cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Redefining the Metabolic Syndrome: Contribution of Inflammatory and Sex Steroidal Antecedents

The MetS is a major health concern in the United States today being more prevalent in older individuals and in populations of specific racial/ethnic backgrounds. Although MetS is defined by a clustering of metabolic abnormalities including hyperglycemia, high blood pressure and central obesity, we propose the addition of pro-inflammatory adipokines (TNF-α, IL-6, Leptin, PAI-1) as well as CRP being incorporated into the physiological evaluation of those at risk for MetS. Much research exists to show that hyperinsulinemia and central obesity are integral to the development of MetS and that inflammatory adipokines and cytokines are increased in response to the development of insulin resistance and central obesity. However, questions remain as to whether or not these are the primary contributors or sole antecedents to the development of MetS. Androgenic steroids have also been proposed to contribute to the pathogenesis of MetS. More research is necessary to determine whether insulin resistance and central obesity mediate the relationship between androgens and MetS or whether androgenic sex steroids mediate the relationship between MetS and insulin resistance and/or central obesity or whether there is bidirectionality in aforementioned relationships.
A Qualitative Examination of the Self-Medicating Hypothesis Among Female Juvenile Offenders

Substance misuse among criminally delinquent youth has typically been described as a concurrent part of their participation in risky and delinquent behavior. Using Khantzian’s self-medication hypot...
Effect of vasopressors and hemorrhage on intrarenal oxygenation.

Hemorrhagic hypotension has been reported to be accompanied by liberation of catecholamines (1) and angiotensin (2). Aukland observed parallel blood flow decreases in cortex and outer medulla during hemorrhage and the injection of various vasopressor agents (3). From these data he suggested that vasopressors may be largely responsible for the increased renal vascular resistance of hemorrhagic hypotension. On the other hand, Rector et al. (4) observed intracortical blood flow redistribution during hemorrhage, but none during norepinephrine or angiotensin infusion. This suggested that the observed hemorrhagic intrarenal redistribution was due to factors other than humoral release of either norepinephrine or angiotensin. Grandchamp et al. (5) have suggested that the simultaneous action of both norepinephrine and local angiotensin are needed to produce the intrarenal blood flow redistribution of hemorrhagic hypotension.
Causal Structure and Integrability in Moving Frames with Reduce

The method of moving frames is particularly well suited to problems of a geometrical character, often simplifying expressions and accelerating calculations. This method can also be applied to more general partial differential equations within the geometrical framework of exterior differential systems. A Reduce package, EDS, has been developed for this formalism, with emphasis on the ability to treat large nonlinear problems. After a brief introduction to exterior differential systems, the features of the EDS package are summarized before being illustrated with examples from the recent literature. These will include the causal structure of the vacuum Einstein equations seen as an isometric embedding problem in 10 dimensions, and the search for twisting type-N spacetimes through analysis of the integrability conditions for the general ansatz.
Minimizing Average Failure Detection Time

A method is developed for finding the optimum testing sequence for locating a failed component, or subsystem, in a series system. It is assumed that failure probabilities can be assigned on the basis of maintenance and/or other data. The method is devel..
Chordoma of the mobile spine and sacrum: clinical management and prognosis

Background: Chordomas are rare malignant tumors of the spinal column often afflicting the upper cervical spine and sacrum. There are few large single center series on chordomas due to its rarity. The purpose of this study is to report a single center’s experience with the operative and non-operative management of chordomas. Methods: We evaluated our institution’s pathology database from 1994 to 2016 to identify patients diagnosed with chordomas. Inclusion criteria were chordomas of the mobile spine and sacrum. Exclusion criteria were chordomas of the clivus and resection performed at another institution. We collected patient demographics as well as the type of resection performed, intra-operative complications, wound complications and recurrence/prognosis. Results: We identified 18 patients diagnosed with chordomas at our institution, and 12 met our inclusion criteria. There were four females and eight males with an average age of 64 [32–87] years. All patients were Caucasian and 10 of the 12 had surgery. Of the two patients with sacral chordomas that did not have surgery, one received chemotherapy and the other did not elect for any treatment. One is alive 161 months following diagnosis and the second died 96 months following diagnosis. Five of the lesions were in the mobile spine (one cervical, two thoracic, two lumbar) and seven were in the sacrum. Six patients underwent an en bloc resection [two via total en bloc spondylectomy (TES)]. Average length of follow up is 60 [3–161] months and eight of 12 patients are alive at latest follow up. Intraoperative complications included cardiac arrest, pleural tear, and excessive blood loss (8 L). Two patients, with sacral chordomas, had wound complications. Recurrence occurred in one patient with piecemeal resection and one patient with incomplete resection had post-operative metastatic lesions to the liver and lung. Conclusions: We found less recurrence in patients managed with an en bloc resection as opposed to piece meal or intralesional resections. Sacral chordoma patients had higher wound complication rates as compared to chordomas of the mobile spine. The long life expectancy of non-surgically managed patients underscores the indolent nature of chordomas.
What Is Science and Scientific Research? Why Do Nations Produce Scientific Research?

