cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Dissecting sources of quantitative gene expression pattern divergence between Drosophila species

Gene expression patterns can diverge between species due to changes in a gene's regulatory DNA or changes in the proteins, e.g., transcription factors (TFs), that regulate the gene. We developed a modeling framework to uncover the sources of expression differences in blastoderm embryos of three Drosophila species, focusing on the regulatory circuit controlling expression of the hunchback (hb) posterior stripe. Using this framework and cellular-resolution expression measurements of hb and its regulating TFs, we found that changes in the expression patterns of hb's TFs account for much of the expression divergence. We confirmed our predictions using transgenic D. melanogaster lines, which demonstrate that this set of orthologous cis-regulatory elements (CREs) direct similar, but not identical, expression patterns. We related expression pattern differences to sequence changes in the CRE using a calculation of the CRE's TF binding site content. By applying this calculation in both the transgenic and endogenous contexts, we found that changes in binding site content affect sensitivity to regulating TFs and that compensatory evolution may occur in circuit components other than the CRE.
Automatic control of a 30 MWe SEGS VI parabolic trough plant

Abstract For the 30 MWe SEGS VI parabolic trough collector plant, one task of a skilled plant operator is to maintain a specified set point of the collector outlet temperature by adjusting the volume flow rate of the heat transfer fluid circulating through the collectors. For the development of next generation SEGS plants and in order to obtain a control algorithm that approximates an operator’s behavior, a linear model predictive controller is developed for use in a plant model. The plant model is discussed first in this work. The performance of the controller is evaluated for a summer and a winter day. The influence of the control on the gross output of the plant is examined as well.
V(D)J RECOMBINATION: Molecular Biology and Regulation

The vertebrate immune system is capable of specifically recognizing and responding to an enormous number of antigens. The interaction with antigen is mediated by the immunoglobulin (Ig) and T cell receptor (TCR) molecules expressed by B and T lymphocytes, respectively. Ig and TCR polypeptides consist of separate structural domains: a variable domain that forms the antigen binding site, and one or more constant region domains that mediate various effector functions. The exons encoding the variable domains are assembled during lymphocyte development from component gene segments by a site-specific recombination reaction known as V(D) J recombination. This reaction generates much of the required
Processing Fluency and Investors’ Reactions to Disclosure Readability

The SEC’s emphasis on the use of plain English is designed to make disclosures more readable and more informative. Using an experiment, I find that more readable disclosures lead to stronger reactions from small investors, so that changes in valuation judgments are more positive when news is good and more negative when news is bad. Drawing on research in psychology to explain this result, I predict and find that processing fluency from a more readable disclosure acts as a subconscious heuristic cue and increases investors’ beliefs that they can rely on the disclosure. While I do not find that more readable disclosures directly increase perceptions of management credibility, I do find evidence of an indirect effect operating through feelings of processing fluency. In supplemental analyses, I find that investors who receive more readable disclosures revise their valuation judgments to be less extreme when they are explicitly made aware of the potential for variation in readability. I discuss potential explanations for these revised valuation judgments.
Adaptation and the comparative method

Over the past two decades, it has become widely accepted that phylogenies need to be incorporated into statistical analyses of interspecific data. However, recent debate has focused on whether it is appropriate to apply phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) to the study of adaptation. Although some of the criticisms are serious, it is premature to stop applying PCMs altogether. New statistical methods designed explicitly for the comparative study of adaptation overcome these criticisms and offer fresh insights into the evolution of phenotypes.
Stable social foraging swarms in a noisy environment

Bacteria, bees, and birds often work together in groups to find food. A group of robots can be designed to coordinate their activities to search for and collect objects. Networked cooperative uninhabited autonomous vehicles are being developed for commercial and military applications. Suppose that we refer to all such groups of entities as "social foraging swarms". In order for such multiagent systems to succeed it is often critical that they can both maintain cohesive behaviors and appropriately respond to environmental stimuli (e.g., by optimizing the acquisition of nutrients in foraging for food). In this paper, we characterize swarm cohesiveness as a stability property and use a Lyapunov approach to develop conditions under which local agent actions will lead to cohesive foraging even in the presence of "noise" characterized by uncertainty on sensing other agent's position and velocity, and in sensing nutrients that each agent is foraging for. The results quantify earlier claims that social foraging is in a certain sense superior to individual foraging when noise is present, and provide clear connections between local agent-agent interactions and emergent group behavior. Moreover, the simulations show that very complicated but orderly group behaviors, reminiscent of those seen in biology, emerge in the presence of noise.
E-teaching simply with e-mail

