cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Proteins of the cauda epididymal fluid associated with fertility of mature dairy bulls.

ABSTRACT: We evaluated the relationships between proteins in cauda epididymis fluid (CEF) and fertility scores of dairy bulls. Fertility was expressed as the percentage point deviation (PD) of bull nonreturn rate from the average fertility of all bulls at an artificial insemination center. The number of services for each bull ranged from 1074 to 52 820, and PD values ranged from +7.7% to −6.6%. CEF from 20 bulls was obtained from vasa deferentia cannulae and was separated from sperm by centrifugation immediately after collection. Samples were evaluated by 2-dimensional (2-D) sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis gels stained with Coomassie blue, and polypeptide maps were analyzed by PDQuest software. Protein quantities, defined as the total integrated optical density of the spots, were compared between groups of high-fertility sires (n = 12; PD ≥ 0) and low-fertility sires (n = 8; PD < 0) and were also used as independent variables in regression analysis. Proteins were identified by capillary liquid chromatography—nanoelectrospray ionization—tandem mass spectrometry. An average of 118 spots was detected in 2-D maps of the CEF, but we were unable to distinguish any protein that was expressed only in high-fertility or in low-fertility bulls. However, the amount of α-L-fucosidase 2 and cathepsin D was 2.3- and 2.4-fold greater (P < .05) in high-fertility than in low-fertility bulls, respectively. Conversely, the intensities of 3 isoforms (24–27 kd; pl 6.3–5.8) of prostaglandin D-synthase (PGDS) were from 3.2- to 2.2-fold greater in low-fertility sires (P < .05). An empirical regression model established that a significant proportion (R2 = 0.72; P < .0001) of the variation in fertility scores (PD values) was explained by the intensities of cathepsin D and 1 isoform of PGDS (24 kd; pl 6.3). Thus, multiple proteins present in the CEF are potential biomarkers of fertility in high-use, mature Holstein bulls.
Reflectance spectra and dielectric functions for Ag in the region of interband transitions

New measurements have been made of the reflectances of single crystals of Ag and of Ag films in the (3.5-30)-eV range. The data were analyzed with the Kramers-Kronig method and the resultant dielectric functions were compared with those in the literature and with recent calculations. We find all structures previously seen, and a new weak peak at 11.5 eV. Our magnitudes for ${\ensuremath{\epsilon}}_{2}$ are in considerably better agreement with those of the calculated spectra than are those in the literature. Second-derivative spectra of the absorption coefficient have been calculated and compared with previously measured thermotransmission spectra, showing the latter to arise primarily by temperature-dependent broadening.
Hierarchical particle filtering for multi-modal data fusion with application to multiple-target tracking

We propose a sequential and hierarchical Monte Carlo Bayesian framework for state estimation using multi-modal data. The proposed hierarchical particle filter (HPF) estimates the global filtered posterior density of the unknown state in multiple stages, by partitioning the state space and the measurement space into lower dimensional subspaces. At each stage, we find an estimate of one partition using the measurements from the corresponding partition, and the information from the previous stages. We demonstrate the proposed framework for joint initiation, termination and tracking of multiple targets using multi-modal sensors. Here, the multi-modal data consists of the measurements collected from a radar, an infrared camera and a human scout. We compare the performance of the proposed HPF with the performance of a standard particle filter that uses linear opinion (SPF-LO), independent opinion (SPF-IO), and independent likelihood (SPF-IL) for data fusion. The results show that HPF improves the robustness of the tracking system in handling the initiation and termination of targets and provides a lower mean-squared error (RMSE) in the position estimates of the targets that maintain their tracks. The RMSE in the velocity estimates using the HPF was similar to the RMSE obtained using SPF based methods.
The Politics of Procurement: Military Origins of Bureaucratic Autonomy

No U.S. history textbook mentions Robert Allen, George H. Crosman, John H. Dickerson, Thomas Swords, or Stewart Van Vliet. Yet in certain respects they were five of the most important government officials in the nineteenth-century United States. Each was a high-ranking officer in the Quartermaster's Department, a bureau of the U.S. army entrusted with military procurement. During the Civil War, the supply depots in which they worked—in Philadelphia, New York, Cincinnati, and St. Louis—were indispensable adjuncts to the Union war effort. The magnitude of the procurement project was unprecedented: in four years, these five officers alone paid contractors and civilian employees 350 million was equivalent to the total wartime income of one hundred thousand households. Adjusted for inflation, this was roughly equal to the entire federal budget during the administration of President James Buchanan (1857–61).
PS2-26: Using Shared Decision Making to Ensure Equipoise in a Randomized Trial of Bariatric Surgery Versus Behavioral Treatment for Obesity and Diabetes

