cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Commentary on Cultural Considerations in Risk Assessment: An Ethical Responsibility

The United States Department of Energy's (DOE) Center for Risk Excellence has been charged with developing the "Risk Plan" for the Hanford Nuclear Reservation's (Richland, WA) Groundwater/Vadose Zone Integration Project. The goal of the Integration Project is to assure the protection of water resources, the Columbia River environment, river-dependent life, and users of the Columbia River resources. Credible data and predictive analytical tools are needed to assess impacts associated with the remedial options proposed by DOE as the Department engages with regulators, Tribal Nations, and stakeholders in making cleanup decisions. Cultural risk impact assessment can be defined as part of a quality of life assessment--an assessment of the quality of our human health and environmental health. Cultural risk assessments should gauge how human health and environmental risks impact the cultures we live in and that give our lives meaning. We are making strides in the human health and ecological risk assessments that are standard to the current remediation process, but we are less clear on how to assess cultural impacts. However, to comprehensively evaluate and address the risks resulting from past and future DOE operations, we must consider the effects to cultural endpoints. To do less could be an unethical exercise of our responsibilities to assess and manage risk.
High-resolution characterization of the human microbiome

The human microbiome plays an important and increasingly recognized role in human health. Studies of the microbiome typically use targeted sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene, whole metagenome shotgun sequencing, or other meta-omic technologies to characterize the microbiome's composition, activity, and dynamics. Processing, analyzing, and interpreting these data involve numerous computational tools that aim to filter, cluster, annotate, and quantify the obtained data and ultimately provide an accurate and interpretable profile of the microbiome's taxonomy, functional capacity, and behavior. These tools, however, are often limited in resolution and accuracy and may fail to capture many biologically and clinically relevant microbiome features, such as strain-level variation or nuanced functional response to perturbation. Over the past few years, extensive efforts have been invested toward addressing these challenges and developing novel computational methods for accurate and high-resolution characterization of microbiome data. These methods aim to quantify strain-level composition and variation, detect and characterize rare microbiome species, link specific genes to individual taxa, and more accurately characterize the functional capacity and dynamics of the microbiome. These methods and the ability to produce detailed and precise microbiome information are clearly essential for informing microbiome-based personalized therapies. In this review, we survey these methods, highlighting the challenges each method sets out to address and briefly describing methodological approaches.
Effect of tree-to-shrub type conversion in lower montane forests of the Sierra Nevada (USA) on streamflow.

Higher global temperatures and increased levels of disturbance are contributing to greater tree mortality in many forest ecosystems. These same drivers can also limit forest regeneration, leading to vegetation type conversion. For the Sierra Nevada of California, little is known about how type conversion may affect streamflow, a critical source of water supply for urban, agriculture and environmental purposes. In this paper, we examined the effects of tree-to-shrub type conversion, in combination with climate change, on streamflow in two lower montane forest watersheds in the Sierra Nevada. A spatially distributed ecohydrologic model was used to simulate changes in streamflow, evaporation, and transpiration following type conversion, with an explicit focus on the role of vegetation size and aspect. Model results indicated that streamflow may show negligible change or small decreases following type conversion when the difference between tree and shrub leaf areas is small, partly due to the higher stomatal conductivity and the deep rooting depth of shrubs. In contrast, streamflow may increase when post-conversion shrubs have a small leaf area relative to trees. Model estimates also suggested that vegetation change could have a greater impact on streamflow magnitude than the direct hydrologic impacts of increased temperatures. Temperature increases, however, may have a greater impact on streamflow timing. Tree-to-shrub type conversion increased streamflow only marginally during dry years (annual precipitation < 800 mm), with most streamflow change observed during wetter years. These modeling results underscore the importance of accounting for changes in vegetation communities to accurately characterize future hydrologic regimes for the Sierra Nevada.
Generation of 500-MW peak power pulses from an injection mode-locked Q-switched Nd:glass moving slab laser

The output power density of a Q-switched Nd:glass laser is limited to 250-500 MW/cm2 by the surface damage of optical components in the resonator, whereas the B-integral limit is 2-10 GW/cm2. The peak power can be increased to the B-integral limit, if the energy is extracted in short pulses, preferably <1 ns in duration.
Lasso Peptide Biosynthetic Protein LarB1 Binds Both Leader and Core Peptide Regions of the Precursor Protein LarA.