This paper describes e-mail as a simple, relatively low-tech, and effective way to enhance teaching. Focusing on the boon rather than the bane of e-mail, it presents practical methods for using e-mail as a teaching tool and for communicating with students more effectively. It reports results of a two-semester survey of engineering students in a technical communication course, updating the previous report of a one-semester survey. Items receiving the most responses from 59 participants indicate recommendations to faculty about communicating with e-mail in the following categories: format and organization, reminders and assignment information, usage, frequency, e-mail and the Web, and miscellaneous tips.
Magnetic particle spectroscopy of magnetite-polyethylene nanocomposite films: A novel sample for MPI tracer design

Several harmonic spectra are plotted in Figure 2. An important result is the comparison of free particles embedded in agar and films (Figure 2c). The particles embedded in the films are “frozen” in place, while those in agar, unless bound within the matrix, should still have some freedom to rotate. Particles in both should have identical Neel relaxation times, as that is dependent only on the structure of the iron core and not local environment, provided magnetic interactions can be excluded. A calculation of the Neel relaxation time yields values in the range of 0.12-171 microseconds (for crystal anisotropies in the range of 11-21kJ/m3). The Brownian relaxation time for the films is assumed to be infinite, such that relaxation is only possible through the Neel mechanism. However, the Brownian relaxation times for particles in agar are long enough that relaxation is also assumed to be dominated by the Neel mechanism. While Brownian relaxation may play a role in explaining the signal difference, it is likely due to magnetic interactions between neighboring particles that steepen the magnetization curve. Figure 2c demonstrates that a low interparticle distance generally results in a higher signal. In samples with high local concentrations (such as the films presented here, or samples that exhibit significant aggregation), the average distance between two particles is small enough that dipole-dipole interactions must be considered. Such interactions are one possible explanation for the performance of Feridex IV and Resovist.
Correlation of MRI Grading of Bone Stress Injuries With Clinical Risk Factors and Return to Play A 5-Year Prospective Study in Collegiate Track and Field Athletes

Background:Bone stress injuries are common in track and field athletes. Knowledge of risk factors and correlation of these to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) grading could be helpful in determining recovery time.Purpose:To examine the relationships between MRI grading of bone stress injuries with clinical risk factors and time to return to sport in collegiate track and field athletes.Study Design:Cohort study (prognosis); Level of evidence, 2.Methods:A total of 211 male and female collegiate track and field and cross-country athletes were followed prospectively through their competitive seasons. All athletes had preparticipation history, physical examination, and anthropometric measurements obtained annually. An additional questionnaire was completed regarding nutritional behaviors, menstrual patterns, and prior injuries, as well as a 3-day diet record. Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry was performed at baseline and each year of participation in the study. Athletes with clinical evidence of bone stress in...
Attrition Rates for Weapons with Markov-Dependent Fire

A weapon is said to have a Markov-dependent firing policy if the result of the current round is conditioned on the outcome of the preceding round. For such a weapon we obtain the distribution of the number of rounds required to defeat a target. From this result we derive the distribution of the time required to destroy a target and the expected value of the Lanchester attrition-rate coefficient.
Relative Differences in Tenderness of Breast Muscle in Normal and Two Dystrophic Mutant Strains of Chickens

SUMMARY– Cooked samples of Pectoralis major muscles from one normal and two mutant dystrophic lines of chickens were compared for tenderness using a mechanical device. The muscles from one of these lines, characterized by partial atrophy, were found to be significantly more tender than normal muscles, whereas the muscles from the second mutant line, characterized by hypertrophy were much tougher than normal muscles. Cooking-weight losses were much greater in both of the dystrophic mutant lines than in the normal line. Some relationships between composition of the three muscle types and their textural qualities are discussed.
Physical activity and healthy eating in the after-school environment.

BACKGROUND: No research to date has extensively described moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and healthful eating (HE) opportunities in the after-school environment. The current study described the quality of the after-school environment for its impact on children’s MVPA and HE. METHODS: An alliance of 7 elementary schools and Boys and Girls Clubs who worked with the Cooperative Extension Service in Lawrence, KS, was selected to participate in a larger intervention study. After-school settings were observed for information regarding session type, session context, leader behavior, physical activity, and snack quality using validated instruments such as the System for Observing Fitness Instruction Time. Data presented are baseline measures for all sites. RESULTS: Participating children (n = 144) were primarily non-Hispanic white (60%) and in fourth grade (69%). After-school sites offered 4 different sessions per day (active recreation, academic time, nonactive recreation, and enrichment activities). Children were provided with a daily snack. On 36% of the days observed, this snack included fruit, fruit juice, or vegetables. There was significantly more time spent in MVPA during free play sessions (69%) compared to organized adult-led sessions (51%). There was also significantly more discouragement of physical activity during organized adult-led sessions (29%) as compared to the free play sessions (6%). CONCLUSIONS: The quality of after-school programs can be improved by providing fruits and vegetables as snacks; offering more free play activities; training the after-school staff in simple, structured games for use in a variety of indoor and outdoor settings; and training after-school staff to promote and model MVPA and HE in and out of the after-school setting.
Routine Testing for HIV/AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Philosopher's Perspective

