cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Carbon Trading Simulation: White Cement Inc.

This simulation presents students the opportunity to experience firsthand the economics of carbon markets and permit trading. Each student has private role information about a company he or she manages. The student must make decisions about pollution-reducing investments and production levels in the face of uncertainty about pollution permit prices. Students form groups of five, and throughout the exercise students may buy or sell permits within their group. Trading outcomes dictate permit prices, and at the end of trading, each firm calculates profits and pays over pollution penalties as needed.Learning Objective: The exercise introduces students to the economics and mechanics of carbon trading, as well as decisions in the design of carbon markets.
The embodiment of conscience

This article draws a connection between the faculty of conscience and the capacity for embodied feeling. It suggests that the capacity to engage with conscience and the ability to be responsive to oneself and to others at a sensate level are directly connected and that through embodied practices of sensing and feeling one can cultivate forms of personal conscience, which, in these terms, is not just an intellectual or cognitive moral capacity but is also related to the capacity for sensate experience that is informed by the ability to feel our own bodies. If one cultivates a sensate relationship with oneself, with others, and with society, a deeper level of embodied feeling and a growing responsiveness to the world can emerge, and for me this is called conscience. Conscience involves making a relationship with the world in a particular way, one that is responsive and responsible to it. Yet I contend that understanding the centrality of sensate experience for critical conscience tends to be foreclosed in m...
Ecology of a Vulnerable Shorebird across a Gradient of Habitat Alteration: Bristle-Thighed Curlews (Numenius tahitiensis) (Aves: Charadriiformes) on Palmyra Atoll

Abstract: Palmyra Atoll, USA, in the Central Pacific, has remained mostly uninhabited since construction and abandonment of a U.S. naval base during World War II. However, the effects of Navy modifications have persisted, affecting physical conditions and benthic habitat quality of Palmyra's lagoon sand flats. Sand flats provide important nonbreeding habitat for Bristle-thighed Curlews (Numenius tahitiensis), a migratory shorebird listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. We used camera trapping, observations of focal individuals, and quantification of prey availability and sediment characteristics to assess curlew habitat use across different levels of historical anthropogenic impact. Habitat preferences were not determined by the degree of land reclamation impact on lagoon flat habitat, although the two most preferred sites were both highly impacted. Curlew abundance was most strongly correlated with availability of prey items, such as spionid po...
Implementation and modeling of a Regional Hub Reception Center during mass evacuation operations

When developing response plans in the aftermath of a catastrophic incident, jurisdictions often fail to conduct the necessary interdisciplinary planning needed to fully address the needs across jurisdictional borders. The Purdue Homeland Security Institute (PHSI) was selected by the City of Chicago Office of Emergency Management and Communications (OEMC) in 2010 to lead an effort to address planning across jurisdictional borders during mass evacuations following a catastrophic incident. Specifically, PHSI was chosen to lead the effort in developing a planning and implementation guide for standing up a conceptual Regional Hub Reception Center (RHRC). A major component within the mass evacuation and sheltering continuum, the RHRC is designed to provide evacuees with quickresponse mass care and emergency assistance while their other needs are assessed and appropriate shelter locations are identified. The RHRC also provides a central location to leverage governmental, nongovernmental, and private sector resources and is the first point in the evacuation, mass care, and sheltering concept of operations where more comprehensive support (food, shelter, medical, psychological, household pet sheltering, reunification, etc) can be expected. PHSI undertook this lead role working within the Illinois-Indiana-Wisconsin (IL-IN-WI) Combined Statistical Area (CSA) as part of the US Department of Homeland Security Regional Catastrophic Planning Grant Program. Coordinating closely with the City of Chicago OEMC and IL-IN-WI CSA Regional Catastrophic Planning Team, PHSI lead the research effort using resource and capability data compiled from all 17 jurisdictions within the IL-IN-WI CSA and validated the RHRC concept using three tabletop exercises. Upon completion, the PHSI team published the RHRC planning guide complete with procedures and processes that define the roles and responsibilities of government, nongovernment organizations, and private sector for providing RHRC mass care functions and RHRC capability and capacity assessments. This article further examines the potential for using simulation modeling as a cost-effective means to rapidly evaluate any facility for potential use as a RHRC and to measure and maximize RHRC operational efficiency. Using AnyLogic simulation software, PHSI developed a first-ever model of a theoretical RHRC capable of simulating, measuring, and manipulating RHRC operations under specified conditions/scenarios determined by the emergency management planner. Future simulation modeling research promises to promote the Whole Community Approach to response and recovery by reinforcing interdisciplinary planning, enhancing regional situational awareness, and improving overall jurisdictional coordination and synchronization.
Application of the Mixed Cell Agglutination Test for Cell Surface Antigens to Renal Cell Carcinoma

