cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
An MRI study of adolescent patients with either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder as compared to healthy control subjects

Abstract Background: There are few imaging studies in adolescent patients with either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. Such studies are of interest because adolescents may have a more severe illness and neurodevelopmental events may have a greater role in their pathophysiology. Methods: We compared 20 patients with schizophrenia and 15 patients with bipolar disorder (10 to 18 years) to 16 normal adolescents on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of intracranial volume and ventricular and sulcal enlargement. Two planned comparison contrasts were employed, one comparing the two patient groups to each other (contrast 1), and one comparing both patient groups combined to control subjects (contrast 2). Results: None of the contrast 1 comparisons (schizophrenia vs bipolar) were statistically significant. Contrast 2 comparisons (control subjects vs patients) were statistically significant for intracranial volume (reduced in patients) as well as frontal and temporal sulcal size (increased in patients). Conclusions: The patient groups were not statistically significantly different from each other on any measure. The combined patient groups were different from control subjects on intracranial volume and frontal and temporal sulcal size. Also, there was evidence for ventricular enlargement, after removal of a control subject with an extreme value. These findings indicate that the same abnormalities noted in adult populations are present in adolescents.
Population-based burden of COPD-related visits in the ED: return ED visits, hospital admissions, and comorbidity risks.

Background Little is known about the population-based burden of ED care for COPD. Methods We analyzed statewide ED surveillance system data to quantify the frequency of COPD-related ED visits, hospital admissions, and comorbidities. Results In 2008 to 2009 in North Carolina, 97,511 COPD-related ED visits were made by adults ≥ 45 years of age, at an annual rate of 13.8 ED visits/1,000 person-years. Among patients with COPD (n = 33,799), 7% and 28% had a COPD-related return ED visit within a 30- and 365-day period of their index visit, respectively. Compared with patients on private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, and noninsured patients were more likely to have a COPD-related return visit within 30 and 365 days and have three or more COPD-related visits within 365 days. There were no differences in return visits by sex. Fifty-one percent of patients with COPD were admitted to the hospital from the index ED visit. Subsequent hospital admission risk in the cohort increased with age, peaking at 65 to 69 years (risk ratio [RR], 1.41; 95% CI, 1.26-1.57); there was no difference by sex. Patients with congestive heart failure (RR, 1.29; 95% CI, 1.22-1.37), substance-related disorders (RR, 1.35; 95% CI, 1.13-1.60), or respiratory failure/supplemental oxygen (RR, 1.25; 95% CI, 1.19-1.31) were more likely to have a subsequent hospital admission compared with patients without these comorbidities. Conclusions The population-based burden of COPD-related care in the ED is significant. Further research is needed to understand variations in COPD-related ED visits and hospital admissions.
Preservation of Cultures of N. gonorrhoeae

ConclusionsStrains of N. gonorrhoeae preserved by sterile mineral oil seals have been shown to be viable after transfer at 6 and 12 month intervals.
The development of erythropoietic agents in oncology.

The erythropoietic agents have achieved a remarkable degree of success as products for the treatment of anaemia associated with cancer chemotherapy. Three agents, epoetin-α, epoetin-β and darbepoetin-α, share this global market and have demonstrated similar efficacy and share similar shortcomings, primarily a lower magnitude of cost/benefit than is the case for the dialysis patient. The continued success of these agents will depend on their ability to address the issue of resistance to therapy in the cancer setting, with the most promising and practical initiatives including cotherapy with parenteral iron, and earlier initiation of therapy. Recently, safety issues have arisen with respect to these agents in the cancer setting, particularly focused on possible promotion of tumour progression. A large body of data suggests that these agents are safe when used in accordance with the package inserts. The data bearing upon these issues will be reviewed and three new agents entering clinical development will be...
Fidélité de la traduction française de trois instruments d'évaluation des aidants naturels de malades déments

Caregivers of demented patients are under significant stress along with physical, psychological or social problems. Standardized and validated instruments are required for measuring consequences of caregiving or efficacy of support interventions. Reliability of French translation of these instruments has to be verified in order to confirm their psychometric properties. The goal of the present study is to assess reliability of the French translation of three instruments designed for evaluation of caregivers of demented patients. The Zarit's Burden Interview (BI) is a 22-items scale measuring the subjective burden of the caregiver. The Revised Memory and Behavior Problems Checklist (RMBPC), a 53 item scale, measures frequency of memory and behaviour problems of demented patients and the caregiver's reaction to these problems, which is another mean of burden assessment. The Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Test (ADKT) assesses knowledge of caregivers about demented diseases and resources available using 20 multiple choice questions. A reliability study was conducted on a sample of 40 caregivers. The caregivers were questioned twice, the second time after one (N = 26) or eight (N = 14) weeks. The BI internal consistency (Cronbach alpha) yielded a coefficient of 0.85 and test-retest reliability (intra-class correlation coefficient) was 0.89. The RMBPC's Cronbach Alpha was 0.93 for frequency and 0.94 for reaction. Intra-class correlation coefficients were 0.77 (frequency) and 0.90 (reaction) for RMBPC and 0.71 for ADKT.
Independence distribution preserving joint covariance structures for the multivariate two-group case

