cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Hospital length of stay for severe COVID-19: implications for Remdesivir's value

Remdesivir has been granted emergency use authorization for treatment of severe COVID-19. Remdesivir's pricing is based on a presumed reduction of hospital length of stay (LOS) by four days. But the Adaptive COVID-19 Treatment Trial (ACTT-1) that suggested this treatment benefit excluded patients who were expected to be discharged within 72 hours. Perhaps as a result, median time to recovery was unusually long in both arms of the study (15 days vs 11 days). Remdesivir requires a 5-day inpatient stay, so patients who would otherwise be discharged in fewer than 5 days may remain hospitalized to complete treatment while patients who would be discharged between 5 and 8 days, would only have potential reductions in their hospital LOS of 0-3 days. In a retrospective analysis of 1643 adults with severe COVID-19 admitted to Columbia University Medical Center and the Allen community hospital between March 9, 2020 and April 23, 2020, median hospital LOS was 7 (3-14) days. Five-hundred and eighty-six patients (36%) had a LOS of 1-4 days, 384 (23%) had a LOS of 5-8 days, and 673 (41%) were hospitalized for greater than or equal to 9 days. Remdesivir treatment may not provide the LOS reductions that the company relied on when pricing the therapy: 36% of the cohort would need to have LOS prolonged to receive a 5-day course, and only 41% of patients in our cohort had LOS of 9 days or more, meaning they could have their LOS shortened by 4 days and still receive a full Remdesivir course. Further investigation of shorter treatment courses and programs to facilitate outpatient intravenous Remdesivir administration are needed.
Design and Operation of the U.S. Radionuclide Noble Gas Laboratory for the CTBTO

The International Monitoring System includes a network of radionuclide detectors operated around the world monitoring for nuclear explosions. A key aspect of the International Monitoring System is the verification of the results from the stations. The verification comes through calibration of the systems, and additional validation measurements from certified laboratories. In support of the Preparatory Commission of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization, there are 16 radionuclide laboratories around the world (with a subset of those laboratories having radioxenon measurement capabilities). We have developed a laboratory system for processing and measuring the radioxenon archive samples from the International Monitoring System. In this paper we describe the design and operation of the laboratory in support of verification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty.
READ Study: Bridging the Literacy Gap through Early Parental Education

Acronyms: Socioeconomic Status (SES), Reach Out and Read (ROR) Health Maintenance Visit (HMV) Background: Emergent Literacy is the process through which children assimilate vocabulary and phonologic awareness into written language. Beginning with prenatal recognition of parents’ voices, the process later mediates the transition to reading fluency which is, in turn, a predictor of academic success. Disparities exist in emergent literacy development between SES groups and correlate with future academic disparities. By age 4, children from low SES families hear …
Leverage Effect Breakdowns & Flight from Risky Assets

Though part of “market lore,” Black (1976) first reported the inverse relationship between price and volatility, calling it the “leverage effect.” Without providing evidence, Black (1988) claims that in the months leading up to the October ‘87 Crash the relationship changed: price and volatility both rose. Using daily data for the Old VIX, derived from S&P 100 Index option market prices, to estimate intra-quarterly regressions of implied volatility against price from Q2 1986 – Q1 2012, I can verify Black’s claim for the October ’87 Crash, and interestingly, for subsequent periods of crisis. I then analyze several Constant Elasticity of Variance optimal portfolio rules, which include the leverage effect, to show the elasticity sign switch implies that investors reduce their risky asset holdings to zero.
Oxidative dissolution of TcO2 by Mn(III) minerals under anaerobic conditions: Implications on technetium-99 remediation

Abstract Manganese oxides are prolific minerals with strong oxidizing properties causing them to strongly influence the stability of any redox sensitive metal and metalloid reduced species in the environment. Their potential to oxidize reduced species is disproportionate to their concentration due to regeneration of Mn(III) mineral formed by abiotic processes or by microorganisms even under suboxic conditions. Tc-99 is produced during uranium fission in nuclear power generation and it is a risk driving environmental contaminant because it is found as highly soluble Tc(VII)O4− under oxidizing conditions. Current remediation efforts have focused on the immobilization of highly soluble Tc(VII) to sparingly soluble Tc(IV) under anoxic conditions. This publication investigates for the first time the impact of Mn(III) minerals on the oxidative dissolution of TcO2 under anaerobic conditions. α-Mn(III)2O3 and γ-Mn(III)OOH were used in batch experiments in contact with TcO2 under anaerobic conditions at different pH values and solid:liquid ratios and in the presence of cations common in groundwater. Both minerals incurred significant oxidation of TcO2 and consequently, release of pertechnetate in the aqueous phase at pH 6.5, and negligible oxidation of TcO2 at pH 8.0. For both minerals, increasing the solid:liquid ratio increased the extent of TcO2 oxidation. γ-Mn(III)OOH was insensitive to the presence of Ca2+ and Mn2+ ions, whereas α-Mn(III)2O3 sorbed Ca2+, which substantially reduced the mineral's oxidative capacity. These experimental findings demonstrate the liability of manganese minerals in oxidizing Tc(IV) insoluble phases to highly soluble Tc(VII) even in the absence of oxygen and highlights the need to be taken into account when it comes to remediation efforts for the abatement of Tc-99 in the environment.
More than nature: linkages between well-being and greenspace influenced by a combination of elements of nature and non-nature in a New York City urban park.

