cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A comparative Study on the Stability and Degradation of Perovskite Solar Cells

This study aims to investigate the environmental factors that affect the performance and long-term stability of the perovskite solar cells (PSCs). PSCs are based on organometallic halides (perovskites) that act as a light-sensitive compound that produces excitons when placed under the light. However, PSCs have a limited operating lifetime due to the degradation of the perovskite layer. There are many factors like moisture, UV light, and temperature that lead to the degradation of the perovskite layer. The presence of moisture causes an irreversible degradation of the perovskite layer. The performance and the long-term stability of the solar cells were investigated. The structure of the PSC used in this study contains the Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO), electron transport layer (TiO2), perovskite absorber, hole transport layer, and the conductive metallic silver layer. The solar cells were investigated under various environmental conditions like controlled humidity (30% to 38% RH), high humidity (>50% RH), nitrogen under room temperature of 22°C, and nitrogen under elevated temperature at 80°C. The properties of solar cells studied are the optical absorption of the perovskite absorber, the open-circuit voltage (VOC), short circuit current (ISC), fill factor (FF), and efficiency of the PSCs. The solar cells were stored under light with controlled humidity (30% to 38% RH), high humidity (>50% RH), nitrogen under room temperature of 22°C and elevated temperature of 80°C. Each solar cell under different environments was tested as a function of time. It was found that high humidity, elevated temperature, and presumably the UV part of the white light caused the solar cell to degrade rapidly. It was seen that the nitrogen atmosphere with a room temperature of 22°C had the best environment for storing the perovskite solar cell.
Membrane-tethered mucin-like polypeptides sterically inhibit binding and slow fusion kinetics of influenza A virus

The mechanism(s) by which cell-tethered mucins modulate infection by influenza A viruses (IAVs) remain an open question. Mucins form both a protective barrier that can block virus binding and recruit IAVs to bind cells via the sialic acids of cell-tethered mucins. To elucidate the molecular role of mucins in flu pathogenesis, we constructed a synthetic glycocalyx to investigate membrane-tethered mucins in the context of IAV binding and fusion. We designed and synthesized lipid-tethered glycopolypeptide mimics of mucins and added them to lipid bilayers, allowing chemical control of length, glycosylation, and surface density of a model glycocalyx. We observed that the mucin mimics undergo a conformational change at high surface densities from a compact to an extended architecture. At high surface densities, asialo mucin mimics inhibited IAV binding to underlying glycolipid receptors, and this density correlated to the mucin mimic's conformational transition. Using a single virus fusion assay, we observed that while fusion of virions bound to vesicles coated with sialylated mucin mimics was possible, the kinetics of fusion was slowed in a mucin density-dependent manner. These data provide a molecular model for a protective mechanism by mucins in IAV infection, and therefore this synthetic glycocalyx provides a useful reductionist model for studying the complex interface of host-pathogen interactions.
Sustained Virologic Suppression After 4 Weeks of Ledipasvir/Sofosbuvir in Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)/Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) Co-Infection.

BACKGROUND Short-course hepatitis C (HCV) treatment with direct-acting antivirals (DAA) under 8 weeks in duration has resulted in variable efficacy rates in HCV mono-infection. Further, DAA courses under 8 weeks in duration have not been studied in HIV/HCV co-infection. We present a case report of 12-week sustained virologic suppression after treatment interruption of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir at 4 weeks in a patient with HIV/HCV co-infection. CASE REPORT A 28-year-old male patient diagnosed with well-controlled HIV infection and HCV co-infection (treatment-naive, genotype 1a, unknown hepatic fibrosis) started a 12-week course of ledipasvir/sofosbuvir (LDV/SOF) for HCV treatment. The patient completed only 4 weeks of LDV/SOF before returning for follow-up 7 weeks after initiation. Ledipasvir/sofosbuvir treatment was discontinued. Sustained virologic suppression at 12 weeks was observed after completion of a short, 4-week course of LDV/SOF. CONCLUSIONS Compared to currently recommended treatment durations, clinical trials of short-course DAA treatments of less than 8 weeks have not demonstrated successful rates of SVR12. However, in cases of DAA interruption or incomplete treatment, clinicians may choose to assess for SVR12 prior to continuing or restarting the full treatment course.
Contrasting trajectories in macrophyte community development after shoreline restoration: water level obscures trends

