cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Insect (Insecta) Fauna of Plummers Island, Maryland: Brief Collecting History and Status of the Inventory

ABSTRACT Plummers Island, a small site situated along the northern shore of the Potomac River in Montgomery County, Maryland, has been the research home of the Washington Biologists' Field Club for more than 100 years. Field work conducted by club members from 1901 to about 1925 resulted in the accumulation of thousands of insect specimens of all orders from the Island, most of which are deposited in the collections of the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. Little collecting was conducted from ca. 1930–1950. In the 1960s sampling by Karl Krombein focused on bees and wasps and that by Terry Erwin on carabid beetles. Since 1998 the Lepidoptera fauna, leaf beetles (Chrysomelidae), and darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae) all have been the subject of investigations. In 2005 and 2006 Malaise traps were deployed to sample other orders (e.g., Trichoptera, Diptera, Hyemenoptera). While the four major insect orders (i.e., Coleoptera, Diptera, Lepidoptera, and Hymenoptera) are represented by l...
Understanding Public Response to Nuclear Power Plant Protective Actions

Among the most important factors affecting the viability of alternative sheltering and evacuation strategies are the views and reactions of the public within the threat zone. If the general population does not believe that undertaking prescribed protective actions will make them safer, or if they do not see protective action messages as credible and practicable, then even the most technically sound plans can be rendered totally ineffective. To gain a deeper understanding of the views and potential reactions of the general public living within nuclear power plant (NPP) Emergency Planning Zones (EPZs) to protective action strategies, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission sponsored focus groups and a national telephone survey of the public living in EPZs. Data from the research can be used by NPP industry officials and emergency planners in developing appropriate protective action recommendations to radiological accidents. Findings of this research can also be extended to other similar types of emergencies or generalized to any emergency condition.
Distribution of calbindin-D28K in the brain of the fetal sheep in late gestation

Immunocytochemical distribution of calbindin-D28K was examined in the brains of fetal sheep at 100-105 and 120-125 days of gestation (dGA) and at term in labor (term approximately 150 dGA) and compared to adult sheep. Brains were perfused, cut frozen and immunostained as freely floating sections with a polyclonal anti-calbindin-D28K antibody. Light microscopy revealed that calbindin-D28K immunogenicity in fetal cerebellum, rhombencephalon, mesencephalon, diencephalon and telencephalon was overall very similar to that seen in the brains of adult sheep. In addition even though fetal sheep peripheral plasma cortisol concentrations increase 10-20 times over the last 3-4 weeks of gestation to peak during labor and delivery, no glucocorticoid dependent increases in calbindin-D28K in the hippocampal formation could be seen in the sheep fetus as have been demonstrated for the adult rat given exogenous glucocorticoids. It is concluded that: (1) the basic pattern of calbindin-D28K distribution seen in adult sheep brains is established by at least 100 dGA in the sheep fetus; and (2) the pattern of calbindin-D28K expression in fetal sheep hippocampal formation is not related to peripheral plasma glucocorticoid concentrations.
User-Analyst Differences: An Empirical Investigation of Attitudes Related to Systems Development1

This research explores attitudinal differences between systems users and systems analysts toward the system environment and investigates possible causes for their existence. Previous literature has...
Role of Pectin Methylesterase in Firmness of Canned Tomatoes

SUMMARY Four sets of eight tomatoes were subjected to four blanching times of 30, 60, 90, and 120 set at 100°C. Two fruits in each set were also subjected to holding times of 5, 10, 15, and 20 min between the blanching and exhausting operations. Pectic substances were determined as water-soluble, ammonium-oxalate-soluble, and dilute-hydrochloric-acid-soluble fractions. The methoxyl content of each fraction was also determined. Firmness was determined by objective measurements. The 30-see blanching treatment yielded the firmest tomatoes. These fruits were also characterized by the highest content of ammonium-oxalate-soluble pectin. The activity of pectin methylesterase was highest in treatments consisting of 30 see of blanching and a lo-min holding time. The activity of pectin methylesterase seemed to be greatly suppressed after 90 set of blanching.
The Fujimori Effect

This article examines how efforts to hold Alberto Fujimori, president of Peru from 1990 to 2000, accountable for human rights violations and to build safeguards against a recurrence of those violations have set important precedents for international human rights law and practice. Among the key developments his crimes have provoked are new protections for democracy as a human right via the Inter-American Democratic Charter; international legal precedents banning the use of amnesties for human rights crimes and the use of military courts to try alleged terrorists; and the extradition of a democratically elected former head of state for human rights violations and his conviction for those crimes by the courts of his own country.
Enzyme studies on white blood cells. III. Phosphorylating glycogenolysis and phosphorylated intermediates.

