cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Phylogenetic and evolutionary implications of nuclear ribosomal DNA variation in dwarf dandelions (Krigia, Lactuceae, Asteraceae)

Restriction site and length variations of nrDNA were examined for 51 populations of seven species ofKrigia. The nrDNA repeat ranged in size from 8.7 to 9.6 kilobase (kb). The transcribed region, including the two ITSs, was 5.35 kb long in all examinedKrigia populations. In contrast, the size of the nontranscribed IGS varied from 3.35 to 4.25 kb. Eight different types of length-variations were identified among the 51 populations, including distinct nrDNA lengths in the tetraploid and diploid populations of bothK. biflora andK. virginica. However, a few variations were detected among populations of the same species or within a cytotype. All populations ofKrigia sect.Cymbia share a 600 bp insertion in IGS near the 18 S gene, and this feature suggests monophyly of the section. AllKrigia spp. had a conjugated type of subrepeat composed of approximately 75 basepairs (bp) and 125 bp. Base modifications in the gene coding regions were highly conserved among species. Forty-five restriction sites from 15 enzymes were mapped, 24 of which were variable among populations. Only four of the variable sites occurred in the rRNA coding region while 20 variable sites were detected in the noncoding regions. Collectively, 25 enzymes generated about 66 restriction sites in each nrDNA; this amounts to about 4.3% of the nrDNA repeat. A total of 50 restriction sites was variable, 28 of which were phylogenetically informative. Phylogenetic analyses of site mutations indicated that two sections ofKrigia, sect.Cymbia and sect.Krigia, are monophyletic. In addition, relationships among several species were congruent with other sources of data, such as cpDNA restriction site variation and morphology. Both length and restriction site variation supported an allopolyploid origin of the hexaploidK. montana. The average sequence divergence value inKrigia nrDNA was 40 times greater than that of the chloroplast DNA. The rapid evolution of nrDNA sequences was primarily due to changes of the IGS sequences.
Reusing linear finite elements in material and geometrically nonlinear analysis-Application to plane stress problems

This paper describes a computational approach suitable for combined material and geometrically nonlinear analysis by the Finite Element Method. Its main advantage is reuse: once a finite element has been developed with good performance in linear analysis, extension to material and geometrically nonlinear problems is simplified. Extension to geometrically nonlinear problems is enabled by a corotational kinematic description, and that to material nonlinear problems by an optimization-based solution algorithm. The approach thus comprises three ingredients-the development of a high performance linear finite element (for example, using the ANDES concept), a corotational kinematic description, and an optimization algorithm. The main constraint in the application of the corotational formulation is restriction to small deformational displacements. The paper illustrates the realization of the three ingredients on plane stress problems that exhibit elasto-plastic material behavior. Numerical examples are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the approach. Comparison is made with respect to solutions provided by the commercial nonlinear code ABAQUS as reference.
Computer program for a hospital blood bank.

The use of a computer to maintain blood bank records is a practical means for reducing the burden of secretarial activities. It provides legible, formated reports of daily activities, completed files, special reports and monthly statistical summaries. Daily statistical and inventory data provided by the computer can assist in anticipating donor blood requirements. In addition, the computer provides an auditing capacity that is virtually unobtainable by manual technics. A description of the input records, computer files and printed reports is presented.
Stress‐enhanced transport of toluene in poly aryl ether ether ketone (PEEK)

The transport of fluids in the semicrystalline polymer, poly(aryl ether ether ketone) (PEEK), was investigated. Both solubility and rate of penetration of toluene into PEEK are markedly increased by the application of an external stress. The induction period (i.e., the time for the sorption to begin) is a function of applied stress as well as temperature and crystallinity. At 22°C in 29% crystalline PEEK the induction period was reduced from more than 2000 h to approximately 10 h whereas the solubility of toluene was increased from 9 to 44 wt % upon the application of an external tensile stress of 30 MPa. A critical stress (i.e., a stress value below which the stress-enhanced effects are not observed) was determined. The critical stress is a strong function of crystallinity and temperature. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Sex Pheromones of the Southern Armyworm Moth: Isolation, Identification, and Synthesis

Two sex pheromones have been isolated from the female southern armyworm moth, Prodenia eridania (Cramer), and identified as cis-9-tetradecen-1-ol acetate, identical with the sex pheromone of the fall armyworm moth, Spodoptera frugiperda (J. E. Smith), and cis-9,trans-12-tetradecadien-1-ol acetate.
Precoder Quantization for MIMO-OFDM Systems over Frequency Selective Channels

Transmit beamforming can improve the performance of multi-input multi-output (MIMO) systems. For FDD systems, the beamforming matrix must be quantized and fed back to the transmitter side. Different compact quantization codebooks have been designed to reduce the overhead of the feedback channel. In this paper, we compare the performance of two different quantization methods for a fixed codebook: vector- wise quantization based on householder reflection and the joint matrix quantization. The vector-wise quantization decomposes the matrix codeword into vectors using the Household transform. We find that vector-wise quantization can outperform joint matrix quantization due to the unbalanced gain of spatial eigen- mode of the MIMO channel. We also proposed a recursive sphere chordal distance quantizer (SCDQ) to reduce the computational cost of the matrix quantization. Simulation results are provided to verify our findings.
Cross-sectional area and intravascular pressure of the right internal jugular vein during anesthesia: effects of Trendelenburg position, positive intrathoracic pressure, and hepatic compression.

