cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Abstract P218: PKCε Regulates PI3K/mTOR Complex-2-Dependent AKT Activation Independent of c-Raf/MEK/ERK Pathway

Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) has been shown to influence hypertrophic growth of the myocardium through two unique complexes, mTOR complexed with Raptor (mTORC1) and mTOR complexed to Rictor (mTORC2) with downstream activation of S6K1 and AKT respectively. Previously, we characterized the role of novel PKC isoforms (epsilon and delta) on mTORC1-dependent activation of S6K1 downstream of both PI3K-dependent and independent pathways in adult cardiomyocytes. PKC epsilon (PKCe) has been implicated in AKT activation during ischemia-reperfusion injury and has been co-immunoprecipitated in transgenic PKCe overexpressing murine myocardium. In the present study, we explored the role of PKCe on PI3K-dependent AKT S473 phosphorylation. As such, insulin stimulated pAKT S473 was significantly reduced by pretreatment with wortmannin, a selective PI3K inhibitor. However, insulin stimulated activation of AKT was not reduced by pretreatment with either Go6976 blockade of the classical PKC isoforms (PKC alpha/beta) or U0126 blockade of MEK. Thus, insulin stimulated activation of AKT is mediated primarily through a PI3K-dependent pathway independent of the classical PKC isoforms. To begin to evaluate the role of the novel PKCs, we utilized adenoviral expression of dominant negative PKCe (dnPKCe). After 48 hours of expression of dnPKCe, insulin stimulated pAKT S473 was significantly reduced as compared to B-gal infection controls. Next we identified for the first time in isolated cardiomyocytes a direct link between PKCe and AKT through immunoprecipitation of a unique signaling complex comprised of PKCe bound to mTORC2 and pAKT (S473) only during insulin stimulation. These data establish for the first time in adult isolated cardiomyocytes: i) the necessity of PKCe during insulin stimulated PI3K-dependent AKT activation and ii) a signaling complex containing mTOR, Rictor, PKCe, and pAKT that forms during insulin stimulation. Given the importance of AKT in physiologic growth and survival, these studies indicate that PKCe plays a pivotal role during AKT activation and for the first time displays a direct link between PKCe, pAKT and mTORC2 in isolated cardiomyocytes.
Tumor-Associated Antigens and Immunity in Prostatic Carcinoma

Adenocarcinoma of the prostate, with an incidence of death in males second only to bronchogenic cancer (32), difficulty in early diagnosis and controversy over therapy (20), presents a continuing dilemma to the male populace requisite of more effective means of diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy.
New pharmacotherapy for the treatment of glaucoma.

ABSTRACTIntroduction: Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world and current pharmacotherapies for glaucoma have remained relatively unchanged (with the exception of fixed combinations of previously available medications) since the mid-1990s with the development of prostaglandin analogues. Now, with both new formulations and new classes of medications with novel mechanisms of action, the medical therapy of glaucoma may be heralding a new dawn in medical management.Areas covered: This review outlines new topical therapies for intraocular pressure (IOP) lowering treatment, in addition to new formulations, preservative-free options, and advances in glaucoma medical therapy delivery. We performed a comprehensive search for published studies for glaucoma medical therapy using the electronic database PubMed. A manual search for each therapy or delivery system was also performed.Expert commentary: These advances in glaucoma therapy have the potential to overcome many barriers to glaucoma’s me...
Values and Psychotherapy Orientations Among Psychiatry and Psychology Trainees

Interpersonal values and psychotherapy orientations were examined among 49 psychotherapy trainees (20 psychiatry residents and 29 clinical psychology interns) on the Bales-Couch Value Scale and the Therapy Orientation Questionnaire, and residents’ therapy orientations were followed up over three years of training. The relationships between values and psychotherapy orientations and the differences between residents and psychology interns in their values and therapy orientations were explored. The value profiles of both groups showed preference for liberal values, but the psychology trainees’ preference for “equalitarianisn” was significantly higher. The therapy orientations of psychiatry residents and psychology interns were also highly similar, and the psychotherapy beliefs of residents proved stable over three years. For the combined group of psychotherapists a distinct pattern of association was found between psychotherapy orientations and values. The results suggested that psychotherapy orientations follow in some ways the rules of ideological systems, in that they are value related and resistant to time.
General Formulation of Statistical Data Assimilation

In this chapter we give the general formulation of the statistical problem of transferring information from observations to a model of the observed system. This is named data assimilation, and when the measurements are noisy, the models have errors, and we know only a distribution of possible states of the model when observations are initiated, the problem is statistical. The discussion begins by assuming we have no observations, and this is the arena for us to discuss how we propagate a model with errors forward in time. This is the classical analog of the more familiar quantum mechanical problem and, as with the quantum question, is answered via an integral representation for the statistical description of the model state within some interval [0, T]. This is a path integral in both quantum and classical considerations. In quantum theory it is the probability amplitude we seek, while in classical statistical physics it is a real probability distribution we want.
Socioeconomic vulnerability and electric power restoration timelines in Florida: the case of Hurricane Irma

