cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Inhibition of α-Chymotrypsin by Diethyl Ether and Certain Alcohols: a New Type of Competitive Inhibition

The enzyme used was a salt-free, twice crystallized sample of cu-chymotrypsin supplied by the Sigma Chemical Company. The methyl ester of hydrocinnamic acid (3-phenylpropionic acid) was prepared by refluxing 5 g of the acid with 750 ml of Fisher’s chemically pure methanol and a few drops of concentrated sulfuric acid as a catalyst. The reaction mixture was refluxed for 2 days. The excess of methanol was evaporated under reduced pressure, and the residue was extracted with ether. The ether was washed with 10 100 ml portions of 5% sodium bicarbonate. The ether was evaporated under reduced pressure, and the ester was distilled under reduced pressure, the middle 30% being collected. The boiling poin$ was 236-237” at atmospheric pressure. The methyl hippurate was prepared by heating a mixture of hippuric acid in the presence of a large excess of methanol to 190” under an atmosphere of hydrogen at approximately 2500 pounds per square inch (3). After subsequent purification, the melting point was 82-83”. The concentration of the enzyme was approximately 1
Clarifying Some Misconceptions About Hayek

Friedrich Hayek’s ideas played a fundamental role in all major debates over economic policymaking throughout his lifetime and beyond. They were developed in a precise historical context and were the result of the intellectual influence of his teachers and colleagues. Unfortunately, they are surrounded by the following misconceptions: his economics was atomistic; he believed markets to be perfectly efficient and government to play no role in a market economy; and he thought any government intervention will lead to totalitarianism. Due to their importance, these ideas demand careful consideration to go beyond the misconceptions in order to engage them fully and employ them to make sense of Hayek’s ideas and how they apply to our world today.
Corporate Tax Rates, Allocative Efficiency, and Aggregate Productivity

This paper quantifies the impact of effective corporate tax rates on aggregate total factor productivity (TFP). Using Chilean manufacturing data, we document a large dispersion in the effective tax rate faced by firms and a mass of firms facing a 0 percent tax rate. We incorporate these findings into a standard monopolistic competition model with effective corporate tax rates. We find that eliminating corporate tax rates increases TFP between 4 and 11 percent. We consider counterfactual policies in which all firms face the same tax rate and find a monotonically decreasing relationship between the level of the tax rate and TFP.
Cost-effectiveness of Antenatal Corticosteroid Therapy vs No Therapy in Women at Risk of Late Preterm Delivery: A Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Clinical Trial.

Importance Administration of corticosteroids to women at high risk for delivery in the late preterm period (34-36 weeks’ gestation) improves short-term neonatal outcomes. The cost implications of this intervention are not known.
Representative volume size in micromechanical modeling of precipitated SMAs

In micromechanics, the definition of the optimum Representative Volume Element (RVE) that represents the microstructure of the considered composite material is still an ongoing research subject. Therefore, depending on the required accuracy of the micromechanical model predictions, the size and number of realizations that define the RVE, must be determined through a systematic study. In the present work, an RVE based study is conducted on precipitation hardened NiTi Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) with Ni4Ti3 precipitates. The considered RVEs consist of a homogeneous SMA matrix with periodically arranged precipitates. The precipitates are assumed to have ellipsoid shape and are arranged in random position and orientations, ensuring the periodicity at the boundaries. The non-linear constitutive behavior of the precipitated SMA, is solved by means of a recently developed Fast Fourier Transform variational approach for SMAs. An extensive study is conducted considering RVEs with changing volume fraction and increasing number of precipitates.
Regulated, sequential processing by multiple proteases is required for proper maturation and release of Bordetella filamentous hemagglutinin.

Filamentous hemagglutinin (FHA) is a critically important virulence factor produced by Bordetella species that cause respiratory infections in humans and other animals. It is also a prototypical member of the widespread two partner secretion (TPS) pathway family of proteins. First synthesized as a ~370 kDa protein called FhaB, its C-terminal ~1,200 amino acid 'prodomain' is removed during translocation to the cell surface via the outer membrane channel FhaC. Here, we identify CtpA as a periplasmic protease that is responsible for the regulated degradation of the prodomain and for creation of an intermediate polypeptide that is cleaved by the autotransporter protease SphB1 to generate FHA. We show that the central prodomain region is required to initiate degradation of the prodomain and that CtpA degrades the prodomain after a third, unidentified protease (P3) first removes the extreme C-terminus of the prodomain. Stepwise proteolysis by P3, CtpA and SphB1 is required for maturation of FhaB, release of FHA into the extracellular milieu, and full function in vivo. These data support a substantially updated model for the mechanism of secretion, maturation and function of this model TPS protein.
Evaluation of a simulation-based mini-elective on medical student interest in cardiac surgery.