Abstract This study examines the association between the elements of an urban greenspace and users’ subjective well-being (SWB). In addition to the urgency of addressing climate change, co-benefits such as health and well-being are stimulating increasing investment in urban green infrastructure. Previous studies have established a link between SWB and urban greenspace and identified connectedness to nature (CTN) as one contributor to this effect. Few studies, however, have examined the interactions of park elements as they contribute to CTN and SWB. The current work evaluates the relative importance of various elements of an urban greenspace for individuals’ feelings of SWB and CTN. Possible determinants are investigated through mixed-methods analysis using data from a rating task and interviews conducted with park users in Washington Square Park, NYC. Findings indicate (1) trees are the most important element of nature contributing to a majority of participants’ SWB and CTN, and (2) that for the majority of participants, SWB derives from both elements of nature and non-nature. Results also suggest that a majority of park users are responding to their experience of the park as a whole; this experience is identified as para-urban—characterized by occurring in a space set apart from the rest of the city.
Reinforcement-learning-based dynamic defense strategy of multistage game against dynamic load altering attack

Abstract As the current power grid is highly interconnected and more information and communication technologies (ICTs) are being deployed recently, it could be the target of malicious cyber-physical attacks. Dynamic load altering attacks (D-LAAs), as a special case of load altering attacks, could be performed to interfere the demand response and ultimately force certain generators off-line. Cascading failures due to transmission line overloads may also be triggered. In this paper, we propose a new dynamic defense strategy against D-LAAs through a multistage game between the attacker and the defender which is solved by minimax-q learning. Different from the static game, the multistage game considers the attacker and defender’s action sequences and the optimal strategies at each state are learned. After each time step, the cascading failure is measured, and the load shedding is used as the feedback for the attacker to generate the next action strategy. The performance of the proposed model is evaluated on the IEEE 39-bus system. Comparisons between the dynamic defense strategy and the passive defense strategy are conducted, and the results verify the advantage of the proposed dynamic defense strategy. To improve the power system resilience, this defense strategy can be deployed in advance when such cyber-physical attacks are anticipated.
Principles for small-unit sUAS tactical deployment from a combat-simulating agent-based model analysis

Abstract Recent increases in the operational and information gathering capabilities of small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) have made their deployment with small units of infantry attractive. Determining the potential impacts of sUAS deployment on infantry combat effectiveness and effectively disseminating that information to decision-making warfighters is imperative. This work presents an analysis of data generated by a Monte-Carlo simulation of 137,000 unique simulations of a static-defense scenario wherein defending units deploy sUAS in an information, surveillance, and reconnaissance role to aid in detecting, tracking, and targeting attacking units with indirect fires. The relationships between the number of UAVs deployed, the patrol method for those UAVs, and 40 combat effectiveness metrics are explored using a correlation matrix and other graphical methods. A set of eight principles for effective sUAs deployment in the aforementioned scenario are distilled from the simulation data and presented for further testing and validation.
Patterns of Pentachlorophenol Usage in the United States of America — an Overview

Pentachlorophenol (PCP) and its salts are widely used as biocides in the United States of America. Although the principal use of PCP is for wood preservation, the versatility of this compound can be seen by the great diversity of uses.
Induction of Central Tolerance by Mature T Cells

Induction of immunological tolerance is highly desirable for the treatment and prevention of autoimmunity, allergy, and organ transplant rejection. Adoptive transfer of MHC class I disparate mature T cells at the time of reconstitution of mice with syngeneic bone marrow resulted in specific tolerance to allogeneic skin grafts that were matched to the T cell donor strain. Mature allogeneic T cells survived long-term in reconstituted hosts and were able to re-enter the thymus. Analysis of T cell development using transgenic mice expressing an alloantigen-reactive TCR revealed that expression of allogeneic MHC class I on adoptively transferred mature T cells mediated negative selection of developing alloreactive T cells in the thymus. Thus, mature allogeneic T cells are able to mediate central deletion of alloreactive cells and induce transplantation tolerance without the requirement for any other alloantigen-expressing cell type.
Price and the TPC