Abstract Macrophytes are critical components of biologically productive lake littoral zones. Sensitivity to environmental factors such as sediment content and light availability makes macrophytes potential bioindicators of anthropogenic stress. The industrial past of Muskegon Lake (Michigan, USA) has severely disturbed the system, resulting in shoreline hardening and sediment contamination. Shoreline restoration during 2010 and 2011 presented an opportunity to use macrophytes as indicators of pre-restoration (2009–2010), shorter-term (2011–2012) and longer-term (2018) post-restoration ecosystem status. Macrophytes were sampled along transects perpendicular to the shoreline in two restored and one reference habitat, and predicted to experience post-restoration density and richness increases. Epiphytic algae were surveyed in 2018 only. Restored habitat quality, based on macrophyte species composition, minimally improved during post-restoration and there was no clear pattern in macrophyte richness and density. Water level was the strongest environmental driver of macrophyte community change, especially in 2018, when emergent macrophyte richness declined. Epiphytic algal dry weight was not sufficient to negatively impact macrophytes, as wave exposure lowered algal densities. Post-restoration habitat quality remained greater at the reference transect than at the two restored transects, although the restored habitats exhibited contrasting trajectories due to differences in slope (%), wave exposure, and disturbance.
Large-Order Asymptotics for Multiple-Pole Solitons of the Focusing Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation

We analyze the large-n behavior of soliton solutions of the integrable focusing nonlinear Schrodinger equation with associated spectral data consisting of a single pair of conjugate poles of order 2n. Starting from the zero background, we generate multiple-pole solitons by n-fold application of Darboux transformations. The resulting functions are encoded in a Riemann–Hilbert problem using the robust inverse-scattering transform method recently introduced by Bilman and Miller. For moderate values of n we solve the Riemann–Hilbert problem exactly. With appropriate scaling, the resulting plots of exact solutions reveal semiclassical-type behavior, including regions with high-frequency modulated waves and quiescent regions. We compute the boundary of the quiescent regions exactly and use the nonlinear steepest-descent method to prove the asymptotic limit of the solitons is zero in these regions. Finally, we study the behavior of the solitons in a scaled neighborhood of the central peak with amplitude proportional to n. We prove that in a local scaling the solitons converge to functions satisfying the second member of the Painleve-III hierarchy in the sense of Sakka. This function is a generalization of a function recently identified by Suleimanov in the context of geometric optics and by Bilman, Ling, and Miller in the context of rogue-wave solutions to the focusing nonlinear Schrodinger equation.
Cognitive variability, brain aging, and cognitive decline in late-life major depression.

Objectives Older adults with late-life major depression (LLMD) are at increased risk of dementia. Dispersion, or within-person performance variability across cognitive tests, is a potential marker of cognitive decline. This study examined group differences in dispersion between LLMD and nondepressed healthy controls (HC) and investigated whether dispersion was a predictor of cognitive performance 1 year later in LLMD. We also explored demographic, clinical, and structural imaging correlates of dispersion in LLMD and HC. We hypothesized that dispersion would be greater in LLMD compared with HC and would be associated with worse cognitive performance 1 year later in LLMD. Design Participants were enrolled in the Neurobiology of Late-Life Depression, a naturalistic longitudinal investigation of the predictors of poor illness course in LLMD. Participants The baseline sample consisted of 121 older adults with LLMD and 39 HC; of these subjects, 94 LLMD and 35 HC underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). One-year cognitive data were available for 107 LLMD patients. Measurements All participants underwent detailed clinical and structural MRI at baseline. LLMD participants also completed a comprehensive cognitive evaluation 1 year later. Results Higher test dispersion was evident in LLMD when compared with nondepressed controls. Greater baseline dispersion predicted 1-year cognitive decline in LLMD patients even when controlling for baseline cognitive functioning and demographic and clinical confounders. Dispersion was correlated with white matter lesions in LLMD but not HC. Dispersion was also correlated with anxiety in both LLMD and HC. Conclusions Dispersion is a marker of neurocognitive integrity that requires further exploration in LLMD.
Polysketch Pen: Drawing from Materials Chemistry to Create Interactive Art and Sensors Using a Polyaniline Ink

Writing instruments, such as pens, are ubiquitous in the classroom, but their functionality is largely for one purpose: they are used to represent ideas and record information on paper. However, by replacing the conventional ink in a pen with easy-to-synthesize conducting polymer-based inks, it is possible to change a simple writing utensil into a materials processing tool that can create circuits, sensors, and potentially other optoelectronic devices. The Polysketch pen is a modified ballpoint pen that contains a conductive polyaniline ink that can be synthesized safely by high school and undergraduate students in a 1–3 hour laboratory setting. The synthesis and formulation of the ink and the construction of the pen expose students to nanomaterial synthesis, chemical/material purification, and functional design with a specific goal: producing an appropriately viscous, fast-drying ink with a suitable loading level of polyaniline for conductive properties. The Polysketch pen leaves conductive traces on paper, which can be used to draw simple circuits or construct sensors responding to mechanical strains or ambient chemical species. This activity has the objective of introducing materials-relevant polymer synthesis into high school and undergraduate laboratories while introducing concepts in conductive polymers such as doping/dedoping and percolation in conductive networks. The activity is constructed such that students have the opportunity to explore processing–structure–properties–performance relationships by optimizing ink formulation. Most importantly, students will ultimately arrive at a tangible, versatile product and tool that enables them to explore other types of interactive devices and art to “trace a line of their creation”.
Diagnosis-Steganography-Transmission: An Innovative Integrated Paradigm for ECG Healthcare

