cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS OF TWO DIMENSIONAL RAYLEIGH‐BENARD CONVECTION WITH GRAVITY MODULATION EFFECTS

Sinusoidal gravity modulation fields imposed on two‐dimensional Rayleigh‐Benard convection flow are studied to understand the effects of periodic source (g‐jitter) on fluids system and heat transfer mechanism. The transient Navier‐Stokes and energy equations are solved by semi‐implicit operator splitting finite element method. Results include two sets. One is considered at normal terrestrial condition and the other one is related to low‐gravity condition. Under low‐gravity condition the research focuses on the effects of modulation frequency and direction in order to find out the critical frequency for heat transfer mechanism transferring from conduction to convection.
Surface Characterization and Electrochemical Properties of Alkyl, Fluorinated Alkyl, and Alkoxy Monolayers on Silicon

Alkyl and fluorinated alkyl monolayers covalently bonded to the silicon (111) surface have been prepared by UV illumination of the H−Si(111) surface while immersed in a solution of olefin precursor under high vacuum. An alkoxy monolayer covalently bonded to the silicon (111) surface is formed by the reaction of the H−Si(111) surface with a heated solution of primary alcohol precursors under high vacuum. Ellipsometry, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy are used to characterize the three monolayers. The alkyl monolayer is measured to have the largest number of organic adsorbates per surface silicon atom. Properties of the monolayers on the silicon surface are probed by cyclic voltammetry. The hydrophobic alkyl monolayer slows the oxidation of the silicon surface by water. The three monolayers also slow the rate of electron transfer across the silicon−electrolyte interface by acting as a tunneling barrier. The alkyl monolayer in tetrahydrofuran exhibits a large and reproducible blo...
Fade and wear characteristics of a glass-fiber-reinforced phenolic friction material

Abstract The fade and wear characteristics of a glass-fiber-reinforced friction material were studied using a Chase friction material testing machine. At low counterface temperatures, the friction material showed relatively high friction in the range 0.4–0.5. During fade tests, the coefficient of friction dropped to about 0.18 at 343 °C. Re-conditioning the wear surface at the end of a fade test altered the frictional behavior during a subsequent fade test. The wear tests showed that the specific weight loss per unit load and sliding distance decreases with increasing applied load and speed, but increases with increasing bulk drum temperature. At high temperatures, thermochemical degradation and fiber pull-out appear to contribute to higher specific wear rate. The worn surfaces of the specimens were observed by scanning electron microscopy and analyzed by energy-dispersive X-ray analysis. The results were consistent with low friction coefficients due to film formation on the worn surfaces of glass fiber at high temperatures. This film could be removed at lower temperatures by either sliding (application) or by sanding.
Replication of a Universal Nucleobase Provides Unique Insight into the Role of Entropy During DNA Polymerization and Pyrophosphorolysis

Most models accounting for the efficiency and fidelity of DNA polymerization invoke the use of either hydrogen-bonding contacts or complementary of shape and size between the formed base pair. This report evaluates these mechanisms by quantifying the ability of a high fidelity DNA polymerase to replicate 5-nitroindole, a purine mimetic devoid of classic hydrogen-bonding capabilities. 5-NITP acts as a universal nucleotide since it is incorporated opposite any of the four natural nucleobases with nearly equal efficiencies. However, the polymerization reaction is not reciprocal as natural nucleotides are poorly incorporated opposite 5-nitroindole in the template strand. Incorporation opposite 5-nitroindole is more efficient using natural nucleotides containing various modifications that increase their base-stacking potential. However, 5-substituted indolyl nucleotides that contain π-electron and/or hydrophobic groups are incorporated opposite the non-natural nucleobase with the highest catalytic efficiencies. The collective data set indicate that replication of a non-natural nucleobase is driven by a combination of the hydrophobic nature and π-electron surface area of the incoming nucleotide. In this mechanism, the overall hydrophobicity of the incoming nucleobase overcomes the lack of hydrogen-bonding groups that are generally required for optimal DNA polymerization. However, the lack of hydrogen bonds between base pairs prevents primer extension. This final aspect is manifest by the appearance of unusually high pyrophosphorolysis activity by the T4 DNA polymerase that is only observed with the non-natural nucleobase in the template. These results highlight the importance of hydrogen-bonding interactions during primer extension and pyrophosphorolysis.
GRADIENT ANALYSIS OF DIATOM ASSEMBLAGES IN WESTERN KENTUCKY WETLANDS