Lasso peptides are a member of the superclass of ribosomally synthesized and posttranslationally modified peptides (RiPPs). Like all RiPPs, lasso peptides are derived from a gene-encoded precursor protein. The biosynthesis of lasso peptides requires two enzymatic activities: proteolytic cleavage between the leader peptide and the core peptide in the precursor protein, accomplished by the B enzymes, and ATP-dependent isopeptide bond formation, accomplished by the C enzymes. In a subset of lasso peptide biosynthetic gene clusters from Gram-positive organisms, the B enzyme is split between two proteins. One such gene cluster is found in the organism Rhodococcus jostii, which produces the antimicrobial lasso peptide lariatin. The B enzyme in R. jostii is split between two open reading frames, larB1 and larB2, both of which are required for lariatin biosynthesis. While the cysteine catalytic triad is found within the LarB2 protein, LarB1 is a PqqD homologue expected to bind to the lariatin precursor LarA based...
Treelogy: a benchmark suite for tree traversal applications

An interesting class of irregular algorithms are tree traversal algorithms, which repeatedly traverse spatial trees to perform efficient computations. Optimizing tree traversal algorithms requires understanding specific characteristics of these algorithms which affect their behavior and govern which types of optimizations are likely to perform well. In this work, we present a set of tree traversal applications, drawn from multiple domains, called Treelogy. This benchmark suite can be studied through the use of an ontology that characterizes tree traversal algorithms according to structural properties of the algorithm. We describe how each of these attributes constrains or allows different kinds of traversal optimizations. We characterize the applications of Treelogy both according to our structural ontology as well as by various applicationand input-dependent metrics that measure the irregularity of these applications. We then show the scalability of these applications implemented using generic frameworks for GPU, shared memory, and distributed memory systems. We also find that for certain input distributions, Barnes-Hut and 2-point correlation yield better performance when implemented with tree types other than the "standard" tree.
Climate change and urban land systems: bridging the gaps between urbanism and land science

ABSTRACTLand science has generated critical knowledge about how humans modify Earth’s surface and has advanced our understanding of land as a coupled human–environment system. However, to date, most work has been in frontier environments with less attention – both conceptually and empirically – on how urban land systems affect the carbon cycle. Much of what is known about urban areas and the carbon cycle is limited to aggregate levels of activities within urban areas, usually by sector, with little focus on how the spatial configuration of urban land systems affects carbon-emitting activities. Given that urban areas produce about 70% of global energy-related CO2 emissions, it is crucial to understand the relationship between urban environments, the activities they influence, and the resulting carbon emissions. This paper summarizes the current state of knowledge of how urban land systems affect carbon emissions and vulnerability, and identifies research gaps and opportunities for urban land science to con...
Investigation of four phantoms for PET normalization

Normalization in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is essential to correct for sensitivity variation across detector elements and produce uniform images. Currently, the standard normalization protocol for General Electric (GE) systems requires a 20 minute scan of a 20 cm diameter cylindrical phantom filled with 2 mCi of 18F Fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG). This process calculates the single detector efficiency factors (e) from the component based normalization factors (NF). We have investigated the feasibility of using smaller phantoms for normalization, including sensitivity to positioning and radioactivity concentration. Four new test phantoms were used for normalization on a GE Discovery 690 PET/CT scanner. The test phantoms included 4.5 cm, 7.5 cm and IOcm diameter cylinders, and a 16-20 cm diameter cylindrical shell. Normalization scans were also taken using the 7.5 cm and 10 cm cylinder phantoms over a range of FDG activities and at transaxially off-center positions. Image quality was assessed by reconstructing a 4 hr high count, uniform activity image quality (IQ) phantom scan using each normalization data set. All test phantoms produced similarly uniform reconstructions of the IQ phantom scan. Upon examining subtractions from the standard, high frequency ring artifacts with ±1 % peak intensity were present in images reconstructed using the 4.5cm, 7.5cm, and 10cm normalization phantoms. FFT analysis quantified the spatial period of ring artifacts as T = 2.15 ± 0.1 cm, one half of the detector block width of the GE 690 system. Simulation confirmed that ring artifacts result from periodic detector sensitivity decrease, which points to incident photo obliquity being the cause of said artifact. ROIs across anterior/posterior direction of the central slice were used to quantify low frequency uniformity. Low frequency non-uniformities were found to be produced by off-center normalization phantom positioning, as expected. In addition, an 8 minute Hoffman brain phantom scan was reconstructed using each a centered normalization data set from each phantom. Grey matter was isolated and statistically assessed using mean and max intensity difference from the standard. When subtracted from the standard reconstruction, all four test phantom images displayed ~0.5% standard deviation of pixel intensity variation, which did not create a visibly noticeable difference in the reconstructed images.
Abstract P117: Lysine Specific Demethylase-1 Deficiency Accelerates the Development of Renal Damage and Hypertension During Long Term Exposure to Sodium

