cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Prophylactic anticoagulation decreases catheter-related thrombosis and occlusion in children with home parenteral nutrition

Background: Home parenteral nutrition (PN) has improved the survival of children with intestinal failure. Important complications include catheter-related thrombosis, occlusion, and infection. This study evaluated the efficacy and safety of prophylactic anticoagulation in the prevention of these complications. Methods: Medical records were retrospectively reviewed of all children (0–18 years) with PN between January 1994 and March 2007 in 1 tertiary center. After introduction of prophylactic low molecular weight heparin or vitamin K antagonists in March 2007, all patients were prospectively followed until March 2010. Results: In sum, 14 patients did not receive prophylaxis; 13 switched from no prophylaxis to prophylaxis in March 2007; and 5 directly received prophylaxis. Median age of PN onset was 4 months (range, 0.1–202) in the nonprophylaxis group (n = 27) and 25 (range, 2–167) in the prophylaxis group (n = 18); 16 children received low molecular weight heparin and 2, vitamin K antagonists. Catheter-re...
Chiral-Selective Aminoacylation of an RNA Minihelix

Amino acids in natural proteins have a chiral, asymmetric center at the α carbon that is of the L-configuration. The sugar backbone of natural RNAs are also homochiral, but of the D-configuration. Because protein synthesis requires the aminoacylation of RNA, it is this step that could have provided chiral selectivity. Here we show that an RNA minihelix was aminoacylated by an aminoacyl-phosphate-D-oligonucleotide with a clear preference for L- as opposed to D-amino acids. A mirror-image RNA system showed the opposite selectivity. These results suggest the possibility that the selection of L-amino acids for proteins was determined by the stereochemistry of RNA.
Nickel(0)-catalyzed couplings of vinyl- alanes & - zirconocenes with chloromethylated heteroaromatics: A route to E-allylated heterocycles

Abstract Treatment of selected chloromethylated heteroaromatics, including pyridines, thiophenes, and furans, with vinyl alanes or vinyl zirconocenes in the presence of Ni(0) results in E-allylated products in good yields.
Extraction and solubilization of crude oil and volatile petroleum hydrocarbons by purified humic and fulvic acids and sodium dodecylbenzenesulfonate

Solubilization of crude oil (Fula, Sudan) in water demonstrates humic acid (HA), completely dissolves oil with a solubilization efficiency of 1600 g oil /g HA. The order of solubilization increases: HA > HA+ FA (fulvic acid) >> FA >>> SDBS (sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate). Synthetic surfactant like, SDBS, exhibits the lowest efficiency even with 23 times the concentration of FA or HA. Extraction of diesel contaminated sand and GC-MS analysis show that HA and FA exhibit 50–90% extraction efficiency for C10–C22 at pH 11.9 with just one extraction. SDBS exhibits the least removal efficiency (<1%) for normal hydrocarbons. The effect of pH on extraction with HA by its micelles such as the surface active property was found to be greater than that for FA. On the basis of critical concentration, the extraction efficiencies with FA and HA are 1287 and 11453 times compared to SDBS, respectively, for the least extracted hydrocarbon at pH 10.8. The HSGC experiments showed that the solubilization efficiency of alkylb...
Nitrogen Recovery by Corn from Nitrogen-15 Labeled Wheat Residues and Intact Roots and Soil

Conservation tillage systems, which maintain crop residues on the soil surface, are becoming more widely used. Crop residues serve as ground cover to reduce soil erosion and act as a sink-source for plant nutrients. A better understanding of the processes involved in crop residue decomposition and N release in these systems is needed to develop more efficient residue and fertility management practices. A greenhouse study was conducted to determine N availability to corn (Zea mays L.) from wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) residues and intact roots and soil as affected by residue placement. Tracer 15 N was used to quantify the N recovered by corn from wheat residues and intact roots and soil. Wheat residues were either surface-placed or incorporated in a Mexico silt loam (fine, montmorillonitic, mesic Udollic Ochraqualf) in pots with intact wheat roots. Residue placement significantly influenced the amount of 15 N recovered by corn from wheat residues but not from intact roots and soil. Corn 15 N recovery was significantly higher from incorporated residues than from surface residues; however, this was not reflected in the dry weight. Corn dry weight was 12% greater from surface residues than from incorporated residues. Higher yield from surface residues was attributed to a more constant optimum soil water content.
You call that perpetual? Issues in perpetual access

At the Mississippi State University Libraries’ eResource & Emerging Technologies Summit in August 2013, Chris Bulock, Electronic Resources Librarian at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, offered strategies on working through problems encountered with tracking and documenting access to electronic resources, with emphasis on the continuing challenge of perpetual access. He presented results of a survey he conducted to determine how institutions were doing in regard to access and preservation of electronic content.
Tabu search for a class of scheduling problems

