article, we will grade the four linguistic claims made in the Heller case using corpus linguistics. We rely on the Corpus of Founding Era American English (“COFEA”). In 2015, one of us conceptualized and oversaw the initial development of COFEA. We performed five queries with COFEA. First, we queried right of the people. Second, we queried keep and bear arms (and synonyms). Third, we queried the word right within six words of arms. Fourth, we queried the word keep, and variants of keep, within six words of arms. Fifth, we queried the word bear, and variants of bear, within six words of arms. We used multiple coders who independently coded their results using a type of double-blind methodology. Both the majority and the dissenting opinions erred with respect to some of their linguistic claims. Justices Scalia and Stevens should have expressed far more caution when reaching their textualist conclusions based on the narrow subset of founding-era sources they reviewed. Additionally, corpus linguistic theory reveals that there are inconsistencies in both Justice Scalia’s and Stevens’s descriptions of the Second Amendment’s original public meaning.
A unique approach to multidisciplinary cancer education

Abstract Background. Almost every health care worker, regardless of specialty, interacts with individuals who have histories of cancer. Some health care workers are relatively unfamiliar with the cancer experience and those who are familiar with it are interested in additional information. Method. The Mayo Clinic Cancer Center Education Subcommittee designed a monthly educational program titled Cancer Connections: A Multidisciplinary Update. The goals of this program were to provide: 1) up‐to‐date information about cancer issues, 2) a better understanding of various team members’ roles in caring for people with cancer, 3) insight into patients’ responses to the diagnosis and treatment of their cancers, and 4) greater awareness of the resources available to cancer patients and their families. Each session consists of a “panel” of presenters: three healthcare professionals and a patient. Results and Discussion. The success of this program is reflected in the regular high attendance and consistently positive...
Use of the simulation method in the study of jury behavior: Some methodological considerations.

Current literature reviews (Davis, Bray, & Holt, 1977; Elwork & Sales, in press; Gerbasi, Zuckerman, & Reis, 1977) reveal a lively interest in the study of jury functioning. In most of the extant research, simulations in the form of a mock trial have emerged as the primary research vehicle. Despite its popularity, a great deal of criticism has been leveled at this mode of investigation (e.g., Bermant, McGuire, McKinley, & Salo, 1974; Konecni, Mulcahy, & Ebbesen, in press; Colasanto & Sanders, Note 1; Miller, Fontes, Boster, & Sunnafrank, Note 2). While such criticism deserves thoughtful consideration, there also seems to be a need for an analysis that clearly examines variations in mock-trial simulations and their relative strengths and weaknesses.
Are There Universal Principles or Forms of Evidential Inference

Although interest in evidential inference is not new - interest in the topic reaches back into antiquity - during the last two or three decades there has been a veritable explosion of scholarship and research about evidential inference. Furthermore, evidential inference (or "factual inference") is now an important topic in virtually every field of scholarship and in virtually every kind of "knowledge industry." Although the models of inference generated in this latest wave of scholarship and research are varied, one thread does run through many of the new models. Many contemporary accounts emphasize the multistage nature of evidential inference; it is now very often argued or assumed that evidential inference is best viewed as a network or web of inferences Although the proponents of such models of evidential inference often have important disagreements about the properties or structure of multistage evidential inference, it is fair to say that such models generally rest on the compound proposition that real-world evidential inference usually or always consists of "atoms" that are linked together (in some way) by "generalizations." If a model of this sort is a valid representation of evidential inference, the question may arise - the question has arisen - whether a model of this sort is or is not "universal." The answer is that this question is unanswerable. What can be said is that when human beings (or other agents) configure problems of evidence in a certain way, inference networks (of some sort) are inevitable and describe the structure of the problem at hand but that when problems of evidence are perceived (only) in certain other ways, representations of inference as webs of factual hypotheses connected by generalizations are of little or no use - simply because in some situations such web-like patterns of reasoning do not address the problem at hand. For example, sometimes the question is not how strongly some evidentiary phenomenon supports some hypothesis but, rather, what sort of complex of hypotheses or conceptual constructs most persuasively explains some set of phenomena. This latter sort of problem sometimes requires a constructive and imaginative conceptual activity that does not much resemble an inference network or its ingredients.
Recognition of prostate tumor cells by cytotoxic T lymphocytes specific for prostate-specific membrane antigen

