cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A Poetic of Beauty: Nature, Memory and Resilience in El Botón de Nacar/The Pearl Button (2015)

One of the pillars of the history of Latin American documentary filmmaking is undoubtedly the Chilean director Patricio Guzman. During more than five decades of film production, he has given an account of Chile's political history, specifically dealing with the meaning of the Chilean dictatorship for the country's past, present and future, as well as its relevance in the Latin American context. His films undoubtedly represent one of the most relevant testimonies to the continent's history in the 20th century, with hundreds of hours of footage of the high points in the violent transition process between the Allende and Pinochet governments. His film proposal will take a radical turn in his last two productions : Nostalgia de la Luz ([2010] 2011) and El Boton de Nacar (2015), which are part of a trilogy - the latter film is currently in production. Its aesthetic proposal is revolutionary in the sense that it resignifies the relationship between memory and history by establishing a connection between nature, cosmology and historical memory. In this trilogy he deals separately in each film with the desert, the sea and the mountain, leading the viewer to a reflection that, through poetic language and a meditative tone, proposes a new look at history and memory. In this essay I analyze three elements that define his film El Boton de Nacar and that open the possibilities for a new type of theoretical reflection on the documentary genre: the relationship between nature, narration and history, history understood as genealogical memory and the new type of visual aesthetic that the director is proposing, which I call "poetry of beauty".
The Social Camouflage and Everyday Masks of the Con-Style Serial Rapist: A Sociological Analysis of Newspaper Accounts

Research suggests that serial rapists use more sophisticated techniques and possess more specialized awareness than average single-victim offenders (Park, Schlesinger, Pinizzotto & Davis, 2008). Although there is a substantial body of literature on the attack styles of offenders, data and theoretical models on the interactional styles and performance rituals of serial rapists are relatively scarce. The current study uses a qualitative analysis of major American newspaper accounts to discuss the behavioral patterns and performance styles of the con-style serial rapist as depicted by crime reporters. The con rapist uses deceptive persuasion and everyday disguises (e.g., posing as a police officer or as someone in need of assistance) to gain the trust of potential victims in order to isolate them, reduce capable guardianship, and to amplify their vulnerability. Guided by an analysis of coverage in major American newspapers from 1940-2010, we develop a con-rapist typology organized around the special forms of deceit and social camouflage used by offenders. Our typology includes the Working Con (42% of con rapists), the Good Samaritan (31%), the Supplicating Con (17%), and the Transactional Con (10%). We discuss each variation on the con-approach in terms of the premise, performance, and props used to accomplish the act.
Pyropermittivity and pyroelectret behavior of graphite

Abstract This work reports the pyropermittivity (effect of temperature on the relative electric permittivity κ) and pyroelectret behavior (effect of temperature on the electret’s inherent DC electric field E, with an electret meaning a permanent electric dipole) of graphite, namely isotropic (polycrystalline) graphite with DC resistivity ρ (1.16 ± 0.08) × 10−5 Ω.m, κ 530 ± 18 at 2 kHz, and E 1.30 × 10−5 V/m at room temperature. These effects are to be distinguished from the pyroelectric effect. They pertain to the dielectric behavior, which stems from the carrier-atom interaction. They are relevant to temperature sensing and the conversion of thermal energy to electrical energy. Pyropermittivity allows temperature sensing by capacitance measurement. Pyroelectret allows temperature sensing by electric field measurement. The material is a true electret, i.e., an electret that does not require poling. Upon heating (20–70 °C), κ increases by 32% (positive pyropermittivity), ρ increases by 70% (positive pyroresistivity, reflecting the metallic character), and E increases by 1900% (positive pyroelectret). As a result, the electric power volumetric/gravimetric density due to the electret (important for energy conversion) increases by 24000%. The increase in ρ upon heating promotes the dielectric behavior. All effects are reversible upon cooling. The pyroelectret coefficient is (1.53 ± 0.04) × 10−14 C/(m2.K) – first report for materials in general.
Cellular clocks in hyperoxia effects on [Ca2+]i regulation in developing human airway smooth muscle

Supplemental O2 (hyperoxia) is necessary for preterm infant survival but is associated with development of bronchial airway hyperreactivity and childhood asthma. Understanding early mechanisms that...
Reliability-Aware Scheduling for Periodic Tasks Requiring (m,k)-firm Real-Time Data Processing

For real-time systems, reliability and QoS (Quality of Service) are among the primary design concerns. In this research, we proposed a reliability-aware scheduling scheme for periodic tasks requiring (m, k)-firm real-time data processing. The (m, k)-firm real-time constraint requires that at least $m$ out of any $k$ consecutive jobs of a periodic task meet their deadlines. To achieve the dual goals of maximizing the system reliability and QoS while satisfying the feasibility requirement, we propose to reserve recovery space for real-time jobs in an adaptive way based on the mandatory/optional job partitioning strategy. Moreover, advanced techniques are studied to implement task assignment without affecting the system feasibility. The evaluation results demonstrate that the proposed techniques significantly outperformed the previous research in maximizing the reliability and QoS for (m,k)-firm real-time systems while ensuring the system feasibility.
Serotonergic Functioning in Partner-Abusive Men

