cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
A family of mammalian Fringe genes implicated in boundary determination and the Notch pathway

The formation of boundaries between groups of cells is a universal feature of metazoan development. Drosophila fringe modulates the activation of the Notch signal transduction pathway at the dorsal-ventral boundary of the wing imaginal disc. Three mammalian fringe-related family members have been cloned and characterized: Manic, Radical and Lunatic Fringe. Expression studies in mouse embryos support a conserved role for mammalian Fringe family members in participation in the Notch signaling pathway leading to boundary determination during segmentation. In mammalian cells, Drosophila fringe and the mouse Fringe proteins are subject to posttranslational regulation at the levels of differential secretion and proteolytic processing. When misexpressed in the developing Drosophila wing imaginal disc the mouse Fringe genes exhibit conserved and differential effects on boundary determination.
A Defense of Party Spirit

Amid the resurgence of party spirit in the U.S., partisanship retains its bad name. Often branded an expression of inherited prejudice, narrow interest, or dogmatic commitment, it seems at odds with good citizenship. In what form, if any, is partisanship something admirable? This question has been neglected by political theorists, whose ideals of democracy, justice, and citizen virtue rarely depict the proper place of partisanship. I offer an account of the ethics of partisanship that shows how party spirit is defensible, even admirable—and how it is troubling, even pathological.Russell Muirhead is Associate Professor in the Department of Government, The University of Texas at Austin (muirhead@mail.utexas.edu). I would like to thank Sam Beer, Sharon Krause, Joseph Lambert, Glyn Morgan, Nancy Rosenblum, Mark Somos, Dennis Thompson, Jeremy Waldron, and the three anonymous reviewers for their very helpful written comments on drafts of this paper. I would also like to thank the participants of the Yale Political Theory workshop for their comments.
Short-term temporal changes of bare soil CO2 fluxes after tillage described by first-order decay models

Summary To further understand the impact of tillage on carbon dioxide (CO2) emission, we compare the performance of two conceptual models that describe CO2 emission after tillage as a function of the non-tilled emission plus a correction resulting from the tillage disturbance. The models assume that C in the readily decomposable organic matter follows a first-order reaction kinetics equation as dCsoilðtÞ dt ¼� kCsoilðtÞ and that soil C-CO2 emission is proportional to the C decay rate in soil, where Csoil(t) is the available labile soil C (g m � 2 ) at any time (t) and k is the decay constant (time � 1 ). Two possible relationships are derived between non-tilled (FNT) and tilled (FT) soil fluxes:
Promise of nicotinic‐based therapeutic treatments

Nicotine has a wide variety of pharmacological effects. Some of these, such as improved attentiveness and memory, quickened reaction time, reduced appetite, and lessening of stress can be viewed as beneficial and may partially underlie tobacco use. They also suggest therapeutic uses of nicotine. Like any drug, nicotine has adverse effects as well, such as convulsant actions and cardiovascular effects. Also, like a variety of therapeutic drugs from caffeine to codeine, nicotine has the adverse potential to become habit forming or addictive. Many of the health damaging effects of tobacco use, such as cancer and lung disease, seem to result from compounds present in tar. Eliminating the more than 4,000 different compounds present in tar goes a long way in reducing adverse effects associated with nicotine intake. When developing nicotine for therapeutic use, it is critical to determine the mechanisms of its actions so that its beneficial effects can be maximized and its adverse effects can be minimized. This might be achieved with alternate routes of delivery of nicotine such as the skin patch or with novel nicotinic ligands currently under development. © 1994 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Comparison of air displacement plethysmography to hydrostatic weighing for estimating total body density in children.

The purpose of this study was to examine the accuracy of total body density and percent body fat (% fat) using air displacement plethysmography (ADP) and hydrostatic weighing (HW) in children. Sixty-six male and female subjects (40 males: 12.4 ± 1.3 yrs, 47.4 ± 14.8 kg, 155.4 ± 11.9 cm, 19.3 ± 4.1 kg/m2; 26 females: 12.0 ± 1.9 yrs, 41.4 ± 7.7 kg, 152.1 ± 8.9 cm, 17.7 ± 1.7 kg/m2) were tested using ADP and HW with ADP always preceding HW. Accuracy, precision, and bias were examined in ADP with HW serving as the criterion method. Lohman's equations that are child specific for age and gender were used to convert body density to % fat. Regression analysis determined the accuracy of ADP and potential bias between ADP and HW using Bland-Altman analysis. For the entire group (Y = 0.835x + 0.171, R2 = 0.84, SEE = 0.007 g/cm3) and for the males (Y = 0.837x + 0.174, R2 = 0.90, SEE = 0.006 g/cm3) the regression between total body density by HW and by ADP significantly deviated from the line of identity. However in females, the regression between total body density by HW and ADP did not significantly deviate from the line of identity (Y = 0.750x + 0.258, R2 = 0.55, SEE = 0.008 g/cm3). The regression between % fat by HW and ADP for the group (Y = 0.84x + 3.81, R2 = 0.83, SEE = 3.35 % fat) and for the males (Y = 0.84x + 3.25, R2 = 0.90, SEE = 3.00 % fat) significantly deviated from the line of identity. However, in females the regression between % fat by HW and ADP did not significantly deviate from the line of identity (Y = 0.81x + 5.17, R2 = 0.56, SEE = 3.80 % fat). Bland-Altman analysis revealed no bias between HW total body density and ADP total body density for the entire group (R = 0.-22; P = 0.08) or for females (R = 0.02; P = 0.92), however bias existed in males (R = -0.37; P ≤ 0.05). Bland-Altman analysis revealed no bias between HW and ADP % fat for the entire group (R = 0.21; P = 0.10) or in females (R = 0.10; P = 0.57), however bias was indicated for males by a significant correlation (R = 0.36; P ≤ 0.05), with ADP underestimating % fat at lower fat values and overestimating at the higher % fat values. A significant difference in total body density and % fat was observed between ADP and HW in children 10–15 years old with a potential gender difference being detected. Upon further investigation it was revealed that the study was inadequately powered, thus we recommend that larger studies that are appropriately powered be conducted to better understand this potential gender difference.
Thermodynamics of two‐dimensional plasmas or discrete line vortex fluids