This article summarizes some important arguments for and against instituting a routine testing regimen for HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. After reviewing these competing positions and noting their areas of agreement and disagreement, the author recommends an alternative way to solve the main sticking point between them, that is, how to test a large majority of the population while still respecting their human rights to autonomy and freedom from unnecessary harm. This article argues that the proposed solution would respect the rights to autonomy of the individual to a sufficient degree and stands a greater chance of being both practicable and effective than the alternatives.
A Self-Calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index

Abstract The Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI) has been used for more than 30 years to quantify the long-term drought conditions for a given location and time. However, a common critique of the PDSI is that the behavior of the index at various locations is inconsistent, making spatial comparisons of PDSI values difficult, if not meaningless. A self-calibrating Palmer Drought Severity Index (SC-PDSI) is presented and evaluated. The SC-PDSI automatically calibrates the behavior of the index at any location by replacing empirical constants in the index computation with dynamically calculated values. An evaluation of the SC-PDSI at 761 sites within Nebraska, Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, as well as at all 344 climate divisions shows that it is more spatially comparable than the PDSI, and reports extreme wet and dry conditions with frequencies that would be expected for rare conditions.
Effects of caffeine and theophylline on acetaminophen pharmacokinetics: P450 inhibition and activation.

Metabolism of acetaminophen (APAP) to its reactive metabolite N-acetyl-p-benzoquinoneimine (NAPQI) is mediated by cytochrome P450. A pharmacokinetic study was conducted to quantitate changes in the formation clearance (Cl(f)) of NAPQI to assess in vivo the activation and inhibition of NAPQI formation by methylxanthines. Cl(f) of NAPQI was unaltered by methylxanthine administration in saline-pretreated rats. In phenobarbital-induced rats receiving a nontoxic dose of APAP (100 mg/kg i.v.), a single dose of caffeine (100 mg/kg i.p.) co-administered with APAP increased the Cl(f) of NAPQI formation from 0.58 +/- 0.47 to 2.08 +/- 1.1 1 ml/min/kg (P = .01). Unlike caffeine, theophylline (93 mg/kg i.p.) had no effect on the Cl(f) of NAPQI in phenobarbital-induced rats. The increase in the Cl(f) of NAPQI immediately after a single dose of caffeine demonstrates that P450 activation by caffeine can occur in vivo, as we observed previously in microsomes. The same dose of APAP and methylxanthines also was administered to rats induced with methylcholanthrene. The co-administration of either a single dose of caffeine or theophylline diminished the Cl(f) of NAPQI by 86% (P = .01) and 52% (P = .03), respectively. These in vivo results agree with our previous studies of the effects of the methylxanthines on the formation of NAPQI in rat liver microsomes.
Analysis of stand basal area development of thinned and unthinned Acer rubrum forests in the upper Great Lakes region, USA

Red maple (Acer rubrum L.), historically a common but not abundant tree species in North America, has increased in abundance throughout its range over the last several decades; however, it has received little attention in growth and yield studies. The objectives of this study were to (i) evaluate the effects of stocking level and stand density on overall patterns of red maple stand productivity and (ii) quantify these relationships across a wide range of stand age, site quality, geographic location, and climatic conditions. We used long-term measurements from 52 sites in Wisconsin and Michigan to examine growth responses of even-aged red maple stands to various levels of thinning. Using linear, mixed-effects modeling, future stand-level red maple basal area was modeled as a function of stand and plot characteristics and climatic variables. Growing season precipitation and its interaction with initial red maple basal area were significant predictors; however, they only collectively reduced the mean squared...
Computational Study of Fluorinated Diglyoxime-Iron Complexes: Tuning the Electrocatalytic Pathways for Hydrogen Evolution.

The ability to tune the properties of hydrogen-evolving molecular electrocatalysts is important for developing alternative energy sources. Fluorinated diglyoxime-iron complexes have been shown to evolve hydrogen at moderate overpotentials. Herein two such complexes, [(dArFgBF2)2Fe(py)2], denoted A, and [(dArFg2H-BF2)Fe(py)2], denoted B [dArFg = bis(pentafluorophenyl-glyoximato); py = pyridine], are investigated with density functional theory calculations. B differs from A in that one BF2 bridge is replaced by a proton bridge of the form O–H–O. According to the calculations, the catalytic pathway for A involves two consecutive reduction steps, followed by protonation of an Fe0 species to generate the active FeII-hydride species. B is found to proceed via two parallel pathways, where one pathway is similar to that for A, and the additional pathway arises from protonation of the O–H–O bridge, followed by spontaneous reduction to an Fe0 intermediate and intramolecular proton transfer from the ligand to the me...
Iterative reconstruction from limited angle, limited view projections for cryo-electron tomography

