cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Keratinocyte growth factor induces pancreatic ductal epithelial proliferation.

Abstract Keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) causes a proliferation of pancreatic ductal epithelial cells in adult rats after daily systemic administration for 1 to 2 weeks. Even before the proliferation of intralobular ducts is histologically evident, KGF also induces proliferating cell nuclear antigen expression within the ductal epithelium of intercalated, intralobular, and interlobular ducts. KGF also causes incorporation of 5-bromodeoxyuridine in ductal epithelial cells. Epithelial cell proliferation is histologically most prominent at the level of the intralobular ducts adjacent to and within the islets of Langerhans. Pancreatic ductal proliferation is not histologically apparent in rats sacrificed 7 to 10 days after the cessation of KGF administration. The pancreatic hormones insulin, glucagon, somatostatin, and pancreatic polypeptide are normally distributed within islets that demonstrate intrainsular ductal proliferation. The proliferating ductal epithelium does not show endocrine differentiation as evidenced by the lack of immunoreactivity for pancreatic hormones. KGF is a potent in vivo mitogen for pancreatic ductal epithelial cells.
An Entity Theory of Intelligence Predicts Higher Cortisol Levels When High School Grades Are Declining.

Grades often decline during the high school transition, creating stress. The present research integrates the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat with the implicit theories model to understand who shows maladaptive stress responses. A diary study measured declines in grades in the first few months of high school: salivary cortisol (N = 360 students, N = 3,045 observations) and daily stress appraisals (N = 499 students, N = 3,854 observations). Students who reported an entity theory of intelligence (i.e., the belief that intelligence is fixed) showed higher cortisol when grades were declining. Moreover, daily academic stressors showed a different lingering effect on the next day's cortisol for those with different implicit theories. Findings support a process model through which beliefs affect biological stress responses during difficult adolescent transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Earlier Work on Apatite

As mentioned, Hausen [90] attempted to summarize some of the data and conclusions in 1929, but his work suffered from two severe disadvantages: the structure had not been determined and many of the analyses at his disposal were not reliable with respect to their fluorine contents.
Fifteen Years of Transformation in the Post-Communist World: Rapid Reformers Outperformed Gradualists

The collapse of the Soviet empire freed hundreds of millions of people from communism. In most of the post-communist world, political freedom was followed by economic liberalization. The transition from central planning to the free market was uneven, however. In the early days after the fall of communism, two schools of thought about economic reform emerged. Some economists argued for a rapid break with the past, whereas others favored a more gradual approach. With the passage of time, it is now clear that rapid reforms were on the whole better than gradual reforms. Countries that adopted farreaching reforms tended to experience higher growth rates and lower inflation and received more foreign investment. Inequality increased less among rapid reformers than among gradual reformers. The same is true with respect to poverty rates. Oleh Havrylyshyn is a research scholar at the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies. He is the former Ukrainian deputy minister of finance, a former senior International Monetary Fund official, and the author of Divergent Paths in Post-Communist Transformation: Capitalism for All or Capitalism for the Few? (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006). Importantly, rapid reformers developed better institutions than countries that opted for gradualism. In fact, all of the rapid reformers developed into liberal democracies, whereas in many of the gradual reformers, such as Russia, small groups of super-wealthy oligarchs captured the state and dominated its economic decisionmaking. The efficiency of large-scale privatizations was not dependent on the speed but on the transparency and honesty of the process. Future reformers should not be afraid of adopting rapid reforms. To gain maximum benefits from economic reforms, however, they need to ensure that the privatization process is more transparent than it has been in the past. In countries where the state has been captured by a small clique of oligarchs, rapid reforms may be politically impossible in the short run. Still, liberalization of the business environment, especially with regard to small and mediumsized enterprises, could stimulate the economy without being seen as a threat by the ruling oligarchy.
deTS: tissue-specific enrichment analysis to decode tissue specificity.

Motivation Diseases and traits are under dynamic tissue-specific regulation. However, heterogeneous tissues are often collected in biomedical studies, which reduce the power in the identification of disease-associated variants and gene expression profiles. Results We present deTS, an R package, to conduct tissue-specific enrichment analysis with two built-in reference panels. Statistical methods are developed and implemented for detecting tissue-specific genes and for enrichment test of different forms of query data. Our applications using multi-trait genome-wide association studies data and cancer expression data showed that deTS could effectively identify the most relevant tissues for each query trait or sample, providing insights for future studies. Availability and implementation https://github.com/bsml320/deTS and CRAN https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/deTS/. Supplementary information Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Effect of Parity on Pregnancy-Associated Hypertension Among Asian American Women in the United States