We characterize the general nonnegative-definite and positive-definite joint observation covariance structures for the two-group case such that the two sample mean vectors are independent of the two corresponding sample covariance matrices. Also, the sample covariance matrices are distributed as independent noncentral or central Wishart random matrices. We derive and utilize a representation of the general common non-negative-definite solution to a particular system of matrix equations with idempotent coefficient matrices.
Broken promises: Repairing behavioral integrity via dissonance attributions and constraints

Researchers have posited that behavioral integrity (BI) is extremely resistant to repair after it has been damaged. The current study challenges this perspective by examining the promise-keeping dimension of BI (BI-PK). In a hypothetical vignette, the effects of dissonance attributions and constraints on BI-PK perceptions were investigated in the context of a hiring manager breaking a promise to meet a job applicant for a highly desired interview. The results from two studies indicated that there was a strong positive effect for constraints on BI-PK, and BI-PK partially mediated the effect of constraints on attraction to the organization.
Space Shuttle longitudinal landing flying qualities

The Space Shuttle program took on the challenge of providing a manual landing capability for an operational vehicle returning from orbit. Some complex challenges were encountered in developing the longitudinal flying qualities required to land the Orbiter manually in an operational environment. Approach and landing test flights indicated a tendency of pilot-induced oscillation near landing. Changes in the operational procedures reduced the difficulty of the landing task, and an adaptive stick filter was incorporated to reduce the severity of any pilot-induced oscillatory motions. Fixed-base, moving-base, and in-flight simulations were used for the evaluations. Overall, the Orbiter control system and operational procedures produced a good capability to perform routinely precise landings with a large, unpowered vehicle that has a low lift-to-drag ratio.
Detection of a Phytophthora sp. Causing Asparagus Spear and Root Rot in Michigan.

In the spring of 2004, a Phytophthora sp. was isolated from asparagus (Asparagus officinalis) spears, roots, and dormant crowns from several fields in Oceana and Ingham counties in Michigan. Symptomatic spears were often curved, had water-soaked lesions slightly above or below the soil line or were shriveled at the site of infection or both. Infected storage roots had water-soaked lesions but were not soft at the lesion site. Infected crowns had fewer roots than healthy crowns. In the laboratory, plant tissues were rinsed in tap water and blotted dry. Sections from the edge of lesions were placed aseptically onto BARP (25 ppm of benomyl, 100 ppm of ampicillin, 30 ppm of rifampicin, and 100 ppm of pentachloroni-trobenzene) amended unclarified V8 juice agar and incubated at 25°C for up to 7 days. Phytophthora sp. isolates recovered from the infected material produced ovoid, nonpapillate, noncaducous sporangia and amphigy-nous oospores on isolation media. Single-sporangium cultures made for each isolate were...
Nitrogen Mineralization Potential as Influenced by Microbial Biomass, Cotton Residues and Temperature

Integrating information on nitrogen (N) mineralization potentials into a fertilization plan could lead to improved N use efficiency. A controlled incubation mineralization study examined microbial biomass dynamics and N mineralization rates for two soils receiving 56 and 168 kg N ha−1 in a Panoche clay loam (Typic Haplocambid) and a Wasco sandy loam (Typic Torriorthent), incubated with and without cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) residues at 10 and 25°C for 203 days. Microbial biomass activity determined from mineralized carbon dioxide (CO2) was higher in the sandy loam than in clay loam independent of incubation temperature, cotton residue addition and N treatment. In the absence of added cotton residue, N mineralization rates were higher in the sandy loam. Residue additions increased N immobilization in both soils, but were greater in clay loam. Microbial biomass and mineralization were significantly affected by soil type, residue addition and temperature but not by N level.
Influenza infection and therapy: a systems approach

Seasonal flu affects 5–20% of the human population each year. Although mortality rates are typically <0.1% and the pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza strain has been well contained by vaccination and strict hygiene, particularly virulent pandemic forms have emerged three times in the last century, resulting in millions of deaths. Current vaccine and therapeutic strategies are limited by the ability of the virus to generate variants that evade vaccine-induced immune responses and resist the therapeutic effects of antiviral drugs. Host genetic variations affect immune responses and may induce adverse effects during drug treatment or against vaccines. To develop new, first-in-class therapeutics, new antiviral targets and new chemical entities must be identified in the context of the immunogenomic repertoire of the patient. Since influenza and so many other viruses need to escape innate immunity to become pathogenic, the viral proteins responsible for this, as well as the host cell molecular pathways that lead to t...
Foraging behavior of a freshwater copepod: Frequency changes in looping behavior at high and low prey densities