BackgroundGastric bypass (RYGB) can reverse type 2 diabetes (T2DM); however, a lack of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing RYGB against medical therapy has limited widespread use. Barriers to conducting RCTs include: challenges recruiting informed patients willing to be randomized to surgical or non-surgical treatment who are not coerced by financial incentives or access to care, selection biases associated with standard recruitment methods, and high cost of RYGB. We assessed the feasibility of identifying, recruiting and randomizing a well-informed, population-based sample using a Shared Decision Making (SDM) approach. Based on prior research, we hypothesized a 100:1 ratio of contacted members to enrolled participants.MethodsGroup Health members with T2DM and BMI of 30?40 kg/m2 are identified from electronic databases. We use a phased process to carefully screen participants: Call 1 assesses interest in obesity treatment and invites participation in SDM, which includes reviewing a DVD decision aid and booklet on treatment for obesity and diabetes. Subsequently, a nurse conducts a 45 minute SDM call to determine preferences regarding treatment. People remaining undecided about treatment after SDM (at equipoise) are invited to participate in the RCT. Written informed consent is obtained and 40 participants will be randomized to RYGB or behavioral intervention. Participants are followed for 1 year.ResultsRecruitment started May 2011 and is ongoing. As of November 2011, 1220 members have been mailed, and 84% contacted. Of these, 21% completed Call 1 and agreed to SDM. Among 130 (11%) who?ve completed SDM, 64% choose diet/exercise; 3% drug treatment, 21% choose surgery, and 12% undecided. Among those who remained at equipoise, 47 (4%) were interested in the RCT, and 20 (1.6%) have been randomized. The randomized cohort has a mean age of 55.4, 60% female, 25% BMI 30?34.9, and 75% BMI 35?40.ConclusionsUsing novel methods, we?ve demonstrated the feasibility of conducting a RCT of RYGB vs. behavioral intervention in an HMO setting, including enrolling participants with a BMI <35 (below current NIH standards for RYGB). We confirmed the ratio of screened to enrolled is ~50?100:1 and therefore large populations are needed to apply this approach to recruit a population in genuine equipoise without significant coercion.
Analysis of LuxR Regulon Gene Expression during Quorum Sensing in Vibrio fischeri

The regulation of the lux operon (luxICDABEG) of Vibrio fischeri has been intensively studied as a model for quorum sensing in proteobacteria. Two-dimensional sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis previously identified several non-Lux proteins in V. fischeri MJ-100 whose expression was dependent on LuxR and 3-oxo-hexanoyl-l-homoserine lactone (3-oxo-C6-HSL). To determine if the LuxR-dependent regulation of the genes encoding these proteins was due to direct transcriptional control by LuxR and 3-oxo-C6-HSL or instead was due to indirect control via an unidentified regulatory element, promoters of interest were cloned into a lacZ reporter and tested for their LuxR and 3-oxo-C6-HSL dependence in recombinant Escherichia coli. The promoters for qsrP, acfA, and ribB were found to be directly activated via LuxR-3-oxo-C6-HSL. The sites of transcription initiation were established via primer extension analysis. Based on this information and the position of the lux box-binding site near position −40, all three promoters appear to have a class II-type promoter structure. In order to more fully characterize the LuxR regulon in V. fischeri MJ-100, real-time reverse transcription-PCR was used to study the temporal expression of qsrP, acfA, and ribB during the exponential and stationary phases of growth, and electrophoretic mobility shift assays were used to compare the binding affinities of LuxR to the promoters under investigation. Taken together, the results demonstrate that regulation of the production of QsrP, RibB, and AcfA is controlled directly by LuxR at the level of transcription, thereby establishing that there is a LuxR regulon in V. fischeri MJ-100 whose genes are coordinately expressed during mid-exponential growth.
On the identification of the effect of prohibiting hand-held cell phone use while driving: Comment

In a paper recently published in this journal (Nikolaev, A.G., Robbins, M.J., Jacobson, S.H., 2010. Evaluating the impact of legislation prohibiting hand-held cell phone use while driving. Transportation Research Part A 44, 182-193.), Nikolaev et al. (2010) provide evidences on the effect of hand-held cell phone bans on driving safety. More specifically, they analyze the impact of a state-wide ban on hand-held cell phone use while driving on the number of fatal automobile and personal injury accidents per 100,000 licensed drivers per year and conclude that the ban had a significant negative impact on both the mean fatal accident rate and the mean personal injury accident rate. In this paper I argue that they lack of a good identification strategy that enables them to correctly identify the causal effect of the ban. I also provide evidence that the effect they find is a combination of the ban effect and of unobservable variables not accounted for in their analysis. Finally, I provide a way where one can control for unobservables when estimating the causal effect of the ban and find that indeed that ban appears to have a negative effect on fatal automobile accidents. Keywords: Driver distraction;
The effects of stress on children's human figure drawings†

