cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Glycosylation of GIRK1 at Asn119 and ROMK1 at Asn117 Has Different Consequences in Potassium Channel Function

Abstract GIRK (G protein-gatedinward rectifierK + channel) proteins play critical functional roles in heart and brain physiology. Using antibodies directed to either GIRK1 or GIRK4, site-directed mutagenesis, and specific glycosidases, we have investigated the effects of glycosylation in the biosynthesis and heteromerization of these proteins expressed in oocytes. Both GIRK1 and GIRK4 have one extracellular consensus N-glycosylation site. Using chimeras between GIRK1 and GIRK4 as well as a GIRK1N-glycosylation mutant, we report that GIRK1 was glycosylated at Asn119, whereas GIRK4 was not glycosylated at Asn132. GIRK1 membrane-spanning domain 1 was required for optimal glycosylation at Asn119 because a chimera that contained GIRK4 membrane-spanning domain 1 significantly reduced the addition of a carbohydrate structure at this site. This finding may partly account for the reason that GIRK4 is not glycosylated at Asn132, either as a homomer or when coexpressed with GIRK1. When the GIRK1(N119Q) mutant was coexpressed with GIRK4, the biophysical properties of the heteromeric channel and the magnitude of the agonist-induced currents were similar to those of controls. Thus, N-glycosylation of GIRK1 at Asn119 does not appear to affect its physical association with GIRK4, the routing of the heteromer to the cell surface, or heteromeric channel function, unlike the dramatic functional effects ofN-glycosylation of ROMK1 at Asn117 (Schwalbe, R. A., Wang, Z., Wible, B. A., and Brown, A. M. (1995)J. Biol. Chem. 270, 15336–15340).
Photosynthetic picoplankton dynamics in Lake Tahoe: temporal and spatial niche partitioning among prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells

Dynamics of prokaryotic and eukaryotic picophytoplankton were investigated over a 2-year time period using flow cytometry and combined with an in situ experiment in Lake Tahoe, USA to better characterize to which extent environmental factors control these communities. Pronounced seasonal patterns and clear temporal and spatial partitioning were observed between picocyanobacteria and picoeukaryotes. Picocyanobacteria dominated in the nutrient deficient upper water column during the stratified season, while picoeukaryotes reached maximum abundance during isothermal conditions and maintained high numbers in deep-water layers during the stratified season. Picocyanobacteria were more sensitive to high solar and UV radiation compared with picoeukaryotes, which were not affected by high solar radiation and nutrient enrichment stimulated their growth. The opposing response of these two populations is consistent with their vertical distribution: picocyanobacteria dominate below the 30% isolume and above the nitrocline depth, whereas picoeukaryotes increase in the vicinity of the nitrocline and thus increased nutrient concentration. This spatial separation of picophytoplankton groups along environmental gradients in Lake Tahoe is consistent with other deep-oligotrophic lakes and the marine environment, suggesting that these marine and freshwater organisms have similar ecophysiological requirements. These results highlight that the smallest photosynthetic communities show taxon-specific responses to mixing and resource availability, which affect the structure and dynamics of picophytoplankton.
Synoptic evolution of Midwestern US extreme dew point events

Eight Midwestern extremely high dew point events were examined with respect to their synoptic characteristics and evolution. Individual and composite analyses of events suggest that there exists three predominant features associated with extreme dew point events. In nearly all cases, the evolution of the synoptic environment includes the development and propagation of low pressure from the high plains through the upper Great Lakes. The low pressure increases and backs the surface winds acting to advect low-level moisture from eastern Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri eastward into Illinois and Indiana. The progression of the low pressure and attendant frontal boundaries also acts to modulate the length of the extreme low-level dew point event. Healthy crops and sufficient soil moisture content throughout this large agricultural region were also evident during the periods of extreme low-level moisture. Finally, the vertical thermal profile of the atmosphere during extreme dew point events supports previous findings and highlights the importance of restricted low-level mixing as instrumental in allowing near-surface moisture to become trapped and increased. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society
Effect of Asphaltene Dispersants on Aggregate Size Distribution and Growth

A crude oil system can become unstable because of changes in hydrocarbon composition, pressure, or temperature during normal production from the reservoir or during commingling with dissimilar crude oils. These changes can generate asphaltene particles that can result in significant production and refining problems. The generation of these particles is a two-step process: phase separation and asphaltene particle growth. Phase separation occurs when nanosize asphaltene particles from the crude oil precipitate and grow into large aggregates. Our study on asphaltene precipitation shows that large asphaltene particles are aggregates consisting of very small (sub-micrometer) size asphaltene particles. One mechanism to control asphaltenes is to kinetically inhibit the phase separation of asphaltenes by adding a small amount of a chemical that interferes with the phase separation processes. Another mechanism to control asphaltenes is to inhibit growth by stabilizing the colloidal suspension of the sub-micrometer...
The effect of source area and atmospheric transport on mineral aerosol collected over the North Pacific Ocean