The foraging behavior of Mesocyclops edax in artificial patches of high and low prey density was examined. In low density patches Mesocyclops swam in an irregular curvilinear path with little or no looping behavior. In high density patches Mesocyclops exhibited extensive horizontal and vertical looping behavior. Horizontal loops were performed in the normal hop and sink swimming mode, while vertical loops were associated with predator attacks on single prey items. Previous studies on terrestrial invertebrates revealed similar looping behaviors by predatiors and have suggested such looping behavior will increase the time a predator will spend in high versus low density prey patches. When food is patchily distributed and consumers are food-limited, the adaptive significance of remaining in a high density food patch may be substantial.
Using surveillance data to promote occupational health and safety policies and practice at the state level: a case study.

Background Following the investigation of a birth defects cluster involving migrant farmworkers employed in North Carolina and Florida, it became clear that greater efforts were needed to protect agricultural workers from pesticide exposure. Methods Documentation is drawn from peer-reviewed published articles, government reports and news accounts. Results The birth defects cluster was identified and investigated by state and federal pesticide poisoning surveillance system staff. Following the investigation, efforts were initiated to highlight pesticides as an important public health issue needing more attention. A series of subsequent events led to the creation and passage of important legislation recently enacted in North Carolina. The legislation resulted in funding to promote various activities to prevent harm from pesticides including strengthening surveillance, improving the quality of pesticide compliance inspections, and increasing and improving pesticide safety training. The legislation also broadened the coverage of anti-retaliation rules to include agricultural workers, and increased recordkeeping requirements pertaining to pesticide applications. Conclusion The important and positive impacts that can occur through surveillance activities are highlighted. As such, it is important to continue to support and improve occupational illness and injury surveillance programs. Am. J. Ind. Med. 53:188–193 2010. Published 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Modeling Global Sea Ice with a Thickness and Enthalpy Distribution Model in Generalized Curvilinear Coordinates

Abstract A parallel ocean and ice model (POIM) in generalized orthogonal curvilinear coordinates has been developed for global climate studies. The POIM couples the Parallel Ocean Program (POP) with a 12-category thickness and enthalpy distribution (TED) sea ice model. Although the POIM aims at modeling the global ocean and sea ice system, the focus of this study is on the presentation, implementation, and evaluation of the TED sea ice model in a generalized coordinate system. The TED sea ice model is a dynamic thermodynamic model that also explicitly simulates sea ice ridging. Using a viscous plastic rheology, the TED model is formulated such that all the metric terms in generalized curvilinear coordinates are retained. Following the POP's structure for parallel computation, the TED model is designed to be run on a variety of computer architectures: parallel, serial, or vector. When run on a computer cluster with 10 parallel processors, the parallel performance of the POIM is close to that of a correspon...
SELFLESSNESS AND THE LOSS OF SELF

The biggest danger, that of losing oneself, can pass off in the world as quietly as if it were nothing; every other loss, an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. is bound to be noticed.Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death
A blind particle filtering detector of signals transmitted over flat fading channels

A new particle filtering detector (PFD) is proposed for blind signal detection over flat Rayleigh fading channels whose model coefficients are unknown. The detector employs a hybrid importance function and a mixture Kalman filter. It also incorporates an auxiliary particle filtering strategy with a smoothing kernel in the resampling step. Further, by considering practical information of communication systems and the physical interpretation of the adopted second-order autoregressive (AR) channel model, a fully blind particle filtering implementation is developed. The structure of the proposed PFD can be easily adapted to other system requirements. Simulations are provided that demonstrate the performance of the new PFD.
Uncertainty assessment for availability: importance measures

This paper provides an uncertainty assessment for the availability of a two-state repairable system. During the design stage of a system it is very important to allocate scarce testing resources efficiently. Although there are a variety of importance measures for the reliability of a system there are limited measures for the availability of systems. Our study attempts to fill the gaps on availability performance measures and provide insight for techniques to reduce the variance of a system-level availability estimate. Our technique utilizes the delta-method in order to provide an estimate of the variance for the systems availability. The variance importance measure developed provides a measure of the improvement in the variance of the system availability estimate through the reduction of the variance of the components availability estimates. In addition, a cost model is developed that utilizes the cost of unit variance reduction in the importance measure. The variance importance measures for several series-parallel systems are developed and the results are consistent with the availability importance measures developed by Cassady et al. as well as available reliability importance measures
The Measurement of Group Dimensions

(1950). The Measurement of Group Dimensions. The Journal of Psychology: Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 325-342.
Familiarity, Complexity, and Team Performance in Geographically Distributed Software Development

