cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Valvular Heart Surgery During Pregnancy

The pathophysiology of mitral and valvular heart disease is presented with an emphasis on the relationship of these conditions to pregnancy. Management options are discussed. Special attention is directed to patients who have prosthetic valves in place and who become pregnant. The care of this group of patients may be difficult, and treatment strategies are presented.
Leverage Deviation from the Target Debt Ratio and Leasing

Traditional finance theory suggests that leases and debt are substitutes. Ang and Peterson (1984) however, present a puzzle by showing that leases and debt are instead complements to each other. A large body of literature has developed since Ang and Peterson (1984), but the empirical evidence is inconclusive. We view the leasing puzzle from the perspective of the trade-off theory of capital structure. Specifically, we examine the relation between leases and debt using firm’s deviation from the target leverage. We find that firms that are under levered (over levered) exhibit higher (lower) lease intensity. Our results support the hypothesis that leases and debt are substitutes and are robust to alternative measure of both lease intensity and target leverage.
Evidence of a prominent genetic basis for associations between psychoneurometric traits and common mental disorders

Threat sensitivity (THT) and weak inhibitory control (or disinhibition; DIS) are trait constructs that relate to multiple types of psychopathology and can be assessed psychoneurometrically (i.e., using self-report and physiological indicators combined). However, to establish that psychoneurometric assessments of THT and DIS index biologically-based liabilities, it is important to clarify the etiologic bases of these variables and their associations with clinical problems. The current work addressed this important issue using data from a sample of identical and fraternal adult twins (N=454). THT was quantified using a scale measure and three physiological indicators of emotional reactivity to visual aversive stimuli. DIS was operationalized using scores on two scale measures combined with two brain indicators from cognitive processing tasks. THT and DIS operationalized in these ways both showed appreciable heritability (0.45, 0.68), and genetic variance in these traits accounted for most of their phenotypic associations with fear, distress, and substance use disorder symptoms. Our findings suggest that, as indices of basic dispositional liabilities for multiple forms of psychopathology with direct links to neurophysiology, psychoneurometric assessments of THT and DIS represent novel and important targets for biologically-oriented research on psychopathology.
Insurance Churning Rates For Low-Income Adults Under Health Reform: Lower Than Expected But Still Harmful For Many

Changes in insurance coverage over time, or “churning,” may have adverse consequences, but there has been little evidence on churning since implementation of the major coverage expansions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2014. We explored the frequency and implications of churning through surveying 3,011 low-income adults in Kentucky, which used a traditional expansion of Medicaid; Arkansas, which chose a “private option” expansion that enrolled beneficiaries in private Marketplace plans; and Texas, which opted not to expand. We also compared 2015 churning rates in these states to survey data from 2013, before the coverage expansions. Nearly 25 percent of respondents in 2015 changed coverage during the previous twelve months—a rate lower than some previous predictions. We did not find significantly different churning rates in the three states over time. Common causes of churning were job-related changes and loss of eligibility for Medicaid or Marketplace subsidies. Churning was associated with disrupti...
Avoiding the Asymmetry Problem

If earlier-than-necessary death is bad because it deprives individuals of additional good life, then why isn't later-than-necessary conception bad for the same reason? Deprivationists have argued that prenatal non-existence is not bad because it is impossible to be conceived earlier, but postmortem non-existence is bad because it is possible to live longer. Call this the Impossibility Solution. In this paper, I demonstrate that the Impossibility Solution does not work by showing how it is possible to be conceived earlier in the same senses it is possible to live longer. I then offer a solution to the Asymmetry Problem by suggesting a novel way to separate the badness of each type of non-existence from the type, and frequency, of attitudes we should have towards each type of non-existence. Even if both types of non-existence are equally bad, certain contingent facts about our postmortem non-existence provide reason for the badness of early deaths to be more frequently salient than the badness of late conceptions.
A Diagnostic Marker to Discriminate Childhood Apraxia of Speech From Speech Delay: Introduction

Purpose The goal of this article is to introduce the pause marker (PM), a single-sign diagnostic marker proposed to discriminate early or persistent childhood apraxia of speech (CAS) from speech delay.
The Wald Problem and the Relation of Sequential Sampling and Ex-Ante Information Costs

We consider the two state sequential sampling problem of Wald (1945). We show that any distribution of posteriors can be attained and that the ex-ante cost of attaining any probability distribution over posteriors equals the expected change of the log likelihood ratio. With many states, not all distributions can be attained but we provide a characterization of those that can be attained and show that the characterization of ex-ante cost generalizes naturally to those that can be attained.
Nebivolol/Valsartan (Byvalson) for Hypertension.

