cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evaluation of the Empirical Support of Functional Communication Training for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Functional communication training (FCT) typically consists of determining the function(s) of challenging behaviors and teaching the child an appropriate communicative behavior that serves the same function. This review used quality indicators to evaluate FCT studies and determine the level of evidence for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) from birth to 8. Based on the authors’ evaluation of six studies located from a previous review, FCT showed potential as an evidence-based practice. After evaluating nine more studies located from literature searches, a moderate level of evidence was established for FCT for children with ASD from birth to 8. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
Development of an alternating tangential flow (ATF) perfusion-based transient gene expression (TGE) bioprocess for universal influenza vaccine

An alternating tangential flow (ATF) perfusion-based transient gene expression (TGE) bioprocess has been developed using human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells to produce H1-ss-np, a promising candidate for a universal influenza vaccine. Two major adjustments were taken to improve the process: (1) eliminate the interference of microbubbles during gene transfection; and (2) utilize an ATF perfusion system for a prolonged culture period. As a result, a closed-operation 9-days ATF perfusion-based TGE bioprocess was developed. The TGE bioprocess showed continuous cell growth with high cell viability and prolonged cellular productivity that achieved recombinant product level of ~270 mg/L which was more than two times that of 4-days base-line TGE bioprocess. In addition, the consumables cost per milligram for ATF perfusion-based TGE bioprocess was ~70% lower than that of the base-line TGE bioprocess suggesting high cost savings potential in vaccine manufacturing. Based on the lower contamination risk, higher productivity, and cost efficiency, the ATF perfusion-based TGE bioprocess can likely provide potential benefits to many future applications in vaccine and drug manufacturing.
The relationship between food insecurity and binge and night eating symptoms in prebariatric surgery patients is mediated by depressive symptoms.

Abstract Background Eleven percent of households in the United States experience food insecurity, which is a lack of access to adequate, desirable food for a healthy lifestyle. Although food insecurity is associated with increased risk of obesity and nonadherence to dietary management of chronic diseases such as diabetes, the correlates of food insecurity have not yet been studied in a bariatric surgery population. Objectives To replicate, in a bariatric sample, previous findings that food insecurity is related to eating pathology and to test the hypothesis that this relationship is mediated by depressive symptoms. Setting University hospital, United States. Methods Two hundred forty bariatric surgery candidates responded to self-report measures of food insecurity and mood, night-eating, and binge-eating symptoms. The sample was 74% female and 71% white, with a mean age of 41.09 (11.84) years. Based on responses to the United States Department of Agriculture Adult Food Security Survey Model, 15.8% were categorized as food insecure and 25.8% as marginally food secure. Multiple regression models with bootstrapping for confidence interval estimates were used to explore mediation hypotheses. Results Food insecurity was positively associated with symptoms of night eating and binge eating, and these relationships were cross-sectionally mediated by depressive symptoms. Conclusions Food insecure bariatric candidates may be at increased risk of poorer postoperative outcomes because of lack of access to needed food and the detrimental mental health impact of this lack of access.
CCR9-CCL25 interaction mediates breast cancer cell survival via Akt activation

457 Breast cancer (BrCa) is one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in North American women. Most cancer-related deaths are due to metastasis. In addition, BrCa cells readily become resistant to a wide variety of chemotherapeutic agents, which is a major obstacle in the treatment of BrCa. Tumor cell migration and metastasis share similarities with leukocyte trafficking, which is regulated, in part, by chemokines and their receptors. We have previously shown that CCR9 is functionally expressed by BrCa cells and its expression is enhanced by the presence of its ligand, CCL25. We show that CCR9-CCL25 interaction increases BrCa cell migration, invasion, and matrix metalloproteinase expression, when compared to normal breast epithelial cells. However, this study characterizes the role of CCL25-CCR9 cell-signaling cascades involved in BrCa cell resistance to cisplatin. This drug is often ineffective due to cancer cell resistance and the development of anti-apoptotic mechanisms. In this regard, CCR9-CCL25 interaction plays a role in immature T-cell survival through PI3K and Gαi protein-dependent activation of Akt/protein kinase B. Activated Akt phosphorylates multiple downstream targets that are involved in cell survival signaling, which include glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK-3β), forkhead transcriptional factor (FKHR), and caspase-9. We examined the effect of CCR9-CCL25 interactions on BrCa cell lines MDA-MB-231 and MDA-435, with or without cisplatin treatment. CCR9-CCL25 interactions decreased cisplatin-induced apoptosis. These interactions also modulated the activation of cell signaling cascades involved in cell survival. These studies provide important new information regarding the cellular and molecular mechanisms that mediate BrCa cell survival.
You Can’t Kill Chairman Fred: Examining the Life and Legacy of a Revolutionary

