cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A method for reliability estimation of logical structures

Abstract In this paper we give a procedure for estimating the reliability of a structural system when failure data on either the structure, its components, or on both are available. We first develop procedures for structures whose components are assumed to operate independently of each other. We then prove that the reliability estimates thus obtained provide meaningful inequalities for the reliability of the structure when its components are dependent in a specified manner.
Future of counseling psychology research

The author offers a critique on current counseling psychology research from her perspective as a US counseling psychology researcher and editor. She notes that unless something happens to change the trajectory, future US counseling psychology research will be open to the same criticisms. She summarizes counseling psychology values and argues that counseling psychology research reflects those values. She then identifies five ways that counseling psychology could be different in the future by: building theory-based research, embracing diversity of populations, research questions and methodologies, informing (and being informed) by other psychological disciplines, and informing policy and practice.
Refraction analysis at a step discontinuity of a three-dimensional multimode slab waveguide for incident modes with arbitrary direction

In this paper we present an analysis for the refraction of modes at the step discontinuity of a multimode slab waveguide. This analysis can be used analogous to ray tracing in conventional optics to obtain focusing properties of waveguide lenses. Apart from application in optical heads, this analysis finds application in communication systems that make widespread use of integrated optics.
In the Shadow of War: The Effects of Conflict on Liberal Democracy

Events of and since 11 September 2001 have renewed interest in age- old questions about liberal-democratic governance in the shadow of insecurity, cri- sis, and war+ Academic lawyers in particular have engaged in a vigorous debate about how liberal polities can confront security threats while maintaining their commit- ment to the rule of law+ Yet few empirical political scientists, and even fewer schol- ars of international relations, have weighed in+ The short- and especially long-run effects of international conflict on liberal-democratic institutions and processes remain an underexplored aspect of the second-image-reversed+ Prompted by recent research in law, this article finds that prominent arguments often rest on shaky theoretical and empirical foundations+ It argues that the two most notable traditions of thought on war and democracy are complementary, not competing; that small wars may also have substantial consequences; and that analysts must distinguish clearly among three distinct causal phenomena—threat, mobilization, and warfare—when considering conflict's impact on democracy+ The article critically reviews the effects of conflict on both participation and contestation; identifies the salient outstanding questions and suggests hypotheses addressing them; and explores the implications for contem- porary normative debates over executive authority and emergency powers+
Community-Enhanced De-anonymization of Online Social Networks

Online social network providers have become treasure troves of information for marketers and researchers. To profit from their data while honoring the privacy of their customers, social networking services share `anonymized' social network datasets, where, for example, identities of users are removed from the social network graph. However, by using external information such as a reference social graph (from the same network or another network with similar users), researchers have shown how such datasets can be de-anonymized. These approaches use `network alignment' techniques to map nodes from the reference graph into the anonymized graph and are often sensitive to larger network sizes, the number of seeds, and noise --- which may be added to preserve privacy. We propose a divide-and-conquer approach to strengthen the power of such algorithms. Our approach partitions the networks into `communities' and performs a two-stage mapping: first at the community level, and then for the entire network. Through extensive simulation on real-world social network datasets, we show how such community-aware network alignment improves de-anonymization performance under high levels of noise, large network sizes, and a low number of seeds. Even when nodes cannot be explicitly mapped, the community structure can be mapped between both networks, thus reducing the anonymity of users. For example, for our (real-world) Twitter dataset with 90,000 nodes, 20% noise, and 16 seeds, the state-of-the-art technique reduces anonymity by 0 bits, whereas our approach reduces anonymity by 9.71 bits (with 40% of nodes mapped).
Mobile device policies in archive reading rooms

Humanities scholars increasingly use mobile devices such as laptops, iPhones, and iPads in their professional lives. We are exploring the opportunities for employing such devices for supporting scholarly activities in archive reading rooms. As a first step in this process, we are studying how reading room policies related to the use of technological devices impact scholars' interaction with the source materials in terms of capturing, organizing, note taking, and record keeping for future use of found materials. We studied the policy documents made available by thirty archives and complemented the results by soliciting the perspectives of administrators who craft these policies and scholars who use these archives. We present our analysis and an early prototype of a policy awareness mobile application called AMTracker.
En quel sens les objets physiques sont-ils réels?*

La notion d'objet physique est au cceur de la problematique metaphysique du realisme: realistes et antirealistes construisent habituellement leurs positions sur la base de differentes conceptions de cette notion. De facon generale, les realistes pretendent que les objets physiques existent et posse-dent des proprietes intrinseques les definissant independamment de nos facultes de perception et de conceptualisation. Par rapport a cette caracterisation, qui nous accompagnera tout au long du texte, nous nous placons dans le clan des antirealistes. Toutefois, notre but present n'est pas tant de critiquer la conception realiste de l'objet physique que de proposer les grandes lignes d'une forme d'antirealisme coherente. Pour nous situer dans le debat contemporain nous contrasterons nos idees avec le realisme interne de Putnam et le phenomenalisme, deux positions qui se rapprochent de la notre par leur rejet de la notion realiste d'objet physique. Cependant, le realisme interne et le phenomenalisme, nous le verrons, prennent souvent la forme de theses portant sur le langage, ce que nous voudrons eviter de faire. II est a notre avis avantageux, pour repondre a la question qui sert de titre a ce texte, de ramener le debat en deca des questions de langage, au niveau de la perception non epistemique, oul'on peut encore, selon les termes de Dretske, voir sans croire.
Defeminizing and Dehumanizing Female Murderers