Scheduling problems are often modeled as resourceconstrained problems in which critical resource assignments to tasks are known and the best assignment of resource time must be made subject to these constraints. Generalization toresource scheduling, where resource assignments are chosen concurrently with times results is a problem which is much more difficult. A simplified model of the general resource scheduling model is possible, however, in which tasks must be assigned a singleprimary resource, subject to constraints resulting from preassignment ofsecondary, or auxiliary, resources. This paper describes extensions and enhancements of tabu search for the special case of the resource scheduling problem described above. The class of problems is further restricted to those where it is reasonable to enumerate both feasible time and primary resource assignments. Potential applications include shift oriented production and manpower scheduling problems as well as course scheduling where classrooms (instructors) are primary and instructors (rooms) and students are secondary resources. The underlying model is a type of quadratic multiple choice problem which we call multiple choice quadratic vertex packing (MCQVP). Results for strategic oscillation and biased candidate sampling strategies are shown for reasonably sized real and randomly generated, synthetic, problem instances. The strategies are compared with other variations using consistent measures of solution time and quality developed for this study.
The Fluorescence of native DNA at room temperature

Abstract The fluorescence spectra (300–500nm) quantum yields (φf) and excitation spectra (240–285 nm) are reported for neutral aqueous sloutions of purified native DNA from calf thymus, E. coli bacterium, and hen erythrocyte near 20°C. The same properties were also measured for a reference solution of mononucleotides, and direct comparisons were made. Whether purified or not, the DNA spectra all closely resemble that from the monomer mixture between 300 and 360 nm but shows a broad, low level shoulder at λmax ≈ 450nm which is absent in the monomer spectrum. The φf for the purified DNA is (4 = 1) x 10-5, about half that of the monomer reference solution and unpurified DNA. The excitation spectrum is slightly red-shifted from the absorption for both the DNA and the monomer mixture, but not for the individual monomers. The fluorescence exhibits abrupt changes associated with the denaturation of DNA at ≈ 80°C and pII) 11.
Nurse-led educational campaign on blood borne pathogens and proper sharps disposal at an urban tertiary hospital in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Introduction In Africa, where the regional prevalence of HIV is the highest in the world, the rate of needlestick injuries in healthcare workers is also the highest, despite the fact that such injuries are vastly underreported. Needlestick injuries pose a significant risk to healthcare workers and are the most common source of occupational exposure to blood. Due to recurrent needlestick injuries in healthcare workers at the site, nurses from the Muhimbili National Hospital Emergency Medicine Department (MNH EMD) in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania initiated a campaign to teach health assistants, nurses, and medical doctors the hazards of needlestick injuries, and to enforce proper sharps disposal for prevention. Methods We conducted a 2-week educational campaign on hazards and prevention of needlestick injury. To evaluate the acquisition and retention of lessons from this campaign, 61 participants underwent an immediate and delayed (at 2months distance) post-training exam. To evaluate the impact of the campaign, we collected data on the rate of overfilled sharps boxes, before, during and after the campaign. Results Scores on both immediate and delayed testing on bloodborne pathogen transmission and proper sharps disposal were very high. The number of overfilled safety boxes dramatically decreased during and immediately following the training phase of this campaign, but exceeded pre-intervention levels only 2weeks after the completion of the campaign. Conclusion The results of this study suggest that even with very high levels of immediate and delayed retention of educational content as measured by exam, the impact of an educational intervention on behavioural change may be much more short-lived. This has implications regarding the need for continuous education to support for workplace safety campaigns.
Some antecedents and personality correlates of health locus of control.

The study addressed the question of whether the history of early childhood illnesses and accidents is a determinant of internal-external expectancy in the health area. In addition, it tested the hy...
Union Worker Wage Effect in the Public Sector

This study examines union wage premiums in the public sector for the 1998–2004 period. Unlike previous studies, our approach estimates union wage premiums considering differences in the rewards to education, experience, and other personal characteristics for union and non-union workers. The approach provides a larger estimated wage gap than the traditional approach, and allows for simulations of union–nonunion wage gaps for different types of workers. Moreover, we use an Oaxaca decomposition to explain the larger union–nonunion wage gap in the private sector in comparison to that in the public sector. We find that between 50% and 60% of the difference in union wage premiums between the private and public sectors is due to differences in the way unionized workers are rewarded in the private and public sectors, while the remaining portion is due to differences in personal characteristics of private and public sector workers.
Nonsense mutants of the lipid-containing bacteriophage PR4.

Thirty-three nonsense mutants of phage PR4 representing 12 complementation groupswere isolated. One or two mutants of each group were grown on a suppressor-negative (Su − ) host and characterized by the following criteria (i) proteins synthesized, (ii) level of phage DNA synthesis, and (iii) ability to assemble particles. We determined the protein and phospholipid compositions of the particles assembled in an Su − host, the presence of DNA in the particles, and the ability of the particles to adsorb to host cells. Finally each complementation group was tested for the ability to lyse an Su − host. We have identified one protein required for DNA synthesis, five proteins required for proper assembly of the protein coat and lipid membrane of the phage, two proteins required for stable insertion of DNA into the virion, a protein required for adsorption, a protein required for attachment of the adsorption protein to the virion, and a phage-encoded lytic enzyme.
Origin, course and termination of dopaminergic substantia nigra neurons projecting to the amygdaloid complex in the cat.

