cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Visual representation of safety narratives

A computational method for the visualization of text-based safety narratives on a two dimensional plane is shown. This multi-step approach utilizes latent semantic analysis to first infer higher-order structures and then isometric mapping to reduce the projection to two dimensions. Metadata may then be overlaid on the projection. Demonstrated is the application of this process to the human coded primary-problems identified and the phase of flight for a sample of the Aviation Safety Reporting System database. It is evident that this approach provides additional insight for the analysis of large inter-related corpora commonly found in safety programs. Language: en
The dynamic aortic root: Its role in aortic valve function

By attaching appropriate measuring devices to the wall of an intact aortic root at the level of leaflet coaptation, we have measured a 16 per cent diameter change during each cardiac cycle. The dimensional changes observed can by themselves explain aortic valve function and obviate the postulation that the leaflets shorten and lengthen during each cardiac cycle. The tissue composition of the aortic root and leaflets is more compatible with this theory than with other postulations. Such a dynamic aortic root may explain the longevity of the actual aortic leaflets, in that leaflet fatigue stress is minimized by changes in aortic root dimension.
The case for core competencies in introductory communication courses

ABSTRACTMost academic disciplines offer an introductory course that presents an overview of the discipline and introduces students to the fundamental principles and core competencies of that discipline. In communication studies, several context-based courses may qualify as “introductory,” e.g., public speaking, introduction to human communication, interpersonal communication, group communication, business and professional communication. Rather than proposing a single, standardized introductory course, this paper advocates the adoption and application of a set of core competencies for all introductory communication courses. This approach justifies the diversity of introductory courses and helps legitimize communication studies as a significant and unique academic discipline. In making the case for applying core competencies to all introductory courses, this essay also describes the benefits of this approach and responds to several common arguments claiming that introductory communication courses are neithe...
The Eternal and the Everlasting

There is a distinction between the eternal and the everlasting that has been recognized by philosophers and religious thinkers for more than two millennia. Our main effort in this chapter is to present and elaborate the distinction between the timeless eternal and an everlastingness that is within time as it was understood and may be understood today. Before we do that, however, it will be useful to reflect on a deep-running intuition, held by many, that encourages one to draw such a distinction: the intuition that what is most real is not the world we daily encounter but another realm that lies beyond it. Once we have done this in the next section, we will in the third section bring forward and discuss the distinction between the timeless eternal and the temporal everlasting as it is found in philosophical and religious thought.
Postmarital residence analysis

Prehistoric postmarital residence analysis attempts to identify whether differential migration by sex has occurred within a single site based on information collected from adult skeletal remains. This chapter examines analyses based on phenotypic and genotypic information drawn from temporally diverse samples in prehistoric West Central Illinois in an attempt to detect shifts in prehistoric postmarital residence that may be tied to the transition to intensive maize agriculture. The chapter also addresses the advantages and limitations of different forms of skeletal-based information, types of modeling techniques, and statistical approaches grounded in population genetic principles. The results do support an argument for a shift from virilocality to uxorilocality in prehistoric West Central Illinois that appears to coincide with the adoption of intensive maize agriculture.
A Study of Epithelial Ovarian Neoplasms Using Electron Microscopy and Immunohistochemistry, Including a Novel Immunomarker: Hexokinase II

Objectives: Diagnosing ovarian neoplasms is challenging, and ancillary studies help to characterize them. Immunohistochemical (IHC) stains are commonly used to help classify ovarian neoplasms, but techniques such as electron microscopy (EM) and immunogold EM (EMIG) are rarely used for this purpose. Methods: In our study, we performed IHC staining, EM, and EMIG on 20 snap-frozen (SF) and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded …
Comprehensive Sclerotinia Stem Rot Screening of Soybean Germplasm Requires Multiple Isolates of Sclerotinia sclerotiorum

Sclerotinia sclerotiorum population variability directly affects Sclerotinia stem rot (SSR) resistance breeding programs. In the north-central United States, however, soybean germplasm selection has often involved only a single isolate. Forty-four S. sclerotiorum isolates from Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Poland, and across 11 different host species were evaluated for variation in isolate in vitro growth, in vitro oxalate production, and in planta aggressiveness on the susceptible soybean ‘Williams 82’. Significant differences (P < 0.0001) were detected in isolate in planta aggressiveness, in vitro growth, and in vitro oxalate production. Furthermore, diverse isolate characteristics were observed within all hosts and locations of collection. Aggressiveness was not correlated to colony growth and was only weakly correlated (r = 0.26, P < 0.0001) to isolate oxalate production. In addition, the host or location of collection did not explain isolate aggressiveness. Isolate oxalic acid p...
Fraternal Twins: Critical Race Theory and Systemic Racism Theory as Analytic and Activist Tools for College Sport Reform