Abstract Case studies of the 35 women on death row in 1993 suggest that hetero-feminine image is important in engendering chivalry and thus leniency toward female offenders. Lesbians in particular were over-represented in atypical death sentence cases. Featured are media and prosecutorial representations of the cases of five lesbians on death row. These offenders were depicted as manly and man-hating women who occupy additional marginalized statuses, and who vent their rage and irrational desire for revenge through killing. Argued is that this homo-sexualized portrayal of female evil may affect sentencing decisions as an additional “aggravating circumstance” in an already heinous crime.
Mycoplasma-virus interrelationships in mouse tracheal organ cultures.

The effects produced by single and mixed infections with Mycoplasma pulmonis and influenza A/PR-8 virus were studied in mouse tracheal organ cultures. M. pulmonis multiplied in the tracheal organ cultures, producing inhibition of ciliary activity and histologic tissue damage. The organism grew in close association with the cell membranes but did not appear to attach directly to the membranes or the cilia. Influenza A virus also replicated in tracheal organ cultures, producing ciliary inhibition and more extensive cytopathologic changes. Virus particles were seen by electron microscopy to attach to and cause clumping of the cilia. Simultaneous infection of the organ cultures with mycoplasma and virus resulted in more rapid inactivation of ciliary activity and greater tissue damage than occurred when the cultures were infected with only mycoplasma or virus. Presence of the virus appeared to have no effect on the growth of the mycoplasma; however, the mycoplasma partially interfered with virus replication. Images
The Effects of Low Oral Doses of 2,6‐cis‐ liphenylhexamethylcyclotetrasiloxane on Male Rats and Rabbits

Daily oral doses of 2,6-cis-diphenylhexamethylcyclotetrasiloxane in oil administered to rats for 2 weeks decreased fertility at dose levels of 1 and 2 mg/kg. Five mg/kg inhibited fertility completely. Normal fertility was re-established after 2–5 weeks recovery. In rabbits. 1.0 mg/kg/day inhibited, 0.5 mg/kg/day lowered, and 0.1 mg/kg/day did not affect fertility. Libido was not depressed although plasma testosterone levels were lowered by 1.0 (P < 0.025) and 0.5 mg/kg/day (P < 0.10) of the drug. Alterations in measured characteristics of the ejaculate were seen after the two highest dose levels. Spermatogenesis in the rat appeared normal after the minimum effective dose (5.0 mg/kg/day for 14 days). This dose (1.0 mg/kg/day for 21 days) in the rabbit caused degeneration in the seminiferous tubules. Increased Na+ (P < 0.025) and decreased glycerylphosphorylcholine (P < 0.05) were observed in cauda epididymal fluid of these animals. The only side effect noted was an initial decrease in feed and water intake.
Sex attraction in the Japanese beetle

Field studies made with newly emerged (unmated) female Popillia japonica Newman, collected from clusters of Beetles proved that such females have a powerful volatile Sex pheromone When these females were tethered or conlined Fined in traps in an area where large numbers of adults Were emerging they attracted males within seconds. A Single unmated female per trap per trap and 9 unmated females per trap attracted 380 and 2975 males, respectively, in a single hour, and 3 traps each containing 9 unmated females (collected on successive days) attracted 19,248 males and 345 females between July 7-9 and September 5, 1968, though 85% were attracted within the 1st week. After the removal of attractive females, glass and metal containers continued to attract males up to 30 min, Exposure of isolated female abdomens and of heads plus thoraces showed that the attractant substance was produced in the abdomen. However, various solvent extracts of abdomens were not attractive.
Wanted: Outstanding Ideas for Improving World Order

istered the Grawemeyer Award for "Ideas Improving World Order." H. Charles Grawemeyer, a local industrialist and generous philanthropist, endowed an annual $150,000 prize to stimulate the recognition, dissemination, and critical analysis of outstanding proposals for improving world order.1 Given the intellectually diverse background of winners, and the Award's obvious global reach, these goals have been achieved to no small degree. The prize has already been won by scholars and policy analysts from political science, history, economics, law, medicine, theology, and social psychology. Several political leaders have also been among the winners, as has an independent commission of the United Nations (see table). In all, the first decade of winners impressively included nominees from Australia, Canada, Norway, Russia, and the United States. Even more
Borrowings from the German (1930–1941)