Abstract The organization of dopaminergic neurons projecting to the amygdala was examined using retrograde (horseradish peroxidase histochemistry) and anterograde ([3H]leucine autoradiography) transport methods and Falck-Hillarp histofluorescence techniques combined with microspectrofluorometry and radiofrequency lesions. Cell bodies located within the pars lateralis and pars compacta of the substantia nigra were found to project to the lateral and central amygdaloid nuclei, respectively. Both of these areas within the substantia nigra contained dopaminergic perikarya, while the central and lateral amygdaloid nuclei contained fluorescent varicosities with features indicative of dopaminergic neurons. Lesions restricted to the pars lateralis of the substantia nigra resulted in a loss of fluorescence in the lateral amygdaloid nucleus. Autoradiographic experiments revealed that the projections from the pars lateralis did not run with fibers originating from the pars compacta in the nigrostriatal tract but rather had their own course occupying a lateral position adjacent to the cerebral peduncle and joining the ventral amygdalo-fugal bundle. The data indicate that, in the cat, there are two separate dopaminergic projections to the amygdala arising from the substantia nigra.
Factor stimulating transcription by RNA polymerase.

A protein component usually associated with RNA polymerase can be separated from the enzyme by chromatography on phosphocellulose. The polymerase is unable to transcribe T4 DNA unless this factor is added back.
Does the Adoption of a Business Risk Audit Approach Change Internal Control Documentation and Testing Practices

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the adoption of a business risk audit approach on internal control documentation and testing. Data were collected from senior auditors before and after a change to a new business risk approach to determine if auditors' preferred internal control documentation format, as well as the number of formats commonly used, had changed. In addition, corroborating data were collected from 23 experienced managers and partners regarding preferred documentation format and extent of control testing and reasons for changes in control evaluation and testing approaches. The results suggest that auditors use narratives significantly more often and rely on other formats significantly less than previously. In addition, results indicate that the primary reason auditors choose to rely on narratives is to enhance audit efficiency, and second, because the flexibility of this format works well with the new audit approach adopted. These findings have implications for audit effectiveness, since recent research suggests that significant internal control deficiencies may be overlooked if auditors rely on a single format. Finally, auditors indicated that the frequency of testing of controls has significantly increased as a result of the enhanced audit focus on business processes.
Ab Initio Electronic Structure Study of One-Electron Reduction of Polychlorinated Ethylenes

Polychlorethylene radicals, anions, and radical anions are potential intermediates in the reduction of polychlorinated ethylenes (C2Cl4, C2HCl3, trans-C2H2Cl2, cis-C2H2Cl2, 1,1-C2H2Cl2, C2H3Cl). Ab initio electronic structure methods were used to calculate the thermochemical properties, (298.15 K), S°(298.15 K,1 bar), and ΔGS(298.15 K, 1 bar) of 37 different polychloroethylenyl radicals, anions, and radical anion complexes, C2HyCl3-y•, C2HyCl3-y-, and C2HyCl4-y•- for y = 0−3, for the purpose of characterizing reduction mechanisms of polychlorinated ethylenes. In this study, 8 radicals, 7 anions, and 22 radical anions were found to have stable structures, i.e., minima on the potential energy surfaces. This multitude of isomers for C2HyCl4-y•- radical anion complexes are π*, σ*, and −H···Cl- structures. Several stable π* radical anionic structures were obtained for the first time through the use of restricted open-shell theories. On the basis of the calculated thermochemical estimates, the overall reaction ...
Indicators of Genetic Liability to Schizophrenia: A Sibling Study of Neuropsychological Performance

Despite clear evidence of important genetic influences on schizophrenia, identifying the genes involved has been difficult because of the genetic complexity of the phenotype. The use of additional phenotypic measures that are more sensitive to the genetic liability than is the clinical diagnosis should enhance the power to detect small individual genetic effects. The present study assessed the neuropsychological performance of 30 male schizophrenia probands, 30 of their unaffected male siblings, and 20 well controls matched on age, sex, and education in order to identify measures that may be particularly sensitive to the genetic liability to schizophrenia and thus may be useful in gene mapping studies. Siblings showed impaired neuropsychological performance compared to controls on four out of the five measures used. Additional results suggested that Trails B was especially effective at discriminating index siblings from controls, thus supporting its potential utility as a candidate quantitative phenotype to aid in gene mapping studies of the disorder.
The Effects of Reward and Punishment in Violent Video Games on Aggressive Affect, Cognition, and Behavior