As critical race-based epistemologies rooted in the Black radical intellectual tradition of scholars and activists such as Frederick Douglass, David Walker, W.E.B DuBois, Ida B. Wells, Anna Julia Cooper, Carter G. Woodson, Angela Davis, and Kwame Ture (formerly known as Stokely Carmichael), among others, both critical race theory (CRT) and systemic racism theory (SRT) are conceptual frameworks that can be used as analytic and activist tools for addressing reform in American college sport. Although CRT formally emerged in the law/legal studies field and SRT in the field of sociology, these “fraternal twins” have more in common than they are different, and an integration of both frameworks has the potential to provide a more robust understanding and change-related efforts in college sport reform. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to discuss the intersecting tenets of CRT and SRT, advance a multilevel framework to show how both can be used to analyze and explain racism in college sport, and discuss the activist agenda of each and its applicability to efforts of college sport reform efforts. In doing so, we centralize the experiences of Black athletes as a way to better understand and address the educational plight of all other college athletes.
Open Transverse-Slot Substrate-Integrated Waveguide Sensor for Biomass Permittivity Determination

A novel open transverse-slot substrate-integrated waveguide sensor is presented. The sensor is designed and fabricated for dielectric measurements of sawdust at 8 GHz. Different configurations of the sensor were investigated by using simulation software and relationships between the simulated magnitude and phase of the reflection coefficient and dielectric properties. A suitable configuration was fabricated with a circuit board milling machine, and the performance was investigated through measurements of the magnitude and phase of the reflection coefficient from sawdust samples. The permittivity of the material was determined by fitting the voltage stand wave ratio and phase with a normalized 2-D polynomial with known dielectric values. The permittivity determination model was tested by using independent sets of training and validation measurements on sawdust at different bulk densities and moisture contents between 6.8% and 39%. The predicted dielectric properties values showed linear relationships with moisture content. Therefore, moisture content in sawdust can be determined from measurements of either dielectric constant or loss factor at a single microwave frequency without knowledge of the bulk density.
Carbon Redistribution and Carbide Precipitation in a High-Strength Low-Carbon HSLA-115 Steel Studied on a Nanoscale by Atom Probe Tomography

HSLA-115 is a newly developed Cu-bearing high-strength low-carbon martensitic steel for use in Naval structural applications. This research provides, for the first time, a comprehensive compositional analysis of carbon redistribution and associated complex phase transformations in an isothermal aging study of HSLA-115 at 823 K (550 °C). Specifically, we characterize carbon segregation at lath boundaries, grain-refining niobium carbonitrides, cementite, and secondary hardening M2C carbides, in addition to copper precipitation, by 3D atom probe tomography (APT). Segregation of carbon (3 to 6 at. pct C) is observed at martensitic lath boundaries in the as-quenched and 0.12-hour aged microstructures. On further aging, carbon redistributes itself forming cementite and M2C carbides. Niobium carbonitride precipitates do not dissolve during the austenitizing treatment and are inherited in the as-quenched and aged microstructures; these are characterized along with cementite by synchrotron X-ray diffraction and APT. Sub-nanometer-sized M2C carbide precipitates are observed after the formation of Cu precipitates, co-located with the latter, indicating heterogeneous nucleation of M2C. The temporal evolution of the composition and morphology of M2C carbides at 823 K (550 °C) is described using APT; their precipitation kinetics is intertwined with Cu precipitates, affecting the bulk mechanical properties of HSLA-115. Phase compositions determined by APT are compared with computed compositions at thermodynamic equilibrium using ThermoCalc.
Additional Pragmatic Topics

A variety of pragmatic issues can come up when developing budget-impact analyses. Some of these issues can have a substantial impact on drug budgets and can reverse the expected results. Therefore, payers and budget holders may require the consideration of some of these issues in the main analyses. In this chapter, we review three common pragmatic issues: (1) off-label drug use, (2) the impact of adherence and/or persistence, and (3) the importance of understanding the cost perspective. All of these issues should be carefully considered when developing budget-impact analyses for new drugs.
T-PLL: Another check on the venetoclax list?