Author's summary.— It is evident from this list that borrowing words from other languages has not gone out of fashion. Even in war times, often particularly in such times, there is an increase of such trade. The present list has the value of being representative for it was compiled from such newsorgans as are read by millions of people. How many of these words placed again and again before the American reader will stay with us is left for the future to decide.
Test generation and fault modeling for stress testing

Voltage stress testing has long been used as a reliability screen. Significant effort has been devoted in the reliability physics literature to setting of stress voltages. Chang and McCluskey formalized the test aspects of voltage stressing in their works on "SHOVE (SHort VOltage Elevation)" testing. Their work deals with 3.3V and 5V technologies where Fowler-Nordheim tunneling is dominant and suggests a stress energy of about 6MV/cm. In current generation technologies, Fowler-Nordheim tunneling is replaced by standard tunneling currents and operating energies are in the suggested stress range (e.g. 1.2V power supply with a 20/spl Aring/ oxide is 6MV/cm). Modified methods are developed to support this new situation, and a rest generation technique is introduced that enables substantial reduction in the number of stress vectors.
Simulation study of the capacity effects of dispersity routing for fault tolerant realtime channels

The paper presents a simulation study of the use of dispersity routing to provide fault tolerance on top of a connection oriented realtime service such as that provided by the Tenet scheme. A framework to study the dispersity schemes is presented. The simulations show that the dispersity schemes, by dividing the connection's traffic among multiple paths in the network, have a beneficent effect on the capacity of the network. Thus, for certain classes of dispersity schemes, we obtain a small improvement in fault tolerance as well as an improvement in the number of connections that the network can support. For other classes of dispersity schemes, greater improvement in service may be purchased at the cost of decrease in capacity. The paper explores the tradeoffs available through exhaustive simulations. We conclude that dispersity routing is a flexible approach to increasing the fault tolerance of realtime connections, which can provide a range of improvements in service with a corresponding range of costs.
The Videoconferencing Classroom: What Do Students Think?.

The advantages of video conferencing in educational institutions are well documented. Scholarly literature has indicated that videoconferencing technology reduces time and costs between remote locations, fill gaps in teaching services, increases training productivity, enables meetings that would not be possible due to prohibitive travel costs, and improves access to learning (Martin, 2005; Rose, Furner, Hall, Montgomery, Katsavras, & Clarke, 2000; Townes-Young & Ewing, 2005; West, 1999). However, there are few studies that analyze the effectiveness of videoconferencing from the student’s perspective. Videoconferencing technology is often touted as a method to connect with previously inaccessible student populations, but does it adequately serve the needs of the students? If given a choice, would students select videoconferencing over faceto-face instructional methods?
Engendering prehistoric technology? All it takes is practice

For more than a century, the study of prehistoric technology has been ruled by a "tyranny of the obvious". An entrenched focus on instrumentality has projected into the pre-modern past the worst of modernity: alienation, fetishism, and rocentrism and the supposed neutrality of objective, dispassionate science. As little more than self-legitimating teleologies, the resulting simulacra have paradoxically erased the (en)gendered and socially constituted technician with the nightmarish "Homo faber technologicus". This paper offers a radical alternative to conventional wisdom, guided by feminist and philosophical insights on embodiment and technology, and operationalized with the principles of practice theory. It redefines prehistoric technology as a word of embodied, meaningful, social (and hence gendered) interaction, and focuses methodological attention on the intertwined social, material and symbolic arenas in which gendered technicians created and negotiated their material world and, thus, themselves. Thus gender attribution is not sufficient for engendering prehistoric technology. Research on the European Upper Paleolithic era grounds the discussion.
Per cent ‘covalency’ and the nephelauxetic effect in lanthanide complexes

The use of the nephelauxetic ratio for the calculation of percent covalency is examined. Values of Fk and Ek obtained from four parameter fits (e.g. F 2, F 4, F 6 and ζ4f) neglecting configuration ...
The upstream muscle-specific enhancer of the rat muscle creatine kinase gene is composed of multiple elements.

Abstract A series of constructs that links the rat muscle creatine kinase promoter to the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene was generated. These constructs were introduced into differentiating mouse C2C12 myogenic cells to localize sequences that are important for up-regulation of the creatine kinase gene during myogenic differentiation. A muscle-specific enhancer element responsible for induction of chloramphenicol acetyltransferase expression during myogenesis was localized to a 159-base-pair region from 1,031 to 1,190 base pairs upstream of the transcription start site. Analysis of transient expression experiments using promoters mutated by deletion indicated the presence of multiple functional domains within this muscle-specific regulatory element. A DNA fragment spanning this region was used in DNase I protection experiments. Nuclear extracts derived from C2 myotubes protected three regions (designated E1, E2, and E3) on this fragment from digestion, which indicated there may be three or more trans-acting factors that interact with the creatine kinase muscle enhancer. Gel retardation assays revealed that factors able to bind specifically to E1, E2, and E3 are present in a wide variety of tissues and cell types. Transient expression assays demonstrated that elements in regions E1 and E3, but not necessarily E2, are required for full enhancer activity.
Control and Function of Alterations in Contractile Protein Isoform Expression in Vascular Smooth Muscle

