cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Psychosocial treatment of bipolar disorders in adolescents: A proposed cognitive-behavioral intervention

Despite the severity of bipolar disorder (BP) and the amount of attention the psychosocial treatment of BP among adults has been given (e.g., Basco & Rush, 1996 ; Miklowitz, Frank, & George, 1996 ), no published outcome study or psychosocial treatment manual to date exists for children with this disorder. Based upon what is known about the phenomenology of BP in adolescents and what has been published with regard to existing treatments and their efficacy for adults with BP and adolescents with unipolar depression, the purpose of this article is to describe a model for an empirically driven cognitive behavioral treatment for BP in adolescents. The manualized intervention described herein includes the following intervention components: psychoeducation, medication compliance, mood monitoring, anticipating stressors and problem solving, identifying and modifying unhelpful thinking, sleep regulation and relaxation, and family communication. In addition, optional modules devoted to substance abuse, social skills, anger management, and contingency management are offered. The treatment includes a 12-session acute phase of treatment, followed by a maintenance phase and biyearly “booster” sessions. The rationale for and format of each session is presented. Currently, a pilot study is under way to evaluate the preliminary efficacy of this treatment for adolescents with BP. To illustrate the treatment, we present a case study including outcome data for a 13-year-old boy with bipolar I.
Role of nucleosome remodeling in neurodevelopmental and intellectual disability disorders

It is becoming increasingly important to understand how epigenetic mechanisms control gene expression during neurodevelopment. Two epigenetic mechanisms that have received considerable attention are DNA methylation and histone acetylation. Human exome sequencing and genome-wide association studies have linked several neurobiological disorders to genes whose products actively regulate DNA methylation and histone acetylation. More recently, a third major epigenetic mechanism, nucleosome remodeling, has been implicated in human developmental and intellectual disability (ID) disorders. Nucleosome remodeling is driven primarily through nucleosome remodeling complexes with specialized ATP-dependent enzymes. These enzymes directly interact with DNA or chromatin structure, as well as histone subunits, to restructure the shape and organization of nucleosome positioning to ultimately regulate gene expression. Of particular interest is the neuron-specific Brg1/hBrm Associated Factor (nBAF) complex. Mutations in nBAF subunit genes have so far been linked to Coffin-Siris syndrome (CSS), Nicolaides-Baraitser syndrome (NBS), schizophrenia, and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Together, these human developmental and ID disorders are powerful examples of the impact of epigenetic modulation on gene expression. This review focuses on the new and emerging role of nucleosome remodeling in neurodevelopmental and ID disorders and whether nucleosome remodeling affects gene expression required for cognition independently of its role in regulating gene expression required for development.
Effects of Diets with or without Menhaden Fish Meal and Oil on Egg Size, Hatchability, and Fry Size for Rosy Red Fathead Minnow

Abstract Fathead minnow Pimephales promelas represent 20% of total baitfish sales in the USA. Fathead minnow spawn in captivity, but the effects of diet on reproduction are virtually unknown. The objective of this study was to determine the main and interactive effects of dietary protein sources (plant versus animal) and lipid sources (poultry versus fish oil) on fathead minnow broodstock and egg and larval quality. Broodstock of the rosy red variety of fathead minnow were stocked into 24 outdoor pools and fed practical diets containing 10% lipid as poultry fat or menhaden fish oil in combination with animal proteins (poultry and fish meal) or plant proteins. Fish received the diets for 2 months before spawning, which began in late February. Eggs were collected from spawning substrates seven times during the spawning season and egg diameter was determined each time. Hatching percentage and larval length were determined during three of the sampling periods, and fatty acid composition was determined once (M...
Scene analysis and detection in thermal infrared remote sensing using independent component analysis

Independent Component Analysis can be used to analyze cluttered scenes from remote sensing imagery and to detect objects. We show examples in the thermal infrared spectral region (8-12 μm) using both passive hyperspectral data and active multispectral data. The examples are from actual field data and computer simulations. ICA isolates spectrally distinct objects with nearly one-to-one correspondence with the independent component basis functions, making it useful for modeling the clutter in typical scenes. We show examples of chemical plume detection in real and simulated data.
Design of thick apertures for high-resolution neutron penumbral imaging

A general technique is presented for designing the thick apertures required to image penetrating radiation with high resolution. The new apertures are tapered in such a way that the radius of curvature varies inversely with distance from the source plane. The technique is used to design a high-resolution neutron penumbral-aperture microscope planned for the Nova laser. The design provides a resolution (determined by the sharpness of the aperture point-spread function) of >
Quinacrine enhances vesicular stomatitis virus inactivation and diminishes hemolysis of dimethylmethylene blue-phototreated red cells.