In this issue of Blood, Boidol et al report a highly T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia (T-PLL)-specific response to the B-cell lymphoma 2 (BCL-2) inhibitor venetoclax in an ex vivo high-throughput drug screen, as well as partial remissions (PRs) in 2 patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) T-PLL and high disease burden, both of whom were previously treated with multiagent chemotherapy and alemtuzumab.
Magneto-optical nanoparticles for cyclic magnetomotive photoacoustic imaging

Abstract Photoacoustic imaging is a highly promising tool to visualize molecular events with deep tissue penetration. Like most other modalities, however, image contrast under in vivo conditions is far from optimal due to background signals from tissue. Using iron oxide-gold core-shell nanoparticles, we previously demonstrated that magnetomotive photoacoustic (mmPA) imaging can dramatically reduce the influence of background signals and produce high-contrast molecular images. Here we report two significant advances toward clinical translation of this technology. First, we introduce a new class of compact, uniform, magneto-optically coupled core-shell nanoparticle, prepared through localized copolymerization of polypyrrole (PPy) on an iron oxide nanoparticle surface. The resulting iron oxide-PPy nanoparticles solve the photo-instability and small-scale synthesis problems previously encountered by the gold coating approach, and extend the large optical absorption coefficient of the particles beyond 1000 nm in wavelength. In parallel, we have developed a new generation of mmPA imaging featuring cyclic magnetic motion and ultrasound speckle tracking, with an image capture frame rate several hundred times faster than the photoacoustic speckle tracking method demonstrated previously. These advances enable robust artifact elimination caused by physiologic motion and first application of the mmPA technology in vivo for sensitive tumor imaging.
Immunoglobulin synthesis and secretion

Immunoglobulins (antibodies) are a family of glycoproteins that are produced by plasma cells. All immunoglobulin molecules consist of a unit composed of two identical light (L) chain polypeptide chains and two identical heavy (H) polypeptide chains linked together by disulfide bonds (H2L2). The L and H chains fold into functional domains, two for the L chain and four or five for the H chain. The N-terminal domain from each chain forms the variable regions, VL and VH, which together constitute the antigen-binding site. The rest of the molecule has a relatively constant (C) structure. The variable regions with the constant region of the L chain and the first constant region domain of the H chain constitute an Fab region. The remaining constant region domains of the H chain make up the Fc region. Immunoglobulin molecules follow several different assembly and secretion pathways and have characteristic post-translational modifications that can contribute to their diverse functional capacities. Alterations in post-translational modification can be associated with significant diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis1,2 and IgA nephropathy3,4.
11.4. Fundamentals of Aeolian Sediment Transport: Dust Emissions and Transport – Near Surface

Mineral dust in Earth's atmosphere is a dominant aerosol component and plays a critical role in the planet's radiation balance, biogeochemistry, soils, and ecology. On a local to regional scale emission of dust can degrade air quality below accepted limits and under extreme storm conditions can result in loss of human and animal life as well as severe environmental degradation. Understanding the process of dust emission from sediments and soils, the environmental controls on that process, and the cycling of dust on Earth remains a scientific challenge. This section reviews the critical elements of the dust production system, focusing on the process components at the interface between the atmosphere and the surface. It will review and discuss our current understanding of threshold of dust entrainment, the vertical flux of dust from susceptible surfaces, and the different ways the surface itself affects the entrainment process and particle flux. In addition, discussion will be provided on electrification of the particles undergoing aeolian transport.
Cigarette Smoking Detection with an Inertial Sensor and a Smart Lighter