The use of autologous saphenous veins for reconstruction of occluded, atherosclerotic peripheral and coronary arteries is a surgical procedure widely used to relieve the symptoms of compromised arterial flow. Independent of graft location, failure within the first week results primarily from thrombus formation while late failure (months to years) can be due to intimai and medial hypertrophy and/or the re-occurrence of atherosclerosis (Unni et al., 1974; Lawrie et al., 1976; Gunthaner et al., 1979; Tracey et al., 1979).
ECONOMICS OF FERTILIZER USE IN VEGETABLE PRODUCTION IN NIGERIA

This study estimated the economic contribution of fertilizer use in vegetable production in Imo State, Nigeria. Data were collected with a structured questionnaire from 256 fertilizer users and 170 non-fertilizer users, and analyzed using production functions and net farm income models. Results showed that the technical change introduced by fertilizer use in vegetable production was factor-biased, and that the technical efficiency was higher for fertilizer users than nonfertilizer users. Both farms were found to be allocatively inefficient in the use of land, seeds, capital, labour, and other production inputs, while fertilizer users were allocatively inefficient in the use of fertilizers. Budgetary analysis revealed that fertilizer users employed larger quantities of all variable inputs and produced higher quantities of vegetable output than non-fertilizer users at relatively higher unit costs of production, with per-unit profit margins remaining higher for fertilizer users. To achieve sustained increase in vegetable output, farm income, and profit, farmers should be encouraged to increase their use of land, seeds, capital, and other production inputs and reduce the amount of fertilizer and labour used.
Diagnosis of familial hypercholesterolemia

Several lines of evidence derived from epidemiology, animal studies, genetics, and molecular and cellular research support a strong role for elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in the pathogenesis of premature atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). Most important, therapy with statin drugs has been well documented to lower circulating LDL cholesterol, resulting in significant reductions in ASCVD morbidity and mortality. The experiment of nature that underscores the definite pathogenic role of high levels of LDL cholesterol in premature ASCVD is the monogenic disorder, familial hypercholesterolemia (FH). The molecular defects in the LDL receptor resulting in FH were first elucidated by Goldstein and Brown,1 whose seminal work formed the basis of their Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985. This autosomal dominant disorder could present as a homozygote with two mutant alleles for the LDL receptor or, more commonly, as the heterozygote with one mutant allele. Molecular defects in the synthesis, transport, binding, clustering, and recycling of the LDL receptor have been catalogued. At least 1,600 mutations have been reported.2,3 While the homozygous variety is rare, with an estimated prevalence of one in 300,000 persons, heterozygotes present in adulthood and, according to recent studies, appear to have a prevalence of one in 250.4 FH can be diagnosed using the Simon Broome criteria, the Dutch Lipid Clinic Network, or the US MedPed criteria.3 … Corresponding author: Ishwarlal Jialal, MD, PhD, FRCPath; ijialal{at}ucdavis.edu.
Games of the Baseball Type

(1932). Games of the Baseball Type. The Journal of Health and Physical Education: Vol. 3, No. 5, pp. 34-57.
Protective effect of glucagon on the isolated perfused rat heart following severe hypoxia.

SummaryIt has been demonstrated that exposure of isolated perfused rat hearts to glucose-free, hypoxic medium produces a marked decline in contractile force within 3 min. Hearts which were perfused with various concentrations of glucagon during the hypoxic period recovered better during reoxygenation than hearts not perfused with glucagon. This salutary effect of glucagon was apparently unrelated to this hormone's inotropic properties since the most sustained recovery was seen when the hearts were perfused with a subinotropic dose.This evidence suggests that glucagon may exert a protective effect on the hypoxic myocardium.
microRNA and human inducible nitric oxide synthase.

Abstract Regulation of human inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) expression involves both transcriptional and posttranscriptional mechanisms. Human iNOS gene transcription is controlled in a cell type-specific manner by extracellular cytokines. Transcriptional regulation of human iNOS gene involves transcription factors NF-κB, Stat-1, AP-1, C/EBPβ, KLF6, Oct 1, and NRF. Important posttranscriptional mechanisms also regulate human iNOS mRNA stability through RNA binding proteins HuR, TTP, KSRP, and PABP. Recently, there are several miRNAs that were validated to regulate human and rodent iNOS gene expression. Among them, miR-939 and miR-26a were identified to bind with the human iNOS 3′-UTR and exert a translational blockade of human iNOS protein synthesis.
The Future of Shadow Banking in China

