cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Plasticity of Airway Lymphatics in Development and Disease

The dynamic nature of lymphatic vessels is reflected by structural and functional modifications that coincide with changes in their environment. Lymphatics in the respiratory tract undergo rapid changes around birth, during adaptation to air breathing, when lymphatic endothelial cells develop button-like intercellular junctions specialized for efficient fluid uptake and transport. In inflammatory conditions, lymphatic vessels proliferate and undergo remodeling to accommodate greater plasma leakage and immune cell trafficking. However, the newly formed lymphatics are abnormal, and resolution of inflammation is not accompanied by complete reversal of the lymphatic vessel changes back to the baseline. As the understanding of lymphatic plasticity advances, approaches for eliminating the abnormal vessels and improving the functionality of those that remain move closer to reality. This chapter provides an overview of what is known about lymphatic vessel growth, remodeling, and other forms of plasticity that occur during development or inflammation, with an emphasis on the respiratory tract. Also addressed is the limited reversibility of changes in lymphatics during the resolution of inflammation.
An Evaluation Study of the Young Empowered Sisters (YES!) Program: Promoting Cultural Assets among African American Adolescent Girls through a Culturally Relevant School-Based Intervention.

The present study examines the effects of a culturally relevant school-based intervention in promoting cultural assets (i.e., ethnic identity, collectivist orientation, racism awareness, and libratory youth activism) among a group of African American adolescent girls. The overall goal of the intervention was to promote cultural factors that can protect African American youth from the adverse effects of racism. A total of 74 African American girls participated in the study, of whom 36 were in the intervention group and 38 in the control group. Pre- and posttests were administered to assess intervention effects. Overall findings reveal that the intervention had significant and positive effects on ethnic identity, racism awareness, collectivism, and liberatory youth activism. Implications for risk prevention and promotion of psychosocial functioning among African American youth are discussed.
Midodrine and Octreotide in Treatment of Cirrhosis-Related Hemodynamic Complications

Objective:To review studies evaluating the use of midodrine and octreotide in hemodynamic complications of cirrhosis, including ascites and hepatorenal syndrome.Data Sources:Searches of MEDLINE (1966–September 2008) and EMBASE (1974–September 2008) were conducted using the terms midodrine, octreotide, hepatorenal syndrome, ascites, cirrhosis, and paracentesis-induced circulatory dysfunction. Literature review was limited to English-language, human studies.Study Selection and Data Extraction:Studies identified from data sources were considered for review. Studies were excluded if primary therapy involved any of the following: transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt procedure, medications other than midodrine or octreotide, or patients included for treatment or prevention of portal hypertension and/or variceal bleeding. Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic studies and studies using retrospective data collection were excluded. Seven studies were included in this review.Data Synthesis:Midodrine and octreotid...
Vervet monkeys and humans show brain asymmetries for processing conspecific vocalizations, but with opposite patterns of laterality

A robust finding in the human neurosciences is the observation of a left hemisphere specialization for processing spoken language. Previous studies suggest that this auditory specialization and brain asymmetry derive from a primate ancestor. Most of these studies focus on the genus Macaca and all demonstrate a left hemisphere bias. Due to the narrow taxonomic scope, however, we lack a sense of the distribution of this asymmetry among primates. Further, although the left hemisphere bias appears mediated by conspecific calls, other possibilities exist including familiarity, emotional relevance and more general acoustic properties of the signal. To broaden the taxonomic scope and test the specificity of the apparent hemisphere bias, we conducted an experiment on vervets (Cercopithecus aethiops)-a different genus of old world monkeys and implemented the relevant acoustic controls. Using the same head orienting procedure tested with macaques, results show a strong left ear/right hemisphere bias for conspecific vocalizations (both familiar and unfamiliar), but no asymmetry for other primate vocalizations or non-biological sounds. These results suggest that although auditory asymmetries for processing species-specific vocalizations are a common feature of the primate brain, the direction of this asymmetry may be relatively plastic. This finding raises significant questions for how ontogenetic and evolutionary forces have impacted on primate brain evolution.
Analytic feedback control and the algebraic Riccati equation

The central result of this correspondence is Lemma 1.1, which states that the stabilizing solution P * to the algebraic Riccati equation in ( A, B, C ) depends analytically on ( A, B, C ). In the remainder of the correspondence, various control- and system-theoretic ramifications of the analyticity lemma are considered. An important consequence of Lemma 1.1 is that any smooth-state feedback control law for a finite-dimensional plant may be implemented using dynamic input-output compensators whose transfer functions depend smoothly on the plant transfer function.
A fine-grained replacement strategy for XML query cache

