cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Structural chemistry and magnetic properties of copper pyromellitate coordination polymers containing pyridylnicotinamide ligands

Abstract A series of divalent copper pyromellitate (1,2,4,5-benzenetetracarboxylate, pyro) coordination polymers containing either 3-pyridylnicotinamide (3-pna) or 4-pyridylnicotinamide (4-pna) was hydrothermally prepared and structurally characterized by single-crystal X-ray diffraction. [Cu2(pyro)(pyroH2)(3-pnaH)2(H2O)2]n (1) is a 2-D coordination polymer built from {Cu2O2(OCO)2} dimeric units, while {[Cu(pyro)(3-pnaH)2(H2O)2]·4H2O}n (2) is a simple neutral 1-D chain polymer. {[Cu(pyroH2)(4-pnaH)2(H2O)2](pyroH2)·2H2O}n (3) possesses cationic 1-D chain motifs and unligated pyroH2 dianions. {[Cu2(pyroH2)3(4-pnaH)2]·6H2O}n (4) is also a 1-D coordination polymer, but built from the linkage of {Cu2(pyroH2)} dimeric units. {[Cu3(pyroH)2(4-pna)2(H2O)2]·2H2O}n (5) manifests a 3-D coordination polymer network with rare frl topology, containing embedded {Cu3(OCO)2} linear trimers. Moderately strong antiferromagnetic coupling (J = −76.4(3) cm−1) was observed within the {Cu2O2(OCO)2} dimeric units in 1, while very weak ferromagnetic coupling (J = 0.8(2) cm−1) was observed within the {Cu3(OCO)2} linear trimers in 5. Thermal degradation behavior of the five new materials is also presented.
Electronic Performance Support Systems: A New Opportunity to Enhance Teacher Effectiveness?.

Abstract The author describes electronic performance support systems (EPSS) as an opportunity to view the preparation and support of teachers from a new perspective. EPSS are integrated computer-based systems that provide timely information, useful advice, relevant instruction, and productivity tools at the moment of need. They represent a shift in the traditional notion that the application of skills and knowledge previously learned during instruction determines successful performance. Strengths of EPSS include the ability to provide support when and where it is needed, to ease information overload, to alleviate training and mentoring needs, and to provide expertise to inexperienced individuals. Concerns about EPSS include the risk of deskilling the individual, determining appropriate situations for their use, and development and maintenance.
A review of psychogenic aspects and treatment of bruxism

The signs and symptoms of bruxism are detectable, but unfortunately, the hypothesized etiologies and mechanisms of their action have not been satisfactorily substantiated. 2. Researchers emphasize the significance of the oral cavity in expressing emotions and that occlusal adjustments and other mechanical types of treatment may be inadequate. 3. The treatment of bruxism involves the management of psychic tension, signs and symptoms, occlusal irritations, and neuromuscular habit patterns. 4. With the greater sophistication in the social sciences, therapy for bruxism in the future may become largely behavioral in nature, rather than mechanical.
A new measurement of the strength of the superallowed Fermi branch in the beta decay of 10C with GAMMASPHERE

Abstract We report a new measurement of the strength of the superallowed 0 + →0 + transition in the β -decay of 10 C. The experiment was done at the LBNL 88-inch cyclotron using forty-seven GAMMASPHERE germanium detectors. The technique used in this measurement was similar to that of an earlier experiment, but the systematic corrections were significantly different. The measured branching ratio: 1.4665±0.0038×10 −2 is used to compute the superallowed Fermi f t, which gives the weak vector coupling constant and the u to d element of the Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa quark mixing matrix.
Sensitivity Analysis on the Probabilistic Maintenance Model of Circuit Breaker

Catastrophic failures of circuit breakers result in high cost associated with loss of load and component replacement. The probability of such failures can be reduced using maintenance procedures. Probabilistic models are needed to estimate failure rate, perform cost benefit analysis and arrive at an optimal maintenance strategy that balances the cost of maintenance with reduction in cost of failures. A probabilistic maintenance model, introduced earlier for circuit breakers, is implemented in this paper. The model parameters are mean time in each stage, inspection rate of each stage, and probabilities of transition from one stage to others. Sensitivity analysis of model parameters is done to establish cost-effective maintenance process. The analysis covers mean time to first failure, probability of failure, maintenance cost, inspection cost, and failure cost. Simulation results are presented.
Tear energy of elastomers for maxillofacial applications

The energy necessary to generate a unit area of torn surfaces was measured for six elastomers with low moduli of elasticity. Four polyurethane materials and two commercial maxillofacial materials were included. The latter had tear energy values between 0.63 and 6.56 erg/cm2, while the polyurethanes ranged from 8.49 to 50.0 erg/cm2. Three of the materials demonstrated non-Hookian behaviour during testing, violating an assumption of the tear energy analysis. A method of compensating for this discrepancy is described.
The Rule of Zakon: The Criminal Cassation Department and Legality in Late Imperial Russia, 1866–94