Abstract Study Objective : To determine changes in the cross-sectional area of the right internal jugular vein (RIJV) in response to positive intrathoracic pressure and hepatic compression in mechanically ventilated patients during general anesthesia. Design : Prospective, nonrandomized study. Setting : A university medical center. Patients : 15 ASA physical status II and III adult patients undergoing RIJV cannulation after anesthetic induction and endotracheal intubation. Interventions : Patients were studied first supine and then at a 10 ° and 20 ° Trendelenburg tilt. The cross-sectional area of the RIJV was determined by two-dimensional ultrasound before and during 1) an end-inspiratory hold of 20 cm H 2 O; 2) hepatic compression for 10 seconds; and 3) both maneuvers applied simultaneously. Subsequently, the RIJV was cannulated and the intravascular pressure was measured during the same sequence of maneuvers. Measurements and Main Results : In supine patients, the cross-sectional area of the RIJV significantly increased during the end-inspiratory hold, during hepatic compression, and with both maneuvers performed simultaneously ( p Conclusion : Hepatic compression and positive inspiratory hold effectively dilate the RIJV in supine patients and can be used when the Trendelenburg position is not advisable or possible. Performing these maneuvers with patients in the Trendelenburg position may facilitate cannulation, possibly by making the vein less collapsible due to increased intravascular pressure.
Adenovirus type 5 exerts genome-wide control over cellular programs governing proliferation, quiescence, and survival

Human adenoviruses, such as serotype 5 (Ad5), encode several proteins that can perturb cellular mechanisms that regulate cell cycle progression and apoptosis, as well as those that mediate mRNA production and translation. However, a global view of the effects of Ad5 infection on such programs in normal human cells is not available, despite widespread efforts to develop adenoviruses for therapeutic applications. We used two-color hybridization and oligonucleotide microarrays to monitor changes in cellular RNA concentrations as a function of time after Ad5 infection of quiescent, normal human fibroblasts. We observed that the expression of some 2,000 genes, about 10% of those examined, increased or decreased by a factor of two or greater following Ad5 infection, but were not altered in mock-infected cells. Consensus k-means clustering established that the temporal patterns of these changes were unexpectedly complex. Gene Ontology terms associated with cell proliferation were significantly over-represented in several clusters. The results of comparative analyses demonstrate that Ad5 infection induces reversal of the quiescence program and recapitulation of the core serum response, and that only a small subset of the observed changes in cellular gene expression can be ascribed to well characterized functions of the viral E1A and E1B proteins. These findings establish that the impact of adenovirus infection on host cell programs is far greater than appreciated hitherto. Furthermore, they provide a new framework for investigating the molecular functions of viral early proteins and information relevant to the design of conditionally replicating adenoviral vectors.
A Formal Model and Efficient Traversal Algorithm for Generating Testbenches for Verification of IEEE Standard Floating Point Division

We utilize a formal model of division for determining a testbench of p-bit (dividend, divisor) pairs whose output 2p-bit quotients have properties characterizing these instances as the most challenging for verifying any division algorithm design and implementation. Specifically, our test suites yield 2p-bit quotients where the leading p-bits traverse all or a pseudo-random sample of leading bit combinations, and the next p-bits comprise a round bit followed by (p-1) identical bits. These values are proven to be closest to the p-bit quotient rounding boundaries and shown to possess other desirable coverage properties. We introduce an efficient method of generating these test benches. We also describe applications of these testbenches at the design simulation stage and the product evaluation stage.
A generalized electron transport model in photodetectors for high-speed imaging

Photoelectron transport in a photodetector in an ultra-high frame rate image sensor under the uniform illumination condition is investigated. The charge readout time in a multi-implant photodetector is estimated using a generalized model with both diffusion equation and continuity equations. The maximum effective diffusion length was assigned to each implanted region after taking into account the fringing field drift due to multiple implants. Assuming that the charge on each section is directly proportional to its area under uniform illumination, the total charge transport as a function of time is obtained by the superposition of charge contribution of all implanted regions. By increasing the number of implants in the photodetector it may be possible to collect more than 10 million frames s?1. The design effects are also investigated. The model showed excellent match with experimental results.
Multiple Paths for Nonphysiological Transport of K+ in Escherichia coli