Diatom and water chemistry data from 35 wetland sites in western Kentucky were used to assess diatoms as indicators of ecological conditions in wetlands. The wetlands were affected by different degrees of acid mine drainage and agriculture. Canonical correspondence analysis indicated that the distribution of diatoms was highly correlated with conductivity and total phosphorus (TP), two variables commonly associated with acidic mine drainage and agriculture, respectively. Diatom-based inference models were developed for use as quantitative indicators of two important environmental variables in wetlands: conductivity and TP. Diatom-inferred conductivity and TP values were highly correlated with measured values. Cross-validation with jackknifing procedures suggested that high apparent r2 between inferred and measured conductivity was overly optimistic and should be treated with caution. Jackknifing-derived TP inference models performed poorly in predicting TP toward the ends of low and high TP concentrations. In general, the conductivity inference models based on plankton had better predictability than those based on epiphyton. Epiphyton-based inference models can predict TP better than plankton. Therefore, diatoms in planktonic and epiphytic assemblages could provide complementary information on ecological conditions. Our data suggest that diatoms can reflect major regional environmental gradients and therefore can be used as indicators of the ecological conditions in wetlands. Quantitative inference models with known predictive power can aid the development of realistic and ecologically sound biotic indices for this region.
On global diffeomorphisms of Euclidian space

As IS WELL KNOWN, the first attempt at characterizing global diffeomorphisms of IR” goes back to the 1906 work of Hadamard [l]. Since that time, progress in the global diffeomorphism problem has been rather slow. Notable contributions are those of Levy [2] who generalized Hadamard’s theorem to Banach spaces and of Banach and Mazur [3] and Caccioppoli [4] who proved the so-called “properness criterion” saying that a proper local homeomorphism of a Banach space is a global homeomorphism. The standard proofs of the theorems of Hadamard and Levy and of Banach, Mazur and Caccioppoli rely upon ideas of what is now called covering space theory, via the important “homotopy lifting property” of coverings (see e.g. [5]). This approach makes it clear that it is only lack of compactness of IR” that allows for the existence of noninjective local homeomorphisms when n L 2, the complex exponential when n = 2 being the most famous example, The theorems mentioned above were found again by various authors, sometimes in special cases and sometimes in a different framework but always through some variant of the same argument. A synthesis was made by Rheinboldt [6] in 1969. Part of his results were rediscovered five years later by Plastock [7] and given a somewhat simpler exposition for the special case of Banach spaces. Other contributions were made by Meisters and Olech [8] (global homeomorphisms of bounded domains in I?“), Meyer [9] (complementing the work of Levy) and Radulescu and Radulescu [lo] (expanding upon Plastock’s results). Many other articles have been devoted to special cases, where extra hypotheses are introduced consistently with the problem at hand. For instance, polynomial mappings only are relevant to the Jacobian conjecture of algebraic geometry, and hypotheses about the spectrum of the derivative at each point come up in a natural way in global stability questions for differential equations. The new results presented in this paper have been obtained through arguments from critical point theory and differential topology. Here, the central notion is that of admissible flow. Given a mapping F: Ii?” + IR”, the main property of what we call an F-admissible flow q: IR x (Ii?” F-‘(O)) + I?” F-‘(O) is that, for every x E IR” F-‘(O), the function t jF(q(t, x))l (where 1.1 is the Euclidean norm) is strictly increasing and tends to 0 (resp. 00) as t tends to --co (resp. 00). The basic feature we prove is that a local diffeomorphism F is a global one if and only if F-'(O) # (ZI and there is an F-admissible flow. This statement makes it clear that 0 plays a special role regarding F-admissibility, and the condition F-'(O) # 0 cannot be eliminated (as examples will show). The introduction of F-admissibility followed the author’s remark that, in Hilbert space, Hadamard’s theorem could be derived from the mountain pass theorem of Ambrosetti and
A Non-Linear Time Domain Model Of A Free-Fall Oceanographic Vehicle

Free-fall vehicles have gained widespread acceptance as a means by which small scale fluctuations in ocean characteristics such as the temperature and salinity gradients can be accurately profiled. Although these vehicles are used by a large number of programs doing basic and applied research for the Navy, the dynamic characteristics of their free-fall descent are not well understood. This makes the interpretation of some aspects of the recorded data uncertain. Also, there is no framework to guide the preliminary design of new vehicles to optimize their performance. A non-linear time domain anayltical model and an approximately half-scale wind tunnel model have been developed in order to study the vehicle dynamics.
Depression and alcoholism.

Drinking alcohol-containing beverages is a common habit in Western countries. In most Western societies, at least 90% of people consume alcohol at some time during their lives, and 30% or more of drinkers develop alcohol-related life problems.1 Severe alcohol-related life impairment, alcohol dependence, is observed at some time during their lives in ∼10% of men and 3–5% of women, with an additional 5–10% of each sex developing persistent but less intense problems that are diagnosed as abuse.1 Individuals with alcohol abuse are not dependent on alcohol, but have repeated legal, interpersonal, social, or occupational impairments related to alcohol consumption.1,,2 They frequently use alcohol in physically hazardous situations. If individuals with alcohol abuse continue to drink, they may go on to develop alcohol dependence. Alcohol dependence is characterized by tolerance (a need for markedly increased amounts of alcohol to achieve desired effect and/or markedly diminished effect with the continued use of the same amount of alcohol), and a withdrawal syndrome when alcohol is discontinued or intake is decreased. Alcohol-dependent individuals often spend a great deal of time using alcohol, and return to use despite evidence of physical and psychological problems. Alcohol abuse and dependence are commonly called alcoholism. Depression and alcoholism are associated with considerable morbidity, disability, and mortality, and co-occur more commonly than expected by chance.3–,8 The extent of comorbidity between depression and alcoholism was demonstrated by the results of several large epidemiological studies.3–,7 The National Comorbidity Survey (NCS), a nationally representative survey in the US, found that compared with non-depressed respondents in the NCS, the lifetime odds of alcohol dependence were significantly elevated for both men (2.95) and women (4.05) with major depression.7 Conversely, NCS data demonstrated a two-fold increase …
The Camera Obscura and the Nature of the Soul: On a Tension between the Mechanics of Sensation and the Metaphysics of the Soul

