cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The effect of vivo doxorubicin (adriamycin) and aclacinomycin administration on guanylate cyclase activity in rat tissue.

AbstractDoxorubicin is an important antitumor agent whose long-term administration results in severe cardiotoxic reactions. In a recent publication, we reported that doxorubicin inhibited guanylate cyclase activity in human and rat heart in vitro, and also lowered cyclic GMP levels in tissue slices. These effects were specific for cardiac tissue. In the present study we administered doxorubicin in vivo to male Sprague - Dawley rats and measured guanylate cyclase activity at various times after treatment in several tissues. We found that enzyme activity remained unchanged up to 4 hr after injection of the drug. By 24 hr, however, guanylate cyclase activity in rat heart was depressed and remained so for at least 72 hr, the longest time measured. Inhibition was dose dependent, and significant reduction in enzyme activity was observed in kidney, liver, and lung, as well as in heart with a 10 mg/kg dose. In contrast, the injection of aclacinomycin, a structurally related analog of doxorubicin, had no effect on...
Thermal Transpiration Based Propulsion

Thermal transpiration based propulsion is studied. Thermal transpiration describes flowing of the gas through a narrow channel with an imposed temperature gradient. As gas flows from the cold to hot side in the chamber, a pressure gradient is created across the channel induced by the temperature gradient. Between the two sides of the chamber an aerogel substance, which functions as an excellent insulator, is used as a thermal transpiration membrane and allows gas diffuse to the hot chamber. The induced pressure gradient is the driving factor in the propulsion of air, or any gas, into the chamber and through the porous membrane. The use of a porous substance such as aerogel as the transpiration membrane and a pressure gradient served as the two requirements in order to successfully achieve thermal transpiration. The gas diffusion through the aerogel transpiration membrane indicates that the average pore size of the aerogel must be comparable with the free path of the molecules. This concept can be taken further if the outlet chamber served as a combustion reactor. The flowing gas is motivated by the heat produced from the combustion process. Along with the exceptionally low thermal conductivity of the aerogel, the gas flow permits the propulsion device to be self-sustaining. The implications of providing a self-sustaining heat source signify that no external electrical heating is required. The effectiveness of this device can be measured as a function of the porous size of the membrane and the temperature difference applied to the system and pressure gradient created.© 2014 ASME
Sex differences in organic ion transport by rat kidney.

SummaryAccumulation (S/M) of PAH and TEA was significantly greater in renal cortical slices from male than female rats. The data suggest, therefore, that the stimulatory effect of testosterone on active secretion of organic anions is not specific, but reflects a more generalized trophic effect on the kidney. The sex difference observed in accumulation of PAH was shown to involve differences in initial uptake rate and runout. It is concluded that the greater PAH S/M ratio exhibited by renal cortical slices from male rats results from a greater rate of uptake which is complemented by a slower rate of runout of the anion.
Management of Optic Chiasma/Hypothalamic Gliomas

A retrospective chart review of all newly diagnosed tumors involving the optic chiasm from 1982-1996 was performed at British Columbia’s Children’s Hospital, Vancouver, Canada.
Economics of a supercloud

A Supercloud is a "CrossCloud": It is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) that goes beyond federated or hybrid clouds and gives its users direct control over cloud deployments--even across different underlying cloud providers (Jia et al. 2015). It supports privileged cloud operations such as migration across autonomous cloud providers even if they use different virtual machine monitors, networking, and storage infrastructure. For instance, a user can start a virtual machine instance in the Google cloud (Google Compute Engine), migrate it live to the Amazon cloud (Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud), live migrate it again to the Microsoft cloud (Microsoft Azure), then finally live migrate it to a private cloud (e.g. a Eucalyptus or OpenStack based cloud).Moreover, a user can have a deployment that simultaneously exists over various combination of cloud providers, then change the placement at any time. To support such privileged operations and customizations across many different cloud providers, the Supercloud provides virtual machine, storage, and networking complete with a full set of management operations, allowing applications to optimize performance across different underlying cloud providers.
The Integration of Consonants in Greek Loanwords in Syriac

The present study analyses the integration of consonants in Greek loanwords in Syriac. It is shown that in the vast majority of cases each Greek consonantal phoneme is represented by a single consonant in Syriac. Correspondences that deviate from this are usually the result of one of two causes. First, a Koinē form of Greek, instead of Attic, likely served as the source for some of the words that prima facie seem to exhibit irregular correspondences. Second, some of the seemingly irregular correspondences are due to secondary developments in Syriac. This study is based on a corpus of more than eight hundred Greek loanwords and their derivatives found in pre-eighth-century Syriac texts that were not translated from Greek.
Various Teaching Modes to Optimize System Establishment and Evaluation of Medical Imaging Teaching