The development of immunotherapy for cancer, such as synthetic peptide-based vaccines, relies heavily on the identification of appropriate epitopes capable of eliciting antitumor T-cell responses. We have used a combination of computer-based algorithms to predict peptide sequences from prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) capable of stimulating in vitro CTLs restricted by the HLA-A2 MHC molecule. Four of the five peptides that were predicted by these algorithms were capable of inducing antigen-specific CTLs that killed target cells that were pulsed exogenously with the corresponding peptides. However, only one of the four peptides, PSMA(27), induced CTLs that were effective at recognizing prostate tumor cells expressing the HLA-A2 and PSMA molecules. These results underline the importance of demonstrating antitumor reactivity of peptide-induced CTLs for the selection of epitopes destined to become immunotherapeutic for prostate cancer.
The surprising complexity of peroxisome biogenesis

Peroxisomes are small organelles with a single boundary membrane. All of their matrix proteins are nuclear-encoded, synthesized on free ribosomes in the cytosol, and post-translationally transported into the organelle. This may sound familiar, but in fact, peroxisome biogenesis is proving to be surprisingly unique. First, there are several classes of plant peroxisomes, each specialized for a different metabolic function and sequestering specific matrix enzymes. Second, although the mechanisms of peroxisomal protein import are conserved between the classes, multiple pathways of protein targeting and translocation have been defined. At least two different types of targeting signals direct proteins to the peroxisome matrix. The most common peroxisomal targeting signal is a tripeptide limited to the carboxyl terminus of the protein. Some peroxisomal proteins possess an amino-terminal signal which may be cleaved after import. Each targeting signal interacts with a different cytosolic receptor; other cytosolic factors or chaperones may also form a complex with the peroxisomal protein before it docks on the membrane. Peroxisomes have the unusual capacity to import proteins that are fully folded or assembled into oligomers. Although at least 20 proteins (mostly peroxins) are required for peroxisome biogenesis, the role of only a few of these have been determined. Future efforts will be directed towards an understanding of how these proteins interact and contribute to the complex process of protein import into peroxisomes.
ON THE 1-COHOMOLOGY OF FINITE GROUPS OF LIE TYPE

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the problem of calculating H1(Gσ,V) where G is a finite group of Lie type over K = GF(q) and V is a minimal G -module. It discusses two methods used for determining upper bounds on dim H1 (Gσ,V(λ)). The first method assumes r > 3, and is applicable to nonminimal modules (and can in fact be used to obtain the vanishing of H1 (Gσ,V) in many instances). The second method is an inductive procedure that does not depend on the size of the field but depends heavily on the minimality of V (λ). The second method has only been tried for the split Chevalley groups.
Democracy's Missing Link: Interest Representation and State-Society Relations in Latin America and Africa

The Third Wave of democratization brought regime transitions to scores of nations since 1974, but empirical measures in recent years have shown unmistakable reversions to authoritarianism by some countries. The 132 new constitutions promulgated in 118 countries during that time played contradictory roles in these two opposing trends: while the level of democracy increased in 62 countries following the adoption of a new constitution, it actually decreased or stayed the same in 70 others. This finding contradicts normative theories about the positive relationship between constitutions and democracy. Our project on constitutional change attributes this disjuncture to post-promulgation participation, rather than participatory constitution-making processes or intrinsic institutional characteristics. Our main objective is to identify conditions under which constitution-making in democratizing nations contributes to declines in democracy. Does the type and timing of constitution-making matter? Existing studies of constitutionalism have taken substantive and legalistic approaches or process-oriented political approaches, but none has combined the two. We pursue a multi-method research strategy combining quantitative indicators of democracy, the content of constitutions, and ethnographies of political processes used to establish them. Upon demonstrating the empirical anomaly that many new constitutions, even when created through participatory processes, do not contribute to democratization, we outline a research design to test impacts of new constitutions on other sets of outcomes, including law-bound rights such as human rights and the rule of law; resource distribution including public service delivery; and political culture, incorporating citizen satisfaction with governments. We expect participatory constitutional foundings to yield important shifts in political culture but few demonstrable improvements in political rights. We also expect that some disaggregations of democracy, such as law-bound rights, will have positive relationships with implementation of new constitutions, while the relationship with economic performance and other indicators may be less clear.
NEXT-TO-LEADING LOGARITHM QCD CORRECTIONS FOR $q\bar q \to ZZ$, W+W−, W±Z SUBPROCESSES

