cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
X-ray diffraction wafer mapping method for SiGe twin defects characterization

Group IV semiconductors, silicon, germanium, and carbon are today's most important cubic diamond structure forming semiconductors. A recently developed rhombohedral super-hetero epitaxy technology has enabled the single-crystal growth of cubic diamond semiconductors on the basal plane of selected trigonal crystals. This kind of hetero-crystal-structure epitaxy was previously thought to be impossible or very difficult to grow. We found this apparent lacuna in the earlier studies to be stemming from the lack of a proper characterization tool and a deficit in the knowledge of growth parameters employed. Here, we present X-ray diffraction (XRD) methods for characterizing twin crystal defects in the rhombohedral-trigonal epitaxy scheme. These XRD methods not only measure the total density of the twin defect crystals but also map their distribution on the wafer with high sensitivity and spatial resolution.
IMMUNOLOGICAL MEMORY IN MICE : I. PHYSICAL SEPARATION AND PARTIAL CHARACTERIZATION OF MEMORY CELLS FOR DIFFERENT IMMUNOGLOBULIN CLASSES FROM EACH OTHER AND FROM ANTIBODY-PRODUCING CELLS

Plaque forming cells (PFC) of different immunoglobulin classes producing antibodies against sheep erythrocytes were separated according to their buoyant densities by means of equilibrium centrifugation in a stepwise BSA gradient. In the period of 7–10 days after immunization γM PFC are markedly enriched in fractions of low density and relatively depleted in fractions of high density. The distribution of total γG PFC shows less enrichment in the lower density fractions and less depletion in the higher density fractions. The density profile for γG2a PFC is even flatter, with a significant difference (depletion) relative to the unseparated spleen cells only in the highest density fraction. The density gradient distributions of cells able to transfer an adoptive immune response of the various immunoglobulin classes are markedly different from the PFC distribution. Cells obtained 7–10 days after immunization able to transfer an IgM response are present in the same proportions across the density gradient, whereas memory cells for γG2a obtained at this time are markedly enriched in fractions of low density and virtually depleted from high density fractions. With increasing time after primary immunization, the γG2a memory cells increase progressively in density and by 6 weeks the higher and lower density fractions have the same proportions of γG2a memory cells. The total γG (mainly γG1) memory cells by 7–10 days show slight enrichment in low density fractions and no depletion in high density fractions. The conclusions were reached that (a) memory for γG1 develops earlier than memory for γG2a and (b) that memory for anti-SRBC antibodies of different classes is carried in separate cells. When gradient fractions enriched for PFC and memory cells for all classes were completely depleted of PFC using glass bead columns, the ability of this fraction to transfer memory for all classes was not diminished. This shows that memory cells are not identical with cells secreting antibodies.
The traditional therapeutic paradigm: Complete denture therapy

Abstract The art and science of complete dentures for oral restoration has been espoused and debated for over a century. A tradition of clinical mentoring has passed this prosthodontic trust through time to create an educational cycle where the pupil ultimately became the tutor for yet another pupil. Today's clinical techniques and judgments are an amalgamation of these original prosthodontic philosophies. This article will bring forward some procedures for the fabrication of complete dentures for the scrutiny of their scientific bases. Scrutiny does not imply that aspects of therapy not proved in studies of rigorous scientific design are untruths. However, it is incumbent that those aspects of denture therapy regarded as "public domain" by the corpus of the profession be analyzed. It is also incumbent that possible costly or harmful aspects of denture therapy be identified. There is a paucity of "procedural research" in clinical investigations; research that involves performing an invasive or clinician-intensive procedure. This article also discusses the difficulties in performing procedural research as a means of understanding its importance, but also realizing the reasons that this type of research is not prevalent in the dental and health professional literature. The most common types of investigations used to evaluate patient acceptance and function of dentures will also be discussed. (J Prosthet Dent 1998;79:6-13.)
Intratumoral CD14+ cells and circulating CD14+HLA-DRlo/neg monocytes correlate with decreased survival in patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma

Purpose: Immunotherapeutic strategies to treat patients with renal cell carcinoma (RCC) offer new opportunities for disease management. Further improvements using immunotherapy will require additional understanding of the host response to RCC development. Experimental Design:Using a novel approach to understanding the immune status of cancer patients, we have previously shown that patients with a certain immune profile had decreased overall survival. Here, we examine in more detail the phenotypic changes in peripheral blood and the potential consequences of these changes in RCC patients. Results:We found that CD14+HLA-DRlo/neg monocytes were the most predominant phenotypic change in peripheral blood of RCC patients elevated nearly 5 fold above the average levels measured in healthy volunteers. Intratumoral and peritumoral presence of CD14 cells was an independent prognostic factor for decreased survival in a cohort of 375 RCC patients. The amount of peripheral blood CD14+HLA-DRlo/neg monocytes was found to correlate to the intensity of CD14 staining in tumors, suggesting that the measurement of these cells in blood may be a suitable surrogate for monitoring patient prognosis. The interaction of monocytes and tumor cells triggers changes in both cell types with a loss of HLA-DR expression in monocytes, increases of monocyte survival factors like GM-CSF in tumors as well as increased production of angiogenic factors including FGF2. Conclusions:Our results suggest a model of mutually beneficial interactions between tumor cells and monocytes that adversely affect patient outcome.
Circulating progenitor cells in chronic lung disease.