The developing prominence of edge computing and Internet of Things-based wearables coupled with body sensors offer us a unique idea of integrating the Diagnosis, Steganography, and Transmission tasks in the healthcare domain. In this paper, we present an innovative Diagnosis-Steganography-Transmission architecture for health monitoring and real-time diagnosis especially designed for Coronary Artery Disease diagnostic purposes. The architecture works by extracting the patient’s health state by a real-time execution of a preliminary diagnostic algorithm in the local embedded computing platform before the ECG data are transmitted over wireless networks for further analysis. Local pre-diagnosis assists the operation of the communication module in deciding when and how much data should be transmitted and the given quality. The novelty of the proposed work is that the integration of diagnosis, steganography, and communication tasks in a unified platform, because unequal importance of physiological signals (e.g., ECG) feature offers computing distribution of diagnosis, UEP-based steganography, and UEP-based transmission are inherently connected with each other. Using the proposed framework, the steganography embedder, source encoder, and channel encoder in the communication module effectively reconfigure the intricacy of the control factors to match the energy constraints while maintaining the reconstruction quality of the medical signal. Moreover, the diagnosis module also reconfigures the complexity of the process of diagnosis to match the communication bandwidth constraints. By deep CNN-based ECG classification for local pre-diagnosis, an immense heap of energy-saving is created by a huge diminishing in the transmission overhead (up to 99.3% in typical application set-up) as compared to always-on communication.
Dental access and expenditures for adults with intellectual and other disabilities

Objectives Individuals with disabilities experience greater barriers accessing health care services and have poorer oral health outcomes than those without disabilities. The aims of this study were to examine dental access, utilization, expenditures, and sources of payment between adults with intellectual disabilities (ID), other types of disabilities, and without disabilities. Methods Secondary analyses of data from the 2017 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) allowed examination of dental access (being able to get dental care and receiving necessary dental care without delay), dental utilization (having a dental visit in the past year), total dental expenditures, and associated sources of payment between three groups of adults based on disability status using descriptive, bivariate, and multivariable statistics. Results Adults with ID have 2.70 (95% CI: 2.03, 3.61) times the odds of being unable to get dental care and 2.88 (95% CI: 2.11, 3.94) times the odds of having to delay necessary dental care compared with adults without disabilities. No significant differences were observed in dental utilization or mean total dental expenditure between the three groups after adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic variables. Among adults who incurred a dental expenditure, adults with ID had a greater share of dental care paid for by Medicaid, and adults without disabilities had a greater share of dental care paid for by private insurance. Conclusions Despite similar mean total dental expenditures, reduced dental access reported by adults with ID suggests that this population experiences significantly greater challenges obtaining dental care. Adults with ID rely more heavily on Medicaid to finance dental care.
Creative Giftedness: Beginnings, Developments, and Future Promises

Although the concept of creative giftedness is still a comparatively new one, the benefits of applying research from this area are already making themselves known. Among these benefits are the tremendous advantages of including creativity in models of giftedness. In this chapter we first highlight how creative giftedness research has differentiated itself from intelligence. Next, we will describe four recent models of giftedness (the three-ring model of giftedness, the DMGT model, the WICS model, and the Feldman developmentalist position) that all involve a creative component. We will also cover recent advances in creativity research that have implications for creative giftedness such as the concept of “mini-c” (as opposed to Big-C and little-c). In conclusion, we argue the promise of dynamic assessment especially for creativity testing.
The Ideology of Terror: Why We Will Never Win the 'War'

A few days after the criminal attacks on the World Trade Center, President George W. Bush declared a metaphorical war on terror. The word “war” was once again applied to a nebulous concept in hopes of rallying support to Bush’s plans. Had Bush declared war on “terrorism,” a noun that denotes physical acts of violence, the war would have remained attached to the material world. By declaring war on “terror,” America’s enemy became ephemeral and eternal. Using Althusser's theory of ideology, this article demonstrates how the public rhetoric of terror created an “ideology of terror” that created support for Bush's invasion of Iraq and his 2004 Presidential campaign. Winner of the Best Graduate Student Paper Award at the 2005 American Culture Association Conference.
Minimum-Norm Pole Placement in Sampled-Data Systems

There is a need for low order, limited ouput feedback controllers for sampled-data systems. Closed-loop pole placement, with some constraints, is found to be achievable by the use of periodic, piecewise-constant output feedback. The norm of the feedback gains can be minimized using Sylvester's equation and a secant search method. A simple expression for the gradient of the norm is derived using Kronecker products.
YouTube’s “Bad Romance”: Exploring the Vernacular Rhetoric of Lady Gaga Parody Videos