Various teaching modes is to in order to better adapt to improve the medical imaging teaching system. Various teaching modes in medical imaging teaching to change conventional teaching process into "teacher-oriented, studentcentered" teaching model is analysed. Purpose is to improve the students' learning interest and enhance the learning initiative and team work spirit, to grasp the method of medical image diagnosis and the differential image.
Taxonomy, Distribution, and Evolution of the Percidae

The family Percidae exclusively is native to freshwaters of the Northern Hemisphere, with just two of its genera divided between Eurasia and North America. Percidae comprises 11 genera and an estimated 266–275 species, reaching tremendous species richness in the North American darters. We provide an up-to-date account relating the results of the latest DNA sequence and morphological analyses to resolve the relationships of the family Percidae, including its component genera and species. We provide newly assembled distribution maps for the taxa, and summarize their primary distinguishing morphological characters and life history. For each genus, the latest phylogenetic tree of species relationships is shown and explained. We relate these findings to historic biogeography and contemporary distributions. Just recently, tremendous inroads have been made using new molecular tools and analyses that allow us to begin to understand the tremendous evolutionary diversification of the Percidae, as well as the landscape and climate factors that have shaped these patterns. This information may provide an important indication of the future responses of percid taxa to continued anthropogenic influences.
HPLC determination of baicalin in Yunfu Jinhua tablets

Objective:To establish an RP-HPLC for determination of baicalin in Yunfu Jinhua tablets.Methods: Baicalin was determinated by HPLC with a Phenomenex C_(18) column(250 mm×4.6 mm,5μm)with UV detection at 280 nm,the mobile phase was contained of acetonitrile-water-phosphoric acid(30:70:0.1),the flow rate was 1.0 mL·min~(-1),the column temperature was 40℃.Results :The linear range of baicalin was within 8.3-83.0μg ·mL~(-1),r=0.9999.The mean recovery(RSD) was 98.6% (1.5%) ,98.9% (1.5%) ,99.7%(1.1%)(n=3) respectively.Conclusion:This method is simple,practical,accurate and can be used for the quality control of Yunfu Jinhua tablets.
Transmission of hepatitis B and AIDS.

Hepatitis B virus and HTLV-III are quite dissimilar in virology, organ tropism and clinical consequences. However, they are remarkably similar in epidemiology, modes of transmission, affected risk groups, and potentials for nosocomial infection. Presently, the two diseases pose much different problems for hospital epidemiologists. Over the past 10 years, the risks of nosocomial hepatitis B have dropped off sharply. In fact, hepatitis B is now theoretically a totally preventable disease. On the other hand, the epidemic of HTLV-III infection in high-risk groups continues unabated. The fear of acquiring infection has precipitated panic reactions among some groups of health care workers and the lay public.
Adaptive Overlap-and-Add Techniques for MB-OFDM Systems

Traditional OFDM systems use a cyclic prefix (CP) to simplify the processing at the receiver. In power-limited systems, such as those which use the ultra-wideband (UWB) spectrum, using a CP has a big disadvantage. The CP introduces structure into the transmitted signal and as a result, ripples in the power spectral density. These ripples necessitate a power back-off at the transmitter in order to comply with FCC requirements and reduces the overall range. The multi-band OFDM (MB-OFDM) system eliminates these ripples by employing a zero-padded suffix (ZPS) instead of a CP. To retain the circular convolution property, the receiver for a MB-OFDM system needs to use an overlap-and-add (OLA) technique to combine the original samples (those intended for the FFT) and additional samples that are equal to the length of the suffix. When the memory of the channel is shorter than that of the suffix, the OLA technique with samples equal to the suffix can result in SNR loss due to adding samples that contain only noise. In this paper, we present an algorithm that adaptively selects the appropriate number of samples to use in the OLA technique. This algorithm generates an estimate of the channel length based on the time-domain preamble sequence.
Thermal and volumetric property analysis of polymer networks and composites using elevated temperature digital image correlation

Abstract Digital Image Correlation (DIC), which exploits non-contact advantages and full-field analysis, provides more data in-situ that are not possible with traditional techniques. In this work, elevated temperature digital image correlation techniques were applied to a glassy polymer network via thermal expansion and contraction experiments to study volumetric behavior during the curing process. A glassy epoxy network was tested in both cured and under-cured states and heated to the ultimate cure temperature. Matrix volume changes due to both thermal expansion and cure shrinkage were quantified. Concurrently, the thermal expansion of aerospace-grade composite laminates was also observed in matrix and fiber-dominant directions. Additionally, the strain-free temperature of a non-symmetric composite laminate was identified through thermal compensation of process-induced curvatures. Finally, laminate dimension changes were related to the strain-free temperature as means to probe process-induced strains within composite laminates. Thermal properties of the neat matrix and composite laminates were compared to traditional techniques, validating the benefit of elevated temperature digital image correlation for composite matrix qualification.
Perspective Taking: Knowledge of Level 1 and Level 2 Rules by Congenitally Blind, Low Vision, and Sighted Children:

This article reports on a study of the knowledge of the Level 1 and Level 2 rules of perspective taking by three groups of 8-year-old children with three visual conditions. Although all groups of c...
Genome-Wide Screens Reveal New Gene Products That Influence Genetic Competence in Streptococcus mutans.