We show that O(αs) QCD corrections for the , W+W−, and W±Z subprocess cross sections are approximately given by a factor times the lowest order cross sections, as previously found for the Drell-Yan subprocess. The calculations are made in the limit of soft virtual or real gluons. The result is confirmed for the high energy limit of by analogy with exact calculations of and Zγ cross sections.
Hyaluronidase injection for the treatment of facial and neck hematomas.

INTRODUCTION Facial and neck hematomas are a significant complication of surgical procedures and direct trauma. Effective treatment of these hematomas is crucial for the prevention of cosmetic deformity, functional disturbance, infection, and tissue necrosis. Current treatment options include aspiration, incision and drainage, steroid injection, and drainage tube placement. However, these methods have potential limitations. Aspiration can be difficult due to the viscosity of hematoma fluid, whereas incision and drainage may leave a cosmetically displeasing scar. Steroid injections may cause local immune suppression leading to abscess formation. Drainage tube placement is inconvenient for the patient and likely unnecessary for smallto medium-sized hematomas. In an attempt to avoid these potential complications, we have injected hematomas with a solution of recombinant hyaluronidase prior to needle aspiration. Hyaluronidase is an enzyme that degrades hyaluronic acid, a prominent component of the extracellular matrix in the subcutaneous fat. To date, hyaluronidase has been used successfully to treat dextrose, intravenous drug, and contrast material extravasations and has been used as an adjunct to enhance anesthetic absorption. In these scenarios, hyaluronidase breaks down hyaluronic acid in nearby tissues, facilitating the diffusion and reabsorption of localized fluid collections into nearby lymphatic channels and capillaries. Hyaluronidase has also proven effective in the treatment of hematomas formed at femoral angiographic puncture sites. A recent study investigated the efficacy of hyaluronidase as an adjunct to steroid injection for subacromial bursitis. However, the authors concluded that simultaneous hyaluronidase injection had little additive effect for reducing the effective steroid dosage. Hylenex is an U.S. Food and Drug Administrationapproved human recombinant hyaluronidase. For this study, we hypothesized that injection of facial and neck hematomas with this recombinant hyaluronidase prior to needle aspiration would allow for early evacuation of the hematoma while achieving a favorable cosmetic result. Although this is an off-label application, we felt that the ability of hyaluronidase to enhance tissue permeability would be efficacious in this clinical scenario.
Using directional antennas as sensors to assist fire-fighting robots in large scale fires

Humans will replace human labor with new robotics technologies, especially where humans can be placed in danger situations or task domains. Evolving sensor and robotic technologies allow the transfer of humans from mundane, dangerous or difficult tasks, leaving robots to apply their specific capabilities to replace human's daily routines or hazardous tasks. Commonly, humans work in teams to resolve difficult scenarios, such as the aftermath of some natural or man-made disaster. Communication between each and every team member is critical to resolve relief efforts or remediation, in most disasters. This research presents robotic technology developed to remediate the long lead time to re-establish or develop network infrastructure in the case of a disaster situation. The specific application and test domain of this research, is with fire fighting.
Balancing the Federal Budget: The Intergovernmental Casualty and Opportunity