A fundamental problem in the field of social studies of science is why nations produce scientific achievements. Many studies have analyzed characteristics of science and scientific research. However, the motivations of nations to produce scientific research are elusive. Firstly, this study reviews the concept of science in literature and suggests a new general definition that synthetizes previous concepts and endeavors to extend them. Secondly, this study here shows that manifold factors induce nations to perform scientific research and produce science advances, such as the goal of power, wealth, technological superiority, etc. Preliminary empirical evidence supports arguments of this study. In general, science is an organized social effort that inevitably reflects the concerns and interests of nations and society. Science, combined with technology, is the forerunners of a full realization of the meaning and possibilities of life of individuals in society. It would be naive to limit the reasons of supporting scientific research by nations to pursue wealth and economic growth. The process of scientific research is driven by the increasingly effective struggle of the human mind in its efforts to satisfy desires, solve problems and achieve/sustain power in a context of adaptation of life to new economic and social bases. In conclusion, some research policy implications are discussed.
Mitochondrial Reactive Oxygen Species Generated at the Complex-II Matrix or Intermembrane Space Microdomain Have Distinct Effects on Redox Signaling and Stress Sensitivity in Caenorhabditis elegans.

Abstract Aims: How mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) impact physiological function may depend on the quantity of ROS generated or removed, and the subcellular microdomain in which this oc...
Arctic governance in a changing world

Mary Durfee and Rachael Lorna Johnstone write that Arctic Governance in a Changing World ‘was originally intended as a textbook’, but ‘hope that [they] have provided an analysis that will also appe...
Better Health Service Use for Families of Children With Special Health Care Needs.

* Abbreviations: CSHCN — : children with special health care needs ED — : emergency department The article by Fuller et al,1 which examines relationships between family material hardships, resilience, and suboptimal health care use, is a refreshing and constructive step forward in unpacking the relationship between family difficulties, ability to cope with those difficulties, and health care needs that both go unmet and are met through the less-desirable route of the emergency department (ED). Including children both with and without special health care needs, this article paves the way toward potential practical interventions to enhance family resilience and mitigate material hardships that could address the difficult problem of excessive ED use and, instead, point families toward care that meets their child’s needs in a more durable way. In previous work,2 the authors added to the growing body of evidence3,4 linking material hardships with unmet health care needs and increased ED … Address correspondence to Christopher J. Stille, MD, MPH, Section of General Academic Pediatrics, University of Colorado School of Medicine and Children’s Hospital Colorado, 13123 E 16th Ave, Mailstop B032, Aurora, CO 80045. E-mail: christopher.stille{at}childrenscolorado.org
Experimental Demonstration of the Role of Anisotropy in Interfacial Pattern Formation

We impose anisotropy in modified Hele-Shaw experiments by engraving a grid on one of the plates. Without anisotropy, the dynamics is dominated by tip bifurcations leading to a branched ramified structure. With anisotropy, a dendritic pattern forms, in qualitative agreement with the prediction of recent studies of local growth models. PACS numbers: 61.50.Cj, 05.70.Ln, 68.70. + w, 81.30.Fb
Stepping into the Breach of Federal Inaction: Reforming the Financing of Long-Term Services and Supports in the Post-CLASS Era

The growing need for long-term services and supports (LTSS) poses significant challenges to both individuals and government. This article documents the continuing failure to tackle this problem at the national level-a failure that was most recently seen in the fallout from the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which included the single piece of national legislation ever enacted to comprehensively address LTSS costs: the Community Living Assistance Services and Supports (CLASS) Act. The CLASS Act was passed as part of the ACA (Title 8) but was repealed in 2013. Following its demise, policy experts and some Democrats have made additional proposals for addressing the LTSS financing crisis. Moreover, significant government action is taking place at the state level, both to relieve financial and emotional burdens on LTSS recipients and their families and to ease pressure on state Medicaid budgets. Lessons from these initiatives could serve as opportunities for learning how to overcome roadblocks to successful policy development, adoption, and implementation across states and for traversing the policy and political tradeoffs should a policy window once again open for addressing the problem of LTSS financing nationally.
Optimal subset selection for causal inference using machine learning ensembles and particle swarm optimization