This article addresses the legal culture of late imperial Russia as reflected in the work of its highest criminal appeals court, the Criminal Cassation Department. The texts of the decisions rendered by Criminal Cassation, pre-revolutionary Russia's approximate version of the U.S. Supreme Court in criminal law, demonstrate a commitment to legality expressed in a close reading of, and adherence to, statute (zakon). This zakonnost', in contrast to many of the other vital “legalities” described in late imperial historiography, was not motivated principally by political, cultural, or social ideology; rather, it was the product of a Westernized, maturing jurisprudence, dedicated to law in itself as a calling and task beyond extralegal considerations, and may be regarded as an example of Richard Wortman's notion of “Russian legal consciousness” in practice.
Cognitive features associated with depressive symptoms in adolescence: directionality and specificity.

In this study we examined cognitive features that have been posited to contribute to depressive vulnerability in adolescents. Using a longitudinal sample of 331 young adolescents followed from 6th to 7th grade, cross-lagged structural equation analyses were conducted. Controlling for baseline levels of depressive, conduct, and anxiety symptoms, low self-worth was associated with a vulnerability to both depressive symptoms and conduct problems, whereas rejection sensitivity was uniquely predictive of increases in anxiety. In support of cognitive “scar” models, baseline depressive and conduct problems were both predictive of a more negative attributional style. Depressive symptoms also predicted more rejection sensitivity, whereas conduct problems predicted lower self-esteem.
Functional conservation of nucleosome formation selectively biases presumably neutral molecular variation in yeast genomes

One prominent pattern of mutational frequency, long appreciated in comparative genomics, is the bias of purine/pyrimidine conserving substitutions (transitions) over purine/pyrimidine altering substitutions (transversions). Traditionally, this transitional bias has been thought to be driven by the underlying rates of DNA mutation and/or repair. However, recent sequencing studies of mutation accumulation lines in model organisms demonstrate that substitutions generally do not accumulate at rates that would indicate a transitional bias. These observations have called into question a very basic assumption of molecular evolution; that naturally occurring patterns of molecular variation in noncoding regions accurately reflect the underlying processes of randomly accumulating neutral mutation in nuclear genomes. Here, in Saccharomyces yeasts, we report a very strong inverse association (r = -0.951, P < 0.004) between the genome-wide frequency of substitutions and their average energetic effect on nucleosome formation, as predicted by a structurally based energy model of DNA deformation around the nucleosome core. We find that transitions occurring at sites positioned nearest the nucleosome surface, which are believed to function most importantly in nucleosome formation, alter the deformation energy of DNA to the nucleosome core by only a fraction of the energy changes typical of most transversions. When we examined the same substitutions set against random background sequences as well as an existing study reporting substitutions arising in mutation accumulation lines of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, we failed to find a similar relationship. These results support the idea that natural selection acting to functionally conserve chromatin organization may contribute significantly to genome-wide transitional bias, even in noncoding regions. Because nucleosome core structure is highly conserved across eukaryotes, our observations may also help to further explain locally elevated transition bias at CpG islands, which are known to destabilize nucleosomes at vertebrate promoters.
On the commutativity of decomposition and discretization for linear singularly perturbed systems

The commutativity of singular perturbation decomposition and multirate discretization of linear systems are analyzed. The authors give a decomposition technique for linear singularly perturbed systems with multirate piecewise-constant inputs, and prove its validity. Using this decomposition technique, the approximate slow and fast subsystems are then discretized in their natural time scales. These discrete-time subsystems are shown to be equivalent to those resulting from discretization followed by decomposition. >
Compressive K-SVD

Dictionary learning algorithms design a dictionary that is specifically tailored to enable sparse representation of a given set of training signals. In turn, the increased sparsity of the signals with respect to this dictionary enables significantly improved performance in a variety of state-of-the-art signal processing tasks, e.g. compressive sensing. However, while these algorithms typically assume that all training data is fully available, this may not be the case in practice. In fact, the high cost of acquiring each signal or the sheer amount of data to be acquired may motivate us to take a compressive sensing (CS) approach, taking only a few CS measurements of each signal. In this paper, we present a novel algorithm for learning a dictionary on a set of training signals using only compressive sensing measurements of them. Our proposed algorithm is a generalization of the well-known K-SVD algorithm and preserves its convergence properties. Experimental results on synthetically generated data verify that our proposed algorithm can recover the generating dictionary atoms from CS measurements alone (so long as enough measurements of enough training signals are available), even for the case of noisy measurements. Finally, we show that compressive K-SVD (CK-SVD) can also be used to aid in signal reconstruction and compressive classification on the CS measurements.
Automatic Assessment of Coverage Quality in Intelligence Reports

Common approaches to assessing document quality look at shallow aspects, such as grammar and vocabulary. For many real-world applications, deeper notions of quality are needed. This work represents a first step in a project aimed at developing computational methods for deep assessment of quality in the domain of intelligence reports. We present an automated system for ranking intelligence reports with regard to coverage of relevant material. The system employs methodologies from the field of automatic summarization, and achieves performance on a par with human judges, even in the absence of the underlying information sources.
Mothers' Perceptions of the Benefits and Drawbacks of Early Childhood Mainstreaming:

The possible benefits and drawbacks of early childhood mainstreaming were evaluated by mothers of both special-needs and non-special-needs children representing a large community-based sample. Separate groups were recruited to establish comparisons related to children with cognitive delays, communication disorders, physical disabilities, and those at risk. A sample of typically developing children was also included. Results revealed widespread support for the benefits of mainstreaming, particularly promoting the acceptance of children with disabilities in the community, preparing the child for the real world, encouraging learning to a greater extent, and providing opportunities for more interesting and creative activities. However, a substantial number of perceived drawbacks was also noted, especially in connection with the availability of special help, special services, and qualified personnel as well as concerns regarding rejection by peers. Findings related to drawbacks suggest parental views that migh...
Computational Study of Assembly and Toxicity Inhibition of Amyloid Beta-Protein and Its Arctic Mutant

Amyloid b-protein (Ab) exists in two main alloforms, Ab40 and Ab42, of which Ab42 is linked particularly strongly to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Prior computational work demonstrated that the ab initio discrete molecular dynamics approach with an intermediate-resolution protein model captures biologically relevant differences between Ab40 and Ab42 folding and oligomerization. In the present work we apply the same approach to explore the relationship between the structure and toxicity. Assuming that Ab42 oligomers are more toxic than oligomers formed by Ab40, our structural analysis indicates that the solvent accessible surface area (SASA) in the N-terminal region of Ab42 oligomers is significantly higher than that of Ab40 oligomers. We then investigate effects of the C-terminal fragment (CTF), which was shown to attenuate Ab42 oligomer toxicity in a cell culture, on Ab42 oligomerization. Our results indicate that CTFs associate with Ab42 to form heterooligomers, consistent with quasielastic light scattering data. We show that the presence of CTFs significantly reduces SASA in the N- terminal region of Ab42 compared to the same region in Ab42 oligomers formed in the absence of CTFs.We further explore folding and oligomer formation of the Arctic mutants, [E22G]Ab40 and [E22G]Ab42, associated with a familial form of AD. Our results demonstrate that the substitution E22G disrupts the folding structure and oligomerization pathways of both Arctic mutants and results in increased SASA at the N-terminus of the Arctic Ab40 mutant. These findings suggest that Ab oligomer neurotoxicity might be directly or indirectly associated with the degree of solvent exposure of the N-terminal region of Ab.
Characteristics of microemulsion polymerized styrene with water‐soluble versus oil‐soluble initiators

The effect of oil-soluble versus water-soluble free-radical generators in the polymerization of styrene in oil-in-water (O/W) micromulsions were investigated by photon correlation spectroscopy. The microemulsions were formed by styrene, brine, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS), and pentanol. The polymerizations were carried out in two microemulsions that contained droplets differing by a factor of 2.4 in volume. Under the conditions of ϕ = 0.019 and NaCl/SDS > 2 the microemulsions were stable and the droplets were independent of one another. Both oil-soluble and water-soluble initiators produced polystyrene that contained fractions of two different sizes. In the case of the oil-soluble initiator the droplet size in the microemulsion seemed to be correlated to the size of the product whereas in the case of the water-soluble initiator, there seemed to be little relation.
Expanding the Role of the Virome: Commensalism in the Gut

Viruses affect host physiology beyond causing acute disease, thereby giving rise to the concept that the virome is a component of the microbiome. However, the role of the enteric virome is understudied relative to the fast-paced research examining commensal bacteria in the intestine. In this article, I discuss our recent work on murine norovirus indicating that an animal virus in the intestine can provide many of the signals to the host that have been attributed to commensal bacteria. Our findings suggest that the surge in microbiome research should incorporate examination of the enteric virome.
Maximal exercise stress testing in evaluation of arrhythmias in children: Results and reproducibility

Abstract To assess reproducibility in evaluating arrhythmias in children, two maximal treadmill exercise tests using the Bruce protocol were performed an average of 3.1 months apart in 19 children aged 5 to 16 years (mean 11) with chronic idiopathic ventricular (Group 1) and supraventrlcular (Group II) arrhythmias. The performance of each child during the two tests was not statistically different with regard to maximal heart rate achieved or duration of exertion; all but one child achieved expected maximal heart rates. in Group I, eight of nine children with ventricular premature complexes at rest showed suppression of the arrythmia during exercise at similar heart rates on both tests. In one child, ventricular premature complexes were not diminished in either test. One child with accelerated idioventricular rhythm and one with ventricular parasystole had reproducible arrhythmia suppression during exercise. One child with known episodes of ventricular tachycardia had this arrhythmia induced by exercise on both tests. In Group II, five children with supraventricular or junctional premature complexes at rest showed reproducible arrhythmia suppression on exercise, but one unexpectedly manifested ventricular premature complexes and one manifested runs of ectopic atrial rhythm during both exercise periods. Two children with severe sinus bradycardia achieved expected maximal heart rates. One unexpectedly manifested reproducible supraventricular premature complexes after exercise. Comparison of results of exercise testing with ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring showed that in four patients testing uncovered arrhythmias not evident on monitoring, whereas in one patient severe sinus bradycardia occurred only during monitoring. These results indicate that maximal treadmill exercise for evaluation of arrhythmias can be performed in children using standard methodology and can yield important data reproducibly.
Syntax and Etymology

