cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology of Type 1 Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor

Plasminogen activation (Figure 1) provides an important source of localized proteolytic activity in the blood during fibrinolysis, and in the tissues during a variety of normal and pathologic processes that in general involve invasive or degradative events (Bachmann and Kruithof 1984; Astrup, 1978; Hekman and Loskutoff, 1987). Precise regulation of plasminogen activator (PA) activity thus constitutes a critical feature of many biological processes, and abnormalities in this regulation may lead to clinical problems (Collen and Lijnen, 1986). This control is achieved at many levels (Figure 2). For example, the synthesis of tissue-type PA (t-PA) and/or urokinase-like PA (u-PA) by endothelial cells of the vessel wall, is regulated by hormones, cytokines and growth factors (Bachmann and Kruithof 1984; Medcalf et al., 1988 Bevilacqua et al., 1986; Saksela et al., 1987). Once these PAs are released from the cells, their activity is further modulated through interactions with cell surface receptors (Roldan et al.,1990), with components of the extracellular matrix (Salonen et al., 1985; Silverstein et al., 1986), and with plasma cofactors (Hoylaerts et al., 1982). However, the primary regulator of plasminogen activation may well be type 1 plasminogen activator inhibitor, or PAI-1 (Sprengers and Kluft, 1987; Loskutoff et al., 1988). PAI-1 appears to be the physiological inhibitor of t-PA, at least in the blood. This conclusion is based on the observation that naturally occurring complexes between single-chain t-PA and PAI-1, but not between t-PA and other inhibitors (Hanss and Collen, 1987), can be detected in the blood. In addition, the second order rate constant for the interaction of single-chain t-PA with PAI-1 is approximately 20,000 times higher than the constant derived for the interaction of t-PA with PAI-2 and protease nexin (Colucci et al., 1986; Hekman and Loskutoff, 1988a), two other molecules with PAI activity. Finally, a number of recent clinical observations relate alterations in plasma levels of PAI-1 with the pathogenesis of vascular disease.
Children’s Eye Movements, Miscue Analysis Patterns, and Retellings When Reading a Counterpoint Picture Book:

This study incorporated eye movement miscue analysis to investigate two second-graders’ oral reading and comprehension of a counterpoint picture book. Findings suggest the second-graders’ strategies when reading the written and pictorial text affected their comprehension as opposed to the number and location of their eye movements. Specifically, the data highlight the contextual nature of the counterpoint picture book and how the readers’ strategies influenced the ways students navigated the text, what they fixated on while reading the written and pictorial texts, and the effects of these eye movement data on their comprehension. These results highlight the importance of young students’ need to be able to distinguish and value the role of written and pictorial sign systems to facilitate success in an ever-expanding multimodal world.
Hospital-Based Employees Alcoholism Program

Contemporary industrial alcoholism programs have moved away from the “punitive” model of identifying and subsequently terminating the alcoholic employee to a “caring” model in which an offer of treatment is made following discovery of the alcoholic worker. This approach is often largely dependent upon the discovery of alcoholism through work-related dysfunctional behavior, e.g., accident, mistake, absenteeism and irresponsibility. It relies heavily on the threat of treatment as its rationale for prevention; it provides little help for the potential alcoholic, since treatment could only start after discovery. But perhaps the most striking criticism, is the basic and fundamental contradiction of the entire approach--in an effort to maintain efficiency and productivity and to avoid accidents, the companies adopt a plan that would force the individual to be inefficient,unproductive and accident prone before he/she could be treated for alcohlism. By making it necessary for a crisis to be precipitated before an individual could be “forced into treatment” (though threatening him with dismissal) the strategy fosters chronic alcoholism for it is only at this stage in the alcoholic’s history that dysfunctional behavior of the type discovered in an industrial/institutional setting would manifest itself. In general, this approach is used by most corporations and institutions termed to have modern industrial alcoholism programs.
Job versus environment: an examination on the attitude of union members toward environmental spending

There seems to be a widespread perception in the United States that labor union members are indifferent or even hostile to environmental protection efforts. Previous work on the nature of the relationship between labor unions and environmentalists, mostly drawn from case studies and interviews with union leaders, has not reached consistent conclusions. To provide a realistic examination of the relationship, we apply an empirical analysis to investigate attitudes of individual union members toward the stringency of environmental policies. Using the General Social Survey, we examine grass-root union members’ preferences for public environmental spending options. Contrary to prevailing perceptions of conflict, we find a positive association between union membership and the choosing to increase environmental spending. Further, investigating the environmental attitude of union members in heavily regulated industries, we do not find evidence to support the argument that these laborers tend to be unfavorable toward environment. Our results also suggest that the level of regulation an industry is facing does not appear to have a statistically significant effect on respondent’s choice of environmental spending.
The Effect of Ship Department on Crew Sleep Patterns and Psychomotor Vigilance Performance

