cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Evidence of multiple origins of glyphosate resistance evolution in Lolium multiflorum

O_LIThe multitude of herbicide resistance patterns in the weed Lolium multiflorum L. is a remarkable example of the rapid adaptation to anthropogenic-driven disturbance. Recently, resistance to glyphosate was identified in multiple populations of L. multiflorum in Oregon. C_LIO_LIWe used phenotypic approaches, as well as population genomic and gene expression analyses, to determine if known mechanisms were responsible for glyphosate resistance, if resistance phenotypes evolved independently in different populations, and to identify potential loci contributing to resistance. C_LIO_LIWe found no evidence of genetic alterations or expression changes at known target and non-target sites of glyphosate resistance. Population genomic analyses indicated that resistant populations tended to have largely distinct ancestry from one another, with little evidence of admixture, suggesting that glyphosate resistance did not spread among populations via gene flow. Rather, resistance appears to have evolved independently on different genetic backgrounds. We also detected potential loci associated with the resistance phenotype, some of which encode proteins with potential effects on herbicide metabolism. C_LIO_LIOur results suggest that Oregon populations of L. multiflorum evolved resistance to glyphosate due to a novel mechanism. Future studies that characterize the gene or genes involved in resistance will be necessary to confirm this conclusion. C_LI
The Impact of a Pediatric Medical-Legal Partnership on Pediatric Providers: A Qualitative Study.

Abstract Objective Medical-Legal Partnerships (MLPs) integrate medical and legal care to address prevalent health-harming legal needs (HHLN) among socioeconomically marginalized populations. MLPs address a diverse array of social determinants of health (SDOH) and have been shown to positively impact children's health. Less is known, however, about how MLPs affect health care providers. MLPs may affect child health by changing clinical practice and provider behavior, and transforming providers’ relationships with their patients and patients’ families. Examining and understanding how MLPs affect providers is thus critical to elucidating how MLPs may ultimately impact child health. Methods We examined one pediatric MLP at an academic medical center in New Haven, Connecticut. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 20 pediatric providers who had engaged with the MLP and 20 parents/guardians who had interacted with the MLP. We analyzed the qualitative data using inductive coding, primarily drawing upon provider interviews. Results The MLP affected providers in five major ways. The MLP 1) improved provider awareness of SDOH and HHLN, 2) expanded provider perceptions of their role and responsibilities as clinicians, 3) improved provider efficacy in addressing SDOH and HHLN, 4) empowered providers to engage in systemic advocacy, and 5) improved providers’ relationships with patients’ families. Conclusion Our study identifies multiple ways that a pediatric MLP affects providers. Our findings suggest that MLPs can improve patient and population health by equipping providers with the knowledge and tools needed to assist patients with HHLN and SDOH, improving provider-family relationships, and encouraging providers to engage in systemic and institutional advocacy.
The Sicilian Renaissance: Fostering a Culture of Lawfulness

….Our struggle showed that the law court is only one front in the campaign against violence and lawlessness. The other is culture. An image that occurred to me early in my own fight against the Mafia was of a cart with two wheels, one law enforcement and the other culture. If one wheel turned without the other, the cart would go in circles. If both turned together, the cart would go forward. So, at the same time as brave lawmen were dying in order to establish a rule of law, we were trying to rebuild a civic life (Orlando, p. 7)
DESIGNS 2002: Further computational and constructive design theory

1 The Existence of 2-SOLSSOMs.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Direct Constructions.- 3 Recursive Constructions.- 2 Conjugate Orthogonal Diagonal Latin Squares with Missing Subsquares.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Preliminaries.- 3 Direct Construction.- 4 Recursive Construction.- 5 A General Bound.- 6 The Case 2 ? n ? 6.- 3 Combinatorial Trades: a Survey of Recent Results.- 1 Introduction and Preliminaries.- 2 Trades in designs.- 3 Trades in latin squares.- 4 Trade uses.- 5 Latin representations and trades used in tripartite decompositions.- 6 ?-way trades.- 7 Graphical trades.- 8 Future directions.- 4 Two-stage Generalized Simulated Annealing for the Construction of Change-Over Designs.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Notation and Definitions.- 3 A Two Stage Generalized Simulated Annealing Algorithm.- 4 Performance of the Two-Stage GSA.- 5 New Lower Bounds on the Maximum Number of Mutually Orthogonal Steiner Triple Systems.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Starters over Finite Fields.- 3 Automorphisms and Hill-climbing.- 4 Conclusion.- 6 On minimal defining sets in AG(d, 3).- 1 Background.- 2 Introduction.- 3 Further Preliminaries.- 4 Proof of the Main Theorem.- 5 Sets of good hyperplanes in AG(d, 3).- 6 Related critical sets.- 7 Appendix.- 7 Hadamard Matrices, Orthogonal designs and Construction Algorithms.- 1 Algorithms for constructing Hadamard matrices.- 2 On inequivalent Hadamard matrices.- 3 Algorithms for constructing orthogonal designs.- 4 Short amicable sets and Kharaghani type orthogonal designs.- 8 Constructing a Class of Designs with Proportional Balance.- 1 Proportionally balanced designs.- 2 The method of construction.- 3 Feasible parameters for ? = 2, 3 and 4.- 4 Constructions motivated by Construction 5.- 9 Constructions Using Balanced n-ary Designs.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Balanced n-ary Designs.- 3 Our Construction.- 4 Some Examples.- 5 Some Non-existence Results.- 6 An Improved Construction.- 7 Quadratic Residues.- 8 Another Improvement.- 9 An Application.- 10 More Difference Families.- 10 Sets of Steiner Triple Systems of Order 9 Revisited.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Large sets.- 3 Results.- 4 Uniformly intersecting sets.- 11 Solving Isomorphism Problems for t-Designs.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Basics.- 3 Moebius Inversions.- 4 Extensions of designs.- 12 Finding Double Youden Rectangles.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Definitions and Literature.- 3 Examples.- 4 Searching for a 13-cyclic 13 ? 40 DYR.- 5 Isomorphism.- 6 Further Properties of our new DYRs.- 7 Check for Balance.- 13 Kirkman Triple Systems and their Generalizations: A Survey.- 1 Introduction.- 2 Constructions for Kirkman Triple Systems and Nearly Kirkman Triple Systems for all admissible orders.- 3 Early Generalizations.- 4 Resolvable Packings and Coverings of v points where v ? 0 (mod 3).- 5 Other Generalizations.- 6 Conclusion and Acknowledgements.
Accounting method choice: Opportunistic behavior, efficient contracting, and information perspectives