During the 1970s the financial positions of the federal government and the state-local sector changed dramatically. The federal position deteriorated, and the aggregate state-local sector strengthened. The weakened federal position stemmed from the interdependence between the federal budget and performance of the economy. Uneven growth, high unemployment and inflation, and periodic tax cuts operated to increase federal expenditures and reduce federal revenues. In contrast, the statelocal sector improved due to revenue diversification, especially the adoption of broad based sales and income taxes. Demographic changes worked for state and local governments as their largest expenditure function, education, stabilized under declining school enrollment. In contrast, they worked against the federal government due to an aging population that increased demands upon social insurance programs. The federal government also faces rising defense expenditures: military personnel and retirement costs, basic operations and maintenance, and weapons research and procurement.This gradual reversal of relative financial positions has been accompanied by a conspicuous change in public mood toward government spending and taxing. Although much ambivalence and some contradictions are apparent in these attitudes, an increasing portion of the public views government as being wasteful and contributing to inflation, due to deficit spending. In response to the statement, "Government wastes a lot of money we pay in taxes," aggreementjumped from 42 percent in 1958 to 77 percent by 1978.2 Polling data, elections, referenda results, and recently enacted tax and expenditure limitations all serve to underscore the fundamental shift in attitudes and behavior regarding government spending in the late 1970s.
“Parallel proportional profiles” and other principles for determining the choice of factors by rotation

The choosing of a set of factors likely to correspond to the real psychological unitary traits in a situation usually reduces to finding a satisfactory rotation in a Thurstone centroid analysis. Seven principles, three of which are new, are described whereby rotation may be determined and/or judged. It is argued that the most fundamental is the principle of “parallel proportional profiles” or “simultaneous simple structure.” A mathematical proof of the uniqueness of determination by this means is attempted and equations are suggested for discovering the unique position.
Survival of striped bass larvae and yearlings in relation to contaminants and water quality in the upper Chesapeake Bay

This study was designed to evaluate survival of striped bass yolk-sac larvae and yearlings at three locations in their natural spawning habitat in the upper Chesapeake Bay (Chesapeake and Delaware Canal) using “in-situ” chambers; correlate larval and yearling survival with the presence of 11 water quality parameters, 10 inorganic contaminants and 21 organic contaminants and assess histological effects on yearlings after exposure to habitat water. The cumulative percent survival ranged from 42–59.5% for striped bass larvae after 96 hr of exposure to habitat water during two experiments. Survival in control conditions during these two experiments was 77.5 and 80.5%. Data from previous studies have shown that mortality rates for wild yolk-sac larvae ranged from 7–19% per day. Daily mortality of larvae in the present study was 13–16%; therefore, suspected acutely harmful water quality or contaminant conditions affecting survival were not substantiated. All yearling striped bass survived 10 days of exposure to habitat water. Although habitat water was not acutely toxic, histological examination of surviving yearling striped bass indicated sublethal effects. Telangiectases (lamellar dilations) of the gills was reported for yearlings exposed to habitat water. This pathological change was not found in the controls.
Field kinetic model and computer simulation of precipitation of L12 ordered intermetallics from f.c.c. solid solution

A phenomenological stochastic field kinetic model of coherent precipitation of L12 ordered intermetallics from a disordered f.c.c. solid solution has been developed. It explicitly takes into account both the lattice misfit strain and the four types of antiphase domains formed as a result of the L12 ordering. Based on the concentration wave representation of the ordered state, a coarse grain approximation of the non-equilibrium free energy functional of concentration and long-range order parameters has been formulated. Its relation to the microscopic free energy model has been discussed. Precipitation kinetics and microstructural development of γ′ phase in Ni–Al have been investigated by two-dimensional computer simulations based on this model. The results reveal new features which are attributed to the L12 ordering. The ordered nature of the precipitates changes the coarsening mechanisms and kinetics and greatly affect the morphology of the mesoscopic microstructure.
Psychometric Properties of the Spanish Consumer Assessment of Health Plans Survey (CAHPS)

This study describes the psychometric properties of the Consumer Assessments of Health Plans Survey (CAHPS) in 279 persons who completed it in Spanish and 439 persons who completed it in English. We found negatively skewed distributions of responses and significant ceiling effects in both English and Spanish surveys. Cronbach’s alphas for English and Spanish multiple-item composites were 0.69 or higher. Correlations between the CAHPS measures and willingness of individuals to recommend their doctor and health plan to family and friends were all moderately strong and statistically significant except for one global rating. There were significant differences in the patterns of correlations between global ratings and composites for English and Spanish surveys. This study suggests that the Spanish CAHPS 2.0 core survey has acceptable psychometric properties.
CONSERVATION OF MICROSATELLITE LOCI ACROSS SPECIES OF ARTIODACTYLS: IMPLICATIONS FOR POPULATION STUDIES