Abstract On anaerobic incubation of leucocyte suspensions dialyzed against distilled water, of the supernatant separated from the cells after dialysis, and of toluene autolysates, reducing and nonreducing phosphorylated intermediates accumulate in the reaction mixture. A decrease of inorganic phosphorus in the reaction mixtures is demonstrated. In the cell-free extracts of leucocytes no lactic acid was found in the reaction mixture, in contrast to previous experiments on cell suspensions. The phosphorylated intermediates occurring during glycogenolysis in suspensions of leucocytes or their cell-free extracts were identified as glucose 1-phosphate, glucose 6-phosphate, fructose 6-phosphate, phosphoglyceric acid, and fructose 1,6-diphosphate.
All-single-mode fiber-optic gyroscope with long-term stability

A new all-fiber gyroscope is described. All components are constructed directly on a single continuous optical fiber, removing localized sources of reflection. A laser-diode source is used to reduce coherent scattering effects. Proper choice of modulation frequency is shown to reduce instabilities further. Long-term stability at rest of better than 0.2 masculine/h is observed with 30-sec integration time.
Indirect adaptive control of spatially invariant systems

We present a general class of indirect adaptive controllers for spatiotemporally invariant systems. The control design is based on certainty-equivalence approach, where at each step system parameters are estimated and the controller is implemented using the estimated parameters. At each estimation stage a modeling error is committed which affects the output of the plant. We show that under suitable assumptions on the rates of variation of the estimated plant, which follow from utilizing a distributed projection algorithm, a globally stable adaptive scheme can be guaranteed.
Semantic characterization of MapReduce workloads

MapReduce is a platform for analyzing large amounts of data on clusters of commodity machines. MapReduce is popular, in part thanks to its apparent simplicity. However, there are unstated requirements for the semantics of MapReduce applications that can affect their correctness and performance. MapReduce implementations do not check whether user code satisfies these requirements, leading to time-consuming debugging sessions, performance problems, and, worst of all, silently corrupt results. This paper makes these requirements explicit, framing them as semantic properties and assumed outcomes. It describes a black-box approach for testing for these properties, and uses the approach to characterize the semantics of 23 non-trivial MapReduce workloads. Surprisingly, we found that for most requirements, there is at least one workload that violates it. This means that MapReduce may be simple to use, but it is not as simple to use correctly. Based on our results, we provide insights to users on how to write higher-quality MapReduce code, and insights to system and language designers on ways to make their platforms more robust.
Critical assessment of sperm morphology before and after double wash swim-up preparation for in vitro fertilization.

Critical assessment of sperm morphology using specific and stringent criteria is predictive of the subsequent ability of those sperm to fertilize oocytes in in vitro fertilization (FVF). Previous studies have evaluated sperm morphology prior to sperm preparation and, thus, have not assessed the actual sperm used for insemination. We studied the impact of a double wash swim-up technique used for IVF on sperm morphology using the strict criteria of Kruger et al. [5, 6] in 73 consecutive patients undergoing IVF. Pre- and postswim-up morphological assessments were done in a prospective, randomized, and blinded fashion. The mean percentage of normal forms pre- and postswim-up was 19.8% and 23.4%, respectively, an improvement of 18% (p < 0.05) with 62 of 73 patients showing improvement. Significantly, analysis of the 27 patients with abnormal morphology on initial assessment (normal forms ≤ 14%) revealed an improvement in percentage of normal forms from 9.0% to 21.5%, a mean increase of 239% (p < 0.005). Eighte...
U‐99 uninhabited tactical aircraft preliminary structural design

Describes preliminary structural design work on a notional uninhabited tactical aircraft (UTA), carried out at Cranfield University. UTAs are seen as an important future element of military fleets. A notional baseline requirement was derived, leading to the evolution of a design solution. The basic requirements for such a UTA are naturally highly classified but, although industry has been hesitant to comment, the baseline requirements and design solution developed herein are believed to be reasonable.
Penetration of Insoluble Lipid Monolayers at the Air−Water Interface by Water-Soluble Block Copolymers and Homopolymers

We used scanning angle reflectometry to directly measure the extent of water-soluble polymer adsorption to insoluble dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine monolayers at the air−water interface. Although h...
Security prices in a production economy with durable capital

Security prices and physical stocks of capital are determined jointly in a rational expectations economy as functions of a set of exogenous stochastic factors. Investors employ firm marginal productivity of capital to allocate savings across firms. Firm capital stocks adjust to exogenous shocks across many periods. Security price functions in period t are derived in the cases of constrained and unconstrained firm capital in t. The risk premia in security returns include two sets of terms. One set, corresponding to traditional asset pricing models, relates cash flows directly to the stochastic factors. The second set captures interfirm effects which arise because firm capital in each period t is durable.
Fluidized Bed Drying of Food A new development in the drying, roasting, cooking and freezing of food

