cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pre-surgical cranial implant design using the PARIS/spl trade/ prototype

Repairing severe human skull injuries requires customized cranial implants, and current visualization research aims to develop a new approach to create these implants. Following pre-surgical design techniques pioneered at the University of Illinois at Chicago (VIC) in 1996, researchers have developed an immersive cranial implant application incorporating haptic force feedback and augmented reality. The application runs on the personal augmented reality immersive system (PARIS/spl trade/), allowing the modeler to see clearly both his hands and the virtual workspace. The strengths of multiple software libraries are maximized to simplify development. This research lays the foundation to eventually replace the traditional modeling and evaluation processes.
Mapping Pleasure: Rock Music and Sociology

Adolescents and Their Music: If It's Too Loud, You're Too Old, edited by Jonathan S. Epstein.
The Big Bang is bang on

Did the Universe really start in a hot Big Bang? New measurements of the temperature of the Universe when it was young provide exciting confirmation that it was indeed hotter in the past.
Hydrology of carbonate rock terranes — A review: With special reference to the United States

Abstract Limestone and other carbonate rocks are characterized by many unusual features and extreme conditions, either involving the hydrologic system within them or wrought by hydrologic conditions on them or through them. Perhaps there could be little agreement as to what is typical or average for the many features of carbonate rocks, as indicated by the following conditions: bare rock and thin soils are common, but so are thick soils; very highly permeable limestones are common, but so are poorly permeable ones; and rugged karst topographic features with underlying solution caverns are common, but so are flat, nearly featureless topographic conditions. Some conditions of carbonate terranes are suitable to man's needs and interests, such as the use of some permeable aquifers for water supply and the exploitation of caves for tourist attractions. On the other hand, many problems may exist, including: permeability too low for adequate water supply or so high that the aquifer retains too little water for use during periods of fair weather, soils too thin for growing of crops and for adequate filtration of wastes near the ground surface, instability of the ground for buildings and foundations in sinkhole areas, and unusually rugged topography. Some of the many variable conditions are readily observable, but others can be determined only by careful geologic and hydrologic studies. The need for knowing the specific geologic and hydrologic conditions at various places in limestone terranes, as well as the variations in hydrologic conditions with changing conditions and time, has resulted in many published reports on local areas and on special topical problems of limestone hydrology. Many of these reports have been used to advantage by the present writers in preparing this paper. The concept that secondary permeability is developed by circulation of water through openings with the accompanying enlargement of these openings by solution is now universally accepted in limestone terranes. Emphasis is placed on the hydrogeologic framework, or structural setting, in relation to the ease or difficulty of water to move from a source of recharge, through a part of the limestone, to a discharge area. Parts of the limestone favored by circulating ground water tend to develop solution openings, commonly in the upper part of the zone of saturation; as base level is lowered (sea level or perennial stream level), the related water table lowers in the limestone leaving air-filled caverns above the present zone of saturation in sinkhole areas. Reconstruction of the geologic and hydrologic history of a limestone area aids in determining the extent of development and the positions of fossil and present permeability. References are made to the hydrology of many limestone regions, especially those of the United States.
The copper T 220C: a new long-acting copper intrauterine contraceptive device.

The Copper T(TCu) intrauterine contraceptive device (IUD) has been found to be an effective method of contraception but has the disadvantage of needing periodic replacement due to loss of copper through dissolution and fragmentation of the copper wire. Modification of the Copper T to overcome this disadvantage involved substitution of copper sleeves for wire on the vertical arm and the addition of copper sleeves to the horizonal arms to give an effective surface area of 220 sq. mm. of copper and an estimated life span of 20 years. A randomized comparative study was undertaken in 999 women to determine if the new model performed as well as the wire-wound Copper T 300. Net cumulative first-event rates at one year were as follows: TCu 220C-pregnancy 0.9, expulsion 3.7, removal for pain or bleeding 14.4; TCu 300-pregnancy 1.1, expulsion 3.1, removal for pain or bleeding 9.3. None of the differences in event rates were significant. If long-term follow-up confirms these findings, this new long-lasting copper intrauterine device could become the IUD of choice for all women.
Morphological decomposition of restricted domains: a vector space solution

Restricted domains, which are a restricted class of 2-D shapes, are defined. It is proved that any restricted domain can be decomposed as n-fold dilations of thirteen basis structuring elements and hence can be represented in a thirteen-dimensional space. This thirteen-dimensional space is spanned by the thirteen basis structuring elements comprising of lines, triangles, and a rhombus. It is shown that there is a linear transformation from this thirteen-dimensional space to an eight-dimensional space wherein a restricted domain is represented in terms of its side lengths. Furthermore, the decomposition in general is not unique, and all the decompositions can be constructed by finding the homogeneous solutions of the transformation and adding it to a particular solution. An algorithm for finding all possible decompositions is provided. >
Walking the Walk: Putting Design at the Heart of Business By Paul Gardien and Ferdy Gilsing