When considering the period between Kepler's adoption of an instrument otherwise used for the purposes of courtly entertainment and enshrining of it as a kind of sigil for his new mechanistic optic...
Moisture effects during cure of high-performance epoxy matrices

The effects of absorbed moisture on the cure reactions and subsequent solid-state properties of a high-performance epoxy system were investigated in this study. The resin systems investigated were a model system, TGDDM–Novalac–DDS–BF3:MEA (TNDB), and its commercial analog, Hercules 3501–6. The samples were exposed to three environments: a liquid water environment at 50°C; an 85% relative humidity vapor environment at 50°C; and an evacuated, desiccated atmosphere at 22°C. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermograms were obtained for the Hercules 3501-6 formulation as well as various compositions of the TNDB system for samples exposed to each of the three environments. Moisture was found to accelerate the cure especially for formulations exposed to the vapor environment. Dynamic mechanical experiments were also performed on cured, thin film samples. The “wet” samples were produced by adding water to the resin mixture prior to B-staging. The moisture was shown to increase the extent of reaction, but produce a slightly lower degree of crosslinking as related to the sample's glass transition. This has been attributed to chain-extension reactions, such as the hydroxyl–epoxide etherification reaction, which are favored in the presence of hydroxyl groups from water.
Female lethality and apoptosis of spermatocytes in mice lacking the UBR2 ubiquitin ligase of the N-end rule pathway.

Substrates of the ubiquitin-dependent N-end rule pathway include proteins with destabilizing N-terminal residues. UBR1-/- mice, which lacked the pathway's ubiquitin ligase E3α, were viable and retained the N-end rule pathway. The present work describes the identification and analysis of mouse UBR2, a homolog of UBR1. We demonstrate that the substrate-binding properties of UBR2 are highly similar to those of UBR1, identifying UBR2 as the second E3 of the mammalian N-end rule pathway. UBR2-/- mouse strains were constructed, and their viability was found to be dependent on both gender and genetic background. In the strain 129 (inbred) background, the UBR2-/- genotype was lethal to most embryos of either gender. In the 129/B6 (mixed) background, most UBR2-/- females died as embryos, whereas UBR2-/- males were viable but infertile, owing to the postnatal degeneration of the testes. The gross architecture of UBR2-/- testes was normal and spermatogonia were intact as well, but UBR2-/- spermatocytes were arrested between leptotene/zygotene and pachytene and died through apoptosis. A conspicuous defect of UBR2-/- spermatocytes was the absence of intact synaptonemal complexes. We conclude that the UBR2 ubiquitin ligase and, hence, the N-end rule pathway are required for male meiosis and spermatogenesis and for an essential aspect of female embryonic development.
An infographical approach to designing the problem list

To improve quality of care, it is essential for hospital systems to find the most efficient, flexible, comprehensible, and robust means to organize and display patient information to physicians [1]. Due to the complexity of patient information and the restrictions on sharing real world problems that arise from real world information, creating and implementing information systems for clinical support is difficult. Lessons from human-computer interaction design can mitigate time and cost while ameliorating the functionality and understandability of the system.This paper describes the design of the problem list currently in development at the Regenstrief Institute for Health Care Informatics. Specifically, we delineate the exploration of goals and requirements for the patient problem list, its design conceptualization, and the evolution of the final product, a rich, interactive infographic that displays far more digestible information than is possible with more conventional methods.
Varicella Vaccine: The American Experience

Live attenuated varicella vaccine is safe and effective in preventing chickenpox. The best immune responses occur in healthy children. Leukemic children have a 50% incidence of mild-to-moderate adverse effects but have a high degree of protection once immune reactions to varicella-zoster virus (VZV) have developed. Adult vaccinees have a lower degree of protection (70%) than children. Vaccinees who develop breakthrough varicella usually have a modified infection. Another significant advantage of vaccination is that in leukemic children it leads to a lower incidence of zoster than after natural chickenpox. It is possible to differentiate between vaccine-type and wild-type VZV using a combination of polymerase chain reaction and restriction endonuclease digestion. A new assay for antibodies to VZV measured by latex agglutination reveals that 8-10 years after vaccination antibodies are detectable in greater than 90% of leukemic children who have not had breakthrough varicella.
Relationships between bacterial productivity and organic carbon at a soil—stream interface