Aerosol samples collected on two North Pacific cruises were analyzed for rock-magnetic properties, grain size and <2 μm and 2–20 μm mineralogy. These sedimentological results were compared with isentropic air mass trajectories in order to study the effects of source region and atmospheric transport on the mineral aerosol. The results indicate that there are differences in the aerosol composition and grain size for two broad source regions. Aerosols which originate from west of the Pacific are characterized by abundant, fine-grained aerosol, which has a high coercivity magnetic composition, and is relatively enriched in kaolinite. Aerosols originating from continents to the north and east of the Pacific basin are much less abundant, contain coarse-grained material with a low coercivity magnetic component, and the mineralogy is relatively enriched in plagioclase. Comparison of the mineral aerosol from Asia with atmospheric transport time indicated that the concentration of the mineral aerosol decreases with increasing transport time. The mineral aerosol is compositionally fractionated as it moves away from the continental source region, with a relative decrease in the primary minerals quartz and plagioclase and an increase in the smectite, illite and chlorite concentration with increasing transport time.
Nonlinear Ferrite Film Microwave Signal Processing for Advanced Communications—Physics and Devices

Microwave ferrite devices, including circulators, isolators, and phase shifters, have played a crucial role in the development of radar and other microwave signal processing applications. Recent work has advanced the basic understanding and applications for a wide range of new nonlinear spin wave phenomena in ferrite films. With the help of feedback and parametric pumping interactions, these spin wave phenomena can serve as the basis for phase locked frequency comb generators, wideband chaotic microwave oscillators, and microwave pulse multiplexers, among other devices.
Lateral impact injury. A source of occult hip pathology

Arthroscopy has helped greatly in understanding the nature of many intra-articular disorders of the hip. It also has provided a better understanding of the pathomechanics and natural progression. This knowledge has aided in improving interpretative clinical skills and investigative techniques. Isolated traumatic chondral injury can occur as a result of impact loading over the greater trochanter. There seems to be a particular propensity for this injury in young physically fit adult males apt to incur this type of blow as a consequence of sport or activity. Initially, this injury may appear innocuous with variable dysfunction. When present, arthroscopy can reliably discern the pathology and often result in significant symptomatic improvement. The long-term consequences of these lesions are still concerning. Although symptomatic improvement from arthroscopic intervention is encouraging, for some cases the long-term influence may only be the knowledge provided for counseling the patient. Nonetheless, arthroscopy can be valuable in both the assessment and management of chondral injuries. Language: en
Ibotenic acid lesions of the medial septum retard delay eyeblink conditioning in rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus)

S. Berry and R. Thompson (1979) reported that electrolytic lesions of the medial septum significantly retard eyeblink conditioning. However, these electrolytic lesions were nonselective and may have also damaged the subcortical inputs to the hippocampus via the fimbria–fornix. In the present study, the medial septum was selectively lesioned with ibotenic acid in rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), whose performance in a delay eyeblink conditioning paradigm was compared with that of intact controls, sham-operated controls, and intact controls given a systemic injection of scopolamine. Rabbits with selective medial septal lesions and rabbits receiving systemic scopolamine were significantly slower to condition than were intact and sham-lesioned rabbits. This finding demonstrates that the selective removal of the medial septum retards delay eyeblink conditioning in a manner similar to the disruption seen after systemic administration of scopolamine. One interesting feature of work from classical eyeblink conditioning is the finding that, although a hippocampal lesion does not affect delay eyeblink conditioning (Schmaltz & Theios, 1972), a disruption of hippocampal activity greatly retards delay eyeblink conditioning (Berry & Thompson, 1979; Solomon, Solomon, Vander Shaaf, & Perry, 1983). Classical eyeblink conditioning is a simple associative learning paradigm in which a neutral stimulus (the conditioned stimulus [CS], usually a tone or light) is paired with a response-evoking stimulus (the unconditioned stimulus [US], usually a corneal airpuff or periorbital eye shock). Initially, the tone elicits no behavioral response, whereas the airpuff elicits a reflexive eyeblink. By repeatedly pairing the tone and airpuff, the tone alone comes to elicit an eyeblink response (the conditioned response [CR]).
A Textual Representation Scheme for Identifying Clinical Relationships in Patient Records

The identification of relationships between clinical concepts in patient records is a preliminary step for many important applications in medical informatics, ranging from quality of care to hypothesis generation. In this work we describe an approach that facilitates the automatic recognition of relationships defined between two different concepts in text. Unlike the traditional bag-of-words representation, in this work, a relationship is represented with a scheme of five distinct context-blocks based on the position of concepts in the text. This scheme was applied to eight different relationships, between medical problems, treatments and tests, on a set of 349 patient records from the 4th i2b2 challenge. Results show that the context-block representation was very successful (F-Measure = 0.775) compared to the bag-of-words model (F-Measure = 0.402). The advantage of this representation scheme was the correct management of word position information, which may be critical in identifying certain relationships.
The Infant Caring Process among Cherokee Mothers