At the age of twenty-one, Fred Hampton Sr., was assassinated, by a joint operation between the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Beyond his assassination, and his involvement with the Black Panthers, Hampton has left many influences in American society. His impact continued after his death, thus he should be remembered and studied as an important figure in the modern Civil Rights and Black Power eras. His impact and legacy have extended far beyond his lifetime and far beyond Chicago and deserves more scholarly attention.
Natural Language Processing Accurately Measures Adherence to Best Practice Guidelines for Palliative Care in Trauma

Abstract Context The Trauma Quality Improvement Program Best Practice Guidelines recommend palliative care (PC) concurrent with restorative treatment for patients with life-threatening injuries. Measuring PC delivery is challenging: administrative data are nonspecific, and manual review is time intensive. Objectives To identify PC delivery to patients with life-threatening trauma and compare the performance of natural language processing (NLP), a form of computer-assisted data abstraction, to administrative coding and gold standard manual review. Methods Patients 18 years and older admitted with life-threatening trauma were identified from two Level I trauma centers (July 2016—June 2017). Four PC process measures were examined during the trauma admission: code status clarification, goals-of-care discussion, PC consult, and hospice assessment. The performance of NLP and administrative coding were compared with manual review. Multivariable regression was used to determine patient and admission factors associated with PC delivery. Results There were 76,791 notes associated with 2093 admissions. NLP identified PC delivery in 33% of admissions compared with 8% using administrative coding. Using NLP, code status clarification was most commonly documented (27%), followed by goals-of-care discussion (18%), PC consult (4%), and hospice assessment (4%). Compared with manual review, NLP performed more than 50 times faster and had a sensitivity of 93%, a specificity of 96%, and an accuracy of 95%. Administrative coding had a sensitivity of 21%, a specificity of 92%, and an accuracy of 68%. Factors associated with PC delivery included older age, increased comorbidities, and longer intensive care unit stay. Conclusion NLP performs with similar accuracy with manual review but with improved efficiency. NLP has the potential to accurately identify PC delivery and benchmark performance of best practice guidelines.
1027. Vancomycin Use in Community-Acquired Pneumonia: Assessing Inappropriate Therapy

Background Current Infectious Disease Society of America guidelines recommend anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus(MRSA) agents for treatment of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) only in specific high-risk patients. There are limited data on duration of vancomycin use that is appropriate in hospitalized patients with CAP. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of vancomycin for CAP among inpatients.
Catullus Through his Books: Dramas of Composition

Modern readings of the Roman poet Catullus' work have always been constrained by doubts about the surviving text. Does the sequence of our corpus reflect the artistically coherent and meaningful arrangement of the poems? Why are the various parts of the collection so jarringly different in content and emotional tone? To what extent, if at all, can we explain these shifts by appealing to Catullus' famously vivid portrayals of his emotions and life circumstances? Catullus Through his Books argues that we possess three separate books of poems designed by the poet himself; at key moments in these books, the poems dramatise the creative activity of their own composition, embedding apparent autobiographical details and purportedly revealing the poet's intentions and goals. These dramas of composition direct us through the poems, integrating our understanding of each part and generating a holistic vision of Catullus as poet of self-destroying longing and irreparable loss.
CHAPTER XVIII – INFINITE SERIES

Publisher Summary Many functions arising in basic applications are not elementary; however, many of them can be well approximated by a polynomial in x. Thus ∫sin x/x dx cannot be expressed as a simple elementary function but can be approximated to any desired accuracy by a polynomial in x, the approximation improving with increase in the degree of the polynomial used. In a certain sense, many of the functions arising in basic applications can be represented exactly b a polynomial of infinite degree, called an infinite power series. This chapter aims to give meaning to this last sentence, and to provide specific techniques for representing functions by infinite power series. The chapter explains the integral test for convergence.
Fundus characteristics of acquired immune deficiency syndrome in human immunodeficiency virus retinopathy

Objective To observe the fundus characteristics of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) retinopathy.Methods Eighty eyes of 52 AIDS patients with HIV retinopathy were enrolled in this study.The patients included 42 males (67 eyes) and 10 females (13 eyes).The patients ages ranged from 16 to 78 years,with a mean age of (43±12) years.All patients' visual acuity,intraocular pressure,slit-lamp microscopy and mydriatic indirect ophthalmoscopy,fundus color photography and CD4+ T cell count was documented.Experienced ocular fundus doctors carried out fundus examinations.Retinopathy characteristics were recorded.Seventeen patients (24 eyes) were followed for a period between two days to two years,with a median of 125 days.We failed to follow up the remaining 35 patients (56 eyes) due to death or moving away.Results Among 52 patients (80 eyes),28 patients (56 eyes,70.0％) had bilateral HIV retinopathy and 24 patients (24 eyes, 30.0％) had unilateral HIV retinopathy.Cotton-wool spots (CWS),mostly located close to temporal peripapillary vessels,were found in 46 patients (72 eyes,90.0％).Six patients (eight eyes,10.0％) were found to have flaming or spotting hemorrhage located in posterior pole.Among 72 eyes with CWS,57 eyes were found to have CWS only and 15 eyes were found to also have retinal hemorrhage,mostly located near CWS.Among 24 eyes of 17 followed-up patients,three eyes of three patients were found with no significant changes during the less than two week follow-up.In 18 eyes of 11 patients,CWS or hemorrhage disappeared after one to three months without treatment and in five eyes new CWS or hemorrhage were found in other parts of the posterior pole.Three eyes of three patients initially considered as lint plaque-like lesions were eventually detected with CMVR as lesions during one to five months follow-up.Conclusion CWS are the most common ocular lesions in HIV retinopathy. Key words: Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome/complications; HIV infections/complications; Retinal degeneration/diagnosis; Disease attributes
Multidisciplinary Amputation Team Management of Individuals with Limb Loss