The value of a benchmark metric is directly related to how relevant it is to the consumer. The inclusion of a price/performance metric and an availability date metric in TPC benchmarks has provided added value to consumers since the first TPC benchmark was introduced in 1989. However, over time the relative value of these metrics has diminished - both because the base price of hardware and software comprises a smaller fraction of the total cost of ownership (TCO) and because TPC pricing requirements have not kept pace with changes in the industry. This paper aims to • Highlight the strengths provided by including price/performance and availability metrics in benchmarks. • Identify areas where the relative value of these metrics has diminished, over time. • Propose enhancements that could return them to provide high value to the consumer. Many of the ideas in this paper are a result of nearly a decade of discussions with many benchmark experts. It would be difficult to identify an originator for each specific suggestion. However, it is nearly certain that this is the first comprehensive list where this collection of ideas is presented.
Hubble Space Telescope NICMOS Imaging of the Cores of M31 and M32

We present 1.1, 1.6, and 2.2 μm images of the cores of the Local Group galaxies M31 and M32 obtained with the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). These images are also compared with optical images of the galaxies obtained with the HST Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2). In M31, the nucleus remains distinctly asymmetric in all of the infrared bands, with no evidence of concentrated dust, although the distinction between the two nuclei, P1 and P2, is not as strong as in the WFPC2 and earlier WF/PC-1 images. This result is nonetheless consistent with the model of the nucleus as an eccentric stellar disk produced by the dynamical influence of a central supermassive black hole. Several individual M giant stars are detected within ~3'' of the nuclei and may represent stars that have escaped from the disk and phase-mixed around the nuclear center of mass. In M32 we also do not find strong evidence of dust, and the brightness profiles within the central ~1'' of the infrared images can be fitted by a power law of the same form as that fitted to the optical images. The infrared color profiles of the central few arcseconds of M32 show no strong gradients and indicate a population dominated by K giant stars. This is consistent with recent ground-based spectroscopy and photometry of the core region, which similarly show no strong gradients in age or metallicity within its stellar population.
High Availability Benchmarking for Cloud Management Infrastructure

Cloud-management infrastructure plays an important role as a part of cloud computing stacks, serving as the resource manager of cloud platforms. The complexity of cloud-management infrastructure makes its high availability (HA) one of the most critical requirements. Various technologies have been developed to increase the reliability and availability of cloud management infrastructure, however, little work focused on quantitative analysis of its availability. In this paper, we designed a new availability benchmarking method for cloud management infrastructure. By using our measurement method, a private cloud customer or public cloud provider can estimate the availability of deployment of its cloud management stack. We have evaluated our method on Open Stack cloud infrastructure. We show that with various HA technologies and configurations, the availability of the cloud management infrastructure can be greatly different.
Size control: the developmental physiology of body and organ size regulation.

The developmental regulation of final body and organ size is fundamental to generating a functional and correctly proportioned adult. Research over the last two decades has identified a long list of genes and signaling pathways that, when perturbed, influence final body size. However, body and organ size are ultimately a characteristic of the whole organism, and how these myriad genes and pathways function within a physiological context to control size remains largely unknown. In this review, we first describe the major size-regulatory signaling pathways: the Insulin/IGF-, RAS/RAF/MAPK-, TOR-, Hippo-, and JNK-signaling pathways. We then explore what is known of how these pathways regulate five major aspects of size regulation: growth rate, growth duration, target size, negative growth and growth coordination. While this review is by no means exhaustive, our goal is to provide a conceptual framework for integrating the mechanisms of size control at a molecular-genetic level with the mechanisms of size control at a physiological level. WIREs Dev Biol 2015, 4:335–356. doi: 10.1002/wdev.181 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article.
Age changes in adrenergic and dopaminergic signal transduction mechanisms: Parallels and contrasts

Age changes in signal transduction exhibit some interesting similarities in the adrenergic and dopaminergic systems of the brain. Although several differences exist with respect to current technical capabilities and characterization of complete signal-response pathways at the organismic level, these systems offer promising models for complimentary elucidation of the mechanisms of altered neurotransmitter action during aging.
Influence of Solvent Properties on Cation-Macrocycle Complexation: Cesium Cryptates

The chemical shift of the 133Cs resonance has been measured as a function of the mole ratio of cryptands C222, C222B, C221, and C211 to the Cs+ ion in N -methylformamide and dimethylacetamide solutions. The overall formation constants of the cesium cryptates were calculated from the NMR titration curves. From these and previously reported data it is clear that solvent properties such as dipole moment, donicity, dielectric constant and hydrogen bonding ability affect macrocyclic ligand-cation complexation equilibria through specific solvation of the cation, the ligand and the complex. A model of M+ · L bonding in solution, involving a rather intimate electrostatic attraction between the cation and the local electron distribution of the macrocycle accompanied by little perturbation of the charge distributions of the separated partners, is presented. In addition to the specific interactions previously noted, the presence of the solvent mitigates the ion-multi pole forces which would otherwise govern the long-range attraction.
Small Molecules that Target the Toxic RNA in Myotonic Dystrophy Type 2