Pregnancy-associated hypertension (PAH) includes gestational hypertension, preeclampsia and eclampsia. Although a protective effect of multi-parity on PAH has been reported in previous studies, the association has not been examined among Asian American women in the U.S. Using data from 2014 U.S. National Vital Statistics System, we examined the prevalence of PAH among Asian American women who had singleton live births (N = 235,303), and its association with parity (number of previous pregnancies including live births and fetal deaths) controlling for potential confounders. We estimated adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) using multivariable logistic regression analysis. Overall, 2.72% (95% CI 2.66%, 2.79%) of Asian American women were recorded to have PAH during pregnancy. Parity was inversely associated with PAH in our study, where Asian American women who had 1–2 and 3 or more previous pregnancies had significantly lower odds of PAH (aOR 0.61, 95% CI 0.58, 0.65; and aOR 0.62, 95% CI 0.57, 0.68, respectively) compared to nulliparous women, after controlling for potential confounders. Recent U.S. vital statistics data revealed that nulliparity is significantly associated with PAH among Asian American women. Future studies should identify specific factors that are associated with PAH and factors contributing to disparities in PAH risk among Asian American women.
Abstract 4637: Non-stem cell-driven colonic tumors retain an intestinal differentiation hierarchy

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States. Cancer stem cells (CSCs) play critical roles in therapeutic resistance, tumor recurrence, and metastasis that lead to patient death. We propose to evaluate the properties of CSCs in the context of the tumor cell-of-origin, the cell that initiates oncogenesis. We hypothesize that the tumor cell-of-origin is directly related to the CSCs present in tumors that consequently arise. To test this hypothesis, the stem-like properties of CSCs from stem cell- and non-stem cell-driven tumors, initiated from the Lrig1 and Mist1 promoters, respectively, were analyzed and compared through the use of lineage mapping and single-cell RNA-sequencing. We observed that although Mist1-expressing non-stem cells do not exhibit stem cell behavior under homeostatic or damage conditions, they can serve as tumor cells-of-origin. These tumors maintain a differentiation hierarchy that is lacking in stem cell-driven tumors. These results suggest that the origin of tumorigenesis influences tumor CSCs and thus tumor characteristics which could be utilized for the development of novel therapies. Citation Format: Cherie R. Scurrah, Alan J. Simmons, Eunyoung Choi, Robert J. Coffey, James R. Goldenring, Ken S. Lau. Non-stem cell-driven colonic tumors retain an intestinal differentiation hierarchy [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4637.
Nutrition Campaign Knowledge and Dietary Behavior in Middle School Students.

Background and Purpose: Federal nutrition campaigns are designed to make dietary recommendations accessible but have not been extensively evaluated. This paper explores whether knowledge of nutrition campaigns is associated with dietary behavior among young adolescents. Methods: Cross-sectional survey data were collected from 4,773 middle school students in Southern California. Hierarchical logistic regression models were used to assess the association between dietary behaviors and nutrition campaign knowledge, controlling for gender and ethnicity. Results: Knowledge of the Fruit & VeggiesMore Matters campaign was associated with increased odds of high fruit and vegetable consumption, knowledge of the MyPlate campaign was associated with neither, and both were associated with increased odds of not consuming soda. Conclusion: Overall, low percentages of students demonstrated knowledge of nutrition campaigns, and knowledge was associated with some dietary behaviors. More research is needed to examine the impact of nutrition campaigns while also accounting for other psychosocial and environmental factors that may affect soda, fruit, and vegetable consumption.
Using Epistemic Networks with Automated Codes to Understand Why Players Quit Levels in a Learning Game

Understanding why students quit a level in a learning game could inform the design of appropriate and timely interventions to keep students motivated to persevere. In this paper, we study student quitting behavior in Physics Playground (PP) – a Physics game for secondary school students. We focus on student cognition that can be inferred from their interaction with the game. PP logs meaningful and crucial student behaviors relevant to physics learning in real time. The automatically generated events in the interaction log are used as codes for quantitative ethnography analysis. We study epistemic networks from five levels to study how the temporal interconnections between the events are different for students who quit the game and those who did not. Our analysis revealed that students who quit over-rely on nudge actions and tend to settle on a solution more quickly than students who successfully complete a level, often failing to identify the correct agent and supporting objects to solve the level.
Nuclear diagnostics for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) plasmas

The field of nuclear diagnostics for Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) is broadly reviewed from its beginning in the seventies to present day. During this time, the sophistication of the ICF facilities and the suite of nuclear diagnostics have substantially evolved, generally a consequence of the efforts and experience gained on previous facilities. As the fusion yields have increased several orders of magnitude during these years, the quality of the nuclear-fusion-product measurements has improved significantly, facilitating an increased level of understanding about the physics governing the nuclear phase of an ICF implosion. The field of ICF has now entered an era where the fusion yields are high enough for nuclear measurements to provide spatial, temporal and spectral information, which have proven indispensable to understanding the performance of an ICF implosion. At the same time, the requirements on the nuclear diagnostics have also become more stringent. To put these measurements into context, this review starts by providing some historical remarks about the field of ICF and the role of nuclear diagnostics, followed by a brief overview of the basic physics that characterize the nuclear phase and performance of an ICF implosion. A technical discussion is subsequently presented of the neutron, gamma-ray, charged-particle and radiochemistry diagnostics that are, or have been, routinely used in the field of ICF. This discussion is followed by an elaboration of the current view of the next-generation nuclear diagnostics. Since the seventies, the overall progress made in the areas of nuclear diagnostics and scientific understanding of an ICF implosion have been enormous, and with the implementation of new high-fusion-yield facilities worldwide, the next-generation nuclear diagnostics will play an even more important role for decades to come. The work described herein was performed in part by U.S. DOE (Grant No. DE-FG03-03SF22691) and LLE (subcontract Grant No. 412160-001G).
Complete Genome Sequence of Pseudomonas coronafaciens pv. oryzae 1_6