We suggest and evaluate a method for optimal construction of synthetic treatment and control samples for the purpose of drawing causal inference. The balance optimization subset selection problem, which formulates minimization of aggregate imbalance in covariate distributions to reduce bias in data, is a new area of study in operations research. We investigate a novel metric, cross-validated area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) as a measure of balance between treatment and control groups. The proposed approach provides direct and automatic balancing of covariate distributions. In addition, the AUC-based approach is able to detect subtler distributional differences than existing measures, such as simple empirical mean/variance and count-based metrics. Thus, optimizing AUCs achieves a greater balance than the existing methods. Using 5 widely used real data sets and 7 synthetic data sets, we show that optimization of samples using existing methods (Chi-square, mean variance differences, Kolmogorov–Smirnov, and Mahalanobis) results in samples containing imbalance that is detectable using machine learning ensembles. We minimize covariate imbalance by minimizing the absolute value of the distance of the maximum cross-validated AUC on $$ M $$ folds from 0.50, using evolutionary optimization. We demonstrate that particle swarm optimization (PSO) outperforms modified cuckoo swarm (MCS) for a gradient-free, non-linear noisy cost function. To compute AUCs, we use supervised binary classification approaches from the machine learning and credit scoring literature. Using superscore ensembles adds to the classifier-based two-sample testing literature. If the mean cross-validated AUC based on machine learning is 0.50, the two groups are indistinguishable and suitable for causal inference.
Languages and Idiolects

The main theses to be elaborated and supported in what follows are, roughly speaking: (i) that, besides communal languages (such as Swahili, Hindi, Mandarin, and Arabic), we should acknowledge the existence of idiolects – the different, idiosyncratic, personal versions of languages that are deployed by the individual members of linguistic communities; (ii) that the meaning of a word in a communal language is constructed from the somewhat different meanings it has within the different idiolects of the speakers of that language; and (iii) that the word’s meaning in a given person’s idiolect is grounded in the particular implicitly followed rule for its use that explains the particular collection of sentences containing the word that this person accepts.
Dirichlet fundamental domains and topology of projective varieties

We prove that for every finitely-presented group G there exists a 2-dimensional irreducible complex-projective variety W with the fundamental group G, so that all singularities of W are normal crossings and Whitney umbrellas.
Self-discharge of magnesium–sulfur batteries leads to active material loss and poor shelf life

Due to its high theoretical energy density and relative abundancy of active materials, the magnesium–sulfur battery has attracted research attention in recent years. A closely related system, the lithium-sulfur battery, can suffer from serious self-discharge behavior. Until now, the self-discharge of Mg–S has been rarely addressed. Herein, we demonstrate for a wide variety of Mg–S electrolytes and conditions that Mg–S batteries also suffer from serious self-discharge. For a common Mg–S electrolyte, we identify a multi-step self-discharge pathway. Covalent S8 diffuses to the metal Mg anode and is converted to ionic Mg polysulfide in a non-faradaic reaction. Mg polysulfides in solution are found to be meta-stable, continuing to react and precipitate as solid magnesium polysulfide species during both storage and active use. Mg–S electrolytes from the early, middle, and state-of-the-art stages of the Mg–S literature are all found to enable the self-discharge. The self-discharge behavior is found to decrease first cycle discharge capacity by at least 32%, and in some cases up to 96%, indicating this is a phenomenon of the Mg–S chemistry that deserves focused attention.
The importance of implementing inpatient virtual coverage in an endocrinology practice: lessons learned thus far from the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly changed the landscape of medical care and the healthcare system needs to quickly adapt in order to continue providing optimal medical care to hospitalized patients in an efficient, effective, and safe manner. Endocrinology diseases are commonly present in patients with COVID-19 and often are major risk factors for development of severe disease. The use of electronic consultation and telemedicine have already been well-established in the outpatient setting but yet not commonly implemented in the inpatient arena. This type of remote medical care has the potential to provide a reliable delivery of endocrine care while protecting providers and patients from spreading infection. This short review intends to provide the initial steps for the development of an inpatient telemedicine endocrine service to patients with endocrine diseases. Telehealth will become part of our daily practices and has a potential to provide a safe and efficient method of consultative service.
Humans as Animals

Species-based inequality is embedded in our institutions of law, government, and property. Legal distinctions between people and animals drive biodiversity loss. Recent environmental movements—including the rights of nature, animal rights, and wildlife property ownership—seek to lessen the gap in law’s unequal treatment of humans and other living things. Despite growing popular support for such reforms, legal scholars have yet to directly grapple with the mindset underlying the legal status quo. This Article identifies and challenges institutionalized speciesism in law. It critically examines the legal treatment of non-human animals. It also presents an alternative legal worldview—one informed by scientific, cultural, and religious inputs. Current legal discussions operate in terms of “humans and animals”; such conceptions should shift towards a conception of “humans as animals.” Laws do not merely govern human relationships with one another; they also govern human relationships with the broader natural world—which is itself alive and filled with other sentient beings. Human-created legal institutions are artificially limited in scope to human concern. Such narrowness conflicts with biological reality, in which we exist within a broader natural context. This creates a fundamental mismatch between our too-narrow institutions and the real world, a world in which humankind lives in constant relationship with all other living things. Anthropocentric institutions artificially stripped of biological context unwittingly drive widespread devastation by systemically failing to account for non-human interests. Until humans broaden our institutions to reflect biological reality, we are doomed to continue decimating the world at ever-increasing rates. Only radically reforming institutions blind to other species will end this cycle, and thus, paradoxically, prevent humankind from indirectly, unintentionally destroying ourselves by destroying the environment upon which we depend. Law must begin to forthrightly engage questions of equality and distribution between humans and other living things. Our fate is inexorably intertwined with the fate of other living things. To save ourselves requires “saving” the natural world. We must apply the talents of our species—law among them—in a manner better aligned with reality. Shifting to an understanding of humans as animals is not a merely linguistic or philosophical move—it is the linchpin of an emerging conception of law harmonized with the natural world.
On the sidelines of what works: scientifically based indifference

