cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Effects of Financial Versus Nonfinancial Performance, Financial Measures' Importance, and Presentation Order on Corporate Managers' Performance Evaluations

Field research has reported managers tend to favor financial measures and to discount or ignore nonfinancial measures (Ittner et al. 2003). Experimental results indicate managers rate financial measures as more relevant, more reliable, and more comparable than nonfinancial measures (Cauvin et al. 2007). However, in contrast to prior field research, experimental findings indicate financial measures are not weighted more heavily than nonfinancial measures in evaluation judgments (Cauvin et al. 2007). Further, more experienced managers placed more weight on nonfinancial measures than on financial measures when evaluating performance (Cauvin et al. 2007). Recent psychology research has shed new light on cognitive limitations of processing multiple information items: generally, humans can mentally process no more than four items at a time (Halford et al. 2005). In a 2x2x2 experimental design, we find the relative weights managers place on financial and nonfinancial performance measures depend on both presentation order and on the importance of the particular financial measures included in a performance report. When financial measures are presented before nonfinancial measures and the financial measures include items rated as more important, e.g., Net Income Growth instead of Return on Sales and ROI instead of Market Share (in sales dollars), managers who perform better on financial measures are rated higher than managers who perform better on nonfinancial measures. On the other hand, when nonfinancial measures are presented first and the included financial measures are less important, managers who excel on nonfinancial measures are rated higher. Thus, the relative weights superiors place on financial and nonfinancial measures in evaluating corporate managers' performance is substantially influenced both by subconscious cognitive processing limitations as well as by the particular performance measures employed.
Leveraging Bias Conscious Artificial Intelligence to Increase STEM Graduates Among Underrepresented Populations

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) remains one of the fastest-growing and one of the most segregated professions in the United States. Predominately white and male, opportunities in STEM continue to grow exponentially. Areas such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) for example are expected to become $11 trillion industries by 2025. As employers struggle to find skilled candidates, we face the reality that African Americans are too often left behind. African Americans make up less than 5% of the IT workforce and a small percentage of IT graduates. Although there is acknowledgment and some investment by both industry and educational institutions, there has been minimal success in changing the demographic landscape. This study focuses on how AI can be used to better understand barriers, personalize student experiences, and provide pathways of attainment for an increasingly diverse student body.
An Automated Mutual Gaze Detection Framework for Social Behavior Assessment in Therapy for Children with Autism

Mutual gaze is one of the most significant, reliable, and observable social cues that we can use for establishing and maintaining successful social interactions. This cue has been actively used to assess the level of social behavior in the context of autism therapy. However, collecting gaze data manually and evaluating them is so challenging, which requires a lot of time and effort from therapy experts. To address these issues, in this paper, we introduce an automated mutual gaze detection framework, grounded based on previous works on automated gaze detection, as an effective predictive model for social visual behavior analysis and assessment in autism therapy. To evaluate the proposed gaze prediction framework, we prepare an in-house video dataset that captures social interactions between children with autism and their therapy trainers (N = 10, 30 video recordings). We estimate the mutual gaze ratio of children using our prediction model, then compared it with the social visual behavior scores that therapy experts manually annotated. The results showed that our framework provided mutual gaze ratio scores that reliably represent (or even replace) the therapy experts’ hand-coded social visual behavior scores through different analysis approaches: descriptive comparisons, correlation analysis, and regression prediction. We report our findings and discuss the implications of the proposed work in the context of visual behavior analysis for children with autism.
2 Academic-Industrial Interaction in the Early Development of Chemical Engineering at MIT

Publisher Summary The early rise of chemical engineering as an academic discipline was characterized by an intimate association between the university and industry in several different ways and at various critical periods in U.S. history. This interaction was especially important in influencing the course in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This chapter traces the development of the program at MIT and highlights the role played by academic–industrial interaction. The early development is divided into two time periods: 1888–1920 and 1920–1941. Each was associated with a single dominant personality, William H. Walker and Warren K. Lewis, respectively.
New Efforts Toward the Indexing, Digesting and Classifying of Legislation and Jurisprudence in Costa Rica

One serious problem facing most Latin American lawyers, judges, legislators, professors and law students is the lack of ready access to the great and ever-increasing body of information which constitutes the "law". The individual laws, the codes, and many other kinds of legislative dispositions, as well as the decisions of the highest courts, have been published on a more or less regular basis for decades in most Latin American countries. Indeed, such materials already fill numerous libraries, and thousands upon thousands of pages of new material are printed every year. But even if these publications themselves are available in sufficient quantities, a great part of the information they contain is lost to the practitioner, due to the lack of comprehensive, well-organized and easily manageable systems of indices and digests.
Laminin subtype distribution in the human ciliary body.