AbstractThe mixed cell agglutination test is used to demonstrate the presence or absence of the A, B and H(O) blood group antigens on the surface of superficial bladder tumors. Absence of these antigens has been shown to correlate well with invasive disease. Therefore, the test has an important prognostic value in bladder cancer. To determine its clinical value in patients with renal cell carcinoma the mixed cell agglutination test was done on unstained sections of tumor from 42 patients for whom followup was available. Red cell adherence was determined independently by each of us and without knowledge of the clinical status of the patients. Only 3 tumors were graded negative, while 14 were each 2 and 3 plus, and 11 were 4 plus. Tumor stage and patient blood type did not correlate with the degree of agglutination. Over-all survival did correlate significantly with 4 plus agglutination (p less than 0.041) as did 1 and 5-year survival (p less than 0.049 and 0.046, respectively). All 11 patients whose tumors...
Visualizing the impact of geographical variations on multivariate clustering

Traditional multivariate clustering approaches are common in many geovisualization applications. These algorithms are used to define geodemographic profiles, ecosystems and various other land use patterns that are based on multivariate measures. Cluster labels are then projected onto a choropleth map to enable analysts to explore spatial dependencies and heterogeneity within the multivariate attributes. However, local variations in the data and choices of clustering parameters can greatly impact the resultant visualization. In this work, we develop a visual analytics framework for exploring and comparing the impact of geographical variations for multivariate clustering. Our framework employs a variety of graphical configurations and summary statistics to explore the spatial extents of clustering. It also allows users to discover patterns that can be concealed by traditional global clustering via several interactive visualization techniques including a novel drag & drop clustering difference view. We demonstrate the applicability of our framework over a demographics dataset containing quick facts about counties in the continental United States and demonstrate the need for analytical tools that can enable users to explore and compare clustering results over varying geographical features and scales.
Abstract 60: PTEN expression, cholesterol metabolism, and lethal prostate cancer

BACKGROUND: We previously showed that mRNA expression of squalene monooxygenase (SQLE), part of the cholesterol synthesis pathway, is associated with lethal prostate cancer. In-vitro studies suggest that loss of PTEN expression and resulting PI3K pathway activation drive cholesterol ester accumulation in aggressive prostate cancers through sterol regulatory element-binding protein (SREBP) and acyl coenzyme A-cholesterol acyltransferase (ACAT1) activity. In two prospective cohorts, we studied whether lower PTEN expression is associated with cholesterol metabolism and how this relates to lethal prostate cancer. METHODS: We analyzed men with prostate cancer from the prospective prostatectomy Health Professionals Follow-up Study and Physicians’ Health Study. 105 men had lethal cancer and 284 men non-lethal disease without metastases at 8 years of follow-up. Whole-transcriptome mRNA expression profiling data was available from diagnostic prostate tumor specimens. Linear regression models were used to assess continuous and categorical associations, and Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated. Logistic regression was used to obtain odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of lethal prostate cancer. RESULTS: Both lower PTEN and higher SQLE expression were associated with higher Gleason grade (p trend 0.05). Adjusting for PTEN mildly attenuated the association of SQLE with lethal cancer (OR, 2.07; 95% CI, 1.57 to 2.73), as did additional adjustment for age, Gleason grade, and stage (SQLE: OR, 1.75; 95% CI, 1.29 to 2.40). In the lowest quartile of PTEN expression, SQLE was less strongly associated with lethal cancer (OR 1.74; 95% CI, 1.20 to 2.52) compared to the upper three quartiles (OR 2.47; 95% CI, 1.69 to 3.60; p interaction = 0.2). CONCLUSION: Low PTEN mRNA expression and high SQLE are features of aggressive prostate cancers. However, at the time of prostatectomy, SREBF1/2 expression and resulting ACAT1 expression do not appear to be major characteristics of prostate cancers with lethal outcomes. Citation Format: Konrad H. Stopsack, Travis A. Gerke, Lorelei A. Mucci, Jennifer R. Rider. PTEN expression, cholesterol metabolism, and lethal prostate cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 60.
Recent Alcohol, Tobacco, and Substance Use Variations between Rural and Urban Middle and High School Students

The use of addictive substances by adolescents is a major public health concern; however, rural vs. urban variations are poorly understood. The purpose of the current study was to examine rural-urban differences in the prevalence of recent use of 11 substances in grades 6-12 in a statewide sample of students from the Georgia Student Health Survey II (n = 513,909). We found that rural-urban differences in substance use depend largely upon grade level, with rural middle school students demonstrating higher rates of alcohol, smoking tobacco, and chewing tobacco use, and urban high school students demonstrating higher rates of illicit drugs.
Diagnosing Myasthenia Gravis with an Ice Pack

A 68-year-old man presented with unilateral ptosis. Neurologic examination revealed ptosis of the left eye after a sustained upward gaze. Myasthenia gravis was suspected, and an ice-pack test was performed with an instant cold pack over the left eye.
Regulating miRNA-21 Biogenesis By Bifunctional Small Molecules