U.S. Navy ship crews are organizationally divided into departments, i.e., functional groups with specific tasks and an officer in charge. The objective of this study is to assess the effect of ship departments on crew sleep patterns and psychomotor vigilance performance. Crewmembers (N=93) from an Arleigh Burke-type destroyer participated in a 16-day quasi-experimental study while the ship was forward deployed. Each sailor wore an actigraph, completed a daily activity log, and performed a 3-minute psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) before and after standing watch. Actigraphy results show that crewmembers were chronically sleep deprived, receiving on average 6.6 hours of daily sleep. Rest and sleep opportunities were varied significantly depending on the department to which the crewmember belongs. Specifically, the Operations department, followed by Engineering, had the worst sleep patterns as indicated by reduced and fragmented sleep. Using actigraphic recordings, approximately 22% of the participants occas...
Allostatic load and biological anthropology

Multiple stressors affect developing and adult organisms, thereby partly structuring their phenotypes. Determining how stressors influence health, well-being, and longevity in human and nonhuman primate populations are major foci within biological anthropology. Although much effort has been devoted to examining responses to multiple environmental and sociocultural stressors, no holistic metric to measure stress-related physiological dysfunction has been widely applied within biological anthropology. Researchers from disciplines outside anthropology are using allostatic load indices (ALIs) to estimate such dysregulation and examine life-long outcomes of stressor exposures, including morbidity and mortality. Following allostasis theory, allostatic load represents accumulated physiological and somatic damage secondary to stressors and senescent processes experienced over the lifespan. ALIs estimate this wear-and-tear using a composite of biomarkers representing neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, metabolic, and immune systems. Across samples, ALIs are associated significantly with multiple individual characteristics (e.g., age, sex, education, DNA variation) of interest within biological anthropology. They also predict future outcomes, including aspects of life history variation (e.g., survival, lifespan), mental and physical health, morbidity and mortality, and likely health disparities between groups, by stressor exposures, ethnicity, occupations, and degree of departure from local indigenous life ways and integration into external and commodified ones. ALIs also may be applied to similar stress-related research areas among nonhuman primates. Given the reports from multiple research endeavors, here we propose ALIs may be useful for assessing stressors, stress responses, and stress-related dysfunction, current and long-term cognitive function, health and well-being, and risk of early mortality across many research programs within biological anthropology.
Direct biomechanical modeling of trabecular bone using a nonlinear manifold-based volumetric representation

Osteoporosis is associated with increased fracture risk. Recent advancement in the area of in vivo imaging allows segmentation of trabecular bone (TB) microstructures, which is a known key determinant of bone strength and fracture risk. An accurate biomechanical modelling of TB micro-architecture provides a comprehensive summary measure of bone strength and fracture risk. In this paper, a new direct TB biomechanical modelling method using nonlinear manifold-based volumetric reconstruction of trabecular network is presented. It is accomplished in two sequential modules. The first module reconstructs a nonlinear manifold-based volumetric representation of TB networks from three-dimensional digital images. Specifically, it starts with the fuzzy digital segmentation of a TB network, and computes its surface and curve skeletons. An individual trabecula is identified as a topological segment in the curve skeleton. Using geometric analysis, smoothing and optimization techniques, the algorithm generates smooth, curved, and continuous representations of individual trabeculae glued at their junctions. Also, the method generates a geometrically consistent TB volume at junctions. In the second module, a direct computational biomechanical stress-strain analysis is applied on the reconstructed TB volume to predict mechanical measures. The accuracy of the method was examined using micro-CT imaging of cadaveric distal tibia specimens (N = 12). A high linear correlation (r = 0.95) between TB volume computed using the new manifold-modelling algorithm and that directly derived from the voxel-based micro-CT images was observed. Young’s modulus (YM) was computed using direct mechanical analysis on the TB manifold-model over a cubical volume of interest (VOI), and its correlation with the YM, computed using micro-CT based conventional finite-element analysis over the same VOI, was examined. A moderate linear correlation (r = 0.77) was observed between the two YM measures. This preliminary results show the accuracy of the new nonlinear manifold modelling algorithm for TB, and demonstrate the feasibility of a new direct mechanical strain-strain analysis on a nonlinear manifold model of a highly complex biological structure.
On Stochastic Dynamic Stackelberg Strategies

Abstract Feedback Stackelberg strategies are considered for two person linear multistage games with quadratic performance criteria and noisy measurements. Explicit solutions are given when the information sets are nested; the solutions are closely related to the "separation theorem" of stochastic control.
Alfred E. Beach and New York’s First Subway

On February 26, 1870, while Harvey, Gilbert and others were working on a practical elevated railroad, Alfred Ely Beach introduced a one-block demonstration subway to the public, charging $0.25 fare per ride. All of the proceeds were donated to the Union Home for Orphans of Soldiers and Sailors. The subway ran for one block under Broadway, between Warren and Cedar Streets, and was powered by air pressure. Thirty-four years would pass before another subway opened its doors in New York.
Approximation of surfaces by normal meshes

