cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Early severe hypoalbuminemia is an independent risk factor for intestinal failure in gastroschisis.

This study attempted to evaluate the association of early hypoalbuminemia with the risk of intestinal failure in gastroschisis patients. Neonates with gastroschisis treated at a tertiary children’s hospital over a 10-year period were initially categorized into groups based on the lowest serum albumin measurement during the first 7 days of life. Based on preliminary analysis, patients with serum albumin <1.5 g/dL were considered to have early severe hypoalbuminemia. Intestinal failure was defined as inability of the patient to wean from parenteral nutrition (PN) during the initial hospital admission, thus requiring home PN. Logistic regression modeling was performed to adjust for sex, gestational age, birth weight, and concomitant intestinal complications. One hundred and thirty-five gastroschisis patients were included, of whom 21% had early severe hypoalbuminemia. Patients with early severe hypoalbuminemia had a significantly higher risk of intestinal failure compared to those with higher albumin levels (26 vs. 8%, p = 0.015). On multivariable logistic regression modeling, early severe hypoalbuminemia was strongly associated with intestinal failure (OR 6.4, 95% CI 1.8–23.3, p = 0.005). Early severe hypoalbuminemia appears to be an independent risk factor for long-term intestinal compromise rather than merely an indicator of overall illness. Further interventional studies are needed to determine whether clinical protocols utilizing judicious fluid administration, exogenous albumin, and early enteral feeding can improve clinical outcomes in gastroschisis.
Unpinned metal gate/high-κ GaAs capacitors: Fabrication and characterization

Fabrication of GaAs metal-oxide-semiconductor capacitors (MOSCAPs) with an unpinned interface is reported. The MOSCAP structure consists of a few monolayers of germanium grown in a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system in order to terminate an MBE-grown silicon-doped (100) GaAs layer. An ex situ HfO2 high-κ dielectric with an equivalent oxide thickness of 12A was deposited by using a dc magnetron sputtering system. A midgap interface state density (Dit) of 5×1011eV−1cm−2 was measured using the high-frequency conductance technique. A rapid thermal annealing study was performed in order to examine the integrity of the gate stack at different temperatures. In addition, a forming gas anneal at 400°C appears to significantly reduce the midgap Dit revealed by probing the frequency dispersion behavior of the MOSCAPs.
Allozyme variation in the endangered insular endemic Castilleja grisea.

• Background and Aims Genetic diversity in Castilleja grisea, an endangered, perennial herb endemic to San Clemente Island, California was investigated. Subsequent to the elimination of goats from the island in 1992, many populations of C. grisea have reappeared and have been increasing in size. • Methods Nineteen populations were surveyed for their genotype at 19 allozyme loci. • Key Results At the taxon level, 57·9 % of loci are polymorphic with AP = 3·09 and HE = 0·137. Populations averaged 33·0 % polymorphic loci with AP = 2·43 and HE = 0·099. Most variation is found within rather than among populations (GST = 0·128), although differentiation among populations is significant. Genetic identities range from I = 0·960 to I = 1·000 with mean I = 0·990. There is no significant relationship between genetic and geographic distance. Gene flow among populations is Nm = 2·50 based on private alleles and Nm = 1·70 based on FST. Outcrossing rates based on fixation indices average t = 1·01, indicating a primarily outcrossed mating system. • Conclusions The observed genetic variation is moderately high, unusually so for an insular endemic species, suggesting that C. grisea may not have lost substantial genetic variation during 150 years of overgrazing, and indicating that it is unlikely to be endangered by genetic factors.
Preoperative basal calcitonin and tumor stage correlate with postoperative calcitonin normalization in patients undergoing initial surgical management of medullary thyroid carcinoma.

Background The optimal initial operative management of medullary thyroid cancer (MTC) and the use of biomarkers to guide the extent of operation remain controversial. We hypothesized that preoperative serum levels of calcitonin and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) correlate with extent of disease and postoperative levels reflect the extent of operation performed. Methods We assessed retrospectively clinical and pathologic factors among patients with MTC undergoing at least total thyroidectomy; these factors were correlated with biomarkers using regression analyses. Results Data were obtained from 104 patients, 28% with hereditary MTC. Preoperative calcitonin correlated with tumor size ( P P = .01) after multivariable adjustment for lymph node positivity, extent of operation, and hereditary MTC. No patient with a preoperative calcitonin level of n = 20) had lymph node metastases. TNM stage ( P = .001) and preoperative calcitonin levels ( P = .04), but not extent of operation, independently correlated with the failure to normalize postoperative calcitonin. Postoperative CEA correlated with positive margins (adjusted P = 04). Neither preoperative nor postoperative CEA was correlated with lymph node positivity or extent of surgery. Conclusion Preoperative serum calcitonin and TMN stage, but not extent of operation, were independent predictors of postoperative normalization of serum calcitonin levels. Future studies should evaluate preoperative serum calcitonin levels as a determinate of the extent of initial operation.
Notch signaling genes: Myogenic DNA hypomethylation and 5-hydroxymethylcytosine

