cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
H3K27 trimethylation loss in malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor: a systematic review and meta-analysis with diagnostic implications

Multiple studies have reported the loss of trimethylation at lysine (K) 27 on histone 3 (H3K27me3) in high-grade malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors (MPNSTs). However, the diagnostic potential of this finding in MPNSTs remains yet to be fully substantiated. Correspondingly, our aim was to pool systematically-identified metadata in the literature and substantiate the incidence of H3K27me3 loss in this setting. Searches of 7 electronic databases from inception to May 2019 were conducted following PRISMA guidelines. Articles were screened against pre-specified criteria. The incidence of loss was then pooled by random-effects meta-analysis of proportions. Nine pertinent studies described a total of 823 high-grade MPNST samples. When pooled, incidence (sensitivity) of complete H3K27me3 loss was estimated to be 53% (95% CI 42–64%). For MPNST subtypes, estimated incidences of complete loss in NF1 subtype was 52% (95% CI 41–62), in sporadic subtype was 53% (95% CI 36–70%), in the epithelioid subtype was 0% (95% CI 0–7%), and radiation-associated subtype was 98% (95% CI 86–100%). Finally, incidence of incomplete loss (specificity) in 1231 MPNST-mimic samples was estimated to be 96% (95% CI 90–99%). Certainty of these outcomes ranged from very low to high. The incidence of complete H3K27me3 loss is substantial in high-grade MPNSTs and is low in MPNST-mimics. Greater cohort study and biological investigation will validate the certainty of these findings as well as elucidate their true molecular and clinical significances.
Spectral organization of focal seizures within the thalamotemporal network

OBJECTIVE To investigate dynamic changes in neural activity between the anterior nucleus of the thalamus (ANT) and the seizure onset zone (SOZ) in patients with drug-resistant temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) based on anatomic location, seizure subtype, and state of vigilance (SOV). METHODS Eleven patients undergoing stereoelectroencephalography for seizure localization were recruited prospectively for local field potential (LFP) recording directly from the ANT. The SOZ was identified using line length and epileptogenicity index. Changes in power spectral density (PSD) were compared between the two anatomic sites as seizures (N = 53) transitioned from interictal baseline to the posttermination stage. RESULTS At baseline, the thalamic LFPs were significantly lower and distinct from the SOZ with the presence of higher power in the fast ripple band (P < 0.001). Temporal changes in ictal power of neural activity within ANT mimic those of the SOZ, are increased significantly at seizure onset (P < 0.05), and are distinct for seizures that impaired awareness or that secondarily generalized (P < 0.05). The onset of seizure was preceded by a decrease in the mean power spectral density (PSD) in ANT and SOZ (P < 0.05). Neural activity correlated with different states of vigilance at seizure onset within the ANT but not in the SOZ (P = 0.005). INTERPRETATION The ANT can be recruited at the onset of mesial temporal lobe seizures, and the recruitment pattern differs with seizure subtypes. Furthermore, changes in neural dynamics precede seizure onset and are widespread to involve temporo-thalamic regions, thereby providing an opportunity to intervene early with closed-loop DBS.
Iran: A Modern History

Abbas Amanat’s magisterial work distills decades of interpretative research and teaching into a grand overview of Iranian history from 1501, when the country acquired the contours of its modern ide...
Innovative Designs for Biomarker-Guided Trials

Biomarkers are indispensable in the understanding of disease biology. It is believed that a validated biomarker with good predictive utility can offer a unique opportunity to guide clinical trial designs. Traditional clinical development of a novel therapy utilizes the “one-size-fits-all” approach by testing treatment effect in the entire patient population with a specific disease. It assumes that response in the disease population is homogeneous. However, many new therapeutic agents are molecularly targeted and might only benefit a subgroup of patients (Huang et al. 2015). If potential response heterogeneity between different patient subgroups was suspected through early stage biomarker research, it should be taken into account in the course of clinical development.
Comment on “A simple constrained machine learning model for predicting high-pressure-hydrogen-compressor materials” by Hattrick-Simpers, et al., Molecular Systems Design & Engineering, 2018, 3, 509

In this short comment we present a reproducibility study for our recent manuscript “A simple constrained machine learning model for predicting high-pressure-hydrogen-compressor materials” by Hattrick-Simpers, et al., Mol. Syst. Des. Eng., 2018, 3, 509” using a suite of open source materials data science tools. The principal goal of this study is to provide the interested reader the ability to reproduce our previous machine learning model with minimal effort and then perform predictions upon the holdout set used in that manuscript. In transcribing our model from the Java-based Magpie/Weka framework to the Python-based Matminer/scikit-learn framework we noticed an unexpected discrepancy in the predictions between the two platforms. To compare the performance of nominally equivalent random forest regression models across these two platforms, we trained and evaluated 50 replicate models for each platform using random 90% subsets of the full hydride training set for each replicate. The Magpie/Weka models showed somewhat higher predicted mean absolute error (5.6 ± 0.4) than the Matminer/scikit-learn models (4.2 ± 0.4) on the holdout set, although the validation statistics were within error of one another. It is beyond the scope of this comment to fully analyze the ultimate source of the variance in these predictions, but we speculate that some contribution results from differences in how Magpie treats duplicate compositions in the training set and/or differences in RF implementation between Weka and scikit-learn.
Epigenetic and epitranscriptomic regulation of viral replication

