cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Rod and Cone Opsin Families Differ in Spectral Tuning Domains but Not Signal Transducing Domains as Judged by Saturated Evolutionary Trace Analysis

The visual receptor of rods and cones is a covalent complex of the apoprotein, opsin, and the light-sensitive chromophore, 11-cis-retinal. This pigment must fulfill many functions including photoactivation, spectral tuning, signal transmission, inactivation, and chromophore regeneration. Rod and cone photoreceptors employ distinct families of opsins. Although it is well known that these opsin families provide unique ranges in spectral sensitivity, it is unclear whether the families have additional functional differences. In this study, we use evolutionary trace (ET) analysis of 188 vertebrate opsin sequences to identify functionally important sites in each opsin family. We demonstrate the following results. (1) The available vertebrate opsin sequences produce a definitive description of all five vertebrate opsin families. This is the first demonstration of sequence saturation prior to ET analysis, which we term saturated ET (SET). (2) The cone opsin classes have class-specific sites compared to the rod opsin class. These sites reside in the transmembrane region and tune the spectral sensitivity of each opsin class to its characteristic wavelength range. (3) The cytoplasmic loops, primarily responsible for signal transmission and inactivation, are essentially invariant in rod versus cone opsins. This indicates that the electrophysiological differences between rod and cone photoreceptors cannot be ascribed to differences in the protein interaction regions of the opsins. SET shows that chromophore binding and regeneration are the only aspects of opsin structure likely to have functionally significant differences between rods and cones, whereas excitatory and adaptational properties of the opsin families appear to be functionally invariant.
Cost-effective vision-based system for monitoring dynamic response of civil engineering structures

This study develops a cost-effective vision-based displacement measurement system for real-time monitoring of dynamic responses of large-size civil engineering structures such as bridges and buildings. The system simply consists of a low-cost digital camcorder and a notebook computer equipped with digital image-processing software developed in this study. A target panel with predesigned marks is attached to a structure, whose movement is captured by the digital camcorder placed at a fixed point away from the measurement point. The captured images are streamed to the notebook computer and processed by the software to compute displacement in real time. The efficacy of the system in measuring dynamic responses was demonstrated through laboratory tests, seismic shaking table tests on a steel building frame, and a field experiment on a bridge. In order to simultaneously measure displacements of multiple points, this study further developed a time synchronization system, in which TCP/IP protocol is employed for communications. The effectiveness of the time synchronization system was also experimentally verified. The vision-based system developed in this study is simple, cost-effective, easy to install, and capable of real-time measurement of dynamic responses, making the system ideal for monitoring civil engineering structures. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Polycrystalline diamond pressure sensor

The piezoresistance and other characteristics of boron doped polycrystalline diamond films (PDF's) were determined by analyzing free-standing films that had been formed on silicon. These structures were adhered to a dielectric substrate, and from bending stresses a gauge factor was estimated. Subsequently, a monolithic all-diamond pressure sensor was designed and fabricated, whereby doped diamond resistors reside on a dielectric diamond substrate diaphragm. The process and piezoresistance behavior of their structure is described. >
Probit and survival analysis of tooth emergence ages in a mixed-longitudinal sample of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Tooth emergence data from a mixed-longitudinal sample of 58 chimpanzees of known age were analyzed using probit and survival techniques to produce median emergence ages, ranges of variability, and emergence sequences for primary and permanent teeth. Between-group comparisons were made to test for statistically significant differences in emergence ages. No such differences were found between right and left sides, or between maxilla and mandible, for any primary or permanent teeth. Male-female comparisons did demonstrate significant emergence-age differences for some teeth, although they were not always bilaterally symmetrical. More complete data are required to further clarify the nature of sex differences in tooth emergence in chimpanzees. Regression models for age prediction from the number of emerged teeth were generated and indicate that males achieve a given number of emerged teeth at a significantly later age than females. However, when fewer than five teeth have emerged, males are predicted to be younger than females. The sizable root mean square error values for these models suggest that this method of age prediction has limited usefulness owing to the amount of variability in timing of tooth emergence in chimpanzees. The implications of these data for studies on tooth emergence in early hominids are addressed. © 1992 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Determining Success for Different Website Goals

In building a successful website it is imperative that the design matches the organizations objectives, which should be well defined. Clearly, different types of websites will have different goals. Thus, determining success across websites is both goal and context specific. One measure of website success is satisfaction, and the resulting intent to return to a website. Built on theories from the IS success and information technology adoption literatures, this study investigated four variables believed to impact website satisfaction: information quality, system quality, perceived effectiveness, and social influence. Data was collected by surveying regular users of two different websites, each from a different category within a taxonomy of websites. Structural equation modeling techniques were used to test the proposed model of website success for each studied site. The results indicate that the determinants of satisfaction and overall successfulness of websites are both context dependent and goal specific.
DDOS: taming nondeterminism in distributed systems