No matter how great your global reputation for design, no matter how comfortable you are in the ways and means you employ to create great design for your company, if you wish to maintain your success and relevance as a design professional and a design organization, you must continually be open to change and able to respond to it. This article, by Philips design managers Paul Gardien and Ferdy Gilsing, will inspire anyone who believes the business of design is not a static thing but rather dynamic and in constant evolution. What is clear is that this evolution is not so much a movement from one stage to another as it is an accumulation of roles and responsibilities. The authors clearly describe the evolution of the role of design in business over the past several decades and outline how Philips Design is tackling this challenge and succeeding. Philips Design established a model that can be usefully employed to benchmark your own company's maturity and also to tackle the opportunities your self-reflections reveal. However, some may gaze enviously at a company with a 500-plus-person design organization operating from 18 or locations and wonder, “Can this be relevant for my much smaller organization?” It would be interesting to hear whether the model and its approach are adaptable for organizations of all size and industry. Also, since our “connected” world invites greater integration across people, places, and things, new ways must be found to integrate multi-disciplinary design teams. It would be interesting to learn how companies that are working with external preferred and integrated design entities are managing these relationships to advance the role of the internal design organization as it matures to become a strategic partner to the business. Finally, let's realize that the highest level of maturity, in which design is fully integrated as a strategy throughout the organization, is not just a pinnacle of design thinking but also a pinnacle of strategic design management. Let it be about design thinking, design managing, and design doing! Gardien and Gilsing hope the publication of this work is “to kick-start a discussion within the wider design management community and find new ways to benchmark our work together.” Let's not fail them on this!
Waveguide study of KTaNbO/sub 3/ epitaxial film on GaAs substrate

E-O film deposited on GaAs semiconductor substrate has potential applications in integrated optics. KTa0.52Nb0.48O3 [KTN(0.48)] is one of the best electro-optical materials.
Photodissolution of soil organic matter

Abstract Sunlight has been shown to enhance loss of organic matter from aquatic sediments and terrestrial plant litter, so we tested for similar reactions in mineral soil horizons. Losses of up to a third of particulate organic carbon occurred after continuous exposure to full-strength sunlight for dozens of hours, with similar amounts appearing as photodissolved organic carbon. Nitrogen dissolved similarly, appearing partly as ammonium. Modified experiments with interruption of irradiation to include extended dark incubation periods increased loss of total organic carbon, implying remineralization by some combination of light and microbes. These photodissolution reactions respond strongly to water content, with reaction extent under air-dry to fully wet conditions increasing by a factor of 3–4 fold. Light limitation was explored using lamp intensity and soil depth experiments. Reaction extent varied linearly with lamp intensity. Depth experiments indicate that attenuation of reaction occurs within the top tens to hundreds of micrometers of soil depth. Our data allow only order-of-magnitude extrapolations to field conditions, but suggest that this type of reaction could induce loss of 10–20% of soil organic carbon in the top 10 cm horizon over a century. It may therefore have contributed to historical losses of soil carbon via agriculture, and should be considered in soil management on similar time scales.
Treatment of long-term anestrous sows with estradiol benzoate and GnRH: response of serum LH and occurrence of estrus.

Abstract Seventeen primiparous sows, anestrous for 41 ± 4 days after weaning, received i.m. injections of 500 μg estradiol benzoate (EB) or corn oil. At 48 hr after treatment, LH averaged 12.1 ± 2.6 ng/ml in EB-treated sows and 0.7 ± 0.1 ng/ml in corn oil-treated sows. At 55 hr after EB or corn oil, each sow was given 50 μg gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH). Average LH 1 hr after GnRH was 5.7 ± 1.1 and 5.1 ± 0.9 ng/ml in EB- and corn oil-treated sows, respectively. All EB-treated sows exhibited estrus 2.3 ± 0.2 days after treatment and were mated. None of the corn oil-treated sows exhibited estrus and all were slaughtered two weeks after treatment. Examination of reproductive tracts revealed that the ovaries of corn oil-treated sows were small and did not contain corpora lutea. In mated sows, progesterone concentrations in blood two weeks after mating indicated luteal function in eight of the nine animals. Positive pregnancy diagnoses were made in all eight animals; however, only three sows farrowed, with litter sizes of four, five and seven, respectively. Results of the present experiment indicate that the hypothalamus and anterior pituitary of long-term anestrous sows are capable of responding to endocrine stimuli (i.e. estradiol and GnRH). Moreover, estradiol induced estrus and ovulation, but subsequent farrowing rate was only 33 percent and size of litters was small.
Distillation pinch points and more

