cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Heat pump technology: An Alaska case study

Heat pumps are a proven technology around the world and are being increasingly used in Alaska. Technological advances have improved their performance at low temperatures, making them more suitable for arctic environments. This analysis identified data related to 17 heat pumps installed in Alaska, which included air source, ground source, and sea water source systems. The data show that the average installed cost/kW of the heat pumps studied was $5,579. The minimum cost was just over $700/kW for a small air source minisplit system and over $12 000 for a complex vertical loop ground source heat pump. Air source heat pumps in Alaska have operated successfully down to −15 °C. Technological advances are ongoing that should enable further heat pump operation in colder climates.
Brain-Computer Interface Control in a Virtual Reality Environment and Applications for the Internet of Things

Brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) have enabled individuals to control devices, such as spellers, robotic arms, drones, and wheelchairs, but often these BCI applications are restricted to research laboratories. With the advent of virtual reality (VR) systems and the Internet of Things (IoT) we can couple these technologies to offer real-time control of a user’s virtual and physical environment. Likewise, BCI applications are often single-use with user’s having no control outside of the restrictions placed upon the applications at the time of creation. Therefore, there is a need to create a tool that allows users the flexibility to create and modularize aspects of BCI applications for control of IoT devices and VR environments. Using a popular video game engine, Unity, and coupling it with BCI2000, we can create diverse applications that give the end-user additional autonomy during the task at hand. We demonstrate the validity of controlling a Unity-based VR environment and several commercial IoT devices via direct neural interfacing processed through BCI2000.
Modern Roman Catholic Mission and the Legacy of Uganda’s Emmanuel Cardinal Nsubuga:

Arguably the most important Roman Catholic leader in postcolonial Uganda, Emmanuel Cardinal Nsubuga is largely unknown outside the country. As archbishop of Kampala between 1966 and 1990, Nsubuga hosted the first papal visit to sub-Saharan Africa in 1969 and started the Uganda Martyrs’ Shrine, now the largest pilgrimage destination in East Africa. Living under the authoritarian regimes of Milton Obote and Idi Amin, Nsubuga embodied three key emphases in modern Catholic mission in the public sphere: the option for the poor, ecumenism, and resistance to political dictatorship.
Implementation of the Chronic Care Model to Reduce Disparities in Hypertension Control: Benefits Take Time.

The Chronic Care Model (CCM) has been endorsed by experts to reduce disparities in chronic disease outcomes but benefits may be slow to appear in low-income populations. To evaluate the effect of CCM implementation on systolic blood pressure (SBP) control in minority patients with diabetes mellitus (DM). Retrospective study from 2012 to 2016 in two primary care clinics with primarily uninsured, Hispanic patients. Four 2-year cohorts of patients aged 18–75 with DM and SBP ≥ 140 mmHg on HTN drugs in year 1 and SBP measured 1 year later in year 2. Implementation of CCM for DM in January 2014 involved: electronic medical record revision, a DM registry, hypertension (HTN) treatment protocol, team education, performance feedback, and case management. SBP < 140 mmHg in year 2. Of 2354 patients, the mean age was 56.2 (SD 9.5), baseline SBP 153.8 (SD 14.9) mmHg, and 79.8% Hispanic. Last SBP < 140 mmHg was 58.4% for cohort 1 (2012–2013) and 68.5% for cohort 4 (2015–2016). Adjusted odds ratios (AORs) for SBP control versus cohort 1 were 1.35 (95% CI 1.07, 1.69) for cohort 3 (2014–2015) and 2.13 (95% CI 1.60, 2.80) for cohort 4. AORs for SBP control were reduced by 15% per HTN drug at baseline (P = 0.001), 9% per HTN drug added at last SBP (P = 0.024), and 22% for multi-dose HTN drugs (P = 0.004). Among patients with persistent elevated SBP and represented in multiple cohorts, AORs for control were still over 2-fold higher for cohort 4 versus cohort 1. After adopting the CCM for primarily Hispanic patients with DM, SBP control increased significantly despite treatment with fewer HTN drugs. Yet improvement took 3–4 years, suggesting that financial rewards for using the CCM to achieve improved clinical outcomes for low-income, minority patients may be delayed.
Adipose tissue palmitoleic acid is inversely associated with nonfatal acute myocardial infarction in Costa Rican adults.