Pseudomonas coronafaciens pv. oryzae 1_6 was originally isolated as a phytopathogen of rice. Here, we report a complete genome sequence for this strain, containing a circular chromosome and one circular plasmid, assembled using a hybrid approach combining Illumina paired-end reads and longer reads sequenced on an Oxford Nanopore Flongle flow cell.
Case-Based Teaching: Does the Addition of High-Fidelity Simulation Make a Difference in Medical Students' Clinical Reasoning Skills?

Situativity theory posits that learning and the development of clinical reasoning skills are grounded in context. In case-based teaching, this context comes from recreating the clinical environment, through emulation, as with manikins, or description. In this study, we sought to understand the difference in student clinical reasoning abilities after facilitated patient case scenarios with or without a manikin. Fourth-year medical students in an internship readiness course were randomized into patient case scenarios without manikin (control group) and with manikin (intervention group) for a chest pain session. The control and intervention groups had identical student-led case progression and faculty debriefing objectives. Clinical reasoning skills were assessed after the session using a 64-question script concordance test (SCT). The test was developed and piloted prior to administration. Hospitalist and emergency medicine faculty responses on the test items served as the expert standard for scoring. Ninety-six students were randomized to case-based sessions with (n = 48) or without (n = 48) manikin. Ninety students completed the SCT (with manikin n = 45, without manikin n = 45). A statistically significant mean difference on test performance between the two groups was found (t = 3.059, df = 88, p = .003), with the manikin group achieving higher SCT scores. Use of a manikin in simulated patient case discussion significantly improves students’ clinical reasoning skills, as measured by SCT. These results suggest that using a manikin to simulate a patient scenario situates learning, thereby enhancing skill development.
Recent advances in mRNA vaccine technology

Messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines represent a relatively new vaccine class showing great promise for the future. This optimism is built on recently published studies demonstrating the efficacy of mRNA vaccines in combatting several types of cancer and infectious pathogens where conventional vaccine platforms may fail to induce protective immune responses. These results would not have been possible without critical recent innovations in the field, such as the development of safe and efficient materials for in vivo mRNA delivery and advanced protocols for the production of high quality mRNA. This review summarizes the most important developments in mRNA vaccines from the past few years and discusses the challenges and future directions for the field.
Genome-Wide Increased Copy Number is Associated with Emergence of Dominant Clones of the Irish Potato Famine Pathogen Phytophthora infestans

The plant pathogen that caused the Irish potato famine, Phytophthora infestans, continues to reemerge globally. These modern epidemics are caused by clonally reproducing lineages. In contrast, a sexual mode of reproduction is observed at its center of origin in Mexico. We conducted a comparative genomic analysis of 47 high-coverage genomes to infer changes in genic copy number. We included samples from sexual populations at the center of origin as well as several dominant clonal lineages sampled worldwide. We conclude that sexual populations at the center of origin are diploid, as was the lineage that caused the famine, while modern clonal lineages showed increased copy number (3×). Copy number variation (CNV) was found genome-wide and did not to adhere to the two-speed genome hypothesis. Although previously reported, tetraploidy was not found in any of the genomes evaluated. We propose a model of dominant clone emergence supported by the epidemiological record (e.g., EU_13_A2, US-11, US-23) whereby a higher copy number provides fitness, leading to replacement of prior clonal lineages.IMPORTANCE The plant pathogen implicated in the Irish potato famine, Phytophthora infestans, continues to reemerge globally. Understanding changes in the genome during emergence can provide insights useful for managing this pathogen. Previous work has relied on studying individuals from the United States, South America, Europe, and China reporting that these can occur as diploids, triploids, or tetraploids and are clonal. We studied variation in sexual populations at the pathogen's center of origin, in Mexico, where it has been reported to reproduce sexually as well as within clonally reproducing, dominant clones from the United States and Europe. Our results newly show that sexual populations at the center of origin are diploid, whereas populations elsewhere are more variable and show genome-wide variation in gene copy number. We propose a model of evolution whereby new pathogen clones emerge predominantly by increasing the gene copy number genome-wide.
Subcortical Involvement in Formulaic Language: Studies on Bilingual Individuals With Parkinson's Disease

