cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
LEAVING ROOM FOR RESEARCH: THE HISTORICAL TREATMENT OF THE COMMON LAW RESEARCH EXEMPTION IN CONGRESS AND THE COURTS, AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO BIOTECH LAW AND POLICY

The recent suit over the validity of gene patents between the American Civil Liberties Union and Myriad Genetics has highlighted the troubling ways in which patents may be interfering with the willingness of scientists and companies to engage in basic biotechnology research on matters of vital importance to human health and disease. Many scholars have argued for a legislative research exemption to protect this sort of research. Theoretically, the common law already contains an exemption to protect certain uses of a patented product from being deemed patent infringement. This Article evaluates the history of the common law research exemption alongside the history of biotechnology policymaking since the 1970s, identifying how confusion over the scope of the judicial research exemption may have led to legislative stagnation on the issue of protecting research. Even during the infancy of biotechnology, members of Congress believed in the existence of a robust research exemption when making policy decisions about whether to create a legislative exemption. Now that the scope of the research exemption has been narrowed significantly by recent Federal Circuit decisions, at a time when the intellectual property regime permits patents on human building blocks as basic as genes, this Article highlights the need for a clear exemption. It also overviews and comments on existing policy solutions scholars have offered to counteract the chilling effect that the lack of a clear exemption might be having on basic research, including research in the biotechnology sector. * J.D. candidate, Yale Law School (2011). Many thanks to Daniel J. Kevles for his helpful assistance and comments on this manuscript. 1 Boyle: LEAVING ROOM FOR RESEARCH Published by Yale Law School Legal Scholarship Repository, 2010 12 Yale J.L. & Tech. 269 (2010) 2009-2010
Family dynamics and family therapy with Mexican Americans.

In sharp contrast to the Anglo culture, the Mexican-American culture values family and extended family interdependence. Family therapy is an accepted mode of treatment for the Mexican American if the initial focus is on family conflicts between parents and children (or extended family) or financial matters. The mention of marital disharmony should not be brought up until a strong therapeutic alignment has been established with the couple.
Image-Based Barcode Detection and Recognition to Assist Visually Impaired Persons

Millions of people worldwide suffer from visual impairment or blindness. One of the major limitations caused by the decrease in visual abilities is the difficulties encountered during shopping. In this paper, we propose a barcode detection and recognition method for a shopping assistant. The proposed method is capable of extracting the essential product information (e.g., ingredients, source, calories, etc.) from the detected barcode region. Suggestions of human-system interaction are provided to enhance the user experience. The shopping assistant facilitates the process of grocery shopping and increases the independency of visually impaired persons. To achieve a real-time detection and recognition, we build the detection framework upon a state-of-the-art parallel segment detector that takes advantages of the property that barcode consists of a group of parallel lines. Barcode recognition is accomplished utilizing a robust phone application that provides the detailed information of the product in real-time. As demonstrated by the experimental results, the proposed method is effective, robust, and shows great potential to be expanded into an assistive system for visually impaired persons.
Repensando as desigualdades digitais: as promessas da web 2.0 para os marginalizados

Web 2.0 technologies have initiated a new age of the Web with promises to empower its users, to promote creativity, and to democratize information production (O'REILLY, 2007). This techno-optimistic rhetoric has led the general public to the notion that Web 2.0 platforms indicate some grand authoritative social change. Although Web 2.0 tools can promote citizenship and empowerment for its users, this study questions such emancipatory promises, especially in relation to people facing social and digital marginalization. In order to explore this problem space, an ethnography was carried out for ten months in the favelas of Vitoria - ES, Brazil, to study the practices and experiences of the local residents with the Web 2.0. This study analyses how Web 2.0 afforded favela residents the ability to protest on the streets and cross social boundaries, but when they did, they faced something much stronger: social exclusion, police brutality against blacks and the poor, and limited civil engagement. This study aims to expand our understanding of what Web 2.0 can and cannot do in terms of social change and digital inclusion.
Bleeding After Colonoscopic Polypectomy

Bleeding after colonoscopic polypectomy is not uncommon, but clinically significant hemorrhage is rare. Post-polypectomy bleeding is often controlled during the procedure without intervention; however, more severe hemorrhage may be controlled with various colonoscopic methods including clips, injection of epinephrine, or endoscopic band ligation of a bleeding vessel. If bleeding is not controlled by these methods, arterial embolization or surgical resection may be necessary.
1831-P: Delayed Glucagon Suppression Contributes to Postprandial Hyperglycemia Independently of the Degree of Insulin Secretion

Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) is characterized by impaired postprandial insulin secretion and glucagon suppression. Recent work suggests that α-cell dysfunction is independent of β-cell dysfunction. The effect of diabetes-associated variation in TCF7L2 on α-cell function also suggests a direct role in the pathogenesis of T2DM. To quantify the interaction between a lack of glucagon suppression with intact, mildly or moderately impaired insulin secretion we studied 45 nondiabetic subjects with and without suppressed glucagon. On both occasions, an intravenous glucose infusion mimicking the systemic appearance of 50g oral glucose was administered in the presence of a pancreatic clamp. Glucagon was infused at a rate of 0.65ng/kg/min, starting at 0 min or 120 min (non-suppressed vs. suppressed respectively). In one group (100%) a nondiabetic insulin profile was infused; another group received 80% of this profile and the third group received 60% of the insulin infused in the first group. We observed that a lack of glucagon suppression increased peak (p Disclosure J. Adams: None. M.C. Laurenti: Employee; Self; GlySens Incorporated. R.A. Rizza: Advisory Panel; Self; Lilly Diabetes, Metavention, Novo Nordisk A/S, vTv Therapeutics. A.M. Egan: None. C. Cobelli: None. C. Dalla Man: None. A. Vella: Advisory Panel; Self; vTv Therapeutics. Research Support; Self; Novo Nordisk Inc. Funding National Institutes of Health
Improving Unsupervised Individual Learning

Abstract This chapter discusses many ways, in addition to Guided Cognition design, to improve unsupervised individual learning. The ways to do this fall into three categories: improving the student, improving the to-be-learned content, and improving questions and tasks such as those used in homework. Improving the student involves learning-to-learn. We review various approaches, including general methods that can be applied across a broad spectrum of content and targeted approaches that are for specific content. We consider the overall utility of various approaches and characterize what students need to do to be successful in applying them. Improving the to-be-learned content can be achieved through organizing it, by providing previews and organizers, by providing completed examples, and by using multimedia for presentations. Content can also be improved by spacing and interleaving practice. Improving questions and tasks can be achieved with Guided Cognition design and also by spacing questions over longer time intervals and by interleaving different types of problems or content rather than assigning them in blocks. Practice tests can be very effective, and appropriate adjustment of question or problem difficulty can facilitate learning. Embodying cognition by designing homework questions that relate to students' past experiences can also facilitate comprehension and learning of new material.
Tending this Fragile Earth, Our Island Home: The Pope's Encyclical in Dialogue with Anglican Theology:

Laudato si’, Pope Francis's 2015 encyclical on the environment, drew on the Roman Catholic magisterium and his own background as a Latin American Jesuit influenced by Franciscan spirituality. He de...
The Inertia of the Exception

This chapter critically examines Carl Schmitt’s theory of the sovereign exception and its emphasis on order in the contemporary context of extended war and suspended law. Schmitt’s description of the necessity of the exception for the preservation of the state counterproductively puts legal order in crisis by creating a powerful incentive pull to extend states of emergency. Emergencies highlight perceptions of insecurity in liberal constitutional states, creating a supposedly necessary suspension of the normal legal order. While special powers and accelerated procedures seem to enhance security, they also construct new legal norms that ultimately jeopardize expectations about both the internal and external legal order. In the era of globally franchised violence, the expanding crisis of ubiquitous states of emergency as extra-legal normative orders has become critical. The sovereign suspension of law, repeated many times since the attacks of 9/11, has begun to alter the meaning of liberal democracy because the decision on what constitutes a security emergency is not subject to external review. This chapter will review US legal practice in declared states of emergency and the suspension of rights and track the evolution of expectations, starting with the assumption of a return to normalcy despite the current unchecked practices of perpetuating exceptions. This never-ending state of emergency places international order in crisis by ensuring strong incentives for sovereigns to maintain the exception—the extra-legal (and by now global) state of emergency—indefinitely.
Mitigating fatigue on the flight deck: how is controlled rest used in practice?

Controlled Rest (CR) refers to a short, unscheduled, voluntary nap opportunity taken by pilots on the flight deck as a countermeasure to unanticipated fatigue in flight. This study explores the pro...
Stabilization of p53 by microRNAs in HPV-positive cervical cancer cells