This thesis introduces a novel geometry processing pipeline based on unconstrained spherical parameterization and normal remeshing. We claim three main contributions: First we show how to increase the stability of Normal Mesh construction, while speeding it up by decomposing the process into two stages: parameterization and remeshing. We show that the remeshing step can be seen as resampling under a small perturbation of the given parameterization. Based on this observation we describe a novel algorithm for efficient and stable (interpolating) normal mesh construction via parameterization perturbation. Our second contribution is the introduction of Variational Normal Meshes. We describe a novel algorithm for encoding these meshes, and use our implementation to argue that variational normal meshes have a higher approximation quality than interpolating normal meshes, as expected. In particular we demonstrate that interpolating normal meshes have about 60 percent higher Hausdorff approximation error for the same number of vertices than our novel variational normal meshes. We also show that variational normal meshes have less aliasing artifacts than interpolative normal meshes. The third contribution is on creating parameterizations for unstructured genus zero meshes. Previous approaches could only avoid collapses by introducing artificial constraints or continuous reprojections, which are avoided by our method. The key idea is to define upper bound energies that are still good approximations. We achieve this by dividing classical planar triangle energies by the minimum distance to the sphere center. We prove that these simple modification provides the desired upper bounds and are good approximations in the finite element sense. We have implemented all algorithms and provide example results and statistical data supporting our theoretical observations.
Stalled: Gender Diversity on Corporate Boards

Virtually every recent report describes women's progress in achieving greater representation on corporate boards as "stalled" or some similar adjective. In light of the increased presence of women in the workplace and the failure of initiatives to date, it is time to consider what additional efforts could be taken to improve the status quo. This essay suggests three approaches, ranging from mild to aggressive.
Proteolytic Activation of Human Procathepsin D

The occurrence of multiple proteolytic processing steps is typical of lysosomal enzyme biosynthesis, but not characteristic of the other aspartyl proteases. Cathepsin D, a lysosomal aspartyl protease, is proteolytically processed several times during biosynthesis. A summary of these processing steps is shown in Figure 1. Although the activity and structure of cathepsin D has been studied in great detail1,2,3,4 and the activation of procathepsin D is known to be dependent upon this proteolytic processing, the proteases and the exact cleavage sites which the proteases use to accomplish the processing of cathepsin D are, for the most part, unknown. The activation of the aspartyl protease proenzymes pepsinogen and prorenin has been explored in depth.4,5 In this article we have summarized our recent studies on the proteolytic activation of human procathepsin D.
Mechanical Circulatory Support in ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction

Cardiogenic shock (CS) occurs in approximately 8–10% of patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). While immediate percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) continues to be the mainline treatment strategy, mortality remains as high as 40% before hospital discharge. Even after hospital discharge, survivors of cardiogenic shock complicating myocardial infarction (CSMI) often suffer from severe heart failure and its consequences, including repeated hospitalization and high mortality. Mechanical circulatory support (MCS) devices during CSMI PCI can be lifesaving by supporting poor ventricular function while decreasing myocardial wall stress and relieving ischemia. In this chapter, we review the definition and pathophysiology of CSMI, the major ventricular support devices, an algorithm for MCS use in STEMI, relevant data, and a prototypic case that illustrates CSMI management augmented by MCS.
White Paper from a CTSA Workshop Series on Special and Underserved Populations: Enhancing Investigator Readiness to Conduct Research Involving LGBT Populations.

Despite the significant health disparities experienced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) populations, few investigators affiliated with the National Institutes of Health-funded Clinical and Translational Science Award Programs are conducting research related to this underserved population. We provide recommendations shared during a half-day workshop aimed at increasing researcher readiness to conduct LGBT research. This workshop was presented as part of a series on conducting research with underserved populations offered by the Recruitment, Retention, and Community Engagement Program of the Center for Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Six LGBT health research experts provided focused presentations. The workshop presentations included a summary of significant health inequality issues, theoretical models relevant to research on LGBT health, best practices in measuring sexual orientation and gender identity, recommendations for recruitment and retention, a discussion of community engagement, and ethical considerations in conducting LGBT research. We provide a summary of recommendations to guide future research, training, and public policy related to LGBT health. The information can increase capacity among Clinical and Translational Science Award affiliated researchers in conducting research in this special population.
Free radical reactions promoted by O-stannyl ketyls 3. Tandem cyclizations

Abstract Tandem free radical reactions promoted by O-stannyl ketyls were examined which resulted in the formation of spiro- and fused-ring systems. Unactivated and activated alkenes with phenyl and ester functions easily afforded the desired five-membered rings.
PrEP for HIV: grade A for evidence but pending for impact.