Background Integrated cardiothoracic (CT) surgery training programs are an increasingly popular pathway to train CT surgeons. Identifying and engaging medical students early is important to generate interest and ensure highly qualified applicants are aware of opportunities provided by a career in CT surgery. Methods An optional CT surgery "mini-elective" was developed for preclinical medical students consisting of five 2-hour sessions covering major procedures in cardiac surgery. Each session had an inital 1 hour lecture immediatly followed by a hands on simulation component. Sessions were taught by CT surgery faculty and residents. A precourse and postcourse survey was administered to identify interest in and awareness of the field of CT surgery. Results There were 22 students enrolled in the course who provided precourse surveys, while 21 provided postcourse surveys. CT surgery was a career consideration for 95.4% of students who took the mini-elective. nine percent of the students who had either scrubbed or observed a CT case precourse, increased to 33.3% postcourse (P = .11). With regards to mentorship, 23.8% felt they could easily find a mentor in CT surgery precourse, increasing to 66.7% postcourse (P = .01). Eighty-one percent of students reported that the mini-elective significantly increased their CT knowledge over the standard cardiovascular curriculum, and 100% of those completing the course were "extremely satisfied" with the experience. Conclusions A CT surgery mini-elective increased awareness and interest in the field among preclinical medical students. Longitudinal exposure and mentorship provided in programs such as this will be key to the continued recruitment of high-quality medical students to the field.
Fairness Criteria for Face Recognition Applications

Nowadays, machine learning algorithms play an important role in our daily lives and it is important to ensure their fairness and transparency. A number of methodologies for evaluating machine learning fairness have been introduced in the literature. In this research we propose a systematic confidence evaluation approach to measure fairness discrepancies of our deep learning architecture for image recognition using UTKFace database.
Heat Shock Proteins, Exercise and Inflammation

The heat shock response (HSR) plays a regulatory role in controlling inflammatory events within a cell. The activation/induction and interplay of heat shock factor 1 (HSF1) and heat shock proteins (HSP) have inhibitory effect on nuclear factor-kappa B (NFκB) inflammatory pathway, c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNK) regulation, and preventing free radical damage. Exercise training induces the HSR and has the potential to reduce inflammation. The current chapter examines the regulatory impacts of the HSR on inflammation and the role of the HSR in chronic inflammatory disease states, such as skeletal muscle insulin resistance and ischemia/reperfusion injury of the myocardium. In addition, we discuss the inflammatory role of exercise training in activating the HSR, improving insulin signaling, reducing vasculature inflammation, and promoting cardioprotection against ischemia/reperfusion injury of the myocardium.
Fast perfect simulation of Vervaat perpetuities

Abstract This work presents a new method of simulating exactly from a distribution known as a Vervaat perpetuity. This type of perpetuity is indexed by a parameter β . The new method has a bound on the expected run time which is polynomial in β (as β goes to infinity). This is much faster than the previously best known bound due to an earlier method of Fill and the second author, which ran in expected time exp ( β ln ( β ) + Θ ( β ) ) as β → ∞ . The earlier method utilized dominated coupling from the past to place bounds on a stochastic process for perpetuities from above. By extending to an update function that changes based on the dominating process, it is possible to create a new method that bounds the perpetuities from both above and below. This new approach is shown to run in expected time O ( β ln ( β ) ) as β → ∞ .
Recovering the sense of sight: Berardino Palumbo’s vision for Italian anthropology’s possible redemption

Comment on Berardino Palumbo, Lo strabismo della DEA: Antropologia, accademia e societa in Italia, Palermo, Edizioni Museo Pasqualino, 2018, pp. 289.
Volt/VAR Control with DERs, LTCs, and Switched Capacitors: Case Study with a Commercial Distribution System

This paper studies the involvement of solar inverters in voltage and reactive power (Volt-VAR) control, and its effect in voltage profile and energy efficiency improvement. A practical distribution system in the Southern California area containing two solar plants was modeled in the OpenDSS environment. Time-series studies were performed to include 24-hour load and generation profiles. The intermittency of solar generation brings extra stress to transformer load tap changers, which cannot be relieved by switched capacitors due to their slow response and discrete switching nature. With fast response speed, solar inverters have the potential to counteract the effect of intermittency. As verified by the comparative case studies, voltage profiles can be significantly flattened, and consequently, the stress of transformer tap changers can be relieved. Furthermore, simulation studies show that without increasing the power rating, solar inverters can work together with switched capacitors to reduce power losses throughout the system.
Association Between Exposure to Pyrethroid Insecticides and Risk of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality in the General US Adult Population.