ABSTRACT A network of genes and at least two peptide signaling molecules tightly control when Streptococcus mutans becomes competent to take up DNA from its environment. Widespread changes in the expression of genes occur when S. mutans is presented with competence signal peptides in vitro, including the increased production of the alternative sigma factor, ComX, which activates late competence genes. Still, the way that gene products that are regulated by competence peptides influence DNA uptake and cellular physiology are not well understood. Here, we developed and employed comprehensive transposon mutagenesis of the S. mutans genome, with a screen to identify mutants that aberrantly expressed comX, coupled with transposon sequencing (Tn-seq) to gain a more thorough understanding of the factors modulating comX expression and progression to the competent state. The screens effectively identified genes known to affect competence, e.g., comR, comS, comD, comE, cipB, clpX, rcrR, and ciaH, but disclosed an additional 20 genes that were not previously competence associated. The competence phenotypes of mutants were characterized, including by fluorescence microscopy to determine at which stage the mutants were impaired for comX activation. Among the novel genes studied were those implicated in cell division, the sensing of cell envelope stress, cell envelope biogenesis, and RNA stability. Our results provide a platform for determining the specific chemical and physical cues that are required for genetic competence in S. mutans, while highlighting the effectiveness of using Tn-seq in S. mutans to discover and study novel biological processes. IMPORTANCEStreptococcus mutans acquires DNA from its environment by becoming genetically competent, a physiologic state triggered by cell-cell communication using secreted peptides. Competence is important for acquiring novel genetic traits and has a strong influence on the expression of virulence-associated traits of S. mutans. Here, we used transposon mutagenesis and genomic technologies to identify novel genes involved in competence development. In addition to identifying genes previously known to be required for comX expression, 20 additional genes were identified and characterized. The findings create opportunities to diminish the pathogenic potential of S. mutans, while validating technologies that can rapidly advance our understanding of the physiology, biology, and genetics of S. mutans and related pathogens.
The Uplift Generation: Cooperation across the Color Line in Early Twentieth-Century Virginia

Clayton McClure Brooks's The Uplift Generation: Cooperation across the Color Line in Early Twentieth-Century Virginia is a historical narrative that transports the reader into post-emancipation Vir...
New insight on TDDB area scaling methodology of non-Poisson systems

Non-Poisson area scaling behavior has long been observed in BEOL (Back End Of Line) and MOL (Middle Of Line) Time-dependent dielectric breakdown (TDDB) reliability tests due to known variations across the wafer. Three different statistical models have been proposed to accurately account for this non-Poisson behavior. In this work, a new methodology for proper area scaling treatment is systematically studied by both experiments and Monte Carlo simulations. A more realistic and robust method is then proposed, for a more accurate reliability projection.
La facticidad de la filosofía política de Francisco Suárez: un camino hacia otra Modernidad

It is possible to sustain that Suarez’s political thinking is in transit from Middle Ages to a different Modernity. The core of this interpretation is this thesis: The motor of the Suarezian political theory is the achievement of the common good inserted in the facticity of the concrete human reality. Based on these premises, the principal elements of this theory are analysed here. Firstly, the community origin of political power, which originates from the base of the social character of human beings, created in this way by God. Secondly, the operational articulation of that power, through the absolute transfer to a ruler and the (relative) preference towards Monarchy as form of government, according to Suarez. Thirdly, the acceptance of the resistance to tyranny in certain cases and conditions. Therefore, one can understand that the flagrant contradiction between the total translatio of political power andthe simultaneous admission of resistance means to reject the first, to proclaim the last as a limit to power, and open the possibility to a model of direct democracy.
Epichromatin and chromomeres: a 'fuzzy' perspective.

‘Epichromatin’, the surface of chromatin beneath the interphase nuclear envelope (NE) or at the surface of mitotic chromosomes, was discovered by immunostaining with a specific bivalent mouse monoclonal anti-nucleosome antibody (mAb PL2-6). ‘Chromomeres’, punctate chromatin particles approximately 200–300 nm in diameter, identified throughout the interphase chromatin and along mitotic chromosomes, were observed by immunostaining with the monovalent papain-derived Fab fragments of bivalent PL2-6. The specific target for PL2-6 appears to include the nucleosome acidic patch. Thus, within the epichromatin and chromomeric regions, this epitope is ‘exposed’. Considering that histones possess unstructured ‘tails’ (i.e. intrinsically disordered peptide regions, IDPR), our perception of these chromatin regions becomes more ‘fuzzy’ (less defined). We suggest that epichromatin cationic tails facilitate interactions with anionic components of NE membranes. We also suggest that the unstructured histone tails (especially, histone H1 tails), with their presumed promiscuous binding, establish multivalent binding that stabilizes each chromomere as a unit of chromatin higher order structure. We propose an ‘unstructured stability’ hypothesis, which postulates that the stability of epichromatin and chromomeres (as well as other nuclear chromatin structures) is a consequence of the collective contributions of numerous weak histone IDPR binding interactions arising from the multivalent nucleosome, analogous to antibody avidity.
Strategies for learning search control rules: an explanation-based approach