Tissue regeneration and repair are fundamental both to recovery of the lung from injury and to the pathology of many chronic lung diseases. There are two potential sources for the adult progenitor cells that participate in this reparative process: resident lung progenitors and bone marrow-derived circulating cells. Bone marrow-derived cells, in particular, have been shown to give rise to airway and alveolar epithelial cells, as well as lung mesenchymal cells. Emerging data have linked specific chemokine ligand–receptor interactions to the recruitment of these cells to the lung and has implicated these cells in chronic lung disorders such as asthma and interstitial lung diseases. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the biology of adult circulating progenitors as related to lung disease.
A Mouse Model of Massive Rotator Cuff Tears

Background: Rotator cuff tears are the most common tendon injury seen in orthopaedic patients. Muscle atrophy and fatty infiltration in rotator cuff muscles are considered among the key factors responsible for the failure of attempted repair of a massive rotator cuff tear. However, the pathophysiology of rotator cuff muscle atrophy and fatty infiltration remains largely unknown, partly because of the lack of appropriate small animal models. The goal of this study was to develop a mouse model of muscle atrophy and fatty infiltration after a rotator cuff tear. We also sought to study the role of denervation on muscle atrophy and fatty infiltration after a rotator cuff tear. Methods: Adult wild-type FVB/N mice were randomly divided into three groups. Mice in different groups received unilateral complete supraspinatus and infraspinatus tendon transection, suprascapular nerve transection, or both procedures. Sham surgery was performed on the contralateral shoulder to serve as a control. Mice were killed twelve weeks after surgery. Histological analysis and high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging were used to evaluate muscle atrophy and fat infiltration after a rotator cuff tear. Results: Significant and consistent muscle atrophy and fatty infiltration were observed in the rotator cuff muscles after rotator cuff tendon transection. We further found that denervation significantly increases the amount of muscle atrophy and fatty infiltration after a rotator cuff tear. Conclusions: We successfully developed a novel mouse model of a massive rotator cuff tear, which simulates major pathological changes, including muscle atrophy and fatty infiltration after massive rotator cuff tears seen in patients. Clinical Relevance: Successful development of this novel mouse model of rotator cuff tears will provide a powerful tool to study the molecular mechanisms of muscle atrophy and fatty infiltration by introducing transgenic and knockout mice in the future. This model may also serve as a powerful in vivo model in developing new treatments for this common disease.
Concerning Rancidity of Butter

Summary 1.The chemical changes were very slight when biological agencies were held in check. These changes did not cause rancidity. 2.The enzymic development caused very little variation in the iodine number, and it produced no rancidity. 3.The exposure of butter and butter fat to high temperatures, light and air, did not cause a marked change in the iodine number, and this exposure did not cause rancidity. 4.Rancidity of butter as defined by butter dealers and expert butter judges is rarely found. The average person thinks of the strong flavor of butter as rancid.
Reminiscing in the Early Years: Patterns of Maternal Elaborativeness and Children's Remembering.

This study focused on individual differences in maternal style and children's developing recall abilities in early memory conversations. Within a longitudinal design, a sample of 56 mother—child dyads was observed while reminiscing, and the children's language skills were assessed when they were 18, 24, and 30 months old. In contrast to mothers classified as “low-eliciting,” mothers in a “high-eliciting” group offered more open-ended elaborative questions, fewer elaborative statements, and more confirmations to their 18-month-olds. Although all mothers increased in their elaborative questioning over time, the stylistic groups that were identified remained distinct. Moreover, children of high-eliciting mothers were providing more memory information, even at the first time point, than were children of low-eliciting mothers, but these differences were magnified at 24 and 30 months. Results of correlational and regression analysis further suggest that children's concurrent language skills, their 24-month reca...
Probabilistic Similarity Networks