We report a new strategy to regulate microRNAs (miRNAs) biogenesis by using bifunctional small molecules that consist of a pre-miRNA binding unit connected by a linker to a Dicer inhibiting unit. In this effort, fluorescence polarization-based screening was used to identify neomycin as a pre-miR-21 binding ligand. Although neomycin cannot inhibit miR-21 maturation, linking it to the RNase inhibitor 1 forms the bifunctional conjugate 7A, which inhibits the production of miR-21. We expect that this strategy will be applicable to design other molecules for miRNA regulation.
Promoting Student Engagement Through Outcomes-based Education in an EAL Environment

Outcomes-based education is an approach that has been promoted, and adopted in several education systems around the world since the early 1990s. Many programs have been adapted successfully over time while others have been phased out for various reasons, including interpretations, issues with assessment, increased instructor workload and perhaps more philosophical issues concerning the nature of learning. However, while there may be a case to be made for holistic learning being lost in a rigid, atomistic approach, there is undoubtedly a range of benefits. One of these is that a well-designed outcomes-based program can help facilitate student engagement because of the nature of the activities and tasks required to demonstrate performance. An outcomes-based process is also one of the requirements of most accrediting bodies in order to demonstrate accountability, and for setting clear statements of what students will be able to do after particular phases of learning, by the end of a course or upon graduation. A one particular learning outcome of relevance to EMI (English as Medium of Instruction) and (CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) environment is the requirement to demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively. In undergraduate education, the objective of this particular outcome has two main features; one is to facilitate cognitive development through the acquisition, internalization and articulation of knowledge and the second is to enable graduates to enter the workplace and be accepted as members of the disciplinary discourse community. As such, the responsibility of each program is to ensure that steps are taken to provide every opportunity for this to be achieved and not just through the frontloading of language skills in earlier language courses. This paper outlines an outcomes-based approach applied to an undergraduate Humanities elective course for EAL (English as an Additional Language) students at an engineering institute in the Middle East. The aim of the design is to embed a significant language requirement while engaging learners in a range of stimulating, incidental and explicit, multi-modal learning channels.
Surto espontâneo de dictiocaulose em bovinos leiteiros adultos

Introducao: Broncopneumonia verminotica, tambem conhecida como dictiocaulose e uma importante doenca parasitaria que acomete bovinos, tendo como agente etiologico o nematoide Dictyocaulus viviparus. A enfermidade tem distribuicao mundial, predominantemente em regioes de clima temperado e subtropical (Radostits et al. 2007). No Brasil a dictiocaulose ocorre principalmente no outono e verao, sendo os animais em pastoreio mais predispostos (Silva et al. 2005). A doenca esta associada com perdas economicas decorrentes da reducao da taxa de crescimento, diminuicao da fertilidade, decrescimo na producao de leite, custos com tratamento e assistencia veterinaria, alem de prejuizos decorrentes da mortalidade (Ploeger 2002). A forma clinica da doenca e observada principalmente em bovinos leiteiros ate um ano de idade. No entanto, vacas leiteiras adultas e bovinos de corte sao tambem suscetiveis (Tilling 2007). O objetivo deste trabalho e relatar um surto de dictiocaulose de alta morbidade em bovinos leiteiros adultos no ano de 2015, na cidade de Arabuta, Santa Catarina, Brasil.
A hybrid approach to generating search subspaces in dynamically constrained 4-dimensional data assimilation

Abstract Development and maintenance of the linearized and adjoint code for advanced circulation models is a challenging issue, requiring a significant proportion of total effort in operational data assimilation (DA). The ensemble-based DA techniques provide a derivative-free alternative, which appears to be competitive with variational methods in many practical applications. This article proposes a hybrid scheme for generating the search subspaces in the adjoint-free 4-dimensional DA method (a4dVar) that does not use a predefined ensemble. The method resembles 4dVar in that the optimal solution is strongly constrained by model dynamics and search directions are supplied iteratively using information from the current and previous model trajectories generated in the process of optimization. In contrast to 4dVar, which produces a single search direction from exact gradient information, a4dVar employs an ensemble of directions to form a subspace in order to proceed. In the earlier versions of a4dVar, search subspaces were built using the leading EOFs of either the model trajectory or the projections of the model-data misfits onto the range of the background error covariance (BEC) matrix at the current iteration. In the present study, we blend both approaches and explore a hybrid scheme of ensemble generation in order to improve the performance and flexibility of the algorithm. In addition, we introduce balance constraints into the BEC structure and periodically augment the search ensemble with BEC eigenvectors to avoid repeating minimization over already explored subspaces. Performance of the proposed hybrid a4dVar (ha4dVar) method is compared with that of standard 4dVar in a realistic regional configuration assimilating real data into the Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM). It is shown that the ha4dVar converges faster than a4dVar and can be potentially competitive with 4dvar both in terms of the required computational time and the forecast skill.
“This State Is Racist . . ”: Policy Problematization and Undocumented Youth Experiences in the New Latino South:

This article examines how state-level policy discourse articulates a category of knowledge about immigrants in South Carolina that governs the everyday experiences of undocumented immigrants. In th...
Delay and Congestion in High Speed Integrated Networks

The rapid evolution in optical fiber communication has made terabit link speed a likely possibility for the future. The urge to integrate voice, data, and video within a single network, combined with increasingly image oriented data traffic, also suggest that terabit networks will someday be useful. In these integrated networks of the future, different users have very different requirements. We concentrate here on delay and discuss a number of approaches to provide negotiated upper bounds on delay. We also discuss the effect that higher speeds and optical fiber technology will have on these delay bounds.
Disasters, Sociology of

The sociological aspects of disasters are no less important scientifically than their physical characteristics. Accordingly, this article defines disasters as nonroutine events within social time and space. The importance of basic sociological concepts is highlighted for exploring the special character of disasters as social problems. The conceptualization of disasters as systemic events characterizes sociological research on disasters from its origins during World War II to the present day. The field clearly has become multidisciplinary in more recent decades, with strong intersections among the natural, social, and policy sciences. There remains, however, a very strong sociological core within ongoing research. That core characterizes both major research emphases within sociology in the United States and a growing body of disaster research internationally. While historically the majority of American-based research has been directed to a limited range of natural and technological events, strong arguments are being made internationally to study a much broader range of economic, social, and political circumstances. The majority of past research has also focused on social responses after disasters occur. Now growing attention to the social construction of risk, disaster prevention, and disaster mitigation is providing greater analytical balance. The growth of cross-cultural and comparative studies will ensure the continuing importance of sociology within disaster research.
Field Effect Modulation of Heterogeneous Charge Transfer Kinetics at Back-Gated Two-Dimensional MoS2 Electrodes

The ability to improve and to modulate the heterogeneous charge transfer kinetics of two-dimensional (2D) semiconductors, such as MoS2, is a major challenge for electrochemical and photoelectrochemical applications of these materials. Here we report a continuous and reversible physical method for modulating the heterogeneous charge transfer kinetics at a monolayer MoS2 working electrode supported on a SiO2/p-Si substrate. The heavily doped p-Si substrate serves as a back gate electrode; application of a gate voltage (VBG) to p-Si tunes the electron occupation in the MoS2 conduction band and shifts the conduction band edge position relative to redox species dissolved in electrolyte in contact with the front side of the MoS2. The gate modulation of both charge density and energy band alignment impacts charge transfer kinetics as measured by cyclic voltammetry (CV). Specifically, cyclic voltammograms combined with numerical simulations suggest that the standard heterogeneous charge transfer rate constant (k0...
Spatially translatable optical fiber-coupled heterodyne interferometer.

An interferometer is a useful diagnostic tool for measuring line-averaged electron density but is limited in its use because it generally measures at a fixed location. We report here a spatially translatable fiber-coupled interferometer that measures the density of a high-speed MHD-driven plasma jet colliding with a target cloud. The interferometer uses a He–Ne laser coupled to a polarization-maintaining single mode optical fiber having a vacuum feedthrough. The interferometer provides a measure of the spatial-temporal profile of the line-averaged electron density from which the change in jet velocity as a result of its collision with the target cloud can be deduced.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STATIN USE AND TRIMETHYLAMINE N-OXIDE IN CARDIOVASCULAR RISK ASSESSMENT

Trimethylamine N-Oxide (TMAO) is a gut microbiota generated metabolite implicated in the development of cardiovascular disease. However, it is unknown how this metabolite responds to statin, a common medication utilized in this patient population. Plasma TMAO and baseline statin use data was
Dialogical Meaning and Justice for Constructivist and Existential Psychologies

Constructivist and existential psychologies both contain tensions pertaining to self-centric and social-centric perspectives. The authors explicate these tensions and offer an alternative scheme ba...
The Afro-Asian Attitude Towards the Creation of One-Year Committees on Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories: 1946–1948

Shortly after the Charter of the United Nations came into force, the World Organization began to tackle the problems posed by the vagueness of the Declaration Regarding NSGTs. The most important issue was the question of a machinery for Chapter XI. It involved providing adequate replies to questions such as those raised by the Delegate of Australia prior to the General Assembly’s adoption of its first resolution on NSGTs in 1946. He asked: What is to happen to the information? How is it to be made available to Members? What advice will the General Assembly need to provide for receiving it, circulating it, classifying it, or what you will?1
Lipase-catalyzed glycerolysis of an oil rich in eicosapentaenoic acid residues