Purpose Laminin is a family of heterotrimeric molecules each consisting of a heavy chain (A or M chain), and two light chains (B1, B2, or S chains). In this study the distribution of these chains was determined in human ciliary body. Method Tissue slices from five postmortem eyes were incubated with monoclonal antibodies against the chains and with a fluorescent secondary antibody. After the tissues were embedded in Spurr's resin, 1-micron thick sections were obtained. Results Uniform staining with A, S, and B2 laminin chains was observed in basement membrane surrounding muscle bundles. Inside the bundles, the basement membrane around individual fibers was evenly stained by S and B2; however, only some fibers had A-chain immunoreactivity. The basement membrane of blood vessels was also stained with A, S, and B2. Stromal connective tissue was not stained. Ciliary pigmented epithelium basement membrane demonstrated A, S, and B2 immunoreactivity, but not B1 immunoreactivity. Adjacent to the nerves, M, S, B1, and B2 immunoreactivity was detected. Conclusion The results indicate that A-S-B2 laminin is present in the basement membranes associated with smooth muscle bundles, blood vessels, and the nonpigmented and pigmented epithelia. A-B1-B2 laminin is also found in the pigmented epithelium basement membrane. M-B1-B2 and M-S-B2 are found in association with nerve tissue. This heterogeneity in the basement membranes of the ciliary body suggests that they mediate different cellular functions.
Human anti-gal heavy chain genes: Preferential use of VH3 and the presence of somatic mutations

Anti-Gal is the most abundant natural Ab known in humans. It interacts specifically with the carbohydrate structure Gal alpha 1-3 Gal beta 1-4GlcNAc-R (termed the alpha-galactosyl epitope), constitutes approximately 1% of circulating Ig, and is found in all three isotypes in the serum. Anti-Gal is produced in Old World monkeys, apes, and humans, and in no other mammalian species. The objective of this study was to determine the VH genes involved in the synthesis of anti-Gal. B lymphocytes from various individuals were transformed by EBV, the clones producing anti-Gal were isolated, the specificity and affinity of the Abs were determined, and the VH genes were sequenced. The affinity of anti-Gal clones for the free radiolabeled alpha-galactosyl epitope ranged between 1.1 x 10(6) M-1 and 5 x 10(8) M-1. Eight of the nine clones studied used VH3 family genes and one clone used a VH1 family gene. Four of the five VH3 genes used were found to form a cluster of related sequences, suggesting that functional constraints may lead to the use of VH3 genes with structural motifs that are suited for specific interactions with the alpha-galactosyl epitope. Comparison with known germline sequences for all of the clones studied and analysis of autologous germ-line genes in two of the clones indicate that anti-Gal VH genes undergo somatic mutations. These somatic mutations may provide a pool of variants that are available for affinity maturation.
Breastfeeding and the Affordable Care Act

Mothers who receive or qualify for the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program or have lower income are less likely to start and continue breastfeeding than their more advantaged counterparts. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) requires employers to provide break time and space to express breast milk and requires insurance companies to cover breastfeeding support, supplies, and counseling at no cost to mothers. This ACA benefit does not extend to all Medicaid recipients or women in the WIC program. Legislative and regulatory efforts are needed to provide comprehensive coverage for all women and reduce disparities in breastfeeding.
Social Inference and Reading Inference Generation in Typically Developing College Students

Although the foundational cognitive and linguistic skills of generating inferences in both reading and social contexts are similar, relationships between these two modalities, and with empathy, are unclear and have not been thoroughly studied. These relationships were explored by testing 30 typically developing college students’ ability to generate social inferences in the Eyes Test (Baron-Cohen, Wheelwright, Hill, Raste, & Plumb, 2001) and Voice Test (Golan, Baron-Cohen, Hill, & Rutherford, 2007) , ability to generate reading inferences in the Inference subtest of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (Watson & Glaser, 1964) , and their capacity for empathy from the Empathy Quotient (Baron-Cohen & Wheelwright, 2004) , as well as considering a number of demographic variables (e.g., age, gender, and major). No significant relationships were found between social inference scores and reading inference scores or between composite inference generation scores and empathy, age, gender, or major. Findings from this study are a critical first step for practitioners hoping to assist individuals with deficits in inference generation.
Testing Bayesian Updating with the AP Top 25

Most studies of Bayesian updating use experimental data. This paper uses a non-experimental data source--the voter ballots of the Associated Press (AP) college football poll, a weekly subjective ranking of the top 25 teams--to test Bayes' rule as a descriptive model. I find that voters sometimes underreact to new information, sometimes overreact, and at other times their behavior is consistent with estimated Bayesian updating. A unifying explanation for the disparate results is that voters are more responsive to information that is more salient (i.e., noticeable). In particular, voters respond in a ``more Bayesian'' way to losses and wins over ranked teams, as compared to wins over unranked teams, and voters seem unaware of subtle variation in the precision of priors.
High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging of ankle joints in murine arthritis discriminates inflammation and bone destruction in a quantifiable manner.