Importance Widespread exposure to pyrethroid insecticides has been reported among the general population in the United States and worldwide. However, little is known about the association of pyrethroid exposure with long-term health outcomes in adults. Objective To examine the association of pyrethroid exposure with all-cause and cause-specific mortality among adults in the United States. Design, Setting, and Participants The nationally representative cohort included 2116 adults aged 20 years and older who participated in the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey conducted from 1999 to 2002 and provided urine samples for pyrethroid metabolite measurements. Participants were linked to mortality data from the survey date through December 31, 2015. Data were analyzed from May to August 2019. Exposures Urinary levels of 3-phenoxybenzoic acid, a general pyrethroid metabolite and commonly used biomarker for pyrethroid exposure, were determined by using high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with electrospray chemical ionization and tandem mass spectrometry. Main Outcomes and Measures Mortality from all causes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. Results This cohort study of 2116 adults comprised 1145 women (weighted proportion, 51.6%) and 971 men (weighted, 48.4%), with a weighted mean (SE) age of 42.6 (0.5) years; 958 participants (weighted, 68.4%) were of non-Hispanic white ancestry, 646 (weighted, 14.7%) of Hispanic ancestry, 419 (weighted, 11.3%) of non-Hispanic black ancestry, and 93 (weighted, 5.6%) of other ancestry. During a median of 14.4 years (range, 0.1-16.8 years) of observation, 246 deaths occurred, including 41 associated with cardiovascular disease and 52 associated with cancer. Participants with higher urinary 3-phenoxybenzoic acid levels were at a higher risk of death during the follow-up period, with death occurring in 8.5% (unweighted, 75 of 709), 10.2% (unweighted, 81 of 701), and 11.9% (unweighted, 90 of 706) of participants across increasing tertiles of urinary 3-phenoxybenzoic acid levels. After adjustment for age, sex, race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, dietary and lifestyle factors, body mass index, and urinary creatinine levels, the hazard ratios for all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality, and cancer mortality among participants with the highest tertile compared with those with the lowest tertile of urinary 3-phenoxybenzoic acid levels were 1.56 (95% CI, 1.08-2.26), 3.00 (95% CI, 1.02-8.80), and 0.91 (95% CI, 0.31-2.72), respectively. Conclusions and Relevance In this nationally representative sample of US adults, environmental exposure to pyrethroid insecticides was associated with an increased risk of all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality. Further studies are needed to replicate the findings and determine the underlying mechanisms.
The metabolism of d-glucarate by Pseudomonas acidovorans

1. Dehydratases that converted d-glucarate into 4-deoxy-5-oxoglucarate were partially purified from Klebsiella aerogenes and Pseudomonas acidovorans. 2. When d-glucarate was metabolized to 2,5-dioxovalerate it appeared that water and carbon dioxide were removed from 4-deoxy-5-oxoglucarate in one enzymic step: 4,5-dihydroxy-2-oxovalerate was not an intermediate in this reaction. 3. A method for the enzymic determination of d-glucarate is described.
Selective Liquid-Phase Regrowth of Reduced Graphene Oxide, Nanodiamond, and Nanoscale Q-Carbon by Pulsed Laser Annealing for Radiofrequency Devices

We report on the fabrication of various nanoscale carbon structures (Q-carbon, diamond, α-carbon, and reduced graphene oxide) by controlling the quenching rates of undercooled molten carbon. Laser ...
Power values and power distance moderate the relationship between workplace supervisory power and job satisfaction.

Abstract. Person–job (or needs–supplies) discrepancy/fit theories posit that job satisfaction depends on work supplying what employees want and thus expect associations between having supervisory p...
Peri-Intubation Cardiac Arrest in the Pediatric Emergency Department: A Novel System of Care.

Patients with physiologic disorders, such as hypoxemia or hypotension, are at high risk of peri-intubation cardiac arrest. Standardization improves emergency tracheal intubation safety, but no published reports describe initiatives to reduce the risk of cardiac arrest. This initiative aims to improve the care of children at risk of peri-intubation cardiac arrest in a pediatric emergency department (PED). We specifically aimed to increase the number of patients between those with peri-intubation cardiac arrest by 50%, from a baseline of 11-16, over 12-months. Methods Our multidisciplinary team outlined a theory of improvement and designed interventions aimed at key drivers. The primary intervention was creating a PICU-ED Team (PET) and a checklist to guide the assessment and mitigation of risk for peri-intubation arrest and rapid consultation of the pediatric intensivists. The PET was iteratively refined, and we collected data by a video review of tracheal intubations. Results Fifty-one patients with risk factors for peri-intubation arrest underwent tracheal -intubation in the PED from January 2016 to March 2020: 14 with PET activation since PET go-live in April 2019. None of the 14 PET patients had a peri-intubation cardiac arrest. Ninety-three percent (13/14) of PET patients were intubated in the PED, and 78% (10/13) of these patients had the first intubation attempt completed by PED physicians (balancing measures). Conclusion We successfully developed the PET to mitigate the risk of peri-intubation cardiac arrest without significantly reducing key procedural opportunities for the PED. Initial data are promising, but further refinement is needed.
Design and Deployment of a Flash Flood Monitoring IoT: Challenges and Opportunities

Successful implementation of the Internet of Thing (IoT) is precursory to a thriving smart city. However, the technical, physical, and environmental conditions can often pose challenges in their successful deployments. The deployment is further complicated if the time and location of implementation are amidst a natural disaster. In this work, we use flash flood detection as a natural hazard testbed and describe various IoT deployment, our progression, and first-hand experience from those implementations. We compare and contrast three IoTs and their performance in real-time execution. Next, we discuss systems architecture and their end-to-end design and present lessons learned from these heterogeneous deployments. Additionally, we evaluate and outline our observations, challenges, and opportunities for further improvement. We also formulate standard evaluation metrics for their scoring and document our deployment journey.
A Theoretically Informed Conceptual Framework for Recruitment and Retention in PETE

In line with trends in general education, physical education teacher education programs have faced lowering enrollments over the last few decades. These circumstances have led to the closure of som...
Promoting college and career readiness among underserved adolescents: A mixed methods pilot study.

