cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Severe hypertriglyceridaemia in clinically ill horses: diagnosis, treatment and outcome.

Summary Reasons for performing study: Sporadic measurement of serum triglycerides in depressed and inappetant clinically ill horses revealed severe hypertriglyceridaemia without visible evidence of lipaemia on several occasions, leading to the inclusion of serum triglyceride concentrations in the routine serum biochemistry evaluation of our hospital. Since then, more cases have been identified and treated for hypertriglyceridaemia, raising questions about the prevalence, predisposing factors and significance of these findings. Hypotheses: 1) Severe hypertriglyceridaemia without visible opacity of the serum occurs more commonly in clinically ill and inappetant horses than previously described and 2) appropriate treatment using i.v. dextrose and/or partial parenteral nutrition would decrease serum triglycerides to normal limits and might result in improved appetite and attitude of the patient. Methods: The laboratory computer database from 2000 and 2001 was searched for increased serum triglycerides (>5.65 mmol/l) in any horse breed, ponies and miniature breeds excluded. Data analysed included subject details, diagnosis, clinical and laboratory parameters, treatment, response to treatment and outcome. Results: Severe hypertriglyceridaemia was identified in 13 horses, with serum triglyceride concentrations 6.17–18.29 mmol/l, while none showed visible lipaemia. All horses had clinical and laboratory findings consistent with systemic inflammatory response syndrome and all but one had an increased serum creatinine concentration. Treatment with i.v. dextrose and/or partial parenteral nutrition resulted in decrease of the serum triglycerides to normal limits. Conclusions: Severe hypertriglyceridaemia occurs in inappetant and clinically ill horses without evidence of serum opacity more commonly than previously described. The presence of systemic inflammatory response syndrome might predispose horses to hypertriglyceridaemia, while the increased creatinine concentration might be a predisposing factor or result of the condition. Horses identified in our study readily responded to treatment and appetite and attitude improved coincident with decrease of the serum triglycerides to normal limits. Potential relevance: Hypertriglyceridaemia could perpetuate inappetance and depression in clinically ill horses and potentially predispose to fatty infiltration of the liver and other organ systems.
The in vivo determination of the biological decay of thyroidal radioiodine.

PRACTICALLY all experimental studies with radioiodine in the rat have been peformed by various methods which involve measurement of beta radiation of I131. Althoughthis method of determining radioiodine is accurate and sensitive, it involves killing the animal and preparing various tissues, chiefly the thyroid, in appropriate fashion for counting. Because of the variation among animals it is necessary to use fairly large numbers in any seriesof experiments. In vivo methods of measuring radioactive iodine depend on the detection of gamma radiation and are therefore less accurate and sensitive than those dependent on beta radiation. However, in vivo methods have the singular advantage that serial observations may be made on the same animal, which can be then subjected to a variety of conditions.This unusual advantage made it worth while to investigate the feasibility of an in vivo method for use in experimental studies on thyroidal function in the rat.
Combined task and message scheduling in distributed real-time systems

The paper presents an algorithm for offline scheduling of communicating tasks with precedence and exclusion constraints in distributed hard real time systems. Tasks are assumed to communicate via message passing based on a time bounded communication paradigm, such as the real time channel (D.D. Kandlur et al., 1994). The algorithm uses a branch-and-bound (B & B) technique to search for a task schedule by minimizing maximum task lateness (defined as the difference between task completion time and task deadline), and exploits the interplay between task and message scheduling to improve the quality of solution. It generates a complete schedule at each vertex in the search tree, and can be made to yield a feasible schedule (found before reaching an optimal solution), or proceed until an optimal task schedule is found. We have conducted an extensive simulation study to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm. The algorithm is shown to scale well with respect to system size and degree of intertask interactions. It also offers good performance for workloads with a wide range of CPU utilizations and application concurrency. For larger systems and higher loads, we introduce a greedy heuristic that is faster but has no optimality properties. We have also extended the algorithm to a more general resource-constraint model, thus widening its application domain.
Ultrasonic Air Temperature Sensing for Automatic Climate Control - Sensor Development

Automatic climate control could be improved by measuring air temperature ultrasonically. Thermal comfort correlates better with bulk air temperature than with the temperature measured by the in-car sensor. The time of flight of an ultrasonic pulse through the air gives the bulk air temperature. In a proof-of-concept experiment, it is accurate to ′ 0.5 °C from -40 to +60 °C. Two operational modes are demonstrated: pulse-echo in which a single transducer creates a pulse and detects its return from a reflector, and single-pass in which a source transducer creates a pulse that travels directly to a separate transducer.
Flowfield Measurements in a Single Row of Low Aspect Ratio Pin-Fins