The equilibrium properties of a two‐dimensional plasma are examined theoretically within the framework of the random phase approximation. The guiding‐center case is of most interest because of the formal equivalence to two‐dimensional discrete line vortex fluids and because of the formal admissibility of negative temperatures. Using a judicious treatment of the periodic boundary conditions, extensive thermodynamics for nonnegative temperatures and a new value for the energy at which the temperature becomes negative are found. An explicit form for the structure function is derived and compared with the result of a Monte Carlo calculation. Good agreement is found for the negative temperature threshold prediction and for the general shape of the structure function. An equilibrium energy spectrum is calculated, which for positive temperatures, is the Debye–Huckel result; for negative temperatures it predicts an enhanced excitation of the lowest mode, corresponding to macroscopic charge separation.
Large area near-IR optical ‘fishnet’ metamaterials

We demonstrate a CMOS compatible fabrication method for large area near-IR fishnet metamaterials. This process involves patterning a template structures using lithography and dry etching, depositing an Au-SiO2-Au stack and template lift-off.
Integrative control of the lower urinary tract: preclinical perspective

Storage and periodic expulsion of urine is regulated by a neural control system in the brain and spinal cord that coordinates the reciprocal activity of two functional units in the lower urinary tract (LUT): (a) a reservoir (the urinary bladder) and (b) an outlet (bladder neck, urethra and striated muscles of the urethral sphincter). Control of the bladder and urethral outlet is dependent on three sets of peripheral nerves: parasympathetic, sympathetic and somatic nerves that contain afferent as well as efferent pathways. Afferent neurons innervating the bladder have A-δ or C-fibre axons. Urine storage reflexes are organized in the spinal cord, whereas voiding reflexes are mediated by a spinobulbospinal pathway passing through a coordination centre (the pontine micturition centre) located in the brainstem. Storage and voiding reflexes are activated by mechanosensitive A-δ afferents that respond to bladder distension. Many neurotransmitters including acetylcholine, norepinephrine, dopamine, serotonin, excitatory and inhibitory amino acids, adenosine triphosphate, nitric oxide and neuropeptides are involved in the neural control of the LUT. Injuries or diseases of the nervous system as well as disorders of the peripheral organs can produce LUT dysfunctions including: (1) urinary frequency, urgency and incontinence or (2) inefficient voiding and urinary retention. Neurogenic detrusor overactivity is triggered by C-fibre bladder afferent axons, many of which terminate in the close proximity to the urothelium. The urothelial cells exhibit ‘neuron-like' properties that allow them to respond to mechanical and chemical stimuli and to release transmitters that can modulate the activity of afferent nerves.
A physiologically-based explanation of disparity attraction and repulsion.

Westheimer and Levi [(1987) Vision Research, 27, 1361‐1368] found that when a few isolated features are viewed foveally, the perceived depth of a feature depends not only on its own disparity but also on those of its neighbors. The nature of this interaction is a function of the lateral separation between the features: When the distance is small the features appear to attract each other in depth but the interaction becomes repulsive at larger distances. Here we introduce a two-dimensional extension of our recent stereo model based on the physiological studies of Ohzawa, DeAngelis and Freeman [(1990) Science, 249, 1037‐1041] and demonstrate through analyses and simulations that these observations can be naturally explained without introducing ad hoc assumptions about the connectivity between disparity-tuned units. In particular, our model can explain the distance-dependent attraction:repulsion phenomena in both the vertical-line configuration used by Westheimer [(1986) Journal for Neurophysiology, 370, 619‐629], and the horizontal-line-and-point configuration used by Westheimer and Levi. Thus, the psychophysically observed disparity interaction may be viewed as a direct consequence of the known physiological organization of the binocular receptive fields. We also find that the transition distance at which the disparity interaction between features changes from attraction to repulsion is largely determined by the preferred spatial frequency and orientation distributions of the cells used in the disparity computation. This result may explain the observed variations of the transition distance among different subjects in the psychophysical experiments. Finally, our model can also reproduce the observed effect on the perceived disparity when the disparity magnitude of the neighboring features is changed. © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Efficient importance sampling under partial information