In the school study of syntax the results of etymology, however highly they may be valued in theory, are in effect neglected. I called attention to this, and specifically to the construction of credo with the dative, in an article in the Classical Quarterly , v. 193 (§ 25 sqq.)
Super PACs and Financing the 2012 Presidential Election

This essay provides an initial assessment of competing claims about the impact of super PACs and also offers early insights on what super PACs are doing in this election cycle and what impact it may have on the 2012 presidential election and future elections.
Polyphosphazene polymers for tissue engineering: an analysis of material synthesis, characterization and applications

Tissue engineering often utilizes biodegradable polymers in the form of porous scaffolds for regenerating de novo tissues. There is an ever-increasing need for biodegradable polymers as temporary substrates for facilitating tissue regeneration. Compared to the widely used polyesters, polyorthoesters, poly(α-amino acids), and poly(anhydrides), biodegradable polyphosphazenes form a unique class of polymers that has vast potential for tissue engineering applications. Polyphosphazenes are linear high molecular weight polymers with an inorganic backbone consisting of alternating phosphorous and nitrogen atoms with two organic side groups attached to each phosphorous atom. The synthetic flexibility of polyphosphazenes has enabled the development of a wide range of polymers with a variety of physical, chemical and biological properties. These biodegradable polyphosphazenes undergo hydrolytic degradation yielding non-toxic and neutral pH degradation products due to the buffering capacity of phosphates and ammonia that are produced simultaneously during polyphosphazene degradation. This review focuses on synthesis of biodegradable polyphosphazenes, their degradation characteristics, biocompatibility, and their applications as tissue regeneration and controlled delivery matrices with a particular emphasis on systems based on polyphosphazenes alone, polyphosphazene blends and polyphosphazene composites.
Behavioral software contracts

Programmers embrace contracts. They can use the language they know and love to formulate logical assertions about the behavior of their programs. They can use the existing IDE infrastructure to log contracts, to test, to debug, and to profile their programs. The keynote presents the challenges and rewards of supporting contracts in a modern, full-spectrum programming language. It covers technical challenges of contracts while demonstrating the non-technical motivation for contract system design choices and showing how contracts and contract research can serve practicing programmers. The remainder of this article is a literature survey of contract research, with an emphasis on recent work about higher-order contracts and blame.
Symposium Paper: Health Management Programs: Integrating Biological and Management Principles in Analysis, Design, and Implementation of Programs for Two-Year-Old Beef Cows1

Abstract Designing a health program for cow-calf operations requires a scientific approach and knowledge of ranch resources, environment, genetics, nutrition, management, and a biosecurity program. These areas are interrelated and must be considered to assess and manage the risk of disease. A comprehensive health program should 1) identify potential risks related to production and disease; 2) determine and understand appropriate benchmarks for production, disease, and production costs; 3) diagnose the problem when benchmarks are not achieved; and 4) use appropriate records to verify results. The 2-yr-old cow is at the greatest risk of failing to meet financial and production benchmarks because of her additional nutritional requirements. This group may also have reduced herd immunity and generally produce lower quantity and quality of colostrum, resulting in greater risk of disease and potentially reduced production in their offspring. As a result, this group may require more inputs in all aspects of the health program. Risk assessment includes the specific risks to biosecurity, such as raising or purchasing females that are persistently infected with bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) or Mycobacterium paratuberculosis. Risk assessment of exposure to common infectious reproductive disease pathogens, such as infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), leptospirosis, trichomoniasis, vibriosis, and neopsora should be conducted and vaccination protocols implemented as needed. Finally, an understanding of the concept of herd immunity is important when defining realistic expectations regarding immunizations. With proper implementation, health programs can significantly reduce the risk of disease and economic loss.
A 175 mV multiply-accumulate unit using an adaptive supply voltage and body bias (ASB) architecture

In order to minimize total active power consumption in digital circuits, one must take into account subthreshold leakage currents that grow exponentially as technology scales. This research develops a theoretical model to predict how dynamic power and subthreshold power must be balanced to give an optimal V/sub DD//V/sub t/ operating point that minimizes total active power consumption for different workload and operating conditions. A 175-mV multiply-accumulate test chip using a triple-well technology with tunable supply and body bias values is measured to experimentally verify the tradeoffs between the various sources of power. The test chip shows that there is an optimum V/sub DD//V/sub t/ operating point, although it differs from the theoretical limit because of excessive forward bias currents. Finally, we propose a preliminary automatic supply and body biasing architecture (ASB) that automatically configures a circuit to operate with the lowest possible active power consumption.
Grain boundary strengthening in copper/niobium multilayered foils and fine-grained niobium