Long term exposure to salt is a demonstrated risk factor for hypertension (HT), as well as cardiovascular and renal (CVR) outcomes. We recently proposed a novel contributor to the etiology of salt-mediated HT: the Lysine Specific Demethylase-1 (LSD1). We showed that LSD1 deficiency (in mice) and LSD1 gene variants (in humans) associate - in response to short term (one week) of sodium loading - with dysregulated renal sodium handling, volume expansion and HT, and RAAS dysfunction. However, the timeline and severity of these changes during long term exposure to sodium, and the protective effects of sodium restriction in LSD1 deficient states have yet to be determined. This study aimed (1) to evaluate the timing of onset for changes in CVR health during long term sodium loading in LSD1 deficient mice and (2) to assess whether a low salt (LS) diet can prevent these effects. LSD1 heterozygous (HET) and WT mice were randomized to high salt (HS) or LS and followed longitudinally for 6 months. BP, plasma aldosterone (Aldo) and albumin/creatinine ratios (A/C) were assessed monthly. The SBP (mm Hg) increased progressively during the study, and reached significance on the 5 th and 6 th month for HS-HET and HS-WT (141±4 and 134±3, respectively, both p The A/C (μg/mg) was progressively increased in both HS groups, one month prior to the BP change. Namely, A/C reached significance on the 4 th and 5 th month for HS-HET and HS-WT (46±4 and 48±9, respectively, both p Our novel study shows that long term exposure to HS induces kidney damage followed by BP increase, and that these changes are initiated earlier in the LSD1 HET, suggesting LSD1 as a critical component of mechanisms involved in CVR health. Moreover, long term sodium restriction prevented the development of both target organ damage and HT in this model, suggesting that this dietary intervention may be particularly efficient in human carriers of LSD1 gene variants.
An invisible vehicle roof antenna

An invisible vehicle roof antenna for the long term evolution (LTE) application is proposed. The antenna is a bended ultra-wideband monopole with a low profile of 30 mm and covers the LTE operation bands. The antenna is embedded into a hole with a depth of 30 mm which is opened on the roof and is surrounded by metal. The antenna becomes completely invisible when the hole is covered by a dielectric lid. A slit is made on the horizontal part of the antenna to suppress a zenith-directional radiation so that the antenna has enough gain in horizontal directions, even the antenna is surrounded by the metal wall of the hole. The antenna has a dimension of 85×85×30 mm3 and is embedded into a hole of 200×200×30 mm3.
Mass corrections in deep-inelastic scattering

The moment sum rules for deep-inelastic lepton scattering are expected for asymptotically free field theories to display a characteristic pattern of logarithmic departures from scaling at large enough ${Q}^{2}$. In the large-${Q}^{2}$ limit these patterns do not depend on hadron or quark masses $m$. For modest values of ${Q}^{2}$ one expects corrections at the level of powers of $\frac{{m}^{2}}{{Q}^{2}}$. We discuss the question whether these mass effects are accessible in perturbation theory, as applied to the twist-2 Wilson coefficients and more generally. Our conclusion is that some part of the mass effects must arise from a nonperturbative origin. We also discuss the corrections which arise from higher orders in perturbation theory for very large ${Q}^{2}$, where mass effects can perhaps be ignored. The emphasis here is on a characterization of the ${Q}^{2}$, $x$ domain where higher-order corrections are likely to be unimportant.
Physicians, Not Conscripts - Conscientious Objection in Health Care.

Conscientious objection laws give health care professionals the legal right to refuse, on the basis of personal beliefs, to perform certain procedures or care for particular patients. The authors argue that professional societies should declare conscientious objection unethical.
A PROTON RESONANCE STUDY OF METAL-AMMONIA SOLUTIONS

The proton magnetic resonance spectrum of anhydrous liquid ammonia is determined by two parameters, the N-H coupling constant and the 14 N electric quadrupolar relaxation rate. In a dilute metal-ammonia solution a large contribution to the proton signal shape arises from 14 N magnetic dipolar relaxation induced by the presence of paramagnetic species in solution. This magnetic dipolar relaxation is used to obtain a definitive upper limit for τ (e − )/n where τ (e − ) is the average lifetime of a given ammonia molecule in a given paramagnetic species and n is the number of ammonia molecules in the paramagnetic entity. This limit is 6 × 10- 14 sec at 24° and is in excellent agreement with the conclusions obtained previously from other resonance methods. In addition the present studies are shown to be applicable to the precise determination of n, though results of this study are not yet reported.
An Expanded View of Joint Attention: Skill, Engagement, and Language in Typical Development and Autism.

This study provides an expanded view of joint attention and its relation to expressive language development. A total of 144 toddlers (40 typically developing, 58 with autism spectrum disorder [ASD], 46 with developmental delay [DD]) participated at 24 and 31 months. Toddlers who screened positive for ASD risk, especially those subsequently diagnosed with ASD, had poorer joint attention skills, joint engagement during parent-toddler interaction, and expressive language. Findings highlight the dynamic relation between joint attention and language development. In the ASD and DD groups, joint engagement predicted later expressive vocabulary, significantly more than predictions based on joint attention skills. Joint engagement was most severely impacted when toddlers did not talk initially and improved markedly if they subsequently began to speak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Enhanced antigen presenting and T cell functions during late-phase allergic responses in the lung.