To demonstrate the utility of the multidisciplinary team and the role of each member in caring for persons with limb loss, from pre-amputation to lifelong care. By ensuring patient-centered care through shared decision-making, persons with limb loss report improved adjustment following amputation. Various medical, physical, and psychosocial factors have been shown to correlate with post-amputation outcomes and should be assessed pre-amputation by the team. Persons with limb loss are at increased risk for re-amputation and secondary disabling conditions that the team should monitor lifelong. To provide comprehensive, patient-centered care, a multidisciplinary team needs to be assembled, each member providing their area of expertise. By creating the specialized team, the patient can be educated on their potential outcomes, monitored for mental health conditions, and their function can be optimized. Lifelong care is required to monitor for complications of comorbidities or development of secondary disabling conditions and to enhance quality of life.
Wafer-Scale Lateral Self-Assembly of Mosaic Ti3C2Tx MXene Monolayer Films.

Bottom-up assembly of two-dimensional (2D) materials into macroscale morphologies with emergent properties requires control of the material surroundings, so that energetically favorable conditions direct the assembly process. MXenes, a class of recently developed 2D materials, have found new applications in areas such as electrochemical energy storage, nanoscale electronics, sensors, and biosensors. In this paper, we present a lateral self-assembly method for wafer-scale deposition of a mosaic-type 2D MXene flake monolayer that spontaneously orders at the interface between two immiscible solvents. ReaxFF molecular dynamics simulations elucidate the interactions of a MXene flake with the solvents and its stability at the liquid/liquid interface, the prerequisite for MXene flakes self-assembly at the interface. Moreover, facile transfer of this monolayer onto a flat substrate (Si, glass) results in high-coverage monolayer films with uniform thickness and homogeneous optical properties. Multiscale characterization of the resulting films reveals the mosaic structure and sheds light on the electronic properties of the films, which exhibit good electrical conductivity over cm-scale areas.
Intermittent social stress produces different short- and long-term effects on effort-based reward-seeking behavior.

Abstract Previous studies show that intermittent social defeat (ISD) stress increases self-administration of psychostimulants , which suggests that ISD promotes reward-seeking behavior and, ultimately, increases vulnerability to develop drug abuse. The present study investigates whether ISD alters cost/benefit evaluations to promote reward-seeking behavior and whether these alterations are time-dependent. Male rats performed two different tasks that assessed their motivation to seek and consume food rewards. An effort-discounting task in which rats chose between less and more effortful options (i.e., 1 lever-press versus 2, 5, 10 or 20 lever-presses) associated with low- and high-reward (i.e., 1 sugar pellet versus 3 sugar pellets), respectively; and a progressive ratio task in which rats had to increase their effort (more lever presses) to obtain a sugar pellet. ISD consisted of exposing animals to social defeat once every three days for ten days (4 stress episodes). Rats were tested 24–48 h after stress episodes, and 1 week and 6 weeks after the last stress episode. In the effort-discounting task, stressed animals showed a decrease in their preference for high rewards associated with more effort (i.e., 10 and 20 lever-presses). These effects were transient and not maintained one week after stress. In the progressive ratio task, stressed animals showed an increase in the number of lever presses to obtain rewards that emerged six weeks after the last stress episode. These results suggest different short- and long-term effects on the motivation for rewards after ISD and indicate temporal dynamic adaptations in the function of the brain reward system.
Ultrasonic Techniques for Inspecting Multi-Layer Composite Components

The US Army is evaluating composite materials for use in armored vehicles. Such materials exhibit structural and ballistic characteristics that meet or exceed those of conventional armor at a significant savings in weight. However, to provide comparable properties multi-layer structures must be considered. Proposed armored vehicles might consist of an S-2 glass laminate to meet structural requirements, ceramic tile for ballistic protection, and additional layers for signature management. Both pre-service and in-service inspections will be required to establish the serviceability and survivability of these vehicles.
A new slurry bubble column reactor for diesel fuel