Interpersonal aggression is one of the most significant problems confronting contemporary society. People are concerned for their personal safety not only in the streets, but in their homes, schools, and places of employment, as well. Currently, the political rhetoric is focused on punishment based deterrence; building more prisons and enforcing sentences. Despite mounting evidence that exposure to violence while growing up is a major contributor to violent crime, the preventive impact of addressing intrafamilial aggression is rarely mentioned as a potential antidote to societal violence. Irrespective of its contribution to violence in society, relationship aggression is a serious problem in its own right, affecting approximately a third of the married/dating population. Reducing such aggression requires prevention and treatment, and developing effective interventions is predicated on an understanding of the etiology and dynamics of the problem.
53 – Lower Urogenital Tract Dysfunction in Women and Men

This chapter discusses assessment of lower urinary tract dysfunction in men and women as well as the effect of gender on urinary incontinence and bladder outlet obstruction. Gender differences in anatomy and hormonal status profoundly influence the frequency and characteristics of disorders of the lower urinary tract and the symptoms resulting from them. Disorders of the lower urinary tract and the resulting lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) can be systematically organized according to symptom, location, and cause. One of the most common and most useful approaches categorizes disorders according to a two-phase functional model, which separates the functions of the lower urinary tract into the filling/storage and emptying/voiding stages. A directed physical examination is needed to evaluate the anatomic conditions that can lead to lower urinary tract dysfunction. Gender differences in the anatomic configuration of the lower urinary tract in men and women result in differences in the potential for pathology. This chapter also discusses bladder obstruction treatment therapies for men and women. In women, it is essential to give special attention to pelvic organ prolapse (POP) and menopause-induced urogenital atrophy because the relationships among the bladder, uterus, vagina, and urethra favor the development of incontinence, infection, and occasional lower urinary tract obstruction. In men, the length of the urethra and the presence of the prostate and prostatic urethra make obstruction a more common problem. Thus, a digital rectal examination is recommended to assess the size and characteristics of the prostate gland.
Five parametric resonances in a microelectromechanical system

The Mathieu equation1 governs the forced motion of a swing2, the stability of ships3 and columns4, Faraday surface wave patterns on water5,6, the dynamics of electrons in Penning traps7, and the behaviour of parametric amplifiers based on electronic8 or superconducting devices9. Theory predicts that parametric resonances occur near drive frequencies of 2ω0/n, where ω0 is the system's natural frequency and n is an integer ⩾1. But in macroscopic systems, only the first instability region can typically be observed, because of damping and the exponential narrowing10 of the regions with increasing n. Here we report parametrically excited torsional oscillations in a single-crystal silicon microelectromechanical system. Five instability regions can be measured, due to the low damping, stability and precise frequency control achievable in this system. The centre frequencies of the instability regions agree with theoretical predictions. We propose an application that uses parametric excitation to reduce the parasitic signal in capacitive sensing with microelectromechanical systems. Our results suggest that microelectromechanical systems can provide a unique testing ground for dynamical phenomena that are difficult to detect in macroscopic systems.
The pulse protocol: mobile ad hoc network performance evaluation

We present a performance evaluation of the pulse protocol operating in a peer-to-peer mobile ad hoc network environment. The pulse protocol utilizes a periodic flood (the pulse) initiated by the pulse source to provide both routing and synchronization to the network. This periodic pulse forms a proactively updated spanning tree rooted at the pulse source. Nodes communicate by forwarding packets through this tree. The main disadvantage of this tree traversal routing is that the paths are less direct than traditional shortest path routing. However, in exchange, drastically increased scalability with respect to mobility, number of flows and node density is achieved. In addition, nodes are able to synchronize with the periodic pulse, allowing idle nodes to power off their radios a large percentage of the time when they are not required for packet forwarding. This results in substantial energy savings. Through simulation we explore the performance of the protocol with respect to packet delivery ratio, delay and energy efficiency in peer-to-peer mobile ad hoc networks.
The Linguistic Legacy of Spanish and Portuguese: Bozal Spanish of Cuba