Importance sampling is widely perceived as an indispensable tool in Monte Carlo estimation for rare-event problems. It is also known, however, that constructing efficient importance sampling scheme requires in many cases a precise knowledge of the underlying stochastic structure. This paper considers the simplest problem in which part of the system is not directly known. Namely, we consider the tail probability of a monotone function of sum of independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) random variables, where the function is only accessible through black-box simulation. A simple two-stage procedure is proposed whereby the function is learned in the first stage before importance sampling is applied. We discuss some sufficient conditions for the procedure to retain asymptotic optimality in well-defined sense, and discuss the optimal computational allocation. Simple analysis shows that the procedure is more beneficial than a single-stage mixture-based importance sampler when the computational cost of learning is relatively light.
Analysis of Insect and Plant Colors in Digital Images Using Java Software on the Internet

Description of colors of insects and plants in biological research is often subjective and imprecise. A quantitative, statistical, and standardized method for describing colors by software analysis of digital images would be useful to researchers if readily available. An Internet Web page with JavaScript and Java applet was made that loads a digital image and analyzes the red, green, and blue (RGB) intensity components of the pixels in any rectangular area of relatively uniform color. A mean, standard deviation (SD), coefficient of variation, and percentage of each of the three color components in the area is calculated. Thus, a colored area in an image can be depicted objectively as R ± SD, G ± SD, and B ± SD, or percentages thereof, allowing mean color to be reproduced elsewhere by paint programs. For each analysis, the software uses the RGB component colors to make a bar graph with each RGB value and SD. The software was used to analyze colors of flowers and leaves of two cotton species, white and red varieties of upland, Gossypium hirsutum L., and Pima, Gossypium barbadense L. (Malvaceae); western tarnished plant bug, Lygus hesperus Knight (Heteroptera: Miridae); yellow plastic used in insect traps; and eight other insect species. Three two-dimensional (2D) color-space diagrams (hexagon, 2D-cube, and ternary percentages) are described and used to plot colors from analyses. Statistical tests are presented that compare whether two groups of color-space points in three dimensions are significantly separated. Differences in color vision are compared in humans, insects, digital cameras, and spectroradiometers.
Microenvironment interactions and B-cell receptor signaling in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia: Implications for disease pathogenesis and treatment.

Abstract Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) is a malignancy of mature B lymphocytes which are highly dependent on interactions with the tissue microenvironment for their survival and proliferation. Critical components of the microenvironment are monocyte-derived nurselike cells (NLCs), mesenchymal stromal cells, T cells and NK cells, which communicate with CLL cells through a complex network of adhesion molecules, chemokine receptors, tumor necrosis factor (TNF) family members, and soluble factors. (Auto-) antigens and/or autonomous mechanisms activate the B-cell receptor (BCR) and its downstream signaling cascade in secondary lymphatic tissues, playing a central pathogenetic role in CLL. Novel small molecule inhibitors, including the Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor ibrutinib and the phosphoinositide-3-kinase delta (PI3Kδ) inhibitor idelalisib, target BCR signaling and have become the most successful new therapeutics in this disease. We here review the cellular and molecular characteristics of CLL cells, and discuss the cellular components and key pathways involved in the cross-talk with their microenvironment. We also highlight the relevant novel treatment strategies, focusing on immunomodulatory agents and BCR signaling inhibitors and how these treatments disrupt CLL–microenvironment interactions. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Tumor Microenvironment Regulation of Cancer Cell Survival, Metastasis, Inflammation, and Immune Surveillance edited by Peter Ruvolo and Gregg L. Semenza.
Measurement Challenges Associated With Irradiated Reactor Components

Nuclear reactor components are known to degrade as reactors age. The reactor pressure vessel and the reactor internals are subjected to the highest radiation fields and thus, age faster. Some boiling water reactors are experiencing extensive cracking of the core shroud and some pressurized water reactors are experiencing a reduction in their fracture toughness. This paper provides background information on reactor pressure vessel materials, fabrication, and construction practices. It identifies some of the challenges that are associated with the nondestructive measurement of changes in material properties associated with these components. The inspection environment, surface conditions and designs are also discussed.
The British Response to the House-Grey Memorandum: New Evidence and New Questions