DNA microsatellites have proven useful as markers in studies of gene mapping due to their high level of polymorphism and broad genomic distribution. These properties suggest that they also will be useful for studies of population structure. The limiting factor is the development of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primer sets for each new species of interest, as this requires the construction and screening of libraries of genomic DNA, DNA sequencing, and design of primers. The locations and sequences of some microsatellites have been shown to be conserved across species of mammals. We tested these markers in an array of closely related species of bovids and cervids. PCR primer pairs designed for bovine, ovine, or caprine microsatellite loci successfully amplified microsatellites in many other species of artiodactyls. When 20 primer sets were tested on 10 species of bovids and six species of cervids, polymorphic products were obtained for seven or more of the 16 species with 12 of the primer pairs. This success in using heterologous PCR primers to amplify microsatellite loci in several different species eliminates the need to develop new sets of primers for each species and therefore facilitates the use of DNA microsatellites as markers in studies of population genetics. The primers tested here form a suite of useful markers for studies of artiodactyls that contains more polymorphic loci than any existing set of allozyme or RFLP loci.
Acetate transfer across membranes of artificial kidneys in vitro

Acetate transfer across the membranes of artificial kidneys in vitro. To determine the rate of acetate transfer across hemodialysis membranes and to investigate the factors which influence acetate dialysance, we performed experiments with Dow-4, Gambro-13.5, and Travenol UF-II artificial kidneys using 14 C-acetate. The rate of acetate dialysance was influenced strongly by the rate of fluid flow through the blood path, similar to the dialysance of other low-molecular-weight solutes. The ultrafiltration of fluid from the blood path to dialysate reduced the rate of transfer of acetate from dialysate to blood. The dialysance of acetate was significantly less than that of urea, despite their nearly identical molecular weights. This was not due to the direction of solute transfer. Experiments with a Kaufman-Leonard dialyzer demonstrated that the permeability of Cuprophane membranes to urea was greater than that to acetate was; this may be due to the charged nature of acetate. Transfert d'acetate a travers les membranes des reins artificiels in vitro. Afin de determiner la vitesse de transfert de l'acetate a travers les membranes d'hemodialyse, et pour etudier les facteurs qui influencent la dialysance de l'acetate, des experiences ont ete realisees avec des reins artificiels Dow 4, Gambro 13,5, et Travenol UF-II et du 14 C acetate. La dialysance de l'acetate est fortement influencee par le debit de liquide a travers le circuit sanguin, de la meme facon que la dialysance d'autres solutes de petit poids moleculaire. L'ultrafiltration de liquide du circuit sanguin vers le dialysat reduit le transfert d'acetate du dialysat au circuit sanguin. La dialysance de l'acetate est significativement inferieure a celle de l'uree malgre la similitude de leurs poids moleculaires. Cela n'est pas du a la direction du transfert des substances dissoutes. Les experiences avec le dialyseur Kaufman-Leonard demontrent que la permeabilite a l'uree des membranes de cuprophane est plus grande que celle pour l'acetate. Cela peut etre du a la presence de charges electriques sur l'acetate.
Power generation from base excitation of a Kevlar composite beam with ZnO nanowires

One-dimensional nanostructures such as nanowires, nanorods, and nanotubes with piezoelectric properties have gained interest in the fabrication of small scale power harvesting systems. However, the practical applications of the nanoscale materials in structures with true mechanical strengths have not yet been demonstrated. In this paper, piezoelectric ZnO nanowires are integrated into the fiber reinforced polymer composites serving as an active phase to convert the induced strain energy from ambient vibration into electrical energy. Arrays of ZnO nanowires are grown vertically aligned on aramid fibers through a low-cost hydrothermal process. The modified fabrics with ZnO nanowires whiskers are then placed between two carbon fabrics as the top and the bottom electrodes. Finally, vacuum resin transfer molding technique is utilized to fabricate these multiscale composites. The fabricated composites are subjected to a base excitation using a shaker to generate charge due to the direct piezoelectric effect of ZnO nanowires. Measuring the generated potential difference between the two electrodes showed the energy harvesting application of these multiscale composites in addition to their superior mechanical properties. These results propose a new generation of power harvesting systems with enhanced mechanical properties.
The Search for Alternatives