Abstract Multiphase CFD simulations have shown how to design reactors using Fischer–Tropsch chemistry. The new design uses large catalyst particles to eliminate large bubbles, has no cooling tube bundles and produces up to 50,000 bbl/day of Diesel fuel in a 7 m diameter, 12 m high reactor at a pressure of 3 MPa and a temperature of 530 K.
Neuroborreliosis Parkinsonism and Rapid Eye Movement Sleep Behavior Disorder (P7.292)

OBJECTIVE: We report a 71-year-old man who developed rigidity and bradykinesia and REM sleep behavior disorder being treated for chronic neuroborreliosis. BACKGROUND: Lyme disease is the most common vector-borne disease in the United States. If left untreated, patients may progress to tertiary lyme which can include meningitis, encephalitis, dementia and parkinsonism. Post infectious parkinsonism related to Borrelia burgdorferi infection is rare and may be caused by direct spirochetal infection of the basal ganglia or antibody mediated neurodegeneration of the deep nuclei of the brain. Parkinsonism with prominent REM sleep behavior disorder are sequelae of basal ganglia and midbrain degeneration. RESULTS: A 71-year-old blind man presented with right-sided rigidity and bradykinesia, visual hallucinations, and REM sleep behavior disorder three years after being treated for chronic neuroborreliosis. SPECT scan showed decreased perfusion to the deep nuclei bilaterally more extensive than expected for Parkinson’s disease and consistent with sequelae of neuroborreliosis. Dopaminergic medications did not significantly improve his motor symptoms of parkinsonism. Melatonin did not improve his REM sleep behavior disorder. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first case report to our knowledge of a patient developing RBD in addition to post-infectious parkinsonism due to neurodegeneration of the midbrain and basal ganglia from neuroborreliosis. Disclosure: Dr. Werbaneth has nothing to disclose. Dr. Zuzuarregui has nothing to disclose. Dr. Hohler has nothing to disclose.
A hybrid SVM/MCE training approach for vector space topic identification of spoken audio recordings.

The success of support vector machines (SVMs) for classification problems is often dependent on an appropriate normalization of the input feature space. This is particularly true in topic identification, where the relative contribution of the common but uninformative function words can overpower the contribution of the rare but informative content words in the SVM kernel function score if the feature space is not normalized properly. In this paper we apply the discriminative minimum classification error (MCE) training approach to the problem of learning an appropriate feature space normalization for use with an SVM classifier. Results are presented showing significant error rate reductions for an SVM-based system on a topic identification task using the Fisher corpus of audio recordings of humanhuman conversations.
The purification and properties of cytochrome o from Vitreoscilla

Abstract By freezing and thawing a suspension of Vitreoscilla cells in the presence of 1% sodium deoxycholate, followed by a protamine sulfate step, an ammonium sulfate step, Sephadex G-100 chromatography, and TEAE-cellulose chromatography, two CO-binding pigments have been purified. One (Fraction I) has two α bands and two Soret bands in liquid nitrogen difference spectra and thus appears to possess two heme groups. A molecular weight of 27,000 was determined by chromatography on Sephadex G-75. Protoheme was shown to be the prosthetic group of this pigment, and the Eo' was found to be +0.10 volt. It is only very slowly autoxidizable. The other pigment (Fraction II) is very autoxidizable and has an Eo' of -0.09 volt. The prosthetic group of this protein is also protoheme, and it has a molecular weight of 22,500. The properties of both pigments are discussed in relation to their possible roles as the terminal oxidase.
A survey of methodologies and technologies for data mining and intelligent data discovery

This paper gives a description of data mining and its methodology. First, the definition of data mining along with the purposes and growing needs for such a technology are presented. A six-step methodology for data mining is then presented and discussed. The goals and methods of this process are then explained, coupled with a presentation of a number of techniques that are making the data mining process faster and more reliable. These techniques include the use of neural networks and genetic algorithms, which are presented and explained as a way to overcome several complexity problems that the data mining process possesses. A deep survey of the literature is done to show the various purposes and achievements that these techniques have brought to the study of data mining.
Antinociception produced by an ascending spino-supraspinal pathway

Studies in mice and rats have shown that antinociception produced by intrathecal (i.t.) administration of opioids can be partially inhibited by intracerebroventricular (i.c.v.) administration of naloxone. In this study we tested the hypothesis that this inhibition by i.c.v. naloxone results from antagonism of supraspinal endogenous opioid-mediated antinociception produced by the action of i.t. opioids on an ascending antinociceptive pathway. In rats lightly anesthetized with urethane/alpha-chloralose, i.t. DAMGO, i.t. lidocaine, or spinal transection at T5-T6 all attenuated the trigeminal jaw opening reflex (JOR) (i.e., were antinociceptive), an effect that was antagonized in each case by i.c.v. naloxone. These findings support the suggestion that there exists a pathway that ascends from the spinal cord to a supraspinal site that tonically inhibits antinociception mediated by supraspinal opioids. When activity in this ascending pathway is suppressed (e.g., by i.t. opioids or local anesthetics or by spinal cord transection), antinociception mediated by supraspinal opioids is disinhibited. To determine the supraspinal site(s) at which endogenous opioid-dependent antinociception is evoked by i.t. opioids, we microinjected naloxone methiodide into several supraspinal sites. Microinjection of naloxone methiodide into nucleus accumbens but not into the rostral ventral medulla (RVM) or the periaqueductal gray matter (PAG) antagonized the suppression of the JOR produced by i.t. DAMGO or lidocaine. The possibility that this ascending pathway may represent a source of spinal input to mesolimbic circuitry involved in setting the state of sensorimotor reactivity to noxious stimuli is discussed.
Evidence for the innate immune response as a correlate of protection in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 highly exposed seronegative subjects (HESN).

