cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Current and future developments in artificial muscles using electroactive polymers.

For decades, electroactive polymers received relatively little attention due to their limited actuation capability. However, in the last 15 years, a series of electroactive polymer materials have emerged that produce a significant shape or size change in response to electrical stimulation. These materials have the closest functional similarity to biologic muscles, enabling the engineering of novel capabilities that were, up until recently, impossible to achieve. Efforts are underway to address the many challenges that are hampering the practical application of these materials, and recent progress has already led to dramatic capability improvements. Various novel mechanisms and devices were demonstrated including robotic fish, catheter steering elements, robotic arms, miniature grippers, loudspeakers, active diaphragms, Braille display and dust-wipers. For developers of future medical devices, these materials are offering numerous advantages for their flexibility, fracture toughness and controllability, as...
Indirect Determination of SO 4 = in Water by Atomic Absorption

Dunk, Mostyn, and Hoare's method for the determination of sulfate in textiles was adapted for use with natural water samples. The method outlined below is very similar to the one from which it was adapted. The purpose of this report is to present some typical results which can be obtained using atomic absorption methods as compared with gravimetric methods. Standard deviations and relative standard deviations obtained from a series of analyses are also presented.
Type management system in the Nexus distributed programming environment

Nexus is an object-oriented distributed operating system for local-area networks of heterogeneous workstations. The authors present the salient features of the Nexus design and its type management system. The Nexus design explicitly provides mechanisms for type inheritance and for simultaneously supporting different versions for a given abstract type in the network. A functional view of the type management system is considered. >
Buncher cavity for ERL

Design of the buncher cavity for Cornell/JLab ERL project is presented. This is a reentrant spherical copper cavity at a frequency of 1300 MHz. It will be installed between a 500 keV electron gun and superconducting accelerating sections in the injector part of ERL. The cavity has Q of 20,000 and a shunt impedance of 2.1 MOhm. For a design cavity voltage of 200 kV, power dissipated in cavity is as much as 9.6 kW. The cavity has a coaxial loop coupler and will be driven by a 17.5 kW klystron. The estimates of cavity influence on beam dynamics are also discussed.
Egg freezing, procreative liberty, and ICSI: the double standards confronting elective self-donation of oocytes.

The consensus view among relevant professional societies opposing the offering of elective oocyte cryopreservation for potential future self-donation withstands neither clinical nor ethical scrutiny. The favorable risk-benefit ratio of this technology mandates both the prioritization of patient autonomy for informed women seeking to maximize—not guarantee—their chances of having genetically related children, and a justification for viewing egg freezing differently from intracytoplasmic sperm injection.
Localization and shot noise in nanostructures

Nano-structures are increasingly finding more applications in modern electronic/photonic devices. However, an accurate prediction of the nano-device performance is complicated by carrier localization and, in certain applications, the presence of an applied magnetic field. Shot noise measurements are suggested as a means to quantify localization. An alternative technique using tunneling time to characterize localization in nano-structures in the presence of random elastic and inelastic scattering is presented. The treatment is extended to include the effect of magnetic fields. The calculations are carried out self-consistently by solving Schroedinger and Poisson's equations for the accurate determination of the developed space charge.
Magnitude and sign scaling in power-law correlated geoelectrical time series measured in southern Italy

Recently, it has been proposed a new method to investigate the linear/nonlinear properties of a time series by decomposing it into two sub-series: magnitude and sign sub-series (Ashkenazy et al., 2003). The long-range corre- lation properties of the magnitude and sign sub-series relate to nonlinear and linear behavior of the original time series respectively. We apply this method to the hourly time vari- ability of geoelectrical signals, measured from January 2001 to September 2002 by four stations installed in Basilicata re- gion (southern Italy). Three stations (Giuliano, Marsico and Tito) are located in a seismic area, and one (Laterza) in a low- seismicity area. A site-dependence of the linear/nonlinear properties has been shown, revealing that different dynamics govern signals measured in seismic and low-seismicity areas.
The American Agricultural Economics Association: Its Prospects

The American Agricultural Economics Association (AAEA) is at a significant juncture. Breimyer, in his 1968 presidential address, said, "the .. Association (will) want to give thoughtful attention to how it can best conduct its internal affairs in the years to come" (p. 1111). Almost a decade later, few people inside or outside the Association appreciate the significance that should be attached to the direction we take. Many Association members have a hard time seeing the linkage between activities of the Association and the contribution our profession can and should make to the well-being of people in society. Many members expect the officers to keep the Association providing the services they desire at a reasonable cost and do not wish to spend too much time on its affairs. A successful Association requires active support and participation from its members. If I were to propose to terminate the Association, concern would be expressed by a large number of members. Such a proposal would likely lead to considerable excitement and perhaps some useful discussions. I do not choose to put forth such a proposal but rather to discuss less drastic alternatives. I hope in this process to stimulate useful discussion to improve the workings of the Association. My discussion starts with an examination of the relationship of the Association and its members, then the relationship of the Association and society. Some opportunities for the Association are presented, and two strategies for the Association are developed. The AAEA and Its Members
Identification and characterization of novel NF-kB dependent genes involved in HTLV-I pathogenesis.