Investigated the effect of stress and preparation for stress on emotional indicators (EIs) of 68 children, aged 4 to 12 years, who were hospitalized for elective surgery. All children were asked twice to draw a human figure, once shortly after admission and again 90 minutes later. In the interim, they received stress (venipuncture or “blood test”) or no stress (venipuncture delayed until after second drawing), and were either prepared (information, rehearsal and supportive care) or not prepared (free play) for the stressful situation. EIs increased only in the group that was stressed and unprepared; this effect remained when adjusted for mental age score of drawing. Pre- and post-measures of coping behavior and pulse also were assessed. EIs correlated with pulse taken at the time of the venipuncture. Examiners who interpret drawings by this method must consider the effect of current stress and the child's understanding of stress.
Comparison of Ionic Currents Expressed in Immature and Mature Muscle Cells of an Ascidian Larva

We have compared the voltage-gated ion channels present in larval ascidian muscle at two developmental stages: muscle precursor cells just after the terminal cell division and mature contractile muscle, 7-11 hr later. All precursor cells express a high-threshold transient Ca current and a slowly activating delayed K current, and about half the cells express a low-threshold transient Ca current. An inwardly rectifying K current, which had been present from fertilization until just before the terminal cell division, is absent. Mature muscle retains two of the tailbud currents: the low-threshold transient Ca current and the slow delayed K current, although at larger densities, and also expresses a high-threshold Ca current that is similar in most respects to the precursor cell current but that lacks inactivation. In addition, mature muscle expresses two rapidly activating outward K currents, one voltage and one Ca dependent, that generate a composite outward K current that is eight times larger and activates eight times faster than the tailbud K current. Mature muscle also reexpresses the inward rectifier. We propose that the transient absence of the inward rectifier and the slow activation of the delayed K current early in development create a window of developmental time when spontaneous electrical activity is likely.
An Efficient Static Algorithm for Computing the Soft Error Rates of Combinational Circuits

Soft errors have emerged as an important reliability challenge for nanoscale VLSI designs. In this paper, we present a fast and efficient soft error rate (SER) computation algorithm for combinational circuits. We first present a novel parametric waveform model based on the Weibull function to represent particle strikes at individual nodes in the circuit. We then describe the construction of the SET descriptor that efficiently captures the correlation between the transient waveforms and their associated rate distribution functions. The proposed algorithm consists of operations to inject, propagate and merge SET descriptors while traversing forward along the gates in a circuit. The parameterized waveforms enable an efficient static approach to calculate the SER of a circuit. We exercise the proposed approach on a wide variety of combinational circuits and observe that our algorithm has linear runtime with the size of the circuit. The runtimes for soft error estimation were observed to be in the order of about one second, compared to several minutes or even hours for previously proposed methods.
The Capacity Enhancement of Room Temperature Hydrogen Storage in HiPco SWNT by Electrochemical Deposition of Palladium Nanoparticles

A Sieverts apparatus for small quantity samples has been implemented by employing a very small volume pressure reservoir and a sample chamber of less than 1 ml. The hydrogen storage capacity of a commercially available, HiPco (high pressure CO conversion) single-wall carbon nanotube (SWNT) was measured over a hydrogen pressure range of 0-35 Bar at room temperature. The sample contained approximately 5 wt% of residual Fe catalyst, and showed 0.17 wt% of hydrogen uptake capacity at 30 Bar of hydrogen pressure. Palladium nanoparticles were deposited on the SWNT via electrochemical method (EC) from H2PdCl4 solution. The storage capacity of the SWNT with EC-doped Pd was increased to 0.52 wt% at 30 Bar, which corresponds to the capacity enhancement by a factor between 2.8 and 3.1.
Nonthermal Plasma Torch Surface Attachment in Fluidic Environments

The plasma jet of a nonthermal plasma torch was studied under various flow rates as it interacted with cell culture media. As the flow rate of the plasma working gas increases, the surface area of the attachment changes considerably. Effects in appearance range from a fine “jet” to a broad “skirt” that flutters in a disorganized pattern.
Ethane: taking control of the enterprise

This paper presents Ethane, a new network architecture for the enterprise. Ethane allows managers to define a single network-wide fine-grain policy, and then enforces it directly. Ethane couples extremely simple flow-based Ethernet switches with a centralized controller that manages the admittance and routing of flows. While radical, this design is backwards-compatible with existing hosts and switches.We have implemented Ethane in both hardware and software, supporting both wired and wireless hosts. Our operational Ethane network has supported over 300 hosts for the past four months in a large university network, and this deployment experience has significantly affected Ethane's design.
Plate Tectonics and Magmatic Evolution