Improved accurate measurement models and improved iterative reconstruction algorithms would benefit cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) performance. Filtered back- projection and related algorithms, successful in CT and MRI, assume a measurement model which is not well matched to the limited range of projection angles, large angular increments, and incomplete projections in cryo-ET. Iterative methods, such as compressed sensing (CS) can include irregular measurement models and spatial extent constraints, and have great potential for solution of severely under-determined systems. This paper uses source models with square and pyramidal basis functions and variable finite width aperture measurement to compare space domain and frequency domain CS reconstruction approaches in the cryo-ET context.
An improved technique of local anesthesia for anorectal surgery

MOST ANORECTAL PROCEDURES, especially hemorrhoidectomy and lateral anal sphincterotomy, can be performed with the patient under local anesthesia. Kratzer 1 and Ramalho et aL 2 have shown that full relaxation of the anal canal can be accomplished with local anesthesia. Traditionally, injection of the anesthetic solution is started from the perianal skin toward the anorectal ring. Because of the extremely sensitive anoderm, most local anesthesia causes severe pain during injection, unless the patient is heavily sedated. A new technique is described which can avoid this problem. The sensitive anoderm is partially or totally anesthetized by squeezing the anesthetic solution from the relatively insensitive area proximal to the dentate line. The next injection of the anesthetic solution of the anoderm thus causes minimal or no pain to the patient. The technique described is actually the reverse of steps used in conventional technique.
The effect of adrenalectomy on propulsive motility of the small intestine in rats.

SummaryAdrenalectomized rats showed greater propulsive motility of the small intestine than intact, sham-operated; or partially starved controls. A small proportion exhibited abnormally reduced activity. The altered activity during adrenal insufficiency may be associated with changes in the potassium balance.
Evaluation of Environmental Sample Analysis Methods and Results Reporting in the National Children’s Study Vanguard Study

During the initial Vanguard phase of the U.S. National Children’s Study (NCS), about 2000 tap water, surface wipe, and air samples were collected and analyzed immediately. The shipping conditions, analysis methods, results, and laboratory performance were evaluated to determine the best approaches for use in the NCS Main Study. The main conclusions were (1) to employ established sample analysis methods, when possible, and alternate methodologies only after careful consideration with method validation studies; (2) lot control and prescreening sample collection materials are important quality assurance procedures; (3) packing samples correctly requires careful training and adjustment of shipping conditions to local conditions; (4) trip blanks and spiked samples should be considered for samplers with short expiration times and labile analytes; (5) two study-specific results reports should be required: laboratory electronic data deliverables (EDD) of sample results in a useable electronic format (CSV or SEDD ...
Analysis on Hygienic Status of Drinking Water,Lvliang City,2012

Objective To understand the hygienic status of drinking water in Lvliang city. Methods Analysis was made on the city's hygiene supervision and inspection data of drinking water in 2012. Results There were 765 units including more than 2.40 million people sharing centralized water supply,from which the urban population was 1.41 million,accounting for 58.75%,and the rural population was 0.99 million,accounting for 41.25%;The possession rate of water disinfection facilities:100% from municipal water supply,36.11% from self-supplied water system,57.97% from second water supply,11.18%from centralized water supply in rural areas.All municipal water supply equipped with selfinspection of water quality,except self-supplied water system,second water supply and centralized water supply in rural areas.The issuance rate of hygiene license in water plant was 27.06%.The rate of employee certificate holding was57.02%,and the rate of asking for license of water-related products was 76.79%.The pass rate of water quality was90.25%,from which the urban area was higher than the rural area(P 0.01).The pass rate was varied based on the different water supply methods(P 0.01):The highest was municipal water supply,accounting for 96.53%,then the selfsupplied water system accounted for 94.74%,the lowest was centralized water supply in rural areas,accounting for71.67%. Conclusion The equipments with hygienic facilities of drinking water are insufficient in Lvliang city.The establishment of hygienic facilities and the protection of water source in water disinfection and inspection should be strengthened.In addition,the hygiene supervision and law enforcement of drinking water and the hygiene inspection in rural areas should be enhanced,then finally improve the service level in drinking water hygiene supervision in an all-round way.
Factors That Improve RT-QuIC Detection of Prion Seeding Activity