Shadow banking in China may not be as shadowy as you think. Defined simply as loans made outside the formal banking sector, shadow banking derives a big chunk of its ante from individual investors buying so-called wealth management products, or short term bundled loans devised by banks and other financial players. The loans typically go to entrepreneurs and businesses too small to enjoy the PRC’s seal of approval. Dangers exist: Shadow banking is non-transparent and has few formal safety backstops. Financing may be overextended in some industries. Investor interest could switch off as suddenly as it turned on, leaving the financiers with no capital to lend. But the sector could also be the key to China regaining its growth momentum as it finances new business models that the State can’t. Today, though, shadow banking is at a tipping point. As some products leach into the purview of accepted practices and as government oversight begins to take hold, the days of shadow banking as China knows it may be numbered. Financing made possible through shadow banking is poised to become more mainstream — and could very well propel the country to new growth trajectories. But the next phase could also involve even more opaque practices, including derivatives and leverage. It’s time to understand what China’s shadow banking behemoth is and where it’s heading.
Diagnosis and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), a relatively common disorder, is under-diagnosed and undertreated despite the existence of effective treatments. OCD can be differentiated from other disorders with obsessive or compulsive features based on the content of the obsessions or the characteristics of the compulsions. Serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRIs) and cognitive-behavioral therapy are proven treatments for OCD; they bring clinically significant reduction in symptoms, although complete remission is not common in clinical trials. The efficacy and safety of SRI treatment of OCD has been demonstrated by numerous double-blind, randomized, controlled trials. These trials suggest that it usually takes longer for response to begin and higher doses are required than for depressive disorders. Research also suppprts a trial of another SRI for patients who have failed a trial of one SRI. For refractory cases, augmentation with atypical antipsychotics such as risperidone or quetiapine is recommended.
Buying on Credit

Buying goods on hire purchase enables the purchaser to take possession and enjoy the use of the articles bought, while the vendor continues to own them until full payment has been made.
Developmental Neurotoxicology Risk Assessment

Publisher Summary This chapter provides an overview of the developmental neurotoxicology risk assessment. The area of developmental neurotoxicology has evolved rapidly over the last several years. From initial experiments in animal models showing that developmental exposure can result in long-lasting behavioral changes, a number of studies performed in different laboratories have demonstrated that exposure to a wide range of chemicals during development can have adverse effects on the structure and/or function of the nervous system. A number of generally recognized human developmental neurotoxicants now exist, including ethanol, methyl mercury, lead, heroin, methadone, cocaine, diphenylhydantoin, and polychlorinated biphenyls. Because of the potential human hazard, several countries require chemicals to be tested for potential developmental neurotoxicity for premarket approval. In the United States, developmental toxicity is often considered to be a component of reproductive toxicity and typically involves exposure during major organogenesis, assessment of maternal toxicity during pregnancy, and evaluation of mother and offspring prior to term. This chapter discusses in detail regulation of developmental neurotoxicants and study design issues for developmental neurotoxicology. The chapter also describes the quantitative aspects of developmental neurotoxicology risk assessment.
Amelioration of cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury by recombinant neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin.

AbstractWe investigated the protective effect and mechanism of neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL) in a murine model of cisplatin-induced nephrotoxicity. Male Swiss-Webster mice were assigned to four groups (n = 10 in each group). Control mice received vehicle only. Mice in the experimental group were given a single intraperitoneal injection of cisplatin (20 mg/kg) to induce nephrotoxicity, and were divided into three groups. The first group received 100 μL of saline only via tail vein at the time of cisplatin administration. The second group was given biologically active recombinant NGAL via tail vein (250 μg/100 μL solution). The third group was injected with a 250 μg/100μL solution of inactivated NGAL. After 4 days, we measured serum creatinine and urinary N-acetyl-β-d-glucosaminidase (NAG), and performed histologic studies. Biologically active NGAL significantly blunted the rise in serum creatinine (NGAL plus cisplatin 1.33 ± 0.31 versus cisplatin alone 2.43 ± 0.31 mg/dL, p < .001) as we...
The M1 Muscarinic Receptor Antagonist VU0255035 Delays the Development of Status Epilepticus after Organophosphate Exposure and Prevents Hyperexcitability in the Basolateral Amygdala

Exposure to organophosphorus toxins induces seizures that progress to status epilepticus (SE), which can cause brain damage or death. Seizures are generated by hyperstimulation of muscarinic receptors, subsequent to inhibition of acetylcholinesterase; this is followed by glutamatergic hyperactivity, which sustains and reinforces seizure activity. It has been unclear which muscarinic receptor subtypes are involved in seizure initiation and the development of SE in the early phases after exposure. Here, we show that pretreatment of rats with the selective M1 receptor antagonist, VU0255035 [N-(3-oxo-3-(4-(pyridine-4-yl)piperazin-1-yl)propyl)-benzo[c][1,2,5]thiadiazole-4 sulfonamide], significantly suppressed seizure severity and prevented the development of SE for about 40 minutes after exposure to paraoxon or soman, suggesting an important role of the M1 receptor in the early phases of seizure generation. In addition, in in vitro brain slices of the basolateral amygdala (a brain region that plays a key role in seizure initiation after nerve agent exposure), VU0255035 blocked the effects produced by bath application of paraoxon-namely, a brief barrage of spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents, followed by a significant increase in the ratio of the total charge transferred by spontaneous excitatory postsynaptic currents over that of the inhibitory postsynaptic currents. Furthermore, paraoxon enhanced the hyperpolarization-activated cation current Ih in basolateral amygdala principal cells, which could be one of the mechanisms underlying the increased glutamatergic activity, an effect that was also blocked in the presence of VU0255035. Thus, selective M1 antagonists may be an efficacious pretreatment in contexts in which there is risk for exposure to organophosphates, as these antagonists will delay the development of SE long enough for medical assistance to arrive.
hGBP-1 Expression Predicts Shorter Progression-Free Survival in Ovarian Cancers, While Contributing to Paclitaxel Resistance