The purpose of this study was to identify the social process of infant care among Cherokee mothers. Nineteen informants, who had an infant less than 2 years of age, were interviewed. The data were analyzed using the technique of constant comparative analysis. A social process of Indian infant care among Cherokee mothers was identified. Eight conceptsemerged from data analysis. The first and principal concept, being a Cherokee mother, describes the functions of being an Indian mother in Cherokee society. The other seven concepts describe the patterns of cultural care the mothers provided to their infants. These included accommodating everyday infant care, accommodating health perspectives, building a care-providing consortium, living spiritually, merging the infant into Indian culture, using noncoercive discipline techniques, and vigilantly watching for the natural unfolding of the infant. Trustworthiness and credibility of the generated theory were evaluated through multiple measures.
Influences of fragmentation on three species of native warmwater fishes in a Colorado River Basin headwater stream system, Wyoming

Abstract We investigated the effects of constructed instream structures on movements and demographics of bluehead suckers Catostomus discobolus, flannelmouth suckers C. latipinnis, and roundtail chub Gila robusta in the upstream portion of Muddy Creek, an isolated headwater stream system in the upper Colorado River basin of Wyoming. Our objectives were to (1) evaluate upstream and downstream movements of these three native species past a small dam built to divert irrigation water from the stream and a barrier constructed to prevent upstream movements of nonnative salmonids and (2) describe population characteristics in stream segments created by these structures. Our results indicated that upstream and downstream movements of the three target fishes were common. Fish of all three species moved frequently downstream over both structures, displayed some upstream movements over the irrigation diversion dam, and did not move upstream over the fish barrier. Spawning migrations by some fish into an intermittent...
Exciton dynamics and annihilation in WS2 2D semiconductors

We systematically investigate the exciton dynamics in monolayered, bilayered, and trilayered WS2 two-dimensional (2D) crystals by time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) spectroscopy. The exciton lifetime when free of exciton annihilation was determined to be 806 ± 37 ps, 401 ± 25 ps, and 332 ± 19 ps for WS2 monolayer, bilayer, and trilayer, respectively. By measuring the fluorescence quantum yields, we also establish the radiative and nonradiative lifetimes of the direct and indirect excitons. The exciton decay in monolayered WS2 exhibits a strong excitation density-dependence, which can be described using an exciton–exciton annihilation (two-particle Auger recombination) model. The exciton–exciton annihilation rate for monolayered, bilayered, and trilayered WS2 was determined to be 0.41 ± 0.02, (6.00 ± 1.09) × 10−3 and (1.88 ± 0.47) × 10−3 cm2 s−1, respectively. Notably, the exciton–exciton annihilation rate is two orders of magnitude faster in the monolayer than in the bilayer and trilayer. We attribute the much slower exciton–exciton annihilation rate in the bilayer and trilayer to reduced many-body interaction and phonon-assisted exciton–exciton annihilation of indirect excitons.
Accuracies of numerical solution methods for the pressure‐modified von Mises model

The accuracy of three numerical algorithms—the tangent-stiffness radial-return, secant-stiffness radial-return and simple radial-return methods—is analysed against exact solutions for the pressure-modified von Mises yield criterion with the associated flow rule. The governing equations of the exact solutions are derived using a simple and innovative geometrical approach, in terms of a pair of non-linear, first order differential equations, in rate change of the deviatoric radius and in rate change of angular locations on the deviatoric plane. For both accuracy and efficiency, and for small and large time steps, the secant-stiffness radial-return method is the best of all.
Survival and reproduction of the desert pupfish (Cyprinodon n. nevadensis) after acclimation to acid water

The tolerance of desert pupfish, Cyprinodon n. nevadensis to acid water was tested by exposing a group of fish for 14 weeks to alkaline water resembling their natural habitat (pH 8.3) and another to sublethal acidity (pH 6.3). The difference in mean times to loss of equilibrium at pH 4.2 (sublethal = 19.2 ± 2.93 hours; control = 17.9 ± 5.37 hours) was not statistically significant, indicating a failure to acclimate to the sublethal acidity. A reciprocal transfer experiment was performed with a sublethal (pH 6.3) and a control group (pH 8.3) to learn whether reproductive performance would compensate for acid stress. Reproductive performance was measured by egg production (eggs gm−1 day−1) and frequency of egg laying. In the first portion of the experiment the two groups were acclimated to their respective conditions for 3 weeks prior to a 3-week measure of reproductive performance. The two groups were then reversed and tested again for 5 weeks. Reproductive performance of a control group was monitored for the 11-week experimental period. No adaptation of the reproductive function occurred, since the transferred controls and acclimated sublethals were not statistically distinguishable. The sublethal group did not recover its reproductive capacity after transfer to the control level, suggesting either that permanent damage to some portion of the oogenesis process might have been suffered as a result of the acid exposure, or that the recovery was delayed beyond the 5-week duration of this portion of the experiment.
Emac – a comparative index for the assessment of macrocyclization efficiency