Caching popular queries and reusing results of previously computed queries is one important query optimization technique, especially in modern distributed environments such as the WWW. Based on the recent proliferation of XML data and the emergence of the XQuery language, we are thus developing a query- based caching system for XQuery queries, called ACE-XQ. ACE-XQ applies innovative query containment and rewriting strategies to answer incoming user queries based on the cached XQueries, whenever possible, instead of accessing remote XML data sources.To manage the space of the cache, a straightforward application of traditional replacement strategies would correspond to removing a complete cached query and its derived XML document as a whole when space needs to be freed. This coarse granularity however does not match well with the typical access pattern of web searches where new queries often partially overlap with cached queries.In this paper, we propose a novel replacement strategy appropriate for such query-based XML caching systems. In particular, we collect user access statistics at the granularity of the XML path structure instead of the complete XML query regions. We then apply a more fine-grained replacement strategy that purges XML fragments off a cached region instead of the whole XML document and accordingly adjusts the query descriptor. This may better capture the user access patterns since more frequently used XML document fragments are likely to remain in the cache while other less beneficial parts are purged. This approach has been implemented in our ACE-XQ System. Preliminary experiment results illustrate the performance improvement achievable by our fine-grained replacement strategy over the one which replaces a whole XML view at a time when the cache size is relatively large.
Analysis of short-term droughts in Oklahoma

The impacts of drought—an unavoidable threat worldwide—are felt in many ways, but mainly in the form of depleted water resources, reduced agricultural yields, and increased livestock fatality rates. Agricultural communities are especially susceptible to short-term drought (less than 6 months) impacts because production of non-irrigated crops is dependent on rainfall and soil moisture reserves. As such, short-term droughts can be responsible for financial disasters to economies that depend heavily on agriculture. Long-term droughts (lasting 6 months or more) affect regions by further depleting surface and groundwater levels.
Mapping and interpreting soil textural layers to assess agri-chemical movement at several scales along the eastern seaboard (USA).

Despite numerous cases of groundwater contamination with agricultural chemicals on layered sandy soils, monitoring and prediction of the fate of these chemicals in the vadose zone has eluded researchers and bureaucrats alike so far. To aid in a better understanding of this phenomena, the movement and fate of agricultural chemicals were assessed at different scales for the (sandy and layered) floodplain soil occurring along the Eastern Seaboard. At the point and field scale ground penetrating radar was used to locate the coarse sand lenses and tracer experiments were initiated to study the flow pattern of the chemicals. Results show that water and solutes moved over the coarse layers and were funneled into fingers bypassing most of the soil matrix and reaching the groundwater much faster than when the solute would move evenly through the vadose zone. At field scale a computer simulation indicated that the exact location of the layers does not have to be known for calculating travel times, indicating that pedo-transfer functions could be developed for calculating groundwater pollution potential for different combinations of soil and chemicals. In the future, groundwater pollution on a regional scale can be predicted by using these pedo-transfer functions in a Geographic Information System.
Abnormal multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) in ethambutol toxicity.

Objective: To report the abnormal multifocal electroretinogram (mfERG) findings in two cases of presumed ethambutol toxicity. Design: Retrospective observational case series. Participants: Two patients with ethambutol toxicity and visual loss. Testing: Multifocal electroretinography. Main outcome measure: Waveform measurements on multifocal electroretinography. Results: Two patients with bilateral visual loss due to ethambutol toxicity underwent mfERG testing that disclosed both diffuse and central field loss compatible with retinal dysfunction as a contributing mechanism to the visual field loss. Conclusion: Ethambutol toxicity affects not only the optic nerve but probably other retinal elements based upon abnormal mfERG findings.
Payout Policy, Agency Conflicts, and Corporate Governance

This paper examines the role of corporate governance for payout policy design from the perspective of pre-commitment. We test the effect of external and internal corporate governance on the design of payout policy and use of pre-commitment, level and structure of cash distributions, and firm dividend and repurchase behavior. We argue that firms use pre-commitment to dividend payments to mitigate the agency conflict due to poor governance. We argue that there is an important distinction between dividends and repurchases from the perspective of pre-commitment. Managers that deviate from the chosen dividend policy incur a cost due to a strong negative market response, which reinforces the pre-commitment role of dividends. On the other hand, the market treats share repurchases as more flexible, irregular payouts made at the manager's discretion, which makes repurchases less effective at mitigating the agency conflict. Therefore, a standalone repurchase policy is not sufficient to mitigate the governance failure, introducing the need for dividend pre-commitment as part of payout policy. Empirically, we find that weak governance is associated with a greater emphasis on dividend pre-commitment in total payout composition. Firms with weak governance are also significantly less likely to use standalone repurchase policies as opposed to a dividends - only or a mixed dividends - repurchases payout policy. Costly dividend pre-commitment presents few benefits to well-governed managers. Instead, they either store excess cash in the firm or distribute it through repurchases. We find that the type of monitoring mechanism is relevant for predicting discretionary payouts. Given the generally strong investor protection level in the US, poorly monitored managers are not immune from firing and they will follow a costly dividend policy. Consistent with the proposed explanation, we find that firms with weak corporate governance on average pay higher dividends. The relation between dividends and governance is stronger for firms with high free cash flow. Managers faced with a high takeover threat (external monitoring) are more likely to repurchase and tend to repurchase more on average. On the other hand, strong internal governance (board, institutional blockholder) allows more accurate following of managerial actions and is associated with fewer cash distributions of any kind, including repurchases.
Small College Library Directors: Getting in the Door and Surviving on the Job