Rapid and sensitive detection of prions is important in managing prion diseases. The real-time quaking-induced conversion (RT-QuIC) assay for prion seeding activity has been applied to many prion diseases and provides for specific antemortem diagnostic testing. We evaluated RT-QuIC’s long-term consistency and varied multiple reaction parameters. Repeated assays of a single scrapie sample using multiple plate readers and recombinant prion protein (rPrPSen) substrates gave comparable results. N-terminal truncated hamster rPrPSen (residues 90–231) hastened both prion-seeded and prion-independent reactions but maintained a clear kinetic distinction between the two. Raising temperatures or shaking speeds accelerated RT-QuIC reactions without compromising specificity. When applied to nasal brushings from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease patients, higher temperatures accelerated RT-QuIC kinetics, and the use of hamster rPrPSen (90–231) strengthened RT-QuIC responses. Elongation of shaking periods reduced scrapie-seeded reaction times, but continuous shaking promoted false-positive reactions. Furthermore, pH 7.4 provided for more rapid RT-QuIC reactions than more acidic pHs. Additionally, we show that small variations in the amount of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) significantly impacted the assay. Finally, RT-QuIC performed in multiplate thermoshakers followed by fluorescence readings in separate plate readers enhanced assay throughput economically. Collectively, these results demonstrate improved speed, efficacy and practicality of RT-QuIC assays and highlight variables to be optimized for future applications.
Recreational marijuana use impacts white matter integrity and subcortical (but not cortical) morphometry

A recent shift in legal and social attitudes toward marijuana use has also spawned a surge of interest in understanding the effects of marijuana use on the brain. There is considerable evidence that an adolescent onset of marijuana use negatively impacts white matter coherence. On the other hand, a recent well-controlled study demonstrated no effects of marijuana use on the morphometry of subcortical or cortical structures when users and non-users were matched for alcohol use. Regardless, most studies have involved small, carefully selected samples, so the ability to generalize to larger populations is limited. In an attempt to address this issue, we examined the effects of marijuana use on white matter integrity and cortical and subcortical morphometry using data from the Human Connectome Project (HCP) consortium. The HCP data consists of ultra-high resolution neuroimaging data from a large community sample, including 466 adults reporting recreational marijuana use. Rather than just contrasting two groups of individuals who vary significantly in marijuana usage as typifies prior studies, we leveraged the large sample size provided by the HCP data to examine parametric effects of recreational marijuana use. Our results indicate that the earlier the age of onset of marijuana use, the lower was white matter coherence. Age of onset also also affected the shape of the accumbens, while the number of lifetime uses impacted the shape of the amygdala and hippocampus. Marijuana use had no effect on cortical volumes. These findings suggest subtle but significant effects of recreational marijuana use on brain structure.
Driving new lightweight and high strength solutions for the automotive industry

DuPont is always investing in its materials and, through different partnerships, is developing exciting applications for its products. The BMW i8 sports car is a perfect example of this type of investment. It features a new resonator made of glass-fiber reinforced DuPont Zytel® PLUS 95G35. The resonator, developed in close collaboration between BMW Group, DuPont Performance Materials and MANN + HUMMEL, reduces the noise of the two turbo charged engines to allow for an even more pleasurable driving experience. The lightweight and high strength features of this material also allow for the reduction in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions.
Standardisierte Infotainment-Softwareplattform

Microsoft halt mit „Microsoft Auto“ eine von mehreren offenen und standardisierten Softwareplattformen fur Infotainment bereit, die derzeit diskutiert werden. Der Softwarehersteller beschreibt, wie modular seine Basissoftware aufgebaut ist, wie flexibel sich diese mit OEM und Zulieferer entwickeln und auf Kundenanforderungen spezifizieren lasst. Die erste einer Vielzahl von Service-Anwendungen kommt aktuell in diesem Monat auf den Markt: Mit „Live Search for Devices“ soll sich der Nutzer aktuelle Informationen zu sogenannten POIs (Points-of-interest) live im Fahrzeug abrufen konnen.
You Should Know Better: Can Self-Affirmation Facilitate Information-Seeking Behavior and Interpersonal Discussion?

This study explores whether self-affirmation has the capacity not merely to reduce the perceived threat associated with health-related information but also to facilitate interpersonal discussion and affect health information–seeking behavior. The context for the study is the ongoing California drought, which serves as suitable context to examine the intersection of self-affirmation and information-seeking behavior because it involves a threatening message (the destructive consequences of the drought) and highlights discrepancies between actual (water waste) and prosocial (water conservation) behavior. Results of a month-long longitudinal panel study demonstrate significant effects of self-affirmation on interpersonal discussion, information seeking, knowledge, and water-conserving behavior across time. Implications for theorizing longer term effects of self-affirmation and practical implications for promoting behavioral change through the enhancement of knowledge and self-esteem are considered.
Bizarre radiation from Hercules X-1