While prior research has found that familiarity is beneficial to team performance, it is not clear whether different kinds of familiarity are more or less beneficial when the work has different types of complexity. In this paper, we theorize how task and team familiarity interact with task and team coordination complexity to influence team performance. We posit that task familiarity is more beneficial with more complex tasks (i.e., tasks that are larger or with more complex structures) and that team familiarity is more beneficial when team coordination is more difficult (i.e., for larger or geographically dispersed teams). Finally, we propose that the effects of task familiarity and team familiarity on team performance are complementary. Based on a field study of geographically distributed software teams, two of our hypotheses are disconfirmed: Our results show that the beneficial effects of task familiarity decline when tasks are more structurally complex and are independent of task size. Conversely, the hypotheses for team familiarity are confirmed as the benefit of team familiarity for team performance is enhanced when team coordination is more challenging---i.e., when teams are larger or geographically dispersed. Finally, surprisingly, we find that task and team familiarity are more substitutive than complementary in their joint effects on team performance: Task familiarity improves team performance more strongly when team familiarity is weak and vice versa. Our study contributes by revealing how different types of familiarity can enhance team performance in a real-world setting where the task and its coordination can be highly complex.
Study and implementation of a force stepper and a part fit-up solver algorithm for a servo controlled MFDC spot welder

The goal of this research is to study the effect of a timevarying electrode force on the weld nugget size for mid frequency direct current (MFDC) resistance spot welding (RSW) systems. Using SORPASTM, a software for simulation and optimization of resistance welding process, simulations were performed for MFDC RSW with changing force profiles and weld times. Additionally, an algorithm was developed to automatically detect a bad stack fit-up and correct it by applying an additional compensating force. This was implemented on a resistance spot welding gun fitted with a 4.5 KW servo motor along with a built-in resolver, a UnidriveTM motor controller and a real time embedded program. The simulation and experimental results are presented and compared with results obtained using a constant current (CC) welding process with constant force profile.
Influence of Lecithins on Autoxidation of Cholesterol From Aqueous Dispersions at 85

The autoxidative formation of 7-ketocholesterol and 7-hydroxycholesterol from aqueous cholesterol dispersions was studied in the absence and in the presence of various lecithins at 85 ± 2°. Whereas more than one-half of the cholesterol is oxidized within 8 hr. in the absence of phospholipids, less than 10% oxidation occurs in the presence of the lecithins. The in vivo significance of these data is discussed.
Distributed Delay-Aware Rate Control Algorithm for the Reverse-Link of CDMA Systems

We propose a new distributed rate control algorithm for the reverse link of CDMA systems. Specifically, when the statistics of packet arrivals are known locally to each access terminal (AT), this new algorithm aims to provide a means to control the relative delay that each AT experiences. For this algorithm, assuming that the arrival process is Poisson and stationary, it is shown through simulations that all ATs experience an equal amount of average delay when the system is underloaded, and the same packet drop probability when the system is over-loaded. Furthermore, we propose a modification to the algorithm that gives priority to some desired ATs, and reduces their relative average delay. Finally, simulation results indicate that the algorithm achieves similar short-term average delay even when the packet arrival process is not stationary.
On-wafer characterization de-embedding and transmission line optimization on silicon for millimeter-wave applications

The design and implementation of transmission line based calibration standards, suitable for de-embedding on-wafer active and passive elements for millimeter-wave applications on silicon BiCMOS backend process technology, is investigated. Loss mechanisms, accuracy requirements, layout considerations, and impedance dependent characteristics of transmission line structures are discussed. The application of popular on-wafer, in situ calibration de-embedding approaches is evaluated. Methods to improve backend process technology for millimeter-wave applications are suggested, based upon transmission modeling using EM simulation tools. Modeled versus measured results are presented in support of conclusions.
Industrial Ecology and Competitiveness

Summary In the emerging field of industrial ecology one of the unsettled questions is the degree to which design for the environment, closing energy and materials loops, and other industrial ecology concepts apply at the firm level. In this article we examine this issue with a particular focus on whether industrial ecology can guide company strategy and efforts to enhance competitiveness. We conclude that industrial ecology thinking will often be useful for firms seeking to improve their resource productivity and thus their competitiveness. The systems perspective that industrial ecology promotes can help companies find ways to add value or reduce costs both within their own production processes and up and down the supply chain. But industrial ecology cannot always be counted upon to yield competitive advantage at the firm level. In some cases, the cost of closing loops will exceed the benefits. In other cases, regulatory requirements do not fully internalize environmental costs, and thus polluting firms may gain temporary or permanent cost advantages relative to companies that attempt to eliminate all emissions. Finally, because industrial ecology focuses attention on materials and energy flows, it may not optimize other variables that contribute to competitiveness within the corporate setting.
Understanding the discrepancy between the quality and yield in the synthesis of carbon nanotubes