Abstract Several photodynamic methods for virus inactivation in red blood cell (RBC) suspensions have resulted in unwanted hemolysis during extended 1–6°C storage. To explore the possibility that hemolysis may be mediated by a membrane-bound dye, a molecule similar in structure to yet different in light absorption properties from the photosensitizer was used as an inhibitor for RBC membrane binding in virus photoinactivation and photohemolysis studies. The addition of 500 μM quinacrine to oxygenated RBC before treatment with 3.6 μM dimethylmethylene blue (DMMB) and 219 mJ/cm2 red light resulted in an increased extracellular concentration of the sensitizer, increased extracelluar viral inactivation kinetics, and decreased hemolysis during 1–6°C storage without alteration of quinacrine absorption properties. These results collectively suggest that despite its recognized affinity for viral nucleic acid, DMMB also binds to RBC membranes and that the bound dye is, in part, responsible for photoinduced hemolysis.
Raising expectations? Civil society’s influence on human rights and US foreign policy

(2004). Raising expectations? Civil society’s influence on human rights and US foreign policy. Journal of Human Rights: Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 21-40.
CREDIT RISK AND RISK NEUTRAL DEFAULT PROBABILITIES: INFORMATION ABOUT RATING MIGRATIONS AND DEFAULTS

Default probabilities are important to the credit markets. Changes in default probabilities may forecast credit rating migrations to other rating levels or to default. Such rating changes can affect the firm’s cost of capital, credit spreads, bond returns, and the prices and hedge ratios of credit derivatives. While rating agencies such as Moodys and Standard & Poors compute historical default frequencies, option models can also be used to calculate forward looking or expected default frequencies. In this paper, we compute risk neutral probabilities or default (RNPD) using the diffusion models of Merton (1974) and Geske (1977). It is shown that the Geske model produces a term structure of RNPD’s, and the shape of this term structure may forecast impending credit events. Next, it is shown that these RNPD’s serve as bounds to estimates of actual default probabilities. Furthermore, the RNPD’s exhibit the same comparative statics as the estimates of actual default probabilities. Also, the risk neutral default probabilities may be more accurately estimated than actual default probabilities because they do not require an estimate of the firm’s drift. Given these similarities and advantages of RNPD’s, their estimates may possess significant information about credit events. To confirm this an event study of the relation between RNPD and rating migrations is conducted. We first show that these RNPD’s from both the Merton and Geske models do possess significant and very early information about credit rating migrations.While the sample of firms that actually default during this time period is small, changes in the shape of the term structure of default probabilities appears to detect impending migrations to default. This is shown to be consistent with an inverted term structure of default probabilities, where prior to an impending default, the short term default probability is higher than the forward default probability. Finally, since rating migrations to either lower ratings or to default can be detected months in advance these credit events may not be a surprise.
Linking white matter integrity loss to associated cortical regions using structural connectivity information in Alzheimer's disease and fronto-temporal dementia: The Loss in Connectivity (LoCo) score

It is well known that gray matter changes occur in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's (AD) and fronto-temporal dementia (FTD), and several studies have investigated their respective patterns of atrophy progression. Recent work, however, has revealed that diffusion MRI that is able to detect white matter integrity changes may be an earlier or more sensitive biomarker in both diseases. However, studies that examine white matter changes only are limited in that they do not provide the functional specificity of GM region-based analysis. In this study, we develop a new metric called the Loss in Connectivity (LoCo) score that gives the amount of structural network disruption incurred by a gray matter region for a particular pattern of white matter integrity loss. Leveraging the relative strengths of WM and GM markers, this metric links areas of WM integrity loss to their connected GM regions as a first step in understanding their functional implications. The LoCo score is calculated for three groups: 18AD, 18 FTD, and 19 age-matched normal controls. We show significant correlations of the LoCo with the respective atrophy patterns in AD (R=0.51, p=2.2 × 10(-9)) and FTD (R=0.49, p=2.5 × 10(-8)) for a standard 116 region gray matter atlas. In addition, we demonstrate that the LoCo outperforms a measure of gray matter atrophy when classifying individuals into AD, FTD, and normal groups.
Home central venous hyperalimentation in fifteen patients with severe scleroderma bowel disease

Fifteen patients with severe scleroderma bowel disease began receiving home central venous hyperalimentation (HCVH) between 1979 and 1987. The major reasons for instituting HCVH were intestinal pseudo-obstruction, malabsorption, and malnutrition. Eleven patients had an improved quality of life. Serious complications encountered over these 15,700 catheter-use days were 2 episodes of septicemia and 2 episodes of superior vena cava obstruction. Seven patients died, but none directly from their gastrointestinal disease or from the HCVH.
Using robotic exploratory procedures to learn the meaning of haptic adjectives

Delivering on the promise of real-world robotics will require robots that can communicate with humans through natural language by learning new words and concepts through their daily experiences. Our research strives to create a robot that can learn the meaning of haptic adjectives by directly touching objects. By equipping the PR2 humanoid robot with state-of-the-art biomimetic tactile sensors that measure temperature, pressure, and fingertip deformations, we created a platform uniquely capable of feeling the physical properties of everyday objects. The robot used five exploratory procedures to touch 51 objects that were annotated by human participants with 34 binary adjective labels. We present both static and dynamic learning methods to discover the meaning of these adjectives from the labeled objects, achieving average F1 scores of 0.57 and 0.79 on a set of eight previously unfelt items.
Districts as institutional actors in educational reform

