cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Superior calvarial bone regeneration using pentenoate-functionalized hyaluronic acid hydrogels with devitalized tendon particles.

Abstract Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a life-threatening condition defined by internal brain herniation. Severe TBI is commonly treated by a two-stage surgical intervention, where decompressive craniectomy is first conducted to remove a large portion of calvarial bone and allow unimpeded brain swelling. In the second surgery, spaced weeks to months after the first, cranioplasty is performed to restore the cranial bone. Hydrogels with paste-like precursor solutions for surgical placement may potentially revolutionize TBI treatment by permitting a single-stage surgical intervention, capable of being implanted with the initial surgery, remaining pliable during brain swelling, and tuned to regenerate calvarial bone after brain swelling has subsided. The current study evaluated the use of photocrosslinkable pentenoate-functionalized hyaluronic acid (PHA) and non-crosslinking hyaluronic acid (HA) hydrogels encapsulating naturally derived tissue particles of demineralized bone matrix (DBM), devitalized cartilage (DVC), devitalized meniscus (DVM), or devitalized tendon (DVT) for bone regeneration in critical-size rat calvarial defects. All hydrogel precursors exhibited a yield stress for placement and addition of particles increased the average material compressive modulus. The HA-DBM (4–30%), PHA (4%), and PHA-DVT (4–30%) groups had 5 (p Statement of Significance Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a life-threatening condition characterized by severe brain swelling and is currently treated by a two-stage surgical procedure. Complications associated with the two-stage surgical intervention include the occurrence of the condition termed syndrome of the trephined; however, the condition is completely reversible once the secondary surgery is performed. A desirable TBI treatment would include a single surgical intervention to avoid syndrome of the trephined altogether. The first hurdle in reaching the overall goal is to develop a pliable hydrogel material that can regenerate the patient’s bone. The development of a pliable hydrogel technology would greatly impact the field of bone regeneration for TBI application and other areas of bone regeneration.
The Edge Cover Probability Polynomial of a Graph and Optimal Network Construction

Given a uniform probability $\rho$, $0<\rho <1$, of selecting edges independently from a graph $G$, we define the edge cover probability polynomial $Ep(G,\rho)$ of $G$ to be the probability of randomly selecting an edge cover of $G$. We provide general, and in some cases specific, formulas for obtaining $Ep(G,\rho)$. We then demonstrate the existence of graphs which have either the largest or the smallest $Ep(G,\rho)$ within its class for all $\rho$. The classes we consider are trees, unicyclic graphs, and connected graphs having one more edge than the number of vertices. Thus we determine the optimal constructions with respect to edge covers within the context of these classes.
DERMAL EFFECTS OF ELECTROCUTANEOUS STIMULATION

ABSTRACT The dermatological reaction to extended electrocutaneous stimulation was investigated with respect to three different types of stimulating waveforms – monopolar, alternating polarity, and bipolar. The experimental approach used 3 different portable stimulators worn by 3 male and 2 female subjects for 3 two-week test periods each. The 3 male subjects received continuous stimulation for 10 hours each day while the 2 female subjects received noncontinuous stimulation 12 hours a day with 30 minutes of rest after every 2 hours of stimulation. Periodic examinations of the stimulated skin site by a dermatologist, photographic records, biopsy reports, and data in subject questionnaires all indicated that these three commonly used electrocutaneous stimuli produced only mildly reactive and readily reversible skin changes. Subjects applied the most current to achieve adequate and comfortable vibratory tactile sensations when using the bipolar stimulating waveform. As a result, it produced the most skin reddening as compared with the effects of the monopolar and alternating polarity stimulation. Sensory adaptation occurred during the wearing period for all three stimulus waveforms. Periodic rests significantly reduced the amount of skin reddening and the amount of sensory adaptation.
Development and First Year Results of a Psychosocial Surveillance System for Chronic Disease Related Health Behaviors

Chronic diseases account for 7 out of 10 deaths in the United States and 60% of the Nation’s health care expenses. Tobacco use, lack of physical activity and poor nutrition account for one third of US mortality. Behavioral surveillance systems such as the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) provide information on rates of behavior in the population and among different demographic categories. While these systems are essential for health promotion they do not assist the health educator in understanding psychosocial factors which may be related to the rates. A psychosocial surveillance system can aid in understanding the behavior change process and in the readiness of the population for behavior change. Results can assist states and localities in targeting health promotion messages and programs and can help in the allocation of often scarce health promotion funds. In 2000, the Hawaii Department of Health launched the Healthy Hawaii Initiative, a statewide program to reduce tobacco use, increase physical activity, and improve nutrition. As part of the evaluation, researchers at the University of Hawaii implemented a psychosocial surveillance system for the three target behaviors to assess changes in hypothesized mediators including stage of change, self efficacy, attitude and social norms. A random digit dial survey was conducted in the Spring and Fall of 2002 with 4,706 and 4,555 participants, respectively. Results show stability in the demographic characteristics and health behaviors of the sample but changes in the psychosocial variables. Several possible areas for interventions and messaging are demonstrated. A psychosocial surveillance system can be an important tool for health promotion and can lead to better understanding of health behaviors and attitudes.
Vestibular and Oculomotor Function in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Scoping Review.