High-quality carbon nanotubes (CNTs) are promising materials in many applications. However, current chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods for CNT synthesis suffer from the discrepancy between the quality and yield of CNTs: Low-quality CNTs can be synthesized with high yield, while high-quality CNTs can only be synthesized with low yield. Here a CVD method has been designed to synthesize both high-quality and low-quality CNTs using the same combination of catalyst and precursor. As a result, we were able to understand the reasons for the low yield in high-quality CNT synthesis and a method was derived to improve their yield. This understanding is an important step towards high-yield synthesis of high-quality CNTs.
Delimiting species: a Renaissance issue in systematic biology

The literature about species concepts might be larger than that about any other subject in evolutionary biology, but the issue of empirically testing species boundaries has been given little attention relative to seemingly endless debates over what species are. The practical issue of delimiting species boundaries is nevertheless of central importance to many areas of evolutionary biology. The number of recently described methods for delimiting species suggests renewed interest in the topic, and some methods are explicitly quantitative. Here, we review nine of these methods by summarizing the relevant biological properties of species amenable to empirical evaluation, the classes of data required and some of the strengths and limitations of each.
Teaching Approaches of Community College Mathematics Faculty Do They Relate to Classroom Practices

We report on a qualitative investigation of the ways in which 14 faculty members in the mathematics department at a community college described their approaches to teaching and contrasted those with analyses of their mathematics lessons. We characterized instructors’ teaching approaches as traditional, meaning-making, or student-support and classified framing talk and mathematical questioning in the classroom. We found an association between instructors’ descriptions of their approaches to teaching and their enactment in the classroom through framing talk but no association between these approaches and instructors’ use of novel mathematical questions. Categorizations of teaching approaches that include classroom data to describe the interactions between students, content, and instruction can provide actionable information to influence teaching practice in higher education.
Genetic variants contributing to daunorubicin-induced cytotoxicity

Identifying heritable genetic variants responsible for chemotherapeutic toxicities has been challenging due in part to its multigenic nature. To date, there is a paucity of data on genetic variants associated with patients experiencing severe myelosuppression or cardiac toxicity following treatment with daunorubicin. We present a genome-wide model using International HapMap cell lines that integrate genotype and gene expression to identify genetic variants that contribute to daunorubicin-induced cytotoxicity. A cell growth inhibition assay was used to measure variations in the cytotoxicity of daunorubicin. Gene expression was determined using the Affymetrix GeneChip Human Exon 1.0ST Array. Using sequential analysis, we evaluated the associations between genotype and cytotoxicity, those significant genotypes with gene expression and correlated gene expression of the identified candidates with cytotoxicity. A total of 26, 9, and 18 genetic variants were identified to contribute to daunorubicin-induced cytotoxicity through their effect on 16, 9, and 36 gene expressions in the combined, Centre d' Etude du Polymorphisme Humain (CEPH), and Yoruban populations, respectively. Using 50 non-HapMap CEPH cell lines, single nucleotide polymorphisms generated through our model predicted 29% of the overall variation in daunorubicin sensitivity and the expression of CYP1B1 was significantly correlated with sensitivity to daunorubicin. In the CEPH validation set, rs120525235 and rs3750518 were significant predictors of transformed daunorubicin IC50 ( P = 0.005 and P = 0.0008, respectively), and rs1551315 trends toward significance ( P = 0.089). This unbiased method can be used to elucidate genetic variants contributing to a wide range of cellular phenotypes. [Cancer Res 2008;68(9):3161–8]
Physicians' acceptable treatment failure rates in antibiotic therapy for coagulase-negative staphylococcal catheter-associated bacteremia: implications for reducing treatment duration.

Background. Decreasing the duration of antimicrobial therapy is an attractive strategy for delaying the emergence of antimicrobial resistance. Limited data regarding optimal treatment durations for most clinical infections hinder the adoption of this approach and impair optimal physician-patient communication under the shared decision-making model. We aimed to identify acceptable failure rates among infectious disease consultants (IDCs) for treatment of central venous catheter-associated bacteremia. Methods. A case scenario involving a representative patient who developed central venous catheter-associated bacteremia caused by coagulase-negative staphylococci and who received standard-of-care therapy was distributed to all nonpediatric IDC members of the Infectious Diseases Society of America's Emerging Infections Network in August 2003. Each member was suggested 1 of 10 treatment failure rates and asked whether he or she would accept or reject the given value. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the relationship between specific failure rates offered to respondents and their willingness to accept them using a methodology derived from contingent valuation. Results. Among the 374 respondents (response rate, 54%), the median acceptable failure rate was 6.8%. Thus, one-half of the IDCs would have found a failure rate of 6.8% to be acceptable. Seventy-five percent of IDCs would have found a failure rate of 1.6% to be acceptable, and 25% of IDCs would have found a failure rate as high as 11.9% to be acceptable. Conclusions. The quantified acceptable failure rates, when used to interpret clinical trial or cohort study results, will help select optimal antimicrobial therapy durations for this specific condition. These findings are a critical step in the development of effective shared decision-making models.
Oscillatory pipe flows of a yield-stress fluid