Mutants of Escherichia coli lacking all of the known saturable K+ transport systems, "triple mutants," require elevated K+ concentrations for growth. K+ transport activity in such mutants, called TrkF activity, has low substrate specificity and a low rate that increases with increasing external pH. Attempts to isolate mutants requiring even higher concentrations of K+ failed, implying that either TrkF is essential or is composed of multiple minor K+ transport activities. Instead, we sought mutations that allowed triple mutants to grow at lower K+ concentrations. Mutations so identified include ones altering MscL, the large mechanosensitive channel, or Opp, the oligopeptide permease. However, a possible contribution of wild-type Opp and MscL to TrkF activity was not proven. In contrast, expression of wild-type ProP, TrkG, and TrkH proteins increased uptake when encoded on multicopy plasmids. In all of these situations, the driving force for K+ appeared to be the transmembrane electric potential, and in most cases substrate specificity was low; these are characteristics of TrkF activity. These results support the view that TrkF is composed of multiple, "aberrant" K+ transport activities, i.e., paths that, regardless of their physiological function, allow K+ to cross the cell membrane by a uniport process.
Forest ecosystem respiration estimated from eddy covariance and chamber measurements under high turbulence and substantial tree mortality from bark beetles

Eddy covariance nighttime fluxes are uncertain due to potential measurement biases. Many studies report eddy covariance nighttime flux lower than flux from extrapolated chamber measurements, despite corrections for low turbulence. We compared eddy covariance and chamber estimates of ecosystem respiration at the GLEES Ameriflux site over seven growing seasons under high turbulence [summer night mean friction velocity (u*) = 0.7 m s−1], during which bark beetles killed or infested 85% of the aboveground respiring biomass. Chamber-based estimates of ecosystem respiration during the growth season, developed from foliage, wood, and soil CO2 efflux measurements, declined 35% after 85% of the forest basal area had been killed or impaired by bark beetles (from 7.1 ± 0.22 μmol m−2 s−1 in 2005 to 4.6 ± 0.16 μmol m−2 s−1 in 2011). Soil efflux remained at ~3.3 μmol m−2 s−1 throughout the mortality, while the loss of live wood and foliage and their respiration drove the decline of the chamber estimate. Eddy covariance estimates of fluxes at night remained constant over the same period, ~3.0 μmol m−2 s−1 for both 2005 (intact forest) and 2011 (85% basal area killed or impaired). Eddy covariance fluxes were lower than chamber estimates of ecosystem respiration (60% lower in 2005, and 32% in 2011), but the mean night estimates from the two techniques were correlated within a year (r2 from 0.18 to 0.60). The difference between the two techniques was not the result of inadequate turbulence, because the results were robust to a u* filter of >0.7 m s−1. The decline in the average seasonal difference between the two techniques was strongly correlated with overstory leaf area (r2 = 0.92). The discrepancy between methods of respiration estimation should be resolved to have confidence in ecosystem carbon flux estimates.
Combination of D-dimer and amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide testing for the evaluation of dyspneic patients with and without acute pulmonary embolism

Abstract Context.—D-dimer concentration can be used to exclude a diagnosis of acute pulmonary embolism. However, clinicians frequently order unnecessary supplemental testing in patients with low concentrations of D-dimer. Elevations in natriuretic peptides have also been described in the setting of pulmonary embolism. Objective.—We investigated the integrative role of D-dimer with amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide for the evaluation of patients with and without acute pulmonary embolism. Design.—Patients were selected for analysis from a previous study in which levels of D-dimer and amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide were measured. The presence of pulmonary embolism was determined by computed tomographic angiography. Results.—The median levels of D-dimer were significantly higher in patients with acute pulmonary embolism. Similarly, the median levels of amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide were higher in patients with pulmonary embolism. Conclusions.—The Roche Tina-quant D-D...
A review of data mining using big data in health informatics

The amount of data produced within Health Informatics has grown to be quite vast, and analysis of this Big Data grants potentially limitless possibilities for knowledge to be gained. In addition, this information can improve the quality of healthcare offered to patients. However, there are a number of issues that arise when dealing with these vast quantities of data, especially how to analyze this data in a reliable manner. The basic goal of Health Informatics is to take in real world medical data from all levels of human existence to help advance our understanding of medicine and medical practice. This paper will present recent research using Big Data tools and approaches for the analysis of Health Informatics data gathered at multiple levels, including the molecular, tissue, patient, and population levels. In addition to gathering data at multiple levels, multiple levels of questions are addressed: human-scale biology, clinical-scale, and epidemic-scale. We will also analyze and examine possible future work for each of these areas, as well as how combining data from each level may provide the most promising approach to gain the most knowledge in Health Informatics.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Treatment of Neurologic Sequela After Atrioesophageal Fistula

Atrioesophageal fistula (AEF) is a rare complication after radiofrequency ablation for atrial fibrillation but is associated with high mortality, usually due to sepsis or neurologic injury. We report the case of a patient who presented with an AEF and dense neurologic deficits who had complete neurologic recovery after management with emergent surgical repair without the use of cardiopulmonary bypass and with implementation of postoperative hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Testing for Competence in Three Ethnic Groups