Objective The ability to noninvasively monitor the development of inflammatory arthritis longitudinally has become increasingly important in experimental rheumatology. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allows for detailed examination of anatomic structures, as well as the assessment of joint and soft tissue inflammation. The aim of this study was to extend the use of MRI to include quantitative measurements of bone destruction in murine ankle joints. Methods Joint disease was measured serially using clinical, histologic, in vivo imaging system (IVIS), micro–computed tomography (micro-CT), and MRI techniques in mouse ankle joints, using the K/BxN serum transfer–induced acute arthritis and K/BxAg7 chronic arthritis models. Ankle joint MRI was performed using a gradient-echo pulse sequence to evaluate bone destruction and a spin-echo sequence to evaluate inflammation (long T2 signal). Results Arthritic mice, as compared to control mice, demonstrated increased disease severity according to clinical, histologic, IVIS, and MRI measures. Following induction of arthritis, the majority of volume expansion of the long T2 signal occurred in a juxtaarticular, rather than intrarticular, manner within the ankle joints. Bone destruction in K/BxAg7 mouse ankle joints was readily detectible by MRI. Linear regression analyses demonstrated significant correlations between the clinical score and joint radiance intensity assessed by IVIS, between the ankle joint width and increased long T2 signal on MRI, and between the bone volume obtained by micro-CT and bone volume obtained by MRI. Conclusion MRI is an optimal technology for anatomic localization of articular and soft tissue changes during the development and progression of inflammatory arthritis. Future studies may combine MRI with in vivo labeling agents to investigate joint disease in a cell type–specific manner.
Software techniques to reduce the energy consumption of low-power devices at the limits of digital abstractions

My thesis explores the effectiveness of software techniques that bend digital abstractions in order to allow embedded systems to do more with less energy. Recent years have witnessed a proliferation of low-power embedded devices with power ranges of few milliwatts to microwatts. The capabilities and size of the embedded systems continue to improve dramatically; however, improvements in battery density and energy harvesting have failed to mimic a Moore's law. Thus, energy remains a formidable bottleneck for low-power embedded systems. Instead of trying to create hardware with ideal energy proportionality, my dissertation evaluates how to use unconventional and probabilistic computing that bends traditional abstractions and interfaces in order to reduce energy consumption while protecting program semantics. My thesis considers four methods that unleash energy otherwise squandered on communication, storage, time keeping, or sensing: 1) CCCP, which provides an energy-efficient storage alternative to local non-volatile storage by relying on cryptographic backscatter radio communication, 2) Half-Wits, which reduces energy consumption by 30% by allowing operation of embedded systems at below-spec supply voltages and implementing NOR flash memory error recovery in firmware rather than strictly in hardware, 3) TARDIS, which exploits the decay properties of SRAM to estimate the duration of a power failure ranging from seconds to several hours depending on hardware parameters, and 4) Nonsensors, which allow operation of analog to digital converters at low voltages without any hardware modifications to the existing circuitry.
ACP Journal Club. Systematic pain management reduced agitation in nursing home residents with dementia.

Source Citation Husebo BS, Ballard C, Sandvik R, Nilsen OB, Aarsland D. Efficacy of treating pain to reduce behavioural disturbances in residents of nursing homes with dementia: cluster randomised ...
Comparative Effectiveness of Ultrasonic and Hand Scaling for the Removal of Subgingival Plaque and Calculus

The purpose of the study was two-fold: to determine the nature of stainable deposits on periodontally diseased root surfaces subsequent to in vivo scaling and root planing procedures, and to quantify the distribution of residual plaque on instrumented root surfaces. Thirty molar and 30 nonmolar teeth which were condemned for periodontal or prosthetic reasons and had proximal probing depths of 4 to 7 mm were treated. Half of these were instrumented with I.U. curettes and the other half with an ultrasonic scaling device. Instrumentation was continued until the root surface felt hard and smooth to an explorer tip. The location of the gingival margin was recorded by notching the treated proximal surface with a No. 1/2 round bur. Twenty control teeth, 10 molar and 10 nonmolar, were extracted without instrumentation. Control and experimental teeth were irrigated with saline and stored in a 2.5% glutaraldehyde fixative solution until the time of assessment. All teeth were stained with a 0.5% solution of toluidin...
Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-Bisphosphate (PIP2) Controls Magnesium Gatekeeper TRPM6 Activity

TRPM6 is crucial for human Mg2+ homeostasis as patients carrying TRPM6 mutations develop hypomagnesemia and secondary hypocalcemia (HSH). However, the activation mechanism of TRPM6 has remained unknown. Here we demonstrate that phosphatidylinositol-4,5-bisphophate (PIP2) controls TRPM6 activation and Mg2+ influx. Stimulation of PLC-coupled M1-receptors to deplete PIP2 potently inactivates TRPM6. Translocation of over-expressed 5-phosphatase to cell membrane to specifically hydrolyze PIP2 also completely inhibits TRPM6. Moreover, depolarization-induced-activation of the voltage-sensitive-phosphatase (Ci-VSP) simultaneously depletes PIP2 and inhibits TRPM6. PLC-activation induced PIP2-depletion not only inhibits TRPM6, but also abolishes TRPM6-mediated Mg2+ influx. Furthermore, neutralization of basic residues in the TRP domain leads to nonfunctional or dysfunctional mutants with reduced activity by PIP2, suggesting that they are likely to participate in interactions with PIP2. Our data indicate that PIP2 is required for TRPM6 channel function; hydrolysis of PIP2 by PLC-coupled hormones/agonists may constitute an important pathway for TRPM6 gating, and perhaps Mg2+ homeostasis.
Seasonal variations in black-faced black spider monkey (Ateles chamek) habitat use and ranging behavior in a southern Amazonian tropical forest