Myotonic dystrophy type 2 (DM2) is caused by an expansion of CCTG repeats in the zinc-finger protein gene (ZNF9). Transcribed CCUG repeats sequester muscleblind-like protein 1 (MBNL1), an important alternative splicing regulator, preventing its normal function, leading to the disease phenotype. We describe a series of ligands that disrupt the MBNL1-r(CCUG)n interaction as potential lead agents for developing DM2 therapeutics. A previously reported triaminopyrimidine-acridine conjugate was a moderate inhibitor in vitro, however it proved to be poorly water-soluble and not cell-permeable. To improve its therapeutic potential, the new set of ligands maintained the key triaminopyrimidine recognition unit but replaced the acridine intercalator with a bisamidinium groove binder. The optimized ligands exhibit low micromolar inhibition potency to MBNL1-r(CCUG)8. Importantly, the ligands are the first to show the ability to disrupt the MBNL1-r(CCUG)n foci in DM2 model cell culture and exhibit low cytotoxicity.
Amounts of nondeterminism in finite automata

The amount of nondeterminism in a nondeterministic finite automaton (NFA) is measured by counting the minimal number of "guessing points" a string w has to pass through on its way to an accepting state. NFA's with more nondeterminism can achieve greater savings in the number of states over their deterministic counterparts than NFA's with less nondeterminism. On the other hand, for some nontrivial infinite regular languages a deterministic finite automaton (DFA) can already be quite succinct in the sense that NFA's need as many states (and even context-free grammars need as many nonterminals) as the minimal DFA has states.
Size of sexual swellings reflects ovarian function in chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes )

While many theories exist on the evolution of the sexual swelling signal in female primates, the significance of the very large and variable swellings found in some catarrhine primates is still debated. As suggested by Pagel [(1994) Anim Behav 47:1333–1341], these exaggerated and costly signals have the potential to provide information about differential female reproductive quality to males. While Domb [(2000) Department of Anthropology, Harvard University, Cambridge] and Domb and Pagel [(2001) Nature 410:204–206] propose that swellings serve to reliably indicate between-female fitness differences, we hypothesize that they may indicate current reproductive cycle quality, within or between females. This study examines the between-cycle relationship between ovarian function, gauged via fecal steroid analysis, and absolute size of sexual swellings, yielded through photogrammetric methods. Fourteen cycles from eight captive, group-living chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) exhibited considerable variability both in ovarian steroid levels and maximum sexual swelling size. Nearly all measures of a female's maximal swelling in a cycle correlated with early follicular and early luteal estradiol averages and the duration of luteal progesterone elevation. Swelling area was also correlated with late follicular estradiol. Given past evidence that such measures of ovarian function predict conceptive success, these data strongly suggest that swellings could convey information to competing males about the fecundability of a potential mate.
Parental Assessment of Functional Outcome After Corpus Callosotomy

Summary: Purpose: We wished to evaluate functional outcome and parental satisfaction after corpus callosotomy. Methods: We studied a cohort of parents of 17 patients who had received an anterior corpus callosotomy > 7 months earlier (mean 26 months) for severe, intractable seizures. Parental satisfaction with the overall surgical results was the primary outcome measure. In addition, the parents assessed behavior changes that had been emphasized preoperatively as important aspects of their children's function, including alertness and responsiveness, falls and injuries, and special care needs. Degree of seizure reduction and extent of corpus callosum were also measured. Results: The parents of 15 (88%) patients reported satisfaction with the surgical outcome. All parents who expressed satisfaction would recommend callosotomy to another family in a similar situation. The behavior change most closely associated with satisfaction was improved alertness and responsiveness (p 80% reduction in targeted seizures, satisfaction was not reported at a greater rate as compared with the 6 patients with 50–80% reduction. Conclusions: Most parents report satisfaction with the outcome of their child's corpus callosotomy, but are influenced by improvement in aspects of function and behavior in addition to seizure reduction.
Chiral SU(2) ⊗ SU(2) Mixing and the Quark Model of Hadrons

We present a simple form for the vector and axial-vector charges, transformed so that their matrix elements between (constituent) quark-model states correspond to measurable transitions between physical states. A comparison with experiment of predictions for pionic transitions is made.
Male gender is an independent risk factor for major infection after severe blunt trauma

