cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Agrarian Sustainability and Its Governance – Understanding, Evaluation, Improvement

Research on agrarian sustainability and its governance is still at the beginning stage due to the “newness” of the problem, emerging new challenges, fundamental modernization during recent years, “lack” of long-term experiences and relevant data, application of narrow (certain form or management level); one-dimensional, unisectorial, normative, without transaction costs etc. approaches. The goal of this paper is to suggest a modern, holistic and practical framework for analyzing and assessing the system of governance of agrarian sustainability. Interdisciplinary frameworks of the New Institutional Economics and Sustainable Development are incorporated and agrarian sustainability property defined, principle mechanisms and modes of governance (institutions, market, private, public, hybrid) of agrarian sustainability classified, and a holistic approach for identifying components and factors, assessing efficiency of governance and sustainability levels, and improving the system of governance presented.
Statement of Matthew L. M. Fletcher Before the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs -- Oversight Hearing on Fulfilling the Federal Trust Responsibility: The Foundation of the Government-to-Government Relationship

Today, I hope to provide a brief overview of the historic underpinnings of the federal trust responsibility to Indian nations; discuss the current status of the trust relationship in light of the laudable Congressional policy supporting tribal self-determination and the lamentable Supreme Court jurisprudence in the field; and offer a few suggestions on the future of the trust responsibility and Congress’s role in dealing with Indian affairs.
Improper Learning by Refuting

The sample complexity of learning a Boolean-valued function class is precisely characterized by its Rademacher complexity. This has little bearing, however, on the sample complexity of efficient agnostic learning. We introduce refutation complexity, a natural computational analog of Rademacher complexity of a Boolean concept class and show that it exactly characterizes the sample complexity of efficient agnostic learning. Informally, refutation complexity of a class C is the minimum number of example-label pairs required to efficiently distinguish between the case that the labels correlate with the evaluation of some member of C (structure) and the case where the labels are i.i.d. Rademacher random variables (noise). The easy direction of this relationship was implicitly used in the recent framework for improper PAC learning lower bounds of Daniely and co-authors via connections to the hardness of refuting random constraint satisfaction problems. Our work can be seen as making the relationship between agnostic learning and refutation implicit in their work into an explicit equivalence. In a recent, independent work, Salil Vadhan discovered a similar relationship between refutation and PAC-learning in the realizable (i.e. noiseless) case.
Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) Aboard the OSIRIS-REx Asteroid Sample Return Mission

The Regolith X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (REXIS) is the student collaboration experiment proposed and built by an MIT-Harvard team, launched aboard NASA’s OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample return mission. REXIS complements the scientific investigations of other OSIRIS-REx instruments by determining the relative abundances of key elements present on the asteroid’s surface by measuring the X-ray fluorescence spectrum (stimulated by the natural solar X-ray flux) over the range of energies 0.5 to 7 keV. REXIS consists of two components: a main imaging spectrometer with a coded aperture mask and a separate solar X-ray monitor to account for the Sun’s variability. In addition to element abundance ratios (relative to Si) pinpointing the asteroid’s most likely meteorite association, REXIS also maps elemental abundance variability across the asteroid’s surface using the asteroid’s rotation as well as the spacecraft’s orbital motion. Image reconstruction at the highest resolution is facilitated by the coded aperture mask. Through this operation, REXIS will be the first application of X-ray coded aperture imaging to planetary surface mapping, making this student-built instrument a pathfinder toward future planetary exploration. To date, 60 students at the undergraduate and graduate levels have been involved with the REXIS project, with the hands-on experience translating to a dozen Master’s and Ph.D. theses and other student publications.
Standard sensations: the production of objective experience from industrial technique

Sensory evaluation is the food-science discipline that “comprises a set of techniques for accurate measurement of human responses to foods”. In lay terms, sensory evaluation seeks to objectively describe the nominally subjective sensory properties of food without using physical measurements. However, the techniques used by sensory scientists in pursuit of accurate measurements of subjectivity are largely contingent on the assumptions and goals of the food industry. Food-industry needs implicitly define which foods have “true” tastes, and what those tastes are. This paper examines one way in which the US food industry defines and delimits food sensations through a focus on Descriptive Analysis (DA), which sensory-analysis experts Lawless and Heymann call “the most sophisticated tools in the [sensory scientist’s] arsenal” – and in particular the form of DA called “Spectrum”. I argue that Spectrum panel-members are trained into a particular subjectivity stemming from (literal) food-industry standards...
Infrared observations of RhNCO and SiNCO species formed during the reduction of NO by CO over silica-supported rhodium

Abstract Infrared studies of NO reduction by CO over Rh SiO 2 give clear indication of the presence of RhNCO species characterized by a band at 2170–2200 cm −1 . The surface coverage by this species is greatest under conditions where the NO partial pressure is low and the CO partial pressure is high. The NCO Groups present on Rh are very unstable and decompose immediately when the reduction of NO ceases. The in situ infrared spectra also show evidence for SiNCO groups characterized by bands at 2300 and 1460 cm −1 . These species appear to be formed by spillover of isocyanates from the rhodium microcrystallites onto the support. Once formed, the SiNCO groups are quite stable and are not readily decomposed.
The Role of Oral Language in Early Writing Processes.