Data are presented regarding the habitat use and ranging behavior of a spider monkey (Ateles chamek) community at Lago Caiman in northeastern Bolivia. Habitat use was driven primarily by fruit availability and distribution across the community home range. Strong seasonal variations occurred in fruit availability within all five of the floristically and phenologically distinct habitat types identified within the study site, and the spider monkeys dramatically shifted their ranging according to which habitat was richest in fleshy fruits. This use of local habitat diversity resulted in an unusually elongated shape for the home range that was otherwise typical of previous Ateles studies in terms of size. Ranging behavior was clumped and community core areas shifted seasonally across the focal community home range. Individual core areas were not relevant to the study due to dramatic community-wide shifts in ranging patterns. Day journey lengths were highly variable (460-5,690 m) and the distribution and abundance of fleshy fruit resources explained 81% of the monthly variations in mean day journey length. Keystone habitats for forest frugivores are identified and results are discussed with reference to previous studies on this genus, and the importance of considering keystone habitats and local habitat diversity within the management of forestry concessions in the region. Results are also discussed with reference to the behavioral ecology of the genus Ateles.
Category cluster discovery from distributed WWW directories

Due to the inherently distributed nature of many networks, including the Internet, information and knowledge are generated and organized independently by different groups of people. To discover and exploit all the knowledge from different sources, a method of knowledge integration is usually required. Considering the document category sets as information sources, we define a problem of information integration called category merging. The purpose of category merging is to automatically construct a unified category set which represents and exploits document information from several different sources. This merging process is based on the clustering concept where categories with similar characteristics are merged into the same cluster under certain distributed constraints. To evaluate the quality of the merged category set, we measure the precision and recall values under three classification methods, Naive Bayes, Vector Space Model, and K-Nearest Neighbor. In addition, we propose a performance measure called cluster entropy, which determines how well the categories from different sources are distributed over the resulting clusters. We perform the merging process by using the real data sets collected from three different Web directories. The results show that our merging process improves the classification performance over the non-merged approach and also provides a better representation for all categories from distributed directories.
Platinum-Catalyzed Acrylonitrile Hydrophosphination. P−C Bond Formation via Olefin Insertion into a Pt−P Bond

The acrylonitrile complexes Pt(diphos)(CH2CHCN) (diphos = dppe (1), dcpe (2); dppe = Ph2PCH2CH2PPh2, dcpe = Cy2PCH2CH2PCy2, Cy = cyclo-C6H11) are catalyst precursors and, for some substrates, resting states, during addition of P−H bonds in primary and secondary phosphines across the CC double bond of acrylonitrile (hydrophosphination). Oxidative addition of P−H bonds to related catalyst precursors gives the phosphido hydride complexes Pt(diphos)(PRR‘)(H) (diphos = dppe, R = H, R‘ = Mes* (20), R = R‘ = Mes (21); diphos = dcpe, R = H, R‘ = Mes* (22); Mes = 2,4,6-Me3C6H2, Mes* = 2,4,6-(t-Bu)3C6H2). Acrylonitrile does not insert into the Pt−H bond of these hydrides to give cyanoethyl ligands; the putative products, the phosphido complexes Pt(diphos)(CH2CH2CN)(PRR‘) (diphos = dppe, R = H, R‘ = Mes* (9), R = R‘ = Mes (10); diphos = dcpe, R = H, R‘ = Mes* (11)) were prepared independently and found to be stable to P−C reductive elimination. Instead, catalysis appears to occur by selective insertion of acrylonitr...
One Hundred Years of Volcano Monitoring in Hawaii

In 2012 the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory (HVO), the oldest of five volcano observatories in the United States, is commemorating the 100th anniversary of its founding. HVO's location, on the rim of Kīlauea volcano (Figure 1)—one of the most active volcanoes on Earth—has provided an unprecedented opportunity over the past century to study processes associated with active volcanism and develop methods for hazards assessment and mitigation. The scientifically and societally important results that have come from 100 years of HVO's existence are the realization of one man's vision of the best way to protect humanity from natural disasters. That vision was a response to an unusually destructive decade that began the twentieth century, a decade that saw almost 200,000 people killed by the effects of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Molecular oxygen peaks (MOPs) in blood: Their discovery investigation and implications

Addition of phenol to bovine cell bioreactors had startling, fascinating results. In a reactor closed from the ambient environment, non-equilibrium-dependent releases of molecular oxygen from blood prompts further investigation. These oxygen releases, dubbed here molecular oxygen peaks (MOPs), cosist of a discrete increase followed by a decrease in oxygen concentration. MOPs usually last upwards of one hour. The release of oxygen as defined in the MOPs has not been reported before and implies an oxygen storage characteristic within blood that has not yet been explored. The nonequilibrium nature of these MOPs implies the existence of a catalytic energy barrier.
Coping with pediatric migraine: Differences between copers and non-copers