Introduction The debate about whether there was ever a Spanish-lexified creole language spoken in Cuba or elsewhere in the Caribbean is complex and there are arguments for and against its putative existence. Given the overwhelming evidence in the Caribbean of creoles lexified by French, English, Portuguese, and Dutch, there is no a priori reason to exclude the possibility of a Spanishlexified creole having existed in the Spanish-speaking area of the Caribbean. Specifically in the case of Cuba, Otheguy (1973) argues that references regarding the presence of a black bozal Spanish in Cuba go back more than one hundred years, suggesting that there was once a Spanish creole spoken by the African (and African descendant) population in Cuba. Granda (1978) and Schwegler (1993, 1996a) maintain that a widespread Spanish-based creole was possibly spoken throughout the Spanish Caribbean and Latin America, but that it underwent significant de-creolization, such that today there are only vestiges of it found in the Spanish spoken in Cuba. Perl (1987) discusses texts found in Cabrera (1954) which contain re-structuring like that found in creoles, and more recently Ortiz Lopez (1998) finds evidence of re-structuring reminiscent of creole structure in the speech of older Afro-Cubans currently living in more isolated regions of the island. Not all scholars, however, share this view. McWhorter (2000), for instance, argues forcefully that no Spanish-based creole ever existed in Cuba or anywhere else in Latin America. He develops an Afro-genesis hypothesis for New World creoles in which he proposes that creole languages developed in West African trade settlements where many of the African slaves were sent before their coerced migration to the New World.
International gateway for SDH and SONET interconnection

The ITU-T SDH and the ANSI SONET are compatible but not identical standards for synchronous digital networks. There is significant complexity when carriers have to handle traffic originated from and terminated in different countries of different implementation preferences of SDH or SONET, or transit this traffic across one's network. The paper analyzes the diversity of the traffic and the management of international networks and services in considering the appropriate architectural designs of an international network and the SDH/SONET gateway. As an example, the paper presents a field trial plan to be conducted in 1994-95 by Sprint Communications.
Deceit in Defense Investigations

Prosecutors and police routinely employ misrepresentation and deceit in undercover investigations. In cases ranging from drug distribution, prostitution, and sexual misconduct with minors to organized crime and terrorism, police and those cooperating with police deceive suspects and their cohorts about their identities and their intentions in order to gain information to help uncover past crimes and thwart future crimes. Frequently, such deceit helps reveal the truth about what criminals do and think.May defense lawyers and investigators working for them employ similar tactics? Or should prosecutors be the only lawyers allowed to direct and supervise investigatory deception? In recent years, both debate and a divergence of views on this question have emerged. In this column we examine that debate, the arguments raised on both sides of it, and how various jurisdictions have answered this question.
Profiling network performance for multi-tier data center applications

Network performance problems are notoriously tricky to diagnose, and this is magnified when applications are often split into multiple tiers of application components spread across thousands of servers in a data center. Problems often arise in the communication between the tiers, where either the application or the network (or both!) could be to blame. In this paper, we present SNAP, a scalable network-application profiler that guides developers in identifying and fixing performance problems. SNAP passively collects TCP statistics and socket-call logs with low computation and storage overhead, and correlates across shared resources (e.g., host, link, switch) and connections to pinpoint the location of the problem (e.g., send buffer mismanagement, TCP/application conflicts, application-generated microbursts, or network congestion). Our one-week deployment of SNAP in a production data center (with over 8,000 servers and over 700 application components) has already helped developers uncover 15 major performance problems in application software, the network stack on the server, and the underlying network.
East African Politics

The Culture of Politics in Modern Kenya. Angelique Haugerud Networks of Dissolution: Somalia Undone. Anna Simons
Characterization of pathologic complete response after preoperative chemoradiotherapy in carcinoma of the esophagus and outcome after pathologic complete response

BACKGROUND The purpose of the current study was to test the hypothesis that a lower clinical TNM stage is associated with a higher rate of pathologic complete response (pathCR) in patients with esophageal carcinoma receiving preoperative chemoradiotherapy and to determine whether outcome after pathCR is related to clinical stage or treatment. METHODS Clinical parameters and surgical specimens of patients with esophageal carcinoma undergoing preoperative chemoradiotherapy were analyzed to identify predictors of pathCR. In patients with pathCR, predictors of overall survival (OS), disease-free survival (DFS), and distant recurrence were studied. RESULTS Sixty-nine (29%) of 235 patients achieved pathCR. In patients with American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Stage II carcinoma, the proportion achieving pathCR was significantly larger than that achieving <pathCR (65% vs. 35%; P = 0.03). The proportion of patients who received induction chemotherapy was higher in the pathCR group than in the <pathCR group (54% vs. 46%; P = 0.05). However, neither TNM classification, primary tumor location, histologic type, gender, therapy sequence, or radiation dose (45 grays [Gy] vs. 50.4 Gy) were found to have any influence on OS or DFS. The median OS from pathCR was significantly longer than that from <pathCR (133 mos vs. 34 mos; P = 0.002). Similarly, DFS was longer in the pathCR group than in the <pathCR (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS Patients with clinical AJCC Stage II esophageal carcinoma are more likely to achieve a pathCR after preoperative chemoradiotherapy than are those with Stage III carcinoma. Chemoradiotherapy as primary therapy for patients with Stage I esophageal carcinoma warrants investigation as a means to preserve their esophagus. Cancer 2005. © 2005 American Cancer Society.
The 33 kDa protein can be removed without affecting the association of the 23 and 17 kDa proteins with the luminal side of PS II of spinach.