BACKGROUND Allergic inflammation is a common feature of asthma and may contribute to both development and perpetuation of disease. The interaction of antigen-presenting cells (APC) with sensitized helper T lymphocytes (TC) producing Th2 cytokines may determine the inflammatory response. Recruitment of APC and TC to the lung during allergic responses has been demonstrated, but functional studies in humans have been limited. OBJECTIVE This study examined the function of APC and TC accumulating at sites of inflammation after segmental allergen challenge (SAC). METHODS Fifteen allergic patients underwent SAC, and cells from bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) were collected after 24 hours. APC and TC from the blood and BAL were purified based on expression of the monocyte marker, CD14; the plasmacytoid dendritic cell (pDC) marker, BDCA4, identifying neuropilin-1 (NRP1); and the helper T cell marker, CD4. Functional activity was assessed using allergen-induced T cell proliferation. Flow cytometry identified cells expressing CD14 and NRP1. RESULTS SAC resulted in a 12-fold increase in mononuclear cells having the morphologic appearance of blood monocytes. Most of these cells co-expressed CD14 and NRP1. After saline challenge, BAL mononuclear cells demonstrated little APC function. Following SAC, BAL mononuclear cells showed function equal to pDC from blood and greater than blood monocytes. Purified NRP1+ cells from BAL had even greater function than pDC cells from blood (P = .008). Using consistent sources of APC, enhanced proliferation of TC from lung compared to blood was also demonstrated (P = .002). CONCLUSIONS The marked increase in APC function for allergen-specific TC proliferation during allergic inflammation is largely due to the recruitment of monocytes and dendritic cells. There is also an enhanced response in the lung TC population, consistent with recruitment of allergen-specific T cells. Interactions between recruited APC and TC may occur as an early event promoting allergic airway inflammation.
Is There Such a Thing as “Ultimate” Meaning? A Review of Fluid versus Fixed Models of Different Forms of Human Striving

A growing number of social psychological theories have posited that meaning-striving can be compensated for across domains; threats in one area can simply be addressed by gains in another. Other mo...
Delimited Polyacenes: Edge Topology as a Tool to Modulate Carbon Nanoribbon Structure, Conjugation, and Mobility

Carbon nanoribbons offer the potential of semiconducting materials that maintain the large charge-carrier mobilities of graphene. Here, starting with polyacene as a reference, we present a theoretical investigation as to how polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons inserted into the polymer structure modulate the edge topology of the zigzag polyacene. The variations in edge topology, in turn, produce nanoribbon structures that have electronic properties that span insulators to narrow-gap semiconductors. Clear connections are made among foundational models in aromatic chemistry, namely, descriptions in terms of Clar formulas and bond-length alternation patterns, and the nanoribbon electronic, phonon, and charge-carrier mobility characteristics. These relationships, for systems that are synthetically feasible from bottom-up, solution-based approaches, offer a priori and rational design paradigms for the creation of new nanoribbon architectures.
Numerical study of MHD micropolar carreau nanofluid in the presence of induced magnetic field

The heat and mass transfer of a magnetohydrodynamic micropolar Carreau nanofluid on a stretching sheet has been analyzed in the presence of induced magnetic field. An internal heating, thermal radiation, Ohmic and viscous dissipation effects are also considered. The system of the governing partial differential equations is converted into the ordinary differential equations by means of the suitable similarity transformation. The resulting ordinary differential equations are then solved by the well known shooting technique. The impact of emerging physical parameters on the velocity, angular velocity, temperature and concentration profiles are analyzed graphically. The dimensionless velocity is enhanced for the Weissenberg number and the power law index while reverse situation is studied in the thermal and the concentration profile.
Selective Blockade of T-Type Ca2+ Channels is Protective Against Alcohol-Withdrawal Induced Seizure and Mortality.

Aims We have previously demonstrated that blockade of T-type calcium channels by the non-selective antagonist, ethosuximide (ETX), is effective at reducing electrographical and behavioral correlates of alcohol-withdrawal (WD) seizure. Here, we investigated whether blockade of these calcium channels with the selective antagonist TTA-P2 also reduces alcohol-WD seizure. Short summary The non-specific T-type calcium channel antagonist, ETX, is protective against alcohol-WD seizure. However, the mechanism of this effect is unclear. Here, we provide evidence that further suggests selective blockade of T-type calcium channels are protective against alcohol-WD seizure and WD-related mortality. Methods We used an intermittent ethanol exposure model to produce WD-induced hyperexcitability in DBA/2 J mice. Seizure severity was intensified with the chemoconvulsant pentylenetetrazole (PTZ). Results TTA-P2 (10 mg/kg) reduced seizure severity in mice undergoing alcohol WD with concurrent PTZ treatment (20 mg/kg). Moreover, TTA-P2 (20 and 40 mg/kg) was also protective against PTZ-induced (40 mg/kg) seizure and mortality. Conclusions These results are consistent with prior results using ETX, and suggest that the protective effects of ETX and TTA-P2 against EtOH WD seizures are mediated by T-type calcium channels.
Social Conflict Assessment in the Design of Risk Management Systems