Microbial communities at soil‐stream interfaces may be particularly important in regulating amounts and forms of nutrients that leave upland soils and enter stream ecosystems. While microbial communities are thought to be responsible for key nutrient transformations within near-stream sediments, there is relatively little mechanistic information on factors that control microbial activities in these areas. In this study, we examine the roles of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) vs. particulate organic carbon (POC) as potential controls on rates of bacterial productivity (measured as incorporation of [ 3 H]thymidine into bacterial DNA) and amounts of bacterial biomass (measured as fatty acid yield) in sediments along a transect perpendicular to a soil‐stream interface. We hypothesized that spatial patterns in bacterial productivity would vary in response to strong and persistent patterns in pore-water concentrations of DOC that were observed along a soil‐stream transect throughout a 2-year period. Our results did not support the existence of such a link between pore-water DOC and bacterial productivity. In contrast, we found bacterial productivity and biomass were related to small-scale spatial variations in sediment POC on 3 of 4 sample dates. While our results indicate that total bacterial productivity in near-stream sediments is not consistently linked to spatial variations in pore-water DOC, it is likely that DOC and POC are not mutually exclusive and the relative contribution of DOC and POC to sedimentary microbes varies temporally and spatially in different riparian habitats.
Antialiasing by Gaussian integration

The antialiasing method presented is based on Gaussian integration rather than Fourier spectrum analysis; it views aliasing as a general integral approximating a sampled function instead of a signal reconstruction problem. In this way, we can use classical numerical analysis to study the problem.
A high-resolution local network study of the Nazca Plate Wadati-Benioff Zone under western Argentina

Seismic data, recorded by INPRES telemetered network located above one of the subhorizontal segments of the subducted Nazca plate Wadati-Benioff zone beneath western Argentina, were analyzed to determine the zone's fine structure. The depth of the center and the thickness of the subhorizontal Wadati-Benioff zone beneath the network were calculated to be about 107 km and about 20 km, respectively, with most of the seismogenic zone concentrated in a region about 12 km thick. The Nazca plate is interpreted to be in a state of down-dip tension and to be decoupled from the overriding South American plate by a weak zone of asthenospheric or shear-heated material. The South American plate is estimated to be 80 km thick, based on the location of the subducted Nazca plate and an inferred decoupling zone between the plates.
On the brittleness of enamel and selected dental materials.

Abstract Although brittle material behavior is often considered undesirable, a quantitative measure of “brittleness” is currently not used in assessing the clinical merits of dental materials. Objective To quantify and compare the brittleness of human enamel and common dental restorative materials used for crown replacement. Methods Specimens of human enamel were prepared from the third molars of “young” (18 ≤ age ≤ 25) and “old” (50 ≤ age) patients. The hardness, elastic modulus and apparent fracture toughness were characterized as a function of distance from the DEJ using indentation approaches. These properties were then used in estimating the brittleness according to a model that accounts for the competing dissipative processes of deformation and fracture. The brittleness of selected porcelain, ceramic and micaceous glass ceramic (MGC) dental materials was estimated and compared with that of the enamel. Results The average brittleness of the young and old enamel increased with distance from the DEJ. For the old enamel the average brittleness increased from approximately 300 μm −1 at the DEJ to nearly 900 μm −1 at the occlusal surface. While there was no significant difference between the two age groups at the DEJ, the brittleness of the old enamel was significantly greater (and up to four times higher) than that of the young enamel near the occlusal surface. The brittleness numbers for the restorative materials were up to 90% lower than that of young occlusal enamel. Significance The brittleness index could serve as a useful scale in the design of materials used for crown replacement, as well as a quantitative tool for characterizing degradation in the mechanical behavior of enamel.
Plasma exchange in autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA)

Plasma exchange therapy in autoimmune hemolytic anemia (AIHA) was used in four patients (two with warm hemolytic anemia and two with cold hemolytic anemia). The size of each plasma exchange approximated 1 plasma volume; three consecutive daily exchanges removed 80-90% of the immunoglobulins--immunoglobulin G (IgG) and immunoglobulin M (IgM)-, complement (C3, C4), and reduced antibody titers. Transfusion requirements dramatically decreased after plasma exchange in each case. In two patients, red blood cell (RBC) survival studies were performed to more accurately assess the effect of plasma exchange therapy, since steroid and/or immunosuppressive therapy was given concomitantly. In one case of cold AIHA, homologous 51Cr-RBC were injected 4 days prior to plasma exchange and repeat injection (same donor) following completion of plasma exchange. The survival curve prior to plasma exchange therapy had a T 1/2 = 7.8 days (r = -0.988) and after plasma exchange therapy had a T 1/2 = 20.4 days (r = 0.925). RBC survival studies using homologous 51Cr-RBC were also performed in a patient with warm AIHA. The survival curve before plasma exchange had a T 1/2 = 2 days (r = -0.95), and postplasma exchange a T 1/2 = 1.8 days (r = -0.91). Plasma exchange therapy seems to have a beneficial effect in cold rather than warm autoimmune hemolytic anemia.
Optimal Architecture for Efficient Simple-Cycle Steady-Flow Combustion Engines

