cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Molecular structure and orientation in processed polymers: 1. Analysis of X-ray scattering data

We present a method for analyzing the molecular scale orientation and structure of processed polymers using wide angle X-ray scattering data (WAXS). The technique is applied to the analysis of solution-spun fibers of a liquid crystalline polyester comprised of 1,4-hydroxybenzoic acid, isophthalic acid, and hydroquinone. The orientation distribution function (ODF) of the non-crystalline component of the polyester is constructed using a Legendre polynomial series expansion. To construct a consistent molecular scale description, a Monte Carlo sampling scheme which incorporates the standard Metropolis sampling was employed, coupled with a weighting factor that favors structures which are in closer accord with the experimental WAXS data. The members of the ensemble sampled by the simulation consist of rhombic lattices on which oligomers are placed in an aligned state. The conformation of each oligomer was obtained using a rotational isomeric state description. By direct comparison of the experimental and calculated structure factor coefficients, the ODF for the structural ensemble was deduced. For the polyester fiber considered here, a two-component system consisting of oriented and unoriented non-crystalline components is required for complete characterization of the scattering properties of the sample. The sample contains a negligible amount of crystalline material, but 85% of the sample is aligned locally (i.e. with respect to nearest neighbor chains). However, as the fibers are spun from an isotropic solution, the global orientation (i.e. orientation with respect to the sample axis) remains low.
Analyzing Paraphilic Activity, Specialization, and Generalization in Priests Who Sexually Abused Minors:

It is a common belief that priests who sexually abused minors specialized in victim type, particularly in regard to age and gender. The Nature and Scope study showed that 81% of the victims of sexu...
Dshell++: A Component Based, Reusable Space System Simulation Framework

This paper describes the multi-mission Dshell++ simulation framework for high fidelity, physics-based simulation of spacecraft, robotic manipulation and mobility systems. Dshell++ is a C++/Python library which uses modern script-driven object-oriented techniques to allow component reuse and a dynamic run-time interface for complex, high-fidelity simulation of spacecraft and robotic systems. The goal of the Dshell++ architecture is to manage the inherent complexity of physics-based simulations while supporting component model reuse across missions. The framework provides several features that support a large degree of simulation configurability and usability.
Analysis of a Simple Recruiting Method for Cooperative Routes and Strip Networks

The opportunistic large array (OLA) is the basis for a simple cooperative transmission protocol that is suitable for broadcasting in wireless sensor networks and in which every node transmits once per broadcast. OLA with transmission threshold (OLA-T) is an energy-efficient extension of the OLA protocol that limits node participation during broadcasting. Performance of OLA-T has been studied for disc-shaped networks. In this paper, we propose a method to systematically set the transmission threshold and design the OLAs for two-dimensional strip-shaped networks. Theoretical bounds and conditions for achieving sustained OLA propagation and reducing the total energy consumption in the network using OLA-T have been derived in this paper. These results would also apply to arbitrarily shaped networks that have node participation limited to strip-shaped collections.
Increasing awareness of sleep hygiene in rotating shift workers: arming law-enforcement officers against impaired performance.

Research into the effects of rotating shift work on health, social, and performance indices suggests significantly more health concerns and judgement errors and poorer sleep patterns in shift workers on rotating versus nonrotating schedules. 31 male and 7 female law-enforcement officers voluntarily participated in a training session on sleep hygiene practices. On the Sleep Hygiene Awareness and Practice Scale administered prior to and after training were significant increases in awareness of sleep hygiene and knowledge of nicotine, caffeine, and hypnotics. We predicted that use of this knowledge would increase sleep satisfaction. However, 1-mo. follow-up scores on the Post-sleep Inventory of Webb, et al. reflected no change. It appears that scheduling demands, coupled with feelings of low self-efficacy toward managing those demands, resulted in little or no practice of sleep hygiene. A more productive approach may be to incorporate a comprehensive behavioral program within departments to instill and reinf...
Small Espin: A Third Actin-bundling Protein and Potential Forked Protein Ortholog in Brush Border Microvilli

An ∼30-kD isoform of the actin-binding/ bundling protein espin has been discovered in the brush borders of absorptive epithelial cells in rat intestine and kidney. Small espin is identical in sequence to the COOH terminus of the larger (∼110-kD) espin isoform identified in the actin bundles of Sertoli cell–spermatid junctional plaques (Bartles, J.R., A. Wierda, and L. Zheng. 1996. J. Cell Sci. 109:1229–1239), but it contains two unique peptides at its NH 2 terminus. Small espin was localized to the parallel actin bundles of brush border microvilli, resisted extraction with Triton X-100, and accumulated in the brush border during enterocyte differentiation/migration along the crypt–villus axis in adults. In transfected BHK fibroblasts, green fluorescent protein–small espin decorated F-actin–containing fibers and appeared to elicit their accumulation and/or bundling. Recombinant small espin bound to skeletal muscle and nonmuscle F-actin with high affinity ( K d = 150 and 50 nM) and cross-linked the filaments into bundles. Sedimentation, gel filtration, and circular dichroism analyses suggested that recombinant small espin was a monomer with an asymmetrical shape and a high percentage of α-helix. Deletion mutagenesis suggested that small espin contained two actin-binding sites in its COOH-terminal 116–amino acid peptide and that the NH 2 -terminal half of its forked homology peptide was necessary for bundling activity.
Enhancing applications performance on Intel Paragon through dynamic memory allocation