The activities of four immobilized lipases for glycerolysis of a commercially available fish oil (TG500) rich in eicosapentaenoic residues (>58%, w/w) have been characterized in solvent-free systems. The effects of the mole ratio of TG500 to glycerol and temperature have been investigated. The highest conversion was obtained at 60 °C with a Candida antarctica fraction B lipase (Chirazyme L-2) and a mole ratio of TG500 (based on fatty acid equivalents) to glycerol of 1.5 to 1.
Cumulative Advantage or Cumulative Responsibility? Reconsidering the Matthew Effect

Merton (1968) coined the term Matthew effect to reflect cumulative advantage -- systematic disparities in the allocation of rewards, recognition, and resources for scientists based on their publica...
Privacy Preserving Fisher’s Exact Test on Genomic Data

Privacy of genomic data has become increasingly significant as genome sequencing is more readily available for research. It is imperative to protect genomic data as we use it for the progression of medicine. In this paper, we propose a new privacy preserving Fisher’s Exact Test algorithm for genomic data based on Boneh-Goh-Nissim (BGN) cryptosystem. This is a novel approach that has yet to be done to the best of our knowledge. Due to BGN’s homomorphic properties, researchers can keep data private while calculating the correct test results without ever decrypting the data itself. We investigate the usage of the BGN cryptosystem on statistical computations, Fisher’s Exact Test in particular, analyzing its security, efficiency, and correctness in the real world of genomic data research. We implement our BGN-based privacy preserving Fisher’s Exact Test algorithm and test it extensively using real genomic data from international genome database. The result shows that our algorithm is efficient and practical.
Oxygen isotope compositions of lavas from the Galapagos archipelago: geochemical contributions from modern crustal sources

New oxygen isotope compositions of olivine phenocrysts collected across the Galapagos archipelago show a larger range of δ^(18)O_(olivine) values than previously reported (4.74–5.40‰) in the region. Olivines from Fernandina, Floreana, and Pinta, which represent the main radiogenic isotope end-members of the Galapagos hotspot, have δ^(18)O values of 5.02 ± 0.08‰ (1σ), within the accepted range of the oxygen isotope composition of mantle olivines. In general, δ^(18)O_(olivine) values do not correlate with radiogenic isotope compositions of hosting lavas. Instead, the span of δ^(18)O_(olivine) values is more consistent with widespread lithospheric contamination. δ^(18)O_(olivine) values at the higher end of the range in the Galapagos are correlated with indices of crustal assimilation including Sr/Sr*. Values below the normal mantle range can be explained by assimilation and fractional crystallization processes. Olivines that have δ^(18)O values below the normal mantle range come from the western part of the archipelago with the thickest lithosphere. This is consistent with melt interacting with crust that underwent hydrothermal alteration at elevated temperature, causing a decrease in δ^(18)O values. In contrast, the highest δ^(18)O values of the Galapagos come from areas underlain by thin lithosphere in the eastern part of the archipelago. This is consistent with shallow crust/melt interaction that is generally associated with δ^(18)O values above the normal mantle range. These results suggest that while the three end-member components of the Galapagos mantle have a generally homogenous δ^(18)O value indistinguishable from “normal” upper mantle, there is a more widespread effect of lithospheric contamination in melts than previously thought.
Pathogenesis of Cholesterol Gallstones

The factors leading to cholesterol cholelithiasis are probably multiple. Although the secretion of bile supersaturated with cholesterol seems to be a common feature among all patients who form cholesterol stones, a variety of pathophysiologic events can produce an increase in lithogenicity. Dietary factors, particularly in the grossly obese, lead to an absolute increase in secretion of cholesterol into bile. Occasionally, excessive loss of the bile salt pool, for example with regional ileitis, may decrease the ability of bile salts to solubilize cholesterol. In many other, subtle alterations in the enterohepatic circulation of bile salts may adversely affect solubility by both decreasing the secretion of bile salts and increasing the secretion of cholesterol. Regardless of its cause, supersaturation of bile with cholesterol appears to be a prerequisite for gallstone formation. However, additional factors within the gallbladder, such as increased secretion of glycoprotein, increased absorption of fluids, infection, and stasis, appear to contribute to the formation of macroscopic stones.
Chile: el dilema de la politica exterior norteamericana

En el articulo se analizan someramente los elementos determinantes de las relaciones entre Chile y Estados Unidos, su evolucion a traves del tiempo y la importancia actual del pais para este ultimo, la cual esta basada principalmente en hechos como la calidad de Chile de importador de productos norteamericanos, la capacidad de su Marina y tambien en elementos ideologicos. Estos se refieren a la consideracion de Chile como instrumento para lograr objetivos politicos internos de Estados Unidos, tanto para la derecha como la izquierda. En seguida se describen las politicas hacia Chile de los gobiernos de los presidentes Carter y Reagan, en especial las de este ultimo. El autor pretende demostrar que las acciones de estos periodos han logrado objetivos contrarios a los previstos, permitiendo que Pinochet desafiara a Estados Unidos, alcanzara sus deseos y cumpliera sus objetivos sin castigos ni represalias eficaces. El autor prosigue con el analisis de las causas del fracaso de las politicas de Carter y Reagan para lograr la reinstauracion de la democracia en Chile y, en consecuencia, el retiro de Pinochet. Termina el articulo con indicaciones de los posibles contenidos de las acciones futuras del Gobierno y el Congreso norteamericanos en relacion a Chile, a fin de obtener el traspaso del poder de los militares a los civiles.
The threat of #RhetoricNotSoWhite