Pin-fin arrays are commonly used as compact heat exchangers for cooling the trailing edge of gas turbine airfoils. While much research has been devoted to the heat transfer characteristics of various pin-fin configurations, little work has been done to investigate the flowfield in pin-fin arrays. Such information may allow for further optimization of pin-fin configurations. A new pin-fin facility at large scale has been constructed to allow optical access for the use of non-intrusive measurement techniques such as laser Doppler velocimetry and time-resolved, digital particle image velocimetry. Using these techniques, the flow through a single row of pin-fins having a height-to-diameter ratio of 2 and span-to-diameter ratio of 2.5 was investigated. Results show that the length of the wake region decreases with increasing Reynolds number. At higher Reynolds numbers, Karman vortices developed closer to the pin-fins than for single, infinitely long cylinders. Transverse fluctuations correlated well with endwall heat transfer indicating that the Karman vortices play a key role in energy transport.Copyright © 2011 by ASME
The Subject Role in Small Group Experiments

Abstract : The social psychological experiment is seen as a system of experimenters and subjects, instead of the classical experimental model of introduction of single variables into a controlled situation. The experiment is a special kind of interpersonal system, very similar to that described as play, namely separate in time and space, uncertain, unproductive, free and governed by rules and make believe. Methodological difficulties occur because experimenters and subjects do not play the same game and because of the overlap of the game system with the part of the subject's life situation. Several studies are described which investigate the effects of the difficulties in taking the subject role. One study showed the different meanings of volunteering for an experiment for men and women. Another set of experiments showed, through physicological measures, the meaning of different phases of the experiment for the subject. Examination of these methodological studies shows the gain for the understanding of experimental results through the use of the play-model. (Author)
Systems Theory in Physical Geography

Information used in systems is organized into a hierarchy of five levels, following W. H. Terjung; first, collected data; second, sets of morphological variables; third, flow systems of energy and matter; fourth, process-form systems; fifth, systems regulated by cybernetic feedback. System variables, rigorously defined by dimensional analysis, are grouped into four classes: A. dynamic variables related to energy force, and stress; B. mass-flow variables expressing rates of flow of matter; C. geometry variables describing size and form within systems; D. material-property variables, including environmental constants and regulator variables. The second level of systems analysis interrelates a set of morphological elements in a meaningful way in terms of system origin or function. Correlation and regression methods establish significant relationships among variables, which may be stated as empirical or rational equations based on field or laboratory observations. Open energy flow systems and open or closed m...
Chemical partitioning for the Co--Pr system: First-principles, experiments and energetic calculations to investigate the hard magnetic phase

Abstract Co5Pr-D2d is promising permanent magnet. Due to its peritectic formation feature, there is a synthetic challenge to produce single Co5Pr-D2d phase. The object of this study is to assess thermodynamic pathways for crystalline phases under far-from-equilibrium conditions by combining first-principles calculations and experimental measurements into a robust description of the thermodynamic behavior. With the energetic calculations, temperature and time dependent phase selections are predicted under varying degrees of chemical partitioning. Our calculation to assess the chemical partitioning-temperatures indicates that the major magnetic compounds: Co17Pr2-α, Co5Pr-D2d, Co19Pr5-β, and Co7Pr2-χ form from a congruent manner to eutectic reactions with decreasing cooling rate. The compositions of the compounds from these highly driven liquids can be far from equilibrium.
An Integrated approach for characterization of polyamide reverse osmosis membrane degradation due to exposure to free chlorine

Abstract Reverse osmosis (RO) polyamide (PA) membrane integrity loss, performance degradation, and alteration of surface properties due to exposure to chlorine were evaluated experimentally via a fluorescent marker (uranine) based method, water permeability and salt flux measurements, and surface characterization via XPS, AFM and contact angle measurements. Membrane exposure to chlorine (4–200 mg/L NaOCl solutions) revealed that although membrane surface roughness increased with chlorine exposure intensity (ppm-h), surface hydrophilicity increased as inferred by the decline (up to 5.2–9.6%) of the surface energy of hydration. Comparative analysis of marker transport for membranes that have undergone chlorine exposure of 125–2000 ppm-h demonstrated that the membrane marker permeability coefficient (B) increased by up to a factor of ~5 relative to the intact membrane. While the severity of membrane integrity loss/performance degradation correlated to a reasonable degree with ppm-h of chlorine exposure, the severity of membrane integrity loss, at the same chlorine ppm-h, was greater for higher exposure concentration. Membrane integrity loss, over the same exposure levels, was quantified by an equivalent cylindrical breach that was in the range of about 14–40 µm, increasing in size with the intensity of chlorine exposure.
When Mathematics and Statistics Collide in Assessment Tasks.