The Paragon operating system (OS) supports virtual memory (VM). The OS manages virtual memory by performing two services. Firstly, paging-in service pages the execution code from the service node to the compute nodes. This includes the paging-in of empty data corresponding to statically allocated arrays. Secondly, paging-out service is performed by paging the unused part of the OSF server to the boot node to make space available for the user's execution code. These paging-in and paging-out activities take place simultaneously and drastically degrade the performance of the user code. We have investigated this problem in detail, and found that the dynamic allocation of memory completely eliminates the unnecessary and undesirable effects of paging-in empty data arrays from the service node to the compute nodes and thereby increases the performance of the applications considered in the present work by 30% to 40%. >
Improved value of the fine structure constant obtained from the electron g-2

At present the most precise value of the fine-structure constant is /spl alpha/(a/sub e/) obtained from the anomalous magnetic moment of the electron, or the electron g-2. Further improvement in the theoretical calculation of /spl alpha/(a/sub e/) requires reduction of both statistical and nonstatistical uncertainties in the Monte-Carlo evaluation of the /spl alpha//sup 4/ term. This paper analyzes some inconsistency of earlier results and identifies its source as a deviation of nonstatistical nature caused by round-off errors. This information enables us to greatly improve the statistical basis of the electron g-2 value to very high statistics while minimizing the uncertainty of the nonstatistical type. This work will lead to a value of /spl alpha/(a/sub e/) with a relative uncertainty of less than 10/sup -9/ when new measurements become available.
Molecular weight dependence of the fracture toughness of glassy polymers arising from crack propagation through a craze

We investigate criteria for craze failure at a crack tip and the dependence of craze failure on the molecular weight of the polymer. Our micromechanics model is based on the presence of cross-tie fibrils in the craze microstructure. These cross-tie fibrils give the craze some small lateral load bearing capacity so that they can transfer stress between the main fibrils. This load transfer mechanism allows the normal stress on the fibrils directly ahead of the crack tip in the center of the craze to reach the breaking stress of the polymer chains. We solve for stress field near the crack trip and use it to relate craze failure to the external loading and microstructural quantities such as the craze widening (drawing stress, the fibril spacing, the molecular weight, and the force to break a single polymer chain. The relationship between energy flow to the crack tip due to external loading and the work of local fracture by fibril breakdown is also obtained. Our analysis shows that the normal stress acting on the fibrils at the crack tip increases linearly as the square root of the craze thickness, assuming that the normal stress distribution is uniform and is equal to the drawing stress acting on the craze-bulk interface. The critical crack opening displacement, and hence the fracture toughness is shown to be proportional to [1-(M e /qM n )] 2 , where M e is the entanglement molecularweight, M n is the number average molecular weight of polymer before crazing, and q is the fraction of entangled strands that do not undergo chain scission in forming the craze
Speeding up irregular applications in shared-memory multiprocessors: memory binding and group prefetching

While many parallel applications exhibit good spatial locality, other important codes in areas like graph problem-solving or CAD do not. Often, these irregular codes contain small records accessed via pointers. Consequently, while the former applications benefit from long cache lines, the latter prefer short lines. One good solution is to combine short lines with prefetching. In this way, each application can exploit the amount of spatial locality that it has. However, prefetching, if provided, should also work for the irregular codes. This paper presents a new prefetching scheme that, while usable by regular applications, is specifically targeted to irregular ones: Memory Binding and Group Prefetching.The idea is to hardware-bind and prefetch together groups of data that the programmer suggests are strongly related to each other. Examples are the different fields in a record or two records linked by a permanent pointer. This prefetching scheme, combined with short cache lines, results in a memory hierarchy design that can be exploited by both regular and irregular applications. Overall, it is better to use a system with short lines (16-32 bytes) and our prefetching than a system with long lines (128 bytes) with or without our prefetching. The former system runs 6 out of 7 Splash-class applications faster. In particular, some of the most irregular applications run 25-40% faster.
Future Capacity Procurements Under Unknown Demand and Increasing Costs

In this paper we study a situation in which a broker must manage the procurement of a short-life-cycle product. As the broker observes demand for the item, she learns about the demand process. However, as is often the case in practice, it becomes either more difficult or more expensive to procure the item as the selling season advances. Thus, the broker must trade off higher procurement costs against the benefit of making ordering decisions with better information about demand. Problems of this type arise, for example, in the travel industry, where a travel agent's cost of procuring airline and hotel reservations increases as the date of a vacation package approaches. We develop a newsvendor-like characterization of the optimal procurement policy. In a numerical analysis, we demonstrate how broker procurements tend to cluster just before price increases and how brokers can benefit from explicitly considering the effects of information about demand in their ordering policies.
Unified aerodynamic-acoustic theory for a thin rectangular wing encountering a gust