Three experiments examined the effects of rewarding and punishing violent actions in video games on later aggression-related variables. Participants played one of three versions of the same race-car video game: (a) a version in which all violence was rewarded, (b) a version in which all violence was punished, and (c) a nonviolent version. Participants were then measured for aggressive affect (Experiment 1), aggressive cognition (Experiment 2), and aggressive behavior (Experiment 3). Rewarding violent game actions increased hostile emotion, aggressive thinking, and aggressive behavior. Punishing violent actions increased hostile emotion, but did not increase aggressive thinking or aggressive behavior. Results suggest that games that reward violent actions can increase aggressive behavior by increasing aggressive thinking.
The social construction of trust in e-business: An empirical investigation

In this research, we investigate issues of trust affecting consumers' decisions to purchase goods on an e-business website. What interface elements make a difference in a person’s decision to trust a firm (or not) when visiting the site for the first time with no prior knowledge of the firm? What elements enhance or inhibit the social construction of trust? To investigate these questions, we use a three stage methodology: a content analysis of a pure-play electronic publishing firm's website, a usability analysis of the site, and interviews with members of the team that created the site. The findings indicate that people did not significantly change their evaluations of the trustworthiness of the site after using it, and the elements considered most important in their decision to trust the firm involved a mix of site features related to the transaction process, contact information, the online community, the products, and privacy information.
Ethics of sharing scientific and technological data: a heuristic for coping with complexity & uncertainty

Data sharing poses complex ethical questions for data management. Manifold conflicting and shifting values need to be reconciled in pursuing viable data-management policies. For example, how does one make data available in useable form to stakeholders including scientists, governments and businesses worldwide, while assuring confidentiality, satisfying one's research ethics committee, protecting intellectual property and national security, and containing costs? Increasingly, ethical problem solving requires integration of ethics with technological "know how" and empirical research on the presenting problem. Each problem is highly contextual; broad application of general ethical principles such as always practice openness, or prepare all data for sharing, may have harmful unintended consequences. Chaos theory provides a heuristic or vision for understanding and coping with complexity and uncertainty. It does not provide answers to problems of data management, but frames the issues, and provides appropriate expectations and heuristics for considering data management problems.
The specificity of T lymphocyte responses to chemically defined antigens

A system is described that allows the definition of T cell receptor specificity with some precision. It involves immunization of guinea pigs with hapten coupled to mycobacteria. The T cells of such animals respond to many but not all carriers modified by that hapten. Such T cells recognize neither hapten nor carrier alone, but rather determinants involving both the hapten and the carrier. No evidence for hapten-specific T cells was found. A model of the antigen binding site of the T cell receptor emerged from these experiments. According to this model, the T cell receptor consists of a single site of relatively large extent involving multiple subsites which are of low and roughly equal affinity. Thus, the haptenic group is not immunodominant for T cells as it is for B cells and for anti-hapten antibody. This suggests that the antigen binding receptor on T cells differs in some fundamental way from that on B cells. It is proposed that antigen recognition by T cells is mediated by an immunoglobulin heavy chain variable region that is not paired with an immunoglobulin light chain variable region.
Resolution of regional seismic models: Squeezing the Iceland anomaly

SUMMARY We present a resolution study of the velocity structure beneath Iceland as constrained by teleseismic traveltime tomography using data from the HOTSPOT seismic network. This temporary PASSCAL network and the tomographic technique that was used to generate the ICEMAN velocity models are typical of regional seismic studies. Therefore, this study also provides a basis for understanding the resolution of other regional seismic experiments. A suite of tests is used to constrain the range of velocity models that satisfy the traveltime observations on Iceland. These include ray-theoretical squeezing experiments, which attempt to force velocity anomalies into specific geometries while still satisfying the data set, and finite-frequency experiments, which use the spectral-element method (SEM) to simulate full waveform propagation through various 3-D velocity models. The use of the SEM allows the verification of the ray-theoretical ICEMAN models without the assumption of ray theory. The tests show that the ICEMAN models represent an end-member of the range of velocity models that satisfy the data set. The 200-km-width Gaussian-shaped upwelling beneath Iceland, imaged in the ICEMAN models, is at the broadest end of the allowed model range; the peak −2 per cent compressional and −4 per cent shear wave perturbations are lower bounds on the amplitude of the velocity model. Such broadening and lowering of velocity anomalies is the product of data coverage, the ray-theory approximation and regularization of the inversion. Comparison of the traveltime delays produced by a 100-km-diameter conduit as measured at short (1 s) and long (∼20 s) periods demonstrate that such a conduit cannot satisfy the observed traveltime delays. Thus the width of the upwelling conduit beneath Iceland must lie in the range of 100 to 200 km. Separate tests on the minimum depth extent of the anomaly show that significant low velocities are required to 350 km depth. Should the true conduit be at the narrower end of the possible range, both compressional and shear wave perturbations greater than 10 per cent would be required to depths of at least 350 km. Mineral physics experiments indicate that such velocity anomalies would in turn require the presence of partial melt or some other fluids to these depths. These bounds on the allowed velocity structure beneath Iceland provide a constraint on geodynamic models for the generation of the Iceland hotspot, whether it is the result of a top-down or bottom-up process.
Boiling behaviors and critical heat flux on a horizontal and vertical plate in saturated pool boiling with and without ZnO nanofluid

