cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Subjective Well-Being and the Law

This chapter analyzes legal implications of subjective well-being (SWB) research. Law can and should learn much from SWB research because the law can and should care about people’s SWB. An incomplete list of legal doctrinal and subject areas in which law professors have applied SWB research includes administrative law, alternative dispute resolution, business law, civil procedure, conflict resolution, contracts, constitutional law, corporate law, criminal law, development law, employment discrimination law, family law, immigration law, international law, negotiations, legal ethics, securities law, securities litigation and enforcement, tax law, tort law, and trusts and estates. Some legal scholars have repeated or contributed to existing concerns, debates, and disagreements among non-law scholars about how to measure SWB. For example, some law professors continue to assume that SWB is one-dimensional, despite the large amount of empirical psychological research finding that SWB is multi-dimensional and has distinct components. Some law professors also continue to ignore the conceptual difficulties with aggregation, interpersonal comparisons, and intertemporal comparisons of multi-dimensional SWB measures. In addition, law often requires societies to make contested normative value-judgments over which there lacks consensus. Some law professors and policy makers advocate using SWB metrics to evaluate legal policies, procedures, and regulations. Others argue that hedonic adaptation implies legal interventions have little, long-run SWB impact. This argument ignores short-run impacts which might be irreversible or have spillover effects, including changing individual preferences and social norms. The unique history and current sociology of the American legal academy has resulted in American legal scholarship applying SWB research focusing perhaps unexpectedly primarily on legal education and law practice. Perhaps quite surprisingly, at least to SWB researchers, is that law professors have applied SWB research most, and by a quite far margin, to analyze how to utilize SWB evidence-based research to sustainably improve the alarmingly, perennially, and persistently negative SWB of many law students and lawyers.
Monarch butterfly trends are sensitive to unexamined changes in museum collections over time

Museum records can document long-term changes in phenology, species interactions, and trait evolution (1). However, these data have spatial and temporal biases in sampling which may limit their use for tracking abundance (2). Often, museum records are the only historical data available, and in PNAS, Boyle et al. (3) make long-term abundance estimates for the eastern population of the North American monarch butterfly ( Danaus plexippus ) and its milkweed host plant ( Asclepias spp.) using 1,191 and 31,510 records, respectively, from 1900 to 2016. They conclude that monarch and milkweed abundance started to decline in the mid-20th century, before the adoption of herbicide-resistant crops that are often blamed for losses of monarch host plants (4). Using the same data, I argue that the monarch trend is sensitive to the method of standardization and appears less robust than the milkweed trend. Boyle et al. (3) recognize that … [↵][1]1Email: tyson.wepprich{at}oregonstate.edu. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1
The distribution of woody species in relation to climate and fire in Yosemite National Park, California, USA

The effects of climate on plant species ranges are well appreciated, but the effects of other processes, such as fire, on plant species distribution are less well understood. We used a dataset of 561 plots 0.1 ha in size located throughout Yosemite National Park, in the Sierra Nevada of California, USA, to determine the joint effects of fire and climate on woody plant species. We analyzed the effect of climate (annual actual evapotranspiration [AET], climatic water deficit [Deficit]) and fire characteristics (occurrence [BURN] for all plots, fire return interval departure [FRID] for unburned plots, and severity of the most severe fire [dNBR]) on the distribution of woody plant species. Of 43 species that were present on at least two plots, 38 species occurred on five or more plots. Of those 38 species, models for the distribution of 13 species (34%) were significantly improved by including the variable for fire occurrence (BURN). Models for the distribution of 10 species (26%) were significantly improved by including FRID, and two species (5%) were improved by including dNBR. Species for which distribution models were improved by inclusion of fire variables included some of the most areally extensive woody plants. Species and ecological zones were aligned along an AET-Deficit gradient from cool and moist to hot and dry conditions. In fire-frequent ecosystems, such as those in most of western North America, species distribution models were improved by including variables related to fire. Models for changing species distributions would also be improved by considering potential changes to the fire regime.
Keep it simple: streamlining book illustrations improves attention and comprehension in beginning readers.

This study used eye-tracking to examine whether extraneous illustration details-a common design in beginning reader storybooks-promote attentional competition and hinder learning. The study used a within-subject design with first- and second-grade children. Children (n = 60) read a story in a commercially available Standard condition and in a Streamlined condition, in which extraneous illustrations were removed while an eye-tracker recorded children's gaze shifts away from the text, fixations to extraneous illustrations, and fixations to relevant illustrations. Extraneous illustrations promoted attentional competition and hindered reading comprehension: children made more gaze shifts away from text in the Standard compared to the Streamlined condition, and reading comprehension was significantly higher in the Streamlined condition compared to the Standard condition. Importantly, fixations toward extraneous details accounted for the unique variance in reading comprehension controlling for reading proficiency and attending to relevant illustrations. Furthermore, a follow-up control experiment (n = 60) revealed that these effects did not solely stem from enhanced text saliency in the Streamlined condition and reproduced the finding of a negative relationship between fixations to extraneous details and reading comprehension. This study provides evidence that the design of reading materials can be optimized to promote literacy development in young children.
INCORPORATING WORKLOAD MEASURES INTO REHABILITATION AFTER ANTERIOR CRUCIATE LIGAMENT RECONSTRUCTION: A CASE REPORT.