Summary Because the disciplines of mathematics and statistics are naturally intertwined, designing assessment questions that disentangle mathematical and statistical reasoning can be challenging. We explore the writing statistics assessment tasks that take into consideration potential mathematical reasoning they may inadvertently activate.
Strain Monitoring Near Through Silicon Vias Using Metal Piezoresistive Sensors

With 3D system packaging, more chips will be stacked on top of each other and connected by through silicon vias (TSVs). TSVs enable not only miniaturization, but also high bandwidth, lower power consumption, heterogeneous integration and minimal interconnect latency. Due to the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) of various materials in 3D packaging systems, high thermomechanical stresses develop. Stress measurements near these TSVs and bump pads are important to help understand the evolution of die stresses associated with the packaging process. Depending on the package, the pitch of vias/bumps ranges from a few microns to a few tens of microns. Unlike currently-used piezoresistive doped Si sensors that require high-temperature processing, metal-based sensors use low-temperature standard cleanroom processes such as UV lithography and physical vapor deposition. In this paper, nichrome metallic sensors have been fabricated using standard cleanroom processes, and the gauge factor of the sensing material has been determined through tensile and compressive loadings. In parallel to the experiments, finite-element simulations have been carried out to assess the influence of sensors on local stress fields, and it is found that although the influence is minimal for micro-scale sensors, it is essential to account for such change in stress fields.Copyright © 2014 by ASME
Evaluating Architectural Design Decision Paradigms in Global Software Development

Global software development (GSD) is considered as the coordinated activities of software development that are geographically and temporally distributed. The management of architectural knowledge, specifically, architectural design decisions (ADDs), becomes important in GSD due to the geographical, temporal, and cultural challenges in global environments. Based on our previous work on ADD management in localized software development, we present five ADD paradigms for GSD projects with different organizational structures. We also investigate the benefits and the challenges of these ADD paradigms by conducting an evaluation of the paradigms using extensive archived semi-structured interview data from industrial GSD projects. We aim to provide a fundamental framework for managing ADD documentation and evolution in GSD, as well as offer useful insights into managing architectural knowledge in a global setting.
An Ergonomic Analysis of Waste Container Handling: Part II:

This study examined the effects of waste container handling on surface electromyographic activity of the erector spinae, infraspinatus and upper trapezius muscles, trunk kinematics (position, velocity and acceleration) measured in three planes (lateral, sagittal and transverse), spinal loading at the L5/S1 region and low back disorder (LBD) risk. Eleven field technicians at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) were asked to manipulate 30 and 55 gallon waste drums and carry a 5 gallon carboys in their workplace. Results showed that there was a statistically significant difference in muscle load on the erector spinae during drum handling activities. Loading and unloading the 55-gallon drums required more force from all muscle groups than the 35-gallon drums. Muscle peak load did not show a significant difference between 35 and 55 gallon drum rolling. For carboy transport, peak muscle activity is greater for all muscle groups with the two carboy carry. The calculated LBD risk also recognized the...
Experimental Characterization of Plasmonic Modes in a Multimode Metal-Insulator-Metal Waveguide by Attenuated Total Reflection

For the first time, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, the effective index and attenuation coefficient are measured individually for each mode in a multimode metal-insulatormetal (MIM) waveguide.
Useful and Much-Needed: Methods of Psychology

(1949). Useful and Much-Needed: Methods of Psychology. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 162-162.
Brainstem Auditory Evoked Potential Recording in Patients with Epilepsy

The brain stem auditory evoked potential (BSAEP) was recorded in 32 normal control subjects and 81 epileptic patients. Statistically significant differences in regard to sex and laterality of ear stimulated were found to exist in both groups. The epileptic patients also had significantly longer latencies for all wave components and interwaves I-III as well as I-IV than the normal controls. There were no differences in regard to interwave latency III-V. Clinically significant latency prolongations (more than three standard deviations from the norm) were encountered especially in regard to waves I and III. Correlations of wave and interwave latencies with a large variety of clinical variables showed that statistically significant relationships existed mainly in regard to presence or absence of brain damage and the severity of the seizure disorder, as expressed by the number of different seizure types to which a given patient was subject. Waves II and III showed the most consistent latency prolongations for these variables. Anticonvulsant medication levels did affect wave latencies, but apart from Primidone, it involved waves IV through VII rather than II and III. Carbamazepine levels were related to prolongation of I-III interwave latency. It is concluded that severely brain-damaged epileptic patients have demonstrable brain stem dysfunction affecting mainly the medullo-pontine rather than midbrain or thalamic structures.
Modern bureaucracy and post-bureaucracy:dilemmatic choice for administrator in 21st century

Modern bureaucracy can overcome rule-by-man factors with reasonable design and ensure organization high-effective operation.But its inherent value split causes person's dissimilation,aiming at this defect,post-bureaucracy comes into being. Which administrator in 21st century must to do is not to judge reasonably certain dimensionality,is not to accept or reject simply bureaucracy and post-bureaucracy,but is to practise a kind of public organization and culture mode which is according with Chinese development actuality,scientific,reasonable,rule-by-law,contracted,creative and subject.
RFI-radar signal separation via simultaneous low-rank and sparse recovery