Notch intercellular signaling is critical for diverse developmental pathways and for homeostasis in various types of stem cells and progenitor cells. Because Notch gene products need to be precisely regulated spatially and temporally, epigenetics is likely to help control expression of Notch signaling genes. Reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) indicated significant hypomethylation in myoblasts, myotubes, and skeletal muscle vs. many nonmuscle samples at intragenic or intergenic regions of the following Notch receptor or ligand genes: NOTCH1, NOTCH2, JAG2, and DLL1. An enzymatic assay of sites in or near these genes revealed unusually high enrichment of 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (up to 81%) in skeletal muscle, heart, and cerebellum. Epigenetics studies and gene expression profiles suggest that hypomethylation and/or hydroxymethylation help control expression of these genes in heart, brain, myoblasts, myotubes, and within skeletal muscle myofibers. Such regulation could promote cell renewal, cell maintenance, homeostasis, and a poised state for repair of tissue damage.
Theorizing things: Status, problems and benefits of the critical interpretation of objects

Things occupy significant portions of physical and symbolic space in our daily lives and yet their appearance in scholarly discourse is either infrequent or scattered across academic departments. Disciplines and areas of study such as industrial design, anthropology, material culture studies, engineering, philosophy, as well as media and cultural studies, do routinely examine, analyse and debate the significance of material objects, but the symbolic meanings and values ascribed to them vary widely within these branches of learning. Design studies, which has traditionally regarded objects in formal rather than social terms, can benefit by expanding its discourse to include a more socially- and culturally-rooted understanding of objects. This knowledge will serve to inform not only design studies but also other disciplines about the role of design in fashioning objects.
Reaction of the C3 carbon cluster with benzene

Abstract Benzene and C 3 are both known to exist in the interstellar medium (ISM). Their reaction has been studied here in cryogenic matrices using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) absorption spectroscopy. The reaction produced a weakly bonded complex for which a C–C asymmetric stretch vibrational frequency in the C 3 unit is shifted to lower energy (vs. uncomplexed C 3 ) by 4.5 and 1.6 cm −1 in Ar and Kr matrices, respectively. The singlet potential surface of the C 3 + C 6 H 6 reaction was partially mapped using density functional theory (DFT) theory (B3LYP with 6-31G** and 6-311 + G**). Although thirteen stable products are predicted, only two agree satisfactorily with the observed small shift and the isotopomer frequencies of 13 C-substituted C 3 · C 6 H 6 complexes. Products formed by the rearrangement of the complex's components apparently have no (or very low) entrance barriers. Finally, a low energy reaction pathway has been computed for the production of a dehydrogenated PAH (with an indene framework) from the reaction of the complexed C 3 and C 6 H 6 moieties. Indene has been observed previously in the discharge reactions of benzene where C 3 has also been produced.
Tension precedes commitment-even for a stem cell.

The differentiation potential of stem cells is influenced by cell density. An article in the April issue of Developmental Cell (McBeath et al., 2004) demonstrates that lineage commitment by mesenchymal stem cells is regulated by shape-induced changes in Rho GTPase activity and cytoskeletal tension.
A mononuclear copper(II) complex with a tridentate ligand containing pyridyl, thioether and phenolate donors

Abstract The preparation and characterization using UV/Vis spectroscopy and cyclic voltammetry of a tridentate ligand 2-[1′-(4′-(2″-pyridyl)-2′-thiabutyl)]-4-methoxyphenol (HL) and its mononuclear copper(II) complex is presented. Electronic spectra of the complex give intense low energy transitions ascribed as ligand to metal charge transfer (LMCT) transitions. A quasireversible CuII/I redox couple is observed at high potentials due to stabilization of the Cu(I) oxidation state by the thioether sulfur and pyridyl nitrogen coordination.
A Single Indicator Technique to Estimate Extravascular Lung Water

An estimate of extravascular thermal volume (EVTV) calculated from a single thermal indicator (SI) sampled in the pulmonary artery and the femoral artery was compared with direct gravimetric measurements of extravascular lung water (EVLW) on 47 dogs and with simultaneous double indicator (DI) dilution measurements made on 62 dogs and 38 humans with heat as the diffusible indicator and green dye as the intravascular indicator. For the gravimetric measurements the relation was EVTV(SI) = 1.00 EVLW(grav) + 61 ml r = 0.91. When compared with double indicator dilution measurements, the results were EVTV(SI) = 1.10 EVTV(DI) + 17 ml r = 0.94 for dogs and EVTV(SI) = 0.89 EVTV(DI) + 66 ml r = 0.97 for humans. A total of 1880 measurements were made over a range of EVTV(DI) from 70 to 2150 ml. The single indicator measurements of EVTV agrees with the double indicator measurements of EVTV and with the direct gravimetric measurements of EVLW and can be performed with standard catheters and without the withdrawal of blood.
Revisiting some phenomena in polyelectrolyte solutions