Background and purpose: Second anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury rates continue to be high, with a majority of injuries occurring soon after return-to-play, potentially because athletes may not be ready for the external load demands of the sport. Load metrics, tracked through wearable technology, may provide complementary information to standard limb symmetry indices in the return-to-play decision making process. The purpose of this case report was to quantify and monitor load using innovative technology during physical therapy rehabilitation after ACL reconstruction (ACLr) and compare to normative sport participation data.Case Description: The subject was a 12-year-old female soccer player that suffered an ACL injury followed by surgical reconstruction with a hamstring autograft and standard rehabilitation. Single-leg hop performance, isokinetic strength, and external loads (using wearable technology) were measured longitudinally during rehabilitation and analyzed at the time of return-to-play.Outcomes: The subject successfully achieved >90% LSI for isometric quadriceps strength (week 14), single leg hop battery (week 23), and isokinetic hamstrings (week 26) and quadriceps (week 31) strength by the time of return-to-play (week 39). At the time of return to play, external load metrics indicated that the subject's most intense rehabilitation session consisted of 36% less frequent movements, 38% lower total distances, and activity durations that were 29% lower than the expected demands of a match. Discussion Standard rehabilitation may underload patients relative to required sport demands. Measuring external load during the rehabilitation period may help clinicians adequately progress workload to the necessary demands of the patient's sport. With the current emphasis on restoring limb symmetry, clinicians may need to shift focus towards load preparation when returning a patient to their sport.Level of Evidence: 4Keywords: anterior cruciate ligament, load, rehabilitation, return to play, step count, movement system.
Regulation and characterization of tumor-infiltrating immune cells in breast cancer.

Abstract The effect of immunosuppression blockade therapies depends on the infiltration of effector T cells and other immune cells in tumor. However, it is unclear how molecular pathways regulate the infiltration of immune cells, as well as how interactions between tumor-infiltrating immune cells and T cell activation affect breast cancer patient survival. CIBERSORT was used to estimate the relative abundance of 22 immune cell types. The association between mRNAs and immune cell abundance were assessed by Spearman correlation analysis. Enriched pathways were identified using MetaCore pathway analysis. The interactions between the T cell activation status and the abundance of tumor-infiltrating immune cells were evaluated using Kaplan-Meier survival and multivariate Cox regression models in a publicly available dataset of 1081 breast cancer patients. The role of tumor-infiltrating B cells in antitumor immunity, immune response of T cell subsets, and breakdown of CD4+ T cell peripheral tolerance were positively associated with M1 macrophage and CD8+ T cell but negatively associated with M2 macrophage. Abundant plasma cell was associated with prolonged survival (HR = 0.46, 95% CI: 0.32–0.67), and abundant M2 macrophage was associated with shortened survival (HR = 1.78, 95% CI: 1.23–2.60). There exists a significant interaction between the T cell activation status and the resting DC abundance level (p = 0.025). Molecular pathways associated with tumor-infiltrating immune cells provide future directions for developing cancer immunotherapies to control immune cell infiltration, and further influence T cell activation and patient survival in breast cancer.
The Neutral Level of NGDP and the NGDP Gap: Q2 2020

This policy brief reports on the NGDP gap, a measure of unexpected changes in the dollar size of the US economy, is the percent difference between the actual and the neutral level of NGDP. The neutral level of NGDP, in turn, is a sum of all dollar incomes expected by households and businesses coming into a specific time period. In the second quarter of 2020, the NGDP gap reached a new low, hitting −12.12 percent. (For more information on how the NGDP gap is constructed and how it may be used to understand policy, please see “The Stance of Monetary Policy: The NGDP Gap,” a policy brief by David Beckworth. Also, see the NGDP gap web page hosted by the Mercatus Center that provides access to current and vintage data on the NGDP gap.)
Greenspan's Synthesis of the 'Keynes-Knight' Approach and the Ramsey-De Finetti-Savage Approach in Decision Making: A Continuum Exists Between Situations of No Knowledge and Complete Knowledge