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a nonprogressive permanent brain injury that causes an impairment of movement and posture. This scoping review aimed to answer the following questions: (1) "What is the status of oculomotor function in children with CP?" (2) "What is the status of vestibular function (i.e., gaze stability, perception of vertical, vestibular-related balance abilities) in children with CP?" Using Arksey's and O'Malley's five-stage framework, we searched six online databases for relevant articles. The inclusion criteria were: (1) participants of the studies included individuals with CP; (2) a primary outcome in the studies was measurement of oculomotor, vestibular, and/or balance; (3) studies were published within the past 20 years; and (4) the participants in the studies were between 0 and 21 years of age. Twenty-one articles were found that described impairments in oculomotor function ( n = 9), vestibular function ( n = 1), and oculomotor and vestibular integration ( n = 11) in children with CP. The evidence suggests that children with CP may have altered saccadic and smooth pursuit eye movements, abnormal saccular function, poor eye-hand coordination, and abnormal use of vestibular information for balance. Future studies should explore peripheral and central vestibular function using reliable and valid methods for this population. This scoping review demonstrated a paucity of rigorous and objective research to describe the status of oculomotor and vestibular function in children with CP. However, preliminary studies suggest that more research is warranted.
Incidence of resistance to neonicotinoid insecticides in Bactericera cockerelli across Southwest U.S.

Abstract The potato psyllid, Bactericera cockerelli (Sulc) (Hemiptera: Triozidae) is a vector of the pathogen (Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum) that causes zebra chip in potato. The insect and the disease are managed solely through insecticide applications. One of the primary insecticide chemistries used to suppress the psyllid includes various formulations of neonicotinoid (group 4A) insecticides and their frequent use across Southwest U.S., where potato psyllids and zebra chip are prevalent, has raised concerns of widespread insecticide resistance. Potato psyllids collected from California and the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV) of Texas have been previously shown to be resistant to these insecticides, but the psyllid susceptibility to neonicotinoid insecticides across Southwest U.S. has not been established. To test the extent of neonicotinoid resistance, we collected potato psyllids from Colorado, New Mexico, and from two major potato-producing regions of Texas. We exposed immature progeny of these field-collected potato psyllids to several doses of two neonicotinoids, imidacloprid and thiamethoxam. Survival of the psyllids was compared to a control colony of B. cockerelli, which was collected prior to widespread use of neonicotinoid insecticides and was known to be susceptible to them. Our results indicated that the psyllids were resistant to both insecticides. The degree of resistance depended on the geographic location of each psyllid population and on the insecticide, with imidacloprid resistance most prominent in psyllids from LRGV. These outcomes emphasize the need to diversify and integrate tactics used to suppress the psyllids and lessen dependence on insecticides to manage the insect and the disease.
Environment-aware estimation of battery state-of-charge for mobile devices

Reliable operation of mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, has become essential for a great many users around the globe. Mobile devices, however, have been reported to suffer from frequent, unexpected shutoffs - e.g., shutting off even when their batteries were shown to have up to 60% remaining state-of-charge (SoC) - especially in cold environments. Their main cause is found to be the inability of commodity mobile devices to account for the strong dependency between battery SoC and the environment temperature. To remedy this problem, we design, implement, and evaluate EA-SoC, a real-time Environment-Aware battery SoC estimation service for mobile devices. EA-SoC estimates the battery SoC with a cyber-physical approach, based on (1) a thermal circuit model in the cyber space capturing the physical interactions among the battery discharge current, temperature, and the environment, and (2) an empirically validated data-driven (i.e., cyber) model for the physical relations between battery temperature and battery resistance. We have conducted 35 experimental case-studies with two Nexus 5X smartphones to evaluate EA-SoC. EA-SoC is shown to report an average of 3% SoC when the phones shut off even in a -15°C environment, while that reported by the phones' built-in fuel-gauge chips could be over 90%.
The Really Useful Elementary Science Book

Amongst the challenges that elementary teachers may often face as they introduce their students to science is the need to maintain a solid understanding of the many scientific concepts and details themselves. This indispensible resource, intended for pre- and in-service elementary school teachers, provides concise and comprehensible explanation of key concepts across science disciplines. Organized around the National Science Education Standards, the book tackles the full range of the elementary curriculum including life sciences, ecological sciences, physical sciences, and earth sciences. Although not a methods text, the clear and accessible definitions offered by veteran teacher educator Jeffrey Bloom will nonetheless help teachers understand science concepts to the degree to which they can develop rich and exciting inquiry approaches to exploring these concepts with children. Perfect as a companion to any elementary science methods textbook or as a stand alone reference for practitioners, The Really Useful Elementary Science Book is a resource teachers will want to reach for again and again.
Universal Consistency of Support Tensor Machine