Eukaryotic gene expression is regulated not only by genomic enhancers and promoters, but also by covalent modifications added to both chromatin and RNAs. Whereas cellular gene expression may be either enhanced or inhibited by specific epigenetic modifications deposited on histones (in particular, histone H3), these epigenetic modifications can also repress viral gene expression, potentially functioning as a potent antiviral innate immune response in DNA virus-infected cells. However, viruses have evolved countermeasures that prevent the epigenetic silencing of their genes during lytic replication, and they can also take advantage of epigenetic silencing to establish latent infections. By contrast, the various covalent modifications added to RNAs, termed epitranscriptomic modifications, can positively regulate mRNA translation and/or stability, and both DNA and RNA viruses have evolved to utilize epitranscriptomic modifications as a means to maximize viral gene expression. As a consequence, both chromatin and RNA modifications could serve as novel targets for the development of antivirals. In this Review, we discuss how host epigenetic and epitranscriptomic processes regulate viral gene expression at the levels of chromatin and RNA function, respectively, and explore how viruses modify, avoid or utilize these processes in order to regulate viral gene expression. In this Review, Tsai and Cullen discuss how host epigenetic and epitranscriptomic processes regulate viral gene expression at the levels of chromatin and RNA function, respectively, and explore how viruses modify, avoid or utilize these processes in order to promote their replication or persistence.
First Principles Study of Structure, Alloying and Electronic Properties of Mg-doped CuAg Nanoalloys

Structure, alloying and electronic properties of Mg-doped Cu $$_n$$ Ag $$_{13-n}$$ nano-clusters have been studied for all compositions, using first principles density functional theory. Similar to the undoped CuAg clusters, the Mg-doped clusters also retain core-shell structural pattern. Interestingly, the Mg-doping has increased the alloying property by inducing enhanced charge transfer among the constituting Cu as well as Ag atoms and thereby hybridization of their valence orbitals. Furthermore, the Mg-doping in the CuAg nano-cluster alters the electronic structure of the host clusters by shifting the $$d-$$ band center towards the Fermi level, which facilitates Ag oxidation process and accelerates the antibacterial property of the CuAg nano-alloys.
Rethinking Mexican Modernity: Nation-State Formation, Politics, and the Longue Durée

This essay reviews the following works: Chino: Anti-Chinese Racism in Mexico, 1880–1940. By Jason Oliver Chang. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2017. Pp. xiv + 257. $28.00 paperback. ISBN: 9780252082344. Paisanos Chinos: Transpacific Politics among Chinese Immigrants in Mexico. By Fredy Gonzalez. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. Pp. xiii + 277. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780520290204. Camaradas: Nueva historia del comunismo en Mexico. Edited by Carlos Illades. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura Economica, 2017. Pp. 375. $18.95 hardcover. ISBN: 9786077457251. Seen and Heard in Mexico: Children and Revolutionary Cultural Nationalism. By Elena Jackson Albarran. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015. Pp. 414. $35.00 paperback. ISBN: 9780803265349. The Blood Contingent: The Military and the Making of Modern Mexico, 1876–1911. By Stephen B. Neufeld. Albuquerque: University of Mexico Press, 2017. Pp. vii + 400. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780826358059. A History of Infamy: Crime, Truth, and Justice in Mexico. By Pablo Piccato. Oakland: University of California Press, 2017. Pp. xi + 374. $34.95 paperback. ISBN: 9780520292628. The Power and Politics of Art in Postrevolutionary Mexico. By Stephanie J. Smith. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017. Pp. xiii + 275. $29.95 paperback. ISBN: 9781469635682.
Translation distractors facilitate production in single- and mixed-language picture naming

In the picture-word interference (PWI) task, semantically related distractors slow production, while translation-equivalent distractors speed it, possibly implying a language-specific bilingual pro...
The Role of PSMA PET/CT and PET/MRI in the Initial Staging of Prostate Cancer.