Participant observation was used to examine the role of oral language in early writing. Data collection took place daily over a three-month period in a kindergarten classroom. The researcher set up a writing center in which children were asked simply to write, according to their own definition of writing. She observed and interacted with the children to gain insight into their perceptions of writing and their reasoning about writing behaviors, focusing particularly on five children selected as case studies. Data consisted of audiotaped recordings of the children's talk at the center, written products, observational notes, and interviews with the children and their parents. Findings included analyses of children's talk while writing and hypotheses regarding each child's knowledge of the relationship between talk and writing. On the basis of these findings, developmental inferences were made regarding how children use speech to make sense of written language: initially talk is used to invest written graphics with meaning; eventually talk is viewed as the substance of written language. A young child laboriously prints her sister's name and then, with ease, talks about that sister. A competent user of oral language, she is beginning to control a new symbolic medium written language. The popular belief is that, for her and for all young writers, a working knowledge of the structure and function of talk serves as the basis of writing growth (Britton, 1970). Thus, language arts methods books urge prospective teachers to develop children's writing ability by building upon their proficiency in oral language. These texts often describe early written products as "talk written down" (e.g., Lee & Rubin, 1979; Savage, 1977). To quote Britton (1970, p. 164), "writing begins as written down speech." Descriptions of emerging writing appear to assume (a) that young children's writing processes are essentially similar to those of adults (i.e., that they involve the communication of a message which is at least partially formulated before pen touches paper), and (b) that early writing is language (cf. Harste, Burke, & Woodward, in press; Sowers, 1979). Despite these assumptions, there is no concrete description available of how children use talk in their early attempts at writing. What is the role of oral language in early writing processes? Empirically-based answers to this question should contribute to the formulation of both a theoretical framework of writing development (King & Rentel, 1979) and effective Research in the Teaching of English, Vol. 17, No. 1, February 1983
Emergent Neurologic Events

Because the spectrum of severity of neurologic events ranges from minor to life-threatening, and many neurologic reasons exist to seek health care, this article focuses on some of the more common pathologies. A general assessment plan is presented that may be adapted for the specific problems that individual patients present. Pain is discussed in relation to the nociceptor transmission of painful stimuli. An example of pain from a neurogenic shock-induced migraine headache is discussed from pathogenesis, presentation, and intervention viewpoints. Alterations in cerebral blood flow, cerebrovascular accidents, and subarachnoid hemorrhage are reviewed from a pathophysiologic perspective.
Feature recognition using correlated information contained in multiple neighborhoods

Parameter transforms play a very important role in the recognition of geometric features in image data. Local operators devised to compute parametric descriptions of geometric entities using a small neighborhood p(x,y) about points of interest have been succesfully employed. These operators fail to exploit the long distance correlations present in the image (distant points belonging to the same feature). Thus, their accuracy decreases with the order of the parametric properties (e.g., position, direction, curvature, torsion, etc.) and they are very sensitive to noise. This paper presents a generalized neighborhood concept that allows parameter-extraction operators to use the joint information of different portions of the same feature. This produces up to a few orders of magnitude improvement in accuracy (signal/noise ratio) and a smoother response of the transform. A general framework, based on a connectionist approach, is presented to deal with the complex response in parameter space generated by such operators. A layered and concurrent scheme to extract 3D surfaces intersection curves is presented which, exploiting the properties of these operators, is able to reconstruct lines and conic sections in three-space.
Glyphosate translocation and efficacy relationships in red maple, sweetgum, and loblolly pine seedlings.

Les effets de la date de traitement et du stress hydrique sur l'absorption, la translocation et l'efficacite du glyphosate ont ete etudies. Les reponses de trois especes (Pinus taeda, Acer rubrum et Liquidambar styraciflua) de sensibilite differente au glyphosate ont ete comparees. Puis les relations entre les differences d'efficacite et les modes d'absorption et de translocation de l'herbicide ont ete evaluees
Tinea Corporis, Tinea Versicolor, and Candidiasis

Superficial mycoses, also called fungal infections, are the most common type of skin infections, affecting 20–25 % of people worldwide. The prevalence of mycoses is increasing, and the causative organisms have shifted or changed over the past several decades. The change in causative organisms seen in various geographic locations has been influenced by migration as well as changes in socioeconomic conditions and lifestyle. Common causes of tinea corporis, tinea (pityriasis) versicolor and candidiasis will be reviewed. The typical clinical presentations along with methods of diagnosis and treatment will be discussed.
Volume dependence in hypoxia-targeted dose escalation