The validity of the general idea of plate tectonics is accepted; the magmas evolved along the spreading ridges are thought to be largely tholeiitic basalt, although alkalic olivine basalt and ultramafic rocks of several kinds have also been dredged from them. The ultramafics may be residual from the partial melting of pyrolite while the tholeiite was being formed at shallower depths, or they may possibly be fragments of the mantle raised by the injection of sills. Bouvet and Jan Mayen Islands, both on the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, are largely composed of alkali basalt with very minor differentiates of trachyte and even rhyolite that may be readily accounted for by differentiation at a high level in the volcanic edifice. Iceland, though, has so much granite and rhyolite widely distributed that it seems likely, as suggested by several students, that its basement is sialic. The volcanic islands tend to be more alkalic the farther they are from the ridges; perhaps they rose from deeper sources in areas of low heat flow and are not related to plate margins. If the African Rifts are incipient plate margins, it is noteworthy that the magmas associated with them are wholly different from the tholeiites of the oceanic ridges. They are among the most highly alkaline of any rocks known. The magmatic activity at the subduction zones, where the plates are being destroyed, is very different. There are three varieties of these plate junctions: continental against oceanic, oceanic against oceanic, and continental against continental. In both the junctions involving oceanic crust the material being consumed includes a variable thickness of sediment, underlain by 5 or 6 km of tholeiitic basalt overlying the downgoing mantle. These rocks are much less refractory than the pyrolite of the mantle and must surely compose a large part of material parental to the magmas formed along the subduction zones, the andesites, granodiorites, and granites. There is nowhere the tremendous volume of intermediate rocks that would have had to be formed if these voluminous magmas had been products of crystallization differentiation from a basaltic magma. The presently most active of the continent-continent junctions is along the Himalayas where India is underthrusting the continent of Asia; here there is no evidence of magmatism except along the transcurrent faults at either end of the main range. But there are large volcanic and plutonic masses that have no obvious relation to the plate boundaries active in Mesozoic and Cenozoic time. The Eogene volcanics of the San Juans and the Neogene volcanics of the Yellowstone are more than 1,500 km from any obvious subduction zone, and these regions of magmatic activity seem no more closely related to subduction zones than are the Tertiary igneous rocks of West Texas, the Cretaceous tuffs and plutons of Arkansas, the Cretaceous intrusives of the Monteregian Hills, and the minor Tertiary intrusives of Virginia.
Differences in wildfires among ecoregions and land management agencies in the Sierra Nevada region, California, USA

Recent research has indicated that in most of the western United States, fire size is increasing, large fires are becoming more frequent, and in at least some locations percentage of high-severity fire is also increasing. These changes in the contemporary fire regime are largely attributed to both changing climate and land management practices, including suppression of fires and past timber harvesting, over the last century. Fire management, including suppression and using wildfire for resource benefits, varies among federal land management agencies, yet no published studies have directly compared fire statistics between federal land management agencies in our study area. The primary response to wildfire on Forest Service areas is immediate suppression, while the National Park Service is more likely to use wildfire for resource benefits. We use fire perimeters and satellite-derived estimates of fire severity to compare fire statistics for wildfires (fire size, percentage of high-severity fire and high-sev...
Improved Pd-on-Au bimetallic nanoparticle catalysts for aqueous-phase trichloroethene hydrodechlorination

Groundwater remediation through the catalytic breakdown of the undesired contaminants is a more effective and desirable approach than the conventional physical displacement methods of air-stripping and carbon adsorption. Palladium-on-gold nanoparticles (Pd/Au NPs) have recently been shown to catalyze the hydrodechlorination of trichloroethene in water, at room temperature, and in the presence of hydrogen, with the most active Pd/Au material found to be >70 times more active than Pd supported on alumina on a per-Pd atom basis. The potential of this catalyst as a groundwater remediation technology could be improved by synthesizing Pd/Au NPs with smaller diameters and immobilizing them on a solid support. For this study, we synthesized Pd/Au NPs with a core diameter of 4 nm and with different Pd loadings and studied them in colloidal form for aqueous-phase trichloroethene hydrodechlorination. The most active catalysts were considerably more active (>1900 L/gPd/min) than Pd NPs (55 L/gPd/min) and conventionally synthesized Pd/Al2O3 (47 L/gPd/min). Accounting for a gas–liquid mass transfer effect and converting the Pd loading to Pd surface coverage using a magic cluster model for the Pd/Au NPs, the reaction rates in terms of initial turnover frequencies were >1.4, 4.35 � 10 � 2 , and 3.76 � 10 � 2 s � 1 , respectively. These materials exhibited volcano-like catalytic activity, in which hydrodechlorination rate was maximum near 70% Pd surface coverage. Au appeared to promote catalysis through geometric and electronic effects. Immobilization of the NPs on alumina, magnesia, and silica supports yielded active oxide-supported catalysts. # 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
α1-Acid glycoprotein induced effects in rat brain microvessel endothelial cells