Purpose: Intermittent attention to the district as the unit of study has left a void in our understanding of the complexities associated with the ability of district-level leaders to contribute to successful, systemic educational reform. In this article, the authors address this void by providing a narrative synthesis of previous findings, proposing a theory of districts as institutional actors in systemic reform with the goal being to increase achievement and advance equity, and suggesting areas of future research that extend our understanding of districts as institutional actors in educational reform and build our knowledge of reform that improves achievement and advances equity.Proposed Conceptual Argument:The four roles of districts evident in research to date are (a) providing instructional leadership, (b) reorienting the organization, (c) establishing policy coherence, and (d) maintaining an equity focus. These four roles, which are interdependent, variably coupled, and coevolving through a nonlinea...
Enhancing the visuo‐spatial aptitude of students

Research to date has not been able to agree whether visuo-spatial ability can be influenced through practice. Many have concluded that spatial awareness is an innate phenomena and cannot be learned. Others contend that an individual's visuo-spatial potentials are acquired through interactions with the environment. Many of these theorists believe that spatial thinking can be developed through interactive exercises devised to encourage mental image formation and manipulation. To help alleviate the confusion surrounding this question the following study was undertaken. Eighty-four college undergraduates were randomly placed into control and experimental sections. Student records were examined to assure that the groups did not differ significantly in their verbal or math proficiency and pertinent pretests were given to ascertain spatial levels. The groups were also similar on their male and female ratios. During the semester the experimental section was treated to a 30-minute interaction each week. These sessions involved spatial exercises that required the participants to mentally bisect three-dimensional geometric figures and to envision the shape of the two-dimensional surface formed by the bisection. The subjects drew their mental image of this surface on a sheet of paper. Fourteen weeks later both groups were post tested with a second comparable version of the pretest. Statistical “t” tests were performed on the group means to see if significant differences developed between the sections. The results indicate that statistical improvement in visuo-spatial cognition did occur for the experimental group in spatial visualization, and spatial orientation. This finding suggests that the weekly intervention sessions had a positive effect on the students' visuo-spatial awareness. These results, therefore, tend to support those researchers that claim visuo-spatial aptitude can be enhanced through teaching.
Noncoherent fast frequency hopped/joint frequency-phase modulation over Rayleigh fading channels

The performance of a fast frequency hopped spread spectrum system is studied. The frequency hopped signal is a combination of multi frequency-multi phase signals and is referred to as fast frequency hopped/joint frequency-phase modulation (FFH/JFPM). A noncoherent receiver for the FFH/JFPM signals is introduced and an exact expression for the bit error is obtained. A performance analysis of this system is given over Rayleigh fading channels. The results show that FFH/JFPM performs better than the conventional FFH systems. >
Origin of Water in the Terrestrial Planets

I examine the origin of water in the terrestrial planets. Late-stage delivery of water from asteroidal and cometary sources appears to be ruled out by isotopic and molecular ratio considerations, unless either comets and asteroids currently sampled spectroscopically and by meteorites are unlike those falling to Earth 4.5 Ga ago, or our measurements are not representative of those bodies. However, the terrestrial planets were bathed in a gas of H, He, and O. The dominant gas phase species were H2, He, H2O, and CO. Thus, grains in the accretion disk must have been exposed to and adsorbed H2 and water. Here I conduct a preliminary analysis of the efficacy of nebular gas adsorption as a mechanism by which the terrestrial planets accreted "wet." A simple model suggests that grains accreted to Earth could have adsorbed 1-3 Earth oceans of water. The fraction of this water retained during accretion is unknown, but these results suggest that examining the role of adsorption of water vapor onto grains in the accretion disk bears further study.
First-order recurrent neural networks and deterministic finite state automata

We examine the correspondence between first-order recurrent neural networks and deterministic finite state automata. We begin with the problem of inducing deterministic finite state automata from finite training sets, that include both positive and negative examples, an NP-hard problem (Angluin and Smith 1983). We use a neural network architecture with two recurrent layers, which we argue can approximate any discrete-time, time-invariant dynamic system, with computation of the full gradient during learning. The networks are trained to classify strings as belonging or not belonging to the grammar. The training sets used contain only short strings, and the sets are constructed in a way that does not require a priori knowledge of the grammar. After training, the networks are tested using various test sets with strings of length up to 1000, and are often able to correctly classify all the test strings. These results are comparable to those obtained with second-order networks (Giles et al. 1992; Watrous and Kuhn 1992a; Zeng et al. 1993). We observe that the networks emulate finite state automata, confirming the results of other authors, and we use a vector quantization algorithm to extract deterministic finite state automata after training and during testing of the networks, obtaining a table listing the start state, accept states, reject states, all transitions from the states, as well as some useful statistics. We examine the correspondence between finite state automata and neural networks in detail, showing two major stages in the learning process. To this end, we use a graphics module, which graphically depicts the states of the network during the learning and testing phases. We examine the networks' performance when tested on strings much longer than those in the training set, noting a measure based on clustering that is correlated to the stability of the networks. Finally, we observe that with sufficiently long training times, neural networks can become true finite state automata, due to the attractor structure of their dynamics.
Meiotic Induction by Heat Stress in Mouse Oocytes: Involvement of AMP-Activated Protein Kinase and MAPK Family Members