Abstract Etiologically 5% of cancers worldwide are caused by the high-risk human papillomaviruses (hrHPVs). These viruses encode two oncoproteins (E6 and E7) whose expression is required for cancer initiation and maintenance. Among the cellular targets of these viral oncoproteins are the p53 and the retinoblastoma tumor suppressor proteins. Inhibition of E6-mediated ubiquitylation of p53 through the E6AP ubiquitin ligase results in the stabilization of p53, leading to cellular apoptosis. We utilized a live cell high-throughput screen to assess the ability of 885 microRNAs (miRNAs) to stabilize p53 in human papillomavirus (HPV)-positive cervical cancer cells expressing a p53-fluorescent protein as an in vivo reporter of p53 stability. The 32 miRNAs whose expression resulted in the greatest p53 stabilization were further assessed in validation experiments using a second cell-based p53 stability reporter system as well as in HeLa cells to examine their effects on endogenous p53 protein levels. The positive miRNAs identified included 375-3p that has previously been reported as stabilizing p53 in HeLa cells, providing validation of the screen. Additional miRNAs that stabilized p53 led to decreases in E6AP protein levels, while others, including members of the 302/519 family of miRNAs, targeted HPV oncoprotein expression. We further examined a subset of these miRNAs for their abilities to induce apoptosis and determined whether the apoptosis was p53-mediated. The miRNAs described here have potential as therapeutics for treating HPV-positive cancers. Author summary Human papillomaviruses cause approximately 5% of cancers worldwide and encode genes that contribute to both the initiation and maintenance of these cancers. The viral gene E6 is expressed in all HPV-positive cancers and functions by targeting the degradation of the p53 protein through its engagement of the cellular ubiquitin ligase E6AP. Inhibiting the degradation of p53 results in apoptosis in HPV-positive cancer cells. We have developed a high-throughput live cell assay to identify molecules that stabilize p53 in HPV-positive cells and we present the results of a screen we have carried out examining miRNAs for their abilities to stabilize p53 and induce apoptosis in HPV-positive cervical cancer cells. These miRNAs have the potential to be used in the treatment of HPV-positive cancers.
A Comprehensive Cloud Framework for Accurate and Reliable Human Connectome Estimation and Meganalysis

The connectivity of the human brain is fundamental to understanding the principles of cognitive function, and the mechanisms by which it can go awry. To that extent, tools for estimating human brain networks are required for single participant, group level, and cross-study analyses. We have developed an open-source, cloud-enabled, turn-key pipeline that operates on (groups of) raw diffusion and structure magnetic resonance imaging data, estimating brain networks (connectomes) across 24 different spatial scales, with quality assurance visualizations at each stage of processing. Running a harmonized analysis on 10 different datasets comprising 2,295 subjects and 2,861 scans reveals that the connectomes across datasets are similar on coarse scales, but quantitatively different on fine scales. Our framework therefore illustrates that while general principles of human brain organization may be preserved across experiments, obtaining reliable p-values and clinical biomarkers from connectomics will require further harmonization efforts.
Do Abstractions Have Politics? Toward a More Critical Algorithm Analysis

The expansion of computer science (CS) education in K--12 and higher-education in the United States has prompted deeper engagement with equity that moves beyond inclusion toward a more critical CS education. Rather than frame computing as a value-neutral tool, a justice-centered approach to equitable CS education draws on critical pedagogy to ensure the rightful presence of political struggles by emphasizing the development of not only knowledge and skills but also CS disciplinary identities. While recent efforts have integrated ethics into several areas of the undergraduate CS curriculum, critical approaches for teaching data structures and algorithms in particular are undertheorized. Basic Data Structures remains focused on runtime-centered algorithm analysis. We argue for affordance analysis, a more critical algorithm analysis based on an affordance account of value embedding. Drawing on critical methods from science and technology studies, philosophy of technology, and human-computer interaction, affordance analysis examines how the design of computational abstractions such as data structures and algorithms embody affordances, which in turn embody values with political consequences. We illustrate 5 case studies of how affordance analysis refutes social determination of technology, foregrounds the limitations of data abstractions, and implicates the design of algorithms in disproportionately distributing benefits and harms to particular social identities within the matrix of domination.
Parsimonious Inference.

Bayesian inference provides a uniquely rigorous approach to obtain principled justification for uncertainty in predictions, yet it is difficult to articulate suitably general prior belief in the machine learning context, where computational architectures are pure abstractions subject to frequent modifications by practitioners attempting to improve results. Parsimonious inference is an information-theoretic formulation of inference over arbitrary architectures that formalizes Occam's Razor; we prefer simple and sufficient explanations. Our universal hyperprior assigns plausibility to prior descriptions, encoded as sequences of symbols, by expanding on the core relationships between program length, Kolmogorov complexity, and Solomonoff's algorithmic probability. We then cast learning as information minimization over our composite change in belief when an architecture is specified, training data are observed, and model parameters are inferred. By distinguishing model complexity from prediction information, our framework also quantifies the phenomenon of memorization. Although our theory is general, it is most critical when datasets are limited, e.g. small or skewed. We develop novel algorithms for polynomial regression and random forests that are suitable for such data, as demonstrated by our experiments. Our approaches combine efficient encodings with prudent sampling strategies to construct predictive ensembles without cross-validation, thus addressing a fundamental challenge in how to efficiently obtain predictions from data.
33 Profiling miRNA transcripts in the equine hindgut by quantitative PCR