In the spirit of employing the “hashtag” as what Suey Park and Eunsong Kim describe as a “tool to advance conversation and disseminate tools for decolonial action,”1 I did a cursory search of Twitt...
Measuring the Psychological Impacts of Prison-Based Dog Training Programs and In-Prison Outcomes for Inmates:

As interest grows in programs that improve prison inmates’ behavior and psychosocial well-being, any such interventions must be rigorously examined and their underlying mechanisms for change must b...
Quantification of alkenes on indoor surfaces and implications for chemical sources and sinks.

Indoor surfaces are known to support organic films, but their thickness, composition, and variability between environments remain poorly characterized. Alkenes are expected to be a significant component of these films, with the reaction with O3 being a major sink for O3 and source of airborne chemicals. Here, we present a sensitive, microscale, nanospectrophotometric method for quantifying the alkene (C=C bond) content of surface films and demonstrate its applicability in five studies relevant to indoor air chemistry. Collection efficiencies determined for a filter wipe method were ~64%, and the overall detection limit for monoalkenes was ~10 nmol m-2 . On average, painted walls and glass windows sampled across the University of Colorado Boulder campus were coated by ~4 nm thick films containing ~20% alkenes, and a simple calculation indicates that the lifetime for these alkenes due to reaction with O3 is ~1 hour, indicating that the films are highly dynamic. Measurements of alkenes in films of skin oil, pan-fried cooking oils, a terpene-containing cleaner, and on various surfaces in a closed classroom overnight (where carboxyl groups were also measured) provided insight into the effects of chemical and physical processes on film and air composition.
Convergent access to bis-1,2,4-triazinyl-2,2′-bipyridines (BTBPs) and 2,2′-bipyridines via a Pd-catalyzed Ullman-type reaction

Multidentate, soft-Lewis basic, complexant scaffolds have displayed significant potential in the discrete speciation of the minor actinides from the neutron-absorbing lanthanides resident in spent nuclear fuel. Efforts to devise convergent synthetic strategies to targets of interest to improve liquid–liquid separation outcomes continue, but significant challenges to improve solubility in process-relevant diluents to effectively define meaningful structure–activity relationships remain. In the current work, a synthetic method to achieve the challenging 2,2′-bipyridine bond of the bis-1,2,4-triazinyl-2,2′-bipyridine (BTBP) complexant class leveraging a Pd-catalyzed Ullman-type coupling is reported. This convergent strategy improves upon earlier work focused on linear synthetic access to the BTBP complexant moiety. Method optimization, relevant substrate scope and application, as well as a preliminary mechanistic interrogation are reported herein.
Brief Overview of the Endocrine System

The endocrine system is involved in virtually all aspects of the mammalian organism, its biochemical, physiological, locomotor, reproductive, and psychologic functions. At the cellular level, hormones participate in gametogenesis, fertilization, implantation, organogenesis, and differentiation. In the total organism hormones mediate, for example, muscular activity, respiration, digestion, hematopoiesis, thought, mood, and behavior. There are few, if any, organs or tissues in mammalian systems that are not affected either directly or indirectly by the endocrine system. Therefore, the concept of specific target organs or tissues for hormones is probably only valid insofar as the degree of sensitivity and the extent at which organs or tissues are affected by a given hormone. The involvement and complexity of the endocrine system in mammalian organisms are astonishing, pervasive, and downright awesome.
A Guide to Choosing Genuine Opportunities for Turnarounds

Purpose — For corporations seeking to boost market share or gain valuable assets, compelling turnaround opportunities seem to abound. In this paper the authors, who are veteran turnaround analysts, aim to share their experiences.Design/methodology/approach — With so many distressed companies in need of turnaround talent and money, the paper presents lessons learned over the years by veteran specialists, which investors would be well advised to reflect on the before they leap into a thorny acquisition.Findings — Within the middle group of stumbling companies are some genuine turnaround opportunities, despite the fact that they have been beaten down by the market and have performance problems that do not have obvious solutions.Practical implications — Distressed companies fall into three categories: hopeless situations that no amount of time, money or effort can save; obvious winners that will revive as the current credit freeze thaws; and problematical situations that require a careful due diligence process to sort the lackluster survivors from those businesses that will best respond to skilled turnaround management. Only the last category offers compelling high returns that justify the resources committed.Originality/value — The paper warns not to be seduced into trying to save a company that will limp along for years on life support systems or provide only negligible returns. Also to be brutally realistic about what the future could look like for a struggling firm and only put energy into potential winners and not into lackluster survivors.
Long COVID and kidney disease.