Risk management strategies frequently generate conflict. This conflict results not only from differences in interests associated with expected outcomes, but just as fundamentally from divergent assessments, perceptions and values associated with risk management. These differences impair communication and creativity in decision making and inhibit decisive action. To effectively design, implement and administer policy, the risk manager must therefore generate cooperation amongst the individuals and organizations that can block action. An effective risk management system is consequently also a conflict management and consensus building system. Hence, methods for more effectively coping with conflict in risk management systems are needed. This paper examines the root sources of risk-based conflict, develops methods for assessing potential conflict as part of a risk management process, and presents an alternative approach to designing risk management systems built upon concepts of both risk assessment and social conflict assessment. The approach focuses analysis on a wider range of concerns than is typically envisioned by risk analysts, and is imbedded in models of policy making and dispute resolution. Based upon simulations involving risk managers and policymakers in waste management systems, the approach shows promise of facilitating workable risk management policy.
Disialoganglioside GD2 Expression in Pediatric Rhabdomyosarcoma: A Case Series and Review of the Literature.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is the most common pediatric soft tissue sarcoma. Despite aggressive therapy, patients with metastatic or relapsed disease experience dismal outcomes and novel therapies are urgently needed. In this study, we evaluated expression of disialoganglioside (GD2), a cell surface ant
Synchrophasor applications for load estimation and stability analysis

The use of advanced real-time monitoring and control technologies have made it possible to transform the existing power grid into smart grid. With the development of phasor measurement units (PMUs) and the availability of real-time measurements, it has become possible to develop data-driven power system applications to enhance the stability and reliability of the power grid. The application of synchrophasor measurements for online assessment of voltage stability, real-time load parameter estimation, and transient stability prediction is presented in this chapter. The different voltage stability monitoring tools used in the industry are reviewed and analyzed. PMU-based distributed voltage stability monitoring technique is also presented in this chapter. The load modeling tool used in the industry and comprehensive research effort in load modeling is discussed in this chapter. The adaptive search-based recursive least-square algorithm is presented for improved online estimation of load parameters. The existing techniques available in the literature for transient stability assessment are reviewed in this chapter. Application of maximum Lyapunov exponent (MLE) for PMU-based online transient stability detection is discussed. The effectiveness of MLE-based method is demonstrated on real-time simulation of New England 39 bus system.
Transnational Legal Citation as Method of Norm Diffusion

Transnational litigation networks both engage in advocacy to advance a specific goal and serve as conduits for diffusion of legal expertise and strategy. By citing jurisprudence from other jurisdictions in their pleadings, these legal advocates can convince courts that a trend is emerging and thereby create a global body of persuasive authority that can be used elsewhere in future cases. In this way, the dialogue among domestic courts and international tribunals is a form of norm diffusion. On certain constitutional matters with robust sharing among legal systems, such as abolition of the death penalty or decriminalization of homosexuality, transnational legal citations can be a powerful tool of law reform. Although the transnational judicial dialogue traditionally favored courts in the Global North, increasingly litigators have an incentive to cite cases from the Global South. This South-South dialogue is especially apparent in Commonwealth jurisprudence because of existing links.
The clamor of lawyers: the American revolution and crisis in the legal profession: by Peter Charles Hoffer and Williamjames Hoffer, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 2018,ix + 186 pp., $39.95 (hbk), ISBN 978-1501726071

In this relatively slender work (155 pages plus apparatus), Peter and Williamjames Hoffer – father and son legal historians – examine a series of public writings and speeches made by colonial lawye...
Water temperature measurements with a Rayleigh backscatter distributed sensor

Abstract A Rayleigh scattering-based optical fiber distributed temperature sensor (DTS) was used to perform fully-distributed temperature measurements of a vertical water column in a natural circulation heat transfer facility. Five thermocouples were collocated along the length of the DTS in the centerline of the water column. In-situ calibration was performed on the DTS recordings, which revealed the complete temperature profile of the water column during two different steady flow conditions. The uncertainty of these measurements was estimated to be ±4.2 °C. This study proves the feasibility and integrity of fiber DTS in heated liquid water applications. The results obtained with this DTS can also be used towards validation efforts of high-resolution prediction techniques such as computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
Customer Transaction Prediction System

Abstract In this data-driven world, every innovation is targeted towards the attainment of a better future where we can sustain ourselves in the easiest and most comfortable of ways. The desire of this utopia has induced numerous inventions which has led us all to this era where Artificial Intelligence has become a very crucial part of our daily lives. One such implementation which we discuss here, pertains to building a customer transaction predictions system using a completely anonymized dataset. We incorporate deep learning methodologies along with a gradient boosting tree-based algorithm which would help us in identifying the best approach for our problem. This implementation aims to enhance human intuition through techniques, which would be capable of helping the institutions in achieving customer satisfaction and in identifying important features from the anonymized dataset.
Beneficent destinations: Global pharmaceuticals and the consolidation of the modern Indian opium regime, 1907–2002:

This article traces the twentieth-century ‘afterlife’ of Indian opium, following the global trajectories of the commodity beyond the decades of prohibition, when its international trade was broadly...
Rate-Sensitive Debt and Financial Flexibility