PURPOSE Dose painting techniques based on dose escalation to hypoxic regions are usually governed by the spatial distribution of Oxygen Enhancement Ratio (OER) derived from PET or MRI images. The goal of this article is to show that the volume of the hypoxic region is also a parameter which may affect the radiobiological effectiveness of hypoxia-targeted dose escalation. METHODS Our analysis is performed using the equation for Tumor Control Probability (TCP) derived from Poisson statistics. A tumor response model based on two levels of oxygenated and hypoxic cells with the survival curves described by the Linear Quadratic (LQ) model was used in the calculations. The model allows for analytical solutions which can be used for additional validation of our numerical simulations. The model was used to compute the average tumor cell survival that defines TCP. Dependence of average tumor cell survival on the relative hypoxic volume and dose escalation was computed for the conventional 30 × 2 Gy and hypofractionated 4 × 12 Gy dose regimens in a model problem with radiobiological parameters for nonsmall cell lung cancer. RESULTS We show that equal average tumor cell survival and TCP can be achieved with smaller hypoxia-targeted dose escalation for smaller relative hypoxic volumes if the dose escalation does not exceed 50% of dose in the oxygenated region. This effect is explained by the dependence of average tumor cell survival and TCP mostly on the hypoxic tumor volume in this dose escalation range. Assuming a linear relationship between the number of clonogens and the hypoxic volume, smaller hypoxic volumes have smaller number of clonogens, therefore, smaller doses are needed to eradicate them. CONCLUSIONS The theoretical analysis performed in this article predicts that tumors with smaller relative hypoxic volumes may require smaller hypoxia-targeted dose escalation to maintain equal TCP. The results of this research can be used for dose de-escalation strategies in dose painting techniques which may reduce dose to normal tissue and normal tissue complications without deterioration of TCP.
Surgery in the Patient with Chronic Liver Disease

Patients with chronic liver disease including cirrhosis are now being offered surgery more than ever before. Surgical risk in the patient with cirrhosis is complex and depends on multiple factors including severity of liver disease, surgical procedure, urgency of the procedure, type of sedation, and presence of comorbid conditions. However, there are currently no rigorous evidence-based guidelines to aid the clinician in the management of the patient with chronic liver disease undergoing surgery. Many studies regarding the subject are small, retrospective, and outdated. In this chapter, we outline the principles involved in the management of patients with chronic liver disease undergoing surgery.
Energy and time constrained scheduling for optimized quality of service

Abstract Minimizing the total completion time has practical application in providing the best quality of service. We consider energy and time constrained task scheduling for minimized total completion time and minimized total energy consumption. We show that there is a polynomial time algorithm to find a nonpreemptive schedule with the minimum total completion time for a given total energy consumption constraint. Similarly, there is a polynomial time algorithm to find a nonpreemptive schedule with the minimum total energy consumption for a given total completion time constraint.
Concise and stereoselective synthesis of the N7-C25 fragment of psymberin.

The N7−C25 fragment of the potent and selective cytotoxic agent psymberin has been prepared through a short (12 linear steps, 15 total steps) and stereoselective sequence. Highlights of this route include a very rapid construction of the pentasubstituted arene, a substrate-controlled diastereoselective fragment coupling using a Mukaiyama aldol reaction, and an efficient entry into a key tetrahydropyranyl cyanide.
Observations of Extreme Short-Term Precipitation Associated with Supercells and Mesovortices

AbstractExtreme hourly rainfall accumulations (e.g., exceeding 75 mm h−1) in several noteworthy flash flood events have suggested that the most intense accumulations were attendant with discrete me...
Biorenewable triblock copolymers consisting of l-lactide and ε-caprolactone for removing organic pollutants from water: a lifecycle neutral solution

Current methods of removing organic pollutants from water are becoming ineffective as the world population increases. In this study, a series of biorenewable triblock copolymers with hydrophobic poly(e-caprolactone) block and hydrophilic poly(l-lactide) blocks were synthesized and tested as agents to remove environmental pollutants from an aqueous solution. The percent of pollutant removed and equilibrium inclusion constants were calculated for the polymers. These values were compared to previously known removal agents for their effectiveness. Triblock copolymer samples removed over 70% of the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) phenanthrene from an aqueous solution, with selectivity for the adsorption of phenanthrene over other PAHs tested. The inclusion constant was 7.4 × 105 M−1 and adsorption capacity was 5.8 × 10−7 mol phenanthrene/g polymer. Rose Bengal was used to further probe the nature of interactions between the copolymers and a small molecule guest. Solid samples of the block-poly(l-lactide)–block-poly(e-caprolactone)–block-poly(l-lactide) (PLLA–PCL–PLLA) systems were found to rapidly remove over 90% of Rose Bengal from aqueous solution, resulting in a complete disappearance of the characteristic pink color. Solutions of the copolymers in dichloromethane also removed Rose Bengal from water with a similar level of efficiency. Large inclusion constant values were obtained, ranging from 1.0 × 105 to 7.9 × 105 M−1, and the average adsorption capacity value of 6.2 × 10−7 mol/g polymer was determined. Aged polymer samples exhibited different adsorption characteristics and mechanistic theories for the removal of Rose Bengal were determined. The triblock copolymer consisting of l-lactide and e-caprolactone was effective in removing various organic pollutants in aqueous environments. It is a biorenewable material which leads to minimal waste production during its lifecycle. These polymers were in general more effective in removing organic pollutants than commercially available pollution removal systems.
Energy Efficiency Optimization of Heterogeneous Networks with SWIPT: A Cell-Load Perspective