The NF-kB transcription factor plays pivotal roles in the pathogenesis and therapy-resistance of human cancers, including adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) induced by the oncoretrovirus HTLV-I. However, the downstream target genes of NF-kB involved in cancer biology and therapy remain largely unknown. To address this important issue, we have developed a novel approach called subtraction-based complementary gene expression cloning strategy. Given the characteristic anti-apoptosis activity of cancer cells, we used this approach to identify NF-kB-dependent anti-apoptotic genes involved in HTLV-I oncogenesis. The principle of this strategy is that expression of anti-apoptotic genes induced by HTLV-I-activated NF-kB should protect normal T cells from apoptosis induced by death inducers such as FasL. Briefly, a subtractive cDNA retroviral library enriched in genes induced by HTLV-I-NF-kB was generated and used to infect FasL-sensitive T cells. The infected T cells were treated with FasL and G418 (selective marker of cDNA expression). The FasL-and G418-resistant clones were isolated by limiting dilution, and the functional genes involved in FasL-resistance were fished out by RT-PCR and DNA sequencing. Using this strategy, several known NF-kB-dependent apoptotic genes have been identified, such as IAP1, Bcl-xL, c-FLIP and DcR2, indicating the reliability of our approach. Notably, numerous novel NF-kB-dependent anti-apoptotic genes were also identified. One of these novel genes has been confirmed to be expressed highly in HTLV-I-transformed T cells and primary ATL cells, and can be induced in normal T cells by HTLV-I in an NF-kB-dependent manner. Our mechanistic studies further indicate that this novel protein binds to mitochondria and prevents FasL activation of Bid, Caspase 9 and Caspase 3 but not Caspase 8. Currently, we are actively investigating the pathophysiological role of this novel gene in the biology and therapy of ATL and other cancers associated with deregulated NF-kB.
Virtual Game-Driven Mobility Models Description

We describe the virtual game-driven mobility model that can be used for simulations of realistic mobility models taking into account several realistic effects such as obstacles and complex infrastructures, data collection used for designing of new protocols, and efficient approach for many applications used in mobile ad hoc networks. We have also discussed how the statistical mobility models can be helpful to refine the traced data obtained from the virtual game-driven mobility model.
Management of patients with issues related to opioid safety, efficacy and/or misuse: a case series from an integrated, interdisciplinary clinic

Background Patients, providers, communities and health systems have struggled to achieve balance between access to opioid treatment for chronic pain and its potential harmful consequences: especially misuse, addiction and overdose. We developed an interdisciplinary clinic embedded within primary care (the Opioid Reassessment Clinic—ORC) with the goal of improving the quality of care of patients with co-occurring chronic pain and issues related to opioid safety, efficacy and/or misuse.
Interferometric dry mass and microspectrophotometric arginine determinations on bull sperm nuclei with normal and abnormal DNA content.

Interferometric dry mass and microspectrophotometric DNA and arginine determinations were carried out on 4000 sperm nuclei from 85 bulls. The results obtained are as follows: 1. Spermatozoa containing a constant haploid amount of DNA (3.04 × 10−9 mg.) also have a constant arginine content of 2.07 × 10−9 mg. with a DNA/arginine ratio of 1.47. 2. Spermatozoa containing variable and low amounts of DNA also have variable and usually higher amounts of arginine with a ratio of 0.95 for DNA/arginine. 3. However the dry mass of sperm nuclei with an abnormal DNA content is nearly the same as the dry mass of sperm nuclei with the normal haploid DNA content. The dry mass for each group is 7.3 × 10−9 mg. and 7.1 × 10−9 mg. respectively. 4. On the basis of the DNA, arginine and dry mass data, a protein content of 4.06 × 10−9 mg. containing 50% arginine can be computed for normal bull sperm nuclei.
Employing resilience in the United States Forest Service