Macrocycle-based drug design represents an exciting new frontier in drug discovery, and consequently there is considerable interest in methodologies for the efficient construction of macrocyclic motifs. However, typical high-dilution macrocyclization conditions are inefficient and impractical in a pharmaceutical setting from cost, capacity and green chemistry perspectives. This critical review reports the results of a comprehensive literature survey of recent macrocyclization reactions and proposes a macrocyclization efficiency index, Emac, which takes into account both reaction yield and concentration. Analysis and discussion of the literature dataset using this novel metric are presented, along with selected examples of high and low efficiency macrocyclizations.
Not So Benign Endometrial Hyperplasia: Endometrial Cancer after Endometrial Ablation

The masking or development of endometrial cancer after endometrial ablation is a concern often alluded to in discussions of complications of endometrial ablation. It is necessary to look for a common factor when this complication occurs. Six cases published in peer-reviewed literature were collected to establish a link between the development of endometrial cancer and endometrial ablation. Preexisting endometrial hyperplasia seems to be the common denominator, and should be considered a contraindication to endometrial ablation until more data are collected.
Thermal Decomposition Products from Fire Suppression with HFC-227ea in an Electronic Facility

A study was undertaken to address concerns of corrosion in an electronic environment after fire suppression using HFC-227ea (C3F7H). Fire suppression using halocarbon agents, such as HFC-227ea, can produce thermal decomposition products, e.g., hydrogen fluoride (HF), which may cause corrosion in electronic equipment. In this study, full-scale experiments were conducted in a simulated electronic equipment room using six steel cabinets under various ventilation conditions. An in-cabinet cable fire was used in the tests as a fire source and HFC-227ea was used to suppress the fire. FTIR spectrometers were used to measure the gases in the cabinets and room. The test results showed that cabinet ventilation conditions affected fire extinguishment times in the cabinet, and therefore the amount of HF generation. In the open cabinet cable fire test, the concentration of HF was below 100 ppm in the fire cabinet. In the closed cabinet cable fire test, the maximum concentration of the HF reached 800 ppm in the fire cabinet. The migration of gaseous by-products from the fire cabinet to the adjacent non-fire cabinets was minimal. A large heptane pool fire test was also conducted in the simulated electronic equipment room; the maximum HF concentration in the room for this test reached 3900 ppm, slightly greater than the 3800 ppm within an open cabinet. However, peak HF concentrations of 1800 ppm and 500 ppm were observed within the ventilated and closed cabinets, respectively, during the heptane test.
Facial Patterns are a Conventional Signal of Agonistic Ability in Polistes exclamans Paper Wasps

Some animals minimize the high costs of aggressive conflict by using conventional signals of agonistic ability to assess rivals prior to interacting. Conventional signals are more controversial than other signals of agonistic ability because they lack an inherent physical or physiological link with their bearer’s agonistic ability. Here, we test whether the variable brown facial stripes in Polistes exclamans paper wasps function as a conventional signal. Polistes exclamans were given the option of challenging or avoiding a rival with an experimentally altered facial pattern. Our results show that rival assessment is based on the facial patterns of rivals, as well as an individual’s own size, facial patterns, and nesting strategy. Individuals with larger body size and larger brown facial stripes were more likely to challenge rivals than individuals with smaller body size and smaller brown facial stripes. In addition, large individuals were more likely to challenge rivals with large brown facial stripes than small individuals, while an individual’s own body size did not influence whether or not they challenged rivals with small brown stripes. Individuals who previously nested in multiple queen groups approached rivals more rapidly than individuals who previously nested alone, suggesting that social experience also plays a role in rival assessment. Finally, rivals with small facial stripes were challenged more rapidly than those with large facial stripes. These results demonstrate that P. exclamans facial patterns function as a signal used to minimize the cost of conflict. However, individuals do not make simple decisions based on their rival’s signal alone, as an individual’s own social experience and agonistic abilities also influence rival assessment decisions.
Medical Marijuana and Teens: Does an Adjective Make a Difference?