Abstract Introduction: Epidemiological studies and animal models suggest that the immunoinflammatory response to injury is gender dimorphic. In general, females appear protected from infection. However, others have observed that gender-related risk is modulated by type and extent of injury and other covariates. We hypothesized that males are more prone to major infection after critical injury. Methods: We analyzed data from 1277 consecutive injured patients prospectively over 10 years ending September, 2003. Standardized criteria for major infection were used and included sepsis, pneumonia, and cavitary abscesses. Multiple logistic regression (MLR) was used to estimate the independent effect of gender on major infection risk. Covariates considered included ISS, age and amount of blood transfusion. Results: Of the 1277 patients, 835 (74%) suffered a blunt injury, of which 571 (68%) were men. Male gender was significantly associated with major infections among blunt trauma patients (51% vs 44%, p=.047), but not among those with non-blunt mechanisms. Adjustment for confounders by MLR showed a persistent effect of male gender. The adjusted odds ratio (AdjOR) for male gender was 1.74 with a 95% confidence interval of 1.24–2.44. The AdjOR for Age (> 50) was 1.25 (0.87–1.81) and that for ISS (> 25) 3.09 (2.13–4.26). As expected, major infections significantly contributed to excess multiple organ failure (AdjOR = 5.19, 3.37–8.01), and mortality (AdjOR = 2.16, 1.2–3.9). Conclusions: Male patients suffering a critical blunt injury are at a higher risk for infection than female patients, independent of injury severity and age.
THE ECONOMIC USE OF SUBSIDIES FOR URBAN MASS TRANSPORTATION

The energy crisis and various urban problems stemming from auto congestion, pollution, and the cost of providing public highways have created enormous interest in revitalizing our urban mass transit systems. Currently much is being said and written regarding the efficacy of granting federal, state and/or local operating subsidies. In this article, the author reviews the transit industry's peak capacity problem, and questions the economic wisdom of providing operating subsidies, as some are now being provided, and how most will probably be administered in the near future. An alternative plan suggests the manner in which subsidies can eventually help the transit industry. The article concludes with an analysis of what research efforts are needed in many urban transit systems and how subsidies can be used to support such research.
Social Cohesiveness, Territoriality, and Holiday Decorations The Influence of Cul-de-Sacs

Altman's territoriality theory was used as a framework for examining neighborhood attachment. We hypothesized that attachment would be manifested in interrelated patterns of neighboring behaviors, attitudes indicating that the block was a secondary territory, and individual and communal displays of holiday decorations. Design features of cul-de-sacs were hypothesized to contribute to greater degrees of block attachment on cul-de-sacs than on through streets. Attachment was assessed through interviews with female residents and observations of holiday decorations on the target home and its block at Halloween and Christmas. Analyses indicated that attitudes and behaviors did combine to reflect degrees of neighborhood attachment, and neighborhood ties were stronger on cul-de-sacs than on through streets. Decorating at both Halloween and Christmas tended to be a block phenomenon (if the target home was decorated, so were the neighbors' homes); decorating at each time was related to aspects of neighborhood atta...
Real-Time Electrooptical Signal Processors with Coherent Detection

In conventional real-time electrooptical signal processors, the variation of the output intensity with time is directly detected with a photodetector. As a result of this, any information carried in the phase of the light is lost. However, if the light is detected coherently, i.e., it is heterodyned with another coherent local oscillator light source on the detector surface, the phase associated with the amplitude of the light may be preserved. This paper presents the results of a theoretical and experimental study of the properties of real-time electrooptical spectrum analyzers with coherent detection. Basic equations of operation are presented and discussed, and confirmed by experiment, and it is concluded that the construction of such devices is feasible.
A Multigrid Method on Non-Graded Adaptive Octree and Quadtree Cartesian Grids

In order to develop efficient numerical methods for solving elliptic and parabolic problems where Dirichlet boundary conditions are imposed on irregular domains, Chen et al. (J. Sci. Comput. 31(1):19---60, 2007) presented a methodology that produces second-order accurate solutions with second-order gradients on non-graded quadtree and octree data structures. These data structures significantly reduce the number of computational nodes while still allowing for the resolution of small length scales. In this paper, we present a multigrid solver for this framework and present numerical results in two and three spatial dimensions that demonstrate that the computational time scales linearly with the number of nodes, producing a very efficient solver for elliptic and parabolic problems with multiple length scales.
The vitamin D3 and precholecalciferol content of menhaden fish meal as affected by drying conditions

Abstract The effect of drying conditions on the vitamin D3 and precholecalciferol content of menhaden fish meal was studied. Fish meals were produced by either freeze-drying or oven-drying, at 25 or 82°C, for 3 or 7 days. Vitamin levels from these fish meals were also compared with those of a commercially produced fish meal. Levels of precholecalciferol were significantly higher in the oven-dried fish meals than in the freeze-dried fish meals. Vitamin D3 levels were significantly higher in freeze-dried samples than in oven-dried samples. Vitamin D3 and precholecalciferol levels in commercial fish meal were more similar to those in oven-dried samples than to those in freeze-dried samples. Higher vitamin D3 levels in freeze-dried fish meals suggest less destruction during drying, possibly because of decreased atmospheric oxygen; however, the increased destruction of vitamin D3 in the oven-dried samples probably resulted in more precholecalciferol.
Exact behavior of Gaussian measures of translated balls in Hilbert spaces