Tensor (multidimensional array) classification problem has become popular in modern applications such as computer vision and spatial-temporal data analysis. The Support Tensor Machine (STM) classifier, which is extended from support vector machine, takes tensor type data as predictors to predict the labels of the data. The distribution-free property of STM highlights its potential in handling different types of data applications. In this work, we provide a theoretical result for the universal consistency of STM. This result guarantees the solid generalization ability of STM with universal tensor based kernel functions. In addition, we give out a way of constructing universal kernel functions for tensor data, which may be helpful for other types of tensor based kernel methods.
The Role of Organized Activities in Supporting Youth Moral and Civic Character Development: A Review of the Literature

Organized activities have been championed as an important youth setting to nurture character development through childhood and adolescence, but scholars have yet to document the state of research on activities and youth character. Using guidelines from the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses Statement (PRISMA, Moher et al., PLoS Med 6(7):e1000097, 2009), this study conducts an extensive review of previous research in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of the various ways in which organized activities support moral and civic character development. Through database and backward and forward citation searches, 65 studies were deemed eligible between 1999 and 2019, with 44 studies on civic character and 21 studies on moral character. Relations between organized activity participation and character development were assessed by five key dimensions of activity participation (intensity, duration, breadth, type and quality of the activity), and by youth characteristics (e.g., age, family income, gender, motivation/engagement in the activity). Review of the character literature provides evidence for the positive relations between organized activities and youth’s concurrent and long-term moral and civic character development. For civic studies, findings suggest that the greater the intensity, duration, and breadth of participation, the more favorable youth character outcomes. For moral character, the type and quality of the activity setting appear to be particularly important for supporting development. Overall, findings suggest that moral and civic character development ought to be considered and intentionally nurtured within activities as two separate, yet complimentary dimensions of interpersonal character. Future research is needed that explores various mechanisms that explain these associations and examines variations by characteristics of youth.
Abiotic stressors impact outer membrane vesicle composition in a beneficial rhizobacterium: Raman spectroscopy characterization.

Outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) produced by Gram-negative bacteria have roles in cell-to-cell signaling, biofilm formation, and stress responses. Here, the effects of abiotic stressors on OMV contents and composition from biofilm cells of the plant health-promoting bacterium Pseudomonas chlororaphis O6 (PcO6) are examined. Two stressors relevant to this root-colonizing bacterium were examined: CuO nanoparticles (NPs)-a potential fertilizer and fungicide- and H2O2-released from roots during plant stress responses. Atomic force microscopy revealed 40-300 nm diameter OMVs from control and stressed biofilm cells. Raman spectroscopy with linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used to identify changes in chemical profiles of PcO6 cells and resultant OMVs according to the cellular stressor with 84.7% and 83.3% accuracies, respectively. All OMVs had higher relative concentrations of proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids than PcO6 cells. The nucleic acid concentration in OMVs exhibited a cellular stressor-dependent increase: CuO NP-induced OMVs > H2O2-induced OMVs > control OMVs. Biochemical assays confirmed the presence of lipopolysaccharides, nucleic acids, and protein in OMVs; however, these assays did not discriminate OMV composition according to the cellular stressor. These results demonstrate the sensitivity of Raman spectroscopy using LDA to characterize and distinguish cellular stress effects on OMVs composition and contents.
Persistence of inefficient HIV prevention interventions: a mixed-method analysis of the reasons why

Growing evidence suggests that public health organizations continue to provide inefficient interventions even when better intervention options may be available. Factors informing an organization's decision to continue providing inefficient interventions are unclear. We present an analysis of HIV service organizations to understand factors influencing organizations to continue or end interventions. Between 2017 and 2019, HIV service organizations were recruited from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) website gettested.org, in the 20 metropolitan areas with the highest HIV incidence. Organizations were eligible to participate if they had provided at least one of 37 HIV prevention interventions identified as inefficient by the CDC. 877 organizations were recruited, with a response rate of 66%, (n = 578). Thirty-eight percent (n = 213) of organizations met the eligibility criteria, and 188 organizations completed the survey asking about reasons for continuing or ending interventions. Funding status (41%, n = 79) and client demand for interventions (60%, n = 116) were reported as the primary driving factors why organizations continued ineffective interventions. Scientific evidence was a rarely reported reason for ending an inefficient intervention (12%, n = 23). Qualitative responses indicated interventions were continued if clients demanded interventions they found useful or if staff perceived interventions as improving client behavior and health outcomes. Conversely, interventions were ended if client demand or retention was low, not relevant to the target population or funding ended. The decision to continue or end inefficient interventions is influenced by a number of factors-most often by funding and client interest but not scientific evidence.
Firing frictions and the U.S. mergers and acquisitions market