t t b a i t p c n a i t i h c n a I n the featured article, Salomonsen-Sautel et al. assessed the prevalence and frequency of diverted medical marijuana use in a sample of adolescents recruited for a genetics study at two substance-abuse treatment programs in metropolitan Denver, Colorado. The study idea was stimulated by clinical reports that adolescents were using diverted medical marijuana. Using a simple but scientifically sound design for their study, the investigators hoped to shed light on a potential new threat to adolescent health in a state that was in the first wave to legalize dispensation of marijuana to individuals who registered for medical use after recommendation from a physician. Although their exploratory study has acknowledged limitations, it rises above anecdotal evidence by using a well-defined sample, systematic questioning about medical marijuana experience and risk perception, and assessment of mental health symptoms and disorders with standardized measurements. In the tradition of many important public health discoveries, the investigators made good use of an existing research opportunity to better understand and inform observations made in the treatment setting. For centuries, humans have discovered and used plants for healing, and marijuana is no exception. Documentation of marijuana use for medical conditions occurs as far back in history as 2700 b.c. in China. Use in England increased in the mid1800s after the dissemination of observations of its analgesic and other useful properties by a British physician practicing in India. In the past few decades, assertions of benefits from medical marijuana have increased, and the list includes a wide range of conditions, such as pain control, nausea and vomiting, glaucoma, seizures, premenstrual symptoms, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis, asthma, dementia, and more. Given that consumer safety in the United States has been supported for decades by the w
A Progressive Damage Model for Laminated Composites Containing Stress Concentrations

A progressive damage model is presented for notched laminated composites subjected to tensile loading. The model is capable of assessing damage in laminates with arbitrary ply-orientations and of predicting the ultimate tensile strength of the notched laminates. The model consists of two parts, namely, the stress analysis and the failure analysis. Stresses and strains in laminates were analyzed on the basis of classical lamination theory with the consideration of material nonlinearity. Damage accumulation in laminates was evaluated by proposed failure criteria combined with a proposed property degradation model. A nonlinear finite element program, based on the model, was developed for lami nates containing a circular hole. Numerical results were compared with the experimental data on laminates containing an open circular hole. An excellent agreement was found be tween the analytical prediction and the experimental data.
An experimental study of a parallel shortest path algorithm for solving large-scale graph instances

We present an experimental study of the single source shortest path problem with non-negative edge weights (NSSP) on large-scale graphs using the Δ-stepping parallel algorithm. We report performance results on the Cray MTA-2, a multithreaded parallel computer. The MTA-2 is a high-end shared memory system offering two unique features that aid the efficient parallel implementation of irregular algorithms: the ability to exploit fine-grained parallelism, and low-overhead synchronization primitives. Our implementation exhibits remarkable parallel speedup when compared with competitive sequential algorithms, for low-diameter sparse graphs. For instance, Δ-stepping on a directed scale-free graph of 100 million vertices and 1 billion edges takes less than ten seconds on 40 processors of the MTA-2, with a relative speedup of close to 30. To our knowledge, these are the first performance results of a shortest path problem on realistic graph instances in the order of billions of vertices and edges.
From Chronicle to Canon: The Hermeneutics of the Spring and Autumn according to Tung Chung-shu

1. Introduction Part I. Three Perspectives on the Authenticity of the Ch'un-ch'iu fan-lu: 2. A biography of Tung Chung-shu 3. A history of Tung Chung-shu's literary corpus 4. The authorship of the Ch'un-ch'iu fan-lu Part II. Exegesis and Canonization: 5. The Spring and Autumn and Kung-yang tradition 6. Reforming the Ch'in laws 7. The wider circle of Han jurisprudence 8. Refashioning the imperial rites 9. Canon, cosmos, and court patronage 10. Conclusion Part III. Appendices: Appendix 1. The birth and death dates of Tung Chung-shu Appendix 2. The dates of the Han-shu 56 memorials Appendix 3. Han transmission of Kung-yang learning Appendix 4. Han dynasty disciples of Tung Chung-shu Appendix 5. Citations and titles attributed to Tung Chung-shu Appendix 6. Transmission of Ch'un-ch'iu fan-lu editions.
Estimation of Fingertip Force Direction With Computer Vision

This paper presents a method of imaging the coloration pattern in the fingernail and surrounding skin to infer fingertip force direction (which includes four major shear-force directions plus normal force) during planar contact. Nail images from 15 subjects were registered to reference images with random sample consensus (RANSAC) and then warped to an atlas with elastic registration. With linear discriminant analysis, common linear features corresponding to force directions, but irrelevant to subjects, are automatically extracted. The common feature regions in the fingernail and surrounding skin are consistent with observation and previous studies. Without any individual calibration, the overall recognition accuracy on test images of 15 subjects was 90%. With individual training, the overall recognition accuracy on test images of 15 subjects was 94%. The lowest imaging resolution, without sacrificing classification accuracy, was found to be between 10-by-10 and 20-by-20 pixels.
Oral administration of analgesia and anxiolysis for pain associated with bone marrow biopsy.