SECRECY and dispute have long clouded the British response to the HouseGrey Memorandum. Until recently a fifty-year prohibition on access to the British archives forced historians to choose between a pair of conflicting accounts put forward by two of the principal actors. The published recollections of Sir Edward Grey, the foreign secretary, and David Lloyd George, the minister of munitions, differ totally over where to assign responsibility for their government's tacit rejection in March 1916 of the offer of American mediation of World War I. Grey stated that none of the leading cabinet members favored the proposal contained in the House-Grey Memorandum because they all still believed that military victory offered the only satisfactory outcome to the conflict. Moreover, added Grey, the delicacies of inter-Allied relations made the British reluctant to broach any suggestions about mediation to the French, lest the move be viewed as a sign of weakness. In contrast, Lloyd George charged that Grey alone foolishly scotched the proposal after President Woodrow Wilson inserted the word "probably" into the text of the memorandum. The foreign secretary, according to Lloyd George, had misinterpreted the insertion as reneging on a previous American pledge to enter the war on the Allied side if the mediation effort failed., Now, with the opening of both the British archives and the diaries of two
Justice for Roofers Toward a Comprehensive Union Organizing Campaign Involving Latino Construction Workers in Arizona

The author describes and analyzes a comprehensive union organizing campaign in the building and construction trade unions. Justice for Roofers is exceptional not only in that it involves Latino imm...
Development of a Real-time Quantitative PCR Assay to Enumerate Yersinia pestis in Fleas

A real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) assay was developed for Yersina pestis. The qPCR assay was developed utilizing a conserved region of the Y. pestis ferric iron uptake regulator gene (fur) to design primers and a fluorescent (FAM-labeled) TaqMan probe. The assay was optimized using cultured Y. pestis (UG05-0454) and was confirmed to work with strains from 3 Y. pestis biovars. The optimized assay was capable of detecting a single organism of cultured Y. pestis and as little as 300 bacteria in infected flea triturates. This qPCR assay enables rapid enumeration of Y. pestis bacterium in laboratory-infected fleas when compared with conventional serial dilution plating.
SYNOPTIC METEOROLOGY | Thermal Low

This article is reproduced from the previous edition, volume 5, pp 2269–2273, © 2003, Elsevier Ltd.
Method of Estimating OMC CPU Utilization Factor

The mobile communication network is usually composed of four kinds of network elements: operation management center(OMC),base station controller(BSC),base station(BS) and user equipment(UE).BSC and BS are called base station subsystem(BSS).OMC is usually composed of large workstation.It is the center of wireless network management,and takes charge of direct control and management to BSC.While BSC or BS needs additional functions or software/hardware upgrading,the evaluation of the impact of new functions and upgrading on OMC should be carried out.It includes the effects on the utility factors of CPU,memory and database.The method to estimate OMC CPU utility factor is introduced on the basis of the measured data.The impact of the newly added functions of the other network elements on OMC CPU can be estimated easily with this estimating method.
Study on Method of Reliability Index Allocation of Network Management

To study the reliability index allocation of network management system,some reliability models and their characteristics and systems are introduced.The methods and principles of reliability index allocation are proposed,and some cases are studied.Considering the function of integrated network management system of certain communication network,the reliability model is established,and the reliability indexes are allocated according to the reliability index requirements.The allocation results of reliability indexes are presented,which meet the development requirements,and the key technique of reliability index allocation of network management system is addressed.
Modeling Relational Priming and Multiplicative Reasoning with Rational Numbers.

Previous research on multiplicative reasoning has shown that for whole numbers, understanding of division is intimately linked to multiplication, as retrieval of division facts is often accomplished through reverse multiplication. We recently extended this research to rational numbers, and found that inverse multiplication problems can serve as primes for one another (e.g., a × b/a = a primes b × a/b = b) when the second multiplier is expressed as a fraction, but not when it is expressed as a decimal. In the current paper we propose a process model of how such relational priming takes place, and report two experiments that test the limits of this priming effect. The first varies the format of the equations as fractions or a total division equation, and shows that priming is only observed using the fraction format; the second varies the multiplicative complexity of the factors in the equations, and shows that priming requires a common factor linking the successive problems.
Extending the Data Model for Data-Centric Metagenomics Analysis Using Scientific Workflows in CAMERA

Community Cyber infrastructure for Advanced Marine Microbial Ecology Research and Analysis (CAMERA) is an eScience project to enable the microbial ecology community in managing the challenges of metagenomics analysis. CAMERA supports extensive metadata based data acquisition and access, as well as execution of metagenomics experiments through standard and customized scientific workflows. Users can use a wide range of community analysis tools to select and invoke integrated annotation of genomic datasets. Users can also search and sort information based on selected metadata over the underlying semantic database. We present the semantic data model of CAMERA and its integration with scientific workflow execution information. We also describe how this model is used to interlink related workflows, where outputs of previous workflow executions can be used as inputs by subsequent workflow executions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our model and approach through scenarios built on currently supported CAMERA workflows and analysis.
Tsunami-driven Rafting: Transoceanic Species Dispersal and Implications for Marine Biogeography