Nondeterminism complicates the development and management of distributed systems, and arises from two main sources: the local behavior of each individual node as well as the behavior of the network connecting them. Taming nondeterminism effectively requires dealing with both sources.This paper proposes DDOS, a system that leverages prior work on deterministic multithreading to offer: 1) space-efficient record/replay of distributed systems; and 2) fully deterministic distributed behavior. Leveraging deterministic behavior at each node makes outgoing messages strictly a function of explicit inputs. This allows us to record the system by logging just message's arrival time, not the contents. Going further, we propose and implement an algorithm that makes all communication between nodes deterministic by scheduling communication onto a global logical timeline.We implement both algorithms in a system called DDOS and evaluate our system with parallel scientific applications, an HTTP/memcached system and a distributed microbenchmark with a high volume of peer-to-peer communication. Our results show up to two orders of magnitude reduction in log size of record/replay, and that distributed systems can be made deterministic with an order of magnitude of overhead.
Optimal corneal ablation for eyes with arbitrary Hartmann-Shack aberrations

New technologies for accurately measuring corneal shape and full eye aberrations are now available. An algorithm that uses these technologies to predict the amount of ablation needed to produce a corneal surface that optimally focuses light is developed. It is found that knowledge of the aberrations is far more important than knowledge of corneal shape. Neglect of corneal shape information introduces an error of less than approximately 0.05 micron in the optimal ablation depth. Neglect of the aberrations is a different story. Small changes in the aberration structure, such as going from the optimal ablation to a spherical ablation, introduce ablation changes of greater than 10 microns. It is argued that there are many occasions when less ablation can lead to improved image quality.
A MULTIAGENT COORDINATION APPROACH TO ROBUST CONSENSUS CLUSTERING

In many distributed modeling, control or information processing applications, clustering patterns that share certain similarities is the critical first step. However, many traditional clustering algorithms require centralized processing, reliable data collection and the availability of all the raw data in one place at one time. None of these requirement can be met in many complex real world problems. In this paper, we present an agent-based method for combining multiple base clusterings into a single unified "consensus" clustering that is robust against many types of failures and does not require spatial/temporal synchronization. In this approach, agents process clusterings coming from separate sources and pool them to produce a unified consensus. The first contribution of this work is to provide an adaptive method by which the agents update their selections to maximize an objective function based on the quality of the consensus clustering. The second contribution of this work is in providing intermediate agent-specific objective functions that significantly improve the quality of the consensus clustering process. Our results show that this agent-based method achieves comparable or better performance than traditional non-agent consensus clustering methods in fault-free conditions, and remains effective under a wide range of failure scenarios that paralyze the traditional methods.
Having to Take a Stand: The Interactive Effects of Task Framing and Source Status on Attitudes

Some research has found that a minority message source is less persuasive than a majority source on personally relevant issues. In that research, participants were forewarned that they would have to report their attitudinal reactions. We hypothesized that if recipients were given an opinion-irrelevant (recall) task instead, source status would not affect attitudes. Participants were asked to read a strong, outcome-relevant, counterattitudinal persuasive essay presented by a minority or majority source under opinion or recall task directions. The minority was less persuasive than the majority in the opinion task condition, and this effect was mediated by source evaluation and favorable cognitive elaboration. No source status effects emerged in the recall task condition.
Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt

Poverty and Charity in the Jewish Community of Medieval Egypt MARK R. COHEN, 2005 Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press iv + 288 pp. US$42.00 (hardback) ISBN 0691092729 The scholarly literature...
TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL VARIATION IN POLLINATION OF A MONTANE HERB: A SEVEN-YEAR STUDY

Pollination by animals is critical to sexual reproduction of most angiosperms. However, little is known about variation in pollination service to single plant species. We report results of a long-term study of Ipomopsis aggregata, a semelparous montane herb whose flowers are visited by hummingbird and insect pollinators as well as “floral larcenists.” We censused flower visitors over seven summers at permanent study sites separated by several hundred meters, and counted pollen delivered to flowers on a subset of plants observed for visitation. The species composition of the community of visitors varied significantly across years and within the flowering season; sites varied significantly only in the magnitude of parallel annual changes in the visitor community. Rates of flower visitation fluctuated over an order of magnitude or more. Variation in mean stigma pollen load among plants flowering in the same site and year was explained by a causal path model in which visitation rates by pollinators and larcen...
Commitment to minority inclusion: a study of AAMFT conference program content and members' perceptions.