In a heterogeneous cellular network (HetNet) consisting of multiple different types (tiers) of base stations (BSs), the void cell event in which a BS does not have any users has been shown to exist due to user-centric BS association and its probability is dominated by the cell load of each tier. Such a void cell phenomenon has not been well characterized in the modeling and analytical framework of simultaneous wireless information and power transmission (SWIPT) in a HetNet. This paper aims to accurately analyze the energy efficiency of the HetNet with SWIPT by modeling the cell-load impact on the downlink and uplink transmissions of each BS. We first characterize the power-splitting receiver architecture of SWIPT at a user and then specify the model of energy harvesting. First, the rates of users in the downlink and uplink are accurately found for the generalized user association scheme and then they are used to define the energy efficiency of users in the downlink and uplink. We formulate an optimization problem to maximize the energy efficiency under the constraints on the outage probability of energy harvesting and the defined self-power sustainability. Finally, we show that the feasible solutions to the optimization problem indeed exist if certain conditions are satisfied.
How to Regulate (and Not Regulate) Social Media

This essay is the text of a keynote address given at the Association for Computing Machinery conference on Computer Science and Law on October 28, 2019. To understand how to regulate social media you must first understand why you want to regulate it. We should regulate social media companies because they are key institutions in the twenty-first century digital public sphere. A public sphere does not work properly without trusted and trustworthy intermediate institutions that are guided by professional and public-regarding norms. The current economic incentives of social media companies hinder them from playing this crucial role and lead them to adopt policies and practices that actually undermine the health and vibrancy of the digital public sphere. The point of regulating social media is to create incentives for social media companies to become responsible and trustworthy institutions that will help foster a healthy and vibrant digital public sphere. It is equally important to ensure that there are a large number of different kinds of social media companies, with diverse affordances, value systems, and innovations. Treating social media companies as state actors or as public utilities does not solve the problems of the digital public sphere. One might create a public option for social media services, but this, too, cannot serve as a general solution to the problems that social media create. Instead, this essay describes three policy levers that might create better incentives for privately-owned companies: (1) antitrust and competition law; (2) privacy and consumer protection law; and (3) a careful balance of intermediary liability and intermediary immunity rules.
Analytical Methods for Monitoring the Degradation of Plasmonic Nanoparticles in Solution: An Instrumental Analysis Laboratory Exercise

Nanoparticles are an increasingly important tool in chemistry research, but currently there are few opportunities for chemistry students to work with nanoparticles in undergraduate analytical cours...
Polymorphic Toxins and Their Immunity Proteins: Diversity, Evolution, and Mechanisms of Delivery

All bacteria must compete for growth niches and other limited environmental resources. These existential battles are waged at several levels, but one common strategy entails the transfer of growth-inhibitory protein toxins between competing cells. These antibacterial effectors are invariably encoded with immunity proteins that protect cells from intoxication by neighboring siblings. Several effector classes have been described, each designed to breach the cell envelope of target bacteria. Although effector architectures and export pathways tend to be clade specific, phylogenetically distant species often deploy closely related toxin domains. Thus, diverse competition systems are linked through a common reservoir of toxin-immunity pairs that is shared via horizontal gene transfer. These toxin-immunity protein pairs are extraordinarily diverse in sequence, and this polymorphism underpins an important mechanism of self/nonself discrimination in bacteria. This review focuses on the structures, functions, and delivery mechanisms of polymorphic toxin effectors that mediate bacterial competition.
Korean American Youth and Their Mothers: Intergenerational Differences and Consequences