Oscillatory pipe flows of aqueous Carbopol solutions are investigated both experimentally and analytically. Using the PIV technique, the velocity profiles are measured and compared with the numerical solutions based on an elasto-viscoplastic rheological model, in which an elastic spring is serially connected to a regularized Bingham viscoplastic model. The rheological parameters, such as shear modulus of elasticity, yield stress and viscosity, are estimated from steady-shear measurements. Good agreement between the experiments and the model results is observed. It is apparent that the elasticity plays an important role in the unsteady flows of the soft yield-stress fluid studied herein.
Adaptive scheduling and tool flow control in flexible job shops

The recent manufacturing environment is characterized as having diverse products due to mass customization, short production lead-time, and ever-changing customer demand. Today, the need for flexibility, quick responsiveness, and robustness to system uncertainties in production scheduling decisions has dramatically increased. In traditional job shops, tooling is usually assumed as a fixed resource. However, when a tooling resource is shared among different machines, a greater product variety, routing flexibility with a smaller tool inventory can be realized. Such a strategy is usually enabled by an automatic tool changing mechanism and tool delivery system to reduce the time for tooling set-up, hence it allows parts to be processed in small batches. In this paper, a dynamic scheduling problem under flexible tooling resource constraints is studied and presented. An integrated approach is proposed to allow two levels of hierarchical, dynamic decision making for job scheduling and tool flow control in flexib...
Impact of Spinal Cord Injury on the Life Roles of Women

This qualitative study was conducted to explore and describe the role experience of five women whose lives were disrupted by a traumatic spinal cord injury and who later returned to their communities after completing intensive rehabilitation programs. In-depth interviews and participant observations were used to examine the experiences of these women. The findings exemplify how the women's use of adaptation and negotiation and the development of a new role as self-advocate facilitated the reestablishment of their life roles. As the women's occupational roles were redefined, the processes of adaptation and negotiation were evident in three aspects of their lives: daily routines, relationships, and environment. Through their new role of self-advocate, architectural and attitudinal barriers were negotiated and adapted so that roles could be explored. These findings indicate that community reentry involves the ongoing process of negotiation and adaptation of life roles. The use of life histories during the rehabilitation phase is suggested as a way for therapists to develop meaningful treatment plans that stimulate patients' adaptation process and ultimately enhance community reentry.
Exponential stabilization of the rolling sphere

In this paper we present a non-smooth controller for exponential stabilization of the sphere. This has remained an open problem despite significant progress in nonholonomic systems. Our control design is based on inputs in a rotating coordinate frame that individually produce primitive motions of the sphere along straight lines and circular arcs. The rotating coordinate frame is chosen in concert with Euler angle description of orientation and placement of the desired configuration at the singularity of the representation. In our paper, we separately establish global stability of the desired configuration and exponential convergence. Our theoretical claims are validated through numerical simulations.
Trace elements affect methanogenic activity and diversity in enrichments from subsurface coal bed produced water

Microbial methane from coal beds accounts for a significant and growing percentage of natural gas worldwide. Our knowledge of physical and geochemical factors regulating methanogenesis is still in its infancy. We hypothesized that in these closed systems, trace elements (as micronutrients) are a limiting factor for methanogenic growth and activity. Trace elements are essential components of enzymes or cofactors of metabolic pathways associated with methanogenesis. This study examined the effects of eight trace elements (iron, nickel, cobalt, molybdenum, zinc, manganese, boron, and copper) on methane production, on mcrA transcript levels, and on methanogenic community structure in enrichment cultures obtained from coal bed methane well produced water samples from the Powder River Basin, Wyoming. Methane production was shown to be limited both by a lack of additional trace elements as well as by the addition of an overly concentrated trace element mixture. Addition of trace elements at concentrations optimized for standard media enhanced methane production by 37%. After seven days of incubation, the levels of mcrA transcripts in enrichment cultures with trace element amendment were much higher than in cultures without amendment. Transcript levels of mcrA correlated positively with elevated rates of methane production in supplemented enrichments (R2=0.95). Metabolically-active methanogens, identified by clone sequences of mcrA mRNA retrieved from enrichment cultures, were closely related to Methanobacterium subterraneum and Methanobacterium formicicum. Enrichment cultures were dominated by M. subterraneum and had slightly higher predicted methanogenic richness, but less diversity than enrichment cultures without amendments. These results suggest that varying concentrations of trace elements in produced water from different subsurface coal wells may cause changing levels of coal bed methane production and alter the composition of the active methanogenic community.
Reading The friendship and talking about race

This study documents literature discussions between groups of teacher education students in two geographically and demographically different universities. Students from an education methods course at each site discussed The Friendship by Mildred Taylor with one another as part of a distance reader response project. The project was designed to promote discussion of multicultural historical fiction among and between urban students of color at one site and mainly White suburban students from the second site. Additional goals include increasing computer literacy as prospective teachers access the WebCT online course management system and have regular conversations in this medium.
Exceptional Clinical Response to BRAF-Targeted Therapy in a Patient with Metastatic Sarcoma