Aims Medical literature provides only scarce data about the degree of pain experienced by patients undergoing a bone marrow aspiration and biopsy (BMAB), and little is known about the factors that can modify the perception of pain. In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of a combination of analgesia and anxiolysis in reducing the pain score of patients undergoing BMAB.
Astragalus (Fabaceae): A molecular phylogenetic perspective

Nucleotide sequences of the plastidmatK gene and nuclear rDNA internal transcribed spacer region were sampled fromAstragalus L. (Fabaceae), and its closest relatives within tribe Galegeae, to infer phylogenetic relationships and estimate ages of diversification. Consistent with previous studies that emphasized sampling for nrDNA ITS primarily within either New World or Old World species groups,Astragalus, with the exception of a few morphologically distinct species, is strongly supported as monophyletic based on maximum parsimony and Bayesian analyses ofmatK sequences as well as a combined sequence dataset. ThematK data provides better resolution and stronger clade support for relationships amongAstragalus and traditionally related genera than nrDNA ITS.Astragalus sensu stricto plus the genusOxytropis are strongly supported as sister to a clade composed of strictly Old World (African, Australasian) genera such asColutea. Sutherlandia, Lessertia, Swainsona, andCarmichaelia, plus several morphologically distinct segregates of EurasianAstragalus. Ages of these clades and rates of nucleotide substitution estimated from a fossil-constrained, rate-smoothed, Bayesian analysis ofmatK sequences sampled from Hologalegina indicateAstragalus diverged from its sister group,Oxtropis, 12–16 Ma, with divergence of Neo-Astragalus beginning ca 4.4. Ma. Estimates of absolute rates of nucleotide substitution forAstragalus and sister groups, which range from 8.9 to 10.2×10−10 substitutions per site per year, are not unusual when compared to those estimated for other, mainly temperate groups of papilionoid legumes. The results of previously published work and other recent developments on the phylogenetic relationships and diversification ofAstragalus are reviewed.
Due Process and Civil Defense

The ability to redress one’s wrongs has gone through four phases. In the premodern “personal” phase, an aggrieved party enjoyed unlimited power to exact revenge against a suspected offender who stood completely vulnerable to such aggression. In the ensuing “social” phase, the avenger’s response was loosely regulated by community customs and local tribunals, which provided partial protection to the party under attack. In the next “administrative” phase, a claimant’s recourse was strictly controlled and copiously administered by the state to curb abuses within the previous justice systems. In the final “process” phase, the state guaranteed that its own processes could not be used as a tool of oppression against the unjustly accused.The obvious pattern in this progression is the incremental contraction of private recourse rights and corresponding expansion of public rights to private defense. The present paper — which will appear as a chapter in my forthcoming book "The Right to Civil Defense in Torts" — explains how tort law and due process shaped these developments. Contrary to one fashionable tort theory, tort law was not created to empower aggrieved parties to get redress from their wrongdoers. That power was and is primordial and perpetual. Rather, tort law arose in the “administrative” phase to hinder such efforts. It did this both by establishing a central grievance system that supplanted existing avenues of recourse and by blocking the remaining road to recovery with a host of substantive, procedural, and evidentiary obstacles. Thus, when the concept of due process emerged in the final phase, it did not impel the recognition of a right to civil recourse, as the trending view suggests. Instead, it tempered that right with a superior right of civil defense. Though originally cast as a general prohibition against arbitrary government action, this due process protection specifically encompasses the state’s assistance of unsubstantiated legal proceedings, including the liberty-infringing actions of tort litigation.
Get the parallelism out of my cloud

The hardware trend toward multicore processors has so far been driven by technology limitations of wire delays, power efficiency, and limited capability to exploit instruction-level parallelism. Software evolution has lead to the rise of the cloud. This multicore + cloud evolution provides several challenges and has led to a call for parallelism. In this paper, we first examine the drivers behind these trends to address three fallacies: software is driven by hardware, multicores will be everywhere, and multicore hardware implies parallelism is exposed to all developers. We first address these fallacies and then present our simple view of the future cloud-based ecosystem, based on what we refer to as data-centric concurrency.
Elastic Properties of Porous Ceramics

Using theoretical models, we consider the sound velocities and elastic constants of ceramics containing pores. As an example, we consider alumina. However, the approach applies to all ceramics. As a point of departure, we consider spherical pores. For all the usual elastic constants–Young modulus, shear modulus, bulk modulus, Poisson ratio–we give relationships for both the forward and inverse cases: predicting the porous ceramic properties and estimating the pore-free ceramic properties. Following a suggestion by Hasselman and Fulrath that sintering or hot pressing can produce cylindrical pores, we derive a relationship for the elastic constants of a distribution of randomly oriented long cylinders (c/a + ∞, the prolate-spheroid limit). This model predicts elastic constants lower than for spherical pores, but well above measurement. We obtain agreement with observation by assuming the pores are oblate spheroids. For alumina, the necessary aspect ratio equals oneninth. Besides pore aspect ratio, the model requires only the pore-free alumina elastic constants. It contains no adjustable parameters.
Relationship of centralization to other structural properties.