The differences between Knight’s approach in Risk, Uncertainty and Profit (1921) and Keynes’s logical theory of probability approach in the A Treatise on Probability (1921), on the one hand, and the Ramsey-Savage-de Finetti Subjective or Bayesian approach, on the other hand, are based on the question of whether it is always possible or not to estimate a probability with a precise, exact, numerical value. Keynes and Knight argued that it is not always possible to provide a precise numerical answer to the question, “What is the probability of this outcome relative to this evidence?”, while Ramsey, de Finetti and Savage argued that it was always possible. de Finetti and Savage added a qualification regarding their views on numerical probability only in the case involving the initial conditions at the beginning of a probability assessment. Due to a lack of enough evidence in the beginning stage of a probability assessment, an imprecise estimate of probability could result. However, as time went on, more additional, sufficient evidence would result that would always lead to a precise probability estimate. Much important evidence would be missing or vague or Ambiguous (Daniel Ellsberg’s term). Keynes and Knight argued that that there would be many cases of what Keynes called indeterminate probability estimates, where additional evidence would not be sufficient to lead to a precise probability by the time a decision had to be made. It is impossible to postpone many financial, economic, and business decisions until more, relevant information has accumulated that would lead to the convergence of a imprecise probability to a precise probability at some point in the future. Thus, it is the relative strength of the evidence that determines if a numerically precise probability can be assigned. The mathematical laws of the probability calculus assume that the available evidence used is relevant and complete before a probability calculation takes place. This is a situation of strong evidence. On the other hand, if evidence is missing or not available, one is dealing with a situation of weak evidence. Greenspan cuts through the logical, epistemological, and philosophical analysis made by Keynes and Knight to arrive at a simple and direct definition of uncertainty that entails the work of Keynes and Knight.
Outcomes after high-dose radiation in the management of neuroendocrine neoplasms

Background Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) comprise a rare and heterogenous group of cancers, for which the role of radiation therapy continues to evolve. The purpose of this study is to analyze oncologic outcomes after the use of high-dose radiation in management of NENs at a tertiary hospital. Materials and methods We performed a retrospective review of patients who received high-dose radiation with intent to cure or provide durable local control (defined as biologically effective dose (BED) ≥40, α/β = 10) for a localized or metastatic NEN from 2006 to 2019. Evaluation of disease status after radiation was performed according to Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) criteria when possible. Patients were grouped by differentiation (well-differentiated (WD) or poorly-differentiated (PD)) and stage (localized/locally advanced disease (L) or metastatic (M)) in analysis of probabilities of progression after radiation. Results 45 patients completed a radiation course with BED ≥40 for a NEN (median BED 72). With a median follow-up of 24 months after radiation, the 2-year actuarial rates of local relapse-free survival, new metastasis-free survival, progression-free survival, and overall survival after radiation were 98%, 45%, 41%, and 69%, respectively. 25 patients (56%) developed new metastases after completion of radiation, including 33% (n = 3) of patients with WD-L disease, 44% (n = 8) of WD-M, 77% (n = 10) of PD-L, and 80% (n = 4) of PD-M, with progressively shorter median times to progression (26, 9, 8, and 3 months, respectively; p = 0.093). Of the 25 patients evaluable by RECIST, 68% (n = 17) achieved either a complete or partial best response in the irradiated lesion. Conclusions These data suggest that focal, high-dose radiation has a role in the management of selected patients with NENs. Local failure is rare in patients with both well-differentiated and poorly-differentiated disease, although the predominant pattern of failure remains development of new metastases.
Life Satisfaction in Individuals With Long-Term Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury: An Investigation of Associated Biopsychosocial Factors.

Abstract Objective To investigate relationships between self-reported biological, psychological, and social factors and global, vocational, and home life satisfaction in individuals with traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) an average of more than 30 years postinjury. Design Cross-sectional analyses of self-report assessment data. Setting Specialty and university hospitals in the southeastern and midwestern United States. Participants Individuals with a history of traumatic SCI (n=546) who responded to the most recent data collection period of the SCI Longitudinal Aging Study (2018-2019) and who were at least 2 years postinjury and at least 18 years or older at initial study enrollment. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Global life satisfaction, home life satisfaction, and vocational life satisfaction as measured by the Life Situation Questionnaire-Revised. Results Taken together, the biopsychosocial variables explained 55.1% of the variance in global life satisfaction. Less severe depressive symptoms, greater emotional social support, and greater instrumental social support were significantly associated with greater global life satisfaction. Together, the independent variables explained 50.7% of the variance in home life satisfaction. Being in a relationship, having less severe depressive symptoms, having greater emotional social support, and having greater instrumental social support were significantly associated with home life satisfaction. Together, the independent variables explained 44.8% of the variance in vocational satisfaction. Being White, non-Hispanic, having more years of education, being in a relationship, having less severe depressive symptoms, and having greater emotional social support were significantly associated with greater vocational satisfaction. Conclusion These results support the need to assess psychological symptoms and available social support as potential modifiable factors related to several domains of life satisfaction in this aging population. Improving psychological symptoms and strengthening available social support may relate to improved life satisfaction.
Thin ice on the snowball Earth