While the political aspects of parody have been widely researched, this work has generally focused on institutionally circulated parodies on shows like Saturday Night Live and The Colbert Report. Fewer projects have explored the political potential of fan-created parody videos on social media outlets. In order to gain a fuller understanding of parody’s political potential within the YouTube community, this case study puts Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” music video in conversation with fan-created parodies. The author argues that the feminist rhetoric in Lady Gaga’s video is disciplined by fan parodies’ repressive vernacular, demonstrating the transformative power of user-generated videos. Social media publication is a powerful force to both progress social change and to recoup transformative messages in the mainstream media.
Reutilization of phosphatidylcholine analogues by the pulmonary surfactant system: The lack of specificity

Abstract Five specific 14C-labelled analogues of l,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, ( l-α-DPPC ) including 1-palmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, ( l -α-lysoPC) and 2,3-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-1-phosphocholine (the d isomer of DPPC) were individually mixed with l -α-[3H]DPPC and unlabelled natural surfactant isolated from 3-day-old rabbits. The mixtures were injected intratracheally into 3-day-old rabbits which were then killed at preset times up to 72 h after injection. Phosphatidylcholine was isolated from the alveolar wash and from lamellar body fraction from each rabbit and was analyzed for the ratio of 3H-to-14C counts/min. These ratios were plotted against the time the rabbits were killed to determine whether a difference existed in the rates of reutilization of the analogues relative to l -α-DPPC. By 60 h l -α-lysoPC was reutilized at 42% of the efficiency of the l -α-[3H]DPPC with which it was injected. That part of the l -α-lyso which was reutilized had been converted to [14C]phosphatidylcholine. Each of the other four analogues was reutilized by the surfactant system as efficiently as l -α-DPPC. These results are most consistent with a process of bulk uptake of surfactant from the alveolar space by the Type II cell with subsequent processing for resecretion which involves minimal specificity for molecular structure.
Dynamic Behavior of a Torque Converter with Centrifugal Bypass Clutch

Performance, driveability and NVH characteristics of a vehicle are altered when the hydraulic torque converter is bypassed with a mechanical clutch device in an effort to increase the overall efficiency of the transmission. To better illustrate and explain some of the behavior of such systems, a theoretical investigation of a torque converter with a centrifugal bypass (lock-up) clutch is presented. Computer-based simulations demonstrate how the lock-up characteristics of the clutch affect the torsional vibrations and the tip-in response of the drivetrain. In particular, the bypass clutch slip capacity is shown to be responsible for self-excited oscillations if "negative damping" is present. In addition, the dynamic responses of open, locked and slipping drivetrains are investigated with regard to firing torque transmissibility and sudden changes in throttle. Comparisons with instrumented vehicle results are also presented.
Hybrid expert system neural network hierarchical architecture for classifying power system contingencies

The authors present a hierarchical architecture which couples an expert system (ES) with multiple neural networks (NNs) for classifying power system contingencies. The ES performs the 'coarse' screening to decide if a contingency is potentially harmful and then determines its type of security limit violations. It uses a set of heuristic rules and a set of performance indicators to filter out the secure contingencies and direct the potentially harmful ones for further analysis in the appropriate NN. The NN's take the coarse classification outcome from the ES and perform a 'finer' screening by classifying the contingencies according to the severity of limit violations. >
Management of Limbal Stem Cell Deficiency: A Historical Perspective, Past, Present, and Future

Purpose:To review the management of limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) from a historical perspective, report the current treatment guidelines, and propose potential future treatments.Methods:A literature review was conducted to identify key publications regarding the management of LSCD since treatme
Case Study: Polycystic Livers in a Transgenic Mouse Line

Three mice (2 male, 1 female; age, 5 to 16 mo) from a mouse line transgenic for keratin 14 (K14)-driven LacZ expression and on an outbred Crl:CD1(ICR) background, were identified as having distended abdomens and livers that were diffusely enlarged by numerous cysts (diameter, 0.1 to 2.0 cm). Histopathology revealed hepatic cysts lined by biliary type epithelium and mild chronic inflammation, and confirmed the absence of parasites. Among 21 related mice, 5 additional affected mice were identified via laparotomy. Breeding of these 5 mice (after 5 mo of age) did not result in any offspring; the K14 mice with polycystic livers failed to reproduce. Affected male mice had degenerative testicular lesions, and their sperm was immotile. Nonpolycystic K14 control male mice bred well, had no testicular lesions, and had appropriate sperm motility. Genetic analysis did not identify an association of this phenotype with the transgene or insertion site.
Simulation-in-the-loop analog circuit sizing method using adaptive model-based simulated annealing

In this paper, we propose a novel simulation-based analog circuit sizing method, which is capable of significantly reducing the computational cost via adaptive response surface modeling. The proposed algorithm is based on the selective evaluation of a response surface model coupled with numerical circuit simulation and the adaptive update of the model for accuracy. Efficient sampling scheme for modeling, that is crucial for speedup and convergence into the optimum solution, is done with two criteria cascaded. One provides sufficient samples for model accuracy and convergence, whereas the other is designed to avoid over-sampling. Multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) is used to construct a model of an arbitrary cost function. For the demonstration of efficiency and validity of the proposed method, we apply it to several test functions and a practical circuit sizing case.
Iron overload in adults with sickle cell disease who have received intermittent red blood cell transfusions.