Large-scale damage to the power infrastructure from hurricanes and high-wind events can have devastating ripple effects on infrastructure, the broader economy, households, communities, and regions. Using Hurricane Irma’s impact on Florida as a case study, we examined: (1) differences in electric power outages and restoration rates between urban and rural counties; (2) the duration of electric power outages in counties exposed to tropical storm force winds versus hurricane Category 1 force winds; and (3) the relationship between the duration of power outage and socioeconomic vulnerability. We used power outage data for the period September 9, 2017–September 29, 2017. At the peak of the power outages following Hurricane Irma, over 36% of all accounts in Florida were without electricity. We found that the rural counties, predominantly served by rural electric cooperatives and municipally owned utilities, experienced longer power outages and much slower and uneven restoration times. Results of three spatial lag models show that large percentages of customers served by rural electric cooperatives and municipally owned utilities were a strong predictor of the duration of extended power outages. There was also a strong positive association across all three models between power outage duration and urban/rural county designation. Finally, there is positive spatial dependence between power outages and several social vulnerability indicators. Three socioeconomic variables found to be statistically significant highlight three different aspects of vulnerability to power outages: minority groups, population with sensory, physical and mental disability, and economic vulnerability expressed as unemployment rate. The findings from our study have broader planning and policy relevance beyond our case study area, and highlight the need for additional research to deepen our understanding of how power restoration after hurricanes contributes to and is impacted by the socioeconomic vulnerabilities of communities.
Ultrasound-guided percutaneous intercostal nerve cryoneurolysis for analgesia following traumatic rib fracture -a case series.

Author(s): Finneran Iv, John J; Gabriel, Rodney A; Swisher, Matthew W; Berndtson, Allison E; Godat, Laura N; Costantini, Todd W; Ilfeld, Brian M | Abstract: BackgruondRib fractures are a common injury in trauma patients and account for significant morbidity and mortality within this population. Local anesthetic-based nerve blocks have been demonstrated to provide significant pain relief and reduce complications. However, the analgesia provided by these blocks is limited to hours for single injection blocks or days for continuous infusions, while the duration of this pain often lasts weeks.CaseThis case series describes five patients with rib fractures whose pain was successfully treated with cryoneurolysis.ConclusionsUltrasound-guided percutaneous cryoneurolysis is a modality that has the potential to provide analgesia matching the duration of pain following rib fractures.
The Fusiform Gyrus Processes Faces Relative to an Overall Face Average and a Person Average

We are highly accurate at recognizing familiar faces even with large variation in visual presentation due to pose, lighting, hairstyle, etc. The neural basis of such within-person face variation has been largely unexplored. Building on prior behavioral work, we hypothesized that learning a person9s average face helps link the different instances of that person9s face into a coherent identity within face-selective regions within ventral occipitotemporal cortex (VOTC). To test this hypothesis, we measured brain activity using fMRI for eight well-known celebrities with 18 naturalistic photos per identity. Each photo was mapped into a face-space using a neural network where the Euclidean distance between photos corresponded with face similarity. We confirmed in a behavioral study that photos closer to a person9s average face in a face-space were judged to look more like that person. fMRI results revealed hemispheric differences in identity processing. The right fusiform face area (FFA) encoded face-likeness with brain signal increasing the closer a photo was to the average of all faces. This suggests that the right FFA pattern matches to an average face template. In contrast, the left FFA and left anterior fusiform gyrus (aFus) encoded person-likeness. The brain signal increased the further a photo was from the person9s average face weighted by the features most relevant for face identification. This suggests that the left FFA and aFUS processes an identity error signal. Our results encourage a new consideration of the left fusiform in face processing, specifically for within-person processing of face identity.
Application of random effects negative binomial model with clustered dataset for vehicle crash frequency analysis

Abstract One of the major challenges with vehicle crash frequency studies is how to deal with the unobserved heterogeneity in crash data. While statistical models of crash frequency analysis based on single probability distributions are constantly improving, several researchers discovered that multiple distribution models may better describe crash frequency data and capture more unobserved heterogeneity. Based on the hypothesis that total crash counts occurring at an intersection are affected by unique sets of factors, this research proposes a two-step approach to studying the contributing factors to crashes at intersections in the Mississippi coastal area. In this study, the data of single crash accidents are first clustered into subgroups using a hierarchical clustering method, and then a Random Effects Negative Binomial model is applied to each subgroup with crash counts at an intersection as observations. A model with no data clustering is also estimated to serve as the comparison benchmark. The analysis results show that this two-step approach can reveal more information about crash contributing factors and improve the predictive power and goodness of fit.
Stimuli predicting high-calorie reward increase dopamine release and drive approach to food in the absence of homeostatic need