Global ice-covered conditions during a Neoproterozoic snowball Earth seem inconsistent with the survival of eukaryotic algae. The presence of thin ice in the tropics remains a viable alternative to resolve this paradox. The simple method of McKay [2000] for computing ice thickness has been improved by considering separately a short wavelength interval ( 700 nm). The key to determining the plausibility of thin ice models on the snowball Earth is a better determination of the relationship between optical properties of sea ice and freezing rate. If slowly freezing sea ice is optically clear, as field evidence suggests, then mean equatorial temperatures on the snowball Earth warmer than about -45°C imply thin ice that can support photosynthesis.
Expression of protease-activated receptors in allergic fungal rhinosinusitis

Background The etiology of the intense inflammatory response showed by patients with allergic fungal rhinosinusitis (AFRS) remains a mystery. Potential sources of this inflammation may include fungal proteases. Protease-activated receptors (PARs) are components of the innate immune response that are modulated by proteolytic activity and are involved in potentiating T helper 2 (Th2) responses. The objective of the study was to determine whether there is differential expression of PARs in patients with AFRS compared to controls. Methods The study was designed as a comparison of gene expression profiles in patients with AFRS vs diseased and nondiseased controls. Twenty-five patients were enrolled. Patients with AFRS (n = 15) were compared to nondiseased controls (n = 5) undergoing minimally invasive pituitary surgery (MIPS) and patients with chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP, n = 5) undergoing functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS). Ethmoid mucosa RNA was hybridized to 4×44K microarray chips. Four gene probes (PAR1, PAR2, PAR3, and PAR4) were used to assess for differential expression. A linear-mixed model was used to account for some patients having multiple samples. Significance level was determined at p < 0.05. Results Of the 4 probes, only PAR3 showed statistically significant differential expression between AFRS and nondiseased control samples (p = 0.03) as well as a 2.21-fold change. No additional statistical difference in PAR expression among the comparison groups was noted. Conclusion PARs have been shown to enhance production of inflammatory cytokines and potentiate Th2 responses. In this initial report, patients with AFRS have a significantly increased expression of PAR3 compared to nondiseased controls.
REAL(-IZING) UTOPIAS AND DISMANTLING DYSTOPIAS: Introduction to the ASA Communication and Information Technologies Section 2013 special issue

The theme of the 2012 American Sociological Association (ASA) Meetings, held in Denver, Colorado, was ‘Real Utopias: Emancipatory Projects, Intuitional Designs, and Possible Futures’. Although this...
Many is more: The utility of simple reactive agents with predictive mechanisms in multiagent object collection tasks

This paper investigates low-cost strategies for the multiagent object collection task, in which multiple agents work together to collect a set of items distributed throughout an environment. Several agent architectures are examined, including simple reactive architectures, more complex deliberative architectures, and "predictive" versions of both of these that take other agents into account when choosing targets for collection. A series of "yardstick" experiments demonstrate that the simple agent types perform very well relative to agents that employ much more computationally expensive approaches. Subsequent large-scale simulations that substantially increase the number of agents and collection items demonstrate that both reactive strategies scale well to more realistic task sizes, with the predictive version performing significantly better than the non-predictive ones.
Abstract 5038: Telomere length linking social contexts and cancer risk in Mexican Americans

Social contexts have a strong impact on chronic disease risk, including cancer, but how these influences “get under the skin” remains unclear. We hypothesize that telomere length may serve as the molecular link between social contexts and cancer risk. Using quantitative real-time PCR, we measured relative telomere length (TL) on baseline whole blood DNA samples collected from 6,574 participants of the ongoing Mano-a-Mano Mexican American Cohort study. We found that TL decreased linearly with increasing age (P-trend Citation Format: Lixia Han, Hua Zhao, Sara Strom, Carrie R. Daniel, David Chang, Hui Zhang, Yuanqing Ye, Jian Gu, Wong-Ho Chow, Xifeng Wu. Telomere length linking social contexts and cancer risk in Mexican Americans. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 5038. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-5038
Resuscitation of dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis by phospholipids or specific peptides.

The presence of dormant tubercle bacilli presents a major problem for tuberculosis treatment. The culture supernatant of Mycobacterium tuberculosis was previously shown to resuscitate dormant bacilli in vitro. Here we report identification of active components as phospholipids and a tuberculosis protein Rv1174c. Remarkably, dormant bacilli from a one year old culture which failed to form any colonies could be resuscitated with peptides derived from Rv1174c and formed 10(5-7) colonies/ml. This finding represents the first unambiguous demonstration of resuscitation of dormant tubercle bacilli in vitro and may have implication for the study of mycobacterial dormancy and the design of novel strategies for improved treatment of tuberculosis.
Design of carbon fiber composite antenna dishes

For millimeter wavelength antennas, solar radiation is a very important source of serious surface, phase, and pointing distortions. To reduce these distortions, carbon fiber composites are widely used in some existing and newly designed millimeter wavelength antennas. However, carbon fiber reinforced composites (CFRP) are different from other isotropic structural materials. Their properties are direction dependent; in the fiber direction, very favorable; perpendicular to the fibers, less favorable. Carbon fiber composite joints are also complex and costly. This paper discusses the properties of carbon fiber structure members, such as: tubes, beams, cones, thin plates, and honeycomb sandwiched thick plates. Comparisons are provided both from the structural and thermal points of view. The paper also gives the stress distribution of a simple composite glued joint.
Order backlogs and strategic pricing: the case of the U.S. large turbine generator industry