Summary The description of highly exposed individuals who remain seronegative (HESN) despite repeated exposure to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-1 has heightened interest in identifying potential mechanisms of HIV-1 resistance. HIV-specific humoral and T cell-mediated responses have been identified routinely in HESN subjects, although it remains unknown if these responses are a definitive cause of protection or merely a marker for exposure. Approximately half of HESN lack any detectible HIV-specific adaptive immune responses, suggesting that other mechanisms of protection from HIV-1 infection also probably exist. In support of the innate immune response as a mechanism of resistance, increased natural killer (NK) cell activity has been correlated with protection from infection in several high-risk cohorts of HESN subjects, including intravenous drug users, HIV-1 discordant couples and perinatally exposed infants. Inheritance of protective NK KIR3DL1high and KIR3DS1 receptor alleles have also been observed to be over-represented in a high-risk cohort of HESN intravenous drug users and HESN partners of HIV-1-infected subjects. Other intrinsic mechanisms of innate immune protection correlated with resistance in HESN subjects include heightened dendritic cell responses and increased secretion of anti-viral factors such as β-chemokines, small anti-viral factors and defensins. This review will highlight the most current evidence in HESN subjects supporting the role of epithelial microenvironment and the innate immune system in sustaining resistance against HIV-1 infection. We will argue that as a front-line defence the innate immune response determines the threshold of infectivity that HIV-1 must overcome to establish a productive infection.
Theory and applications of DNA codeword design

We survey the origin, current progress and applications on one major roadblock to the development of analytic models for DNA computing and self-assembly, namely the so-called Codeword Design problem. The problem calls for finding large sets of single DNA strands that do not crosshybridize to themselves or to their complements (so-called domains in the language of chemical reaction networks) and has been recognized as an important problem in DNA computing, self-assembly, DNA memories and phylogenetic analyses because of their error correction and prevention properties. Major recent advances include the development of experimental techniques to search for such codes, as well as a theoretical framework to analyze this problem, despite the fact that it has been proven to be NP-complete using any single concrete metric space to model the Gibbs energy. In this framework, codeword design is reduced to finding large sets of strands maximally separated in DNA spaces and, therefore, the key to finding such sets would lie in knowledge of the geometry of these spaces. A new general technique has been recently found to embed them in Euclidean spaces in a hybridization-affinity-preserving manner, i.e., in such a way that oligos with high/low hybridization affinity are mapped to neighboring/remote points in a geometric lattice, respectively. This isometric embedding materializes long-held mataphors about codeword design in terms of sphere packing and leads to designs that are in some cases known to be provable nearly optimal for some oligo sizes. It also leads to upper and lower bounds on estimates of the size of optimal codes of size up to 32&−mers, as well as to infinite families of DNA strand lengths, based on estimates of the kissing (or contact) number for sphere packings in Euclidean spaces. Conversely, this reduction suggests interesting new algorithms to find dense sphere packing solutons in high dimensional spheres using prior results for codeword design priorly obtained by experimental or theoretical molecular means, as well as to a proof that finding these bounds exactly is NP-complete in general. Finally, some applications and research problems arising from these results are described that might be of interest for further research.
In vitro fermentation characteristics of selected oligosaccharides by swine fecal microflora.