A linear aerodynamic-acoustic theory is developed for the prediction of the surface pressure distribution and three-dimensional acoustic far-field for a flat plate rectangular wing encountering a stationary short-wavelength oblique gust. It is suggested that for an infinite-span wing, leading- and trailing-edge responses to a short-wavelength gust are essentially independent. This idea is used to solve for the two-dimensional pressure field due to the passage of an infinite-span wing through an oblique gust. By allowing the field point to come down to the wing's surface, one finds an expression for the surface pressure distribution which agrees with that given in the two-dimensional aerodynamic theories of Amiet and Adamczyk. Spanwise Fourier superposition of two-dimensional solutions to the infinite-span wing problem is used to approximate the three-dimensional acoustic field due to the interaction of a stationary oblique gust with a flat-plate rectangular wing traveling at a subsonic speed.
REACH MUSC: A Telemedicine Facilitated Network for Stroke: Initial Operational Experience

REACH MUSC provides stroke consults via the internet in South Carolina. From May 2008 to April 2011 231 patients were treated with intravenous (IV) thrombolysis and 369 were transferred to Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) including 42 for intra-arterial revascularization (with or without IV tPA). Medical outcomes and hemorrhage rates, reported elsewhere, were good (Lazaridis et al. 2011, in press). Here we report operational features of REACH MUSC which covers 15 sites with 2,482 beds and 471,875 Emergency Department (ED) visits per year. Eight Academic Faculty from MUSC worked with 165 different physicians and 325 different nurses in the conduct of 1085 consults. For the 231 who received tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), time milestones were: Onset to Door: 62 min (mean), 50 (median); Door to REACH Consult: 43 and 33, Consult Request to Consult Start: was 9 and 7 minutes, Consult Start to tPA Decision: 31 and 25 minutes; Decision to Infusion: 20 and 14 minutes, and total Door to Needle: 98 and 87 minutes. The comparable times for the 854 not receiving tPA were: Onset to Door: 140 and 75 minutes; Door to REACH Consult: 61 and 41 minutes; Consult Request to Consult Start 9 and 7 minutes, Consult Start to tPA Decision 27 and 23 minutes. While the consultants respond to consult requests in < 10 minutes, there is a long delay between arrival and Consult request. Tracking of operations indicates if we target shortening Door to Call time and time from tPA decision to start of drug infusion we may be able to improve Door to Needle times to target of < 60 minutes. The large number of individuals involved in the care of these patients, most of whom had no training in REACH usage,will require novel approaches to staff education in ED based operations where turnover is high. Despite these challenges this robust system delivered tPA safely and in a high fraction of patients evaluated using the REACH MUSC system.
Radiotherapy and Radiosurgery for Tumors of the Central Nervous System

In this article, the application of radiotherapy, alone and in combination with surgery and chemotherapy, in the treatment of metastases to the brain (the most common malignant brain lesion), primary malignant gliomas (the most common malignant primary brain tumor), and metastases to the osseous spine is reviewed. Brain metastases may be treated with surgical resection, whole-brain radiotherapy, stereotactic radiosurgery, or some combination of these treatments. The optimum treatment of brain metastases is a matter of controversy, and patient and disease factors favoring one approach over another are presented.
The narratives of offenders

Although criminologists have long used the offender's own story to shed light on crime and its possible causes, they have not plumbed its potential as an explanatory variable. This article consider...
β-Lactamase is encoded on plasmid pACK3 in Staphylococcus simulans biovar staphylolyticus

Abstract Staphylococcus simulans biovar staphylolyticus , the lysostaphin-producing organism, contains five plasmids designated pACK1 through pACK5. Hybridization analysis using cloned β-lactamase gene ( bla ) as probe and characterization of cured strains revealed that bla resides on pACK3 rather than on the lysostaphin endopeptidase plasmid (pACK-1) as reported by others.
Differential Translocation of Protein Kinase C Isozymes by Thrombin and Platelet-derived Growth Factor A POSSIBLE FUNCTION FOR PHOSPHATIDYLCHOLINE-DERIVED DIACYLGLYCEROL*