Abstract Rising energy costs have spawned renewed interest in improving methodologies for the synthesis, design and/or retrofitting of separation processes. It is well known that energy use in many process industries is dominated by separation tasks—particularly distillation. In this work, the shortest stripping line approach recently proposed by Lucia, Amale, & Taylor (2006) is used to find minimum energy requirements in distillation. The new aspects of this work show that this shortest stripping line approach can find minimum energy requirements for (1) Distillations with feed pinch, saddle pinch, and tangent pinch points. (2) Distillations for which the minimum energy solutions do not correspond to a pinch point. (3) Processes with multiple units (e.g., reactive distillation, extraction/distillation, etc.). Other novel features of this work also shows that the shortest stripping line approach (4) Can be used to identify correct processing targets in multi-unit processes. (5) Encompasses longstanding methods for finding minimum energy requirements including the McCabe-Thiele method and boundary value methods. A back-to-front design approach based on shortest stripping lines is used so that correct processing targets can be identified so that all tasks can be synthesized simultaneously in such a way that the most energy efficient designs are achieved. New problem formulations that take the general form of nonlinear programming (NLP) and mixed integer nonlinear programming (MINLP) problems are given and a novel global optimization algorithm is presented for obtaining energy efficient process designs. A variety of ideal and nonideal distillations, including examples with four or more components, are used to demonstrate the efficacy of the shortest stripping line approach. The examples with more than three components are particularly significant because they clearly illustrate that the proposed approach can be readily used to find minimum energy requirements for distillation problems involving any number of components. Many geometric illustrations are used to highlight the key ideas of the method where appropriate.
Occurrence and reoccurrence of clinical mastitis.

Clinical mastitis records for 6.5 yr (July 1977 through November 1983) from a large north Florida dairy were analyzed. Observed frequencies of clinical mastitis were calculated in 7240 Holstein and Jersey lactations. Least squares analyses used Holstein and Jersey lactations greater than 200 d and limited maximum parity to 5 (6732 lactations, 5738 episodes). Solutions for number of occurrences of clinical mastitis adjusted for month of parturition and breed effects were .47, .59, .94, 1.27, and 1.50 for parities 1 through 5. Solutions for number of occurrences across lactation in Holsteins was greater than for Jerseys (1.28 vs. .63). Solutions for occurrence of first episode in Holsteins increased from .35 in parity 1 to .71 in parity 5. Occurrence of episodes two through five increased as parity increased. Similar trends were found in Jerseys with the exception of parity 2. Correlation of residuals between specific episodes increased as episode increased. From episode 2 through 5 probability of another occurrence of clinical mastitis was greater than .75. Solutions for proportion of occurrences of clinical mastitis occurring during the first 35 d postcalving were .60, .36, .31, .30, and .28 for parities 1 through 5. Clinical mastitis in first parity cows occurred primarily during the first 35 d postcalving.
Density functional studies on the complexation and spectroscopy of uranyl ligated with acetonitrile and acetone derivatives.

The coordination of nitrile (acetonitrile, propionitrile, and benzonitrile) and carbonyl (formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, and acetone) ligands to the uranyl dication (UO22+) has been examined using density functional theory (DFT) utilizing relativistic effective core potentials (RECPs). Complexes containing up to six ligands have been modeled in the gas phase for all ligands except formaldehyde, for which no minimum could be found. A comparison of relative binding energies indicates that 5-coordinate complexes are predominant, while 6-coordinate complexes involving propionitrile and acetone ligands might be possible. Additionally, the relative binding energy and the weakening of the uranyl bond is related to the size of the ligand, and in general, nitriles bind more strongly to uranyl than carbonyls.
Revitalizing Critical Discourses in Social Education: Opportunities for a More Complexified (Un)Knowing

The author seeks to revitalize the interests of social educators in the value of using critical, postmodern discourses for rich comprehension of and productive scholarly research in our field. Thes...
Immobilization of cellulase through its carbohydrate side chains — A rationale for its recovery and reuse

Abstract The major types of components of cellulase [see 1,4-(1, 3;1,4)-β- d -glucan 4-glucanohydrolase, EC 3.2.1.4] have been adsorbed onto concanavalin A immobilized on Sepharose 4B, suggesting that they are glycoproteins. These components were covalently coupled to cyanogen bromide-activated Sepharose after aminoalkylation of their periodate-oxidized carbohydrate side chains to provide additional points of attachment of the enzyme to the support. Although there was only a 9% recovery of starting avicelase activity, the immobilized enzyme catalysed the hydrolysis of insoluble cellulose to glucose with greater efficiency than did free cellulase.
Localization of Left Atrial Ganglionated Plexi in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