Ovarian cancer is the gynecological cancer with the poorest prognosis. One significant reason is the development of resistance to the chemotherapeutic drugs used in its treatment. The large GTPase, hGBP-1, has been implicated in paclitaxel resistance in ovarian cell lines. Forced expression of hGBP-1 in SKOV3 ovarian cancer cells protects them from paclitaxel-induced cell death. However, prior to this study, nothing was known about whether hGBP-1 was expressed in ovarian tumors and whether its expression correlated with paclitaxel resistance. hGBP-1 is expressed in 17% of ovarian tumors from patients that have not yet received treatment. However, at least 80% of the ovarian tumors that recurred after therapies that included a tax-ane, either paclitaxel or docetaxel, were positive for hGBP-1. In addition, hGBP-1 expression predicts a significantly shorter progression-free survival in ovarian cancers. Based on these studies, hGBP-1 could prove to be a potential biomarker for paclitaxel resistance in ovarian cancer.
Impact of taxanes on weight gain during neoadjuvant chemotherapy (Ctx) for breast cancer (BC)

10606 Background: Weight gain after the diagnosis of BC has been associated with increased risk of recurrence and mortality. Previous studies have documented weight gain after cyclophosphamide, met...
Use of Dexmedetomidine in the Management of Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome in Critically Ill Patients

C l i n M e d International Library Citation: Kalabalik J, Sullivan JB (2015) Use of Dexmedetomidine in the Management of Alcohol Withdrawal Syndrome in Critically Ill Patients. Int J Crit Care Emerg Med 1:002 Received: June 30, 2015: Accepted: July 27, 2015: Published: July 30, 2015 Copyright: © 2015 Kalabalik J. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Kalabalik and Sullivan. Int J Crit Care Emerg Med 2014, 1:1
Detection of Human Landscape Alteration Using Nested Microbotanical and Fungal Proxies

Fungal spores and other ‘non-pollen palynomorphs’ are an overlooked and valuable analytical resource available to palaeoecologists and archaeologists as part of a multi-proxy dataset. Both compleme...
Will Democratization Save the Climate? An Entropy-Balanced, Random Slope Study

Democratization might be instrumental in addressing climate change on a global scale but the effect of democracy on carbon dioxide emissions is unclear. Treadmill of production (TOP) theory implies...
Enabling aqueous processing for crack-free thick electrodes

Abstract Aqueous processing of thick electrodes for Li-ion cells promises to increase energy density due to increased volume fraction of active materials, and to reduce cost due to the elimination of the toxic solvents. This work reports the processing and characterization of aqueous processed electrodes with high areal loading and associated full pouch cell performance. Cracking of the electrode coatings becomes a critical issue for aqueous processing of the positive electrode as areal loading increases above 20–25 mg/cm 2 (∼4 mAh/cm 2 ). Crack initiation and propagation, which was observed during drying via optical microscopy, is related to the build-up of capillary pressure during the drying process. The surface tension of water was reduced by the addition of isopropyl alcohol (IPA), which led to improved wettability and decreased capillary pressure during drying. The critical thickness (areal loading) without cracking increased gradually with increasing IPA content. The electrochemical performance was evaluated in pouch cells. Electrodes processed with water/IPA (80/20 wt%) mixture exhibited good structural integrity with good rate performance and cycling performance.
Response to Non-Standard Excitations

Chapter 2 dealt with the response to step, slope, and harmonic excitations. These are the stimuli used most often to elicit responses for the purpose of characterizing linear viscoelastic behavior. They were, therefore, called standard excitations. They share the common feature of being simple stimuli, applied once only, at t = 0. Viscoelastic response may be elicited, however, by a variety of other stimuli which we shall discuss, as a matter of convenience, under the heading of non-standard excitations. They fall naturally into two groups: (1) the response to the removal or the reversal of direction of a stimulus, and (2) the response to repeated stimuli.
Design of Automated Jumbo Drilling Robot Manipulator

