cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Aminode: Identification of Evolutionary Constraints in the Human Proteome.

Evolutionarily constrained regions (ECRs) are a hallmark for sites of critical importance for a protein’s structure or function. ECRs can be inferred by comparing the amino acid sequences from multiple protein homologs in the context of the evolutionary relationships that link the analyzed proteins. The compilation and analysis of the datasets required to infer ECRs, however, are time consuming and require skills in coding and bioinformatics, which can limit the use of ECR analysis in the biomedical community. Here, we developed Aminode, a user-friendly webtool for the routine and rapid inference of ECRs. Aminode is pre-loaded with the results of the analysis of the whole human proteome compared with proteomes from 62 additional vertebrate species. Profiles of the relative rates of amino acid substitution and ECR maps of human proteins are available for immediate search and download on the Aminode website. Aminode can also be used for custom analyses of protein families of interest. Interestingly, mapping of known missense variants shows great enrichment of pathogenic variants and depletion of non-pathogenic variants in Aminode-generated ECRs, suggesting that ECR analysis may help evaluate the potential pathogenicity of variants of unknown significance. Aminode is freely available at http://www.aminode.org .
Lung Cancer Risk from Exposure to Environmental Radon

Current interest is in exposure to radon in homes. The actual degree of lung cancer risk resulting from environmental levels is not clear at this time. This paper presents the background information and describes the factors that can change or modify lung cancer risk, showing why it is still difficult to define risk accurately.
Plastid Genome Diversity

Most living plant cells contain plastids, which harbour their own DNA: the plastome. Plastomes are significantly less diverse than nuclear genomes, but this lower diversity has the advantage that comparisons can be made across all clades of green plants. Large blocks of synteny can be found among plastomes from different algal lineages including land plants. In this chapter, I review the nature of plastome diversity, starting with some history of research and what is known about packaging, replication, and inheritance of plastid DNA. I review the composition of plastomes, the current status of available data (and future needs), and then examine plastome origins, structural evolution, patterns of nucleotide substitution, gene expression (but not translation or post-translational stages), and plastome biotechnology. The goal is a broad overview, but this is at the expense of important detail to which I defer to cited literature.
Neoplasms of the Anus

This chapter discusses the epidemiology, patients who are at risk, symptoms, pathophysiology, and diagnosis and treatment of various forms of anal neoplasia. This includes anal carcinoma, basal cell carcinoma of the perianal region, Bowen’s disease, malignant melanoma, and perianal Paget’s disease.
Social Behavior and Its Effects on Colony- and Microgeographic Genetic Structure in Phytophagous Insect Populations

Population genetic structure is defined in terms of deviation from panmixis, or random mating, and explicitly refers to nonrandom spatial association of alleles. Nonrandom associations may arise in several ways as a natural consequence of the interplay among behavioral, ecological, and biogeographic factors. At large (macrogeographic) spatial scales, genetic differences between subpopulations may be maintained by natural selection or result from genetic drift associated with isolation by distance and attenuated gene flow. The causes of microgeographic structure—here defined as structure at the spatial scale of individual host plants and localized host plant groups—are more varied. Spatial genotypic association could arise from the joint effects of reproductive output and dispersal whereby physical association is the outcome of environmental constraints such as predation pressure and lack of suitable habitat. On the other hand, behaviors promoting association of related individuals can also produce highly patchy, localized units of genetic structure.
Progestin action and progesterone receptor structure in human breast cancer: a review.

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the current information about progestin action, and progesterone receptors (PR) structure and function. It presents a recent study in which a progestin-responsive human breast cancer cell line has been used to study the biochemical mechanisms involved in progesterone action. Progesterone is essential for human breast alveolar gland development and growth. It is not only a mitogenic hormone but also acts in synergy with estradiol to prime the mammary gland to respond to mitogens like prolactin, glucocorticoids, and growth hormone. At puberty, estradiol induces mammary duct formation. As the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis matures, there is a brief phase of anovulatory cycles during which the mammary gland is influenced principally by estrogens. Once ovulation is established, corpus luteum produces progesterone, which stimulates growth of the lobuloalveolar structures. During the reproductive years, progesterone promotes differentiation of alveolar cells into secretory cells, and dilation of the duct system. In conjunction with prolactin and other metabolic hormones, progesterone stimulates lipid droplet formation, and secretory activity. While prolactin and growth hormone are the most important pituitary hormones affecting growth of the mammary gland during pregnancy, it is estradiol and progesterone that prevent the full expression of their secretory effects on the mammary epithelium. At parturition, the sudden withdrawal of these two hormones permits the breast to respond to the lactogenic hormones.
Efficient estimation of inclusion coefficient using hyperloglog sketches

Efficiently estimating the inclusion coefficient - the fraction of values of one column that are contained in another column - is useful for tasks such as data profiling and foreign-key detection. We present a new estimator, BML, for inclusion coefficient based on Hyperloglog sketches that results in significantly lower error compared to the state-of-the art approach that uses Bottom-k sketches. We evaluate the error of the BML estimator using experiments on industry benchmarks such as TPC-H and TPC-DS, and several real-world databases. As an independent contribution, we show how Hyperloglog sketches can be maintained incrementally with data deletions using only a constant amount of additional memory.
Abstract 14: Is Low Heart Rate Variability, a Marker of Autonomic Dysfunction, the Missing Link Between Migraine With Visual Aura and Cardioembolic Stroke?