Background The intrinsic cardiac autonomic nervous system (ICANS), which forms a neural network, has been shown to be a critical element responsible for the initiation and maintenance of atrial fibrillation (AF). We developed a technique to localize and ablate the ganglionated plexi (GP), which serves as the "integration centers" of the ICANS. Method The four major atrial GP are localized by delivering high frequency stimulation (HFS; 20 Hz, 10-150 V, 1-10 ms pulse width) to atrial tissue where GP are presumed to be located. Sites showing a parasympathetic response, which is arbitrarily defined as > or =50% increase in mean R-R interval during AF, was assigned as a GP site. Radiofrequency current is then applied to that site to eliminate the parasympathetic response. All patients received ablation of the four major atrial GP, followed by pulmonary vein antrum ablation. Results Our preliminary results showed that all the four major atrial GP can be identified in the vast majority of patients. The parasympathetic response can be eliminated by applying radiofrequency current. In the first 83 patients, the percent of patients free of symptomatic AF or atrial tachycardia after a single ablation procedure was 80% at 12 months and 86% at a mean follow-up of 22 months. Conclusion These results indicate additional benefits of GP ablation to PV antrum ablation and improvement with time, particularly > or = 12 months after ablation. We postulate that this late benefit may result from destruction of the autonomic neurons in the GP that cannot regenerate.
Indigenous water rights in Australia

Indigenous rights in Australia have undergone enormous transition since the groundbreaking decision in Mabo vs. Queensland in the Australian High Court. This paper explores these changes with a par...
Biomedical citing statements: Computer recognition and use to aid full-text retrieval

Abstract Citing statements can be used to aid retrieval, to increase the efficiency of citation indexes and for the study of information flow and use. These uses are only feasible on a large scale if computers can identify citing statements within the texts of documents with reasonable accuracy. Computer recognition of multi-sentence citing statements is not easy. Procedures developed for chemistry papers in an earlier experiment were tested on biomedical papers (dealing with various aspects of cancer) and were almost as successful. Specifically, (1) 78% of the words in computer-recognized citing statements were correctly attributable to the corresponding cited papers; and (2) the computer procedures missed 4% of the words in the actual citing statements. When the procedures were modified on the basis of those results and tested on a new sample of cancer papers the results were comparable: 72 and 3% respectively. In an earlier experiment in use of full-text searching to retrieve answer-passages from cancer papers, recall in the “test phase” averaged about 70% and the false retrieval rate was thirteen falsely retrieved sentences per answer-paper retrieved. Unretrieved answer-papers in that experiment's “development phase”, and citing statements referring to them, were studied to develop computer procedures for using citing statements to increase recall. The procedures developed only produced slight recall increases for development phase answer-papers, and similarly for the test phase papers on which they were then tested. Specifically, the test phase results were the following: recall was increased from 70 to 74%, and there was no increase in false retrieval. This contrasts with an earlier experiment in which 50% recall of chemistry papers by search of index terms and abstract words was increased to 70% by the addition of words from citing statements. The difference may be because the average number of citing papers per unretrieved cancer paper was only six while that for chemistry papers was thirteen.
A ROBUST AND EFFICIENT FLOODING-BASED ROUTING FOR WIRELESS SENSOR NETWORKS

Flooding protocols for wireless networks in general have been shown to be very inefficient and therefore are mainly used in network initialization or route discovery and maintenance. In this paper, we propose a framework of constrained flooding protocols. The framework incorporates a reinforcement learning kernel, a differential delay mechanism, and a constrained and probabilistic retransmission policy. This type of protocol takes the advantages of robustness from flooding, but maintains energy efficiency by constraining retransmissions. Without the use of any control packets, such a protocol adapts to the specific routing requirements of the task and the dynamic changes of the network. We analyze this framework in simulation using some real-world applications in sensor networks.
Free Books: Loading Brief MARC Records for Open-Access Books in an Academic Library Catalog

Mbooks are open-access, digitized books freely available on the Internet. This article describes the Auraria Library's experience of loading brief MARC records for Mbooks into its online public access catalog and looks at some of the issues that arose from the record-loading project. Despite the low quality of the records, librarians in Auraria Library thought that loading them into the catalog was advantageous because of the rich content in the collection and because many of the records could be improved using the global update functionality in the catalog. Making the records available through the catalog, as opposed to merely linking to the entire collection from the Library's Web page, was considered to be valuable because of the aggregation a catalog provides and because the Mbooks collection helped fill gaps in the Library's physical collections. As more open-access, digitized books become available, libraries will need to plan and manage how best to provide access to them.
Time perception during a two-week confinement: Influence of age, sex, IQ, and time of day

Abstract Thirty men, women, and children were confined to an experimental chamber (simulated fallout shelter) for 304.6 hours with no mechanical means of determining passage of time. Extrinsic cues (e.g., night and day) to time of day were absent or unknown. Indicidual estimates of the time of day were made twice daily to determine the relative influence of age, sex, IQ, time of day and days of confinement upon time perception. Estimate deviations in minutes from true time were evaluated by mixed analyses of variance and trend tests. Results revealed significant time of day, age, and days effects. Sex, and IQ effects were not significant.
The Sacred and the Person