Arthur D. Little has worked with fluidized-bed technology for ten years or more-particularly with the processing of metallurgical or inorganic chemical materials. Our first work was on the de composition of manganese nitrate to manganese dioxide and the nitrogen oxides. We feel that fluid bed processing has great promise in the processing of food.—H.W.F.
Effects of Ethanol Post-Fixation on the Histological, Histochemical, and Immunohistochemical Analysis of Murine Bone Specimens

Abstract Proper histological and histomorphometric assessment of bones requires acute visualization of cellular detail. Because fat is soluble in ethanol, adding an ethanol post-fixation step can help remove excess fat in tissue specimens, thus enhancing cellular visualization. However, the effects of adding this additional ethanol post-fixation step on bone-specific histochemical and immunohistochemical protocols have not yet been elucidated. Here, we describe the differences between using or not using an additional ethanol post-fixation step on six types of histochemical and immunohistochemical protocols. We assessed the effects in undecalcified tibiae sections routinely stained with hematoxylin and eosin, toluidine blue, and Von Kossa and found that addition of ethanol post-fixation enhanced specimen visualization for each of these stains. We examined the of ethanol post-fixation on enzymatic staining and found that alkaline phosphatase activity was equally preserved, whereas acid phosphatase activity ...
Age, Period, and Cohort Effects on U.S. Religious Service Attendance: The Declining Impact of Sex, Southern Residence, and Catholic Affiliation

I use repeated, cross-sectional data from 1972 to 2006 to analyze age, period, and cohort effects on Americans' frequency of religious service attendance with cross-classified, random-effects models. The results show that the frequency of religious service attendance is relatively stable, with a modest period-based decline in the 1990s and little overall cohort effect. Although aggregate rates of attendance are stable, there are large changes across cohorts and periods in differences in attendance between men and women, southerners and non-southerners, and Catholics and mainline Protestants. These results serve as a reminder that aggregate trends can mask substantial changes among specific groups, and that factors that strongly influence religious participation at one period or among one birth cohort may not be the same factors that affect participation at another time or among another cohort.
Facial expression recognition using a dynamic model and motion energy

Previous efforts at facial expression recognition have been based on the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), a representation developed in order to allow human psychologists to code expression from static facial "mugshots." We develop new more accurate representations for facial expression by building a video database of facial expressions and then probabilistically characterizing the facial muscle activation associated with each expression using a detailed physical model of the skin and muscles. This produces a muscle based representation of facial motion, which is then used to recognize facial expressions in two different ways. The first method uses the physics based model directly, by recognizing expressions through comparison of estimated muscle activations. The second method uses the physics based model to generate spatio temporal motion energy templates of the whole face for each different expression. These simple, biologically plausible motion energy "templates" are then used for recognition. Both methods show substantially greater accuracy at expression recognition than has been previously achieved. >
Integration of multiple components in polystyrene-based microfluidic devices part II: cellular analysis.

In Part II of this series describing the use of polystyrene (PS) devices for microfluidic-based cellular assays: various cellular types and detection strategies are employed to determine three fundamental assays often associated with cells. Specifically, using either integrated electrochemical sensing or optical measurements with a standard multi-well plate reader, cellular uptake, production, or release of important cellular analytes are determined on a PS-based device. One experiment involved the fluorescence measurement of nitric oxide (NO) produced within an endothelial cell line following stimulation with ATP. The result was a four-fold increase in NO production (as compared to a control), with this receptor-based mechanism of NO production verifying the maintenance of cell receptors following immobilization onto the PS substrate. The ability to monitor cellular uptake was also demonstrated by optical determination of Ca2+ into endothelial cells following stimulation with the Ca2+ ionophore A20317. The result was a significant increase (42%) in the calcium uptake in the presence of the ionophore, as compared to a control (17%) (p < 0.05). Finally, the release of catecholamines from a dopaminergic cell line (PC 12 cells) was electrochemically monitored, with the electrodes being embedded into the PS-based device. The PC 12 cells had better adherence on the PS devices, as compared to use of PDMS. Potassium-stimulation resulted in the release of 114 ± 11 μM catecholamines, a significant increase (p < 0.05) over the release from cells that had been exposed to an inhibitor (reserpine, 20 ± 2 μM of catecholamines). The ability to successfully measure multiple analytes, generated in different means from various cells under investigation, suggests that PS may be a useful material for microfluidic device fabrication, especially considering the enhanced cell adhesion to PS, its enhanced rigidity/amenability to automation, and its ability to enable a wider range of analytes to be investigated, even analytes with a high degree of hydrophobicity.
Estimation of missing values in clinical laboratory measurements of ICU patients using a weighted K-nearest neighbors algorithm