We examine the role of rate-sensitive (i.e. short-term or floating-rate) debt in the capital structure of industrial US firms. We find that an overwhelming majority of our sample firm use at least one kind of rate-sensitive debt. The probability that a firm will use either kind of rate-sensitive debt increases in leverage. However, larger firms are more likely to use short-term debt while smaller firms prefer floating-rate debt. Adjustments to rate-sensitive leverage are highly correlated with adjustments to total leverage. Moreover, rate-sensitive debt absorbs a disproportionately large part of the changes in total leverage, i.e. firms tend to add and retire it first when adjusting their leverage ratios. Our evidence thus suggests that firm issue conventional long-term debt when they expect it to become a persistent component of their capital structure and rate-sensitive debt otherwise. As a certain part of leverage reductions in each year was anticipated earlier, many firms have sufficient amounts of rate-sensitive debt to retire when they need to reduce their leverage. In short, rate-sensitive debt plays the role of transitory debt in corporate capital structure. We also control for potential debt market timing effects in our analysis but find no support for the debt market timing hypothesis.
A Social Worker's Perspective on the Goal of Palliative Care in the Era of COVID-19.

Palliative care is a crucial service within our medical system. The task of the palliative care team is to explain a terminal diagnosis to the patient and to plan for end-of-life care, provide symp...
Exploring the Role of Occupational Therapy With Mothers Who Breastfeed.

Importance Occupational therapy practitioners can play a pivotal role in supporting breastfeeding mothers as they transition to and form new routines for this occupation. Objective To explore whether occupational therapy programming can assist breastfeeding mothers in reaching their personal occupation-based wellness goals. Design Mixed-methods design that involved development of an occupational profile and a goal attainment scale (GAS). After the intervention, participants rescored their GAS goals and completed a semistructured exit interview. Setting Nonprofit lactation center located in the suburbs of a large mid-Atlantic U.S. city. Participants Women recruited through convenience sampling who had been breastfeeding an infant for Intervention Group occupational therapy that consisted of 10 weekly 1-hr sessions. Topics were based on occupational profiles, GAS scores, and lactation consultant input. Outcomes and Measures: Each participant created and scored three goals using the GAS before and after the intervention. Results Data from 14 of the 17 participants were analyzed. The average postintervention GAS score was 56.50 (M = 50), indicating that most personal wellness goals were reached. Thematic analysis revealed that occupational therapy programming helped mothers persevere with breastfeeding, feel more confident as new parents, and value both themselves and their baby. Conclusions and relevance There is an increasing role for occupational therapy practitioners in helping new mothers reach their personal wellness goals in ways that support their ability to continue breastfeeding. What This Article Adds: Maternal wellness and breastfeeding represent an emerging area of practice in which occupational therapy practitioners can provide new mothers with physical, social, and psychological supports that help them maintain self-efficacy related to breastfeeding and other meaningful occupations. This study provides foundational evidence in support of this collaboration.
Introduction to Semiconductor Devices: Bipolar junction transistors

A bipolar junction transistor (BJT) consists of two p–n junctions with three terminals. The device comprises three different doped layers. These are alternating p, n, and p layers or n, p, and n layers. The first type of device is called a pnp BJT, while the second device is an npn BJT. The first layer is called the emitter. The second layer is called the base and the third layer is called the collector. Thus for a pnp BJT, the emitter and collector regions are p-type while the base is n-type. The two p–n junctions are then formed between the emitter and base and collector and base. The vast majority of BJT applications are in analog electronics, but BJTs can also be employed in digital circuitry. BJT operation A BJT can be used in several circuit configurations. In most applications the input signal is across two of the BJT leads while the output signal is extracted from a second pair of leads. Since there are only three leads for a BJT, one of the leads must be common to both the input and the output circuitry. Hence we call the different circuit configurations common emitter, common base, and common collector to identify the lead common to both the input and the output. These configurations are shown in Fig. 4.1. The most commonly employed configuration is the common emitter configuration. A BJT can be biased into one of four possible modes. These are saturation, active, inverted, and cutoff.
The Effect of Isolation Conditions on the Polyamine Content of Escherichia coli Ribosomes

Abstract The polyamine content of isolated E. coli ribosomes is dependent on the nature and concentration of the ions in the medium used for their preparation. When ribosomes are suspended in medium containing amines, the external amines are taken up by the ribosomes. When large amounts of amines are taken up by the ribosomes, part of the original ribosomal amines are displaced into the medium. Magnesium ions have similar effects on the amine content of the ribosomes. These data indicate that quantitative determinations of the polyamine content of isolated ribosomes do not necessarily reflect the amine concentration of the ribosomes in vivo.
Searching for solutions: Supervising student employees

Abstract Lending services units at Indiana State University's Cunningham Memorial Library depend heavily on student employees to fulfill their specific missions. Problems attributed to poor communication and lack of motivation among student employees were causing negative impacts on the units' abilities to function well. To resolve these problems, supervisors established priorities, set goals, and conducted a literature search to identify optimum remedies. Solutions were chosen on the basis of cost and ease of implementation. Strategies adopted included recognizing out-standing students, formalizing peer training, improving communication through electronic posting, expanding training methods, and providing student employee manuals specific to each unit.
Predicting the Fuel Economy Impact of “Cold-Start” for Reformed Gasoline Fuel Cell Vehicles