Increasing efficiency of steady-flow engines by way of irreversibility minimization has been the underlying objective in the development of a variety of simple, regenerative, and combined cycles. The approach thus far has been to conceptualize new cycles, or choose existing cycles, perform exergy analyses, and make modifications to minimize irreversibility. In this paper, a different approach is taken bydeveloping a thermodynamic framework that defines the principles governing the minimization of irreversibility and uses these principles to deduce an optimal architecture for simple-cycle stationary gas-turbine and propulsion engines. The optimal architecture is thus obtained as the result of the irreversibility-minimization analysis and not by optimization of a preconceived architecture or cycle. The benefit of this approach is that, based on the chosen constraints for the analysis (e.g., polytropic efficiency of compression and expansion processes, blade temperature limits, etc.), the efficiency of the optimal architecture obtained is greater than any preconceived cycle or architecture subject to the same constraints.
A completeness theorem for Kleene algebras and the algebra of regular events

A finitary axiomatization of the algebra of regular events involving only equations and equational implications that is sound for all interpretations over Kleene algebras is given. Axioms for Kleene algebra are presented, and some basic consequences are derived. Matrices over a Kleene algebra are considered. The notion of an automaton over an arbitrary Kleen algebra is defined and used to derive the classical results of the theory of finite automata as a result of the axioms. The completeness of the axioms for the algebra of regular events is treated. Open problems are indicated. >
Pleural cryptococcosis in the acquired immune deficiency syndrome

Pleural cryptococcosis is extremely rare. We report the first case of cryptococcal pleural effusion in association with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome. Pleural effusion without the evidence of pulmonary parenchymal involvement was the initial and only clinical finding leading to the diagnosis of disseminated cryptococcosis. The pleural effusion resolved spontaneously prior to amphotericin B therapy.
Diversity In Television Commercials: A Content Analysis

To increase market penetration, businesses work on engaging current and new customers to purchase additional products via creating a market offering to match the needs of the consumer group. “Failure to recognize the reality of market segments was resulting in the loss of market position” (Smith, 1956, p. 5) for companies. Smith (1956) notes that the successful application of the strategy of market segmentation “tends to produce depth of market position in the segments that are effectively defined and penetrated” (p. 5). The United States, with a history of being the world’s melting pot, is a multicultural society. Differences between rich, poor, urban and rural Americans have been augmented by racial and ethnic diversity (Riche, 1991). Successful utilization of this diversity has been of concern to business. This paper analyzed 177 commercials to determine the proportion of inclusiveness in regards to gender, age, race, and language. Diversity in gender and race was demonstrated, but improvement is needed in race, age, and language.
The Rise of the Lay Catholic Evangelist in England and America

In December 1916 David Goldstein, Catholic convert and former Jewish socialist cigarmaker, approached Boston's Cardinal William Henry O'Connell with a novel plan. Goldstein wanted to deliver lectures on Catholicism from a custom-built Model-T Ford on Boston Common. A little over a year later, across the Atlantic, Vernon Redwood, a transplanted tenor from New Zealand, asked Francis Cardinal Bourne of Westminster for permission to speak on behalf of the church in Hyde Park. Both Goldstein and Redwood received episcopal approval and Boston's Catholic Truth Guild and London's Catholic Evidence Guild were born. The emergence of these two movements marked a new epoch in the history of the Roman Catholic laity in the English-speaking world. The fact that the lay evangelist appeared on the scene during the First World War and in the aftermath of the Vatican condemnations of Americanism (1899) and Modernism (1907), actions generally assumed to have dampened the spirit of individual initiative in the church, renders them all the more illuminating to scholars of modern Catholicism. Goldstein and Redwood both exemplified and encouraged the new assertiveness which began to characterize a growing number of the American and English laity by the First World War. They call our attention to a significant shift in the self-identity of the lay population which came to fruition during the period between the World Wars, a shift which prompted even tenors and cigarmakers to mount the public pulpit.
More than just heat: ambient ionization mass spectrometry for determination of the species of origin of processed commercial products—application to psychoactive pepper supplements

The application of direct analysis in real time high resolution mass spectrometry (DART-HRMS) to the determination of the originating species of the plants from which processed commercially available plant-based products are derived is described. As a proof of principle, the method was employed for determination of the provenance of psychoactive pepper species, namely Piper methysticum (aka kava) and P. betle (aka betel). In addition to being of agricultural importance, these species are also of relevance in a forensics context. DART-HRMS spectra showed that extractions, heat treatment and other steps associated with the manufacture of these products result in significant differences in the mass spectral fingerprints observed. Nevertheless, the presence of key species-specific biomarkers such as kavalactones and chalcones in P. methysticum, and a variety of terpenes in P. betle, were retained. Chemometric processing by principal component analysis using a selection of feature masses that represented both compounds common to each of the species, and others that distinguished them, showed that the two Piper spp. could be readily identified, regardless of the manufacturing process used to create the product, with a leave-one-out cross validation result of 100%. Furthermore, unsupervised statistical analysis processing by hierarchical clustering not only enabled P. methysticum and P. betle products to be distinguished from one another, but also permitted further discrimination that was based on the processing method used to produce them. Advantages of the method over commonly used conventional protocols include minimal methods development; the capability of analyzing material in its native form without resorting to solvent extraction, derivatization or other sample preparation steps; speed; and the ability to detect and definitively identify biomarkers characteristic of a species. The method has wide applicability and is particularly useful for analysis of products from plants whose genes have not been mapped, and which, as a consequence, cannot be subjected to DNA analysis to determine the originating plant species.
State-Level Power Rotation in Nigeria: Constrained Competition?