Animals and humans are motivated to consume high-fat, high-calorie foods by cues predicting such foods. The neural mechanisms underlying this effect are not well understood.Objective: We tested the hypothesis that cues paired with a food reward, as compared to explicitly unpaired cues, increase rats' food-seeking behavior by potentiating dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens, and that this effect would be less evident under satiety.Methods: We used a simple discriminative stimulus task and electrochemical recordings of dopamine release in freely moving rats.Results: We found that both food-predictive cue and hunger increased conditioned approaches to the receptacle (food-seeking behavior indicated by movement to the food receptacle). In addition, we observed dopamine release when the food-predictive cue (but not the unpaired cue) was presented, independent of hunger or satiety. Finally, we found a positive correlation between dopamine release amplitude and the number of conditioned approaches to the food receptacle in the sated condition, but not in the hungry condition.Discussion: Our results suggest that dopamine could drive seeking behavior for calorie-dense food in absence of homeostatic need, a core aspect of binge eating disorders.
Eclipse’s Backstage

This chapter contrasts AAG’s frontstage rhetoric with Eclipse’s backstage definitions of success. AAG’s frontstage urges teachers to follow a detailed network blueprint. On Eclipse’s backstage, administrators emphasize controlling student behavior as a central measure of teaching effectiveness. Despite AAG’s achievement-centered rhetoric, staff members’ first—and sometimes only—task is to manage student behavior with steadfast authority. How do market-centered reformers, who claim to improve educational opportunities for marginalized students, reconcile this reality? AAG’s focus on policing the details to compel obedience parallels practices at other no-excuses charter schools (e.g., Golann in Sociology of Education 88:103–119, 2015), and the approach is rooted in the broader agenda of New Paternalism (Horn in Work Hard, Be Hard: Journeys Through No-Excuses Teaching. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, 2016). Because it is couched in equity-conscious discourse, AAG can frame its paternalist agenda as a radical challenge to the status quo, while exacerbating social inequalities among both students and teachers.
Understanding the Radiation Characteristics of Metal-Only, Low-Profile, Offset Stepped Parabolic Reflector Antennas: Simulation, Analysis, and Measurement

Antennas capable of providing high gains while occupying minimal volume can facilitate several technologies, such as 5G, CubeSats, and automotive radars. This work designs, analyzes, and measures a low-profile, metal-only offset stepped parabolic reflector antenna. The reflector aperture consists of a discrete number of parabolic sections that reflect the incident electromagnetic fields with a modulo $2\pi $ phase shift resulting in a collimated far-field beam. The technique can efficiently result in profile heights of the order of one wavelength, making it very desirable for mmWave applications. The reflector can be fabricated using computer numerical control (CNC) machining and 3-D printing. As a representative prototype, an offset stepped reflector with an aperture diameter of 20 cm, an F/D of 0.5, and a profile height of 0.79 cm at 19 GHz is analyzed, built, and measured. The periodicity of the surface results in a high sidelobe envelope, which is analyzed, numerically modeled, and verified through measurements. Guidelines on how to remedy the high sidelobe envelope are provided, and the associated tradeoffs are highlighted. Furthermore, the stepped reflector geometry introduces a scan in the main beam as the frequency deviates from the center frequency. This phenomenon is also verified through measurements and explained through analytical formulations.
Introduction to Special Topic: Rural Education Finance and Policy:

This special topic takes stock of the current state of rural education finance and policy research. Taken together the articles in this special topic highlight a major point. Rural districts and sc...
Microbial Fuel Cells: Design and Evaluation of Catalysts and Device

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) can convert chemical energy into electrical current by utilizing the biocatalytic microbes, capable to use a wide range of organic matters as fuel feedstocks. The MFCs can mitigate the overreliance on fossil fuels and expensive metal catalysts and reduce environmental pollution due to their near-zero carbon emission. That electrochemically active microorganism can generate protons and electrons in the anodic compartment makes them useful in energy production. In this chapter, the authors summarized the recent developments in the advanced synthesis of cathode and anode catalysts and polymeric membrane electrolytes for MFCs. The electrochemical performance and stability of the MFC devices were also evaluated and compared with published results. Our study indicated that the improvement of electrochemical performance of the MFC devices can be fulfilled using various nanoscaled electrocatalysts (particularly the cathodic catalyst) and homogeneity of the membranes. These different materials were produced using colloidal chemistry, radiofrequency deposition, and plasma-assisted chemical vapor deposition. Series of materials include biota-inspired metal oxides, single atomic metals, carbon nanotubes, graphene quantum dots, and metal–organic frameworks as cathode and anode catalysts, and different formulations of modified polymer membranes as electrolytes. Based on the structural characterization and performance of the devices, we further optimize the synthesis variable to enhance the stability and reactivities of these nanocatalysts.
ZFP423 controls EBF2 coactivator recruitment and PPARγ occupancy to determine the thermogenic plasticity of adipocytes