This study examined the representation of minorities and minority issues in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. The relationship between AAMFT conference program content and changing social demographic from 1980 to 1996 was explored through an ecosystemic lens, and descriptive data were elecited through structured interviews with clinical members. Results indicated that there was a singnificant increase in the percentage of programming devoted to minority issues from 1980 to 1996 while the percentage of minorities in the population also rose dramatically in the same period. Salient themes from the interviews are presented. Recommendations are made for enhancing diversity within AAMFT.
Interpretable Classifiers for fMRI Improve Prediction of Purchases

Despite growing interest in applying machine learning to neuroimaging analyses, few studies have gone beyond classifying sensory input to directly predicting behavioral output. With spatial resolution on the order of millimeters and temporal resolution on the order of seconds, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a promising technology for such applications. However, fMRI data's low signal-to-noise ratio, high dimensionality, and extensive spatiotemporal correlations present formidable analytic challenges. Here, we apply different machine-learning algorithms to previously acquired data to examine the ability of fMRI activation in three regions—the nucleus accumbens (NAcc), medial prefrontal cortex (MPFC), and insula—to predict purchasing. Our goal was to improve spatiotemporal interpretability as well as classification accuracy. To this end, sparse penalized discriminant analysis (SPDA) enabled automatic selection of correlated variables, yielding interpretable models that generalized well to new data. Relative to logistic regression, linear discriminant analysis, and linear support vector machines, SPDA not only increased interpretability but also improved classification accuracy. SPDA promises to allow more precise inferences about when specific brain regions contribute to purchasing decisions. More broadly, this approach provides a general framework for using neuroimaging data to build interpretable models, including those that predict choice.
Gas-Phase IR Spectroscopy of Nucleobases

IR spectroscopy of nucleobases in the gas phase reflects simultaneous advances in both experimental and computational techniques. Important properties, such as excited state dynamics, depend in subtle ways on structure variations, which can be followed by their infrared signatures. Isomer specific spectroscopy is a particularly powerful tool for studying the effects of nucleobase tautomeric form and base pair hydrogen-bonding patterns.
Perioral Angioedema Associated With Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme Inhibitor

Background: Angioedema is a non-pruritic swelling usually limited to the skin and mucous membranes of the face and perioral soft tissues. It can be life threatening but usually is not, and can be managed with conservative medical treatment unless the airway is endangered. Recent reports suggest that angiotensinconverting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors can predispose and/or precipitate angioedema, with a predilection toward patients of African American ancestry. Methods: This case report involved a 65-year-old African American female who was being treated surgically for localized chronic periodontitis. The procedure was performed without incident, and the patient was alert and stable when released. The next day, the patient called and reported that her lips were swollen. She stated that this had happened a number of times over the past several years, sometimes related to eating shellfish and other times without any known precipitating factor. All previous episodes of perioral swelling occurred after ACE inhibitor therapy had been initiated. Results: The patient was in no distress, with no other site involvement. She was prescribed oral hydroxyzine and her appearance returned to normal after 5 days. Although the patient had experienced previous episodes of angioedema, none had been in response to any dental procedure. She was referred to the Allergy and Immunology Clinic for skin testing, the results of which were negative to shellfish with good controls. Other potentiating etiologies were also ruled out by the allergist. Conclusions: Angioedema is a recognized possible side effect of ACE inhibitor therapy. The exact mechanism by which ACE inhibitors induce angioedema is not known, although the risk of occurrence is much greater in African Americans. Practitioners should be alert to this potentially fatal condition in patients who take ACE inhibitors or the newer angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs). J Periodontol 2005;76:651-654.
Extravascular clot formation and platelet activation on variously treated root surfaces.

The platelet attachment and activation potential of a variety of treated, human root surfaces was studied employing an established in vitro method for determining thrombogenicity. In addition, scanning electron microscopic observations were made of the morphological appearance of blood components in initial clot formation on root surfaces containing periodontal ligament (PDL). For the platelet study, the crowns were removed from freshly extracted teeth with and without periodontal disease (PD) and the roots were sectioned. The following surface conditions were created: (1) PDL present, (2) PD, (3) PD planed, (4) PD planed and demineralized, (5) Condition 4 treated with collagenase. All conditions were incubated with Indium-Ill-labeled platelets with and without the addition of prostacyclin, an inhibitor of platelet activation. It was observed that the greatest number of attached platelets were found in Condition 1, that platelet activation was significantly enhanced in Condition 4 and this effect was reve...
Potential effects of a resuspension event on the vertical distribution of copepod eggs in the sea bed: a laboratory simulation