In the modern intensive care unit (ICU), the physiologic state of critically-ill patients is monitored through a diverse array of biosensors and laboratory measurements. The sheer volume of data that is collected has overwhelmed clinicians charged with assimilating and transforming the data into clinical hypotheses. The development of automated algorithms with vigilant monitoring and clinical decision-support capabilities would help to alleviate this "information-overload" challenge. The inherent noise and measurement error is an added level of complication to the real-time analysis and interpretation of medical data. One class of "noise" in medical data can be characterized by the absence or unavailability of a desired measurement. We have analyzed a large collection of clinical laboratory data (blood chemistry, blood gasses, complete blood counts) from over 600 ICU/CCU patients in the MIMIC II database. An analysis of the frequency of missing data values across patient records for each measurement was completed. Furthermore, we have developed a novel method to estimate the values of missing data by the use of a weighted K-nearest neighbors algorithm. We propose a weighting scheme that exploits the correlation between a "missing" dimension and available data values from other fields. We compare our technique with several popular missing value estimation techniques: principal components analysis, least squares estimation, mean imputation, and classical k-nearest neighbors. The mean standardized imputation error ranges from a minimum of 0.31 to a maximum, of 0.75 depending on the imputed dimension. The mean standardized imputation error over all dimensions is 0.45.
Aerodynamic sizing of metered dose inhalers: An evaluation of the andersen and next generation pharmaceutical impactors and their USP methods

The particle sizing performance of a Next Generation Pharmaceutical Impactor (NGI) was compared to that of an Andersen cascade impactor (ACI). A single lot of Vanceril MDIs containing beclomethasone dipropionate (BDP) was used throughout. MDIs were sampled into NGI and ACI in accordance with USP recommendations, at 30.0 and 28.3 L/min, respectively, following 1, 2, 6, and 30 actuations with or without a silicone cup or stage coating, to determine the apparent particle size distributions (PSD) of BDP. The mass balance and the statistical comparability of drug deposits were assured on a "per actuation basis" across all experiments, demonstrating "good cascade impactor practices." Interstage deposition or "wall losses" in NGI were found to be lower than those in ACI, although their determination was laborious in NGI. The PSD profiles for Vanceril from a single actuation were distinguishable between NGI and ACI, when uncoated collection surfaces were used, most specifically for drug mass <4-microm aerodynamic diameter (p < 0.05). Silicone coating of collection surfaces and an increased number of actuations were shown to result in PSD profile shifts for both NGI and ACI. Such effects were most pronounced for NGI, although coating the collection surfaces and/or increasing the number of actuations improved drug retention significantly on the upper stages of NGI, and thereby, minimized the effects of particle bounce of BDP from Vanceril MDIs. PSD profiles from a single actuation could be determined reliably in either of these impactors, provided that coated collection surfaces were employed; also, cumulative % mass undersize profiles were similar between instruments. However, small differences in PSD profiles still existed to support NGI's design claims for reduced "overlap" in its stage collection efficiency curves.
The interpretation of electron microscope images and scattering patterns from crazes

Abstract Images and small-angle diffraction patterns of crazes obtainable in the transmission electron microscope have been calculated from model structures using a single theory of interaction of electrons with the sample. The model was of a relatively thick craze so that many fibrils overlapped. The calculated defocused images of this model showed little obvious relationship to the original model showing that it is very hard to estimate craze fibril diameters from craze images. The calculated scattering pattern normal to the craze showed both the refraction and diffraction effects observed previously and so is in excellent accord with experiment.
THETA FUNCTIONS ON HERMITIAN SYMMETRIC DOMAINS AND FOCK REPRESENTATIONS

One way of realizing representations of the Heisenberg group is by using Fock representations, whose representation spaces are Hilbert spaces of functions on complex vector space with inner products associated to points on a Siegel upper half space. We generalize such Fock representations using inner products associated to points on a Hermitian symmetric domain that is mapped into a Seigel upper half space by an equivariant holomorphic map. The representations of the Heisenberg group are then given by an automorphy factor associated to a Kuga fiber variety. We introduce theta functions associated to an equivariant holomorphic map and study connections between such generalized theta functions and Fock representations described above. Furthermore, we discuss Jacobi forms on Hermitian symmetric domains in connection with twisted torus bundles over symmetric spaces.
V-CLIP: Integrating plasma vascular endothelial growth factor into a new scoring system to stratify patients with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma for clinical trials.

BACKGROUND: Several staging systems have been proposed for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, none has incorporated circulating angiogenic biomarkers. The purpose of this study was to determine whether vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) could independently predict overall survival in patients with HCC, and whether adding VEGF level into the Cancer of the Liver Italian Program (CLIP) score could improve patient stratification and prediction of overall survival. METHODS: Between 2001 and 2008, baseline plasma VEGF levels were available from 288 patients, and multivariate Cox regression models and median survival (95% confidence intervals) were calculated. Recursive partitioning was used to determine the optimal cutpoint for VEGF, using 10 repeated training/validation samples, each using two-thirds of the data to determine the best cutpoint and the remaining one-third to validate it. Prognostic ability of CLIP and V-CLIP was compared using the concordence index. RESULTS: Plasma VEGF was a significant independent predictor of overall survival, with an optimal VEGF cutpoint of 450 pg/mL. After CLIP validation in our patients, we added VEGF to the CLIP score and found that the new V-CLIP score better separates patients into homogenous prognostic groups (P = .005). CONCLUSIONS: The assessment of baseline plasma VEGF levels increases the precision of the CLIP scoring system for predicting HCC prognosis, which may assist in equally randomizing patients with HCC in clinical trials. Prospective validation of the V-CLIP scoring system is warranted. Cancer 2011. © 2010 American Cancer Society.
Manufacturing workers: exploring the ability to change