Abstract Context Prostate cancer (PCa) is the most common solid organ malignancy in men and is the third leading cause of cancer death. Accurate methods for the detection and staging of PCa are necessary to determine the extent of disease and inform treatment options. Objective To review the performance and diagnostic accuracy of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging in the initial staging of PCa and evaluate its impact on definitive therapy planning. Evidence acquisition A comprehensive literature search was performed using PubMed. References from retrieved articles and recommendations from the authors were also included. Evidence synthesis PSMA PET has moderately high sensitivity and specificity for detecting intraprostatic tumors and moderately high sensitivity for detecting regional and extrapelvic metastases, compared with conventional imaging. PSMA PET can also have an important role in the presurgical detection of extraprostatic disease and can guide surgical planning. Additionally, PSMA PET has proven to be an effective tool for planning definitive radiation therapy in treatment-naive patients. Conclusions PSMA PET has a promising role in the initial staging of PCa and informing appropriate treatment options. Further research is necessary to evaluate the appropriate role of PSMA PET in management changes, and to understand the appropriate management of patients with metastatic disease. Patient summary We reviewed the diagnostic accuracy and treatment impact of prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) positron emission tomography (PET) imaging in the initial staging of prostate cancer (PCa). We conclude that PSMA PET is effective at imaging initial PCa and may result in the modification of treatment plans for patients.
Acute Dose-Dependent Neuroprotective Effects of Poly(pro-17β-estradiol) in a Mouse Model of Spinal Contusion Injury

17β-Estradiol (E2) confers neuroprotection in preclinical models of spinal cord injury when administered systemically. The goal of this study was to apply E2 locally to the injured spinal cord for ...
Distinct REV-ERBα Conformational State Predicted by GaMD Simulations Leads to the Structure-Based Discovery of Novel REV-ERBα Antagonist

REV-ERBα is a nuclear hormone receptor that plays important role in the regulation of many physiological processes such as circadian clock regulation, inflammation, and metabolism. Despite its importance, few chemical tools are available to study this receptor. In addition, there is no available X-ray crystal structures of REV-ERB bound with synthetic ligands, hampering the development of targeted therapeutics. SR8278 is the only identified synthetic antagonist of REV-ERB. We have performed Gaussian accelerated molecular dynamics (GaMD) simulations to sample the binding pathway of SR8278 and associated conformational changes to REV-ERBα. The simulations revealed a novel and more energetically favorable conformational state than the starting conformation. The new conformation allows ligand binding to the orthosteric binding site in a specific orientation. This state is reached after a tryptophan (Trp436) rotameric switch coupled with H3-H6 distance change. We used the newly identified GaMD conformational state in structure-based virtual screening of one million compounds library which led to the identification of novel REV-ERBα antagonist. This study is the first that demonstrates a synthetic ligand binding pathway to REV-ERBα, which provided important insights into the REV-ERBα functional mechanism and lead to the discovery of novel REV-ERBα antagonists. This study further emphasizes the power of computational chemistry methods in advancing drug discovery research.
Use of laser capture microdissection for the assessment of equine lamellar basal epithelial cell signalling in the early stages of laminitis

Summary Reasons for performing study Dysadhesion of laminar basal epithelial cells (LBECs) from the underlying dermis is the central event leading to structural failure in equine laminitis. Although many studies of sepsis-related laminitis have reported multiple events occurring throughout the lamellar tissue, there is minimal information regarding signalling events occurring specifically in LBECs. Objectives To determine signalling events in the LBECs during the early stages of carbohydrate-induced laminitis. Study design Experimental study. Methods Eight horses were given an overload of carbohydrate (CHO) consisting of corn starch mixture via nasogastric tube. Prior to administration of CHO, lamellar biopsies were taken from the left forefoot (control [CON]). Biopsies were taken from the left hind foot at the onset of fever (developmental [DEV]) and from the right forefoot at the onset of Obel grade 1 lameness (OG1). Laminar basal epithelial cells were isolated from cryosections using a laser capture microdissection (LCM) microscope. Next generation sequencing (RNA-seq) was used to identify transcripts expressed in the LBECs for each time point and bioinformatic analysis was performed with thresholds for between group comparisons set at a greater than 2-fold change and P value ≤0.05. Results Forty genes (22 increased/18 decreased) were significantly different from DEV time vs. CON and 107 genes (57 increased/50 decreased) were significantly different from OG1 time vs. CON. Significant increases in inflammatory genes were present in addition to significantly altered expression of genes related to extracellular matrix composition, stability and turnover. Conclusions Signalling related to inflammatory response and extracellular matrix regulation was strongly represented at the DEV and OG1 times. These results indicate that the LBEC is not only a casualty but also an active participant in lamellar events leading to structural failure of the digital lamellae in equine laminitis.
Inter-party competition, intra-party competition, and distributive policy: A model and test using New Deal data

This paper presents a theoreticalmodel examining the influence of two stylized types ofvoters: ``loyal voters'' and ``swing voters''. The model showswhy both types of voters will influence thedistribution of benefits by a reelection-seekingincumbent, and it predicts how their influence willvary with the importance of the general electionrelative to that of the primary: closer competitionbetween parties in the general election, ceterisparibus, increases the influence of swing votersrelative to that of loyal voters. County-level dataon the allocation of money and jobs by New Deal reliefprograms confirm the model's predictions.
A Matter of Discipline: Open Access, the Humanities, and Art History