The objective of this study was to quantify the fermentation characteristics of oligosaccharides present in feed ingredients or isolated for dietary supplementation. Substrates studied included short-chain fructooligosaccharides, medium-chain fructooligosaccharides, long-chain fructooligosaccharides, raffinose, stachyose, soy solubles, granular and liquid forms of transgalactooligosaccharides, glucooligosaccharides, mannanoligosaccharides, and xylooligosaccharides. Three healthy pigs that had never received antibiotics served as sources of fecal inoculum. Each substrate was fermented in vitro; samples were taken at 0, 2, 4, 8, and 12 h, and pH change and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) and gas production determined. Gas production at 12 h did not differ (P > 0.05) among all fructooligosaccharides, transgalactooligosaccharides, soy solubles, and xylooligosaccharides. Raffinose, stachyose, and raffinose + stachyose fermentation resulted in the greatest (P 0.05) time to attain maximal rate of gas production. The pH at 12 h for all fructooligosaccharides and xylooligosaccharides did not differ (P > 0.05). The pH values at 12 h for raffinose, stachyose, and raffinose + stachyose were highest (P < 0.05) compared with all other substrates. Total SCFA production at 12 h was similar for all fructooligosaccharides and transgalactooligosaccharides, glucooligosaccharides, and soy solubles. Total SCFA production was greatest (P < 0.05) for xylooligosaccharides, stachyose, and raffinose + stachyose, and least (P < 0.05) for mannanoligosaccharides and raffinose. Stachyose fermentation resulted in the greatest (P < 0.05) rate and earliest time to attain maximal rate of SCFA production. All oligosaccharides studied were readily fermentable but varied in amount and type of SCFA produced. Fermentation of the pure forms of oligosaccharides contained in soy solubles resulted in greater gas production and higher pH compared with soy solubles. The oligosaccharides in the soy solubles matrix seemed to behave differently than their pure counterparts. The high rates of fermentation of most oligosaccharides tested indicate that they may serve as fermentable carbohydrate sources in the terminal small intestine or large intestine of swine.
Top-Down Algorithms for Constructing Structured DNNF: Theoretical and Practical Implications

We introduce a top-down compilation algorithm for constructing structured DNNF for any Boolean function. With appropriate restrictions, the algorithm can produce various subsets of DNNF such as deterministic DNNF and OBDD. We derive a size upper bound for structured DNNF based on this algorithm and use the result to generalize similar upper bounds known for several Boolean functions in the case of OBDD. We then discuss two realizations of the algorithm that work on CNF formulas. We show that these algorithms have time and space complexities that are exponential in the treewidth and the dual treewidth of the input.
A meta-analysis of the interrelationships between employee lateness, absenteeism, and turnover: Implications for models of withdrawal behavior

Summary We meta-analyzed the correlations between voluntary employee lateness, absenteeism, and turnover to (i) provide the most comprehensive estimates to date of the interrelationships between these withdrawal behaviors; (ii) test the viability of a withdrawal construct; and (iii) evaluate the evidence for competing models of the relationships between withdrawal behaviors (i.e., alternate forms, compensatory forms, independent forms, progression of withdrawal, and spillover model). Corrected correlations were .26 between lateness and absenteeism, .25 between absenteeism and turnover, and .01 between lateness and turnover. These correlations were even smaller in recent studies that had been carried out since the previous meta-analyses of these relationships 15–20 years ago. The small-to-moderate intercorrelations are not supportive of a withdrawal construct that includes lateness, absenteeism, and turnover. These intercorrelations also rule out many of the competing models of the relationships between withdrawal behaviors, as many of the models assume all relationships will be positive, null, or negative. On the basis of path analyses using meta-analytic data, the progression of withdrawal model garnered the most support. This suggests that lateness may moderately predict absenteeism and absenteeism may moderately predict turnover. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Privacy APIs: access control techniques to analyze and verify legal privacy policies

There is a growing interest in establishing rules to regulate the privacy of citizens in the treatment of sensitive personal data such as medical and financial records. Such rules must be respected by software used in these sectors. The regulatory statements are somewhat informal and must be interpreted carefully in the software interface to private data. This paper describes techniques to formalize regulatory privacy rules and how to exploit this formalization to analyze the rules automatically. Our formalism, which we call privacy APIs, is an extension of access control matrix operations to include (1) operations for notification and logging and (2) constructs that ease the mapping between legal and formal language. We validate the expressive power of privacy APIs by encoding the 2000 and 2003 HIPAA consent rules in our system. This formalization is then encoded into Promela and we validate the usefulness of the formalism by using the SPIN model checker to verify properties that distinguish the two versions of HIPAA.
The first ‘two-over/two-under’(2O/2U) 2D weave structure assembled from Hg-containing 1D coordination polymer chains

Self-assembly of HgI2 with a semirigid ditopic ‘Z’ type ligand affords the zigzag chains that interweave into a clothlike 2D network in a ‘two-over/two-under’ (2O/2U) fashion.
A note on the independence number of triangle-free graphs

Let G be a triangle-free graph on n points with average degree d. Let @a be the independence number of G. In this note we give a simple proof that @a >= n (d ln d - d + 1)/(d - 1)^2. We also consider what happens when G contains a limited number of triangles.
An inequality for degree sequences

Abstract Let d 1 , d 2 , …, d n be the degree sequence of a simple graph and suppose p is a positive integer. We show that (∑ n i =1 d 1/ p i ) p ⩾ ∑ n i =1 d p i . Related ‘real’ inequalities, i.e., not graphdependent, are analyzed.
Metastable equilibria among dicarboxylic acids and the oxidation state during aqueous alteration on the CM2 chondrite parent body