The US Preventive Services Task Force has issued a grade A recommendation that clinicians offer pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to people at high risk of acquiring HIV. Currently, many fewer individuals receive PrEP than those who would benefit from it; whether PrEP can have a real impact on reducing the global burden of HIV is yet to be determined.
Dimensions of recipe register and native speaker knowledge: Observations from a writing experiment

Abstract This study investigates native Japanese speakers’ context-dependent linguistic knowledge of cooking recipes. Recipes are a typical example of a register, defined as the use of language in a particular social situation for a specific purpose. Thirty participants in the present study were asked to write a recipe for curry rice (a popular dish in Japan) or an unnamed soup (shown in a photo) on a blank piece of paper without access to any resources. Most participants’ texts contained specialized vocabulary and basic procedural organization. On the other hand, few integrated the typical grammatical features of commercial recipes. It suggests that the latter details are not part of the communicative repertoires of most participants. The grammatical characteristics of commercial recipes are likely a product of careful editing, aimed for clarity and consistency. Professional editing appears to have a significant role in shaping the grammar of the written register.
As Maternal Mortality Rises, the Solutions Are Complex and Difficult for Physicians to Manage Alone

NEJM Catalyst Insights Council members weigh in on how to improve outcomes and disparities in maternal morbidity and mortality.
Structurally Unique PARP-1 Inhibitors for the Treatment of Prostate Cancer

The prognosis for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer is unfavorable, and although Poly(ADP)-ribose polymerase-1 (PARP-1) inhibitors have shown efficacy in the treatment of androgen-receptor dependent malignancies, the limited number of options present obstacles for patients that are not responsive to these treatments. Here we utilize an integrated screening strategy that combines cellular screening assays, informatics, in silico computational approaches, and dose-response testing for reducing a compound library of confirmed PARP-1 inhibitors. Six hundred and sixty-four validated PARP-1 inhibitors were reduced to 9 small molecules with favorable physicochemical/ADME properties, unique chemical fingerprints, high dissimilarity to existing drugs, few off-target effects, and dose-responsivity in the 1 µmol/L - 20 µmol/L range. The top 9 unique molecules identified by our integrated screening strategy will be selected for further preclinical development including cytotoxicity testing, effects on mitosis, structure-activity relationship, physicochemical/ADME studies, and in vivo testing.
Local Media Ownership and Viewpoint Diversity in Local Television News

Regulators have long sought to protect viewpoint diversity in the media but have had trouble defining and measuring it. This paper proposes a theory-driven, market-based measure of viewpoint diversity in local television news. It then calculates this viewpoint diversity metric using a panel dataset of local television ratings. Finally, an econometric model is used to determine whether viewpoint diversity is associated with local media market ownership structure. The estimated elasticities of viewpoint diversity with respect to media ownership variables are very close to zero.
"You are Not Alone": Linking Peer Support to Information and Resources for Mental Health Concerns in Advocacy Groups' Social Media Messaging.

The pervasive stigmatization of mental health concerns has caused a public health crisis in the United States, as it prevents individuals from seeking treatment for such concerns. Grassroots mental...
Adverse event reporting in intervention research for young autistic children

Our team examined 150 reports on group-design, non-pharmacological interventions for young autistic children, to determine the prevalence of adverse event reporting. We found that only 11 studies m...
Environmental Factors Driving Spatial Heterogeneity in Desert Halophile Microbial Communities

Spatial heterogeneity in microbial communities is observed in all natural ecosystems and can stem from both adaptations to local environmental conditions as well as stochastic processes. Extremophile microbial communities inhabiting evaporitic halite nodules (salt rocks) in the Atacama Desert, Chile, are a good model ecosystem for investigating factors leading to microbiome heterogeneity, due to their diverse taxonomic composition and the spatial segregation of individual nodules. We investigated the abiotic factors governing microbiome composition across different spatial scales, allowing for insight into the factors that govern halite colonization from regional desert-wide scales to micro-scales within individual nodules. We found that water availability and community drift account for microbiome assembly differently at different distance scales, with higher rates of cell dispersion at the smaller scales resulting in a more homogenous composition. This trend likely applies to other endoliths, and to non-desert communities, where dispersion between communities is limited. At the intra-nodule scales, a light availability gradient was most important in determining the distribution of microbial taxa despite intermixing by water displacement via capillary action.
Cell Sequence and Mitosis Affect Fibroblast Directional Decision-Making During Chemotaxis in Microfluidic Mazes.

Directed fibroblast migration is central to highly proliferative processes in regenerative medicine and developmental biology. However, the mechanisms by which single fibroblasts affect each other’s directional decisions, while chemotaxing in microscopic pores, are not well understood. We explored effects of cell sequence and mitosis on fibroblast platelet-derived growth factor-BB (PDGF-BB)-induced migration in microfluidic mazes with two possible through paths: short and long. Additionally, image-based modeling of the chemoattractant’s diffusion, consumption and decay, was used to explain the experimental observations. It both cases, the cells displayed behavior that is contradictory to expectation based on the global chemoattractant gradient pre-established in the maze. In case of the sequence, the cells tend to alternate when faced with a bifurcation: if a leading cell takes the shorter (steeper gradient) path, the cell following it chooses the longer (weaker gradient) path, and vice versa. Image-based modeling of the process showed that the local PDGF-BB consumption by the individual fibroblasts may be responsible for this phenomenon. Additionally, it was found that when a mother cell divides, its two daughters go in opposite directions (even if it means migrating against the chemoattractant gradient and overcoming on-going cell traffic). It is apparent that micro-confined fibroblasts modify each other’s directional decisions in a manner that is counter-intuitive to what is expected from classical chemotaxis theory. Consequently, accounting for these effects could lead to a better understanding of tissue generation in vivo, and result in more advanced engineered tissue products in vitro.
How do we change practice