The concept of resilience has permeated the discourse of many land use and environmental agencies in an attempt to articulate how to develop and implement policies concerned with the social and ecological dimensions of natural disturbances. Several distinct definitions of resilience exist, each with its own concepts, focus and contexts related to land use policy and management. This often makes understanding the inherent objectives of policies and related principles challenging. The United States Forest Service (USFS) is one example where ambiguity and uncertainty surrounding the use of resilience permeates the content of documents in various areas of the agency. The objective of this paper is to investigate how the USFS employs the term resilience as a means to communicate strategies for managing forest lands. We perform a content analysis of 121 USFS documents including budgetary justification reports, research findings (i.e., journal articles, book chapters and technical reports), public releases, and newsletters to analyze both the rise and specific use of the term resilience in the USFS. Our analysis, which is guided by definitions of resilience in the social-ecological systems literature, reveals that the ambiguity surrounding the use of resilience in the academic literature is reflected in the content of USFS documents. However, we also find that often criticized versions of resilience (namely engineering resilience) are minimally employed by the USFS, and instead the agency focuses on the notion of ecological resilience in which natural disturbances are seen as an important component of the landscape. In some cases, the USFS employs notions of social-ecological resilience, however, the extent to which specific components of social-ecological resilience are integrated into management strategies appears minimal. The findings from this study suggest that clarity regarding the type and function of resilience needs to improve in USFS documents, and that the agency should evaluate the existing question in the SES literature of resilience of what to what?
Functional Response of Regenerating Adrenal Glands to Stress.

SummaryPlasma corticosterone changes were studied in response to stress in normal rats and in animals bearing 2 regenerating adrenals and 1 regererating adrenals and 1 regenerating adrenal at intervals of 2, 3, 6 and 12 weeks after enucleation. Such glands were capable of elevating systemic blood corticosterone levels in response to stress by 2 weeks, the increase being greater in those with 2 regenerating glands than in those with one. The functional capacity of regenerating adrenals as determined by the elevation in plasma corti-costerone following stress progressively increased from minimal ability at 2 weeks to maximum capability at 12 weeks, but the functional capacity of normal adrenals was never regained.The authors wish to thank Mrs. Ann Thornberry and Mrs. Mary Lou Pranter for technical assistance.
Allograft Osteochondral Transplantation in the Knee in the Active Duty Population

The purpose of this study is to analyze the role of allograft osteochondral transplantation in the knee in the active duty population, focusing on the patient's ability to remain on active duty following the procedure. A retrospective review was performed on all active duty patients undergoing allograft osteochondral transplantation surgery of the knee at our institution from 2003 to 2011. Medical records were reviewed for patient characteristics and treatment details. Eighteen patients underwent osteochondral transplantation surgery from 2003 to 2011. One of the patients is still in the acute recovery phase of their procedure (<1 year since surgery), and one patient was already in the medical evaluation board (MEB) process at the time of surgery. Of the remaining sixteen patients, nine have either entered or completed the MEB since surgery. Six of the seven patients who have stayed on active duty remain on activity-restricting profiles. The average time from surgery to MEB for these patients was 23.2 months. In the setting of the unique demands of active duty soldiers, osteochondral allograft transplantation does not appear to be conducive to retention on active duty.
Purchasing Agents' Perceptions of Industrial Buying Center Influence: A Situational Approach:

Industrial purchasing decisions typically are influenced by several organizational members referred to as the buying center. Although there has been some research into the center's composition and ...
Sequential Separation of Lysozyme, Ovomucin, Ovotransferrin and Ovalbumin from Egg White

The objective of this study was to develop a simple, sequential separation method for multiple proteins from egg white. Separated proteins are targeted for human use, and thus any toxic compounds were excluded. The methods for individual components and the sequential separation were practiced in laboratory scale first, and then tested for scale-up. Lysozyme was separated first using a cation exchange resin and then ovomucin using isoelectric precipitation. Ovalbumin and ovotransferrin were separated from the lysozyme- and ovomucin-free egg white by precipitating ovotransferrin twice using (NH4)2SO4 and citric acid combination. After centrifugation, the supernatants were used for ovalbumin separation. The precipitants were used as ovotransferrin fraction, and the supernatant was desalted using ultrafiltration, and then heat-treated to remove impurities. The yield of ovomucin and ovalbumen was > 98% and that of ovotransferrin and lysozyme was > 82% for both laboratory and scale-up preparations. SDS-PAGE and Western Blotting of the separated proteins, except for ovomucin, showed > 90% purity and the activities of separated ovalbumin, ovotransferrin, and lysozyme were > 96%. The protocol separated four major proteins in sequence, and the method was simple and easily scaled-up. The separated proteins can be used as functional components.
The Best of Times/The Worst of Times: Aging and Dependency in the 21st Century

Can we resist the metaphor of the “wonderful one-hoss-shay” alluded to by Fries in his article ‘Aging, Natural Death and the Compression of Morbidity’ [13]? We all yearn to live in perfect physical and mental harmony with ourselves and our surroundings until some long-postponed event suddenly snatches away our lives. How stark in contrast are W. B. Yeats’ lines in his poem ‘Sailing to Byzantium’: Consume my heart away; sick with desire And fastened to a dying animal It knows not what it is.
Representation and Language