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are a rare and heterogeneous group of tumors arising from mesenchymal tissue comprising 1% of all adult cancers. The prognosis of metastatic STS is dismal. As there are few active drugs, there is a critical need to find new therapeutic alternatives in order to improve outcomes. Most sarcoma subtypes are fairly resistant to standard chemotherapy regimens and/or have a short duration of response. The era of molecular targeted therapy may present new treatment options for metastatic STS and an opportunity to drive biomarker discovery and personalized medicine. This case report describes a patient with a synchronous metastatic high-grade sarcoma who was treated with BRAF-targeted therapy with resolution of his metastatic lesions. To our knowledge, this exceptional response has not been described in sarcoma literature. The patient presented with a large anterior abdominopelvic wall mass. Biopsy showed a high-grade spindle cell sarcoma. Staging scans confirmed two pulmonary metastases. He was initiated on combination chemotherapy with mixed results. He received 50 Gy of radiation to the primary tumor followed by two additional cycles of combination chemotherapy, with an interval increase in the size of the pulmonary metastases. Molecular testing revealed a BRAF V600E mutation in the primary tumor. The patient was initiated on dabrafenib/trametinib with a dramatic response and resolution of his pulmonary metastases. The patient underwent surgical resection of his primary mass, and pathology confirmed no evidence of residual disease. Detailed genetic characterization of STS coupled with novel therapeutic strategies, including molecular targeted therapy, may have the potential to transform the care of patients diagnosed with sarcoma.
Longitudinal Effect of CPAP on BP in Resistant and Nonresistant Hypertension in a Large Clinic-Based Cohort

Background Clinic-based effectiveness studies of sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) treatment in reducing BP in resistant hypertension (RHTN) vs non-RHTN are sparse. We hypothesize that CPAP use in SDB reduces BP significantly in RHTN and non-RHTN in a large clinic-based cohort. Methods Electronic medical records were reviewed in patients with SDB and comorbid RHTN and non-RHTN for CPAP therapy initiation (baseline) and subsequent visits. We estimated generalizable BP changes from multivariable mixed-effects linear models for systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP, and mean arterial pressure, adjusting for RHTN status, age, sex, race, BMI, cardiac history, and diabetes and repeated measure correlation. Results Of 894 patients, 130 (15%) had RHTN at baseline (age, 58 ± 12 years; 52% men; BMI, 36 ± 9 kg/m 2 ). Patients with RHTN had significantly higher BP overall ( P Conclusions In this clinic-based effectiveness study involving patients closely followed for BP control, a significant reduction of BP measures (strongest for SBP) was observed in response to CPAP which was similar in RHTN and non-RHTN groups thus informing expected clinical CPAP treatment response.
Sociology in the Contemporary World of Today and Tomorrow

HE younger generation of students is asking for the answers to many questions. More than this, they want to participate in the realistic search for those answers. Still more, they expect these answers somehow to relate not only to the understanding of human society but to the fullness of life in which security, reality, and participation shall constitute basic achievements. Yet, scarcely less eager for new truth and understanding is the great body of professional folk and leaders of society, themselves in the midst of great confusion. They, too, ask questions and want answers. And right along with them is the great mass of common folk who want to know what all this modern complexity and conflict mean and what is the way out. "Can sociology," they all ask, "help out as it has never done before?" This number of SOCIAL FORCES is partially devoted to the asking and answering of such questiolns, as were the previous two issues with their special contribution to regionalism in the modern world. This introductory paper suggests a number of approaches to the study of the contemporary scene and to the realistic participation in research and social planning which sociology may make in the current era. While these approaches are presented primarily to sociologists and in "theoretical" terms, our conclusions have all grown gradually out of studies of the folk-regional society and the consequent criticisms and revisions which have followed. The main import, therefore, is essentially "practical" and realistic. How important and practical our "theoretical" approach may be is illustrated in the extraordinarily fine examination of more than three hundred "approaches" to world reconstruction, presented by Professor Watkins in this issue of SOCIAL FORCES in his article, "Regionalism and Plans for Post-War Reconstruction: the First Three Years."
Characterization of the neurotrophic response to acute pancreatitis.