The 2011 East Japan earthquake generated a massive tsunami that launched an extraordinary transoceanic biological rafting event with no known historical precedent. We document 289 living Japanese coastal marine species from 16 phyla transported over 6 years on objects that traveled thousands of kilometers across the Pacific Ocean to the shores of North America and Hawai‘i. Most of this dispersal occurred on nonbiodegradable objects, resulting in the longest documented transoceanic survival and dispersal of coastal species by rafting. Expanding shoreline infrastructure has increased global sources of plastic materials available for biotic colonization and also interacts with climate change–induced storms of increasing severity to eject debris into the oceans. In turn, increased ocean rafting may intensify species invasions.
Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying planar cell polarity pathway contributions to cancer malignancy

While the mutational activation of oncogenes drives tumor initiation and growth by promoting cellular transformation and proliferation, increasing evidence suggests that the subsequent re-engagement of largely dormant developmental pathways contributes to cellular phenotypes associated with the malignancy of solid tumors. Genetic studies from a variety of model organisms have defined many of the components that maintain epithelial planar cell polarity (PCP), or cellular polarity in the axis orthogonal to the apical-basal axis. These same components comprise an arm of non-canonical Wnt signaling that mediates cell motility events such as convergent extension movements essential to proper development. In this review, we summarize the increasing evidence that the Wnt/PCP signaling pathway plays active roles in promoting the proliferative and migratory properties of tumor cells, emphasizing the importance of subcellular localization of PCP components and protein-protein interactions in regulating cellullar properties associated with malignancy. Specifically, we discuss the increased expression of Wnt/PCP pathway components in cancer and the functional consequences of aberrant pathway activation, focusing on Wnt ligands, Frizzled (Fzd) receptors, the tetraspanin-like proteins Vangl1 and Vangl2, and the Prickle1 (Pk1) scaffold protein. In addition, we discuss negative regulation of the Wnt/PCP pathway, with particular emphasis on the Nrdp1 E3 ubiquitin ligase. We hypothesize that engagement of the Wnt/PCP pathway after tumor initiation drives malignancy by promoting cellular proliferation and invasiveness, and that the ability of Wnt/PCP signaling to supplant oncogene addiction may contribute to tumor resistance to oncogenic pathway-directed therapeutic agents.
Stress-Sensitive Parental Brain Systems Regulate Emotion Response and Motivate Sensitive Child Care

The mother-child relationship is central to early human development and provides the foundation that supports socioemotional functioning. Mothers with trauma exposure and mental illness histories are at risk for higher stress and impaired parental sensitivity. Sensitive parenting of children requires complex regulation of thoughts and behaviors such as vocalization. These form the first social bond that furnishes each individual with their capacity to flourish. After covering some basic neuroimaging design issues, this review concentrates on a selection of brain imaging studies, which examine the brain systems that govern human parenting – operationalized mostly as brain activity responses to infant cues – largely cries and pictures. Research highlights brain circuits that govern reflexive parenting behaviors, emotion response and regulation, executive function, empathy, and reflective function. Accordingly presented are recent studies that include fathers, mothers affected by psychopathology and treated with parenting intervention, circumstances of stress, poverty and issues of feeding and delivery, and also new methods including complex stimuli and hormone measures. Finally, future directions will be discussed, including the study interventions that influence parenting and support the importance of optimizing perinatal and neonatal care – future interventions may focus on optimizing maternal voice from a mechanistic brain perspective.
Evaluation of the Role of stat3 in Antibody and TH17-Mediated Responses to Pneumococcal Immunization and Infection by Use of a Mouse Model of Autosomal Dominant Hyper-IgE Syndrome

ABSTRACT Loss-of-function mutations in the signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 gene (stat3) result in autosomal dominant hyper-IgE syndrome (AD-HIES), a condition in which patients have recurrent debilitating infections, including frequent pneumococcal and staphylococcal pneumonias. stat3 mutations cause defective adaptive TH17 cellular responses, an immune mechanism believed to be critical for clearance of pneumococcal colonization and diminished antibody responses. Here we wished to evaluate the role of stat3 in the clearance of pneumococcal carriage and immunity using mice with a stat3 mutation recapitulating AD-HIES. We show here that naive AD-HIES mice have prolonged nasal carriage of pneumococcus compared to WT mice. Mutant and wild-type mice were then immunized with a pneumococcal whole-cell vaccine (WCV) that provides TH17-mediated protection against pneumococcal colonization and antibody-mediated protection against pneumonia and sepsis. WCV-immunized AD-HIES mice made significantly less pneumococcus-specific interleukin-17A (IL-17A) and antibody than WT mice. The WCV-elicited protection against colonization was abrogated in AD-HIES mice, but immunization with WCV still protected AD-HIES mice against aspiration pneumonia/sepsis. Taken together, our results suggest that impaired clearance of nasopharyngeal carriage due to poor adaptive IL-17A responses may contribute to the increased rates of pneumococcal respiratory infection in AD-HIES patients.
A review of pneumatic conveying status, advances and projections

