cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Correlates of Physical Activity in Persons with Arthritis: Review and Recommendations

Background: Physical activity (PA) is important for arthritis self-management. A better understanding of the PA correlates in persons with arthritis will help inform interventions. Methods: Computer searches were conducted on PubMed, PsychInfo, Current Contents, and Cinahl databases. Reference lists of extracted articles were also searched. Thirty-six studies published between 1976 and February 2004 met inclusion criteria. Results: PA correlates are presented for sociodemographic, psychological, health-related, social, and environmental categories. Self-efficacy, perceived benefits and barriers, mental well-being, prior PA, and pain received the most consistent support as PA correlates, whereas sociodemographic, social, and environmental variables were the least studied. Too few studies were conducted to allow comparisons across arthritis type or study design. Conclusions: We recommend that additional qualitative research be conducted to understand factors influencing PA in persons with arthritis. Prospec...
Maturation-associated changes in the cellular composition of mouse calvariae and in the biochemical characteristics of calvarial cells separated into subclasses on Percoll density gradients.

The effects of tissue maturation on the cellular composition and biochemical characteristics of bone were studied in neonatal, young adult, and aging mice. Osteoblast subclasses were isolated on Percoll density gradients. Neonatal calvariae consisted almost exclusively of cells banding at low and intermediate buoyant density. High buoyant density cells constituted 5–10% of total cells at 10 days of age but increased to 50–60% by 5 weeks of age. These latter cells were released late during collagenase digestion. This indicates that they arise from the deeper layer of bone. For this reason, we consider them putative osteocytes. We established that constitutive secretion of IGF-I and TGF-β and activities of cellular alkaline phosphatase paralleled those of the tissue of origin in all cell groups and was highest in cells of intermediate buoyant density. These activities declined rapidly after cessation of growth at 5 weeks of age in both bone and isolated cells. Between 5 and 8 weeks of age, the hormonal response to PTH also declined dramatically. The maximum cAMP induced by PTH declined by about 70% in highly responsive cells of intermediate buoyant density and fell to insignificant levels in cells of high buoyant density. We found that a cyclic AMP response to PTH was positively correlated with stimulated secretion of IGF-I by this hormone in cells from animals of all ages. Despite their inability to respond to PTH with increases in cAMP and IGF-I, adult bone cells of high buoyant density continued to respond to PTH with increases in the secretion of TGF-β. The stimulatory effect of PTH on the secretion of TGF-β could not be mimicked by dibutyryl-cAMP or forskolin in any subclass of osteoblasts, in contrast to IGF-I, which was increased in the presence of these compounds. In summary, we show that PTH increases secretion of TGF-β by bone cells. In addition, separation of bone cells from mature mice on the basis of buoyant density permits separation of specific osteoblastic subclasses whose numbers and biochemistry change with maturity. Furthermore, these data suggest that osteocytic cells (1) accumulate in mature bone, (2) undergo loss of selective PTH responses, including cAMP and IGF-I, and (3) retain cAMP-independent PTH responsiveness as shown by increased secretion of TGF-β.
Homogeneous immunoassay for detection of TNT and its analogues on a microfabricated capillary electrophoresis chip.

A homogeneous immunoassay for TNT and its analogues is developed using a microfabricated capillary electrophoresis chip. The assay is based on the rapid electrophoretic separation of an equilibrated mixture of an anti-TNT antibody, fluorescein-labeled TNT, and unlabeled TNT or its analogue. The band intensities of the free fluorescein-labeled TNT and of the antibody−antigen complex reveal the relative equilibrated concentrations. Titration of the anti-TNT antibody with a fluorescein-labeled TNT derivative yields a binding constant of (3.9 ± 1.3) × 109 M-1. The dissociation rate constant of the complex is determined by kinetic capillary electrophoresis using a folded channel and a rotary scanner to interrogate the separation at multiple time points. The dissociation rate constant is found to be 0.035 ± 0.005 s-1, and the resulting binding rate constant is (1.4 ± 0.7) × 107 M-1 s-1. Binding constants of TNT and five of its analogues are determined by competitive assays: TNT (4.3 ± 2.6) × 108 M-1; 1,3,5-tri...
Characterization of the DNA-Binding Domain of the Avian Y-Box Protein, chkYB-2, and Mutational Analysis of Its Single-Strand Binding Motif in the Rous Sarcoma Virus Enhancer

chkYB-2 is a sequence-specific, single-stranded DNA binding chicken Y-box protein that promotes Rous sarcoma virus long terminal repeat (RSV LTR)-driven transcription in avian fibroblasts. The DNA-binding domain of chkYB-2 has been mapped by characterizing the DNA binding properties of purified recombinant chkYB-2 mutant polypeptides. The data indicate that the invariant cold shock domain (CSD) is necessary but not sufficient for association with DNA and suggest that another conserved region, adjacent to the carboxyl boundary of the CSD, plays a role in high-affinity DNA binding. chkYB-2 binds to a tandem repeat of the 5'-GTACCACC-3' motif on the RSV LTR. Mutational analysis of this recognition sequence revealed the requirement of an essentially unaltered template for both high-affinity binding by chkYB-2 as well as maximal transcriptional activity of the RSV LTR in vivo. The single-stranded DNA binding activity of chkYB-2 is augmented by Mg2+. The possible significance of this finding for transactivation by a single-strand DNA binding protein is discussed.
Delayed Sterile Endophthalmitis after Glaucoma Drainage Implantation