Energy-storing white adipocytes maintain their identity by suppressing the energy-burning thermogenic gene program of brown and beige adipocytes. Here, we reveal that the protein-protein interaction between the transcriptional coregulator ZFP423 and brown fat determination factor EBF2 is essential for restraining the thermogenic phenotype of white adipose tissue (WAT). Disruption of the ZFP423-EBF2 protein interaction through CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing triggers widespread "browning" of WAT in adult mice. Mechanistically, ZFP423 recruits the NuRD corepressor complex to EBF2-bound thermogenic gene enhancers. Loss of adipocyte Zfp423 induces an EBF2 NuRD-to-BAF coregulator switch and a shift in PPARγ occupancy to thermogenic genes. This shift in PPARγ occupancy increases the antidiabetic efficacy of the PPARγ agonist rosiglitazone in obesity while diminishing the unwanted weight-gaining effect of the drug. These data indicate that ZFP423 controls EBF2 coactivator recruitment and PPARγ occupancy to determine the thermogenic plasticity of adipocytes and highlight the potential of therapeutically targeting transcriptional brakes to induce beige adipocyte biogenesis in obesity.
Beyond Linear Protocols

This chapter examines the set of equilibria and asymptotic stability of a large class of dynamical networks with non-identical nonlinear node dynamics. The interconnection dynamics are defined by M-matrices. An example of such a class of systems include nonlinear consensus protocols as well as other distributed protocols of interest in cooperative control and distributed decision-making. We discuss the model’s relationship to the network topology, investigate the properties of its equilibria, and provide conditions for convergence to the set of equilibria. We also provide examples of the versatility of this model in the context of a sensor coverage problem. The model is extended to incorporate additional nonlinearities; an application for this latter model is also provided in the realm of neural networks.
Stochastic Crame/spl acute/r-Rao bound for noncircular signals with application to DOA estimation

After providing an extension of the Slepian-Bangs formula for general noncircular complex Gaussian distributions, this paper focuses on the stochastic Crame/spl acute/r-Rao bound (CRB) on direction-of-arrival (DOA) estimation accuracy for noncircular sources. We derive an explicit expression of the CRB for DOA parameters alone in the case of noncircular complex Gaussian sources by two different methods. One of them consists of computing the asymptotic covariance matrix of the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator, and the other is obtained directly from our extended Slepian-Bangs formula. Some properties of this CRB are proved, and finally, it is numerically compared with the CRBs under circular complex Gaussian and complex discrete distributions of sources.
Relations Among Universal Equations For Gromov-Witten Invariants

It is well known that relations in the tautological ring of moduli spaces of pointed stable curves give partial differential equations for Gromov-Witten invariants of compact symplectic manifolds. These equations do not depend on the target symplectic manifolds and therefore are called universal equations for Gromov-Witten invariants. In the case that the quantum cohomology of the symplectic manifolds are semisimple, it is expected that higher genus Gromov-Witten invariants are completely determined by such universal equations and genus-0 Gromov-Witten invariants. This has been proved for genus-1 (cf. [DZ]) and genus-2 (cf. [L2]) cases. Universal equations also play very important role in the understanding of the Virasoro conjecture (cf. [EHX]). The genus-0 Virasoro conjecture for all compact symplectic manifolds follows from a universal equation called the genus-0 topological recursion relation (cf. [LT]). For projective varieties, we expect that such universal equations reduce higher genus Virasoro conjecture to an SL(2) symmetry for the generating function of the Gromov-Witten invariants. Again this has been proved for genus-1 ([L1]) and genus-2 ([L2]) cases.
Decomposition Techniques for Multiscale Structured Product Design: Molecular Synthesis

Abstract Recent developments in the area of integrated process and product design have shown that products can be designed in terms of their properties without committing to any specific components a priori. Although current techniques make use of group contribution method (GCM) to design molecules, there are many properties, atomic arrangements, and structures that cannot be represented using GCM. One approach to expand the capability of GCM to handle a more diverse range of solutions is to combine property clustering with decomposition techniques in a reverse problem formulation. This approach first utilizes multivariate characterization techniques to describe a set of representative samples, and then uses decomposition techniques such as principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS), to find the underlying latent variable models that describe the molecule's properties.
A study of acidulated fluoride solutions—I: In vitro effects on enamel

Abstract A search for acid fluoride solutions which provided maximal fluoride uptake while causing minimal demineralization prompted a detailed study of solutions of sodium fluoride in acid sodium phosphate. Prolonged exposure of enamel to these solutions failed to cause etching. The fluoride was readily available and acquisition by enamel increased with increase in concentration and decrease in pH. There was appreciable penetration of fluoride into intact enamel after a 20 min exposure to a solution of phosphate-fluoride at pH 3. The deposited fluoride is present primarily as fluorapatite. Acid dissolution of powdered enamel was decreased after treatment with acid phosphate, and this effect was enhanced when fluoride was present in solution. These findings and the fact that acid phosphate-fluoride solutions are stable and cause no discoloration of teeth, suggest that they may be suitable for topical application treatments.
Cellular Processes Integrating the Metabolic Response to Exercise