Linear saturated dicarboxylic acids are present in carbonaceous chondrite samples at concentrations that suggest aqueous alteration under conditions of metastable equilibrium. In this study, previously published values of dicarboxylic acid concentrations measured in Murchison, Yamato-791198, and Tagish Lake carbonaceous chondrites are converted to aqueous activities during aqueous alteration assuming water:rock ratios that range from 1:10 to 10:1. Logarithmic plots of the aqueous activities of any two dicarboxylic acids are proximal to lines whose slope is fixed by the stoichiometry of reactions describing the oxidation–reduction equilibrium between the two species. The precise position of any line is controlled by the equilibrium constant of the reaction relating the species and the hydrogen fugacity for the reaction of interest. Reactions among succinic (C4), glutaric (C5), and adipic (C6) acids obtained from CM2 chondrites show evidence of metastable equilibrium and yield log f H2 values that agree to within 0.3 log units at 298.15 K and 0.6 log units at 473.15 K. At a water:rock ratio of 1:1, metastable equilibrium among succinic, glutaric, and adipic acids results in calculated log f H2 values during aqueous alteration that range from −6.2 at 298.15 K to −3.3 at 373.15 K. These values are consistent with those obtained in previous work on carbonaceous chondrites and with metastable equilibrium at temperatures ranging from 300 to 355 K in contact with cronstedtite + magnetite.
Surface currents and equatorial thermocline in a coupled upper ocean-atmosphere GCM

The Oregon State University coupled upper ocean-atmosphere GCM is evaluated in terms of the simulated winds, ocean currents and thermocline depth variations. Although the zonal wind velocities in the model are underestimated by a factor of about three and the zonal current velocities are underestimated by a factor of about five, the model is seen to qualitatively simulate the major features of the gyral scale currents, and the phases of the seasonal variation of the principal equatorial currents are in reasonable agreement with observations. The simulated tropical currents are dominated by Ekman transport and the eastern boundary currents do not penetrate far enough equatorward, while the western boundary currents do not penetrate far enough poleward. The subtropical trade wind belt and the mid-latitude westerlies are displaced equatorward of observations; hence, the mid-latitude eastward currents, principally the Kuroshio-North Pacific Drift and the Gulf Stream-North Atlantic Current are displaced equatorward. In spite of these shortcomings the surface current simulation of this two-layer upper ocean model is comparable with that of other ocean GCMs of coarse resolution. The coupled model successfully simulates the deepening of the thermocline westward across Pacific as a consequence of the prevailing Walker circulation. The region of most intense simulated surface forcing is located in the western Pacific due to a southwestward displacement of the northeast trade winds relative to observations; hence the equatorial Pacific is dominated by eastward propagation of thermocline depth variations. The excessively strong Ekman divergence and upwelling in the western Pacific cools the local warm pool, while incorrectly simulated westerlies in the eastern Pacific suppress upwelling and inhibit cooling from below. These features reduce the simulated trans-Pacific sea-surface temperature gradient, weakening the Walker circulation and the anomalies associated with the simulated Southern Oscillation.
cDNA isolation, genomic structure, regulation, and chromosomal localization of human lung Kruppel-like factor.

Abstract Lung Kruppel-like factor (LKLF) is a zinc finger transcription factor critical for embryonic development. We have previously identified and isolated the mouse LKLF gene and examined its role using gene targeting. In this report, we describe the isolation and molecular characterization of the human homolog of murine LKLF. The human and mouse LKLF homologs exhibit an 85% nucleotide identity and share 90% amino acid similarity. Furthermore, the 5′ sequence in the proximal promoter region and 3′ untranslated region are also conserved between the two species. Of particular interest is the finding that while sequences in the proximal promoter have diverged between mouse and human, a region of 75 nucleotides is essentially identical. Site-directed mutagenesis in this region impairs the ability of the LKLF promoter to drive reporter gene expression, indicating that it represents a novel transcriptional element important in the regulation of LKLF gene expression. The activation domain is highly proline-rich and, similar to mouse LKLF, contains 22% proline residues. The human LKLF transcriptional unit is located in a genomic region of approximately 3 kb on chromosome 19p13.1. This region of chromosome 19 is known to contain genes involved in various human diseases. Like mouse LKLF, human LKLF consists of three exons that are interrupted by two small introns. The locations of intron/exon boundaries and splice sites are conserved between two homologs. Northern analysis shows that LKLF is expressed in lung in addition to heart, skeletal muscle, placenta, and pancreas. The isolation and chromosomal mapping of human LKLF will make it possible to initiate studies devoted to assess the involvement of this gene in human disease(s).
Responses to tones of single cells in nucleus magnocellularis and nucleus angularis of the redwing blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)