Glaucoma drainage devices are being used with increasing frequency for patients. Sterile endophthalmitis after implantation has been reported. Unlike traditional trabeculectomy surgery, the persistence of an implant may be contributory. As glaucoma specialists consider emerging technologies in implantable glaucoma drainage devices, it is important to understand that sterile endophthalmitis may be associated with these devices.
Dose calculation algorithms in external beam photon radiation therapy

This article is an editorial, and it doesn't include an abstract. Full text of this article is also available in HTML and PDF . Cite this article as: Lu L. Dose calculation algorithms in external beam photon radiation therapy. Int J Cancer Ther Oncol 2013; 1 (2):01025. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14319/ijcto.0102.5
A New Species of Monodelphis (Didelphimorphia: Didelphidae) from the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

ABSTRACT A new species of the didelphid marsupial genus Monodelphis is described from southeastern Brazil. The new species is closely related to Monodelphis kunsi Pine, 1975, and other members of the M. adusta group, but differs from those species and from other congeneric taxa by unique external and cranial characters and by cytochrome-b and nuclear DNA sequences. Diagnostic morphological characters of the new species include uniformly brownish dorsolateral pelage without distinct stripes or other sharp pigment discontinuities; diminutive eyes and ears; a remarkably long and narrow rostrum; apparent loss of an interparietal ossification; and the presence of diastemata between C1 and P1, P1 and P2, c1 and p1, p1 and p2, and p2 and p3. The new species is known from the Atlantic Forest (Mata Atlântica) of southeastern Brazil, where it occurs sympatrically with four other congeners (M. americana, M. iheringi, M. scalops, M. dimidiata) and seems to be restricted to montane habitats.
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia: a morphometric study with emphasis on the pulmonary vasculature.

Using morphometry, the pulmonary vasculature in lungs obtained at autopsy from 8 patients with bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) was studied. In these specimens the axial arterial pathway was similar in length to those of equivalently aged fetuses and increased with lengthening survival. The internal diameter of axial arteries was variable—excessively wide in 2 patients and diffusely narrow in 3. Microscopically, the percent medial thickness of muscular pulmonary arteries was reduced compared to fetal values and tended to be less in older patients. Compared to normal fetuses, there were more muscularized intraacinar arteries, suggesting peripheral extension of smooth muscle. Arterial concentrations were elevated in 2 long-term survivors. The weight of the cardiac right ventricle was reduced in 4 patients. These findings indicate that in patients with BPD there is a complex dual process of pathological remodeling and an attempt at normal anatomic adaptation of the pulmonary vasculature to extrauterine life.
Metal-substituted protein MRI contrast agents engineered for enhanced relaxivity and ligand sensitivity

Engineered metalloproteins constitute a flexible new class of analyte-sensitive molecular imaging agents detectable by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), but their contrast effects are generally weaker than synthetic agents. To augment the proton relaxivity of agents derived from the heme domain of cytochrome P450 BM3 (BM3h), we formed manganese(III)-containing proteins that have higher electron spin than their native ferric iron counterparts. Metal substitution was achieved by coexpressing BM3h variants with the bacterial heme transporter ChuA in Escherichia coli and supplementing the growth medium with Mn3+-protoporphyrin IX. Manganic BM3h variants exhibited up to 2.6-fold higher T1 relaxivities relative to native BM3h at 4.7 T. Application of ChuA-mediated porphyrin substitution to a collection of thermostable chimeric P450 domains resulted in a stable, high-relaxivity BM3h derivative displaying a 63% relaxivity change upon binding of arachidonic acid, a natural ligand for the P450 enzyme and an important component of biological signaling pathways. This work demonstrates that protein-based MRI sensors with robust ligand sensitivity may be created with ease by including metal substitution among the toolkit of methods available to the protein engineer.
Social Influences on Group Membership in Propithecus verreauxi verreauxi