Nebivolol/valsartan is an option for the treatment of patients with newly diagnosed or poorly controlled hypertension. Although it offers a new beta-blocker option, no research has demonstrated its benefit over existing treatments.
New Faces in a New Place: Long-Time Residents’ Perceptions of New Residents in an Oil Boomtown in the Bakken Oil Shale Region

ABSTRACTIn 2008, increased oil production in the Bakken oil shale region in western North Dakota sparked a rapid increase in population for the communities in that area. This study examines long-ti...
Axon Regeneration: Antagonistic Signaling Pairs in Neuronal Polarization

Genome-wide screens, proteomics, and candidate-based approaches have identified numerous genes associated with neuronal regeneration following central nervous system (CNS) injury. Despite significant progress, functional recovery remains a challenge, even in model systems. Neuronal function depends on segregation of axonal versus dendritic domains. A key to functional recovery may lie in recapitulating the developmental signals that instruct axon specification and growth in adult neurons post-injury. Theoretically, binary activator–inhibitor elements operating as a Turing-like system within neurons can specify axonal versus dendritic domains and promote axon growth. We review here various molecules implicated in axon specification that function as signaling pairs driving neuronal polarization and axon growth.
Comminuted fracture of the accessory carpal bone removed via an arthroscopic-assisted arthrotomy

A 16-year-old American paint horse gelding was presented for evaluation of a left forelimb lameness grade III/V. Radiographs and computed tomography revealed a comminuted fracture of the accessory carpal bone involving the entire articulation with the distal radius and the proximal aspect of the articulation with the ulnar carpal bone. Multiple fragments were present in the palmar pouch of the antebrachiocarpal joint. An arthroscopic-assisted open approach was necessary to remove all fractured fragments. Subsequently the horse was re-admitted for lameness and was treated successfully with antibiotics and long-term supportive bandaging.
Propagation of Sound Waves

Following our general study of oscillations and waves, we turn to some specific aspects of sound waves. To do so we have to ascertain the relationship of the physical characteristics of waves to the everyday characteristics we ascribe to sound, as is done in Table 4.1.
Ultrasonic Propagation in RbMn F 3 . II. Magnetoelastic Properties

A study of the propagation of rf ultrasonic waves in the antiferromagnetically ordered state of RbMn${\mathrm{F}}_{3}$ is presented. Consideration of the effect of the sublattice magnetization orientation on the coupling between elastic and magnetic modes of the system results in the prediction of a strong magnetic field dependence of the measured elastic constants. Quantitative comparison with experiment is given, and the results are used to obtain values of the magnetoelastic coupling constants ${b}_{1}$ and ${b}_{2}$ and the anisotropy constant $K$ at 4.2 K. The temperature dependence of the measured elastic constants, which show sharp anomalies at $T\ensuremath{\simeq}60$ K, is readily explained with the present model.
The Analysis of Contingency Tables

Social and behavioral scientists routinely use statistical models to make inferences about the distribution of one or more dependent variables (which may be observed and/or unobserved), conditional on a set of independent variables. Often, this conditional distribution is assumed to be absolutely continuous, and in many instances, normal.
Allport’s Personal Documents

It was my pleasure to spend a rather extensive amount of time with Gordon Allport during the spring semester of 1966, when he was a visiting fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu and I was a faculty member at the University of Hawaii. He was a gentle and gracious man who was willing to share his past experiences and to facilitate the development of younger colleagues. I remember fondly that he volunteered to fill out an attitude scale I had recently constructed (the Philosophies of Human Nature Scale), and he even scored his own scale responses. Twenty-five years later, I still deeply value my association with him.
The MCAT's Restrictive Effect on the Minority Physician Pipeline: A Legal Perspective

Since 1991, federal law has required that an employment practice be discarded if a plaintiff can show that the practice has a disparate impact based on race and the employer is unable to demonstrat...
Value comparison of humeral component press-fit and cemented techniques in reverse shoulder arthroplasty.

Background Press-fit humeral fixation for reverse shoulder arthroplasty (RSA) has been shown to have loosening rates and outcomes similar to a cemented technique; however, increased value has not been reported. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the press-fit technique could improve the value of RSA using the procedure value index (PVI). Methods Primary RSA patients with complete hospitalization cost data, preoperative and minimum 2-year postoperative Simple Shoulder Test (SST) scores, and postoperative satisfaction were included. The PVI was calculated as improvement in the SST score (in units of minimal clinically important difference) divided by total cost and normalized. Itemized cost data were obtained from hospital financial records and categorized. Radiographic complications, infections, and revisions were noted. Comparisons were made between the press-fit and cemented RSA cohorts. Results A total of 176 primary RSA patients (83 cemented and 93 press fit) met the inclusion criteria (mean follow-up period, 44.6 months). Surgical indications (except failed rotator cuff repair), baseline SST scores, and demographic characteristics were similar. The calculated minimal clinically important difference for the SST score was 3.98. The average PVI was significantly greater in the press-fit cohort (1.51 vs 1.03, P Conclusion Use of a press-fit technique led to a 47% increase in value over a cemented technique. This appeared to be a function of decreased total costs rather than increased outcome scores.
The Use of Machine Learning in the Study of Suicidal and Non-Suicidal Self-Injurious Thoughts and Behaviors: A Systematic Review