This review deals with the counterion distribution around rod-shaped polyions, the reaction kinetics in polyelectrolyte solutions, the anomalous behavior of poly(methacrylic acid), and the formation of pearl-necklace-like structures of polyelectrolytes in poor solvent media. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 40: 1080–1086, 2002
Evaluations of pleasurable experiences: The peak-end rule

Prior research suggests that the addition of mild pain to an aversive event may lead people to prefer and directly choose more pain over less pain (Kahneman, Fredrickson, Schreiber, & Redelmeier, 1993). Kahneman et al. suggest that pain ratings are based on a combination of peak pain and final pain. Similarly, people rate a happy life that ends suddenly as being better than one with additional years of mild happiness (Diener, Wirtz, & Oishi, 2001), even though the former objectively consists of less pleasure than the latter. Applying these concepts to material goods, we investigated the impact of positivity and timing on the retrospective evaluations of material goods. We found strong evidence that the peak-end rule applies to both material goods and pain.
Microradiography With Laser-Produced Plasma Sources - Surface Roughness on PMMA Resist

The use of a laser produced plasma as an x-ray source for high resolution microradiqgraphy has several advantages over conventional x-ray sources: a very small source size (<100 pm in diameter) and a pulsed exposure with a less than 1 ns duration. The former provides the possibility of high spatial resolution, and the latter produces high temporal resolution. It has been proposed that the pulsed exposure is ideal for imaging living biological specimens. In order to obtain high resolution images, modern microradiography uses high molecular wight polymers (photo-resists) as the photochemical detector on which a surface relief image is formed. Therefore, one of the factors affecting image resolution is the surface roughness of the resist. This paper reports the surface roughness on the resist polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) which has been exposed to the radiation from a laser-produced plasma x-ray source. The surface roughness was investigated by transmission electron microscopy using a metal replica technique.
Theory of collision broadening through a sequence of scattering events with applications to semiclassical Monte Carlo

Insights are presented into the modeling of collision broadening within semiclassical Monte Carlo simulation of carrier transport. The effects of collision broadening through a sequence of scattering events are analyzed via both basic theory and first-principles simulation using Schrodinger Equation Monte Carlo (SEMC), a simulation method designed to bridge the gap from quantum to classical transport. Based on this analysis, an improved treatment of collision broadening for semiclassical Monte Carlo is suggested.
Indium content of sea water

Abstract The indium content of sea water was determined by mass spectrometry. An indium profile in the Pacific Ocean to a depth of 3571 m showed an average concentration of 0.004 μg per liter of sea water.
Genetics of the malate dehydrogenase isozymes of the isopod porcellio scaber

Electrophoretic analysis of malate dehydrogenase (MDH) in extracts of the isopod Porcellio scaber Latr. indicates two zones of activity, MDH-1 and MDH-2, corresponding to the cytoplasmic and mitochondrial forms respectively. Electrophoretic variants of both forms have been isolated from natural populations. The locus encoding MDH-1 has at least three alleles in appreciable frequency; the MDH-2 locus has two. Breeding studies indicate that variants of both forms of MDH have Mendelian inheritance patterns, and that the two proteins are encoded by independently assorting autosomal genes. Neither MDH gene is apparently linked to the autosomal gene which encodes phosphoglucose isomerase.
Generalizing edit distance to incorporate domain information: Handwritten text recognition as a case study

Abstract In this paper the Damerau-Levenshtein string difference metric is generalized in two ways to more accurately compensate for the types of errors that are present in the script recognition domain. First, the basic dynamic programming method for computing such a measure is extended to allow for merges, splits and two-letter substitutions. Second, edit operations are refined into categories according to the effect they have on the visual “appearance”of words. A set of recognizer-independent constraints is developed to reflect the severity of the information lost due to each operation. These constraints are solved to assign specific costs to the operations. Experimental results on 2335 corrupted strings and a lexicon of 21, 299 words show higher correcting rates than with the original form.
Music Therapy for Patients Who Have Undergone Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant

Objectives. This study examines the short- and long-term QOL benefits of a music therapy intervention for patients recovering from hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Methods. Ninety allogeneic HSCT patients, after transplant, were randomized to receive ISO-principle (i.e., mood matching) based music therapy (MT; n = 29), unstructured music (UM; n = 30), or usual care (UC; n = 31) for four weeks. The ISO principle posits that patients may shift their mood from one state to another by listening to music that is "equal to" the individual's initial mood state and subsequently listening to music selections that gradually shift in tempo and mood to match the patient's desired disposition. Participants in MT and UM groups developed two audio CDs to help them feel more relaxed and energized and were instructed to use the CDs to improve their mood as needed. Short-term effects on mood and long-term effects on QOL were examined. Results. MT and UM participants reported improved mood immediately after listening to CDs; the within-group effect was greater for UM participants compared to MT participants. Participant group was not associated with long-term QOL outcomes. Conclusions. Music listening improves mood acutely but was not associated with long-term benefits in this study.
Synergism in the solvent extraction of di-, tri- and tetra-valent metal ions—I Synergic effects of different phosphate esters