Piaget Matrices and Order of Appearance tasks were administered to 189 children, 5-10 years of age. The children represented three ethnic groups: Anglo, Black, and Mexican-American. Three conditions of testing were employed. Differences between conditions were detected for all age groups with performance in elaborated conditions exceeding performance under standard procedures. An interaction was identified for age × condition for both tasks. A tendency toward an interaction was identified for condition X ethnic group, with performance for Black and Mexican-American children tending to be below that of Anglos in the standard, but not in the fully elaborated condition. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of a differential testing approach to increase the validity of assessment of cognitive capabilities by reducing Type II error.
Environment, Society and Landscape in Early Medieval England: Time and Topography. By Tom Williamson. (Woodbridge, England: Boydell Press, 2013. Pp. viii, 270. $80.00.)

Landscape history has a long and respected history in the United Kingdom. Its practitioners have constructed a detailed and deep sense of the changing patterns of human settlement in the British Is...
Food consumption and weight gain after cessation of chronic amphetamine administration

Cessation of drug use often coincides with increased food consumption and weight gain in recovering addicts. However, it is not known whether this phenomenon (particularly the weight gain) is uniquely human, or whether it represents a consequence of drug cessation common across species. To address this issue, rats (n = 10/group) were given systemic injections of D-amphetamine (3 mg/kg) or an equal volume of saline vehicle for 9 consecutive days. Beginning 2 days after the final injection, rats were given free access to a highly palatable food mixture (consisting of sugar and butter) along with their standard chow diet, and food consumption and body weight were measured every 48 h for 30 days. Consistent with clinical observations, amphetamine-treated rats showed a greater increase in body weight over the course of the 30 days relative to vehicle-treated rats. Surprisingly, there was no difference in highly palatable food consumption between amphetamine- and vehicle-treated groups, but the amphetamine-treated group consumed significantly more standard chow than the control group. The finding that a history of chronic amphetamine exposure increases food consumption is consistent with previous work in humans showing that withdrawal from drugs of abuse is associated with overeating and weight gain. The current findings may reflect amphetamine-induced sensitization of mechanisms involved in reward motivation, suggesting that weight gain following drug cessation in humans could be due to similar mechanisms.
Determining tropical cyclone inland flooding loss on a large scale through a new flood peak ratio-based methodology

In recent years, the United States has been severely affected by numerous tropical cyclones (TCs) which have caused massive damages. While media attention mainly focuses on coastal losses from storm surge, these TCs have inflicted significant devastation inland as well. Yet, little is known about the relationship between TC-related inland flooding and economic losses. Here we introduce a novel methodology that first successfully characterizes the spatial extent of inland flooding, and then quantifies its relationship with flood insurance claims. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 is used as illustration. We empirically demonstrate in a number of ways that our quantified inland flood magnitude produces a very good representation of the number of inland flood insurance claims experienced. These results highlight the new technological capabilities that can lead to a better risk assessment of inland TC flood. This new capacity will be of tremendous value to a number of public and private sector stakeholders dealing with disaster preparedness.
Optimal control modification for robust adaptive control with large adaptive gain

a b s t r a c t In the presence of large uncertainties, a control system needs to be able to adapt rapidly to regain performance. Fast adaptation is referred to the implementation of adaptive control with a large adaptive gain so as to reduce the tracking error rapidly. However, a large adaptive gain can lead to highfrequency oscillations which can adversely affect robustness. A new adaptive law, called optimal control modification, is presented that can achieve robust adaptation with a large adaptive gain without incurring high-frequency oscillations. The modification is based on a minimization of the L2 norm of the tracking error bounded away from some lower bound, formulated as an optimal control problem. The optimality condition is used to derive the modification based on the Pontryagin’s Minimum Principle. The optimal control modification is shown to improve robustness of the standard MRAC without significantly compromising the tracking performance. Flight control simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the new adaptive law. A series of recent, successful flight tests of this adaptive law on a NASA F/A-18A aircraft at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center further demonstrate the effectiveness of the optimal control modification adaptive law. Published by Elsevier B.V.
Environmental Biotechnology: An Overview

Publisher Summary Biotechnology is any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, and derivatives to make or modify products and processes for specific use. Humans have been manipulating genetic material for centuries. This chapter provides an overview of environmental biotechnology. An assessment is only as good as the assumptions and information from which it is drawn. Good science must underpin the environmental decisions. One must enlist the expertise of engineers, microbiologists, botanists, zoologists, geneticists, medical researchers, geologists, geographers, land use planners, hydrologists, meteorologists, computational experts, systems biologists, and ecologists to characterize the risks and opportunities of environmental biotechnology. The only way to characterize biological systems is by simultaneously addressing chemical reactions, motion, and biological processes. Mass and energy exchanges are constantly taking place within and between cells, and at every scale of an ecosystem or a human population. Thus, biochemodynamics addresses energy and matter as they move, change, and cycle through organisms. A single chemical or organism undergoes the process from its release to its environmental fate.
Women's human agency and self-determination in Guatemalan tourism development