This paper illustrates the usefulness of game theory for strategic management through theoretical and empirical analysis of price competition in the presence of production backlogs. Game-theoretic analysis predicts a different relationship between relative prices and backlog levels than does analysis that ignores the sorts of interactive considerations emphasized by game theory. Empirical analysis based on data for the U.S. market for large turbine generators between 1951 and 1963 corroborates the game-theoretic prediction. The paper concludes with a discussion of the sorts of situations in which game-theoretic reasoning is particularly likely to prove useful. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Lack of effect of increased pineal serotonin content on H3-tryptophan uptake.

Major increases in the serotonin concentrations of rat pineal organs were produced by administering Catron, a monoamine oxidase inhibitor, prior to autopsy, or by preincubating the glands with serotonin (3×10−4 M). These increases had no effect on pineal uptake of H3-tryptophan, the amino acid precursor for serotonin. These observations provide further evidence that the control of serotonin synthesis involves an important “open-loop” component.
The effects of stimulus uncertainty and S-R transitional probability on paired-associate learning

The Associative Probability Theory asserts that the greater the number of associates elicited by a stimulus, the greater the probability that one of these will be an appropriate mediator for new learning. The present study tested the adequacy of this theory in decribing the effect of natural-language-sequential habits on PA learning. The transitional probability between pairs of words and the uncertainty of the probability distribution of words following a given word were computed from 985 student essays. On the basis of these norms, 3 PA lists were constructed with the stimulus terms either high or low in uncertainty and with either high or low transitional probabilities between stimulus and response terms. In all three lists fewer errors were made in learning pairs of high transitional probability but, contrary to expectations from the extension of Associative Probability Theory, stimuli of high uncertainty resulted in more errors.
Location and output of the labor-managed firm under price discrimination

This paper considers the impact of location on the output effect of third-degree price discrimination. It shows that the price discrimination may increase, decrease or leave total output of the labor-managed firm unchanged even if the demand curves in two separate markets are linear. This result is significantly different from the conventional non-spatial result. It indicates that the location decision of the labor-managed firm has an important influence on the output effect of third-degree price discrimination.
Taxonomy-based query-dependent schemes for profile similarity measurement

Semantic search techniques have increasingly gained attention in information retrieval literature. Authors are great sources of semantic interpretation for documents, especially in scholarly domains where articles mostly reflect the research interests of the authors. Being able to interpret semantic meanings of documents from their authors would give rise to many interesting applications, especially in academic digital library literature. In this paper, we present taxonomy-based query-dependent schemes for computing author profile similarity. Our schemes have the capability to capture partial similarities, as opposed to traditional topic overlap based approaches. We generalize our schemes so that they can be easily adopted to other application domains. We acquire resources from multiple places such as Wikipedia, CiteseerX, ArnetMiner, and WikipediaMiner as part of our work. We provide encouraging anecdotal results along with suggestions on potential applications of the proposed schemes.
Neurological manifestations of antiphospholipid antibody syndrome.

Thrombosis, thrombocytopenia, recurrent fetal loss and a variety of non-thrombotic neurological disorders have all been associated with antiphospholipid antibodies (aPL). Cerebral ischemia associat...
Effect of the sixth period elements on the melting and transformation temperatures of praseodymium: Part II. Thermodynamic analysis

A thermodynamic analysis of the praseodymium-rich alloys containing Os, Ir, Pt, Au, Hg, Tl, Pb, and Bi indicated that most of the solutes dissolved in praseodymium follow ideal solution theory over a limited range of temperatures up to 40° to 135°C below the melting point of praseodymium (or concentrations out to 3 to 8 at. pct solute). The activity coefficients, activities, and excess partial free energies were calculated for liquid praseodymium at its melting point and for β-Pr at its α to β transformation temperature. The so-calledQ parameter has also been determined for these praseodymium systems, and it was found to exhibit the usual periodic dependence on the solute metal. As a result of these analyses a method has been developed which makes it possible to calculate phase boundaries for undetermined systems. This technique is shown to be especially valuable in calculating unknown phase boundaries for lanthanide-rich alloys, but for other metal solvents this method will probably be of a lesser utility.
Mineralogy and elasticity of the oceanic upper mantle: Origin of the low‐velocity zone