An earlier study shows that a 30 min incubation of spinach PS II submembrane fragments at pH 6.3 in the presence of 10 μM HgCl2 induces a 40% depletion of the 33 kDa protein without the apparent release of the 17 and 23 kDa proteins [Bernier, M., and Carpentier, R. (1995) FEBS Lett. 360, 251−254]. Here we report that the photosystem II 33 kDa extrinsic protein is fully removed by HgCl2 added at micromolar and higher concentrations (0.25, 20, and 50 μM), with the 17 and 23 kDa extrinsic proteins and other intrinsic proteins remaining bound to the reaction center. The data presented here put in doubt the “regulatory cap” model of PS II, which follows the OEC−33 kDa−23 kDa−17 kDa binding order, as these results directly demonstrate that the 33 kDa protein can be removed without affecting the binding of the 23 and 17 kDa proteins to the intrinsic subunits of PS II. This suggests that each extrinsic protein may possess its own binding site on PS II. A possible mechanism for HgCl2 upon the release of the 33 kDa...
Adsorption on Si(111) during CVD of silicon from silane: The effect of temperature, bond strength, supersaturation and pressure

Abstract In a theoretical study of the growth of silicon from SiH4, we calculated the coverage of a Si(111) surface with all species existing in the Si-H system. These calculations are based on the Langmuir model for adsorption in which estimated standard Gibbs free energies for adsorption are used for all these species, together with their equilibrium partial pressures in the gas phase. The coverages are calculated as a function of temperature, supersaturation of the gas phase, enthalpy of adsorption and total H2 pressure. It is shown that the coverage strongly depends on the adsorption energy. Because some species are bounded stronger to the surface than others, the composition of the adsorbed layer is quite different from that of the gas phase. It is shown that monatomic hydrogen is the most important adsorbate. Despite the great sensitivity of the coverage on the enthalpy of adsorption used in the calculations it is concluded that at the higher temperatures where monocrystalline growth is observed the surface is barely covered with H, on the other hand at low temperatures the coverage with H is almost complete. It is also demonstrated that at lower hydrogen pressures the surface coverage with monatomic hydrogen is strongly reduced, extending the growth regime for monocrystalline growth to about 900 K for a total pressure of 10-3 atm. SiH2 is the most abundant growth species at 1 atm H2 pressure, with a coverage ranging from 10-6 to 0.02, dependent on the supersaturation. However, at high temperatures and low H2 pressures monatomic silicon is more abundant on the surface than SiH2 and is the first species to be considered in a growth mechanism. Silane is unimportant as an adsorbed growth unit as it can not form a chemical bond.
Restoring the Rule of Law to Public Administration: What Frank Goodnow Got Right and Leonard White Didn't

Although the rule of law is universally regarded as a fundamental principle of democratic governance, the field of public administration continues to exhibit the “anti-legal temper” that emerged in the 1920s, when Leonard White's managerialism largely displaced Frank Goodnow's emphasis on the intimacy of law and administration. Although administrative law is a distinguished subfield of scholarship and practice within public administration, the consensus view within the profession seems to be that law is one of many constraints on administrative discretion rather than its source, a challenge to administrative leadership rather than its guiding principle. In addition to unacceptably narrowing the range of values infusing public administration, such a view undermines the profession's ability to contribute to the design of our governance arrangements at a time when constitutional institutions are being seriously challenged. To fulfill its constitutional role, public administration must commit itself to the rule of law as an institution that secures its legitimacy.
The Roots of Competitive Advantage in California and Japan

Abstract This article examines from a comparative and historical perspective the roots of competitive advantage in two known regions of techno-economic advance, California and Japan. A comparison of processes in these two regions in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries reveals that indigenous factors, antecedent to later development, largely conditioned the rapid pace and progressive direction of techno-economic advances that have been observed in the post-World War II era. Isomorphic developmental milieux included the following enabling conditions of economic development: a well-developed and skilled human resource base, negligible dependent linkages with other states/territories, complementary strategies of import substitution and export promotion, coordinated public-private sector ventures, local generation of capital, entrepreneurialism, cooperative and yet competitive interfirm relations, and an industrial support system of financial intermediation that provided ready access to funds for...
Investigations of TB vaccine-induced mucosal protection in mice