In this study, we examined the effect of heat pulsing on oocyte maturation and assessed the possible role of stress-activated enzymes during heat stress-induced meiotic maturation. Denuded oocytes from immature eCG-primed mice were pulsed for 30 min at increasing temperatures from 408 Ct o 438C in dibutyryl cAMP-containing medium and were subsequently cultured at 378C for a total incubation time of 17–18 h. Oocytes exposed to 428C showed the greatest stimulation of maturation, with no effect at 438C. A heat pulse did not compromise progression to metaphase II as observed by polar body (PB) formation. The AMP-activated protein kinase (PRKA) inhibitors compound C and Ara-A each blocked the meiosis-stimulating effects of heat. Western blots showed that acetyl-CoA carboxylase, an important substrate of PRKA, was phosphorylated in heat-treated germinal vesicle-stage oocytes, indicating activation of PRKA before maturation. The mitogen-activated protein 2 kinase (MAP2K1) inhibitor PD98059 also prevented heat-induced maturation, but this effect was unrelated to MAPK1/3 activation, which was not observed until after germinal vesicle breakdown (GVB). Phosphorylated MAPK14 was not detected in the oocyte under any experimental condition, and only high concentrations of the MAPK14 inhibitor SB203580 blocked heat-stimulated maturation, suggesting that MAPK14 is not involved in meiotic induction. MAPK8/9 was activated by heat, and the MAPK8/9 inhibitor SP600125, but not JUN N-terminal kinase I, blocked heat-induced maturation. Heat treatment transiently suppressed GVB and PB formation in spontaneously maturing oocytes by a mechanism that is apparently different from its meiosis-inducing action. Collectively, these data show that an acute heat pulse stimulates GVB in meiotically arrested oocytes and suggest that this effect is mediated through the activation of PRKA. gamete biology, meiosis, oocyte development, stress
Introduction to the special issue: neurobiology and building interpersonal systems: groups, couples, and beyond.

(2010). Introduction to the Special Issue: Neurobiology and Building Interpersonal Systems: Groups, Couples, and Beyond. International Journal of Group Psychotherapy: Vol. 60, Neurobiology and Building Interpersonal Systems: Groups, Couples, and Beyond, pp. 455-460.
Forearm 3-methylhistidine efflux in myotonic dystrophy

Myotonic dystrophy is associated with progressive muscular atrophy. To define the mechanism of muscle wasting in this disease, we studied myofibrillar proteolysis in vivo in 8 men moderately affected with myotonic dystrophy, and compared the results with those of 10 normal men. Myofibrillar proteolysis was estimated by measuring the 3-methylhistidine arteriovenous difference (A – V) and efflux (Q) across the forearm in the postabsorptive state. Plasma 3-methylhistidine concentrations were determined by high-performance liquid chromatography with postcolumn o-phthalaldehyde derivatization and fluorescence detection. Plasma flow to the forearm muscles (F) was estimated to represent 85% of total forearm plasma flow as determined by the indicator-dilution technique. Forearm 3-methylhistidine efflux was calculated as: Q = F(A – V). Mean muscle mass (24-hour creatinine excretion), lean body mass, and forearm volume were decreased in the patients with myotonic dystrophy, confirming the presence of muscle atrophy. Mean forearm 3-methylhistidine arteriovenous difference and efflux were not significantly different in the two groups. We conclude that myofibrillar protein degradation is not increased in myotonic dystrophy, even when measured in a muscle compartment selectively affected by wasting. Muscle atrophy in myotonic dystrophy is probably the result of defective anabolism rather than accelerated catabolism.
Phase-based tuning for better utilization of performance-asymmetric multicore processors

The latest trend towards performance asymmetry among cores on a single chip of a multicore processor is posing new challenges. For effective utilization of these performance-asymmetric multicore processors, code sections of a program must be assigned to cores such that the resource needs of code sections closely matches resource availability at the assigned core. Determining this assignment manually is tedious, error prone, and significantly complicates software development. To solve this problem, we contribute a transparent and fully-automatic process that we call phase-based tuning which adapts an application to effectively utilize performance-asymmetric multicores. Compared to the stock Linux scheduler we see a 36% average process speedup, while maintaining fairness and with negligible overheads.
Proton-proton scattering with parity and time-reversal noninvariance

Abstract This paper develops a formalism to treat some of the effects of a hypothetical breakdown of parity and time-reversal invariance in the proton-proton interaction. The first two sections show how the usual parametrization of the S-matrix (in terms of phase shifts and mixing parameters) must be extended to include a description of such violations. The third section discusses some of the experiments which could detect these violations, if they existed, and the final part extends the general form of the p-p potential. An appendix applies the formalism to two experiments testing time-reversal invariance.
Subgrouping and grading of soft-tissue sarcomas by fine-needle aspiration cytology: a histopathologic correlation study.