This article reports findings from a 1996 survey that examined job preparedness of library directors at four-year colleges in twelve midwestern states. The survey measured: (1) qualifications possessed at the time each person obtained his or her first director’s position; and (2) the skills and abilities directors felt were essential to surviving and doing well in their positions. One hundred fifty-eight directors returned questionnaires for a response rate of 84 percent. Participants in the 1995–1996 College Library Director Mentor Program also supplied a list of essential skills for the first year in a new position.
An Assessment of Aircraft-Generated Contamination on In Situ Trace Gas Measurements: Determinations from Empirical Data Acquired Aloft

Abstract Results are reported from an experiment conducted aboard the NASA DC-8 research aircraft to determine whether cabin air vented upstream of investigator's inlets had potentially contaminated ambient air samples obtained aboard the aircraft during previous airborne scientific expeditions. For the study, three multiport inlet rakes were mounted in windows downstream of an exhaust vent in locations forward, above, and aft of the right wing. These were used to make impact pressure measurements for determining boundary layer thickness (δ) as well as to collect ambient air samples at various distances outward from the airframe. The fraction of cabin air in the samples was determined by doping the vent air with a metered amount of CO2, then monitoring air at the inlet ports for differential CO2 enhancements. Data were collected at altitudes ranging from the surface to 12 km, at various indicated airspeeds, pitch and yaw angles, and during vertical ascents and descents. Results indicate that δ varies from...
Multiple strategies for drought survival among woody plant species

Summary Drought-induced mortality and regional dieback of woody vegetation are reported from numerous locations around the world. Yet within any one site, predicting which species are most likely to survive global change-type drought is a challenge. We studied the diversity of drought survival traits of a community of 15 woody plant species in a desert-chaparral ecotone. The vegetation was a mix of chaparral and desert shrubs, as well as endemic species that only occur along this margin. This vegetation boundary has large potential for drought-induced mortality because nearly all species are at the edge of their range. Drought survival traits studied were vulnerability to drought-induced xylem cavitation, sapwood capacitance, deciduousness, photosynthetic stems, deep roots, photosynthetic responses to leaf water potential and hydraulic architecture. Drought survival strategies were evaluated as combinations of traits that could be effective in dealing with drought. The large variation in seasonal predawn water potential of leaves and stem xylem ranged from −6·82 to −0·29 MPa and −6·92 to −0·27 MPa, respectively. The water potential at which photosynthesis ceases ranged from −9·42 to −3·44 MPa. Architecture was a determinant of hydraulic traits, with species supporting large leaf area per sapwood area exhibiting high rates of water transport, but also xylem that is vulnerable to drought-induced cavitation. Species with more negative midday leaf water potential during the growing season also showed access to deeper water sources based on hydrogen isotope analysis. Drought survival mechanisms comprised of drought deciduousness, photosynthetic stems, tolerance of low minimum seasonal tissue water potential and vulnerability to drought-induced xylem cavitation thus varied orthogonally among species, and promote a diverse array of drought survival strategies in an arid ecosystem of considerable floristic complexity.
Scheimpflug imaging to determine intraocular lens power in vivo

Purpose To assess the feasibility of determining intraocular lens (IOL) power by measurement of the central optic thickness using clinically available Scheimpflug imaging (Pentacam, Oculus). Setting King's College Hospital Ophthalmology Department, London, United Kingdom. Methods Sixty-seven eyes were assessed 1 month after uneventful phacoemulsification with in-the-bag implantation of AcrySof MA60AC IOLs (Alcon). The correlation between IOL thickness measurement and IOL power was calculated. Repeatability of central optic thickness measurement was determined from 10 successive scans of 4 patients. Results Within-subject standard deviation increased with the subject mean. The coefficient of variability was 1.4%. Measured lens thickness was highly correlated with lens power (R2 = 0.94, P Conclusions Central IOL thickness measurements with the Pentacam Scheimpflug camera were highly repeatable and closely correlated with the known IOL power. The IOL power, calculated from a regression equation, is likely to be less than ±1.00 D away from the actual power. Approximate in vivo IOL power determination is feasible with clinically available Scheimpflug imaging. This could be applied clinically in cases of unexplained postoperative refractive error.
Field Evaluation of Level Spreaders in the Piedmont of North Carolina