Uniaxial tensile tests were performed on Cu/Nb multilayered foils to investigate yield strength and grain boundary strengthening in the layered foils at room temperature and in fine-grained Nb at 600 °C. At room temperature, yielding in Cu/Nb multilayered foils is controlled by deformation in both layers, and grain boundary strengthening is observed with a Hall–Petch slope (kRT) of 198 ± 56 MPa·μm1/2 at a strain rate of 10−4 s−1. At 600 °C, yielding in Cu/Nb multilayered foils is controlled by deformation in just the Nb layers. Hall–Petch strengthening is observed over a range of strain rates, but the Hall–Petch slope decreases from 197 ± 71 MPa·μm1/2 for a strain rate of 10−4 s−1 to only 25 ± 40 MPa·μm1/2 for a strain rate of 10−6 s−1. The significant drop in the Hall–Petch slope for Nb with decreasing strain rate indicates a change in the controlling deformation mechanism from dislocation glide to dislocation creep.
An Evaluation of MS-222 and Benzocaine as Anesthetics for Metamorphic and Paedomorphic Tiger Salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum nebulosum)

Anesthesia is often used in amphibian studies, yet little information is available regarding the effectiveness of different anesthetics in the same species and across different life stages. We tested two popular anesthetics, benzocaine and MS-222 (tricaine methanesulfonate), in metamorphic (terrestrial adults) and paedomorphic (aquatic adults) Arizona tiger salamanders (Ambystoma tigrinum nebulosum). Benzocaine induced anesthesia more quickly than MS-222 in the concentration used here (0.02%) and was less variable in induction time. Metamorphic adults had higher and more variable induction times than paedomorphic adults. Recovery time was longer and more variable for animals subject to benzocaine rather than MS-222, but did not vary with morph. Our results suggest that benzocaine has higher per gram effectiveness than MS-222 for this species, which likely underlies the increased suggested dosages in the literature for the latter anesthetic. Such increased effectiveness at low concentrations, along with the monetary and time costs associated with MS-222, suggest that benzocaine is a more efficient and less costly anesthetic than MS-222. Because paedomorphic adults were more susceptible to anesthesia than metamorphic adults, paedomorphs may also be more affected by other aqueous chemicals, including pollutants.
Significance of peritoneal fluid identified by ultrasonographic examination in children with acute abdominal pain

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of free peritoneal fluid in children with abdominal pain, identify conditions associated with this finding, and determine the ability of ultrasonography to detect associated abnormalities. Two hundred and fifty children with acute abdominal pain and a reference group of 50 asymptomatic children were evaluated for the presence of free peritoneal fluid. Free peritoneal fluid was noted in 72 (29%) symptomatic and three (6%) asymptomatic children. A specific diagnosis was established in 39 (54%) symptomatic children. The discharge diagnosis in the remaining 33 (46%) children was abdominal pain or gastroenteritis of unknown origin. Ultrasonography suggested the correct diagnosis in 29 out of 39 (74%) symptomatic children in whom a specific diagnosis was established at the time of discharge from the hospital. The presence of free peritoneal fluid detected by an ultrasonographic examination in children who have abdominal pain represents a nonspecific finding. Fluid is noted in association with a variety of abdominal and pelvic disorders. In approximately one half of symptomatic children with free peritoneal fluid, the final diagnosis is abdominal pain or gastroenteritis of unknown etiology. In the remainder, ultrasonography aids in the determination of a specific diagnosis.
An Ethylmethane Sulfonate Mutant Resource in Pre-Green Revolution Hexaploid Wheat.

Mutagenesis is a powerful tool used for studying gene function as well as for crop improvement. It is regaining popularity because of the development of effective and cost efficient methods for high-throughput mutation detection. Selection for semi-dwarf phenotype during green revolution has reduced genetic diversity including that for agronomically desirable traits. Most of the available mutant populations in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) were developed in post-green revolution cultivars. Besides the identification and isolation of agronomically important alleles in the mutant population of pre-green revolution cultivar, this population can be a vital resource for expanding the genetic diversity for wheat breeding. Here we report an Ethylmethane Sulfonate (EMS) generated mutant population consisting of 4,180 unique mutant plants in a pre-green revolution spring wheat cultivar ‘Indian’. Released in early 1900s, ‘Indian’ is devoid of any known height-reducing mutations. Unique mutations were captured by proceeding with single M2 seed from each of the 4,180 M1 plants. Mutants for various phenotypic traits were identified by detailed phenotyping for altered morphological and agronomic traits on M2 plants in the greenhouse and M3 plants in the field. Of the 86 identified mutants, 75 (87%) were phenotypically stable at the M4 generation. Among the observed phenotypes, variation in plant height was the most frequent followed by the leaf morphology. Several mutant phenotypes including looped peduncle, crooked plant morphology, ‘gritty’ coleoptiles, looped lower internodes, and burnt leaf tips are not reported in other plant species. Considering the extent and diversity of the observed mutant phenotypes, this population appears to be a useful resource for the forward and reverse genetic studies. This resource is available to the scientific community.
The Composition of Optimally Wise Crowds