Introduction Interesting preliminary data on changes in the neurotrophin system in various digestive diseases have recently begun to emerge. Aims To measure changes in messenger RNA (mRNA) levels of neurotrophins and to identify cell types expressing neurotrophins in the pancreas of rats with L-arginine-induced pancreatitis. Methodology Rats were killed at time points from 2 hours to 4 weeks after the induction of pancreatitis, and responses were measured by assay. Results By RNase protection assay, ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) mRNA expression showed a rapid response (sixfold increase over control) in the inflamed pancreas at 2 hours. The levels of mRNA expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), glial cell line–derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3), and neurotrophin-4 (NT-4) in the inflamed pancreas reached a peak at 1 week (2.5-fold, twofold, fourfold, and fivefold increase, respectively). By immunohistochemistry, immunoreactivity for all neurotrophins examined was observed in the islets of Langerhans in the control pancreas at all time points, but it was markedly reduced in the islets in the inflamed pancreas at 2 and 6 hours. Acinar and ductal cells, inflammatory cells, and neural elements were immunoreactive for those neurotrophins in the inflamed pancreas from 2 hours to 2 weeks. Conclusion The temporal and spatial expression of neurotrophins in the course of experimental pancreatitis suggests that their upregulation is a critical component of the response of the pancreas to injury in this model.
Impaired Vestibular Control Mechanisms Underlie Balance Deficits in Fragile X-Associated Tremor/Ataxia Syndrome (P06.051)

Objective: To characterize balance deficits in FXTAS via computerized dynamic posturography (CDP). Background Fragile X-associated tremor ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) is a movement disorder associated with premutation range expansions (55-200 CGG repeats) in the fragile X mental retardation 1 (FMR1) gene. Patients with FXTAS demonstrate kinetic tremor and cerebellar gait ataxia, associated with falls and ultimately disability. However, no studies have been performed to characterize the balance deficits in these patients or in premutation carriers not yet manifesting FXTAS symptoms. Design/Methods: We investigated balance using Neurocom ® Balance Master computerized dynamic posturography (CDP) in 17 FMR1 premutation carriers (FXTAS rating scale 5-52, normal Results: Patients 60-69 years old (y.o.) (n=8) and >70 y.o. (n=6) demonstrated significantly lower scores than HC on conditions 5 (p=.02; p =.04) and 6 (p=.001; p=.0008) of the SOT, signifying dysfunction of the vestibular system and/or its connections. Response latencies to medium and large forward and backward translations were significantly longer (p=.002 to 70 y.o. group. Similar trends were found in the Conclusions: FMR1 premutation carriers with FXTAS symptoms and some without symptoms on physical exam demonstrate balance deficits on CDP predominantly involving the vestibular system. In addition, their response latencies to balance perturbations are prolonged. FXTAS balance symptoms have been attributed primarily to cerebellar dysfunction, but our findings show that impaired cerebellar-vestibular connections play a key role. This information will be useful in designing preventative, rehabilitation, and medical treatments for FXTAS. Supported by: Partially funded by a Rush University Dean9s fellowship to EJ Dunn. Disclosure: Dr. Dunn has nothing to disclose. Dr. Hall has nothing to disclose. Dr. O9Keefe has nothing to disclose. Dr. Berry-Kravis has nothing to disclose. Dr. Ouyang has nothing to disclose.
Determining Biomembrane Bending Rigidities from Simulations of Modest Size

Thermal fluctuations of lipid orientation are analyzed to infer the bending rigidity of lipid bilayers directly from molecular simulations. Compared to the traditional analysis of thermal membrane undulations, the proposed method is reliable down to shorter wavelengths and allows for determination of the bending rigidity using smaller simulation boxes. The requisite theoretical arguments behind this analysis are presented and verified by simulations spanning a diverse range of lipid models from the literature.
WHAT RESEARCH SAYS ABOUT PHONICS INSTRUCTION

(1957). What Research Says About Phonics Instruction. The Journal of Educational Research: Vol. 51, No. 1, pp. 1-9.
Combining soil water balance and clumped isotopes to understand the nature and timing of pedogenic carbonate formation

Abstract Pedogenic carbonate is an important archive for paleoclimate, paleoecology, and paleoelevation studies. However, it can form under seasonal environmental conditions that differ significantly from the mean growing season environment or mean annual conditions, potentially complicating its use for proxy reconstructions. The observed seasonal temperature is typically, but not always, biased high relative to mean annual air temperature (MAT). To evaluate the annual timing of pedogenic carbonate formation, ten different soils were sampled across the western United States. Sites were selected to span a variety of precipitation regimes and soil orders. Precipitation regimes ranged from arid sites (mean annual precipitation (MAP) 50 cm) dominated by summer precipitation. Pedogenic carbonate formation temperatures derived from clumped isotope measurements ranged between 6 and 22 °C, with most samples falling at or below MAT. Clumped isotope temperatures were compared to monthly precipitation normals and modeled monthly values of evapotranspiration and soil water content. Results show that carbonate formation temperatures agree with the annual timing of soil water depletion, suggesting soil moisture content is a primary control on the timing of pedogenic carbonate formation. Although the seasonal bias is a function of environmental factors that are difficult to reconstruct in paleo-studies, the use of other paleosol proxies can help to assess if changes in clumped isotope temperatures are a function of changes in air temperature or hydrology. These results have important implications for the production of accurate paleoclimate and paleoelevation estimates.