AbstractObjective:To assess the prevalence of iron overload in adults with sickle cell disease (SCD) not on a chronic transfusion protocol.Design:Retrospective chart review.Data source:University of South Alabama Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center adult outpatient clinic.Results:There was no significa
Can the fractional excretion of uric acid distinguish the etiology of hyponatremia in patients taking diuretics

Measurement of the urinary sodium concentration can often help differentiate the various etiologies of hyponatremia. An elevated urinary sodium concentration is detected in the syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormone (SIADH); however, the use of diuretics confounds the validity of this measurement. In this Practice Point commentary, I discuss the findings of Fenske et al., who suggest that the fractional excretion of uric acid (FEUA) is the best biomarker to determine whether hyponatremia is caused by SIADH in patients taking diuretics. An FEUA cutoff ≥12% had a positive predictive value of 100% for a diagnosis of SIADH in patients receiving diuretics, whereas an FEUA <8% excluded SIADH in this group. Here, I place the findings of Fenske et al. into clinical context, and discuss the utility of the FEUA and other biochemical markers for the diagnosis of SIADH in the presence of diuretics.
Synthesis and Application of Fluorescein-Labeled Pluronic Block Copolymers to the Study of Polymer−Surface Interactions

We present a novel methodology for the conjugation of Pluronic poly(ethylene oxide)−poly(propylene oxide)−poly(ethylene oxide) block copolymers with a fluorescein derivative, 5-(4,6-dichlorotriazinyl) aminofluorescein (5-DTAF), at room temperature under aqueous conditions. Two Pluronic block copolymers, F68 with molecular weight (MW) 8400 and P105 with MW 6500, were examined. The labeled block copolymers exhibited maximum absorbance at 498 nm, peak fluorescence at 516 nm, and a marked reduction in both absorbance and fluorescence at acidic pH below 7. Flow cytometry was employed to quantify the real-time adsorption kinetics of labeled block copolymers to two types of surfaces: polystyrene microspheres and blood cells, specifically platelets. This methodology allowed detection of Pluronics at low solution concentrations down to 1 μM. In the case of labeled Pluronic F68 and P105 binding to polystyrene beads, a rapid time-dependent adsorption kinetics was observed with 80% adsorption occurring within 30 s a...
Flk2+ common lymphoid progenitors possess equivalent differentiation potential for the B and T lineages.

Mature blood cells develop from multipotent hematopoietic stem cells through a series of sequential intermediates in which the developmental potential for particular blood lineages is progressively extinguished. We previously reported the identification of one of these developmental intermediates, the common lymphoid progenitor (CLP), which can give rise to T cells, B cells, dendritic cells (DCs), and natural killer cells (NKs), but lacks myeloid and erythroid potential. Recently, several studies have suggested that the T-cell and DC potential of CLP is limited or absent, and/or that CLP contains significant myeloid potential. Here, we show that the originally identified CLP population can be divided into functionally distinct subsets based on the expression of the tyrosine kinase receptor, Flk2. The Flk2+ subset contains robust in vivo and in vitro T-cell, B-cell, DC, and NK potential, but lacks myeloid potential and, therefore, represents an oligopotent, lymphoid-restricted progenitor. This population of cells does not appear to be B cell–biased and robustly reconstitutes both B and T lineages in vivo, consistent with its being a physiologic progenitor of both of these subsets. Thus, Flk2 expression defines a homogeneous, readily obtainable subset of bone marrow CLP that is completely lymphoid-committed and can differentiate equivalently well into both B and T lineages.
SYNTHESIS OF NANOCRYSTALLINE MANGANESE OXIDE POWDERS : INFLUENCE OF HYDROGEN PEROXIDE ON PARTICLE CHARACTERISTICS

Nanocrystalline manganese oxide powders have been prepared at 25 °C by precipitation from Mn(NO3)2 aqueous solution. The presence and addition sequence of H2O2 significantly influence particle characteristics of the resulting manganese oxides, including crystal structure, particle size and morphology, and surface area, depending upon molar ratio of H2O2 with respect to Mn. The precipitation from preoxidized manganese solution by H2O2 results in flakelike-shaped amorphous hydrous manganese oxide (MnO2xH2O). In the absence of H2O2, on the other hand, amorphous Mn(OH)2 is obtained, and a part of Mn(OH)2 subsequently transforms into crystalline Mn3O4 by oxidation in air. Relative population of amorphous Mn(OH)2 decreases by dissolution when post-treated with H2O2. At Mn:H2O2 = 1:4, the well-defined 16-nm-sized nanocrystalline Mn3O4 with homogenous particle morphology is prepared. The treatment with excess H2O2, however, destroys crystalline Mn3O4 and leads to further oxidation of the aqueous manganese species. Under these conditions, a mixture of needlelike Mn2O3 and cubelike Mn3O4, including amorphous MnO2xH2O, is obtained.
Effective Components of Contingency Contracts with Academic Behaviors of College Students