This paper presents a simple adaptive framework for robust separation and extraction of multiple sources of radio-frequency interference (RFI) from raw ultra-wideband (UWB) radar signals via simultaneous low-rank and sparse recovery in challenging bandwidth management environments. RFI sources pose critical challenges for UWB systems since (i) RFI often occupies a wide range of the radar's operating frequency spectrum; (ii) RFI might have significant power; and (iii) RFI signals are difficult to predict and model due to the non-stationary nature and the complexity of various communication devices. Our proposed framework advocates a joint sparse-and-low-rank recovery approach in the spirit of robust principal component analysis (RPCA) that simultaneously solves for RFI signals as low-rank structures and UWB synthetic aperture radar (SAR) signals as sparse impulsive outliers. Our technique is completely adaptive in highly time-varying environments and does not require any prior knowledge of the RFI sources (other than the low-rank assumption). Our method can be implemented as a denoising pre-processing stage for raw radar signals prior to image formation and other follow-up tasks such as target detection and classification. Recovery results from extensive simulated data sets as well as real-world signals collected by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) UWB SAR systems illustrate the robustness and effectiveness of our framework.
Vocational Psychology, Overview

The discipline of vocational psychology centers on theory and research concerning vocational behavior across the life-span. This article traces the history of the field through its current status and outlines its major constructs and research programs including vocational interests, person-environment fit, vocational personality types, career choice, career indecision, self-efficacy, work adjustment, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, career development stages, and career construction.
Message From the Incoming Editor-in-Chief

It was a great honor when the Antennas and Propagation Society President Prof. Michael A. Jensen informed me that I was selected by the Administrative Committee (AdCom) of the Antennas and Propagation Society (APS) as the next Editor-in-Chief (EiC) of the IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Propagation (TAP), with an official start date of Aug. 1, 2016. I am thankful to everyone that supported my nomination and I will do my best to give my contribution to improve this Transactions.
Heat capacity calorimetry

Experimental heat capacity measurements of α-ZrW2O8, and zeolitic polymorphs of SiO2, BEA and MFI, have been made from 0.6 to 400 K. Measurements on β-ZrMo2O8 have been made from 8 to 400 K. Analysis of the results yields evidence for very low frequency modes in all four materials. These modes are responsible for negative thermal expansion behavior in α-ZrW2O8 and β-ZrMo2O8. Negative thermal expansion has been observed in some pure SiO2 zeolites, but no studies have been made to look for it in BEA and MFI. The appearance of low frequency modes in these two zeolites suggests that temperature dependent structural investigations would be worthwhile. These modes are lower in energy than the Boson peak in vitreous silica.
Effects of over-expressing a native gene encoding 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS) on glyphosate resistance in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Widespread overuse of the herbicide glyphosate, the active ingredient in RoundUp®, has led to the evolution of glyphosate-resistant weed biotypes, some of which persist by overproducing the herbicide’s target enzyme, 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase (EPSPS). EPSPS is a key enzyme in the shikimic acid pathway for biosynthesis of aromatic amino acids, lignin, and defensive compounds, but little is known about how overproducing EPSPS affects downstream metabolites, growth, or lifetime fitness in the absence of glyphosate. We are using Arabidopsis as a model system for investigating phenotypic effects of overproducing EPSPS, thereby avoiding confounding effects of genetic background or other mechanisms of herbicide resistance in agricultural weeds. Here, we report results from the first stage of this project. We designed a binary vector expressing a native EPSPS gene from Arabidopsis under control of the CaMV35S promoter (labelled OX, for over-expression). For both OX and the empty vector (labelled EV), we obtained nine independent T3 lines. Subsets of these lines were used to characterize glyphosate resistance in greenhouse experiments. Seven of the nine OX lines exhibited enhanced glyphosate resistance when compared to EV and wild-type control lines, and one of these was discarded due to severe deformities. The remaining six OX lines exhibited enhanced EPSPS gene expression and glyphosate resistance compared to controls. Glyphosate resistance was correlated with the degree of EPSPS over-expression for both vegetative and flowering plants, indicating that glyphosate resistance can be used as a surrogate for EPSPS expression levels in this system. These findings set the stage for examination of the effects of EPSPS over-expression on fitness-related traits in the absence of glyphosate. We invite other investigators to contact us if they wish to study gene expression, downstream metabolic effects, and other questions with these particular lines.
Proliferative glomerulonephritis with monoclonal IgG deposits; an unusual cause of de novo disease in kidney allograft.