We investigate optimal group member configurations for producing a maximally accurate group forecast. Our approach accounts for group members that may be biased in their forecasts and/or have errors that correlate with the criterion values being forecast. We show that for large forecasting groups, the diversity of individual forecasts linearly trades off with forecaster accuracy when determining optimal group composition.
Long-Range Communication Network in the Type 1B Bone Morphogenetic Protein Receptor.

Protein–protein interactions are recognized as a fundamental phenomenon that is intimately associated with biological functions and thus are ideal targets for developing modulators for regulating biological functions. A challenge is to identify a site that is situated away from but functionally connected to the protein–protein interface. We employed bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) and their receptors as a model system to develop a strategy for identifying such a network of communication. Accordingly, using computational analyses with the COREX/BEST algorithm, we uncovered an overall pattern connecting various regions of BMPR-1B ectodomain, including the four conserved residues in the protein–protein interface. In preparation for testing the long-range effects of mutations of distal residues for future studies, we examined the extent of measurable perturbation of the four conserved residues by determination of the conformation and relative affinities of these BMPR-1B mutants for ligands BMP-2, -6, and -...
Cyclic CSF Pressure Waves Causally Relate to Systemic Arterial Blood Pressure

We have previously observed CSF pressure waves to be a function of unstable cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) interacting with intracranial hypertension. This interaction has required intact autoregulation in order to describe the findings which we have reported. In developing the vasodilatory cascade model of ICP pressure wave generation, it became clear that any stimulus capable of decrementing CPP would lead to the generation of a CSF pressure wave and activation of the cascade model. However, when cyclic CSF pressure waves occurred, we suspected that the only etiology was likely to be variations in the systemic arterial blood pressure.
Cell Biology is an Important Basic Subject in Life Sciences

The studies on cell biology and its important opition in lif e sciences were reviewed, and that the studies on cell biology gave impetus to the development of the all life sciences was expoUnded ,meanwhile, the characters and current trends of cellbiology were the disced.
Three new dinoflagellate species from the subsurface Upper Cretaceous Atlantic Coastal Plain of New Jersey

Three new dinoflagellate species, Chatangiella porata, Dicondinium wilsonii, and Spinidinium mariae, are described. Their stratigraphic occurrences are based on the planktonic foraminiferal zonation of Olsson (1964) and Petters (1976, 1977a, 1977b).--Modified journal abstract
Amniotic Fluid and the Fetal Mucosal Immune System

Abstract Amniotic fluid is frequently sampled by amniocentesis for genetic analysis of the fetus between 10 weeks and the end of the first half of pregnancy. Amniotic fluid plays a role in defense of the fetal and uterine structures against infection, signaling the uterus that the fetus has sustained an infection, initiating parturition, and/or modulating the maternal immune response to prevent rejection of the fetus. The number of potential sites for secretion of various constituents into the amniotic fluid is expanded after organogenesis. The cytokines and prostaglandins in the amniotic fluid might impact the development of the immune system of the fetus. Some antiretroviral drugs are able to cross the placenta and are concentrated in the amniotic fluid. This chapter summarizes immune factors that participate in the innate immune system during pregnancy.
Evolution of Culture

Studies of cultural adaptation and evolution are important for advancing our knowledge of what it means to be human and helping to move us toward a richer explanation of human variation. Considerable progress has been made in understanding cultural evolution using linguistic phylogenies to track the evolution of inheritance, residence, kinship, marriage, and other cultural systems. Two patterns have emerged from these studies. First, much cultural change at the macrolevel among cultures appears to occur relatively slowly, averaging only a few changes per 10,000 years. Second, cultural traits that are hierarchical in nature tend to change through time in a stairstepping fashion, passing through intermediate stages of intensity or complexity.
Disseminated Mycotic Aneurysms following Intravesical Bacillus Calmette–Guérin Therapy for Bladder Cancer: Case Discussion and Systematic Treatment Algorithm

Numerous case reports have highlighted the relationship between bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) therapy and development of systemic mycotic aneurysms but none have established a management algorithm in patients with suspected vascular dissemination of Mycobacterium bovis. Delay in diagnosis of this disease process will lead to delays in initiation of antimycobacterium treatment to prevent dissemination into other arterial beds and potentially complicate effective surgical treatment leading to aneurysmal rupture and other devastating vascular consequences. Given the increasing number of reported cases in the literature and the ongoing, standard of care utilization of BCG for bladder cancer, we believe that a systematic approach to the management of patients with suspected BCG-related mycotic aneurysms should be set in place to prevent misdiagnosis and delays in treatment. In this report, we discuss the presentation, work-up, and report our treatment algorithm of a patient who developed diffuse peripheral mycotic aneurysms following BCG therapy for bladder cancer.
Beyond breast density: a review on the advancing role of parenchymal texture analysis in breast cancer risk assessment