The essential and characteristic human activity is representation — that is, the production and manipulation of representations. Except for the newborn and the severely brain-damaged, all humans, of whatever time and culture, engage in it, and, insofar as we can now say with any confidence (the verdict on dolphins and the data on Martians not yet having come in), only humans do.
Africa and the European Union

This chapter probes the travails of the relations between Africa and the European Union (EU). The chapter begins by historicizing the relationship. This is then followed by the examination of the various changes that have undergirded the relationship, including probing the forces and factors that have shaped and conditioned these developments. Then, using the current phase as the basis, the chapter examines some of the major dimensions of the relationship spanning from governance to peace and security. The chapter observes that the relationship has been mediated by fragmentation, the dominant-dominated context, the dynamics of the EU’s quest for regional integration, and the broader “North-South” relationship, including the latter’s clamor for the establishment of a just global political economy.
Reading Ability and Behavior in Adolescents with Epilepsy

Thirty-four adolescents with epilepsy, controls matched for age, sex, and general ability, were studied at the University Hospital, Cardiff, Wales.
Carbaryl Prevents Attacks on Lodgepole Pine by the Mountain Pine Beetle

Resultats et consequences d'un projet pilote mene dans la Foret National de Targhee (Idaho), d'essai du carbaryl contre Deadroctonus ponderosae
A Fast Sketch-based Assembler for Genomes

De novo genome assembly describes the process of reconstructing an unknown genome from a large collection of short (or long) reads sequenced from the genome. A single run of Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technologies can produce billions of reads, making genome assembly computationally demanding. One of the major computational steps in modern day short read assemblers involves the construction and use of a string data structure called the de Bruijn graph. In fact, a majority of short read assemblers build the complete de Bruijn graph for the set of input reads, and subsequently traverse and prune low-quality edges, in order to generate genomic "contigs" --- the output of assembly. These steps of graph construction and traversal, contribute to well over 90% of the runtime and memory. In this paper, we present a fast algorithm, FastEtch, that uses sketching to build an approximate version of the de Bruijn graph for the purpose of generating an assembly. The algorithm uses Count-Min sketch, which is a probabilistic data structure for streaming data sets. The result is an approximate de Bruijn graph that stores information pertaining only to a selected subset of nodes that are most likely to contribute to the contig generation step. In addition, edges are not stored; instead that fraction which contribute to our contig generation are detected on-the-fly. This approximate approach is intended to significantly improve performance (both execution time and memory footprint) whilst possibly compromising on the output assembly quality. For further scalability, we have implemented a multi-threaded parallel code. Experimental results using our algorithm conducted on E. coli, Yeast, and C. elegans genomes show that our method is able to produce assemblies with quality comparable or better than most other state-of-the-art assemblers, while running in significantly reduced memory and time footprint.
From ray-gun to Blu-ray

There is one particular scene in H G Wells' 1898 tale The War of the Worlds that, if only I had remembered it, could have helped me to avoid a bad moment in my laser lab in 1980. In the story – published long before lasers came along in 1960 – the Martians wreak destruction on earthlings with a ray that the protagonist calls an "invisible, inevitable sword of heat", projected as if an "intensely heated finger were drawn... between me and the Martians". In all but name, Wells was describing an infrared laser emitting an invisible straight-line beam – the same type of laser that, decades later in my lab, burned through a favourite shirt and started on my arm.
Why and when is inhalation anaesthesia better

There is a much larger body of literature and wider experience worldwide with inhalation anaesthesia, i.e. with the use of sevoflurane in the last 5 years, in children compared to TIVA. Moreover, propofol is still not licensed for use in small children, with age restrictions varying from country to country, and it is difficult from the literature alone to assess the frequency of use of TIVA in paediatric anaesthetic practice. Non-paediatric anaesthesiologists find inhalation anaesthesia easier to use and therefore safer for patients. TIVA in paediatric anaesthesia could be a valid alternative to inhalation agents, but its administration certainly requires a deeper knowledge of the drug’s pharmacokinetic and the physiology of children. Even though the problem of awareness seems to be less relevant than in the past, there is at themoment no reliable technique for monitoring plasma concentration of the drugs used with intravenous anaesthesia, and an increased risk of awareness with TIVA, especially with the concurrent use of muscle relaxants, has been cited as a possible drawback to its use.
Constitutive ubiquitination of ERBB3 does not require tyrosine phosphorylation