[1] We use a new method to construct an upper mantle model based on self-consistent computation of phase equilibria and physical properties. Computation of the isotropic elastic wave velocities of a pyrolytic bulk composition in thermodynamic equilibrium shows a distinct low-velocity zone with a minimum velocity VS = 4.47 km s−1 along the 100 Ma geotherm. In the vicinity of the low-velocity zone the velocity of this null hypothesis is approximated along oceanic geotherms by VS = 4.77 + 0.0380(P, z/29.80) − 0.000378(T − 300), with pressure P in GPa, depth z in km, temperature T in K, and velocity VS in km s−1. The null hypothesis predicts a minimum VS 0.1–0.2 km s−1 higher than that in seismological models of 100 Ma Pacific. We find that dispersion, estimated solely on the basis of seismological attenuation models, can account for this residual velocity deficit. Except in the immediate vicinity of the ridge (t < 5 Ma), a solid-state low-velocity zone provides a satisfactory quantitative explanation of seismic observations. We do not find a satisfactory explanation for the magnitude of the Gutenberg discontinuity or for the high shear wave velocity gradient zone.
Long survival in an untreated solitary choroid plexus metastasis from renal cell carcinoma: case report and review of the literature

Brain metastases from renal cell carcinoma (RCC) are rare. Among them, the metastases localized only in the choroid plexus are exceptional and only six cases are reported in the literature. Here we report on a patient with a single choroid plexus metastasis from RCC which presented an unusual biological behaviour. For several years, such metastasis was interpreted as a benign intraventricular tumor and was not treated. Four years after the initial neuroradiological evidence, because of the appearance of symptoms, the brain metastasis was excised. We think that this unusual biological behaviour of the tumor determined the late inset of the neurological symptoms, despite the location at the choroid plexus that usually leads to an early obstructive hydrocephalus. To our knowledge, this 46 months survival is the longest survival of a patient affected by a single choroid plexus metastasis from RCC.
Phenomenological transition amplitudes in selected 1p-shell nuclei

We critically examine, in selected 1{ital p}-shell nuclei, the theoretical procedure of determining nuclear transition matrix elements, by fits to low-energy electromagnetic and weak observables. We systematically study various fitting strategies using the latest database, and obtain a set of optimal one-body matrix elements. The onset of inadequacies of these sets in describing a given nuclear electroweak observable usually signals the breakdown of the 1{ital p}-shell model and/or importance of the two-body corrections. We compare the particle-hole conjugate nuclei {sup 6}Li and {sup 14}N, and obtain effective amplitudes. We also study the mass-12 case and find a set of effective one-body amplitudes. The difference in the {ital p}{sub 1/2} and {ital p}{sub 3/2} radial wave functions plays an important role in our fits.
Ligand and induced internal redox processes in Mo- and W-S systems

This paper reviews recent work from our laboratory on redox chemistry of Mo-S systems. Mo and S are each capable of existing in multiple oxidation states. When found together in the same compound, these elements elicit numerous redox possibilities. The classical situation involving simple changes in the oxidation state of Mo is well known. Recent work has also documented the ability of coordinated S ligands (e.g. S2−, S2−2 and S2−4) to undergo redox while Mo remains in a given state of oxidation. In this paper cases are presented wherein both the Mo and S oxidation states change. For example, the reaction of the red MoS2−4 ion with organic disulfides gives the purple Mo2S2−8 ion in high yield. The oxidizing disulfide added to the hexavalent MoS2−4 ion leads quantitatively to the reduced pentavalent dinuclear Mo2S2−8 ion. Mechanistically, this reaction proceeds in two stages involving a green intermediate of yet unknown structure. The net reaction embodies an induced internal electron transfer from S to Mo in the same sense that Taube et al. elucidated in the chemistry of cobalt. Application of the concept of induced internal electron transfer allows access to new low-valent Mo-S systems by adding oxidants to Mo(VI)-S species. For example, the reactions of MoS2−4 with thiuram disulfides give compounds of the form MoS2(S2CNR2)3 (R = Et or iBu). These are mononuclear EPR-active Mo(V) complexes containing eight-coordinate Mo. As expected, W shows distinctly less reactivity than Mo in S → M redox processes. The ability of S2− ligands to act as donors and Mo and W atoms to act as acceptors of electron density has also been exploited in the synthesis of new heteronuclear “thiocubane” clusters.
Accumulation and elimination of dieldrin in muscle tissue of channel catfish

Dieldrin accumulation and elimination in muscle tissue of channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) from water and food was determined in the laboratory. Twenty-eight-day exposure of fish 150-225 mm and 350-400 mm long to 75 parts per trillion (ng/liter) dieldrin resulted in the larger catfish consistently accumulating more dieldrin than the smaller fish. After 28 days of elimination, dieldrin levels in both size groups were nearly equal. Catfish exposed to 2 ppm (mg/kg) dieldrin through their diets accumulated significantly more dieldrin in muscle than did fish exposed to 75 pptr in water. When fish were exposed to dieldrin both in food and water, dieldrin from both sources contributed to the total dieldrin load. Large catfish accumulated more dieldrin from food and water than did smaller catfish. After 28 days of elimination, levels of dieldrin were not significantly different in muscles of 150-225 mm and 350-440 mm catfish exposed via both food and water.
The effects of assay temperature upon the pH optima of enzymes from poikilotherms: A test of the imidazole alphastat hypothesis