Abstract Following the adoption of state laws that increase firing costs, there is an immediate and persistent 30% reduction in total mergers and acquisitions (M&A) dollar volume and average M&A size as well as an immediate increase in withdrawn deals. Firing costs do not affect M&A announcement returns, but there are negative returns surrounding the announcement of state laws that increase firing frictions, especially for future M&A targets. These findings suggest that post-merger employee turnover is a first-order source of value for U.S. mergers.
Disinformation and the First Amendment: Fraud on the Public

If one deceives another in a manner that profits the deceiver and harms the victim, it is fraud, a crime and a tort. However, if one deceives a great number of people in a manner that profits the deceiver and harms the public, it is generally neither a crime nor a tort. It is often legal to mislead the public for profit. As a result, harmful disinformation is disseminated constantly by politicians, the media, and corporations. This disinformation causes a multitude of harms to human health, life, and property, to the environment, and to democratic institutions and systems. Because of the emergence and growth of the internet, email, and social media, disinformation spreads faster and is, in many measures, more problematic today than it has ever been. And it is getting worse. Disinformation cannot, in general, be stopped without infringing on fundamental First Amendment rights. If Congress or a state passed a law curtailing disinformation, or any broad category within it, such a content-based regulation would not survive a First Amendment challenge under strict scrutiny. Why? Because disinformation and other terms like it (e.g., fake news, lies, and misinformation) are broad and vague, and encompasses both protected and unprotected speech. This Article argues that some of the most harmful disinformation, which results in widespread damage, should be deemed unprotected speech because it is fraudulent speech and not merely false speech. Harmful disinformation that amounts to “fraud on the public” is distinct from (and worse than) other kinds of disinformation. The Article sets forth elements that must be met to qualify as fraud on the public. Conduct that qualifies as fraud on the public, rather than merely spreading disinformation, should be deemed either to fit within the fraud exception to the First Amendment, or to have its own carve-out from First Amendment protections. This argument is, in some ways, a radical one; the fraud exception to the First Amendment normally applies only to behavior satisfying the elements of civil or criminal deceit, or one of the other long-established categories of fraudulent speech, such as securities fraud or false advertising. However, because fraud on the public is carried out in the same manner as fraud on the individual, and because the harm it causes to individuals, society, and the environment is as bad or worse than fraud on the individual, fraud on the public, like fraud, runs counter to the very aims of the free speech provision of the First Amendment. As a result, fraud on the public should be deemed unprotected fraudulent speech. Failure to do this will result in the continued growth and spread of the most harmful disinformation, further damaging public health and the environment, poisoning political discourse, and generating further attacks on democracy.
In defense of behavioral welfare economics

In The Community of Advantage, Robert Sugden advocates an opportunity-oriented framework for normative analysis, positions it a substitute for behavioral welfare economics, and criticizes the latte...
Community Economic Development Strategies in the New Millennium: Key Advantages of Community Benefits Agreements in Urban MegaProjects

The extreme disparity of experience among major American cities since the financial crisis and Great Recession—between the powerhouse “elite” cities which have experienced rapid growth in the last decade on one hand, and still-struggling, economically disadvantaged postindustrial urban centers on the other—highlights the varied challenges facing today’s urban leaders globally. Cities experiencing continued, sometimes significantly worsening economic stagnation or deterioration have less and less financial security as their populations decrease, tax bases shrink, and longstanding debts or financing obligations come due—pension plans for city employees, debt repayments for decades-old public projects, and many others. For “successful” post-recession American cities, record-setting job growth and seemingly ever-deeper venture capital pockets recall their earlier booms. The latest euphoria, of course, comes with critical caveats: accelerating housing shortages, ultra-competitive labor markets, and cost-prohibitive or altogether nonexistent physical space for new construction can fuel segregation and waves of displacement. Among members of this “successful” group, like New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, DC, the cruel irony is that their resurgent economic growth imposes dire externalities on the most vulnerable members of their communities. The returns generated by recent growth, apparent in national or global comparative analyses, remain wildly concentrated among these “successes.” As community development organizations and leaders grapple with the previous decade’s crises and lingering consequences, then, a stocktaking of strategies for extracting and distributing the benefits of renewed growth is needed. This paper provides such an assessment, relying upon lessons drawn from recent case studies to elaborate a simple, updated framework for both researchers and practitioners. It also seeks to harmonize and extend research on community economic development (CED), especially where it engages issues of urbanization, economic consolidation, and gaping inequalities. Ultimately, concentrations of capital and talent in major cities entail significant risks to extant low-income residents. Such massive influxes of capital for marquee mega-projects—a form of urban development common in the largest American cities and the primary focus of this paper—nonetheless may offer limited opportunities to the CED movement. Finally, evaluating the novel activist strategies around mega-projects, along with their successes and failures compared to existing models, such as community benefits agreements (“CBAs”), could offer practicable lessons as well.
SU-E-T-61: A Practical Process for Fabricating Passive Scatter Proton Beam Modulation Compensation Filters Using 3D Printing