Adult female Acartia tonsa and Labidocera aestiva were obtained from inshore marine waters near Turkey Point, Florida (29°54.5′N;84°31′W) during April and May 1991. For each species, eggs spawned overnight in the laboratory were collected, mixed with sediment, and added to a plastic tube (26 to 29 cm longx5 cm diam) to yield a 2 cm-thick layer. This tube was connected to a 245 cm-long tube, seawater was added and the contents were thoroughly mixed by turning the assembly end-over-end several times. The vertical distribution of eggs in the sediments following resuspension varied according to the grain size of the sediments. For sediments of ≥125 μm particle-diameter, 68 to 72%, and 70 to 73% of the eggs of A. tonsa and L. aestiva, respectively, occurred in the upper 4 mm.For sediments ≥63 to <125 μm particle-diameter, 34 to 36% of the eggs of A. tonsa and L. aestiva, respectively, occurred in the upper 4 mm. For sediments of <63 μm particle-diameter, egg distribution was uniform for both species throughout the 2 cm layer. The results indicate that the vertical distribution of eggs in the sea bed following a resuspension event should be highly dependent upon the grain-size composition of the sediments.
Determination of dielectric properties of materials using a coaxial cavity system driven by a coaxial line

In this paper, a new scheme for characterizing dielectric materials over a wide band of frequencies is presented. The scheme utilizes a coaxial cavity partially or completely filled with material and driven by a coaxial line. This system is analyzed by the mode-matching technique. The effect of the ohmic loss of the cavity wall on the characterization of the dielectric material is addressed. The permittivity of the filling material is inversely determined from the measured reflection coefficient of the incident TEM wave to the cavity. >
Polymeric Scaffolds for Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Polymeric scaffolds are three-dimensional, porous structures that may be used as a vehicle to deliver cells or therapeutic factors to repair tissue defects. Both biodegradable and non-biodegradable polymers have been developed for this purpose. In this review, we survey the polymers that have been investigated for cartilage tissue engineering and discuss the critical parameters for successful applications in the future.
Production and accumulation of surfactants during the chemical oxidation of PAH in soil.

A soil contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) was treated in laboratory slurry reactors with three chemical oxidants: (1) modified Fenton chemistry (MFC) with hydrogen peroxide (HP), (2) MFC with calcium peroxide (CP) (Cool-Ox™), and (3) sodium persulfate activated with Fe chelated using ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA). A bioreactor served as a control. Samples of slurry filtrate were tested to quantify emulsification of PAH and concentrations of bulk surfactants, using the critical micelle dilution method. All three oxidants produced surfactants reaching levels above the critical micelle concentration (CMC), though the surfactants were removed at the end of treatment. The surfactants emulsified the PAH, and resulted in greater overall removal of 5- and 6-ring PAH than biodegradation alone. Treatment with CP-MFC resulted in the highest concentration of surfactants (four times the CMC), the most emulsification of PAH, and the highest removal of 5- and 6-ring PAH. None of the chemical treatments significantly reduced counts of culturable heterotrophic microorganisms.
Highly parallel oligonucleotide purification and functionalization using reversible chemistry

We have developed a cost-effective, highly parallel method for purification and functionalization of 5 0 -labeled oligonucleotides. The approach is based on 5 0 -hexa-His phase tag purification, followed by exchange of the hexa-His tag for a functional group using reversible reaction chemistry. These methods are suitable for large-scale (micromole to millimole) production of oligonucleotides and are amenable to highly parallel processing of many oligonucleotides individually or in high complexity pools. Examples of the preparation of 5 0 -biotin, 95-mer, oligonucleotide pools of >40K complexity at micromole scale are shown. These pools are prepared in up to � 16% yield and 90–99% purity. Approaches for using this method in other applications are also discussed.
Translating electromagnetic torque into controlled motion for use in medical implants

A new propulsion method for sub-millimeter implants is presented that achieves high power to thrust conversion efficiency with a simple implementation. Previous research has shown that electromagnetic forces are a promising micro-scale propulsion mechanism; however the actual implementation is challenging due to the inherent symmetry of these forces. The presented technique translates torque into controlled motion via asymmetries in resistance forces, such as fluid drag. For a 1-mm sized object using this technique, the initial analysis predicts that speeds of 1 cm/sec can be achieved with approximately 100 µW of power, which is about 10 times more efficient than existing methods. In addition to better performance, this method is easily controllable and has favorable scalability.
Never too late: Public optimism about juvenile rehabilitation

Policy decisions with respect to juvenile offenders oscillate between rehabilitation and punishment, and the effectiveness of these two approaches, including which one for which type of offender, has yet to be realized. Less studied is the extent to which the public favors one approach or the other generally, and whether the public believes that there is an age at which it may be too late to help a juvenile offender turn away from a life of crime. In this study, we explore whether optimism about juvenile rehabilitation is a near universal, shared belief, or whether there exist important variations across socio-demographic groups about whether juveniles can be rehabilitated (and if so at what age). Studying this issue is important because public attitudes have the potential to shape policy. In the domain of juvenile justice, the challenge is whether public opinion will breed unfettered punitiveness or, as we anticipate, will serve as an impetus for a richer and more progressive response to juvenile offenders. Using data from a random sample of Pennsylvania residents, our results point not toward a division over the beliefs about ‘saving children,’ but instead demonstrate a consensus — that optimism about juvenile rehabilitation is not something citizens argue over. Implications for public policies regarding juvenile offenders are addressed.
The impact of perceived disease threat on women's desire for novel dating and sexual partners: is variety the best medicine?