Abstract Background and aims Animal models have shown that adipose-derived palmitoleic acid may act as a lipokine by conferring resistance to diet-induced obesity; however, human epidemiologic studies investigating this relationship thus far have not provided data in support of this hypothesis. Because metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease are intricately linked with the former being a major risk factor for the latter, we hypothesized that adipose-derived palmitoleic acid may be inversely associated with myocardial infarction. We examined whether adipose tissue palmitoleic acid was associated with nonfatal acute myocardial infarction in a representative population of Costa Rican adults. Methods and results Odds ratios of nonfatal acute myocardial infarction by quintiles of adipose tissue palmitoleic acid were calculated using conditional logistic regression in a case–control study of 1828 cases and 1828 controls matched by age, sex, and area of residence. We observed an inverse relationship between nonfatal acute myocardial infarction and adipose tissue palmitoleic acid (OR for highest quintile compared to lowest quintile of palmitoleic acid: 0.55; 95% CI: 0.41, 0.75; P for trend: Conclusion These data demonstrate an inverse association between adipose tissue palmitoleic acid and nonfatal acute myocardial infarction; however, further research is required in order to better understand the opposing associations between palmitoleic acid and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and systolic blood pressure.
An unsulphated region of the rat chondrosarcoma chondroitin sulphate chain and its binding to monoclonal antibody 3B3.

The chondroitin sulphate chains of proteoglycans are not uniformly sulphated. Commonly, regions of under- and over-sulphation are found. It is probable that variability in chondroitin sulphation has physiological significance, although such structure-function relationships largely remain unexplored. Chondroitin sulphate from rat chondrosarcoma proteoglycan has been found to possess no oversulphated residues. It is primarily chondroitin 4-sulphate, although a significant proportion of unsulphated disaccharides (14%) are also present. It appears that some unsulphated disaccharides are concentrated only at the point of attachment to the linkage region (i.e. it is the major unsaturated disaccharide remaining attached to chondrosarcoma proteoglycan core produced by chondroitinase ABC digestion). This proteoglycan core binds monoclonal antibody (MAb) 3B3. Although 3B3 principally binds to 6-sulphated 'stubs' of proteoglycan cores [Couchman, Caterson, Christner & Baker (1984) Nature (London) 307, 650-652], given a high concentration of unsulphated 'stubs', it can alternatively bind to these residues. It is also evident that caution must be exercised in using MAb 3B3 to identify chondroitin 6-sulphated proteoglycans.
System Configuration Management

Publisher Summary This chapter appraises the art of system and network configuration, which has come a long way from its humble roots in scripting of manual system administration. System configuration management is the process of maintaining the function of computer networks as holistic entities, in alignment with some previously determined policy. This policy describes how systems should behave and it is translated into a low-level configuration, informally defined as the contents of a number of specific files contained within each computer system. A typical system to be managed consists of a central-processing unit, hard disk, and associated peripherals, including network card, video card, etc. Depending upon the system, many of these components may actually be contained on a single computer board. A system typically starts its life with no operating system installed, often called “bare metal”. Configuration management is easy if one has access to unlimited hardware, and can encapsulate each distinct service on a separate machine. The complexities of configuration management arise from the need to combine or compose distinct and changing needs while utilizing limited amounts of hardware. The exact boundary between “system configuration management” andregular “system administration” is unclear, but there seems to be a solid distinction between the two at the point at which the overall configuration of a network of systems is being managed as an entity, rather than managing individual machines that contain distinct and unrelated configurations.
Application of the OECD Eutrophication Modeling Approach to Estuaries

Approximately five years ago, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) initiated a 22 country, 200 lake and impoundment study of nutrient load-eutrophication response relationships. Emphasis in the study is being given to the evaluation of the Vollenweider models for correlating nutrient load with eutrophication response. The U.S. part of this study included the investigation of about 40 waterbodies or parts thereof. The results of the U.S. and the other studies all show a strong correlation between the phosphorus load to a water body as normalized by mean depth and hydraulic residence time, and the planktonic algal chlorophyll, Secchi depth (water clarity), and the hypolimnetic oxygen depletion rate. These relationships have been developed to a sufficient degree of sophistication so that they are the method of choice for estimating the impact of altering the phosphorus load to a P-limited waterbody on eutrophication-related water quality.
“Why Do You Think They Call It Dope?”: Richard Nixon’s National Mass Media Campaign Against Drug Abuse:

This monograph explores how corporate, political, and public health concerns shaped the Nixon administration’s public service advertising campaign against drug abuse. Between 1970 and 1973, the Nix...
Digital Weight Loss Intervention for Parents of Children Being Treated for Obesity: A Prospective Cohort Feasibility Trial.