Responses to tones were recorded from single cells in the brainstem auditory nuclei n. magnocellularis and n. angularis of the redwing blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). Whereas 30% of the cells in angularis had rates of spontaneous activity less than 40/s, only 5% of those in magnocellularis had rates this low. Two types of response maps are found in n. angularis. Type III maps have a single excitatory area with regions of inhibition on one or both sides. Type IV maps have a region of excitation at sound levels near threshold at the best frequency of the cell; at higher levels the best frequency is inhibitory; there can be broad bands of inhibition or interleaved bands of inhibition and excitation at higher levels. Cells in magnocellularis show only Type III response maps with generally weaker inhibitory sidebands than those in angularis. Responses to excitatory tone bursts in magnocellularis are “primary-like” in that they show a rapid increase in discharge rate at tone onset followed by a decrease in rate of 30 to 70% over the next 50 ms. On the other hand, a number of response types are seen in angularis, including “primary-like”, “pauser”, and “onset”. These results for magnocellularis and angularis are compared with results from their presumed mammalian homologues, the anteroventral cochlear nucleus, and posteroventral and dorsal cochlear nuclei, respectively. Finally, the relationship between response patterns in these avian brainstem nuclei and those seen in higher auditory centers is considered.
Intelligent pairing assistant for air operation centers

Within an Air Operations Center (AOC), planners make crucial decisions to create the air plan for any given day. They are expected to complete the plan in part by pairing targeting or collection tasks with the available platforms. Any assistance these planners can acquire to help create the plan in a timely manner would make the entire process more efficient and effective. This paper describes the Intelligent Pairing Assistant (IPA) prototype, which would provide pairing recommendations at specific decision points in the planning process. IPA is designed as a plug-in for software systems already in use within AOCs. The primary contribution described in this paper is the application of existing research in intelligent user interfaces to a novel domain.
Two-dimensional motion of charge carriers in ultrathin films

Abstract Extreme size quantizations are defined in thin films of metals, semimetals and semiconductors. Applying the vanishing gradient boundary condition to quantum size effect, the motion of electrons or holes would have become statistically two-dimensional once the film thickness had been sufficiently reduced to the range to be called ultrathin. Thermodynamic and transport characters of charge carriers in ultrathin films are discussed. It is also shown that the electrical resistivity in ultrathin semimetallic and semiconducting films decreases with decreasing film thickness, a fact that has been experimentally observed in the semimetal bismuth.
Moral judgment purposivism: saving internalism from amoralism

Consider orthodox motivational judgment internalism: necessarily, A’s sincere moral judgment that he or she ought to φ motivates A to φ. Such principles fail because they cannot accommodate the amoralist, or one who renders moral judgments without any corresponding motivation. The orthodox alternative, externalism, posits only contingent relations between moral judgment and motivation. In response I first revive conceptual internalism by offering some modifications on the amoralist case to show that certain community-wide motivational failures are not conceptually possible. Second, I introduce a theory of moral motivation that supplements the intuitive responses to different amoralist cases. According to moral judgment purposivism (MJP), in rough approximation, a purpose of moral judgments is to motivate corresponding behaviors such that a mental state without this purpose is not a moral judgment. MJP is consistent with conceptual desiderata, provides an illuminating analysis of amoralist cases, and offers a step forward in the internalist-externalist debates.
Fabrication and characterisation of Al2O3 porous bodies by hot isostatic pressing

Abstract Porous ceramic filters have applications in many industrial areas. The major requirements for filter materials are high porosity, high mechanical strength and uniform pore size. However, conventional fabrication methods cannot produce materials with both high porosity and high strength, since an increase in porosity usually results in a decrease in strength. A method has been reported to obtain porous materials of high strength and high porosity by hot isostatic pressing (HIP), because the high pressurised gas prevents shrinkage of open pores and enhances bridging of particles. In the present study several commercial Al 2 O 3 starting powders were uniaxially and isostatically pressed and the green compacts were directly treated under different HIP conditions. The microstructure (grain size and shape, density and pore size distribution) of the HIP products was evaluated and then compared to that of the traditionally sintered ones in order to investigate the influence of starting powder characteristics, forming process and thermal treatment parameters on the characteristics of the final materials. © 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.
Reversible brain ischemia: lessons from transient ischemic attack.

Purpose of review In recent years, there has been considerable scientific inquiry regarding transient ischemic attack. In an effort to synthesize at times conflicting data, this paper will review the recent evidence and provide a critical overview of reversible brain ischemia. Recent findings Transient ischemic attack is now understood to indicate a higher risk of recurrence than completed ischemic stroke. Efforts to unravel the mechanisms of this instability following transient ischemic attack using imaging studies have led to new concepts and definitions, and sparked further debate. While imaging has increased diagnostic certainty, it has yet to provide reliable prognostic markers. The evidence suggests that risk of clinical recurrence is most closely linked to the degree to which the initial deficit reverses. From a tissue level, however, there are also data to support the notion of a 'stroke-prone state' following both transient ischemic attack and completed stroke, suggesting that mechanistically they may be less distinct than previously thought. Transient ischemic attack may simply highlight the dynamic nature of all acute ischemic cerebrovascular syndromes. Summary Reversible brain ischemia is a harbinger for subsequent ischemic stroke. Although recent advances have focused on imaging markers, the most important predictor of risk following brain ischemia is degree of early clinical reversibility.