A team of systematic reviewers successfully completed a government-commissioned review of ‘what works to improve post-school outcomes for youth with disabilities’ in 2012. Despite its success, inte...
The Impact of Pre-Service Teachers’ Orientation on the Implementation of Inquiry-Based Science Instruction

The purpose of the study is to investigate how pre-service elementary teachers’ orientation about science inquiry impacts their implementation of inquiry-based instruction. Teaching orientation is one of the levels of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) which impacts on teachers’ instructional practice. With thirty-one pre-service teachers, data are collected using a survey and three vignettes and are analyzed using a correlational coefficient. The results show that (a) there is a moderate relationship between pre-service teachers’ view of inquiry-based instruction and their willingness to implement it; (b) pre-service teachers’ confidence in implementing inquiry-based instruction increases as they gain experience with inquiry-based methods through coursework; (c) the participants favor using inquiry methods, but they feel more comfortable with a more teacher-centered approach. It implies that one science method course may not suffice to produce teachers who are self-efficacious about teaching inquiry-based science. Thus, they need additional instruction to implement a more student-centered inquiry approach.
COVID-19 mRNA vaccines drive differential antibody Fc-functional profiles in pregnant, lactating, and nonpregnant women.

Substantial immunological changes occur throughout pregnancy to render the mother immunologically tolerant to the fetus and allow fetal growth. However, additional local and systemic immunological ...
Alpine treeline, climate, and environmental changes

(2007). Introduction—Alpine Treeline, Climate, and Environmental Changes. Physical Geography: Vol. 28, Alpine Treeline, Climate, and Environmental Changes, pp. 375-377.
Treating Self-Destructive Behaviors in Trauma Survivors: A Clinician's Guide, by L. Ferentz

There is only one thing lacking in Treating Self-Destructive Behaviors in Trauma Survivors: A Clinician's Guide, an indispensable survival handbook for therapists working with traumatic dissociatio...
Personal Assistants for the Web: An MIT Perspective

The growing complexity of sources of information and users’ needs for information is fast outstripping the manual browsing and searching interfaces of the past. A long-term approach to the complexity problem is to design intelligent information agents that provide active assistance in the process of finding and organizing information. These agents differ from conventional information retrieval in how they interact with the user and the dynamic nature of the information they deal with. This article surveys some work at the MIT Media Lab in developing intelligent information agents, especially as assistants to users browsing the Web. These agents don’t replace conventional browsing or direct manipulation interfaces, but work with such interfaces to learn from interaction with the user, anticipate the user’s needs, and connect the user with other people who may share his or her interests.
Positive Emotion Differentiation: A Functional Approach

While positive emotion can be conceptualized broadly as a response to the potential for reward, the environment offers different kinds of rewards, and these are best approached in somewhat different ways. A functional approach to positive emotion differentiation distinguishes among several different types of rewards with strong implications for adaptive fitness and posits the existence of “discrete” positive emotions that promote an adaptive response to each reward. A taxonomy of eight positive emotions, dubbed the “PANACEAS” taxonomy based on an acronym of the first letter of each of the eight constructs, is presented as an example of this approach. Positive emotion constructs defined through functional analyses are useful for guiding empirical research, especially for identifying prototypical eliciting stimuli, and generating hypotheses about the implications of different positive emotions for a variety of outcomes. Research findings are reviewed that support the importance of positive emotion differentiation in understanding the effects of positive emotions on cognition, physiology, and behavior. Advantages of the functional approach are discussed, as well as implications of the approach for evaluating major theories of the structure of emotion.
Ultrastructure of Hyaline Cytoplasmic Inclusions in a Human Hepatoma: Relationship to Mallory's Alcoholic Hyalin