Abstract The sacred has survived where religion has not. The sacred is acknowledged by prominent atheists and agnostics. They emphatically agree that the person is sacred and less clearly that nature is as well. Closer examination of their remarks shows that today the sacred comes in two versions, the rightful sacred, best known under the heading of human rights, and the graceful sacred of concrete reality—things and practices of nature and art particularly. The division of the sacred into its rightful and graceful versions (a division that is mirrored in the distinction philosophers make between the right and the good) is the crucial cultural event of the modern era. The two are distinct at least and sometimes thought to be incompatible. Yet they can and must be reconciled and seen as complementary—a general requirement of human well-being. And for a Christian like me they find their perfect union in the truly sacred person—God.
New Literacies and Multimediacy: The Immersive Universe of The 39 Clues

The 39 Clues (2009) is a multimedia series produced by Scholastic for readers 7–14 years old that includes printed texts released periodically; trading cards also published periodically in print and virtually; and a complex, intriguing, and entertaining website. To fully experience the multimedia series, the publishers expect that readers can read printed text, negotiate the website that blurs the boundaries between history and fiction, author, character, and reader, compete for prizes, and build online communities. The more able a reader is to use multiple media sources for her own purposes, the more likely she is to reach the end goal of solving the central mystery of the series and win cash prizes. We found that The 39 Clues is a unique instantiation of new literacies (e.g. Knobel and Lankshear, A New Literacies Sampler, 2007) in action.
The influence of temperature on surface and microscopic properties of surfactant solutions in relation to fluid displacement efficiency in porous media

The surface properties, microscopic structure of foam, and flow through porous media behavior of mixed surfactant solutions (sodium lauryl sulfate plus lauryl alcohol) have been studied at various temperatures in relation to enhanced heavy oil recovery processes. The studies reported here suggest that temperature has a remarkable influence on the microscopic structure of foam and the flow through porous media behavior of the surfactant solutions. The surface tension and bubble size decreased as the temperature increased. The foam volume increased, whereas foam half-life (or foam stability) decreased with increasing temperature. A linear increase in bubble size with time was observed at different temperatures. The rate of change in bubble size increased with temperature. A significant reduction in effective air mobility and an improvement in fluid displacement efficiency were observed with increasing temperature. All measured parameters changed strikingly in the temperature range of 20–40°C, whereas they exhibited small changes between 40 and 80°C for the surfactant system investigated. The effect of temperature on half-life of foam and on the effective air mobility was most pronounced as compared to that on other parameters. An attempt is made to correlate quantitatively the foam volume of surfactant solution with fluid displacement efficiency in porous media.
Accounting as the master metaphor of economics

It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness, at Versailles. … Little did I dream that I should have lived to see disasters fallen upon her in a nation of gallant men. … I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever.
The transport of nitric oxide through various polymeric matrices

Abstract The transport of nitric oxide (NO) in various plasticized and unplasticized polymeric films (silicone rubber, plasticized and unplasticized polyurethane, plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) and plasticized cellulose triacetate) is examined, and apparent NO diffusion coefficients are reported for each of the polymer compositions studied. Diffusion coefficients are found to range from ca. 2.5×10 −6 cm 2 /s in low weight percent plasticizer films to 3.0×10 −5 cm 2 /s in silicone films. The variation in NO diffusion rates through different polymer systems is explained by considering the characteristics of the polymers and, when applicable, the influence of plasticizer content. The newly measured values reported here should promote the rational choice of appropriate polymeric matrices for specific NO mass transfer applications.
Trypanosoma brucei cytochrome c1 is imported into mitochondria along an unusual pathway.

Abstract In most eukaryotic organisms, cytochromec 1 is encoded in the nucleus, translated on cytosolic ribosomes, and directed to its final destination in the mitochondrial inner membrane by a bipartite, cleaved, amino-terminal presequence. However, in the kinetoplastids and euglenoids, the cytochrome c 1 protein has been shown to lack a cleaved presequence; a single methionine is removed from the amino terminus upon maturation, and the sequence upstream of the heme-binding site is generally shorter than that of the other eukaryotic homologs. We have used a newly developed mitochondrial protein import assay system from Trypanosoma brucei to demonstrate that theT. brucei cytochrome c 1 protein is imported along a non-conservative pathway similar to that described for the inner membrane carrier proteins of other organisms. This pathway requires external ATP and an external protein receptor but is not absolutely dependent on a membrane potential or on ATP hydrolysis in the mitochondrial matrix. We propose the cytochromec 1 import in T. brucei is a two-step process first involving a membrane potential independent translocation across the outer mitochondrial membrane followed by heme attachment and a membrane potential-dependent insertion into the inner membrane.
Permeability of the human gastric mucosa. Alteration by Acetylsalicylic acid and ethanol.