Previous studies have demonstrated that European Americans have fewer mixed affective experiences (i.e., are less likely to experience the bad with the good) compared with Chinese. In this article, we argue that these cultural differences are due to "ideal affect," or how people ideally want to feel. Specifically, we predict that people from individualistic cultures want to maximize positive and minimize negative affect more than people from collectivistic cultures, and as a result, they are less likely to actually experience mixed emotions (reflected by a more negative within-person correlation between actual positive and negative affect). We find support for this prediction in 2 experience sampling studies conducted in the United States and China (Studies 1 and 2). In addition, we demonstrate that ideal affect is a distinct construct from dialectical view of the self, which has also been related to mixed affective experience (Study 3). Finally, in Study 4, we demonstrate that experimentally manipulating the desire to maximize the positive and minimize the negative alters participants' actual experience of mixed emotions during a pleasant (but not unpleasant or combined pleasant and unpleasant) TV clip in the United States and Hong Kong. Together, these findings suggest that across cultures, how people want to feel shapes how they actually feel, particularly people's experiences of mixed affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved)
Synergistic effects of photodynamic therapy with HPPH and gemcitabine in pancreatic cancer cell lines.

Background and Objective Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a potential treatment for pancreatic cancer. A second-generation photosensitizer, 2-[1-hexyloxyethyl]-2-devinyl pyropheophorbide (HPPH) has a long wavelength absorption, high-tumor selectivity, and shorter duration of skin photosensitivity. We investigated the efficacy of PDT with HPPH and gemcitabine in inducing cell death in multiple pancreatic cancer cell lines. Methods We used three pancreatic cancer cell lines (PANC-1, MIA PaCa-2, and BXPC-3) incubated with HPPH concentration of 0, 0.005, 0.01, 0.025, 0.05, 0.1, 0.25, and 0.5 µg/ml for 6 hours, followed by photoradiation at a light dose of 60 J/cm2. Afterwards, each cell line was treated with gemcitabine at concentrations of 0, 1, 10, and 100 µM and incubated for another 96 hours. Cell death was detected with SYTOX green staining. We also assessed the difference in cytotoxicity in adding gemcitabine before and after PDT. Results HPPH-PDT can effectively induce cell death in all cell lines in a dose-dependent manner, with a 100% of cell death at the 0.5 µg/ml HPPH concentration. In contrast, monotherapy with gemcitabine alone (100 µM) only achieved <45% cell death. Combining gemcitabine to HPPH-PDT resulted in synergistic cytotoxic effect with 20–50% more cell death across all cell lines. There was no difference in cytotoxicity in adding gemcitabine before or after PDT. Conclusion This is the first study on HPPH-PDT for pancreatic cancer. HPPH-PDT-induced cell death occurs in a dose-dependent manner. HPPH-PDT and gemcitabine have synergistic effects in inducing cell death in multiple pancreatic cancer cell lines. Lasers Surg. Med. 44: 755–761, 2012. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Distinguished Lecture on Economics in Government: The Private Uses of Public Interests: Incentives and Institutions

As a long-time student of the public sector, I welcomed the opportunity to come to Washington as a member of the Council of Economic Advisers and later to become the Chairman of the Council, partly because it gave me an opportunity to study at first hand this immensely important part of our economy and society and to test my ideas against the reality of government in action. To be sure, I came also as an activist, if not with a fully articulated agenda, at least with a view about what it was that government should, and should not be doing. My reference point was the fundamental theorems of welfare economics which, as some describe them, proved that the market left to itself would produce efficient allocations. Many saw in these theorems the vindication of Adam Smith’s faith in the invisible hand leading the self-interested decisions of each person to maximize the well-being of the nation as a whole. Today, many of us look at the fundamental theorem not as a description of the world, but as an explication of the conditions under which a market equilibrium will be Pareto efficient. These conditions are quite strong. The importance of some of the more explicit assumptions—like the lack of externalities and the completeness of markets—has long been known. In the last two decades, we have explored much more seriously the consequences of the informational assumptions implicit in the belief that markets are efficient. In particular, it has been shown that in the presence of imperfect information or incomplete markets, the economy will not be Pareto efficient; in other words, there Joseph Stiglitz is Senior Vice President and Chief Economist, World Bank, Washington, D.C. Stiglitz was a member of the Council of Economic Advisers from 1993–95, and chairman
A family of optimal nonlinear feedback controllers that globally stabilize angular velocity

Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman theory is used to derive optimal nonlinear feedback control laws for a special class of nonlinear systems. The results are applied to a spacecraft angular velocity stabilization problem with two torque inputs. A family of optimal nonlinear feedback controllers that globally asymptotically stabilize angular velocity is established. Special cases of this family of controllers include generalizations of the locally stabilizing controllers of Brockett and Aeyels to global stabilization as well as the globally stabilizing controller of Byrnes and Isidori. >
Robust state estimation in uncertain systems: Combined detection-estimation with incremental MSE criterion