Background: Proliferative glomerulonephritis with monoclonal IgG deposits (PGNMID) is a newly described and rare entity that can develop in native and very rarely in transplanted kidneys. We present a patient who developed de novo PGNMID in the kidney allograft along with a review of the literature. Case Presentation: A 38-year old female with type 1 diabetes who underwent successful simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplantation 6 years earlier presented with rising serum creatinine, nephrotic range proteinuria and microhematuria. She underwent extensive work up and kidney allograft biopsy revealed mesangial expansion and hypercelluarity on light microscopy, mesangial staining for IgG3, kappa light chains, C1q and C3 on immunofluorescence and abundant mesangial electron dense deposits without substructures on electron microscopy. Serum and urine immunofixation electrophoresis were negative. A diagnosis of de novo PGNMID was made. Patient’s proteinuria improved and serum creatinine stabilized with conservative therapy. Conclusions: PGNMID can rarely develop in kidney allograft as recurrent or de novo disease and may be mislabeled as transplant glomerulopathy if careful immunofluorescence and electron microscopy are not performed on biopsy specimens. Further studies are needed to better understand the pathogenesis of this disease entity and to develop optimal therapeutic approaches.
18F-FDOPA PET/MRI for monitoring early response to bevacizumab in children with recurrent brain tumors.

Background Noninvasively predicting early response to therapy in recurrent pediatric brain tumors provides a challenge. 3,4-dihydroxy-6-[18F]fluoro-L-phenylalanine (18F-FDOPA) PET/MRI has not been previously studied as a tool to evaluate early response to antiangiogenic therapy in children. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the safety and feasibility of using 18F-FDOPA PET/MRI to assess response to bevacizumab in children with relapsed brain tumors. Materials and methods Six patients with recurrent gliomas (5 low-grade, 1 high-grade) planned to undergo treatment with bevacizumab were enrolled. 18F-FDOPA PET/MRI scans were obtained prior to and 4 weeks following the start of treatment, and these were compared with the clinical response determined at the 3-month MRI. The primary PET measure was metabolic tumor volume (MTV) at 10 to 15 min after 18F-FDOPA injection. For each tumor, the MTV was determined by manually defining initial tumor volumes of interest (VOI) and then applying a 1.5-fold threshold relative to the mean standardized uptake value (SUV) of a VOI in the frontal lobe contralateral to the tumor. Results 18F-FDOPA PET/MRI was well tolerated by all patients. All tumors were well visualized with 18F-FDOPA on the initial study, with peak tumor uptake occurring approximately 10 min after injection. Maximum and mean SUVs as well as tumor-to-brain ratios were not predictors of response at 3 months. Changes in MTVs after therapy ranged from 23% to 98% (n = 5). There is a trend towards the percent MTV change seen on the 4-week scan correlating with progression-free survival. Conclusion 18F-FDOPA PET/MRI was well tolerated in pediatric patients and merits further investigation as an early predictor of response to therapy.
Calcium-Dependent Arrhythmogenic Foci Created by Weakly Coupled Myocytes in the Failing Heart.

Rationale: Intercellular uncoupling and Ca mishandling can initiate triggered ventricular arrhythmias. Spontaneous Ca release activates inward current which depolarizes membrane potential (V m ) and can trigger action potentials in isolated myocytes. However, cell-cell coupling in intact hearts limits local depolarization and may protect hearts from this arrhythmogenic mechanism. Traditional optical mapping lacks the spatial resolution to assess coupling of individual myocytes. Objective: We investigate local intercellular coupling in Ca-induced depolarization in intact hearts, using confocal microscopy to measure local V m and intracellular [Ca 2+ ] ([Ca] i ) simultaneously. Methods and Results: We used isolated Langendorff-perfused hearts from control (CTL) and HF mice (HF induced by trans-aortic constriction). In CTL hearts, 1.4 % of myocytes were poorly synchronized with neighboring cells and exhibited asynchronous Ca 2+ transients (AS). These AS myocytes were much more frequent in HF (10.8% of myocytes, p m in HF but not CTL hearts, suggesting weaker gap junction coupling in HF-AS vs. CTL-AS myocytes. Cell-cell coupling was assessed by calcein fluorescence recovery after photobleach (FRAP) during [Ca] i recording. All regions in CTL hearts exhibited faster calcein diffusion than in HF, with HF-AS myocyte being slowest. In HF-AS, enhancing gap junction conductance (with rotigaptide) increased coupling and suppressed V m depolarization during Ca waves. Conversely, in CTL hearts, gap junction inhibition (carbenoxolone) decreased coupling and allowed Ca-wave-induced depolarizations. Synchronization of Ca wave initiation and triggered action potentials were observed in HF hearts and computational models. Conclusions: > Well-coupled CTL myocytes are effectively voltage-clamped during Ca waves, protecting the heart from triggered arrhythmias. Spontaneous Ca waves are much more common in HF myocytes and these AS myocytes are also poorly coupled, enabling local Ca-induced inward current of sufficient source strength to overcome a weakened current sink to depolarize V m and trigger action potentials.
Development of The Integration Profile (TIP) Faith and Work Integration Scale