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) appear to be a promising solution for the future of clean and efficient personal transportation. Issues of how to generate the hydrogen and then store it on-board to provide satisfactorydriving range must still be resolved before they can compete with conventional vehicles. Alternatively, FCVs could obtain hydrogen from on-board reforming of gasoline or other fuels such as methanol or ethanol. On-board reformers convert fuel into a hydrogen-rich fuel stream through catalytic reactions in several stages. The high temperatures associated with fuel processing present an engineering challenge to warm up the reformer quickly and efficiently in a vehicle environment. Without a special warmup phase or vehicle hybridization, the reformer and fuel cell system must provide all power to move the vehicle, including 1/4 power in 30 s, and ½ power in 3 min to satisfy the Federal Test Procedure (FTP) cycle demands. If the reformer cannot meet these performance demands, hybridization can be applied. Battery power and energy requirements for a hybrid reformed gasoline FCV were determined using ADVISOR for a range of reformer system warmup durations (10 to 120 s). Finally, the predicted fuel economy impacts attributable to "cold-start" for a range of potential reformer warmup times and fueling rates for a gasoline-reformed FCV on the FTP cycle are analyzed.
Phenol oxidation over CuO/Al2O3 in supercritical water

Abstract Phenol was oxidized in supercritical water at 380–450°C and 219–300 atm, using CuO/Al2O3 as a catalyst in a packed-bed flow reactor. The CuO catalyst has the desired effects of accelerating the phenol disappearance and CO2 formation rates relative to non-catalytic supercritical water oxidation (SCWO). It also simultaneously reduced the yield of undesired phenol dimers at a given phenol conversion. The rates of phenol disappearance and CO2 formation are sensitive to the phenol and O2 concentrations, but insensitive to the water density. A dual-site Langmuir–Hinshelwood–Hougen–Watson rate law used previously for catalytic SCWO of phenol over other transition metal oxides and the Mars–van Krevelen rate law can correlate the catalytic kinetics for phenol disappearance over CuO. The supported CuO catalyst exhibited a higher activity, on a mass of catalyst basis, for phenol disappearance and CO2 formation than did bulk MnO2 or bulk TiO2. The CuO catalyst had the lowest activity, however, when expressed on the basis of fresh catalyst surface area. The CuO catalyst exhibited some initial deactivation, but otherwise maintained its activity throughout 100 h of continuous use. Both Cu and Al were detected in the reactor effluent, however, which indicates the dissolution or erosion of the catalyst at reaction conditions.
Nitrogen oxide radicals and organic nitrate photochemistry in Earth's atmosphere

Textbook descriptions of atmospheric nitrogen oxide photochemistry focus on the role of NOx as a control over OH and on limiting behavior at high and low NOx. In this talk I will explore the intermediate NOx regime, focusing on the role of organic nitrates as a control over atmospheric NOx and HOx free radicals.
Aerosol retrieval from 1064 and 532/1064 nm LITE data

The Lidar In-space Technology Experiment (LITE) Shuttle mission demonstrated that spaceborne lidar offers an effective means for detecting the spatial features of significant regional aerosol concentrations resulting, for example, from Saharan dust, African and South American biomass burning, and anthropogenic sources. Quantitative retrievals of aerosol backscatter and extinction profiles have been obtained from the LITE data at 532 nm via calibration to upper atmosphere molecular backscatter and constraints supplied by modeling or auxiliary transmittance measurements. However, the weaker molecular backscatter level coupled with greater detector noise for the 1064-nm channel has prevented successful application of this same calibration and retrieval approach to the 1064-nm LITE data. The authors have now managed to achieve reasonable 1064-nm aerosol retrievals using a combination of methods including normalizing to lower altitudes, using calibrations based on surface returns, added signal conditioning, applying different solution forms of the lidar equation, and combining 532/1064-nm data subject to constraints set by modeling and two wavelength auxiliary transmittance data. This paper outlines these methods and presents examples of aerosol retrievals obtained from the LITE 1064-nm and 532/1064-nm data.
Interview with Chris Yapp

Chris Yapp is Head of Public Sector Innovation at Microsoft. He has been in the IT Industry since 1980s in a variety of roles. He is also an Associate of the Think Tank DEMOS. Here he answers questions about his work.
Forequarter amputation for malignant tumours of the upper extremity: Case report, techniques and indications

Forequarter (interscapulothoracic) amputation is a major ablative surgical procedure that was originally described to manage traumatic injuries of the upper extremity. Currently, it is most commonly used in the treatment of malignant tumours of the arm. With the advent of limb-sparing techniques, primary forequarter amputation is performed less frequently, but remains a powerful surgical option in managing malignant tumours of the upper extremity; therefore, surgeons should be familiar with this procedure. A classic case report of forequarter amputation, with emphasis on indications and surgical techniques, is presented.
Utilization of Monoenergetic X-Ray Beams to Examine the Properties of Radiographic Intensifying Screens