The size and composition of a social group can influence the reproductive success of its members. I examined the hypothesis that residents actively try to manipulate group size and composition in Verreaux’s sifaka (Propithecus verreauxi verreauxi). I collected behavioral data from 21 individuals in 5 social groups from November 2000 to March 2002 in the Kirindy Forest (C.F.P.F.) of western Madagascar. I investigated the affiliative and agonistic behaviors of resident males and females toward other group members to determine whether residents attempt to manipulate the costs and benefits of group membership. I also examined 3 cases of immigration attempts and 1 case of emigration. As expected, group members facilitated the residency of subordinate members of the opposite sex. For example, females sought out the subordinate males, responded to their calls, and even groomed them more. However, intrasexual relationships were also important for establishing or maintaining residency. The data, in conjunction with the observations of immigration and emigration events, suggest that resident individuals of both sexes attempt to influence group size and composition. I suggest that single–male groups are not the norm in Propithecus verreauxi verreauxi because females encourage, and males do not discourage, multiple males to reside in the group to increase group stability and to reduce the risk of infanticide.
Detection, measurement, and gravitational radiation

The optimum design, construction, and use of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO), the French-Italian Gravitational Wave Observatory (VIRGO), or the Laser Gravitational Wave Observatory (LAGOS) gravitational radiation detectors depends upon accurate calculations of their sensitivity to different sources of radiation. Here I examine how to determine the sensitivity of these instruments to sources of gravitational radiation by considering the process by which data are analyzed in a noisy detector. The problem of detection (is a signal present in the output of the detector?) is separated from that of measurement (what are the parameters that characterize the signal in the detector output?). By constructing the probability that the detector output is consistent with the presence of a signal, I show how to quantify the uncertainty that the output contains a signal and is not simply noise. Proceeding further, I construct the probability distribution that the parametrization $\ensuremath{\mu}$ that characterizes the signal has a certain value. From the distribution and its mode I determine volumes $V(P)$ in parameter space such that $\ensuremath{\mu}\ensuremath{\in}V(P)$ with probability $P$ [owing to the random nature of the detector noise, the volumes $V(P)$ are always different, even for identical signals in the detector output], thus quantifying the uncertainty in the estimation of the signal parametrization. These techniques are suitable for analyzing the output of a noisy detector. If we are designing a detector, or determining the suitability of an existing detector for observing a new source, then we do not have detector output to analyze but are interested in the "most likely" response of the detector to a signal. I exploit the techniques just described to determine the "most likely" volumes $V(P)$ for detector output that would result in a parameter probability distribution with given mode. Finally, as an example, I apply these techniques to determine the anticipated sensitivity of the LIGO and LAGOS detectors to the gravitational radiation from a perturbed Kerr black hole.
Culture-independent characterization of the digestive-tract microbiota of the medicinal leech reveals a tripartite symbiosis.

Culture-based studies of the microbial community within the gut of the medicinal leech have typically been focused on various Aeromonas species, which were believed to be the sole symbiont of the leech digestive tract. In this study, analysis of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries confirmed the presence of Aeromonas veronii and revealed a second symbiont, clone PW3, a novel member of the Rikenellaceae, within the crop, a large compartment where ingested blood is stored prior to digestion. The diversity of the bacterial community in the leech intestinum was determined, and additional symbionts were detected, including members of the α-, γ-, and δ-Proteobacteria, Fusobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes. The relative abundances of the clones suggested that A. veronii and the novel clone, PW3, also dominate the intestinum community, while other clones, representing transient organisms, were typically present in low numbers. The identities of these transients varied greatly between individual leeches. Neither time after feeding nor feeding on defibrinated blood caused a change in identity of the dominant members of the microbial communities. Terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis was used to verify that the results from the clone libraries were representative of a larger data set. The presence of a two-member bacterial community in the crop provides a unique opportunity to investigate both symbiont-symbiont and symbiont-host interactions in a natural model of digestive-tract associations.
Signal separation and reconstruction method for simultaneously received multi-system signals in a unified wireless system

These days, a wide variety of wireless systems are used and new wireless systems appear one after another on the market. In this regard, we proposed a unified wireless system that we call “flexible wireless system”. Comprising flexible access points and a flexible signal processing unit, it collectively receives a wideband spectrum that includes multiple signals from various wireless systems. In cases of simultaneous multiple signal reception, however, reception performance degrades due to the interference among multiple signals. To address this problem, we propose a new signal separation and reconstruction method for spectrally overlapped signals. The method analyzes spectral information obtained by the short time Fourier transform to extract amplitude and phase values at each center frequency of overlapped signals. Using these values enables signals from received radio wave data to be separated and reconstructed for simultaneous multi-system reception. Computer simulation results obtained in evaluating the method's performance confirmed its effectiveness.
Papyrus GIS demonstration

The goal of the Papyrus project [3] is to provide tools and services to enable the integration and parallelization of specialized data managers so that data-intensive applications can be constructed easily and efficiently. In our terminology, a data manager (DM) is a set of specialized methods that manage persistent data. A collection of functions defines the interface to a DM and provides the only means of accessing its persistent data.
Combinatorial methods for disease association search and susceptibility prediction