Background: The prevalence of childhood obesity continues to increase, and clinic-based treatment options have failed to demonstrate effectiveness. One of the strongest predictors of child weight is parent weight. Parental treatment for weight loss may indirectly reduce obesity in the child. We have previously demonstrated the effectiveness among adults of a fully automated, evidence-based digital weight loss intervention (Track). However, it is unknown if it is feasible to deliver such a treatment directly to parents with obesity who bring their child with obesity to a weight management clinic for treatment. Objective: The objective of our study was to evaluate the feasibility of and engagement with a digital weight loss intervention among parents of children receiving treatment for obesity. Methods: We conducted a 6-month pre-post feasibility trial among parents or guardians and their children aged 4-16 years presenting for tertiary care obesity treatment. Along with the standard family-based treatment protocol, parents received a 6-month digital weight loss intervention, which included weekly monitoring of personalized behavior change goals via mobile technologies. We examined levels of engagement by tracking completed weeks of self-monitoring and feasibility by assessing change in weight. Results: Participants (N=48) were on average 39 years old, mostly female (35/42, 82% ), non-Hispanic Black individuals (21/41, 51%) with obesity (36/48, 75%). Over a quarter had a yearly household income of <US $25,000, and about a third had the equivalent of a high school education. Children were on average 10 years old and had a body mass index of 29.8 kg/m2. The median percentage of weeks participants tracked their behaviors was 77% (18.5/24 total weeks; interquartile range [IQR] 6.3 to 100). The median number of attempts via phone or text message (short message service) required to complete one tracking week was 3.3 (IQR 2.6 to 4.9). Nearly half (23/48, 48%) had high levels of engagement, completing 80% (19/24) or more weeks of tracking. Of the 26 participants with weight measurements reported at 6 months, of which 81% (21/26) were self-reported, there was a median 2.44 kg (IQR −6.5 to 1.0) decrease in weight. Conclusions: It is feasible to deliver an evidence-based digital weight loss intervention to parents or guardians whose children are enrolled in a weight management program. Given the feasibility of this approach, future studies should investigate the effectiveness of digital weight loss interventions for parents on child weight and health outcomes.
An Area-Efficient Iterative Single-Precision Floating-Point Multiplier Architecture for FPGA

Approximate multipliers have been widely used in critical applications, such as machine learning and multimedia, which are tolerant to approximation errors. This paper proposes a novel single-precision floating-point (SPFP) multiplication algorithm and its architecture. The proposed work approximates only one of the operands to reduce the number of logic blocks and iteratively compensates the approximation error to achieve acceptable error ranges in applications. To reduce the accuracy degradation by the single operand approximation, a rounding scheme and an operand selection scheme are additionally introduced. Compared with the widely-known previous iterative Mitchell design, our proposed SPFP multiplier design decreases the numbers of look up tables (LUTs) and flip flops (FFs) by 55% and 59% respectively, and shows two cycles shorter latency. The accuracy of our design becomes close to that of the iterative Mitchell design as the number of iterations increases, and it always meets the error tolerance of 1% when the number of iterations is four.
Synthesis of bicyclic proline analogs using a formal [3 + 2] intramolecular aziridine-allylsilane cycloaddition reaction

Abstract Bicyclic proline analogs have a wide range of biological uses. We report here our synthesis of bicyclic proline analogs using a formal [3 + 2] intramolecular aziridine-allylsilane cycloaddition reaction. This synthesis allows for the preparation of both 5-5 and 6-5 fused ring systems and should be amenable to the preparation of analogs with substitution on the carbocyclic ring.
Data Mining-based Techniques in Critical Operation of Electrical Transmission and Distribution Systems in a Natural Disaster Event: Future Direction Review

Warming trends and increasing temperatures have been observed and reported by federal agencies, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Extreme weather, especially hurricanes and tornadoes, are among the highly devastating natural disasters responsible for massive and prolonged power outages in Electrical Transmission and Distribution Systems (ETDS). Our approach is motivated by the integration of two application domains: First, the critical operation of the ETDS systems under natural disaster conditions. Second, Data integration based on Data Mining techniques like Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Knowledge Discovery methodologies. This paper provides a brief review of both domains, as well as the knowledge gap and future research directions that will benefit the resilience of the ETDS systems under natural disaster conditions.
Similarity in meal plan use among first-year roommates.

Abstract Objective To examine if first-year roommates made similar meal plan decisions. Methods Residence information for 1186 first-year students (N = 593 roommate pairs) and 559 floormates was obtained for the 2015–2016 academic year. Linear generalized estimating equations (GEEs) were used to examine if the number of meals students used over the semester was higher if their roommate used their meal plan more frequently. A logistic GEE examined joint meal plan usage between students and roommates for each month of the semester. To determine if residence, rather than roommate, explained the results, a simulation was conducted by randomly assigning the floormates to a same-sex roommate. Results The number of meals students used in spring was higher if the students’ roommate had used more meals in spring, even after controlling for the number of meals students used in fall (Female: β = 0.07, 99% CI = 0.00, 0.13; Male: β = 0.10, 99% CI = 0.02, 0.18). Students were more likely to use a meal with their roommate if they were on the same meal plan (Female: OR = 1.61, 99% CI = 1.27, 2.04; Male: OR = 1.57, 99% CI = 1.09, 2.25), and less likely after the first month of being roommates (Female: OR = 0.57–0.25; Male: OR = 0.50–0.22; p Discussion Students' meal plan choices were associated with their roommates' meal plan choices. Roommates' joint meal plan usage was highest at the start of the year. Strategic roommate pairings may result in students using their meal plan more. Further research should determine the extent of roommate influence on students’ diet.
Middle ear disease in CF? It's not just about the sinuses anymore!