To evaluate the accuracy and reproducibility of subgrouping and grading soft-tissue sarcomas by fine-needle aspiration biopsy (FNAB), a blind review was conducted of 84 FNAB specimens from 77 malignant and 7 benign soft-tissue lesions. Cytomorphologic subgroups included 31 spindle-cell, 24 pleomorphic, 11 myxoid, 7 epithelioid/polygonal, 3 small round cell, and 8 nondiagnostic cases. Malignancies included one lymphoma and 41 primary, 15 recurrent, and 20 metastatic soft-tissue sarcomas. Adequacy was defined as a majority of slides with at least 5 clusters of 10 unobscured cells. Five originally false-negative cases were considered nondiagnostic on review. Sarcoma was recognized in 59 of 64 adequate cases (92%) with available histology; however, the specific histopathologic subtype was identified in only 9 cases (14%). Benign myxoid and spindle-cell lesions were difficult to separate from low-grade sarcomas in 4 cases, and a B-cell lymphoma with sclerosis mimicked a low-grade myxoid sarcoma. The assigned cytologic grade accurately reflected the histologic grade in 90% of sarcomas when segregated into high and low grades. Pleomorphic, small round cell, and epithelioid/polygonal subgroups corresponded to high-grade sarcomas in all cases with only minor noncorrelations. Major grading noncorrelations occurred in 50% of myxoid and 9% of spindle-cell sarcomas. Therefore, attention should be given to specimen adequacy, and caution should be exercised when attempting to grade myxoid and spindle-cell sarcomas by FNAB.
Reproductive biology of a wood-boring isopod, Sphaeroma terebrans, with extended parental care

The isopod Sphaeroma terebrans Bate, 1866 burrows in aerial roots of the red mangrove Rhizophora mangle L. The burrows serve as shelter and as a reproductive habitat, and females are known to host their offspring in their burrows. I examined the reproductive biology of S. terebrans in the Indian River Lagoon, a shallow lagoon stretching for ∼200 km along the Atlantic coast of Florida, USA. Reproductive isopods were found throughout the year, but reproductive activity was highest in the fall and during late spring/early summer. During the latter periods, large numbers of subadults established their own burrows in aerial roots. The average numbers of S. terebrans per root were high during the fall, but decreased during the winter and reached lowest levels at the end of the summer. Females reached maturity at a larger size than males, but also grew to larger sizes than the males. The average size of females varied between 8 and 10 mm, the average size of males between 6.5 and 8.5 mm. The number of embryos female−1 was strongly correlated with female body length. No indication for embryo mortality during development was found. Parental females (i.e. with juveniles in their burrows) hosted on average between 5 and 20 juveniles in their burrows (range 1 to 59). Most juveniles found in female burrows were in the manca stage and 2 to 3 mm in body length. Juveniles did not increase in size while in the maternal burrow, and juveniles of similar sizes could also be found in their own burrows. Males did not participate in extended parental care, since most of them left the females after copulation. Many females that were born in the summer produced one brood in the fall and a second during winter/early spring. Females that were born in the fall produced one brood during spring/early summer, but then probably died. Extended parental care in S. terebrans is short compared to other peracarid crustaceans. It is concluded that this reproductive strategy in S. terebrans serves primarily to shelter small juveniles immediately after they emerge from the female body, when their exoskeleton is still hardening and their physiological capabilities are still developing. Thus, in S. terebrans, extended parental care probably aids to protect small juveniles from adverse physical conditions in their subtropical intertidal habitat.
Can Shaker Potassium Channels be Locked in the Deactivated State

For structural studies it would be useful to constrain the voltage sensor of a voltage-gated channel in its deactivated state. Here we consider one Shaker potassium channel mutant and speculate about others that might allow the channel to remain deactivated at zero membrane potential. Ionic and gating currents of F370C Shaker, expressed in Xenopus oocytes, were recorded in patches with internal application of the methanethiosulfonate reagent MTSET. It appears that the voltage dependence of voltage sensor movement is strongly shifted by reaction with internal MTSET, such that the voltage sensors appear to remain deactivated even at positive potentials. A disadvantage of this construct is that the rate of modification of voltage sensors by MTSET is quite low, ∼0.17 mM−1·s−1 at −80 mV, and is expected to be much lower at depolarized potentials.
Silver Particle Carbon-Matrix Composites as Thick Films for Electrical Applications

Silver particle (3 μm) carbon-matrix composites in the form of thick films (around 100 μm thick) on alumina, as prepared from pastes comprising silver and mesophase pitch particles (14 μm), have been attained. The films on alumina were fired at 650°C in nitrogen to convert pitch to carbon. The volume electrical resistivity attained ranged from 10−5 Ω cm to 104 Ω cm, depending on the silver volume fraction. The percolation threshold was 12 vol% silver.
A survey of distributed deadlock detection algorithms