Abstract When considering critical heat flux (CHF), a difficult compromise has to be made between economy and safety in many types of thermal systems such as nuclear power plants. Much research work has been carried out to increase CHF values using nano-fluids and to change the characteristics of the heating surface. In this work, the pool boiling experiments were carried out with and without ZnO nano-fluid (0.01 vol.%) on a SS-304 sample in atmospheric and saturated water conditions. The experimental test loop provides the evolution of the heat flux and wall temperature from nucleate boiling to film regime, without breaking and/or damaging the sample. Thus, it was possible to carry out several consecutive tests with the same sample in the same or different fluid conditions. Three different types of test conditions were used: (a) tests with de-ionized water (DIW), (b) tests with nano-fluid (NF) and (c) tests in DIW with a sample with an initial ZnO nano-particle coating (NFC). It was found that during the tests with nano-fluid, a very sizeable layer of nano-particle deposit was formed (∼70 μm thick after five tests). The nature of the deposit phenomenon is highly transitory, and its performance changes during each test. On the other hand, the increase in CHF is probably due to the characteristics of the heating sample surface (porosity, capillary wicking, roughness and wettability) resulting from the deposit of nano-particles and not to the nano-fluids themselves. Indeed, we obtain the same level of CHF for the tests with an initial nano-particle deposit on the sample and the nano-fluid tests. Finally, for the tests with NF and NFC we found that the heat flux in the film regime is much higher than that in DIW conditions, of the order of up to 10 times due to the surface characteristics with nano-particles deposited.
Racial and Partisan Voting in a Tri-Ethnic City: The 1996 Dade County Mayoral Election

Through an analysis of the 1996 Dade County, Florida mayoral election, this article explains which is more important in vote choice in a racially-diverse polity—ethnicity or partisanship. We direct...
Non-LTI systems, a new frontier in electromagnetics theory

Nonlinear system theory has been introduced within control theory to analyze systems that are nonlinear, time-variant, or both [1]. Even when the LTI system theory can be used for the analysis and design of a controller, a nonlinear controller can have attractive characteristics (e.g., simpler implementation, increased speed, or decreased control energy). Although, nonlinearity is a well known phenomenon in the electromagnetics theory, it has not been considered greatly as a design tool as it has been used in the control theory. Linear Time Invariant systems lead us to a set of fundamental limits in the electromagnetics theory. Non-LTI system is a new frontier in electromagnetics theory to break through these fundamental limits. However, non-LTI systems usually require more rigorous mathematical analysis to justify their conclusions. One needs to rewrite most of electromagnetics equations based on nonlinear time-variant systems. One of the basic equations which is of particular interest in this paper is the ohm's law which relates the voltage (electric field) to the current (magnetic field) through impedance.
Semantics Directed Program Execution Monitoring

Monitoring semantics is a formal model of program execution which captures "monitoring activity" as found in profilers, tracers, debuggers, etc. Beyond its theoretical interest, this formalism provides a new methodology for implementing a large family of source-level monitoring activities for sequential deterministic programming languages. In this article we explore the use of monitoring semantics in the specification and implementation of a variety of monitors: profilers, tracers, collecting interpreters, and, most importantly, interactive source-level debuggers. Although we consider such monitors only for (both strict and non-strict) functional languages, the methodology extends easily to imperative languages, since it begins with a continuation semantics specification. In addition, using standard partial evaluation techniques as an optimization strategy, we show that the methodology forms a practical basis for building real monitors. Our system can be optimized at two levels of specialization: specializing the interpreter with respect to a monitor specification automatically yields an instrumented interpreter; fur- ther specializing this instrumented interpreter with respect to a source program yields an instrumented program, i.e., one in which the extra code to perform monitoring has been automatically embedded into the program.
Topographic Core-Mantle coupling in Geodynamo modeling

A 3-dimensional, fully nonlinear numerical geo- dynamo model is used to study the core-mantle coupling arising from a non-hydrostatic pressure field acting on an aspherical core-mantle boundary (CMB) based on a seismo- logical model. The simulation results demonstrate that the topographic coupling torque is close to being proportional to the square of the amplitude of the CMB topography. We conclude that the contribution of the topographic coupling to the total torque that is responsible for the axial angular momentum transfer on decadal timescales (for the decadal length-of-day variation) is significant only if the amplitude of the CMB topography is considerably larger than 3 km inferred from seismological evidence.
Clustering Appearance for Scene Analysis