I address practical issues concerning the construction of normative expert systems--expert systems that encode knowledge within a decision-theoretic framework. In particular, I examine the similarity network and partition, two extensions to the influence diagram. A similarity network is a tool for building an influence diagram, whereas a partition is a tool for assessing the probabilities associated with an influence diagram. Both representations encode asymmetric forms of conditional independence that are not represented conveniently in an ordinary influence diagram. Similarity networks and partitions exploit these forms of conditional independence to facilitate the construction and assessment of influence diagrams for problems of diagnosis. The representations aided considerably the construction of Pathfinder, a large normative expert system for the diagnosis of lymph-node diseases (the domain contains approximately 60 diseases and 110 disease findings). In an early version of the system, I encoded the knowledge of the expert using an erroneous assumption that all disease findings were conditionally independent, given each disease. When the expert and I attempted to build an influence diagram for the domain to capture the dependencies among the disease findings, we failed. Using a similarity network, however, we were able to construct the influence diagram for the entire domain in approximately 40 hours. Furthermore, using the partition representation, the expert was able to decrease the time required to assess a probability--on average--by almost one order of magnitude. Most important, through a comparison procedure based in decision theory, I found that the improvements in diagnostic accuracy afforded by the more sophisticated model of the domain were well worth the additional effort that we had invested to build the revised version of the system. In this work, I examine in detail the theoretical properties of similarity networks and partitions, and discuss the application of these representations to the construction of Pathfinder. This research suggests strongly that, by identifying specific forms of conditional independence, and by developing representations that exploit these forms of independence for knowledge acquisition, knowledge engineers can construct normative expert systems for domains of larger scope and greater complexity than the domains previously through to be amenable to the decision-theoretic approach.
Scattering and attenuation of elastic wave by a viscoelastic cylinder

Scattered S-wave The scattering and attenuation of a circular elastic cylinder with and without intrinsic attenuation caused by a normally incident plane compressional wave (P-wave) are investigated. The analytical solution of scattered field is derived in a convenient form. the synthetic seismograms for the scattered compressional wave, scattered shear wave, and total field are calculated for both a non-absorbing and an absorbing cylinder. Results show that scattering fields are the superposition of geometrical transmitted waves and which go through the cylinder and creeping (diffraction) waves and which propagate along the elastic-cylinder interface. The creeping waves shed radiation energy away tangentially at each point along their paths and are basicly not affected by the cylinder absorbing property. The first arrivals within shadow zone are creeping wave for low velocity inclusion and transmitted wave for high velocity inclusion. The phase match between the creeping waves and incident wave can cause resonance scattering resulting in the oscillation of the scattering cross-section. These effects have important influence on travel-time and Q tomographies.
Changing feedbacks in the climate–biosphere system

Ecosystems influence climate through multiple pathways, primarily by changing the energy, water, and greenhouse-gas balance of the atmosphere. Consequently, efforts to mitigate climate change through modification of one pathway, as with carbon in the Kyoto Protocol, only partially address the issue of ecosystem–climate interactions. For example, the cooling of climate that results from carbon sequestration by plants may be partially offset by reduced land albedo, which increases solar energy absorption and warms the climate. The relative importance of these effects varies with spatial scale and latitude. We suggest that consideration of multiple interactions and feedbacks could lead to novel, potentially useful climate-mitigation strategies, including greenhouse-gas reductions primarily in industrialized nations, reduced desertification in arid zones, and reduced deforestation in the tropics. Each of these strategies has additional ecological and societal benefits. Assessing the effectiveness of these strategies requires a more quantitative understanding of the interactions among feedback processes, their consequences at local and global scales, and the teleconnections that link changes occurring in different regions.
Developmate: new paradigm for information system enabling

This paper discusses a new approach to the use of information systems that is based on enterprise information system modeling concepts. This approach is primarily oriented to the enterprise expert, who is considered to be the individual most familiar with the functioning of a particular area of the enterprise information system. The approach is not primarily oriented toward the data processing professional. The paper discusses the phases of the approach and how the DevelopMate™ software product supports some of those phases.
Communicating with the Crowd: Speakers use Abstract Messages when Addressing Larger Audiences

Audience characteristics often shape communicators' message framing. Drawing from construal level theory, we suggest that when speaking to many individuals, communicators frame messages in terms of...
A 0.6 mW/Gb/s, 6.4–7.2 Gb/s Serial Link Receiver Using Local Injection-Locked Ring Oscillators in 90 nm CMOS

This paper describes a quad-lane, 6.4-7.2 Gb/s serial link receiver prototype using a forwarded clock architecture. A novel phase deskew scheme using injection-locked ring oscillators (ILRO) is proposed that achieves greater than one UI of phase shift for multiple clock phases, eliminating phase rotation and interpolation required in conventional architectures. Each receiver, optimized for power efficiency, consists of a low-power linear equalizer, four offset-cancelled quantizers for 1:4 demultiplexing, and an injection-locked ring oscillator coupled to a low-voltage swing, global clock distribution. Measurement results show a 6.4-7.2 Gb/s data rate with BER < 10-12 across 14 cm of PCB, and also an 8.0 Gb/s data rate through 4 cm of PCB. Designed in a 1.2 V, 90 nm CMOS process, the ILRO achieves a wide tuning range from 1.6-2.6 GHz. The total area of each receiver is 0.0174 mm2, resulting in a measured power efficiency of 0.6 mW/Gb/s.
For patients with chronic asthma not controlled with inhaled corticosteroids alone, long-acting β-agonists are associated with fewer exacerbations than leukotriene receptor agonists.