Abstract α1-Acid glycoprotein (AGP) is a positive acute phase protein which is elevated 1–10 times during inflammation. Whereas AGP has been reported to have immunomodulatory properties, other biological functions of this protein such as its effects on the blood–brain barrier (BBB) endothelium are unknown. Tight junction (TJ) proteins (ZO-1 and occludin) are crucial in maintaining BBB integrity and brain homeostasis. As inflammatory cytokines have been shown to alter BBB integrity and TJ protein expression, we hypothesized that AGP changes BBB function by stimulating inflammatory cytokines and/or directly modulating TJ protein expression. We used primary rat brain microvessel endothelial cells (RBMECs) as an in vitro BBB model to study the direct effects of AGP on the brain microvasculature. No change in cytokine levels was detected in supernatant from AGP-treated RBMECs, despite increased mRNA expression by the cells. Paracellular permeability was decreased up to 20%, across RBMEC monolayers following treatment with AGP, suggesting its role in enhancing BBB integrity. RBMECs showed a biphasic response of increased occludin protein expression following AGP treatment while ZO-1 expression changed in a dose- and time-dependent manner. These changes in TJ proteins suggest that AGP induced changes in occludin related to enhanced barrier properties while the change in ZO-1 may play a secondary role in BBB integrity and/or as an intracellular signaling molecule. AGP significantly changed transcription factor activator protein 1 (AP-1) DNA‐binding activity which provides evidence of the potential cell signaling pathways that contribute to the effect of AGP in RBMECs. Together, this supports our hypothesis that AGP has a direct effect in brain microvasculature and may play an important role in altering BBB integrity in inflammatory-related diseases.
Improving Relations Between Attorneys and Physicians

DURING THE PAST 30 YEARS, THERE HAVE BEEN 3 SEPArate medical liability crises. In the first 2 crises, which occurred in the 1970s and the 1980s, either physicians experienced increasingly unaffordable insurance premiums or many specialists were unable to purchase insurance at any price. The current crisis has elements of both, especially for high-risk specialties. Cumulatively, the recurrent crises have exposed the rawness of physician antipathy toward attorneys and the legal system. That antipathy appears to be deeper and more pervasive than ever before, making it hard to imagine that relations between attorneys and physicians can get much worse. Forexample,accordingtoanAssociatedPressreport,aSouth Carolina surgeon ceased treating a patient when he found out her husband was a trial lawyer. In New Hampshire, a neurosurgeontoldtheheadof thestate’s trial lawyers thathewould not treat him for nonemergencies. A plastic surgeon in Mississippi refused to treat the daughter of a state lawmaker because of the father’s stand on malpractice suits. Several physicians had gone so far as to post names of plaintiffs, their attorneys, and expert witnesses on a Web site (since removed) designed to identify patients who initiated medical liability litigation. The American Medical Association debated a resolution that would ethically permit physicians to refuse treatment for attorneys involved in medical malpractice cases. Although the motion was soundly defeated, it reveals the extent of some physicians’ pent-up frustrations and depth of anger toward attorneys and the liability system. A New Yorker cartoon titled “Hippocrates off the Record” captures the animosity, with the caption reading, “First, treat no lawyers.” These developments raise the specter of a profound breach between attorneys and physicians. Therefore, it is important to consider ways to repair the relationship. Arguably, much of the antipathy stems from entrenched mistrust over medical liability rather than fundamental and irredeemable differences. The mutual distrust is not over differences in core values but over different approaches for resolving the inevitable conflicts that arise. As elemental as the liability debate may be, it is only one aspect of a widening set of interactions between law and medicine. To avoid any further ruptures, a renewed physician-attorney dialogue that emphasizes shared values and concerns for patient safety is desirable.
ERBIUM-DOPED FIBER AMPLIFIERS: BASIC PHYSICS AND THEORETICAL MODELING

An extensive outline of the basic physics and modeling of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers is presented. In the first part, the spectroscopic features and properties of the erbium-doped glass laser system are described. In the second part, various theoretical models based on this description are detailed with insights on the approximations made and their corresponding accuracy. Such models are shown to be useful for optimizing the design and device characteristics of Er-fiber amplifiers.
Precise Transfection Control of Cell Reprogramming Factors via a High Throughput Electroporation System

There is great interest in reprogramming of human fibroblasts to induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells as an autologous cell source for therapeutic applications, but the utility of iPS Cells is hampered by the use of viral delivery systems. We demonstrate the ability to reprogram the cells by transducing the transcription factors including Oct4 via electroporation method (EPM). A major drawback of conventional EPMs is high cell mortality and low efficiency. To overcome these limitations, we are using a novel hybrid microfluidic/thin film transistor system (µF-TFTS) to precisely control the electroporation potential for each individual cell. Here, we present the recent works on the characterization of µF-TFTS for electro-transfecion of cell reprogramming factors. We search for optimum electrical with accuracy of 0.003% over dynamic range to transfect a certain cell programming factor into single cells using µF-TFTS. We perform the electroporation on 60,000 sample five different factors (PI, DAPI, Oct4) in a few second. This technologically integrated approach offers new prospects for understanding the biophysical complexity of cell reprogramming as well as cell behaviors in a precisely controllable electrical field using a high throughput and rapid EMP system.View Large Image | View Hi-Res Image | Download PowerPoint Slide
Paraphilia and Fetishism