Abstract Changes in permeability of human gastric mucosa to hydrogen ion (H+) were studied in 10 healthy subjects after the sequential administration of base-line acid solution (140 mEq of hydrochl...
Evidence for Alzheimer’s disease-linked synapse loss and compensation in mouse and human hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with alterations in the distribution, number, and size of inputs to hippocampal neurons. Some of these changes are thought to be neurodegenerative, whereas others are conceptualized as compensatory, plasticity-like responses, wherein the remaining inputs reactively innervate vulnerable dendritic regions. Here, we provide evidence that the axospinous synapses of human AD cases and mice harboring AD-linked genetic mutations (the 5XFAD line) exhibit both, in the form of synapse loss and compensatory changes in the synapses that remain. Using array tomography, quantitative conventional electron microscopy, immunogold electron microscopy for AMPARs, and whole-cell patch-clamp physiology, we find that hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons in transgenic mice are host to an age-related synapse loss in their distal dendrites, and that the remaining synapses express more AMPA-type glutamate receptors. Moreover, the number of axonal boutons that synapse with multiple spines is significantly reduced in the transgenic mice. Through serial section electron microscopic analyses of human hippocampal tissue, we further show that putative compensatory changes in synapse strength are also detectable in axospinous synapses of proximal and distal dendrites in human AD cases, and that their multiple synapse boutons may be more powerful than those in non-cognitively impaired human cases. Such findings are consistent with the notion that the pathophysiology of AD is a multivariate product of both neurodegenerative and neuroplastic processes, which may produce adaptive and/or maladaptive responses in hippocampal synaptic strength and plasticity.
Everybody has a story: storytelling as a community building exploration of equity and access

Utilizing the voices of students in an undergraduate teacher preparation program, this article describes the use of a collaborative storytelling experience. Situated within the context of cooperative base groups, this collaborative storytelling has been designed to help pre-service teachers examine their own experiences in school in an effort to broaden their perspectives and begin to understand the classroom as a complex social and cultural system. The storytelling serves as a foundation for learning the knowledge and skills and acquiring the dispositions necessary to utilize cooperative learning as a core pedagogical orientation.
Overexpression of MicroRNA-1 Promotes Cardiomyocyte Commitment from Human Cardiovascular Progenitors via Suppressing WNT and FGF Signaling Pathways

Early heart development takes place through a complex series of steps, including the induction of cardiac mesoderm, formation of the cardiovascular progenitor cells and the commitment of cardiovascular lineage cells, such as cardiomyocytes (CMs), smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and endothelial cells (ECs). Recently, microRNAs, a family of endogenous, small non-coding RNAs, have been identified as critical regulators in cardiogenesis and cardiovascular disease. Previous studies demonstrated that microRNA-1 (miR-1) could promote cardiac differentiation from mouse and human embryonic stem (ES) cells. However, the underlying mechanism remained largely unclear. We performed microRNA deep sequencing among human ES cells, ES cell derived-multipotent cardiovascular progenitors (MCPs), and MCP-specified CMs, ECs, and SMCs. A specific enrichment of miR-1 was found in CMs, not in SMCs or ECs, implying a key role of miR-1 in determining cardiovascular commitment from MCPs. When overexpressed in human induced pluripotent stem cells, miR-1 enhanced the expression of key cardiac transcriptional factors and sarcomeric genes. Importantly, we found miR-1 promoted CM differentiation and suppressed EC commitment from MCPs by modulating the activities of WNT and FGF signaling pathways. FZD7 and FRS2 were confirmed as miR-1 targets using luciferase reporter assay and western blot. Overall, this study reveals a fate-switching role of miR-1 at early human cardiovascular commitment stage via suppressing both WNT and FGF signaling pathways.
Temperature increase of ex vivo corneas from multiple 2.01-micron incident laser pulses

Current laser safety standards for multiple pulse lasers are based primarily on modeling and the results of single pulse studies. Previous thermal effects studies have focused on histological and visible endpoints, with only a few studies examining the actual temperatures achieved. The goal of this research was to probe the actual vertical temperature profile produced by 2.01 micron laser pulses in the cornea. In this study the corneal temperature rise from multiple 2.01 micron Tm:YAG laser pulses was investigated using ex-vivo rabbit eyes. A thermal-measurement data set for a different number of pulses was collected and compared. An infrared thermal camera employing microbolometer detectors captured surface temperature rises resulting from laser pulses. Single 10 ms pulses as well as two, three, and four pulse sequences were utilized while the total energy delivered was held constant. A comparison of the data to temperatures required for denaturing proteins and the current laser safety guidelines will be presented.
Changes in Young Children’s Family Structures and Child Care Arrangements

