cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
SU-G-IeP3-01: Better Kerma-Area-Product (KAP) Estimation Using the System Parameters in Radiography and Fluoroscopy

Purpose: Accurate values for Kerma-Area-Product (KAP) are needed for patient dosimetry and quality control for exams utilizing radiographic and/or fluoroscopic imaging. The KAP measured using a typical direct KAP meter built with parallel-plate transmission ionization chamber is not precise and depends on the energy spectrum of diagnostic x-rays. This study compared the accuracy and reproducibility of KAP derived from system parameters with values measured with a direct KAP meter. Methods: IEC tolerance for displayed KAP is specified up to ± 35% above 2.5 Gy-cm2 and manufacturer's specifications are typically ± 25%. KAP values from the direct KAP meter drifts with time leading to replacement or re-calibration. More precise and consistent KAP is achievable utilizing a database of known radiation output for various system parameters. The integrated KAP meter was removed from a radiography system. A total of 48 measurements of air kerma were acquired at x-ray tube potential from 40 to 150 kVp with 10 kVp increment using ion chamber type external dosimeter at free-in-air geometry for four different types of filter combinations following the manufacturer's service procedure. These data were used to create updated correction factors that determine air kerma computationally for given system parameters. Results of calculated KAP were evaluated against results using a calibrated ion chamber based dosimeter and a computed radiography imaging plate to measure x-ray field size. Results: The accuracy of calculated KAP from the system parameters was better within 4% deviation in all diagnostic x-ray tube potentials tested from 50 to 140 kVp. In contrast, deviations of up to 25% were measured from KAP displayed from the direct KAP meter. Conclusion: The “calculated KAP” approach provides the nominal advantage of improved accuracy and precision of displayed KAP as well as reduced cost of calibrating or replacing integrated KAP meters.
WE-DE-201-05: Evaluation of a Windowless Extrapolation Chamber Design and Monte Carlo Based Corrections for the Calibration of Ophthalmic Applicators

Purpose: To test the validity of a windowless extrapolation chamber used to measure surface dose rate from planar ophthalmic applicators and to compare different Monte Carlo based codes for deriving correction factors. Methods: Dose rate measurements were performed using a windowless, planar extrapolation chamber with a 90Sr/90Y Tracerlab RA-1 ophthalmic applicator previously calibrated at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Capacitance measurements were performed to estimate the initial air gap width between the source face and collecting electrode. Current was measured as a function of air gap, and Bragg-Gray cavity theory was used to calculate the absorbed dose rate to water. To determine correction factors for backscatter, divergence, and attenuation from the Mylar entrance window found in the NIST extrapolation chamber, both EGSnrc Monte Carlo user code and Monte Carlo N-Particle Transport Code (MCNP) were utilized. Simulation results were compared with experimental current readings from the windowless extrapolation chamber as a function of air gap. Additionally, measured dose rate values were compared with the expected result from the NIST source calibration to test the validity of the windowless chamber design. Results: Better agreement was seen between EGSnrc simulated dose results and experimental current readings at very small air gaps (<100 µm) for the windowless extrapolation chamber, while MCNP results demonstrated divergence at these small gap widths. Three separate dose rate measurements were performed with the RA-1 applicator. The average observed difference from the expected result based on the NIST calibration was −1.88% with a statistical standard deviation of 0.39% (k=1). Conclusion: EGSnrc user code will be used during future work to derive correction factors for extrapolation chamber measurements. Additionally, experiment results suggest that an entrance window is not needed in order for an extrapolation chamber to provide accurate dose rate measurements for a planar ophthalmic applicator.
Evaluating Chinese Economic Engagement in Africa versus Latin America

Since the early 2000s, when China joined the World Trade Organization and the Chinese government announced an official ‘going out policy’ to encourage economic engagement beyond China's territorial borders, growth of Chinese foreign direct investment (FDI) and trade with both Africa and Latin America has risen exponentially. Reasons for this rise include (1) Chinese economic actors' view that expansion within these former European colonial regions is critical for accessing primary resources and new markets and (2) leadership in Beijing's view that its legitimacy continues to be based on economic growth. Given China's recent bleak economic forecast and plunging stock market, an increase in Chinese overseas economic engagement in Africa and Latin America warrants a closer examination of the ‘Chinese model’ of economic expansion in the developing world and implies that the Chinese economy may be more dependent on connections with these regions than has been previously suggested. By distinguishing the political economic forces at play, on the ground, in Africa from those in Latin America, Chinese economic engagement tactics in these regions can be more accurately understood as a set of dependent and negotiated processes that are location specific.
Beyond HER2: recent advances and future directions in targeted therapies in esophagogastric cancers