Introduction: Migraine with visual aura (MA) has been associated with the risk of cardioembolic stroke (CES). Low heart rate variability (HRV), a marker of cardiac autonomic dysfunction, has been s...
Low Resolution Millimeter Wave Radar: Bounds and Performance

Millimeter wave is widely used for consumer radar applications like driver assistance systems in automated vehicles and gesture recognition. To cope with the increased hardware complexity, higher costs and power consumption of wideband systems at millimeter wave frequencies, we propose a fully digital architecture with low resolution analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) on each radio-frequency chain. The effect of the low resolution ADCs on radar parameter estimation is characterized by the Cramer-Rao bound under the proposed hardware constraints. Prior work has shown that at low signal-to-noise ratio a radar system with 1-bit ADCs suffers a performance loss of 2 dB in parameter estimation compared to a system with ideal infinite resolution ADCs. In this paper, we design an analog preprocessing unit to introduce correlated noise in the system and show that the performance can be improved beyond the 2 dB limit. Numerical results demonstrate the potential of the proposed architecture to meet the requirements of high resolution sensing.
Desistance and Disabled Masculine Identity: Exploring the Role of Serious Violent Victimization in the Desistance Process

This manuscript proposes a theoretical model that will explain how violently acquired impairments (VAI) can serve as a turning point in the life-course of active male offenders or lead to further entrenchment in criminal lifestyles. Here, VAI refers to any form of physical impairment acquired as a result of interpersonal violence that limits a person’s mobility or ability to perform basic physical activities. By examining the intersections among gender, disability, and life-course criminology, the proposed model will explain how men reconstruct their disabled masculine identity following VAI. In doing so, I argue that these ‘new’ identities following VAI can facilitate persistence in offending or desistance from crime. This theoretical model will contribute to the literature by describing the many ways in which men perform masculinity and providing a more nuanced discussion of how serious violent victimization can alter the life-course of male offenders.
Dark States of Multilevel Fermionic Atoms in Doubly Filled Optical Lattices.

We propose to use fermionic atoms with degenerate ground and excited internal levels (${F}_{g}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{F}_{e}$), loaded into the motional ground state of an optical lattice with two atoms per lattice site, to realize dark states with no radiative decay. The physical mechanism behind the dark states is an interplay of Pauli blocking and multilevel dipolar interactions. The dark states are independent of lattice geometry, can support an extensive number of excitations, and can be coherently prepared using a Raman scheme taking advantage of the quantum Zeno effect. These attributes make them appealing for atomic clocks, quantum memories, and quantum information on decoherence free subspaces.
A holographic theory for the phase transitions between fermionic symmetry-protected topological states

Abstract In an earlier work [1] we developed a holographic theory for the phase transition between bosonic symmetry-protected topological (SPT) states. This paper is a continuation of it. Here we present the holographic theory for fermionic SPT phase transitions. We show that in any dimension d, the critical states of fermionic SPT phase transitions has an emergent Z 2 T symmetry and can be realized on the boundary of a d + 1 -dimensional bulk SPT with an extra Z 2 T symmetry.
The Nature of the Corporation

The conventional view of the firm cannot explain several important facts. We propose a new hypothesis that a corporation can adopt more advanced, delayed technologies, produce output more efficiently, and distribute it more optimally than a proprietorship or partnership, independent of uncertainty. Contrary to the conventional “selfish shareholder” view, a corporation is not owned by its shareowners, and not legally obligated to maximize either its profit or their wealth. This is because it is a potential deathlessness social organization, legally separate from its shareholders, who have transferable shares, owns its capital permanently, and can have objectives separate from theirs.
Esophagogastric Junction Opening Parameters are Consistently Abnormal in Untreated Achalasia

Achalasia is a disorder of impaired lower esophageal sphincter (LES) relaxation and failed peristalsis traditionally characterized by manometry.1 As impaired LES relaxation is a mechanism of reduced esophagogastric junction (EGJ) opening, abnormally reduced EGJ distensibility assessed with functional luminal imaging probe (FLIP) was reported among patients with untreated achalasia.2-5 Therefore, we aimed to describe the performance characteristics of EGJ opening parameters on FLIP panometry among a large cohort of treatment-naive achalasia patients.
Neuronal complexity is attenuated in chronic migraine and restored by HDAC6 inhibition