Level spreaders are commonly used in combination with riparian buffers as a stormwater best management practice in many parts of the United States. These systems have not been extensively studied in urbanized environments to determine if they can provide a long-term water quality benefit. In winter 2005, 24 level spreaders were evaluated in the Piedmont of North Carolina. Detailed observations were made at 20 of these locations. The results of the study indicate that level spreaders may not be the versatile structure they are perceived to be. No level spreader-riparian buffer system was able to provide diffuse flow through the riparian buffer from the level spreader to the stream. Common causes for failure to maintain diffuse flow included: lack of maintenance (12 cases), poor design (11), riparian topography/content (11), level spreader lip not level (seven), built with easily eroded materials (six), poor construction methods (three), and human interference (two). This field evaluation indicates that lev...
Managerial Risk Attitudes and Biases, and Hedging Behaviors in the Financial Markets

Corporate finance research often assumes that investors and managers in financial markets behave in a rational manner out of fully rational sets of beliefs, attitudes, and preferences. Financial risk management theory and textbook hedging which are based on the rational manager assumptions suggest that in seeking to manage financial risks, managers would do so by strategically investing in financial instruments that are negatively correlated with their primary investments in order to neutralize the risk of adverse movements in the value of their investments as far as possible. The evidence however, contradicts this expectation. Behavioral theory and research has shown that attitudes and decision-making biases affect behaviors and outcomes of decision-making processes. This paper discusses the case that the bounded rationality of managers, decision-making biases, and managerial attitudes towards risk and uncertainty are critical components to corporate hedging decision-making and practice that could explain the deviations of actual corporate hedging policies and practices from those predicted by theory.
The Poetics of Natural History: From John Bartram to William James

This is an examination of the daydreams of early American naturalists from 1730 to 1868. The author explores how, through the acts of organizing physical artifacts and reflecting upon their collections through writings and images, naturalists were making sense of themselves and their world.
Quantitative and qualitative comparisons of PLC programs for a small testbed with a focus on human issues

In current industrial PLC programming there are a wide variety of logic control design methodologies in use. These languages include: ladder diagrams, function block diagrams, sequential function charts, and flow charts. At the same time, driven by a desire for verifiability, academics are developing additional methodologies, such as modular finite state machines and Petri nets. Using these languages important properties of programs can be verified and some code can be generated automatically. However, in the development of recent programming languages almost no mention has been made of the human factor, which becomes important when an existing program is modified, debugged, or incorporated into a new program. To begin addressing this issue, we present three ways to measure the complexity of a logic program (time to develop, direct measurements, and accessibility measures) and measure similar programs written in three logic control design methodologies (ladder diagrams, Petri nets and modular finite state machines). The goal of this paper is not to provide definitive answers regarding the suitability of a language for a particular purpose, but rather to explore the factors that may affect such decisions in the future.
Unequal Returns to Housing Investments? A Study of Real Housing Appreciation among Black, White, and Hispanic Households

This article assesses whether housing in predominantly minority and integrated neighborhoods appreciates more slowly than comparable housing in predominantly white communities, and if so, the extent to which inequality is due to neighborhood racial composition per se rather than nonracial socioeconomic and housing structure factors. I take a dynamic approach to the issue of housing appreciation, considering both racial, ethnic, and poverty composition at purchase and change in those characteristics over time. I examine differences in real housing appreciation across black, white, and Hispanic households by applying a hedonic price analysis to data from the Health and Retirement Study, combined with data from the 1970, 1980, and 1990 Census. While much of neighborhood appreciation inequality is explained by nonracial (particularly socioeconomic) factors, minority composition continues to exert a significant effect on appreciation even net of these considerations, particularly in highly segregated communities and those that experience large increases in black representation. Unequal housing appreciation has a large negative impact on the overall wealth holdings of mature minority households, and has important implications for racial and ethnic stratification.
Experiences with process programming

Our research has investigated the feasibility and ramifications of process programming. We claim that it is highly advantageous to treat software processes, such as development and maintenance, as actual software which can be specified, designed, coded, executed, tested, and maintained. If software processes are to be coded and executed, it is necessary for them to be coded in a language which can then be compiled, loaded, and executed. Likewise, if software processes are to specified and designed it is necessary to have process specification and design formalisms. We claim that process specification, design, and coding languages and formalisms will strongly resemble languages and formalisms currently used to specify software products, but that there will also be significant differences. We also claim that a properly conceived and developed software support environment can support the development of both product software and process software. We have engaged in considerable research to evaluate these claims.Our progress has been hampered by “research deadlock.” Languages and formalisms are required to effectively represent such objects as process designs and process code. That suggests that such languages and formalisms should be developed first. On the other hand, the creation of new programming languages, design formalisms, and specification technologies should begin only after significant experience in creating these software objects. That suggests that significant process software development should come first.We broke this “research deadlock” by developing a variety of prototypes—e. g. prototype process programs, prototype process coding languages, and a prototype process modelling formalism—and by evaluating each in the context of the others. This work has led to significant insights into the nature of process programming, the nature of various specific software processes, the difference between process programming and process modelling, the requirements for an effective process coding language, and the requirements for an effective process interpretation support system.
Strategies for managing radiation-induced mucositis in head and neck cancer.