The sections in this article are: 1 The Central Role of Adenine Nucleotides 1.1 Components of the High-Energy Phosphate System 1.2 Phosphate Metabolites are a Linked Network 2 Approaches to Understanding Metabolic Control 2.1 Classic Enzyme Kinetics 2.2 Nonequilibrium Thermodynamics 2.3 Regulated Enzymes and the Role of Calcium 3 Determinants of Muscle Cell ATPase Rate 3.1 The Basal ATPase 3.2 The Contractile ATPase 4 Metabolite Changes During Muscle Stimulation 4.1 Methodology 4.2 The Low-Rate, Nonfatiguing Domain 4.3 The High-Rate, Fatiguing Domain 4.4 The Transitional Domain 5 Control of Oxidative Phosphorylation in Muscle 5.1 Kinetic Control by [ADP] 5.2 Thermodynamic Control by Cytoplasmic Phosphates 5.3 Experimental Tests of Control Models 5.4 The Importance of Muscle Aerobic Capacity 6 Control of Glycogenolysis/Glycolysis in Muscle 6.1 The Conventional View 6.2 Problems with the Conventional View 6.3 Reaction Disequilibria and Metabolite Diffusion 6.4 Enzyme Organization 7 Control of Force Generation 8 Summary and Future Directions
COMPARISON OF MICROBIOLOGIC ASSAY METHODS FOR HEMODIALYSIS FLUIDS

To help prevent pyrogenic reactions and bacteremia in hemodialysis patients, the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation and the Centers for Disease Control recommend microbiologic assay of hemodialysis fluids at least monthly. Five commercially available assay systems were evaluated by using the membrane filtration technique with standard methods agar and trypticase soy agar as the standards for comparison. Each assay system was challenged with dialysate and reverse-osmosis water from local dialysis centers, aqueous suspensions of eight laboratory strains of gram-negative bacilli and nontuberculous mycobacteria, and a mixed microbial flora inoculated into reverse-osmosis water and laboratory-prepared dialysate. Mean viable counts from triplicate samples were obtained after incubation at 37 degrees C for up to 72 h. The efficiency of recovery varied with the specific type of microbial challenge. The SPC water sampler (Millipore Corp., Bedford, Mass.) was the most consistent in obtaining the highest viable counts. Other commercial systems were comparable to each other in overall performance. All assay systems tested provided an acceptable balance between microbial recovery and required sampling time, equipment, and expertise.
Large scale integration - LSI 1

A brief review of today's processing of integrated circuits is given. The major trends in the development of advanced integrated electronics are identified as (1) the broadening of the integrated circuit concept to a large class of circuit function, (2) the processing of more complex circuits within relatively small chips of silicon, and (3) the processing of very large electronic functions on complete slices of silicon. This latter trend, called array technology, is then developed in detail. Emphasis is given to defining the key technological problems.
Reducing junk food palatability and consumption by aversive conditioning.

Abstract Studies of aversive conditioning as a treatment for obesity have typically yielded disappointing results. It is suggested that weight loss, the typical outcome measure in these studies, is inappropriate. Using measures of target food consumption and palatability (subjective ratings and the Strongin-Hinsie-Peck test) a self-administered aversive stimulus consisting of a rubber band snap was found to be more effective than placebo or no-treatment controls. Although conclusions are limited by the subjects and methodology used in this study, the results strongly support further investigation of aversive methods.
Adhesion and delamination boundary conditions for elastic plates with arbitrary contact shape

Abstract The adhesion of two heterogeneous, thin-walled structures is shown to be controlled by a boundary condition that balances mechanical energies with the work of adhesion at the edge of the contact zone. This boundary condition is well-known in fracture mechanics but is here rederived with plate theory and represented in a form that is easy to use. This formulation is applicable either to problems in which the contact area is a priori unknown, or in problems in which the bonded area is predefined and it is the onset of debonding that is of interest. The simplified boundary condition is shown to be very useful and simple to use in both cases, but particularly in the latter class of problems. In the case of one-dimensional or axisymmetric problems where one of the bodies is rigid, this representation is equivalent to the Moment-Discontinuity-Method (MDM) introduced by Pamp and Adams and Majidi and Adams.
Quantum-state filtering applied to the discrimination of Boolean functions

Quantum-state filtering is a variant of the unambiguous state discrimination problem: the states are grouped in sets and we want to determine to which particular set a given input state belongs. The simplest case, when the N given states are divided into two subsets and the first set consists of one state only while the second consists of all of the remaining states, is termed quantum-state filtering. We derived previously the optimal strategy for the case of N nonorthogonal states, {l_brace} vertical bar {psi}{sub 1}>,..., vertical bar {psi}{sub N}>{r_brace}, for distinguishing vertical bar {psi}{sub 1}> from the set {l_brace} vertical bar {psi}{sub 2}>,..., vertical bar {psi}{sub N}>{r_brace} and the corresponding optimal success and failure probabilities. In a previous paper [Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 257901 (2003)], we sketched an application of the results to probabilistic quantum algorithms. Here we fill the gaps and give the complete derivation of the probabilistic quantum algorithm that can optimally distinguish between two classes of Boolean functions, that of the balanced functions and that of the biased functions. The algorithm is probabilistic, it fails sometimes but when it does it lets us know that it did. Our approach can be considered as a generalization of themore » Deutsch-Jozsa algorithm that was developed for the discrimination of balanced and constant Boolean functions.« less
Parallel simulations of aerosol influence on clouds using cloud‐resolving and single‐column models