Abstract Introduction Historically cystic fibrosis (CF), in contrast to primary ciliary dyskinesia (PCD), has been considered protective of the middle ear from otitis media and rarely were such patients “severely affected” to require tympanostomy tube placement (BMT). Previously the Pittsburgh Otitis Media Research group reported a 10% prevalence of otitis media in the pediatric CF population which is significantly lower than age matched non-CF children. We studied the prevalence of OM in pediatric CF patients to assess if the otologic phenotype has changed in parallel with changes in the diagnosis itself. Methods The medical records of 133 CF patients seen either inpatient or outpatient from one of the largest tertiary pediatric CF centers in the world from 2010 to 2019 were reviewed for demographics, acute otitis media (AOM) episodes, risk factors for AOM, placement of myringotomy tubes, genotype, BMI, pancreatic status, respiratory culture results, and pulmonary exacerbations. Results Just over half (52.6%) the patients were male. A median age for CF diagnosis was 11 days old (range 0 days–16 years). The most common genotype (49.6%) was homozygous for ΔF508 mutation. Fifty-five (41.4%) patients had 1-2 episodes of AOM, and 15 (11.3%) were severely affected (i.e. ≥3 episodes/6 months or ≥4 episodes/year). COME was diagnosed in 4 (3.0%) of the patients. Twelve (9.0%) patients had tympanostomy tubes at least once, including 3 patients with multiple sets of tubes. Having at least one AOM episode was not predicted by genetic mutation groups, BMI, age at diagnosis, or comorbidities, p > .05. Conclusions The time-honored adage of CF protecting against otitis media is no longer true and pediatric otolaryngologists must now prioritize the management of middle ear disease as highly as sino-nasal and pulmonary disease. Future study into mechanisms explaining the change is needed.
Three-dimensional shape completion using deep convolutional neural networks: Application to truncation compensation and metal artifact reduction in PET/MRI attenuation correction

Accurate attenuation correction (AC) of PET data is a prerequisite for quantitative PET/MR imaging. However, MR images are susceptible to metal artifacts leading to void MR signal around metallic implants. Moreover, for large patients, exceeding the scanner’s field-of-view (FOV), MR images of the body will be truncated, mostly in the arms, thus hampering the accurate delineation of the body contour. Both metal-induced artifacts and body truncation affect PET AC by causing segmentation errors in MRI-based attenuation map generation. In this work, a deep learning convolutional neural network-based algorithm is proposed for the completion of MR images affected by body truncation or metal-induced artifacts. The core of the network utilizes dilated convolutions and residual connections to render an end-to-end 3D shape completion. The training of the network was performed using co-registered PET, CT and MR whole-body images of 15 patients. The evaluation of the proposed method was carried out on 10 patients with severe metal-induced artifacts and truncated MR images. Body contours from the corresponding non-attenuation corrected PET (non-AC PET) or CT images were segmented to estimate the amount of truncation in MR images. The estimated truncated volumes were later used as reference to assess the efficiency of the proposed method to recover the truncated or metal artifact affected areas. Moreover, the impact of the truncation compensation and metal-induced artifact reduction was investigated in the context of segmentation-based PET/MRI attenuation correction. The activity recovery in the affected areas was estimated before and after application of the shape completion method. The body truncation affected 11.1±2.3% of the body volume and consequently the MRI segmentation-based attenuation maps of 10 patients. After shape completion using the proposed method, the amount of truncated volume dropped to 0.7±0.2%. The SUV bias in the truncated area improved from -44.5±10% to -10.5±3% considering PET-CT AC as reference. Likewise, 8.5±1.9% of the head volume was affected by the metal-induced artifact leading to SUV bias of -59.5±11%. These were reduced to 0.3±0.1% and -23.5±9%, respectively, after shape completion. It was concluded that the proposed algorithm exhibited promising results towards the completion of MRI affected by truncation and metal-induced artifacts in whole-body PET/MRI.
Bio-Inspired Icephobic Coatings for Aircraft Icing Mitigation: A Critical Review

A critical review is provided to summarize our recent efforts to utilize the state-of-the-art bio-inspired icephobic coatings/surfaces, i.e., 1). Lotus-leafin spired super hydrophobic surfaces (SHS) and 2). Pitcher-plant-inspired slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPS) for aircraft icing mitigation. By leveraging the unique Icing Research Tunnel of Iowa State University (i.e., ISU-IRT), an experimental campaign was performed to evaluate the effectiveness of using SHS and SLIPS coatings to suppress impact ice accretion over the surfaces of typical airfoil/wing models. While both SHS and SLIPS were found to be able to suppress ice accretion over the airframe surfaces where strong aerodynamic forces are exerted, ice was still found to accrete in the vicinity of the airfoil stagnation line where the aerodynamic forces are at their minimum. A novel hybrid anti-/de-icing strategy concept to combine icephobic coatings with minimized surface heating near airfoil leading edge was demonstrated to effectively remove impact ice accretion over entire airfoil/wing surfaces. An experimental investigation was also conducted to examine the durability of the icephobic coatings/surfaces to resist rain erosion effects (i.e., the damage to the surface coatings due to continuous impingement of water droplets at high speeds) in considering the practical usage for aircraft icing mitigation. The rain erosion effects were characterized based on the variations of the ice adhesion strengths and surface morphology of the eroded test surfaces coated with SHS and SLIPS. The research findings are very helpful to elucidate the underlying physics for the development of novel and robust anti-/de-icing strategies for aircraft icing mitigation.
TCL-404: Use of Brentuximab-ICE and Romidepsin-ICE in Relapsed/Refractory Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma

Context: Relapsed/refractory peripheral T-cell lymphoma (R/R PTCL) has a poor prognosis. Romidepsin (Ro) and brentuximab vedotin (Bv), a CD30 antibody-drug conjugate, has shown response rates ranging from 24–42% when used as monotherapy. Efficacy of these agents when combined with salvage chemotherapy such as ifosfamide, carboplatin, and etoposide (ICE) has been scarcely studied in PTCL. Objective: Report outcomes of Bv-ICE in CD30 (+) and Ro-ICE in CD30 (-) R/R PTCL. Design: We retrospectively identified R/R PTCL patients treated with Bv-ICE or Ro-ICE in Houston Methodist Cancer Center from 2016–2019. We used frequencies and median to analyze the quantitative variables. Setting: Institutional practice. Patients or other participants: All patients with R/R PTCL. Interventions: N/A. Main outcome measures: Response rates, transplant rates, and adverse event rates of Bv-ICE and Ro-ICE Results: There were 13 R/R PTCL patients, 6 treated with Bv-ICE and 7 with Ro-ICE. The median age was 65 years old. The male to female ratio was 5:5. More than 75% had stage IV PTCL. The most common subtype was PTCL, not otherwise specified (46.2%), followed by angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (30.8%). Bv-ICE had an overall response rate (ORR) of 66.7%, with all the patients achieving complete response (CR). The median duration of response (DOR) was 7.5 months. ORR was 71.4% for Ro-ICE; 57.1% of patients achieved CR. The median DOR was 6 months. Two patients treated with Bv-ICE and three treated with Ro-ICE received transplantation. Grade 3 and 4 cytopenias were seen more frequently with Ro-ICE (85.7%) than with Bv-ICE (66.7%). Abnormal renal and liver function tests were seen at a lower proportion (28.6% in Ro-ICE and 33.3% in Bv-ICE). Neuropathy was seen in a third of patients treated with brentuximab. At last, follow-up almost half of all treated patients were still alive. Conclusions: Treatment with Bv-ICE and Ro-ICE are effective salvage regimens for R/R PTCL. Both can improve remission rates prior to transplant with similar ORRs and CRs over 50%. More than a third of patients were able to receive transplantation. In our experience, a treatment strategy based on CD30 positivity is feasible and effective to treat patients with R/R PTCL.
Soil carbon dioxide flux partitioning in a calcareous watershed with agricultural impacts

Predicting the partitioning between aqueous and gaseous C across landscapes is difficult because many factors interact to control CO2 concentrations and removal as DIC. For example, carb...
Herd behavior in information security decision-making

Abstract Current information security behavior research assumes that lone individuals make a rational, informed decision about security technologies based on careful consideration of personally available information. We challenge this assumption by examining how the herd behavior influences users’ security decisions when coping with security threats. The results show that uncertainty about a security technology leads users to discount their own information and imitate others. We found that imitation tendency has a more substantial effect on security decisions than the personal perceived efficacy of the security technology. It is essential for researchers and managers to consider how the herd behavior effect influences users' security decisions.
Patterns of intersecting fiber arrays revealed in whole muscle with generalized Q-space imaging.

The multiscale attributes of mammalian muscle confer significant challenges for structural imaging in vivo. To achieve this, we employed a magnetic resonance method, termed "generalized Q-space imaging", that considers the effect of spatially distributed diffusion-weighted magnetic field gradients and diffusion sensitivities on the morphology of Q-space. This approach results in a subvoxel scaled probability distribution function whose shape correlates with local fiber orientation. The principal fiber populations identified within these probability distribution functions can then be associated by streamline methods to create multivoxel tractlike constructs that depict the macroscale orientation of myofiber arrays. We performed a simulation of Q-space input parameters, including magnetic field gradient strength and direction, diffusion sensitivity, and diffusional sampling to determine the optimal achievable fiber angle separation in the minimum scan time. We applied this approach to resolve intravoxel crossing myofiber arrays in the setting of the human tongue, an organ with anatomic complexity based on the presence of hierarchical arrays of intersecting myocytes. Using parameters defined by simulation, we imaged at 3T the fanlike configuration of the human genioglossus and the laterally positioned merging fibers of the styloglossus, inferior longitudinalis, chondroglossus, and verticalis. Comparative scans of the excised mouse tongue at 7T demonstrated similar midline and lateral crossing fiber patterns, whereas histological analysis confirmed the presence and distribution of these myofiber arrays at the microscopic scale. Our results demonstrate a magnetic resonance method for acquiring and displaying diffusional data that defines highly ordered myofiber patterns in architecturally complex tissue. Such patterns suggest inherent multiscale fiber organization and provide a basis for structure-function analyses in vivo and in model tissues.
Sexually Abused Children