This paper surveys research work performed within the last five years in distributed deadlock detection. The last survey paper on this topic appeared in 1980; since that time a large number of interesting algorithms have been discribed in the literature. A new, more efficient scheme is the probe-based deadlock detection strategy used by many of the new algorithms. This paper will concentrate on distributed deadlock detection algorithms. Only detection of resource deadlocks will be reviewed here, though other types of deadlock handling strategies and environments are briefly mentioned.
(3S,7aR)‐Tetrahydro‐3‐isopropyl‐7a‐methylpyrrolo‐[2,1‐b]oxazol‐5(6H)‐one

(3S,cis) [98203-44-2] C10H17NO2 (MW 183.28) InChI = 1S/C10H17NO2/c1-7(2)8-6-13-10(3)5-4-9(12)11(8)10/h7-8H,4-6H2,1-3H3/t8-,10-/m1/s1 InChIKey = NUUDVADIQSLTCN-PSASIEDQSA-N (3R,cis) [123808-97-9] InChI = 1S/C10H17NO2/c1-7(2)8-6-13-10(3)5-4-9(12)11(8)10/h7-8H,4-6H2,1-3H3/t8-,10-/m0/s1 InChIKey = NUUDVADIQSLTCN-WPRPVWTQSA-N (chiral template for synthesis of enantiomerically pure cyclopropanes, cyclobutanes, cyclopentenones, pyrrolidines, pyrrolidinones, and α,α-disubstituted γ-keto acids1) Physical Data: bp 76–80 °C/0.05 mmHg; [α]D 95.5°. Preparative Methods: the richly functionalized chiral bicyclic lactam is easily procured by condensation of commercially available (S)-valinol and levulinic acid in 86% yield (eq 1).2 Similar bicyclic lactams have been prepared from other amino alcohols.3 These bicyclic lactams have served as precursors to a variety of enantiomerically pure compounds that possess quaternary stereocenters. An extensive review on the utility of chiral, nonracemic bicyclic lactams is available.1 (1)
‘Saving the phenomena’ and saving the phenomena

Empiricists claim that in accepting a scientific theory one should not commit oneself to claims about things that are not observable in the sense of registering on human perceptual systems (according to Van Fraassen’s constructive empiricism) or experimental equipment (according to what I call “liberal empiricism”). They also claim scientific theories should be accepted or rejected on the basis of how well they save the phenomena in the sense delivering unified descriptions of natural regularities among things that meet their conditions for observability. I argue that empiricism is both unfaithful to real world scientific practice, and epistemically imprudent, if not incoherent. To illuminate scientific practice and save regularity phenomena one must commit oneself to claims about causal mechanisms that can be detected from data, but do not register directly on human perceptual systems or experimental equipment. I conclude by suggesting that empiricists should relax their standards for acceptable beliefs.
The contact lens and myopia progression study

The Contact Lens and Myopia Progression (CLAMP) Study is a randomized clinical trial to examine the effects of rigid gas permeable contact lenses on myopia progression in children. Unique study design issues may help avoid pitfalls experienced by previous myopia control studies.
Microfluidically Controlled Frequency-Tunable Monopole Antenna for High-Power Applications

A microfluidically controlled frequency-tunable monopole antenna with high RF power-handling capability is presented. Different than previous work, the frequency tunability of this monopole is achieved by using a movable metallized plate inside a microfluidic channel. The monopole is capacitively coupled to a feeding microstrip line through a 12- μm-thick benzo-cyclobutene (BCB) insulator that is used to seal and bond the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS)-based microfluidic channel to the feed board substrate (RO4003C). It is shown that the presented reconfigurable monopole implemented with the metallized plate, low-loss BCB insulator, and RO4003C board exhibits 200% more power-handling capability as compared to prior implementation that relied on liquid metal, liquid crystal polymer, and RO5880 substrate. The presented monopole provides continuous tuning in the 1.7-3.5 GHz range with a tuning ratio of ~ 2:1. The RF power handling of the antenna is demonstrated through the agreement between multiphysics simulations and experiments conducted under high RF power excitation. The liquid metal free nature of the antenna and using BCB to bond the PDMS-based microfluidic channels with the printed circuit board substrates offer a new approach for realizing reconfigurable devices with higher efficiency and high power-handling capability.
ANTICOMPLEMENTARY ACTION OF ENDOTOXIN.

SummaryThese results have indicated that the anticomplementary action of endo-toxin upon normal serum is not mediated by an Ag (endotoxin)-Ab complex. Removal of Ab from normal serum had no detectable effect upon such anticomplementary action. In addition, the serum of the newborn piglet obtained prior to feeding and relatively lacking in Ab was more susceptible to endo-toxin's anticomplementary action than the serum of its sow. Other ancillary evidence such as the marked difference in the susceptibility of the C′ of different species to endo-toxin also supports a non-immunological mechanism for its anticomplementary action. Although an Ag (endotoxin)-Ab complex may possess potent C′fixing action, other mechanisms, unknown at present, are responsible probably for the anticomplementary action of endotoxin in normal serum.
Transient response of a liquid injector to a steep-fronted transverse pressure wave