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to devise a practical fabrication process for passive scatter proton beam compensation filters (CF) that is competitive in time, cost and effort using 3D printing. Methods: DICOM compensator filter files for a proton beam were generated by our Eclipse (Varian, Inc.) treatment planning system. The compensator thickness specifications were extracted with in-house software written in Matlab (MathWorks, Inc.) code and written to a text file which could be read by the Rhinoceros 5, computer-aided design (CAD) package (Robert McNeel and Associates), which subsequently generated a smoothed model in a STereoLithographic also known as a Standard Tesselation Language file (STL). The model in the STL file was subsequently refined using Netfabb software and then converted to printing instructions using Cura. version 15.02.1. for our 3D printer. The Airwolf3D, model HD2x, fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printer (Airwolf3D.com) was used for our fabrication system with a print speed of 150mm per second. It can print in over 22 different plastic filament materials in a build volume of 11” x 8” x 12”. We choose ABS plastic to print the 3D model of the imprint for our CFs. Results: Prints of the CF could be performed at a print speed of 70mm per second. The time to print the 3D topology for the CF for the 14 cm diameter snout of our Mevion 250 proton accelerator was less than 3 hours. The printed model is intended to subsequently be used as a mold to imprint a molten wax cylindrical to form the compensation after cooling. The whole process should be performed for a typical 3 beam treatment plan within a day. Conclusion: Use of 3D printing is practical and can be used to print a 3D model of a CF within a few hours.
CHAPTER 34 – Role of the FDA in Guiding Drug Development

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the role of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in guiding drug development. The FDA guides drug development in many different ways such as (1) by interpreting laws, rules, and regulations; (2) by disseminating policy statements that may otherwise be vague or unclear; (3) by providing advice and sharing experiences and expertise in face-to-face meetings and through written agreements and letters; (4) by domestic and international guidances; (5) by planned telephone conferences and/or scheduled videoconferences; and (6) by the FDA web site. The FDA also guides drug development by holding closed or open advisory committee meetings. These meetings facilitate the regulatory review and FDA approval process by bringing together external experts to assess data, recommend need for new studies, and address specific questions formulated by the FDA to help resolve scientific or clinical problems related to the drug development process or a specific product approval. The most widespread, effective, and important way that the FDA communicates with sponsors and guides drug development is through guidances issued either by the FDA or by the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH). The FDA should take the lead in developing a national Critical Path Opportunities List to bring concrete focus to these tasks and prepare for the challenges in drug development in the future.
Dos and don'ts of client authentication on the web

Client authentication has been a continuous source of problems on the Web. Although many well-studied techniques exist for authentication, Web sites continue to use extremely weak authentication schemes, especially in non-enterprise environments such as store fronts. These weaknesses often result from careless use of authenticators within Web cookies. Of the twenty-seven sites we investigated, we weakened the client authentication on two systems, gained unauthorized access on eight, and extracted the secret key used to mint authenticators from one. We provide a description of the limitations, requirements, and security models specific to Web client authentication. This includes the introduction of the interrogative adversary, a surprisingly powerful adversary that can adaptively query a Web site. We propose a set of hints for designing a secure client authentication scheme. Using these hints, we present the design and analysis of a simple authentication scheme secure against forgeries by the interrogative adversary. In conjunction with SSL, our scheme is secure against forgeries by the active adversary.
Singular integrals on symmetric spaces, II

We extend some of our earlier results on boundedness of singular integrals on symmetric spaces of real rank one to arbitrary noncompact symmetric spaces. Our main theorem is a transference principle for operators defined by K-bi-invariant kernels with certain large scale cancellation properties. As an application we prove L p boundedness of operators defined by Fourier multipliers that satisfy singular differential inequalities of the HormanderMichlin type.
Easy parallel screening of reagent stability, quality control, and metrology in solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS) and peptide couplings for microarrays