On 24 July 1986 an array of particle detectors viewing the sky above the Los Alamos laboratory in New Mexico, USA, recorded two bursts of high energy photons emitted by the binary star Hercules X-1. This might sound routine. It is not. Cognicenti reading the subsequent article (Phys. Rev. Less. 61 1906) can only have one spontaneous reaction: Impossible!'Too many miracles before breakast' by common Alice in Wonderland wisdom. The results indeed pose considerable challenges to astrophysicists and particle physicists alike. Some day we might realize that the observations require nothing less than a rethinking of our basic conceptions of the structure of radiation and matter. The Los Alamos group, well aware of the impact of their discovery, searched their data for errors and misinterpretations for well over one year. They finally published their paper about two years after the observation.
Intimacy in the Long-Term Care Setting

The sexual needs of elderly individuals are similar to those of the young, but with variations in frequency, intensity, and mode of expression. Intimacy may take the form of affection, romance, companionship, touch, and the need to feel attractive, even in the absence of overt sexual behavior. Social connection and human touch are essential ways of avoiding the depression and loneliness that often occur when an elderly individual becomes isolated by losses or illness in advancing age. In many long-term care facilities, a communal atmosphere, the caregiving role, emphasis on disease management, and concern regarding cognitive impairment often lead to inappropriate restrictions on intimacy and sexual expression. The individual with dementia is often perceived as “being in need of” protection from his or her own impaired memory and judgment. Normal sexual behaviors are often considered “problematic” by staff. Many residents and staff have little experience with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals, and this may contribute to the isolation these individuals experience as they transition from their supportive communities. Clearly written policies, staff education, and a non-biased interdisciplinary sexual history at the time of admission can help the facility and family to best meet the individual needs of each resident.
ENERGY SECURITY: TODAY AND TOMORROW

Purpose:To emphasize the importance of renewable and alternative energy, as nations become increasingly reliant on increasingly less available conventional energy sources. Simultaneously, the long-term and detrimental effects of such reliance is explored and quanitified so as to better justify investments into renewable, widely available, and less polluting energy sources.Design/Metholody/Approach:Data is collected from a variety of publicly available sources and their relevance is explored through contrast and comparison. The graphs and data used primarily focus on energy and energy consumption such as fuel pricing and exporting as well as the rate of fuel exporting by various nations.Findings:Based on the data analyzed, through the continuous use of fossil fuels, a country faces multiple challenges: depletion of fossil fuel reserves, global warming, environmental concerns, geopolitical and military conflicts and, of late, a continued and significant fuel price rise. The authors conclude these problems create an unsustainable situation and that without converting their energy sector to at least be in part less reliant on hydrocarbons and similar fuels and more reliant on more widely available and less polluting energy sources such as sunlight or geothermal energy a nation will inevitably face a catastrophic collapse of their energy sector.Research Limitations/Implications:Without cooperation of the governments of leading energy consuming nations in redeveloping their energy sector based on this or similar research, little of what has been explored can be widely applied. Consequently, the conclusions of this paper represent a single step in the process of redefining worldwide energy consumption rather than giving an explicit answer. Further research will be needed in order to most fully present an effective argument to the public sector, the private sector, and the common citizen that energy habits must be changed.Originality/value:The conclusions reached are an essential part to understanding the wide reaching effects of the world’s current energy habits. With the ever increasing threat of global warming, emptying fuel reserves, and unnecessary polluting and waste habits of most nation’s energy sectors, this research, along with the cited data, can aid in the redirection of such energy habits before a point of no return.
66-P: ALLOGRAFT INFLAMMATORY FACTOR-1 IN CARDIAC ISCHEMIA REPERFUSION INJURY

Aim The initial ischemia/reperfusion injury (IRI) may have impact on the recipient immune response after transplantation. Allograft inflammatory factor-1 (AIF-1), an evolutionary conserved structural protein has been implicated in the regulation of inflammation, associated with rejection. AIF-1 is either passively released from injured tissue cells during procurement, or actively secreted by allograft infiltrating cells contributing to allograft rejection. We investigated the impact of ischemia/reperfusion in association with the presence of AIF-1, IL-18, TLR-2 and TLR-4, markers with the goal to demonstrate the presence of these markers in donor tissue during IRI, and in peripheral blood and biopsy specimen with allograft rejection. Methods Tissue from donor atrium was subjected to IRI using 1X PBS for 90 minutes. Tissue array was prepared for immunohistochemistry (IHC) stains. Recipients peripheral blood mononuclear cells (MNCs) and endomyocardial specimens were tested by RT-PCR and IHC stains for identification of AIF-1, TLR2, -4, and IL-18 markers. Results Only AIF-1 and IL-18 specific immunoreactivity were detected in cardiomyocytes and interstitial tissues after IRI. The TLR-2 immunoreactivity was strongly detected in infiltrating MNCs and CMCs in grade 3A rejection. IL-18 immunoreactivity was strongly detected in grade 3A rejection. In peripheral blood MNCs, AIF-1 expression was 4.2-fold-increased in the group with 3A rejection as compared with grade 1A or 0. The mRNA expression levels were varied significantly for TLR-2 in MNCs with different ISHLT grades (grades 3A ® 1A rejection: mean ± SEM both peripheral blood and local tissue was 64.0 ± 3.8; vs. 38.4 ± 3.5, p Conclusions AIF-1 and IL-18 are initial inflammatory markers associated with IRI present in the donor. The expression profile of the recipient AIF-1, TLR-2 and IL-18 were correlated with biopsy-proven allograft rejection, suggesting a potential for diagnostic biomarkers for early detection of allograft rejection.
The special nature of rural America.