Kidney involvement is common in patients with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection, and subclinical inflammation and injury may persist for many months, resulting in a progressive decline in kidney function that leads to chronic kidney disease. Continued research is imperative to understand these long-term sequelae and identify interventions to mitigate them.
The Process Due When Rent is Due: Residential Nonpayment Evictions in New York after COVID-19 (preprint)

At this critical juncture, to prevent homelessness and the unnecessary displacement of families, it is imperative to review New York nonpayment eviction law, with a focus on the procedural protections available to tenants. Additionally, New York’s Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act (HSTPA) of 2019 dramatically changed the eviction process only months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. And laws enacted during the pandemic, such as the Tenant Safe Harbor Act, will continue to affect housing practice going forward. Thus, for the benefit of judges and advocates alike, it is important to highlight the unsettled issues that must still be litigated. This article considers the New York nonpayment eviction process chronologically. It first addresses the pre-commencement notices to which tenants are entitled. Then it discusses the court eviction proceeding and warrant process, with an emphasis on tenant protections that are built into the law.
IL-2 Progress in Research and Treatment of Prostate Cancer

Traditional forms of management of prostate cancer have improved both quantity and quality of life. A personal series of over 1,000 men who underwent radical prostatectomy by the author and followed for a mean of 6 years, were separated into categories by pre-op risk factors : PSA, biopsy stage and clinical stage. PSA-free survival in patients with no high-risk factors was approximately 900/0 at 7 years. Patients with Gleason score > 7 had 520/0 , and those with all high risk factors had PSA-free survival of 450/0 and overall survival of approximately 750/0 . Quality of Life studies done at UCLA compared outcomes, using validated prospective questionnaires, between seed implants, external radiotherapy and surgery. Bowel function was more impaired by external radiotherapy and brachytherapy (p< .05) and obstructive and irritative urinary symptoms were greater with seed implants (p< .05) . Incontinence was greater with surgery than either form of radiotherapy (p<05) . Sexual dysfunction was somewhat greater immediately after surgery, but after 12 months follow-up there was no significant difference in sexual function among the three groups. After I month, physical domains were the same for all groups.
On Logical Descriptions of Regular Languages

There are many examples in the research literature of families of regular languages defined by purely model-theoretic means (that is, in terms of the kinds of formulas of predicate logic used to define them) that can be characterized algebraically (that is, in terms of the syntactic monoids or syntactic morphisms of the languages). In fact the existence of such algebraic characterizations appears to be the rule. The present paper gives an explanation of the phenomenon: A generalization of Eilenberg's variety theorem is proved, and then applied to logic. We find that a very wide assortment of families of regular languages defined in model-theoretic terms form varieties in this new sense,and that consequently membership in the family depends only on the syntactic morphism of the language.
The optimal number of menu options per panel

An evaluation is made of the effects of the 'funneling' phenomenon, in an analysis of hierarchical menu structures' optimal search times which builds on the work of Lee and MacGregor (1985). Funneling is a reduction in the total number of options processed through the design of a system of greater choice 'depth' and correspondingly restricted choice 'breadth'. Both random and ordered menus are treated. The available evidence is found to support the general conclusion that randomly ordered menu panels should have only a few (4-8) options, while organized menus should contain as many options as 64.
Noise-adaptive anisotropic diffusion filtering of MRI images reconstructed by SENSE (sensitivity encoding) method

SENSE (SENSitivity Encoding) imaging provides significant acquisition speedups in MRI. The main drawback of the method is that it generates images that have increased and spatially nonuniform noise levels and, hence, will often require retrospective filtering. In this paper, we show that standard anisotropic diffusion filtering, while being an effective technique for edge-preserving denoising of images with uniform noise levels, is often non-optimal for SENSE-reconstructed data. We have developed a modification of this filter for SENSE images using a robust statistical analysis of the anisotropic diffusion process. The new method utilizes the image noise matrix that is available from the SENSE reconstruction to automatically adjust filtering parameters with local noise levels. The effectiveness of the method and its advantage over standard anisotropic diffusion filtering for SENSE images were demonstrated with phantom and patient MRI data.
2 – Laminar flow through a tube with a thin annular adherent liquid film

Publisher Summary This chapter deals with problems that arise when there is an annular layer of liquid adjacent to the inner wall of the tube, which in turn surrounds an inner or “core” flow of a second fluid. An annular liquid film is stable, and this layer has the ability to “lubricate” the tube in the sense that its presence can reduce the pressure drop required to maintain a specified volumetric flow rate of the inner fluid. The rate at which this layer is “sheared out” of the tube is examined in the chapter, and the rate of removal can be explained with the help of a simple model. By dropping the assumption that if the annular layer is being sheared out of the tube by the core flow, it is replenished somehow and a transient model for the removal of this layer is presented; this phenomenon can be compared to experimental data. A key assumption in the analysis of a quasi-steady model is that the flow is steady in time and that the annular film remains an annulus of axially uniform thickness. An analysis of the stability of the annular film can be carried out with the help of a method devised by Goren. A relatively simple hydrodynamic theory leads to an equation that correlates the data of several investigators over several decades in the capillary number.
Transcriptomic responses to salinity stress in invasive and native blue mussels (genus Mytilus).