OBJECT: The goal of this video lecture was to show the importance to research group organizing protocols to reduce cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) shunt infection at Hydrocephalus Clinical Research Network (HCRN) centers (from 8.7% to 5.7%). Antibiotic-impregnated catheters (AICs) were not part of the protocol but were used off protocol by some surgeons. The authors therefore began using a new protocol that included AICs in an effort to reduce the infection rate further. The improvement of quality was related to reduce variation and improve outcome. METHODS The previous protocol was implemented at HCRN centers on January 1, 2012, for all shunt procedures (excluding external ventricular drains [EVDs], ventricular reservoirs, and subgaleal shunts). Compliance with the protocol and outcome events up to March 30, 2014, were recorded. The actual protocol is based on 7 points (HCRNq centers): intravenous antibiotics, skin preparation, hand scrub, double gloves, iodophoretic surgical field, catheter and antibiotics, and vancomycin irrigation RESULTS. Before protocol implementation in 30 participating centers, and 1318 subjects (1571 surgical cases) enrolled the overall infection rate was 6.0% (95% CI 5.1%-7.2%). The actual infection rate when using this new protocol has been analyzed. CONCLUSIONS CSF shunt procedures performed in compliance with a new infection prevention protocol at HCRNq centers had a lower infection rate than noncompliant procedures. Based on the current data, HCRNq centers the role of AICs compared with other infection prevention measures is still under analysis.
Quinoa Fiber and Quercetin Alter the Composition and Function of the Cecal Microbiome and Improve Brush Border Membrane Functionality and Morphology In-Vivo (Gallus gallus)

Objectives Assessment and comparison of the effects of various concentrations of soluble extracts of quinoa fiber (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) and quercetin-3-glucoside on the zinc and iron status, brush border membrane (BBM) functionality, intestinal morphology, and cecal bacterial populations in-vivo (Gallus gallus).
Bounding Queuing System Performance with Variational Theory

Abstract Queuing models are often used for traffic analysis, but analytical results concerning a system of queues are rare, thanks to the interdependence between queues. In this paper, we present an analysis of queuing systems to obtain bounds of their performance without studying the details of individual queues. Queuing dynamics is formulated in continuous-time, subject to variations of demands and bottleneck capacities. Our analysis develops new techniques built on the closed-form solution to a generalized queuing model for a single bottleneck. Taking advantage of its variational structure, we derive the upper and lower bounds for the total queue length in a tandem bottleneck system and discuss its implication for the kinematic wave counterpart. Numerical experiments are conducted to demonstrate the appropriateness of the derived upper and lower bounds as approximations in a stochastic setting.
The growing dominance of Walmart in U.S. consumers’ food shopping baskets and caloric purchases: trends from 2000-2012 (255.2)

Little is known about who shops at Walmart, the proportion of calories purchased there, or kcal/dollar spent relative to other food stores. Using Nielsen Homescan pooled cross-sectional nationally representative data on household purchases, we examined changes in annual percent of calories of consumer packaged foods/beverages (CPGs) purchased at Walmart from 2000-2012 (N=643,600). The percent of households who shopped at Walmart rose from 67% to 78% from 2000 to 2012 (p<0.01). From quantile regression, among Walmart shoppers, the percent of CPG calories purchased at Walmart increased from a median of 4% in 2000 to 15% in 2012 (p<0.01). This change was even greater at the upper end of the distribution, with the 75th percentile of Wal-Mart shopper purchasing 11% of CPG calories at Wal-Mart in 2000 compared to 45% in 2012 (p<0.01). From multinomial logistic regression, 54% of low-income households purchased a high proportion of their calories from Walmart compared to 35% of high-income households (p<0.01). R...
Affection and cognition in transaction and the mapping of cultural space

In this article, an attempt has been made to treat affection and cognition “transactionally” and to report work underway in the development of a rationale for mapping “sign components” of “cultural space.” The development of statistical procedures and applications remains to be undertaken.
The role of legume fallows in intensified upland rice-based systems of West Africa