We propose a new approach called "appearance clustering" for scene analysis. The key idea in this approach is that the scene points can be clustered according to their surface normals, even when the geometry, material and lighting are all unknown. We achieve this by analyzing an image sequence of a scene as it is illuminated by a smoothly moving distant source. Each pixel thus gives rise to a "continuous appearance profile" that yields information about derivatives of the BRDF w.r.t source direction. This information is directly related to the surface normal of the scene point when the source path follows an unstructured trajectory (obtained, say, by "hand-waving"). Based on this observation, we transform the appearance profiles and propose a metric that can be used with any unsupervised clustering algorithm to obtain iso-normal clusters. We successfully demonstrate appearance clustering for complex indoor and outdoor scenes. In addition, iso-normal clusters serve as excellent priors for scene geometry and can strongly impact any vision algorithm that attempts to estimate material, geometry and/or lighting properties in a scene from images. We demonstrate this impact for applications such as diffuse and specular separation, both calibrated and uncalibrated photometric stereo of non-lambertian scenes, light source estimation and texture transfer.
Dynamically weighted ensemble neural networks for classification

Combining the outputs of several neural networks into an aggregate output often gives improved accuracy over any individual output. The set of networks is known as an ensemble or committee. This paper presents an ensemble method for classification that has advantages over other techniques for linear combining. Normally, the output of an ensemble is a weighted sum whose weights are fixed, having been determined from the training or validation data. Our ensembles are weighted dynamically, the weights determined from the respective certainties of the network outputs. The more certain a network seems to be of its decision, the higher the weight.
Using protein design algorithms to understand the molecular basis of disease caused by protein–DNA interactions: the Pax6 example

Quite often a single or a combination of protein mutations is linked to specific diseases. However, distinguishing from sequence information which mutations have real effects in the protein’s function is not trivial. Protein design tools are commonly used to explain mutations that affect protein stability, or protein–protein interaction, but not for mutations that could affect protein–DNA binding. Here, we used the protein design algorithm FoldX to model all known missense mutations in the paired box domain of Pax6, a highly conserved transcription factor involved in eye development and in several diseases such as aniridia. The validity of FoldX to deal with protein–DNA interactions was demonstrated by showing that high levels of accuracy can be achieved for mutations affecting these interactions. Also we showed that proteindesign algorithms can accurately reproduce experimental DNA-binding logos. We conclude that 88% of the Pax6 mutations can be linked to changes in intrinsic stability (77%) and/or to its capabilities to bind DNA (30%). Our study emphasizes the importance of structure-based analysis to understand the molecular basis of diseases and shows that protein– DNA interactions can be analyzed to the same level of accuracy as protein stability, or protein–protein interactions.
Age-related serum immunoglobulin E levels in healthy subjects and in patients with allergic disease

Serum IgE levels were measured by a paper-disc radioimmunoassay technique (PRIST) in 425 nonallergic subjects and in 570 patients with asthma, 244 with allergic rhinitis, 48 with asthma and eczema (atopic dermatitis), 49 with eczema but without asthma, and 57 with chronic urticaria. The data are presented for age groups in geometric means and standard deviations and by modal distribution. Normal mean IgE levels for the total sample were 32 IU/ml with highest levels (mean of 51 IU/ml) in school-age children. The highest IgE levels were found in patients with both asthma and eczema (mean of 985 IU/ml), followed by asthma alone (305 IU/ml), eczema alone (273 IU/ml), and allergic rhinitis (171 IU/ml). The values for our United States population were higher than those reported from Scandinavian countries but lower than those reported from Canada. The geometric mean plus 1 SD (64 IU/ml for infants, 150 IU/ml for schoolchildren, and 100 to 120 IU/ml for all other age groups) appears to be the most useful limit of normalcy. Overlaps with normal values are largest for urticaria, eczema, and allergic rhinitis and least for patients with allergic asthma.
Giftedness and Aesthetics: Perspectives of Expert Mathematicians and Mathematically Gifted Students

Giftedness in mathematics has been characterized by exceptional attributes including strong mathematical memory, formalizing perception, generalization, curtailment, flexibility, and elegance. Focusing on the last attribute, this study examined the following: (a) the criteria which expert mathematicians and mathematically gifted students fleshed out to identify their own most preferred mathematics problem-solving approaches and (b) the extent to which students perceived expert mathematicians’ preferences for one approach over the others as aesthetically pleasing. The findings suggested that: (a) unlike expert mathematicians who saw beauty in mathematics as an exhaustive consequence of simplicity and originality, mathematically gifted students found mathematical elegance only in approaches that were efficient in terms of time and number of steps to solve the problems and (b) although expert mathematicians considered mathematically gifted students’ most preferred approaches to be the least “beautiful,” math...
Blurring Racial and Ethnic Boundaries in Asian American Families: Asian American Family Patterns, 1980-2005:

In this work, the authors use statistics from the U.S. Census to examine trends in intermarriage, racial and ethnic combinations, and categorizations among Asian Americans. Specifically, the authors want to consider the extent to which family patterns may contribute to Asian Americans and their descendants’ continuing as distinct, becoming members of some new category or categories, or simply becoming White. Based on the data analysis and discussion, it seems most likely that Whiteness will increasingly depend on the situation: Where there are Asians,Whites, and Blacks, Asians will tend to become White.Where there are only Whites, Asians, including even those of multiracial background, may well continue to be distinguished. Yet people in mixed families will be continually crossing all racial and ethnic lines in the United States, and their numbers will steadily increase.
HIV-1 inactivation by 4-vinylpyridine is enhanced by dissociating Zn2+ from nucleocapsid protein

Selective inactivation of critical cysteine residues in human immunodeficiency virus type one (HIV-1) was observed after treatment with 4-vinylpyridine (4-VP), with and without the membrane-permeable metal chelator N,N,N′,N′-tetrakis(2-pyridylmethyl)-ethylenediamine (TPEN). Chromatographic analysis showed that cysteines contained within nucleocapsid zinc fingers, in the context of whole virus or purified protein, were essentially unreactive, but became reactive when a chelator was included. Virus treated with 4-VP showed only a modest decrease in infectivity; after TPEN addition, nearly complete inactivation of HIV-1 occurred. Similarly, quantitation of viral DNA products from 4-VP-treated virus infections showed no significant effects on reverse transcription, but did show a 14-fold reduction in proviruses; when TPEN was added, a 105-fold decrease in late reverse transcription products was observed and no proviruses were detected. Since 4-VP effectiveness was greatly enhanced by TPEN, this strongly suggests that modification of nucleocapsid zinc fingers is necessary and sufficient for HIV-1 inactivation by sulfhydryl reagents.
Identification of a distant cis‐regulatory element controlling pharyngeal arch‐specific expression of zebrafish gdf6a/radar

Skeletal formation is an essential and intricately regulated part of vertebrate development. Humans and mice deficient in growth and differentiation factor 6 (Gdf6) have numerous skeletal abnormalities, including joint fusions and cartilage reductions. The expression of Gdf6 is dynamic and in part regulated by distant evolutionarily conserved cis-regulatory elements. radar/gdf6a is a zebrafish ortholog of Gdf6 and has an essential role in embryonic patterning. Here, we show that radar is transcribed in the cells surrounding and between the developing cartilages of the ventral pharyngeal arches, similar to mouse Gdf6. A 312 bp evolutionarily conserved region (ECR5), 122 kilobases downstream, drives expression in a pharyngeal arch-specific manner similar to endogenous radar/gdf6a. Deletion analysis identified a 78 bp region within ECR5 that is essential for transgene activity. This work illustrates that radar is regulated in the pharyngeal arches by a distant conserved element and suggests radar has similar functions in skeletal development in fish and mammals. Developmental Dynamics 239:1047–1060, 2010. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
Land surface temperature and emissivity retrieval from thermal infrared hyperspectral imagery

A new algorithm, optimized land surface temperature and emissivity retrieval (OLSTER), was developed to compensate for atmospheric effects and retrieve land surface temperature (LST) and emissivity from airborne thermal infrared hyperspectral data. The OLSTER algorithm is designed to retrieve both natural and man-made materials. Multi-directional or multi-temporal observations are not required, and the scenes do not have to be dominated by blackbody features. The OLSTER algorithm consists of a preprocessing step, an iterative near-blackbody pixels search, and an iterative constrained optimization loop. The preprocessing step provides initial estimates of LST per pixel and the atmospheric parameters of transmittance and upwelling radiance for the entire image. Pixels that are under- or over-compensated for the atmospheric parameters are classified as near-blackbody and lower emissivity pixels, respectively. A constrained optimization of the atmospheric parameters using generalized reduced gradients on the near-blackbody pixels ensures physical results. The downwelling radiance is estimated from the upwelling radiance by applying a look-up table of coefficients based on a polynomial regression of radiative transfer model runs for the same sensor altitude. The LST and emissivity per pixel are retrieved simultaneously using the well established ISSTES algorithm. The OLSTER algorithm can retrieve LST within about ± 2.0 K, and emissivities within about ± 0.01 based on numerical simulation.
A methodology and tool for automated derivation of functional dependencies

Business forms are used as the main input to the process of derivation of a set of functional dependencies. A form model is developed which abstracts the set of forms in a desired format. By analyzing the form schemas, a system deduces the functional dependencies which exist between the form fields. A rule-based inferential approach is used. System knowledge is divided into form selection, single-attribute-determinant identification, single-attribute-determinant functional dependencies, and multiattribute-determinant functional dependencies. The rules in the first category use knowledge about the form flow to determine the order in which the forms are analyzed. The rules in the next three categories determine functional dependencies. >
Developing a Multiethnic Ethos: How Colonial Legacies, National Policies, and Local Histories Converged in a Gambian Village Charter