Recent events suggest that open access has gained new momentum in the humanities, but the slow and uneven development of open-access initiatives in humanist ﬁelds continues to hinder the consolidation of efforts across the university. Although various studies have traced the general origins of the humanities’ reticence to embrace open access, few have actually considered the scholarly practices and disciplinary priorities that shape a discipline’s adoption of its principles. This article examines the emergence, potential and actualized, of open access in art history. Part case study, part conceptual mapping, the discussion is framed within the context of three interlocking dynamics: the present state of academic publishing in art history; the dominance of the journal and self-archiving repository within open-access models of scholarly production; and the unique roles played by copyright and permissions in art historical scholarship. It is hoped that tracing the discipline-speciﬁ c conﬁ guration of research provides a ﬁrst step toward both investigating the identity that open access might assume within the humanities, from discipline to discipline, and explaining how and why it might allow scholars to better serve themselves and their audiences. Le mouvement en faveur de l’acces libre, si l’on en croit divers evenements recents, semble voir son progres s’accelerer dans les sciences humaines. Cependant, le developpement des initiatives soutenant l’acces libre dans les disciplines humanistes continue d’etre lent et inegal tout en retardant la consolidation des efforts panuniversitaires. Certaines etudes ont bien identiﬁe les origines generales des reticences exprimees par les humanistes a l’egard de l’acces libre, mais peu se sont penchees sur les pratiques de la recherche et les priorites qui informent le processus d’adoption l’acces libre par une discipline particuliere. Cet article etudie comment l’histoire de l’art a vu l’acces libre emerger d’abord comme une potentialite pour en devenir une realite. D’une part, etude de cas, d’autre part, problematisation theorique, cet article structure son argument autour de trois dynamiques inter-reliees : l’etat present de la publication savante en histoire de l’art ; le role dominant, dans les modeles de production associes a l’acces libre, de la revue savante et des archives ouvertes avec auto-archivage ; et, les roles speciﬁ ques joues par les questions de droits d’auteur et de permissions en histoire de l’art. En retracant les contours speciﬁ ques de la recherche dans une discipline donnee, cet auteur espere ouvrir une piste permettant de comprendre quelle forme identiﬁ able l’acces libre pourrait adopter dans le contexte des humanites, discipline par discipline. De cette facon, il devrait etre possible d’expliquer comment les chercheurs dans ces domaines pourraient, grâce a l’acces libre, mieux s’entraider et mieux servir leurs lecteurs.
Derepression of β-Galactosidase Synthesis in Escherichia coli K-12 by p-Fluorophenylalanine

Abstract p-Fluorophenylalanine (FPA) derepresses β-galactosidase synthesis at 35 C but not at 25 C in Escherichia coli K-12, strain MC132 (lac I1,2), a strain with a temperature-sensitive lac repressor. In contrast, strain MC130 (lac I+) is not derepressed by FPA at 35 C. Temperature-shift experiments with strain MC132 in the presence of FPA and other reagents (isopropyl-1-thio-β-d-galactoside or chloramphenicol) are consistent with the following mechanism. FPA is incorporated into the genetically altered lac repressor at all temperatures. This further alteration due to incorporation of analogue makes the lac repressor protein inactive at 35 C but active at 25 C. Once an active tertiary structure is formed at 25 C, it is stable at 35 C. However, the inactive tertiary structure of the FPA-containing repressor can assume an active tertiary structure when the temperature is shifted from 35 to 25 C. In the discussion of the results, “inactive tertiary structure” is equated with “monomers” and “active tertiary structure” with oligomers.
Rethinking Our Trade and Science: From Developing Components to Component-Based Development

Almost all of traditional software engineering and applied computer science focuses on some kind of deliverable of supposedly closed nature. While traditional applications aren’t really closed (they interact with other applications, middleware, and the operating system), the closed-world assumption is nevertheless a sufficiently useful approximation to enable the production of successful software. Shifting the emphasis from the production of the one deliverable to the production of systems that are composed out of components has an almost traumatic consequence. A lot of what we know about how to build software requires revision and sometimes radical departure from the established past. This talk spans much of the spectrum from why components are a good idea to why we need to rethink our trade and science to what approaches are now emerging to make all this possible.
From victims to survivors to offenders: women's routes of entry and immersion into street crime

This study explores the patterns by which women enter into criminal activities by drawing upon in-depth life history interviews with a sample of 20 incarcerated women. The author constructs a conceptual framework for understanding the progression from victim to survivor to offender in the subjects' life histories. This framework shows that the best available options for escape from physical and sexual violence are often survival strategies which are criminal: i.e., running away from home, use of drugs, and the illegal street work required to survive as a runaway. The women's own narratives are used to illustrate their views of themselves as survivors, not as victims, and their commitments to important relationships in their lives which explain their entry into and commitments to criminal activities. Women's responses to victimization and women's relational identities are seen as factors which both motivate and restrain women's criminal activities. The concept of immersion in street crime is offered as a m...
Visual cue cluster construction via information bottleneck principle and kernel density estimation