3768 Ubiquitination of ERBB receptor tyrosine kinases, specifically EGFR and ERBB2, serves as a signal for receptor downregulation following ligand-induced activation. Deregulation of ubiquitination control can contribute to cellular transformation. While the mechanisms for EGFR and ERBB2 downregulation have been extensively studied, little is known about the components involved in the degradation of ERBB3. Following ligand stimulation and the formation of activated ERBB2/ERBB3 heterodimers, ERBB3 is rapidly degraded at rates similar to activated EGFR. However, ERBB3 also displays a high level of constitutive turnover relative to the other ERBB receptors. Here we evaluate the role of ERBB3 ubiquitination in the constitutive turnover and ligand-induced downregulation of ERBB3. We show that ERBB3 is ubiquitinated both in the absence and presence of its ligand, neuregulin. However, the degree of ERBB3 ubiquitination increases upon ligand-induced activation. Furthermore, tyrosine phosphorylation of ERBB3 is required for ligand-induced ubiquitination, but is not necessary for the ligand-independent ubiquitination of ERBB3. Kinase inhibitors that decrease ERBB3 tyrosine phosphorylation reduce ligand-induced ubiquitination of ERBB3, but have no effect on ligand-independent ubiquitination. Our data suggest that alternate mechanisms regulate the ubiquitination of ERBB3 during constitutive turnover and ligand-induced downregulation.
Irregular Work Shifts, Work Schedule Flexibility and Associations with Work-Family Conflict and Work Stress in the U.S.

Many organizations are increasingly relying on less predictable and stable shifts with shorter advance notice scheduling, even on-call work. Meanwhile, the integration of work and nonwork life is increasingly dependent on employees’ ability to receive their preferred work schedule. Some employees have been gaining more autonomy over their hours or schedules, however, many others actually have less control. When an employee works on an irregular or on-call shift, what are the effects on work-family balance and work stress? The incidence and effects of unstable work schedules are explored here using General Social Survey (GSS) data and its Quality of Worklfe (QWL) modules, and other one-time polls. Estimates are that from 10 percent to 16 percent of workers report working these kind of shifts. Empirical analyses with multi-nomial regression estimation finds that work-family conflict is worsened not only by longer weekly hours, but also by having irregular shift work. Controlling for hours worked per week, employees who work irregular shift times, in contrast with those with more standard, regular shift times, experience greater work-family conflict and in some cases, also greater work stress. The association between work-family conflict and irregular shift work is particularly strong for salaried workers, even when controlling for their relatively longer work hours. There is lower work-family conflict for those with part-time jobs, however, this is entirely attributable to their shorter working hours. The analysis finds that the adverse effect of irregular and on-call shifts can be quite moderated or mitigated by workers having schedule flexibility – ability to alter their starting and ending times and especially, to take time off during work. An employee having flexibility moderates some of the adverse negative effect of irregular work schedules on work-family balance. There are key industry differences in the associations between employer-centered and employee-centered flexibility in work scheduling. Thus, employee-centered flexibility might help counter some of the negative consequences of on-call and irregular shift working. The results suggest that preventative practices and policies that limit the extent and prevalence of work hours fluctuation would improve worker well. There is legislation recently adopted in states and municipalities across the United States, which mainly target the retail and food service industries, and consideration of a more general “right to request” schedule adjustments, modelled on the laws in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Germany, which create largely positive experiences for employees, without harm to employers.
Soils of Beaver Meadows

The Kabetogama Peninsula is underlain by dipping beds of biotite schist bedrock that form ridges and valleys which focus land surface runoff. A variety of glacial deposits that influence soil properties are superimposed upon this bedrock base. Soils derived from glaciolacustrine deposits have pedogenic carbonates and a high clay content (>30% clay), whereas soils derived from glaciofluvial deposits have a low carbonate content and are sandy. Analysis of soils from well boreholes within a single beaver meadow showed textures ranging from sandy loam (mean phi size = 3.59) to clay (mean phi size = 7.31). The soil survey for the Kabetogama Peninsula maps beaver impoundments primarily as Sax-Tacoosh complex, ponded.
Sputum cell IL-1 receptor expression level is a marker of airway neutrophilia and airflow obstruction in asthmatic patients

Background Various clinical, biologic, or physiologic markers of asthma have been used to identify patient clusters and potential targets for therapy. However, these identifiers frequently overlap among the different asthma groups. For instance, both eosinophil and neutrophil counts are often increased in the airways of asthmatic patients despite their typical association with type 2 and type 17 immune response, respectively. Objectives We sought to determine whether inflammatory gene expression is related to patterns of airway inflammation and lung function and identify molecular markers for neutrophilic asthma. Methods Expression levels of 17 genes characterizing type 1, type 2, and type 17 lymphocytes were measured in sputum samples from 48 participants with asthma. The relationships between gene expression levels and sputum cell differentials or measures of pulmonary function were examined by using partial least squares regression. Results Gene expression levels were strongly associated with cell differentials, explaining 71% of variation in eosinophil counts and 64% of variation in neutrophil counts. The 3 genes with the strongest relationships to sputum neutrophil counts were IL1R1 (standardized regression coefficient [β] = +0.27, P = .005), IL1RAP (β = +0.32, P = .0004), and IL4R (β = +0.29, P = .002). Higher expression levels of IL1R1 , IL1RAP , and IL4R were associated with reduced FEV 1 /forced vital capacity ratio (β = −0.11, −0.08, and −0.10; P = .005, .07, and .05). Conclusion IL-1 receptor appears to be a marker of neutrophilic inflammation and airflow obstruction in patients with asthma, who have a wide range of disease severity. The IL-1 pathway might contribute to airway neutrophilia and is a potential therapeutic target in patients with neutrophilic asthma.
Behavior of retail prices in common currency areas: The case of the Eurozone