Minimax state estimation for uncertain systems is discussed. The conservative performance of the standard minimax estimator in the absence of an intelligent adversary is reduced by a combined detectorestimator structure and an incremental mean-squared error (IMSE) performance criterion. The optimal structure is defined for a wide class of linear and nonlinear systems whose uncertain parameters are elements of some known compact space and is also obtained for convex parameter spaces. Since the complete specification of the optimal estimator detector is problem dependent, a computational procedure is outlined. In an example, the resulting combined detector-estimator is shown to increase the estimation accuracy in the incremental minimax sense by a factor of two over the standard minimax estimator.
Stepfathers and Noncustodial Fathers: Two Men, One Role

For the majority of 21st-century children, the traditional experience of “one father at a time” has been replaced by the experience of two fathers (a stepfather and noncustodial biological father) at the same time. Given the inadequate institutionalization of either fathering role, this literature review encapsulates common defining themes and concerns. The implications of these results for family counselors seeking to intervene with stepfamilies, and their constituent components, are offered as are possibilities for future research.
Impact of consolidation radiotherapy in patients with advanced breast cancer treated with high-dose chemotherapy and autologous bone marrow rescue.

PURPOSE: To examine the impact of consolidation radiotherapy (RT) after high-dose chemotherapy with autologous bone marrow rescue (HDC) in patients with advanced breast cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between 1988 and 1994, 425 patients with metastatic or recurrent breast cancer received doxorubicin, fluorouracil, and methotrexate (AFM) induction chemotherapy in a single-institution prospective trial. One hundred patients who achieved a complete response were randomized to receive HDC (cyclophosphamide, cisplatin, carmustine), with autologous bone marrow rescue immediately after AFM, or to observation, with HDC to be administered at next relapse. Seventy-four of the 100 became eligible for RT; 53 received consolidation RT (HDC RT+ and 21 did not (HDC RT−). The assignment of RT was not randomized. The RT+ and RT− groups were similar with regard to number of involved sites, the fraction of patients with only local-regional disease, age, and interval since initial diagnosis. Local control at previously involve...
Backscatter from Elastic Ocean Bottoms: Using the Small Slope Model to Assess Acoustical Variability and Uncertainty

The scattering strength of the ocean bottom as a function of angle and frequency is a fundamental input for predicting the performance of active sonar systems, particularly in littoral waters. The small-slope formulation for scattering from the rough water/bottom interface is by now well established both as a physical theory and as a numerical algorithm [Gragg et al., JASA 110 (2001)]. In this work, a data-model comparison is used to address the following questions. How well do the predictions of this elastic theory agree with data measured at sea? How sensitively does the theoretical prediction depend on the set of input parameters that characterize (a) the geoacoustics of the bottom material and (b) the spectrum of the surface roughness? For a given littoral area, how much needs to be known about these parameters for ASW/MCM purposes? How much of that could be estimated by remote (e.g., acoustic inversion) methods?
Sterilizing Properties of Carbon Nanotube Composites

Hydrogen-free carbon nanotube composites have been created that possess unusual free radical generation properties. These films have the ability to nonspecifically kill bacterial cells and can be used to sterilize a surface. These composites have been formed by simultaneous pulsed laser ablation of carbon and bombardment of nitrogen ions generated by a Kaufman ion source at high temperatures (600- 700°C). The results suggest the creation of a new form of carbon that is predominantly trigonally-coordinated, with small fractions of carbon-nitrogen bonds. TEM studies allow us to conclude that the material consists of sp 2 -bonded ribbons wrapped approximately +/-15° normal to the surface. Plan-view high resolution TEM specimens demonstrate layers with curvature similar to that seen in multiwalled nanotube structures. In addition, the interlayer order extends to approximately 15–30 nm. These novel structures result from the use of energetic ions, which create nonequilibrium conditions that alter the growth mode of graphitic planes. In vitro testing revealed significant antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Possible applications include use on the functional surfaces of dialysis equipment, scalpels, and other sterile equipment.
Preliminary Implementation of a High Order Space-time Method on Overset Cartesian/Quadrilateral Grids

This paper reports our current status in implementing our high-order space-time Cell Vertex Scheme (CVS) for conservation laws on overset Cartesian/quadrilateral grids. The motivation to do this is to improve the efficiency of the CVS and overcome the difficulty in generating meshes around complex geometries. The preliminary results of the inviscid flow passing a circular cylinder will show some promises and challenges of the current implementation.
Thoughts on Reform of Local Tax System