The translocation of protein kinase C (PKC) from the cytosolic to the particulate fraction in IIC9 fibroblasts has been studied to define the functions of 1,2-diacylglycerol (DAG) derived from the hydrolysis of phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PIP2) and phosphatidylcholine (PC). alpha-Thrombin caused a biphasic change in DAG, with two peaks at 15-60 s and 5-15 min, derived from PIP2 and PC, respectively, while platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) induced a monophasic DAG increase from PC at 5-15 min. alpha-Thrombin also induced a rapid, but transient, increase of inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate and cytosolic Ca2+, whereas PDGF did not. Three PKC isozymes, alpha, epsilon, and zeta, were identified by Western blotting in IIC9 cells and were mainly localized in the cytosol. A fraction of cytosolic PKC alpha was rapidly translocated by alpha-thrombin at 15 s, but its membrane association was lost within 1 min. PKC epsilon was also rapidly translocated; however, its membrane association was sustained for almost 60 min. PKC zeta was not translocated by alpha-thrombin or phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate. PDGF translocated PKC epsilon at 5 min but had little effect at 15 s and did not translocate PKC alpha or zeta. Incubation with Bacillus cereus PC- or phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C, which increased DAG but not phosphatidic acid, stimulated translocation of PKC epsilon, but not PKC alpha or zeta. Addition of chelators to inhibit the rise in intracellular Ca2+ largely blocked PKC alpha translocation induced by alpha-thrombin but had no effect on PKC epsilon translocation. Addition of ionomycin allowed alpha-thrombin to induce PKC alpha translocation at 5 min. PKC alpha translocation was mimicked by 1,2-dioctanoylglycerol plus ionomycin, but not by either alone. On the other hand, PKC epsilon was translocated by the DAG alone. These results support the conclusion that PIP2 hydrolysis activates both PKC alpha and epsilon at 15 s, whereas PC hydrolysis activates only PKC epsilon at 5 min. The differential activation at 5 min can be attributed to the failure of PC hydrolysis to increase Ca2+ and not to a difference in the molecular species of DAG derived from the phospholipids.
Inhibition of Borrelia burgdorferi Migration from the Midgut to the Salivary Glands following Feeding by Ticks on OspC-Immunized Mice

Borrelia burgdorferi-infected ticks were fed on either OspC-immunized mice or normal, nonimmunized mice. After 72 h, the ticks were detached, followed by dissection and subsequent culturing in Barbour-Stoenner-Kelley II medium of the salivary glands from each tick to determine the presence of borreliae. Forty percent (10 of 25) of salivary glands from ticks that had fed on nonimmunized mice were culture positive, while only 7.4% (2 of 27) of salivary glands from ticks that had fed on OspC-immunized mice were culture positive, thus indicating a much reduced borrelial migration from the midgut when the bloodmeal contained anti-OspC antibodies. Fluorescent antibody staining of the corresponding midguts from ticks that had fed on the OspC-immunized mice showed that borreliae were present but did not produce OspC. In contrast, borreliae in midguts from ticks that had fed on normal mice demonstrated substantial ospC expression. This study provides evidence that, during tick feeding on an OspC-immunized host, transmission of borreliae from the tick is prevented; it also suggests that OspC functions in a tick-to-host transmission mechanism.
Efficient Scheduling for Sensor Networks

Sensor networks opened new opportunities to monitor the environment. In order to retrieve the desired data, sensors are usually organized into a hierarchy and synchronize when transmitting the data towards the base station. Many scheduling schemes have been proposed with the goal of allowing sensors to sleep as much as possible and ultimately save energy. In this paper, we propose two new scheduling algorithms that assign predefined slots to each sensor. These algorithms are distributed, need very little global information and do not need knowledge about the location of sensors or the network topology. As others, we also assume that loose clock synchronization is available. The experimental results confirm our expectations. They show a significant reduction in the average time awake per node of at least three times compared to more traditional routing protocols like TAG.
Effect of concentration on the rejection coefficients of rigid macromolecules in track-etch membranes

Abstract To test theoretical predictions that the membrane rejection coefficient ( R ) for rigid macromolecules should decrease with increasing bulk concentration, R was measured at volume fractions of 0.001 and 0.033–0.080 for Ficoll (a crosslinked polysaccharide) and bovine serum albumin (a globular protein) in track-etch polycarbonate membranes having uniform capillary pores. The membranes were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and hydraulic permeability measurements, yielding pore radii of 15–36 nm. R decreased with concentration for all membrane—solute combinations, in fair agreement with a hydrodynamic model of hindered transport in pores. For any given solute and pore size, however, R in either dilute or concentrated solutions was significantly larger than anticipated by the theory. This last finding can be interpreted in terms of a greater effect of macromolecule adsorption on rejection properties than on hydraulic permeability.
Priapism Associated With the Use of Stimulant Medications and Atomoxetine for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children:

Objective: To review the association of priapism with stimulant medications and atomoxetine commonly used in the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Data Sources: A comprehensive literature search was conducted through PubMed (1966-May 15, 2014) using the search terms priapism, methylphenidate, amphetamine, atomoxetine, attention-deficit disorder with hyperactivity, and pediatrics. Google Scholar, Scopus, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Web site were also searched. References from identified literature were also reviewed. Study Selection and Data Extraction: All identified literature focused on ADHD treatment. Literature regarding priapism caused by methylphenidate, amphetamines, and atomoxetine were included. Data Synthesis: Stimulant medications and atomoxetine have been linked to the occurrence of priapism in children. Specifically, methylphenidate has been implicated in a recent FDA safety announcement warning as a result of 15 case reports (mean age = 12.5 years),...
An Acyl-covalent Enzyme Intermediate of Lecithin:Retinol Acyltransferase