Abstract This article offers to those pursuing new research in pneumatic conveyance an extensive, deep-background review of the current state of pneumatic conveying around the world. This synopsis of the knowledge presented is designed to identify for researchers gaps in the research field that still need to be addressed.
Magnetic Mini-Mover Procedure for Pectus Excavatum

The most common procedures for the repair of pectus excavatum, the Nuss and the Ravitch, correct the chest wall in a single procedure, forcing the sternum forward with extensive manipulation under general anesthesia. These procedures cause significant pain and can require lengthy hospitalization with extended recovery. The magnetic mini-mover procedure (3MP) for pectus excavatum was developed as an alternative to these procedures. Inspired by orthodontic braces and bracing for pectus carinatum, the procedure applies a small amount of force over a long period of time to achieve chest wall correction. The 3MP uses a magnetic field to apply controlled outward force on the sternum, gradually re-forming the chest wall cartilage over time without major surgery or hospitalization. Moreover, once a good correction has been achieved, the position of the sternum can be adjusted or held in place while cartilage remodeling completes with intermittent bracing, much like a nightly retainer holds the teeth in place after braces have been removed.
Preservice teachers’ experiences of STEM integration: challenges and implications for integrated STEM teacher preparation

In the United States, recent STEM education reform initiatives call for teaching STEM subjects through integration of multiple related subjects. In response to this call, an integrated STEM education methods course was developed for secondary preservice teachers in STEM disciplines. At the conclusion of the course, qualitative data (e.g., interviews, student artifacts) were collected to examine the methods course students’ practices and experiences of STEM integration. Teachers’ learning was approached from situated perspectives that shed light on contexts in which teaching practices are situated and funds of knowledge that individual teachers bring to bear to their teaching contexts. While the students successfully developed STEM integration lessons and taught them, they faced challenges attributable to current school practices, limited interdisciplinary understandings, and a lack of role models. Acknowledging the numerous constraints in the current educational system and structure, several ways were suggested to mitigate the challenges and build on the strengths that preservice teachers established.
Statistical Analysis of the Comet Assay Using a Mixture of Gamma Distributions

Tail moments in the single cell gel electrophoresis (comet) assay usually do not follow a normal distribution, making the statistical analysis complicated. Researchers have used a wide variety of statistical techniques in an attempt to overcome this problem. In many cases, the tail moments follow a bimodal distribution that can be modeled with a mixture of gamma distributions. This bimodality may be due to cells being in two different stages of the cell cycle at the time of treatment. Maximum likelihood, modified to accommodate censored data, can be used to estimate the five parameters of the gamma mixture distribution for each slide. A weighted analysis of variance on the parameter estimates for the gamma mixtures can be performed to determine differences in DNA damage between treatments. These methods were applied to an experiment on the effect of thymidine kinase in DNA damage and repair. Analysis based on the mixture of gamma distributions was found to be more statistically valid, more powerful, and more informative than analysis based on log-transformed tail moments.
Energy from the Sun: Long-Term Variations

The evolutionary history of the Sun indicated that it had originally been much fainter than at present. But the Earth had liquid oceans shortly after its formation. The Faint Young Sun Paradox was solved by assuming that Earth’s early atmosphere had much higher greenhouse gas concentrations. The amount of energy received by Earth varies as our planet’s orbital configuration changes. Calculations of the Earth’s orbit in the past suggested that this was the cause of the ice ages. However, the orbital calculations suggested that there must have been many ice ages but only four were known to geologists. Study of river terraces and deep sea cores suggested that there had been many ice ages. Studies of sedimentary rocks indicated that the orbital changes had affected Earth’s climate even in times when there was no polar ice.
The Mobility of Electrons in Liquid Argon; Some Differences and some Similarities with the Motion of Electrons in Crystals and Gases

After a brief description of the Basak and Cohen’s and the Vertes’ calculations of electron mobility, my calculation is presented in which I consider that the electron is scattered by both acoustic phonons and large density fluctuations localized over a region whose dimension is of the order of half an electron wavelength. Both the dimensions of these density fluctuations, as well as the magnitude of the density fluctuation themselves, are varied over a wide range in order to calculate the mean free path of electrons whose energy is varied between 1/20 kT and 10 kT. The resulting mobility is compared with recent Hall mobility results as well as with the measured ratio of the Hall and drift mobilities. In order to get a reasonable agreement between experiment and theory, it is found that an effective mass that varies linearly with temperature is necessary. If we extrapolate both this density-dependent effective mass as well as the density dependence of VOto the density of the solid at the triple point, the calculated phonon-limited mobility is in excellent agreement with experiment. An anomalous dependence of the Hall angle on the magnetic field near the maximum of the electron mobility is ascribed to weak localization. A brief review of the weak localization phenomenon is given, and the calculated results are compared with experiment.
Science Lies Its Way to the Truth ... Really