Gastrointestinal (GI) homeostasis in a horse results from dynamic interactions between a horse's gut physiology and the microbes in the various compartments. MicroRNAs (miRNA), single-stranded 20–22 basepair RNA molecules involved in post-transcriptional control of gene expression, have been implicated as an essential mechanism for control of gastrointestinal physiology and communication between host and microbe. Researchers have described how host-derived miRNAs influence microbial communities' composition in the GI. We have recently described how the pelvic flexure separates distinct microbial populations in the equine hindgut and subsequently have wondered if equine miRNA transcripts expressed by GI tissues could have a role in maintaining this separation. Investigations to characterize miRNAs' expression profile and other non-coding RNAs in the equine GI tract are limited. To address this, it is critical that we first know something about the expression of non-coding transcripts in the equine GI. This study investigated miRNA expression in tissues of the hindgut surrounding the pelvic flexure. RNA was isolated from the intestinal epithelium of 3 4-year-old American Quarter Horses collected from the right and left ventral colon (VC), pelvic flexure (PF), and right and left dorsal colon (DC). The miRNA transcripts were reverse transcribed using the miScript II RT kit, and relative abundance was quantified using the miScript SYBR Green PCR kit and primer sets for 286 annotated mature equine miRNAs. Biological replicates were pooled, and differential expression was determined following normalization by the delta Ct = Ct(target) – Ct(sample) method. A total of 230 miRNA transcripts were expressed in at least one GI location, with 60 expressed in all 5 locations. Twenty-eight transcripts had expression restricted to a single site, 5 of which were only expressed in the pelvic flexure. Additionally, 42 transcripts have patterns of expression across a subset of anatomical locations. Notably, 10 transcripts were expressed in the VC and PF, 5 transcripts were expressed in the DC and PF, and 15 transcripts were expressed in the VC and DC but not PF. Pathway and target analysis for the miRNAs with compartment restricted expression was performed using DIANA TOOLS. Of note, miRNA transcripts expressed only in the PF were predicted to target genes in the Hippo signaling pathway, which is associated with the regulation of intestinal tissue proliferation and homeostasis. Further investigation of miRNA expression in the equine hindgut will improve our understanding of gastrointestinal homeostasis's regulatory processes.
Local and global growth and remodeling in calcific aortic valve disease and aging

Abstract Aging and calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD) are the main factors leading to aortic stenosis. Both processes are accompanied by growth and remodeling pathways that play a crucial role in aortic valve pathophysiology. Herein, a computational growth and remodeling (G&R) framework was developed to investigate the effects of aging and calcification on aortic valve dynamics. Particularly, an algorithm was developed to couple the global growth and stiffening of the aortic valve due to aging and the local growth and stiffening due to calcification with the aortic valve transient dynamics. The aortic valve dynamics during baseline were validated with available data in the literature. Subsequently, the changes in aortic valve dynamic patterns during aging and CAVD progression were studied. The results revealed the patterns in geometric orifice area reduction and an increase in the valve stress during local and global growth and remodeling of the aortic valve. The proposed algorithm provides a framework to couple mechanobiology models of disease growth with tissue-scale transient structural mechanics models to study the biomechanical changes during cardiovascular disease growth and aging.
Minor cycles for interval maps

For continuous maps of an interval into itself we consider cycles (periodic orbits) that are non-reducible in the sense that there is no non-trivial partition into blocks of consecutive points permuted by the map. Among them we identify the miror ones. They are those whose existence does not imply existence of other non-reducible cycles of the same period. Moreover, we find minor patterns of a given period with minimal entropy.
Maturation and atresia of human oocytes in vivo.

A small number of oocytes mature and ovulate during the entire reproductive life of women, while a large population of oocytes degenerate during follicular development in the adult human ovary (1). A broad light microscopic survey of the cytological feature of oocytes randomly collected from ovaries of patients without apparent ovarian pathology, revealed that the follicular oocytes could be classified into four different types (2). Briefly, these oocyte types were (i) oocytes with nuclei containing diffused or filamentous chromatin (Type 1), (ii) mature oocytes with metaphase chromosomes or first polar bodies (Type 2), (iii) oocytes with clumped chromatin within the nuclei (Type 3),and (iv) degenerated oocytes (Type 4). The percentages of oocytes of each type during different reproductive states is given in Table 1.
Pharmacokinetics of Antiepileptic Drugs in Elderly Nursing Home Residents