Evaluating the stability of coupling reagents, quality control (QC), and surface functionalization metrology are all critical to the production of high quality peptide microarrays. We describe a broadly applicable screening technique for evaluating the fidelity of solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS), the stability of activation/coupling reagents, and a microarray surface metrology tool. This technique was used to assess the stability of the activation reagent 1-{[1-(Cyano-2-ethoxy-2-oxo-ethylidenaminooxy)dimethylamino-morpholinomethylene]}methaneaminiumHexafluorophosphate (COMU) (Sigma-Aldrich, St. Louis, MO, USA) by SPPS of Leu-Enkephalin (YGGFL) or the coupling of commercially synthesized YGGFL peptides to (3-aminopropyl)triethyoxysilane-modified glass surfaces. Coupling efficiency was quantitated by fluorescence signaling based on immunoreactivity of the YGGFL motif. It was concluded that COMU solutions should be prepared fresh and used within 5 h when stored at ~23 °C and not beyond 24 h if stored refrigerated, both in closed containers. Caveats to gauging COMU stability by absorption spectroscopy are discussed. Commercial YGGFL peptides needed independent QC, due to immunoreactivity variations for the same sequence synthesized by different vendors. This technique is useful in evaluating the stability of other activation/coupling reagents besides COMU and as a metrology tool for SPPS and peptide microarrays.
Effects of Instruction on Teachers' Global Mindedness and Patriotism

Abstract In 1981, NCSS adopted a resolution supporting the teaching of global education. In this study, pre and posttreatment standardized attitude scales were administered to graduate education students taking a course about global education, and to a suitable control group. Students who took the global education course became more favorable toward global mindedness and world order. They became less favorable toward the nationcentric perspective. The experimental group's attitude toward patriotism was unaffected.
Structural reorientation of PLD grown La2NiO4 thin films

Abstract Single crystal La 2 NiO 4 films were grown on STO (001) substrates by use of pulsed laser deposition (PLD). It was found that these films grow with the c-axis in the out of plane direction up to a certain critical thickness. Films thicker than that resulted in a structural reorientation from c-axis to a-axis out of plane orientation. The evolution of the c and a axis were measured by using a four circle X-ray diffractometer.
Kinetics of subtilisin and thiolsubtilisin.

Subtilisin is a bacterial serine protease with a broad specificity in the S1 subsite. It has been very extensively studied using a variety of kinetic and physical techniques. A chemical derivative, thiolsubtilisin, has been subjected to similar studies in order to analyze the effects of the OH to SH conversion on enzyme activity.
Effects of Varying Soil Moisture Contents And Vegetation Canopies on Microwave Emissions

This paper presents an analysis of radiometric data taken at 21, 2.8, and 1.67 cm during a NASA sponsored flight over agricultural fields in Phoenix, AZ. The objective of the mission was to provide comprehensive information concerning microwave responses due to a broad range of soil moisture contents. Generally, data taken over bare fields agree well with theoretical estimates from a combined multilayer radiative transfer model with simple roughness correction. With the surface moisture content ranging between 35 percent, the emissivity ranges between >0.9 and ~0.7. The response to soil moisture content at 21 cm is more senstive than that at either 2.8 or 1.67 cm. The vegetation model takes into account both the effect of dielectric coefficient and the volume scattering characteristics of the vegetation layer. At the longer wavelengths (e.g., 21 cm) radiation from soil penetrates through vegetation layers of wheat and alfalfa and provides surface moisture information. However, short wavelength radiation from soil cannot penetrate through vegetation canopies; the volume scattering characteristics of vegetation controls the overall microwave signatures.
Ellipsometry for Measurements at and below Monolayer Coverage

Ellipsometer, surface-tension, and contact-potential measurements were made simultaneously at and below monolayer coverage (θ = 1 to 0.05) on a clean mercury surface at room temperature. It has been demonstrated with molecules of known dimensions (caproic, lauric, stearic, behenic, and adamantane-carboxylic acids, and α bromonaphthalene and pentane) that the classical Drude equation for the relationship between the phase shift ( Δ¯ − Δ) of reflected polarized light and the average effective film thickness d is valid below monolayer coverage. This is so even though the Drude equation was derived for thick films that are considered to be a continuum with index and density independent of thickness. The equation for the three-dimensional model is Δ¯ − Δ = αd, where for less than monolayer coverage d is the hypothetical thickness the film would have if it were a continuum with index and density independent of d. The equation for the 3-D model remains valid below monolayer coverage, where the continuum property is not approximated, because the 2-D model gives essentially the same equation Δ¯ − Δ = αd0θ. In the 2-D model, the molecules are contained between the substrate surface and a plane d0A above the surface, where d0 is the molecular diameter. The phase shift ( Δ¯ − Δ) decreases as the fraction of the surface covered (θ) decreases because the index of refraction is a function of the surface density. Values of α, calculated with the bulk-liquid index of refraction (sodium D line) and the first-order Drude relation (for films with only a real part of the refractive index) can be used to calculate d (0.05d0 to d0) or θ (0.05 to 1) within a few percent with the equations above. The same values are obtained if the relationship between α and the film index (based on the 2-D model) is used to calculate α. The ellipsometer measurements indicate changes of orientation of the molecules on the surface. A technique is described for automatically recording ellipsometer measurements for very thin films (0–30 A).
Pitfalls of Nonstandardized Photography