This examination of local government reform in The Gambia asserts that – contra Mamdani's (1996) generalisations that colonial policies of indirect rule in Africa universally determined that ethnicity is the master code through which ordinary people interact with local manifestations of the state – in some cases colonial administration contributed to more pluralist local politics. Further, I argue that the logics of developmentalism have joined with local models of political legitimacy to generate communities that actively choose to define themselves explicitly as multiethnic entities. My case study focuses on the process conducted in one village of drafting a constitution for its Village Development Committee in anticipation of the Local Government Act of 2000. That a local community took advantage of such a critical juncture to reassert its own moral order is not surprising; however, that this local moral order explicitly recognises and protects ethnic diversity runs counter to dominant narratives about Africa that equate ethnic diversity with conflict.
Does the Working Class Have a Culture in the Anthropological Sense

Recent work at the University of Birmingham's Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies has raised an interesting new problematic for cultural theory. A number of anthropologists studying ideology and cultural hegemony are already working on these questions and producing new studies of cultural reproduction and resistance. This article starts with Paul Willis's concept of a class culture and further develops his ideas with critical theory, symbolic interactionist, and anthropological perspectives. This reading of class and cultural theory suggests a more political concept of culture and cultural assimilation. It also suggests a variety of different questions that anthropologists can ask about everyday cultural life and communicative practices in capitalist societies. This perspective was used in an ethnographic study of cultural reproduction and resistance in one South Texas high school (Foley 1989). The analysis of class culture reproduction is part of a community-level class analysis of the Chicano civil rights movement (Foley et al. 1988).
Understanding the Diverse Forms of Nonprofit Collaborations: A Case Study of Communities in Schools of North Texas and its Partner Organizations

The purpose of this study is to understand and categorize the diverse forms of collaborations, and explore the challenges of cross sector collaborations. To achieve these purposes, we analyze documentation of 132 collaborative partnerships of Communities in School of North Texas (CISNT), and conduct interviews with select partners of CISNT. Our results suggest that the nature of collaborations vary. Partnerships tend to be informal and resource sharing. The findings further indicate that nonprofits face challenges in the collaborative process including management of accountability and interorganizational communication.
Pragmatism Without Principle?: How a Comprehensive Treaty on Business and Human Rights Ought to Be Framed, Why It Can’t, and the Dangers of the Pragmatic Turn in Treaty Crafting

In June 2014, an “open-ended intergovernmental working group to elaborate an international legally binding instrument to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises” (IGWG) was established to overcome a number of purported deficiencies that some states and civil society actors had expressed about the soft law U.N. Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights framework, endorsed by the Human Rights Council in 2011. Any move from regulatory systems grounded in Guiding Principles to one grounded in Treaty making raises two questions. The first is normative: what are the substantive goals of such a treaty. The second is operational: how should those goals be expressed in an international treaty? Both questions go to the fundamental ordering principles of regulatory construction and way such principles are developed and applied. After a short introduction, the essay first considers the great framework principles that might be extracted from the mandate for treaty elaboration of the IGWG. Those principles provide the objectives and substantive principles around which a comprehensive treaty will be elaborated. The essay then turns to the consideration of two levels of principles that may be used to guide pragmatic choices in treaty elaboration. The first touches on the great framework principles that give the treaty its structure and coherence within the objectives of the mandate. These suggest the range of ideological choices that must serve as a starting point for treaty drafting that is principled. Pragmatism follows from the need to choose among these framing principles or work through ways of blending them that avoid incoherence of the treaty as a whole. The second touches on issues of application of framing principle in the actual drafting of treaty provisions. Distinct framing principles privilege or emphasize distinct sets of provisions. Coordinating principle and provision — or moderating that connection suggests the scope of pragmatism that most take for granted (as the routine “wheeling and dealing” of negotiation, but which are guided by the usually unstated normative frameworks the purpose of which is to ensure coherence and fidelity to the basic ideological foundation of the draft.
Four to Foxtrot: How Visual Motion Is Computed in the Fly Brain

In this issue of Neuron, Serbe et al. (2016) use cell-type-specific genetic tools to record and manipulate all major inputs to directionally selective neurons in Drosophila. Their results localize the site of motion computation and reveal unexpected complexity of temporal tuning in the underlying neural circuit.
Shell Condition and Breeding Success in Tanner Crabs

ABSTRACT When pairs of similar-sized old-shell and new-shell male Chionoecetes bairdi Rathbun were presented with multiparous mates, the old-shell males dominated during 70% of the copulations. In 39% of all copulations, possession of the female was contested. Old-shell males won 69% of those contested matings. Males that recently molted did not copulate with either primiparous or multiparous females.