The emergence and scope of personal and collective efforts to integrate faith into workplaces is a social movement that includes and extends beyond personal ethics. This paper discusses the development of The Integration Profile (TIP) Faith and Work Integration Scale, which is designed to measure the multidimensional nature of faith expressions within workplace settings. TIP measures the manifestations of faith, religion, and spirituality at the individual level. Earlier research theorized that individuals tend to manifest or live out their faith in one of four ways (Miller in God at work: the history and promise of the faith at work movement, Oxford University Press, New York, 2007); TIP expands this to assess eight sub-orientations, nested within the four main manifestations of faith–work integration. The development of the 24-item TIP scale involved exploratory analyses in a sample of 512 employees of a for-profit palliative care organization and a hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis in a sample of 4463 employees in an American multinational food processing organization. Additional analyses were conducted in a third sample of 266 working adults to assess the convergent and discriminant validity of the eight sub-orientations with other faith variables as well as associations with work outcomes.
The Distribution of City Sizes in Asian Countries

Many studies have dealt with the growing urban population and related problems of large cities in Asia, but there are very few studies of urbanization problems and city-region relationships in Asian countries. A recent study by Das and Dutt (1993) provides an excellent analysis of the historical change in city-size distribution in India, and the relationship between rank-size distribution and an integrated urban system. The patterns of urbanization and city-region relationships are important in national development because the extent to which urban centers form a national system influences the diffusion of innovations down the system of city-sizes. The system of city-sizes is the means by which growth and change are transmitted throughout the economy and integrated national development is achieved and maintained.
On the Origins of Children's Compliance and Opposition: Family Context, Reinforcement, and Rules

Interactional synchrony and context dependent reinforcement are presented as similar phenomena in this discussion of children's dispositions to comply with or to oppose parental instructions. I argue that consistent and appropriate parental reactions to the full range of a child's response repertoire will establish a family context conducive to positive reinforcement of child compliance. In contrast, inconsistent parental reactions appear to create a chaotic family context conducive to the negative reinforcement of child opposition. Depending on these two forms of context, the parents and children seem to generate distinctive personal rules which outline the functional arrangements of context, behavior and reinforcement. The importance of these personal rules in helping parents and children to improve the lawfulness of family context is highlighted.
Impact of Compound and Reduced Specifications on Valuation of Projects with Multiple Risks

Several firms make business decisions based on risk specifications or estimates provided by domain-experts. But research on whether the format of risk specifications systematically affects decision making in multi-dimensional environments is scarce. We show using laboratory experiments that subjective valuations of multi-dimensional projects are highly sensitive to the format of risk specifications. We considered a technology project that has two dimensions each with an associated risk, and would be considered a success when favorable outcomes occur on both dimensions. Participants were provided with the probabilities of success for each dimension, in two different specifications. In the simple risk specification, each probability was specified as a point estimate. In the compound risk specification, each probability was specified as a two-point distribution. The data show that decision-making under compound specifications is subject to two biases in processing conjunctive events and compound risk specifications; these biases act in opposite directions, and as outcome, judgmental valuations for the technology are closer to the true value with compound risk specification versus with simple risk specification. These results have an important implication for communicating risk: when compound risk specifications are available for multiple risks, substituting them with simple risk specifications leads to an overly optimistic outlook during decision-making.
Health behavior changes in African American family members facing lung cancer: Tensions and compromises.

Abstract Purpose Behavioral interventions targeting cancer survivors often fail to address the clustering of unhealthy behaviors among family members and friends, and the impact of close relationships on behavior change. The study's aim was to identify factors associated with receptivity and preferences for lifestyle behavior change among family members of African-American survivors of lung cancer. Methods Principles of social cognitive theory guided the design. A descriptive, qualitative study recruited 26 African-American family members of lung cancer survivors from two teaching hospitals in the southeastern United States. A 20-item Information Form collected demographic, health status, and health behavior information. Family members participated in one of three semi-structured focus group discussions. Results Four major themes emerged: family members and survivors both resisted the caregiver role; dramatic changes evoked by the diagnosis of lung cancer were facilitators and barriers to lifestyle choices; leaning on faith was the primary source of support; and these families live with a constant threat of multiple cancers. Findings emphasize the importance of meaningful conversations among health-care providers, survivors, and family members during the time of diagnosis, treatment, and recovery, so that family members are better prepared to cope with anticipated changes. Conclusions This study highlights the stressors that affect family members and sheds light on their unique needs. The stressors limit their ability to change health behaviors. Family members need basic education, skills training, and support related to the lung cancer diagnosis and other cancers. Current methods to provide these services are limited in their accessibility, availability, and effectiveness.
Empowering women micro-entrepreneurs in emerging economies: The role of information communications technology

Abstract Drawing upon the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), this research investigated the impact of information communications technology (ICT) on self-efficacy, social capital, and empowerment in the overlooked context of women micro-entrepreneurs. In addition to testing the original TAM constructs of usefulness and perceived ease of use, this research extended TAM to ICT use outcomes. Data were collected from 199 women micro-entrepreneurs in South Africa using an online survey and were analyzed via structural equation modeling. The results suggested that ICT usage decisions were influenced by women's perceptions of ICT ease of use and usefulness. Additionally, ICT usage influence on social capital bridging was moderated by self-efficacy, while ICT usage had a strong direct influence on self-efficacy and social capital bonding. Social capital bridging and bonding and self-efficacy had varying influence on women empowerment measured as goal internalization, perceived control, competence, and impact. These findings were robust even after controlling for potentially confounding variables identified in the literature. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.
Two million stroke survivors utilize medical visit companions: The other person in the room?