Components of contractual arrangements for self-monitored study behaviors of college students were assessed in three experiments. Comparisons were made between self-monitoring, verbal specification of contingencies, and a formal contingency contract which contained both written specification of contingencies and a written agreement. The treatments were implemented in a modified Personalized System of Instruction and evaluated with a between-subject design in Experiment I, an ABA withdrawal design in Experiment II, and an ABAB withdrawal design in Experiment III. Results of all three experiments indicated that the naturalistic behaviors of study-time and study-questions answered could be reliably and equally increased and/or maintained by either the formal contractual agreement or verbal specification of contingencies in comparison to self-monitoring. Thus, the instructional and reinforcement variables of contingency contracts constituted the effective components, and written specifications and agreements ...
R69-31 A Formal Deductive Problem-Solving System

One of the prominent research topics in Artificial Intelligence continues to be the development of problem-solving methods in which the process of "search" plays a vital role. In the usual formulation, [1] one imagines a space of "objects" and a collection of "operators." The objects are data structures such as strings, lists, arrays, etc. that represent problem "states." The operators map objects into other objects. A problem to be solved is then translated into the task of finding a sequence of operators that will map an initial object into a goal object. Among the problems that have been formulated in this fashion are puzzles (the missionaries and cannibals problem, the Tower of Hanoi problem), problems in mathematics (symbolic integration, proving theorems in geometry), parsing sentences, proving theorems in the predicate calculus, and problems of commonsense reasoning about actions.
C-film: A new vaginal contraceptive

Abstract C-Film is a 5 × 5 cm, H 2 O soluble, solid, plastic film containing nonylphenoxypolyethoxyethanol, a non-ionic spermicide. The film is placed in the vagina 30 minutes prior to intercourse in order to allow it enough time to dissolve. Thirty normal subjects between the ages of 21–39 inserted the C-Film daily for 21 consecutive days in order to evaluate its irritability to the vagina. Two of the thirty patients stated that the C-Film caused mild irritation and one patient noted slight itching during the 21 days. Twenty normal subjects were then instructed to place the C-Film into the vagina 30 minutes prior to intercourse. They then had a fractional post-coital test (PCT) performed. All the patients had a control PCT and a PCT following the use of a commercially available foam. The results of the PCT revealed that in 60% of the tests, the C-Film totally inhibited sperm migration; in 30% it made the sperm very "sluggish" and in 10% it had no effect on the sperm. In the failure group, both subjects placed the C-Film into their vaginas only 10 minutes prior to intercourse. These results were comparable to those obtained with a foam contraceptive. This preliminary study indicated that C-Film may be an effective intravaginal contraceptive and warrants further evaluation as to its effectiveness in preventing pregnancy.
A fast inner product processor based on equal alignments

Abstract Inner product computation is an important operation, invoked repeatedly in matrix multiplications. A high-speed inner product processor can be very useful (among many possible applications) in real-time signal processing. This paper presents the design of a fast inner product processor, with appreciably reduced latency and cost. The inner product processor is implemented with a tree of carry-propagate or carry-save adders; this structure is obtained with the incorporation of three innovations in the conventional multiply/add tree: (1) The leaf-multipliers are expanded into adder subtrees, thus achieving an O(log Nb) latency, where N denotes the number of elements in a vector and b the number of bits in each element. (2) The partial products, to be summed in producing an inner product, are reordered according to their “minimum alignments.” This reordering brings approximately a 20% saving in hardware—including adders and data paths. The reduction in adder widths also yields savings in carry propagation time for carry-propagate adders. (3) For trees implemented with carry-save adders, the partial product reordering also serves to truncate the carry propagation chain in the final propagation stage by 2 log b − 1 positions, thus significantly reducing the latency further. A form of the Baugh and Wooley algorithm is adopted to implement two's complement notation with changes only in peripheral hardware.
Cerebrovascular Toxicity of PCB153 is Enhanced by Binding to Silica Nanoparticles