Tourism is often identified as a strategy to ameliorate the wellbeing of poor communities and their most vulnerable members - women and their children. Women's ability to get involved in and benefit from tourism is, however, conditioned by traditional gender roles and consequent education handicaps. Development programs often target women to mitigate these disparities. This paper examines whether an intervention by the Peace Corps resulted in improved human agency and self-determination among indigenous Q'eqchi' women in Alta Verapaz, Guatemala. The paper reports the accomplishments and shortcomings of the intervention and elaborates on the practical and theoretical implications of the findings.
From Parallel to Intersecting Narratives in Cases of Sexual Assault

Restorative justice alternatives to criminal justice are designed to balance the needs of victims, offenders, families, friends, and the community at large to achieve social justice, repair of victims, and deterrence of crime. In the model we evaluated from RESTORE (Responsibility and Equity for Sexual Transgressions Offering a Restorative Experience), each offender and victim received individual services and met in guided conferencing to mutually determine reparative actions for the offender. At the exit meeting, the offender, as the responsible person, read a written apology to the survivor/victim. In this article, we analyze the expression of empathy in the apology, in which the initial mitigation of responsibility in early documents was replaced by acknowledgment of harm to the survivor/victim and acceptance of responsibility for the assault. Those accused of felony rape and those targeting a visible person in cases of misdemeanor indecent exposure expressed greater regret and remorse than offenders of indecent exposure with an indeterminate victim.
Frequency synchronization in global satellite communications systems

A frequency synchronization method is proposed and analyzed for global satellite communications systems employing low Earth orbit satellites or medium Earth orbit satellites. In these systems, the Doppler shift varies randomly and can be more than ten times larger than the symbol rate. The proposed method uses the satellite as the reference point and corrects frequency errors accordingly. It is shown the proposed method can achieve negligibly small frequency errors. By employing this method, the system bandwidth can be fully utilized and guard bands are no longer needed.
Acute and sustained isoflurane neuroprotection: the effect of culture age and duration of oxygen and glucose deprivation.

Objectives: Organotypic hippocampal slice (OHS) cultures provide the opportunity to dissect factors influencing volatile anaesthetic neuroprotective efficacy. It was hypothesized that three conditions—OHS culture age, oxygen glucose deprivation (OGD) duration and day of evaluation for cell death after OGD—influence isoflurane's ability to provide acute and sustained protection against OGD-induced cell death.Methods: OHS were prepared from PND 9–11 rat pups and maintained in vitro for 0.5, 1, 2 or 3 weeks. The slices were exposed to OGD for 0, 10, 30, 60 or 90 minutes with or without 1.5% isoflurane. Sytox staining was used to determine the amount of cell death on post-OGD days 1, 3 and 7 and was compared to the amount of cell death in culture–age matched controls (no OGD).Results: The duration of OGD necessary to produce cell death was inversely related to culture age. All culture ages showed evidence of both acute and sustained neuroprotection, but the magnitude of protection depended on OHS culture age,...
Resource or Obstacle?: Classed Reports of Student–Faculty Relations

This article explores the relationship between undergraduate students' class-based cultural capital and their facility in developing relationships with faculty. Based on in-depth interviews with 44 students at an elite university, this study reveals that lower- and middle-class students tended to inadvertently opt out of this key relational opportunity. Compared with upper-class students, who predominantly reported an “appreciative ease” orientation toward faculty, students from lower-class origins tended to approach faculty with “hesitant appreciation” and middle-class students with “critical suspicion.” These orientations or interaction styles of nonelite students were obstacles to the potential benefits of student–faculty relationships. These findings suggest that scholars and policy makers should pay attention not only to the experiences of lower-class students, but also to the challenges confronting middle-class students at highly selective universities.
Xi Jinping’s China. The Motive Behind China’s Current Transition: Foreign Success is Changing Domestic Behavior

After the generational power transfer of 2012–2013, China is a nation in the midst of one of the most profound and far-reaching transitions in its recent history.
Managing Salinity in Irrigated Agriculture

Excessive accumulation of salts in soils and ground water has plagued the irrigated semiarid and subhumid regions of the world for centuries. The structural measures of salinity control are effective but extremely capital intensive. A non-structural management model is presented which may help maintain a permanent irrigated agriculture at a reasonable cost. The model is based on the theory that an irrigated system consists of a number of components and that the good health of each component is vital to the overall good health of the entire system, and that ignoring even a single component could lead to disastrous consequences. A simplified limited version of the model is applied to a case study and it is concluded that the implementation of the model devised strategies could reduce the normal rate of degradation of the ground water by about 80 percent.
Activation of Human Plasma Factor XIII by Thrombin