The differences among pain-coping behaviors of latency-aged children with pediatric migraine are examined. Using scores from The Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983) and school absenteeism, eight children were categorized as either adaptive or maladaptive copers. Results of this exploratory study indicated that copers utilized a greater repertoire of coping behaviors, relied more heavily on resignation, anticipatory, and prevention coping, exercised more autonomy, and viewed themselves as healthier and more competent than did the non-copers. Implications for differential diagnosis, strategies of intervention, and future research are discussed.
The effects of temperature and salinity on the metabolic rate of juvenile Macrobrachium rosenbergii (Crustacea: Palaemonidae)

Abstract 1. 1. The respiration of juvenile Macrobrachium rosenbergii were monitored in response to combinations of temperature and salinity encompassing temperatures of 20, 27 and 34°C and salinities of 0, 7, 14, 20 and 28%0. 2. 2. Both oxygen consumption rate and QO2 were influenced by the body weight of the individual prawns. 3. 3. Metabolic rates were determined to be influenced by temperature and salinity and the temperature-salinity interaction. 4. 4. The Q10 values for metabolic rate were influenced by the temperature range considered but there was no obvious response of Q10 to salinity. 5. 5. The metabolic responses to temperature and salinity may determine the distribution and migration of the species in natural habitats.
Monoclonal antibodies that distinguish between New World species of Leishmania

The New World Leishmania species1 Leishmania braziliensis, which causes mucocutaneous leishmaniasis, can be distinguished from Leishmania mexicana, which causes cutaneous leishmaniasis, by the buoyant density of nuclear and kinetoplast DNA2, electrophoretic mobility of different isoenzymes3–6, by differing characteristic growth patterns in the sandfly and hamster and in vitro7,8, and by size in electron microscopy9,10. However, there is no available method for rapid and accurate diagnosis of fresh isolates of New World leishmaniasis species. Furthermore, immunological cross-reaction of Leishmania with Trypanosoma cruzi, which is co-endemic with the former, has posed a serious problem in the use of serodiagnostic tests for leishmaniasis11–13. The ability to distinguish at primary isolation between the species causing cutaneous and mucocutaneous leishmaniasis would make it possible to concentrate on treating those patients likely to suffer serious disfiguring disease. To develop such a specific diagnostic test, we have produced monoclonal antibodies14 specific for either the L. mexicana or L. braziliensis species. One of these monoclonal antibodies is specific for a subgroup of L. braziliensis; none is cross-reactive with T. cruzi (Y strain) epimastigotes. These monoclonal antibodies should be useful in the taxonomic identification of different species of New World leishmaniae as well as for the direct diagnosis of leishmaniasis.
Partnering for Mental Health Promotion: Implementing Evidence Based Mental Health Services Within a Maternal and Child Home Health Visiting Program

This article details the clinical foundations of a social work focused community-based participatory research project promoting women’s mental health during and around the time of pregnancy. Specifically, we discuss the theoretical, empirical and organizational implementation of an enhanced engagement model of mental health service delivery that integrates evidenced based practices into the structure and services of an existing non-profit maternal and child health home visiting agency. The model is grounded in literature addressing barriers to accessing mental health care among minority women living in low-income communities. We discuss informing the intervention through direct consumer involvement, as well the rationale supporting the inclusion of Interpersonal Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy into the design and implementation of the model which emphasizes adequate training of staff with varying levels of mental health experience. Finally, we describe typical client situations and responses reflected by the Enhanced Engagement model and discuss future implications of this approach as a way to offer meaningful intervention to women and families who may not have access or eligibility to utilize specialty mental health services.
Religious Groups and Work Values A Focus on Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam

Although the existing literature contends that religious beliefs have a strong impact on work values, few studies have examined the relationship. Given the sustained importance of religion in most societies and the growing diversity of the US population, companies are finding an increasing need to understand religion in the workplace. The current research uses data from 44,030 individuals in 39 countries to investigate the influence of the world's four major religions, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Islam on extrinsic and intrinsic work values. Controlling for important variables such as age, gender, and education, results generally support the posited hypotheses, confirming that religion is positively related to work values. Specifically, we find that all religions except Christianity show a positive relationship with extrinsic work values. Furthermore, we find that all four religions show a positive relationship with intrinsic work values. We also find that those who report no religious affiliati...
The global food crisis and Guatemala: what crisis and for whom?

Summary International food prices rose sharply during 2006–08, precipitating the “global food crisis.” We analyze the welfare effects of changes in prices over categories of households in Guatemala and find three surprising results. The first is that the transmission of international into domestic prices was quite modest. The second is that most farm households are net buyers of food implying that they lost from rising prices. The third is that farm households represent two-thirds of all poor households losing from rising food prices, stressing the importance of production for home consumption in sheltering the poor from the crisis.
Improved insulin sensitivity in high fat- and high cholesterol-fed Ldlr-/- mice with macrophage-specific transgenic expression of cholesteryl ester hydrolase: role of macrophage inflammation and infiltration into adipose tissue.