Abstract Background Machine learning techniques offer promise to improve suicide risk prediction. In the current systematic review, we aimed to review the existing literature on the application of machine learning techniques to predict self-injurious thoughts and behaviors (SITBs). Method We systematically searched PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, ERIC, CINAHL, and MEDLINE for articles published through February 2018. Results Thirty-five articles met criteria to be included in the review. Included articles were reviewed by outcome: suicide death, suicide attempt, suicide plan, suicidal ideation, suicide risk, and non-suicidal self-injury. We observed three general aims in the use of SITB-focused machine learning analyses: (1) improving prediction accuracy, (2) identifying important model indicators (i.e., variable selection) and indicator interactions, and (3) modeling underlying subgroups. For studies with the aim of boosting predictive accuracy, we observed greater prediction accuracy of SITBs than in previous studies using traditional statistical methods. Studies using machine learning for variable selection purposes have both replicated findings of well-known SITB risk factors and identified novel variables that may augment model performance. Finally, some of these studies have allowed for subgroup identification, which in turn has helped to inform clinical cutoffs. Limitations Limitations of the current review include relatively low paper sample size, inconsistent reporting procedures resulting in an inability to compare model accuracy across studies, and lack of model validation on external samples. Conclusions We concluded that leveraging machine learning techniques to further predictive accuracy and identify novel indicators will aid in the prediction and prevention of suicide.
Efficacy and safety of the combination of metformin, everolimus and exemestane in overweight and obese postmenopausal patients with metastatic, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer: a phase II study.

Background Increased adiposity is thought to result in worse clinical outcomes in patients with breast cancer through increased estrogen production, hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, and activation of the phosphatidylinositol-3-kinase/AKT/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. Thus, we hypothesized that the addition of metformin to everolimus and exemestane, could lead to better outcomes in overweight and obese patients with metastatic, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. We conducted a phase II trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of the combination of metformin, everolimus and exemestane in overweight and obese postmenopausal women with metastatic, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. Methods Twenty-two patients with a body mass index ≥25 kg/m2 were treated with metformin 1000 mg twice daily, everolimus 10 mg daily and exemestane 25 mg daily. Median progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were estimated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results Median PFS and OS were 6.3 months (95% confidence interval [CI]: 3.8–11.3 months) and 28.8 months (95% CI: 17.5–59.7 months), respectively. Five patients had a partial response and 7 had stable disease for ≥24 weeks yielding a clinical benefit rate of 54.5%. Compared with overweight patients, obese patients had an improved PFS on univariable (p = 0.015) but not multivariable analysis (p = 0.215). Thirty-two percent of patients experienced a grade 3 treatment-related adverse event (TRAE). There were no grade 4 TRAEs and 7 patients experienced a grade 3 TRAE. Conclusion The combination of metformin, everolimus and exemestane was safe and had moderate clinical benefit in overweight and obese with patients metastatic, hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer.
Universal deformation rings of strings modules over a certain symmetric special biserial algebra

Let $$\mathbb {k}$$ be an algebraically closed field, let $$\Lambda $$ be a finite dimensional $$\mathbb {k}$$ -algebra and let $$V$$ be a $$\Lambda $$ -module whose stable endomorphism ring is isomorphic to $$\mathbb {k}$$ . If $$\Lambda $$ is self-injective then $$V$$ has a universal deformation ring $$R(\Lambda ,V)$$ , which is a complete local commutative Noetherian $$\mathbb {k}$$ -algebra with residue field $$\mathbb {k}$$ . Moreover, if $$\Lambda $$ is also a Frobenius $$\mathbb {k}$$ -algebra then $$R(\Lambda ,V)$$ is stable under syzygies. We use these facts to determine the universal deformation rings of string $$\Lambda _{\bar{r}}$$ -modules whose stable endomorphism rings are isomorphic to $$\mathbb {k}$$ that belong to a component $${\mathfrak {C}}$$ of the stable Auslander–Reiten quiver of $$\Lambda _{\bar{r}}$$ , where $$\Lambda _{\bar{r}}$$ is a symmetric special biserial $$\mathbb {k}$$ -algebra that has quiver with relations depending on the four parameters $$ \bar{r}=(r_0,r_1,r_2,k)$$ with $$r_0,r_1,r_2\ge 2$$ and $$k\ge 1$$ , and where $${\mathfrak {C}}$$ is either of type $${\mathbb {ZA}}_\infty ^\infty $$ containing a module with endomorphism ring isomorphic to $$\mathbb {k}$$ or a $$3$$ -tube.
Gravity with explicit spacetime symmetry breaking and the standard model extension