Family structure change can disrupt the settings of children’s daily lives. Most scholarship focuses on disruption in the home environment. Moving beyond the home, this study explores the association between changes in family structure and changes in several dimensions of early child care. With longitudinal data from the NICHD Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (n = 1,298), first-difference models reveal that family structure transitions are associated with changes in the type and quantity of early care as well as the number of care arrangements used, especially during the latter part of infancy. Given prior evidence linking these child care dimensions to behavioral and cognitive outcomes, these results suggest a policy-relevant mechanism by which family change may create inequalities among children.
Governance, Faculty Incentives, and Course Ownership in Online Education at Doctorate-Granting Universities

Researchers conducted a national survey of administrators at doctorate-granting universities to determine the current status of institutional policies and practices related to the organization and governance of online courses, faculty incentives to develop and teach online, and course ownership. Survey results document a wide variation in policies and practices, yet they also identify common practices. About 82% of the universities gave extra pay to faculty to develop online courses, and 94% provided campus-based faculty development workshops or training on online education. The large majority of institutions hired professional course designers (84%) and provided technical assistance to students (86%). Another 84% had an intellectual property policy in place or were developing one, and 77% shared revenues from online courses with academic colleges, schools, or departments. Although these practices existed on campuses, they were not always instituted campuswide. The researchers found statistically signific...
The optimal investment and current account response to oil price shocks under putty-clay technology

Abstract The motivation for this paper is the discrepancy between actual CA responses to oil price shocks and the prediction derived from simple intertemporal optimizing models. These models indicate a decline in investment and a CA improvement as the optimal response. In this paper we introduce putty-clay technology into a two-period optimizing model and show that that leads to an increase in gross investments and a CA deterioration as an optimal response to large oil price shocks by net importers of oil. Successful adapters to the 1973/1974 oil price shocks (Korea, Taiwan) indeed followed such a policy.
Phosphate Depletion: A Novel Trigger for Mycobacterium tuberculosis Persistence

Persistent Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) likely encounters a phosphate-limited environment within macrophage phagosomes. We studied MTB growth, antibiotic susceptibility, and gene expression during phosphate limitation. With use of MTB mutants deficient in phosphate-related genes, we assessed bacillary survival under phosphate-limited conditions and in mouse and guinea pig lungs. Phosphate limitation restricted MTB growth in a dose-dependent manner, and phosphate-starved bacilli became phenotypically tolerant to isoniazid. The MTB genes ppk1 and relA were upregulated significantly after phosphate starvation, consistent with inorganic polyphosphate accumulation and MTB stringent response induction. The phosphate-specific transport operon pstS3-pstC2-pstA1 was induced during phosphate starvation and its expression was dependent on the 2-component regulatory system SenX3-RegX3. The MTB gene regX3 appears to be essential for bacillary survival during phosphate limitation and in mammalian lungs. Our data suggest that MTB encounters phosphate-limited conditions during mammalian lung infection and that expression of the phosphate starvation response (PSR) is important for MTB persistence.
Seeking explanation affects numerical modeling strategies

Controversy concerning numerical modeling strategies has arisen in the geophysics community I believe communication between researchers can be improved by considering the wide range of goals that motivate various modeling endeavors and the associated strategies. In one end-member model type, which I call “simulation models,” a modeler attempts to reproduce the natural system as accurately as possible, striving to include all the processes that could significantly affect the quantitative veracity of the model, and treating these processes in as much detail, and often at as small a scale, as is practical. The modeler represents the processes by well-established, well-tested equations, with only as much parameterization and approximation as is necessary. Setting aside the utility that models approaching this end member can have for making quantitatively accurate predictions, their use as an explanatory tool is limited. If many complicated processes and interactions are represented, the model may offer no more mechanistic insight into how the enigmatic behavior comes about than can be gained by observing nature.
Overweight and obesity in a Swiss city: 10-year trends.

BACKGROUND: Increased rates of overweight/obesity have been reported in recent years in developed countries. This population study of healthy subjects evaluated the changes in overweight/obesity prevalence in 2003, compared with 1993, and determined the association of age, sex and leisure-time activity with body mass index (BMI), fat-free mass index (FFMI) and fat mass index (FMI). DESIGN: Two transversal samples of convenience. PARTICIPANTS: Healthy volunteers (1993, n = 802; 2003, n = 1631). METHODS: Fat-free mass was determined using the bioelectrical impedance multiple regression equation. Multivariable linear regression, including confounding variables (age, sex, leisure-time activity), was used to model the body composition evolution between the 1993 and the 2003 subjects. RESULTS: BMI and FMI were higher in 2003 than in 1993, P < 0.001. FFMI was not higher in 2003 than in 1993, P = 0.38. More subjects were overweight/obese in 2003 than in 1993 (27.5 versus 17.2%, chi-square P < 0.001), and had a high FFMI (30.2 versus 21.8%, chi-square P < 0.001) and high FMI (28.0 versus 20.3%, chi-square P < 0.001). Multivariate linear regressions showed that leisure-time activity was negatively, and sex, age and inclusion year were positively associated with BMI, FFMI and FMI (the exception was a negative association with sex) (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Overweight prevalence increased between 1993 and 2003 in a Swiss city, and was associated with a higher fat mass. This observation remained statistically significant after adjustment for age, sex and leisure-time activity.
Intracerebral hemorrhage: natural history and rationale of ultra-early hemostatic therapy.