In recent years, a number of wearable approaches have been introduced for objective monitoring of cigarette smoking based on monitoring of hand gestures, breathing or cigarette lighting events. However, non-reactive, objective and accurate measurement of everyday cigarette consumption in the wild remains a challenge. This study utilizes a wearable sensor system (Personal Automatic Cigarette Tracker 2.0, PACT2.0) and proposes a method that integrates information from an instrumented lighter and a 6-axis Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) on the wrist for accurate detection of smoking events. The PACT2.0 was utilized in a study of 35 moderate to heavy smokers in both controlled (1.5–2 h) and unconstrained free-living conditions (~24 h). The collected dataset contained approximately 871 h of IMU data, 463 lighting events, and 443 cigarettes. The proposed method identified smoking events from the cigarette lighter data and estimated puff counts by detecting hand-to-mouth gestures (HMG) in the IMU data by a Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier. The leave-one-subject-out (LOSO) cross-validation on the data from the controlled portion of the study achieved high accuracy and F1-score of smoking event detection and estimation of puff counts (97%/98% and 93%/86%, respectively). The results of validation in free-living demonstrate 84.9% agreement with self-reported cigarettes. These results suggest that an IMU and instrumented lighter may potentially be used in studies of smoking behavior under natural conditions.
Synthesis and mutagenic potency of structural isomers of 2‐amino‐1‐methyl‐6‐phenylimidazo[4,5‐b]pyridine

Synthesis of 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine (PhIP), three structural isomers, and two desphenyl PhIP congeners has been carried out. Mutagenic potency was evaluated using S. typhimurium strain TA98 in the Ames test. Mutagenic potency increased in relation to structural features in these heterocyclic amines that allow extended resonance between the phenyl and imidazo[4,5-b]pyridine N2-amino substituents. By contrast, PhIP isomers, whose substitution disallows involvement of the phenyl group in their aminoimidazo resonance hybrids, and desphenyl congeners were from 86- to 234-fold less mutagenic than PhIP.
A CS1 Spatial Skills Intervention and the Impact on Introductory Programming Abilities

This paper discusses the results of replicating and extending a study performed by Cooper et al. examining the relationship between students' spatial skills and their success in learning to program. Whereas Cooper et al. worked with high school students participating in a summer program, we worked with college students taking an introductory computing course. Like Cooper et al.'s study, we saw a correlation between a student's spatial skills and their success in learning computing. More significantly, we saw that after applying an intervention to teach spatial skills, students demonstrated improved performance both on a standard spatial skills assessment as well as on a CS content instrument. We also saw a correlation between students' enjoyment in computing and improved performance both on a standard spatial skills assessment and on a CS content instrument, a result not observed by Cooper et al.
Cholesterol Regulates Innate Immunity via Nuclear Hormone Receptor NHR-8

Cholesterol is an essential nutrient for the function of diverse biological processes and for steroid biosynthesis across metazoans. However, the role of cholesterol in immune function remains understudied. Using the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, which depends on the external environment for cholesterol, we studied the relationship between cholesterol and innate immunity. We found that the transporter CHUP-1 is required for the effect of cholesterol in the development of innate immunity and that the cholesterol-mediated immune response requires the nuclear hormone receptor NHR-8. Cholesterol acts through NHR-8 to transcriptionally regulate immune genes that are controlled by conserved immune pathways, including a p38/PMK-1 MAPK pathway, a DAF-2/DAF-16 insulin pathway, and an Nrf/SKN-1 pathway. Our results indicate that cholesterol plays a key role in the activation of conserved microbicidal pathways that are essential for survival against bacterial infections.
More than good executives: The teaching mission of Confucian political leaders:

Emboldened by the rise of China, a meritocratic trend has surged in recent Confucian political theory. Confucian meritocracy is upheld as an equally viable alternative, if not a superior one, to de...
I-SPY: Context-Driven Conditional Instruction Prefetching with Coalescing

Modern data center applications have rapidly expanding instruction footprints that lead to frequent instruction cache misses, increasing cost and degrading data center performance and energy efficiency. Mitigating instruction cache misses is challenging since existing techniques (1) require significant hardware modifications, (2) expect impractical on-chip storage, or (3) prefetch instructions based on inaccurate understanding of program miss behavior.To overcome these limitations, we first investigate the challenges of effective instruction prefetching. We then use insights derived from our investigation to develop I-SPY, a novel profile-driven prefetching technique. I-SPY uses dynamic miss profiles to drive an offline analysis of I-cache miss behavior, which it uses to inform prefetching decisions. Two key techniques underlie I-SPY’s design: (1) conditional prefetching, which only prefetches instructions if the program context is known to lead to misses, and (2) prefetch coalescing, which merges multiple prefetches of non-contiguous cache lines into a single prefetch instruction. I-SPY exposes these techniques via a family of light-weight hardware code prefetch instructions.We study I-SPY in the context of nine data center applications and show that it provides an average of 15.5% (up to 45.9%) speedup and 95.9% (and up to 98.4%) reduction in instruction cache misses, outperforming the state-of-the-art prefetching technique by 22.5%. We show that I-SPY achieves performance improvements that are on average 90.5% of the performance of an ideal cache with no misses.
Impact of Individual Surgeon Volume on Outcomes Following LVAD Implantation