The Standard-Model Extension (SME) is the general phenomenological framework used to investigate Lorentz violation at the level of effective field theory. It has been used to obtain stringent experimental bounds on Lorentz violation in a wide range of tests. In the gravity sector of the SME, it is typically assumed that the spacetime symmetry breaking occurs spontaneously in order to avoid potential conflicts with the Bianchi identities. A post-Newtonian limit as well as matter-gravity couplings in the SME have been developed and investigated based on this assumption. In this paper, the possibility of using the SME to also describe gravity theories with explicit spacetime symmetry breaking is investigated. It is found that in a wide range of cases, particularly when matter-gravity couplings are included, consistency with the Bianchi identities can be maintained, and therefore the SME can be used to search for signals of the symmetry breaking. Two examples with explicit breaking are considered. The first is ghost-free massive gravity with an effective metric that couples to matter. The second is Ho\ifmmode \check{r}\else \v{r}\fi{}ava gravity coupled with matter in an infrared limit.
Practice 5: Allowing the Crowd to Play Any Innovation-Enabling Roles They Choose

In traditional Idea-Sharing crowdsourcing, crowds are told what role to play: they are to be either Ideators (offering Ideas) or Idea Commenters and Refiners (offering comments to help others’ idea be refined). People who don’t have ideas, but just have thoughts, personal experiences, and assumptions about the nature of the problem are left OUT, without a voice. But such people are the bedrock of innovation in crowdsourcing since they provide the creative associations. In unmindcuffed crowds, some participants just offer facts while others just offer creative associations, and others just offer ideas. This allows everyone to have a voice.
Detection and dynamics of anti-platelet antibodies in thrombocytopenic dogs with and without idiopathic immune thrombocytopenia.

BACKGROUND: Antiplatelet antibodies are detected in multiple diseases including primary immune thrombocytopenia (ITP). Dynamics of how these antibodies change over time in ITP is unknown in dogs. HYPOTHESIS/OBJECTIVES: Antiplatelet antibodies (APA) will be detected in thrombocytopenic dogs with multiple etiologies and dynamics of APA in dogs with ITP can be used to evaluate response to treatment and relapse. Determine APA at the time of diagnosis in thrombocytopenic dogs and serially in primary ITP dogs. ANIMALS: Seventy‐nine thrombocytopenic dogs and 28 primary ITP dogs. METHODS: Direct flow cytometry was performed in thrombocytopenic dogs at initial evaluation and serially in suspected primary ITP dogs. In primary ITP dogs, a 2‐tailed Fisher's exact test was performed comparing survival to discharge between dogs with and without melena and to relate response to treatment and relapse to changes in APA and platelet count (repeated measures analysis, Spearman correlation). RESULTS: Twenty percent (16/79) of thrombocytopenic non‐ITP dogs with infectious, neoplastic, or other diseases and all primary ITP dogs were positive for APA. Melena at initial evaluation was associated with decreased survival to discharge (odds ratio 0.06; P = .01). Persistence of APA was not associated with response to treatment, but recurrence of antibodies was associated with relapse (odds ratio 205.0; P < .01). There was no difference in percentage of APA or platelet count at initial diagnosis between dogs that did or did not respond to treatment. CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL IMPORTANCE: Serial monitoring of APA in dogs with primary ITP appeared beneficial for determining relapse of disease.
chapter 8 – Multiple Resources

Publisher Summary This chapter explains how to write a service that, using a design pattern known as the factory/instance pattern will be able to manage multiple resources. The factory/instance pattern is a well-known design pattern in software design, and especially in object-oriented languages. This pattern is not allowed to create instances of objects directly, but must do so through a factory that will provide a create operation. When dealing with multiple resources, the WSRF specs recommend to follow this pattern, having one service in charge of creating the resources (“the factory service”) and another one to actually access the information contained in the resources (“the instance service”). The WSDL file for the factory service is very simple, as it only has a single operation createResource with no parameters and that returns an endpoint reference. Implementing the instance service is going to be very simple, because both the WSDL file and practically all the Java implementation can be reused. The resource implementation requires only minimal changes. The resource home has to be modified, but still remains relatively simple because the resource class extends from a Globus-supplied class. It now extends from ResourceHomeImpl, another Globus-supplied class for resource homes that manage several resources. The only method to implement is the create method, where one creates a new resource and returns its identifier. All the other methods expected in a resource home are already implemented in ResourceHomeImpl.
Urban American Indian Clinic Smoking Cessation Program.

Background Cigarette-smoking disparities continue to exist among minority groups of adults, particularly American Indians, who had the highest prevalence of cigarette smoking at 24% in 2017. Objective Implement a nurse practitioner-led smoking cessation pilot program at an urban American Indian health center. Methods The cessation program is based on the "Treating Tobacco Use and Dependence" clinical practice guideline with incorporation of motivational interviewing, and is guided by the Transtheoretical Model of Health Behavior Changes. The program consisted of ten sessions: one in-person visit and nine telephone sessions over the course of eight weeks. Evaluation of project objectives was achieved through the collection of qualitative and quantitative data via weekly phone counseling sessions and a final follow-up phone call. Results Among program participants (n = 5), three achieved complete cessation, one decreased their smoking behavior, and one experienced no change in smoking behavior. Conclusions Although the program is effective among participants who completed the program, attrition was a significant issue requiring potential future changes to the program design.
The Utility of the Cl:PO4 Ratio in Patients With Variant Versions of Primary Hyperparathyroidism:

ObjectiveTo determine the significance and impact of additional chloride testing as part of a diagnostic laboratory test battery for borderline primary hyperparathyroidism (pHPT).Study DesignRetros...
Prevalence and correlates of weight bias internalization in weight management: A multinational study

Weight bias internalization (WBI) is an understudied form of internalized stigma, particularly among treatment-seeking adults with overweight/obesity. The current study surveyed 13,996 adults currently engaged in weight management in the first multinational study of WBI. From May to July 2020, participants in six Western countries completed the Modified Weight Bias Internalization Scale (WBIS-M) and measures of weight change, health behaviors, psychosocial well-being, and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Participants were majority white, female, middle-aged, and categorized as having overweight or obesity based on body mass index. Results showed higher mean WBIS-M scores among participants in the UK, Australia, and France than in Germany, the US, and Canada. Across all countries, and controlling for participant characteristics and experiences of weight stigma, WBIS-M scores were associated with greater weight gain in the past year. Participants with higher WBIS-M scores also reported poorer mental and physical HRQOL, less eating and physical activity self-efficacy, greater engagement in eating as a coping strategy, more avoidance of going to the gym, poorer body image, and greater perceived stress. Few interaction effects were found between experiences and internalization of weight stigma. Overall, the current findings support WBI as a robust correlate of adverse weight-related health indices across six Western countries. Prospective and experimental studies are needed to determine directionality and causality in the relationship between WBI and poor health outcomes.
Improving Beverage Choice in Adults with Developmental Disabilities: Implementation of a Token Reinforcement System in a Community Residential Setting

Individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) are twice as likely to have obesity than non-disabled individuals. Replacing the consumption of sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs) with water has many health benefits, including weight reduction. In this study, a token reinforcement system was implemented to increase water consumption and decrease the consumption of SSBs with 14 adult participants with DD living in a community-based independent supported living (ISL) center. Token reinforcement reduced the consumption of SSBs, with associated reductions in calorie consumption and body weight. Findings are especially important for treatment settings where resources for individualized meal planning and staffing to support comprehensive behavioral interventions may be limited.
Role of Gangliosides in Transmembrane Signaling and Cell Recognition

Sialic acid-containing glycosphingolipids (GSLs), collectively called “gan-gliosides,” were discovered in the mid-1930s by Ernst Klenk (Cologne, Germany) (Klenk, 1942) and Gunnar Blix (Uppsala, Sweden), (Blix, 1936) (see Chapter 1). Since then, steadily increasing numbers of scientists have worked on isolation and characterization of gangliosides, determination of different molecular species, and their distribution in animal cells and tissues. Development of new separation technology (e.g., thin-layer and gas chromatography) and instrumental analysis (e.g., mass spectrometry, NMR spectroscopy), together with introduction of the monoclonal antibody (mAb) approach in immunochemistry, allowed identification of many previously unknown ganglioside species (especially those having complex lacto- or globo-series backbone structure) in the 1970s and 1980s.
Seam Tracking System Prototypes

Umeagukwu and coworkers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, USA report the development of a robotic seam tracking system based on ultrasonic range sensors (Umeagukwu, et al. 1989). The initial prototype is designed to track 2D-seams in a nonwelding environment. Two seam types tested include lap joints and vee-joints.
Oxygen and Cerebral Blood Flow

This chapter reviews the effects of oxygen on cerebral blood flow (CBF). The brain depends entirely upon the oxidative metabolism of glucose to support its metabolic needs. As neither oxygen nor glucose is stored in appreciable amounts, the organ requires a continuous and never ending supply of each substrate to be delivered by the circulation. The demands of the brain for O 2 are substantial as the organ represents only about 2% of body weight, receives 15% of the cardiac output, and consumes 20% of available oxygen for normal function. The need for substrate is perpetual; the metabolism of whole brain does not vary among states of sleep or wakefulness. Experimental results show that CBF is elevated without changes in cerebral metabolism in response to isocapnic hypoxia, generated either by hypoxemia or histotoxicity. Vasodilation results from actions of hypoxia on cerebral vessels and also from reflexes resulting from excitation of oxygensensitive neurons in the ventral medulla.
edTPA? Good Grief!

Over the course of six months, edTPA went from being an abstract jumble of letters thrown around to describe some assessment that we were going to have to do at some point before graduation (yes, the conversations were that uncertain) to a very concrete mountain that each member of my cohort was expected to climb triumphantly, in spite of the fact that the road to the top was still in the process of being built. In the beginning, I tried to pretend it didn't exist, in the middle I found myself grappling with how to best fit into a model that didn't seem to appreciate who I was as a teacher, and in the end I accepted that I had to jump through the hoop of fire at the end of the road if I wanted the medal of state certification hung round my neck. In psychology, they'd say I went through the five stages of grief and loss---denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. Now how's that for a resounding endorsement for edTPA?
Integrating formal verification into computer organization and architecture courses