Traditional upland rice-based cropping systems in West Africa rely on periods of fallow to restore soil fertility and prevent the build-up of insect pests and weeds. Demographic growth and increased demand for land is forcing many farmers to intensify their rice production systems. Declining fallow length and increasing number of crops before leaving the land to extended fallow result in a significant yield reduction. Promising cropping system alternatives include the use of site specific, weed-suppressing, multi-purpose cover legumes as short duration fallows. Constraints to rice production related to intensification were determined in 209 farmers' fields in four agro-ecological zones during 1994 and 1995. Nitrogen accumulation and weed suppression were evaluated in 54 legume accessions, grown for six months during the dry season, under a range of hydrological and soil conditions in 1994/95. Their effect on the yield of upland rice was determined in 1995. To increase benefits from improved fallow technology, the timing of legume establishment in relation to rice and the effect on crop and weed growth of removing, burning, mulching, or incorporating fallow residues prior to the rice crop were determined. Intensified land use resulted in a significant plot-level yield reduction that was highest in the derived savanna and the bimodal forest zones where it was associated with a doubling of the weed biomass in rice and a significant reduction in soil N supply. Legume fallows appear to offer the potential to sustain rice yields under intensified cropping. Legume biomass was in most instances significantly greater than in the weedy fallow control and several legume species suppressed weed growth. Nitrogen accumulation by legumes varied between 1–200 kg N ha-1 with 30–90% Ndfa. Rice grain yield following legume fallows increased by an average of 0.2 mg ha-1 or 29% above the weedy fallow control. Relay establishment substantially increased legume biomass. However, seeding of the legume at 28 days or earlier significantly reduced grain yield due to interspecific competition. Incorporating or mulching of fallow residues provided no significant yield advantage as compared to burning. Absolute effects varied as a function of site, legume species, and management practice.
Transnational Feminism and Women Who Torture: Reading Abu Ghraib Prison Photography

Sexualized torture of men of the enemy front has not gained as much critical attention as that of women. Recently the sexual abuse of the bodies of 'enemy' men at Abu Ghraib have, nonetheless, increasingly drawn attention to the gendered torture of men, though much of the theorizing about such torture remains to be done. In this paper I will draw on Abu Ghraib prison photography to read the logic of military-police torture of male bodies that have been criminalized as the enemy. Of particular interest to such an understanding will be a transnational feminist inquiry into figures of female torturers of male bodies that are differently raced/cultured/nationed. What role do the bodies of women torturers in war literature and war photography play vis-A-vis their male victims? How do we theorize a responsible transnational feminist response to women who torture? Where does transnational feminism stand with respect to "enemies" of the nation?
Pollination ecology and floral function of Brown’s peony ( Paeonia brownii ) in the Blue Mountains of northeastern Oregon

Brown’s peony, Paeonia brownii (Paeoniaceae), is one of only two peony species native to the Western Hemisphere, yet its pollination ecology and breeding system have never been documented. Using flowering individuals of an endemic colony in the Blue Mountains of Oregon, U.S., we investigated the peony’s pollination system and floral function. We also examined pollen/carpel interactions through experimental pollinations aided by fluorescence microscopy. Paeonia brownii appears to be self compatible and mostly protogynous with floral traits of a generalist pollination system. The flowers appear to attract insects by producing abundant floral nectar secreted from lobes of a perigynous disc throughout their 9-15-days of anthesis. The most common pollen vectors were wasp queens (Vespidae), the large flower fly Criorhina caudata (Syrphidae), and females of Lasioglossum spp. (Halictidae), all of which foraged exclusively for nectar. Whether collected from foraging wasps and flies, anthers, or stigmas, about half the pollen grains appeared fertile. The number of ovules per carpel was about 19. Seed set (seeds/ovule) of naturally pollinated flowers was about 20% with about 4 viable seeds per follicle. The number of fertile pollen grains transferred to the stigma under natural conditions was highly variable but generally low, which may have contributed in part to the low rate of seed set. This study raises further questions about the role of pollen sterility, floral nectar and vespid wasps in shaping a pollinator system that is unusual in Paeonia.
Mechanisms of Sintering During Hot Pressing and Recent Technological Advances

Advances, since the last sintering conference, in an understanding of the mechanisms of sintering during hot pressing are outlined. These include not only very recent diffusion models for the intermediate and final stages of sintering, but also the combined concurrent effects of particle rearrangement, plastic flow and diffusion. Multicomponent mechanisms, either constraining or enhancing Newtonian diffusional mechanisms, are also described. By analogy with recent steady-state creep studies, the possible role of diffusion-controlled grain-boundary sliding is also suggested. Significant technological advances have also been made recently with hot pressing and these are described. Included are the achievement of microstructural uniformity, the fabrication of large, multiple curvature shapes, considerable reduction in cost, and the development of a host of non-oxide ceramics for high-performance applications. Finally, areas for future study are suggested where lack of basic information limits the understanding and technological exploitation of the hot pressing process.
Alternate Applications of Fusion—Production of Radioisotopes

A major effort to find near-term, non-electric applications of fusion energy has shown that the production of radioisotopes is attractive. The use of the D3He fusion reaction to produce Positron Em...
Meningitis caused by Neisseria meningitidis serogroup 135

The first descriptions of meningitis in childhood caused by Neisseria meningitidis serogroup 135 are presented. Difficulties with identification of unusual serogroups of N. meningitidis are discussed.
Naïve Bayes and SVM classifiers for classifying databank accession number sentences from online biomedical articles