This paper examines two different ways of measuring the distribution of power in sixteen health and welfare orginazations. Participation in decision making about the allocation of organizational resources and the determination of organizational policy was strongly related to the degree of complexity as measured by (1) the number of occupational specialities, (2) the amount of professional training, and (3) the amount of professional activity and was weakly related to the degree of formalization as measured by the degree of job codification and the amount of rule observation. Except for rule observation, hierarchy of authority or the reliance on the chain of command for work decisions was not as strongly related to each of these measures of organizational structure. A partial correlational analysis between each measure of the distribution of power and the five structural properties indicates that participation in decision making retains an association with the first two indicators of complexity and the first indicator of formalization even when the other five variables are controlled simultaneously. The hierarchy of authority retains an association with the amount of professional activity and the amount of rule observation. At the same time, it is important to recognize that these two measures of the distribution of power are themselves strongly interrelated. When decisions about the allocation of organizational resources are centralized, then there is a centralization of work decisions as well. Professors Hage and Aiken are assistant professors of sociology at the University of Wisconsin.
Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) Annual Inventory Answers the Question: What Is Happening to Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands?

Widespread mortality in the pinyon-juniper forest type is associated with several years of drought in the southwestern United States. A complex of drought, insects, and disease is responsible for pinyon mortality rates approaching 100% in some areas, while other areas have experienced little or no mortality. Implementation of the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) annual inventory in several states coincided with the onset of elevated mortality rates. Adjunct inventories provided supplemental data on damaging agents. Preliminary analysis reveals the status and trends of mortality in pinyon-juniper woodlands.
Single‐Crystal X‐Ray Structure of the High‐Temperature Superconductor Ba2YCu3O7‐x.

The title material, which becomes superconducting at temp. < 90 K, crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, space group Pmmm, Z=1.
Coverage of the Ebola Virus Disease Epidemic on YouTube.

Objective The recent Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak in 2014–2015 has been the largest and longest lasting to date. Media coverage about the outbreak has been extensive, but there are large gaps in our understanding of the ways in which widely accessed social media sites are used during times of public health crisis. The purpose of this study was to analyze widely viewed videos about EVD on the YouTube video-sharing site. Methods We coded the source, content, and characteristics of the 100 most widely viewed videos about EVD on YouTube. Results The videos included in the sample were viewed more than 73 million times. The death toll in West Africa was mentioned in nearly one-third of the videos. Over one-third of the videos mentioned how EVD was generally transmitted. There was little mention of treatment and no mention of the need for US funding of disaster preparedness; coordination between local, state, and federal governments; or beds ready for containment. No significant differences in the number of views were identified between video sources with the exception of a significantly higher number of views for “consumer videos” compared with “commercial television videos.” Conclusions With 1 billion unique users a month, YouTube has potential for both enhancing education and spreading misinformation. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:531-535)
Low-dose testosterone protects against renal ischemia-reperfusion injury by increasing renal IL-10-to-TNF-α ratio and attenuating T-cell infiltration.

Renal ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) in male rats causes reductions in plasma testosterone, and infusion of testosterone 3 h postreperfusion is protective. We tested the hypotheses that acute high dose...
Using behavioral economic theory to increase use of effective contraceptives among opioid-maintained women at risk of unintended pregnancy

Abstract Objective An unsettling aspect of the US opioid epidemic is the high rate of in utero exposure, especially since most of these pregnancies are unintended, due in part to low rates of effective contraceptive use among opioid-using women. This study tested an intervention informed by behavioral economic theory and aimed at promoting effective contraceptive use among opioid-maintained women at risk of unintended pregnancy in the Burlington, VT, area between 2011 and 2013. Methods Thirty-one women were assigned (initial 5 consecutively, subsequent 26 randomly) to either usual care or an experimental intervention. Participants in usual care received condoms, a dose of emergency contraception, and referral to local providers. Participants in the experimental condition received usual care plus the World Health Organization's contraception initiation protocol, including free prescription contraceptives, and financial incentives for attending 13 follow-up visits over 6 months to help manage side effects and other issues. Results Significantly more women in the experimental vs. usual care control conditions initiated prescription contraceptive use (100% vs. 29%) and reported prescription contraceptive use at 1-month (63% vs. 13%), 3-month (88% vs. 20%), and 6-month (94% vs. 13%) assessments. None of the experimental condition participants became pregnant during the 6-month protocol vs. three women (20%) in the control condition. Conclusions These results provide the first experimental evidence supporting the efficacy of an intervention for increasing prescription contraceptive use among opioid-maintained women at risk of unintended pregnancy.
Relations, Origin, Silicon

The consideration of language as a system of relations gives rise to a vertiginous question, one that feels like a petit-mal seizure in the mind of God: what if everything is a network of differences, nothing… centred or substantial at all, concrete and particular only by the delusions of desire? The question prompts a terror, an intoxication with the bottomless and indeterminate.
Potentiality of the Present: Exploring Speculative Realism VIA Spatial Theory:

In this essay, I propose a new alliance between speculative realism and spatial theory. Whether interpreted as an avant-garde movement or simply as part of an evolution in human thought, the Specul...
Entr’acte Napoleon Explains the Revolution