Abstract Synergic effects noted previously only in the solvent extraction of uranyl ions are now shown to exist for other ions. Examples of this greatly enhanced extraction from aqueous solution are given for rare earths, actinides and alkaline earths, the extracted species being Ca(TTA) 2 S 2 UO 2 (TTA) 2 S 1 UO 2 (TTA) 2 S 2 Pm(TTA) 3 S 2 Tm(TTA) 3 S 1 Tm(TTA) 3 S 2 Am(TTA) 3 S 2 Cm(TTA) 3 S 2 and Th(TTA) 4 S 1 where S is a neutral organophosphorus ester varying from tri octyl phosphine oxide with its highly polar phosphorus oxygen bond to the very weakly basic tri phenyl phosphate, and TTA refers to thenoyl trifluoroacetone.
Nanoparticles of Poorly Water-Soluble Drugs Prepared by Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Emulsions

The aim of the study was to develop and evaluate a new method for the production of micro- and nanoparticles of poorly soluble drugs for drug delivery applications. Fine particles of model compounds cholesterol acetate (CA), griseofulvin (GF), and megestrol acetate (MA) were produced by extraction of the internal phase of oil-in-water emulsions using supercritical carbon dioxide. The particles were obtained both in a batch or a continuous manner in the form of aqueous nanosuspensions. Precipitation of CA nanoparticles was used for conducting a mechanistic study on particle size control and scale-up. GF and MA nanoparticles were produced in several batches to compare their dissolution behavior with that of micronized materials. The physical analysis of the particles produced was performed using dynamic light scattering (particle size), scanning electron microscopy (morphology), powder X-ray diffraction (crystallinity), gas chromatography (residual solvent), and a dissolution apparatus. Particles with mean volume diameter ranging between 100 and 1000 nm were consistently produced. The emulsion droplet size, drug solution concentration, and organic solvent content in the emulsion were the major parameters responsible for particle size control. Efficient and fast extraction, down to low parts-per-million levels, was achieved with supercritical CO2. The GF and MA nanoparticles produced were crystalline in nature and exhibited a 5- to 10-fold increase in the dissolution rate compared with that of micronized powders. Theoretical calculations indicated that this dissolution was governed mainly by the surface kinetic coefficient and the specific surface area of the particles produced. It was observed that the necessary condition for a reliable and scalable process was the sufficient emulsion stability during the extraction time. The method developed offers a viable alternative to both the milling and constructive nanoparticle formation processes. Although preparation of a stable emulsion can be a challenge for some drug molecules, the new technique significantly shortens the processing time and overcomes the current limitations of the conventional precipitation techniques in terms of large waste streams, product purity, and process scale-up.
CMOS Integrated Electro-magnetic Force Actuator

Minimizing the power consumed by transistors in numerous applications has been widely studied. This paper describes a digital approach to adjusting the output power of an RF circuit using 0.5 mum digital CMOS technology. A programmable power amplifier consists of an array of parallel NMOS transistors hooked up to an (all-on-chip) class E Power Amplifier (PA), and it functions as a direct digital to RF amplitude converter and filter. The results show that the maximum output power achieved is 8 dBm using a 3 V power supply and occupying 0.18 mum2. These programmable power sources can drive an on-chip small inductor so as to use it as an electromagnetic force generator. Several on these on-chip force generators can be used to drive a tiny probe, endowed with a similar generators, in imaging or manipulation applications in nano-technology-particularly atomic force microscopy (AFM).
Nationwide Newspaper Coverage of Same-Sex Marriage: A Community Structure Approach

Using the community structure approach to compare coverage of same-sex marriage in leading U.S. newspapers in 35 major cities nationwide, all articles of 250+ words were sampled from a 5-year span of January 1, 2007, to June 23, 2011, for a total of 577 articles. Articles were coded for “prominence” and “direction,” and then combined into a “Media Vector” score for each newspaper, ranging from .4523 to −.1067. Initial Pearson correlations revealed three clusters had significant relationships: stakeholder (stakeholder proportions correlating with favorable coverage of stakeholder concerns), buffer (privilege correlating with favorable coverage of human rights issues), and vulnerability (vulnerable populations correlating with coverage favoring their perspectives). The stakeholder cluster includes: (percentage 25–44: r = .506, p = .001; gay market index: r = .432, p = .005; percentage 65+: r = −.397, p = .009; percentage voting Democratic: r = .335, p = .025; percentage voting Republican: r = −.330, p = .02...
The Political Economy of Human Capital

In this paper I develop a critique of both standard neoclassical and standard Marxian conceptualizations of human capital that illustrates an important hypothesis of feminist political economy: collective conflicts based on class, gender, and age, as well as other dimensions of collective identity, affect the distribution of the costs of developing human capital.JEL codes: B50; E11; E24
Leptin-replacement therapy for lipodystrophy.