Abstract Three alternative, but not mutually exclusive, perspectives on accounting method choice are contrasted: the opportunistic behavior, efficient contracting, and information perspectives. Much of the empirical work on accounting method choice is based on the opportunistic behavior perspective. The Malmquist and Main and Smith papers are attempts to view accounting method choice as a means of improving the monitoring capabilities of contracts which rely on accounting numbers. The papers serve as useful vehicles for illustrating the difficulties of delineating a set of maintained assumptions that result in hypotheses about how accounting method choice affects the monitoring characteristics of contracts, and distinguishing between hypotheses based on the three perspectives on accounting method choice.
Controlled direct and mediated effects: definition, identification and bounds

Results are given which provide bounds for controlled direct effects when the no-unmeasured-confounding assumptions required for the identification of these effects do not hold. Previous results concerning bounds for controlled direct effects rely on monotonicity relationships between the treatment, mediator and the outcome themselves; the results presented in this paper instead assume that monotonicity relationships hold between the unmeasured confounding variable or variables and the treatment, mediator and outcome. Whereas prior results give bounds that contain the null hypothesis of no direct effect, the results presented here will in many instances yield bounds that do not contain the null hypothesis of no direct effect. For contexts in which a set of variables intercepts all paths between a treatment and an outcome, it is possible to provide a definition for a controlled mediated effect. We discuss the identification of these controlled mediated effects; the bounds for controlled direct effects are applicable also to controlled mediated effects. An example is given to illustrate how the results in the paper can be used to draw inferences about direct and mediated effects in the presence of unmeasured confounding variables.
A Probabilistically Correct Leader Election Protocol for Large Groups

This paper presents a scalable leader election protocol for large process groups with a weak membership requirement. The underlying network is assumed to be unreliable but characterized by probabilistic failure rates of processes and message deliveries. The protocol trades correctness for scale, that is, it provides very good probabilistic guarantees on correct termination in the sense of the classical specification of the election problem, and of generating a constam number of message, both independent of group size. After formally specifying the probabilistic properties, we describe the protocol in detail. Our subsequent, mathematical analysis provides probabilistic bounds on the complexity of the protocol. Finally, the results of simulation show that the performance of the protocol is satisfactory.
Bacterial Chemotaxis Proteins: Fluorine‐19 NMR

The sections in this article are 1 Introduction 2 Methods 3 Use of 19F NMR to Probe Conformational Changes 4 Use of 19F NMR to Probe Ligand-Binding Kinetics 5 Biographical Sketches Related Articles
The Kurds in the changing political map of the Middle East

This article examines how the rise of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), the on-going Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) insurgency and current peace negotiations with the Turkish government, and the recently declared autonomy by the Syrian Kurds—largely under the leadership of the Democratic Union Party (PYD)—have empowered the Kurds and challenged the existing political map of the Middle East largely established after World War I. At the same time this article also considers the rise of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as one of the other main tipping points changing the Middle East political map. The roles and policies of Turkey and the United States to these transformations are also analysed. Keywords: Kurds; ISIS; Middle East; politics; Syria; Iraq; KRG; Turkey. Kurd di xeriteya siyasi ya Rojhilata Navin a di guherine de Armanca ve gotare ew e tehlil bike ka duristbuna Hukumeta Herema Kurdistane, serhildana berdewam a Partiya Karkeren Kurdistane u danustandinen astiye ligel hukumeta Tirkiyeye, u ew otonomiya ku kurden Suriyeye, heyamen dawi, pirani di bin pesengiya Partiya Yekitiya Demokratik de ragihandin cawa kurd bihez kirine u cawa hevsengiya xeriteya siyasi ya Rojhilata Navin, ya bi pirani li du Sere Cihani ye Yekem hatiye binecihkirin, xistiye ber birparsyaran. Gotar herwiha bale dikese ser peydabuna Dewleta Islami li Iraq u Suriyeye wek xaleke ditir a wercerxane di guherina xeriteya siyasi ya Rojhilata Navin de. Herwiha, dewr u siyaseten Tirkiye u Dewleten Yekgirti yen Emerikaye yen di bare van guherinan de ji hatine tehlilkirin.
Child-Care Delivery Systems in the Government Sector