Commentary on: Chauhan BF, Ducharme FM. Addition to inhaled corticosteroids of long-acting beta-agonists versus anti-leukotrienes for chronic asthma. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2014;1:CD003137. Outside of a clinical trial setting, most patients with asthma have poorly controlled asthma.1 ,2 Inadequate control of asthma in the community may reflect poor adherence to controller medications; however, the GOAL trial demonstrated that low-to-medium dose inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) were unsuccessful in achieving asthma control in a large proportion of patients with asthma, even with close supervision of care.3 Asthma management guidelines recommend an additional controller medication when asthma control is not achieved with ICS.4 Although the preferred second-choice controller medication is a long-acting inhaled β2-agonist (LABA), safety concerns regarding LABA use lead many clinicians to add a leukotriene receptor antagonist (LTRA) in its place. This review aimed to compare the efficacy and safety profiles of combinations …
A facemask for gaseous anesthesia in laboratory rodents and chicks that allows easy access to the eyes for ophthalmic procedures.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to report a method for making a cheap and effective anesthesia facemask for laboratory rodents and chicks that allows access to the eyes for ophthalmic procedures such as electroretinography (ERG) and optical coherence tomography (OCT). Methods The facemask is fabricated from a bulb syringe and a medicine dropper (Luvs®, Jamaica, NY) both intended for use in infants. The tip of the bulb syringe is removed to make a plastic cone (1.5 cm in length) to fit over the animal’s nose. The bulb is removed from the medicine dropper and a small hole on the side of bulb near the closed end made into which the narrow end of the plastic cone is fitted and the joint glued with a hot glue gun. The facemask is then attached over the anesthetic tubing. Results Following induction of anesthesia, the facemask and a nonrebreathing circuit (Baines system) are suitable to maintain anesthesia in laboratory rodents and chicks while allowing ready access to the eyes for ERG and OCT. The mask fits snuggly, reducing leakage of anesthetic gasses and it has a minimum of deadspace. Conclusions The materials required for making the facemask are cheap and readily available and it is easy to fabricate. We found it excellent for use with mice and chicks, and it allows easy access to the eyes for techniques such as ERG and OCT.
CrowdSight: rapidly prototyping intelligent visual processing apps

We describe a framework for rapidly prototyping applications which require intelligent visual processing, but for which reliable algorithms do not yet exist, or for which engineering those algorithms is too costly. The framework, CrowdSight, leverages the power of crowdsourcing to offload intelligent processing to humans, and enables new applications to be built quickly and cheaply, affording system builders the opportunity to validate a concept before committing significant time or capital. Our service accepts requests from users either via email or simple mobile applications, and handles all the communication with a backend human computation platform.We build redundant requests and data aggregation into the system freeing the user from managing these requirements. We validate our framework by building several test applications and verifying that prototypes can be built more easily and quickly than would be the case without the framework.
Leverage in Cyberspace, Without Deterrence

Deterrence theory, which was of enormous value during the nuclear era, cannot adequately prepare defense thinkers for future cyber conflicts. Instead, the best states can hope for is robust cooperation with other states and with private actors to improve their circumstances in future conflicts. A number of key assumptions that supported nuclear deterrence do not hold in the cyber domain: immediately observable attacks; clear legal status under the law of armed conflict; states' preeminence for research and development; high financial and technical barriers to entry; cheap observation of delivery facilities; feasible second strike; and a stable MAD outcome. States can create several incentives for improved collaboration with allies and private sector partners. States can derive mutual benefits from shared intelligence; shared standards for risk assessment; joint exercises; and standby arrangements for crucial information, equipment, materials, and services. Apart from sanctions against access to these carrots, sticks include reconnaissance for cyber conflicts, cyber exploitation with the threat of disclosure, and policies explicitly linking cyber events to non-cyber diplomatic and security concerns. States have additional leverage over private actors through commercial regulation, law enforcement, and liability; although the burden of compliance may poison public-private cooperation.
Metabolomics Techniques and Applications

s5-3 There are many varieties of Metabolomic platforms but the share many attributes, reproducibility, sensitivity, sufficient characteristics that the features may be reliably named.These are often at odds with one another and require balancing one against another to achieve a generally optimal balance. The platform that will be discussed makes many tradeoffs to achieve these goals.I will discuss how this was all put together.
Abstract 49: Blood Pressure is Correlated with Arterial Stiffness in Previous Preterm Preeclamptics