Cellular cholesterol balance induces changes in the inflammatory status of macrophages, and low grade chronic inflammation is increasingly being recognized as one of the key steps in the development of atherosclerosis as well as insulin resistance. Cholesteryl ester hydrolase (CEH) catalyzes the hydrolysis of intracellular stored cholesteryl esters (CEs) and thereby enhances free cholesterol efflux and reduces cellular CE content. We have earlier reported reduced atherosclerosis and lesion necrosis in macrophage-specific CEH transgenic mice on a Ldlr−/− background. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that reduced intracellular accumulation of CE in macrophages from CEH transgenic mice will attenuate expression of proinflammatory mediators, thereby reducing infiltration into adipose tissue, alleviating inflammation, and resulting in improved insulin sensitivity. Western diet fed Ldlr−/−CEH transgenic mice showed improved insulin sensitivity as assessed by glucose and insulin tolerance tests. Macrophages from CEH transgenic mice expressed significantly lower levels of proinflammatory cytokines (interleukin-1β and interleukin-6) and chemokine (MCP-1; monocyte chemoattractant protein). Attenuation of NF-κB- and AP-1-driven gene expression was determined to be the underlying mechanism. Infiltration of macrophages into the adipose tissue that increases inflammation and impairs insulin signaling was also significantly reduced in Ldlr−/−CEH transgenic mice. In the OP-9 adipocyte peritoneal macrophage co-culture system, macrophages from CEH transgenic mice had a significantly reduced effect on insulin signaling as measured by Akt phosphorylation compared with nontransgenic macrophages. Taken together, these studies demonstrate that macrophage-specific overexpression of CEH decreases expression of proinflammatory mediators and attenuates macrophage infiltration into the adipose tissue, resulting in decreased circulating cytokines and improved insulin sensitivity.
Chronic verapamil therapy in pediatrie and young adult patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Abstract Oral verapamil, 5.2 ± 1.1 mg/kg/day (range 2.8 to 7), was administered to 13 pediatric patients with hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy for 13 ± 6 months (range 2 to 20). The patients had significant symptomatic improvement on verapamil therapy. Murmur intensity diminished in 6 patients during therapy and left ventricular (LV) electromotive forces on the electrocardiogram diminished in 4, increased in 5 and did not change in 4. Exercise endurance increased from 8.4 ± 3.9 to 10.9 ± 2.8 minutes (p
Observations on the diversity and ecology of freshwater Nannochloropsis (Eustigmatophyceae), with descriptions of new taxa.

The genus Nannochloropsis is well known from the marine environment but has only recently been reported from fresh and brackish waters. A single species, N. limnetica, was first documented from shallow lakes in Germany, where it produced spring blooms. A second unnamed isolate from a river in the United States has been characterized by sequence analysis and light microscopy. All of the Nannochloropsis species that have been described, both marine and freshwater, are small spheres with essentially no distinguishing morphological characteristics. Therefore, they must be characterized using molecular techniques. We have cultured numerous isolates of Nannochloropsis from a series of lakes on the James River in the Arrowwood National Wildlife Refuge, North Dakota, USA, and 1 isolate from a pond in Itasca State Park, Minnesota, USA. The diversity among these isolates was determined by light microscopy and DNA sequence analysis. Seven distinct haplotypes of Nannochloropsis were found, one of which possesses 18S rDNA and rbcL sequences identical to those of N. limnetica from Europe. The 6 new haplotypes vary in rbcL sequences and some are morophologically distinct from each other and from N. limnetica. These types are described as the new taxa N. limnetica var. globosa, N. limnetica var. irregularis, N. limnetica var. dystrophica, and N. limnetica var. gutta. All of the Nannochloropsis isolates from Arrowwood and Itasca were cultured only from samples taken during cold-water periods. These results suggest that Nannochloropsis species may be better adapted to cold water conditions, including temperatures near 0 °C and ice cover.
Emergence and disappearance of load induced fiber kinking surfaces in transversely isotropic hyperelastic materials

The kinematics of shearing deformation in fiber reinforced materials can lead to fibers that (a) first shorten, (b) then return to their original length, and (c) then elongate. In a hyperelastic constitutive treatment this can cause the shear stress to be a nonmonotone function of the amount of shear if the fibers are sufficiently more stiff than the matrix. Here, we explore how this effects the emergence and development of kink surfaces in the context of a variety of boundary value problems. Kink surfaces are surfaces across which the deformation gradient is discontinuous. For fiber reinforced materials such surfaces generate an abrupt change in the fiber orientation (a kink). We characterize the appearance of kink surfaces in terms of three general mechanisms: fade-in, pair creation, and boundary emission. Each has a counterpart for kink surface disappearance. These mechanisms are highly sensitive both to changes in the original fiber orientation field, including spatial variation in this field, and to changes in the nature of the applied boundary conditions. A variety of examples are presented.
Fresh Approaches to Anti-Infective Therapies