Esophagogastric cancers (EGCa) are a leading cause of cancer related mortality worldwide. It has been recognized that they represent heterogenous diseases based on histology and anatomy. However, it is also increasingly evident that these are diverse malignancies based on genetic alterations, and this is increasingly making these diseases amenable to targeted therapies. While epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and mTOR inhibitors have failed to prove effective in the treatment of advanced EGCa, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) inihibitor have now been demonstrated to improve survival, at least in the 2nd line setting of adenocarcinomas. Other promising approaches are being investigated, including targeted therapies such as MET and FGFR inhibitors, as well as immunotherapy and agents that may affect synthetic lethality.
Timing performance of fast LGSO scintillators coupled to novel SiPMs

Stable production techniques for high lutetium content LGSO (Lu 1.8 Gd 0.2 SiO 5 :Ce) with decay times varying from ∼30–40 ns have been established over the past decade, and the decay time can now be accurately controlled with varying cerium concentration (0.025–0.075 mol%). This material is promising for time-of-flight positron emission tomography (TOF-PET), as it has similar light output and equivalent stopping power for 511 keV annihilation photons compared to industry standard LSO:Ce and LYSO:Ce, and the decay time is improved by more than 30% with proper Ce concentration. This work investigates the achievable coincidence timing resolution (CTR) with 90% Lu LGSO:Ce(0.025 mol%) when coupled to a new silicon photomultiplier (SiPM). The CTR measured between pairs of 2.9×2.9×3 mm3 and 2.9×2.9×20 mm3 LGSO:Ce crystals was 80±4 and 122 ±4 ps FWHM, respectively. Measurements of light out output and energy resolution with these crystals are also presented.
The Economic Argument for Engagement: New Directions for Research

What is the economic argument for public engagement? Around the world, public officials and other leaders have devised new ways to engage citizens in decision-making and problem-solving – but typically they have focused on planning, budgeting, and schools rather than poverty, inequality, or other economic issues. Meanwhile, emerging evidence from Brazil and other parts of the Global South suggests that sustained patterns of engagement builds social capital, which in turn has an impact on a range of indicators, including economic inequality and the distribution of wealth. This article summarizes several disparate areas of research on the connections between engagement and inequality, and suggest new questions and directions for innovation.
Biomedical Applications of Microchannel Flows

Microfluidics and microchannel transport processes have led to the development of new research tools. They have the ability to peer inside microscopic cells and measure the interior rheology of their cytoplasm, visualizing the co-localization of specific proteins within various organelles. This chapter discusses the major technological applications of microchannels and minichannels to measure the strength and frequency of individual cell adhesion, the growth of cells to replace vital organs, the peeling of cells from protein-coated surfaces using well-defined forces, and the characterization of deformabilities of different cell types. Microchannels with functionalized biochemical surfaces are used in elucidating the molecular mechanisms governing the transient adhesion between the circulating white blood cells and the blood vessel walls during inflammation. The most common types of microchannels used in cell adhesion and flow studies are the radial flow chamber and the parallel-plate flow chamber. There are radial membrane minichannels for hematopoietic blood cell culture, the bioartificial liver membranes enhance mass transfer in planar microchannels, and oxygen and lactate transport in micro-grooved minichannels for cell culture. Microchannels and minichannels maximize the surface area available for monolayer cell attachment while enabling good temperature regulation and rapid exchange of liquid media.
Three-Dimensional Modeling of Circulating Cell Separation in a Y-Junction Microchannel

The migration of living cells plays an important role in immune response, cancer progression, and microfluidic technologies for cell separation and flow cytometry that often involve bifurcating (e.g., Y-or T-shaped junction) microchannels. Vessel bifurcations are among the frequent sites affected by atherosclerosis and are the focal points of drug carrier particle adhesion in vivo. Using VECAM, our custom three-dimensional computational algorithm for multiphase viscoelastic flow and mass transport, this study focuses upon the investigation of the effects of cell viscoelasticity and hydrodynamic interaction on separation of circulating cells in Y-shaped microchannels with angle ranging from 30° to 150°. In VECAM, the cell is modeled as a one-phase viscoelastic fluid material composed of a cytosol and a polymer (cytoskeletal) matrix. The cell viscoelasticity is described by the Giesekus constitutive equation. The cell-fluid interface is tracked by the volume-of-fluid (VOF) method, with the interfacial (cortical) tension force calculated by the continuous surface force (CSF) method. In the simulation, we consider single or two cells of initially spherical shape with the same or varying diameter. The separation of the cells has been investigated for different initial locations of the cells with respect to one another. The results of this study provide the critical conditions for cell separation including the critical values of cell diameter, elasticity, surface tension and initial cell-to-cell separation distances for a range of bifurcation angles. These critical conditions are important for the development of microfluidic devices to be optimized for separation and sorting of circulating cells and for understanding how circulating cells are separated in bifurcating microvessels.
Comprehensive Synthesis of Amino Acid-Derived Thiazole Peptidomimetic Analogues to Understand the Enigmatic Drug/Substrate-Binding Site of P-Glycoprotein