Atypical sexual behavior is intriguing to many people, yet the empirical research on paraphilia and fetishism is relatively lacking. Nonetheless, clinicians are often called on to intervene in such cases, particularly when the paraphilia involves nonconsenting partners. This review article is structured around a brief historical overview of the diagnostic classification of atypical sexual behavior in the United States, descriptions of the types of atypical sexual behavior that receive clinical attention, an overview of the models that have been proposed to explain the development of atypical sexual behavior, and finally a summary of the most common treatments for these problems.
Renewable energy sector development in the Caribbean: Current trends and lessons from history

Island regions and isolated communities represent an understudied area of not only clean energy development but also of innovation. Caribbean states have for some time shown interest in developing a regional sustainable energy policy and in implementing measures which could help to protect its member states from volatile oil markets while promoting reliance on local resources. Here we examine four case studies of renewable energy advancements being made by public utility companies and independent energy companies in the Caribbean. We attempt to locate renewable energy advances in a broader historical framework of energy sector development, indicating a few policy lessons. We find that different degrees of regulatory and legislative sophistication have evolved in different islands. Islands should have specialized policy focus, contrasting the ad-hoc nature of current regional energy policy discussion. We also conduct a cost benefit analysis which shows that these early, innovative alternative energy projects show themselves to be both profitable and significant sources of emissions reduction and job creation. This lends support to the potential benefits of regional energy policy.
Learning Multi-channel Deep Feature Representations for Face Recognition

Deep learning provides a natural way to obtain feature representations from data without relying on hand-crafted descriptors. In this paper, we propose to learn deep feature representations using unsupervised and supervised learning in a cascaded fashion to produce generically descriptive yet class specic features. The proposed method can take full advantage of the availability of large-scale unlabeled data and learn discriminative features (supervised) from generic features (unsupervised). It is then applied to multiple essential facial regions to obtain multi-channel deep facial representations for face recognition. The ecacy of the proposed feature representations is validated on both controlled (i.e., extended Yale-B, Yale, and AR) and uncontrolled (PubFig) benchmark face databases. Experimental results show its eectiveness.
Antibacterial Effects of Metal Complexes

The almost complete elimination of debilitating and fatal bacterial diseases such as pneumonia, tuberculosis and infections arising from surgery and wounds, not to mention the reduction in the drastic consequences of bacterial epidemics, must undoubtedly be ranked as one of the major achievements of applied chemotherapy; this has been brought about by the discovery and application of the sulfonamides, penicillins and tetracyclines. The history of these discoveries is well documented and, for the sulfonamides, can be traced back to the original postulates of Paul Ehrlich at the turn of this century [1, 2]. Antimetabolites such as the sulfonamides and antibiotics, as exemplified by penicillin, have been subjected to extensive study of their structure—activity relationships and are further important in the development of systematic chemotherapy because of the recognition of clear targets associated with design of chemotherapeutic agents (for penicillin the bacterial cell wall and for sulfonamides tetrahydrofolate synthesis).
From Sarkozy to Hollande, Race and Party Politics in France

The public policy initiatives on racial integration of the major political parties in the U.S. and France are as varied as the cultures they reflect but they tend to intersect around their traditional concepts of race developed during periods of social instability amid lingering relative ethnic homogeneity. A critical assessment of American approaches to “race” in public policy and law shows that uncritical 19th century concepts of race are pervasive. Current ambiguities in racially focused law and policy result from naive, asocial concepts that are untenable in current social science. Post civil rights legislation amends and yet perpetuates narrowly individualistic, physical concepts of race that characterized segregation. The coincidence of religious diversity with racial diversity in France has generated greater reflection about respect for diversity among fellow citizens but it has not impeded the search for consensus, if not uniformity, in partisan approaches to minorities and immigrants.This paper examines the special difficulties that distinguish partisan approaches to consensus on racial/ethnic issues in France in comparison with the U.S.This research is sensitive to the broader context of political debate about national identity in France, a context that is substantially influenced by the pressures of globalization and integration in the European Union. As a consequence, the changing, post 2005 politics of the major parties in France on race/ethnic integration are also examined in the context of their international pressures and in comparison with the U.S. In addition, the long term evolution of party policy orientations on racial issues are compared as the parties move from the relative homogeneity of the previous century to this one’s diversity. The conceptual issues of identity, ethnicity, race and integration in France and the U.S., are explored through the examination of party platforms, campaigns and legislative initiatives and voter surveys. The structural and ideological differences between the conservative administration of President Sarkozy and that of President Hollande are shown to have a distinct impact on racial inclusion in party politics.
Sites of Production of Primate Serum Proteins Associated with the Complement System.