In science today, the study of behavior seems to be something someone does to get to somewhere else. Behavior affords a gateway to physiology, neuroscience, and genetics. The quality of such integrative work thus begins and ends with the quality of knowledge about behavior. How do we assay behavioral quality and its integrative potential? We ask this question because we believe many beliefs about the nature of behavior are wrong, albeit wrong in a right way, a scientific way. In this chapter, we illustrate some of the issues in the study of behavior to be considered before its transport into new domains We call for renewed emphasis on the tasks actually confronting organisms as they develop and learn and on the social context in which behavior typically occurs, a context too often excised and ignored in current work. Without a focus on task and context, we cannot connect knowledge about biology to knowledge about behavior. Without such a focus, we cannot prevent a cascade of changes in the meaning, relevance, and utility of behavioral knowledge as it is subjected to the process of integration.
Authenticity in Context: Being True to Working Selves:

The core premise of this article is that it is scientifically informative and psychologically meaningful to conceptualize and assess authenticity in context. I begin by providing some theoretical b...
The Political and Economic Contest and Context: Scotland and England Before the Union

This chapter discusses the political and economic pressures Scotland faced that led to the creation of the Union. It focuses on issues related to trade and sovereignty. The political and economic disadvantages to Scotland’s trade due to the Union of the Crowns are highlighted. The mercantilist actions and countermoves of each country are examined in the practices of the Company of Scotland in the founding of the Darien project and English attempts to thwart it. Scotland’s reassertion of its sovereignty to regain control of its trade policy in the Act of Security is explained. Increasing tension between England and Scotland over control of overseas trade and the structurally violent Alien Act are explored as immediate causes of the opening of the negotiations of Union.
Measurement of Impedance Changes Associated with Developmental Phases in Artemia Cysts

Electrical impedance spectroscopy can provide quantitative information of single Artemia cysts at various phases of development. A distinct pattern of impedance changes was observed at different stages of cyst development. The measured impedance changes corresponded to physiological changes as the cyst developed. The change in impedance during the first stage of development provided sufficient quantitative data to predict if the cyst would hatch. This work shows the potential of impedance spectroscopy for developing a non-invasive test to quantitatively determine the health of the embryos.
Inclusive Experiences Using HFOSS in a Senior Computer Science Elective

Humanitarian Free/Open Source Software (HFOSS) participation has been shown to promote real world experience and a create a portfolio of work for students that prove to be valuable assets for entering the work force. Creating a senior level software engineering elective that provides the scaffolding for students to participate in an HFOSS project allows professors to ease the often daunting steep learning curve that exists in contributing to these projects. Educators in computer science have recognized that building community within student cohorts provides many benefits for all students as well as being important for creating inclusive environments for underrepresented minorities. Based on the Communities of Practice model, developed by Lave and Wenger, mentorship also plays an important role in bridging entrance into professional communities. Using a classroom model that incorporates both levels of community by putting students into self-selected groups and using mentors from an HFOSS project provides the mechanisms for the aforementioned scaffolding. This poster will show the student perceived benefits of this course for their overall understanding of their place within the community of CS practitioners, their ability to participate with a diverse group of developers, and how this experience influences how they see their skills in relation to a project of this size. Included will also be lessons learned by teaching this course and resources for teachers to build the knowledge for teaching a course in HFOSS development.
Validation of Intervention Strategies To Control Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella Typhimurium DT 104 in Mechanically Tenderized and Brine-Enhanced Beef

After three different outbreaks were linked to the consumption of nonintact meat products contaminated with Escherichia coli O157:H7, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food Safety and Inspection Service published notice requiring establishments producing mechanically tenderized and moisture-enhanced beef products to reassess their respective hazard analysis and critical control point system, due to potential risk to the consumers. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of different intervention strategies (lactic acid, lactic acid bacteria, and acidified sodium chlorite) to control E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium definitive phage type 104 in mechanically tenderized and brine-enhanced beef strip loins when applied to the steaks prior to packaging and shipment for processing. After the mechanical process, translocation of E. coli O157:H7 and Salmonella Typhimurium DT 104 from the surface into the internal muscles occurred at levels between 2.0 and 4.0 log CFU/g (from an initial inoculation level of 5.0 log) after mechanical tenderization, and at levels of 1.0 to 3.0 log CFU/g after injection, with all the interventions consistently presenting lower microbial counts (P 2.2 log cycles, while the acidified sodium chlorite and lactic acid reduced them between 0.8 and 3.0 log, respectively. Salmonella Typhimurium DT 104 was also reduced internally after application of all interventions between 0.9 and 2.2 log. The application of antimicrobials to the steaks prior to packaging and shipment on day 0 was effective in reducing internalization of both pathogens in nonintact beef products stored for both 14 and 21 days.
Carbon Dioxide — Essential Ingredient for in vivo Carotid Body Chemotransduction