Background The adipocyte hormone leptin is important in regulating energy homeostasis. Since severe lipodystrophy is associated with leptin deficiency, insulin resistance, hypertriglyceridemia, and hepatic steatosis, we assessed whether leptin replacement would ameliorate this condition. Methods Nine female patients (age range, 15 to 42 years; eight with diabetes mellitus) who had lipodystrophy and serum leptin levels of less than 4 ng per milliliter (0.32 nmol per milliliter) received recombinant methionyl human leptin (recombinant leptin). Recombinant leptin was administered subcutaneously twice a day for four months at escalating doses to achieve low, intermediate, and high physiologic replacement levels of leptin. Results During treatment with recombinant leptin, the serum leptin level increased from a mean (±SE) of 1.3±0.3 ng per milliliter to 11.1±2.5 ng per milliliter (0.1±0.02 to 0.9±0.2 nmol per milliliter). The absolute decrease in the glycosylated hemoglobin value was 1.9 percent (95 percent co...
Second-order nonlinear optical susceptibility of a quantum well with an applied electric field.

The second-order nonlinear optical susceptibility of a quantum well with an applied electric field is studied theoretically with use of both a parabolic-band model and a valence-band-mixing model. The electronic properties of the asymmetric quantum-well system due to an applied electric field and their effects on the second-order nonlinear susceptibility are illustrated. It is shown that the applied electric field may change the second-order susceptibility significantly. The dispersion of the nonlinear susceptibility using the valence-band-mixing model also shows more features than that using the simple parabolic-band model of previous studies of quantum-well systems.
Burying the Past: Locality, Lived History, and Death in an Aymara Ritual of Remembrance

On March 12, 1921, Aymara from the ayllus (indigenous communities) surrounding the town of Jesus de Machaqa attacked the town’s residents and government officials. The attacking Indians burned and looted houses and killed some 16 vecinos—ethnically non-Indian (mestizo) residents of the town. A number of the victims were burned to death, “roasted” alive in their blazing houses. In urban circles the event was imagined as a cannibal feast; remembrances recorded from indigenous Machaquenos in the 1990s depict the uprising in similar ways. The Aymara were responding to increasing pressures on their lands by surrounding haciendas as well as to abuses committed by the corregidor, Lucio Estrada—the principal victim of the attack according to Machaqueno oral histories. Estrada had a reputation for corruption and mistreatment of Indians. The news of his appointment as corregidor in 1919 prompted a letter of protest from Machaqueno leaders to the prefect of the Department of La Paz. The proximate cause of the attack was likely the death of a local Aymara man in a jail cell in Jesus de Machaqa. Prominent among the rebels were a father and son: Faustino and Marcelino Llanqui. They were part of a broader movement of Quechua and Aymara leaders from across the altiplano who had taken on the title of cacique, once used by the Spanish to refer to the local indigenous nobility who played a prominent role under the Spanish colonial system of indirect rule. “Neocaciques” such as the Llanquis were part of a multifaceted effort to defend the interests of rural indigenous communities in the shifting context of the Bolivian nation-state (see Condori Chura and Ticona Alejo 1992; Soria Choque 1992). When survivors of the attack brought news of the uprising to the city of La Paz, President Bautista Saavedra ordered a reprisal raid. Twelve hundred Bolivian army troops garrisoned in the nearby town of Guaqui sacked the communities around Jesus de Machaqa, killing some fifty Aymara, burning houses, and looting herds and fields. Leaders of the rebellion, including the Llanquis, were
Comprehensive discovery of DNA motifs in 349 human cells and tissues reveals new features of motifs

Comprehensive motif discovery under experimental conditions is critical for the global understanding of gene regulation. To generate a nearly complete list of human DNA motifs under given conditions, we employed a novel approach to de novo discover significant co-occurring DNA motifs in 349 human DNase I hypersensitive site datasets. We predicted 845 to 1325 motifs in each dataset, for a total of 2684 nonredundant motifs. These 2684 motifs contained 54.02 to 75.95% of the known motifs in seven large collections including TRANSFAC. In each dataset, we also discovered 43 663 to 2 013 288 motif modules, groupsofmotifswiththeirbindingsitesco-occurring in a significant number of short DNA regions. Compared with known interacting transcription factors in eight resources, the predicted motif modules on average included 84.23% of known interacting motifs. We further showed new features of the predicted motifs, such as motifs enriched in proximal regions rarely overlapped with motifs enriched in distal regions, motifs enriched in 5 distal regions were often enriched in 3 distal regions, etc. Finally, we observed that the 2684 predicted motifs classified the cell or tissue types of the datasets with an accuracy of 81.29%. The resources generated in this study are available at http://server.cs.ucf.edu/predrem/.
PHILOSOPHY IN TRANSITION: JOHN DEWEY'S “LOST” MANUSCRIPT