Synthesis of fatty acid retinyl esters determines systemic vitamin A levels and provides substrate for production of visual chromophore (11-cis-retinal) in vertebrates. Lecithin:retinol acyltransferase (LRAT), the main enzyme responsible for retinyl ester formation, catalyzes the transfer of an acyl group from the sn-1 position of phosphatidylcholine to retinol. To delineate the catalytic mechanism of this reaction, we expressed and purified a fully active, soluble form of this enzyme and used it to examine the possible formation of a transient acyl-enzyme intermediate. Detailed mass spectrometry analyses revealed that LRAT undergoes spontaneous, covalent modification upon incubation with a variety of phosphatidylcholine substrates. The addition of an acyl chain occurs at the Cys161 residue, indicating formation of a thioester intermediate. This observation provides the first direct experimental evidence of thioester intermediate formation that constitutes the initial step in the proposed LRAT catalytic reaction. Additionally, we examined the effect of increasing fatty acyl side chain length in phosphatidylcholine on substrate accessibility in this reaction, which provided insights into the function of the single membrane-spanning domain of LRAT. These observations are critical to understanding the catalytic mechanism of LRAT protein family members as well as other lecithin:acyltransferases wherein Cys residues are required for catalysis.
Impact of adjuvant chemotherapy on cosmesis and complications in stages I and II carcinoma of the breast treated by biopsy and radiation therapy.

Abstract Cosmesis and complication rates were examined in patients with early stage carcinoma of the breast treated by biopsy and radiation therapy with and without adjuvant chemotherapy in an attempt to determine the effect of chemotherapy upon these parameters. Between April 1, 1975 and June 1, 1980, 51 patients were treated with radiation therapy and adjuvant chemotherapy (XRT + ACT) and 83 patients with radiotherapy alone (XRT). Chemotherapy usually consisted of cytoxan, methotrexate and 5-fluorouracil for 6 or 12 cycles. Minimum follow-up was 36 months. Cosmetic results deteriorated with time in both groups but to a greater extent in the XRT + ACT group. At 36 months, excellent cosmetic results were obtained in 73 of the 83 patients (88%) in the XRT group compared to 37 of 51 patients (73%) in the XRT + ACT group ( p = p =
Willingness to Intervene in Bullying Episodes Among Middle School Students: Individual and Peer-Group Influences

This study examined the associations among gender, empathy, attitudes toward bullying, willingness to intervene, and bullying within peer groups in a sample of sixth and seventh-grade students (N = 346; M Age = 12.22 years). Peer groups were identified via social network analysis using NEGOPY (Richards, 1995) and peer-group predictors were evaluated with multi- level modeling. Male peer-group willingness to intervene results indicated significant between-group variation (i.e., high ICC). Perspective-taking was associated with greater willingness to intervene within male peer groups after controlling for initial levels of willingness to intervene. Greater bullying perpetration within one's peer group was highly predictive of less individual willingness to intervene. For females, willingness to intervene scores was not dependent on friendship group. This study suggests that bullying prevention
Complement regulatory protein Crry deficiency contributes to the antigen specific recall response in experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis

Background: Myasthenia gravis (MG) and animal model of experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis (EAMG) is the most common autoimmune disorder of neuromuscular transmission. The disease is caused by the breakdown of the acetylcholine receptor (AChR) which is largely due to complement activation at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ). Limited knowledge exists to the extent that complement receptor 1-related gene/protein y deficiency (Crry �/� ) modulates the adaptive immune response and EAMG outcome. Methods: Mouse EAMG was induced by s.c. administrations of purified acetylcholine receptor (AChR) to Crry �/� and age- matched WT (C57BL/6) mice. Disease severity was assessed by clinical score assessment and muscle grip strength measurements. Serum complement activity was determined by hemolytic assay. ELISA was used to detect the level of AChR specific antibodies. Splenic cells were analyzed for T and B cells subsets distribution, release of cytokines and AChR specific recall responses. Deposition of complement components at the NMJ was assessed by immunofluorescence staining. Results: In comparison to WT EAMG, Crry �/� EAMG mice showed signs of augmented muscle weakness but differences, except for one time point, were not statistically significant. Serum complement activity was reduced in Crry �/� EAMG mice and no substantial changes in deposition of C3, C3b/iC3b and C5b-9 (MAC) at the NMJ between WT EAMG and Crry �/� EAMG mice were detected. Lack of Crry affected adaptive immune response. Crry �/� EAMG mice showed increases in the number of AChR specific splenic T-cells secreting IFN-γ and IL-4. Production of complement fixing antibodies (IgG2b, IgG2c) was also augmented. More Th1, Th2 and Th17 cytokines were released into the bloodstream of Crry �/� EAMG mice. Conclusions: Data suggest that Crry deficiency modulates the adaptive immune response in EAMG, but its effect on disease outcome is limited. This was due to the generally lower serum complement level caused by increased C3 turnover. Modulation of complement activity with soluble or membrane bound regulators of complement activity represents a potentially effective approach to modify autoimmune processes in MG and EAMG.
The applied theory of energy substitution in production