The chapter on "The Social Context of Substance Abuse" reviewed the complex processes through which individual characteristics, family processes, and community structures come together to influence risk for substance use and abuse. This chapter considers the fact that individuals and families live in communities that vary greatly in terms of cultural and ethnic heritage, socioeconomic conditions, geographic placement, and population density. The drama of individual lives, including achievements and behavioral dysfunctions, is played out against the backdrop of these important social, economic, and cultural variations. The following discussion indicates how significant distinctions between and within the categories of urban and rural locations play a major role in influencing how the dynamics portrayed in the aforementioned chapter actually occur in daily life.
Ocean beliefs and support for an offshore wind energy project

Abstract Wind turbines located in the ocean contribute to the ongoing global transition to renewable sources of electricity, but further expansion of this technology will depend as much on social acceptance as on technological know-how. This article explores how underlying values and beliefs about the ocean influence public support for offshore wind energy. An intercept survey was conducted with more than 600 individuals on Block Island, site of the first offshore wind farm in the United States. Following a values-beliefs-norm framework, this survey measured respondents' underlying values, anticipated impacts of the proposed wind energy project, attachment to the island, and beliefs about the ocean. The results indicate that ocean beliefs and underlying values have direct and indirect associations with expectations and support for an offshore wind energy project development. These findings provide insights into objections that arise over offshore wind farms, by acknowledging that the probability of conflict increases when one interpretation of the marine environment is imposed on people holding different beliefs about the ocean. Understanding these dynamics and integrating them into planning dialogues may be critical for successfully navigating the broader energy transition.
Italian Americans and Others in New York City: Interethnic Relations from the Field

At the turn of the twenty first century relations between Italian Americans and other ethnic groups in New York City had been defined in the minds of the general public largely by the mass media coverage of the most notorious of violent interracial incidents. The facile media accounts of these tragic crimes must be corrected in order to provide an objective context for understanding Italian Americans’ relations with other groups that is partially explained by their territorially centered culture. As Italian neighborhoods slowly changed during the 1970s and 1980s, despite local resistance, individual Italian Americans, and citywide Italian American organizations, worked positively, but mostly unnoticed, with other ethnic groups. All this took place during a turbulent era in New York City punctuated with other instances of intergroup violence, urban riots as well as hotly contested municipal elections that exploited racial, ethnic and religious divisions. As a consequence, today most historically Italian neighborhoods are dominated by new groups, but retain some of the earlier, often elderly, Italian population.
Peepers and Goodeyes a Merger Case

Accountants is public practice will often be asked by their clients how to assign value for a merger. It is not always an easy task to assign value and ownership interests in the merger of a small service business. The customer base and methods of operation are often very different and rely upon the owner of the business to establish the business practice. This is a case involving the merger of two optometrists.
Inhibitory effect of thymol via different modes of delivery on growth of Escherichia coli DH5α

Abstract Although thymol is a natural antimicrobial with broad-range activities, it is not suitable to be added directly into the food formulation (a delivery mode known as instant addition), due to its strong aroma and high concentration requirement for microbial inhibition. Recent studies have shown that lower concentrations can achieve the same inhibitory effect as instant addition if antimicrobials are added in a time-release manner. However, the effect of combined mode (i.e., instant addition plus time release) has not been studied. The objective of this work is to compare the effects of thymol via three delivery modes (instant addition, time release, and combined mode) on microbial inhibition of Escherichia coli DH5α. The results showed that via time-release and combined mode, the minimum inhibitory concentrations of thymol were lowered by 25% and 50% respectively, as compared to instant addition. Implications of the results for the design of controlled release packaging are discussed.
Use of the geometric mean as a statistic for the scale of the coupled Gaussian distributions