Background statistics on the American occupational structure are given to situate the needfor child-care assistance for American families in the 1980's since there is an increasing proportion of mo...
Tolerance to fast: rational and practical evaluation in children with hypoketonaemia.

Prolonged fasting in children with disorder of fat oxidation or ketone body synthesis can lead not only to hypoglycaemia but also to the accumulation of toxic metabolites. The length of time such patients can be safely fasted is important information for caregivers. Most children with MCAD deficiency when well can tolerate ‘normal’ periods without food, but in more severe disorders such as LCHAD deficiency even these may be associated with acute or chronic damage. Guidelines have been published for safe fasting periods in MCAD but not in other conditions. In the absence of such recommendations, a rational approach must be based on an understanding of the normal physiology of fasting in children of different ages and the pathophysiology associated with the child’s particular disorder. Intercurrent infections pose a particular risk and may significantly reduce fasting tolerance.
Fabrication Of Heavy Metal Fluoride Glass Fibers Containing Ultra Low Levels Of Oxygen And Water

Although heavy metal fluoride (HMF) glasses potentially offer high intrinsic transparency in the infrared spectral region, losses associated with extrinsic impurity absorption and scattering presently limit their uses in practical applications. This paper focuses on the design of an environmental control chamber and draw facility for minimizing water and oxygen contamination during the drawing of fluoride glass optical fiber. A vertical glove box arrangement of novel design encloses the draw tower area in which the preform and bare optical fiber are susceptible to moisture and water absorption. This area includes the preform chuck, the draw furnace, the fiber diameter monitor, the fiber coating equipment, and diagnostic instrumentation for measuring fiber tension and temperature. Plans for evaluation of various drawing techniques including rf/preform, resistance/preform, and rf/crucible are described, along with fiber coating techniques including oxide and non-oxide glass overcladding and UV-curable polymers.
Differential physiological expression of the invertebrate 2Na+/1H+ antiporter in single epithelial cell type suspensions of lobster hepatopancreas.

Lobster (Homarus americanus) hepatopancreas is a complex, heterogeneous tissue composed of four epithelial cell types that individually contribute to the overall functional properties of digestion, absorption, secretion, and detoxification. Previous studies, using purified hepatopancreatic brush border membrane vesicles, have described the properties of an electrogenic, 2Na+/1H+ antiporter in this tissue that regulates the absorption and secretion of these cations. These studies were not able to localize this cation exchange phenomenon to specific epithelial cell types. In the present study, sodium/proton exchange by purified, single cell, suspensions of lobster (Homarus americanus) hepatopancreatic epithelium was investigated using a centrifugal elutriation method to cleanly separate the four individual cell types for subsequent physiological characterization. Results indicate that all four hepatopancreatic epithelial cell types possessed the 2Na+/1H+ antiporter as a result of its unique sigmoidal influx properties. Hill Coefficients, measures of transport sigmodicity obtained from kinetic analyses of 22Na+ influx by single cell type suspensions, varied from 1.56±0.30 (R-cell suspensions) to 2.79±0.41 (F-cell suspensions), suggesting that different numbers of sodium ions may be accommodated by each cell type. Both calcium and zinc were competitive inhibitors of 22Na+ influx in E-cells (calcium Ki = 105.1±5.2 µM; zinc Ki=46.2±7.8 µM), but the extent to which these divalent cations inhibited monovalent cation transport by each cell type varied. It is concluded that different isoforms of the electrogenic 2Na+/1H+ antiporter may be present in each hepatopancreatic cell type and thereby contribute in differing degrees to the cation regulatory functions performed by the overall organ. J. Exp. Zool. 297A:32–44, 2003. © 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
The Strange Case of the Missing Female Geographer

“It is not our desire to change needle and thread in women's hands into astrolabes and globes; neither do we consider it necessary that a woman should retreat to a room papered with maps and ornamented with globes ‥. Their high moral standards allow them, in our view, to possess wide knowledge of geography, on condition that they do not attempt, through use of terms too coarse for a lady, to appear too eager a group of geographers. I am certainly willing to let them use such words as climate, zones, and so forth; but I do not want them to scare me stiff quoting longitude and latitude at me. Let them speak as much as they want about what they read in travelers'tales, and I will listen with pleasure ‥. But I certainly do not want to see the day when a woman's knowledge of the earth equals that of men!'”(1)
Dynamics of micellar oligomeric and monomeric sodium 10-undecenoate