A few years after the discovery that thrombin effected the fibrinogen—fibrin conversion by a process of limited proteolysis (Bailey et al., 1951; Lorand, 1951, 1952; Lorand and Middlebrook, 1952), it was reported from this laboratory (Lorand, 1961; Lorand and Konishi, 1964) that thrombin played another entirely similar and parallel role by activating the fibrin-stabilizing factor, now known as factor XIII. Actually, both thrombin and Ca2+ ions were found necessary to bring about the activation of this plasma precursor to generate the enzyme (factor XIIIa) which cross-links fibrin.1 The activation pathway could be resolved into the consecutive steps of a Ca2+-independent hydrolysis by thrombin followed by some Ca2+-specific, but thrombin-independent, changes on the proteolytically clipped factor XIII’ intermediate: $$FactorXIII\xrightarrow{{Thrombin}}FactorXIII'\xrightarrow{{C{a^2}}}FactorXII{I_a}$$ Thus, in the context of blood clotting, thrombin could be shown to perform a dual function by catalyzing not only the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin but also regulating the rate of production of factor XIIIa, a transamidating enzyme which serves the purpose of strengthening the blood clot by cross-linking (XL) fibrin by N e-(γ-glutamyl)lysine bridges within the required physiological time frame (Bruner-Lorand et al., 1966; Roberts et al., 1973; Mockros et al., 1974; Shen and Lorand, 1983; for a review see Lorand and Conrad, 1984).
Optimization of a truck-drone in tandem delivery network using K-means and genetic algorithm

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the effectiveness of implementing unmanned aerial delivery vehicles in delivery networks. We investigate the notion of the reduced overall delivery time, energy, and costs for a truck-drone network by comparing the in-tandem system with a stand-alone delivery effort. The objectives are (1) to investigate the time, energy, and costs associated to a truck-drone delivery network compared to standalone truck or drone, (2) to propose an optimization algorithm that determines the optimal number of launch sites and locations given delivery requirements, and drones per truck, (3) to develop mathematical formulations for closed form estimations for the optimal number of launch locations, optimal total time, as well as the associated cost for the system. Design/methodology/approach: The design of the algorithm herein computes the minimal time of delivery utilizing K-means clustering to find launch locations, as well as a genetic algorithm to solve the truck route as a traveling salesmen problem (TSP). The optimal solution is determined by finding the minimum cost associated to the parabolic convex cost function. The optimal min-cost is determined by finding the most efficient launch locations using K-means algorithms to determine launch locations and a genetic algorithm to determine truck route between those launch locations. Findings: Results show improvements with in-tandem delivery efforts as opposed to standalone systems. Further, multiple drones per truck are more optimal and contribute to savings in both energy and time. For this, we sampled various initialization variables to derive closed form mathematical solutions for the problem. Originality/value: Ultimately, this provides the necessary analysis of an integrated truck-drone delivery system which could be implemented by a company in order to maximize deliveries while minimizing time and energy. Closed-form mathematical solutions can be used as close estimators for final costs and time.
Ranking Causal Anomalies via Temporal and Dynamical Analysis on Vanishing Correlations

Modern world has witnessed a dramatic increase in our ability to collect, transmit and distribute real-time monitoring and surveillance data from large-scale information systems and cyber-physical systems. Detecting system anomalies thus attracts significant amount of interest in many fields such as security, fault management, and industrial optimization. Recently, invariant network has shown to be a powerful way in characterizing complex system behaviours. In the invariant network, a node represents a system component and an edge indicates a stable, significant interaction between two components. Structures and evolutions of the invariance network, in particular the vanishing correlations, can shed important light on locating causal anomalies and performing diagnosis. However, existing approaches to detect causal anomalies with the invariant network often use the percentage of vanishing correlations to rank possible casual components, which have several limitations: 1) fault propagation in the network is ignored; 2) the root casual anomalies may not always be the nodes with a high-percentage of vanishing correlations; 3) temporal patterns of vanishing correlations are not exploited for robust detection. To address these limitations, in this paper we propose a network diffusion based framework to identify significant causal anomalies and rank them. Our approach can effectively model fault propagation over the entire invariant network, and can perform joint inference on both the structural, and the time-evolving broken invariance patterns. As a result, it can locate high-confidence anomalies that are truly responsible for the vanishing correlations, and can compensate for unstructured measurement noise in the system. Extensive experiments on synthetic datasets, bank information system datasets, and coal plant cyber-physical system datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach.
Structural Analysis of Hemagglutinin-Induced Hemifusion by Volta Phase-Plate Cryo-Electron Tomography