Electron microscopic study of hepatoma tissue from a patient with mildly active alcohol-associated cirrhosis has demonstrated the ultrastructural nature of the two forms of hepatoma hyaline inclusions described by Norkin and Campagna-Pinto (Cytoplasmic hyaline inclusions in hepatoma. Arch Pathol 86:25-32, 1968). The reticular form of hepatoma hyalin is identical to alcoholic hyalin of Mallory. The globular deposits of hepatoma hyalin have a fibrillar internal structure also indistinguishable from that of the classical alcoholic hyalin of Mallory, except for closer packing of fibrils. Physical continuity of globular and reticular forms of hepatoma hyalin and a close association of globular hyalin with microbodies is demonstrated.
A Spurious Solution to a Genuine Problem: An In-Depth Look at The Import Drugs Act of 1848

The Import Drugs Act has been relatively ignored by the academic community, and is most often relegated to a passing reference in a footnote. Yet the Act represents an important step in our nationi?½s creation of a safe supply of drugs, and thus deserves some attention. In this paper, I give the Act that attention, and seek to place it in an historical context. In Chapter 1, I describe how Congressional action was prompted by medical conditions during the Mexican War and the belief that American soldiers were being given adulterated drugs. Chapter 2 describes the involvement of the professional health organizations in the fight against adulterated drugs, and suggests reasons why drug adulteration posed such a problem to doctors and pharmacists. In Chapter 3, I look at the legislative history of the Act, through an analysis of the House Report and the Congressional debates on the matter. Finally, in Chapter 4, I look at the mechanics of how the Act was implemented by the Customs Service, and describe its short term effects on the problem of adulterated drugs.
Optical and visual impact of tear break-up in human eyes

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine the optical and visual impact of tear break-up. Methods Optical quality of the eye was assessed during periods of nonblinking by quantifying vessel contrast in the fundus image and by monitoring the psychophysical contrast sensitivity and the spatial distribution of tear thickness changes by retroillumination. All measures were obtained from three eyes either with or without a soft contact lens. Results A noticeable decrease in retinal vessel contrast and contrast sensitivity were observed soon after a blink. Both of these measures of optical quality of the eye showed a similar pattern of image degradation both with and without a soft contact lens. Although trial-to-trial variability was considerable, sample means show that image contrast in the low spatial frequency range can drop to between 20% and 40% of initial values after 60 seconds of nonblinking. Retroillumination of the tear film showed local intensity fluctuations that progressively spread across the pupil with increasing time after the blink. Conclusions Optical aberrations created by tear break-up contribute to the decline in image quality observed objectively and psychophysically. The decline in image quality that accompanies tear break-up may be a direct cause of the blurry vision complaints commonly encountered in dry-eye patients.
Microtubule sliding in swimming sperm flagella: direct and indirect measurements on sea urchin and tunicate spermatozoa.

Direct measurements of microtubule sliding in the flagella of actively swimming, demembranated, spermatozoa have been made using submicron diameter gold beads as markers on the exposed outer doublet microtubules. With spermatozoa of the tunicate, Ciona, these measurements confirm values of sliding calculated indirectly by measuring angles relative to the axis of the sperm head. Both methods of measurement show a nonuniform amplitude of oscillatory sliding along the length of the flagellum, providing direct evidence that "oscillatory synchronous sliding" can be occurring in the flagellum, in addition to the metachronous sliding that is necessary to propagate a bending wave. Propagation of constant amplitude bends is not accomplished by propagation of a wave of oscillatory sliding of constant amplitude, and therefore appears to require a mechanism for monitoring and controlling the bend angle as bends propagate. With sea urchin spermatozoa, the direct measurements of sliding do not agree with the values calculated by measuring angles relative to the head axis. The oscillation in angular orientation of the sea urchin sperm head as it swims appears to be accommodated by flexure at the head- flagellum junction and does not correspond to oscillation in orientation of the basal end of the flagellum. Consequently, indirect calculations of sliding based on angles measured relative to the longitudinal axis of the sperm head can be seriously inaccurate in this species.
Scan Statistics for Detecting a Local Change in Variance for Normal Data with Known Variance

In this article, several scan statistics are discussed for detecting a local change in variance for one dimensional normal data. When the length of the scanning window is known, a fixed window scan statistic based on moving sum of squares is proposed. Two approximations for the distribution of this scan statistic are investigated. When the length of the scanning window is unknown, a variable window scan statistic based on a generalized likelihood ratio test and a multiple window minimum P-value scan statistic are proposed for detecting the local change in variance. For a moderate or large shift in variance, numerical results indicate that both the variable and multiple window scan statistics perform well. For large data sets, considering the detection power and computing efficiency, the multiple window scan statistic is recommended.
Long‐term avian community response to housing development at the boundary of US protected areas: effect size increases with time