This chapter examines the links and mechanisms associated with intergenerational cultural conflict, psychological distress, and the intergenerational differences in acculturation and model minority stereotype (MMS) endorsement for South Korean immigrants. Specifically, applying Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological theory, the microsystem and macrosystem factors are examined for Korean American adolescents’ (ages 12–19, M = 15.3 years, SD = 1.71). The microsystem includes their mothers’ (N = 209 dyads) acculturation and MMS endorsement in relation to the adolescents’ as well as intergenerational cultural conflict. The macrosystem included the cultural context under which the MMS and intergenerational cultural conflict occurred. Results indicated that when mothers and their adolescents differed in their acculturation, they also differed in their endorsement of the MMS. Next, as expected, the adolescents who had mothers who were not as acculturated to the American culture, experienced more cultural conflict with their parents and, in turn, felt more psychological distress. Furthermore, the adolescents who had mothers who endorsed the MMS to a greater degree, experienced more cultural conflict with their parents and, in turn, felt more psychological distress.
Using Crayfish Burrows to Illustrate Simple Ecological Field Techniques

Ecological field techniques such as transect surveys are long-used, integral means of immersing students in field exercises to illustrate ecological measures. Many species of crayfish create conspicuous burrows within or near aquatic habitats. Such burrows can easily be identified and measured by students during an ecological field exercise. In this article, we describe a field activity we developed as part of a college-level course in which students utilized transects and calipers to collect counts and measurements of crayfish burrows in order to evaluate their distribution and size among different substratum types along a small stream. This field exercise could be incorporated, with or without modification, into an applicable high school or introductory/intermediate college biology course as a means of illustrating ecological concepts, sampling technique, and/or behavioral biology.
Undulating Plate Type Propeller: The Two-Dimensional Ideal Case

The motion of a two-dimensional flexible undulating plate in an incompressible ideal fluid flow is investigated. Employing an iterative numerical technique the motion of the plate and the hydrodynamic pressure distribution are found together with the resulting thrust or drag. The power input is calculated from the work of the exciting force per cycle, and the propulsive efficiency is defined in terms of thrust, free-stream velocity, and power input. For a given plate configuration in the frequency ranges studied, the propulsive efficiency is dependent on the reduced frequency only and reaches 50 percent. Plans for the continuation of this investigation are indicated.
Simultaneous heat and mass transfer in binary distillation—II: Experimental

Abstract A theoretical study of simultaneous heat and mass transfer in binary distillation has shown that heat and mass transfer coefficients can be appropriately evaluated if liquid phase temperatures and compositions are measured as functions of height in a column. In this study, the experiments were carried out in a wetted-wall column using a methanol-water binary system at one atmosphere. Special probes were designed to determine the state of the liquid phase. Temperatures were measured with microthermocouples and liquid samples were analyzed with a high precision refractometer. The liquid phase was found to be saturated which indicated, in accordance with the conclusions from a theoretical study, that all the resistance to mass transfer was in the vapor phase. Local transfer coefficients were calculated using the composition data as a function of column height. The results were correlated by an equation showing close agreement with the Chilton-Colburn equation. k y a m V = 0.039 Sc y − 2 3 Re y −0.20 cm −1 . It is concluded that mass transfer in the vapor phase is the controlling resistance in distillation and that there is no additional evaporation within the liquid phase caused by heat transferred from the vapor phase as proposed by some previous investigators.
Trilinear coordinates in fluid mechanics

When in a physical problem three variable quantities add to a constant, it is possible to introduce a convenient geometrical representation of the variables in terms of trilinear coordinates. This usually permits an overview of the ranges of variation of the variables that is useful for qualitative analysis, and may point to quantitative insights that would be difficult to obtain in any other way. A brief historical discussion of trilinear coordinates is given, and examples of their use in solving flow problems are cited, including laminar flow in a pipe; the interaction of point vortices; and Lumley’s representation of the eigenvalues of the anisotropy tensor for turbulent flow.
A design-first curriculum and Eclipse™ tools

This tutorial introduces a curriculum and tools supporting a design-first pedagogy for teaching object-oriented programming in a CS1 course (Moritz and Blank 2005, Moritz et al. 2005). Design-first emphasizes the "big picture of software development"---how to understand and solve a customer's problem, rather than just coding. The design-first approach subsumes objects-first---instead of a "Hello, World" program, in the first lesson students learn how to use classes, constructors and methods to create scenes out of graphical objects. They also quickly learn how to develop use cases to analyze a customer's problem, and then how to design class diagrams in Unified Modeling Language (UML). Interactive multimedia courseware helps introduce these concepts (Blank et al. 2003). Students learn how to manipulate objects using the open-source Eclipse IDE with the DrJava interactive interpreter plug-in. They design class diagrams in the LehighUML plug-in, which automatically generates skeletons of Java source code. The LehighUML plug-in also sends each step of student work to a server, where an intelligent tutoring system analyzes their work and provides hints and lessons (Blank et al. 2005 and Wei et al. 2005).
Statistical distribution of blood serotonin as a predictor of early autistic brain abnormalities.