A novel set of 64 analogues based on our lead compound 1 was designed and synthesized with an initial objective of understanding the structural requirements of ligands binding to a highly perplexing substrate-binding site of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) and their effect on modulating the ATPase function of the efflux pump. Compound 1, a stimulator of P-gp ATPase activity, was transformed to ATPase inhibitory compounds 39, 53, and 109. The ATPase inhibition by these compounds was predominantly contributed by the presence of a cyclohexyl group in lieu of the 2-aminobenzophenone moiety of 1. The 4,4-difluorocyclohexyl analogues, 53 and 109, inhibited the photolabeling by [125I]-IAAP, with IC50 values of 0.1 and 0.76 μM, respectively. Selected compounds were shown to reverse paclitaxel resistance in HEK293 cells overexpressing P-gp and were selective toward P-gp over CYP3A4. Induced-fit docking highlighted a plausible binding pattern of inhibitory compounds in the putative-binding pocket of P-gp. The current study u...
The Changing Roles and Contributions of Campus Diversity Offices and Their Influence on Campus Culture

Higher education has struggled to include and support students, faculty, and staff from underrepresented and marginalized groups. In recent years, universities have decided to address these struggles explicitly using a variety of different approaches to better support these groups from mandatory trainings to optional events, from external audits to internal campus climate surveys. One promising approach to providing support to marginalized groups has been to employ campus diversity officers and offices. These offices operate at the executive level and take on campus-wide leadership responsibilities, incorporating inclusive excellence and an equity perspective throughout campus policies, functions and culture. In this article programmatic and policy efforts at two public universities are detailed, spotlighting systemic-proactive and individual-reactive policies and programs needed to advance access, diversity, equity, and inclusion across institutions of higher education. Although the approaches each university takes are site and context specific, they both use the role of chief diversity officer to marshal policy and programmatic change to improve the educational experiences for all who work at and learn at these institutions.
Bounded memory and incomplete information

Abstract This paper studies incomplete information games where players observe only a summary statistic of the history, including reputation games as a special case. A recursive characterization of the equilibrium payoff set is derived for the case where time is observable, relating it to a self-generating set of tuples that capture equilibrium behavior and payoffs. With unobservable time, equilibria have a particularly simple interpretation as self-generating points. The tools are applied to a product choice game where the firm may be an “honest” commitment type and consumers have 1-period memory with imperfect monitoring, solving for the worst equilibrium payoff. The recursive algorithm shows that the observable-time game allows lower equilibrium payoffs due to non-stationary behavior.
Barriers to medication error reporting among hospital nurses.

Aims and objectives The study purpose was to report medication error reporting barriers among hospital nurses, and to determine validity and reliability of an existing medication error reporting barriers questionnaire. Background Hospital medication errors typically occur between ordering of a medication to its receipt by the patient with subsequent staff monitoring. To decrease medication errors, factors surrounding medication errors must be understood; this requires reporting by employees. Under-reporting can compromise patient safety by disabling improvement efforts. Design This 2017 descriptive study was part of a larger workforce engagement study at a faith-based Magnet® -accredited community hospital in California (United States). Methods Registered nurses (~1,000) were invited to participate in the online survey via email. Reported here are sample demographics (n = 357) and responses to the 20-item medication error reporting barriers questionnaire. Using factor analysis, four factors that accounted for 67.5% of the variance were extracted. These factors (subscales) were labelled Fear, Cultural Barriers, Lack of Knowledge/Feedback and Practical/Utility Barriers; each demonstrated excellent internal consistency. Results The medication error reporting barriers questionnaire, originally developed in long-term care, demonstrated good validity and excellent reliability among hospital nurses. Substantial proportions of American hospital nurses (11%-48%) considered specific factors as likely reporting barriers. Average scores on most barrier items were categorised "somewhat unlikely." The highest six included two barriers concerning the time-consuming nature of medication error reporting and four related to nurses' fear of repercussions. Conclusions Hospitals need to determine the presence of perceived barriers among nurses using questionnaires such as the medication error reporting barriers and work to encourage better reporting. Relevance to clinical practice Barriers to medication error reporting make it less likely that nurses will report medication errors, especially errors where patient harm is not apparent or where an error might be hidden. Such under-reporting impedes collection of accurate medication error data and prevents hospitals from changing harmful practices.
Signal transduction in thymus development.