Migraine is the third most prevalent disease worldwide and current therapies provide only partial relief. Greater insight into molecular migraine mechanisms would create novel therapies. Cytoskeletal flexibility is fundamental to neuronal-plasticity and is dependent on microtubule dynamicity. Histone-deacetylase-6 (HDAC6) decreases microtubule dynamics by deacetylating its primary substrate, α-tubulin. We use validated models of chronic migraine to show that HDAC6-inhibition is an effective migraine treatment and reveal an undiscovered cytoarchitectural basis for migraine chronicity. The human migraine trigger, nitroglycerin, produced chronic migraine-associated pain and decreased neurite growth in pain-processing regions, and these were reversed by HDAC6 inhibition. Cortical spreading depression (CSD), a physiological correlate of migraine aura, also caused decreased cortical neurite growth, while administration of HDAC6-inhibitor restored neuronal complexity and decreased CSD. Our results demonstrate that disruptions in neuronal cytoarchitecture are a feature of chronic migraine, and evolving migraine therapies might include agents that restore microtubule stability and neuronal plasticity.
Dopamine D2 autoreceptor interactome: Targeting the receptor complex as a strategy for treatment of substance use disorder

Dopamine D2 autoreceptors (D2ARs), located in somatodendritic and axon terminal compartments of dopamine (DA) neurons, function to provide a negative feedback regulatory control on DA neuron firing, DA synthesis, reuptake and release. Dysregulation of D2AR-mediated DA signaling is implicated in vulnerability to substance use disorder (SUD). Due to the extreme low abundance of D2ARs compared to postsynaptic D2 receptors (D2PRs) and the lack of experimental tools to differentiate the signaling of D2ARs from D2PRs, the regulation of D2ARs by drugs of abuse is poorly understood. The recent availability of conditional D2AR knockout mice and newly developed virus-mediated gene delivery approaches have provided means to specifically study the function of D2ARs at the molecular, cellular and behavioral levels. There is a growing revelation of novel mechanisms and new proteins that mediate D2AR activity, suggesting that D2ARs act cooperatively with an array of membrane and intracellular proteins to tightly control DA transmission. This review highlights D2AR-interacting partners including transporters, G-protein-coupled receptors, ion channels, intracellular signaling modulators, and protein kinases. The complexity of the D2AR interaction network illustrates the functional divergence of D2ARs. Pharmacological targeting of multiple D2AR-interacting partners may be more effective to restore disrupted DA homeostasis by drugs of abuse.
Illuminating White Dwarf Spectra through Laboratory Experiments at Cosmic Conditions

Abstract We establish the work on white dwarf stars in the larger context of the experiments of the Wootton Center for Astrophysical Plasma Properties (WCAPP); these experiments are conducted at the plasma conditions found in the cosmos, without the need for scaling. We briefly summarize the results of these experiments to-date and their astrophysical and physical import, before focusing on the white dwarf experiments. Over 97% of stars either are, or will become, white dwarf stars, giving them broad relevance. We describe the astrophysical and physical problems associated with white dwarf photospheres, the plasma where the observed light arises. The astrophysical questions include the age of the universe, the age and history of star formation in our Galaxy’s varied morphological components and the evolution of stars. The compact nature of these ubiquitous stars means that the atomic physics is not well constrained even in the outermost layers. Further, it suggests that many important processes, including crystallization in dense Coulomb plasma, occur and have a significant effect on the evolution and structure of these stars and thus all their many applications.
Constraints upon the CKM angle ϕ2 from Belle and BaBar

The Belle and BaBar experiments have measured branching fractions and CP asymmetries in the charmless decay modes B 0 → π + π − , B 0 → ρ ± π ∓ , and B 0 → ρ + ρ − . From these measurements, contraints upon the CKM angle ϕ 2 can be obtained. These constraints consistently indicate that ϕ 2 is around 100°.
Potential defect structure effects in the volatility separation of sub-picogram quantities of fission and activation products from an irradiated UO 2 matrix

The use of fluorination as a rapid separation technique for quantification of trace-mass, short-lived isotopes is illustrated. Single crystal 238UO2 was exposed to a 14 MeV neutron source to produce mixed fission and activation products. Selective removal of trace volatile fluorides from non-volatile ones produced two results of interest. A decrease in background produced better detection and quantification of select analytes across the gamma spectrum. Second, at the very low burnup condition described, the volatility behaviors of common isotopes were altered relative to their well-established behaviors in higher burnup metal and metal oxide fuels.
Why Do Bad Antitrust Decisions Sometimes Make Good Law? The Alcoa and Brown Shoe Examples

Do bad antitrust decisions, as based on their facts, sometimes make good law? That is, do wrongly decided antitrust cases, when considered on their merits, sometimes have a lasting impact on the law even though the decision by most accounts should simply be overruled? If so, why do cases in such disrepute on their merits have such staying power, particularly when so much early antitrust precedent is simply ignored today? The Author examines two cases, United States v. Aluminum Co. of America (Alcoa) and Brown Shoe Co. v. United States, as examples of this phenomenon.
Novelty-induced Hyperactivity and Suppressed Cocaine Induced Locomotor Activation in Mice Lacking Threonine 53 Phosphorylation of Dopamine Transporter