Purpose An impoverished production of routinized expressions, namely, formulaic language, has been reported for monolingual speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD). Little is known regarding how for...
Detecting deficiencies using building performance data in healthcare facilities: Improving operational efficiency with Continuous Commissioning ®

Abstract The Continuous Commissioning® version of the Existing Building Commissioning process was implemented in three large hospitals and optimized the HVAC operations to improve their energy use while maintaining comfort without any capital system investment. In the hospitals studied, measures accounting for 64% of the total annual commissioning cost savings of $592,816 were identified by analyzing trend data. Trend analysis of AHU ON/OFF status, economizer, outside air damper position, supply air temperature, and supply air static pressure corresponded to 51%, 8%, 5%, 31%, and 4% of the total projected savings, respectively. The use of trend analysis identified measures in the three case-study hospitals that are projected to reduce the EUI of the three hospitals by 16%, 21% and 19% respectively, even though the average consumption of the three hospitals was below the 5th percentile of hospital consumption. The availability and use of trend data in these facilities saved time in identifying these operational improvements and likely identified some improvements that would not have been identified using manual diagnostic techniques. Continuous engagement of this low cost and resource-intensive analysis tool can significantly reduce the operational costs for facilities.
Physician-Assisted Suicide: Compassionate Liberation or Murder?

PAS is legal only in Oregon, Washington, and Montana. Studies show nurses receive requests for aid in dying from patients (Asch, 1996; Ferrell et al., 2000: Kuhse & Singer, 1993; Schwarz, 2003; Volker, 2003; Wurzbach, 2000). The simple answer to these requests is that the nurse is prohibited in participating in assisted suicide or euthanasia by the Code of Ethics for Nurses and by the ANA position statements (ANA, 1994). In this article, the author attempted to present a balanced view of the ethical issues on both sides of the question of PAS. Honoring the autonomy of a patient does not require participation in PAS. However, nurses who support PAS speak of the patient's autonomous choice and their choice to assist in ending suffering of terminally ill patients. As more states pass ballot initiatives or laws supporting PAS, nurses will be faced with the legal choice to participate in the process of PAS by providing information on the option and attending to the patient who has taken the lethal drug. Nurses need to consider their comfort with the idea that patients may choose to accelerate dying.
Affording embodied cognition through touchscreen and above-the-surface gestures during collaborative tabletop science learning

This paper draws upon the theory of embodied cognition to provide a robust account of how gestural interactions with and around multi-touch tabletops can play an important role in facilitating collaborative meaning-making, particularly in the context of science data visualizations. Embodied cognition is a theory of learning that implies that thinking and perception are shaped by interactions with the physical environment. Previous research has used embodied cognition as a theoretical framework to inform the design of large touchscreen learning applications such as for multi-touch tabletops. However, this prior work has primarily assumed that learning is occurring during any motion or interaction, without considering how specific interactions may be linked to particular instances of collaborative learning supported by embodiment. We investigate this question in the context of collaborative learning from data visualizations of global phenomena such as ocean temperatures. We followed a user-centered, iterative design approach to build a tabletop prototype that facilitated collaborative meaning-making and used this prototype as a testbed in a laboratory study with 11 family groups. We qualitatively analyzed learner groups’ co-occurring utterances and gestures to identify the nature of gestural interactions groups used when their utterances signaled the occurrence of embodiment during collaborative meaning-making. Our findings present an analysis of both touchscreen and above-the-surface gestural interactions that were associated with instances of embodied cognition. We identified four types of gestural interactions that promote scientific discussion and collaborative meaning-making through embodied cognition: (T1) gestures for orienting the group; (T2) cooperative gestures for facilitating group meaning-making; (T3) individual intentional gestures for facilitating group meaning-making; and (T4) gestures for articulating conceptual understanding to the group. Our work illustrates interaction design opportunities for affording embodied cognition and will inform the design of future interactive tabletop experiences in the domain of science learning.
Glucan particles as a novel adjuvant for the induction of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Abstract For over 70 years experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) has been induced with myelin autoantigens emulsified in complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA) which has significant side effects such as pain, inflammation, and tissue necrosis at the injection site. β-1,3- d -glucan particles (GPs) are hollow microcapsules prepared from Saccharomyces cerevisiae cell walls that induce potent Th17 cell responses without causing strong injection site tissue reactions. We evaluated the potential of GPs complexed with neuroantigens to induce EAE while avoiding undesirable side effects. GPs loaded with myelin oligodendrocyte glycoprotein 35–55 (MOG35–55) or proteolipid protein 139–151 (PLP139–151) peptides effectively induced EAE in C57BL/6 mice and SJL mice. Disease severity, CNS pathology and immune responses were comparable between GP- and CFA-immunized mice. Importantly, injection with GPs resulted in significantly decreased inflammation compared with CFA. We posit that use of GPs provides an alternative means for inducing EAE that results in comparable disease, but less discomfort to animals.
The effects of acute aerobic and resistance exercise on mTOR signaling and autophagy markers in untrained human skeletal muscle