Abstract Multifield carbon-13 NMR longitudinal relaxation time measurements were used to probe the dynamics and structure of monomeric and oligomeric sodium 10-undecenoate in micellar solutions. Longitudinal relaxation data were fit to a two-state model for the spectral density function which utilizes as adjustable parameters a fast correlation time and an order parameter for each carbon atom, and an overall slow correlation time for the entire aggregate. This model was needed to explain the relaxation phenomena because of the anisotropic reorientation of the amphiphiles. The monomeric fast correlation profile indicated a motional gradient increasing toward the micellar core. Comparison of the fast correlation time profiles for monomer and oligomer revealed that the motional gradient found in the monomer was not present in the oligomer. Slow correlation times extracted from the two-state model indicate that the radii of the oligomeric micelles, approximated from the Debye—Stokes—Einstein equation, are slightly larger than the monomeric micelles: 10.6 versus 9.4 A, respectively. Radii calculated using self-diffusion coefficients also are larger for the oligomeric micelles: 13.4 A for oligomeric micelles and 10.6 A for the monomeric micelles. The values determined for the micellar radii are less than that for the extended monomeric chain, 14.7 A.
Genetic modification of the effect of maternal household air pollution exposure on birth weight in Guatemalan newborns

Low birth weight is associated with exposure to air pollution during pregnancy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether null polymorphisms of Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs), specifically GSTM1 and GSTT1 genes in infants or mothers, modify the association between high exposures to household air pollution (HAP) from cooking fires and birth weight. Pregnant women in rural Guatemala were randomized to receive a chimney stove or continue to use open fires for cooking. Newborns were measured within 48 h of birth. 132 mother-infant pairs provided infant genotypes (n=130) and/or maternal genotypes (n=116). Maternal null GSTM1 was associated with a 144 g (95% CI, -291, 1) and combined maternal/infant null GSTT1 was associated with a 155 g (95% CI, -303, -8) decrease in birth weight. Although there was a trend toward higher birth weights with increasing number of expressed GST genes, the effect modification by chimney stove use was not demonstrated.
Prophylactic central compartment neck dissection for papillary thyroid cancer: The search for justification continues

MACROSCOPIC LYMPH NODE METASTASES in patients with papillary thyroid cancer are associated with a higher recurrence rate. Lundgren et al, in a large population-based case-control study, demonstrated an increased mortality rate in patients 45 years of age and older with regional lymph node metastases. There is evidence that, for patients with macroscopic nodal disease, lymphadenectomy may reduce recurrence and mortality. As a result, there is general agreement that patients with clinically involved lymph nodes in the central neck should be managed with a central compartment neck dissection. A central compartment neck dissection consists of the removal of all nodal and fibrofatty tissue between the right and left common carotid arteries from the hyoid bone superiorly to the innominate artery inferiorly. This includes removal of the prelaryngeal, pretracheal, and paratracheal lymph nodes, collectively classified as level VI lymph nodes. Prophylactic central neck dissection, defined as a compartment-orientated level VI lymph node dissection performed in patients with no evidence lymph node metastases on preoperative clinical examination, imaging studies, or intraoperative assessment, is controversial. Occult micrometastasis in the lymph nodes of the central neck are known to occur in 31–62% of patients with papillary carcinoma, yet most remain dormant and rarely become clinically important. The
Minimum-link watchman tours

We consider the problem of computing a watchman route in a polygon with holes. We show that the problem of finding a minimum-link watchman route is NP-complete, even if the holes are all convex. The proof is based on showing that the related problem of finding a minimum-link tour on a set of points in the plane is NP-complete. We provide a provably good approximation algorithm that achieves an approximation factor of O(log n ).
A compact hybrid silicon/electro-optic polymer resonant cavity modulator design

The design and simulation of a novel resonant cavity optical modulator incorporating a hybrid silicon/electro-optic polymer slot waveguide structure is presented in this work. The device utilizes the electro-optic polymer in the cavity region to provide an active material for modulation and includes distributed Bragg reflectors in single mode silicon waveguide regions at each end of the cavity to create a narrow response peak at the resonant wavelength. Simulation results show that this electro-optic modulator design can simultaneously attain a large modulation depth, short device length and a low drive voltage, all of which are expected to be necessary for future high speed integrated optics devices. The high operating frequency and complex nature of the structure lead to a need for full 3D simulations in order to obtain accurate propagation characteristics, particularly concerning scattering losses. However, 3D simulations are very computationally expensive, especially during design optimization. Therefore, the periodicity of the device has been exploited to allow a cascade matrix approach to be employed to reduce the necessary computational resources required for accurate simulation of the propagation characteristics. The design and fabrication process have been chosen to allow for the majority of the fabrication to be completed before the electro-optic polymer is introduced into the process, which enables the use of well-established CMOS processing techniques, and should accelerate the transition to hybrid silicon/electro-optic polymer devices in future integrated optics applications.
Homer, Hesiod, and Heracles in Pseudo-Justin