Abstract Reciprocal interaction between bone marrow derived lymphoid precursor cells and the thymic environment leads, through a series of developmental events, to the generation of a diverse repertoire of functional T-cells. During thymopoiesis fetal liver or bone marrow derived precursors enter the thymus and develop into mature T-cells in response to cues derived from the environment. The thymic micro-environment provides signals to the lymphoid cells as a result of cell-cell interactions, locally produced cytokines, chemokines and hormones. Developing thymocytes, in turn, influence the thymic stroma to form a supportive micro-environment. Stage-specific signals provide an exquisite balance between cellular proliferation, differentiation, cell survival and death. The result of this intricate signaling concert is the production of the requisite numbers of well educated self-restricted T-cells. Mature T-cells are exported to the peripheral lymphoid organs, where, upon encountering antigen, naive T-cells further mature into effector cells that provide cytolytic or T helper functions. While there are extra-thymic locations for T-cell development, majority of T-cells in peripheral lymphoid organs are thymus derived. In mice and humans, T-cells develop throughout life although the efficacy declines significantly with age. It is not clear if this is a direct consequence of deterioration of the thymic environment by involution, a paucity of bone marrow derived precursors, or both. However, new data clearly shows that the involuted adult thymus retains the ability to generate new T-cells. Recent advances have revealed many components of an exquisitely balanced signaling cascades that regulate cell fate, cellular proliferation and cell death in the thymus. This article describes fundamental features of developing thymocytes and the thymic micro-environment as they relate to the signaling pathways.
Regulatory Effects of Gallium on Transferrin-Independent Iron Uptake by Human Leukemic HL60 Cells

Gallium, a pharmacologically important metal, resembles iron with respect to transferrin (Tf) binding and Tf receptor-mediated cellular uptake. In the present study, we examined the effect of gallium on Tf- independent iron uptake by HL60 cells. In contrast to the inhibitory effect of Tf-gallium on Tf-iron uptake, gallium nitrate, in a time-, temperature-, and concentration-dependent manner, stimulated Tf- independent uptake of iron-nitrilotriacetic acid (Fe-NTA). Preexposure of cells to gallium followed by removal of gallium also resulted in sustained stimulation of iron uptake. The anti-Tf receptor monoclonal antibody 42/6 blocked Tf-iron uptake, but had no effect on gallium- induced stimulation of Tf-independent iron uptake. Gallium increased the number of cell membrane iron-binding sites, without a change in their affinity for iron. Ferric chloride stimulated Tf-independent gallium uptake. Although gallium nitrate inhibited cell growth in Tf- free medium, cellular proliferation was restored by Fe-NTA. Gallium and iron appear to share the same Tf-independent cellular uptake system in HL60 cells. Exposure of cells to gallium results in the activation of cell membrane non-Tf iron carriers that may play a role in overcoming the Tf-independent growth-inhibitory effects of gallium.
Demographic Structure and Process in Rural China

This chapter covers the major issues of rural demography in the People’s Republic of China. We first provide some perspective for our discussions by presenting an overview of China, its history and recent emergence as a world power, followed by a short discussion of its demography. We then cover the thorny issue of the definition in China of rurality, followed by a discussion of the changing nature of the rural-urban population distribution in China since 1949. We next consider rural-urban socioeconomic disparities, the age and sex structures of rural and urban China, and then marital status. Next, we review key issues pertaining to fertility, mortality, and migration in rural and urban China, and finally, we assess the situation of the minority nationalities in rural China.
Glycosaminoglycans and Glycosaminoglycan Mimetics in Cancer and Inflammation

Glycosaminoglycans (GAGs) are a class of biomolecules expressed virtually on all mammalian cells and usually covalently attached to proteins, forming proteoglycans. They are present not only on the cell surface, but also in the intracellular milieu and extracellular matrix. GAGs interact with multiple ligands, both soluble and insoluble, and modulate an important role in various physiological and pathological processes including cancer, bacterial and viral infections, inflammation, Alzheimer’s disease, and many more. Considering their involvement in multiple diseases, their use in the development of drugs has been of significant interest in both academia and industry. Many GAG-based drugs are being developed with encouraging results in animal models and clinical trials, showcasing their potential for development as therapeutics. In this review, the role GAGs play in both the development and inhibition of cancer and inflammation is presented. Further, advancements in the development of GAGs and their mimetics as anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory agents are discussed.
The potential impact of time-variation in vital rates on fisheries management targets for marine fishes

Abstract Fisheries scientists are increasingly concerned about changes in vital rates caused by environmental change and fishing impacts. Demographic parameters representing individual growth, maturity, mortality, and recruitment have previously been documented to change over decadal time scales. However, there has been relatively little comparison regarding which vital rates cause relatively greater or lesser impacts on commonly used fisheries management targets. We therefore use a life table (based on age-structured assessment models) to explore the sensitivity of fishing mortality, spawning biomass, and catch targets to changes in parameters representing growth, mortality, recruitment, and maturation rates for three representative life histories representing long-, medium-, and short-lived species. The elasticity analysis indicates that demographic changes can result in substantial variation in fisheries management targets, but that changes in mortality rates are particularly important for spawning biomass and catch targets while maturity and recruitment compensation are also important for fishing mortality targets. We conclude by discussing the importance of improved data repositories to address covariation among maturity, growth, and mortality parameters.
Unexplained chronic cytopenia: is it idiopathic cytopenia of undetermined significance or myelodysplastic syndrome