Previous work in explanation-based learning has primarily focused on developing problem solvers that learn by observing solutions. However, learning from solutions is only one strategy for improving performance. This paper describes how the PRODIGY system uses explanation-based specialization to learn from a variety of phenomena, including solutions, failures, and goal-interactions. Explicit target concepts describe these phenomena, and each target concept is associated with a strategy for dynamically improving the performance of the problem solver. Explanations are formulated using a theory describing the domain and the PRODIGY problem solver. Both the target concepts and the theory are declaratively specified and extensible.
A Preliminary Heat Capacity Measurement of 3He in Aerogel near its Superfluid Transition

We report simultaneous heat capacity and torsional oscillator measurement of 3 He in aerogel near the superfluid transition. The heat capacity has a peak at the temperature T c where the torsional oscillator shows the onset of superfluid decoupling. The coincidence of these signatures suggests that 3 He in aerogel does undergo a true thermodynamic transition.
Assessing Critical Components in Transportation Systems: Economic Models and Complex Network Science Approaches

This paper reviews and discusses modeling approaches to identify critical components of transportation systems. The review includes approaches based on economic theory, complex network science techniques and network optimization models. The economic model derives the criticality of the components of the transportation system using concepts from welfare economics. To derive approximate insights into assessing critical components, a model based on complex network science is developed. This model uses the shortest distance as a measure for the efficiency of the network with and without the components. Finally, the paper discusses network interdiction models, which are useful in identifying critical links under strategic behavior of agents. The modeling methodologies presented here are a promising step in assessing critical components and in the optimal use of scarce funding to improve transportation security.
Aristocrats in Bourgeois Italy: Old money: the scale and structure of aristocratic wealth

The success of the nobility in perpetuating their leadership and influence in public life in the second half of the nineteenth century depended to no small extent on their ability to also remain a part of the wealthy upper class within Piedmontese society. Much as elsewhere in Europe, inclusion in the hereditary nobility of Piedmont had traditionally implied wealth, if only because an aristocratic way of life presupposed a certain level of affluence. As a high court official expressed it in the 1840s, a respectable aristocrat needed “a patrimony sufficient to sustain with splendor the decorum of the noble title.” Such wealth, however, became even more essential in an era when nobles no longer enjoyed corporative privileges. To begin with, a sizeable unearned income made possible the extensive leisure time that titled ladies and gentlemen required in order to occupy honorary offices and take part in the activities of voluntary political, religious, philanthropic, cultural, and recreational associations and clubs. More concretely, wealth was a prerequisite for old aristocratic families who wished to play the roles that gave them the greatest prestige and influence in the decades after 1848, namely those as organizational founders, patrons, and financiers. This chapter will examine the issue of aristocratic wealth by addressing the following questions: How rich were Piedmontese nobles? What was the range of wealth-holding within the nobility?
Pitch and tuning in Beninese brass bands

ABSTRACTThis article examines pitch expression and tuning practices in amateur brass instrument performance in the Republic of Benin. Drawing from recordings, interviews, and participatory musical experiences, I compare pitches produced by individual players across pieces in different keys, and in both Beninese pentatonic melodies and diatonic Protestant hymns. I then observe tuning practices of individuals and ensembles, and relay practitioners’ perspectives on the varied factors that influence pitch. In discussion, I show how brass instruments’ physical designs motivate, or demand, Western tonality yet how material conditions – such as instrument disrepair, makeshift valve oils, and climate – limit and constrain it. I argue that perceived ‘inconsistencies’ in the pitch of brass instruments do not suggest an indigenous tonality or conceptual root to tuning and pitch adjustment that resists Western tonal rule, but rather are technical, performative, and sometimes involuntary. In conclusion, I suggest that...
Identification of fish species in estuaries and rivers using recorded soundscape with supervised machine learning

Identification of various fish species in estuarine and riverine environments is an important ecological problem at the intersection of various disciplines, including underwater acoustics, signal processing, and fisheries. Advancements in this field can be made by applying machine learning and deep learning technologies. From the vast amount of existing work on machine learning techniques, of special relevance to this problem are those aiming at the detection and labeling of speakers on overlapping speech, where the existing literature is much more reduced. In this paper, we present a dataset collected with a passive recorder placed on a tripod in Delaware Bay estuary during summer 2013 to continuously measure environmental soundscapes for several weeks. By using a library of mid-Atlantic region fish sounds as prior knowledge, we adapt the aforementioned techniques to the detection and identification of various recorded sounds. This adaptation is challenging, as the statistical properties of fish sounds are not the same as those of speech, and requires careful research on how to perform data pre-processing, feature extraction, and model development. The application of the proposed machine learning techniques to future observations will enhance the potential for long-term autonomous ecological studies in bays and rivers.
From religious to secular place-making: How does the secular matter for religious place construction in the local?:

The literature on religious place-making has largely prioritized an emic perspective of religious actors often reducing the secular aspect of such place-making to a mere ‘emptying out’ of religion ...
Intergenerational Occupational Mobility across Three Continents

I compare rates of intergenerational occupational mobility across four countries in the late nineteenth century: 1869–1895 Argentina, 1850–1880 United States, 1851–1881 Britain, and 1865–1900 Norway. Argentina and the United States had similar levels of intergenerational mobility, and these levels were above those of Britain and Norway. These findings suggest that the higher mobility of nineteenth-century United States relative to Britain might not have been a reflection of “American exceptionalism,” but rather a manifestation of more widespread differences between settler economies of the New World and Europe.
David Colander and Craig Freedman: Where Economics Went Wrong: Chicago’s Abandonment of Classical Liberalism

Where Economics Went Wrong: Chicago’s Abandonment of Classical Liberalism. David Colander and Craig Freedman. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2019. ISBN: 9780691179209, $27.95, 267 pages.Cha...
Modeling shielded cables in Xyce based on transmission-line theory

Electromagnetic shields are usually employed to protect cables and other devices; however, these are generally not perfect, and may permit external magnetic and electric fields to penetrate into the interior regions of the cable, inducing unwanted current and voltages. The aim of this paper is to verify a circuit model tool with our previously proposed analytical model [1] for evaluating currents and voltages induced in the inner conductor of braided-shield cables. This circuit model will enable coupling between electromagnetic and circuit simulations.
X-ray astronomy in 2019

Every 10 years, X-ray astronomers gather in Bologna, Italy, to review the state of the field. After 30 years of these meetings, is there really still a separate field of X-ray astronomy?
Acute myocardial infarction-cardiogenic shock in patients with prior coronary artery bypass grafting: A 16-year national cohort analysis of temporal trends, management and outcomes

Abstract Background There are limited data on the outcomes of acute myocardial infarction with cardiogenic shock (AMI-CS) in patients with prior coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Methods A retrospective cohort of AMI-CS admissions during 2000–2016 from the National Inpatient Sample was created and prior CABG status was identified. Outcomes of interest included in-hospital mortality and resource utilization in the two cohorts. Temporal trends of prevalence, in-hospital mortality, and cardiac procedures were evaluated. Results In 513,288 AMI-CS admissions, prior CABG was performed in 22,832 (4.4%). Adjusted temporal trends showed a 2-fold increase in CS in both cohorts. There was a temporal increase in coronary angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) across both cohorts. The cohort with prior CABG was on average older, of male sex, of white race, and with higher comorbidity. The cohort with prior CABG received coronary angiography (50% vs. 75%), PCI (32% vs. 49%), right heart catheterization/pulmonary artery catheterization (15% vs. 20%), mechanical circulatory support (26% vs. 46%) less frequently compared to those without (all p Conclusions In AMI-CS, admission with prior CABG was older and had lower use of cardiac procedures and higher in-hospital mortality compared to those without prior CABG.
Non-Hispanic Blacks undergoing distal pancreatectomy have higher risk-adjusted rates of morbidity and are more likely to be high-cost outliers.

Abstract Background Few studies evaluate racial disparities in costs and clinical outcomes for patients undergoing distal pancreatectomy (DP). Methods We queried the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Databases to identify patients undergoing DP. Multivariable regression (MVR) was used to evaluate the association between race and postoperative outcomes. Results 2,493 patients underwent DP; 265 (10%) were black, and 221 (8%) were of Hispanic ethnicity. On MVR, black and Hispanic patients were less likely than whites to undergo surgery in high volume centers (OR 0.53, 95% CI [0.40, 0.71]; OR 0.45, 95% CI [0.32, 0.62]). Black patients had a greater risk of postoperative complication (OR 1.40, 95% CI [1.07, 1.83]), 90-day readmission (OR 1.53, 95% CI [1.15, 2.02]), prolonged length of stay (OR 1.74, 95% CI [1.25–2.44]), and of being a high cost outliers (OR 1.40, 95% CI [1.02, 1.91]) compared to white patients. Conclusion Black patients have increased risk of having a postoperative complication, prolonged hospitalization, and of being a high-cost outlier than non-Hispanic whites.
Changes in Body Mass Index Among People Living with HIV Who are New on Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

In the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), obesity is increasingly being reported among people living with HIV (PLHIV). In this study, we reviewed published literature on body mass...
Franz Ritter von Hauslab: Der gelehrte Offizier, by Jan Mokre: Schriften des Heeresgeschichtlichen Museums (Wien), vol. 25. Wien: Heeresgeschichtliches Museum, 2018. ISBN 978-3-902551-83-2. Pp. 297, illus. Euro €32.00 (cloth).