Radiation-induced mucositis (RIM) is a common toxicity for head and neck cancer (HNC) patients. The frequency has increased because of the use of more intensive altered radiation fractionation and concurrent chemotherapy regimens. The extent of the injury is directly related to the mucosal volume irradiated, anatomic subsite exposed, treatment intensity, and individual patient predisposition. The consequences of mucositis include pain, dysphagia including feeding tube dependency, dehydration, micronutrient deficiencies, weight loss, and potentially life-threatening aspiration. Currently, there is no Food and Drug Administration–approved cytoprotective agent that reliably prevents RIM for HNC, but several are under investigation. Strategies to limit the extent of mucositis and to manage its symptoms include basic oral care and supportive medications. Limiting the use of aggressive treatments to truly high-risk cancers and special attention to radiation therapy planning techniques can also help restrict the scope of the problem. This review focuses on mucositis recognition, patient treatment selection, and RIM symptom-management strategies.
INDUCTION OF SEMIGROUPS OF ENDOMORPHISMS OF ${\mathfrak B} ({\mathfrak h})$ FROM COMPLETELY POSITIVE SEMIGROUPS OF (n × n) MATRIX ALGEBRAS

The paper concerns Eo-semigroup of induced from unit preserving completely positive semigroups of mapping of an (n × n) matrix algebra into itself. It is shown that Eo-semigroups one obtains are completely spatial and the index of the induced semigroup can be easily computed.
Title Insurance: An Historical Perspective

This study presents the historical background of title insurance, along with the industry's current problems, and discusses the literature on title insurance. In general, the literature on title in...
CANEapp: a user-friendly application for automated next generation transcriptomic data analysis.

Next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies are indispensable for molecular biology research, but data analysis represents the bottleneck in their application. Users need to be familiar with computer terminal commands, the Linux environment, and various software tools and scripts. Analysis workflows have to be optimized and experimentally validated to extract biologically meaningful data. Moreover, as larger datasets are being generated, their analysis requires use of high-performance servers. To address these needs, we developed CANEapp (application for Comprehensive automated Analysis of Next-generation sequencing Experiments), a unique suite that combines a Graphical User Interface (GUI) and an automated server-side analysis pipeline that is platform-independent, making it suitable for any server architecture. The GUI runs on a PC or Mac and seamlessly connects to the server to provide full GUI control of RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) project analysis. The server-side analysis pipeline contains a framework that is implemented on a Linux server through completely automated installation of software components and reference files. Analysis with CANEapp is also fully automated and performs differential gene expression analysis and novel noncoding RNA discovery through alternative workflows (Cuffdiff and R packages edgeR and DESeq2). We compared CANEapp to other similar tools, and it significantly improves on previous developments. We experimentally validated CANEapp’s performance by applying it to data derived from different experimental paradigms and confirming the results with quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR). CANEapp adapts to any server architecture by effectively using available resources and thus handles large amounts of data efficiently. CANEapp performance has been experimentally validated on various biological datasets. CANEapp is available free of charge at http://psychiatry.med.miami.edu/research/laboratory-of-translational-rna-genomics/CANE-app . We believe that CANEapp will serve both biologists with no computational experience and bioinformaticians as a simple, timesaving but accurate and powerful tool to analyze large RNA-seq datasets and will provide foundations for future development of integrated and automated high-throughput genomics data analysis tools. Due to its inherently standardized pipeline and combination of automated analysis and platform-independence, CANEapp is an ideal for large-scale collaborative RNA-seq projects between different institutions and research groups.
Taxonomic survivorship curves and Van Valen's law

As Van Valen has demonstrated, the taxonomic survivorship curve is a valuable means of investigating extinction rates in the fossil record. He suggested that within an adaptive zone, related taxa display stochastically constant and equal extinction rates. Such a condition is evidenced by straight survivorship curves for species and higher taxa. Van Valen's methods of survivorship analysis can be improved upon and several suggestions are presented. With proper manipulation of data, it is possible to pool the information from extinct and living taxa to produce a single survivorship curve and therefore a single estimate of extinction rate. If extinction rate is constant at the species level (producing a straight survivorship curve), higher taxa in the same group should be expected to have convex survivorship curves. The constancy of extinction rates (here termed Van Valen's Law) can and should be tested rigorously. Several methods are available, of which the Total Life method of Epstein is particularly effective.
Future Directions in Research on the Genetic Toxicology of Complex Mixtures