Summary 1. Biodiversity conservation is a primary function of protected areas. However, protected areas also attract people, and therefore, land use has intensified at the boundaries of these lands globally. In the USA, since the 1970s, housing growth at the boundaries (<1 km) of protected areas has increased at a rate far higher than on more distant private lands. Here, we designed our analyses to address our central hypothesis that increasing housing density in and near protected areas will increasingly alter their avian communities. 2. We quantified the relationship between abundance and richness of protected-area avian species of greatest conservation need, land-cover affiliates (e.g. species associated with natural land cover such as forest breeders) and synanthropes (e.g. species associated with humans) with housing density on the boundary of protected areas and on more distant private lands from 1970 to 2010 in three ecoregions of the USA. We accomplished this using linear mixedmodel analyses, data from the US Census Bureau and 90 routes of the North American Breeding Bird Survey. 3. Housing density at the boundary of protected areas tended to be strongly negatively related with the abundance and richness of species of greatest conservation need and landcover affiliates (upwards of 88% of variance explained) and strongly positively related with synanthropes (upwards of 83% of variance explained). The effect size of these relationships increased in most cases from 1970 to 2010 and was greatest in the densely developed eastern forests. In the more sparsely populated West, we found similar, though weaker, associations. 4. Housing density on private lands more distant from protected areas had similar, but more muted negative effects. 5. Synthesis and applications. Our results illustrate that as housing density has increased along the boundary of protected areas, the conservation benefit of these lands has likely diminished. We urge conservation planners to prioritize the purchase of private-land inholdings in order to maximize the extent of unfragmented natural lands within protected areas. Further, we strongly recommend that land-use planners implement boundary management strategies to alter the pattern of human access to protected areas, cluster development to concentrate the footprint of rural housing, and establish conservation agreements through local land trusts to buffer protected areas from the effects of development along protected-area boundaries. To maximize the conservation benefit of protected areas, we suggest that housing development should be restricted within 1 km of their boundaries.
Diagnosing multiple interacting defects with combination descriptions

Conventional diagnostic methods assume that only a single defect is present. Cases with multiple defects can be difficult to diagnose because the defects can interact, meaning that the observable cues are not a sum of the cues for the component defects. Diagnostic methods that use cue-to-defect relationships fail when interactions between defects change the observable cues. Model-based methods can be used to diagnose multiple defects by simulating the results of interactions. Model-based methods, however, are limited to domains with accurate and complete models as well as enough available data to initialize the models. This research develops a description and classification of the ways cues change when defects interact, based on physical interactions and example cases. Each type of cue may combine in a different way, so each has a separate description. Also developed is a formula for quantifying the amount of abnormal data explained by a set of defects, termed explanation points. The descriptions and formula are used in a domain-independent computational diagnostic model that can diagnose multiple defects, even when cues are altered or missing due to interactions between the defects. In the medical domain investigated in this research (diagnosis of congenital heart defects), we found that cues combine with one another in a small number of ways: all cues may appear, the values of the cues may be added, or dominant cues may mask any other cues present. Cues of each type combine in one of these basic ways, or use a combination of a few of the basic ways, based on characteristics of the cues, case, or domain. The diagnostic model is tested by constructing a program with a knowledge base in Pediatric Cardiology and testing it on cases of single and multiple defects from hospital files. This program correctly diagnoses cases with multiple interacting defects for which current methods are not applicable or fail.
The Influence of UVA and Visible Radiation on Acute Damage by Short-Wave UVR (λ < 320 nm)

The influence of UVA and visible radiation on the acute damage by short-wave ultraviolet radiation (UVR) (λ
Heuristics-based scheduling of composite web service workloads

Web services can be aggregated to create composite workflows that provide streamlined functionality for human users or other systems. Although industry standards and recent research have sought to define best practices and to improve end-to-end workflow composition, one area that has not fully been explored is the scheduling of a workflow's web service requests to actual service provisioning in a multi-tiered, multi-organisation environment. This issue is relevant to modern business scenarios where business processes within a workflow must complete within QoS-defined limits. Because these business processes are web service consumers, service requests must be mapped and scheduled across multiple web service providers, each with its own negotiated service level agreement. In this paper we provide heuristics for scheduling service requests from multiple business process workflows to web service providers such that a business value metric across all workflows is maximised. We show that a genetic search algorithm is appropriate to perform this scheduling, and through experimentation we show that our algorithm scales well up to a thousand workflows and produces better mappings than traditional approaches.
Early Human Screening of Medications to Treat Drug Addiction: Novel Paradigms and the Relevance of Pharmacogenetics