Dopamine (DA) transporter (DAT) is dynamically regulated by several protein kinases and the Thr53 phosphorylation of DAT (pT53-DAT) is documented in heterologous cell models and in rat brain. However, the role of endogenous pT53-DAT in living animals has never been addressed. Here we generated and studied the pT53-lacking DAT mouse model (DAT-Ala53) by CRISPR/Cas9 technology. DAT-Ala53 mice showed normal growth, body weight, body temperature, grip strength, and sucrose preference while pT53-DAT was completely absent. However, DAT-Ala53 mice showed hyperlocomotion, pronounced vertical exploratory behavior, and stereotypy in a novel environment compared to wild-type littermates (WT). DAT-Ala53 mice displayed unaltered levels of monoamines, glutamate, and GABA in the striatum compared to WT. There were also no significant differences between DAT-Ala53 mice and WT in tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and phospho-TH levels, or in total and surface DAT levels, or in DA-transport kinetic parameters Vmax and Km. Immunohistochemical and colocalization analyses of TH and DAT in caudate-putamen and nucleus accumbens revealed no significant differences between DAT-Ala53 and WT mice. Interestingly, cocaine's potency to inhibit striatal DA transport and cocaine-induced locomotor activation were significantly reduced in the DAT-Ala53 mice. Also, ERK1/2 inhibitors completely failed to inhibit striatal DA uptake in DAT-Ala53 mice. Collectively, our findings reveal that the mice lacking pT53-DAT display novelty-induced hyperactive phenotype despite having normal transporter protein expression, DA-transport kinetics and DA-linked markers. The results also reveal that the lack of endogenous pT53-DAT renders DAT resistant to ERK1/2 inhibition and also less susceptible to cocaine inhibition and cocaine-evoked locomotor stimulation.
Highly Selective Isobutane Hydroxylation by Ozone in a Pressure-Tuned Biphasic Gas–Liquid Process

We have demonstrated a simple process for isobutane ozonation to tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) with 85%–90% selectivity in a biphasic gas–liquid process at ambient temperatures (16–18.5 °C) and mild pre...
Electron and heat transport in SnTe crystals with various vacancy concentrations in tin sublattice

SnTe single crystals with super-stoichiometric Sn up to 1.0 at.% were grown, their electrical conductivity σ, thermo-e.m.f. α and thermal conductivity χ coefficients, as well as the electrical prop...
Retention analysis from vitrified low-activity waste and simulants in a laboratory-scale melter

Abstract The Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant (WTP) will process and stabilize nuclear waste stored in tanks on the Hanford Site. At the WTP, the tank waste will be combined with glass-forming chemicals to make a melter feed slurry that can be vitrified in joule-heated melters. Technetium-99 (99Tc), a long-lived radionuclide present in tank waste, is semi-volatile from a glass melt at elevated temperatures. A small laboratory-scale melter system has been designed by PNNL to operate under radioactive conditions, giving it the ability to vitrify actual tank waste and gain information about melter feed processability and the partitioning of components of interest. This study describes two runs performed in a duplicate system with non-radioactive simulants of Hanford tanks 241-AP-107 and 241-AN-105 to gain insight into the relationship between the retentions of 99Tc and its non-radioactive surrogate Re while also investigating the effects of increasing the reducing agent such as sucrose during vitrification on processing and the retention of semi-volatile components in the glass product. The results from these runs align with the general trends of greater retention in the glass of Re compared to 99Tc and the improved retention in the glass of Re with increased reducing agent.
Artificial Light at Night Impacts the Litter Layer Invertebrate Community With No Cascading Effects on Litter Breakdown