The process of geographic power rotation (zoning) at the federal, state, and even local level is one of very few principles regulating political competition in civilian-led Nigeria. The 2011 election of President Goodluck Jonathan controversially derailed the well-established practice of rotating Nigerias top leadership posts between each of its six geopolitical regions. At the state level, zoning nevertheless remains a cardinal rule, determining the balance of power between each states three senatorial districts. State-level power sharing helps shape national political dynamics; governors exert significant influence over national policy and skim multi-billion dollar budgets to build personal war chests. Leveraging an original dataset, this presentation will examine the processes and relationships that shape state-level power apportionment in Nigeria. It will address three key issues:  How and to what extent is geopolitical power rotation occurring at the federal and in each of Nigerias 36 states? Is there a correlation between equitable power rotation and improved democracy and governance outcomes? Conversely, is political violence and poor governance more prevalent in states where zoning has unraveled? Looking ahead, will state-level power rotation persist? Would the erosion of such arrangements indicate the emergence of detribalized governance or a sign of democratic backsliding?
Can MOOCs Help Reduce College Tuition?: MOOCs and technology to advance learning and learning research (Ubiquity symposium)

This article will briefly describe some of the cost issues associated with MOOCs and suggest a perspective through which drastic tuition savings might someday be achieved, possibly through the assistance of MOOCs.
Citizen's Demand for Permits and Incentive Compatible Mechanisms for Pollution Control

An interesting feature of pollution permit markets is that citizens may purchase permits to directly lower the levels of pollution. We analyze the effects of citizens' demand for permits on incentive compatible mechanisms for pollution control that are based on permit markets. We show that Kwerel's mechanism (Review of Economic Studies - 1977) is not incentive compatible. We show that two other mechanisms - the simple mechanism and the minimum-price mechanism - are at least weakly incentive compatible. Furthermore, the minimum-price mechanism is robust to free-riding among citizens and uncertainty about damages from pollution.
Inhibition of degradation of insulin-I131 in vivo.

SummaryInsulin-I131 degradation in rats in vivo was not inhibited by the administration of zinc in the diet, or by treatment with the substance, polyphloretin phosphate. Marked inhibition was obtained by the intravenous or prolonged oral administration of 5-isopropylidene-2,4-dithiohydantoin and it was suggested that this may explain the protection afforded against diabetes by this substance in the partially depancreatized rat.
The National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) study in Arizona - Introduction and preliminary results

The objective of the National Human Exposure Assessment Survey (NHEXAS) in Arizona is to determine the multimedia distribution of total human exposure to environmental pollutants in the classes of metals, pesticides, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for the population of Arizona. This was accomplished by studying a probability-based sample of the total population in Arizona with a nested design for the different stages of sampling (954 Stage I, 505 Stage II, and 179 Stage III participants). This report compares the study population demographics with those from the U.S. Census and provides preliminary data on the distributions of the example pollutant for each class, lead for metals, chlorpyrifos for pesticides, and benzene for metals. The probability-based sample age and gender demographics compare reasonably well with the Census data (1990 Census and 1996 Census Estimate). The race/ethnicity compared less well with 21% Hispanics in the 1996 Census Estimate and 42% Hispanics in the entire NHEXAS-Arizona sample and 30% Hispanics as Stage III participants for this study. The chemical analyses of the various media (yard soil, foundation soil, house dust, indoor air, outdoor air, drinking water, food, and beverage) show generally low levels of the representative pollutants. The 50th percentiles of the distributions are generally near or below the analytical detection limits, and applicable Federal action limits were rarely exceeded.
Regulating the Price of Consumer Credit

Laws to limit the rate of interest or service charges on consumer credit are presented as consumer protection devices on the grounds that credit grantors have an advantage over their customers. Opponents of such laws argue that they impair the free market process, that consumers will have to pay credit costs indirectly (such as through increased prices), and that low-income consumers may be forced out of regular credit channels and into the arms of illegal loan sharks. This article summarizes a study to determine the impact of a credit rate limitation law on businesses and consumers.
A Modification of the Technic for Determination of the Antistreptolysin Titer.