The carotid body responds to the changes in arterial Po2, Pco2, and pH. Although different mechanisms have been suggested for the chemotransduction of hypoxia and hypercapnia in the carotid body, it is also true that the response of the carotid body to one stimuli is not totally independent of other stimuli. Several studies have shown that lowering arterial Pco2 can dramatically reduce the carotid body response to hypoxia2, 3, 4, 5. In addition, we have recently demonstrated that, whereas selective perfusion of the carotid body with hypoxic perfusate containing CO2/HCO3 - increased carotid chemoreceptor neural activity, perfusion with CO2/HCO3 --free hypoxic perfusate did not This suggested a crucial role for CO2/HCO3 - in hypoxic chemotransduction7. Pertinent to these studies a recent report showed that intracellular pH of the type I cell from the rat carotid body was very alkalotic in the CO2/HCO3 --free media1. Based on these findings we hypothesized that CO2/HCO3 - plays a fundamental role for the carotid body chemotransduction, possibly as an essential ingredient in the regulatory mechanisms of intracellular pH (pH/) in the chemosensitive unit. Decrease in CO2/HCO3 - would increase pH/ of the chemosensitive unit. Alkalinization of the unit would turn off the process of chemotransduction. We tested this hypothesis using a technique of in vivo selective perfusion of the carotid body.
Evolution of β-Lactamases: Past, Present, and Future

β-Lactamases represent some of the most widely studied examples of protein evolution, with mutations and new enzyme forms closely related to the introduction and use of novel β-lactam antibiotics. Early antibiotic literature described the presence of species-specific penicillinases and cephalosporinases. However, the recognition of plasmid-encoded β-lactamases expanded the list of enzymes to include hundreds of broad-spectrum enzymes that could be transferred among species. In spite of our best efforts to predict the evolutionary course for these enzymes, surprises have frequently occurred with the previously unnoticed occurrence of highly mutable plasmid-encoded β-lactamases from environmental sources, such as the now widely disseminated CTX-M extended-spectrum β-lactamases and the KPC family of serine carbapenemases. This unexplored natural reservoir as a source for new β-lactamases limits our ability to forecast the future evolutionary path(s) for these structurally diverse but functionally similar families of enzymes.
Characterization of vacuum and deep ultraviolet pulses via two-photon autocorrelation signals

Characterization of ultrashort vacuum and deep ultraviolet pulses is important in view of applications of those pulses for spectroscopic and dynamical imaging of atoms, molecules, and materials. We present an extension of the autocorrelation technique, applied for measurement of the pulse duration via a single Gaussian function. Analytic solutions for two-photon ionization of atoms by Gaussian pulses are used along with an expansion of the pulse to be characterized using multiple Gaussians at multi-color central frequencies. This approach allows one to use two-photon autocorrelation signals to characterize isolated ultrashort pulses and pulse trains, i.e., the time-dependent amplitude and phase variation of the electric field. The potential of the method is demonstrated using vacuum and deep ultraviolet pulses and pulse trains obtained from numerical simulations of macroscopic high harmonic spectra.
Wireless Time Sensitive Networking for Industrial Collaborative Robotic Workcells

In this paper, we describe a collaborative robotic workcell testbed enabled by Wireless Time Sensitive Networking (WTSN) technologies and discuss deployment, performance measurement and management guidelines challenges. We detail the methodologies for implementing and characterizing the performance of key WTSN capabilities (time synchronization and time-aware scheduling) over IEEE 802.11/Wi-Fi. We deployed WTSN capabilities on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) collaborative robotic workcell testbed consisting of two robotic arms that emulates a material handling application, known as machine tending. We further explore configurations and measurement methodologies to characterize Quality of Experience (QoE) of this use case and correlate it to the performance of the wireless network.
Extended chain length alkenoates differentiate three Isochrysidales groups

Abstract Alkenoates and alkenones are polyunsaturated long-chain esters and ketones produced by members of the Isochrysidales, an order of haptophyte microalgae. Based on phylogenetic data, members of Isochrysidales have been classified into three groups, with each group showing major differences in preferred growth environments (e.g., salinity). Systematic identification of chemotaxonomic differences among the three groups of Isochrysidales is thus important for paleoenvironmental reconstructions and disentangling mixed alkenone temperature signals. Here, we systematically examined alkenone/alkenoate profiles in culture samples of Group 2 and Group 3 Isochrysidales and environmental sample of Group1 Isochrysidales. Using GC columns with stationary phases of contrasting polarities, we discovered for the first time C37 and C38 ethyl alkenoates (C37OEt and C38OEt) in Group 2 and/or 3 Isochrysidales, extending the longest alkenoate chain length of C36OEt in previous publications. We show that Group 3 Isochrysidales only produce C37OEt, whereas Group 2 Isochrysidales produce both C37OEt and C38OEt alkenoates. Because Group 1 Isochrysidales do not produce alkenoates, C38OEt are specific biomarkers for Group 2 species. The identification of C37OEt and C38OEt in sediments from saline lakes and Chesapeake Bay where sequences of Group 2 DNA have been recovered further validates the use of C38OEt as a Group 2-specific biomarker.