Environmental polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are frequently bound onto nanoparticles (NPs). However, the toxicity and health effects of PCBs assembled onto nanoparticles are unknown. The aim of this study was to study the hypothesis that binding PCBs to silica NPs potentiates PCB-induced cerebrovascular toxicity and brain damage in an experimental stroke model. Mice (C57BL/6, males, 12-week-old) were exposed to PCB153 bound to NPs (PCB153-NPs), PCB153, or vehicle. PCB153 was administered in the amount of 5 ng/g body weight. A group of treated animals was subjected to a 40 min ischemia, followed by a 24 h reperfusion. The blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability, brain infarct volume, expression of tight junction (TJ) proteins, and inflammatory mediators were assessed. As compared to controls, a 24 h exposure to PCB153-NPs injected into cerebral vasculature resulted in significant elevation of the BBB permeability, disruption of TJ protein expression, increased proinflammatory responses, and enhanced monocyte transmigration in mouse brain capillaries. Importantly, exposure to PCB153-NPs increased stroke volume and potentiated brain damage in mice subjected to ischemia/reperfusion. A long-term (30 days) oral exposure to PCB153-NPs resulted in a higher PCB153 content in the abdominal adipose tissue and amplified adhesion of leukocytes to the brain endothelium as compared to treatment with PCB153 alone. This study provides the first evidence that binding to NPs increases cerebrovascular toxicity of environmental toxicants, such as PCB153.
Spinal Cord Injuries: Nurses Can Help Affected Women & Their Families Achieve Pregnancy, Birth

Spinal cord injury is a major health problem affecting almost a half a million people in the U.S. Approximately 11,000 new injuries occur every year. Yet, thanks to advances in health care, people with spinal cord injuries are living longer, more productive lives than ever before, which means the number of people living with spinal cord injuries is expected to increase. Nurses need to know how to counsel and aid these women and their families regarding intimate relationships and sexuality, pregnancy and childbirth, breastfeeding and parenting and gynecologic health.
A sense of self-worth: energy taxis provides insight into how Helicobacter pylori navigates through its environment.

The ability to perceive and respond appropriately to environmental cues is an essential prerequisite to the survival and adaptation of microorganisms to changes in their surroundings. One of the best-understood responses involves the chemotaxis two-component signal transduction system in Escherichia coli, which functions to relay sensory information about the surroundings to the flagellar motility apparatus (11, 23). Although the protein components of the E. coli chemotaxis signal transduction pathway have been characterized in molecular detail, the exact role that chemotaxis plays in the ecology of the organism remains poorly understood. A priori, the ability to sense and navigate toward a particular ecological habitat provides motile microorganisms with a competitive advantage; chemotaxis has been suggested, and often demonstrated experimentally, to be important in host recognition by various pathogenic and beneficial microorganisms (2, 9, 13, 27). An article in this issue by Schweinitzer et al. (18) provides new insight into how the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori monitors changes in its environment, suggesting a mechanism through which bacterial chemotaxis may direct and maintain H. pylori within a narrow zone deep in the gastric mucus, leading to persistent colonization and infection.
Characterization of the spinal adrenergic receptors mediating the spinal effects produced by the microinjection of morphine into the periaqueductal gray.

Abstract After the microinjection of morphine (5 μg/0.5 μl) into the periaqueductal gray resulted in an increase in the hot-plate and tail-flick response latency of the unanesthetized rat, the α-adrenergic antagonists yohimbine, rauwolscine and corynanthine were given intrathecally. This treatment resulted in a dose-dependent reversal of the inhibition of the thermally evoked tail-flick reflex. The relative potency of these stereoisomers was: yohimbine=rauwolscine>corynanthine. Given the reported affinity of these agonists for the α2 (yohimbine/rauwolscine) and α1 (corynanthine) receptors, these observations suggest that the spinopetal noradrenergic systems are acting on α2-adrenergic receptors. Prazosin, an agent with several orders of magnitude higher affinity for the α1than theα2-receptor, was at best only equiactive with yohimbine. None of the intrathecal treatments produced a significant reversal of the effects of periaqueductal gray morphine on the hot-plate response. This suggests that the activation of spinopetal noradrenergic pathways alone cannot account for the suppression by morphine in the periaqueductal gray of this response which is organized at the supraspinal level.
Evidence-based spiritual care: a literature review.

Purpose of review As spiritual care has increasingly been considered an integral component of a healthcare treatment plan, spiritual care practitioners have been encouraged to adopt an evidence-based orientation, just as evidence-based practice is encouraged in every other aspect of healthcare. Though the notion of 'evidence-based spiritual care' is still developing, increasingly research is conducted in order to provide an evidence base to the practice of spiritual care. This article reviews spirituality and spiritual care literature from June 2010 to December 2011 that employ empirical research methods. Recent findings The majority of patient-focused studies concentrate on oncology and palliative care patients. In the review period, studies of care giver perceptions and experience came from multiple disciplines, including medicine, nursing, and chaplaincy. A discrepancy exists between the provision of spiritual care and the theoretical commitment of practitioners to offer such care. Practitioners continue to view spiritual care as part of their role to a greater extent than they provide it. This is often attributed to the absence of consensus in the field regarding the definition of spirituality, a lack of clarity of disciplinary role, and inadequate education for nurses and doctors about spiritual care. Research has further indicated that care givers' explorations of their own spirituality correlate with the provision of spiritual care. Although historically spiritual care has been most integrated into the care of palliative and oncology patients, researchers are developing and testing spiritual care assessment tools with other medical populations. In addition, they are evaluating these tools in diverse religious, cultural and national contexts. Summary Conceptual analysis combined with empirical study of care giver understandings of spiritual care will assist in developing clarity and consensus about the definition of spirituality and spiritual care. Investigation and conceptualization of interdisciplinary roles and provision of spiritual care is needed for optimizing collaborative care. More knowledge is needed about how to effectively teach spiritual care.
A Process Evaluation of Collaborative Planning for Children of Prisoners