Recent research in video analysis has shown a promising direction, in which mid-level features (e.g., people, anchor, indoor) are abstracted from low-level features (e.g., color, texture, motion, etc.) and used for discriminative classification of semantic labels. However, in most systems, such mid-level features are selected manually. In this paper, we propose an information-theoretic framework, visual cue cluster construction (VC3), to automatically discover adequate mid-level features. The problem is posed as mutual information maximization, through which optimal cue clusters are discovered to preserve the highest information about the semantic labels. We extend the Information Bottleneck framework to high-dimensional continuous features and further propose a projection method to map each video into probabilistic memberships over all the cue clusters. The biggest advantage of the proposed approach is to remove the dependence on the manual process in choosing the mid-level features and the huge labor cost involved in annotating the training corpus for training the detector of each mid-level feature. The proposed VC3 framework is general and effective, leading to exciting potential in solving other problems of semantic video analysis. When tested in news video story segmentation, the proposed approach achieves promising performance gain over representations derived from conventional clustering techniques and even the mid-level features selected manually.
An environment for use cases based requirements engineering

Use cases that describe possible interactions involving a system and its environment are increasingly being accepted as effective means for requirements elicitation and analysis. In the current practice, informal definitions of use cases are used and the analysis process is manual. We present UCEd an environment for use cases based requirements engineering. UCEd includes tools for use cases edition in conjunction with a domain model, use cases integration and use cases simulation.
THE CONFIGURATION AND ENERGY OF DEFECTS ON THE (100) SURFACE OF A MOLECULAR CRYSTAL

Using a Lennard-Jones 6–12 potential function to represent the interactions of the atoms, the binding energies of neon, argon, and krypton atoms in and above the (100) surface of argon are computed. Relaxations of the defects are considered and are found to be small; however relaxation appreciably affects the energies of the defects. The binding energies of neon, argon, and krypton atoms above the (100) argon surface are 687 cal, 1367 cal, and 1682 cal, respectively. The binding energies of neon, argon, and krypton atoms in the (100) argon surface are 1290 cal, 2603 cal, and 3160 cal, respectively. Relaxation appreciably affects the binding energies. The free energy of formation of a mole of vacancies on the (100) surface of argon is found to be ΔF = 1236 − 3.58 T cal This implies that at the melting point of argon there is one vacancy per three hundred (100) surface sites or 2 × 1012 per cm2 of surface.
Secure and adaptive state estimation for a PMU-equipped smart grid

Modern power systems are constantly subjected to various disturbances, device failures, as well as data attacks. To improve the quality of monitoring and control in smart grid, researchers have conducted extensive studies in exploring the advantages of real-time digital meters such as the Phasor Measurement Units, combining with dynamic estimation methods such as Kalman filters. Standard Kalman filter assumes we have statistical knowledge regarding the uncertainty of the system under study. The reality is, the accurate system model is almost impossible to obtain, especially with the existence of malicious data attack. A lightweight and efficient adaptive Kalman filter algorithm is presented in this paper for its ability to alleviate the impact of incorrect system models and/or measurement data. Simulations demonstrate that it is resilient to suboptimal system modeling, sudden system dynamic changes and bad data injection.
Flattening Is an Improvement

Flattening is a program transformation that eliminates nested parallel constructs, introducing flat parallel (vector) operations in their place. We define a sufficient syntactic condition for the correctness of flattening, providing a static approximation of Blelloch’s “containment”. This is acheived using a typing system that tracks the control flow of programs. Using a weak improvement preorder, we then show that the flattening transformations are intensionally correct for all well-typed programs.
Analysis of mitochondria by flow cytometry

Publisher Summary Most of the energy (ATP) needed for proper functioning of the cell is generated by the mitochondrion. This process involves oxidation of reduced nucleotides and concomitant generation of a negative inside membrane potential. To study using flow cytometry, cells and their organelles have to be (made) fluorescent. Reduced nucleotides, such as NADH and FADH, emit blue and blue–green fluorescence after excitation with light in the ultraviolet (UV) changes in NADH level, mitochondrial membrane potential as normalized for possible differences in mitochondrial protein content, mitochondrial oxidative turnover, mitochondrial protein, and cardiolipin content. Flow cytometry measures the total amount of fluorescence obtained from each individual cell. When cells are stained with dyes of which the fluorescence intensity is proportional to the mitochondrial membrane potential, the total cellular fluorescence reflects the average of the mitochondrial membrane potential per mitochondrion multiplied by the amount of mitochondrial mass per cell. Thus, a cell with more mitochondrial mass is more fluorescent than a cell with less mitochondrion. To correct for possible differences in mitochondrial mass, it is necessary to have a measure for the amount of mitochondrial mass in each individual cell.
HAWAII'S COURT-ANNEXED ARBITRATION PROGRAM FINAL EVALUATION REPORT