This paper describes two classifiers, Naive Bayes and Support Vector Machine (SVM), to classify sentences containing Databank Accession Numbers, a key piece of bibliographic information, from online biomedical articles. The correct identification of these sentences is necessary for the subsequent extraction of these numbers. The classifiers use words that occur most frequently in sentences as features for the classification. Twelve sets of word features are collected to train and test the classifiers. Each set has a different number of word features ranging from 100 to 1,200. The performance of each classifier is evaluated using four measures: Precision, Recall, F-Measure, and Accuracy. The Naive Bayes classifier shows performance above 93.91% at 200 word features for all four measures. The SVM shows 98.80% Precision at 200 word features, 94.90% Recall at 500 and 700, 96.46% F-Measure at 200, and 99.14% Accuracy at 200 and 400. To improve classification performance, we propose two merging operators, Max and Harmonic Mean, to combine results of the two classifiers. The final results show a measureable improvement in Recall, F-Measure, and Accuracy rates.
A discourse-based approach to semantic feature analysis for the treatment of aphasic word retrieval failures.

Background: Semantic feature analysis (SFA) is a prominent treatment for the word retrieval deficits of aphasia. Generalisation of improved word retrieval on picture naming to discourse production has been an important factor for evaluating the effectiveness of SFA treatment. Unfortunately, generalisation of word retrieval improvements to discourse production following SFA has been modest. Aims: Because of the previous, albeit limited, success of SFA in producing improved word retrieval for discourse we further examined the utility of SFA for reducing noun and verb retrieval failures in aphasic discourse. Rather than use SFA as a means for improving generalisation of picture naming or as a compensatory strategy for lexical failures during discourse, we applied SFA as an a priori means to reduce the frequency of word retrieval failures in discourse. Methods & Procedures: Semantic feature analysis was applied to object and action word retrieval failures appearing during picture descriptions and procedural q...
Hexagonal Mesostructure in Powders Produced by Evaporation-Induced Self-Assembly of Aerosols from Aqueous Tetraethoxysilane Solutions

Spherical submicron mesoporous particles possessing two-dimensional hexagonal order have been produced by evaporation-induced self-assembly in aerosols generated from acidic (pH ≈ 2) aqueous solutions of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and the surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Particle internal structure consists of multiple regions of hexagonally ordered tubular pore bundles with various orientations. Exploration of a broad range of CTAB and TEOS content showed that hexagonally ordered particles with Brunauer−Emmett−Teller surface areas of 700−1300 m2/g are produced when the CTAB/Si ratio is in the range 0.09 < CTAB/Si < 0.28. The mean pore diameter in ordered material is nearly constant at 2.8−3.0 nm, while wall thickness decreases from approximately 1 to 0.6 nm as the CTAB/Si ratio increases over that range. Hexagonal order is lost very abruptly for CTAB/Si < 0.09, with a corresponding rapid loss of surface area. Similar results were found for a solution pH of 1−3; however, a solution pH above...
Phytohemagglutinin Induces Delays in Oral Regeneration in the Ciliate Stentor coeruleus1

Regenerating Stentor, exposed to the plant lectin phytohemagglutinin, are significantly delayed in completing oral regeneration. All of the delays are restricted to the earliest stages of regeneration prior to stage 3. The effects of phytohemagglutinin are reversible once the drug is removed. The addition of the presumed sugar receptor for phytohemagglutinin, N-acetylgalactosamine, at the start of oral regeneration could not reverse the effects of phytohemagglutinin, but the addition of excess (10 mM) extracellular calcium could. When the addition of the excess calcium was delayed for various times after phytohemagglutinin exposure, the effectiveness of the calcium in reversing the phytohemagglutinin-induced delays was reduced. Based on the mechanism of action of PHA in other cells, these results suggest that membrane proteins may be involved in controlling oral regeneration, possibly through mechanisms involving Ca++.
Advising Graduate Students for Successful International Internships

An increasing number of faculty advise graduate students prior to and during internship assignments abroad. To be effective in this important task, the advi sor needs to understand the cultural dimensions of work and of internships in particular. The faculty advisor is pivotal to the success of any internship—par ticularly in international settings—and must understand how an interna tional context affects the selection, training, and monitoring of interns and the evaluation of the internships
Extending the lifelog to non-human subjects: ambient storytelling for human-object relationships

In this paper, we describe an approach to lifelogging that positions everyday objects, vehicles, and built environments as worthy of their own lifelog systems. We use this approach to anchor what we call ambient storytelling, and we argue that this methodology opens up new opportunities to design for rich and enduring relationships between humans and non-humans. We will explore this research approach through a series of examples, including: (1) a building that learns about its occupants and reveals its lifelog through playful solicitation and reciprocation, (2) story-objects that reveal backstory to their users, and (3) an automotive-sensor system and lifelog platform that facilitates context-specific playful interaction between a driver and their car. In this last example, we were interested in how a vehicle-based lifelog could augment drivers' existing propensities to project character onto their cars. In each of these examples, we reposition the concept of the lifelog to consider the "lives" of objects and the relationship between humans and non-humans as a worthwhile area of research.
Breast Carcinoma Metastatic to the Choroid: Analysis of G7 Patients