Artificial light at night (ALAN) can impact the trophic structure of assemblages of ground-dwelling invertebrates, and changes in such assemblages can affect decomposition in terrestrial systems due to the various functional roles of these invertebrates, including microbial grazing, comminution of litter, and predation of other invertebrates, that can directly or indirectly affect plant-litter breakdown. Despite this, we are unaware of any studies that have evaluated the effects of ALAN on the breakdown of plant litter in a terrestrial ecosystem. We sought to answer whether ALAN affects litter breakdown via its effects on a community of ground-dwelling arthropods using two field experiments. In one experiment, we manipulated the presence of ALAN and the size classes of soil invertebrates that could enter mesh bags containing plant litter (litterbags). We found that the rate of plant-litter breakdown increased with the mesh size of litterbags but was unaffected by presence of ALAN. In a second field experiment carried out to examine the effects of ALAN on the trophic structure of litter-layer invertebrate communities, while controlling for potential effects of ALAN on vegetation, we again found that ALAN did not affect litter breakdown despite the fact that ALAN increased the abundances of secondary and tertiary consumers. Our finding that larger assemblages of ground-dwelling secondary and tertiary consumer invertebrates under ALAN did not slow litter breakdown through increased top-down control of detritivores suggests ALAN may disrupt predator-prey interactions in litter-layer communities.
Photobiomodulation Laser Therapy During Chemoradiation for Head and Neck Cancer: Effect on Mucositis, Weight Loss, and Feeding Tube Dependence.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE(S) The standard therapeutic approach for patients with head and neck cancer (HNC) often involves multi-modality therapy including surgery, radiation therapy (RT) or chemoradiation therapy (CRT). Treatment complications include mucositis, weight loss, and feeding tube dependence (FTD) which can result in treatment delays, incomplete treatment, and decreased quality of life (QOL). Recent studies on the effects of photobiomodulation therapy (PBMLT) have demonstrated promising reductions in severity of mucositis but there is a lack of quantitative data demonstrating these effects. In addition, there are few studies evaluating the effect that PBMLT has on other parameters such as weight loss and FTD. We conducted a matched case-control study comparing treatment complications for patients with HNC receiving PBMLT to those who did not, hypothesizing that PBMLT improves mucositis severity, weight loss and FTD. MATERIALS/METHODS Medical records of 44 patients with HNC treated with CRT or RT at a single institution from 2015-2021 were retrospectively reviewed. Twenty-two patients received PBMLT and were matched 1:1 to controls based on age, RT fields, and RT dose. Outcomes included maximum mucositis grade per CTCAE v5.0, weight loss as a percentage of pre-treatment weight, and FTD 100 days after initiation RT or CRT. Outcomes were compared between groups by conducting various statistical tests, including Wilcoxon Rank Sum for weight loss, Fisher's Exact test for FTD at 100 days, and Chi Square for maximum mucositis grade. RESULTS Of 44 patients, the median age was 63.5 years (IQR 12.5). Median RT dose was 60 Gy in the PBMLT group and 66 Gy in the control group. Of patients treated with PBMLT, 11 received CRT and 11 received RT alone. Of control patients, 16 received CRT and 6 received RT alone. For patients in the PBMLT group, the median number of PBMLT treatment sessions was 22 (IQR 6.75). The median maximal mucositis grade was 2 in the PBMLT group compared to 3 in the control group, which was statistically significant (P = 0.0016). The median percent weight loss for PBM patients was 6.7% compared to 7.3% in the control group which was not statistically significant (P = 0.35). Nine patients in the control group required FT placement during RT or CRT, compared to 5 patients in the PBMLT group. The odds ratio of requiring a FT to be placed during treatment for patients receiving PBMLT was 0.385 (95% CI, 0.165 to 0.896). CONCLUSION This study demonstrates that PBMLT may have a role in decreasing complications related to RT and CRT for HNC, mainly mucositis severity. There is also likely benefit in decreasing the rate feeding tube placement during RT or CRT. We conclude that PBMLT has the potential to improve patient adherence to therapy, safety, and QOL during cancer treatment.
Online Censoring for Large-Scale Regressions with Application to Streaming Big Data

On par with data-intensive applications, the sheer size of modern linear regression problems creates an ever-growing demand for efficient solvers. Fortunately, a significant percentage of the data accrued can be omitted while maintaining a certain quality of statistical inference with an affordable computational budget. This work introduces means of identifying and omitting less informative observations in an online and data-adaptive fashion. Given streaming data, the related maximum-likelihood estimator is sequentially found using first- and second-order stochastic approximation algorithms. These schemes are well suited when data are inherently censored or when the aim is to save communication overhead in decentralized learning setups. In a different operational scenario, the task of joint censoring and estimation is put forth to solve large-scale linear regressions in a centralized setup. Novel online algorithms are developed enjoying simple closed-form updates and provable (non)asymptotic convergence guarantees. To attain desired censoring patterns and levels of dimensionality reduction, thresholding rules are investigated too. Numerical tests on real and synthetic datasets corroborate the efficacy of the proposed data-adaptive methods compared to data-agnostic random projection-based alternatives.
ATP secretion in the male reproductive tract: essential role of CFTR

Extracellular ATP is essential for the function of the epididymis and spermatozoa, but ATP release in the epididymis remains uncharacterized. We investigated here whether epithelial cells release ATP into the lumen of the epididymis, and we examined the role of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), a Cl(-) and HCO(3)(-) conducting ion channel known to be associated with male fertility, in this process. Immunofluorescence labelling of mouse cauda epididymidis showed expression of CFTR in principal cells but not in other epithelial cells. CFTR mRNA was not detectable in clear cells isolated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) from B1-EGFP mice, which express enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) exclusively in these cells in the epididymis. ATP release was detected from the mouse epididymal principal cell line (DC2) and increased by adrenaline and forskolin. Inhibition of CFTR with CFTR(inh172) and transfection with CFTR-specific siRNAs in DC2 cells reduced basal and forskolin-activated ATP release. CFTR-dependent ATP release was also observed in primary cultures of mouse epididymal epithelial cells. In addition, steady-state ATP release was detected in vivo in mice, by measuring ATP concentration in a solution perfused through the lumen of the cauda epididymidis tubule and collected by cannulation of the vas deferens. Luminal CFTR(inh172) reduced the ATP concentration detected in the perfusate. This study shows that CFTR is involved in the regulation of ATP release from principal cells in the cauda epididymidis. Given that mutations in CFTR are a leading cause of male infertility, we propose that defective ATP signalling in the epididymis might contribute to dysfunction of the male reproductive tract associated with these mutations.
Social capital and leadership in academic libraries: the broader exchange around “Buy In”