Aerobic (AE) and resistance (RE) exercise elicit unique adaptations in skeletal muscle. The purpose here was to compare the post-exercise response of mTOR signaling and select autophagy markers in skeletal muscle to acute AE and RE. In a randomized, cross-over design, six untrained men (27 ± 3 years) completed acute AE (40 min cycling, 70% HRmax) and RE (8 sets, 10 repetitions, 65% 1RM). Muscle biopsies were taken at baseline, and at 1 h and 4 h following each exercise. Western blot analyses were performed to examine total and phosphorylated protein levels. Upstream regulator analyses of skeletal muscle transcriptomics were performed to discern the predicted activation states of mTOR and FOXO3. Compared to AE, acute RE resulted in greater phosphorylation (P 0.05), however, LC3BII protein was decreased after both AE and RE at 1 h and 4 h (P < 0.05). p62 protein content was also decreased at 4 h following AE and RE (P < 0.05). Both acute AE and RE stimulate mTOR signaling and similarly impact select markers of autophagy. These findings indicate the early adaptive response of untrained human skeletal muscle to divergent exercise modes is not likely mediated through large differences in mTOR signaling or autophagy.
Ancient Persia: A Concise History of the Achaemenid Empire, 550-330 BCE

1. Introduction: tracking an empire 2. Forerunners of the Achaemenids: the first half of the first millennium BCE 3. Persia rising: a new empire 4. From Cyrus to Darius I: empire in transition 5. Darius the king 6. Mechanics of empire 7. Xerxes, the expander of the realm 8. Anatomy of empire 9. Empire at large: from the death of Xerxes to Darius II 10. Maintaining empire: Artaxerxes II and Artaxerxes III 11. Twilight of the Achaemenids 12. Epilogue Appendix A. Timeline Appendix B. Chronological chart of Achaemenid Persian kings Appendix C. Lineages (family tree) of the Achaemenid royal family Appendix D. Further readings.
Fire Department Deployment And Service Analysis

Within the OR community, issues of fire department deployment are analyzed using modified queueing and facility location models, based on the competition between time lines for department response and fire development. Within the fire service community, analysis, as part of certification protocols, uses planning models that are less quantitative but could be useful if combined with the OR approaches. Keywords: firehouse site evaluation model (FSEM); grading schedule for municipal fire protection; facility location models; exponentially distributed service times; queueing models; commission on fire accreditation international (CFAI); US fire administration (USFA); standards of response coverage; Poisson probability distributions
Abstract 07: Trajectories of Weight Change and Their Association with Barriers to Healthy Eating during 18-month Weight Loss Treatment

Introduction: Obesity research has typically focused on the overall weight change pattern in randomized clinical trials (RCTs), ignoring the clustering of individuals with distinct weight change patterns (e.g., continuing to lose, maintain weight loss, or regain weight). The study aim was to identify trajectories of weight change and their associated predictors. Methods: This was a secondary analysis of longitudinal weight data pooled from two RCTs using standard behavioral treatment for weight loss. Weight was measured using a digital scale at baseline, 6, 12 and 18 mos. Group-based trajectory modeling was used to identify distinct classes of trajectories of percent weight change. Percent change in Barriers to Healthy Eating (BHE) subscale scores (emotions, daily mechanics and social support) were simultaneously added in the final trajectory model to examine their associations with weight change trajectories. Results: The pooled sample included 338 adults, which was mostly female (85.2%), White (73.7 %),...
Primary structure of bovine carboxypeptidase B. II. Tryptic peptides from the reduced, aminoethylated protein.

Abstract Conditions have been developed for the quantitative reduction and aminoethylation of bovine carboxypeptidase (Cpase) B. The product, after solution in trifluoroacetic acid and precipitation with water, was susceptible in part to tryptic digestion. The application of three cycles of trifluoroacetic acid treatment followed by digestion with trypsin sufficed to convert approximately 90% of reduced, aminoethylated (RAE) Cpase B into soluble peptides. These were subdivided into three groups by gel filtration over Sephadex G-25. The individual groups were further fractionated by chromatography on columns of Dowex 50-X2 and Dowex 1-X2 to afford ultimately free lysine and 35 peptides (ranging in size up to 34 residues) in a state of purity satisfactory for subsequent sequential degradation. Evidence was obtained that peptides containing each of the 7 aminoethyl-cysteine residues in RAE-Cpase B were isolated. There is also evidence that 23 of the 29 theoretically possible lysine- or arginine-containing peptides were obtained. In summary, nonoverlapping peptides were found to provide a representation of 235 of the 300 residues in Cpase B.
Multi-phase sliding mode control power converter for electrical vehicle applications