Accessibility of high-throughput genotyping technology makes possible genome-wide association studies for common complex diseases. When dealing with common diseases, it is necessary to search and analyze multiple independent causes resulted from interactions of multiple genes scattered over the entire genome. This becomes computationally challenging since interaction even of pairs gene variations require checking more than 1012 possibilities genome-wide. This paper first explores the problem of searching for the most disease-associated and the most disease-resistant multi-gene interactions for a given population sample of diseased and non-diseased individuals. A proposed fast complimentary greedy search finds multi-SNP combinations with non-trivially high association on real data. Exploiting the developed methods for searching associated risk and resistance factors, the paper addresses the disease susceptibility prediction problem. We first propose a relevant optimum clustering formulation and the model-fitting algorithm transforming clustering algorithms into susceptibility prediction algorithms. For three available real data sets (Crohn's disease (Daly et al, 2001), autoimmune disorder (Ueda et al, 2003), and tick-borne encephalitis (Barkash et al, 2006)), the accuracies of the prediction based on the combinatorial search (respectively, 84%, 83%, and 89%) are higher by 15% compared to the accuracies of the best previously known methods. The prediction based on the complimentary greedy search almost matches the best accuracy but is much more scalable.
Imposing a balance-of-payments constraint on the Kaldorian model of cumulative causation

We combine two strands of post Keynesian growth theory by imposing a balance-of-payments constraint on a Kaldorian cumulative causation model. The effects of external and internal shocks and the degree to which cumulative causation comes into play depends on the exchange rate and capital account regimes. Exports act as the only exogenous drivers of growth only under a regime of fixed exchange rates and when cumulative causation is blocked. Under flexible exchange rates, by contrast, it is internal demand that serves as the only exogenous driver of growth. Moreover, regardless of the type of shock, the presence of cumulative causation does not boost growth, although it may render growth more sustainable.
Computerized design and generation of low-noise helical gears with modified surface topology

An approach for design and generation of low-noise helical gears with localized bearing contact is proposed. The approach is applied to double circular arc helical gears and modified involute helical gears. The reduction of noise and vibration is achieved by application of a predesigned parabolic function of transmission errors that is able to absorb a discontinuous linear function of transmission errors caused by misalignment. The localization of the bearing contact is achieved by the mismatch of pinion-gear tooth surfaces. Computerized simulation of meshing and contact of the designed gears demonstrated that the proposed approach will produce a pair of gears that has a parabolic transmission error function even when misalignment is present. Numerical examples for illustration of the developed approach are given.
Why So Slow? The Challenges of Gendering Comparative Politics

One of my most painful memories as a newly minted assistant professor was of giving a talk at a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) meeting on democratization in Africa, during which senior Africanist political scientists (Americans) continued their private discussions while I tried to deliver a paper on women and democratization in Africa. My voice carried weakly over the din. I was too intent on getting through my prepared talk in the allotted time to do what I should have done, which was to stop until I got their full attention. I remember thinking at the time that I had something very important to say that they needed to hear, and they were missing this opportunity. That was 1994.
Speech recognition with very large size dictionary

This paper proposes a new strategy, the Multi-Level Decoding (MLD), that allows to use a Very Large Size Dictionary (VLSD, size more than 100,000 words) in speech recognition. MLD proceeds in three steps: \bullet a Syllable Match procedure uses an acoustic model to build a list of the most probable syllables that match the acoustic signal from a given time frame. \bullet from this list, a Word Match procedure uses the dictionary to build partial word hypothesis. \bullet then a Sentence Match procedure uses a probabilistic language model to build partial sentence hypothesis until total sentences are found. An original matching algorithm is proposed for the Syllable Match procedure. This strategy is experimented on a dictation task of French texts. Two different dictionaries are tested, \bullet one composed of the 10,000 most frequent words, \bullet the other composed of 200,000 words. The recognition results are given and compared. The error rate on words with 10,000 words is 17.3%. If the errors due to the lack of coverage are not counted, the error rate with 10,000 words is reduced to 10.6%. The error rate with 200,000 words is 12.7%.
Effects of landscape patterns of fire severity on regenerating ponderosa pine forests (Pinus ponderosa) in New Mexico and Arizona, USA