The assessment of a woman’s risk for developing breast cancer has become increasingly important for establishing personalized screening recommendations and forming preventive strategies. Studies have consistently shown a strong relationship between breast cancer risk and mammographic parenchymal patterns, typically assessed by percent mammographic density. This paper will review the advancing role of mammographic texture analysis as a potential novel approach to characterize the breast parenchymal tissue to augment conventional density assessment in breast cancer risk estimation. The analysis of mammographic texture provides refined, localized descriptors of parenchymal tissue complexity. Currently, there is growing evidence in support of textural features having the potential to augment the typically dichotomized descriptors (dense or not dense) of area or volumetric measures of breast density in breast cancer risk assessment. Therefore, a substantial research effort has been devoted to automate mammographic texture analysis, with the aim of ultimately incorporating such quantitative measures into breast cancer risk assessment models. In this paper, we review current and emerging approaches in this field, summarizing key methodological details and related studies using novel computerized approaches. We also discuss research challenges for advancing the role of parenchymal texture analysis in breast cancer risk stratification and accelerating its clinical translation. The objective is to provide a comprehensive reference for researchers in the field of parenchymal pattern analysis in breast cancer risk assessment, while indicating key directions for future research.
Criteria Decision Matrix Applied to Pedagogy: A Pilot Study for Fashion Art Studio

Two different instructors with substantial fashion industry experiences worked together in Spring 2014 to re-design the syllabus of the Fashion Art Studio, a required foundation course for fashion merchandising major. The aim was to eliminate projects and class work that were purely art based and did not have a current fashion merchandising industry application while still fulfilling the same course learning goals. A sustainability approach was also thought out for re-purposing the physical outcome of the assignments and having most of them feed into another project or ending into a portfolio page. The purpose of this paper is to present our common strategies and outcomes from the pilot study and share our findings.
Vocal performance is a salient signal for male–male competition in White-crowned Sparrows

ABSTRACT Vocal communication in songbirds is important for aggressive signaling, such that an honest signal allows receivers to assess a competitor's qualities. One aspect of song that conspecifics may assess is vocal performance. An example of vocal performance is how well an individual performs the trade-off between trill rate and bandwidth in production of repeated notes. This type of vocal performance (vocal deviation) is thought to be an honest signal because a male's ability to maximize both bandwidth and trill rate is limited by motor constraints on sound modification. Further, how well a male can repeat this trade-off may provide receivers with information about the signaler, and a male's own level of vocal performance can affect the strength of response to high-performance songs. We tested whether males assess each other based on vocal performance in an important model species, the White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys). We show that male White-crowned Sparrows respond more strongly to hi...
Behavioral Characterization and Scoring of Seizures in Rodents

Abstract Behavioral manifestations of seizures in rodents have many characteristics of clinical seizure expression in humans depending on the type of seizure modeled. Seizures in rodents can be either convulsive or nonconvulsive. Convulsive seizures include clonic seizures, tonic–clonic seizures, and barrel rotations. In developing animals, special types of seizures, that is, spastic seizures, can be observed. Nonconvulsive seizures include behavioral arrest, staring and stereotypies. Distinct seizure phenotypes depend on the neurotransmitter system activated by convulsant agent, on the dose of convulsant drug, route of administration, distinct brain regions involved in individual seizure types and on are age-specific. In conclusion, any seizure behavior must be first confirmed and correlated with electrographic discharges.
Evaluation of geometrically personalized THUMS pedestrian model response against sedan-pedestrian PMHS impact test data.

Objective: Evaluating the biofidelity of pedestrian finite element models (PFEM) using postmortem human subjects (PMHS) is a challenge because differences in anthropometry between PMHS and PFEM could limit a model's capability to accurately capture cadaveric responses. Geometrical personalization via morphing can modify the PFEM geometry to match the specific PMHS anthropometry, which could alleviate this issue. In this study, the Total Human Model for Safety (THUMS) PFEM (Ver 4.01) was compared to the cadaveric response in vehicle–pedestrian impacts using geometrically personalized models.Methods: The AM50 THUMS PFEM was used as the baseline model, and 2 morphed PFEM were created to the anthropometric specifications of 2 obese PMHS used in a previous pedestrian impact study with a mid-size sedan. The same measurements as those obtained during the PMHS tests were calculated from the simulations (kinematics, accelerations, strains), and biofidelity metrics based on signals correlation (correlation ...
†Praphennium gen. nov.: Extant mite killers meet their Cenomanian relatives (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae: Scydmaeninae: Cephenniini)