Abstract The distribution of a positive quadratic form of an infinite Gaussian sequence is investigated. Equivalently, the law of || X + a || 2 is described, where X is a symmetric Gaussian random variable taking values in a Hilbert space H and a ∈ H . It is shown that || X + a || 2 = d || X || 2 + ξ a , where ξ a ≥ 0 is infinitely divisible and independent of || X || 2 . Using this observation, various properties of the map a → P { || X + a || 2 ≤ r }, r > 0, are derived. In particular, it is shown that this function is twice Gateaux differentiable at zero, the corresponding derivative is evaluated and a simple proof of Żak′s theorem (1989, Probab. Math. Statist . 10 257-270; Lecture Notes in Mathematics , Vol. 1391, pp. 401-405 Springer, New York/Berlin) is provided. Some applications for H = R 2 are also discussed.
The influence of synergistic stabilization of carbon black and clay on the electrical and mechanical properties of epoxy composites

Studies of acetone-based suspensions suggest a synergistic stabilization of clay by carbon black (CB) that involves a haloing effect (i.e., CB surrounding clay). This unique microstructural development ultimately influences the electrical and mechanical properties of epoxy composites that contain both particles. With the addition of 0.5 wt.% clay, electrical conductivity increases by an order of magnitude for CB filled epoxy (relative to composites containing no clay), but no significant improvement is observed in storage modulus. Composites containing equal concentrations of CB and clay show reduced electrical conductivity, but significant improvement in storage modulus (relative to the composites containing equal amount (wt.%) of either CB or clay alone). Both electrical conductivity and storage modulus improve in composites containing a 1:2 clay:CB (wt/wt) ratio. This synergy between CB and clay is a useful tool for simultaneously improving the electrical and mechanical properties of solution-processed composites.
2-oxo-3-alkynoic acids, universal mechanism-based inactivators of thiamin diphosphate-dependent decarboxylases: Synthesis and evidence for potent inactivation of the pyruvate dehydrogenase multienzyme complex

A new class of compounds, the 2-oxo-3-alkynoic acids with a phenyl substituent at carbon 4 was reported by the authors as potent irreversible and mechanism-based inhibitors of the thiamin diphospha...
Performance analysis of static locking in distributed database systems

A queueing model is used to approximate static locking in distributed database systems without deadlocks. Then a random graph model to find the deadlock probability of each transaction is proposed. Finally, the above two models are integrated, so that given the transaction arrival rate, the response time and the effective throughput can be calculated. >
To boldly glow ... applications of laser scanning confocal microscopy in developmental biology.

The laser scanning confocal microscope (LSCM)1 is now established as an invaluable tool in developmental biology for improved light microscope imaging of fluorescently labelled eggs, embryos and developing tissues. The universal application of the LSCM in biomedical research has stimulated improvements to the microscopes themselves and the synthesis of novel probes for imaging biological structures and physiological processes. Moreover the ability of the LSCM to produce an optical series in perfect register has made computer 3-D reconstruction and analysis of light microscope images a practical option.
The clinical presentation of pediatric pelvic fractures

Background: Few studies have addressed the presentation and clinical impact of pediatric pelvic fractures. We sought to describe pediatric blunt trauma patients with pelvic fracture (PF) and to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of physical examination at presentation for diagnosis. Methods: Retrospective analysis of all PF and control (NPF) patients from our pediatric institution over an 8-year period. Results: A total of 174 patients (88 PF, 86 NPF) were included. Median patient age was 8 years (range, 3 months to 18 years), with 54% males. The most common mechanisms of injury for PF patients were automobile-related accidents (75%). There were 140 patients (87%) who were transported by air or ground medical services. At presentation, approximately 16% of PF patients had a Glasgow Coma score of 15 indicating severe, multiple injuries. Sixty-eight PF patients (77%) had severe isolated injuries (Abbreviated Injury Scale 1990 value of >3); 11% of PF patients required transfusions, and 2% died. Fifteen PF patients (17% ) had no pelvic ring disruption; 39 (43%) had a single pelvic ring fracture, 22 (2%) had two pelvic ring fractures, 2(2%) had acetabular fractures, and 10 (11%) had a combination of pelvic fractures. An abnormal physical examination of the pelvis was noted in 81 patients with PF (92% sensitivity, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.89-0.95), 15 NPF patients had an abnormal examination (79% specificity, 95% CI = 0.74-0.84). The positive predictive value of the pelvis examination was 0.84, and the negative predictive value was 0.89. The most common abnormal pelvis examination finding was pelvic tenderness in 65 PF patients (73%). A total of seven PF patients had a normal examination of the pelvis; four had a depressed level of consciousness (defined as GCS <15), and six patients had a distracting injury. Conclusions: Pediatric blunt trauma patients with pelvic fracture represent a severely injured population but generally have lower transfusion rates and mortality than noted in adult studies. The pelvis examination appears to be sensitive and specific in this retrospective study. However, an altered level of consciousness and/or distracting injuries may affect examination sensitivity and specificity. Based on this retrospective study, we cannot advocate eliminating pelvic radiographs in the severely injured, blunt trauma patient. Prospective studies are recommended.
The World is a Natural Laboratory, and Social Media is the New Petri Dish