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of social capital to the literature on academic libraries as it pertains to leadership and management as well as to demonstrate the limitations that the current discursive use of the phrase “buy in” represents. Design/methodology/approach – This paper brings critical insights from outside fields of intellectual inquiry, including business, knowledge management, computer and information systems, and sociology. The paper is organized around a series of questions posed at the end of the introduction and serves to introduce its audience to the key findings made in these fields as well as to apply relevant observations about social capital to the unique context of leadership and management in academic libraries. Findings – The paper elucidates a number of limitations to the current practice of using the phrase “buy in” as a way of exploring the concept of social capital. The most significant risk that the phrase’s use incurs is a lack of context a...
Linear Discriminant Analysis

Suppose we are given a learning set \(\mathcal{L}\) of multivariate observations (i.e., input values \(\mathfrak{R}^r\)), and suppose each observation is known to have come from one of K predefined classes having similar characteristics. These classes may be identified, for example, as species of plants, levels of credit worthiness of customers, presence or absence of a specific medical condition, different types of tumors, views on Internet censorship, or whether an e-mail message is spam or non-spam.
Attitudes toward seeking medical care: development and standardization of a comprehensive scale

A scale measuring attitudes toward seeking medical help was devised and pretested with college students. The scale was internally consistent and had evident factorial and congruent validity. In a second sample, both the revised scale and its primary attitudinal component—an action–intention subscale—had strong test–retest reliability and correlation with reported medical appointments and contacts assessed approximately 2 months later. In a sample of Hartford, CT residents, the scale's factorial structure was remarkably similar to that of the students. Help-seeking attitudes differentiated between people who had been treated for a medical crisis and those who had not; those with and without health insurance; and, of the insured, those who considered their coverage adequate and those who did not.
Learning in a quantizable neural network

The relationship between quantizability and learning complexity in multilayer neural networks is examined. In a special neural network architecture which calculates the node activation according to the certainty factor model of expert systems, the analysis based upon quantizability leads to lower and also better estimates for generalization dimensionality and sample complexity than those suggested by the multilayer perceptron model.
Response Bias on Self-Report Measures of Sexual Fantasies Among Sexual Offenders:

The impact of sexual fantasies in future risk and treatment response among sexual offenders has long been known. However, as we develop objective self-report measures of sexual fantasies, response bias is becoming an increasing concern. In examining a sample of institutionalized sex offenders, the present study suggests that offenders' responses on these measures are prone to response bias, the bias does not negate their associations with other self-report measures of sexual deviance, and relationship of their sexual fantasies does not appear to relate to actual behavioral indications. Clinical and research implications for these findings are discussed.
Debugging agent behavior in an implemented agent system

As agent systems become more sophisticated, there is a growing need for agent-oriented debugging, maintenance, and testing methods and tools. This paper presents the Tracing Method and accompanying Tracer tool to help debug agents by explaining actual agent behavior in the implemented system. The Tracing Method captures dynamic run-time data by logging actual agent behavior, creates modeled interpretations in terms of agent concepts (e.g. beliefs, goals, and intentions), and analyzes those models to gain insight into both the design and the implemented agent behavior. An implementation of the Tracing Method is the Tracer tool, which is demonstrated in a target-monitoring domain. The Tracer tool can help (1) determine if agent design specifications are correctly implemented and guide debugging efforts and (2) discover and examine motivations for agent behaviors such as beliefs, communications, and intentions.
New algorithms for contrast enhancement in grayscale images based on the variational definition of histogram equalization

Images captured in dark or bright environments are usually characterized of low contrast. It is important to preprocess these images to make them suitable for other image processing applications. The histogram equalization (HE) algorithm is widely used for this purpose due to its simplicity and effectiveness. However, it can result in a significant change in the mean brightness and produce undesirable visual artifacts. This paper introduces the Constrained Variational Histogram Equalization (CVHE) algorithm which basically extends the variational definition of the HE algorithm by adding a mean brightness constraint to formulate a functional optimization problem, the solution of which defines a new graylevel transformation function for contrast enhancement. Preserving the mean brightness is expected to add more control on histogram stretching, thus reducing the artifacts and change in brightness. We also develop two variants of the CVHE algorithm. The first variant is the Constrained Variational Local Histogram Equalization (CVLHE) algorithm which works in a similar manner to the popular local histogram equalization (LHE) algorithm; however it uses the CVHE transformation function. This variant achieves better performance than the CVHE algorithm but with higher computational requirements. The second variant is the Accelerated CVLHE (ACVLHE) algorithm which uses a modified nonoverlapped block processing approach to reduce the CVLHE computations. The ACVLHE strikes a balance between the speed of the CVHE and the performance of the CVLHE. The choice between the CVHE algorithm and its two local variants is a tradeoff between speed and desired enhancement levels. Visual and quantitative evaluation involving benchmark images show our algorithms to be better than their HE counterparts.
Thoughts on the Body: Past, Present, and Future

Good Days, Bad Days: The Self in Chronic Illness and Time, by Kathy Charmaz. At The Will of The Body: Reflections on Illness, by Arthur W. Frank. The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory, edited by Mike Featherstone, Mike Hepworth, and Bryan S. Turner.
Genome‐wide signature of local adaptation linked to variable CpG methylation in oak populations