SummaryVarious human and monkey tissues, including liver, spleen, bone marrow, and lung were found to incorporate C14-amino acids into 11S globulin (C′1q) in vitro. A comparison with previous studies on β10 (C′3) and 1β1E (C′4) production revealed a striking similarity in the sites of synthesis of these 3 proteins. Primate macrophages isolated from peritoneal exudates or lungs were particularly active in the synthesis of β1c β1E and US globulin. It was discussed that macrophages of various species appear to constitute a major site of production of several complement components.
A New Factor Required for Growth and Reproduction in the Domestic Fowl

ConclusionsIt is evident from these results and also from the known character of the ration fed that a factor is required for growth and reproduction in the domestic fowl other than vitamins A, B, B4, B6, D, E, K, riboflavin, the chick antidermatosis vitamin, nicotinic acid, factor W, the antiencephalomalacia factor and the essential fatty acids. It appears improbable that this factor is the grass juice factor,6 since corn and wheat are reported to be poor sources of the latter factor. It also is improbable that the factor is protein in nature. The factor is destroyed by heating in a dry atmosphere for 36 hours at 120°C. It is present in cereals, yeast and milk.
International Organizations and the Rule of Law: Challenges Ahead

In this synthesis of some of the themes of a General Course on International Law given at the Xiamen Academy of International Law, Alvarez canvasses the diverse ways that inter-governmental organizations, particularly those of the UN system, have changed the traditional international sources of law contained in Article 38 of the Statute of the International Court of Justice. It argues that the resulting challenge posed to legal positivism underlies the daunting difficulties faced by those seeking to make international organizations “accountable.” It also argues that, paradoxically, the ways that international organizations have sought to make or influence law may make it more difficult for those organizations to subject themselves to the rule of law. If today we question, with good reason, whether the "international rule of law" exists, one reason for doubts may be the ways that international organizations engage in "law-making."
Neuroimaging of Healthy Cognitive Aging

Cognitive aging research and theory has, until recently, been based upon behavioral measures of cognitive performance such as response time and accuracy. Results from behavioral methodologies have indicated a general age-related decline in cognitive functions such as speed of processing, attention, perception, working memory, and cued and free recall—and age invariance when assessing cognitive processes associated with vocabulary and semantic memory. Recently, advances in the area of neuroimaging have allowed for the examination of the relationship between cognitive and neural differences in the aging brain. Given that cognitive processes depend on brain anatomy and physiology, it is natural to expect that previously observed behavioral differences in aging are intimately linked to age-related changes in the integrity of cerebral architecture and function. By using in vivo neuroimaging techniques such as positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), researchers can tap into the neural substrates of cognitive aging linking behavior and function. As this technology has improved over the last two decades, significant advances have been made in the field of functional neuroimaging of cognitive aging. Research has shown us that, despite a common notion that everything declines in aging, neural activity associated with cognitive aging is characterized by both age-related increases as well as age-related decreases in brain activity. Failure on the part of older adults to activate brain regions typically recruited by younger adults during cognitive tasks is usually characterized as neurocognitive decline. However,
The Development, Use, and Interpretation of Nature of Science Assessments

Efforts to assess students' and teachers' understandings of nature of science have extended for over 50 years. During this time, numerous instruments have been developed that span the full range of assessments from the traditional to open-ended assessments with interviews. As one might expect, the development, use, and interpretation of these assessments have paralleled the scholarship on students’ and teachers’ understandings of nature of science. Consequently, such assessments have evidenced the same challenges and obstacles seen in the general research literature. This chapter will provide a rationale for the importance of teaching, and assessing, nature of science as well as a discussion of the construct. A comprehensive review and a critical analysis of the various assessments are also provided. Finally, an in-depth discussion of the contemporary issues regarding nature of science and its assessment is provided along with cautions regarding the future direction of nature of science assessment.
Peace to violence: Explaining the violent escalation of nonviolent demonstrations

Under what conditions do nonviolent demonstrations escalate to violence? I answer this question using a novel theory of individual impatience in protests that begin peacefully. Rather than consider...
A common language

ABSTRACTBoth the Internet and the Web beat out numerous rivals to become today's dominant network and online system,1 respectively. Many of those rival systems and networks had developed alternative solutions to issues that face us today, from micropayments to copyright. But few scholars, much less thought leaders, have a meaningful overview of the origins of our online world, or of the many systems which came before. This exclusivity is a problem, since as a society we are now making some of the permanent decisions that will determine how we deal with information for decades and even centuries to come. Those decisions are about regulatory structures, economic models, civil liberties, publishing and more. This essay argues for the need to comparatively study online information systems across all these axes, and to thus develop a “common language” of known precedents and concepts as a prerequisite for making informed discussions about the future of the online world. Doing so depends on two factors: (1) pre...
Chest Wall Injury: In Geriatric Trauma and Emergency Care