Enveloped viruses feature metastable fusion proteins, which upon their conformational change transfer configurative energy into membrane fusion. To overcome the initial and substantial energetic barrier due to hydration repulsion of phospholipids, membrane fusion is thought to proceed through a low energy intermediate called hemifusion; yet for viral fusion the hemifusion structure has never been characterized. Variations of membrane curvature theory predict hemifusion diaphragms of varying dimensions. We study the hemifusion intermediate catalyzed by wild-type and G1S hemifusion mutant influenza hemagglutinin (HA) incorporated into virus-like particles (VLP) using Volta phase-plate cryo-electron tomography. We found “Y” shaped lipidic junctions with liposomal membrane inserted into the VLP membrane as suggested previously (Lee K. K., EMBO, 2010). Lipidic junctions and hemifusion diaphragms (HD) were typical membrane structures in both mutated and wild-type HA mediated fusion. Dimensions of HD and lipidic junctions ranged widely with their variance controlled by the rigidity imposed by the matrix layer, in agreement with our continuum mechanics model. We observed HA in close proximity to free membrane edges of ruptured liposomal membrane and lipidic junctions, suggesting that HA is capable of rupture, stabilization and resealing of membrane compartments in a step-wise manner permitting HD formation by lateral merging of lipidic junctions. Unambiguous determination of a lipidic junction consisting of the edge of a liposomal bilayer merged in the outer leaflet of a VLP opens the possibility of an alternate HA-mediated membrane fusion pathway.Lee, K. K. Architecture of a nascent viral fusion pore. The EMBO journal 29, 1299-1311, http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/emboj.2010.13 (2010).
ULNAR TUNNEL SYNDROME

Compression neuropathies are a significant source of pain in the upper extremity. Although ulnar tunnel syndrome occurs much less frequently than cubital tunnel syndrome, compression of the nerve at this level is a readily treatable condition. Ulnar tunnel syndrome should be kept in the differential diagnosis when the patient complains of numbness of the ring and small fingers, hand weakness, and pain on the ulnar side of the wrist.
The Political Effects of Agricultural Subsidies in Africa: Evidence from Malawi

Across sub-Saharan Africa agricultural subsidy programs have again become a common strategy for combatting rural poverty, increasing agricultural production, and reducing food insecurity. Despite a large literature examining subsidies' effects on output and welfare, little is known about their political effects. This paper examines Malawi's Agricultural Input Subsidy Programme, one of the largest and most expensive programs implemented, which was launched by the government in 2005. We examine whether the incumbent party, the Democratic Progressive Party headed by president Bingu wa Mutharika, benefited from Malawi's subsidy program by examining a longitudinal dataset of 1,846 rural Malawians interviewed in 2008 and again in 2010. The individual-level data show no evidence that the subsidy program was targeted to Mutharika's co-ethnics or co-partisans. Our analysis further demonstrates that the subsidy program increased support for the incumbent party. These results suggest that even when parties are unable or unwilling to target distributional programs at the local level, they may nonetheless derive political benefits. As anti-poverty programs - including agricultural subsidies to small-scale farmers - become increasingly common across the continent, our results suggest that they may help to explain patterns of party affiliation and vote choice, particularly where traditional patterns of partisan affiliation related to ethnic or regional identities weaken.
New democracies and the risk of civil conflict: The lasting legacy of military rule

Existing theories of regime transitions suggest that new democracies are more prone to political violence than consolidated democracies. We contend that this risk varies based on the political lega...
SPOT APPLICATION TOOL FOR WAVE DRIVEN NEARSHORE HYDRODYNAMICS

Nearshore hydrodynamics are driven by a wide spectrum of motions/scales that vary on the order of O (10) m to O (100) km. These scales have different effects on the dynamics of the nearshore areas, and capturing these effects is essential in accurately modeling the nearshore processes such as: mixing and transport of pollutants, wave steeping and/or wave damping, erosion and deposition of sediments, and infragravity wave propagation. For example, in tidal inlets, waves interact with tidal-currents and bathymetry. The presences of waves alter the kinematics and the dynamics of the tidal-currents such as increasing the bottom friction due to wave bottom boundary layer and changing the vertical profile of the horizontal velocity from the well-known log profile. The tidal-currents affect the wave kinematics and dynamics such as Doppler shift, wave refraction, and wave steeping in opposite currents, wave breaking and infragravity wave propagation. The time and length scales of the current are much larger than those of the waves, and modeling this interaction using a single numerical model is numerically expensive. One approach to overcome this issue is through using multi-scale numerical modeling by coupling two or more numerical models. In literature, spectral wave models have been widely coupled with circulation models to study wave-current interaction. These spectral models can provide accurate predictions for wave height but they don’t provide accurate information about nonlinear wave statistics, i.e. wave skewness and asymmetry, which is a key parameter in sediment transport models. On the other hand, the phase-resolving models are capable of providing this information. In the current study, the large-scale circulation model, Delft3D, is coupled with time-domain Boussinesq-type wave model. The use of time domain wave model in the numerical coupling will improve the prediction of various nearshore processes such as: wave breaking and thus infragravity wave release and propagation, combined vertical velocity structure under external forcings of tidal currents. Such an application will fulfill the community needs for a "spot application tool" where we simulate wave-driven processes in a large domain with fine-resolution.
Evolutionary cascades induced by large frugivores.