This is the fourth and final article of a series of four articles describing the evaluation results for Hawaii’s mandatory Court-Annexed Arbitration Program (CAAP), a program with a jurisdictional limit $150,000, much higher than most other state programs. This evaluation examines the effectiveness of Hawaii's Court Annexed Arbitration Program (CAAP), which is a mandatory, non-binding procedure for tort cases valued at $150,000 or less. The major goals of the program are to reduce litigant costs, reduce time to disposition, and improve or maintain the level of satisfaction for litigants and attorneys. Hawaii's Court-Annexed Arbitration Program has reduced pretrial discovery; reduced litigation costs for private litigants, increased the pace of litigation, provided litigants with a fair, just, and satisfactory 'day-in-court,' encouraged early and less expensive settlements, increased the percentage of cases that terminate each year, and may have reduced the number of trials. Through comparison of cases randomly assigned to CAAP to those cases that went through traditional litigation, the study found that under the arbitration program, the average plaintiff saves $496 in discovery expenses, and the average defendant saves $266. Lawyers' fees are on average $159 less per defendant whose case is sent to arbitration. CAAP cases also experience quicker disposition times, reaching disposition almost four months earlier than non-CAAP cases. Most lawyers who participated in the program were satisfied with the program and with the arbitrators.
Tax Evasion and Ethics: A Demographic Study of 33 Countries

Tax evasion is a worldwide phenomenon. The problem is especially acute in transition and developing economies, since they do not have an appropriate infrastructure in place to collect taxes. Attitudes of the citizenry are an important factor in the collection of taxes. The present study reviews the attitudes of taxpayers in 33 countries on the issue of the ethics of tax evasion and considers demographic differences (gender, age, education and income level) that may impact these attitudes. The data examined was collected as part of a larger study on human beliefs and values. This study found that women are more opposed to tax evasion than men; older people are more opposed to tax evasion than younger people; less educated people are more opposed to tax evasion than better educated people; and poorer people are more opposed to tax evasion than wealthier people.
DI/DT evaluation of a SI N-type GTO designed for pulsed power applications

Pulsed power systems which utilize solid state switching devices, rather than spark/gas-type devices, could potentially exhibit increased energy density, repetition rate, operational lifetime, and ruggedness. However, further evaluation of advanced solid state devices, such as thyristor type devices, is required to better understand their operation for pulsed power applications. This paper details experimental evaluation of the dI/dt capabilities of a silicon (Si) n-type, asymmetric-blocking gate turn-off thyristor (GTO) manufactured by Silicon Power. The device under test (DUT) is rated to block up to 4 kV with rated dI/dt of 30 kA/μs. The DUT was designed as a solid state replacement for spark/gas-type switching devices in pulsed power applications. A low inductance test circuit was designed and built to evaluate the dI/dt capabilities of the DUT. Specific care was taken to minimize the parasitic inductance and thereby exploit the achievable dI/dt ratings by the test devices. An external fiber-driven gate driver is used to trigger the device with gate current (I G ) of approximately 1.3 A and rate of current change (dI G /dt) of approximately 25.5 A/μs. Experimental dI/dt values greatly exceeded rated values; specifically dI/dt values of approximately 77 kA/μs were readily achieved at 4 kV. No device degradation was observed over the course of evaluation.
Clifford classes for some overgroups of the special linear groups

Abstract In [A. Turull, J. Algebra 235 (2001), 275–314], we calculated the Schur index of each of the irreducible characters of the finite special linear groups. In the present paper, we calculate the Schur index of all the irreducible characters of some overgroups of the special linear groups. The overgroups in question are the special linear groups extended by diagonal automorphisms, and the subgroups of the general linear group that contain the special linear group. To each conjugacy class of irreducible characters of the special linear group in each overgroup is associated a Clifford class. The Clifford class controls all the irreducible characters of the overgroup and intermediate subgroups that are related to the given irreducible by Clifford theory. Knowing only the Clifford class, we can parametrize all the irreducible characters of the intermediate subgroups, and compute, for each parametrized irreducible character, its field of character values, as well as its Schur index over each field. We explicitly compute the Clifford class in each case, and deduce from it the information on the Schur index of all the irreducible characters of the overgroups.
NUCLEAR POWER SYSTEMS FOR SPACE APPLICATIONS.

Publisher Summary This chapter introduces the nuclear power systems for space applications. It discusses the factors that cause nuclear space power systems to differ in nature from ground systems and the relation of nuclear to chemical and solar space power systems. It also discuss the isotope and reactor power systems and waste heat radiators. At the outer planets, the solar flux is low and array specific weights increase by a factor of about 15 for Jupiter and 60 for Saturn. Nuclear systems offer appreciable weight advantages in these circumstances. In addition to considerations of weight, nuclear systems offer the advantage of not requiring orientation to the sun. They avoid the large areas associated with solar cell arrays. Isotopes are favored over reactors as nuclear heat sources for low power levels because the weight of the isotope heat source and its shield is usually substantially less than that of a shielded reactor heat source. The isotope power systems receiving the greatest attention at the present time are thermoelectric systems for power up to 1 to 2 kW and Brayton cycle systems for power in the 2–20 kW range.
Improving software through automatic untangling of cyclic dependencies