Much of the current effort to restore southwestern ponderosa pine forests to historical conditions is predicated upon assumptions regarding the catastrophic effects of large fires that are now defining a new fire regime. To determine how spatial characteristics influence the process of ponderosa pine regeneration under this new regime, we mapped the spatial patterns of severity at areas that burned in 1960 (Saddle Mountain, AZ) and (La Mesa, NM) 1977 using pre- and post-fire aerial photography, and quantified characteristics of pine regeneration at sample plots in areas where all trees were killed by the fire event. We used generalized linear models to determine the relationship of ponderosa pine stem density to three spatial burn pattern metrics: (1) distance to nearest edge of lower severity; (2) neighborhood severity, measured at varying spatial scales, and (3) scaled seed dispersal kernel surfaces. Pine regeneration corresponded most closely with particular scales of measurement in both seed dispersal kernel and neighborhood severity. Spatial patterns of burning remained important to understanding regeneration even after consideration of subsequent disturbance and other environmental variables, with the exception of a few cases in which simpler models were equally well-supported by the data. Analysis of tree ages revealed slow progress in early post-fire years. Our observations suggest that populations spread in a moving front, as well as by remotely dispersed individuals. Based on our results, recent large fires cannot be summarily dismissed as catastrophic. We conclude that management should focus on the value and natural recovery of post-fire landscapes. Further, process centered restoration efforts could utilize our findings in formulating reference dynamics under a changing fire regime.
Motion Silences Awareness of Visual Change

Summary Loud bangs, bright flashes, and intense shocks capture attention, but other changes—even those of similar magnitude—can go unnoticed. Demonstrations of change blindness have shown that observers fail to detect substantial alterations to a scene when distracted by an irrelevant flash, or when the alterations happen gradually [1–5]. Here, we show that objects changing in hue, luminance, size, or shape appear to stop changing when they move. This motion-induced failure to detect change, silencing, persists even though the observer attends to the objects, knows that they are changing, and can make veridical judgments about their current state. Silencing demonstrates the tight coupling of motion and object appearance.
Mesoscale Controls on the Mountainside Snow Line

Observations show that on a mountainside the boundary between snow and rain, the snow line, is often located at an elevation hundreds of meters below its elevation in the free air upwind. The processes responsible for this mesoscale lowering of the snow line are examined in semi-idealized simulations with a mesoscale numerical model and in simpler theoretical models. Spatial variations in latent cooling from melting precipitation, in adiabatic cooling from vertical motion, and in the melting distance of frozen hydrometeors are all shown to make important contributions. The magnitude of the snow line drop, and the relative importance of the responsible processes, depends on properties of the incoming flow and terrain geometry. Results suggest that the depression of the snow line increases with increasing temperature, a relationship that, if present in nature, could act to buffer mountain hydroclimates against the impacts of climate warming. The simulated melting distance, and hence the snow line, depends substantially on the choice of microphysical parameterization, pointing to an important source of uncertainty in simulations of mountain snowfall.
Homologous recombination as a mechanism for genome rearrangements: environmental and genetic effects

Novel findings over the last 2 years have led to an increased emphasis on homologous recombination (HR) as both a pathway for DNA repair and a cause for genomic rearrangements. Indeed, environmental carcinogens increase the frequency of HR, as can be observed when two copies of a duplicated sequence recombine to delete the intervening sequences. Such HR events between dispersed homologous sequences may result in not only deletions, but also gene duplications or translocations. These types of genomic rearrangement have been observed to be the cause of several different genetic diseases, including cancer. In reflection of this, several genes have been identified that, when mutant, predispose an individual to an increased frequency of cancer. These genes have been shown to be either directly or indirectly involved in HR. In addition, HR is induced by a wide variety of carcinogens, preferentially in proliferating cells. This fits the most current models of recombination and its involvement in reinitiating stalled replication forks. Thus, 'correct' HR repair may act with high fidelity, an important issue for proliferating cells, but in the context of alternative homologous partner sequences, 'aberrant' HR can cause genomic rearrangements with dire consequences.
Why Markets Matter for Evidence-Based Merger Analysis

While the Merger Guidelines structure represents the standard approach to merger analysis in the US, economists have proposed methods to dispense with market definition and estimate the competitive effect directly. In this note, we argue that market definition is necessary to evaluate the assumptions of any merger analysis and thus, cannot be dispensed with. Moreover, we suggest that market definition plays an important role in the stakeholders’ merger guidance process, the regulator’s merger screening process, and the court’s merger decision process.
A Bedside Decision Tree for Use of Saline With Endotracheal Tube Suctioning in Children

BACKGROUND Endotracheal tube suctioning is necessary for patients receiving mechanical ventilation. Studies examining saline instillation before suctioning have demonstrated mixed results. METHODS A prospective study to evaluate whether saline instillation is associated with an increased risk of suctioning-related adverse events in patients 18 years old or younger requiring mechanical ventilation through an endotracheal tube for at least 48 hours when suctioned per protocol using a bedside decision tree. RESULTS A total of 1986 suctioning episodes (1003 with saline) were recorded in 69 patients. The most common indication for use of saline was thick secretions (87% of episodes). In 586 suctioning episodes, at least 1 adverse event occurred with increased frequency in the saline group (P < .001). Normal saline was more likely to be associated with hemodynamic instability (P = .04), bronchospasm (P < .001), and oxygen desaturation (P < .001). Patient factors associated with adverse events include younger age (P < .001), a cuffed endotracheal tube (P = .001), endotracheal tube diameter of 4.0 mm or less (P < .001), respiratory or hemodynamic indication for intubation (P < .001), underlying respiratory disease (P < .001), and longer duration of mechanical ventilation (P < .001). Saline instillation (P < .001), endotracheal tube size of 4.0 mm or less (P = .03), and comorbid respiratory diseases (P = .03) were associated with an increased risk of adverse events. CONCLUSIONS Saline instillation before endotracheal tube suctioning is associated with hemodynamic instability, bronchospasm, and transient hypoxemia. Saline should be used cautiously, especially in children with a small endotracheal tube and comorbid respiratory disease.
Peak Race: An In-Class Game Introducing Chromatography Concepts and Terms in Art Conservation