Abstract † Praphennium gen. nov. is described to include † Praphennium carinatum sp. nov. from the Cenomanian Myanmar amber. Two other species are placed in the same genus, but they remain unnamed. This is the first known extinct genus of the large tribe Cephenniini that includes cosmopolitan extant ant-like stone beetles with uniquely modified mouthparts adapted to feed on armored mites. † Praphennium shares most exoskeletal characters with its extant relatives, and the structure and position of its hypognathous head suggest that the adults were also specialized predators that fed on heavily sclerotized oribatid or uropodine mites. One of the studied specimens seems to be teratological, with a reduced number of antennomeres, representing the first such a case in the fossil record of Scydmaeninae. Together with a previously known Turonian † Hyperstenichnus of Glandulariini, the discovery of † Praphennium supports early origins of acarophagy among Scydmaeninae, the only group of beetles that have adapted to feeding on this well-protected group of soil arthropods. A preliminary phylogenetic analysis suggests a close relationship between † Praphennium and the extant genera Cephennodes and Hlavaciellus , and this clade might have likely evolved within the Eurasian part of Laurasia.
Food as an Assay Matrix

In the sense used here, the matrix is the complex of food components that is to be analysed for the presence of the target analyte. In any assay procedure, not just those based on antibody binding, the food matrix can interfere and produce an erroneous result. When assaying for the presence or absence of a target, food has the potential to give ‘false-positive’ results, i.e. those that are positive when the true result is negative, and also the converse ‘false-negative’ results. This, of course, begs the question: What is the ‘true’ result? As mentioned previously, this can only be assessed in relation to a standard, well-tried method, which may in itself be less than perfect.
Some Considerations Regarding the Structure and Function of Promoter-Operator Regions

A well known property of efficient chemical catalysts is that they usually possess large surface areas. This generally is to provide a high concentration of accessible catalytic sites. However, some solid catalysts also employ catalytically inert portions of their surface for lateral diffusion of adsorbed molecules. In such cases efficient catalysis can occur despite a relatively low concentration of active sites (Haensel and Burwell, 1971). In many biologically important cases, enzymes are present at low concentration and it becomes advantageous to embed the catalyst in a membrane. Substrates can then adsorb first to the membrane and find the enzyme by a two-dimensional diffusion process. This strategy for speeding up a reaction by reducing the dimensionality of the space in which a rate limiting diffusion process takes place was proposed and analyzed in detail by Adam and our chairman for today, Dr. Max Delbruck (Adam and Delbruck, 1967).
Compressive stress in nano-crystalline titanium dioxide films by aerosol deposition

Abstract Aerosol deposition is a kinetic energy, particle impacting process to produce dense ceramic films or coatings at room temperature, and thus results in high residual compressive stress. The purpose of this work was to determine the stress and its thickness dependence in titanium dioxide, TiO2, films. Aerosol deposition was used to produce films, 1 to 22 μm thick, on glass substrates. A scanning interferometric optical profiler was used to generate surface maps and measure curvature values of the substrates before and after deposition. The Stoney equation was used to calculate average film stress from the measured thickness and radius of curvature. The effect of substrate shape was also investigated by using square and beam substrates in the deposition experiments. Surface maps of the square and beam substrates after deposition showed an increasing trend towards spherical curvature as the film thickness increased. Average (compressive) stress measured for square samples was 0.37 GPa, while the average for beams was 0.52 GPa. The beam-shaped sample data showed good linearity between curvature and film thickness, and fitting to the simple Stoney formula resulted in an intrinsic stress value of 0.50 GPa.
Mircette: a novel oral contraceptive. Introduction.

Mircette is the first low-dose oral contraceptive (OC) available in the US that decreases the 7-day pill-free interval to 2 days at the end of the cycle. Mircette consists of 150 mcg of desogestrel and 20 mcg of ethinyl estradiol taken for 21 days followed by 2 days of placebo and 10 mcg of ethinyl estradiol in the final 5 days of the cycle. This supplement to the "American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology" reviews the data derived from clinical trials surrounding the development of Mircette. The available data indicate Mircette is a well-tolerated effective OC with cycle control comparable to that obtained with other low-dose formulations. Its impact on the lipid profile is favorable while the effect on carbohydrate metabolism is minimal and probably not clinically significant. Overall the evidence establishes Mircette as another viable option for women who wish to use the lowest effective OC dosage.
Homeless People: African Americans in the United States

This article provides an overview of African-American homelessness by focusing chronologically on eight distinct historic experiences: (1) the colonial period, (2) the Civil War period, (3) the mid-nineteenth-century cowboys, (4) the late nineteenth-century tramping years, (5) the Southern migration up to Northern cities, (6) the 1930s Depression and the New Deal, (7) the mid-twentieth-century urban renewal, and (8) the late twentieth-century deindustrialisation of the American economy. For each of these historic experiences, this article provides a discussion of the causes, pattern, character, and number of black homeless. The article ends with a focus on twenty-first-century black homelessness with an explanation of why blacks, who make up only 12.3% of the US population, currently comprise approximately half of all homeless people in America.