Cyclic dependencies among software components are considered an architectural problem that increases the development time and prevents proper reuse. One cause for the existence of such dependencies is the improper organization of elements into components. Optimal reorganization of the components that resolves the cyclic dependencies in large and complex software systems is extremely difficult to perform manually and is not computationally feasible to perform automatically. We present an approach for automatic untangling of cyclic dependencies among components for cycles of any size, having direct or transitive dependencies on one another. Our approach aims at minimizing the modifications to the original structure of the system, while taking into account various architectural properties. We evaluate our solution on twelve open source and three industrial applications. We demonstrate its applicability and value through architectural metrics and feedback from system architects.
Influence of Low‐Dose Aspirin (81 mg) on the Incidence of Definite Stent Thrombosis in Patients Receiving Bare‐Metal and Drug‐Eluting Stents

Background: Dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin plus clopidogrel is the mainstay of therapy in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). However, the optimal dose of aspirin following PCI has not been established. Hypothesis: There is no difference for definite stent thrombosis in patients taking low dose versus standard aspirin. Methods: Low-dose (81 mg) aspirin was used as part of a standard dual antiplatelet therapy in patients receiving bare-metal stents (BMS) or drug-eluting stents (DES) at a large tertiary medical center. We retrospectively analyzed 5368 consecutive cases treated with stent placement and dual antiplatelet therapy. The incidence of definite stent thrombosis (DST) at our institution was compared to DST as reported in a large, published cohort of 24 trials and 12973 patients. We stratified DST events into early ( 30 days) timing and also stratified by stent type. The effect of aspirin dosing was evaluated using χ2, Cochran-Mantel-Haenszel, and homogeneity testing. Results: A total of 5187 patients underwent 7604 stent implantations during the study period. The cumulative incidence of DST was 0.60% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.42%–0.84%) at 30 days and 0.76% (95% CI, 0.56%–1.03%) at 1 year. The overall incidence of DST during the study period was not different based on type of stent (0.53% for DES and 0.75% for BMS, P = 0.36). Compared to the historic, standard-dose aspirin (162–325 mg) cohort, DST in our low-dose aspirin (81 mg) cohort was not significantly different at either 30 days (0.72% vs 0.60%, P = 0.39) or at 1 year (1.08% vs 0.76%, P = 0.07). There was no appreciable interaction of aspirin dose on the incidence of DST, controlling for stent type, or timing of the event. Conclusions: Low-dose aspirin therapy in combination with clopidogrel following implantation of either BMS or DES in our cohort does not appear to increase the risk of DST compared to a higher-dose aspirin regimen. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. The authors have no funding, financial relationships, or conflicts of interest to disclose.
Banking on the Poor

Sociologist Dwight Haase explores how one man’s efforts to help his village neighbors evolved into a global corporate market—with unintended consequences. Haase provides insight into how the microfinance movement turned into an industry.
Cortical potentials time-locked to speech production: Evidence for probable cerebral origin

Abstract Cortical potentials time-locked to speech production were monitored from an array of electrodes over both hemispheres in twelve subjects, each of whom was studied while speaking a range of utterances. Simultaneously, electromyographic activity from the articulatory musculature was assessed. Characteristically, a slow negative shift commencing several hundred milliseconds before sound production was observed; this tended to be maximal over posterior cortex. Evidence was presented supporting the inference that these potentials are of cerebral origin.
Katanin localization requires triplet microtubules in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Centrioles and basal bodies are essential for a variety of cellular processes that include the recruitment of proteins to these structures for both centrosomal and ciliary function. This recruitment is compromised when centriole/basal body assembly is defective. Mutations that cause basal body assembly defects confer supersensitivity to Taxol. These include bld2, bld10, bld12, uni3, vfl1, vfl2, and vfl3. Flagellar motility mutants do not confer sensitivity with the exception of mutations in the p60 (pf19) and p80 (pf15) subunits of the microtubule severing protein katanin. We have identified additional pf15 and bld2 (e-tubulin) alleles in screens for Taxol sensitivity. Null pf15 and bld2 alleles are viable and are not essential genes in Chlamydomonas. Analysis of double mutant strains with the pf15-3 and bld2-6 null alleles suggests that basal bodies in Chlamydomonas may recruit additional proteins beyond katanin that affect spindle microtubule stability. The bld2-5 allele is a hypomorphic allele and its phenotype is modulated by nutritional cues. Basal bodies in bld2-5 cells are missing proximal ends. The basal body mutants show aberrant localization of an epitope-tagged p80 subunit of katanin. Unlike IFT proteins, katanin p80 does not localize to the transition fibers of the basal bodies based on an analysis of the uni1 mutant as well as the lack of colocalization of katanin p80 with IFT74. We suggest that the triplet microtubules are likely to play a key role in katanin p80 recruitment to the basal body of Chlamydomonas rather than the transition fibers that are needed for IFT localization.
Quantitative Hrem Study of the Atomic Structure of the Σ(310)/[001] Symmetric Tilt Grain Boundary in Nb