Abstract Animal welfare and antivivisection groups have protested against animal research for the last 150 years. However, they have recently (ca. 20 years ago) injected a new element into the debate by pressing for the development and application of alternatives. By this, they mean the development of techniques which could replace or reduce the use of laboratory animals, or the refinement of existing techniques to reduce animal suffering. Animal welfare concerns have focused on toxicology testing in particular. Of course, the state of the art in toxicology has advanced considerably in the last 20 years and some of the changes have resulted in a reduction of the use of animals. Nevertheless, the animal welfare movement seeks a more specific program which will review testing guidelines and support the development of new techniques which will reduce or eliminate animal use. Carcinogen detection, Draize eye irritancy testing, and LD50 testing are three specific areas where the pressure for alternatives development has been strongest. The prospects for alternatives in each of these three are briefly discussed together with one or two comments about possible future trends.
Spatial Correlation Based Stall Inception Analysis

Investigations of stall inception and compressor pre-stall behavior have used a variety of techniques to make inferences about the mechanisms of rotating stall inception. Many of these techniques utilized data from arrays of circumferentially spaced hot-wires or high frequency response pressure transducers. This paper presents results from the application of several typical analysis techniques to the interpretation of unsteady casing pressure measurements recorded during two representative stall event in a high-speed axial compressor stage. Results from visual pressure trace inspection, spatial Fourier decomposition, wavelet filtering, and traveling wave energy techniques are presented and compared. The effects of measurement and analysis parameters are also briefly discussed. A new analysis technique based on windowed two-point spatial correlation between adjacent stall inception sensors is described. The method was found to provide both spatial and temporal information about rotating features in the compressor flow and is insensitive to low pass filtering and parameter selection over a wide range of values. It was also found to be valuable for analysis of both pre-stall and stall inception behavior.Copyright © 2007 by ASME
THE VALUE OF UNDISCOVERED PHARMACEUTICALS IN TROPICAL FORESTS

Previous estimates of the potential value of higher plants in tropical forests for Pharmaceuticals are too high because analysts mistakenly used gross revenues to value drugs instead of net revenues. Correcting this error, we estimate each new drug is worth an average $94 million to a private drug company and $449 million to society as a whole. Given recent experience searching for new drugs, we estimate that the higher plants in the world’s tropical forests contain about 375 potential pharmaceuticals of which 48 (about one in eight) have already been discovered. Multiplying these values by the number of potential new drugs suggests that a complete collection and screening of all tropical plant species should be worth about $3–4 billion to a private pharmaceutical company and as much as $147 billion to society as a whole.
Ca2+ Influx Regulates BDNF Transcription by a CREB Family Transcription Factor-Dependent Mechanism

CREB is a transcription factor implicated in the control of adaptive neuronal responses. Although one function of CREB in neurons is believed to be the regulation of genes whose products control synaptic function, the targets of CREB that mediate synaptic function have not yet been identified. This report describes experiments demonstrating that CREB or a closely related protein mediates Ca2+-dependent regulation of BDNF, a neurotrophin that modulates synaptic activity. In cortical neurons, Ca2+ influx triggers phosphorylation of CREB, which by binding to a critical Ca2+ response element (CRE) within the BDNF gene activates BDNF transcription. Mutation of the BDNF CRE or an adjacent novel regulatory element as well as a blockade of CREB function resulted in a dramatic loss of BDNF transcription. These findings suggest that a CREB family member acts cooperatively with an additional transcription factor(s) to regulate BDNF transcription. We conclude that the BDNF gene is a CREB family target whose protein product functions at synapses to control adaptive neuronal responses.
Core body temperature regulation of pediatric patients during radiofrequency ablation

Core body temperature elevation (hyperthermia) can occur during radiofrequency ablation of large centrally located tumors in small children. Hyperthermia can be predicted on the basis of long burn times, high wattage delivered by the RF system and low body weight. If hyperthermia is anticipated, cooling blankets using refrigerated air or water are recommended. The advantage of these systems is that the cooling can help maintain normal core body temperature.