Idiopathic cytopenia is a condition where there is a decrease in peripheral blood counts causing either anaemia, leucopoenia and thrombocytopaenia. Most cases of cytopenia reveal a cause on further workup. But very rarely, in some cases, a definitive cause could not be identified. Unexplained cytopenia becomes challenging and poses difficulty in diagnosis and management. Discriminating these groups of bone marrow failure disorders from myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) becomes an important clinical question. We describe a case of a middle-aged Hispanic woman who presented with pancytopenia and on extensive workup did not reveal any specific cause. Her bone marrow examination revealed severely reduced megakaryocytes but with normal haemopoiesis of other lineages. Cytogenetics, flow cytometry, comprehensive next-generation whole genomic analysis did not reveal any abnormalities. She fit the criteria for idiopathic cytopenia of undetermined significance rather than MDS. She remained asymptomatic and her counts never improved with immunosuppressives or thrombopoietin mimetics.
Distributed Wind Power Resources for Enhanced Power Grid Resilience

Electricity outages and large scale blackouts due to natural disasters have been observed commonplace recently. Therefore, it is urgently needed to develop an efficient restoration strategy to ameliorate a grid-scale capability for restoration. With increasing penetration of renewable energy resources, it is a great potential to include wind power into the system restoration planing processes. This paper develops an efficient restoration strategy considering wind energy participation to achieve an enhanced grid resilience in response to widespread emergencies. The proposed strategy is formulated as a mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model. In order to verify the applicability of the proposed method, the vulnerability of power elements is taken into account following a high-impact low-probability (HILP) event. The developed strategy is comprehensively tested on the modified IEEE 118-bus test system and the numerical results illustrate the efficiency of the proposed method.
Crystal structures of (η4-cyclo-octa-1,5-diene)bis(1,3-di-methyl-imidazol-2-yl-idene)iridium(I) iodide and (η4-cyclo-octa-1,5-diene)bis-(1,3-di-ethyl-imidazol-2-yl-idene)iridium(I) iodide.

The title complexes, (η4-cyclo-octa-1,5-diene)bis-(1,3-di-methyl-imidazol-2-yl-idene)iridium(I) iodide, [Ir(C5H8N2)2(C8H12)]I, (1) and (η4-cyclo-octa-1,5-di-ene)bis-(1,3-di-ethyl-imidazol-2-yl-idene)iridium(I) iodide, [Ir(C7H12N2)2(C8H12)]I, (2), were prepared using a modified literature method. After carrying out the oxidative addition of the amino acid l-proline to [Ir(COD)(IMe)2]I in water and slowly cooling the reaction to room temperature, a suitable crystal of 1 was obtained and analyzed by single-crystal X-ray diffraction at 100 K. Although this crystal structure has previously been reported in the Pbam space group, it was highly disordered and precise atomic coordinates were not calculated. A single crystal of 2 was also obtained by heating the complex in water and letting it slowly cool to room temperature. Complex 1 was found to crystallize in the monoclinic space group C2/m, while 2 crystallizes in the ortho-rhom-bic space group Pccn, both with Z = 4.
Binding and allosteric transmission of histone H3 Lys-4 trimethylation to the recombinase RAG-1 are separable functions of the RAG-2 plant homeodomain finger

V(D)J recombination is initiated by the recombination-activating gene protein (RAG) recombinase, consisting of RAG-1 and RAG-2 subunits. The susceptibility of gene segments to cleavage by RAG is associated with gene transcription and with epigenetic marks characteristic of active chromatin, including histone H3 trimethylated at lysine 4 (H3K4me3). Binding of H3K4me3 by a plant homeodomain (PHD) in RAG-2 induces conformational changes in RAG-1, allosterically stimulating substrate binding and catalysis. To better understand the path of allostery from the RAG-2 PHD finger to RAG-1, here we employed phylogenetic substitution. We observed that a chimeric RAG-2 protein in which the mouse PHD finger is replaced by the corresponding domain from the shark Chiloscyllium punctatum binds H3K4me3 but fails to transmit an allosteric signal, indicating that binding of H3K4me3 by RAG-2 is insufficient to support recombination. By substituting residues in the C. punctatum PHD with the corresponding residues in the mouse PHD and testing for rescue of allostery, we demonstrate that H3K4me3 binding and transmission of an allosteric signal to RAG-1 are separable functions of the RAG-2 PHD finger.
CC2020: A Computing Education Promise to Latin America and to the World Invited Keynote Address

The Computing Curricula 2020 (CC2020) project is well on its way in consolidating its aspirations. Academic, industry and government communities are in the process of vetting the project’s related CC2020 draft report. The project develops new pathways for the future of computing education worldwide. This invited presentation seeks to summarize the achievements of the project and to highlight some of its salient features that include a robust characterization of computing competency and its components as well as a collection of visuals to reflect computing curricula in a modern world. The presentation also provides suggestions for different regions of the world, such as Latin America, on ways to use the project results and its related report. It also addresses the technological skills gap that currently exists on a global scale and the need for computing competency in an ever-changing world.
Lower rates of readmission following integration of family-based treatment in a higher level of care.