[1] The influence of the cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) concentration on the properties of low-level clouds under the conditions observed over the north central Oklahoma on 24–25 September 1997 is examined in a series of 18-hour simulations using a single-column model (SCM) and a cloud-resolving model (CM). Both models predict higher droplet concentration, smaller droplet size, and larger liquid water path in a “polluted” case (CCN concentration = 1000 cm−3) than in a clean case (CCN concentration = 250 cm−3), suggesting that the first and the second indirect effects act in unison under the considered conditions. A comparison of the simulations using the SCM and CM with the same two-moment bulk microphysics parameterization highlights the dominant effect of the dynamical framework on both microphysical and macrophysical properties of modeled cloud. This effect is much stronger than the variations in each of the models resulting from changing CCN concentrations. However, the relative liquid water path sensitivity to CCN concentration is similar between the SCM and CM simulations. The CM simulations with the size-resolved and the two-moment bulk microphysical parameterization yield nearly identical structure of boundary layer. Even though these simulations are in much closer agreement with each other than they are with the SCM results, the variance from the microphysics treatment is still comparable to the effect of quadrupling CCN concentration.
Rubber match: a third Lebanon war

Israel and Hezbollah have applied the lessons learned from the 2006 Lebanon War and have been preparing for a future conflict with both sides aiming for a more decisive victory. With improved capabilities from 2006, future hostilities will be far more destructive. This article analyzes their performance in 2006 and the lessons they have drawn to predict what a future conflict is likely to look like. The article analyzes both parties in three categories: ground forces; rockets, missiles, and anti-armor weapons; and lastly, Israel's air and sea dominance and Hezbollah's efforts to counter that dominance. Finally, this article argues that, contrary to conventional wisdom, a large-scale conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is unlikely to become a larger regional conflict involving Syria and Iran.
Effect of mitral valve repair for mitral valve prolapse on regression of left ventricular mass.

Abstract Mitral regurgitation (MR) represents a condition of chronic volume overload in which the left ventricle develops eccentric hypertrophy to accommodate a significantly increased end-diastolic left ventricular (LV) volume without significant increases in filling pressures or diastolic sarcomere length. 1,2 LV mass is significantly greater in patients with MR than in normal subjects. 2 In patients with chronic MR and moderate LV dilatation, there is regression of LV hypertrophy when the mitral valve is replaced. 1 Interpretation of changes in LV volumes and mass after valve replacement may be confounded by alterations in wall stress specifically related to disruption of the mitral apparatus and because all prosthetic valves are at least minimally obstructive. Compared with replacement, mitral valve repair may result in better preservation of LV function by retaining the tethering effect of the chordal apparatus and moderating the increase in systolic wall stress that occurs after relief of MR. 3,4 The present quantitative echocardiographic investigation examines the effect of mitral valve repair on LV mass and volume in patients with severe, isolated MR.
Accounting Decentralization and Performance Evaluation of Business Unit Managers

ABSTRACT: We use survey data to examine firms' propensity to rely on financial measures in evaluating local business unit managers. We find that firms rely less on financial measures (and more on nonfinancial measures or subjective evaluations) in determining local managers' bonuses when those managers have greater influence over the design of internal accounting systems. At the same time, we find no significant association between the choice of performance measures and local managers' authority to make operating decisions. Instead, we find that local authority to make operating decisions is positively associated with local managers' influence over accounting systems. Taken together, our findings suggest that the design of internal accounting systems is an important dimension of overall organizational design. Our findings also cast doubt on the maintained assumption in prior work that major organizational design choices are complementary. Data Availability: Data used in this study cannot be made public du...
High-energy iron ion implantation into sapphire☆

Abstract Sapphire specimens of c-axis orientation were implanted at room temperature with iron ions at energies of 1.2 and of 2 MeV to various fluences up to 8 × 1016 cm−2. The damage induced by the implantations was assessed by Rutherford backscattering spectrometry in random and channeling geometries. Dechanneling in both sublattices was observed to saturate for all implantation conditions. Disorder in the aluminum sublattice was found to increase with depth at a significantly slower rate than in the oxygen sublattice. In the oxygen sublattice, a relative yield χ of 0.80 ± 0.11 was attained at a depth of 0.1 μm and remained constant up to the measured depth of 0.45 μm. In the aluminum sublattice, the disorder increased with depth and the dechanneling asymptotically approached χ = 0.70 ± 0.04 at 0.45 μm. These results are discussed and compared with those for shallower Fe implantations obtained by other researchers.
MRI without the magnet