Improving local tax system is an importantcomponent of tax- splitting fiscal management system ,which is an unresolved problem theoretically and practically in our country.This paper gives principles of im proving local tax system. U nder the guiding of the principles,this paper borrows the methods abroad and allocate the tax management right reasonably between the central governm ent and local governm ent.This paper also allocate tax revenue scientifically and optim ize the structure of local tax system and improve the local tax system .
Study on the 1st round follow-up and influencing factors of new reported HIV/AIDS cases in 2011 in Fujian,China

Objective To study the 1st round follow-up and influencing factors of the 1st round follow-up to new reported HIV/AIDS cases in Fujian for the disease control and prevention.Methods Case reported data were downloaded from China Information System for HIV/AIDS Control and Prevention and analyzed by SPSS 15.0.Results Totally 702 HIV/AIDS new cases were reported before the 31,Aug.2011 and the follow-up rate was 94.0%.The follow-up rates of male,having ID card,having phone number,reported from CDC and currently living in Fujian were higher.Conclusion It is important to emphasize the effect of reporting institutions,improve communication skill and the quality of information collection for increasing the 1st round follow-up efficiency.
Association of common genetic variation in the protein C pathway genes with clinical outcomes in acute respiratory distress syndrome

Altered plasma levels of protein C, thrombomodulin, and the endothelial protein C receptor are associated with poor clinical outcomes in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We hypothesized that common variants in these genes would be associated with mortality as well as ventilator-free and organ failure-free days in patients with ARDS. We genotyped linkage disequilibrium-based tag single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the ProteinC, Thrombomodulin and Endothelial Protein C Reptor Genes among 320 self-identified white patients of European ancestry from the ARDS Network Fluid and Catheter Treatment Trial. We then tested their association with mortality as well as ventilator-free and organ-failure free days. The GG genotype of rs1042580 (p = 0.02) and CC genotype of rs3716123 (p = 0.002), both in the thrombomodulin gene, and GC/CC genotypes of rs9574 (p = 0.04) in the endothelial protein C receptor gene were independently associated with increased mortality. An additive effect on mortality (p < 0.001), ventilator-free days (p = 0.01), and organ failure-free days was observed with combinations of these high-risk genotypes. This association was independent of age, severity of illness, presence or absence of sepsis, and treatment allocation. Genetic variants in thrombomodulin and endothelial protein C receptor genes are additively associated with mortality in ARDS. These findings suggest that genetic differences may be at least partially responsible for the observed associations between dysregulated coagulation and poor outcomes in ARDS.
Swelling-activated K fluxes in vascular endothelial cells : volume regulation via K-Cl cotransport and K channels

K efflux pathways responsible for regulatory volume decrease (RVD) were examined in bovine aortic endothelial cells. Hypotonic swelling produced a rapid and reversible threefold increase in bumetanide-insensitive 86Rb efflux. Swelling-activated 86Rb efflux was inhibited 43% when Cl was replaced with NO3, and this Cl-dependent efflux was inhibited by 1 mM furosemide. Neither Cl replacement nor furosemide inhibited the efflux stimulated by a Ca ionophore (A23187) in isotonic medium. Swelling-activated 86Rb efflux was also inhibited by 4,49-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,29-disulfonate but not by dinitrostilbenedisulfonate. Cell swelling induced a volume-regulatory K loss that was incomplete in hypotonic medium but complete and more rapid when bumetanide was added or when cells were swollen isosmotically. K loss in the presence of bumetanide was partially blocked by furosemide. We conclude that two separate swelling-activated K fluxes mediate RVD in aortic endothelial cells: a Cl-dependent, furosemide-sensitive, but bumetanide-insensitive flux that is consistent with K-Cl cotransport, and a Cl-independent efflux that presumably is mediated by K channels.
Novel BF + Implantation for High Performance Ge pMOSFETs

BF+ implantation is used for the first time for the formation of source/drain (S/D) junctions in Ge MOSFETs. It offers a higher B activation level ( $\sim 2.0\times 10^{20}$ cm $^{-3})$ and a shallower junction depth in Ge compared with B+ and BF2+ implantation for the same projected range, after rapid thermal annealing at 800 °C. Germanium pMOSFETs using BF+ implantation demonstrate a high ON/OFF ratio of $\sim 10^{7}$ and an enhancement of ON current, due to the reduction of S/D series resistance compared with B+ or BF2+ implanted junctions.
Insulin delivery never tasted so good

With approximately 8.3% of the adult population suffering from diabetes, there is a high likelihood that each of us knows someone with the disease. Regardless of whether they suffer from a dysfunctional pancreas (Type I diabetes) or insulin resistance (Type II diabetes), nearly all diabetic patients
Bullous leukemia cutis in a patient with T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia.