The development of a new medication is a long and expensive process, with a new compound generally costing $2 billion and taking 14 years to move from drug discovery through human testing to US Food and Drug Administration approval.1 Costs escalate with each successive phase of clinical evaluation. At least one-third of the drugs in phase III, the final and most expensive clinical testing phase, fail to gain Food and Drug Administration approval and therefore do not become commercial products, representing a major waste of time and resources2 and needlessly exposing patients in clinical trials to potentially harmful compounds. More efficient use of drug development resources requires improvement of procedures to determine the likely efficacy of drugs in the patient population of interest. The earlier in drug development that ineffective compounds are identified, the smaller will be the waste in resources. An initial screening procedure (e.g., early phase II) that could identify clinically ineffective compounds with near-perfect accuracy prior to late phase II and phase III trials could save up to $700 million per compound and shorten its development duration by 5 years.1 Traditional randomized clinical trials, although valid, are often impractical for carrying out initial tests of the efficacy of medications aimed at treating drug dependence. This is due to the costs involved in recruiting sufficiently large numbers of subjects to enable detection of differences in the standard dichotomous outcome for such trials (i.e., abstinent vs. relapsed) between the active and placebo arms.3,4 In this paper, we first discuss potential new approaches to more efficient screening of novel medications to treat drug dependence, with the focus on nicotine dependence, and then consider how these procedures can incorporate genetic information.
A New Hybrid Static/Run-time Secure Memory Access Protection

Secure memory access protection plays a critical role in making software systems resilient to malicious security attacks. Run-time checking is one of the major strategies that provides safe memory accesses. However, in many security-critical applications, the performance overhead due to the extra computation at runtime is often unacceptable. In order to reduce this cost, we propose a new strategy that minimizes the number of runtime checks by efficiently integrating the results from static software verification. Our strategy applies a verification approach called SAT-based software bounded model checking (BMC) to detect memory access violations as well as to prove the absence of such violations within a given bound statically, followed by a runtime checking to synergistically and completely secure the memory accesses. Our method makes use of static verification in a fine-grained manner, in which redundant runtime checks can be avoided for those safe accesses. Furthermore, with BMC, our strategy can provide the error traces useful for debugging if the instance is proved unsafe.
Toughening of SAN copolymers by an SAN emulsion grafted rubber

Abstract A series of styrene/acrylonitrile (SAN) copolymers have been blended with an SAN grafted butadiene rubber to form ABS type materials. The major focus has been the effects of composition of the SAN matrix copolymer, for a fixed SAN graft, on blend toughness, deformation behaviour and morphology. The AN content varied from 0 to 40% in the matrix copolymers, while the AN content of the emulsion-made graft was fixed at 22.5%. Maximum strength and toughness were observed for compositions based on SAN matrices containing 34% AN. Mechanical dilatometry revealed no major changes in deformation mechanism as the AN content of the matrix changed. Most of the deformation was due to dilatational processes, presumably crazing. Transmission electron photomicrographs, on the other hand, showed differences in rubber particle dispersion. the morphology revealed by scanning electron microscopy of fracture surfaces distinguished the ductile and less ductile blends. Issues relating to the miscibility of the component polymers and adhesion are discussed.
RAMAN SCATTERING FROM ANOMALOUS PHONONS IN TRANSITION METALS AND COMPOUNDS

Phonon anomalies in transition-metal compounds often produce enhanced two-phonon Raman spectra. Examples are given and a theoretical explanation sketched. The anomalous Eg phonon and electronic Raman scattering in V3Si are also discussed.
A supersymmetric transfer matrix and differentiability of the density of states in the one-dimensional Anderson model

LetH=−Δ+V onl 2(ℤ), whereV(x),x∈ℤ, are i.i.d.r.v.'s with common probability distributionv. Leth(t)=∫e −itv dv(v) and letk(E) be the integrated density of states. It is proven: (i) Ifh isn-times differentiable withh (j)(t)=O((1+|t|)−α) for some α>0,j=0, 1, ...,n, thenk(E) is aC n function. In particular, ifv has compact support andh(t)=O((1+|t|)−α) with α>0, thenk(E) isC ∞. This allowsv to be singular continuous. (ii) Ifh(t)=O(e −α|t|) for some α>0 thenk(E) is analytic in a strip about the real axis. The proof uses the supersymmetric replica trick to rewrite the averaged Green's function as a two-point function of a one-dimensional supersymmetric field theory which is studied by the transfer matrix method.
TGF-β: 20 years and counting

The history of transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) as a bifunctional agent in the immune system is briefly described. The importance of cellular context in understanding the role of TGF-β in regulating immune response is emphasized.
How Does the Business of News Influence Terrorism Coverage? Evidence From The Washington Post and USA Today

Observers argue that the business of news is responsible for worsening the coverage of terrorism, but exactly how economic considerations influence coverage is controversial. Based on an analysis of over 1600 articles from The Washington Post and USA Today, we find that concerns about the effects of economic pressures on terrorism reporting are exaggerated. The business climate affects coverage, but the long-term impact of market pressures on coverage is modest. Articles about terrorist violence are increasingly prominent, but coverage of counterterrorism remains robust. Efforts to inoculate the press against the worst excesses of the market are unnecessary.
Doppler evaluation of physiologic peripheral pulmonic stenosis in newborns