Purpose Surgeon volume affects outcomes of complex operations. However, it is not clear if individual surgeon volume in a large volume program affects left ventricular assist device (LVAD) outcomes. Methods We reviewed primary LVAD implants at our center between 2013 and 2020. Cases were dichotomized into a high-volume group (surgeons averaging more than 10 LVAD cases per year), and a low-volume group (10 or less cases per year). Propensity score matching was performed. Survival and incidence of major adverse events were compared; predictors of survival were identified with multivariable analysis. Results There were 315 patients who met inclusion criteria- 45 implants in the low-volume group, 270 in the high-volume group. In the propensity matched cohort, there was no difference in survival to hospital discharge between the low (91.9%) and high (91.7%) volume groups (p=1). Survival at 1-year was also similar between the groups (85.4% vs 88.6%, p=0.732). There was no difference in the incidence of major adverse events between the groups. Predictors of mortality in the first year included: age (Hazards Ratio [HR] 1.061, p Conclusion There was no difference in survival or adverse events between high and low volume surgeons suggesting that, in an experienced center, low-volume VAD surgeons can achieve similar outcomes to their high-volume colleagues.
Intersectional invisibility experiences of low-income African-American women in healthcare encounters.

The disparities that Black/African-American women experience in health care are persistent and staggering. Findings from health outcomes research continue to demonstrate poorer outcomes for African...
A hierarchical approach to scalable Gaussian process regression for spatial data

Large scale and highly detailed geospatial datasets currently offer rich opportunities for empirical investigation, where finer-level investigation of spatial spillovers and spatial infill can now be done at the parcel level. Gaussian process regression (GPR) is particularly well suited for such investigations, but is currently limited by its need to manipulate and store large dense covariance matrices. The central purpose of this paper is to develop a more efficient version of GPR based on the hierarchical covariance approximation proposed by Chen et al. (J Mach Learn Res 18:1–42, 2017) and Chen and Stein (Linear-cost covariance functions for Gaussian random fields, arXiv:1711.05895, 2017). We provide a novel probabilistic interpretation of Chen’s framework, and extend his method to the analysis of local marginal effects at the parcel level. Finally, we apply these tools to a spatial dataset constructed from a 10-year period of Oklahoma County Assessor databases. In this setting, we are able to identify both regions of possible spatial spillovers and spatial infill, and to show more generally how this approach can be used for the systematic identification of specific development opportunities.
Nonstationary local signal-and-noise orthogonalizationNonstationary orthogonalization

ABSTRACTThe local signal-and-noise orthogonalization method has been widely used in the seismic processing and imaging community. This method uses a fixed triangle smoother for regularizing the loc...
Prescription stimulant brand name recognition among a national sample of 10- to 18-year-old youth

OBJECTIVE The majority of prescription drugs, including prescription stimulants, are marketed using multiple brand names, doses, and formulations. There is limited research on the extent to which individuals correctly identify medication by brand name or packaging, but such identification is important for epidemiological studies especially among youth. Testing the ability of youth to identify medications was one aim of the National Monitoring of Prescription Stimulants Study, which focused on the prevalence of prescription stimulant use among youth. METHODS Using the entertainment venue intercept method, youth 10 to 18 years of age (n = 11,048) were recruited across 10 metropolitan areas throughout the United States, shown pictures of eight formulations of prescription stimulants, and asked to identify them by name, dosage, and formulation. RESULTS Overall, 27% of youth reported having seen one of the eight stimulant formulations and between 2% and 70% correctly identified name, dose, and formulation. Youths' reports of having seen and correctly identifying medication increased with age except for Daytrana® . Specifically, while 2.8% of youth reported using Adderall® in the past 30 days, only 71.4% correctly identified it. CONCLUSIONS These results provide strong evidence of the need for more stringent methods for youth to report drug use.
Disambiguating “Critical Theory”

Conflict and confluence between liberalism and socialism in twenty-first-century US politics reverberates in the culture wars in the idiom of “critical theory.” From at least the time of Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind (1987) and the 1996 Sokal affair, variations on the critical theory bugbear have been at the center of US culture wars.
College Students With Asthma: The Perfect Storm.