Abstract This program involves the study of the technique of using a micro-computer to control a rock drilling machine. This research has successfully analyzed the motion of an existing jumbo machine. The kinematic control equations are established for any given geometrical configuration. The computer software has been written to demonstrate its feasibility. The needs of hardware implementation are also discussed.
The Effect of Lighting and Low Power Magnification on Inspection Performance

Ten subjects tried to identify c's (defects) in a matrix of o's (good items) with five letter sizes, three magnification levels (none, 2***X and 4X) and three illumination levels (1100, 2200 and 44...
Tracking the Distribution of a Solute Bolus in the Rat Kidney

The goal of this study is to develop a detailed mathematical model that tracks filtered solutes in the rat kidney. A better understanding of intra-renal solute distribution, and its cycling by way of countercurrent exchange and preferential tubular interactions, may yield new insights into fundamental principles of concentrating mechanism function. This is a complex problem, however, in part because of the marked heterogeneity exhibited in the transport properties of different nephron segments, and in the organization of tubules and vessels in the renal medulla, which likely gives rise to preferential interactions among neighboring tubules and vessels. The present model represents renal tubules in both the cortex and the medulla, the medullary vasculature, and their spatial relationship. By simulating the fate a marked bolus, we obtain the distribution of that solute as a function of time. In addition, we characterize the residence time of a solute by computing the portion of that solute remaining in the model kidney as a function of time. Model simulations of an anti-diuretic rat kidney predict that, owing to the different tubular transport properties to NaCl and urea, and to the more effective urea cycling mechanism in the inner medulla, the residence time of urea is substantially longer than that of NaCl. Simulation results also suggest that urea cycling is disrupted in the diuretic state, resulting in a significantly shorter residence time for urea.
Family Exposure to Potentially Traumatic Events and Chinese Children’s Psychological Adjustment: A Transgenerational Study

This study examined emotional and behavioral symptoms of children in Shanghai, China whose parents and/or grandparents had experienced potentially traumatic events (PTE). The sample was comprised of 2282 first-grade children who were rated by their teachers and parents. We compared children whose parents reported if they themselves and/or their parents had experienced a PTE, with children whose parents and grandparents had not been exposed to a PTE. We also paid attention to parental attributes including depression, overall physical health, and evaluation of the parent–child and marital relationships in order to determine their potential influence in the link between PTE exposure in a previous generation and children’s emotional and behavioral symptoms. Ordinary least square regression results indicate that children whose parents reported that they or one of their parents had PTE exposure had significantly higher levels of externalizing and internalizing behavior with effect sizes (Cohen’s d) ranging from 0.18 to 0.45. Parental depression, physical health symptoms, negative description of the parent–child relationship, and marital conflict were associated with heightened levels of children’s internalizing and externalizing behaviors and accounted for some of the links between parental PTE exposure and children’s symptoms.
Multiscale Atmospheric Overturning of the Indian Summer Monsoon as Seen through Isentropic Analysis

AbstractThis study investigates multiscale atmospheric overturning during the 2009 Indian summer monsoon (ISM) using a cloud-permitting numerical model. The isentropic analysis technique adopted he...
Strategies for Maximizing Rail Life

Strengthening of pearlitic rail steel and use of lubrication have been the traditional methods of maximizing rail life. The future seems to hold potential for microstructural modification and profile control/metal removal. Improved resistance to wear and rolling contact fatigue is possible with high hardness, near eutectoid, bainitic microstructures. Alternatively, similar results can be achieved by lowering the carbon content significantly and raising the alloy content. Reduction of oxide content will improve shelling performance while reduction of sulphide content will improve dry wear resistance and perhaps ductility and impact toughness. Rail grinding profile control can influence the contact stresses and the creep forces responsible for head checking and corrugation. Care must be taken with profile selection to avoid concentration of work hardening on the gage corner to minimize shell occurrence.
Photoluminescence of Inorganic Semiconductors for Chemical Sensor Applications

Over the last few decades there has been a remarkable growth in applications of chemical sensors. This growth stems from the increased need for sensitive and selective sensors in many technological aspects of life such as robotics, automation, enviromental science, information technology, and medicine.1 Semiconductor-based sensors and photoluminescent sensors have attracted much attention in this regard.2,3 The known electronic properties of semiconductor materials and the contactless nature of photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy make inorganic semiconductors an attractive approach for chemical sensing.
MiRNN: An Improved Prediction Model of MicroRNA Precursors Using Gated Recurrent Units

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that derived from hairpin-forming miRNA precursors (pre-miRNAs) and regulating gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. Many sophisticated computational tools have been developed for miRNA prediction. However, all these existing approaches for predicting miRNA require large amounts of task-specific knowledge in the form of handcrafted features and data pre-processing. In this article, we introduce MiRNN (MiRNN is available at https://github.com/CadenC/MiRNN), a novel computational predictor based on bidirectional gated recurrent units (GRUs). Our system is truly end-to-end, requiring no feature engineering or data preprocessing, thus making it applicable to a wide range of sequence classification tasks. Its main purpose is to omit the procedure of feature extraction and to provide accurate prediction by using the high-level features extracted from the bidirectional recurrent neural network. The experimental results show that MiRNN can produce state-of-the-art performance on pre-miRNA prediction task. The overall prediction accuracy of our model on miRBase data sets is 93.70%. In addition, we trained our model on various clade specific dataset and obtained increased accuracy.
DEA Excel Solver