There has been a growing effort to incorporate the evidence-based practices of family-based treatment (FBT) into higher levels of care, such as day-treatment programs. This study tracked the effect...
Wetlands in intermittently closed estuaries can build elevations to keep pace with sea-level rise

Abstract Sea-level rise is a threat to coastal ecosystems, which have important conservation and economic value. While marsh response to sea-level rise has been well characterized for perennially open estuaries, bar-built intermittently-closed estuaries and their sea-level rise response are seldom addressed in the literature – despite being common globally. We seek to advance the conceptual understanding of sea-level rise response of marshes by incorporating the unique nature of intermittently-closed estuaries in a marsh model. We hypothesize that intermittently-closed-estuary marshes may be more resilient to sea-level rise than open-estuary marshes due to greater initial elevation capital and higher accretion rates due to closure events. Using California, USA as a case study, spatial analysis shows that marshes in intermittently-closed-estuaries had significantly greater elevations (x = 1.93 m ± 0.2 standard error, n = 14) than marshes in permanently open estuaries (x = 0.94 m ± 0.1 standard error, n = 8; P = 0.003). We then used a process-based model to determine marsh elevation change under 840 simulated responses to sea-level rise to 2100. Our modeling shows that regular annual mouth closure can promote accretion rates and increase marsh elevations fast enough to match even high rates of sea-level rise, as fluvial sediment pulses can be captured in the estuary. Modeled suspended sediment concentration had the strongest effect on accretion, followed by probability of annual mouth closure. Intermittently closed estuaries are critical environments where marshes may be sustained under high rates of sea-level rise, thus reducing the anticipated global loss of these important ecosystems. Our results begin to fill an important gap in the knowledge about marsh accretion and identify research needs to inform coastal management.
Simulations of a Coaxial Multipactor Testbed

A well-documented effect of cosmic and solar radiation on TWTs used in satellites is the production of secondary electrons from the bombardment of incident particles and the resultant cascade and growth of these secondaries, which in turn leads to tube failure. Our work focuses on numerical simulation of gap closure in coaxial geometry due to the multipactor effect. The secondary electron yield (SEY) is dependent not just on material properties, but also on the geometric properties of the surface and of the tube, as well as the size of the interaction space and the operating frequency. We then focus on particle-in-cell simulations of a coaxial testbed that will generate data to develop advanced models that incorporate patterned surfaces, new source geometries, and new materials developed to suppress SEY. This paper presents preliminary results from our coaxial PIC simulations utilizing the CST Design Studio and Spark3D codes.
Influences of Wave Climate and Sea Level on Shoreline Erosion Rates in the Maryland Chesapeake Bay

We investigated spatial correlations between wave forcing, sea level fluctuations, and shoreline erosion in the Maryland Chesapeake Bay (CB), in an attempt to identify the most important relationships and their spatial patterns. We implemented the Simulating WAves Nearshore (SWAN) model and a parametric wave model from the USEPA Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) to simulate wave climate in CB from 1985 to 2005. Calibrated sea level simulations from the CBP hydrodynamic model over the same time period were also acquired. The separate and joint statistics of waves and sea level were investigated for the entire CB. Spatial patterns of sea level during the high wave events most important for erosion were dominated by local north-south winds in the upper Bay and by remote coastal forcing in the lower Bay. We combined wave and sea level data sets with estimates of historical shoreline erosion rates and shoreline characteristics compiled by the State of Maryland at two different spatial resolutions to explore the factors affecting erosion. The results show that wave power is the most significant influence on erosion in the Maryland CB, but that many other local factors are also implicated. Marshy shorelines show a more homogeneous, approximately linear relationship between wave power and erosion rates, whereas bank shorelines are more complex. Marshy shorelines appear to erode faster than bank shorelines, for the same wave power and bank height. A new expression for the rate of shoreline erosion is proposed, building on previous work. The proposed new relationship expresses the mass rate of shoreline erosion as a locally linear function of the difference between applied wave power and a threshold wave power, multiplied by a structure function that depends on the ratio of water depth to bank height.
Relevance of opioid bimodality to tolerance/dependence formation. From transmitter release to second messenger formation.

It is very well established - indeed dogma - that the predominant effect of opioids in the central nervous system is to depress neuronal function and inhibit the release of neurotransmitters (see[1]). When excitatory opioid actions are observed, they are usually attributed to disinhibition[2], i.e., opioids are known to inhibit inhibitory neurons and thus cause excitation.
Some Additional Safeguards for the Newly Liberated Marketplace

(1) The risk that an overly strict antimerger policy will be imposed on the airline industry; (2) The risk that both rules against predatory pricing and discriminatorily high access charges will "overprotect" new competitors in the telecommunications industry by "handicapping" ATT (3) The risk that the Bell Operating Companies (BOC's), with the aid of regulators, will frustrate competition among suppliers of long distance service by thwarting price cutting designed to prevent "bypassing"; and (4) The risk that "residual monopolistic elements" or "bottlenecks"-for example, carrier-owned computerized reservation systems (CRS's)-might distort competition in favor of the integrated firm or, alternatively, thwart the economic efficiencies of integration, such as the encouragment of technological innovation by internal financing. Judge Breyer's responses to those four problems may be summarized as follows:
Can a Pluralistic Commonwealth Endure? The Political Problem of Religious Pluralism and Why Philosophers Can't Solve It by Thaddeus J. Kozinski