The high complexity of modern hardware and software systems necessitates the use of formal methods for checking the satisfaction of desired properties and the absence of design flaws. Numerous methods have been developed, and some, such as model checking and the ?-automata approach, have found wide acceptance in the computer industry and have led to the development of powerful verification tools. However, the popularity of these methods has not been firmly established in the Computer Science and Engineering curriculum. This paper presents an approach to integrating current verification research results into a typical, small-college Computer Organization and Architecture course.
C-Glycosylflavones and xanthones in leaves of Rigidella, sessilanthera and Fosteria

Four New World genera are included in the tribe tigrideae of the Iridaceae. These genera, which have been the subject of recent systematic treatments [1–4], share many characteristics; e.g. a haploid complement of two large and 12 small chromosomes and bisulcate pollen grains. However, the taxonomic and phyletic relationships within and between these genera have been based strictly on floral morphology and may simply reflect the primary pollinators of these genera [4,5]. The flavonoid chemistry of eight species in three of the four genera, Rigidella, Sessilanthera and Fosteria, was investigated as part of a systematic study of Tigrideae. Our results are summarized in Table 1 nad Fig. 1. Although a recurrent pattern of C-glycosylflavones and xanthones characterize the leaves of these taxa, each species exhibits a distinctive array of compounds. The same classes of compounds occur in other tribes of the Iridaceae: C-glycosylflavones occur in the Irideae [6,7], Cipureae, and Mariceae and xanthones in Irideae [6] and Sisyrinchieae [6].
Re-conceptualising Commitments to Sustainable Development in the 21st Century – Nurturing Action and Accountability in the Networked World

The 2012 United Nations (UN) Conference on Sustainable Development, or Rio+20, was the largest UN conference in history. The goal of the conference was to renew the political commitment for sustainable development, and to assess remaining gaps in implementation of the outcomes of major summits on sustainable development. Rio+20 sought to produce a focused political document by which world leaders could drive action on “the future we want,” the tagline of the conference. Unlike the original Rio Earth Summit of 1992, no major legally binding treaties were signed and no significant funding mechanisms were mobilised. In the aftermath of the conference, many observers expressed discontent at the lack of an ambitious globally negotiated agreement to catalyse on-the-ground sustainable development results.
Superlow-friction carbon films for fuel system components operating in low-sulfur diesel fuels

In this paper, we will demonstrate the effectiveness and usefulness of a new class of superlowfriction carbon films in alleviating the wear and scuffing problems associated with the use of low sulfur diesel fuels in fuel delivery systems of advanced diesel engines. Specifically, using a wellestablished diesel fuel lubricity test machine, we will show that with the use of very thin (1micrometer-thick), superlubricious carbon films one can restore lubricity, virtually eliminate scuffing and potential wear failures that can occur in low-sulfur, super-clean, and zero sulfur (Fischer Tropsch) diesel fuels. Test results of our study raise the prospect for using such carbon coatings to solve problems associated with the use of low-sulfur diesel fuels and high injection pressures in future engines.
Leadership Development: Paths to Self-Insight and Professional Growth

Leadership Development explores how leaders gain and use self-knowledge for continuous improvement and career development and describes how leaders help themselves and the people with whom they work, understand themselves, and become more self-determined, continuous learners, and make the most of resources, such as feedback and coaching. This book explains why leaders need support for self-insight and professional growth in today's business environment. It explores dimensions of effective leadership in light of business, technological, and economic trends. Focusing on the importance of leaders developing accurate self-understanding, the book defines self-insight, outlines the meaning of internal strength and resilience for self-regulation, and considers how leaders attain a meaningful and realistic sense of self-identity. This volume illustrates ways organizations support these psychological processes. Leadership development is viewed as a comprehensive, continuous process that includes evaluating organizational needs and individual competencies, setting goals for career development and performance improvement, offering needed training and growth experiences, providing feedback, and tracking change in behavior and performance over time. It describes how leaders react to feedback and how 360-degree feedback survey methods and executive coaching help leaders attain and apply self-insight to enhance their performance. In addition, this book considers challenges and opportunities for leadership development, including how leaders overcome career barriers and become continuous learners.
Contributions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex to goal-directed action selection

In this article, it will be argued that one of the key contributions of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) to goal-directed action selection lies both in retrieving the value of goals that are the putative outcomes of the decision process and in establishing a relative preference ranking for these goals by taking into account the value of each of the different goals under consideration in a given decision-making scenario. These goal-value signals are then suggested to be used as an input into the on-line computation of action values mediated by brain regions outside of the vmPFC, such as parts of the parietal cortex, supplementary motor cortex, and dorsal striatum. Collectively, these areas can be considered to be constituent elements of a multistage decision process whereby the values of different goals must first be represented and ranked before the value of different courses of action available for the pursuit of those goals can be computed.
Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good: Remodeling the Moral Edifice (II): Aquinas and Aristotelian Legal Justice