INTRODUCTION Many underserved adolescents, defined as those with inequitable access to educational resources, face limited access to interventions that develop their college and career know-how. In our study, we implemented and evaluated a pilot college and career readiness curriculum intervention called Paths to the Future for All (P2F4A). P2F4A takes a developmental approach to college and career development, weaving together the procedural know-how of college and career planning with a broader focus on building social-emotional skills that support positive trajectories towards the future. We evaluated pre-post changes in adolescents' career-related and social-emotional outcomes alongside views of their personal growth. METHODS We used a purposeful sample of five schools in the Western region of the United States and recruited a sample of adolescents (N = 61; Mage = 16.3 years; 57.4% female) who experienced challenging academic and life circumstances to participate in P2F4A. We conducted pre-post surveys as well as focus groups and interviews with adolescents. RESULTS We detected significant (p < .05) pre-post gains in adolescents' knowledge of P2F4A curricular content and selected coping skills, such as relaxing and solving family problems. Our focus groups and interviews revealed that P2F4A helped adolescents build stronger interpersonal relationships with peers and the content was directly applicable to real life. CONCLUSION Our new findings suggest that college and career readiness curriculum interventions-if appropriately developed for and targeted to underserved adolescents-have strong potential to build underserved adolescents' foundational skills that they can apply towards realizing their future college and career aspirations.
Resisting the mystification of narrative inquiry: unmasking the real conflict between story analysts and storytellers.

other spoken or unspoken activity. I therefore remain opposed in principle to what might be called narrative exceptionalism, preferring to see any and every form of action given equally rigorous scrutiny by social scientists. I do not, therefore, think that – pace several influential commentators – narrative is an especially distinctive form of human or social behaviour. I also remain opposed to various forms of reductionism. Too often ‘narrative’ is a way of investing the individual speaking subject with a significance that is profoundly unsociological. Let me make myself doubly clear. My argument is not one levelled against narrative per se. I cannot indeed imagine how one could be ‘for’ or ‘against’ narrative, or any other form of social action. My argument is, however, strongly in favour of treating narrative like any and every form of activity, and therefore to analyse narratives in precisely the same way that one might address any other. I am by no means alone in promoting this view, of course, and these issues of method are by no means confined to the treatment of illness narratives. They represent but a special case of the widespread tendency to treat any and all ‘narratives’ as special, and to reproduce them appreciatively rather than analyse them formally (cf. Atkinson and Delamont 2006). This in turn reflects more problematic tendencies in ‘qualitative research’ – but that is a debate that must continue elsewhere.
Indigenous Self-Determination in an Age of Genetic Patenting: Recognizing an Emerging Human Rights Norm

This Note explores how the law can help indigenous people obtain meaningful control of their genetic material. Part I will briefly discuss the background of genetics, life patents, and indigenous groups. Part II sets out the domestic common law and international human rights law and demonstrates that neither currently provide adequate protection for indigenous peoples. Part III considers the human right of self-determination in the context of indigenous research and patenting, and illustrates that an emerging international norm recognizes an indigenous people's right to control their genetic material. Part IV argues that Congress should pass legislation to adequately meet the human rights needs of indigenous peoples generated by the rapid advancement of biotechnology. This Note concludes that congressional action to protect indigenous peoples is consistent with domestic and international law, and is a natural advancement of human rights and responsible state action.
Stopping Parenteral Nutrition for 3 Hours Reduces False Positives in Newborn Screening

Objective To evaluate effects of holding parenteral nutrition (PN) for 3 hours prior to newborn screening (NBS) on false-positive NBS rate for amino acids (AAs) in very low birth weight (VLBW) infants (birth weight Study design We analyzed data from 12 567 consecutive births in 1 hospital between May 2010 and June 2013. VLBW infants were stratified into 3 groups: (1) infants without PN before NBS (no-PN group); (2) infants with early PN running at the time of NBS (early-PN group); and (3) infants with early-PN that were temporarily replaced by dextrose-containing intravenous fluid 3 hours prior to NBS (stop-PN group). We compared the false-positive rate for AA and cost effectiveness between the groups. Results The false-positive rate for AA among 413 VLBW infants was significantly higher than infants with birth weight >1500 g (7.62% vs 0.05%; P Conclusions VLBW and early-PN are significant factors for false-positive results for AA. Holding PN containing AAs for 3 hours before NBS collection is a practical and cost-effective method to significantly reduce the false-positive rate for AA in VLBW infants.
Turbulent Convection Driven by a Constant Temperature Gradient