This article considers whether the American pluralist system can satisfy Cicero's definition of a commonwealth as a multitude united in a definition of law and justice. The analysis is based upon a review of Thaddeus Kozinski's book, The Problem or Religious Pluralism and Why Philosophers Can't Solve It. This book critiques the philosophy of John Rawls, Jacques Maritain and Alisdaire MacIntyre. The critique is based upon Cicero's definition of a commonwealth and the article concludes that a society which maintains a deep pluralism over the first principles of law and justice cannot survive as a commonwealth.
Municipal and County Courts as Sites of Political Development

In the familiar story of American political development, legislatures passed reform law, only to have legislation stuck down by the courts. In Orren's account of belated feudalism, courts preserved a feudal order until it was finally toppled by New Deal legislation. Paul Frymer has noted that, in American political development literature, courts emerge as institutional obstacles to development, thwarting democratic actors and state activism. The case of the courts in political development is often richer and more complex than that. Indeed, our work with municipal and county courts in Chicago and New York suggests an important progressive aspect to courts. In the Progressive Era, reformers used existing municipal and county level courts to incorporate new legal theories and launch projects of statebuilding. Reformers made use of courts as existing institutions that already held the coercive power of the state, participating in the adaptation of these courts in the service of new projects and purposes. Reformers modernized courts, injected new sociolegal theories, and utilized the courts to administer programs that were as social as they were legal. Municipal courts of the Progressive Era were the sites of institutional development that would later emerge as social services in the bureaucracy in the executive branch at state and local levels. In its examination of establishment of municipal and county courts for juveniles in the early 20th century, this paper identifies the various non-governmental actors - women's clubs, anti-vice reformers, sanitary reformers and others - that brought the institutional resources to set up and maintain the clubs until governments were able to develop the administrative capacity to support them. Working with and also channeling the energies and organizational capacities of non-governmental actors, courts during this period were vital instruments of state building. Our case offers a somewhat different narrative than Skowronek has advanced about the demise of the state of courts and parties during the progressive era.
The Road to Literary Culture: Revisiting the Jurchen Language Examination System

This essay contextualizes the unique institution of the Jurchen language examination system in the creation of a new literary culture in the Jin dynasty (1115–1234). Unlike the civil examinations in Chinese, which rested on a well-established classical canon, the Jurchen language examinations developed in close connection with the establishment of a Jurchen school system and the formation of a literary canon in the Jurchen language and scripts. In addition to being an official selection mechanism, the Jurchen examinations were more importantly part of a literary endeavor toward a cultural ideal. Through complementing transmitted Chinese sources with epigraphic sources in Jurchen, this essay questions the conventional view of this institution as a “Jurchenization” measure, and proposes that what the Jurchen emperors and officials envisioned was a road leading not to Jurchenization, but to a distinctively hybrid literary culture. Cet article replace l’institution unique des examens en langue Jurchen dans le contexte de la creation d’une nouvelle culture litteraire sous la dynastie des Jin (1115–1234). Contrairement aux examens civils en chinois, qui s’appuyaient sur un canon classique bien etabli, les examens en Jurchen se sont developpes en rapport etroit avec la mise en place d’un systeme d’ecoles Jurchen et avec la formation d’un canon litteraire en langue et en ecriture Jurchen. En plus de servir a la selection des fonctionnaires, et de facon plus importante, les examens en Jurchen s’inscrivaient dans une entreprise litteraire visant a la realisation d’un ideal culturel. Combinant les sources chinoises avec des sources epigraphiques en langue Jurchen, l’auteur met en question l’interpretation conventionnelle des examens en Jurchen comme mesure de “jurchenisation” et suggere que ce que les empereurs et les fonctionnaires Jurchen avaient en vue etait une demarche conduisant non a une jurchenisation, mais a une culture litteraire se distinguant par son caractere hybride.
Crystallization of calcium carbonate in the presence of metal ions. I. Inhibition by magnesium ion at pH 8.8 and 25°C

Crystallization of calcium carbonate (calcite) from a moderately supersaturated, dilute electrolyte solution in the presence and absence of magnesium ion has been studied by a highly reproducible seeded-growth technique. At 10-3 M magnesium ion greatly reduced the calcite crystallization rate; at 10-5 M it had almost no effect. A parabolic rate law, characteristic of calcite growth in pure solution, holds true for solutions containing magnesium ion. Calcite growth-rate reduction in the presence of magnesium ion results from a decrease in the crystal growth-rate constant and follows a Langmuir adsorption model, suggesting that the magnesium ion is adsorbed at growth sites on the crystal surface. Seed-crystal growth morphology, solution mass balance and ion-activity product values during calcite crystallization indicate that formation of a distinct magnesium-rich phase is not a significant factor in growth inhibition at solution magnesium concentrations less than 2×10-4 M.
Ultraviolet Bactericidal Irradiation of Ice