(Les citations des pontes chez les apologistes chritiens du lie sik~cle),2 we ought to consider what seem to be the two oldest echoes of Homer and Hesiod, then pass at once to the mysterious Ad Graecos sometimes ascribed to Justin. In our opinion, Homer is first echoed in 1 Clement 20. 8. Following the suggestion of Werner Jaeger that there are echoes of other poetry in 1 Clement 20,' we venture to propose that Homer lurks in the words about the Ocean. "The Ocean, not crossable by men, and the worlds beyond it, are directed by the same commands of the Master". It is Homer (Od. xi. 158) who speaks of "Ocean, which is not possible for one to cross." To be sure, he adds line 159: "on foot, unless one has a well built ship". The banality of this may have contributed to Aristarchus' decision to delete lines 157-159 in toto. Knopf claimed that the text means "endless" but the examples and exegesis he gives show it means "ftir die Menschen ohne Ende". We see at least a verbal parallel. Second, the influence of Hesiod seems present in the Wisdom of Solomon 14. 6, where we hear of "haughty giants" who were perishing at the time of the deluge. The adjective comes from the Theogony (149), where the giants, Cottus, Briareus, and Gyes, are described as the "haughty offspring" of Earth and Heaven. Barely noticeable, but at least suggesting, as we should expect, that in early Hellenistic Judaism and Christianity, Greek influence was not confined to philosophy. The third-century address Ad Graecos, ascribed to Justin in the one Greek manuscript (burned in 1870) and to Ambrose in a Syriac version first published by Cureton in his Spicilegium Syriacum, contains significant surprises in regard to Homer and Hesiod. The work begins with an attack on Greek poetry as full of madness and incontinence. A pupil in school who comes to the chief poet of the Greeks is described as the most wretched of men. Why is this?
Variations in the Timing of Spermatogenesis in Uca Pugnax (Smith) and Possible Effectors (Decapoda, Brachyura, Ocypodidae)

[L'examen du systeme mâle de reproduction de l'Uca pugnax pendant l'ete de 1968 a montre que la spermatogenese a lieu au moins trois fois pendant cette periode. L'ablation du pedoncule oculaire des crabes mâles a entraine une spermatogenese precoce. L'exposition des crabes a un cycle artificiel (12:12 Lumiere: Obscurite) pendant l'ete n'a determine aucune activite spermatogenique en aout, et les implications de ce fait sont discutees. Des essais en vue de provoquer la spermatogenese en automne en employant des photoperiodes variees sont aussi discutes., L'examen du systeme mâle de reproduction de l'Uca pugnax pendant l'ete de 1968 a montre que la spermatogenese a lieu au moins trois fois pendant cette periode. L'ablation du pedoncule oculaire des crabes mâles a entraine une spermatogenese precoce. L'exposition des crabes a un cycle artificiel (12:12 Lumiere: Obscurite) pendant l'ete n'a determine aucune activite spermatogenique en aout, et les implications de ce fait sont discutees. Des essais en vue de provoquer la spermatogenese en automne en employant des photoperiodes variees sont aussi discutes.]
Input impedance of dielectric resonator antennas top loaded with high permittivity and conducting disks

A numerical investigation verified by measurements is performed to study the difference between loading the dielectric resonator antenna with conducting or high-dielectric-constant disks. The basic objectives of this study are to suggest ways to eliminate losses by replacing conducting antenna parts with dielectric parts, to design antennas with dual resonances, and to broaden impedance bandwidth. Input impedances are computed and measured when the ground-plane-backed dielectric resonator is excited by a coaxial probe. Excellent agreement is obtained between the numerical and the measured input impedances. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Accessibility to medical care among urban American Indians in a large metropolitan area

Federal health and medical care programs recently mandated for American Indians living in cities are predicated upon information pertaining to their unmet health needs and assessments of their accessibility to medical care. Based upon a household survey conducted among a representative Indian population living in a large metropolitan area, an evaluation is made of the accessibility experience of this population as it pertains to primary medical care. Using measures of accessibility including travel time, appointment delay time, and waiting room time, the experiences of Indian residents of major residential sections of the area are illustrated. Comparative assessments are made on the basis of the individual convenience factors as well as on the basis of an aggregate index of accessibility that has been proposed for health planning and evaluation. Significant differences in accessibility to primary care between residents in certain residential areas are demonstrated and suggestions for revision of the accessibility standards are offered.
Childhood Leukemia and Cancers Near German Nuclear Reactors: Significance, Context, and Ramifications of Recent Studies

A government-sponsored study of childhood cancer in the proximity of German nuclear power plants (German acronym KiKK) found that children 5 km. The researchers concluded that since "this result was not to be expected under current radiation-epidemiological knowledge" and confounders could not be identified, the observed association of leukemia incidence with residential proximity to nuclear plants "remains unexplained." This unjustified conclusion illustrates the dissonance between evidence and assumptions. There exist serious flaws and gaps in the knowledge on which accepted models for population exposure and radiation risk are based. Studies with results contradictory to those of KiKK lack statistical power to invalidate its findings. The KiKK study's ramifications add to the urgency for a public policy debate regarding the health impact of nuclear power generation.
Female Adolescents With a History of Sexual Abuse Risk Outcome and Protective Factors