The recognition that most human exposure to environmental chemicals occurs as exposures to complex mixtures has stimulated research on the toxicology of complex mixtures (36). The future assessment of complex mixtures of environmental pollutants will increasingly rely on new interdisciplinary strategies including state-of-the-art genetic and molecular methodologies. Integrated multidisciplinary studies are now beginning to assess human exposure, dosimetry, and cancer risk relative to complex mixtures of pollutants, and to apportion the human exposure and risk to various sources. Strategies which hold promise for incorporation of genetic bioassay data in the risk assessment of complex mixtures include: (i) biomonitoring environmental levels, fate, transformation, and human exposure; (ii) characterization of the genotoxic components of complex mixtures using advanced chemical and bioassay methods; (iii) molecular dosimetry of complex mixtures; and (iv) mechanistic studies of the effects of complex mixtures induced by both genetic and nongenetic mechanisms. Important advances in understanding the genetic and carcinogenic effects of complex environmental mixtures will increasingly rely on the successful implementation of multidisciplinary integration of environmental, laboratory, and human studies using state-of-the-art biological, chemical, and molecular methods.
Machinability improvement of gear hobbing via process simulation and tool wear predictions

Typical processes of producing transmission gears involve hobbing, milling, or shaping of a forged stock to obtain the desired gear geometries. Among all these machining processes, gear hobbing is an efficient method of manufacturing high-quality gears. In this paper, a three-dimensional (3D) finite element model is presented to simulate the gear hobbing processes. The model is used to simulate the complicated kinematic motion between the hobbing tools and the gear workpieces and to perform a coupled thermo-mechanical analysis on the tools and the workpieces during the chip removal process. Cutting forces, torques, and temperature and stress distributions of the hobbing tools and workpieces are predicted using the proposed model. The tool wear progression in gear hobbing is analyzed in terms of tool geometry by a combined experimental-analytical method. The model considers the complex geometry of hob tooth profiles with multiple teeth engagement and can provide more insights into complicated gear hobbing processes. Based on the simulations with various tool geometries, a new tool geometry is arrived, which reduces spindle torque and shows a significant tool wear reduction. The modeling results are further validated through a direct comparison between the predicted and measured chip shape, torque, and tool wear rate.
In Vitro Cytotoxicity Evaluation of Trichloroethylene and Tetrachloroethylene by the Pollen Culture Method

花粉培養法の液体培地法は簡易, 迅速であり, 揮発性物質でも培養瓶内に密封することができることからTCE・PCEの毒性評価について検討した。花粉管は液中に生長することから液中濃度が毒性評価に重要な要素であり毒性の強さは液中濃度で示した。IC50はTCEで71.6～140mg/l, PCEで5.9～12.7mg/lと推定され, 花粉管生長に対するTCE・PCEの阻害が確認できた。このことから, TCE・PCEの毒性を花粉培養法により評価することが可能であることが示唆された。
Evaluation of Plant Density and Temperature in Predator-Prey Interactions in Field Cages

The green peach aphid (GPA), Myzus persicae (Sulzer), increased at faster rates in cages with multiple plants than in cages with a single plant because of the increase in favorable habitat. With the addition of the predators Geocoris bullatus (Say) and Nabis alternatus Parshley, the growth rates of the GPA populations were reduced 6.8 and 16.7% in cages with single and multiple plants, respectively. G. bullatus and N. alternatus consumption rates, based on predator efficacy and power, increased 1.9 to 2.7-fold in cages with >50 compared with <50 GPA per cage. In comparisons of consumption rates in cages with single and multiple plants, consumption rates for both predator species increased 1.9-fold. In field cages with three temperature ranges and in the absence of predators, the GPA populations in higher temperature cages displayed decreasing growth rates. With the addition of predators, the growth rates further decreased by 10.7 to 21% in low and medium temperature cages, respectively, compared with those in the control cages.
Short term memory and reaction time: keeping track of several variables

Reaction time (RT) and response accuracy depend on the remoteness, in terms of time and number of intervening trials, of a previous response which serves as the stimulus for a present response.
Effects of Barbiturate Anesthesia and Hyperventilation on CBF in Patients with Brain Tumors

Barbiturate anesthesia and hyperventilation are both used for treatment of increased ICP. Their effectiveness for increased ICP may be related to their vascular effects, including reduction of cerebral blood volume (CBV) which directly removes volume from the head, and reduction of cerebral blood flow (CBF) which makes the Starling forces more favorable for fluid removal from the brain.
Competition between H2O and CO2 during the gasification of Powder River Basin coal

Abstract Reaction kinetics of Powder River Basin coal gasification were measured in a modified drop tube fixed bed reactor, accompanied with a rapid response, real-time gas analysis system. The material was rapidly heated and quickly pyrolyzed, followed by a slow gasification with long residence time. Tests are done at 833 °C and elevated pressure to 4 atm. The conditions were chosen to minimize mass transfer restrictions, so that only surface reactions were measured. The experimental data was fitted using Langmuir-Hinshelwood models to describe both reaction kinetics and degree of surface saturation. CO 2 addition into steam gasification, steam addition into CO 2 gasification, and injection of steam into an in-progress CO 2 gasification test were performed. We found a rarely observed competition mechanism, in which H 2 O molecules primarily occupy active sites when H 2 O and CO 2 are both present. With sufficient steam partial pressure, the reaction rate in mixtures of H 2 O and CO 2 is equal to steam reaction rate. A newly developed L-H type model was presented to describe this competition mechanism. This model contains a steam reaction rate term and a supplementary CO 2 reaction rate term, and matches our experimental results.
The Evolution of an Interdisciplinary Collaborative for Pre-Service Teacher Reform