Accurate, consistent, high-quality photographs of patients before, during, and after surgery are critical for planning and performing surgical procedures, analyzing and documenting surgical outcomes, and educating patients and surgeons. Attaining the necessary high standards of photography and avoiding common pitfalls associated with nonstandardized medical photography requires stringent uniformity in equipment, lighting, room setup, patient positioning, and camera settings.
Quadratically constrained adaptive beamforming for coherent signals and interference

Severe signal cancellation often occurs in conventional adaptive beamforming if coherent interferers are present. The paper proposes adding quadratic constraints to a linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) adaptive beamformer to prevent signal cancellation in coherent interference environments. The additional constraint limits the beamformer output mean squared error to be less than a specified level. It is shown that if the quadratic constraint is properly chosen, then the original linearly constrained beamformer's signal cancellation is reduced to an arbitrarily small level while the interference cancellation is unchanged. In practice, the quadratic constraint is constructed based on estimates of the interference parameters. Sensitivity analyses show the performance of the resulting beamformer is robust with respect to this approximate constraint. The effectiveness of the quadratically constrained adaptive beamformer is further illustrated through simulations. >
A formula for the traces of the Hecke operators on certain spaces of newforms

In this article we compute a formula for the trace of the Hecke operators on the space S*k(N), which is the space generated by newforms of level dividing N, where N is a squarefree positive integer, and of weight k, where k is a positive even integer. This is of interest because, while the computation of the trace of the Hecke operators on the whole space of cusp forms Sk(N) is strongly dependent on the prime factorization of N, the trace on this subspace is only dependent on the magnitude of N and on its residue modulo a number that depends only on n, where n is the number associated to the Hecke operator Tn. An interesting consequence of this calculation is the fact that for any fixed nonsquare n and even k, the trace of the Hecke operator Tk(N) on the space S*k(N) has an absolute bound for all squarefree N.
Molecular Mechanisms of Vascular Permeability in Diabetic Retinopathy

Diabetes leads to a wide array of complications in humans, including kidney failure, vascular disease, peripheral nerve degeneration, and vision loss. Diabetic retinopathy causes blindness in more working-age people in the United States than any other disease and contributes greatly to blindness in the young and old as well. The increasing rate of diabetes occurring in our society can only bring about a further decrease in the visual health of this country unless new modalities are discovered to prevent and cure diabetic retinopathy. Breakdown of the blood-retinal barrier and the resultant vascular permeability remains one of the first observable alterations in diabetic retinopathy and strongly correlates with vision loss. In this article, we examine the molecular components that form this blood-retinal barrier and explore how changes in the production of growth factors in the neural parenchyma cause an increase in vascular permeability and contribute to retinal degeneration.
Two Types of Recent Christian Political Thought

W A f HEN THE HISTORY of the political thought of the twentieth century is written, one of the most striking intellectual developments likely to be noted is the renaissance of Christian speculation which has occurred since the end of the First World War. The dream of the most militant secularist of the nineteenth century, Auguste Comte, that theology, and, indeed, metaphysics, would be surpassed and replaced by "science" in the analysis of the human condition has not been fulfilled. The ugly facts of war and totalitarianism have, at least for a time, shaken the faith of those who believed in an immanentist, automatic Progress. Sensitive men of large intellect have been driven to resume the quest for meaning and ultimate value in a world of chaos and disorder. Under such circumstances Christian theology has, after long neglect, gradually been reassuming its formerly prominent place among the intellectual disciplines. And the political implications of Christian theology have come under particularly close scrutiny, considering that the crisis of our age has revealed itself most clearly in the widespread disintegration of political institutions. The purpose of the present essay is to identify two major types of recent and contemporary Christian political speculation, relating each of them to its underlying theological orientation. Christian political thought is not monolithic; its message is not clear and unambiguous. Within the fold there exist fundamental divergences of viewpoint on the question of God's relation to man, and these differences of a theological nature nourish disagreements respecting the problem of man's relation to man in the human community that is seen to exist under the judgment of God.
Antenatal corticosteroid administration: understanding its use as an obstetric quality metric.