Motivated by the dynamic injection environment posed by unsteady pressure gain combustion processes, an experimental apparatus was developed to visualize the dynamic response of a transparent liquid injector subjected to a single steep-fronted transverse pressure wave. Experiments were conducted at atmospheric pressure with a variety of acrylic injector passage designs using water as the working fluid. High-speed visual observations were made of the injector exit near field, and the extent of backflow and the time to refill the orifice passage were characterized over a range of injection pressures. A companion transient one-dimensional model was developed for interpretation of the results and to elucidate the trends with regard to the strength of the transverse pressure wave. Results from the model were compared with the experimental observations.
Vitamin B12-binding Protein of Leukocytes as a Possible Major Source of the Third Vitamin B12-binding Protein of Serum

Much evidence suggests that granulocytes are a major source of serum vitamin B12-binding protein (BBP). The latter has three components: α-1-globulin BBP (Transcobalamin I, TC I), β-globulin BBP (TC II), and a recently described third BBP. Granulocytic BBP has appeared to be identical to TC I except in electrophoretic mobility. In the present study, the dominant BBP of leukocyte extracts from subjects with and without myeloproliferative disease behaved like the third serum BBP. With a few exceptions, more than half the leukocytic binder eluted with the "β globulins" on rapid DEAE-cellulose chromatography. At pH 8.6, electrophoretic mobility of the leukocytic BBP was always α2 or β. At ph 4.5, normal and chronic myelogenous leukemia leukocytic BBP, unlike TC I and TC II, showed little electrophoretic migration. These findings suggest that leukocytic BBP is probably heterogenous and that its major component resembles the third serum BBP more than it does TC I. The third serum BBP, levels of which are elevated in some states of leukocytic proliferation, may derive directly from mature granulocytes. TC I may arise by addition of sialic acid to the third (granulocytic) BBP under certain circumstances or be released from other cells, such as less mature granulocytes. Much of the confusion in the literature regarding source and significance of serum BBP may relate to separating it into only two fractions (α globulin and "β globulin," or "TC I" and TC II) instead of into three fractions.
Hormone Mediated Oviductal Influence on Mouse Embryo Development

This study presents evidence that estradiol, mediated through oviduct fluid, may adversely affect the development of early embryos. Two-cell mouse embryos were cultured in Whitten-Biggers medium with or without 0.2 to 20 μ g/ml of estradiol or progesterone or in mouse oviduct fluid from donors treated with estradiol or estradiol and progesterone. Embryos cultured in fluid from estrogen-dominated donors were significantly less able to develop to morula (65%) or blastocyst (14%) than were those cultured in either Whitten-Biggers medium (91% and 41%) or progesterone-dominated fluid (87% and 36%). Transfer of cultured morulae and blastocysts to uteri of pseudopregnant recipients resulted in 2/3, 4/6, and 0/7 recipients' becoming pregnant for control, progesterone-dominated, and estrogen-dominated, respectively. When estradiol or progesterone was added directly to the control medium, no inhibitory effects were observed at levels higher than those found physiologically in plasma. Protein concentration and osmolalities for representative samples of oviduct fluid were 5.2mg/ml and 329mOsM for estrogen-dominated fluid and 1.6mg/ml and 339mOsM for progesterone-dominated fluid.
A Practical Guide to the Preparation of Liquid Crystal-Templated Microparticles

We provide a practical guide to methods and protocols that use polymer networks templated from droplets of liquid crystal (LC) to synthesize micrometer-sized polymeric particles that are chemically patchy, are anisometric in shape, possess anisotropic optical properties, and/or are mesoporous. We describe a range of methods that permit the preparation of LC droplets (containing reactive monomers) as templates for polymerization, including formation of LC-in-water emulsions by mechanical methods (e.g., vortexing), encapsulation in polymeric shells, or microfluidics. The relative merits of the methods, including ease of use and potential pitfalls, and the resulting droplet size distributions, are described. We also report a menu of approaches that can be used to control the internal configurations of the LC droplets, including changes in composition of the continuous solvent phases (e.g., addition of glycerol) and adsorption of surfactants or colloids at the interfaces of the LC droplets. Photopolymerizatio...
Friendly fire: anti-cytokine antibodies elicited by microbes

A recent study suggests that exposure to the mold Aspergillus induces the production of antibodies that neutralize interferon-γ (IFN-γ), which increases the risk of mycobacterial disease.
Law school academic support professionals' perceptions about development of students' critical thinking

Recent research suggests that many U.S. students graduate from college with under-developed critical thinking skills. College graduates with deficits in critical thinking skills who pursue legal education face difficult barriers to academic and professional success which, if not effectively addressed, may impact the affected students, as well as the legal profession and society as a whole. Legal education is likewise facing intense criticism regarding educational practices and graduates’ level of preparation for the competent practice of law. The purpose of this study was to construct a comprehensive theory of the development of critical thinking skills in law students. Through a process of grounded analysis, the researcher developed a conceptual model of the development of critical thinking in law students based on interview data collected from 14 academic support professionals at third- and fourth-tier law schools in the U.S. The model, referred to as the Critical Thinking in Law Students (CTLS) Model, considers student learning needs, student learning challenges, and legal education system challenges, and identifies twelve factors to optimize the development of critical thinking in law students. The CTLS Model may help law school governing authorities, law school administrators, law school faculty, law school academic support professionals, and law students better understand how critical thinking develops in law students so that students may achieve their full academic, intellectual, and professional potential.
Machine Learning Interface for Medical Image Analysis.