If discovery of new antibiotics continues to falter while resistance to drugs in clinical use continues to spread, society's medicine chest will soon lack effective treatments for many infections. Heritable antibiotic resistance emerges in bacteria from nonheritable resistance, also called phenotypic tolerance. This widespread phenomenon is closely linked to nonproliferative states in ways that scientists are just beginning to understand. A deeper understanding of the mechanisms of phenotypic tolerance may reveal new drug targets in the infecting organisms. At the same time, researchers must investigate ways to target the host in order to influence host-pathogen relationships. Government must reform the regulatory process for approval of new antibiotics. The private sector, government, and academia must undertake multiple, organized, multidisciplinary, parallel efforts to improve the ways in which antibiotics are discovered, tested, approved, and conserved, or it will be difficult to sustain the modern practice of medicine.
Resultant loads and elastic modulus calibration of long bone cross sections

Abstract A method of calibrating a long bone cross-section for the resultant axial force and bending moments is presented. At least three single gages must be bonded at circumferential locations at the section of interest. In the laboratory, strains are recorded when known anterior-posterior and lateral-medial bending moments are applied. Strains are also recorded when a known axial force (of unknown eccentricity) is applied. From these measurements one can calculate the resultant loads acting at the section whenever the three simultaneously recorded strain values are known. In addition, the section axial stiffness and effective axial elastic modulus of the section can be determined. This calibration method is especially pertinent in the analysis of in vivo bone strains which have been previously recorded.
Pathogenesis of canine atopic dermatitis: 2004 hypothesis

The exact pathogenesis of canine atopic dermatitis (AD) remains elusive at this time. However, information on selected aspects of the immunological mechanisms of canine AD can be derived from the results of static (fixed-point) and dynamic studies. Static studies yield data from samples collected at single time points and are thus fraught with imprecision dependent on the immunological stage of the lesions. In contrast, dynamic investigations provide information from sequential samples collected after immune cell activation with or without allergens. Examples of dynamic studies include stimulation of normal and atopic canine skin with intradermal injections of anti-IgE antibodies, epicutaneous application (e.g. patch tests) with house dust mite allergens on sensitized dogs, and environmental challenges of sensitized dogs with house dust mites. This lecture will review results from selected static studies investigating epidermal lipids, epidermotropic and dermal immune cells, and cytokines detected in the skin of dogs with AD. Cellular inflammatory infiltrates and cytokines released during dynamic experiments will be reviewed subsequently. The information collated from various studies enables the generation of a working hypothesis for the pathogenesis of canine AD. In the acute phase of AD, a putative epidermal barrier defect could facilitate the contact of environmental allergens and microbes with epidermal immune cells at skin sites of friction and trauma. Epidermal Langerhans cells capture allergens with antigen-specific IgE and migrate to the dermis and regional lymph nodes. Keratinocytes release chemokines that include thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC/CCL17). Allergen-specific IgE-coated dermal mast cells release histamine, proteases including chymase and tryptase, chemokines, and cytokines including TNFα and stem cell factor. There is an early influx of granulocytes (neutrophils and eosinophils), allergen-specific Th2 lymphocytes and dermal dendritic cells. Eosinophils degranulate upon allergen challenge and release proteins that induce dermal and epidermal damage and inflammation. Th2 lymphocytes release cytokines promoting IgE synthesis (IL-4 and IL-13) and eosinophil survival (IL-5). In chronic canine AD, microbes, self-trauma and neuromediators are suspected to contribute to chronic inflammation. Chemokines are released in a continuous allergen-dependent and -independent cycle, with subsequent influx and activation of leucocytes and further release of chemokines and other mediators. There is infiltration of T lymphocytes expressing type-2 and type-1 cytokines (IL-12 and IFNγ). The failure to down-regulate proinflammatory mechanisms leads to self-perpetuating cutaneous inflammation.
Fourth-order symplectic integration

Abstract In this paper we present an explicit fourth-order method for the integration of Hamilton's equations. This method preserves the property that the time evolution of such a system yields a canonical transformation from the initial conditions to the final state. That is, the integration step is an explicit symplectic map. Although the result is first derived for a specific type of Hamiltonian, it is shown to be quite general. In particular, the results can be applied to any Lie group.
Structure and characterization of the 3-deoxy-D-arabino-heptulosonate 7-phosphate synthase from Aeropyrum pernix.