In his preface to Dependent Rational Animals , Alasdair MacIntyre quotes a prayer composed by Thomas Aquinas “in which he asks God to grant that he may happily share with those in need what he has, while humbly asking for what he needs from those who have.” It is a prayer of a magnanimous person in humility, highlighting the two qualities that when fused together seem to distinguish, morally and politically, the Christian world from the classical world. Yet, as Aquinas himself notes elsewhere, it is far from clear how humility can be compatible with magnanimity, a virtue conducing to outstanding statesmanship: “humility is apparently opposed to the virtue of magnanimity, which aims at great things, whereas humility shuns them” ( ST II–II 161, 1, obj. 3). Even if humility is vindicated as an ethical excellence, can it be politically salutary? Should politics, understood as humans' own government, be suffused with pride in human virtue, or should it be humbled by the realization of human dependence on God and interdependence with others? In this chapter I revisit the theories of magnanimity advanced by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas, endeavoring especially to develop a more detailed analysis and comparison of Aquinas's Commentary on the “ NE ” and the relevant texts of the ST than those offered by other recent commentators. In particular, I consider Aquinas's discussions in the ST of two of what MacIntyre (1999) terms “virtues of acknowledged dependence”: gratitude and humility.
Geometric Effects on Stress Wave Propagation

The present study, through finite element simulations, shows the geometric effects of a bioinspired solid on pressure and impulse mitigation for an elastic, plastic, and viscoelastic material. Because of the bioinspired geometries, stress wave mitigation became apparent in a nonintuitive manner such that potential real-world applications in human protective gear designs are realizable. In nature, there are several toroidal designs that are employed for mitigating stress waves; examples include the hyoid bone on the back of a woodpecker's jaw that extends around the skull to its nose and a ram's horn. This study evaluates four different geometries with the same length and same initial cross-sectional diameter at the impact location in three-dimensional finite element analyses. The geometries in increasing complexity were the following: (1) a round cylinder, (2) a round cylinder that was tapered to a point, (3) a round cylinder that was spiraled in a two dimensional plane, and (4) a round cylinder that was tapered and spiraled in a two-dimensional plane. The results show that the tapered spiral geometry mitigated the greatest amount of pressure and impulse (approximately 98% mitigation) when compared to the cylinder regardless of material type (elastic, plastic, and viscoelastic) and regardless of input pressure signature. The specimen taper effectively mitigated the stress wave as a result of uniaxial deformational processes and an induced shear that arose from its geometry. Due to the decreasing cross-sectional area arising from the taper, the local uniaxial and shear stresses increased along the specimen length. The spiral induced even greater shear stresses that help mitigate the stress wave and also induced transverse displacements at the tip such that minimal wave reflections occurred. This phenomenon arose although only longitudinal waves were introduced as the initial boundary condition (BC). In nature, when shearing occurs within or between materials (friction), dissipation usually results helping the mitigation of the stress wave and is illustrated in this study with the taper and spiral geometries. The combined taper and spiral optimized stress wave mitigation in terms of the pressure and impulse; thus providing insight into the ram's horn design and woodpecker hyoid designs found in nature.
The implications of propensity score variable selection strategies in pharmacoepidemiology – an empirical illustration

Purpose To examine the effect of variable selection strategies on the performance of propensity score (PS) methods in a study of statin initiation, mortality and hip fracture assuming a true mortality reduction of <15% and no effect on hip fracture.
Analog Integral Circuit Packages at Voice Frequency, 12 MC and 88 MC

" Integral Circuit Packages," or "Integrated Electronic Stages," offer the attractive features of small size, light weight, and the promise of ultra-reliability (particularly when combined redundantly) to the aerospace technology. While digital devices are becoming common, analog devices are not. An analog voice uhf receiver is discussed with emphasis on performance data at voice frequency, 12 Mc and 88 Mc. Four device types are included -- the "hybrid" microassembly, the thin film, the monolithic single crystal, and the combined monolithic-thin film. It is shown that stable gain per stage of 23 db can be achieved at 88 Mc, and of 26 db at 12 Mc. Device limitations and peculiarities are discussed.
Commutator of composition operators with adjoints of composition operators

We characterize the compactness of the linear fractionally induced commutator in terms of the function theoretic properties of ϕ and ψ. We show that in the automorphic case the commutator is compact if and only if ϕ and ψ are simple rotations of the unit disc. On the other hand, when one of the inducing maps is not an automorphism of the disc, we show that the commutator is non-trivially compact if and only if the inducing maps are both parabolic with the same boundary fixed point or they are both hyperbolic with the same boundary fixed point and their other fixed points are conjugate reciprocals.
Smartphone Cross-Compilation Framework for Multiplayer Online Games

Social networks and multiplayer online games have drastically gained in popularity over the last decade. Likewise smartphones have become interesting targets for extending social networks and multiplayer games thanks to their innovative features such as intuitive user interfaces. Mobile versions of games and social network applications often make use of special capabilities of smartphones such as GPS and accelerometer. Porting these applications to different smartphones incurs high overhead due to their different programming models. To facilitate this porting effort, we introduce XMLVM, a byte code level cross-compiler to overcome the heterogeneity of the different programming models used by various smartphones. Specifically, we show how XMLVM can cross-compile an Android application to the iPhone and the Palm Pre, thereby significantly reducing the porting effort. The cross-compiler is based on Java byte code instructions that are translated to high-level programming languages supported by the targeted smartphone. Compatibility libraries map the API between smartphones. As a proof of concept, we have implemented a strategy game the demonstrate the feasibility of our approach.
Lactate dehydrogenase virus association with transplantable murine tumors.