Many high-priority and high-interest species are challenging to study due to the difficulty in accessing animals and/or obtaining sufficient sample sizes. The recent explosion in technology, particularly social media and live webcams available on the Internet, provides new opportunities for behavioral scientists to collect data not just on our own species, as well as new resources for teaching and outreach. We discuss here the possibility of exploiting online media as a new source of behavioral data, which we termed ‘video mining’. This article proposes epidemiological and ethological field techniques to gather and screen online media as a data source on diverse taxa. This novel method provides access to a rich source of untapped knowledge, particularly to study the behavior of understudied species or sporadic behaviors, but also for teaching or monitoring animals in challenging settings.
Perceived Self-Efficacy in Cognitive Development and Functioning

In this article, I review the diverse ways in which perceived self-efficacy contributes to cognitive development and functioning. Perceived self-efficacy exerts its influence through four major processes. They include cognitive, motivational, affective, and selection processes. There are three different levels at which perceived self-efficacy operates as an important contributor to academic development. Students' beliefs in their efficacy to regulate their own learning and to master academic activities determine their aspirations, level of motivation, and academic accomplishments. Teachers' beliefs in their personal efficacy to motivate and promote learning affect the types of learning environments they create and the level of academic progress their students achieve. Faculties' beliefs in their collective instructional efficacy contribute significantly to their schools' level of academic achievement. Student body characteristics influence school-level achievement more strongly by altering faculties' beli...
More Membranes, more Proteins: Complex Protein Import Mechanisms into Secondary Plastids

Plastids are found across the tree of life in a tremendous diversity of life forms. Surprisingly they are not limited to photosynthetic organisms but also found in numerous predators and parasites. An important reason for the pervasiveness of plastids has been their ability to move laterally and to jump from one branch of the tree of life to the next through secondary endosymbiosis. Eukaryotic algae have entered endosymbiotic relationships with other eukaryotes on multiple independent occasions. The descendants of these endosymbiotic events now carry complex plastids, organelles that are bound by three or even four membranes. As in all endosymbiotic organelles most of the symbiont's genes have been transferred to the host and their protein products have to be imported into the organelle. As four membranes might suggest, this is a complex process. The emerging mechanisms display a series of translocons that mirror the divergent ancestry of the membranes they cross. This review is written from the viewpoint of a parasite biologist and seeks to provide a brief overview of plastid evolution in particular for readers not already familiar with plant and algal biology and then focuses on recent molecular discoveries using genetically tractable Apicomplexa and diatoms.
Anisotropy of hole structures in polymers probed by two-dimensional angular correlation of annihilation radiation.

Two-dimensional angular correlation of annihilation radiation (2D-ACAR) experiments have been performed in a semicrystalline polymer, polyaryl-ether-ether-ketone. The two-dimensional hole structures of unstretched and stretched polymers, determined from the momentum distributions, are found to be spherical and ellipsoidal, respectively. The average hole radii are determined to be 2.6 \AA{} in the unstretched sample and between 1.9 and 3.6 \AA{} in the stretched sample. Applications of the 2D-ACAR method to image the three-dimensional hole, free-volume, and cavity structures of molecular systems are discussed. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
The Relevance of Hierarchies to Learning Biology From Hypertext

Previous research on text-based learning has shown the relevance of hierarchical structures to the acquisition of complex concepts and the formation of knowledge structures. Because of the inflexible nature of traditional text, however, these studies have been limited to comparing participants learning with either hierarchical or linear presentations. As a consequence, our understanding of the importance of hierarchies to information processing is only relative to that of linear text. The purpose of this investigation is to move beyond that comparison, to explore more deeply the relevance of hierarchies to information processing. For this study, the traits that characterize a hierarchy were isolated and used in varying combinations to create 4 different organizations for a single body of information: hierarchical, clustered, unstructured, and linear. The creation of these structures was made possible by hypertext technology. Participants were each assigned to study one of these systems and were then asked...
BLOOD PRESSURE IN THE OFFSPRING OF TOXEMIC MOTHERS