This paper reviews the applied theory of energy cross price partial elasticities of substitution, and presents it in a transparent fashion. It uses log linear and translog production and cost functions due to their economic properties and convenient estimating forms, but the theory applies other functional forms. The objective is to encourage increased empirical research that would deepen understanding and appreciation of energy substitution.
Baseline specifications for a magnetically suspended high-speed vehicle

Baseline specifications for a magnetically suspended vehicle capable of 300 mi/h (483 km/h) operation are given. The magnetic forces (lift, drag, and lateral) on a superconducting coil moving over an aluminum guideway are shown. The basic features of the associated cryogenics are presented along with a discussion of the cryogenic refrigeration requirements. Vehicle dynamics and the resultant ride quality over roadbeds of various roughnesses are analyzed. Thrust requirements for the propulsion system are specified, and both the linear induction motor and the linear synchronous motor are considered. Several guideway configurations are suggested and the significant properties of each are noted.
Standard metabolic rate at the surface and during trained submersions in adult California sea lions (Zalophus californianus)

SUMMARY The metabolic rate (MR) of four adult California sea lions (Zalophus californianus), two males and two females, was quantified during trained submersion and stationing behavior in laboratory tanks. MR was measured, at rest and for single submersions of increasing duration (1–7 min), by measuring oxygen consumption using open-circuit, indirect calorimetry. Standard MR was measured under conditions defined for basal MR and was found to be 1.9 to 3 times that predicted for terrestrial animals of similar size. Submersion MRs were calculated from the post-submersion oxygen debt and declined to as little as 47 % of standard MR on the longest submersions. This hypometabolic response was proportional to the duration of submersion and was greatest for the maximum duration submersions. Short submersions produced MRs equivalent to measured standard MR. These data suggest that although California sea lions maintain an elevated metabolism under standard conditions, they are capable of reducing their metabolism in response to the needs of diving. Such metabolic flexibility enables sea lions to moderate their oxygen use during diving and to extend their aerobic diving capability.
The Ties That Bind: How the Constitution Limits the CIA's Actions in the War on Terror

In the war on terror, the United States Executive, through the Central Intelligence Agency, has detained, mistreated, and tortured suspected “enemy combatants” in secret prisons around the world. Shocking evidence of torture and denial of due process has provoked widespread condemnation. Yet, the United States Executive continues to deny that its agencies – in particular the CIA – are prohibited by law from engaging in such activities. Scholars have argued that the Executive’s actions violate both international treaties and United States statutes prohibiting torture. This Note takes a different approach and contends that, even in the absence of treaty or statutory law, the Constitution limits the authority of an executive agency like the CIA to act against foreigners abroad. The author relies on Supreme Court’s case law on the extraterritorial application of the Constitution, according to which certain fundamental constitutional provisions limit the government’s actions wherever and against whomever it acts. She also highlights references to the fundamental rights approach in the recent war on terror cases as an illustration of its application in this context. She then argues that such fundamental rights include, at minimum, prohibitions against indefinite detention and torture under the Fifth Amendment Due Process and Self-Incrimination Clauses and the Eighth Amendment. Ultimately, she concludes that the Constitution simply does not permit the United States to engage in indefinite detention or torture – regardless of the end, the place, or the victim.
Forecasting Savings in Egypt

Egypt followed a central command economic policy during the 1970’s, implementing repressive financial policies and directing credit. The banking sector was fully state owned, enabling the government to set a ceiling for interest rates. The Egyptian government adopted an economic reform program in the 1990’s. The main pillar of which is to support financial development and achieve economic growth. This followed a full liberalization of determination interest rates, leaving it for markets to determine the opportunity cost of money holdings. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the forecasting models for savings in Egypt break down after 1991.
Human Immunodeficiency Virus Associated Nephropathy (HIVAN)

Although human immunodeficiency virus (the causative agent of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) infection in man leads primarily to multiple infectious complications, it also results in multisystem disorders as well. While coincidental acute renal failure and fluid-electrolyte, acid-base disorders were commonly seen early in the AIDS epidemic, HIV associated nephropathy (HIVAN), an unusual disorder, was recognized only in 1984 in certain geographic areas in the United States. Approximately half the patients with HIVAN are intravenous drug abusers, and those remaining include recent immigrants from Haiti (mostly in Brooklyn and Miami) who deny drug use or homosexuality, gay men, sexual partners of HIV infected persons, contaminated blood/blood product recipients, and children born to infected women. HIVAN is typically a disease of young black men and is characterized by massive proteinuria, hypoalbuminemia, large echogenic kidneys, normotension, and a fulminant progression to end stage renal disease (ESRD) within a few months. The renal histopathology consists of focal and segmental glomerulosclerosis, with deposition of IgM, C3, C1q, and, rarely, other immune globulins. There is disproportionate tubular injury, manifested by microcystic dilatation of renal tubules, and sparse interstitial infiltrates and fibrosis. Ultrastructurally, tubulo-reticular structures and unusual cytoplasmic inclusions, along with peculiar nuclear chromatin changes, are present which suggests a possible viral etiology in the genesis of HIVAN. The pathogenesis of HIVAN is unknown, and no effective treatment exists at present. Patients with clinical AIDS and ESRD do poorly when supported by renal replacement therapy.
Effect of Process Parameters on Rheological Properties of Coal-Derived Liquids