The effects of assay temperature and pH upon the activities of acetyl CoA carboxylase, fatty acid synthetase, NADH- and succinate-cytochrome c reductases, and NADH-ferricyanide reductase were examined in tissues of rainbow trout. In all cases pH optima shifted to alkaline pH values as the assay temperature was reduced. For trout liver acetyl CoA carboxylase the pH optimum increased from 6.8 at 25°C to 7.36 at 5°C and was characterized by a ΔpHopt/ΔT of −0.0272; similarly, the pH optimum for trout liver fatty acid synthetase increased from 6.29 to 7.15 over the same temperature range and was characterized by a ΔpHopt/ΔT of −0.043. Additional values of ΔpHopt/ΔT were: −0.044 for both NADH- and succinate-cytochrome c reductases, and −0.0325 to −0.040 for NADH-ferricyanide reductase. The observed values for ΔpHopt/ΔT did not differ significantly from the ΔpH/ΔT reported for arterial blood of rainbow trout (Randall and Cameron, 1973). The parallel temperature dependence of enzyme pH optima and both the extracellular and intracellular pH is interpreted as supporting the imidazole alphastat hypothesis of acid base regulation in poikilotherms. Temperature-induced changes in blood pH and acid-base status appear to defend against changes in net protein charge and enzyme function.
Effect of membrane fluidity upon binding of Electrophorus acetylcholinesterase to lipid vesicles.

Abstract A previous report (Watkins, M.S., Hitt, A.S. and Bulger, J.E. (1977) Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 79, 640–647) has indicated that the asymmetric forms of Electrophorus acetylcholinesterase bind exclusively to sphingomyelin vesicles through interaction with the collagen-like ‘tail’ portion of the enzyme. We report here that acetylcholinesterase also binds to phosphatidylcholine vesicles containing saturated fatty acyl chains and to egg phosphatidylcholine vesicles containing cholesterol. This suggests preferential binding of acetylcholinesterase to membranes of lower fluidity. Surface charge of vesicles and density of zwitterionic lipid headgroups do not significantly affect binding of native acetylcholinesterase. The presence of chondroitin sulfate or hyaluronic acid slightly increases the binding of native acetylcholinesterase to sphingomyelin vesicles, while the presence of 1 M NaCl, bovine serum albumin, or tissue fractions enriched in basement membrane diminish binding. The dissociation constant for native acetylcholinesterase and sphingomyelin vesicles is (1.0–1.5)· 10 -7 M, as measured by a flotation binding assay. The globular, 11S form of acetylcholinesterase also binds to lipid vesicles, although not to the same degree as native acetylcholinesterase. This suggests that the collagen tail of the enzyme enhances binding, but is not essential for binding to occur. These results are consistent with the location of acetylcholinesterase on the surface of the postsynaptic plasma membrane in vivo.
Regulation of thrombin-induced endothelial cell activation by bacterial toxins

It has previously been shown that thrombin effects on endothelial cells can be mediated via G-proteins, which couple the thrombin receptor to several key physiological responses. As G-proteins are known targets of bacterial toxins, specific toxins were used to further characterize G-protein involvement in thrombin activation of bovine pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (BPAEC) and human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC). Homogenates were exposed to several bacterial toxins in the presence of 32P-NAD and ADP ribosylation of proteins determined by autoradiography of SDS-PAGE gels. Major substrates were a 40 kDa protein for pertussis toxin, 39, 45 and 52 kDa proteins (Gs) for cholera toxin, a 21 kDa protein for botulinum toxin C, and a 43 kDa protein (actin) for botulinum toxin C2a. The increase in either HUVEC or BPAEC PGI2 release induced by thrombin was not altered by pretreatment with any toxin. However, 1 h treatment of BPAEC monolayers with 1 microgram/ml pertussis toxin resulted in dramatic barrier dysfunction, which was synergistic with the albumin permeability induced by 1 microM thrombin. In contrast, pretreatment with 1 microgram/ml cholera toxin completely prevented the thrombin-induced barrier dysfunction. Moreover, contraction and gap formation due to thrombin challenge, observed by phase contrast microscopy, was greatly augmented by pertussis toxin and prevented by cholera toxin. Whereas 5 micrograms/ml botulinum toxin C did not affect either basal or thrombin-induced barrier dysfunction, botulinum toxin C2a increased basal BPAEC permeability over four-fold. Thus, bacterial toxins have specific and divergent effects on thrombin-induced endothelial cell responses. Botulinum toxin C2a appears to interact directly with actin to produce barrier dysfunction. In contrast, cholera toxin promotes barrier function via its known effects on Gs, stimulating adenylate cyclase and increasing cAMP. Because cholera toxin and pertussis toxin (via inhibition of G(i)) both increase cAMP, yet have opposing effects on barrier function, the present results suggest that pertussis toxin produces barrier dysfunction via ADP ribosylation of a novel G-protein other than G(i) or via a novel action of G(i).
Differentiation of acetylene-reduction sites by stereoselective proton addition during Azotobacter vinelandii nitrogenase-catalyzed C2D2 reduction.