Historically, the implementation of change in an organisation is often not well received by both manufacturing and knowledge workers. It is difficult to simultaneously encourage individual success within a firm and de-emphasise the difficulty that is frequently associated with change. To promote change within an organisation, people must be encouraged to innovate, form trust-relationships with the management, and be properly rewarded for promoting such change and innovation. To measure this change, the Reaction-to- Change (RTC) Inventory was employed. The RTC is an easy-to-use and broadly applicable tool originally developed by DeMeuse and McDaris. It can help trainers foster organisational change. Also, some of the traps that the management encounters during this difficult process of organisational change can be bypassed by identifying the degree of resistance to change. The results of this inventory were derived from a sample of 100 skilled manufacturing workers in a focused factory operation in Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
Taming data complexity in lifelogs: exploring visual cuts of personal informatics data

As people continue to adopt technology based self tracking devices and applications, questions arise about how personal informatics tools can better support self tracker goals. This paper extends prior work on analyzing and summarizing self tracking data, with the goal of helping self trackers identify more meaningful and actionable findings. We begin by surveying physical activity self trackers to identify their goals and the factors they report influence their physical activity. We then define a cut as a subset of collected data with some shared feature, develop a set of cuts over location and physical activity data, and visualize those cuts using a variety of presentations. Finally, we conduct a month long field deployment with participants tracking their location and physical activity data and then using our methods to examine their data. We report on participant reactions to our methods and future design opportunities suggested by our work.
Indoor propagation models based on rigorous methods for site-specific multipath environments

This paper presents a full wave simulation technique for modeling indoor propagation channels. A key feature of the technique is the use of a domain decomposition approach that accounts for repeatable components such as bricks, chairs, tables, etc. This leads to significant memory reduction, thus permitting the modeling of an entire classroom. Several simulations with different transmitting locations are presented and used to predict the statistical profiles of the received signal strength. These profiles are subsequently used to evaluate the bit error rate for specific digital modulation schemes.
Small-signal nonlinear modeling of television IOTs

The inductive output tube (IOT) is a high power vacuum tube amplifier popularly used in UHF television broadcasting. A small-signal nonlinear model is presented for the IOT. Several simplifying assumptions are made to make the proposed model more tractable mathematically. Component values are then assigned to this simplified model based on measured IOT S/sub 11/ performance. This model is used to predict IOT intermodulation performance for a unique test case. The results predicted by the proposed model compare favorably to the real world measured results for the same test case.
Space Power Trends

Size and performance characteristic limits are discussed for government and commercial spacecraft classes. Potential future sources of space power are described. These technologies are not intended to be all-inclusive; however, electrodynamic tethers, nuclear fission reactors, nuclear fusion, and antimatter provide a good range of the various stages of research and development encountered as technologies are matured for space flight. Historical and present-day spacecraft power levels show an ever-increasing rise in the maximum available power, although the use of these high power levels is limited to a small few commercial communications spacecraft. Peak power levels today, excluding the International Space Station, are 18--20 kW, although this is expected to rise to the 25--30 kW range in the near future. Early high-power spacecraft relied on nuclear fission reactors for critical military missions, primarily for the Soviet government. These were retired after the 1980s due to improved photovoltaic power-generation technology. At present the power levels used for earth-orbiting spacecraft are spread across the 0--20 kW range, with the distribution dominated by the constellations programs. Interplanetary space continues to be restricted to low power levels afforded by Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generators, until research can mature technologies such as nuclear to provide high-power capability far from the sun. Keywords: space power; spacecraft; space nuclear power; photovoltaic power; space solar arrays; spacecraft constellations; electrodynamic tethers; nuclear fission reactors; nuclear fusion; antimatter
Surface Treatments of Polymers for Biocompatibility

Biological recognition mediates cell and tissue interactions with biomaterials, be the materials employed in a biotechnical environment in vitro or a biomedical environment in vivo. These interactions are typically mediated by proteins that have adsorbed to the biomaterial surface. The principles of protein adsorption and biological recognition are described. Polymer surface modifications to reduce protein adsorption upon biomaterial surfaces are summarized, as are modifications to enhance the irreversible adsorption of proteins. Using these approaches, it may be possible to reduce the extent to which the biomaterial surface and the protein-biomaterial surface are recognized by cells and tissues. Polymer surface modifications to incorporate oligopeptide-, saccharide-, and oligosaccharide-based receptor-binding sequences are described to enable direct binding of cells with the polymer surface. With use of these approaches, it is possible to endow an entirely synthetic material with the biological recognition characteristics of biological macromolecules.
Probing the nature of dark energy