L'association du virus lactate dehydrogenase et des tumeurs de souris transplantables, semble etre attribuable a une activation plutot qu'a une contamination accidentelle. Cette observation, soutenue par de recentes etudes montrant que le virus peut affecter l'interpretation des resultats, fait ressortir la necessite de verifier chaque generation d'un neoplasme donne.
New Genus of Crab (Brachyura: Raninoida: Necrocarcinidae) from the Upper Cretaceous of West Antarctica, with Description of a New Species

ABSTRACT A new genus of crab from the Late Cretaceous of Antarctica increases diversity within Necrocarcinidae Forster, 1968, and demonstrates what appear to be gradual evolution and sympatric speciation in the southern high latitudes. New taxa include Hadrocarcinus tectilacus, new genus, new species, as well as two new combinations, Hadrocarcinus carinatus (Feldmann et al., 1993) and Hadrocarcinus wrighti (Feldmann et al., 1993). Necrocarcinidae was paleogeographically widespread by the middle Early Cretaceous, but the geographic distribution and diversity of the group increased even further by the middle Late Cretaceous, perhaps as a result of high sea levels and elevated global temperatures at that time. The paleogeographic range and diversity of necrocarcinids decreased during the latest Cretaceous and into the earliest Paleocene (Danian), possibly due to decreases in sea level and global temperatures, restricting the family to the northern high latitudes. Alternatively, apparent diversity trends in N...
Unseparated rare Earth cobalt oxides as auto exhaust catalysts.

SINCE MEADOWCRAFT REPORTED THAT STRONTIUM-DOPED LACO03 WAS COMPARABLE TO PLATINUM AS AN OXYGEN ELECTRODE, THE TESTING OF THE CATALYTIC ACTIVITY OF LACO03 ON CERTAIN GAS SYSTEMS HAS BEEN PURSUED. THIS PARTICULAR RARE EARTH COBALT OXIDE AGAIN HAD ACTIVITY WHICH RIVALED PLATINUM. THE COMPOUND WAS SUGGESTED AS A CANDIDATE FOR AUTO EXHAUST CATALYSIS. AS A NEXT STEP, COBALT OXIDES WITH OTHER RARE EARTHS HAVE BEEN PREPARED, AND THEIR CATALYTIC ACTIVITIES HAVE BEEN DETERMINED. LITTLE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM HAS BEEN FOUND. THIS RESULT SUGGESTED THAT A CATALYST, JUST AS EFFECTIVE, COULD BE MADE FROM THE UNSEPARATED RARE EARTHS WITH SUBSTANTIAL COST SAVINGS. TESTS WITH THE RARE EARTH MIXTURE AS MINED DID GIVE EQUALLY SATISFACTORY RESULTS. /AUTHOR/
Glibenclamide-10-h Treatment Window in a Clinically Relevant Model of Stroke.

Glibenclamide improves outcomes in rat models of stroke, with treatment as late as 6 h after onset of ischemia shown to be beneficial. Because the molecular target of glibenclamide, the sulfonylurea receptor 1 (Sur1)-regulated NCCa-ATP channel, is upregulated de novo by a complex transcriptional mechanism, and the principal pathophysiological target, brain swelling, requires hours to develop, we hypothesized that the treatment window would exceed 6 h. We studied a clinically relevant rat model of stroke in which middle cerebral artery occlusion (75% < reduction in LDF signal ≤90%) was produced using an intra-arterial occluder. Recanalization was obtained 4.5 h later by removing the occluder. At that time, we administered recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA; 0.9 mg/kg IV over 30 min). Immunolabeling showed modest expression of Sur1 5 h after onset of ischemia, with expression increasing 7- to 11-fold (P < 0.01) by 24 h. Rats were administered either vehicle or glibenclamide (10 μg/kg IP loading dose plus 200 ng/h by constant subcutaneous infusion) beginning 4.5 or 10 h after onset of ischemia. In rats treated at 4.5 or 10 h, glibenclamide significantly reduced hemispheric swelling at 24 h from (mean ± SEM) 14.7 ± 1.5% to 8.1 ± 1.6% or 8.8 ± 1.1% (both P < 0.01), respectively, and significantly reduced 48-h mortality from 53% to 17% or 12% (both P < 0.01), and improved Garcia scores at 48 h from 3.8 ± 0.62 to 7.6 ± 0.70 or 8.4 ± 0.74 (both P < 0.01). We conclude that, in a clinically relevant model of stroke, the treatment window for glibenclamide extends to 10 h after onset of ischemia.