This study examined the school performance, suicidal involvement, disordered eating behaviors, pregnancy risk, and chemical use of female teenagers with a history of sexual abuse and found that they had higher rates of these adverse outcome than a comparison group of teenagers without a background of abuse. Among index group members, protective factors against adverse outcome included a higher degree of religiosity, perceived health, caring from adults, living with both biological parents, and the presence of a clinic or nurse at school. Risk factors that increased the likelihood of adverse outcome included perceived substance use in school, mothers' use of alcohol, family stressor events during the past year, and worry about sexual coercion.
Automated metadata transformation for a-priori deployed sensor networks

Sensor network research has facilitated advancements in various domains, such as industrial monitoring, environmental sensing, etc., and research challenges have shifted from creating infrastructure to utilizing it. Extracting meaningful information from sensor data, or control applications using the data, depends on the metadata available to interpret it, whether provided by novel networks or legacy instrumentation. Commercial buildings provide a valuable setting for investigating automated metadata acquisition and augmentation, as they typically comprise large sensor networks, but have limited, obscure metadata that are often meaningful only to the facility managers. Moreover, this primitive metadata is imprecise and varies across vendors and deployments.This state-of-the-art is a fundamental barrier to scaling analytics or intelligent control across the building stock, as even the basic steps involve labor intensive manual efforts by highly trained consultants. Writing building applications on its sensor network remains largely intractable as it involves extensive help from an expert in each building's design and operation to identify the sensors of interest and create the associated metadata. This process is repeated for each application development in a particular building, and across different buildings. This results in customized building-specific application queries which are not portable or scalable across buildings.We present a synthesis technique that learns how to transform a building's primitive sensor metadata to a common namespace by using a small number of examples from an expert, such as the building manager. Once the transformation rules are learned for one building, it can be applied across buildings with a similar primitive metadata structure. This common and understandable namespace captures the semantic relationship between sensors, enabling analytics applications that do not require apriori building-specific knowledge.Initial results show that learning the rules to transform 70% of the primitive metadata of two buildings (with completely different metadata structure), comprising 1600 and 2600 sensors, into a common namespace ([1]) took only 21 and 27 examples respectively(Figure 1c). The learned rules were able to transform similar primitive metadata in other buildings as well(Figure 1d), enabling writing of portable applications across these buildings. The techniques developed here may be applicable to the other large legacy sensor networks, such as industrial processing, or urban monitoring.
Production of dialysable iron by in vitro digestion of chicken muscle protein fractions: the size of the dialysable iron

Muscle foods enhance the absorption of non-haem iron. We studied the size of the dialysable iron species produced following in vitro digestion of soluble and insoluble chicken muscle proteins and compared the results with those for egg white and whey protein. Digestion of chicken muscle proteins caused a four- to fivefold increase in dialysable iron, whereas egg white showed only a slight increase and whey protein caused a reduction, as compared with the control. All the dialysable iron species produced by egg white and whey were smaller than 1 kDa. In contrast, chicken muscle proteins produced dialysable iron species of all sizes up to 10 kDa, but the majority were in the range 2–3.5 kDa for both soluble and insoluble muscle proteins. Copyright © 2005 Society of Chemical Industry
Neutralizing bacterial spores using halogenated energetic reactions

The fight against biological warfare has prompted investigation of the chemistry and exothermic energy from energetic material reactions as a means for the neutralization of bacterial spores. The interaction between energetic reactions containing biocides and spore forming bacteria is not well understood. The goal of this work is to fundamentally examine the mechanisms of neutralization for Bacillus thuringiensis utilizing a halogenated energetic material reaction. Spore neutralization is attributed to a thermal effect from the reaction heat and the associated chemical influence of the halogen gas (i.e., produced from combustion). Results show heat transfer in the spore enhances the effectiveness of the halogen gas in the neutralization process and that elevated temperatures increase spore permeability, facilitating gas penetration and accelerating spore neutralization. Based on experimental results, a mathematical model was developed to predict spore behavior during reaction exposure over varying time scales. In the millisecond range, the model showed that the coupled thermal-biocidal gas mechanism will require elevated temperatures of 360°C to produce 80% neutralization in tens of milliseconds while thermal conditions alone would require nearly 1,000°C for the same neutralization. These results provide molecular-level insights into the components underpinning biological processes leading to spore neutralization.
Using correlated CT images in compensation for attenuation in PET (positron emission tomography) image reconstruction

Applying structural information from x-ray computed tomograghy (CT) to image reconstruction in positron emission tomography (PET) for compensation of the effect of photon attenuation can provide improved quality of the reconstructed PET images. CT and PET scans can be registered precisely using a surface-matching technique. Anatomical maps are then obtained by reslicing the CT images along the PET image planes. Attenuation coefficient maps for the corresponding PET images can be derived from the anatomical maps by considering the difference in photon energies observed in CT and in PET. These attenuation coefficient maps are reprojected to produce a set of attenuation correction factors for each projection profile. PET images reconstructed using these attenuation correction factors exhibit significant reduction in noise. 1.© (1991) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Chronic inspiratory stridor secondary to a retained penetrating radiolucent esophageal foreign body.