Stroke is a major health problem worldwide, causing high morbidity and mortality. Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) accounts for 15% of stroke cases in the US and Europe and up to 30% in Asian populations. It is less treatable than other forms of stroke and causes higher morbidity and disability. Data suggest that early hematomy growth is the principal cause of early neurological deterioration after ICH. Prospective and retrospective studies indicate that early hematoma growth occurs in 18–38% of patients scanned within 3 h of ICH onset, and that hematoma volume is an important predictor of 30-day mortality. As hematoma growth in acute ICH is a dynamic process, intervention with ultra-early hemostatic therapy could lead to minimization and even prevention of early hematomy growth. Recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa, ‘NovoSeven’), a powerful initiator of hemostasis, is approved for the treatment of bleeding in patients with hemophilia and inhibitors and may also promote hemostasis in patients with normal coagulation. rFVa acts locally at the bleeding site without activating systemic coagulation and may be a valuable therapy during the hyperacute stage of ICH. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose-ranging trial is currently in progress to investigate the potential of rFVIIa as an ultra-early hemostatic therapy to prevent or minimize hematoma growth in ICH patients without coagulopathy.
Mitigating carbon dioxide emission with gradual implemetation of distributed generation in Northern California

We present a model for analyzing how gradual implementation of distributed generation (DG) in a grid can mitigate carbon dioxide emissions of a utility company. Our model uses the grid parameters and publically available data on the electricity supply and demand of a power company in Northern California: Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD), whose main central power plant uses natural gas. Setting the target year at 2050, our model uses a logistic function for forecasting the SMUD's electricity supply and demand. We then use PowerWorld software and calculate the reduction in line losses based on the size and location of distributed generators on the grid. And finally our model determines the carbon dioxide emissions for various scenarios with business-as-usual as well as with renewable distributed generators gradually (annually) brought on line. Our results show that under business as usual scenario, SMUD's carbon dioxide emissions will rise from its 2010-level of 2.2 million metric tons to 2.888 million metric tons; an increase of 31% over four decades. However, by implementing a modest 40 MW of renewable DG every year, SMUD can lower its carbon dioxide emission to 0.83 million metric tons in 2050, which is 62% lower than its 2010-level emissions. This significant reduction in carbon dioxide emission is due to both line loss reduction and the implementation of renewable distributed generation.
Ethanol and ambrosia beetles in Douglas fir logs with and without branches.

November-felled Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) logs with and without branches were left lying on the forest floor through August. In May, as the logs were being colonized by ambrosia beetles,Trypodendron lineatum (Oliv.) andGnathotrichus retusus (LeConte), the ethanol, acetaldehyde, and water concentrations in the delimbed logs were significantly higher than in the branched logs. Since both log types received the same rainfall, lower water contents in branched logs was probably the result of absorbed water being transported through the branches via capillary movement and evaporation. Lower tissue water levels could have prevented the establishment and maintenance of anaerobic conditions, thus limiting the synthesis of acetaldehyde and ethanol in the branched logs. By late August, the beetle densities in delimbed logs were 9–16 times greater than in the branched logs. Log ethanol concentrations could be a key chemical factor affecting the ambrosia beetle attack densities. Acetaldehyde concentrations in the logs also may have affected the attack densities.
Thermolability of dehydrogenases from a psychrophilic marine bacterium

The heat lability of succinic dehydrogenase, malic dehydrogenase and lactate dehydrogenase in cell-free extracts ofVibrio marinus MP-1 grown at 15‡C was compared for the tris buffer suspended enzymes and the NaCl suspended enzymes. The tris buffer suspended enzymes lost 50 percent activity at low thermal exposure between 5‡C and 27‡C. No activity was evident on thermal exposure between 32‡C and 39‡C. The enzyme extracts suspended in NaCl at 36 % were more heat stable, losing 50 percent activity after exposure between 16‡C and 40‡C. The enzymes lost all activity on thermal exposure between 33‡C and 42‡C in the presence of NaCl.
Measurement of intracellular 42K diffusion in frog ventricular strips

The longitudinal distribution of42K was measured in strips of frog ventricular muscle placed in a partitioned perfusion chamber. A radiation detector placed directly under the chamber was moved from point to point to scan the longitudinal distribution of42K. The detector was focussed on a 0.6 mm segment of the strip by means of two slits and two Geiger tubes. A beta-particle from the strip was counted only if it passed through both Geiger tubes. This arrangement improved the spatial resolution and decreased the background and the sensitivity to Compton electrons. The intracellular diffusion constant measured with this system is 3.7×10−6 cm2/s.