Background A wide range of abnormalities has been reported in autistic brains, but these abnormalities may be the result of an earlier underlying developmental alteration that may no longer be evident by the time autism is diagnosed. The most consistent biological finding in autistic individuals has been their statistically elevated levels of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT, serotonin) in blood platelets (platelet hyperserotonemia). The early developmental alteration of the autistic brain and the autistic platelet hyperserotonemia may be caused by the same biological factor expressed in the brain and outside the brain, respectively. Unlike the brain, blood platelets are short-lived and continue to be produced throughout the life span, suggesting that this factor may continue to operate outside the brain years after the brain is formed. The statistical distributions of the platelet 5-HT levels in normal and autistic groups have characteristic features and may contain information about the nature of this yet unidentified factor.
Compact development and VMT—Environmental determinism, self-selection, or some of both?

There is a long-running debate in the planning literature about the effects of the built environment on travel behavior and the degree to which apparent effects are due to the tendency of households to self-select into neighborhoods that reinforce their travel preferences. Those who want to walk will choose walkable neighborhoods, and those who want to use transit will choose transit-served neighborhoods. These households might have walked or used transit more than their neighbors wherever they lived. Most previous studies have shown that individual attitudes attenuate the relationship between the residential environment and travel choices, and so the effect of the built environment on travel may be overestimated. But there are other researchers who argue the reverse, claiming that residential preferences reinforce built environmental influences. This study assesses the relative importance of the built environment and residential preferences/travel attitudes for a sample of 962 households in the Greater S...
Prognostic Factors Analysis of 17,600 Melanoma Patients: Validation of the American Joint Committee on Cancer Melanoma Staging System

PURPOSE: The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) recently proposed major revisions of the tumor-node-metastases (TNM) categories and stage groupings for cutaneous melanoma. Thirteen cancer centers and cancer cooperative groups contributed staging and survival data from a total of 30,450 melanoma patients from their databases in order to validate this staging proposal. PATIENTS AND METHODS: There were 17,600 melanoma patients with complete clinical, pathologic, and follow-up information. Factors predicting melanoma-specific survival rates were analyzed using the Cox proportional hazards regression model. Follow-up survival data for 5 years or longer were available for 73% of the patients. RESULTS: This analysis demonstrated that (1) in the T category, tumor thickness and ulceration were the most powerful predictors of survival, and the level of invasion had a significant impact only within the subgroup of thin (≤ 1 mm) melanomas; (2) in the N category, the following three independent factors were ide...
Allegations of maltreatment and delinquency: Does risk of juvenile arrest vary substantiation status?

Abstract There exists a healthy debate about the process and value of substantiation in child welfare. Much of this debate focuses on understanding whether substantiated and unsubstantiated allegations of maltreatment share equal risk of recurrence. In the current study we seek to advance this debate by extending the analyses to focus specifically on the risk of juvenile delinquency. We also seek to determine whether the relationship between substantiation and delinquency varies by race and gender. Our sample includes 38,223 youth between 5 and 16 years of age from Los Angeles County. We use propensity score matching to create relatively equivalent groups and use Cox Regression to model the risk of juvenile arrest. The results indicate that the relative risk ratio of arrest is 2.2 times greater for youth associated with a substantiated report of maltreatment as compared with similar youth associated with an unsubstantiated report of maltreatment. Older youth, and African American youth are also at an increased risk of juvenile arrest. These findings indicate that the process of substantiation is not without merit – as investigators and supervisors are clearly able to distinguish cases based on individual risks and strengths.
Are medical and nonmedical uses of large-scale genomic markers conflating genetics and 'race'?

“...with each birth and each death we alter the genetic attributes of human populations and drawing a line around an ephemeral entity like a human race is an exercise in futility and idiocy.” —Pat Shipman, The Evolution of Racism
DEFINING WEALTH, RETHINKING DEVELOPMENT, ACHIEVING SUSTAINABILITY

For the World Bank the “achievement of sustained and equitable development remains the greatest challenge facing the human race.” But equitable development has not been achieved. We must not, therefore, merely sustain the kind of development we already have.
Neutrino radiation at muon colliders and storage rings

Intense highly collimated neutrino beams, created from muon decays at high-energy muon colliders or storage rings, cause significant radiation problems even at very large distances from the machine. A recently developed weighted neutrino interaction generator permits detailed Monte Carlo simulations of the interactions of neutrinos and of their progeny with the MARS code. Special aspects of neutrino radiation dose evaluation are discussed. Dose distributions in a tissue-equivalent phantom are calculated when irradiated with 100 MeV to 10 TeV neutrino beams. Results are obtained for a bare phantom, one embedded in several shielding materials, and one located at various distances behind a shield. Neutrino radiation is investigated around muon storage rings serving as the basis for neutrino factories. The most challenging problem of off-site neutrino dose from muon colliders and storage rings is studied. The distance from the collider ring (up to 60 km) at which the expected dose rates equals prescribed annual dose limits is calculated for 0.5--4 TeV muon colliders and 30 and 50 GeV muon storage rings. Possible mitigation of neutrino radiation problems are discussed and investigated.
Protein expression by Streptococcus uberis in co-culture with bovine mammary epithelial cells