Abstract Large, fruit-eating vertebrates have been lost from many of the world’s ecosystems. The ecological consequences of this defaunation can be severe, but the evolutionary consequences are nearly unknown because it remains unclear whether frugivores exert strong selection on fruit traits. I assessed the macroevolution of fruit traits in response to variation in the diversity and size of seed-dispersing vertebrates. Across the Indo-Malay Archipelago, many of the same plant lineages have been exposed to very different assemblages of seed-dispersing vertebrates. Phylogenetic analysis of >400 plant species in 41 genera and five families revealed that average fruit size tracks the taxonomic and functional diversity of frugivorous birds and mammals. Fruit size was 40.2–46.5% smaller in the Moluccas and Sulawesi (respectively), with relatively depauperate assemblages of mostly small-bodied animals, than in the Sunda Region (Borneo, Sumatra, and Peninsular Malaysia), with a highly diverse suite of large and small animals. Fruit color, however, was unrelated to vertebrate diversity or to the representation of birds versus mammals in the frugivore assemblage. Overhunting of large animals, nearly ubiquitous in tropical forests, could strongly alter selection pressures on plants, resulting in widespread, although trait-specific, morphologic changes.
Communities mobilizing for change on alcohol (CMCA): secondary analyses of a randomized controlled trial showing effects of community organizing on alcohol acquisition by youth in the Cherokee nation.

AIMS We evaluated the effects of a community organizing intervention, Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA), on the propensity of retail alcohol outlets to sell alcohol to young buyers without age identification and on alcohol acquisition behaviors of underage youth. DESIGN Random assignment of community to treatment (n = 3) or control (n = 2). Student surveys were conducted four times per year for 3 years; the cohort was in 9th and 10th grades in the 2012-13 academic year. Alcohol purchase attempts were conducted every 4 weeks at alcohol retailers in each community (31 repeated waves). SETTING The Cherokee Nation, located in northeastern Oklahoma, USA. PARTICIPANTS A total of 1399 high school students (50% male; 45% American Indian) and 113 stores licensed to sell alcohol across five study communities. INTERVENTION Local community organizers formed independent citizen action teams to advance policies, procedures and practices of local institutions in ways to reduce youth access to alcohol and foster community norms opposed to teen drinking. MEASUREMENTS Perceptions regarding police enforcement and perceived difficulty of and self-reported actual acquisition of alcohol from parents, adults, peers and stores. FINDINGS Alcohol purchases by young-appearing buyers declined significantly, an 18 [95% confidence interval (CI) = 3, 33] percentage-point reduction over the intervention period. Student survey results show statistically significant differences in the trajectory of perceived police enforcement, increasing 7 (4, 10) percentage points, alcohol acquisition from parents, decreasing 4 (0.1, 8) percentage points, acquisition from 21+ adults, decreasing 6 (0.04, 11) percentage points, from < 21 peers decreasing 8 (3, 13) percentage points and acquisition from stores decreasing 5 (1, 9) percentage points. CONCLUSIONS A community organizing intervention, Communities Mobilizing for Change on Alcohol (CMCA), is effective in reducing the availability of alcohol to underage youth in the United states. Furthermore, results indicate that the previously reported significant effects of CMCA on teen drinking operate, at least in part, through effects on alcohol access.
Leibniz on the Infinite Analysis of Contingent Truths

Leibniz taught that not only necessary truths are “analytic”, but so also contingent ones are. Their analysis, however is infinite and can be effected only by God, who alone can carry through the a priori demonstration that exhibits the truth of a contingent proposition.
Convergence's Democracy Problem: A Critique of Kogelmann and Stich

In their 2016 American Political Science Review article, Kogelmann and Stich argue that public reason fails to provide the assurance reasonable citizens require to act justly and that, as a consequence, Rawls's account of political stability fails. Convergence discussions, because they are a costly signal, provide such assurance. Kogelmann and Stich fail to recognize that constituents influence representatives such that the costs of convergence discourse are unknown. It thus cannot assure. Constituents’ influence also undermines convergence's ability to show how decision-making processes that follow its norms result in justified laws. Far from supporting convergence, then, the stability question demands revision of the view. This response develops these objections, extends them from Kogelmann and Stich's analysis to other convergence theorists and political liberals, and explores what political theorists can learn from convergence's difficulties.
Aluminum increases cyclic AMP in rat cerebral cortex in vivo

In vivo concentrations of cyclic AMP were elevated in the cerebral cortex of rats that were administered aluminum citrate by either of two routes; in the diet for one month or via a single intracerebroventricular injection two weeks prior to the experiment. These treatments did not alter the in vivo concentrations of cyclic GMP or acetylcholine. Aluminum treatment also altered the response of cortical cyclic AMP to the administration of pilocarpine and of apomorphine. It is proposed that the neurotoxicity of aluminum is not due to effects on acetylcholine but may be due to altered protein phosphorylation as a consequence of the chronic elevation of cyclic AMP.