With approximately 10% of elderly nursing home residents taking antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), it is critical to understand the pharmacokinetics, dosing, and possible adverse reactions of these AEDs. In this chapter, five AEDs commonly prescribed to nursing home residents will be discussed. Phenytoin (PHT), the most commonly used AED in this population, is extensively metabolized by the cytochrome P450 enzyme system, is highly protein bound, and interacts with many concomitant medications. Up to 45% of nursing home residents who receive PHT have concentrations below the range (subtherapeutic) used in adults ( 20 microg/ml). In addition, serum PHT concentrations can vary greatly within an individual resident and may be subtherapeutic one day and potentially toxic the next. Valproic acid is taken by approximately 9-17% of nursing home residents who are administered AEDs, with over half using it for nonseizure indications. Doses are approximately 16 mg/kg/day in elderly nursing home residents, but doses and serum concentrations are lower in the oldest age group (> or =85 years). A majority of residents are maintained at serum concentrations considered subtherapeutic for epilepsy, whereas relatively few (approximately 3%) are maintained at toxic levels. The average (+/-SD) carbamazepine (CBZ) dose is 8.8 +/- 4.7 mg/kg/day, yielding a mean serum concentration of 6.3 +/- 2.2 mg/liter. Subtherapeutic concentrations are found in up to 20% of serum measurements, while 2.5% of serum measurements are in the toxic range. CBZ is highly bound to serum albumin and alpha1-acid glycoprotein and is metabolized to carbamazepine-10,11-epoxide, an active metabolite thought to be responsible for some side effects. Phenobarbital (PB) is frequently combined with PHT. This combination can cause devastating side effects because both PB and PHT can produce cognitive side effects. Gabapentin is one of the newer AEDs frequently administered to nursing home residents. Its lack of both hepatic metabolism and protein binding potentially makes it a safer drug in this population.
A case for performance-centric network allocation

We consider the problem of allocating network resources across applications in a private cluster running data-parallel frameworks. Our primary observation is that these applications have different communication requirements and thus require different support from the network to effectively parallelize. We argue that network resources should be shared in a performance-centric fashion that aids parallelism and allows developers to reason about the overall performance of their applications. This paper tries to address the question of whether/how fairness-centric proposals relate to a performance-centric approach for different communication patterns common in these frameworks and engages in a quest for a unified mechanism to share the network in such settings.
A Single-Axis Testbed for Slewing Control Experiments

In this paper, a simple single-axis testbed is described and initial experimental results are presented to illustrate collocated and non-collocated control for this structure. The testbed is made up of a pair of single-axis flexible beams attached to a dc servo motor. An optical encoder and strain gauges provide hub and beam position information, respectively. The system is driven by an IBM PC system; with a Cyber Research Inc. motor controller, a programmable digital filter processes position error information through user-selected gains and pole-zero configurations. A 25kHz data acquisition system provides the necessary interface between processor and motor. The control approaches currently being investigated include collocated PD control and non-collocated phase compensation.
Vertical-Plane Dual-Doppler Radar Observations of Cumulus Toroidal Circulations

AbstractHigh-resolution vertical-plane dual-Doppler velocity data, collected by an airborne profiling cloud radar in transects across nonprecipitating orographic cumulus clouds, are used to examine vortical circulations near cloud top. These vortices are part of a toroidal ring centered at an updraft, usually near the cloud top, and they are essential to cumulus entrainment and dynamics. A large number of transects across toroidal circulations are composited to reveal the typical kinematic structure and associated entrainment patterns. The toroidal ring circulation is ~1 km wide and about half as deep in the sampled clouds (Cu mediocris). The composite flow field shows two nearly symmetric, counterrotating vortices, with a core updraft of ~3 m s−1, consistent vortex-top divergence, two flanking downdrafts of the about same strength, and horizontal (toroidal) vorticity of ~0.03 s−1. Variations with vortex size, age, and ambient shear are examined, and the relative dilution of air in the vortex core is esti...
Oral health status in Navajo Nation Head Start children.

Objective This study assessed oral health status for preschool-aged children in the Navajo Nation to obtain data on baseline decayed, missing, and filled tooth surfaces (dmfs) and dental caries patterns, describe sociodemographic correlates of children's baseline dmfs measures, and compare the children's dmfs measures with previous dental survey data for the Navajo Nation from the Indian Health Service and the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Methods The analyzed study sample included 981 child/caregiver dyads residing in the Navajo Nation who completed baseline dmfs assessments for an ongoing randomized clinical trial involving Navajo Nation Head Start Centers. Calibrated dental hygienists collected baseline dmfs data from child participants ages 3-5 years (488 males and 493 females), and caregivers completed a basic research factors questionnaire. Results Mean dmfs for the study population was 21.33 (SD = 19.99) and not appreciably different from the 1999 Indian Health Service survey of Navajo Nation preschool-aged children (mean = 19.02, SD = 16.59, P = 0.08). However, only 69.5 percent of children in the current study had untreated decay compared with 82.9 percent in the 1999 Indian Health Service survey (P < 0.0001). Study results were considerably higher than the 16.0 percent reported for 2-4-year-old children in the whites-only group from the 1999-2004 NHANES data. Age had the strongest association with dmfs, followed by child gender, then caregiver income and education. Conclusion Dental caries in preschool-aged Navajo children is extremely high compared with other US population segments, and dmfs has not appreciably changed for more than a decade.
Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS) Fifth Follow Up Methodology Report