This impressive biography of Franz Ritter von Hauslab (1798–1883) sets his significant role in the development of cartography and its applications in nineteenth-century Europe within the context of...
Cyclonephelium brevireticulatum, a New Dinoflagellate Cyst from the Arkadelphia Formation (Upper Maastrichtian), Hot Spring County, Arkansas, USA

Cyclonephelium brevireticulatum is a new organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst described from the upper Maastrichtian Arkadelphia Formation, Hot Spring County, Arkansas, USA. Cyclonephelium brevireticulatum sp. nov. is distinguished from other species of this genus by its small size, and by processes of very low relief (<5 µm) which connect linearly to form a chain or mesh-like micro-reticulation along the outer margin of the cyst. The study site is an outcrop of the Arkadelphia Formation which is exposed along the Ouachita River during low water conditions. Cyclonephelium brevireticulatum is a common taxon at this site and co-occurs with late Maastrichtian dinoflagellate cysts including Dinogymnium spp., Disphaerogena carposphaeropsis Wetzel 1933, Trithyrodinium evittii Drugg 1967, Deflandrea galeata (Lejeune-Carpentier 1942) Lentin & Williams 1973, Pierceites pentagonus (May 1980) Habib and Drugg 1987, Palynodinium grallator Gocht 1970, along with rare occurrences of Manumiella spp. and the latest early Maastrichtian taxon Alterbidinium acutulum (Wilson 1967) Lentin & Williams 1985. Specimens of the late Maastrichtian pollen, Rugubivesiculites spp., have also been recorded throughout the section. Although the uppermost geologic range of the new species appears to conform to the lower part of the Discoscaphites iris ammonite zone which correlates with calcareous nannofossil zone CC26b, the ammonite occurrences are too scarce to be certain at this time.
Accelerating Early Language and Literacy Skills Through a Preschool-Home Partnership Using Dialogic Reading: a Randomized Trial

This study tested a preschool-home partnership intervention, in which early childhood teachers encouraged the parents/caregivers of preschoolers to engage in dialogic reading at home. This was an experimental test of Bronfenbrenner’s hypothesis that parental involvement in early care and education programs should promote child development, as well as a test of a train-the-trainer approach to the dialogic reading intervention. The current study focuses on testing the causality of parent involvement: (1) homework assigned to parents/caregivers will improve the early language and literacy skills of their 2 ~ 3-year-old children; (2) gains by children in the intervention group with low pre-test language and literacy score, low family literacy score, and high parents/caregivers’ extent of using dialogic reading strategies at home will show larger gains in literacy scores than their counterparts. A sample of 12 early care and education programs, 18 early childhood teachers, 87 two–to three-year-old children and their parents/caregivers were followed for 18 ~ 20 weeks after assignment to the intervention group or the control group. The impacts of the six-week parent involvement intervention continued to grow during the six-week follow-up phase, and represented substantial gains of the intervention group in four aspects of early language and literacy skills. This study provides evidence that a simple homework assignment intervention can be an effective tool to promote child development when parents/caregivers are engaged. The intervention also had ongoing influence on children’s early language and literacy skills, even after the intervention period had ended.
Comparative Study of Different Techniques for Development of Optimal Load Spectrum

This paper aims at presenting a methodology to develop load spectrum for an aircraft using flight data. An aircraft undergoes various kinds of loads during its service life out of which the normal acceleration loads (g-loads) contribute the most in limiting the structural life. This time history of acceleration loads acting in the z-direction is termed as the Nz profile. Load spectrum development plays a vital part in accurate estimations of fatigue life for aircrafts. The Nz profile of the sorties of an aircraft were extracted from Flight Data and Cockpit Voice Recorder (FDCVR) data. Different filtering techniques were employed for the reduction of data including discrete filtering, peak-trough filtering, linear reduction filtering and modified-racetrack filtering in time and frequency domain. This was followed by the application of different cycle counting techniques including range-mean counting, range-pair counting and Rainflow counting to deduce the best technique. Finally, a load spectrum was made which can be used for fatigue life evaluation. The methodology may be used to process acceleration data for any aircraft.
Effect of Changing a Traffic Control Device Color on Driver Behavior and Perception across Different Age Groups

The use of express lanes (ELs) in freeway traffic management has seen increasing popularity throughout the United States, particularly in Florida. These lanes aim at making the most efficient trans...
Aging of the Retina: Molecular and Metabolic Turbulences and Potential Interventions