In this paper, a multi-phase sliding mode controller is presented for an electric vehicle system having a fuel cell power source and energy storage systems such as battery and ultracapacitor. Details of the multi-dimensional sliding mode control for this multi-input power converter are designed with a dynamic Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell(PEMFC), Li-Ion battery and Ultracapacitor models. The proposed controller is verified and validated throughout the simulation and the small scaled DSP test-bed in terms of the ripple reduction of the current on the DC link under various conditions.
CO Emission from Planetary Nebulae

Searches for molecular line emission from planetary nebulae generally prove negative. Observations of 10 planetaries have resulted in the detection of one of them, NGC2346. In addition, weak CO emission has been detected in Ml-92, which may be a transition object between a red giant and a planetary nebula.
A primary care intervention to improve weight in obese children: A feasibility study

AbstractPurpose:Examine the effects of a primary care weight management program, which used a parent–child–provider collaborative negotiation intervention, among rural-dwelling families with obese children.Data sources:Health histories, physical examinations, fasting blood samples, interviews, and q
Phonological Evidence for Exemplar Storage of Multiword Sequences

Phonological evidence supports the frequency-based model proposed in the article by Nick Ellis. Phonological reduction occurs earlier and to a greater extent in high-frequency words and phrases than in low-frequency ones. A model that accounts for this effect needs both an exemplar representation to show phonetic variation and the ability to represent multiword combinations. The maintenance of alternations conditioned by word boundaries, such as French liaison, also provides evidence that multiword sequences are stored and can accrue representational strength. The reorganization of phonetic exemplars in favor of the more frequent types provides evidence for some abstraction in categories beyond the simple registration of tokens of experience.
Markov's constructive analysis; a participant's view

A review, or rather an essay on Markov's Constructive Analysis and Constructive Mathematics in comparison with other major trends in Constructivism and Computable Analysis.
Response to Panel on How Are the Mighty Fallen

These generous responses to "How Are the Mighty Fallen?" raise three substantive issues that invite dialogue. First is the question of methodology, whether the use of Bakhtin to read scripture clarifies or obfuscates the text. Second is the difficulty in sorting the connections between 1 Samuel and the Deuteronomistic History. Finally is the puzzling question of biblical spirituality, the relationship between the textual God and the "real" God. All of these issues provide productive invitations to further discussion.
Evidence for Quaternary Movement on the McKinley Strand of the Denali Fault in the Delta River Area, Alaska

Offset Holocene alluvial fans and drainages along the McKinley strand of the Denali fault near the Delta River in the east-central Alaska Range indicate as much as 50 to 60 m of right-lateral displacement during the last 10,000 yrs. Vertical movement of 6 to 10 m during the same time interval is reflected by south-facing scarps along the trace of the fault. All but possibly 1 m of the lateral movement is thought to predate the 1830 neoglacial ice advance. Older drainages have been offset in a right-lateral sense since early Wisconsin or Illinoian time by as much as 6.5 km or, alternatively, by as little as 1 km.
Surface effects in spin-wave resonance in thin YIG films

Ferromagnetic resonance data from thin YIG films are compared with calculated data using the surface layer and tensorial models of surface pinning. The consistency with which the surface layer model explains the resonance phenomena is considered strong evidence that the boundary conditions are provided by surface regions with magnetic properties different than the bulk. Werte der ferromagnetischen Resonanz von dunnen YIG-Schichten werden mit berechneten Daten verglichen, wobei die Oberflachen- und Tensormodelle der Oberflachenverankerung benutzt werden. Die Konsistenz, mit der das Oberflachenmodell die Resonanzphanomene erklart, wird als starker Hinweis dafur betrachtet, das die Grenzbedingungen von Oberflachenbereichen bestimmt werden, deren magnetische Eigenschaften sich von denen des Volumens unterscheiden.
GBASE: a scalable and general graph management system

Graphs appear in numerous applications including cyber-security, the Internet, social networks, protein networks, recommendation systems, and many more. Graphs with millions or even billions of nodes and edges are common-place. How to store such large graphs efficiently? What are the core operations/queries on those graph? How to answer the graph queries quickly? We propose GBASE, a scalable and general graph management and mining system. The key novelties lie in 1) our storage and compression scheme for a parallel setting and 2) the carefully chosen graph operations and their efficient implementation. We designed and implemented an instance of GBASE using MapReduce/Hadoop. GBASE provides a parallel indexing mechanism for graph mining operations that both saves storage space, as well as accelerates queries. We ran numerous experiments on real graphs, spanning billions of nodes and edges, and we show that our proposed GBASE is indeed fast, scalable and nimble, with significant savings in space and time.
A second gene for cerulean cataracts maps to the β crystallin region on chromosome 22