Blood pressure (BP) and arterial stiffness are known to be correlated and have independent value in assessing risk for future cardiovascular disease. The objective of the current study was to evaluate the relationship between arterial stiffness, as measured by pulse wave velocity (PWV), and BP, in nulliparous women (CTL) as compared to women with a history of preterm preeclampsia (PE). Twenty-eight nulliparous women and 19 PEs were evaluated during the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle. There were no differences in age: CTL: 30.9 ± 0.9 vs. PE: 31.3 ± 1.1 yrs, p = 0.78. BMI was significantly lower in CTL: 24.4 ± 1.1 vs. PE: 28.5 ± 1.6 kg/m 2 , p = 0.02. Time interval from delivery to evaluation in PE was 2.46 ± 0.29 yrs. PWV was measured using simultaneous electrocardiographic tracings and ultrasound determined arterial flow waveforms and calculated as the estimated distance divided by the time interval between EKG r-wave peak and ultrasound derived peak popliteal artery flow. Beat to beat BPs were measured in the seated position using the Finapres Pro and averaged over one minute. The data are expressed as mean ± SE. P
Whipping flagellin into shape: Current Opinion in Structural Biology 1992, 2:280–285

Abstract Flagellin is the protein that makes up the filament or propeller of the bacterial flagellum. Structural studies have revealed that this protein has a disordered domain which becomes ordered upon polymerization. This part of the structure may be the key to understanding flagellin export from the cell and assembly into the filament.
Viewing the World: Women, Religion, and the Audience for Maps in Early Modern Venice

Marietta Morosini’s home contained seven maps among her collection of over fifty images. Elisabette Condulmer displayed a map of the world next to images of the Madonna and Mary Magdalene. Cornelia Bellon also paired her map of Italy with religious images. These women lived in sixteenth-century Venice, the center of the cartographic world. This article assesses women as an audience for cartographic and geographic works by placing maps into their early modern context: the home. As this article will show, living with maps in early modern Venice often meant reading them through a religious lens.
Effects of BTH,MeSA and MeJA on Defensive Components of Populus simonii×P. pyramidalis

The present article studied the effects of three synthesized volatiles on the induction of defensive components of Populus simonii×P.pyramidalis c.v by the method of fumigation.Treatment of plants with gaseous BTH and MeSA suppressed the productions of terpenoids which involved in jasmonate-signal transduction pathways.However,MeJA could not only prompted the release of volatile signals,but also enhanced enzyme activity of PPO and POD in the leaves.The results indicated that jasmonate-signal transduction pathway played crucial role in the induction of direct and indirect defense of P.simonii×P.pyramidalis c.v.
Polychrome Stains for High Resolution Light Microscopy

Plastic embedding of tissue is a procedure that has been recently introduced in routine histopathology. Epoxy embedding produces the optimal preservation of tissues for light microscopy, but routine acid stains on epoxy sections are difficult to perform. Basic polychromatic stains are used instead. In this article a single polychrome stain (toluidine blue) is compared with a multiple polychrome stain (toluidine blue and basic fuchsin) in nondeplasticized, osmicated epoxy sections. Since the multiple polychrome stains obviate the need for most routine special stains, these polychrome stains appear to be more practical for routine high resolution light microscopy.
Diagnosis and Treatment of Colonic Disease in AIDS

The colon is a frequent site of gastrointestinal complications in patients with HIV infection, and these colonic disorders increase in frequency as immunodeficiency worsens. The most common clinical manifestations of colonic disease in AIDS are diarrhea, lower gastrointestinal bleeding, and abdominal pain. Toxic megacolon, intussuseption, typhlitis, idiopathic colonic ulcer, and pneumatosis intestinalis also have been described. In the HIV-infected patient with preserved immunity, the most common cause of colitis is bacterial, but as the degree of immunodeficiency worsens, opportunistic pathogens (CMV, protozoa, mycobacteria, fungi) and neoplasms become more frequent. The frequent use of antibiotics, chemotherapeutic agents, and frequent hospitalization increase the susceptibility to cf2Clostridium difficule cf1colitis. Endoscopy plays an integral role in the management of many colonic disorders in AIDS.
Should patients stop taking aspirin for primary prevention

In view of the evidence, routine use of aspirin for primary prevention is not recommended, even in patients with diabetes.
Family experiences of infant and young child feeding in lower-income countries: protocol for a systematic review of qualitative studies