SUMMARY The effect of sexual abuse on children has been found to be highly variable. This study examines the symptomatology of 100 children who have been sexually abused, including the incidence of problematic sexual behaviors. Emotional and behavioral symptoms were measured using two symptom scales: internalizing and externalizing. Results revealed that younger children experienced significantly more internalizing and externalizing symptoms as compared with older children. Thirty percent of the sample did exhibit problematic sexual behaviors, and all of these children were under the age of 13. Finally, children who did exhibit problematic sexual behaviors scored significantly higher on both the internalizing and externalizing symptom scales as compared with children who did not exhibit these behaviors. These findings suggest that young children who display sexual behavior problems are not only the most symptomatic of the sexually abused, but may be at significant risk of becoming sexual offenders themsel...
Colonial Baracunatanas and Their Nasty Men: Spousal Homicides and the Law in Late Colonial New Granada

This article discusses 51 incidents of spousal homicide occurring in New Granada (today's Colombia) during the late colonial period, ca. 1750--1810. It examines the regional distribution of the crimes; looks at the gender, ethnicity, class, and occupations of the participants; discusses the circumstances of the crimes (weapons, motives); and evaluates the legal treatment and punishment of the defendants. Its most significant finding concerns the high incidence of spousal murder among all murders committed by women. The article establishes that women were four times more likely to commit spousal murder than any other type of homicide, a rate compatible with findings for other regions of the world and other periods in history. Unlike other studies, however, this, work claims that women's involvement in this type of crime was not the logical result of the fact that a woman's place was firmly in the home, making her more likely to strike against husbands and others present in her circumscribed space of activity. On the contrary, it finds that women had relatively active public lives and were prone to irreverent behavior that provoked their husbands' jealousy, and rage. The men, sensing that their patriarchal prerogatives were spinning out of control, resorted to abuse. In these situations, women could be killed if they did not kill their husbands first. Language: en
Telomeres Keep On Rappin

Many molecules help maintain the ends of chromosomes, which get chewed off as cells age. [Lundblad][1] in her provocative Perspective now tells us about another protein, hRap1, that regulates the length of telomeres in human cells with the help of the TRF proteins. The homology between hRap1 and its counterpart in yeast suggests how the complex molecular machinery needed to maintain chromosome ends may have evolved. [1]: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/288/5474/2141
Leydig cell aging: steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) and cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme.

Primary points of control in steroidogenesis are the transport of cholesterol from intracellular stores to the inner mitochondrial membrane, and the subsequent conversion of cholesterol to pregnenolone by the cholesterol side-chain cleavage enzyme (P450 scc ). Testosterone production has been shown to decline in Brown Norway rat Leydig cells as the rats age. To better understand the mechanism by which aging Leydig cells lose steroidogenic function, we examined the effect of aging on steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR), an important Leydig cell cholesterol transfer protein, and on P450 scc . Leydig cells isolated from middle-aged (14 months) and old (24 months) rats produced significantly less testosterone than cells from young (4 months) rats. StAR mRNA (1.7 kilobase [kb]) was significantly reduced in Leydig cells from middle-aged and old rats, by 26% and 52%, respectively. Significant reductions also were seen in the steady-state levels of mRNA for P450 scc , of 29% and 50%, respectively. Western blots revealed significant reductions in StAR protein, by 47% and 74%, respectively, and in P450 scc protein, by 38% and 54%, respectively. In response to LH stimulation in vitro, testosterone production by Leydig cells in young, middle-aged, and old rats increased by 30-, 40-, and 33-fold, respectively, although the amounts of testosterone produced by the young cells significantly exceeded that produced by the middle-aged and old cells. StAR protein also increased in response to LH by 1.4-, 3-, and 11-fold, respectively, whereas P450 scc protein remained unchanged. These results are consistent with the conclusion that compromise of StAR-mediated cholesterol transport may play a key role in age-related reductions in Leydig cell steroidogenesis. However, because P450 scc is reduced in old Leydig cells, the reaction catalyzed by this enzyme would be rate-limiting under circumstances in which saturating amounts of cholesterol entered the mitochondria.
Making Democracies Work: Social Capital and Civic Engagement in 47 Societies