Two hundred fifty patients with breast carcinoma had ocular examinations between 1973 and 1980. One hundred fifty-two patients were referred because of ocular symptoms or signs, and 98 were asymptomatic. Of the symptomatic patients, 58 had choroidal metastases; nine of the asymptomatic patients with stage IV metastatic breast cancer had choroidal involvement (9.2%). For the 67 patients with metastases, the median age at ocular diagnosis was 51 years. The median interval from primary to choroidal metastases was three years. Survival after ocular diagnosis ranged from one week to four years, with a median of nine months. Among the 67 patients, choroidal tumor deposits occurred bilaterally in 27 patients (40.3%), in 18 right eyes (26.9%), and in 22 left eyes (32.8%). Irradiation led to stabilization or improvement in visual acuity in virtually all cases. Patients in whom acuity was not threatened were observed on medical therapy. Four of these patients eventually required irradiation for increasing disease. Choroidal metastases tended to follow pulmonary dissemination, and to occur with or before central nervous system disease. Choroidal metastases are a common, treatable event in breast carcinoma and may represent the smallest detectable clinical lesion.
Safe 'composability' of middleware services

Look to composable middleware frameworks to ensure safe middleware interactions for ubiquitous computing applications.
A High-intensity Nano-aperture Vertical-Cavity Surface-Emitting Laser With Controlled Polarization

near-field optical data storage. Also, data transfer rates canbegreatly increased iftheVCSELsareapplied inparallel arrays[11. Previous workonnanoaperture VCSELsutilize conventional circular apertures whichsuffer fromlowpoweroutput through thenanoaperture whentheaperture size becomes muchsmaller thanonewavelength[23]. We propose toapply aunique C-shaped nano-aperture (C-aperture) ontoVCSELs.Fromsimulation, theC-aperture showsthree orders of magnitude higher powertransmission efficiency thanaconventional square orcircular aperture producing thesame near-field spotsize[41. We report herearecord-high near-field intensity of15.4mW/[tm2 achieved fromournanoaperture VCSELwitha70nmC-aperture. Ourtop-emitting VCSELsaredesigned tooperate around 970nmandconsist of9.5pairs ofp-type distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR),three strain-compensated InGaAs/GaAsP quantumwellsand38.5pairs ofn-DBRs.The reflectivity ofthetopmirror isenhanced witha150nmthick Aucoating. We insert ahalf-wavelength thick SiO2 filmbetween theAucoating andthetopDBR pairs toenhance thetransmission through thenano-aperture. We use wetoxidation ofAlGaAstoobtain a2.8pim-diameter oxide aperture forcurrent andmodeconfinement. Thenanoapertures areetched through theAucoating using aFocused IonBeam(FIB). Thetransmission oflight through theC-aperture ispolarization-dependent. Forthematched polarization, theCaperture produces awell-confined near-field spotwithhighintensity. However, fortheorthogonal mismatched polarization, theresulted near-field spotispoorly confined andtheintensity istwoorders ofmagnitude lower. Since VCSELsnormally havetwodegenerate orthogonal polarization states, weneedtocontrol thepolarization ofthe VCSELsinorder toapply theC-aperture ontheVCSELs.We openfour50*1500nm slits surrounding a70nmCaperture intheAu coating using FIBtocontrol thepolarization. Sincethetransmission oflight polarized perpendicular totheslit ismuchhigher thanthatoflight polarized parallel totheslit, thepolarization ofthe VCSELsiseffectively controlled tobeparallel totheslit duetolower loss inthis direction. Toidentify howmuchnetpowercomesoutoftheC-aperture, weblock thelight transmitted through theslits by depositing 150nmthick Pttofill theslits using electron-beam assisted chemical vapordeposition onaFIB/SEM dual-beam system. Pthasreflectivity of73%at1ptm, compared withreflectivity of95%forAu.Sothepolarization selectivity bytheslits ismaintained after theslits arefilled withPt.We measured thepolarization-resolved power
Observations and Modeling of the August 27, 2012 Earthquake and Tsunami affecting El Salvador and Nicaragua

On 27 August 2012 (04:37 UTC, 26 August 10:37 p.m. local time) a magnitude M w = 7.3 earthquake occurred off the coast of El Salvador and generated surprisingly large local tsunami. Following the event, local and international tsunami teams surveyed the tsunami effects in El Salvador and northern Nicaragua. The tsunami reached a maximum height of ~6 m with inundation of up to 340 m inland along a 25 km section of coastline in eastern El Salvador. Less severe inundation was reported in northern Nicaragua. In the far-field, the tsunami was recorded by a DART buoy and tide gauges in several locations of the eastern Pacific Ocean but did not cause any damage. The field measurements and recordings are compared to numerical modeling results using initial conditions of tsunami generation based on finite-fault earthquake and tsunami inversions and a uniform slip model.