To better understand the nature of small-scale fluctuations and spectra in turbulent convection, we consider the theoretically interesting case of buoyancy driven thermal convection without boundary layerss that is we use numerical simulations to study the case of turbulent convection in a periodic box driven by a constant temperature gradient. High Rayleigh numbers are achieved using hyperviscous dissipation. The system develops constant heat flux via transport by a few strong ascending/descending jets. This heat flux is highly intermittent even at integral scales. Also, the heat flux depends only weakly on viscosity. We find that the scaling laws for spectra of temperature and velocity fluctuations are consistent with Kolmogorov scaling and inconsistent with Bolgiano-Obukhov scaling. At the level of spectra, the system is approximately locally isotropic. We also find that constant temperature gradient thermal convection exhibits a unique kind of intermittent structure in that scaling exponents of nth order moments of temperature differences saturate when n is large enough. A comparison is made between constant temperature gradient thermal convection and convection of a passive scalar with a constant scalar gradient. It is shown that at small scales the statistical properties of passive scalar convection are quite similar to that of thermal convection.
Faculty Involvement in Planning for the Use and Integration of Instructional and Administrative Technologies

AbstractColleges and universities increasingly rely on technology for both business and academic operations. Technology, in the form of hardware and software, has made higher education institutions more efficient and has expanded their reach and service areas to a global marketplace. The concern during this period of increasingly pervasive technology at higher education institutions is how to develop appropriate and adequate plans that maximize said technology in both administration and teaching. One method, used on a number of college campuses, involves the formation of faculty advisory groups and, at times, using faculty senate, forum, council, or similar organizations to provide opportunities for broad-based, inclusive decision making. The current study provides a report on a Delphi survey of 29 faculty senate leaders about how faculty should be involved in planning for the use of instructional and administrative technologies.
MysterX: a Scheme toolkit for building interactive applications with COM

MysterX is an object oriented Scheme toolkit for building applications from off-the-shelf COM components. While the COM support in languages such as Haskell and Mercury requires the use of an interface compiler to generate stub code, MysterX uses the reflective capabilities of OLE Automation to make value marshalling decisions at run time. MysterX hosts COM components in windows that display Dynamic HTML, without requiring a separate browser. Scheme code can manipulate HTML elements and their style properties in such windows to create interesting visual effects. Event handlers written in Scheme can be associated with HTML elements and COM objects. By integrating these diverse technologies, MysterX can be used to write complete GUI applications.
Views of Emergency Physicians on Thrombolysis for Acute Ischemic Stroke

BackgroundThe 3-hour window for treating stroke with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) requires well-organized, integrated efforts by emergency physicians and stroke neurologists.Obje...
Phenylsulfonylacetic acid: condensations onto aryl aldehydes

A study involving scope in the condensation reaction of phenylsulfonylacetic acid with a series of carbonyl derivatives has been conducted. Reactivity trends favor formation of the corresponding vinyl sulfones when working with aryl aldehydes. Electron-deficient aryl aldehydes outperform electron-rich aryl aldehydes. Negligible differences were noted when using electron-rich and electron-deficient arylsulfonylacetic acid derivatives. Post-run analyses of the reaction mixture reveal formation of a minor product which resulted from methylidene transfer onto the carbonyl derivative. Support of a Knoevenagel-type condensation followed by decarboxylation is provided.
Primary repair with semitendinosus tendon augmentation of acute anterior cruciate ligament injuries

A retrospective review of 72 acute ACL injuries in 70 athletically active patients (50 recreational and 20 com petitive athletes) treated with primary repair and semi tendinosus tendon augmentation was conducted (mean follow-up time, 38.5 months). All patients had open primary multiple loop depth-varying suture repair and semitendinosus tendon augmentation at a mean injury to surgery interval of 9.1 days. Fifty-one cases (70.8%) were supplemented with an extraarticular procedure consisting in all cases of an iliotibial band lateral sling reinforcement. All patients underwent 6 weeks of post operative immobilization followed by a graduated re habilitation regimen lasting a mean 7.2 months. In 22 of the ACL tears, no other associated injury could be defined at arthrotomy, while in 27, significant medial collateral ligament injuries were noted. Lateral meniscal injuries (24) were more commonly noted than medial meniscal injuries (19).Good to excellent subjective results were reported in 82%, while 77.1 % ret...
Soybean Response to Soil Rhizobia and Seed‐applied Rhizobia Inoculants in Wisconsin