Many theorists have long emphasized the importance of civic society and voluntary associations as vital to the lifeblood of democracy. Interest in this perennial topic has been revived by Putnam's theory of social capital claiming that rich and dense associational networks facilitate the underlying conditions of interpersonal trust, tolerance and cooperation, providing the social foundations for a vibrant democracy. Despite widespread interest, conclusive evidence supporting these claims in a wide range of nations remains elusive. The first part of this paper reviews and summarizes three central claims at the heart of Putnam?s theory. Part II outlines the conceptual and methodological problems of measuring trends in social capital with the available empirical evidence. Part III develops an index of social capital, combining the distribution of associational activism with social trust. In Part IV this Index is operationalized and measured using the World Values Study to compare the distribution and dimensions of social capital in the mid-1990s in 47 nations around the world. Part V uses the Index to examine the consequences of social capital and its component parts for socioeconomic and democratic development. The study establishes predictable patterns in the distribution of social capital around the world, and long-standing cultural traditions and historical legacies can help to explain the contrasts found among global regions. There are two core components in Putnam's definition of social capital, social networks and social trust. The study finds that when combined into a single index it is true, as Putnam suggests, that social capital is strongly and significantly related to multiple interrelated indicators of socioeconomic development and to institutional indicators of democratization. But if we disentangle the twin components of Putnam's definition of social capital, what is driving this process is the social trust dimension, not the associational network dimension. Given the ambiguities in operationalization, three alternative measures of associational membership and activism are employed and tested, in exploratory analysis, but these are rarely significant across almost all indicators, no matter which measure is used. Moreover social capital was only weakly related to cultural indicators of political system support. The conclusion considers the implications of the results for "making democracies work", and whether a strong and vibrant civic society is a necessary condition for the process of democratization.
Marx ante (y antes) de la literatura

This essay deals with Marx’s relation to literature. It seeks to give account of several Marxs: 1) the Marx who is obsessed with literature as we generally understand it, who everywhere evokes the literature of classical antiquity, the literature from the middle ages to the age of Goethe and the writings of Dante, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Defoe, Balzac, to name only a few of his favorite references; 2) the Marx who so often used literature to analyze historical-political life —who used Balzac to analyze and condemn royalist politics, who mobilized Shakespeare’s Timon of Athens or Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe to speak of economic processes that otherwise would remain obscure, and who used Cervantes’ Don Quixote to criticize the young Hegelians; 3) the Marx who, despite his recourse to literature, nevertheless tells us that literature as such does not exist, since it is inscribed within an unevenly determined system of socio-historical and political practices and relations of production —the Marx, in other words, whose materialist analyses renounce to the notion of literary work (of a work, that is, that would be solely literary), even as he helps us understand how something like an institution of literature emerges, historically, politically, and ideologically; and 4) the Marx who mourns literature, even as he writes it —who perhaps returns to literature most when he tells us it can never exist by itself, when he demonstrates that it is an essential element of every mode of representation, every technical media, and every technique of language. This is why I will argue that Marx’s interest in literature is perhaps most legible when he no longer speaks of what we call novels, poetry, fiction, and fables, but rather when he instead refers to the illusions, hallucinations, phantoms, virtualities, and simulacra that increasingly compose our everyday existence. We could even say that what makes literature literature is at the same time what prevents it from remaining simply literature, what makes it historical and political.
LANGUAGE TASK EFFECTS: A COMPARISON OF STUTTERING AND NONSTUTTERING CHILDREN

Abstract This study examined the effects of language-elicitation tasks and syntactic complexity on disfluencies of stuttering and nonstuttering children. The total disfluencies occurring on the production of imitated and modeled sentences of varying syntactic complexity was compared for the two groups. Results indicated a significant task effect, but nonsignificant complexity and group effects. Results are discussed within the framework of the “Demands and Capacities” model.
Exploring Medical Anthropology, Medical Anthropology and the World System: A Critical Perspective and Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology

Exploring Medical Anthropology. Donald Joralemon. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1999. xiv+ 158pp. Medical Anthropology and the World System:. Critical Perspective. Hans A. Baer. Merrill Singer. and Ida Susser. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey, 1997. + 276 pp. Understanding and Applying Medical Anthropology. Peter J. Brown. ed. Mountain View, CA. Mayfield, 1998. xii. 451 pp.
AlGaAs/GaAs ridge waveguide lasers on semi-insulating substrate with airbridged contacts with 21 GHz modulation response frequency

Multiple quantum-well AlGaAs/GaAs ridge waveguide lasers have been fabricated on a semi-insulating substrate with airbridged top contacts. The 3 dB frequency response has been measured to be 21 GHz. >
Public Opinion, Domestic Structure, and Foreign Policy in Liberal Democracies