Thoracic injury accounts for up to 25 % of fatalities among injured patients. Chest wall injuries are common with rib fractures identified in approximately 10–26 % of patients presenting to a trauma center and sternal fractures in <1 % [1–3]. Elderly patients are at increased risk for both rib and sternal fractures when compared to younger patients [4, 5]. Several studies have reported that these injuries are associated with increased morbidity and mortality in this patient cohort [4, 6–10]. The purpose of this chapter is to review the current literature regarding the patterns of chest wall injury in the geriatric population, evaluate the factors contributing to worse outcome, and discuss injury prevention and management strategies for patients with these injuries.
Universal Compensation Ramp Auto-Tuning Technique for Current Mode Controls of Switching Converters

The conventional slope compensations for current mode controls do not take all the parameters’ changes into account, so the variations on small-signal transfer functions limit the voltage loop bandwidth (BW). In order to optimize the dynamic performance of current-mode control, this letter proposes a universal auto-tuning technique for external ramp slope based on the sensed slope of current feedback signal. The tuning mechanism keeps the quality factor of the double poles unchanged over the duty cycle variation, inductor tolerance, sensing element variation, and topology change, thus a consistent wide BW control is achieved without the limitation from the corner cases. Simple digital and analog implementations are proposed to realize the auto-tuning concept. This method is applicable to digital and analog current-mode controllers with peak current mode, valley current mode, and average current mode operations. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by simulation and experimental results.
An update on medications and noninvasive brain stimulation to augment language rehabilitation in post-stroke aphasia

Introduction: Aphasia is among the most debilitating outcomes of stroke. Aphasia is a language disorder occurring in 10–30% of stroke survivors. Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) is the gold standa...
Encephalocele development from a congenital meningocele: case report

A fetal MRI study obtained at 21 weeks' gestation revealed a suboccipital meningocele without hydrocephalus. One day after term birth, MRI demonstrated an acquired cerebellar encephalocele, and MRI obtained 5 months later showed progressive enlargement of the encephalocele, still without obvious hydrocephalus. The patient underwent an operation in which an external ventricular drain was placed, the grossly normal cerebellum was reduced into the posterior fossa without resection, and the dural defect was closed. The drain was weaned out over 5 days, and no ventriculoperitoneal shunt was placed. Postoperative MR images revealed normal cerebellum and no hydrocephalus. The patient is developmentally normal. Meningocele and encephalocele are embryologically distinct. An acquired encephalocele could develop from hydrocephalus (which was not present in this case), or secondary to the lower resistance to expansion into the dural defect of the meningocele relative to the resistance to expansion of the fetal skull. The cerebellar tissue was normal in this case, and was thus preserved. The developmental prognosis is excellent. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first reported case of this occurrence. It is important to differentiate between congenital and acquired encephalocele etiologies, because resection of the cerebellar tissue in an acquired encephalocele (as is routinely done in cases of congenital encephalocele) would be expected to result in neurological deficits.
Cardiac resynchronisation therapy: current indications, management and basic troubleshooting

### Learning objectives Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) is an established treatment for heart failure patients with left ventricular dysfunction complicated by left ventricular (LV) conduction delay. In patients who are candidates for CRT, the LV stroke volume is diminished both by cardiomyopathy and by a dyssynchronous contraction pattern caused by conduction delay (figure 1). Left bundle branch block (LBBB) is the category of LV conduction delay in cardiomyopathy patients where CRT is most effective as a therapy. Although other patterns of LV conduction delay may also respond to CRT, the pathophysiology of dyssynchrony tied to LV conduction delay is best understood by examination of the constellation of cardiomyopathy and LBBB. By stimulation of opposing sides of the left ventricle (figure 1), a more synchronised contraction can be achieved, and the LV stroke volume can be augmented to achieve clinically meaningful improvements in heart failure outcomes. Beyond the acute haemodynamic effects of CRT that improve heart failure symptoms, long-term beneficial changes at the myocardial cellular and transcriptional level lead to LV reverse remodelling and a direct impact on the natural history of systolic heart failure. Because of this, CRT is now routinely used in patients whose heart failure symptoms are mild to avoid progression of their cardiomyopathy and heart failure symptoms. Despite two decades for evolution of CRT implantation techniques and technology, CRT has been plagued with a non-response rate in the range of 30% that has varied little over time. Recent developments, particularly with multisite LV …
Absence of Chaotic Size Dependence for Spin Glasses on Hierarchical Lattices

We investigate the question of whether chaotic size dependence occurs on hierarchical lattices and demonstrate that it is not present in these systems. Our results show that the metastate for spin glasses on hierarchical lattices is simple.