Top of pageAbstract It has been hypothesized that pregnancy toxemia or pre-eclampsia may be associated with an increased risk for high blood pressure in the products of toxemic pregnancies. We have followed longitudinally for three years the blood pressure (BP) of 321 black adolescents, initially ages 11-15, who were products of mildly (N=278) and severely (N=43) toxemic pregnancies as diagnosed by the Collaborative Perinatal Project (CPP) and 621 adolescents representative of the CPP. The CPP diagnosed toxemia on the bases of high BP, proteinuria, and marked edema occurring any time after the 24th week of gestation irrespective of prior history of maternal hypertension or parity. We found that, overall, the adolescents born of severely toxemic pregnancies had a significantly (p 95th percentile on one visit) than the representative sample (17.1%) or those born of mildly toxemic pregnancies (18.7%). Those with transient elevated BP appear to come mostly from the severely toxemic pregnancies where the pregnancy hypertension was of long duration or where there was a prior history of maternal hypertension. Therefore, both intrauterine and genetic factors may be implicated in the transient elevated BP in adolescent offspring associated with maternal severe hypertension or pre-eclampsia during pregnancy. This work was supported by NHLBI Grant #HL-19869.
Annualized Road Works Cost Estimates for Unpaved Roads

Providing locally elected officials with reasonable information about the cost of maintaining and improving an unpaved road network is part of the job for those directly responsible for maintaining such a network. This paper describes a simple method for generating estimates of the annualized maintenance and construction costs incurred by small agencies, three Wyoming counties in this case. Several simple inputs are used to estimate the total annualized cost of operating an unpaved road network. Road segments are assigned to one of four functional classes. Treatment costs and frequencies are determined for each functional class. These inputs are used to generate annualized network-level cost estimates for each county. The most difficult aspect of this procedure is generating reasonable treatment cost and frequency information, particularly for rehabilitation and reconstruction costs. The process of generating these inputs, along with the process of assigning roads to functional classes, is described in this paper. Comparisons between the estimates generated using the method presented in this paper and actual costs incurred by two of the counties both demonstrate the feasibility of this method and highlight aspects of this procedure that will benefit from further refinement. Tailoring treatment costs and frequencies to in-place cost tracking methods will make for more precise projection of future costs, particularly for maintenance tasks. The methods presented here are particularly useful for smaller agencies without the resources to undertake highly sophisticated, expensive asset management programs. This methodology may be applied to a wide and diverse range of agencies.
Increase in the complement-fixing ability of murine IgG anti-lymphocyte antibodies by addition of monoclonal IgM rheumatoid factors☆

Mouse monoclonal IgM anti-IgG autoantibodies (rheumatoid factors) markedly enhanced the complement fixing ability of 2 murine IgG1 monoclonal antibodies against human lymphocytes (anti-Leu 4 and T305). The IgM rheumatoid factors were effective when added simultaneously with the monoclonal anti-lymphocyte antibodies, and were not themselves toxic towards human lymphocytes. Monoclonal IgM rheumatoid factors are simple reproducible reagents for amplifying complement fixation by murine IgG hybridoma antibodies.
Concurrent Anabolic and Catabolic-type Adaptations to Exercise Training in Adolescent Males. 381

Concurrent Anabolic and Catabolic-type Adaptations to Exercise Training in Adolescent Males. 381
Unsupervised structure detection in biomedical data

A major challenge in computational biology is to find simple representations of high-dimensional data that best reveal the underlying structure. In this work, we present an intuitive and easy-to-implement method based on ranked neighborhood comparisons that detects structure in unsupervised data. The method is based on ordering objects in terms of similarity and on the mutual overlap of nearest neighbors. This basic framework was originally introduced in the field of social network analysis to detect actor communities. We demonstrate that the same ideas can successfully be applied to biomedical data sets in order to reveal complex underlying structure. The algorithm is very efficient and works on distance data directly without requiring a vectorial embedding of data. Comprehensive experiments demonstrate the validity of this approach. Comparisons with state-of-the-art clustering methods show that the presented method outperforms hierarchical methods as well as density based clustering methods and model-based clustering. A further advantage of the method is that it simultaneously provides a visualization of the data. Especially in biomedical applications, the visualization of data can be used as a first pre-processing step when analyzing real world data sets to get an intuition of the underlying data structure. We apply this model to synthetic data as well as to various biomedical data sets which demonstrate the high quality and usefulness of the inferred structure.
Silver-Palladium Thick-Film Conductors

The trends in integrated circuit packaging technology are toward high speed, high density, reliability, and low cost. These demand the improvement of material formulations and processing technology. Among the thick-film materials systems, conductor materials generally represent an important and the most expensive element. Therefore, attention has been centered on the performance of the fired metal film and its cost. Silver and palladium (Ag/Pd) conductors are important components of thick-film paste technology. Thick-film Ag/Pd conductors find applications in many aspects of electronics and electronic packaging, such as hybrid microcircuits, multichip modules, packaging for integrated microcircuits, and in passive electronic components such as multilayer capacitors, varistors, and inductors. In this paper, the performance and properties of fired Ag/Pd films are discussed through their physical and chemical aspects. The final film properties are correlated to a number of factors, including thermodynamics and kinetics of Pd oxidation during burnout and firing; chemical and physical reaction of the Ag/Pd with the ceramic substrate, organic vehicle, and solder; Ag diffusion and migration; inorganic and organic additives; powders characteristics; and paste properties.