Three strains of Streptococcus uberis isolated from dairy cows with mastitis were co-cultured with a bovine mammary epithelial cell line (MAC-T) in Dulbecco's modified Eagle's medium without fetal bovine serum. Protein profiles from culture supernatants and bacterial pellets among different treatments were compared by electrophoresis. There were proteins induced or having increased expression in both supernatant and surface-associated samples from S. uberis co-cultured with MAC-T cells. Some of these proteins were recognized by antibodies in serum obtained from a cow infected by S. uberis. In supernatant samples, there were two distinct protein bands at 35 and 36.8 kDa for all three strains of S. uberis co-cultured with MAC-T cells. These two bands were absent when bacterial protein synthesis was inhibited by chloramphenicol. This study clearly indicates that bacterial protein expression was regulated in response to co-culture with mammary epithelial cells.
Illustration Of A Beam-Hardening Correction Method In Computerized Tomography

A previously proposed method for beam hardening correction is illustrated using a mathematically described phantom based on an actual reconstructed cross-section of a human head. The method consists of a combination of polynomial correction of the polyenergetic data and an iterative estimation of the monoenergetic data based on previous reconstructions The quality of reconstructions is found to be similar to those which can be obtained from monoenergetic data.© (1979) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Molecular Method Development and Establishment of a Database for Clinical and Epidemiological Herpes Simplex Virus 1 Strain Comparisons

Previous methods of herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1) genotype analysis have lacked sufficient discriminatory power for strain analysis within genotypes. The hypervariable reiterative repeat regions in the US1 and US12 introns, known as ReIV, were targeted for strain comparison. PCR methods for these extremely GC-rich target regions were optimized to give reproducible amplicons that were visualized by capillary electrophoresis relative to size standards. Analysis of the size, shape, and pattern of the resulting signatures enabled strain discrimination. Primary clinical specimens were used to develop the assay and the analysis algorithm. A blinded clinical study of 147 in-state and 51 out-of-state samples, including matched specimen-isolate pairs, was then performed. All primary clinical samples had been collected between 2004 and 2011 for viral diagnosis and previously found to be positive for HSV-1 by real-time PCR. The combined database contained patterns from 264 samples collected from 199 patients with a total of 176 unique signatures, none of which were dominant in the population. Matches between the signatures of the more than 50 specimen-isolate pairs were always seen. Signatures also matched across multiple samples collected from individual patients (six such cases), as well as some additional signature matches where epidemiological links were likely. Results were reproducible on repeat testing of individual specimens, even after months in frozen storage. The protocol has multiple potential clinical and public health uses.
On Sinking and Swimming: The Dialectic of Hope, Hopelessness, and Acceptance in Terminal Cancer

For terminally ill cancer patients, hope and hopelessness are constructs that significantly impact quality of life. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between hope and hopelessness in advanced cancer and to identify factors that maintain hope and increase vulnerability to hopelessness. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 22 terminally ill cancer patients. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic content analysis to identify patient definitions of these terms and associated cognitions and emotions. Hope and hopelessness were identified as distinct, often co-occurring, and dialectically interacting constructs. The relationship between hope and hopelessness often balanced on acceptance, perceived as diametrically opposed to hopelessness, and conducive to redirecting hope toward new goals. Positive interpersonal relationships enhanced hope, and uncontrolled physical pain increased vulnerability to hopelessness.
Conflict management and community support for conservation in the Northern Forest: Case studies from Maine

Abstract Rapid land ownership changes in the Northern Forest of the eastern United States have spurred development as well as conservation. Local people have experienced differing degrees of participation in land use decisions. We examine two conservation projects from the Northern Forest state of Maine. This paper presents the policy processes from these projects and an assessment of their impact on conflict and support for the project. One project was a top-down approach, and the second was a grassroots, private effort by local citizens to conserve forestland. We gathered data via person interviews, mail surveys, and analysis of legislative testimony. Our findings indicate that early local involvement leads to less conflict and greater acceptance of the project. Important aspects of effective public involvement include shared learning and two-way dialogue. In addition, we found that regardless of the process employed, respondents were generally satisfied with the outcomes of the processes.
Ukpik: testbed for a miniaturized robotic astronomical observatory on a high Arctic mountain