A common systolic ejection murmur of the neonate has been attributed to physiologic peripheral pulmonic stenosis. We investigated this auscultatory finding using duplex pulsed Doppler. Three groups of normal fuliterm neonates less than one week old were studied—10 without murmurs, 10 with grade 1/6 murmurs and nine with at least grade 2/6 murmurs. We measured the anatomical size and peak flow velocities in the main pulmonary artery and left and right branches, the peak velocity in the right ventricular outflow tract, and the bifurcation angle. Flow gradients were calculated as 4 (Vmax)2 Groups were compared by t-tests. A loud peripheral pulmonic stenosis murmur was associated with increased pulmonary artery velocities, with left pulmonary artery velocity the most discriminating variable (1.3 ± 0.29 vs 0.94 ± 0.19 m/s; p ≤ 0.05). Although the peak gradient never exceeded 12 mmHg, there was an increased gradient in the loud murmur group (8.7 ± 2.6 vs 5.7 ± 2.2 mmHg; p ≤ 0.05) which may even be underestimated by the lack of angle correction. The left pulmonary artery diameter was also larger in the loud murmur group, but there were no other anatomic or volumetric flow differences between groups. The soft murmur group could not be separated from normals. We conclude that Doppler techniques can confirm the physiologic basis of peripheral pulmonic stenosis murmurs.
Pulsed HF Laser Holographic Interferometry.

Two-dimensional holographic interferometry has been accomplished at wavelengths near 3 μm. The source is a pulsed hydrogen fluoride oscillator-amplifier system. Transverse excitation is achieved with a fast bank discharging into a simple electrode configuration. The spatial detector is a thin film of bismuth, exposed by local evaporation by a single line of the HF laser emission spectrum. Double exposure interferograms covering areas up to ~10 cm2 in the object plane have been obtained with single-line laser energies of less than a joule.
Interaction of poliovirus with its cell surface binding site

The interaction of poliovirus with its cellular binding sites was characterized by using a receptor-excess silicon oil partition assay. Poliovirus type 1 Mahoney [PV1(M)] binding to HeLa cells fits a theoretical simple bimolecular noncooperative binding curve with an equilibrium dissociation constant (Kd) of 4.3 x 10(7) cells.ml-1 at 4 degrees, or 2.1 x 10(-10) M, assuming 3000 virus binding sites/cell. The association rate of complex formation was measured to be 3.6 x 10(-9) ml.cell-1.min-1 (7.2 x 10(8) M-1.min-1) and the dissociation rate calculated to be 1.5 x 10(-1) min-1, giving the complex a half-life of 4.5 min. The equilibrium dissociation constant, association rate, and dissociation rate were also measured for the binding of the attenuated poliovirus type 3 Sabin strain [PV3(S)] to HeLa cells. PV3(S) bound HeLa cells with a Kd of 3.3 x 10(7) cells.ml-1 (1.6 x 10(-10) M), an association rate of 4.1 x 10(-9) ml.cell-1.min-1 (8.2 x 10(8) M-1.min-1), and a dissociation rate calculated to be 1.4 x 10(-1) min-1, giving the complex a half-life of 5.1 min. Thus the virulent and avirulent strains of poliovirus bind HeLa cells with nearly identical binding constants and rate constants. Equilibrium binding constants for PV1(M) to various other cell types varied from a high affinity of 4.1 x 10(6) cells.ml-1 for JA-1 cells to a low affinity of 7 x 10(7) cells.ml-1 for NGP cells.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Revista Generación : Mexican Regionalism and Migration in Tijuana and Chicago

In the United States, migration affects ethnic/racial identity politics, but it translates differently for Mexico, where not ethnic but regional identity is affected by emigration to the United States. The history of centralism has shaped how northern Mexicans have formed their identity in respect to Mexico City and the United States. Migration aggravates these tensions between northern Mexico and Mexico City. This article analyzes several cultural representations of migration within two issues of Revista Generacion, a literary and cultural magazine published in Mexico City, which is distributed nationally. The objective of this article is to see how migration and the emigrant population figure within the Mexican cultural imaginary.
Modulation of cofactor requirement for the activation of protein kinase C by heparin Possible effect at the regulatory domain

Heparin was found to stimulate the phosphorylation of histone H1 but not protamine sulfate catalyzed by Ca2+/phospholipid-dependent protein kinase (protein kinase C or PKC). The effect of heparin on histone H1 phosphorylation appeared to be due to an increase in phosphatidylserine affinity for PKC activation in the presence of heparin. This effect of heparin was abolisched when trypsinized, cofactor-independent, PKC was employed to phosphorylate histone H1. These studies suggest that heparin acts at the regulatory domain of PKC, and emphasize the importance of the negative charge in influencing the accessibility of the substrate to PKC action