A better understanding of mucosal immunity is required to develop more protective vaccines against Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We developed a murine aerosol challenge model to investigate responses capable of protecting against mucosal infection. Mice received vaccinations intranasally with CpG-adjuvanted antigen 85B (Ag85B/CpG) and/or Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG). Protection against aerosol challenge with a recombinant GFP-expressing BCG was assessed. Mucosal prime/boost vaccinations with Ag85B/CpG and BCG were protective, but did not prevent lung infection indicating more efficacious mucosal vaccines are needed. Our novel finding that protection correlated with increased airway dendritic cells early post-challenge could help guide the development of enhanced mucosal vaccines.
What shall we tell the children (about inheritance)

Since the groundbreaking work of Kamin, Reddy, and particularly Cook in the late 1980s, there has been broad agreement that the meaning of inheritance in object-oriented programming languages can be best explained using generator functions and their fixpoints. Consequently, it is a little surprising to realise that no current mainstream programming language actually explains inheritance to its users in this way. Instead, most languages make up a "story" that purports to explain inheritance, but that on closer inspection contains serious flaws. It is as if, being asked to explain the facts of life to our children, we are so embarrassed by the truth that we make up a story about storks, knowing even as we do so that it defies the laws not only of biology but also of physics. This paper explores both the truth and the fictions about how objects are brought into the world. My hope is that future programming languages can tell the children, if not the whole truth, then at least a partial truth that is consistent with the laws of mathematics.
Stability and performance of catalytic microreactors: Simulations of propane catalytic combustion on Pt

A pseudo-two-dimensional (2D) model is developed to analyze the operation of platinum-catalyzed microburners for lean propane–air combustion. Comparison with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations reveals that the transverse heat and mass transfer is reasonably captured using constant values of Nusselt and Sherwood numbers in the pseudo-2D model. The model also reasonably captures the axial variations in temperatures observed experimentally in a microburner with a 300m gap size. It is found that the transverse heat and mass transport strongly depend on the inlet flow rate and the thermal conductivity of the burner solid structure. The microburner is surface reaction limited at very low velocities and mass transfer limited at high velocities. At intermediate range of velocities (preferred range of reactor operation), mass transfer affects the microburner performance strongly at low wall conductivities, whereas transverse heat transfer affects stability under most conditions and has a greater influence at high wall conductivities. At sufficiently low flow rates, complete fuel conversion occurs and reactor size has a slight effect on operation (conversion and temperature). For fast flows, propane conversion strongly depends on residence time; for a reactor with gap size of 600m, a residence time higher than 6 ms is required to prevent propane breakthrough. The effect of reactor size on stability depends on whether the residence time or flow rate is kept constant as the size varies. Comparisons to homogeneous burners are also presented. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Femininity and feminism: To be or not to be a woman

This essay treats the rhetorical movement called feminism. It argues that the two feminist social movements, one from 1848 and the other from 1963, are one rhetorical movement. Feminism as a rhetorical movement is typified by an ideological conflict between the concepts of “womanhood” and “personhood” and by the rhetorical strategies summed up by the term “consciousness raising.“
NDRG1, a growth and cancer related gene : regulation of gene expression and function in normal and disease states

N-myc downstream-regulated gene 1 (NDRG1) is an intracellular protein that is induced under a wide variety of stress and cell growth-regulatory conditions. NDRG1 is up-regulated by cell differentiation signals in various cancer cell lines and suppresses tumor metastasis. Despite its specific role in the molecular cause of Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 4D disease, there has been more interest in the gene as a marker of tumor progression and enhancer of cellular differentiation. Because it is strongly up-regulated under hypoxic conditions, and this condition is prevalent in solid tumors, its regulation is somewhat complex, governed by hypoxia-inducible factor 1 alpha (HIF-1alpha)- and p53-dependent pathways, as well as its namesake, neuroblastoma-derived myelocytomatosis, and probably many other factors, at the transcriptional and translational levels, and through mRNA stability. We survey the data for clues to the NDRG1 gene's mechanism and for indications that the NDRG1 gene may be an efficient diagnostic tool and therapy in many types of cancers.
Predictors of distress and depression in elders with arthritic pain.