The cause for the observed acceleration in the expansion of the Universe is unknown, and referred to as “dark energy” for convenience. Dark energy could be an unknown energy component, or a modification of Einstein’s general relativity. This dictates the measurements that are optimal in unveiling the nature of dark energy: the cosmic expansion history, and the growth history of cosmic large scale structure. Type Ia supernovae, galaxy clustering, and weak lensing are generally considered the most powerful observational probes of dark energy. I will examine Type Ia supernovae and galaxy clustering as dark energy probes, and discuss the recent results and future prospects.
Harderian Gland n-acetyltransferase activity in the male syrian hamster: Effects of gonadectomy, short photoperiod exposure, or subcutaneous melatonin implants

The activities of NAT and HIOMT and the melatonin concentration in the Harderian glands of intact, gonadectomized, and gonadally-regressed male Syrian hamsters were studied. To produce gonadal regression, hamsters were exposed to either artificial or naturally short photoperiods. NAT activity of castrated and gonadally-regressed hamsters was always less in comparison to that of animals with intact gonads. Castrated hamsters exposed to long days showed higher NAT activity than that of castrated animals exposed to short photoperiods indicating that light may have some influence on Harderian NAT independent of the gonadal status. Also, gonadally-regressed hamsters exposed to long photoperiods exhibited higher NAT activity in comparison to gonadally-regressed animals exposed to short days. The HIOMT activity and melatonin content of Harderian glands in all these groups of male Syrian hamster were very low.
Role of protein defects on the creation of premature cardiac beats

We investigate the molecular mechanism of inherited arrhythmias using a multiscale model. The model has numerous parameters some of which are estimated with voltage clamp data. Errors in the estimation of parameters have a dramatic effect on the investigation of the mechanism of arrhythmias. In some cases, these errors may prevent seeing the creation of a premature cardiac beat. We present an analysis technique of bioelectric data to estimate parameters that alleviates the problems associated with non-linear least square fitting. This new method allows us to systematically study how genetic mutations can lead to a premature cardiac beat, thereby rendering the heart at high risk of incidence of cardiac arrhythmias.
Relatively Normal Human Lymphopoiesis but Rapid Turnover of Newly Formed B Cells in Transplanted Nonobese Diabetic/SCID Mice

Human B lineage lymphocyte precursors in chimeric nonobese diabetic/SCID mice transplanted with umbilical cord blood cells were directly compared with those present in normal bone marrow. All precursor subsets were represented and in nearly normal proportions. Cell cycle activity and population dynamics were investigated by staining for the Ki-67 nuclear Ag as well as by incorporation experiments using 5-bromo-2′-deoxyuridine. Again, this revealed that human B lymphopoiesis in chimeras parallels that in normal marrow with respect to replication and progression through the lineage. Moreover, sequencing of Ig gene rearrangement products showed that a diverse repertoire of VH genes was utilized by the newly formed lymphocytes but there was no evidence for somatic hypermutation. The newly formed B cells frequently acquired the CD5 Ag and had a short life span in the periphery. Thus, all molecular requirements for normal B lymphocyte formation are present in nonobese diabetic/SCID mice, but additional factors are needed for recruitment of B cells into a fully mature, long-lived pool. The model can now be exploited to learn about species restricted and conserved environmental cues for human B lymphocyte production.
Chimeric Human Skin Substitute Tissue: A Novel Treatment Option for the Delivery of Autologous Keratinocytes

Background: For patients suffering from catastrophic burns, few treatment options are available. Chimeric coculture of patient-derived autologous cells with a “carrier” cell source of allogeneic keratinocytes has been proposed as a means to address the complex clinical problem of severe skin loss. The Problem: Currently, autologous keratinocytes are harvested, cultured, and expanded to form graftable epidermal sheets. However, epidermal sheets are thin, are extremely fragile, and do not possess barrier function, which only develops as skin stratifies and matures. Grafting is typically delayed for up to 4 weeks to propagate a sufficient quantity of the patient's cells for application to wound sites. Basic/Clinical Science Advances: Fully stratified chimeric bioengineered skin substitutes could not only provide immediate wound coverage and restore barrier function, but would simultaneously deliver autologous keratinocytes to wounds. The ideal allogeneic cell source for this application would be an abundant ...
Attitudes of Social Work Students toward End-of-Life Planning.