Seed-applied rhizobia inoculants can be used to promote biological nitrogen fixation in soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] production, yet their efficacy remains highly variable. The goal of this study was to improve the predictability of a positive soybean seed yield and quality response to inoculation by (i) characterizing inoculant product response in multiple environments, and (ii) quantifying the response of soybean to indigenous soil rhizobia populations. Two inoculants and a control were tested on three soybean varieties at nine locations in Wisconsin during 2009 and 2010. Soil samples were collected from each plot for the quantification of soil rhizobia. Seed yield, protein, and oil did not respond to inoculation across all 18 environments (P = 0.15, 0.38, and 0.30, respectively). Three environments responded positively to inoculation (P < 0.05), while the remainder showed no response. Yield of the control treatment was positively correlated with the soil rhizobia population level across all environments (P = 0.005), while the inoculated treatments showed no response. These data indicate a yield advantage for inoculation at lower rhizobia populations; however, given the large range of response with only three of 18 environments showing a positive response, a rhizobia population threshold to aid in the decision to treat soybean seeds with a rhizobia inoculant cannot be determined.
Libraries and the Decline of Public Purposes

Abstract This article explores the idea of the democratic public sphere, and it is grounded in the work of Jurgen Habermas. Libraries help make possible the democratic public sphere ideal in the form of rational organization of human cultural production and they embody an essential element of democracy: a place where the ideal of unfettered communication and investigation exists in rudimentary form, hosting the turbulent discourse of a democracy and its culture. However, the trend of viewing and running libraries along business and profit models- “the new public philosophy” -represents a dismantling of the democratic public sphere. This can be seen in examples as varied as the rhetorical shift from “patron” to “customer,” the current struggles for funding and the justifications used in that process, to coffee bars, no retrospective collections, and the bias toward economically-useful electronic resources. The article ends with the argument that, if we forget this role and reason for being and abandon publ...
Investigational antiepileptic drugs for the treatment of childhood seizure disorders: a review of efficacy and safety.

Summary: Pediatric epileptology is very different from adult epileptology. Although some epileptic disorders occur in both children and adults (e.g., localization-related epilepsy with complex partial seizures and primary generalized epilepsy with tonic-clonic seizures), other disorders can be called the catastrophic epilepsies of childhood (e.g., infantile spasms and the Lennox-Gastaut syndrome). They occur, or at least begin, exclusively in childhood and are often associated with mental retardation. Many of these pediatric disorders are notoriously unresponsive to currently available antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Although there are undoubtedly many reasons for this, one possible explanation is that the methods used to screen potential AEDs use animal models of adult epilepsy. No screening program uses an animal model of seizures that begin during development and lead to functional decline.
Expression of Amino- and Carboxyl-terminal γ- and α-Tubulin Mutants in Cultured Epithelial Cells

Three distinct tubulin proteins are essential for microtubule function: alpha-, beta-, and gamma-tubulin. After translation, alpha- and beta-tubulin proteins combine into a soluble, 7 S heterodimer that is multimerized to form the microtubule filament. Conversely, gamma-tubulin combines with several proteins into a soluble, 25 S multi-protein particle, the gammasome that is essential for nucleating microtubule filaments at the centrosome. The proteins that assist tubulins in executing their specific functions are largely unknown. As an initial approach to address this issue, we first decided to identify domains of mammalian alpha- and gamma-tubulin necessary for their function by creating mutant mammalian alpha- and gamma-tubulin (both deletion and hybrid mutants) and assaying their behavior in stably transfected Chinese hamster ovary epithelial cells. First, we demonstrated that addition of a carboxyl-terminal epitope tag had no effect on the subcellular localization of either alpha- and gamma-tubulin. Second, we found that both the amino and carboxyl termini of gamma-tubulin were essential for its incorporation into the gammasome. Third, we found that the amino and carboxyl termini of alpha-tubulin were necessary for incorporation of the alpha-beta-tubulin heterodimer into the microtubule filament network. In general, alpha-tubulin sequences could not replace those of gamma-tubulin and vice versa. Taken together, these results suggest that the amino and carboxyl termini of alpha- and gamma-tubulin and perhaps regions throughout these proteins were necessary for their specific functions.
Unintentional injuries among youth with developmental disabilities in the United States, 2006–2007

We examined unintentional injury among youth with and without developmental disabilities. Our nationally representative sample included 6369 injured youth, aged 0-17 years, who were seen in one of the 63 US hospital emergency rooms that participated in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System - All Injury Program (NEISS-AIP) in 2006-2007. Parents or guardians of injured youth were interviewed by telephone after the hospital visit to ascertain disability status. Denominator data were obtained from the National Health Interview Survey. Leading causes of injury were comparable for youth with and without disability. Injury rates (per 100 youth per year) were also comparable [10.4; 95% confidence interval (CI) 7.8, 13.0 and 10.5; 95% CI 8.2, 12.9, for youth with and without disability, respectively]. When examined by specific disability, the rate ratio for youth with learning disabilities versus youth without learning disability was 1.57 (95% CI 1.04, 2.10), which may represent a subgroup for targeted interventions.
Organic synthesis: A biochemical messenger made easily.