Chromatography is an indisputably useful analytical technique in the Cultural Heritage arena, and as such it is part of the science Art Conservation curriculum at the Winterthur/University of Delaware Program in Art Conservation (WUDPAC). Future conservators must understand that development of a chromatogram is the result of different interactions with sample components, mobile and stationary phases, that result in observable peaks at specific retention times. Art and archeology analyses are special in that samples are usually scarce and contain aged and/or degraded complex mixture components. Broadening and overlapping of peaks can be two consequences of the variables, and oftentimes the logics behind such important outcomes can be challenging for students. Here we present an innovative teaching method in the form of a game to help in their understanding of a chromatogram development, why different compounds have specific retention times, and how peaks get broader and/or overlap.
Building e‐rater® Scoring Models Using Machine Learning Methods

The e-rater® automated scoring engine used at Educational Testing Service (ETS) scores the writing quality of essays. In the current practice, e-rater scores are generated via a multiple linear regression (MLR) model as a linear combination of various features evaluated for each essay and human scores as the outcome variable. This study evaluates alternative scoring models based on several additional machine learning algorithms, including support vector machines (SVM), random forests (RF), and k-nearest neighbor regression (k-NN). The results suggest that models based on the SVM algorithm outperform MLR models in predicting human scores. Specifically, SVM-based models yielded the highest agreement between human and e-rater scores. Furthermore, compared with MLR, SVM-based models improved the agreement between human and e-rater scores at the ends of the score scale. In addition, the high correlation between SVM-based e-rater scores with external measures such as examinee's scores on the other parts of the test provided some validity evidence for SVM-based e-rater scores. Future research is encouraged to explore the generalizability of these findings.
Toward label-free optical fractionation of blood--optical force measurements of blood cells.

There is a compelling need to develop systems capable of processing blood and other particle streams for detection of pathogens that are sensitive, selective, automated, and cost/size effective. Our research seeks to develop laser-based separations that do not rely on prior knowledge, antibodies, or fluorescent molecules for pathogen detection. Rather, we aim to harness inherent differences in optical pressure, which arise from variations in particle size, shape, refractive index, or morphology, as a means of separating and characterizing particles. Our method for measuring optical pressure involves focusing a laser into a fluid flowing opposite to the direction of laser propagation. As microscopic particles in the flow path encounter the beam, they are trapped axially along the beam and are pushed upstream from the laser focal point to rest at a point where the optical and fluid forces on the particle balance. On the basis of the flow rate at which this balance occurs, the optical pressure felt by the pa...
Conceptualizing Congressional Organization: The Legacy of Keith Krehbiel’s Informational Theory

A small-scale replication of Keith Krehbiel’s original test on the 99th Congress is carried out in this paper. This replication consists of four committees in the 112th Congress selected because of their symptomatic distributive tendency. The aim in this paper is to characterize committees as diverse in composition with heterogeneous high demanding members who possess different bits of information. Furthermore, this heterogeneity of membership is associated with a higher percentage of closed rules assigned to the committee by the House Committee on Rules. Though evidence supports Krehbiel’s assessment of committee composition, there does not appear to be a relationship between membership heterogeneity on committees and the number of closed rules it is granted. This article is available in Res Publica Journal of Undergraduate Research: http://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/respublica/vol21/iss1/ 11
Feedback on reflection: comparing rating-scale and forced-choice formats for measuring and facilitating teacher team reflective practice

AbstractThis study focused on elements of measurement and feedback for teacher reflective practice. The measurement component examined the use of the Survey of Reflective Practice: A Tool for Assessing Development as a Reflective Practitioner to measure reflective practice and promote reflection, and compared educator responses using rating-scale and forced-choice item formats. The feedback component observed teachers and mentors collaborating to set goals that facilitate growth as a reflective practitioner. Results suggest the instrument can be used to measure and facilitate a teacher team’s level of reflection with one important caveat: our results indicate that there may be a threshold level of reflection necessary before teachers can benefit from the examined collaborative process. In addition, results suggest that the forced-choice item format might help mentors move away from a judging and evaluating mindset to a mindset of thoughtful analysis of the conditions and qualities that most accurately des...
Effect Analysis of BCG Vaccination among Children in Hangu District of Tianjin