This study examined the attitudes of entry-level MSW students toward end-of-life planning and the factors associated with these attitudes. Subjects were MSW students ( N =267) in the foundation year of their programs. Correlations and t-tests found significant relationships between attitudes toward end-of-life planning and age, knowledge, personal comfort with end-of-life discussions, and personal desire for treatment. A hierarchical regression also showed the predictive importance of these variables. Students' attitudes toward end-of-life planning may be enhanced through professional education. Implications for education to prepare social workers to work with clients and their families toward effective end-of-life planning are discussed.
David v. Goliath: A Brief Assessment of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2011 Ruling Denying Class Certification in Dukes v. Wal‐Mart

In 2001, Betty Dukes, then a 54-year-old African American, filed suit against her employer, Wal-Mart, alleging that she had been the victim of gender discrimination. Ms. Dukes alleged that Wal-Mart, the nation's largest private employer, routinely paid women less than men for comparable work and arbitrarily favored men over women in promotion decisions. In 2004, a U.S. District Court entered an order granting class certification, potentially extending the retailer's financial liability to thousands of current and past Wal-Mart employees. At that time, the Wal-Mart suit was the largest class action lawsuit ever approved in the United States. In 2011, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed the lower court's ruling. Writing for the majority, Justice Scalia cited Wal-Mart's long-standing explicit gender-neutral employment policy and the decentralized manner in which local managers have discretion to adjust salaries and recommend applicants for promotion—factors that led the majority to question “the glue” binding the class together. Proponents of the Court's decision hailed the ruling as a victory for business and a step in the direction of needed legal reform. Critics viewed the decision as another in a series of defeats for minority interests by a pro-business, ideologically divided Court. Did the Court get it right, or is this yet another example of might defeating right?
Signals of Remorse and Perceptions of Threat

ior in the future. In Sorry States, Jennifer Lind uses this basic facet of social life as a springboard for a penetrating assessment of the influence of apologies on threat perceptions in international politics. Lind focuses in particular on how a former aggressor state's signals of contrition can mitigate - or aggravate - the distrust of past victims. The book thus speaks to a number of important areas of inquiry in international relations and political science: from the problems of signaling (Jervis 1970), threat assessment (Walt 1987), and mistrust (Kydd 2005), to the politics of apologies and postwar reconciliation (O'Neill 1999; Snyder and Vinjamuri 2003/04; Weiner 2005; Barkan and Karn 2006; Nobles 2008), the rehabilitation of defeated aggressors (Jackson 2006), and national memory and remembrance (Tilly 2008). In doing so, Lind grapples with tricky problems of qualitative causal analysis. In trying to gauge the independent impact of largely symbolic gestures that are intermingled with other key drivers of threat perception, Lind must deal with both over-determination and neither-necessary-nor-sufficient causation. Thus, while sleuthing-out the influence of apologies (or their absence), Lind tracks the concomitant or divergent impacts of such threat- or trust-enhancing factors as military capabilities, regime type, and international organization ties. When it comes to judging the relative importance of these things, there is much to argue about, and Sorry States puts the key considerations transparently out on the table. Lind indicates when and how other major factors join with apologetic remembrance to support reconciliation, and also pinpoints the contexts in which the distrust-arousing affects of unapologetic politics are nullified by other drivers of strategic cooperation. On these points, and others, the book's conclusions are both largely convincing and reflective of the inelegant political reality. Lind's study introduces a streamlined descriptive framework, based on clear and intuitive concepts. The general behavior at issue is national ' 'remembrance," which can be more or less apologetic or unapologetic. Contrition is most pronounced when the apologizer takes responsibility for the offense, expresses real remorse, and offers direct amends. Unapologetic remembrance can take a variety of forms: spin that deflects and minimizes without actually denying; a schizophrenic mix of apologies and exculpatory claims; compensation schemes that eschew the reparations label and skirt admissions of guilt; and, of course, flat-out denial and jingoistic mythologizing.
Path Criticality Computation in Parameterized Statistical Timing Analysis Using a Novel Operator

This paper presents a method to compute criticality probabilities of paths in parameterized statistical static timing analysis. We partition the set of all the paths into several groups and formulate the path criticality into a joint probability of inequalities. Before evaluating the joint probability directly, we simplify the inequalities through algebraic elimination, handling topological correlation. Our proposed method uses conditional probabilities to obtain the joint probability, and statistics of random variables representing process parameters are changed to take into account the conditions. To calculate the conditional statistics of the random variables, we derive analytic formulas by extending Clark's work. This allows us to obtain the conditional probability density function of a path delay, given the path is critical, as well as to compute criticality probabilities of paths. Our experimental results show that the proposed method provides 4.2X better accuracy on average in comparison to the state-of-art method.
Character Strings, Memory and Passwords: What a Recall Study Can Tell Us