Although foreign body ingestions are common in infants and young children, penetration of the esophagus is a relatively rare event. Timely diagnosis is impeded by the absence of classical symptoms and by the ingestion of radiolucent foreign bodies. The authors present a 17-month-old girl with a 6-month history of inspiratory stridor. An extensive workup found a penetrating radiolucent foreign body at the thoracic inlet.
Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry with 2-(4-hydroxyphenylazo)benzoic acid matrix.

A novel matrix substance, 2-(4-hydroxyphenylazo) benzoic acid, or HABA, has been found to be very advantageous for matrix-assisted ultraviolet laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry. This compound has been successfully used for the desorption of peptides, proteins, and glycoproteins up to approximately 250 kDa. For these materials, the most abundant analyte-related peaks correspond to [M + H]+ ions and multiply protonated molecules. Comparisons with sinapic acid, 2,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid, and α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid indicate that the new matrix provides comparable sensitivity for peptides and smaller proteins but results in better sensitivity for larger proteins and glycoproteins in protein mixtures. Other matrices discriminate against the higher mass components in these cases. Somewhat reduced mass resolution has been found for smaller proteins, but for larger proteins and glycoproteins the best mass resolution can often be obtained with the new matrix. For other classes of compounds that form ions predominantly via cation attachment, at least as good sensitivity and even better resolution have been obtained. Derivatized glycolipids and synthetic polymers have been studied in detail. For the analysis of many synthetic polymers, the best performance in terms of sensitivity and mass resolution has been observed with HABA matrix. Mass resolution was higher for cation adducts than for the protonated peptide molecules in the same mass range. The new matrix exhibits greatly extended (in time) analyte ion production and reproducibility. Owing to the uniform sample surface with this matrix, barely any spatial variation of the ion signal could be observed. In addition, many hundreds of single-shot mass spectra could be accumulated from the same spot, even for larger proteins.
Trou sans Fond submarine canyon: Ivory Coast, Africa

Abstract A bathymetric chart of the Trou sans Fond (Bottomless Hole) submarine canyon off the Ivory Coast, Africa, is presented, based upon a 1400-km survey in 1968 by the O.S.S. Discoverer. The canyon originates with a double head just off the beach and cuts a deep V-shaped furrow across the 30-km-wide shelf, attaining a maximum relief of 450 fm (823 m) near the shelf break. The canyon has a slightly sinuous and rugged relief down the continental slope, indicating an active erosional regime. At 1500 fm (2745 m) where the continental rise commences, the canyon is abruptly offset 20 km to the west, suggesting that the present outer fan valley is a newly developed channel. On the continental rise a depositional regime is indicated by well developed natural levees which have a cross-sectional area 60 times that of the Mississippi in the delta region. The Trou sans Fond appears to be the only canyon which taps the paralic zone between the Cayar Canyon to the north and the Congo Canyon to the south.
The Path(s) to Rivalry: Behavioral and Structural Explanations of Rivalry Development

Despite the importance of enduring rivalries, to date little attention has been placed on understanding how they develop. This article presents one of the first attempts to understand rivalry development. Two broad approaches to protracted rivalry development, behavioral and structural, are contrasted. The behavioral approach focuses on the actions of the potential rivals during their early confrontations, and argues that initial behavior will establish the direction of future interactions. The structural approach proposes that rivalries are caused by environmental factors largely out of the immediate control of the participants. When tested, we find that the development of proto and enduring rivalries can be explained best by a combination of both approaches. We also find that longer term rivalries do not appear to have one single cause. They may instead be produced by the confluence of many small factors.
Elementary metabolite units (EMU): A novel framework for modeling isotopic distributions

Metabolic flux analysis (MFA) has emerged as a tool of great significance for metabolic engineering and mammalian physiology. An important limitation of MFA, as carried out via stable isotope labeling and GC/MS and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements, is the large number of isotopomer or cumomer equations that need to be solved, especially when multiple isotopic tracers are used for the labeling of the system. This restriction reduces the ability of MFA to fully utilize the power of multiple isotopic tracers in elucidating the physiology of realistic situations comprising complex bioreaction networks. Here, we present a novel framework for the modeling of isotopic labeling systems that significantly reduces the number of system variables without any loss of information. The elementary metabolite unit (EMU) framework is based on a highly efficient decomposition method that identifies the minimum amount of information needed to simulate isotopic labeling within a reaction network using the knowledge of atomic transitions occurring in the network reactions. The functional units generated by the decomposition algorithm, called EMUs, form the new basis for generating system equations that describe the relationship between fluxes and stable isotope measurements. Isotopomer abundances simulated using the EMU framework are identical to those obtained using the isotopomer and cumomer methods, however, require significantly less computation time. For a typical (13)C-labeling system the total number of equations that needs to be solved is reduced by one order-of-magnitude (100s EMUs vs. 1000s isotopomers). As such, the EMU framework is most efficient for the analysis of labeling by multiple isotopic tracers. For example, analysis of the gluconeogenesis pathway with (2)H, (13)C, and (18)O tracers requires only 354 EMUs, compared to more than two million isotopomers.
Formation of dielectric core/metal sheath nanowire composites and their application to SERS sensing