The interactions of acetylene with its binding site(s) on the FeMo cofactor of the MoFe protein of Azotobacter vinelandii nitrogenase were probed using C2D2. Specifically, the effects of changing t...
Fluidized bed film coating of cohesive Geldart group C powders

The difficulty of coating cohesive Geldart group C powders in a conventional fluidized bed is attributed to strong inter-particle force between fine particles leading to poor fluidization behavior. Dry coating approach involving deposition of nanosize particles on the surface of group C powders is considered to reduce the interparticle force and improve the fluidization behavior of fine powders. Polymer film coating at an individual particle level is achieved on these pre-coated fine powders in a commercially available spouting fluidized bed (MiniGlatt). The effect of operating conditions such as inlet air temperature, polymer concentration, polymer weight ratio, water percentage in solvent and spray rate of coating solution on the quality of film coating are investigated. Experimental results demonstrate that the quality of film coating goes down as polymer concentration in coating solution goes higher, whereas the lower inlet air temperature is found to enhance polymer film generation and coating quality. It is also observed that the higher polymer weight ratio promotes agglomeration without affecting the coating quality to a great extent. An optimum water ratio in acetone-water solvent as well as spray rate can be optimized to achieve superior coating quality with acceptable agglomeration ratio.
Tangu political relations 1

The development of relative unity among the people now known collectively as Tangu is outlined, with reference to such factors as residential mobility. The notions of reciprocity and equivalence ar...
The biochemical basis for genotyping 21-hydroxylase deficiency

We describe three different forms of 21-hydroxylase deficiency—classical congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), late-onset 21-hydroxylase deficiency, and cryptic 21-hydroxylase deficiency—and we present hormonal standards by which to assign the appropriate 21-hydroxylase deficiency genotype for these disorders. The late-onset and cryptic forms of 21-hydroxylase deficiency are biochemically indistinguishable, although patients with the late-onset disorder present with marked clinical symptoms (e.g. virilization) whereas patients with cryptic 21-hydroxylase deficiency are clinically asymptomatic. Our latest studies suggest that late-onset 21-hydroxylase deficiency, like the classical and cryptic 21-hydroxylase deficiencies, is also genetically linked to HLA, the major histocompatibility complex of man. Our biochemical findings provide evidence that a spectrum of 21-hydroxylase deficiencies exist in the population.
Tiotropium plus beclomethasone was more effective than doubling beclomethasone for asthma

Source Citation Peters SP, Kunselman SJ, Icitovic N, et al. Tiotropium bromide step-up therapy for adults with uncontrolled asthma. N Engl J Med. 2010;363:1715-26. 20979471
Image warps for artistic perspective manipulation

Painters and illustrators commonly sketch vanishing points and lines to guide the construction of perspective images. We present a tool that gives users the ability to manipulate perspective in photographs using image space controls similar to those used by artists. Our approach computes a 2D warp guided by constraints based on projective geometry. A user annotates an image by marking a number of image space constraints including planar regions of the scene, straight lines, and associated vanishing points. The user can then use the lines, vanishing points, and other point constraints as handles to control the warp. Our system optimizes the warp such that straight lines remain straight, planar regions transform according to a homography, and the entire mapping is as shape-preserving as possible. While the result of this warp is not necessarily an accurate perspective projection of the scene, it is often visually plausible. We demonstrate how this approach can be used to produce a variety of effects, such as changing the perspective composition of a scene, exploring artistic perspectives not realizable with a camera, and matching perspectives of objects from different images so that they appear consistent for compositing.
On the Numerical Computation of Two-Dimensional Convective Flow

Abstract Numerical calculations of two-dimensional convection between flat plates at high Rayleigh numbers are presented. They do not show the large cell aspect ratios observed by Rothermel and Agee in their numerical calculations at high Rayleigh numbers. The present results appear to be insensitive to grid resolution, the conventional test of numerical accuracy, large amplitude random perturbations and the numerical representation of the diffusion term. We therefore suggest that the mechanism observed by Rothermel and Agee, which produces increasingly larger aspect ratio cells with increasing Rayleigh number, is strongly influenced by the numerical method used to solve the equations.
Optimizing development time in a seasonal environment: The 'ups and downs' of clinal variation.

This paper explores the problem of adapting development time to changes in the length of time conditions are favourable for growth and reproduction (‘season length’). It is shown that systematic changes in season length along some gradient such as latitude can generate either simple clines in development time or ‘saw-tooth’ clines. The relationship between development time and body size gives rise to a corresponding variation in body size. The generation of a ‘saw-tooth’ cline does not require sharp environmental changes. Both types of clinal variation are observed in insects.