Abstract Does a common currency lead to price convergence? In this paper we both theoretically and empirically show that the effect of a common currency is ambiguous. First, we extend the Ganslandt and Maskus (2007) model of vertical pricing with parallel trade. Our innovation is to consider both domestic trade, where trading costs are relatively low, and international trade, where trading costs are relatively high. If trading costs decline, the model predicts price divergence in the former case, and price convergence in the latter case. Second, using the introduction of the euro as a natural experiment that reduced trading costs, we employ difference-in-differences estimation strategy to test the model's predictions. Our results show that while individual goods prices between countries converged by 2%, within-country prices diverged by 4%, supporting the predictions of our model.
Ancient locomotion: prokaryotic motility systems.

Publisher Summary Microbial life probably originated before 3500 million years ago in the eon of time called the Hadean. With local depletion of prebiotically produced organic matter, the ability to move to more nutrient-rich locations would certainly have been of selective advantage. Apparently, the ability to locomote is extremely ancient, as it is found in clostridia, methanogenic bacteria, and desulfovibrios. These anaerobic microbes lack or have only extremely limited ability to synthesize porphyrins and isoprenoid derivatives such as carotenoids. The evolution of locomotion is intimately connected with the evolution of chemo- and phototactic sensory systems because motile obligate anaerobic microbes orient themselves in chemical and light gradients. Understanding the physicochemical basis of sensory transduction in motile, tactic, anaerobic microorganisms are an ultimate requisite for any fundamental concept of the biology of behavior and its origins. Among prokaryotes, there are three major categories of motility systems: (1) “flagellar motility,” (2) the specialized form of bacterial flagellar motility known as “spirochetal motility,” and (3) “gliding motility.” This chapter presents various ideas on prokaryotic motility systems.
Towards multiagent meta-level control

Embedded systems consisting of collaborating agents capable of interacting with their environment are becoming ubiquitous. It is crucial for these systems to be able to adapt to the dynamic and uncertain characteristics of an open environment. In this paper, we argue that multiagent meta-level control (MMLC) is an effective way to determine when this adaptation process should be done and how much effort should be invested in adaptation as opposed to continuing with the current action plan. We describe a reinforcement learning based approach to learn decentralized meta-control policies offline. We then propose to use the learned reward model as input to a global optimization algorithm to avoid conflicting meta-level decisions between coordinating agents. Our initial experiments in the context of NetRads, a multiagent tornado tracking application show that MMLC significantly improves performance in a 3-agent network.
Exposure to Violence, Coping Strategies, and Diagnosed Mental Health Problems Among Adults in a Migrant-Sending Community in Central Mexico

Deadly violence has spread throughout Mexico, affecting the well-being of citizens. What is the impact of this violence on the daily lives of Mexican adults? Building upon the stress process model, we used a mixed-methods approach to examine relationships between multiple indicators of exposure to and fear of violence and four diagnosed mental health outcomes, as well as self-rated mental health, in a Mexican community using the Survey of Health and Mexican Migration (456 surveys; 49 interviews). The multivariate models provide evidence that perceptions of insecurity are associated with diagnosed depressive episode, agoraphobia, alcohol abuse, a total count of mental health conditions, and poor self-rated mental health. Past victimization is associated with anxiety. Stress and coping behaviors did not formally mediate these violence–mental illness associations. The qualitative results confirm that residents fear violence and cope by adjusting their personal behaviors. These results foreshadow the emergence of mental health conditions as a critical public health concern for Mexicans living under the threat of violence.
Securitization of Islam in US Foreign Policy: The Clinton Administration

The Bush administration decided to make Islam a security issue and play along with the advocates who wanted to securitize Islam. President Bush increased the security alert in the USA through fear with the help of the media. Afterward, security was given a religious flavor, with his “crusade” and “call from God” claims. The Bush administration securitized Islam through association as the “other”, the opposite of what America, democracy, and the “civilized world” stand for.
Transient shear flow of fluids with deformable microstructure