There has been significant interest in a variety of nanowire (NW) systems for various sensing applications. We had developed highly sensitive dielectric core/metal sheath nanowires composites which serve as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates. Previously, our composites were fabricated using e-beam deposition, which has the problem of incomplete coverage. Here we report an electroless (EL) plating approach to cover the NWs with a silver sheath, producing the core/metal NW structures for the SERS measurements. In comparison with the common silver deposition via e-beam evaporation, electroless coating can result in the full metal coverage on NWs. Therefore, this approach provides a way to fully cover nanostructures with Ag, including NWs arrays, regardless of the orientations and shapes of the nanostructures. SERS measurements on EL produced Ag/NWs composites show stronger signals than those produced by e-beam evaporation. Electric field calculations suggest that the strong SERS signal is due to plasmonic coupling of neighboring closely spaced islands.
The discovery of split genes and RNA splicing

Fifty years ago – two years after the discovery of the structure of DNA – everyone assumed that the structure of a gene was a contiguous string of base pairs, from which information was transferred for synthesis of a protein. This assumption was largely correct for the prokaryotic kingdom of organisms, but years later there were hints that these simple concepts for genes might not explain some observations in eukaryotic organisms. In particular, the genome of many animals contained such large amounts of DNA that the possibility that all of it encoded simple, bacteria-type genes seemed unlikely.
Virtual reality of stem cell transplantation to repair injured myocardium

The search for the fountain of youth continues into the 21st century with hopes that embryonic or hematopoietic stem cells (SC) will repair injured tissues in the heart, lungs, pancreas, muscles, nerves, liver, or skin. This commentary focuses on the potential of SC for inducing cardiac regeneration after myocardial injury, the barriers to SC treatment that need to be overcome for ensuring successful cardiac repair, and the experimental approaches that can be applied to the problem.
GEWIRTH'S “DIALECTICAL ARGUMENT”

Selon l'A., l'approche dialectique de Gewirth au probleme des droits de l'homme dans « Reason and Morality » n'est pas exempte de defauts. En effet, G. essaie d'etablir son principe des droits humains sur un argument assertorique
Transition metal complexes of bis(diphenylphosphine oxide)methane

Abstract Complexes of bis(diphenylphosphine oxide)methane with Fe(III), Ni(II), Co(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II) have been prepared and characterized. Experimental data are in support of chelation by the ligand to give 6-coordinate metal ions. The properties of the complexes are similar to those for the corresponding complexes of octamethylpyrophosphoramide.
Improved pattern placement in membrane mask making

Pattern placement errors are a problem in the manufacture of masks for proximity X-ray lithography. Many of these errors are attributable to long term drifts in beam position relative to external fiducials. To address this we have developed a technique based on through-the-membrane monitoring of the electron beam position. This uses a solid state detector with high bandwidth and gain mounted near the back surface of the target membrane. An accurately patterned overlayer on the detector provides the fiducial reference. The overlayer is designed to modulate the electron-hole pair current generated in the diode by absorbing the incident beam. Position information is obtained by analyzing the image created from recording the diode current during patterning. The phase in a Fourier transform of the data at the spatial frequency of the patterned absorber gives a measure of the position of the incident beam. Changes in the observed phase from one frame to the next can then be used to correct position errors of the beam in real time. We report results from tests of various components of this system. Early indications are that the system will be sufficiently fast and accurate for proximity X-ray mask pattern placement correction.
Free Vibration of Thick Generally Laminated Quadrilateral Plates Having Arbitrarily Located Point Supports

Free vibration of generally laminated plates having arbitrarily located point supports is studied via the Rayleigh ‐Ritz method. Chebychev polynomials are chosen as the trial functions and essential boundary conditions along the edges are imposed by means of appropriate large artie cial springs. This allows for the edges of the plate to be free, simply supported, or clamped. An elastically restrained point is represented by the appropriate spring constant value and by allowing this spring constant to become large, a point support is represented. The e rst-order shear deformation theory is utilized in the development of the equations of motion, along with the linear stress /strain relationship. Verie cation of the method is carried out through comparison with published results for point-supported plates. After the method is verie ed, a brief study of generally laminated plates having point supports is carried out. The method developed is simple and efe cient, making it perfectly suited to applications that require multiple calculations, such as optimization, and can be applied to analyze joined-wings and truss-braced wings.
Note on Jacobi’s method for approximating dominant roots

Abstract In 1834 Jacobi gave a method for approximating dominant roots of a polynomial. In 2002 Mignotte and Stefanescu showed that Jacobi’s method works only when the dominant roots are simple. In this note, we show that Jacobi’s method can still be useful even when the dominant roots are not simple, if we use it for approximating the “distinct” dominant roots.