Infant and young child feeding practices, including breastfeeding and complementary feeding of children under 2 years old, are crucially influenced by parent and family perceptions and experiences. Given the urgent need to improve nutrition of young children in low- and low-middle-income countries, both for reduction of morbidity and mortality in childhood and for future health outcomes, we propose to systematically review and synthesize available qualitative data specifically related to infant and young child feeding practices of parents and families in these settings, which may provide greater insights into barriers and facilitators to recommended feeding practices. The proposed study will systematically review existing qualitative research reporting infant and young child feeding practices from low- and low-middle-income settings. The Enhancing Transparency in Reporting the Synthesis of Qualitative Research (ENTREQ) statement will be used for reporting the stages of the review and dissemination. The search period will include all studies published from 2006 to 2016. The study selection process will follow established and recommended guidelines for reviews, and quality assessment will be conducted in two phases using critical appraisal and subsequently a confidence in findings approach derived from Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation-Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative (GRADE-CERQual). A full synthesis of the studies identified by the review will begin with thematic analysis and be followed by an interpretive approach to provide actionable information on the topic. The findings will provide insight into the barriers and facilitators related to behavior that may hinder or enable implementation of interventions aimed at improving infant and young child feeding practices in lower-income settings. PROSPERO CRD42016035677
Physical and Physiological Costs of Reproduction in Watersnakes

Estimating the cost of reproduction is pivotal to understanding the trade-off between current and future reproductive success, a key prediction in life-history theory. Increases in the cost of each reproductive attempt theoretically reduce future reproductive ability. Further, costs may change as individuals grow thus changing the nature of this trade-off. Measuring changes in female locomotor ability during reproduction has been one effective method to measure the cost of reproduction for females. We measured female Diamond-backed Watersnake (Nerodia rhombifer) swimming speed during and after pregnancy to determine if there was a loss of locomotor ability. We then correlated these speeds with measures of reproductive burdening (as estimated by relative clutch mass) and body size to investigate if increased reproductive investment and body size changed locomotor ability and subsequent cost of reproduction. Female snakes swam slower during pregnancy than after. Larger relative clutch masses resulted in slo...
Case Study: Cefuroxime Axetil: An Oral Prodrug of Cefuroxime

Cefuroxime axetil (Ceftin®, Zinnat®) was designed to be an oral form of cefuroxime (Zinacef®), a second-generation cephalosporin antibiotic available by IV and IM injection (O’Callaghan et al., 1976; Brogden et al., 1979; Emmerson, 1988). Cefuroxime is a useful antibiotic because it is a broad-spectrum antibiotic, effective against bacterial strains with β-lactamase activity (Durckheimer et al., 1985; Kees and Grobecker, 1995). The parenteral cefuroxime, like other cephalosporins, is not orally absorbed because it contains a highly polar carboxyl group that is ionized at intestinal pH, making transport across intestinal mucosa unlikely (Foord, 1976; Tsuji et al., 1986). An attempt to deliver the free acid orally led to only 1% of the drug recovered in the urine (Foord, 1976).
Benchmarks for the interpretation of esophageal high‐resolution manometry

Background Competent interpretation of esophageal high-resolution manometry (HRM) is integral to a quality study. Currently, methods to assess physician competency for the interpretation of esophageal HRM do not exist. The aim of this study was to use formal techniques to (i) develop an HRM interpretation exam, and (ii) establish minimum competence benchmarks for HRM interpretation skills at the trainee, physician interpreter, and master level. Methods A total of 29 physicians from 8 academic centers participated in the study: 9 content experts separated into 2 study groups—expert test-takers (n=7) and judges (n=2), and 20 HRM inexperienced trainees (“trainee test-taker”; n=20). We designed the HRM interpretation exam based on expert consensus. Expert and trainee test-takers (n=27) completed the exam. According to the modified Angoff method, the judges reviewed the test-taker performance and established minimum competency cut scores for HRM interpretation skills. Key Results The HRM interpretation exam consists of 22 HRM cases with 8 HRM interpretation skills per case: identification of pressure inversion point, hiatal hernia >3 cm, integrated relaxation pressure, distal contractile integral, distal latency, peristaltic integrity, pressurization pattern, and diagnosis. Based on the modified Angoff method, minimum cut scores for HRM interpretation skills at the trainee, physician interpreter, and master level ranged from 65–80%, 85–90% (with the exception of peristaltic integrity), and 90–95%, respectively. Conclusions & Inferences Using a formal standard setting technique, we established minimum cut scores for eight HRM interpretation skills across interpreter levels. This examination and associated cut scores can be applied in clinical practice to judge competency.
Identification and Mechanism of a Novel Microtubule Nucleation Factor