This work was undertaken to systemically study the effect of various process parameters (solvent type, reaction temperature, hydrogen pressure, coal rank, and coal particle size) on the rheological properties of coal-derived liquids (CDLs). Among three investigated solvents (tetralin, a medium oil, and a heavy oil), only tetralin enhanced the coal conversion because of its superior hydrogen-donor capability. The viscosity of the CDLs exhibited a strong positive correlation with that of the solvent used. The increase of either reaction temperature or hydrogen pressure decreased the viscosity of the CDLs. A comparison of coal rank illustrated that a bituminous coal resulted in higher viscosity of the products than a subbituminous coal. The experiments performed with three different coal particle sizes (―60, ―100, and ―200 mesh) showed that coal with a smaller particle size distribution generated lower viscosity liquid products. It can be deduced that the coal liquefaction process parameters have a strong effect on the chemical compositions of CDLs and, therefore, their physical properties, such as viscosity. To accurately predict CDL viscosity, preliminary work was conducted to correlate the viscosities of CDLs generated at different conditions with other CDL physical properties [e.g., boiling point and American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity] using three commonly used petroleum viscosity correlations. The results showed that the predicted viscosities were much lower than the measured ones because of the presence of stronger hydrogen bonding in CDLs than in petroleum fractions. A simple correction could improve the viscosity prediction for the CDLs generated from tetralin by reducing an absolute average deviation from 65 to 28%.
The present situation of Toray Waterless Plate

Toray Waterless Plate was introduced for domestic market in November, 1979, and for overseas market in May, 1980. In the initial period, its applications were limited to specialty uses such as high quality art reproductions, dye-based ink printing, gold and silver ink printing, etc., due to some drawbacks in both the plate and the inks specially made for it. Since then, through several series of improvements, these drawbacks have been solved. And it is making rapid inroads into general commercial printing and other various fields of printing.This paper describes its principles, properties, advantages and applications after briefly discussing the history of development of waterless planographic printing plate technology.
Osteogenic Cell Attachment to Degradable Polymers

Modifications were made to increase osteogenic cell adhesion to homo and copolymers of lactic and glycolic acid. A synthetic peptide containing the cell attachment signal Arginine-Glycine-Aspartate (RGD) was loaded into the polymers or adsorbed to the polymers’ surfaces. Cell attachment was assayed after 24 hours incubation with an osteogenic cell line (ROS 17/2.8). Statistically significant differences in cell adhesion occurred between the polymers with the adsorbed peptides and the other treatment groups. Significant differences were not observed for the peptide loaded polymers and controls. These data indicate that precoating the polymer surface with a RGD-containing peptide prior to exposure to osteogenic cells increased cell attachment. For the current materials tested, the surface modification is preferred to increase osteogenic cell adhesion to degradable polyesters.
A study of the residual stresses in butt welded joint of pipes

The blind hole method was used to measure residual stresses in joint of welded pipe lines.The influences of different diameters, preheating temperature and welding layers on the stress distribution are discussed in this paper.The work provides a theoretical basis for preheating or non preheating treatment according to the conditions.
Ecophysiology of leaf trichomes

This review examines how leaf trichomes influence leaf physiological responses to abiotic environmental drivers. Leaf trichomes are known to modulate leaf traits, particularly radiation absorptance, but studies in recent decades have demonstrated that trichomes have a more expansive role in the plant-environment interaction. Although best known as light reflectors, dense trichome canopies modulate leaf heat balance and photon interception, and consequently affect gas exchange traits. Analysis of published studies shows that dense pubescence generally increases reflectance of visible light and near-infrared and infrared radiation. Reflective trichomes are also protective, reducing photoinhibition and UV-B related damage to leaf photochemistry. Little support exists for a strong trichome effect on leaf boundary layer resistance and transpiration, but recent studies indicate they may play a substantive role in leaf water relations affecting leaf wettability, droplet retention and leaf water uptake. Different lines of evidence indicate that adaxial and abaxial trichomes may function quite differently, even within the same leaf. Overall, this review synthesises and re-examines the diverse array of relevant studies from the past 40 years, illustrating our current understanding of how trichomes influence the energy, carbon and water balance of plants, and highlighting promising areas for future research.
Electronic and structural response of materials to fast intense laser pulses, including light-induced superconductivity