Although entrepreneurship is crucial to a capitalist economy, little information is available about U.S. businesses in their first years of operation. As part of an effort to gather more data on new businesses in the United States, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation sponsored the Kauffman Firm Survey (KFS), a panel study of businesses founded in 2004 and tracked over their first years of operation. The KFS collects data about the nature of new business formation; the characteristics of the strategy, offerings, and employment patterns; the nature of the financial and organizational arrangements of these businesses; and the characteristics of those who own and operate them. With the completion of the Fifth Follow-Up Survey, the KFS has collected this information from the panel of diverse businesses over six years, providing a unique look at business dynamics over this formative period.
Liberals and Conservatives, Religious and Political: A Conjuncture of Modern History

In the twentieth century, religious and political liberalism have generally been congruent, as were religious and political conservatism, along the dimension of universalism and particularism. In recent years the terminology has grown confused, when communists in the ex-Soviet region are described as conservatives, and proponents both of market capitalism and of ethnic nationalism are described as liberals. Changes in content of liberalism and conservatism are also found in religious history. The issue of married priests today is considered to be a liberal reform within Catholicism; whereas in the twelfth century, reformers attacked married priests as corruption and abuse; at the Protestant Reformation, it was presented as church reform to abolish clerical celibacy. The rhetorical contrast "liberal/conservative" ties the concepts to the mobilization of conflict irrespective of its content. Our familiar congruence of liberalism and conservatism in religion and politics is historically specific; it emerged at the exhaustion of the religious wars in the late seventeenth century, and developed along with secularization into the early twentieth century. As particularism along ethnic and gender lines becomes a major grounds of mobilization in the late twentieth century, the classic liberal/conservative contrast appears to be eroding.
Low-frequency noise measurements of electrical stress in InAlN/GaN and AlGaN/GaN heterostructure field-effect transistors

We report on the low-frequency noise (LFN) measurements on GaN based heterostructure field-effect transistors (HFETs) on sapphire with InAlN and AlGaN barriers to investigate the effects of electrical stress. The HFETs with InAlN barrier undergone a DC stress at bias conditions of VDS=20V and VG= -4.5 for up to 4 hours in aggregate. These devices exhibited an LFN in the form of 1/fγ and a significant increase in the noise spectrum up to 15 dB for 2 hours and then the noise saturated for further stress durations. We also monitored the LFN for the HFETs with AlGaN barriers. The devices were stressed by applying 20V DC drain bias for up to 64 hours at various gate voltages. Stressing at a gate bias (VG) of -2V showed negligible degradation. On the other hand, stressing at VG=0V surprisingly reduced the noise power by about 4 to 15 dB in the frequency range of 1 Hz-100 kHz. Additionally, the InAlN-barrier HFETs exhibited 20-25 dB lower noise power than the ones with the AlGaN layer for the tested devices within the entire frequency range. The results suggest that the trap generation increases due to electrical stress in devices with InAlN barrier, whereas the noise power decreases as a function of stress in AlGaN/GaN HFETs due to an increase in the activation energy of the excess traps.
Open-Source Colorimeter

The high cost of what have historically been sophisticated research-related sensors and tools has limited their adoption to a relatively small group of well-funded researchers. This paper provides a methodology for applying an open-source approach to design and development of a colorimeter. A 3-D printable, open-source colorimeter utilizing only open-source hardware and software solutions and readily available discrete components is discussed and its performance compared to a commercial portable colorimeter. Performance is evaluated with commercial vials prepared for the closed reflux chemical oxygen demand (COD) method. This approach reduced the cost of reliable closed reflux COD by two orders of magnitude making it an economic alternative for the vast majority of potential users. The open-source colorimeter demonstrated good reproducibility and serves as a platform for further development and derivation of the design for other, similar purposes such as nephelometry. This approach promises unprecedented access to sophisticated instrumentation based on low-cost sensors by those most in need of it, under-developed and developing world laboratories.
Neutron dose distributions in tissue irradiated by negative pion beams

Abstract Monte Carlo computations are performed for four idealized uniform, circular negative pion beams. The individual dose contributions are shown from direct ionization by pions, from secondary protons, from neutrons, and from the heavier particles produced by nuclear absorption of pions. The resulting neutron dose distributions, which are important in therapeutic applications, are analyzed. Isodose contours for the total doses are presented together with isodose contours for neutron doses. The results show quantitative trends in the neutron dose distributions for different beam conditions and different treatment-volume sizes. They also show the sharpness of the boundaries of the high-dose regions that can be obtained with pion beams. The calculations indicate that only under special circumstances would the neutron dose outside the tumor volume limit the treatment dose.
Coverage dependence in the electron‐stimulated desorption of neutral NO from Pt(111)