Summary1. A modified technic for the determination of the antistreptolysin titer of serum has been described which involves the use of a concentrated lysin reduced to the active form at the time of use.
Sound Production in Scolytidae: Aggressive and Mating Behavior of the Mountain Pine Beetle

Dendroctonus ponderosae Hopkins males emitted interrupted chirps both while fighting a rival male and when attracted into a virgin female's gallery. Behavior accompanying interrupted chirps was aggressive in both contexts. Females became silent and permitted entry when chirping males touched them, but chirped continuously, attacked, and usually ejected surgically silenced males, indicating a premating recognition function for the ♂ interrupted chirp. Non-aggressive, courting behavior occurred in the gallery as ♂ stridulation changed to simple, uninterrupted chirps just before mating. Females responded to ♂ stridulation at the gallery entrance by simple, multi-impulse chirps similar to the ♀ territorial chirp reported earlier. The ♀ chirp is not emitted during courtship and appears to be mainly a territorial response to intruders. Phonostimulus of acoustic response between the 2 sexes, in addition to the previously shown olfactory response, is now established.
Thermoelectric properties and microstructure of Cu-In-O thin films.

Combinatorial chemistry techniques were used to study the thermoelectric properties of sputtered thin films in the system copper oxide (CuO) and indium oxide (In2O3). Seven hundred seventy thin fil...
Export of Staphylococcal Toxins by a Conserved ABC Transporter

Staphylococci are important human pathogens. Several of these, first and foremost Staphylococcus aureus, rely on the secretion of phenol-soluble modulins (PSMs) to establish infections in a variety of disease types. PSMs are amphipathic, α-helical peptides with broad sequence diversity and a variety of functions in the infectious and non-infectious lifestyles of staphylococci. For example, many PSMs are strongly cytolytic, and most of them have pro-inflammatory capacities. Furthermore, PSMs help structure biofilms and promote the dissemination of biofilm-associated infection throughout the body. PSMs are secreted non-canonically by a recently discovered and dedicated ABC transport system named Pmt. Consisting of two membrane-spanning and two ATPase proteins, Pmt is conserved among all staphylococci. This review describes the discovery, features, and putative mechanism of Pmt. Furthermore, it discusses the potential of using the Pmt system as a single target to abolish secretion of all PSMs for virulence-oriented anti-staphylococcal therapy.
Thermoneutrality, Mice, and Cancer: A Heated Opinion

The 'mild' cold stress caused by standard sub-thermoneutral housing temperatures used for laboratory mice in research institutes is sufficient to significantly bias conclusions drawn from murine models of several human diseases. We review the data leading to this conclusion, discuss the implications for research and suggest ways to reduce problems in reproducibility and experimental transparency caused by this housing variable. We have found that these cool temperatures suppress endogenous immune responses, skewing tumor growth data and the severity of graft versus host disease, and also increase the therapeutic resistance of tumors. Owing to the potential for ambient temperature to affect energy homeostasis as well as adrenergic stress, both of which could contribute to biased outcomes in murine cancer models, housing temperature should be reported in all publications and considered as a potential source of variability in results between laboratories. Researchers and regulatory agencies should work together to determine whether changes in housing parameters would enhance the use of mouse models in cancer research, as well as for other diseases. Finally, for many years agencies such as the National Cancer Institute (NCI) have encouraged the development of newer and more sophisticated mouse models for cancer research, but we believe that, without an appreciation of how basic murine physiology is affected by ambient temperature, even data from these models is likely to be compromised.
Fine-Grained Control-Flow Integrity for Kernel Software

Modern systems assume that privileged software always behaves as expected, however, such assumptions may not hold given the prevalence of kernel vulnerabilities. One idea is to employ defenses to restrict how adversaries may exploit such vulnerabilities, such as Control-Flow Integrity (CFI), which restricts execution to a Control-Flow Graph (CFG). However, proposed applications of CFI enforcement to kernel software are too coarse-grained to restrict the adversary effectively and either fail to enforce CFI comprehensively or are very expensive. We present a mostly-automated approach for retrofitting kernel software that leverages features of such software to enable comprehensive, efficient, fine-grained CFI enforcement. We achieve this goal by leveraging two insights. We first leverage the conservative function pointer usage patterns found in the kernel source code to develop a method to compute fine-grained CFGs for kernel software. Second, we identify two opportunities for removing CFI instrumentation relative to prior optimization techniques: reusing existing kernel instrumentation and creating direct transfers, where possible. Using these insights, we show how to choose optimized defenses for kernels to handle system events, enabling comprehensive and efficient CFI enforcement. We evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed fine-grained CFI instrumentation by applying the retrofitting approach comprehensively to FreeBSD, the MINIX microkernel system, and MINIX's user-space servers, and applying this approach partly to the BitVisor hypervisor. We show that our approach eliminates over 70% of the indirect targets relative to the best current, fine-grained CFI techniques, while our optimizations reduce the instrumentation necessary to enforce coarse-grained CFI. The performance improvement due to our optimizations ranges from 51%/25% for MINIX to 12%/17% for FreeBSD for the average/maximum microbenchmark overhead. The evaluation shows that fine-grained CFI instrumentation can be computed for kernel software in practice and can be enforced more efficiently than coarse-grained CFI instrumentation.
Correlation of transabdominal and transvaginal ultrasound measurements of follicle size and number with laparoscopic findings for in vitro fertilization