Schematic diagram of the MRI experiment. MRI is normally performed by using a high magnetic field to create a large nuclear spin polarization, followed by a radio frequency pulse sequence and field gradients to encode the image spatially, and Faraday inductive detection. In the experiment described by Xu et al. (5), detection is carried out by using an atomic magnetometer, and only a small magnet is necessary to polarize the sample.
7-12 Dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-induced bone marrow hypocellularity is dependent on signaling through both the TNFR and PKR

In addition to being carcinogenic, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are known to cause deleterious effects on the immune system, including a marked reduction in bone marrow granulocytes and B lymphocytes. The molecular mechanisms underlying bone marrow hypocellularity are incompletely understood. Hematopoiesis is governed by the production of cytokines and the resultant signaling pathways that they initiate. Our hypothesis was that PAHs may disrupt cytokine production in the bone marrow resulting in the perturbation in bone marrow cellularity observed after PAH administration. TNF-alpha and IFN-gamma are two cytokines that are involved in the regulation of hematopoiesis. Based on observations made in previous research, we sought to determine if the effects of 7-12 dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) on the murine bone marrow were mediated through the actions of these molecules. Transgenic mice that were null for either IFN-gamma or TNF-alpha receptors were injected with DMBA and the resulting bone marrow cellularity compared with wild-type mice. We observed that tumor necrosis factor alpha receptor (TNFR) null mice were protected against DMBA-induced bone marrow hypocellularity, while IFN-gamma null mice were not. In addition, we found that dsRNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR) null mice were also protected from DMBA-induced hypocellularity. PKR is an intracellular signaling molecule that has been demonstrated to be activated by TNFR-mediated signaling. Furthermore, we observed upregulation of PKR in the bone marrow after DMBA administration that was dependent on signaling through TNFR. These results point to a role for TNFR-dependent signaling, operating at least in part via PKR activation, as a mechanism for DMBA-induced bone marrow toxicity.
Computation of Shortest Paths on Free-Form Parametric Surfaces

Computation of shortest paths on free-form surfaces is an important problem in ship design, robot motion planning, computation of medial axis transforms of trimmed surface patches, terrain navigation and NC machining. The objective of this paper is to provide an efficient and reliable method for computing the shortest path between two points on a free-form parametric surface and the shortest path between a point and a curve on a free-form parametric surface. These problems can be reduced to solving a two point boundary value problem. Our approach for solving the two point boundary value problem is based on a relaxation method relying on finite difference discretization. Examples illustrate our method.
A Critical Assessment of Supply-Demand Models of Agricultural Trade

We offer a critical assessment of static, deterministic, reduced form, supply-demand (SD) models of agricultural trade. A commonly used and well-documented model has significant limitations: no explicit treatment of factor mobility between farm and nonfarm sectors, nonzero profits in some sectors, no substitutability among feedstuffs in livestock sectors, violation of the law of one price, small marketing margins for some commodities, and incomplete coverage of the agricultural sector. Such limitations have significant impacts on the magnitude and direction of projected world price and welfare changes. We believe agricultural policy analysis should first focus on the remediation of these limitations before proceeding to more complex issues like dynamics and uncertainty.
SYNTHESIS OF MODEL COMPOUNDS RELEVANT TO THE ACTIVE‐SITE‐DIRECTED INACTIVATION OF L‐ASPARAGINASE BY 5‐DIAZO‐4‐OXO‐L‐NORVALINE*

Earlier work has shown that 5-diazo-4-oxo-L-norvaline (DONV) irreversibly inactivates the L-asparaginase from E. coli by formation of a covalent bond in the region of the active site. Model compounds have been prepared to study this acid-labile covalent bond tentatively assigned to a serine or possibly a threonine residue in a decapeptide isolated from 14C-DONV-inactivated enzyme. Appropriately blocked DONV was found to alkylate methanol, and the hydroxyl function of blocked serine or threonine in the presence of boron trifluoride. The labile beta-ketoethers thus formed were reduced to the more stable beta-hydroxyethers. Facile lactonization of these 5-substituted-4-hydroxy-L-norvalines was observed. The diastereoisomers of both the lactonized and open forms of 5-methoxy-4-hydroxy-L-norvaline and related 4-hydroxy-L-2-amino acids of similar length were distinguishable on the amino acid analyzer. The beta-hydroxyethers derived from serine and threonine were hydrolyzed with acid and yielded the expected cleavage products. When the beta-ketoether was reduced by sodium borohydride prior to deblocking, in addition to the beta-hydroxyether, N-blocked amino alcohols were also formed, yielding a complex mixture of products.
Environmental change at Ostra Base Camp, a peruvian Pre-ceramic site