The intention of this essay is to offer a reading of John Dewey's recently found manuscript (considered lost for decades), Unmodern Philosophy and Modern Philosophy, as a kind of philosophical history leading up to the formulation of the key problems to be addressed by the general framework of Dewey's cultural naturalism. I argue, first, that cultural naturalism has direct implications for the way that we think about history, and that Dewey's recently recovered manuscript reflects this in its conception of the purpose and mode of historical reconstruction. Second, the essay presents a synoptic overview of the historically emergent thought-conditions structuring, according to Dewey's narrative, the possibilities of the philosophical discourse of modernity. In conclusion, I argue that cultural naturalism allows us to move beyond these problems by a radical revision of the terms in which we construe the idea of “persons.” Specifically, instead of thinking about persons in terms of embodied minds, we should start thinking about them as participants in histories, carving their individual paths through the world of events, with their existence being essentially both temporal and social. I also suggest that this view of persons allows us to outline a promising account of the notion of human freedom, couched in terms of historical social agency.
Judicial Decision Making In the Supreme Court of Canada: Updating the Personal Attribute Model

Abstract. This study seeks to add to the current understanding of the political nature of the Supreme Court of Canada. We analyze a data set consisting of all nonunanimous published Supreme Court decisions for the period 1949 to 2000. A prior study by Tate and Sittiwong (1989) suggested a model of judge attributes for the period 1949 to 1985. We build on that analysis by extending the time period to 2000, which allows the impact of gender also to be assessed. We find that since the Court gained substantial docket control, the types of cases the Court hears has changed from the period studied by Tate and Sittiwong. In the more recent period, civil rights and liberties cases are much more substantial in number. We conclude some of the variables in the Tate and Sittiwong study may be time bound and we suggest a new model of attitudinal voting.Resume. Cet etude cherche de augmenter le savoir courant du le nature politique du Cour supreme du Canada. Nous analysons un ensemble de donnees non unanime compose de tout decisions publie du Cour supreme entre les annees 1949 a 1985. Une enquete precede fait par Tate et Sittiwong (1989) a propose un modele des attributs des juges pour la periode entre 1949 a 1985. Nous poursuivons laquelle analyse pour prolonger la periode du temps jusqu'a 2000, ce que on permettre evalue l'effet du sexe aussi. Nous trouvons que comme le Cour a conquis considerable control du registre, les gendres dossier entendre par le Cour ont change depuis le periode de enquete de Tate y Sittiwong. Pendent le periode plus recent les dossiers concernant les droits civiles et libertes sont beaucoup plus nombreux. Nous concluons que possiblement, quelques variables de l'enquete du Tate et Sittiwong soient liees par le temp et nous proposent un modele neuf des votes attitudinal.
The geology of the Katete carbonatite, Rhodesia

The Katete carbonatite is situated in an area of rifting in the NW of Rhodesia. It consists of varieties of carbonatite and of agglomerates. There is little alteration of the surrounding sandstones and there are no associated alkaline rocks. The age of the complex is mid-Cretaceous, which is about the same as the later stages of carbonatite activity in the Rufunsa Valley in Zambia.
The Initial Potential and Current Distributions of the Crevice Corrosion Process

A computational model has been developed to calculate the potential and current distributions in the electrolyte phase and on the electrode surface for a system in which a part of the anode is passivated while the rest remains in the active dissolution state. The computation employs the finite element method allied with a boundary variation and a trial and error technique. From the obtained distributions, the location of the boundary between the active and passive regions on the anode can be predicted. In the case of a crevice, this means that a critical distance into the crevice exists beyond which active corrosion (crevice corrosion) takes place. In addition to the active/passive behavior of the material, solution conductivity, applied potential at the sample's outer surface, crevice gap and depth dimensions, and passive current density influence this critical distance to different degrees. The developed software package may also be used for (i) IR-induced crevice corrosion under open-circuit conditions where the electrode potential at the outer surface is established in the passive region by an oxidant, (ii) the design of anodic protection systems, and (iii) the design of some corrosion resistant coatings and alloys. The values of the critical distance into a crevicemore » for pure iron in buffered ammoniacal (pH 9.7) and acetic acid (pH 4.6) solutions are calculated and shown to be in good agreement with available (pH 4.6) literature values.« less
Oncology Care Model: Short- and Long-Term Considerations in the Context of Broader Payment Reform

With the recent announcement of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation’s Oncology Care Model (OCM), oncology practices must consider the opportunities and risks of participation in light of the complexities of the model, competing ideas for payment reform, and uncertainty surrounding several details of the model and factors needed for success. Thus, the decision to participate is not straightforward, and the challenges and benefits vary among practices. In this article, we discuss key factors to consider that may influence decisions to participate in the OCM, by presenting comparable payment reform efforts outside of oncology. OCM Overview The OCM is a service delivery and payment model that primarily aims to improve cancer care quality while reducing treatment-related costs. In combining typical fee-for-service payments, an additional per-beneficiary-per-month (PBPM) payment, and performance-based payments, the OCM is a hybrid payment model. 1 The PBPM constitutes an addi
Relationship between Immunity to Borrelia burgdorferi Outer-surface Protein A (OspA) and Lyme Arthritis