The CD-ROM that you find in the back of this book contains the DEA Excel Solver which is a DEA Add-In for Microsoft® Excel. This software “DEA Excel Solver.xla” requires Excel 97 or later versions. The DEA Excel Solver provides you with the ability to perform the DEA models presented in the Chapters 1–11 and additional DEA methods discussed in the current chapter.
Efficacy of low dose clofarabine in refractory precursor T- acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Refractory T-lymphoblastic leukemia in adults has a poor prognosis in patients who relapse after allogeneic stem cell transplantation, and relatively few new agents have demonstrated activity. Clofarabine is a novel nucleoside analog that has been associated with significant clinical activity in relapsed pediatric B-ALL. We used low dose clofarabine and induced a remission in a patient who relapsed in the skin and marrow after allogeneic transplant and was refractory to nelarabine and report a near complete response, suggesting significant activity for low intermittent dose clofarabine in patients with relapsed T-cell leukemias.
Using Bloodmeal Analysis to Assess Disease Risk to Wildlife at the New Northern Limit of a Mosquito Species

The historically southeastern mosquito species Culex erraticus has over the last 30 years undergone a marked expansion north. We evaluated this species’ potential to participate in local disease cycles in the northeastern USA by identifying the vertebrate sources of blood in Cx. erraticus specimens from New Jersey. We found that the majority of bloodmeals (92.6%) were derived from birds, followed by 6.8% from mammals (of which half were human), and a single amphibian bloodmeal from a spring peeper (0.56%). Medium- and large-sized water birds from the order Pelecaniformes made up 60.4% of the bird species and 55.9% of all identified hosts. This group of birds is known enzootic hosts of arboviruses such as eastern equine encephalitis virus, for which Cx. erraticus is a competent vector. Additionally, we screened blooded mosquitoes for avian malaria parasites and identified three different lineages of Plasmodium, including what may represent a new Plasmodium species (likely a wetland bird specialist) in bloodmeals from Green Herons, a Great Egret, and a Double-Crested Cormorant. Our results support the utility of mosquito bloodmeals as sources of information about circulating wildlife pathogens and reveal the potential of range-expanding species to intensify local zoonoses and bridge enzootic pathogens to humans.
Symmetry breaking in high frequency, symmetric capacitively coupled plasmas

Two radially propagating surface wave modes, “symmetric,” in which the upper and lower axial sheath fields (Ez) are aligned, and “anti-symmetric,” in which they are opposed, can exist in capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) discharges. For a symmetric (equal electrode areas) CCP driven symmetrically, we expected to observe only the symmetric mode. Instead, we find that when the applied rf frequency f is above or near an anti-symmetric spatial resonance, both modes can exist in combination and lead to unexpected non-symmetric equilibria. We use a fast 2D axisymmetric fluid-analytical code to study a symmetric CCP reactor at low pressure (7.5 mTorr argon) and low density (∼3 × 1015 m−3) in the frequency range of f = 55 to 100 MHz which encompasses the first anti-symmetric spatial resonance frequency fa but is far below the first symmetric spatial resonance fs. For lower frequencies such that f is well below fa, the symmetric CCP is in a stable symmetric equilibrium, as expected, but at higher frequencies such that f is near or greater than fa, a non-symmetric equilibrium appears which may be stable or unstable. We develop a nonlinear lumped circuit model of the symmetric CCP to better understand these unexpected results, indicating that the proximity to the anti-symmetric spatial resonance allows self-exciting of the anti-symmetric mode even in a symmetric system. The circuit model results agree well with the fluid simulations. A linear stability analysis of the symmetric equilibrium describes a transition with increasing frequency from stable to unstable.Two radially propagating surface wave modes, “symmetric,” in which the upper and lower axial sheath fields (Ez) are aligned, and “anti-symmetric,” in which they are opposed, can exist in capacitively coupled plasma (CCP) discharges. For a symmetric (equal electrode areas) CCP driven symmetrically, we expected to observe only the symmetric mode. Instead, we find that when the applied rf frequency f is above or near an anti-symmetric spatial resonance, both modes can exist in combination and lead to unexpected non-symmetric equilibria. We use a fast 2D axisymmetric fluid-analytical code to study a symmetric CCP reactor at low pressure (7.5 mTorr argon) and low density (∼3 × 1015 m−3) in the frequency range of f = 55 to 100 MHz which encompasses the first anti-symmetric spatial resonance frequency fa but is far below the first symmetric spatial resonance fs. For lower frequencies such that f is well below fa, the symmetric CCP is in a stable symmetric equilibrium, as expected, but at higher frequencies such ...