Aim. The aim of this paper is to report the findings of a study testing a theory of chronic pain, with financial hardship added as a contextual stimulus. Background. Arthritis is highly prevalent among older people, resulting in severe pain and suffering. A previous study testing a theory of chronic pain in elders with arthritis found that pain, disability and social support explained only 35% of the variance in their emotional distress. It is possible that demands, other than chronic pain, such as financial hardship, also contribute to these elders’ stress and depression. Method. The theory was tested with 235 elders with arthritis using a secondary data analysis strategy. Data were obtained from the study of Ageing, Status, and Sense of Control carried out in 1998 in the United States of America. Variables were constructed from original questionnaires. Results. The hypothesized model fitted the data only moderately well (χ2 = 40·04, d.f = 6, P < 0·0001; CFI = 0·88; NFI = 0·88). Disability and financial hardship positively predicted distress, while social support and age had a reverse impact on distress, which explained 24% of the variance in distress. This means that elders with higher levels of disability, more financial hardship, less social support or younger age are likely to have higher levels of distress. Distress alone explained 33% of the variance in depressive symptoms. A data-derived model was created with excellent fit (χ2 = 3; d.f. = 4; P = 0·56; CFI = 1·00; NFI = 0·99), showing that disability, social support, financial hardship and age predicted distress (R2 = 0·24). Pain, disability and distress predicted depression (R2 = 0·44). Conclusions. The results partially supported the theory. Exploring the possibility of using depression as part of the control process and removing gender as a residual stimulus may lead to further refinement of the theory. The findings allow nurses to have a better understanding of the experiences of elders with arthritis, and thus to offer appropriate care to meet their needs.
Higher-order effects in Fermi-type charged current theory of weak interactions: Semi-leptonic neutral currents

Abstract In a convergent field theory rescattering graphs lead to neutral-current effects of the observed magnitude if the effective cut-off momentum is ∼G − 1 2 ≈ 300 GeV . A perturbation expansion is justified owing to the value f =0.18 of the resulting expansion parameter.
Regulation of cell adhesion during embryonic compaction of mammalian embryos: Roles for PKC and β-catenin

Beta-catenin has a number of roles in early development including involvement in cell adhesion, cell signaling, and developmental fate specification. This study investigates the mechanisms that regulate embryonic compaction, the first cell adhesion event in early mammalian development. Mammalian embryos can be induced to compact at an earlier developmental stage than normal by treatment with agonists that activate protein kinase C (PKC), and this treatment is used to identify and analyze the minimum essential changes required for embryonic compaction. It was predicted that: (1) since activation of PKC can induce compaction prematurely in mouse embryos, phosphorylation of the protein components of the adherens complex would occur during induced compaction and that these components would be required for the cell adhesive event; (2) these same proteins should be phosphorylated during compaction in normal development; (3) new, highly-specific inhibitors of PKC activity would inhibit compaction during normal development and induced compaction; and (4) some PKC isotypes would become localized to the junctional membranes during the process of compaction. In agreement with these predictionst, beta-catenin became phosphorylated on serine/threonine residues both during induced compaction and normal development. Inhibitors to PKC, but not inhibitors to other kinases, blocked compaction. Furthermore, the alpha isotype of PKC is recruited to the membranes of the apposing blastomeres both during induced compaction and during normal development immediately before compaction begins and before beta-catenin becomes part of the detergent-resistant cytoskeleton at the junction.
Conical Intersections: The New Conventional Wisdom

During the past decade the perception of conical intersections has changed. It is now appreciated that what was once viewed largely as a theoretical curiosity is an essential aspect of electronically nonadiabatic processes. Concomitantly, our understanding of this singular consequence of the Born−Oppenheimer separation of nuclear and electronic motion has grown enormously. In this work the theory of conical intersections is reviewed.
Cholesterol metabolism in familial hypertriglyceridemia: Effects of obesity versus triglyceride level

Excessive production of cholesterol has been associated with type IV hyperlipidemia, but the influence of the confounding variable of obesity has been difficult to ascertain. Moreover, cholesterol metabolism has not been systematically evaluated in patients with familial hypertriglyceridemia (FHT), one of the two major subsets of type IV patients. We used isotope dilution to measure cholesterol production, pools, and kinetic constants in 8 hypertriglyceridemic subjects, 6 of whom could be confidently classified as FHT. These were compared with measurements in 9 control subjects matched for sex, age, serum cholesterol, and body mass index (BMI). By t test, hypertriglyceridemic subjects did not differ from controls with respect to cholesterol production, size of readily or slowly miscible pools, or kinetic transfer coefficients. Results were the same whether controls were compared with all hypertriglyceridemic patients or only the 6 with definite FHT. By analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), serum triglyceride level was not a significant determinant of any parameter of cholesterol metabolism. However, BMI was a highly significant determinant of cholesterol production (p = 0.0001) and size of both readily and slowly miscible pools (p = 0.001 to 0.008). These data suggest that FHT per se is not associated with abnormalities of cholesterol metabolism but that an apparent association could result from the confounding variable of obesity.
Glimpses of a hidden burden: hydatid disease in eighteenth-century Scotland.