This is a very brief discussion of some experimental and theoretical studies of materials responding to fast intense laser pulses, with emphasis on those cases where the electronic response and structural response are both potentially important (and ordinarily coupled). Examples are nonthermal insulator-to-metal transitions and light-induced superconductivity in cuprates, fullerenes, and an organic Mott insulator.
Percutaneous alcohol septal ablation to acutely reduce left ventricular outflow tract obstruction induced by transcatheter mitral valve replacement

Transcatheter implantation of balloon expandable valves in native mitral valves (MV) has been performed in patients with severe MV annular calcification who are not good candidates for standard surgical MV replacement. Significant left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) obstruction with hemodynamic compromise has been described as one of the potential complications of transcatheter MV replacement. Surgical rescue carries significant risk in this high-risk patient population. We describe a percutaneous technique to acutely decrease transcatheter MV replacement-induced LVOT obstruction. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
The Floating Ampersand: STS Past and STS to Come

STS has become a discipline in the sense that it offers new ways to read and make sense of the world. It remains an amalgam, however, of two linked yet separate lines of inquiry, both abbreviated as STS. Science and technology studies refers to the investigation of ST science, technology and society, by contrast, analyzes the external relations of S&T with other institutions, such as law or politics. This essay reflects on the implications of this ambiguity for institutionalizing STS as a field of its own, drawing on the author’s experiences in building STS at two universities.
Airborne laser scanning and spectral remote sensing give a bird's eye perspective on arctic tundra breeding habitat at multiple spatial scales

Abstract The effects of climate change are more acute in the Arctic than any other region, and as such, arctic tundra wildlife habitats are changing in ways that are not yet well understood. Remote sensing tools are capable of assessing dynamics in wildlife-habitat associations over a wide range of spatial scales and in a variety of ecosystems. As already well-established in other ecosystems, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDaR) technology has the potential to greatly expand our understanding of tundra wildlife-habitat associations because unlike the most commonly used spectral vegetation index - the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) - LiDaR directly quantifies three-dimensional (3-D) vegetation structure. Only recently has airborne laser scanning (ALS) technology evolved to having vertical resolution and point densities high enough to quantify small differences in vegetation structure, such as characterize arctic tundra ecosystems. Our objective was to employ ALS metrics, airborne spectral data (for NDVI), and Landsat 7 ETM + data (for snow cover) to determine the relative importance of a suite of ecological characteristics - considered at multiple spatial scales - on habitat use and reproductive success of two of the most common migratory songbird species breeding in northern Alaska. Our most important findings are that (1) combining ALS metrics, but not NDVI, with Landsat derived snow cover data provided useful information, revealing that while Gambel's white-crowned sparrows use breeding territories in areas with high canopy volume and large snow-free areas, Lapland longspurs will establish territories in areas with low canopy volume, small patches of snow-free tundra, and minimal surface wetness and; (2) while habitat characteristics were important determinants of habitat use for both species at the territory scale, those in the immediate vicinity of nest-sites were not important. Contrary to expectation, we also found that the reproductive success of both species was unaffected by variation in our hypothesized metrics of shelter and food availability (canopy volume, standard deviation of micro-terrain height) at both the nest-site or territory scales. Our study is the first arctic demonstration of how ALS yields novel insights into wildlife-habitat associations, suggesting it has great potential in other ecosystems with similarly small - yet often ecologically important - ranges in 3-D vegetation structure.
Borders and Duties to the Displaced: Ethical Perspectives on the Refugee Protection System

This essay proposes some ethical perspectives that can help in the task of reassessing the structure of the global refugee protection system in light of the extraordinarily high levels of refugee m...
Between the Populist Left and Right: Discursive Structure and Ideological Interventions in Podemos and the National Front

The concept of populism is famously ambiguous, posing difficulties in its application as an analytical category and empirical identifier. Much of the existing literature has focused on defining populism as either a “thin-centered” ideology, or as a discursive style. Furthermore, where typological analyses have been undertaken, they have primarily been limited to describing parties of the same ideological category, while failing to account for formal differences across the left–right ideological scale. One way to address this lacuna is by following Ernesto Laclau’s shift in emphasis toward elaborating a theory of the internal logic of populism as such. This discourse-centered approach enables us to locate the properly populist structural features of political discourse, thereby bringing into clearer view the distinct ideological elements. Using a most different case comparative method, I provide a detailed comparative case-study analysis of Podemos in Spain and the National Front (FN) in France. Drawing on close readings of party manifestos, speeches, and interviews, my analysis applies Laclau’s analytical framework in order to identify the ways in which particular manifestations of populist discourse exhibit morphological differences at the structural level when supplemented by ideologies of the left or right. I conclude that while populism provides an invariant discursive structure that serves to integrate and organize meaning, ideological differences substantially alter the conception of political antagonism, as well as particular policy content. Among others, my findings show that whereas both parties ostensibly champion democracy, the concrete proposals put forward toward this end evince a diametric opposition in the conception of participation.