Antibiotic-refractory Lyme arthritis may result from Borrelia burgdorferi–induced autoimmunity in affected joints. Such patients usually have certain HLA-DRB1 molecules that bind an epitope of B. burgdorferi outer-surface protein A (OspA163–175), and cellular and humoral immune responses to OspA are greater in patients with antibiotic-refractory arthritis than in those with antibiotic-responsive arthritis. Recent work in a mouse model suggests that, during B. burgdorferi infection, OspA in genetically susceptible individuals stimulates a particularly strong TH1 response, which may be one of several factors that can help set the stage for a putative autoimmune response in affected joints. However, vaccination with OspA did not induce arthritis in this mouse model, and case and control comparisons in human vaccine trials did not show an increased frequency of arthritis among OspA-vaccinated individuals. Thus, a vaccine-induced immune response to OspA does not replicate the sequence of events needed in the natural infection to induce antibiotic-refractory Lyme arthritis.
Contribution of Extreme Convective Storms to Rainfall in South America

The contribution of extreme convectivestorms to rainfall in South Americais investigated using 15 years of high-resolution data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR). Precipitation from three specific types of storms with extreme horizontal and vertical dimensions have been calculated and compared to the climatological rain. The tropical and subtropical regions of South America differ markedly in the influence of storms with extreme dimensions. The tropical regions, especially the Amazon basin, have aspects similar to oceanic convection. Convection in the subtropical regions, centered on La Plata basin, exhibits patterns consistent with storm life cycles initiating in the foothills of the Andes and growing into larger mesoscale convective systems that propagate to the east. In La Plata basin, convective storms with a large horizontal dimension contribute ;44% of the rain and the accumulated influence of all three types of storms with extreme characteristics produce ;95% of the total precipitation in the austral summer.
The Effects of Perceived Job Availability for Women on College Women's Attitudes Toward Prestigious Male-Dominated Occupations:

This study investigated the effects of perceived job availability for women and sex role orientation on college women's evaluations of highly prestigious male-dominated occupations. In a mixed design, feminine, androgynous, and masculine women (as determined by the Personal Attributes Questionnaire) evaluated two professions described as providing good opportunities for women, two described as providing average opportunities, and two described as providing poor opportunities. Subjects were most likely to want to pursue occupations with good job availability for women and to expect the most intellectual stimulation and approval from others as a result of pursuing these occupations. In addition, sex role orientation was related to expectations concerning intellectual stimulation and approval from others but did not interact with level of job opportunity on any of the dependent measures.
A Confirmatory Analysis of the Organ Donation Readiness Index: Measuring the Potential for Organ Donations among African Americans.

The need for transplant exceeds the number of available organs. Antigen compatible organs are particularly scarce for African Americans because of their proportionately lower rate of donations. Thi...
Policy Matters An Analysis of District-Level Efforts to Increase the Identification of Underrepresented Learners

Policies delegating control of educational policy to the local level are widespread, yet there has been little examination of the effects of such distributed decision making in the area of advanced...
Deformation vector fields (DVF)-driven image reconstruction for 4D-CBCT

BACKGROUND: High quality 4D-CBCT can be obtained by deforming a planning CT (pCT), where the deformation vector fields (DVF) are estimated by matching the forward projections of pCT and 4D-CBCT projections. The matching metric used in the previous study is the sum of squared intensity differences (SSID). The scatter signal level in CBCT projections is much higher than pCT, the SSID metric may not lead to optimal DVF. OBJECTIVE:To improve the DVF estimation accuracy, we develop a new matching metric that is less sensitive to the intensity level difference caused by the scatter signal. METHODS: The negative logarithm of correlation coefficient (NLCC) is used as the matching metric. A non-linear conjugate gradient optimization algorithm is used to estimate the DVF. A 4D NCAT phantom and an anthropomorphic thoracic phantom were used to evaluate the NLCC-based algorithm. RESULTS: In the NCAT phantom study, the relative reconstruction error is reduced from 18.0% in SSID to 14.13% in NLCC. In the thoracic phantom study, the root mean square error of the tumor motion is reduced from 1.16 mm in SSID to 0.43 mm in NLCC. CONCLUSION: NLCC metric can improve the image reconstruction and motion estimation accuracy of DVF-driven image reconstruction for 4D-CBCT.
Segmenting the active sport tourist market: A life-span perspective:

Active sport tourists are part of an increasingly specialised sector of the tourism industry. However, at present we know little about these people whose primary purpose for taking vacations is to engage in their favourite sport activities. The purpose of this study, therefore, ivas (i) to identify and explain the patterns of participation in sport tourism over the life course for men and women; (ii) to identify the characteristics of sport tourists during early adulthood (17—39 years), middle adulthood (40-59 years) and late adulthood (60-91 years), and (iii) to propose strategies for marketing sport tourism at different stages in the life course. A purposive sample of 1,277 New England residents completed a fixed choice questionnaire measuring tourist role preference (activities and behaviour while on vacation), socio-psychological needs and demographics. Of these 1,277 individuals, 621 are sport tourists (279 males and 342 females) ranging in age from 18 to 91 years, with a mean age of 41.92 years (SD ...
Patterns of size variation and correlation in the dentition of the red colobus monkey (Colobus badius)