This paper compared the use of a transvaginal scanning approach with the conventional transabdominal scanning method. In study I, 15 patients with previous suboptimal abdominal ultrasounds were evaluated in subsequent cycles with both the transabdominal and the transvaginal techniques. With the transvaginal method, improvement was observed in 13 patients (87%). Study II compared both the transabdominal and transvaginal ultrasound measurements of follicle number and size with surgical findings. A high correlation ( r =0.914, P r =0.639, P
Abstract B25: Association of down-regulation of miR-193b and up-regulation of miR-196a with prognosis in gastric cancer

Dysregulated expression of microRNAs (miRNAs) is confirmed to be closely associated with tumor development, progression, and carcinogenesis. The purpose of the present study was to determine the miRNA expression proﬁle of gastric cancer and to explore the relationship between aberrant miRNA expression and prognosis of gastric cancer in Chinese patients. Among a total of 1,146 miRNAs analyzed, 16 miRNAs were found to be present at significantly different expression levels in tissues from gastric cancer compared to those matched adjacent non-tumor tissues (ANTTs). Quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR) analysis was then employed to characterize the expression patterns of miR-193b and miR-196a in total 96 snap frozen clinical gastric samples including 48 gastric cancer tissues and 48 paired ANTTs. The association between miRNA expression and clinical-pathological characteristics of patients was analyzed by binary logistic regression. We found that down-expression of miR-193b was significantly correlated with Lauren type, differentiation, UICC stage, invasion, and metastasis of gastric cancer (P Note: This abstract was not presented at the conference. Citation Format: Wenjie Sun, Yongping Mu, Xiulan Su. Association of down-regulation of miR-193b and up-regulation of miR-196a with prognosis in gastric cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirteenth Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2014 Sep 27-Oct 1; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Can Prev Res 2015;8(10 Suppl): Abstract nr B25.
Effects of fetal tobacco exposure on focused attention in infancy

This study examined the association between fetal tobacco exposure (FTE) and focused attention at 9 months of child age, and the role of child sex and infant behavioral reactivity as potential moderators of this association. Data were obtained from 203 mothers and their infants (105 fetally exposed and 98 non-exposed) on infant focused attention and behavioral reactivity to a frustration task. FTE was ascertained via nicotine metabolites in infant meconium, reflecting primarily third trimester fetal exposure. Results demonstrated a main effect of FTE on focused attention, such that exposed infants exhibited lower levels of focused attention than non-exposed infants. Behavioral reactivity, but not infant sex, moderated the relationship between FTE and focused attention, such that exposed infants who were highly reactive to frustration had the lowest levels of focused attention. Results suggest that smoking interventions, even in the third trimester, may have a positive impact on attentional outcomes for infants.
Abstract P152: Patient Satisfaction at America's Worst Performing Hospitals

BACKGROUND Previous studies have identified hospitals with significantly lower performance for cardiac care than the national average. Little is known about patient satisfaction at these consistently low performing hospitals. METHODS We used 2006-08 Hospital Compare data to identify hospitals that reported acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and heart failure (HF) process measures. We calculated performance scores as the total number of patients receiving recommended therapies divided by the total number of eligible patients for AMI and HF respectively. We classified hospitals as low performing (lowest decile for all 3 years [N= 92 for AMI, N= 177 for HF]), top performing (highest decile for all 3 years [N= 43 for AMI, N =123 for HF]), and intermediate hospitals (all others [N= 2440 for AMI, N =3283 for HF]). We obtained hospital characteristics from the AHA 2006 survey. We used 2008 Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) data to determine the proportion of patients who 1) definitely recommend the hospital to others and b) rate hospital care as ≥ 9 on a scale of 1 - 10. We compared patient satisfaction ratings across hospital categories. RESULTS Low performing hospitals had significantly lower performance scores (77% vs. 95% vs. 100% for AMI, 43% vs. 85% vs. 99% for HF), had fewer beds (142 vs. 261 vs. 319 for AMI, 59 vs. 207 vs. 244 for HF), and were less likely to be teaching hospitals (0% vs. 11% vs. 11% for AMI, 0% vs. 8% vs. 12% for HF) as compared to intermediate and top performing hospitals (p < .01 for all). Low performing hospitals were more likely to not report HCAHPS data as compared to intermediate and top performing hospitals (15% vs. 0% vs. 0% for AMI, 28% vs. 5% vs. 5%, p < .01). Among those reporting, low performing hospitals had lower rates for recommending a hospital (60% vs. 67% vs. 70% for AMI, 64% vs. 67% vs. 70% for HF, p< .01) and rating the hospital at least 9 out of 10 (58% vs. 62% vs. 65% for AMI, 62% vs. 63% vs. 65% for HF p < .01). CONCLUSION Consistently low performing hospitals are less likely to report patient satisfaction data. Among those reporting, patients at low performing hospitals have significantly lower satisfaction. Efforts to improve hospital quality should focus both on improving performance and satisfaction with care.