Mountains along the northwestern coast of Ellesmere Island, Canada, possess the highest peaks nearest the Pole. This geography, combined with an atmospheric thermal inversion restricted to below ~1000 m during much of the long arctic night, provides excellent opportunities for uninterrupted cloud-free astronomy - provided the challenges of these incredibly remote locations can be overcome. We present a miniaturized robotic observatory for deployment on a High Arctic mountaintop. This system tested the operability of precise optical instruments during winter, and the logistics of installation and maintenance during summer. It is called Ukpik after the Inuktitut name for the snowy owl, and was deployed at two sites accessible only by helicopter, each north of 82 degrees latitude; one on rock at 1100 m elevation and another on a glacier at 1600 m. The instrument suite included at first an all-sky-viewing camera, with the later addition of a small telescope to monitor Polaris, both protected by a retractable weather-proof enclosure. Expanding this to include a narrow-field drift-scanning camera for studying extra-solar planet transits was also investigated, but not implemented. An unique restriction was that all had to be run on batteries recharged primarily by a wind turbine. Supplementary power came from a methanol fuel-cell electrical generator. Communications were via the Iridium satellite network. The system design, and lessons learned from three years of operation are discussed, along with prospects for time-domain astronomy from isolated, high-elevation polar mountaintops.
Response to Blomgren, Roy, Callister, and Merrill (2005)

Purpose The purpose of this letter is to register concerns about a study reported by M. Blomgren, N. Roy, T. Callister, and R. Merrill (2005), entitled “Intensive Stuttering Modification Therapy: A Multidimentional Assessment of Treatment Outcomes.” Concerns include questions about the description of the treatment, the duration of treatment time, and the results of the treatment. Conclusions The treatment program did not inherently lend itself to clear description (would not be easily replicable), the participants did not improve their speech fluency, and the treatment time was extensive. One must take caution in the interpretation of the results given the concerns noted.
The βγ subunits of heterotrimeric G proteins acquire detergent insolubility directly at the plasma membrane

The subunits of heterotrimeric G proteins, Gα and Gβγ, are found in association with detergent-resistant domains in most mammalian cell types, implicating such domains in G protein-coupled signaling. The pathway by which the βγ complexes are targeted to these detergent-resistant domains was unaffected by the brefeldin A-imposed block on endoplasmic reticulum-to-Golgi transport. We have used subcellular fractionation and β subunit-specific immunoprecipitation to localize the acquisition of detergent insolubility of newly synthesized βγ complexes. The β subunits cofractionate with plasma membranes, and acquire detergent insolubility coincident with arrival in the plasma membrane fractions. This association was not affected by phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate-induced activation of Proetin kinase C.
Matthewlabis , new name for Paralabis Lull, 1921, preoccupied

Matthew (1901) named and described the primitive camel Protomeryx cedrensis, based on holotype specimen AMNH 8969, a lower jaw from the Whitneyan Vista Member of the White River Group of northern C...
Function determines structure in complex neural networks.

In the course of our daily lives, we rely on our ability to quickly recognize visual objects despite variations in the viewing angle or lighting conditions (1). Most of the time, this process occurs so naturally that it is easy to underestimate the computational challenge it poses. In fact, as much as one third of our cortex is involved in visual object recognition (2). Thus far, we have not been able to create artificial object recognition systems that can match the performance of the human visual system, especially when one takes into account the energetic constraints. However, understanding the principles of visual object recognition has major implications not only because of potential wide-ranging practical applications but also because these principles are likely to hold clues to how sensory systems work in general. After all, there is a growing body of experimental and computational evidence that similar principles (3) might be at work during visual, auditory, or olfactory object recognition tasks. In PNAS, Yamins et al. present an important advance in this research direction by demonstrating how to optimize artificial networks to match the discrimination ability of primates when it comes to categorizing objects (4). Importantly, optimized networks share many features with the corresponding networks in the brain. Thus, although the structure of neural networks in the brain could have been largely determined by the idiosyncrasies of the previous evolutionary trajectory, they seem to reflect instead a unique optimal solution. This in turn offers more support for theoretical and computational pursuits to find optimal circuit organization in the brain (5).
Attachment of serum non-antibody glycoproteins to the Fusobacterium nucleatum found in periodontal disease.

Abstract Fourteen of 15 human sera displayed inhibition of the characteristic haemagglutination (HA) of oral strains of Fusobacterium nucleatum in a microtitre haemagglutination inhibition (HI) test. Chromatography of a gamma globulin pool revealed the activity in the fractions eluting with IgM and IgA; absorption procedures with anti-human μ and α chain sera did not remove the activity. Complete saturation of the serum with (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 produced a floating mucinous fraction displaying HI activity. Sepharose 4B Chromatography of glycoprotein preparations gave mol. wt in excess of 400,000; antibody was not present. Glycoprotein from sera of various blood types aggregated whole F. nucleatum cells. EDTA and galactose inhibited this aggregation whereas glucose did not inhibit. Thus serum glycoproteins containing galactose probably bind to the surface of the F. nucleatum and this binding may influence colonization in the gingival sulcus.