ABSTRACT This article reports on a process evaluation of the efforts of a collaborative team organized to develop a comprehensive plan for children of prisoners in the state of Missouri over an 18-month period. Direct observation of planning team meetings, content analysis of work products, surveys of team members, and interviews of staff were used to evaluate work done, needs addressed, voices heard and valued, and organization of the planning process. Evaluation findings suggest six lessons for collaborating across diverse groups including state and local governmental agencies and not-for-profit agencies. Lessons include recognizing the importance of setting realistic goals, having a clear purpose, establishing a system to track progress toward these goals, establishing a structure appropriate to the task with clarity of roles within that structure, developing creative means to ensure attendance of key parties, and evaluating subjective and objective outcomes of the planning process in addition to the a...
Cinematographic analysis of endothelial cell proliferation in culture

A method is described for the application of time-lapse cinematographic techniques (TLC) to analysis of the behavior of individual cells and clones in endothelial cultures. Using TLC, detailed and precise information on cell cycle time, proliferative state, and migration activity can be obtained on several hundred individual cells in a given filmed sequence of proliferating endothelial cultures.
Quantitative studies of cytochemical and cytological changes during cell death in the larval fat body of Drosophila melanogaster

Abstract Cytometric analysis of larval fat body cells of normal and mutant genotypes was done to ascertain changes in the average cell size, the distribution of cell sizes, and changes in the amounts of cellular reserves after various incubation times in lytic and permissive environments during the lytic phase of cell death. The average cell size becomes smaller in both environments but less rapidly in the permissive environments. The distribution of cell sizes is strikingly broader in the permissive than the lytic environment. Glycogen, lipid, and protein reserves are lost from the cells during the lytic phase but at different rates. Glycogen and lipid reserves are lost independently of the environment. Regardless of whether the environment was lytic or permissive, glycogen disappeared from the cells completely and extremely rapidly whereas lipid disappeared from the cells at a slower rate. Protein was also lost from the cells but the rate was dependent on the environment. There was a rapid loss of protein in the environment which causes rapid cell death, but a gradual loss of protein in the environment where cell death occurs gradually. The relationship of the decrease in cell size and the loss of reserves to the permissiveness of the environment is discussed.
On the coarsening of gas-filled pores in solids

An analytical study is presented of the asymptotic coarsening kinetics of both monatomic and diatomic-gas-filled pores in solids, the rate-controlling process being assumed to be the volume diffusion of gas atoms within the host solid. It is shown that the asymptotic size-distribution functions can be expressed in terms of appropriate similarity transformations, and exact expressions are derived for both the frequency and cumulative distributions for each of the two cases considered. The fact that the order in size between pores is maintained as coarsening proceeds is used, together with the cumulative distribution functions, to derive expressions which describe the temporal evolution of individual pores. The behavior of gross properties of the pore distributions, such as pore concentration, mean radius, and volume fraction is also evaluated.
ATP-Binding Cassette Transporters and HDL Suppress Hematopoietic Stem Cell Proliferation

Elevated leukocyte cell numbers (leukocytosis), and monocytes in particular, promote atherosclerosis; however, how they become increased is poorly understood. Mice deficient in the adenosine triphosphate-binding cassette (ABC) transporters ABCA1 and ABCG1, which promote cholesterol efflux from macrophages and suppress atherosclerosis in hypercholesterolemic mice, displayed leukocytosis, a transplantable myeloproliferative disorder, and a dramatic expansion of the stem and progenitor cell population containing Lin(-)Sca-1(+)Kit+ (LSK) in the bone marrow. Transplantation of Abca1(-/-) Abcg1(-/-) bone marrow into apolipoprotein A-1 transgenic mice with elevated levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) suppressed the LSK population, reduced leukocytosis, reversed the myeloproliferative disorder, and accelerated atherosclerosis. The findings indicate that ABCA1, ABCG1, and HDL inhibit the proliferation of hematopoietic stem and multipotential progenitor cells and connect expansion of these populations with leukocytosis and accelerated atherosclerosis.