Biochemicals known as prostaglandins are challenging targets for synthetic organic chemistry. Yet by channelling the reactivity of a simple reactant, a powerful synthesis of one such compound has been achieved. See Letter p.278 Prostaglandins are hormone-like chemical messengers that regulate a broad range of physiological activities, including blood circulation, digestion and reproduction. Their biological activities and their complex molecular architectures have made prostaglandins popular targets for synthetic organic chemists for more 40 years. In this manuscript, the authors report a concise synthesis of the most complex prostaglandin, PGF2α. Access to this compound should not only render existing prostaglandin-based drugs more affordable, but will also facilitate the rapid exploration of chemical space around the ubiquitous five-membered ring motif.
The Insulin-like Growth Factor Type 1 and Insulin-like Growth Factor Type 2/Mannose-6-phosphate Receptors Independently Regulate ERK1/2 Activity in HEK293 Cells

Insulin-like growth factor types 1 and 2 (IGF-1; IGF-2) and insulin-like peptides are all members of the insulin superfamily of peptide hormones but bind to several distinct classes of membrane receptor. Like the insulin receptor, the IGF-1 receptor is a heterotetrameric receptor tyrosine kinase, whereas the IGF-2/ mannose 6-phosphate receptor is a single transmembrane domain protein that is thought to function primarily as clearance receptors. We recently reported that IGF-1 and IGF-2 stimulate the ERK1/2 cascade by triggering sphingosine kinase-dependent "transactivation" of G protein-coupled sphingosine-1-phosphate receptors. To determine which IGF receptors mediate this effect, we tested seven insulin family peptides, IGF-1, IGF-2, insulin, and insulin-like peptides 3, 4, 6, and 7, for the ability to activate ERK1/2 in HEK293 cells. Only IGF-1 and IGF-2 potently activated ERK1/2. Although IGF-2 was predictably less potent than IGF-1 in activating the IGF-1 receptor, they were equipotent stimulators of ERK1/2. Knockdown of IGF-1 receptor expression by RNA interference reduced the IGF-1 response to a greater extent than the IGF-2 response, suggesting that IGF-2 did not signal exclusively via the IGF-1 receptor. In contrast, IGF-2 receptor knockdown markedly reduced IGF-2-stimulated ERK1/2 phosphorylation, with no effect on the IGF-1 response. As observed previously, both the IGF-1 and the IGF-2 responses were sensitive to pertussis toxin and the sphingosine kinase inhibitor, dimethylsphingosine. These data indicate that endogenous IGF-1 and IGF-2 receptors can independently initiate ERK1/2 signaling and point to a potential physiologic role for IGF-2 receptors in the cellular response to IGF-2.
Human target acquisition performance

The battlefield has shifted from armored vehicles to armed insurgents. Target acquisition (identification, recognition, and detection) range performance involving humans as targets is vital for modern warfare. The acquisition and neutralization of armed insurgents while at the same time minimizing fratricide and civilian casualties is a mounting concern. U.S. Army RDECOM CERDEC NVESD has conducted many experiments involving human targets for infrared and reflective band sensors. The target sets include human activities, hand-held objects, uniforms & armament, and other tactically relevant targets. This paper will define a set of standard task difficulty values for identification and recognition associated with human target acquisition performance.
Transcription blockage by homopurine DNA sequences: role of sequence composition and single-strand breaks

The ability of DNA to adopt non-canonical structures can affect transcription and has broad implications for genome functioning. We have recently reported that guanine-rich (G-rich) homopurine-homopyrimidine sequences cause significant blockage of transcription in vitro in a strictly orientation-dependent manner: when the G-rich strand serves as the non-template strand [Belotserkovskii et al. (2010) Mechanisms and implications of transcription blockage by guanine-rich DNA sequences., Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, 107, 12816-12821]. We have now systematically studied the effect of the sequence composition and single-stranded breaks on this blockage. Although substitution of guanine by any other base reduced the blockage, cytosine and thymine reduced the blockage more significantly than adenine substitutions, affirming the importance of both G-richness and the homopurine-homopyrimidine character of the sequence for this effect. A single-strand break in the non-template strand adjacent to the G-rich stretch dramatically increased the blockage. Breaks in the non-template strand result in much weaker blockage signals extending downstream from the break even in the absence of the G-rich stretch. Our combined data support the notion that transcription blockage at homopurine-homopyrimidine sequences is caused by R-loop formation.
The Evolution of Conditional Dispersal Strategies in Spatially Heterogeneous Habitats

To understand the evolution of dispersal, we study a Lotka-Volterra reaction-diffusion-advection model for two competing species in a heterogeneous environment. The two species are assumed to be identical except for their dispersal strategies: both species disperse by random diffusion and advection along environmental gradients, but with slightly different random dispersal or advection rates. Two new phenomena are found for one-dimensional habitats and monotone intrinsic growth rates: (i) If both species disperse only by random diffusion, i.e., no advection, it was well known that the slower diffuser always wins. We show that if both species have the same advection rate which is suitably large, the faster dispersal will evolve; (ii) If both species have the same random dispersal rate, it was known that the species with a little advection along the resource gradient always wins, provided that the other species is a pure random disperser and the habitat is convex. We show that if both species have the same random dispersal rate and both also have suitably large advection rates, the species with a little smaller advection rate always wins. Implications of these results for the habitat choices of species will be discussed. Some future directions and open problems will be addressed.
Ladle brick from semiacid clays