The Arizona Collaborative for Excellence in Preparation of Teachers is a large National Science Foundation funded project aimed at revising science and mathematics pre-service courses at a large public university in the South-western United States. This chapter describes the collaborations of a community of university faculty in reforming a block of five pre-service mathematics and mathematics education courses. Through a series of workshops and ongoing dialogue, both the instructional delivery and curriculum for these pre-service courses has shifted to student-centred classrooms with inquiry, concept development and problem solving as central themes. The chapter provides information about the process and products of these reforms, with a major focus on providing specific insights into the role of research in guiding the curricular and instructional philosophies and decisions.
Convergent individual differences in visual cortices, but not the amygdala across standard amygdalar fMRI probe tasks.

Abstract The amygdala (AMG) has been repeatedly implicated in the processing of threatening and negatively valenced stimuli and multiple fMRI paradigms have reported personality, genetic, and psychopathological associations with individual differences in AMG activation in these paradigms. Yet the interchangeability of activations in these probes has not been established, thus it remains unclear if we can interpret AMG responses on specific tasks as general markers of its reactivity. In this study we aimed to assess if different tasks that have been widely used within the Affective Neuroscience literature consistently recruit the AMG. Method Thirty-two young healthy subjects completed four fMRI tasks that have all been previously shown to probe the AMG during processing of threatening stimuli: the Threat Face Matching (TFM), the Cued Aversive Picture (CAP), the Aversive and Erotica Pictures (AEP) and the Screaming Lady paradigm (SLp) tasks. Contrasts testing response to aversive stimuli relative to baseline or neutral stimuli were generated and correlations between activations in the AMG were calculated across tasks were performed for ROIs of the AMG. Results The TFM, CAP and AEP, but not the SLp, successfully recruit the AMG, among other brain regions, especially when contrasts were against baseline or nonsocial stimuli. Conjunction analysis across contrasts showed that visual cortices (VisCtx) were also consistently recruited. Correlation analysis between the extracted data for right and left AMG did not yield significant associations across tasks. By contrast, the extracted signal in VisCtx showed significant associations across tasks (range r=0.511-r=0.630). Conclusions Three of the four paradigms revealed significant AMG reactivity, but individual differences in the magnitudes of AMG reactivity were not correlated across paradigms. By contrast, VisCtx activation appears to be a better candidate than the AMG as a measure of individual differences with convergent validity across negative emotion processing paradigms.
Recent advances in the therapy against invasive aspergillosis.

The members of the genus Aspergillus are opportunistic fungi that cause disease almost exclusively in patients with chronic lung pathology or depressed immune defenses. Aspergillus disease has a variety of clinical manifestations, ranging from allergic responses occurring in the absence of fungal growth or airway colonization to invasion and destruction of lung parenchyma with or without dissemination to other organs (Denning and Stevens, 1990; Greenberger, 2002; Marr et al., 2002; Muller et al., 2002). Over the past decades, the incidence of invasive aspergillosis has increased dramatically as a result of an expansion of the population of immunocompromised patients. At particular risk for invasive aspergillosis are those patients with persistent and profound neutropenia as a result of aggressive anticancer chemotherapy, hematopoietic stem cell transplant, or aplastic anemia (Gerson et al., 1984; Weinberger et al., 1992; Walsh et al., 1994; Perea and Patterson, 2002). In addition, congenital or acquired qualitative defects of the phagocytic cells have also been associated with the development of invasive aspergillosis: examples are patients with chronic granulomatous disease, Job syndrome, or those receiving prolonged courses of immunosuppressive agents such as corticosteroids. Aspergillosis is uncommon in patients with AIDS but when present it is associated with short survival after diagnosis (Shetty et al., 1997; Holding et al., 2000).
Peri-operative imaging of cancer margins with reflectance confocal microscopy during Mohs micrographic surgery: feasibility of a video-mosaicing algorithm

Reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) imaging shows promise for guiding surgical treatment of skin cancers. Recent technological advancements such as the introduction of the handheld version of the reflectance confocal microscope, video acquisition and video-mosaicing have improved RCM as an emerging tool to evaluate cancer margins during routine surgical skin procedures such as Mohs micrographic surgery (MMS). Detection of residual non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC) tumor during MMS is feasible, as demonstrated by the introduction of real-time perioperative imaging on patients in the surgical setting. Our study is currently testing the feasibility of a new mosaicing algorithm for perioperative RCM imaging of NMSC cancer margins on patients during MMS. We report progress toward imaging and image analysis on forty-five patients, who presented for MMS at the MSKCC Dermatology service. The first 10 patients were used as a training set to establish an RCM imaging algorithm, which was implemented on the remaining test set of 35 patients. RCM imaging, using 35% AlCl3 for nuclear contrast, was performed pre- and intra-operatively with the Vivascope 3000 (Caliber ID). Imaging was performed in quadrants in the wound, to simulate the Mohs surgeon’s examination of pathology. Videos were taken at the epidermal and deep dermal margins. Our Mohs surgeons assessed all videos and video-mosaics for quality and correlation to histology. Overall, our RCM video-mosaicing algorithm is feasible. RCM videos and video-mosaics of the epidermal and dermal margins were found to be of clinically acceptable quality. Assessment of cancer margins was affected by type of NMSC, size and location. Among the test set of 35 patients, 83% showed acceptable imaging quality, resolution and contrast. Visualization of nuclear and cellular morphology of residual BCC/SCC tumor and normal skin features could be detected in the peripheral and deep dermal margins. We observed correlation between the RCM videos/video-mosaics and the corresponding histology in 32 lesions. Peri-operative RCM imaging shows promise for improved and faster detection of cancer margins and guiding MMS in the surgical setting.
A revised chronology for Pleistocene paleolakes and Middle Stone Age – Middle Paleolithic cultural activity at Bîr Tirfawi – Bîr Sahara in the Egyptian Sahara

Abstract At Bir Tirfawi and Bir Sahara in the now hyperarid Egyptian Sahara, relict lake deposits located in adjacent deflation basins near 22°54′57.58″N 28°50′19.54″E preserve evidence of different hydroclimate conditions that enabled cultural activities during the Middle Stone Age – Middle Paleolithic (MSA-MP). Single aliquot regeneration optically stimulated luminescence (SAR-OSL) dating techniques were applied to sediment samples with archaeological contexts to generate a more precise geochronology for the groundwater-supported lakes and prehistoric activities in the region. New age determinations on nine samples collected from Bir Sahara East and Bir Tirfawi are presented for the five paleolake phases originally described by the excavation team. The new analyses yielded dates that are more precise, and refine the original geochronology for water availability at this location. The determinations suggest that some of the originally defined lake phases are temporally indistinct. SAR-OSL dates of the West 2 and West 3 lake phases defined at Bir Sahara East overlap in time, and are contemporaneous with the Grey 3 phase at Bir Tirfawi, at around 102 ka. The refined age for the Grey 1 phase at Bir Tirfawi dates to 135 ± 21.6 ka, and two dates for the Post-Lake phase at Bir Sahara center around 41 ka. A probability distribution plot (pdf) of all nine of the analytical results resolves the chronology of groundwater-supported paleolakes and prehistoric activities in the region around 41 ka (MIS 3), 80 ka (MIS 5a), 102 (MIS 5c-d), and 115 ka (MIS 5d-e). Precise dates for the sediments at these archaeological sites are important for several lines of multidisciplinary inquiry, including the role of Middle-Late Pleistocene climate on landscape change and water availability, variations in material culture and the adaptations in populations of anatomically modern humans (AMH) in the Sahara. Research in the Bir Sahara – Bir Tirfawi region is particularly interesting because the sites are within the modern hyperarid core of NE Africa, and are not located along the coasts or major waterway corridors “Out of Africa” like the Nile Valley. Semi-permanent paleolakes and long-lived spring-fed oases located in the modern arid belt west of the River Nile between Egypt and Sudan were crucial biomes for sustaining the lifeways and dispersal of Homo throughout the Quaternary. However, the importance and the role of such ecosystems dispersed across the North African landscape is somewhat underestimated in existing hypotheses that aim to describe hominin adaptation and dispersals.
Are Baklava and Burgers Enough? Seeking Cosmopolitanism through Culinary Practices, Food, and Food Cultures in Perikles Monioudis’s Land and Yadé Kara’s Cafe Cyprus

Recent theories of cosmopolitanism address how individuals grapple on the everyday level with the intermingling of cultures and the experience of borders in the current era of globalization. In this article, close readings of the novels Land (2007) by Perikles Monioudis and Cafe Cyprus (2008) by Yade Kara investigate the ways in which the depicted food cultures and practices, food pathways, and consumption tendencies, as well as the use of alimentary metaphors, problematize extant and negotiate new notions of cosmopolitanism as well as posit everyday acts of cosmopolitan agency as a means to cultivate a nascent sense of transnational community and belonging, albeit one that is ephemeral and fraught with conflict, fissures, and failure. I argue that the notions of cosmopolitanism and “cosmopolitan borderwork” forwarded in these texts appeal for the recognition of everyday practices, modes of consciousness, and forms of transnational affiliation tied to the sensory experiences provided by food in order to i...