The case of fluids which experience small microstructure deformations from an initially spherical shape is examined. Solutions are presented for transient shear flows.
Planar graphs and matroids

We have discussed planar graphs, their characterization, testing and generation of codes. We have shown that the codes solve the isomorphism and automorphism group problems. Since matroids give a complete theory of duality for graphs, it is to be expected that they yield insights and characterizations for planar graphs. Conversely, a fertile field of research is to generalize known conditions on planar graphs to realizability conditions on matroids. Tutte has provided one such theorem and Welsh another. The wheel algorithm for testing planarity that we discussed yields a third characterization of matroids.
Applications of Spaces with Filters to Archimedean ℓ-Groups with Weak Unit

Let W be the category of archimedean l-groups with weak unit. The usual Yosida representation of G ∈ W is one of the many embeddings of G into a D(X) taking the unit to the constant function 1, but the only one with G separating the points of X. It has the further pleasure of being contravariantly functorial from W to compact Hausdorff spaces. We label this as G→ Ĝ ⊆ D(YG), and the functor as W →Y Comp. (The situation is described more fully in the next section.)
Kinetics of plasma-assisted oxidation of highly diluted hydrocarbon mixtures excited by a repetitive nanosecond pulse discharge

Plasma-assisted oxidation of atmospheric pressure hydrogen- and hydrocarbon-oxygen mixtures diluted in argon is analyzed by kinetic modeling, over a wide range of temperatures. In the experiments, preheated reactant mixtures are excited by a repetitively pulsed, double dielectric barrier ns discharge in plane-to-plane geometry, at near-isothermal conditions. Plasma images and temperature distributions in the discharge indicate that the reactant flow is nearly uniform, justifying the use of quasi-0D approximation in kinetic modeling. The kinetic model is based on a plasma chemistry mechanism combined with a conventional combustion reaction mechanism. The model does not contain adjustable parameters such as reduced electric field in the plasma, used in a number of previous 0D modeling studies. Comparison of the modeling predictions with the experimental data for hydrogen and methane oxidation exhibits good agreement between measured and predicted fuel concentrations over a wide range of temperatures, showing that the yield of primary radicals generated in the plasma is predicted accurately. Concentrations of intermediate hydrocarbon species predicted by the model are also in good agreement with the experiments, with the exception of acetylene below the hot ignition point. For ethylene and propane oxidation, the model overpredicts fuel consumption at low temperatures, also overpredicting concentration of CO, the dominant oxidation product, and underpredicting acetaldehyde concentration. This indicates that low-temperature pathways of formaldehyde formation, a major precursor for CO, as well as low-temperature reactions of several radicals which are precursors for formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, are not represented accurately in both conventional reaction mechanisms used. Although concentrations of intermediate hydrocarbon species in ethylene and propane are predicted relatively well, kinetics of formation and decay of acetylene remains not understood. This may be due to inaccurate branching ratio for dissociative quenching of metastable argon by heavy hydrocarbon species, as well as deficiencies of the conventional reaction mechanisms.
An immersed discontinuous finite element method for the Stokes problem with a moving interface

Abstract We present a discontinuous immersed finite element (IFE) method for incompressible interfacial flows that are governed by the Stokes equations. The method is based on a Cartesian mesh with elements cut by the moving interface. On this fixed unfitted mesh, we employ an immersed Q 1 ∕ Q 0 finite element space constructed according to the location of the interface and pertinent interface jump conditions. As such, the smearing of solution across the interface is greatly reduced. The interface, represented by a sequence of marker points, is advected on the fixed background mesh by the local fluid velocity. The mesh is locally refined near the interface to further improve accuracy. Compared with the phase-field method on adaptive meshes, our method can achieve the same level of accuracy with much less degrees of freedoms. We present some numerical examples to validate and demonstrate the capability of the proposed method.
Bipolar disorder and psychotropic medication: Impact on pregnancy and neonatal outcomes.

Abstract Objective The hypotheses were: (1) pregnant women with bipolar disorder (BD) have less favorable pregnancy outcomes than unaffected women, and (2) psychotropic treated women with BD have better outcomes than un-medicated women. Method This prospective study included 174 mother-infant dyads. Women had BD without psychotropic exposure (BD-NP, n = 38), BD with psychotropic treatment (BD-P, n = 49), or neither psychotropic exposure nor major mood disorder (Comp, n = 87). Maternal characteristics were completed at 20 weeks gestation and evaluated for associations with delivery and birth outcomes. We performed multiple regressions on infant outcomes with adjustment for maternal age, race, employment status, use of illicit drugs and pre-pregnancy BMI. Results The BP-P, BP-NP and Comp groups varied significantly on sociodemographic characteristics. Women with BD were more likely to be less educated, unemployed, single, and use tobacco and illicit drugs than women in the Comp group. Compared to women with BD-NP, women with BD-P were more likely to be older and educated. Approximately 10% of all infants were delivered preterm. No significant differences in outcome occurred for APGAR scores Conclusions The overall pregnancy outcomes for women with BD were similar to those in the Comp group. The reduced HC in women with untreated BD appears due to factors related to disadvantaged sociodemographic status, a higher proportion of female births, and/or a protective effect of medication in the BD-P group.
Oxidative stress, autophagy and airway ion transport.