Multifaceted and divergent manifestations across tissues and cell types have curtailed advances in deciphering the cellular events that accompany advanced age and contribute to morbidities and mortalities. Increase in human lifespan during the past century has heightened awareness of the need to prevent age-associated frailty of neuronal and sensory systems to allow a healthy and productive life. In this review, we discuss molecular and physiological attributes of aging of the retina, with a goal of understanding age-related impairment of visual function. We highlight the epigenome-metabolism nexus and proteostasis as key contributors to retinal aging and discuss lifestyle changes as potential modulators of retinal function. Finally, we deliberate promising intervention strategies for promoting healthy aging of the retina for improved vision.
Improved and Sustained Graduate Programs Diversity Outcomes: a 10-year Analysis and Summary of the Brown University IMSD Program

This report describes the 10-year outcome of implementing practices that support and foster success of underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) graduate training at Brown University. The results show sustained improvements in compositional diversity, retention, and degree attainment of supported students relative to their peers. Among the outcomes is an increase in enrolled student diversity from 19 (35 of 179) to 26% (58 of 223) for historically underrepresented minority (URM) students and an increase in Ph.D. degree attainment from 4 (1 of 25) to 14% (6 of 44) for this group. These achievements follow the introduction and coordination of academic and co-curricular practices through the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences–funded Brown University Initiative to Maximize Student Development (IMSD) Program. At the center of these outcomes is the alignment of IMSD practices with recent diversity initiatives launched by the university. The outcomes described result from long-term commitments to building a culture that includes: (1) development of relationships that serve underrepresented students, (2) provision of a personalized education program of support and skills-based learning that supplements discipline-based research and coursework, and (3) investments in processes that build a culture that values and benefits from diversity. These practices may yield similar outcomes and success for students when applied elsewhere.
"Rules you have to know": International and Domestic Student Encounters with Institutional Habitus Through Group Work

As more universities internationalize, interest in engagement between international and domestic students has increased. University initiatives to bring students together often adopt a deficit approach dependent on international students’ adjustment to the host culture, overlooking the need for engagement to be a two-way exchange and the role of the institution in this process. Focusing on academic group work as a salient site of cross-national interaction, this study draws on analysis of focus group data to explore how “institutional habitus” (Cornbleth, 2010; Reay et al., 2001), or unwritten rules, are enacted at a large U.S. university. Findings indicated that domestic students were better socialized to understand the habitus of the institution and tended to take charge in group work. In contrast, international students were seen as linguistically and academically deficient and were relegated to passive roles in a group. Important implications for practitioners and scholars of U.S. higher education are discussed.
Sexting and Behavioral Health in First-time Justice-Involved Adolescents

Abstract Objective(s) We examined the prevalence of sexting, related motivations, demographics, and association with behavioral health problems among justice-involved adolescents. Hypotheses We hypothesized positive associations between sexting and sexual risk, substance use, delinquency, and mental health problems. Methods Participants were 307 community-supervised justice-involved adolescents with a first-time offense (Mage =14.50 years, 44.6% female) and their caregivers. Adolescents answered questions on technology use and sexting by sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually suggestive text messages and images (pictures or videos). They also completed measures of recent (past 4-month) sexual activity, unprotected sex, cigarette, alcohol, marijuana, and other drug use, and delinquency; current trauma symptoms, internalizing problems, and adaptive functioning. Results Prevalence of sexting were 37.7% (lifetime overall; 17.0% sent texts; 17.4% sent images) and 29.5% (past-year overall; 12.8% sent texts; 13.6% sent images). Sexts were commonly sent as presents to partners, in response to sexts received, or to have fun. “Sexters” were older than “non-sexters” and more likely to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or questioning. Past-year sexting was significantly associated with recent sexual activity; unprotected sex; alcohol use and days of use; marijuana and other drug use; delinquency and variety of delinquent acts; and elevated trauma symptoms and internalizing problems. Conclusions Sexting is prevalent among adolescents with a first-time offense and co-occurs with multiple behavioral health needs. Intervention for this population may be informed by routinely assessing sexting in community settings. Familiarity with local reporting laws could help clinicians navigate the legal implications of sexting among adolescents with existing justice-system involvement.
Thermal Stresses in Conical Shells

This paper considers the stresses in a conical shell of revolution resulting from aerodynamic pressure and thermal gradients. In particular, the results are applicable to the conical tip of a missile flying at zero angle of attack; a numerical example is given for a temperature distribution typical of a laminar boundary layer. I t is concluded that from the standpoint of eliminating high stresses, large temperature gradients both along a ray and across the shell thickness are most undesirable.
Building Power Together: Union Support for Central Labour Bodies

One of the key factors in the success of labour federations is to have affiliate unions who actively participate and support their work. This article examines the catalysts behind union involvement with central labour bodies and presents an analysis of the organizational motivations for engagement. The article uses comparative case study analysis to examine affiliate union commitment in the United States to the American Federation of Labor–Congress of Industrial Organizations' state federations, area labour federations and central labour councils. Union leadership, along with contextual, interpretative and organizational factors, was found to influence the level of affiliate union involvement in central labour bodies.
Oral manganese as an MRI contrast agent for the detection of nociceptive activity.