Abstract The first enzyme in the shikimic acid biosynthetic pathway, 3-deoxy- d -arabino-heptulosonate 7-phosphate synthase (DAH7PS), varies significantly in size and complexity in the bacteria and plants that express it. The DAH7PS from the archaebacterium Aeropyrum pernix (DAH7PSAp) is among the smallest and least complex of the DAH7PS enzymes, leading to the hypothesis that DAH7PSAp would not be subject to feedback regulation by shikimic acid pathway products. We overexpressed DAH7PSAp in Escherichia coli, purified it, and characterized its enzymatic activity. We then solved its X-ray crystal structure with a divalent manganese ion and phosphoenolpyruvate bound (PDB ID: 1VS1 ). DAH7PSAp is a homodimeric metalloenzyme in solution. Its enzymatic activity increases dramatically above 60 °C, with optimum activity at 95 °C. Its pH optimum at 60 °C is 5.7. DAH7PSAp follows Michaelis–Menten kinetics at 60 °C, with a KM for erythrose 4-phosphate of 280 μM, a KM for phosphoenolpyruvate of 891 μM, and a kcat of 1.0 s−1. None of the downstream products of the shikimate biosynthetic pathway we tested inhibited the activity of DAH7PSAp. The structure of DAH7PSAp is similar to the structures of DAH7PS from Thermatoga maritima (PDB ID: 3PG8 ) and Pyrococcus furiosus (PDB ID: 1ZCO ), and is consistent with its designation as an unregulated DAH7PS.
THE RELATIONSHIP OF COPING STRENGTH TO SELF-CONCEPT, SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT, AND GENERAL ANXIETY LEVEL IN SIXTH GRADE PUPILS

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the predictive quality of reading coping strength and comprehension coping strength measured under conditions of delayed auditory feedback as they relate to self-concept, anxiety, reading achievement, intelligence, and academic ability. Reading tests under delayed auditory feedback were administered to fifty-one sixth-grade students in the Memphis City School System, Memphis, Tennessee. Subjects were chosen from five elementary schools (three white and two Negro ). Reading error scores, under conditions of DAF, were tabulated as a measure of reading coping strength and comprehension coping strength. Eight hypotheses were established and tested by ANOVA, t-test, correlation and multiple correlation. Overall results of the study tend to identify coping strength as a unique variable to consider in the psychology of reading as well as the psychology of such noncognitive variables as anxiety and self-concept.The problem of this study was to make a systematic i...
Epsilon-Tube Filtering: Reduction of High-Amplitude Motion Artifacts From Impedance Plethysmography Signal

The impedance plethysmography (IP) has long been used to monitor respiration. The IP signal is also suitable for portable monitoring of respiration due to its simplicity. However, this signal is very susceptible to motion artifact (MA). As a result, MA reduction is an indispensable part of portable acquisition of the IP signal. Often, the amplitude of the MA is much larger than the amplitude of the respiratory component in the IP signal. This study proposes a novel filtering method to remove the high-amplitude MA's from the IP signal. The proposed method combines the idea of $\varepsilon$ -tube loss function and an autoregressive exogenous model to estimate the MA while leaving the periodic respiratory component of the IP signal intact. Also, a regularization method is used to find the best filter coefficients that maximize the regularity of the output signal. The results indicate that the proposed method can effectively remove the MA, outperforming the popular MA reduction methods. Several different performance measures are used for the comparison and the differences are found to be statistically significant.
Microbial surveillance during human pancreatic islet isolation

Objectives. The study aim was to investigate the microbiological safety of islet isolation and transplantation. Materials and Methods. Between 1996 and 2002, prospective microbiological screening was performed on all pancreata procured for islet transplantation. Pancreas transport media and postpurification preparations were screened for microbiological contamination. Prior to isolation, pancreata were washed with either Hanks solution (group I, n = 170) or decontaminated with antiseptic and antimicrobial drugs (group II, n = 45). Results. Microbiological contamination of the pancreas preservation media was shown in 62%. Analysis of the contaminants showed 74% gram-positive, 21% gram-negative organisms, and 5% fungi. The donor condition or procurement center did not influence the contamination rate. Longer pancreas transport duration was significantly associated with bacterial contamination (P <.05). In group I, 16 (9.4%) of 170 islet preparations presented microbial contamination at the end of the isolation procedures. Gram-positive organisms were present in 10 (6%), gram-negative organisms in 4 (2.4%), and fungi in 2 (1.2%) preparations. Four islet preparations (2.4%) from pancreata with noninfected transport medium were positive on postpurification cultures, all with gram-positive organisms. In group II, only 2 of 45 islet preparations (4.4%) presented microbial contamination at the end of the isolation process. Conclusions. The rate of microbial contamination during pancreas procurement and transport is high. Significant contaminants present when beginning islet isolation become undetectable by the conclusion of isolation. Diminishing the bio-burden by pancreas decontamination reduces the risk of contamination of the final islet preparation.
On the relevance of certain results from multidimensional circuits and systems theory in some nontraditional problem areas

The purpose of this brief article is to point out some applications of results from multidimensional (m-D) circuit and systems theory to problems that lie outside the domain of traditional system theory. We will discuss how problems within the traditional areas of computer science and physics can be impacted by system theoretic results. In particular, we will consider applications in network reliability, and applications in statistical physics. No new results are reported, but the hope is that by establishing as yet little known connections all three problem domains (systems theory, computer science, and physics) will be benefitted from an exchange and cross-fertilization of ideas. In this vein, some generalizations of existing results are proposed and some speculations entertained.