Abstract The geometric mean is shown to be an appropriate statistic for the scale of a heavy-tailed coupled Gaussian distribution or equivalently the Student’s t distribution. The coupled Gaussian is a member of a family of distributions parameterized by the nonlinear statistical coupling which is the reciprocal of the degree of freedom and is proportional to fluctuations in the inverse scale of the Gaussian. Existing estimators of the scale of the coupled Gaussian have relied on estimates of the full distribution, and they suffer from problems related to outliers in heavy-tailed distributions. In this paper, the scale of a coupled Gaussian is proven to be equal to the product of the generalized mean and the square root of the coupling. From our numerical computations of the scales of coupled Gaussians using the generalized mean of random samples, it is indicated that only samples from a Cauchy distribution (with coupling parameter one) form an unbiased estimate with diminishing variance for large samples. Nevertheless, we also prove that the scale is a function of the geometric mean, the coupling term and a harmonic number. Numerical experiments show that this estimator is unbiased with diminishing variance for large samples for a broad range of coupling values.
Status of Ethnic Minority Group Members in School Psychology Training Programs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of ethnic minority group members in school psychology training programs in the United States. A survey was sent to 201 school psychology prog...
Developing Systems Thinking Skills using Healthcare as a Case Study

This paper presents the use of the U.S. Healthcare Systems as an application example for a large sociotechnical systems architecture in a class on system architecture fundamentals. Although the complexity of the U.S. healthcare system is too great to support detailed analysis in a class setting, it is excellent system to introduce concepts such as sensemaking, heuristics, boundary setting, analysis of context, and strategy definition. The exercise starts with a set of narratives that have been selected to introduce a breadth of perspectives to the students. From these, the students select a set of relevant heuristics that guide architectural descriptions. In a facilitated exercise the students brainstorm and document the structure and relationships in the system guided by selected long-term outcomes. The knowledge gained sets the stage for a more detailed study of an existing healthcare system architecture such as an electronic patient records system, or a complex set of medical equipment. The use of specific systems thinking tools in this process leads the students to a more holistic view of the healthcare system-of-systems architecture. The paper presents the case study, the systems thinking tools employed, and observed impacts on the mindset of the students in a professional Masters degree program in Systems Engineering.
On the Number and 3-D Placement of In-Band Full-Duplex Enabled Drone-Mounted Base-Stations

Drone-mounted base-stations (DBSs) have attracted much attention because of their mobile, flexible and low-cost networking features. In-band full-duplex (IBFD) is a promising technology to potentially double the spectrum efficiency, and thus equipping DBSs with IBFD to provision services may increase throughput and reduce the number of required DBSs for the same coverage. We propose a dynamic drone-base-station-placement algorithm to solve the 3-D DBS placement problem by incorporating IBFD-enabled DBS communications for both access links and backhaul links of DBSs, which is NP-hard. Simulation results have demonstrated that our proposed algorithm significantly increases the throughput and reduces the data rate block ratio as compared to that of other strategies.
Low-Rank Tucker Decomposition of Large Tensors Using TensorSketch

We propose two randomized algorithms for low-rank Tucker decomposition of tensors. The algorithms, which incorporate sketching, only require a single pass of the input tensor and can handle tensors whose elements are streamed in any order. To the best of our knowledge, ours are the only algorithms which can do this. We test our algorithms on sparse synthetic data and compare them to multiple other methods. We also apply one of our algorithms to a real dense 38 GB tensor representing a video and use the resulting decomposition to correctly classify frames containing disturbances.
HIS BUNDLE, BIVENTRICULAR, OR RIGHT VENTRICULAR PACING AS A PRIMARY STRATEGY FOR ADVANCED ATRIOVENTRICULAR CONDUCTION DISEASE IN PATIENTS WITH NORMAL OR MILDLY REDUCED EJECTION FRACTION: A NETWORK META-ANALYSIS

Right ventricular pacing (RVP) may impair left ventricular function, but is often used for advanced atrioventricular block and normal or mildly reduced ejection fraction (EF). We aimed to compare His bundle pacing (HBP), biventricular pacing (BiVP) and RVP for advanced atrioventricular block without
Explicitness of Parameters Identification in Anhysteretic Curve of Magnetic Materials with Strong Perpendicular Anisotropy

Paper presents the results of verification of the explicitness of determination of parameters for anhysteretic loop in Jiles-Atherton model of magnetic characteristics of strongly anisotropic material. For the experiments the VitroVac 6150F, cobalt-based amorphous alloy with strong perpendicular anisotropy was used. The results indicated, that anhysteretic curve very well represents the shape of magnetic hysteresis loop of such alloys. Moreover, results confirmed the explicitness of model parameters. As a result, anhysteretic curve may represent the shape of magnetic hysteresis loop during the development and optimisation of current transformers based on VitroVac 6150F amorphous alloy.