Microtubule (MT) cytoskeleton forms diverse structures such as the mitotic spindle and cellular appendages. These defined MT architectures are created by spatiotemporally regulating MT dynamics, transport and most importantly, nucleation. Since the identification of γ-tubulin (γ-TB) in 1989, it was thought to be the sole MT nucleating protein in the cell. However, purified γ-TB complexes display very low nucleation capacity and upon knockdown of γ-TB, the cell can still form MTs. Therefore, it has long been speculated that nucleation factors other than γ-TB may exist. However, what protein factors are critical for nucleating MTs and how this process occurs in the cell has remained a mystery.We discovered a novel protein that nucleates MTs. By using an isolated mitotic spindle assembly pathway, branching MT nucleation, we resolved individual MTs and directly observed every MT nucleation event. In the absence of this protein, no MTs emerge at all, thus resembling the phenotype of γ-TB depletion. The recombinant protein rescues the phenotype in a concentration-dependent manner, indicating that the protein has bonafide nucleation activity. Next, we identified the domains required for the nucleation activity of this protein by generating truncation constructs. In addition, we defined its role in relation to γ-TB and other proteins involved in MT nucleation. In summary, we identified a novel and critical MT nucleation factor and elucidated its mechanism, which provides insight into how MT nucleation occurs to assemble MT structures in the cell.
Service Learning: Taking Mathematics into the Real World

Service learning is a tool for community service I recent years mathematics educators have expressed regret that classroom mathematics too often has little relationship to problem solving in the real world. Consider this indictment from the Mathematical Sciences Education Board of the National Research Council. "Students who progress through this curriculum develop a kind of mathe matical myopia in which the goal is to solve artifi cial word problems rather than realistic world prob lems" (MSEB 1990, 4). The Board further insisted that the primary goal of instruction should require students "to use mathematical tools in contexts that mirror their use in actual situations" (MSEB 1990, 38). In a similar vein, educators are being urged to involve their students in service learning. Service learning can be used both as a tool for com munity service and as a means of taking school mathematics into the real world. This article intro duces service learning, explores how it can be used in mathematics education, and relates the author's personal experiences in using service learning in his mathematics classes.
Precise Detection of Side-Channel Vulnerabilities using Quantitative Cartesian Hoare Logic

This paper presents Themis, an end-to-end static analysis tool for finding resource-usage side-channel vulnerabilities in Java applications. We introduce the notion of epsilon-bounded non-interference, a variant and relaxation of Goguen and Meseguer's well-known non-interference principle. We then present Quantitative Cartesian Hoare Logic (QCHL), a program logic for verifying epsilon-bounded non-interference. Our tool, Themis, combines automated reasoning in CHL with lightweight static taint analysis to improve scalability. We evaluate Themis on well known Java applications and demonstrate that Themis can find unknown side-channel vulnerabilities in widely-used programs. We also show that Themis can verify the absence of vulnerabilities in repaired versions of vulnerable programs and that Themis compares favorably against Blazer, a state-of-the-art static analysis tool for finding timing side channels in Java applications.
Scale-specific drivers of kelp forest communities

Identifying spatial scales of variation in natural communities and the processes driving them is critical for obtaining a predictive understanding of biodiversity. In this study, we focused on diverse communities inhabiting productive kelp forests on shallow subtidal rocky reefs in southern California, USA. We combined long-term community surveys from 86 sites with detailed environmental data to determine what structures assemblages of fishes, invertebrates and algae at multiple spatial scales. We identified the spatial scales of variation in species composition using a hierarchical analysis based on eigenfunctions, and assessed how sea surface temperature (SST), water column chlorophyll, giant kelp biomass, wave exposure and potential propagule delivery strength contributed to community variation at each scale. Spatial effects occurring at multiple scales explained 60% of the variation in fish assemblages and 52% of the variation in the assemblages of invertebrates and algae. Most variation occurred over broad spatial scales (> 200 km) consistent with spatial heterogeneity in SST and potential propagule delivery strength, while the latter also explained community variation at medium scales (65–200 km). Small scale (1–65 km) community variation was substantial but not linked to any of the measured drivers. Conclusions were consistent for both reef fishes and benthic invertebrates and algae, despite sharp differences in their adult mobility. Our results demonstrate the scale dependence of environmental drivers on kelp forest communities, showing that most species were strongly sorted along oceanographic conditions over various spatial scales. Such spatial effects must be integrated into models assessing the response of marine ecosystems to climate change.
Nonpolar GaN-based vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

We demonstrate electrically injected III-nitride VCSELs with ion implanted apertures, tunnel junction intracavity contacts, and a dual dielectric DBR flip-chip design. Precise cavity length control has been achieved using photoelectrochemical band gap selective etching of InGaN/GaN multiple quantum wells.
An overview of the research: Vocabulary learning strategies used By ESL Arabic-speaking students

Abstract: The past and current research on Arabic-speaking students’ second language vocabulary learning concludes that even though there is much research about the difficulties of learning English as a second language by Arab students, there is a need to increase the number of studies of the importance of teaching and learning vocabulary and the significance of understanding vocabulary learning strategies. Most second language learners encounter a great deal of challenge when learning vocabulary in the second language. Moreover, the number of experimental studies between 1980 and 2009 that focused on vocabulary outcomes for English language learners was limited and many of the instructional approaches used in these studies were built on approaches proposed for first-language learners, while others restructured the instructional tasks to meet the needs of English language learners. Also, there were limited studies on ESL vocabulary acquisition and its teaching and learning strategies by Arab students. Therefore, the current research calls for further experimental studies on the vocabulary teaching strategies used by Arab students. These studies should reassess the effectiveness of the vocabulary teaching programs for the purpose of designing better English language curricula that meets Arab students’ English vocabulary needs. Students’ attitude toward learning a foreign language may also affect their learning of new vocabulary. Keywords: Arab students, ESL, Second language acquisition, Teaching, Attitude
Dual reactor for in situ/operando fluorescent mode XAS studies of sample containing low-concentration 3d or 5d metal elements