Over one-third of older adults are accompanied by a companion to routine medical visits.1 Little is known about these companions for stroke survivors, a population who encounter short- and long-term disability and may benefit from medical care companions.
High Incidence of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Mosaicism in Fanconi Anemia.

Determination of the degree of somatic mosaicism providing functional correction of Fanconi anemia (FA) hematopoiesis has direct implications for gene therapy for FA: it may help assess the percentage of FA hematopoietic cells corrected by gene therapy approaches that are needed to achieve clinically meaningful effects. Hypersensitivity to DNA interstrand cross-linking agents, such as diepoxybutane (DEB) and mitomycin C (MMC), is a cellular marker for diagnosis of FA. However, in some FA patients a population of DEB-resistant PHA-stimulated lymphoblasts (PHA-L) was observed, and this population sometimes varied over time. To assess the significance of this finding on hematopoietic function, we evaluated the MMC sensitivity of bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMC) and DEB sensitivity of PHA-L and cultured lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCL) in 42 consecutive FA patients referred to the University of Minnesota. In cases where LCL were DEB-resistant, cultured fibroblasts were also studied. BMMC were cultured in the presence of increasing concentrations of MMC. PHA-L and LCL were cultured in DEB at 0.1 mcg/ml. Wild type BM progenitors (N = 17 subjects) proliferated regardless of increasing MMC concentrations (albeit at decreased efficiency at the highest concentrations) as follows: 0 MMC (normalized to 100%), 5 nM MMC (99% [standard deviation, SD, 16%]), 10 nM MMC (90% [SD 22%]), 25 nM MMC (77% [SD21%]), and 50 nM MMC (44% [SD 30%]). Of the 42 FA patients, BMMC failed to proliferate at 0 nM MMC in 10 patients and at 5 nM MMC in 20 patients. Twelve FA patients had MMC resistant BMMC: cells cultured in 5, 10, 25 and 50 nM MMC grew 44% (SD 28%), 35% (SD 24%), 24% (SD 30%) and 17% (SD 32%) of colony numbers in MMC free culture, respectively. Six of these 12 subjects were PHA-L mosaics as determined by DEB sensitivity testing. Four patients with no growth of BMMC at 0 or 5 nM MMC were also somatic mosaics in their PHA-L and LCL. Thus there was no clear correlation between somatic mosaicism as demonstrated by DEB testing in peripheral blood and sensitivity of BMMC to growth in MMC. Clinically, two patients with hematopoietic somatic mosaicism developed severe marrow aplasia, one of which received hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Four of the mosaic patients had normal or near normal peripheral blood counts with one patient having clonal hematopoiesis by HUMARA assay and only low levels of metaphases with multiple breaks in multiple DEB studies. While patients with hematopoietic somatic mosaicism had mixed populations of DEB sensitive cells in their peripheral blood, all their fibroblast cultures were DEB sensitive. In summary, these data show that the presence of somatic mosaicism per se does not necessarily prevent bone marrow failure. Moreover, the data suggest that patients with stigmata of FA may have chromosomal breakage studies showing few cells (or no cells) with the characteristic changes of FA; in these cases, skin fibroblasts should be tested as well.
“Our Voter Rolls Are Cleaner Than Yours”: Balancing Access and Integrity in Voter List Maintenance:

Accurate voter lists facilitate access to the electoral process, indicate efficient voter list maintenance, and reinforce electoral integrity. Errors in voter records often result from variation in...
Computational screening of transition metal/p-block hybrid electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction.

Among all the pollutants in the atmosphere, CO2 has the highest impact on global warming, and with the rising levels of this pollutant, studies on developing various technologies to convert CO2 into carbon-neutral fuels and chemicals have become more valuable. In this work, we present a detailed computational study of electrochemical reduction of CO2 reaction (the CO2 RR) to methane and/or methanol over different transition metal-p block catalysts using density functional theory calculations. In addition to the catalyst structure, we studied reaction mechanisms using free energy diagrams that explain the product selectivity with respect to the competing hydrogen evolution reaction. Furthermore, we developed scaling relations between all the active C bound intermediate species with ΔG(CO*) and O bound species with ΔG(OH*) The limiting potential lines with ΔG(OH*) as the descriptor are much less negative compared to UL lines with ΔG(CO*) as the descriptor indicating that catalyst materials following pathways via OH- bound intermediate species require more negative potentials than CO*→ HCO* and CO2 → COOH* steps to convert into products. We developed thermodynamic volcano plots with two descriptors; the CO* and OH* binding free energies and determined the best catalyst material among the initially investigated catalyst materials expecting this plot will provide guidance to the future work on improving the activity of transition metal-p block catalysts for this important reduction reaction.
A Simple and Effective Sample Preparation Strategy for MALDI-MS Imaging of Neuropeptide Changes in the Crustacean Brain due to Hypoxia and Hypercapnia Stress

Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI)-MS imaging has been utilized to image a variety of biomolecules, including neuropeptides. Washing a tissue section is an effective way to elimina...
Power-Performance Advantages of InFO Technology for Advanced System Integration

Novel InFO technologies have been developed to meet high bandwidth, low power consumption and small form factor requirements for system integration with key characteristics of thin dielectric layers, fine RDL lines, 3D vertical interconnects and multi-chip integration. The powerperformance advantages of the technology from the characteristics on power integrity (PI), signal integrity (SI) and RF are studied and compared to those of organic substrate technology. For PI, the InFO with IPD (Integrated Passive Device) has 56% lower of system power delivery networking (PDN) impedance and 25% lower of the 1st voltage droop. For SI, the effect of line width on data rate and line density is studied and a record high 10 Tbps/mm of bandwidth density is obtained by the submicron RDL on InFO. For RF system integration, a 3D solenoid inductor on InFO package is demonstrated. The 3D inductor with 3 turns achieves Q-factor (quality factor) of 59 at 3GHz and the simulation and measurement results are consistent. The power-performance study indicates the InFO is a wide-spectrum application technology.
Tet1 isoforms differentially regulate gene expression, synaptic transmission and memory in the mammalian brain

The dynamic regulation of DNA methylation in post-mitotic neurons is necessary for memory formation and other adaptive behaviors. Ten-eleven translocation 1 (TET1) plays a part in these processes by oxidizing 5-methylcytosine (5mC) to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), thereby initiating active DNA demethylation. However, attempts to pinpoint its exact role in the nervous system have been hindered by contradictory findings, perhaps due in part, to a recent discovery that two isoforms of the Tet1 gene are differentially expressed from early development into adulthood. Here, we demonstrate that both the shorter transcript (Tet1S) encoding an N-terminally truncated TET1 protein and a full-length Tet1 (Tet1FL) transcript encoding canonical TET1 are co-expressed in the adult brain. We show that Tet1S is the predominantly expressed isoform, and is highly enriched in neurons, whereas Tet1FL is generally expressed at lower levels and more abundant in glia, suggesting their roles are at least partially cell-type specific. Using viral-mediated, isoform- and neuron-specific molecular tools, we find that Tet1S repression enhances, while Tet1FL impairs, hippocampal-dependent memory. In addition, the individual disruption of the two isoforms leads to contrasting changes in basal synaptic transmission and the dysregulation of unique gene ensembles in hippocampal neurons. Together, our findings demonstrate that each Tet1 isoform serves a distinct role in the mammalian brain.
Beyond 5G: Hybrid End-to-End Quality of Service Provisioning in Heterogeneous IoT Networks

A significant increase is expected in video and multimedia traffic in Beyond 5G networks. The inclusion of a huge number of IoT nodes in Beyond 5G networks further complicates the design of such networks. These futuristic networks are expected to deal with this increased traffic and number of nodes while ensuring that network delays do not exceed a certain threshold. In such networks, Quality of Service (QoS) provisioning has become vital, not only to guarantee certain key performance indicators but also to improve user experience. This paper proposes a hybrid approach for end-to-end QoS provisioning, involving both clients and controllers to address these challenges. Each client tries to satisfy its own access QoS requirements by choosing optimal access device(s) and makes decisions based on locally available view. Controllers are then responsible for finding optimal paths in the core network to satisfy client core QoS requirements. Experimental results show that the proposed approach provides better QoS guarantees than several other access device selection and routing schemes.
The Effect of Demographic Characteristics on an Individual’s Financial Risk Tolerance

This study was designed to build a comprehensive model of financial risk tolerance (FRT) using a number of demographic variables from a large, nationally representative dataset, the Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF) 2016. Linear regression was used to confirm relationships between income, education, financial knowledge, age, marital status, employment status, and race/ethnicity with subjective FRT. All seven variables were found to be significant determinants of FRT, with income, education, and financial knowledge showing positive relationships and age showing a negative relationship. Effects of marital status, employment status, and race/ethnicity varied with the specific measure of subjective FRT used, but generally single males were found to be more risk tolerant than married couples and single females, the self-employed demonstrate higher risk tolerances than those who are employed by someone else or not employed, and there are significant but inconsistent differences in risk tolerance between whites, blacks/African Americans, and Hispanics/Latinos. This study evaluates both the traditional measure of FRT collected by the SCF and the new measure introduced in the 2016 survey year, and I conclude that even within a single survey, subjective measures of FRT are inconsistent.