We have used a non-linear least squares optimization method to deduce a model for the atomic structure of the Σ(310)/[001] symmetric tilt grain boundary in Nb from high resolution electron micrographs (HREM) of a bicrystal prepared by diffusion bonding. The resultant model is similar to, but differs in detail from a theoretical prediction based on interatomic potentials which included angular forces thought to be important in the prediction of defect structures in body centered cubic metals. Results validate this approach as a step towards making HREM a quantitative technique.
Accretion rate of cosmic matter from iridium and osmium contents of deep-sea sediments

Iridium and osmium concentrations were measured in dated deep-sea sediments by neutron activation analysis to attempt to set limits on the influx rate of cosmic matter. Twentyone measurements on five cores from the central Pacific gave Ir and Os contents from 0·06 to 0·4 ppb, with an observed precision of ±15 percent. The Ir and Os contents were correlated with each other: Ir = (1·2 ± 0·2)Os. Both tended to increase with decreasing sedimentation rate. The Ir content can be represented by the expression: Ir (ppb) = (0·07 ± 0·08) + (0·094 ± 0·047)1/rs where rs is the sedimentation rate in mm per 1000 years from Th230Th232 ratios. If the first term is interpreted as an average terrestrial component and the second term, as an exclusively cosmic component which is diluted in proportion to the sedimentation rate, an upper limit to the influx rate of cosmic matter may be established on the basis of the average Ir content of some representative meteoritic material. With an assumed Ir content of 0·42 ppm, the value in Type I carbonaceous chondrites, the influx rate for the entire earth becomes (6 ± 3) × 104 tons/yr. This value represents an average over the last 105 to 106 years; the mass range effectively sampled by this method is ~10−14 to ~1012 g. A firm upper limit on the influx rate can be obtained by assuming that all the Ir and Os in deep-sea sediments is of cosmic origin. The value obtained is between 0.5 × 105 and 1.5 × 105 tons/yr. It is more than an order of magnitude lower than other estimates based on the Ni content of deep-sea sediments or particles counts by satellites.
Dronedarone: evidence supporting its therapeutic use in the treatment of atrial fibrillation.

Introduction: Dronedarone, a benzofuran derivative with a structure similar to amiodarone, has been developed as a potential therapy for patients with atrial fibrillation.
Who do you trust? comparing people-centered communications in disaster situations in the United States and China

Abstract We use a theoretical sampling approach to investigate and compare communications in two crisis situations – the Sichuan earthquake in China and Hurricane Katrina in the US. We propose to re-conceptualize crisis communications, with the possibility of recognizing non-hierarchical and reciprocal interactions between authorities, traditional and social media, and individuals in crisis planning policy. We bring the issues of political and social trust and disaster information authentication into the overall picture of crisis communications and suggest they serve as mediating factors. Finally, we propose development of an iterative credibility-seeking model during a crisis.
Triiodothyronine influences nuclear and extra-nuclear DNA in cultured human kidney cells.

THE T-1 cell line, derived from normal human kidney epithelial cells and established over 15 yr ago by van der Veen et al.1, has been found sensitive to and specific for the two thyroidal hormones, thyroxine (T4) and triiodothyronine (T3), as manifested by parameters reflecting morphology, proliferation, colony formation, and metabolism of lipids, proteins, and nucleic acids2–6. The cultured kidney cells therefore constitute a useful model for studying the peripheral actions elicited by these thyroidal hormones. Previous investigations strongly implicate the nucleus of the T-1 cell as being significantly involved in the response to T4 and T3; thus, thyroidal hormones affect nucleolar number, nucleolar RNA, and nuclear uptake of tagged T4 (ref. 7). Here we report that T3 acts on DNA throughout the T-1 cell in promoting the localisation of 3H-actinomycin D, a labelled antibiotic that binds specifically to DNA8,9.
Patterned Schottky barrier solar cells

Easy to make, potentially high efficient Schottky type solar cells are presented. Patterning of the cells of Si wafers was achieved by photo-ablation using a UV Excimer laser. We have found that the patterned cells were as much as 15% more efficient than non-patterned cells.
Corporate Entrepreneurship in Family Firms: A Family Perspective

Entrepreneurship has been recognized as an important factor contributing to firm success. Despite the potential benefit of corporate entrepreneurship to sustain the family firm across generations, corporate entrepreneurship has been underresearched in the family firm literature. We investigate how generational involvement, willingness to change, and the ability to recognize technological opportunities impact corporate entrepreneurship in family firms. We also examine strategic planning in family firms as a facilitating process. Our findings suggest that willingness to change and technological opportunity recognition are positively related to corporate entrepreneurship in family firms. We further found strategic planning to significantly moderate the relationships between (1) generational involvement and (2) technological opportunity recognition and corporate entrepreneurship. These findings and implications for management and research are discussed.
Concomitant tissue accumulation of “collagen-associated” sialoglycoproteins and salt-insoluble collagen during rat skin maturation. A brief note

In the course of rat skin maturation, the quantity of sialoglycoproteins solubilized by collagenase-digestion increased parallel to the accumulation of insoluble collagen. This suggested the existence of sialoglycoproteins which are associated with collagen, perhaps, during the development of the extracellular matrix.