Abstract Congenital cataracts are one of the most common major eye abnormalities and often lead to blindness in infants. At least a third of all cases are familial. Within this group, highly penetrant, autosomal dominant forms of congenital cataracts (ADCC) are most common. ADCC is a genetically heterogeneous group of disorders, in which at least eight different loci have been identified for nine clinically distinct forms. Among these, Armitageet al.(Nature Genet.9: 37–40, 1995) mapped a gene for cerulean blue cataracts to chromosome 17q24. Bodkeret al.(Am. J. Med. Genet.37: 54–59, 1990) described a large family with cerulean blue cataracts, in which the affected daughter of affected first cousins was presumed to be homozygous for the purported gene. We report linkage in this family to the region on chromosome 22q that includes two β crystallin genes (CRYBB2, CRYBB3) and one pseudogene (CRYBB2P1). The affected female in question is homozygous at all markers.
The Production of Diffraction Gratings: II. The Design of Echelle Gratings and Spectrographs1

In seeking to circumvent the difficulties that have limited production of ruled gratings having resolving powers in excess of 400,000, it is observed that resolving power at a given wave-length depends only on the ruled width of the grating and the angles of illumination and observation, and not specifically on the number of ruled grooves. The reflection echelon is a grating of high resolving power in which groove separation has been increased to a degree involving extreme sacrifice of free spectral range. It is suggested that much could be gained by producing a grating with only as many reflecting grooves per inch as are needed to give sufficient free spectral range to avoid difficulties arising from overlapping of orders. For the study of Zeeman effects, hyperfine structure, and complex atomic and molecular spectra, 20 wave numbers of free spectrum should suffice, which would require use of about 100 grooves per inch. Such gratings, having a simple step groove form that reflects light of all orders in a narrow bundle, and designed to be used at an angle of incidence greater than 45° and normal to the narrow side of the “step,” may be designated “echelles,” as intermediate in character between the echellette and the echelon. Echelles should lend themselves to production of very powerful compact spectrographs giving single-exposure coverage of broad spectral ranges. A 10-inch echelle having 1000 grooves of width 0.25 mm, each with one flat side 0.05 mm deep, gives at 5000A a theoretical resolving power of one million, a free spectral range of 5A and a plate factor of 0.2 A/mm, when used with a lens or mirror of only 250 cm focal length. It should thus be as powerful as a 10-inch concave grating of 42 ft. radius having 30,000 grooves per inch when used in the third order, and would be much faster even though used with a lens of less than 75 mm aperture. When crossed with a suitable prism or grating of low dispersion this echelle should, without overlapping of orders, produce spectrograms having a range of 10,000 wave numbers or more on a single plate, instead of the 5 to 25 plates required by the equivalent orthodox grating in the Paschen-Runge mount. The echelle spectrograph would also offer great gains in stability and portability. Problems and possibilities of the production of original and replica echelles are discussed, and it is shown that the reduction of ruling time from weeks to hours makes interferometric control of groove spacing in gratings appear feasible for the first time.
Measurement of laser-produced plasma impulses on molten metals for thermophysical property determination

A high-power pulsed laser excitation of a material surface generates a well-separated sequence of plasma, fluid flow, and acoustic events. When the movement of the surface due to evaporation by laser heating is kept in pace with the thermal diffusion front, the ablative mass loss from a solid surface becomes strongly correlated with the thermal diffusivity of the target matter. The other thermophysiocal properties which figure in this correlation are the mass density, heat of formation, and molecular weight. The functional relationship, which is given in this text for the first time, can be exploited to measure the thertnophysical properties. We have now extended such an approach to measurement of the thermal diffusivity of molten specimens by developing a new instrumentation for determining the ablative mass loss due to a single laser pulse. This has been accomplished by combining a facility for controlled generation of a molten specimen and a novel transducer for real-time measurement of the impulse imparted to the molten target by a laser-produced plasma plume, The transducer design, calibration, signal recovery, and method of extracting the mass loss per laser excitation are detailed by comparing the results for metallic specimens in the solid and molten state.
Proposal to eliminate denormalized numbers

While the denormalized numbers extend the effective range of a floating point format for a given number format, we feel that the benefits do not justify the expense. This expense can be seen not only in the implementation of floating point but in the use of the resulting system. We feel that they further increase the difficulty of understanding the standard and its implications. Specifically:a. The feature increases the complexity of implementing the standard.b. The cost of producing high-quality software will increase because of this feature.c. Unexpected errors may be introduced into results due to denormalized numbers.d. The added effective range is quite small, especially in Double Format.e. Denormalized numbers may be added at a later time if desired, losing little of the proposed facility.
The impact of emotional and physical violence during pregnancy on maternal and child health at one year post-partum.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) during pregnancy is increasingly recognized as having a negative impact on both the mother and her unborn child. The current study extends previous work to examine the impact of both physical and emotional IPV separately and cumulatively on the mother and her child. Specifically, we used the Fragile Families dataset (N = 3961) to determine the effect of emotional and physical IPV on women and children at one year postpartum. Analyses revealed that both physical and emotional victimization have independent and negative impacts on mothers and their children. Emotional victimization was associated with poorer overall health for the mother, elevated maternal depression, poorer overall health for the child, and difficult child temperament. Experiencing a combination of physical and emotional victimization resulted in more problematic outcomes. Implications for practice and research are discussed.
Presentation of the Mineralogical Society of America Award for 2008 to James Badro