Leukemia cutis (LC) is a rare, cutaneous infiltration of neoplastic leukemic cells and correlates strongly to additional sites of extramedullary disease.1 LC is a nonspecific term for the cutaneous manifestations of many subtypes of leukemia; therefore, the cutaneous morphology and histopathology of LC varies widely. This distinction makes it clinically difficult to distinguish from other nonspecific lesions, especially in the bullous subtype, which is rare and clinically mimics bug bites.2 LC usually follows or occurs concomitantly with the diagnosis of leukemia, and its presence is an indicator of poor prognosis1 Proper diagnosis of LC is essential because it can alter a patient's treatment course.
Recurrence of Febrile Seizures

The predictive value of multiple clinical variables for febrile seizure recurrence was assessed in a follow-up study of 155 Dutch children at the Department of Paediatrics, University Hospital and Sophia Children’s Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
Recurrent RNA motifs as scaffolds for genetically encodable small-molecule biosensors

In vitro selection of RNA libraries constructed by randomization of RNA structural scaffolds from known ribozymes and riboswitches led to the identification of aptamers that were readily translated into functional biosensors in cells. Allosteric RNA devices are increasingly being viewed as important tools capable of monitoring enzyme evolution, optimizing engineered metabolic pathways, facilitating gene discovery and regulators of nucleic acid–based therapeutics. A key bottleneck in the development of these platforms is the availability of small-molecule-binding RNA aptamers that robustly function in the cellular environment. Although aptamers can be raised against nearly any desired target through in vitro selection, many cannot easily be integrated into devices or do not reliably function in a cellular context. Here, we describe a new approach using secondary- and tertiary-structural scaffolds derived from biologically active riboswitches and small ribozymes. When applied to the neurotransmitter precursors 5-hydroxytryptophan and 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine, this approach yielded easily identifiable and characterizable aptamers predisposed for coupling to readout domains to allow engineering of nucleic acid–sensory devices that function in vitro and in the cellular context.
Trajectories of social anxiety, cognitive reappraisal, and mindfulness during an RCT of CBGT versus MBSR for social anxiety disorder.

Abstract Cognitive-Behavioral Group Therapy (CBGT) and Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) are efficacious in treating social anxiety disorder (SAD). It is not yet clear, however, whether they share similar trajectories of change and underlying mechanisms in the context of SAD. This randomized controlled study of 108 unmedicated adults with generalized SAD investigated the impact of CBGT vs. MBSR on trajectories of social anxiety, cognitive reappraisal, and mindfulness during 12 weeks of treatment. CBGT and MBSR produced similar trajectories showing decreases in social anxiety and increases in reappraisal (changing the way of thinking) and mindfulness (mindful attitude). Compared to MBSR, CBGT produced greater increases in disputing anxious thoughts/feelings and reappraisal success. Compared to CBGT, MBSR produced greater acceptance of anxiety and acceptance success. Granger Causality analyses revealed that increases in weekly reappraisal and reappraisal success predicted subsequent decreases in weekly social anxiety during CBGT (but not MBSR), and that increases in weekly mindful attitude and disputing anxious thoughts/feelings predicted subsequent decreases in weekly social anxiety during MBSR (but not CBGT). This examination of temporal dynamics identified shared and distinct changes during CBGT and MBSR that both support and challenge current conceptualizations of these clinical interventions. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier NCT02036658.
I ź FB: A Q-Methodology Analysis of Why People 'Like' Facebook

Virtually seductive qualities of identity sharing, content gratification, and ample social atmosphere have made Facebook the most popular social network, boasting 890 million daily users "Facebook Reports Fourth Quarter," 2015; Joinson, 2008; Orchard et al., 2014, Reinecke et al., 2014. Online social network studies largely overlook the individual, limiting the understanding of what exactly drives people to use, abuse, even become dependent on sites like Facebook. Based on the theory of uses and gratifications, Q methodology subjectively observes what draws users to Facebook, focusing specifically on Facebook user characteristics. Past studies neglect the existence of three of the four factor groups discovered in this study, making these effectually new discoveries for academia Alloway, Runac, Quershi, & Kemp, 2014; Cheung, Chieu & Lee, 2011; Sheldon, 2008, Tosun, 2012; Yang & Brown, 2013. These findings increase understanding of online usage, even addiction, and will help cater future social networks to specific users.
Examining the Effects of Manager-Subordinate Gender Match on Managerial Response to Voice

Abstract In this article we examine the effects of manager-subordinate gender match on managerial response to employee voice. Drawing from social comparison theory, we propose that managers high on social comparison orientation respond more favorably to voice expressions that come from opposite-gender subordinates than to those from same-gender ones. Given the importance of social emotions to social comparison processes, we posit that gratitude can play a central role in determining managerial response to voice expressions. In two experimental studies with managers in Brazil (Study 1) and the United States (Study 2), we found consistent support for our hypothesized interactive effect of social comparison orientation and manager-subordinate gender match on managerial response to voice expressions. In addition, we found that managers' experienced gratitude mediated this effect (Study 2). Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.