We report a strong coverage dependence in the yield of a neutral molecule desorbed by low‐energy excitations produced by electron impact. For NO/Pt(111), there are two distinct desorption channels revealed by state‐specific translational energy distributions, measured by time‐of‐flight laser resonance ionization. The dominant low‐energy channel (Etrans =∼0.05 eV) has been previously assigned to a simple 5σ excitation. The high‐energy channel (Etrans =∼0.35 eV) involves complex (multielectron) excitations. Here we present the coverage dependence of the specific yield for the two channels. Strikingly different behavior is seen in that a strong inverse dependence occurs for low‐energy NO but relative independence of coverage is seen for high‐energy NO. A model is developed which describes the coverage dependence in terms of varying localization (or self‐trapping) probabilities as a function of nearest‐neighbor site occupancy. Comparison to experiment using a random vacancy model is rather good, with deviatio...
Voter turnout in presidential primaries: A cross-sectional examination

Decades of individual and aggregate level research suggest that three sets of factors influence voter turnout: the socioeconomic makeup of the potential voter; legal restrictions on voting; and the political context of each election. In this brief study, we use state-level data to test whether these factors combine to account for variations in turnout rates in the electoral arena of presidential primaries. As expected, high turnout is associated with states which have high median levels of education, lenient legal restrictions on voting, and a history of competitive two-party elections. Also congruent with our expectations, but at odds with research of other electoral arenas, high turnout in presidential primaries is unrelated to high campaign spending or close elections. We contend that spending in presidential primaries may be simply too low to stimulate turnout and that close primaries do not enhance turnout because voters are often unaware that the pending election will be close.
Evaluation of thermal loading on a methane injector at high pressure and temperature

Experimental and numerical analyses are conducted to determine the surface temperature on a methane fuel injector used to produce a high enthalpy test stream for a combustion-fed subscale wind tunnel facility. It was found that the ratio of the methane fuel injection velocity to the air stream velocity is a significant factor in the production of high injector surface temperatures which lead to rapid deterioration of the fuel injector structure. The numerical code utilized for the computational analysis was found to be representative of the experimentally measured data since the experimental trends were reproduced by the numerical simulation. The quantitative accuracy of the numerical predictions could not be assessed from the data gathered because of the difficulty of making a noninterfering injector surface temperature measurement. The numerical code can be used for parametric evaluation of combustor parameters and thus will serve as an important tool in the design of such fuel injector systems.
Covering response in sea urchins

THE tendency of many species of sea urchins to pick up particles and debris with their spines and tube feet, and to move and then hold the particles on their aboral surface is well known. Functional bases (decreasing the susceptibility to water or wave action, desiccation, light, or predation; supplying nutrients through skin digestion and absorption) have been ascribed to this “covering reaction”1–13.
Model-based classification of quadric surfaces

Abstract Model-based 3D object recognition systems using range imagery typically employ entirely data-driven procedures for segmentation and surface classification. However, some recognition environments may contain only objects whose surface types and parameters are known a priori and can therefore be exploited by the early-processing steps used in the recognition system. We propose a new suite of model-driven techniques for identification of quadric surfaces (cones, cylinders, and spheres) in segmented range imagery. The methods employ surface positions and surface normal estimates in combination with the known parameters of surfaces in a database of object models. Second-derivative quantities (i.e., surface curvatures) are not used. The free parameters of cylinders and spheres are accumulated using a Hough transform, and free parameters of cones are estimated using a regression procedure. Experiments are presented for numerous scenes of both real and synthetic objects including part jumbles, objects in many poses, objects containing concave and convex surfaces, and noiseless and noisy synthetic range images of objects. Our experimental results show that the proposed surface classification methods can accurately recover surface parameters from both synthetic and real images, making them viable for environments with partial knowledge of surface type and parameters.
Biased AC Electroosmosis Micropump for Water Management in PEM Fuel Cells

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells are among the most promising fuel cell technologies. Recent experimental and numerical investigations [1–3] on PEM fuel cells (PEMFC) identified water management as one of the most critical issues for designing robust, high-performance PEM fuel cells. Proper water management within the cell is therefore essential, as dehydration of the membrane or flooding of the cathode result in increasing resistive losses. Flooding reduction in the fuel cell is commonly done by removing water with excessive reactant (H2 or O2) flow rates and elevated gas pressures. This mixture makes air delivery the largest parasitic load on fuel cells. Typically, this type of air delivery consumes more than 20% of the fuel cell power. As an alternative, we have developed a novel biased AC electroosmtic micropump for PEM fuel cell applications that can be fabricated with micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) compatible semiconductor micro-fabrication. This research paper will experimentally demonstrate the bi-directional pumping action that can prevent flooding, increase power density, and ensure stable performance of fuel cell by removing water from flooded regions and redistributing it to under-saturated regions.Copyright © 2008 by ASME
No effect of drinking water temperature (ambient vs. chilled) on consumption of water during hot summer weather in ponies