Many users must authenticate to multiple systems and applications, often using different passwords, on a daily basis. At the same time, the recommendations of security experts are driving increases in the required character length and complexity of passwords. The thinking is that longer passwords will result in greater "entropy," or randomness, making them more difficult to guess. The greater complexity requires inclusion of upper- and lower-case letters, numerals, and special characters. How users interact and cope with passwords of different length and complexity is a topic of significant interest to both the computer science and cognitive science research communities. Using experimental methodology from the behavioral sciences, we set out to answer the following question: how memorable are complex character strings of different lengths that might be used as higher-entropy passwords? In this experiment, participants were asked to memorize a series of ten different character strings and type them repeatedly into a computer program. Character string lengths varied and the random characters were made up of alphanumeric and special characters in order to mimic passwords. Not surprisingly, our findings indicate that the longer a character string is, the longer it takes for a person to recall it, and the more likely they are to make an error when trying to re-type that string. These effects are particularly pronounced for strings of eight to ten characters or longer.
Improving the extraction of temporal motion strength signals from video recordings of neonatal seizures

The paper presents a procedure developed to extract quantitative information from video recordings of neonatal seizures in the form of temporal motion strength signals. These signals are obtained by applying nonlinear filtering, segmentation, and morphological filtering on the differences between adjacent frames. The experiments indicate that temporal motion strength signals constitute an effective representation of videotaped clinical events and can be used for seizure recognition and characterization.
Postoperative Falls After Total Knee Arthroplasty in Patients With a Femoral Nerve Catheter: Can We Reduce the Incidence?

A femoral nerve catheter (FNC) is often used to minimize pain following total knee arthroplasty (TKA), but complications including inpatient falls, may increase as a result, despite fall prevention protocols. We evaluated the rate of falls in 707 primary TKAs performed with an FNC at a major academic center from May 2009 to September 2012. Despite a formalized fall prevention protocol, we found 19 falls (2.7%). Three patients required further operative intervention. At a rate of 2.7%, postoperative fall is one of the most common complications of TKA at our institution. While pain control may be good with the use of FNCs following primary TKA, improvements in fall prevention strategies or the use of alternative postoperative pain control modalities may need to be considered.
Toward a Unified Parameterization of the Boundary Layer and Moist Convection. Part II: Lateral Mass Exchanges and Subplume-Scale Fluxes

Abstract The dissipation parameterizations developed for higher-order closure are used to parameterize lateral entrainment and detrainment in a mass-flux model. In addition, a subplume-scale turbulence scheme is included to represent fluxes not captured in the conventional mass-flux framework. These new parameterizations are tested by simulating trade wind cumulus from the Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological Experiment (BOMEX).
HYDROPOLITICAL COMPLEXES AND ASYMMETRICAL POWER: CONFLICT, COOPERATION, AND GOVERNANCE OF INTERNATIONAL RIVER SYSTEMS

Hydropolitical complexes are emerging to negotiate water-sharing policies that promote political stability, regional security, economic prosperity, and environmental sustainability. Yet interstate disputes are occurring within most hydropolitical complexes, and weak riparians are often coerced to agree to water-sharing policies that adversely affect them. This research examines the strategies weak riparians use to assert leverage in international river basins with asymmetrical power, and the success of those strategies in achieving cooperation versus conflict. Grounded in the theoretical framework of hydro hegemony, hard power, and soft power, this study uses cross national analysis to test the effects of geographic, military, political, economic, technological, and external influence on water governance in eight international river systems. The results demonstrate that weak riparians mobilize the assets and capacities of external actors, such as donor countries and the World Bank, to increase their leverage within hydropolitical complexes. The study finds that strategies to balance hard power are largely ineffective; they fail to achieve cooperative water-sharing arrangements and often exacerbate conflict. In contrast, strategies to balance economic power and soft power, such as market access and political legitimacy, are more successful in promoting cooperation and preventing conflict in hydropolitical complexes.
A method for trapping breeding adult American Oystercatchers

We present an efficient and effective method for trapping adult, breeding American Oystercatchers (Haematopus palliatus) that minimizes disturbance to nesting birds and the risk of trapping injuries. We used a remote controlled mechanical decoy to lure territorial adults to a leg-hold noose-mat trap. We trapped 25 birds over two seasons and were successful on 54% of our trapping attempts in 2003. We only trapped birds before the breeding season or between nesting attempts to reduce nest-site disturbance. SINOPSIS. Metodo para atrapar adultos de Haemantopus palliatus Presentamos un metodo eficiente y efectivo para atrapar adultos reproductivos de Haemantopus palliatus que minimiza el disturbio en las reas de anidaje y el riesgo de heridas asociadas a su captura. Utilizamos un senuelo como carnada con un mecanismo dirigido por control remoto, para atraer y atrapar a machos territoriales. Atrapamos 25 individuos en dos temporadas y tuvimos un e de captura de 54%. Tan solo atrapamos aves antes de la e reproductiva y entre intentos reproductivos para reducir el disturbio en las reas de anidaje.