The ability of divalent manganese to enter neurons via calcium channels makes manganese an excellent MRI contrast agent for the imaging of nociception, the afferent neuronal encoding of pain perception. There is growing evidence that nociceptive neurons possess increased expression and activity of calcium channels, which would allow for the selective accumulation of manganese at these sites. In this study, we show that oral manganese chloride leads to increased enhancement of peripheral nerves involved in nociception on T1-weighted MRI. Oral rather than intravenous administration was chosen for its potentially better safety profile, making it a better candidate for clinical translation with important applications, such as pain diagnosis, therapy and research. The spared nerve injury (SNI) model of neuropathic pain was used for the purposes of this study. SNI rats were given, sequentially, increasing amounts of manganese chloride (lowest, 2.29 mg/100 g weight; highest, 20.6 mg/100 g weight) with alanine and vitamin D3 by oral gavage. Compared with controls, SNI rats demonstrated increased signal-to-background ratios on T1-weighted fast spin echo MRI, which was confirmed by and correlated strongly with spectrometry measurements of nerve manganese concentration. We also found the difference between SNI and control rats to be greater at 48 h than at 24 h after dosing, indicating increased manganese retention in addition to increased manganese uptake in nociceptive nerves. This study demonstrates that oral manganese is a viable method for the imaging of nerves associated with increased nociceptive activity. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Ca2+-activated Cl− currents in salivary and lacrimal glands

Publisher Summary This chapter describes the properties and role of Ca 2+ -activated Cl – currents in salivary and lacrimal glands. The Ca 2+ -dependent transepithelial movement of Cl – across the plasma membranes of salivary and lacrimal gland acinar cells drives fluid production. Several functionally distinct classes of Cl – currents are expressed in acinar cells, with one or more of these channels serving as the apical efflux pathway during secretion. Salivary and lacrimal gland acinar cells have comparable morphological and functional properties. Both glands secrete an isotonic, plasma-like primary fluid that is rich in NaCl. The Ca 2+ -dependent transepithelial movement of Cl – is the driving force for fluid secretion. Stimulated fluid secretion requires the activation of Ca 2+ -gated Cl – channels. The activation of the lacrimal channel is independent of CaMKII, as noted for the parotid Ca 2+ -gated Cl – channel. Functional data suggests that the Ca 2+ -activated Cl – channels (CLCA) in these glands are different from the CLCA Cl – channel proteins expressed. Progress in understanding the properties and functions of the Ca 2+ -gated Cl – channel in acinar cells require that future studies determine its molecular identity.
Adult Heart Disease

The surgical treatment of acquired cardiac diseases has become increasingly sophisticated in the past two decades—the expected mortality of most cardiac operations in adults has been reduced to extremely low levels—despite the fact that increasingly higher-risk patients are now candidates for surgery. In this regard, it is important to recognize that 75% of patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery in the Coronary Artery Surgery Study (CASS) in the late 1970s had an ejection fraction that was greater than 50% and all patients were less than 65 years of age, while in the Society of Thoracic Surgery (STS) database for coronary artery bypass in 1994, the average patient age was 65 years, and the average ejection fraction was 51%.1,2 Despite the reality of increasingly high-risk patients undergoing coronary bypass surgery, the observed operative mortality for coronary bypass surgery in the 1994 STS database was 3.4%.2 Similarly, morbidity associated with coronary bypass surgery was found to have decreased from 1986 to 1994 in a series of nearly 8000 patients reported from the Cleveland Clinic, despite a significant rise in the patient risk profile in this series.3 Similar trends can be described for most facets of adult cardiac surgery.
A Case for Auditing Strategic Information Systems

Business strategy represents the choice of how to compete for competitive advantage (Porter, 1980, Porter, 1985). And Strategic Information Systems (SIS) shape (Rackoff et al., 1985, Wiseman, 1985) and enable (Bensaou and Venkatraman, 1995) that business strategy. SIS has been the focus of a large body of research and anecdotal descriptions (Chan and Huff, 1992, Porter and Millar, 1985, Wiseman, 1985, Ghosh, 1998, Magretta, 1998, Shapiro and Varian, 1999). There may be as few as 1.5 thousand PhD degree-holding researchers in Management Information Systems or Business Data Processing fields, while we may place the number of accountants and auditors (including Certified Information Systems Auditors or CISAs) closer to 1.2 million. In order to determine whether specific configurations of information technology reasonably implement the premises of a firm’s competitive strategy, we think the SIS literature is mature enough to support CISAs compiling competent and sufficient evidential matter supporting certain frameworks, constructs and measurements described in the business strategy literature.