There have been numerous studies on variability and correlation in dental crown size, but the significance of the resulting patterns remains unclear. Regions of low variation and high correlation have been hypothesized to represent the poles of Butler's morphological fields, to be related to absolute tooth size, or to be related to morphological complexity of the teeth and functional efficiency. Variation and correlation of tooth lengths and breadths were investigated in 138 red colobus monkeys to further assess the relations among size associations, crown morphology, and absolute tooth size. In the maxilla and mandible, the postcanine teeth are the most highly correlated and least variable, followed by the incisors, then the canines. There are also lower correlations between premolars and molars than within either group. While there appears to be a relation between degree of morphological differentiation and levels of correlation and variation, there are no notable differences in the correlation of opponents along the dental arcade, which is the most important functional consideration. This suggests that different levels of correlation and variation within upper or lower teeth are “artifacts” of tooth dimensions that contribute to different geometric designs in different tooth groups as the germs develop. This morphological effect is coupled with the influence of integration fields, indicated by higher variability and lower correlations of the third molar, the largest or most molarized tooth. It is concluded that there are wide functional tolerances in occlusion with respect to the gross dimensions of dental crowns and their interrelationships.
A FRAMEWORK FOR MACHINE SCHEDULING PROBLEMS WITH CONTROLLABLE PROCESSING TIMES

This is a study of single and parallel machine scheduling problems with controllable processing time for each job. The processing time for job j depends on the position of the job in the schedule and is a function of the number of resource units allocated to its processing. Processing time functions and processing cost functions are allowed to be nonlinear. The scheduling problems considered here have important applications in industry and include many of the existing scheduling models as special cases. For the single machine problem, the objective is minimization of total compression costs plus a scheduling measure. The scheduling measures include makespan, total flow time, total differences in completion times, total differences in waiting times, and total earliness and tardiness with a common due date for all jobs. Except when the total earliness and tardiness measure is involved, each case the problem is solved efficiently. Under an assumption typically satisfied in just-in-time systems, the problem with total earliness and tardiness measure is also solved efficiently. Finally, for a large class of processing time functions; parallel machine problems with total flow time and total earliness and tardiness measures are solved efficiently. In each case we reduce the problem to a transportation problem.
Peroxynitrite deteriorates oocyte quality through disassembly of microtubule organizing centers

Previous theoretical studies have suggested that utilization of 3-D imaging to acquire morphologic parameters of meiotic spindles may be useful in infertility related procedures as an assessment of oocyte quality. However, our results show that treatment of oocytes with increasing concentrations of peroxynitrite (ONOO(-)) caused a dramatic alteration in spindle shape in which morphologic parameters are not measurable or are uninformative in terms of oocyte quality. Metaphase II mouse oocytes (n=520) were treated with increasing concentrations of ONOO(-), after which all oocytes were fixed and subjected to indirect immunofluorescence. Oocyte quality was assessed by alterations in the microtubule-organizing center (MTOC), pericentrin location, microtubule morphology, and chromosomal alignment. In untreated oocytes, pericentrin is primarily assembled utilizing the acentrosomal MTOC, which appears as a condensation at both spindle poles. The spindle has a symmetrical pointed barrel shape, assembled around the chromosomal plate at the spindle equator. Oocytes treated with low concentrations of ONOO(-) ( 2.5μM) the central attachments between microtubules are strained and bend or unevenly break, and the MTOC proteins are further dispersed or undetectable. Peroxynitrite mediated MTOC damage, which deranges the chromosomal scaffold at the time of assembly and separation, caused the deterioration in oocyte quality. These results provide a link between reactive oxygen species and poor reproductive outcomes and elucidate the underlying etiology, which could be used as a superior biomarker for oocyte quality compared to existing assessment tools.
Cord blood transplant for acute myeloid leukaemia

Umbilical cord blood is a haematopoietic progenitor cell source for patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), other haematological malignancies and metabolic diseases who can be cured by allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation, but who do not have a human leucocyte antigen compatible related or unrelated donor. Although the first cord blood transplants were done in children, there are currently more cord blood transplants performed in adults. In this review, we explore the history of umbilical cord blood transplantation, paediatric and adult outcome results, and novel trends to improve engraftment and reduce infection. Umbilical cord blood transplantation cures approximately 30-40% of adults and 60-70% of children with AML. Controversial issues, including the use of double versus single cord blood units for transplantation, optimal cord blood unit selection, infection prophylaxis, conditioning regimens and graft versus host disease prophylaxis, will be reviewed. Finally, comparison to other graft sources, cost, access to care, and the ideal graft source are discussed.