Monoenergetic x-ray beams, produced by the direct electron excitation of characteristic K x rays in elemental targets, are important for measuring the response of different components of radiologic imaging systems. Previous studies have investigated the energy dependence of the scatter produced as an x-ray beam traverses the object to be radiographed and the efficacy of antiscatter grids in reducing this unwanted component of the image signal. Presently, these beams are being. utilized to examine the image information transfer properties of x-ray intensifying screens conventionally used in screen-film imaging systems. The technique of single photon counting is being employed to determine the relative probability. distribution of the number of optical photons emitted from the screen after absorption of an incident x ray. These data can be, used to determine the average number of light quanta emitted per absorbed x ray. In addition, the shape of these distributions can be used to determine the image information transfer properties of a particular screen. Results of these measurements for a typical calcium tungstate screen and one of the new rare-earth phosphor screens are presented.
The effects of Al substitution on the phase abundance, structure and electrochemical performance of La0.7Mg0.3Ni2.8Co0.5−xAlx (x = 0, 0.1, 0.2) alloys

Abstract A series of (La, Mg)Ni2.8Co0.5 metal hydride alloys was studied in order to understand the effects of partial Al-substitution for Co on the alloy's structure, gaseous phase hydrogen storage properties, and electrochemical performance. The alloys were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy, pressure-concentration-temperature characterization, half-cell electrochemical tests, and sealed full-cell tests. After an annealing process at 960 °C for 5 h, the main matrix of the Al-free base alloy shifted from AB3 phase into an A2B7 phase. Annealed alloy samples incorporating Al promoted the AB5 phase over the A2B7 phase. The annealing treatment (AB3 to A2B7) increased the gaseous phase hydrogen storage capacity and lowered the plateau pressure and hysteresis in the absorption–desorption isotherms. The addition of Al in the annealed samples (A2B7 to AB5) decreased gaseous phase hydrogen storage and electrochemical capacities, decreased high rate dischargeability, but increased cycle stability. Continuous pulverization of the metal hydride alloy at the negative electrode appeared to be the main failure mode of this series of alloys despite the lower starting rate of pulverization when compared to commercially available AB5 alloys.
Re-examination of Na+-dependent regulation of cAMP-dependent Cl- currents in the heart.

Cardiac Cl–channels may play an important role in both the physiological as well as the pathophysiological regulation of the heart. Due to the present controversy regarding the role that Na+ may play in the regulation of the adenosine 3′,5′-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP)-dependent Cl–channels in the heart, we have re-examined the effects of intracellular and extracellular Na+ on ICl,cAMP in isolated guinea-pig ventricular myocytes. In conventional, whole-cell patch-clamp experiments, exchanging of extracellular Na+ for N-methyl-d-glucamine (NMG) did not have a significant effect on the magnitude of the ICl,cAMP activated by external forskolin (FSK) in the presence of β-adrenergic and muscarinic receptor blockade compared with normal rundown of the current with time. Utilization of the amphotericin B-perforated-patch technique prevented rundown of FSK-stimulated ICl,cAMP, and failed to reveal alterations in this conductance when NMG was substituted for extracellular Na+. Finally, intracellular dialysis of cells during whole-cell experiments with both 0 and 10 mM Na+-containing solutions failed to show any significant effect of intracellular Na+ on the magnitude of ICl,cAMP. We therefore conclude that intracellular or extracellular Na+ plays little or no direct regulatory role in modulation of cAMP-dependent Cl–channels in heart.
Bilateral oophorectomy and risk of cancer in African American women

African American women are more likely to undergo hysterectomy, with or without bilateral oophorectomy, at younger ages than white women. It is well established that women who have a bilateral oophorectomy at younger ages are at reduced risk of breast cancer, and there is some evidence of an increased risk of colorectal and lung cancer. Using data from 44,514 women in the Black Women’s Health Study, we prospectively investigated the relation of hysterectomy and oophorectomy to incidence of breast, colorectal, and lung cancer and to mortality from cancer. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 % confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using Cox proportional hazards regression with control for confounding factors. During 16 years of follow-up, hysterectomy alone, relative to no hysterectomy, was not associated with risk of breast, lung, or colorectal cancer. Bilateral oophorectomy, relative to hysterectomy with ovarian conservation, was inversely associated with risk of estrogen receptor-positive (ER+) breast cancer (HR 0.62; 95 % CI 0.45–0.85) but not with ER-negative breast cancer; age at surgery and menopausal hormone use did not modify the associations. HRs for the association of bilateral oophorectomy with incidence of colorectal and lung cancer were nonsignificantly increased for women who had surgery before age 40 years and had used menopausal hormones for less than 2 years (HR 1.65; 95 % CI 0.73–3.73 for colorectal cancer and HR 1.71; 95 % CI 0.68–4.31 for lung cancer). Bilateral oophorectomy was not associated with cancer mortality. Bilateral oophorectomy was associated with reduced risk of ER+ breast cancer regardless of age at surgery and use of menopausal hormones. There were nonsignificant increases in risk of colorectal and lung cancer for women with oophorectomy at younger ages and short duration of menopausal hormone use.