As health care costs continue to rise, management of chronic diseases such as asthma becomes paramount. A great deal of attention has been focused on asthma management for children and adolescents, ranging from school-based programming[1][1],[2][2] and community health workers[3][3] to shared
The Use of a Robotic Stapling Device for Coincidental Appendectomy

Abstract Background: Coincidental appendectomy has been shown to be beneficial in numerous patient populations. Previous reports have noted that laparoscopic surgical staplers used at the time of gynecologic surgery allow for simple, rapid removal of the appendix with decreased procedure time and no spillage of appendiceal contents into the peritoneal cavity. The use of a robotic stapler will provide the same benefits and eliminate the need for the surgeon to rely on conventional laparoscopy to complete the appendectomy. Materials and Methods: The robotic stapling device is a reusable, wristed stapling instrument that delivers six rows of staples with transection down the middle of the staple lines. This stapler was used to complete coincidental appendectomies, using the same surgical technique, in 10 patients undergoing primary gynecologic surgery. The surgical and pathologic outcomes were evaluated. Results: All appendectomies were successfully performed by the console surgeon without assistance. There ...
NEWTON AND THE MECHANICAL PHILOSOPHY: GRAVITATION AS THE BALANCE OF THE HEAVENS

We argue that Isaac Newton really is best understood as being in the tradition of the Mechanical Philosophy and, further, that Newton saw himself as being in this tradition. But the tradition as Newton understands it is not that of Robert Boyle and many others, for whom the Mechanical Philosophy was defined by contact action and a corpuscularean theory of matter. Instead, as we argue in this paper, Newton interpreted and extended the Mechanical Philosophy's slogan “matter and motion” in reference to the long and distinguished tradition of mixed mathematics and the study of simple machines.
Watermarking, a Mature Technology --- Retrospect and Prospect

Digital Watermarking has been proposed to manage digital rights, for authentication, to recover lost information, to monitor performance, and other applications. The efforts of many researchers from different disciplines have helped us to understand the basic issues and the challenges, and to help guiding the community toward actual applications. As digital watermarking matures as a technology, it is time to review what has been accomplished and to speculate what may be expected. In this talk, we will try to highlight the key development in digital watermarking, to examine the effectiveness in some applications, and to offer some thoughts regarding future development of digital watermarking.
Robust Controller Design for a Fixed-Bed Methanation Reactor

A systematic approach is applied to the design of robust multivariable controllers for a fixed-bed, laboratory methanation reactor. A configuration in which both the inlet temperature and the total flow rate are employed as manipulated variables for the regulation of the outlet temperature is investigated. The IMC design procedure is applied in combination with recently developed analysis and synthesis techniques based on the Structured Singular Value (?). Bounds are obtained through the analysis that allow to predict, a priori, the closed-loop performance in the face of model uncertainty.
Li x Cu6Sn5 ( 0 < x < 13 ) : An Intermetallic Insertion Electrode for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries

It has been discovered that lithium can be inserted into the intermetallic compound in a two‐phase reaction to yield the product . This finding has important implications for designing new intermetallic insertion electrodes (anodes) for rechargeable lithium batteries. The theoretical capacity of derived from the eta‐phase, , with a structure is for , which corresponds to a fully lithiated composition ; this capacity is close to the theoretical capacity of lithiated graphite . The reaction occurs at approximately vs. lithium metal. The best cycling efficiency is obtained when the end voltage is restricted to above the potential of lithium metal. A mechanism is proposed for the insertion of lithium into . ©1999 The Electrochemical Society
Quantitative Determination of Grain-Boundary Recombination Velocity in CdTe by Cathodoluminescence Measurements and Numerical Simulations

We present a 2-D numerical model simulating cathodoluminescence (CL) measurements on CdTe. The model is used to analyze the impact of material parameters on the measured CL intensity to establish when grain-boundary (GB) recombination velocity $S_{{\rm GB}}$ can be determined accurately from CL contrast. In addition to GB recombination, grain size and its ratio to the carrier diffusion length can impact CL measurements. Holding the grain interior and GB recombination rates constant, we find that as the grain size increases and exceeds the diffusion length, the observed CL contrast increases. For small-grain-size material, surface recombination lowers the overall intensity of the CL signal but does not significantly impact CL contrast. For large grains, high-surface recombination velocity can decrease the CL contrast. The model is combined with experimental results to quantify the $S_{{\rm GB}}$ in polycrystalline CdTe before and after the CdCl2 treatment and to predict the impact of GB recombination on device performance.
Review: The Architecture of Lucknow and Oudh, 1722–1856: Its Evolution in an Aesthetic and Social Context by Banmali Tandan