Abstract A sample of vertebrate remains from Ostra Base Camp, a Middle Pre-ceramic site on the north-central coast of Peru occupied between 6250–5450 bp , contains an estimated 144 individuals, of which 53% are typical of warm-tropical regimes and 30% are typical of warm-temperate regimes or the Peru Current. These percentages are substantially different from those reported for Early, Middle, and Late Pre-ceramic collections from sites further south. They are also different from those reported for Alto Salaverry, a nearby Late Pre-ceramic site. The Ostra fishing strategy took advantage of a coastal resource that was lost between the time Ostra was abandoned and Alto Salaverry occupied. The hypothesis that this is due to change in the marine environment is supported by multiple lines of evidence.
MINERνA: A High-Statistics Neutrino Scattering Experiment using a Fine-Grained Detector in the NuMI Beam

The NuMI Facility at Fermilab will provide an extremely intense beam of neutrinos making it an ideal place for high statistics (anti)neutrino-nucleon/nucleus scattering experiments. The MINER ν A experiment at Fermilab is a collaboration of elementary-particle and nuclear physicists planning to use a fully active fine-grained solid scintillator detector. The overall goals of the experiment are to measure absolute exclusive cross-sections, nuclear effects in ν - A interactions and a systematic study of the resonance-DIS transition region including the extraction of high-x Bj parton distribution functions at low Q 2 .
Experimental Test Of The Singly-Scattered Irradiance Model

Remote sensing of water properties using passive, optical systems has been limited by the ability to model underwater radiative transfer for anything other than homogeneous waters. An approximate model, the Singly-scattered Irradiance (SSI) model, has been developed which is designed to describe optically shallow, stratified waters and for which there exists a general analytic solution. Experimental evidence is presented which partially substantiates the adequacy of the approximation of single-scattering for irradiance. Although limited in scope, these preliminary experiments suggest that the SSI model will yield results which are adequate for the purpose of remote sensing of water properties.
Biological network clustering by robust NMF

We propose a Robust Non-negative Matrix Factorization (RNMF) formulation by introducing L1-norm regularization terms for decomposed factors to cluster noisy biological networks for identification of functional modules. To solve robust NMF, we develop an accelerated alternative proximal method, which takes advantages of a fast iterative shrinkage-thresholding strategy to update each factorized component at each step. We compare the performance of this accelerated proximal method with a multiplicative algorithm and a general proximal method for the same RNMF formulation. Experiments on synthetic networks and Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) networks demonstrate that the accelerated proximal method is superior to the other algorithms in terms of efficiency and effectiveness for functional module identification.
An Investigation of the Perceptions of Business Students Regarding Non-Traditional Business Education Formats.

ABSTRACT Business education programs labeled as “non-traditional” continue to grow in importance and popularity and have accordingly continued to receive attention in the business educational literature. Generally lost in this literature, however, is the perception of business students regarding these programs. The purpose of our study was to examine student perceptions of non-traditional programs and to uncover the major latent themes regarding a variety of issues related to these programs. Our findings suggest that business students consider non-traditional education as a viable option to traditional education. However, respondents also voiced a number of disadvantages of non-traditional programs such as cost, external validity of degrees, and impersonalized learning environment. Implications for educators and/or administrators are offered.
Preventive Oral Health Behaviors among African‐Americans and Whites in Detroit

Objective: This study compared the preventive oral health behaviors of African-Americans and whites. Methods: Face-to-face interviews were conducted with a probability sample of 384 African-American and 358 white adults living in the greater Detroit area. Questions focused on brushing, flossing, and dental visits. Results: More than 95 percent of both groups reported brushing daily; however, whites were more likely to brush all teeth, including parts that do not show. Frequency of flossing did not differ between groups. African-Americans, however, were less likely to floss all of their teeth. Whites were more likely than African-Americans to get dental check-ups at least once a year and much less likely to indicate they had never had a dental check-up. African-Americans tended to have less education and lower family income than whites and were more likely than whites to have Medicaid. Race differences in brushing thoroughness and annual check-ups were greatly reduced when income, education, and insurance were controlled statistically. Conclusion: African-Americans are less likely than whites to brush thoroughly, floss thoroughly, and get dental check-ups. These differences are partly traceable to differences in socioeconomic status and access to professional oral health care.
Self-efficacy expectancies, response-outcome expectancies, emotionally based expectancies, and their relationship to avoidant behavior and its reduction through therapy

Investigated the relationship of four types of expectancy to snake avoidant behavior and its reduction through modeling. Response-outcome expectancies are beliefs about the consequences of a behavior; self-efficacy expectancies are beliefs about one's ability to perform the behavior. Intellectually based expectancies are views of oneself or the world that are perceived to be accurate representations of reality; emotionally based expectancies are views of oneself or the world that may be perceived as inaccurate or irrational by the person who holds them. Experiments I and II investigated the relationship of intellectually and emotionally based versions of both response-outcome expectancies and self-efficacy expectancies to snake avoidant behavior. It was found that all four expectancy variables correlate significantly with behavior on a snake avoidance task. Self-efficacy expectancies are not clearly better predictors of behavior than are response-outcome expectancies. Experiment III found that all four variables are changed as a consequence of modeling. It was concluded that a four-variable expectancy model is necessary to explain avoidant behavior.