The paper discusses the role of public opinion in the foreign policy-making process of liberal democracies. Contrary to prevailing assumptions, public opinion matters. However, the impact of public opinion is determined not so much by the specific issues involved or by the particular pattern of public attitudes as by the domestic structure and the coalition-building processes among the elites in the respective country. The paper analyzes the public impact on the foreign policy-making process in four liberal democracies with distinct domestic structures: the United States, France, the Federal Republic of Germany, and Japan. Under the same international conditions and despite similar patterns of public attitudes, variances in foreign policy outcomes nevertheless occur; these have to be explained by differences in political institutions, policy networks, and societal structures. Thus, the four countries responded differently to Soviet policies during the 1980s despite more or less comparable trends in mass public opinion.
On the inhibition of metal transfer through ion implantation

Abstract The impact of N+, C+, and S+ ion implantation on Al metal transfer to the implanted Interstitial Free Steel (ISF) was investigated using single-pass wear tests. The metal transfer was quantified by evaluating the Al coverage area from EDS maps taken from the wear tracks. The ISF steel had three different dose levels from each ion. It was concluded that S+ implantation provided the best resistance to metal transfer. The metal transfer resistance increased with dose for all the implanted species except for the S+ where the results plateaued after a 1e17 ions/cm 2 dose due to sputter limitations. Argon purging reduced the effectiveness of the N+ and C+ implants in reducing metal transfer while having little effect on the S+ implantations. This indicates that the N+ and C+ implanted ISF steel wear elements rely on tribo-oxidation to optimize their metal transfer resistance effectiveness while tribo-oxidation provides no benefit for the S+ implantations. In all cases, ion implantation increased the amount of tribo-oxidation taking place where C+ and S+ showed increasing amount of oxygen take-up with dose. The N+ implantations showed little dependence of oxygen take-up with dose, which indicates that the C+ and S+ implantations alter the low-temperature oxidation kinetics differently than the N+ implantations. The friction coefficient did not depend on oxygen concentration in the environment, which enforces the importance of surface film chemistry for friction generation. The tribochemical reduction of the natural iron oxide by aluminum facilitates metal-on-metal contact, and creates the adhesion forces responsible for the measured friction coefficient whose generation is characterized by a stick-slip mechanism. Ion implantation reduced the friction and noise with the sulfur implantations providing the best benefit. The mechanisms for the reduction of metal transfer based on surface chemistry were proposed from the view point of Sasada’s Mutual Material Transfer model.
Reawakening retrocyclins: ancestral human defensins active against HIV-1.

Human alpha and beta defensins contribute substantially to innate immune defenses against microbial and viral infections. Certain nonhuman primates also produce theta-defensins—18 residue cyclic peptides that act as HIV-1 entry inhibitors. Multiple human theta-defensin genes exist, but they harbor a premature termination codon that blocks translation. Consequently, the theta-defensins (retrocyclins) encoded within the human genome are not expressed as peptides. In vivo production of theta-defensins in rhesus macaques involves the post-translational ligation of two nonapeptides, each derived from a 12-residue “demidefensin” precursor. Neither the mechanism of this unique process nor its existence in human cells is known. To ascertain if human cells retained the ability to process demidefensins, we transfected human promyelocytic cells with plasmids containing repaired retrocyclin-like genes. The expected peptides were isolated, their sequences were verified by mass spectrometric analyses, and their anti-HIV-1 activity was confirmed in vitro. Our study reveals for the first time, to our knowledge, that human cells have the ability to make cyclic theta-defensins. Given this evidence that human cells could make theta-defensins, we attempted to restore endogenous expression of retrocyclin peptides. Since human theta-defensin genes are transcribed, we used aminoglycosides to read-through the premature termination codon found in the mRNA transcripts. This treatment induced the production of intact, bioactive retrocyclin-1 peptide by human epithelial cells and cervicovaginal tissues. The ability to reawaken retrocyclin genes from their 7 million years of slumber using aminoglycosides could provide a novel way to secure enhanced resistance to HIV-1 infection.
The laboratory diagnosis of extrathyroidal hypermetabolism.

ELEVATION of the basal metabolic rate is frequently misleading in the evaluation of suspected hyperthyroidism. This may be because the BMR indicates total body metabolism and represents the end result of a great many oxidative processes, only one of which is due to the effect of thyroid hormone. Cerebral stimulation, increased metabolism of malignant cells, pregnancy, pheochromocytoma, alterations in hemodynamics such as occur in congestive heart failure, and many other nonthyroid states may notably affect the metabolic rate. Thus, the result is less in error than is its interpretation. This discussion is concerned with the laboratory evaluation of patients referred to a thyroid clinic because of an elevated BMR and in whom the diagnosis of hyperthyroidism was usually considered, if not actually made, by the referring physician. These patients were hospitalized for several days while thyroid metabolic studies were carried out. Many patients were eliminated from this series when previously elevated basal m...
STI research: recruiting an unbiased sample.

Purpose Although minors may legally consent for clinical care of sexually transmitted infections (STI) in all states, research participation often requires parental consent. We examined whether age, race, and parental barriers differed between those adolescents who accepted versus refused enrollment in a minimal risk STI research study.