It has long been known that adaptive evolution can occur through genetic mutations in DNA sequence, but it is unclear whether adaptive evolution can occur through analogous epigenetic mechanisms, such as through DNA methylation. If epigenetic variation contributes directly to evolution, species under threat of disease, invasive competition, climate change or other stresses would have greater stores of variation from which to draw. We looked for evidence of natural selection acting on variably methylated DNA sites using population genomic analysis across three climatologically distinct populations of valley oaks. We found patterns of genetic and epigenetic differentiations that indicate local adaptation is operating on large portions of the oak genome. While CHG methyl polymorphisms are not playing a significant role and would make poor targets for natural selection, our findings suggest that CpG methyl polymorphisms as a whole are involved in local adaptation, either directly or through linkage to regions under selection.
Bates Linac Operational Experience

Accelerator operation during the first year of scheduled beam to physics experiments is described. Some details of the gun, RF, water, vacuum, control and monitoring systems are reviewed with reference to performance and reliability.
A computer program using disposition decomposition analysis in pharmacodynamics.

A personal computer based program (DDAPD1) was developed for calculating or determining the apparent distribution function of a drug to a possibly heterogeneous biophase, the mean transit time of a drug at the biophase, the ratio of distribution clearance to biophase volume of distribution, the drug concentration-time function at the biophase (C b (t)), and a function which reflects the relationship between the pharmacodynamic response and C b (t) of the drug. This program uses an approach based on disposition decomposition analysis and the hysteresis minimization principle. The application of the program is demonstrated using published data for heptabarbital.
Reapplication and extension: intergenerational mobility in the United States

Abstract This paper replicates and extends Solon's [Am. Econ. Rev. 82 (1992) 393–408.] article “Intergenerational Income Mobility in the United States ”. The results confirm previous findings about the degree of transmission in earnings and consumption from fathers to sons. The correlation between fathers' and sons' earnings lies in the neighborhood of 0.4 and the correlation in consumption is larger. Using the sons' outcomes when they are 5 years older does not alter the estimates of the correlation in earnings, but the estimates of the correlation in consumption are smaller and closer to the estimates of the correlation in earnings. The estimates that use consumption data are sensitive to whether sons' 1984 or 1989 outcomes are used and to whether one adjusts for family size and structure.
Hand-held mass spectrometer for environmentally relevant analytes using a variety of sampling and ionization methods.

A recently developed hand-held, rectilinear ion trap mass spectrometer, capable of performing in situ analysis, has been evaluated for a variety of environmentally relevant analytes. Different sampling and ionization methods were implemented, demonstrating the considerable versatility of this instrument. A discontinuous (viz. pulsed) atmospheric pressure inlet (DAPI) was used to introduce externally-generated analyte ions. Nitro compounds were ionized by electrosonic spray ionization (ESSI) yielding the protonated and sodiated forms of the molecular ion, as well as fragment ions. The amines 2,2,6,6-tetramethylpiperidine, triethylamine and 2,6-diphenylpyridine showed low parts per billion (ppb) detection limits. Vapor phase external ionization was used to examine the chemical warfare simulant dimethyl methylphosphonate and the insect repellant N,N-diethyl-m-toluamide. Membrane introduction mass spectrometry (MIMS) was used as the introduction system for hydrophobic analytes using a selectively permeable (p...
Independent electron calculation of L 3 M 4 , 5 M 4 , 5 and M 2 , 3 M 4 , 5 M 4 , 5 Auger line shapes for Cu metal

We have calculated the ${L}_{3}\mathrm{VV}$ and ${M}_{2,3}\mathrm{VV}$ Auger line shapes of Cu metal, within an independent-electron tight-binding model. The calculated line shapes do not show the sharp features which are seen experimentally, a result which lends further credence to the validity of the "quasiatomic" picture of these Auger lines. We describe two possible mechanisms which might underlie the presence of the "quasiatomic" spectral features.
An Observation of the Relationship between Supercell Structure and Lightning Ground-Strike Polarity

Abstract Cloud-to-ground lightning data are presented from tornadic thunderstorms in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska on 13 March 1990. The tornadic storms from northern Oklahoma northward into Kansas and Nebraska produced an unusually high percentage of positive cloud-to-ground (+CG) flashes, whereas those in central and southern Oklahoma produced mostly negative flashes. Visual evidence indicates a distinct difference in structure between the northern storms, which produced high +CG rates, and the southern storms, which did not. The storms with high +CG rates possessed characteristics of storms in the low-precipitation (LP) portion of the supercell spectrum. In contrast, visual and radar characteristics indicate that the southern storms with lower +CG frequencies were in the high-precipitation (HP) portion of the supercell spectrum. These findings are consistent with another recent study linking high +CG rates with LP storms. Based on these observations, potential benefits of real-time lightning-strike da...
The balanced-projective dimension of units in commutative modular group algebras