Transition metal elements are the most important elements of heterogeneous catalysts used for chemical and energy transformations. Many of these catalysts are active at a temperature higher than 400 °C. For a catalyst containing a 3d or 5d metal element with a low concentration, typically their released fluorescence upon the K-edge or L-edge adsorption of X-rays is collected for the analysis of chemical and coordination environments of these elements. However, it is challenging to perform in situ/operando X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) studies of elements of low-energy absorption edges at a low concentration in a catalyst during catalysis at a temperature higher than about 450 °C. Here a unique reaction system consisting two reactors, called a dual reactor system, was designed for performing in situ or operando XAS studies of these elements of low-energy absorption edges in a catalyst at a low concentration during catalysis at a temperature higher than 450 °C in a fluorescent mode. This dual-reactor system contains a quartz reactor for preforming high-temperature catalysis up to 950 °C and a Kapton reactor remaining at a temperature up to 450 °C for collecting data in the same gas of catalysis. With this dual reactor, chemical and coordination environments of low-concentration metal elements with low-energy absorption edges such as the K-edge of 3d metals including Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, and Cu and L edge of 5d metals including W, Re, Os, Ir, Pt, and Au can be examined through first performing catalysis at a temperature higher than 450 °C in the quartz reactor and then immediately flipping the catalyst in the same gas flow to the Kapton reactor remained up to 450 °C to collect data. The capability of this dual reactor was demonstrated by tracking the Mn K-edge of the MnOx/Na2WO4 catalyst during activation in the temperature range of 300-900 °C and catalysis at 850 °C.
Leveraging Technology and Cognitive Tehory on Visualization to Promote Students’ Science

This chapter defines visualization as it is used in psychology and education. It delineates the role of visualization research in science education as being primarily concerned with external representations and how to best support students’ while learning with visualizations. In doing so, relevant literature from Cognitive Science is reviewed. Two science education projects, namely, Making Thinking Visible and Modeling Across the Curriculum are then described as exemplars of projects that leverage cognitive theory and technology to support students’ science learning and scientific literacy.
Staging and Surgical Treatment for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Treatment decisions and the ultimate prognosis of patients diagnosed as having lung cancer depends upon the stage of disease at the time of the diagnosis. Diagnostic techniques include sputum cytology, fiberoptic bronchoscopy, transthoracic fine needle aspiration biopsy and lymph node biopsy. With these techniques, a diagnosis can usually be established without thoracotomy. Once this diagnosis has been determined, it is necessary to stage the disease as accurately as possible in order to decide the best treatment for the patient.
Organizational Innovation: Lessons from Military Organizations

Sociologists interested in organizational dynamics have tended to ignore military organizations, leaving these to political scientists and historians to study. This is a pity, since military organizations often serve as extreme cases of processes that occur in other kinds of organizations, thereby providing useful tests of sociological propositions. The books reviewed here are written almost exclusively by historians. They deal with a tightly focused topic: How did various military organizations respond to rapid technological change in a period of constrained resources and great environmental turbulence? They ask a series of interesting questions: Which organizations were best at innovating, and why? How important were resource constraints, past history, organizational leadership, and clarity of organizational mission in producing successful responses to change? Their answers are varied, but if a common answer exists it is this: An organizational culture conducive to open debate, and identification of a clear organizational task, together with sufficient organizational autonomy to focus on that task without major distractions, were the primary factors producing innovation and organizational adaptation. The organizations studied in these four books shared a lot of features. They were all in the same business-preparing for war. The time frame of these studies is the period between the First and Second World Wars. The First World War had seen the introduction of armored fighting vehicles (the tank), and an extensive use of the new airplane technology. These technical innovations, together with the wireless radio, would clearly change
Is There Discrimination in Overage Pricing

Mortgage overage pricing is little understood by consumers and has received little academic scrutiny. We consider the impact of the market power of individual loan officers on overages paid by borrowers, particularly minorities. We include numerous borrower and lender characteristics unavailable previously. We find that minorities who purchase homes pay larger overages than whites, but our evidence suggests that this traces to differences in the pools of borrowers rather than to racial discrimination. We conclude that a more effective way to eliminate racial differences in overages is to increase minorities' ability to bargain rather than to enact additional anti-discrimination laws.