Precisely at 10 p.m. on 5 December 1812 Napoleon and Armand de Caulaincourt, his Master of Horse, mounted a coach together in the village of Smorgoni, about 50 miles as the crow flies from Vilnius (today the capital of Lithuania), and set off for Paris, nearly 1100 miles away. He abandoned what remained of the Grande Armee to the command of Marshal Murat. He had to get back to Paris before news of the military catastrophe in Russia reached his capital. Napoleon and Caulaincourt were accompanied by a small escort which included the Emperor’s valet, a Polish officer to interpret, the Duke of Fioul and the Count of Lobau, Baron Fain (the Emperor’s private secretary), two bodyguards and his Mameluke Roustam. Napoleon’s flight from his retreating and disintegrating army had been kept secret until 7:30 that night, when the Marshals were told. Napoleon and Caulaincourt would share the coach, later a closed sledge, and then another coach for the next 13 days. The Emperor filled the time with talk; Caulaincourt faithfully recorded his words. Every evening, sometime between five and nine, they stopped at a relay, usually a post station, to rest for the night. Napoleon washed his eyes and stretched out for a nap while his dinner was being prepared. Caulaincourt used the time ‘hastily to note our conversations, at least the things that appeared of interest to me’.
The Assemblies of God: A Bibliographic Essay

This essay will focus on some of the more important Pentecostal literature that specifically relates to the Assemblies of God (AG) denomination. The AG is the largest Pentecostal denomination in the world, with approximately 50 million adherents worldwide. Conservative estimates place the total number of Pentecostals worldwide, including the AG, at 250 million. Thus, it is probable that the Pentecostal movement will have a lasting impact on global Christianity for many years to come. The term Pentecostal is derived from the biblical story in Acts 2 which describes the giving of the Holy Spirit to the church on the day of Pentecost. The AG is a subset of a larger group that claims the title Pentecostal or Classical Pentecostal.1 Classical Pentecostals trace their beginnings to the Azusa Street Revival of 1906 and are typified by their Methodist Holiness origins, a genesis in the lower socio-economic strata of society, and a doctrinal insistence on evidential glossolalia, commonly known as “speaking in tongues,” as proof of the “baptism in the Holy Spirit.” The AG and the Church of God in Christ are the two largest Classical Pentecostal denominations—although technically the AG’s origin was about ten years after the Azusa Street Revival when racist motivations led to the exodus of the white congregants from the revival.
A free energy satisfying discontinuous Galerkin method for one-dimensional Poisson-Nernst-Planck systems

We design an arbitrary-order free energy satisfying discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method for solving time-dependent Poisson-Nernst-Planck systems. Both the semi-discrete and fully discrete DG methods are shown to satisfy the corresponding discrete free energy dissipation law for positive numerical solutions. Positivity of numerical solutions is enforced by an accuracy-preserving limiter in reference to positive cell averages. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the high resolution of the numerical algorithm and to illustrate the proven properties of mass conservation, free energy dissipation, as well as the preservation of steady states.
Comparison of complications associated with induction by misoprostol versus dilation and evacuation for second-trimester abortion.

Objective To compare the frequency of complications between medical induction with misoprostol and dilation and evacuation (D&E) for second-trimester uterine evacuation. Methods In a retrospective cohort study, records were reviewed from all women who underwent second-trimester uterine evacuation between 14 and 24 weeks of pregnancy at an academic hospital in the USA from January 2007 to December 2008. Total complications and serious complications were compared between medical induction and D&E, and clinical covariates associated with complications were assessed. Results Overall, 465 women were included. At least one complication occurred in 28 (23.0%) of 122 women in the medical induction group, and 24 (7.0%) of 343 women in the DE P=0.004) were associated with complications. Conclusion Although D&E resulted in fewer overall complications as compared with medical induction, the rate of serious complications did not differ between the two procedures.
The regulation of vasopressin function in health and disease.

Publisher Summary This chapter describes anti-diuretic hormone arginine vasopressin (AVP), lysine vasopressin (EVP), urinary AVP, plasma AVP-osmolality, and the chromatographic behavior of purified bovine AVP on Sephadex G-15 with different eluting solvents or sample composition. As immunoassay methods can be used successfully to develop simple and accurate assays, plasma AVP has re-stimulated much investigative interest and, as a consequence, many other laboratories are beginning to develop their own assay procedures. It has been known for almost 30 years that the secretion of AVP can be influenced by a number of factors, including changes in blood osmolality, volume, and pressure. However, the relative potency of these variables and the way in which they interact in regulating secretion of the hormone under different conditions of salt and water balance has been a subject of some dispute. The advent of the immunoassay technique has now made it possible to begin to define these aspects of AVP physiology in more precise and comprehensive terms. The osmoregulation of AVP can be readily understood by analyzing the relationship between plasma AVP and plasma osmolality under different conditions of water balance.