SUMMARY: "Hydatids" or watery cysts have been observed in animals and humans since ancient times, giving rise to frequent speculation as to their nature and origin. This essay focuses on an extremely rare clinical case managed at the Edinburgh Infirmary in 1785 by James Gregory, professor of the theory of medicine. Following the death of the patient, an autopsy disclosed lesions characteristic of a condition eventually labeled "echinococcosis of the liver," today one of the most common parasitic diseases in sheep raising regions of the world. The essay reviews the obscure nature of this endemic disease in Gregory's time, and the difficulties confronting scientists and clinicians keen to unravel its secrets.
The effect of adsorbed mobile phase components on the retention mechanism, efficiency, and peak distortion in supercritical fluid chromatography

This report attempts to link several previously unassociated phenomena to the formation of a thick film of adsorbed mobile phase acting as part of the effective stationary phase in SFC. Plots of log k′ vs density were found to have a different shape than is generally accepted. The plots of highly retained solutes appear linear at both low and high densities with a change in slope at intermediate densities where adsorption is know to be most extensive. Efficiency degrades under identical conditions that produce significant adsorption of the mobile phase. Van Deemter curves change shape consistent with an additional “C” term, suggesting the formation of a thick stationary phase under the same conditions known to result in multi-layer adsorption of carbon dioxide onto stationary phases.
Scalable Keyword Search on Large RDF Data

Keyword search is a useful tool for exploring large RDF datasets. Existing techniques either rely on constructing a distance matrix for pruning the search space or building summaries from the RDF graphs for query processing. In this work, we show that existing techniques have serious limitations in dealing with realistic, large RDF data with tens of millions of triples. Furthermore, the existing summarization techniques may lead to incorrect/incomplete results. To address these issues, we propose an effective summarization algorithm to summarize the RDF data. Given a keyword query, the summaries lend significant pruning powers to exploratory keyword search and result in much better efficiency compared to previous works. Unlike existing techniques, our search algorithms always return correct results. Besides, the summaries we built can be updated incrementally and efficiently. Experiments on both benchmark and large real RDF data sets show that our techniques are scalable and efficient.
Towards securing data delivery in peer-to-peer streaming

The goal of enabling ubiquitous video broadcasting on the Internet has been a long cherished vision in the networking community. Prior efforts aimed at achieving this goal based on the IP Multicast architecture have been unsuccessful. In recent years, peer-to-peer (P2P) streaming has emerged as a promising alternative technology, which has matured to the point that there are several commercial offerings available to users. While these developments are encouraging, P2P streaming systems are susceptible to attacks by malicious participants, and their viability depends on how effectively they can perform under such attacks. In this paper, we explore this issue in the context of mesh-based designs, which have emerged as the dominant architecture for P2P streaming. We provide a taxonomy of the implicit commitments made by nodes when peering with others. We show that when these commitments are not enforced explicitly, they can be exploited by malicious nodes to conduct attacks that degrade the data delivery service. We consider an important class of attacks where malicious nodes deliberately become neighbors of a large number of nodes and do not upload data to them. We focus on these attacks given the limited attention paid to them, and the significant impact they can have on overall data delivery. We present mechanisms that can enhance the resilience of mesh-based streaming against such attacks. A key part of the solution is a novel reputation scheme that combines feedback from both the control and data planes of the overlay. We evaluate our design with real-world experiments on the PlanetLab testbed and show that our design is effective. Even when there are 30% attackers, nodes can receive 92% of the data with our schemes compared to 10% of the data without our schemes. Overall these results indicate the feasibility of enabling effective P2P streaming even under the presence of malicious participants.
Student Success Skills: A Promising Program to Close the Academic Achievement Gap for African American and Latino Students

Academic achievement data from four previous Student Success Skills (SSS) studies were aggregated and examined to determine if there were differential effects in improved test scores among White, Latino, and African American students. Results showed that posttest scores for the treatment group were significantly higher than the comparison group in math as well as reading. There were no interactions or main effects for ethnicity. White, Latino, and African American students showed similar gains after SSS participation.
Temporal aspects of poetry readings by authors and adults

Recorded readings of three poems were analyzed: “Buffalo Bill’s” by E. E. Cummings, “The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner” by Randall Jarrell, and “Dust of Snow” by Robert Frost. Readings were by the respective authors, 10 university professors of English, and 10 adults. A rhetorical or expressive use of both more frequent and longer silent pauses by the authors was predicted relative to professors and adults. This was confirmed, except for the shorter pauses of Frost. Both speech rate and articulation rate of authors were dramatically slower than those of the control groups. Only negligible differences were found between the control groups.
Allen and Gale on risk-taking and competition in banking

Abstract Using an elegant simple model, Allen and Gale [Comparing Financial Systems, MIT Press, 2001] obtain a result with significant policy implications: portfolio risk of banks increases as competition in banking, measured by the number of banks, increases. That result is, however, lacking in robustness. If banks play a game not all that different from that assumed by Allen and Gale, then, we show, a markedly different result obtains: risk-taking by banks is independent of the number of banks.
The lacrimal proteins in Down's syndrome (Mongolism)