Abstract Consumption of ambient warm (17°–31°C) vs. ice-chilled (0°–1°C) drinking water was compared in a within-subjects cross-over trial using nine mature pony stallions housed in tie-stalls during hot summer weather (15°–29°C). Ponies drank similar quantities whether provided warm water or chilled water. This is in contrast to earlier reported findings that during cold winter ponies drank more if provided warm water than if provided cold water. There were no qualitative differences in drinking behaviour owing to water temperature.
Commentary: PERSOC founded on experience and clear thinking

In this brief commentary, the author discusses the PERSOC framework and the five empirical papers in this issue. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Flotation machine design: important hydrodynamic effects; slight geometrical causes

Abstract Minor geometrical differences in the same design of machine can have substantial effects on machine hydrodynamics, which in turn could influence flotation performance. These differences may stem from manufacturing tolerances, machine assembly, and wear. The effects of these factors on suction, power and RTD are reported. Such geometrical differences may contribute to different flotation behaviour in different laboratories but using the same machine design.
Investigation of the role of the N-terminal proline, the distal heme ligand in the CO sensor CooA.

A unique feature of CooA, a heme-containing transcription factor, is that the N-terminal proline is the distal heme ligand in the ferrous state, and this ligand is displaced upon CO binding. To investigate the importance of Pro 2 in CO-dependent DNA binding, several CooA variants that alter N-terminal ligation were characterized. Electronic absorption, electron paramagnetic resonance, and magnetic circular dichroism spectra of these variants provide the most definitive evidence that Pro 2 is the distal ligand in Fe(III) CooA. Furthermore, the functional and spectroscopic properties of these proteins depended on whether a weak ligand occupied the distal heme coordination site: for CooA variants in which distal coordination is disrupted, the DNA-binding affinities and Fe(II)-CO spectral properties showed an unexpected dependence on the order of CO addition and heme reduction. If N-terminal variant samples were incubated with CO before the heme was reduced, the proteins displayed DNA-binding affinities and Fe(II)-CO spectral characteristics similar to those of wild-type (WT) CooA. However, if the same samples were incubated with CO after the heme was reduced, the extent of functional and spectral similarity to WT CooA negatively correlated with the amount of high-spin heme present in the ferric state. From these data, it was inferred that the absence of a distal heme ligand in the ferric state prevents WT-like CO binding to the ferrous state, and it was hypothesized that correct CO binding is inhibited by the collapse of the distal heme pocket upon reduction. Together with the observation that L116H CooA, a variant in which His 1 1 6 replaces Pro 2 as the distal heme ligand, binds CO more slowly than WT CooA, these data indicate that the presence of a weak distal heme ligand, not specifically ligation by the N-terminal proline, is crucial for proper function. The role of Pro 2 in CooA is apparently to direct CO to bind on the distal side of heme and to help maintain the integrity of the distal heme pocket during the redox-mediated ligand switch.
Two popular treatment options for neurogenic bladder

There are several etiologies for a neurogenic bladder, including congenital and acquired. The neurogenic bladder can lead to urinary tract infections, urinary incontinence and other secondary issues. Treatment options, such as clean intermittent catheterization, have been important in the care of these patients. Two treatment options for neurogenic bladder have gained popularity and have increased exposure in the literature over the past decade – botulinum toxin and antibiotic prophylaxis. Current treatment options for detrusor overactivity, urinary urgency and urge incontinence include pelvic floor therapy, anticholinergics and neuro modulation via InterStim (sacral nerve stimulation) or tibial nerve stimulation. Augmentation cystoplasty is not as common due to the other less-invasive treatment options. Botulinum-A toxin offers another minimally invasive treatment option [1,2]. However, treatment with botulinum-A toxin does have unanswered questions:
Virilization of the external genitalia of the female rat fetus by dehydroepiandrosterone.

The effects of maternal administration of DHA (Δ5,3β-hydroxyandrosten-17- one) and its 3-sulfo-conjugated form (DHAS) have been investigated on the development of the external genitalia of the female rat fetus. DHA lowers the weight of maternal adrenals, and increases the weight of maternal ovaries. DHAS produces similar maternal effects, but much lower in degree. DHA causes a striking reduction in fetal weight. This steroid producessome clitoral enlargement, and a slight increase in anourethral distance in proportion to dose.The genital changes in the female are qualitatively and quantitatively similar to those produced by cyanoketone in the experimental model of congenital adrenal hyperplasia due to inhibitionof 3β-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase and Δ5−4,3- ketosteroid isomerase. DHAS does not affect any of the parameters studied in the fetus. The present findings indicate that the virilization of females having endocrinopathies associated with adefect in the dehydrogenase system can be explained by high ...
Total Lung Deposition of Ultrafine Particles in Elderly Subjects During Controlled Breathing

Ultrafine particulate matter (PM) in the air may be harmful to health, particularly in elderly subjects. From the dosimetry point of view, it is not known if the elderly subjects are more susceptib...