We investigated the germicidal activity of 2,537 A ultraviolet (UV) radiation on bacteria in ice cubes of varying thickness and in aqueous suspensions beneath an ice layer. The test bacteria used were Escherichia coli, Serratia marcescens, Bacillus subtilis, and Sarcina lutea; aqueous suspensions of the selected organisms were frozen into ice cubes, 2 mm to 30 mm thick, at -20 C. The cubes were irradiated for 1 min, whereas the suspensions of bacteria were placed beneath an ice block (19 cm thick) and were irradiated for 0.5 to 15 min. In both groups of experiments, the standard plate count method was used to compare the number of bacteria surviving the UV treatment with the number of bacteria in the untreated controls. The results showed that 1 min of UV treatment killed as many as 97% of the gram-negative and at least 60% of the gram-positive test bacteria (freezing survivors) frozen in ice cubes 30-mm thick. Within 15 min, UV light transmitted through a 19-cm thick ice block inactivated 98% of the bacteria suspended in the buffer solution. We concluded that the UV rays were able to penetrate at least 19 cm of ice and still retain enough energy to kill bacteria. However, the UV penetration depended greatly on the optical quality of the ice. Although it was not the purpose of these experiments to find a practical method for sanitizing ice, the results of this study and of our other unpublished experiments indicate that UV light has adequate penetrating power to be considered practical in certain selected applications.
School Psychology Practitioners and Faculty: 1986 to 1991-92 Trends in Demographics, Roles, Satisfaction, and System Reform.

Results from 1986 and 1991–92 surveys of school psychology practitioners and faculty were analyzed regarding changes in demographic characteristics, role preferences, delivery system reform attitud...
Bulk mode piezoresistive thermal oscillators: time constants and scaling

This paper presents design and analysis for engineering the thermal and mechanical time constants of piezoresistive thermal oscillators. The optimal design is obtained by minimizing the threshold current density required to initiate self-sustained oscillations. Optimizing the oscillator geometry is of extreme practical importance given that the threshold current densities (GA/m2) are close to the breakdown current densities observed in silicon. The equivalent circuit model of the oscillator is used along with the lumped thermal, mechanical, and piezoresistive parameters to calculate the threshold current density of the oscillator. The optimal ratio of the thermal and mechanical time constants is found to be 3 for bulkmode oscillators where the in-plane dimensions control the mechanical resonant frequency. The final frequency of oscillations is obtained as a function of the mechanical resonant frequency, quality factor (Q), and the ratio of the time constants. Results show that scaling the dimension (or frequency) has a weak sub-linear effect on the oscillator performance. Finally, we compare different bulk modes, based on the calculated threshold dc currents for a 1-GHz oscillator.
Before You Press That Button: A Look at Chemotherapy Errors

Medication errors in chemotherapy occur frequently and have a high potential to cause considerable harm. IV infusion errors, which usually involve high-risk medications delivered directly into the patient's bloodstream, have been identified as having the greatest potential for harm. IV infusion programming errors have a greater likelihood of causing injury or death. Nurses must strive to keep patient safety at the forefront of their nursing practice. Understanding the issues associated with chemotherapy infusion errors and preventive strategies will provide oncology nurses with a foundation for eliminating such errors.
A randomized comparison of extra-amniotic saline infusion and intracervical dinoprostone gel for cervical ripening

Abstract Objective: To compare extra-amniotic saline infusion to intracervical dinoprostone gel for preinduction cervical ripening. Methods: Women with Bishop scores less than 5 were assigned randomly to either extra-amniotic saline infusion (n = 26) or intracervical dinoprostone gel (n = 26) for preinduction cervical ripening. A sample size of 50 would have 80% power to detect a 10-hour difference in the mean time from start of cervical ripening to delivery for the two methods of intervention, with a type I error of .05. Results: The study populations were similar in age, gestational age, and initial Bishop score. They differed in parity, with 22 nulliparas in the extra-amniotic saline infusion group versus 13 in the dinoprostone gel group (relative risk [RR] 1.69, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.11, 2.57). The number of women achieving a favorable Bishop score at 6 hours was greater with extra-amniotic saline infusion (n = 20) than dinoprostone gel (n = 9) (RR 2.14, 95% CI 1.22, 3.75). Mean time from start of ripening to delivery was 25.9 hours with extra-amniotic saline infusion and 30.2 hours with dinoprostone gel (P = .25). Birth weight, Apgar scores, umbilical artery pH, and infectious morbidity were similar between groups. Conclusion: More women achieved a favorable Bishop score at 6 and 12 hours after the start of cervical ripening with extra-amniotic saline infusion compared with dinoprostone gel. Saline infusion is as safe as dinoprostone gel for preinduction cervical ripening.