The main feature of the technology developed for the production of high-density ladle brick which expands in service, made from semiacid clay from Chasov Yar and Druzhkov sources, is the regular firing cycle for the chamotte and the finished products, namely completion of firing in the temperature range in which we can guarantee sintering of the material, but in which bloating has not yet begun.
The Need for Flexibility in Amplifier Design

Improvements in detector resolution and increases in the sophistication of nuclear experiments have placed an entirely new emphasis on linear amplifier design. Just a few years ago it was necessary to have specialized amplifiers to deal with each specific problem. The lack of flexibility now plaguing most existing linear pulse amplifying systems is often quite annoying to the user. Invariably, the user will find the amplifying system failing in part to provide either adequate stability, polarity reversibility, clipping mode selection, control of rise and fall times, adequate control of gain, or threshold cut and expansion. What usually ensues is that large amounts of time and effort are expended in modifying existing amplifiers in order to accomplish the particular job at hand, or the Job is done with an existing system where poor amplifier performance is accepted as a necessary evil. In the past several years many notable pulse amplifiers have been produced. Among these are the DD-2, the A-8, and the alpha amplifiers designed under the direction of Fairstein, Borkowski, and Blankenship at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Although these amplifiers show exceptional performance in their particular specialized application, all of these amplifiers lack the flexibility desired in a modern general-purpose laboratory amplifier. What is needed today is an amplifying system possessing the best basic features of these highly successful amplifiers with the addition of the features mentioned earlier to obtain greater flexibility and therefore greater utility. In early 1961, an amplifying system of this type was introduced at LRL.
Vortex dynamics of passive and active interfaces

Abstract Two classes of interface motion are exemplified. In the first example the advection of a line of passive marker particles by the unsteady flow due to a pair of vortex agitators is considered. The qualitative nature of the subsequent motion of the line depends sensitively on the parameters governing the unsteady flow. The advection of the particles determines either an integrable or a non-integrable dynamical system. The consequences of the transition from one regime to the other are explored by numerical experiments. In the second example a calculation of piecewise potential flow with a sharp interface is presented. The flow of two immiscible fluids of different but constant density and viscosity in a Hele-Shaw cell is considered. The interface separating the fluids is formally a tangential discontinuity of velocity and, thus, may be modelled as a vortex sheet. The evolution of fingers on the interface and the variability of the finger topology with the control parameters in the problem are accessible to numerical computation using a variant of the vortex-in-cell method. Results of numerical experiments employing such a code are presented and discussed. The paper concludes with some general speculations on the dynamics of interfaces.
Fatigue Crack Propagation Resistance of Beta-Annealed Ti-6Al-4V Alloys of Differing Interstitial Oxygen Contents

Fatigue crack growth rates have been determined for beta-annealed Ti-6Al-4V alloys with respective oxygen contents of 0.06, 0.11, 0.18 and 0.20 wt pct. For each of these alloys, transitional crack growth behavior has been observed which appears to correlate with a critical value of the reversed plastic zone size,viz the Widmanstatten packet size. Moreover, growth rates below transitional levels order in terms of packet size, with lower growth rates associated with larger packets. The present results suggest that intersti-tial oxygen content and prior beta grain size significantly affect fatigue crack growth rates through control of the Widmanstatten packet size.
A review and discussion of some methods for system identification and modeling.

Mathematically testing the validity of a theoretical model with an observed physical system is an important step in understanding and utilizing such a system. Perhaps even more useful is the generation of computational techniques which use input-output data from physical systems to automatically construct mathematical models which, in some sense, provide the ‘best’ descritpions of the real systems. This paper briefly discusses a few of the more recent mathematical techniques available for model generation and testing. A new identification method based upon convex and linear programming is discussed in detail and a number of examples indicating its applicability are given. The linear programming method is basically an approximation to a convex programming problem, the solution of which determines the coefficients of the differential equation describing the observed system data. A number of extensions of the identification method indicate some of its most useful properties. The order of the assumed model differential equation can be larger than that of the unknown system and the identification process will either assign zero values to the superfluous coefficients of the model or pole-zero cancellations will occur in the factored form of the laplace transform of the model transfer function. ‘Best’ lowest order models may be selected automatically. Liner constraints among the coefficients of the model differential equation may be used to restrict the allowable ranges of the coefficients. Multiple sets of data for a single system may be used simultaneously in the indentification process. Multiple input-output systems or systems described by difference equations or with transportation lag can also be identified. Coefficients of time varying and/or nonlinear models may be determined.