[Objective]To learn the immune effect of BCG vaccination among children in Hangu district of Tianjin in the past 3 years. [Methods]The PPD test results of 4281 children who have received the initial BCG vaccination were analyzed. [Results]The positive rates of PPD test of children aged 3~36 months old,4~5 years old and 6~7 years old in 2008,2009 and 2010 were 97.3%~85.7%,97.1%~83.3% and 97.2%~90.0% respectively. [Conclusion]The immune effect and vaccination quality of BCG vaccination among children in Hangu district of Tianjin is good in the past 3 years.The key to success of BCG vaccination is the quality of initial BCG vaccination in newborns.
TU-FG-BRC-01: Cancer and the Immune System: The Basics!

There is substantial current interest in the potential of radiation therapy for synergizing with novel immunotherapies to transform irradiated tumor into an immunogenic hub with capacity to ignite a powerful and adaptive longterm anti-cancer response. Interest stems from new insights into fundamental mechanisms underlying interactions between cancer, radiation and the immune system. Radically new immunotherapy approaches have been proposed, which target the immune system, rather than the cancer itself. Promising preliminary results on subsets of patients have led to a surge in research and clinical trials investigating the potential for combining new immunomodulatory agents with radiation therapy. In this symposia, we undertake a basic review of key topics and questions relating to the potential for combining radiation therapy and new immunotherapy approaches, including a focus on opportunities for medical physicists. Learning Objectives: 1.Gain insight into approaches to combining immunotherapy and radiation therapy. 2.Review latest clinical trial data investigating radiation and immunotherapy. 3.Consider how radiation therapy can better stimulate immunogenicity. 4.Explore opportunities for medical physicists in radiation and immunotherapy M Oldham has funding support from Immunolioght Llc
The Behaviour of Pollen Foragers Which Lose Their Load

SummaryThe behaviour of pollen-collecting honeybees whose pollen loads were removed as they entered the hive appeared in no way modified from that of foragers which retained their pollen loads. The full behaviour pattern of “packing” in a cell was completed, although there was no pollen to pack.
Monitoring Metastasis and Cachexia in a Patient with Breast Cancer: A Case Study

Cachexia, a wasting syndrome associated with advanced cancer and metastasis, is rarely documented in breast cancer patients. However, the incidence of cachexia in breast cancer is now thought to be largely underestimated. In our case report of a breast cancer patient with bone metastasis monitored during the course of her treatment, we document the development of cachexia by image analysis in relation to her metastatic burden. Elucidation of the link between metastatic burden and cachexia could unveil a highly specific screening process for metastasis, by assessing true muscle mass loss. Our patient was a 49-year-old premenopausal woman, with metastatic invasive ductal breast carcinoma in the vertebral and iliac bones on presentation, which progressed with new metastases to her hips, thigh bones, and vertebrae. In the two-year period, that is between her diagnosis and death, she lost >10% of her baseline weight. During these two years, we retrospectively identified a decrease in paraspinal muscle (PM) at the third lumbar vertebra followed by a sharp decline in weight. The increased tumor burden over time in metastatic sites was accompanied by a decrease in abdominal muscle and visceral and subcutaneous fat and was followed by the patient's demise. The increasing tumor burden in the patient was correlated with the mass of other tissues to determine the tissue that could best serve as a surrogate marker to cachexia and tumor burden. We noted a strong negative correlation between PM area and metastatic tumor area at the third lumbar vertebral level, with PM loss correlating to increasing tumor burden. The monitoring of PM wasting may serve as a marker, and therefore a prognostic factor, for both cachexia and extent of metastatic disease, especially in breast cancer, where metastasis to bone is frequent. Based on our data and review of the literature in this case study, longitudinal monitoring of cachexia in the selected muscle groups can give clinicians early indications of the extent of cachexia in metastatic breast cancer patients.
Governance of Transnational Global Health Research Consortia and Health Equity

Global health research partnerships are increasingly taking the form of consortia of institutions from high-income countries and low- and middle-income countries that undertake programs of research. These partnerships differ from collaborations that carry out single projects in the multiplicity of their goals, scope of their activities, and nature of their management. Although such consortia typically aim to reduce health disparities between and within countries, what is required for them to do so has not been clearly defined. This article takes a conceptual approach to explore how the governance of transnational global health research consortia should be structured to advance health equity. To do so, it applies an account called shared health governance to derive procedural and substantive guidance. A checklist based on this guidance is proposed to assist research consortia determine where their governance practices strongly promote equity and where they may fall short.
Exploring the reasons for the seasons using Google Earth, 3D models, and plots

Public understanding of climate and climate change is of broad societal importance. However, misconceptions regarding reasons for the seasons abound amongst students, teachers, and the public, many...
Money matters? Journalists’ perception of the effects of a weak market orientation