Abstract Suppose F is a perfect field of characteristic p ≠ 0 and G is a multiplicatively written abelian p-group. Write bpd(H) for the balanced-projective dimension of an arbitrary p-group H. If V(G) is the group of normalized units of the group algebra F(G), it is shown that bpd(V(G)) = bpd(G). This was known previously only in the special case where one of the dimensions is zero. Also, some partial results are obtained concerning the conjecture that the functor G↦ V(G) G decreases balanced-projective dimension. Special cases of these results are related to the unresolved direct factor problem: When is G a direct factor of the group of units of F(G)?
Inhibition of Reproductive Maturation and Somatic Growth of Fischer 344 Rats by Photoperiods Shorter than L14:D10 and by Gradually Decreasing Photoperiod

Photoperiod is the major regulator of reproduction in temperate-zone mammals. Laboratory rats are generally considered to be nonphotoresponsive, but young male Fischer 344 (F344) rats have a uniquely robust response to short photoperiods of 8 h of light. Rats transferred at weaning from a photoperiod of 16 h to photoperiods of < 14 h of light slowed in both reproductive development and somatic growth rate. Those in photoperiods < 13 h of light underwent the strongest responses. The critical photoperiod of F344 rats can be defined as 13.5 h of light, but photoperiods of </= 12.5 h are required to fully suppress reproduction and somatic growth. This demonstrates that the 12-h photoperiod that is standard in some laboratory colonies would have significant effects on reproductive maturation and growth rate of this common rat strain. Young F344 rats in decreasing photoperiods that mimic natural change experienced delayed reproductive development and decreased growth rate to a greater extent and for a longer duration than those transferred at birth to a short photoperiod. The effects of gradual changes in photoperiod persisted for at least 12 wk after weaning. This indicates that young male F344 rats possess responses to photoperiod that would result in functional photoperiodism in a wild mammal.
Mechanism of Photosignaling by Drosophila Cryptochrome:Role of the Redox Status of the Flavin Chromophore

Cryptochrome (CRY) is the primary circadian photoreceptor in Drosophila. Upon light absorption, dCRY undergoes a conformational change that enables it to bind to Timeless (dTIM), as well as to two different E3 ligases that ubiquitylate dTIM and dCRY, respectively, resulting in their proteolysis and resetting the phase of the circadian rhythm. Purified dCRY contains oxidized flavin (FADox), which is readily photoreduced to the anionic semiquinone through a set of 3 highly conserved Trp residues (Trp triad). The crystal structure of dCRY has revealed a fourth Trp (Trp-536) as a potential electron donor. Previously, we reported that the Trp triad played no role in photoinduced proteolysis of dCRY in Drosophila cells. Here we investigated the role of the Trp triad and Trp-536, and the redox status of the flavin on light-induced proteolysis of both dCRY and dTIM and resetting of the clock. We found that both oxidized (FADox) and reduced (FAD⨪) forms of dCRY undergo light-induced conformational change in vitro that enable dCRY to bind JET and that Trp triad and Trp-536 mutations that block known or presumed intraprotein electron transfer reactions do not affect dCRY phototransduction under bright or dim light in vivo as measured by light-induced proteolysis of dCRY and dTIM in Drosophila S2R+ cells. We conclude that both oxidized and reduced forms of dCRY are capable of photosignaling.
Cerebral adema complicating diabetic ketoacidosis in childhood

Three patients who developed fatal cerebral edema in the diabetes camp setting were reviewed with 14 previously reported instances in persons under 21 years of age. Seven occurred in the initial episode of diabetic ketoacidosis. Minimal blood glucose levels
Rapid onset of massive ascites as the initial presentation of systemic lupus erythematosus

Ascites in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) is rarely massive, and either accompanies the typical manifestations of active disease or results from nephrotic syndrome, protein-losing enteropathy, constrictive pericarditis, and conditions unrelated to lupus. Marked ascites has been atrributed to chronic lupus peritonitis, characterized by the insidious onset of massive, painless ascites and unrelated to disease activity. Regardless of the etiology, ascites typically has a gradual onset and occurs after a diagnosis of SLE has been made. We describe a young woman presenting with the rapid development of massive ascites as the initial manifestation of SLE.
Secondary structure and fold homology of the ArsC protein from the Escherichia coli arsenic resistance plasmid R773.

Resistance to several toxic anions in Escherichia coli is conferred by the ars operon carried on plasmid R773. The gene products of this operon catalyze extrusion of antimonials and arsenicals from cells. In this paper, we report the determination of the overall fold for ArsC, a 16 kDa protein of the ars operon involved in the reduction of arsenate to arsenite, using multidimensional, multinuclear NMR. The protein is found to contain large regions of extensive mobility, particularly in the active site. A model fold, computed on the basis of a preliminary set of NOEs, was found to be structurally homologous to E. coli glutaredoxin, thiol transferases, and glutathione S-transferase. Some kinship to the structure of low molecular weight tyrosine phosphatases, based on rough topological similarity but more so on the basis of a common anion-binding-loop motif H−CXnR, was also detected. Although functional, secondary, and tertiary structural homology is observed with these molecules, no significant homology in ...