The invasive marine mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis has displaced the native congener Mytilus trossulus from central and southern California, but the native species remains dominant at more northerly sites that have high levels of freshwater input. To determine the extent to which interspecific differences in physiological tolerance to low salinity might explain limits to the invasive species’ biogeography, we used an oligonucleotide microarray to compare the transcriptional responses of these two species to an acute decrease in salinity. Among 6777 genes on the microarray, 117 genes showed significant changes that were similar between species, and 12 genes showed significant species-specific responses to salinity stress. Osmoregulation and cell cycle control were important aspects of the shared transcriptomic response to salinity stress, whereas the genes with species-specific expression patterns were involved in mRNA splicing, polyamine synthesis, exocytosis, translation, cell adhesion, and cell signalling. Forty-five genes that changed expression significantly during salinity stress also changed expression during heat stress, but the direction of change in expression was typically opposite for the two forms of stress. These results (i) provide insights into the role of changes in gene expression in establishing physiological tolerance to acute decreases in salinity, and (ii) indicate that transcriptomic differences between M. galloprovincialis and M. trossulus in response to salinity stress are subtle and involve only a minor fraction of the overall suite of gene regulatory responses.
Expansion of CTCs from early stage lung cancer patients using a microfluidic co-culture model

The potential utility of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to guide clinical care in oncology patients has gained momentum with emerging micro- and nanotechnologies. Establishing the role of CTCs in tumor progression and metastasis depends both on enumeration and on obtaining sufficient numbers of CTCs for downstream assays. The numbers of CTCs are few in early stages of cancer, limiting detailed molecular characterization. Recent attempts in the literature to culture CTCs isolated from metastatic patients using monoculture have had limited success rates of less than 20%. Herein, we have developed a novel in-situ capture and culture methodology for ex-vivo expansion of CTCs using a three dimensional co-culture model, simulating a tumor microenvironment to support tumor development. We have successfully expanded CTCs isolated from 14 of 19 early stage lung cancer patients. Expanded lung CTCs carried mutations of the TP53 gene identical to those observed in the matched primary tumors. Next-generation sequencing further revealed additional matched mutations between primary tumor and CTCs of cancer-related genes. This strategy sets the stage to further characterize the biology of CTCs derived from patients with early lung cancers, thereby leading to a better understanding of these putative drivers of metastasis.
Two-Dimensional Infinite Prandtl Number Convection: Structure of Bifurcated Solutions

This paper examines the bifurcation and structure of the bifurcated solutions of the two-dimensional infinite Prandtl number convection problem. The existence of a bifurcation from the trivial solution to an attractor Σ R was proved by Park (Disc. Cont. Dynam. Syst. B [2005]). We prove in this paper that the bifurcated attractor Σ R consists of only one cycle of steady-state solutions and that it is homeomorphic to S1. By thoroughly investigating the structure and transitions of the solutions of the infinite randtl number convection problem in physical space, we confirm that the bifurcated solutions are indeed structurally stable. In turn, this will corroborate and justify the suggested results with the physical findings about the presence of the roll structure. This bifurcation analysis is based on a new notion of bifurcation, called attractor bifurcation, and structural stability is derived using a new geometric theory of incompressible flows. Both theories were developed by Ma and Wang; see Bifurcation Theory and Applications (World Scientific, 2005) and Geometric Theory of Incompressible Flows with Applications to Fluid Dynamics (American Mathematical Society, 2005).
Strain-induced distortion of the bulk bands of gadolinium

Thin films of gadolinium, approximately 8 ML thick, have been grown on the corrugated (112) surface of molybdenum and the electronic structure has been investigated with angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. The unfavorable lattice match between the ``steplike'' Mo(112) substrate and the preferred hexagonally ordered Gd film results in an incommensurate Gd structure that appears to be ordered, but strained along the direction of the corrugations. The hexagonal Gd lattice is expanded by more than 20% along the ``step'' lines of the substrate, as determined from the reduced Brillouin-zone size along the \ensuremath{\Gamma}\ensuremath{\Sigma}M high-symmetry line and low-energy electron diffraction. The induced strain substantially alters the conventional Gd 5d/6s bulk bands to exhibit a dispersion opposite to that of the relaxed Gd(0001) structure. Dislocations destroy the long-range crystallographic order in the direction orthogonal to the corrugations, which results in the localization of the bands along the \ensuremath{\Gamma}TK symmetry line. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.