President Heaney, MSA Members, and guests: It is with great pleasure that I introduce you to the recipient of the Mineralogical Society of America Award for 2008, Jimi Badro. James Badro started with a physics background (B.S., M.S., Ph.D.) at Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon. At that time, Professors Philippe Gillet and Francis Albarede ran a very successful outreach program called “Geophysics and Geochemistry for Physicists,” that converted Jimi to a mineral physicist. James wrote a series of papers establishing the theoretical basis for the new expanding field of pressure-induced mineral amorphization, including the prediction of fivefold-coordinated silica intermediate phase and the interpretation of memory glass. He also reported strong-to-fragile transition in silica melts and solubility of argon in silicate melts. He collaborated with our group on a high-pressure, XRD, and X-ray imaging experiment that became a cornerstone in advancing ultrahigh-pressure diamond-anvil technique over three megabars. James was one of the very few scientists who had made outstanding contributions in both theoretical and experimental mineral physics, and he had done these before his Ph.D. degree. After receiving Ph.D. degree, Jimi was facing the draft to French military service with an option. In the French system, …
CATALYZED NUCLEON DECAY IN NEUTRON STARS

Abstract We consider the effect in neutron stars of nucleon decay catalyzed by grand unified monopoles. Invoking observational limits on the diffuse ultraviolet and X-ray background, we obtain a bound on the product of the cross section σ for the catalysis process and the interstellar monopole flux Φ, 〈 σβ 〉 Φ ⪅ 10 −27 cm 2 × 10 −25 cm −2 s −1 sr −1 . If, as Rubakov and Callan have recently suggested, 〈σβ〉 is a typical strong interaction cross section, then this bound is stronger by nine orders of magnitude than previous limits on the monopole flux.
Contraction/elongation behavior of cation-modified polyacrylonitrile fibers

In this paper, the authors present the contraction/elongation behavior of cation-modified Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) fibers, which identifies the fibers to be effectively used as biomimetic actuators and artificial muscles. The research was initiated by realizing that the contraction/elongation behavior of PAN is governed by the diffusional processes of ions/solvents interaction. The PAN fibers were suitably annealed, cross-linked and hydrolyzed to become active. The cation-modification process was performed using KOH, NaOH, and LiOH, respectively, for the boiling and alkaline-soaking mediums. It was found that the PAN fibers, regardless of whether being activated in KOH, NaOH, or LiOH, increased from their initial length after being activated and soaked in distilled water. Lengths then decreased after the fibers were soaked in the bases. Fibers treated with LiOH had the largest increase in length following immersion in distilled water. Fibers soaked in any of the three mediums generally had the same decrease in length following immersion in the alkaline solutions, as also occurred following immersion in HCl. Especially noticeable with the fibers treated with LiOH was that greater displacement in the lengths occurred using the 2 N solutions. It is our general notion that the Osmotic pressure of free ions plays an import role on the properties of PAN. However, the observation that Li + treated PAN fibers exhibit the largest contraction/expansion capability compared to Na + or K + treated PANs, can raise another important issue, i.e. hydration. Realizing that the Osmotic pressure of electrolyte systems is weakly dependent upon the types of ions, it is highly likely that the hydration phenomena of free ions within the PAN network plays a key role on its deformation properties. It should be noted that PAN fibers have the capability of changing their effective longitudinal strain more than 100% and have comparable strength to human muscle.
Evaluation of soil-erosion and pesticide-exposure control strategies

Abstract A linear-programming model of agriculture in the Chowan-Pasquotank river basin of North Carolina is used to analyze soil-erosion reduction strategies while holding pesticide loadings constant. Two forms of pesticide-exposure indexes, reflecting terrestrial and aquatic exposure, are used to aggregate the effects of pesticide applications for no-till and conventional till systems. Reductions in pesticide exposure are compatible with high levels of erosion control. Greater reductions of pesticide exposure with comparable levels of erosion control are achievable at relatively low cost. Such reductions imply shifts in cropping patterns and resource use, however.
Purification and Characterization of the XPF-ERCC1 Complex of Human DNA Repair Excision Nuclease

A complex, which consists of ERCC1 (38 kDa) and a 112-kDa protein, was purified from HeLa cells to homogeneity. This complex complemented the nucleotide excision repair defects of rodent ERCC-1, ERCC-4, and human XP-F mutant cell-free extracts, indicating that the 112-kDa protein is XPF/ERCC4 and providing direct biochemical evidence that XPF and ERCC4 are identical. The XPF/ERCC4-ERCC1 complex has an endonuclease activity with preference for single-stranded DNA and a single-stranded region of duplex DNA with a "bubble" structure. This complex also nicks supercoiled DNA weakly, and this nicking activity is stimulated by human replication protein A when the DNA contains UV damage.