Mucociliary clearance is critically important in protecting the airways from infection and from the harmful effects of smoke and various inspired substances known to induce oxidative stress and per...
Deletion of p38α MAPK in microglia blunts trauma-induced inflammatory responses in mice

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the USA and other developed countries worldwide. Following the initial mechanical insult, the brain’s primary innate immune effector, microglia, initiate inflammatory signaling cascades and pathophysiological responses that can lead to chronic neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative sequelae. The p38α MAPK signaling pathway in microglia is a key contributor to inflammatory responses to diverse disease-relevant stressors and injury conditions. Therefore, we tested here whether microglia p38α contributes to acute and persistent inflammatory responses induced by a focal TBI. We generated conditional cell-specific knockout of p38α in microglia using a CX3CR1 Cre-lox system, subjected the p38α knockout and wild-type mice to a controlled cortical impact TBI, and measured inflammatory responses at acute (1-day) and subacute (7-day) post-injury time points. We found that deletion of p38α in microglia only was sufficient to attenuate multiple pro-inflammatory responses following TBI, notably reducing pro-inflammatory cytokine/chemokine production and recruitment of inflammatory monocytes into the brain and preventing the persistent microglial morphological activation. These data provide strong evidence supporting a role for microglial p38α in propagation of a chronic and potentially neurotoxic pro-inflammatory environment in the brain following TBI.
An inquiry on the impact of highly-skilled STEM immigration on the U.S. economy

Abstract This article estimates the potential economic benefits of STEM immigration and examines the impact of highly skilled STEM immigration on the wage structure in the United States. Considering that foreign-born share of STEM workers has been increasing rapidly in recent years, there are new interests in examining the extent to which labor market outcomes of natives – and immigrants alike – are affected by this supply inflow. The analysis yields a few main findings. First, U.S. and foreign-born STEM workers with similar skills have a high but finite elasticity of substitution ( ∼ 18), implying that the adverse impact of STEM immigration would be more concentrated among immigrant STEM workers themselves. Second, 2000–2015 foreign STEM labor supply shock increases the average wage of preexisting U.S.-born STEM workers by 4.67%. This finding, however, masks a distributional consequence of the shock as native STEM workers with higher educational attainment experience lower wage gains. Finally, the economic benefit for native workers from 2000–2015 foreign STEM supply shock is approximately 103 billion USD or 1.03% of U.S. GDP in 1999. Almost all of this benefit comes from the productivity spillovers associated with high-skilled STEM immigration that increase the productivity and wages of U.S.-born workers.
Direct Amplification of Tissue Factor:Factor VIIa Procoagulant Activity by Bile Acids Drives Intrahepatic Coagulation.

Objective: Regulation of TF (tissue factor):FVIIa (coagulation factor VIIa) complex procoagulant activity is especially critical in tissues where plasma can contact TF-expressing cells. One example...
Combination antibiotic PMMA composites provide sustained broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and allow for post-implantation refilling

ABSTRACT Antibiotics are commonly added to poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) by surgeons to locally treat infections such as in bone cement for joint replacement surgeries, but also as implantable antimicrobial “beads”. However, this strategy is of limited value in high risk patients where infections can be recurrent or chronic and otherwise hard to treat. Also when only one drug is incorporated and applied toward poly-microbial infections (multiple bacterial species), there is a high risk that bacteria can develop antibiotic resistance. To combat these limitations, we developed a combination-antibiotic PMMA composite system comprised of rifampicin-filled β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) microparticles added into PMMA filled with a second drug. Different formulations were evaluated through Zone-of-Inhibition, drug activity, antibiotic release and re-filling, as well as mechanical studies. Our combination-antibiotic PMMA composite system achieved up to an eight-fold increase in duration of antimicrobial activity in comparison to clinically used antibiotic-filled PMMA. Inclusion of CD microparticles also allowed for refilling of additional antibiotics after simulated implantation, resulting in additional windows of therapeutic efficacy. Mechanical testing showed that our tested formulations did have a small, but significant decrease in mechanical properties when compared to unmodified controls. While further studies are needed to determine whether the tested formulations are still suitable for load-bearing applications (e.g. bone cement), our composites are certainly amenable for a variety of non-load bearing applications (e.g. antimicrobial “beads” and temporary spacer in two-stage arthroscopic revisions).