TensorFlow is a second-generation open-source machine learning software library with a built-in framework for implementing neural networks in wide variety of perceptual tasks. Although TensorFlow usage is well established with computer vision datasets, the TensorFlow interface with DICOM formats for medical imaging remains to be established. Our goal is to extend the TensorFlow API to accept raw DICOM images as input; 1513 DaTscan DICOM images were obtained from the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative (PPMI) database. DICOM pixel intensities were extracted and shaped into tensors, or n-dimensional arrays, to populate the training, validation, and test input datasets for machine learning. A simple neural network was constructed in TensorFlow to classify images into normal or Parkinson’s disease groups. Training was executed over 1000 iterations for each cross-validation set. The gradient descent optimization and Adagrad optimization algorithms were used to minimize cross-entropy between the predicted and ground-truth labels. Cross-validation was performed ten times to produce a mean accuracy of 0.938 ± 0.047 (95 % CI 0.908–0.967). The mean sensitivity was 0.974 ± 0.043 (95 % CI 0.947–1.00) and mean specificity was 0.822 ± 0.207 (95 % CI 0.694–0.950). We extended the TensorFlow API to enable DICOM compatibility in the context of DaTscan image analysis. We implemented a neural network classifier that produces diagnostic accuracies on par with excellent results from previous machine learning models. These results indicate the potential role of TensorFlow as a useful adjunct diagnostic tool in the clinical setting.
Testosterone downregulates angiotensin II type-2 receptor via androgen receptor-mediated ERK1/2 MAP kinase pathway in rat aorta.

Introduction:Blood pressure is lower in females than males. Angiotensin II type-2 receptor (AT2R) induces vasodilation. This study determined whether sex differences in vascular AT2R expression occ...
Quantitative K-theory for Banach algebras

Abstract Quantitative (or controlled) K-theory for C ⁎ -algebras was used by Guoliang Yu in his work on the Novikov conjecture, and later developed more formally by Yu together with Herve Oyono-Oyono. In this paper, we extend their work by developing a framework of quantitative K-theory for the class of algebras of bounded linear operators on subquotients (i.e., subspaces of quotients) of L p spaces. We also prove the existence of a controlled Mayer–Vietoris sequence in this framework.
Localized plasmonic-assisted polarization dependent state switching in a single semiconductor quantum dot

We demonstrated polarization dependent switching between two different charged states in a single quantum dot. We note that this switching is a consequence of the modification of the local electromagnetic field by a plasmonic structure.
Predation environment affects boldness temperament of neotropical livebearers

Behavioral traits of individuals are important phenotypes that potentially interact with many other traits, an understanding of which may illuminate the evolutionary forces affecting populations and species. Among the five axes of temperament is the propensity to behave boldly in the presence of a perceived risk. To determine the effect of different predatorial regimes on boldness and fearfulness, we assessed the behavior of individuals in a novel portable swim chamber (i.e., forced open-field test) by Brachyrhaphis rhabdophora (n = 633). We used an information theoretic framework to compare generalized (logistic) linear fixed-effects models of predatorial regime (predator-free [n = 6] and predator [n = 4] sites), sex, and standard length (SL). Fish from predator sites were much more fearful in the novel arena than fish from nonpredator sites. This varied by length, but not by sex. At 48 mm SL, fish from nonpredator sites were 4.9 times more likely to express bold behavior (ambulation) in the novel swim chamber as fish from predator sites. Probabilities of "ambulating" within the swim chamber increased with size for nonpredator sites and decreased with size for predator sites.
High performance automotive radar signal processing on TI's TDA3X platform

Automotive is an important application of radar. In collision avoidance applications, radar and camera are two main sensors with radar having a healthy share [16]. Usage of radar in the automotive space is expanding beyond range and velocity detection of obstacles to more sophisticated usage of object motion direction estimation [17], precise angular position estimation of obstacles in urban environments [6][7] and ground vehicle localization[15]. As a result, radar processing solutions require complex signal processing with higher programmability. In this paper, we explain the mapping of automotive MIMO radar processing chain on TI's TDA3x platform and highlight the need for a heterogeneous processor architecture with adequate programmability.
Exponential convergence of two-stage stochastic programming

Abstract This paper considers a procedure of two-stage stochastic programming in which the performance function to be optimized is replaced by its empirical mean. This procedure converts a stochastic optimization problem into a deterministic one for which many methods are available. Another strength of the method is that there is essentially no requirement on the distribution of the random variables involved. Exponential convergence for the probability of deviation of the empirical optimum from the true optimum is established using large deviation techniques. Explicit bounds on the convergence rates are obtained for the case of quadratic performance functions. Finally, numerical results are presented for the famous news vendor problem and for a resource problem, which lends experimental evidence supporting the exponential convergence.