Prior research examines the effects of a strong market orientation on a news organization, looking at both content and journalists’ perceptions. But recent technology allows for more weakly market-...
Justification of Neuropsychological Batteries

Although procedures may be developed using discovery methods, those procedures must be justified by psychometrics to be scientific and reliable. Whereas justification applies to individual tests, this writing emphasizes batteries. Many discovery methods apply to flexible batteries, but these methods do not justify them. Justification requires psychometric validation that usually determines their accuracy to make them reliable. Individual tests are justified, but they represent a one-test, one-condition interpretation. Standardized battery procedures concern the relationships between tests in combinations and comparisons. Batteries refer to brain functioning that is not governed by homeostasis and has a range from about age 5 to adult IQs of 140. This is at least 14 standard deviations (10 below and four above the adult mean). Validation requires either formalized procedures or clinical judgment. Clinical judgment requires demonstration that a procedure can be validly judged, that this procedure is the one that was validated, and that the neuropsychologist has expertise with this procedure. Flexible batteries cannot meet the psychometric requirements for either formal procedures or clinical judgment because they are not consistent from one administration to another or from one neuropsychologist to another.
Making Dictators’ Pockets Empty: How Do U.S. Sanctions Influence Social Policies in Autocratic Countries?

AbstractThis work examines how U.S. economic sanctions affect social welfare spending in authoritarian countries. U.S. economic sanctions play a role of leading autocratic targets to change social ...
Efficient physics-based modeling of a representative semiconducting quantum dot single electron device

In this work we study electron transport modeling of a semiconducting quantum dot interacting with metal electrodes. The modeling utilizes a physics-based kinetic Monte Carlo algorithm to balance accuracy with improved calculation speed, applied to the transport characteristic of a reported experimental Single Electron Transistor (SET) device with semiconducting silicon islands. We introduce an efficient numerical integration method to accurately calculate the electron tunneling rates for all allowable transitions, then apply kinetic Monte Carlo methods to simulate the electronic transport properties of the device. The method accounts for non-constant density of states and transition probabilities, and parasitic field-effect device coupling. A series of test cases have been introduced to demonstrate the relevance of the model. Three test cases explore the physical properties of the SET to confirm the proper modeling of gate, drain, source capacitances, charging energies, and junction widths. A study is designed to explore the temperature sensitivity of a SET with a semiconducting island, where the results show an interesting possibility to control the temperature sensitivity of the system through the applied biases. This behavior is not possible in metallic SET systems. A final study shows that the methodology models a representative experimental three terminal silicon single electron device with a coupled parasitic field effect transistor at low to moderate source-drain biases. The study demonstrates that the complex and aperiodic behavior of the Coulomb oscillations in the experimental device over temperature and bias cannot be fully characterized by the modeled physics of the SET or the nanoscaled MOSFET.
Sensible planning: focusing perceptual attention

A primary problem facing real-world robots is the question of which sensing actions should be performed at any given time. It. is important that an agent be economical with its allocation of sensing when sensing is expensive or when there are many possible sensing operations available. Sensing is rational when the expected utility from the information obtained outweighs the execution cost of the sensing operation itself. This paper outlines an approach to the efficient construction of plans containing explicit sensing operations with the objective of finding nearly optimal cost effective plans with respect to both action and sensing. The scheduling of sensing operations, in addition to the usual scheduling of physical actions, potentially results in an enornous increase in the computational complexity of planning. Our approach avoids this pitfall through strict adherence to a static sensing policy. The approach, based upon the Markov Decision Process paradigm, handles a significant amount of uncertainty in the outcomes of actions.
An Analysis of Running Event Consumer Behaviors

The purpose of this study was to examine the motives, constraints, and event selection factors affecting consumers’ decisions to participate in running events, specifically for a running festival in the Midwest United States. In partnership with a large running festival in the Midwest United States, data were collected via an online questionnaire. In total, 1,650 individuals completed a portion of the survey with 1,235 completing the additional questions for this investigation yielding a 74% completion rate. Based on the results of this study, runners’ autonomous motivation was significantly greater among those who participated in more events or longer distances during the festival. Similarly, runners with greater participation levels also perceived fewer internal constraints compared to runners who with lower participation levels. Subscribe to JASM
Design and evaluation of mobile applications with full and partial offloadings

Mobile devices are widely accepted as a convergence machine providing both software functionality and cell phone capability. However, they have limited resources such as memory, processing power, and battery. Consequently, complex applications could not be deployed on the devices. An effective solution is to offload some functionality to more powerful servers and to run then on the servers, to yield improved performance and low resource consumption. In this paper, we propose a systematic process for designing mobile applications with full and partial offloading. And, we present schemes to quantitatively evaluate the resulting architecture. Using the proposed architecture design and evaluation methods, mobile applications with loading can be more systematically developed.