Objective In 1994, the National Institutes of Health recommended a full course of antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) to women who were at risk of delivery at 24-32 weeks of gestation. In 2010, the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization incorporated ACS administration rates as a perinatal core quality measure. The objective of this study is (1) to assess ACS administration rates among eligible patients at a tertiary care center and (2) to identify modifiable factors to optimize administration rates. Study Design A retrospective chart review of preterm deliveries at 2 test. Continuous variables were compared with the use of a 2-sample t -test, Wilcoxon rank-sum, or Kruskal Wallis tests. Results Nine hundred four women had preterm delivery; 38% of them delivered from 24-34 weeks of gestation. Of the eligible patients, 81.3% received at least 1 dose of ACS, and 69.6% received both doses before delivery. The median time from evaluation to ACS administration was 2.6 hours (interquartile range, 1.6–4.8 hours). Thirty-three percent of the patients who did not receive ACS had had a previous triage visit within 2 weeks of delivery (66.6% of them were evaluated for symptoms of preterm labor) vs 2.8% for those women who received ACS. Conclusion Of the eligible patients, 81.3% received at least 1 dose of ACS. Tangible opportunities that were identified for systems-based improvement in ACS administration rates included decreasing the time interval from patient evaluation to ACS administration and standardizing outpatient follow-up evaluation for patients who were discharged with symptoms of preterm labor.
Acquisition and long-term retention of spatial learning in the human immunodeficiency virus-1 transgenic rat: effects of repeated nicotine treatment.

The HIV-1 transgenic (HIV-1Tg) rat shows a deficit in learning to locate a submerged platform in a multiple-trial water maze task compared to transgenic littermate and F344 control rats (Vigorito et al., J.Neuroimmune Pharmacol 2:319–328, 2007; Lashomb et al., J.Neurovirol 15:14–24, 2009). Nicotine is known to have neuroprotective effects possibly by minimizing cytotoxic effects of glutamate or by modulating a cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway. Nicotine also improves performance in a variety of learning tasks by enhancing attention and short-term memory (STM). The purpose of this study was to determine if the learning deficit in HIV-1Tg is ameliorated by repeated nicotine treatment independent of its effects on STM. HIV-1Tg and F344 rats were treated (subcutaneous) with nicotine (0.25 mg/kg/injection) or saline twice daily and tested in a single-trial-per-day procedure which precludes the impact of STM on the acquisition of the spatial learning task. HIV-1Tg rats showed a deficit in the acquisition of the task and in the long-term retention for the platform location in a probe test. Nicotine did not ameliorate the deficit in HIV-1Tg rats and slightly worsened performance during acquisition. Analysis of individual differences in performance during the probe test suggested that nicotine improved performance in some F344 rats but not in HIV-1Tg rats. These results indicate that a deficit in the consolidation of long-term memory contributes to the acquisition deficit of HIV1-Tg rats. The results, however, do not provide any evidence of the amelioration of the learning deficit observed in this behavioral model at least with the nicotine dose tested.
Current status of parathyroid autotransplantation

Autotransplantation of the parathyroid glands is a clinically useful modality for the management of patients with certain forms of hyperparathyroidism. In conjunction with total parathyroidectomy, this procedure has been used to treat patients with primary and secondary hyperparathyroidism who have generalized parathyroid hyperplasia. Parathyroid autotrans plantation is also an important adjunct to the management of patients undergoing radical thyroid or laryngeal surgery to prevent permanent hypoparathyroidism from devascularization of all in situ parathyroid tissue. The technique of parathyroid cryopreservation has been well established and provides surgeons with greater flexibility in the approach to patients undergoing reoperative parathyroid surgery in whom there is uncertainty about the functional status of the remaining parathyroid tissue. Parathy- roid allotransplantation has been successfully performed in immunosuppressed patients but is rarely indicated. Parathyroid autografts can be placed heterotopically in a forearm muscle or in the sternocleidomastoid, but the former site is preferred in patients with hyperplastic or adenomatous tissue. This technique results in a low incidence of permanent hypoparathyroidism after radical parathyroidectomy, and recurrent hypercalcemia can be easily managed by local excision of a portion of the grafted tissue.
Counting subgraphs in quasi-random 4-uniform hypergraphs

A bipartite graph G = (V1 ∪ V2, E) is (d, d)-regular if $$|d-d(V^{\prime}_{1}, V^{\prime}_{2})| 2, is a harder problem. In 1994, Frankl and Rodl developed a regularity lemma and counting argument for 3-uniform hypergraphs. In this paper, we exploit their approach to develop a counting argument for 4-uniform hypergraphs. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Random Struct. Alg., 2005
Thermal emission rates and activation energies of electrons at tantalum centers in silicon

Abstract The thermal emission rates and activation energies of electrons trapped at the two Ta donor centers in n-type silicon are determined from transient capacitance measurements on Schottky barrier diodes made on phosphorus and tantalum doubly doped silicon crystals. The thermal activation energies are 232 and 472 meV for the two donor levels below the conduction band edge and the pre-exponential factors, A, are both 1.5 × 1010 sec−1 in the Ahrrenius equation for the emission rate, A ( T 300) 2 exp ( > −ΔE k B T ) .