The tears of 54 of 60 subjects with Mongolism whose ages ranged from 2 weeks to 44 years contained the protein fractions described for serum in addition to lysozyme. The presence of the alpha-1 globulin in 54 of the 60 Mongoloids which is normally present only in tears from full-term infants younger than 7 days and premature infants variably up to 30 days is especially noteworthy. The immunoelectrophoresis of Mongoloid lacrimal proteins with antiserum antibody revealed the presence of many immunologically distinct moieties. Comparison with the tears of 67 others suffering from a variety of ailments showed that 90 per cent of the subjects with Mongolism produced this characteristic lacrimal protein pattern against less than 10 per cent of the others.
Multi-bounce Dual Grating Reflector for Internal Wavelength Locking of Laser Diodes

This paper introduces a multi-bounce scheme based on a Dual Grating Reflector concept for integrated wavelength locking of broad stripe laser diodes.
Cool Customers in the Stellar Graveyard. III. Limits to Substellar Objects around nearby White Dwarfs using the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope*

Results from a ground-based high-contrast imaging survey of 13 nearby white dwarfs for substellar objects are presented. We place strict upper limits on the type of substellar objects present, ruling out the presence of anything larger than ~14MJ for eight of the white dwarfs at separations >19 AU and corresponding to primordial separations of ~3–6 AU assuming adiabatic mass loss without tidal interactions. With these results we place the first upper limit on the number of intermediate-mass stars with brown dwarfs at separations >13 AU. We combine these results with previous work to place upper limits on the number of massive Jovian (>10MJ) planets in orbit around white dwarfs whose progenitors spanned a mass range of 1–7 M⊙.
Germination-Improved Ethanol Fermentation Performance of High-Tannin Sorghum in a Laboratory Dry-Grind Process

ABSTRACT A high-tannin sorghum cultivar with 3.96% tannin content was used to study the effects of germination on its ethanol fermentation performance in a laboratory dry-grind process. High-tannin sorghum sample was germinated for 3 and 4 days. Original and germinated samples were analyzed for tannin, starch, protein, free amino nitrogen (FAN), and glucose content. Endosperm structures and flour pasting properties of germinated and nongerminated sorghum samples were examined using a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and rapid visco analyzer (RVA). Germination reduced tannin content from 3.96% to negligible levels. The free fermentable sugars (glucose, maltose, and maltotriose) in the germinated samples were significantly higher than those in the nongerminated control. Judged by the starch (starch plus dextrin) and free amino nitrogen contents in the mashed samples, germination improved degree of hydrolysis for starch by 13–20% and for protein by 5- to 10-fold during mashing. Germination significantly sh...
Perceived Benefits of a Radiology Resident Mentoring Program: Comparison of Residents With Self-Selected vs Assigned Mentors

Abstract Purpose It has been suggested that assigned mentoring relationships are less successful than those that develop by free choice. This study evaluates radiology residents' overall experience with a mentoring program and compares the responses of those who self-selected mentors with those who were assigned mentors. Methods A voluntary Web-based survey was sent to 27 radiology residents in postgraduate years 3-5. Data collected included the following: year in residency, method of mentor assignment, duration of relationship, frequency and types of communication, perceived value of mentoring, overall satisfaction with the program, and the perceived impact of mentoring. Results Twenty-five of 27 residents (93%) responded, with 14 having self-selected mentors (56%) and 11 having assigned mentors (44%). Both groups unanimously agreed that mentoring is beneficial or critical to their training; however, those residents with self-selected mentors were significantly more satisfied with the mentoring program (4 vs 3.3; P = .04) and more likely to consider their mentor as their primary mentor compared with those with assigned mentors (11 [79%] vs 4 [36%]; P = .049). Although all residents perceived a benefit, residents with self-selected mentors rated almost all mentoring parameters more positively than those with assigned mentors, although most of these parameters did not reach statistical significance. Conclusion Residents highly value the importance of mentoring. However, residents who self-select their mentors are more likely to be satisfied with a mentoring program.
A participatory evaluation project to measure SANE nursing practice and adult sexual assault patients' psychological well-being.

This paper describes a collaborative project between a team of researcher-evaluators and a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) program to develop an evaluation survey of SANE nursing practice and patient psychological well-being. Using a participatory evaluation model, we followed a six-step process to plan and conduct an evaluation of adult sexual assault patients treated in one Midwestern SANE program. Our collaborative team developed a logic model of “empowering care,” which we defined as providing healthcare, support, and resources; treating survivors with dignity and respect; believing their stories; helping them re-instate control and choice; and respecting patients' decisions. We created a corresponding survey that can be administered to patients following exam procedures and tested it with N= 52 sexual assault victims. Results indicated that nursing practice was consistent with this empowering care philosophy as the overwhelming majority of patients reported positive psychological well-being outcomes. Implications for evaluating forensic nursing practice are discussed.