Banmali Tandan . The Architecture of Lucknow and Oudh, 1722–1856: Its Evolution in an Aesthetic and Social Context . Cambridge: Zophorus Books Limited, 2008, 450 pp., 527 b/w illus. $100 (cloth), ISBN 9780955788000 The architecture of Oudh, and particularly its capital city of Lucknow—legendary for its magnificence and the refinement of Indo-Islamic high culture under its rulers, the nawabs of Oudh—is the subject of Banmali Tandan's The Architecture of Lucknow and Oudh, 1722-1856: Its Evolution in an Aesthetic and Social Context. Starting in the thirteenth century in northwestern India, the region known as Oudh came under the rule of a sequence of Delhi-based Muslim dynasties. By the late sixteenth century the area became part of the mighty Mughal empire. In 1722 Saadat Khan, a Shi'a nobleman from Persia who was employed by the Mughal emperor, was appointed Subahdar (governor) of Oudh. From 1722 to 1856, these rulers and their successors came to be known as the nawabs of Oudh. While putatively remaining loyal to the Mughal emperor, Saadat Khan worked to consolidate his position and assert control over his domain by undertaking campaigns against the largely Hindu landlords of Oudh. These semi-independent feudal barons were not entirely suppressed. They were forced to pay tax on a regular basis even as their hereditary rights to their lands remained undisturbed. Some of the landed chieftains would become Nawabi courtiers and officials. Despite the Nawabi overlordship, most continued to grow in strength under Nawabi rule. Their belief that they were independent rulers of their domain was signaled by the construction of numerous mud-forts in their lands during this period. After his death in 1739, Saadat Khan's nephew and son-in-law Safdar Jang (1739–1753) succeeded him as governor. At this time Oudh had grown to be a rich province; one that yielded vast revenues, estimated in the 1750s to be …
Synthesis of the C3−C18 Fragment of Amphidinolides G and H

A synthesis of an amphidinolides G and H C3−C18 subunits is reported. The C10−C18 segment 4 was prepared by a Negishi cross-coupling, whereas the synthesis of the C3−C9 fragment 5 employed an asymmetric cyanosilylation as the key step. The two segments were coupled by lithiation of iodide 4 and trapping of the anion with amide 5. The allylic epoxide moiety could be synthesized from the protected anti- mesylate 22.
Carboxylate coordination chemistry of a mononuclear Ni(II) center in a hydrophobic or hydrogen bond donor secondary environment: relevance to acireductone dioxygenase.

A series of Ni(II) carboxylate complexes, supported by a chelate ligand having either secondary hydrophobic phenyl groups (6-Ph2TPA, N,N-bis((6-phenyl-2-pyridyl)methyl)-N-((2-pyridyl)methyl)amine) or hydrogen bond donors (bnpapa, N,N-bis((6-neopentylamino-2-pyridyl)methyl)-N-((2-pyridyl)methyl)amine), have been prepared and characterized. X-ray crystallographic studies of [(6-Ph2TPA)Ni(O2C(CH2)2SCH3)]ClO4·CH2Cl2 (4·CH2Cl2) and [(6-Ph2TPA)Ni(O2CCH2SCH3)]ClO4·1.5CH2Cl2 (5·1.5CH2Cl2) revealed that each complex contains a distorted octahedral Ni(II) center and a bidentate carboxylate ligand. A previously described benzoate complex ([(6-Ph2TPA)Ni(O2CPh)]ClO4 (3)) has similar structural characteristics. Recrystallization of dry powdered samples of 3, 4·0.5CH2Cl2, and 5 from wet organic solvents yielded a second series of crystalline Ni(II) carboxylate complexes having a coordinated monodentate carboxylate ligand ([(6-Ph2TPA)Ni(H2O)(O2CPh)]ClO4 (6), [(6-Ph2TPA)Ni(H2O)(O2C(CH2)2SCH3)]ClO4·0.2CH2Cl2 (7·0.2CH2Cl2),...
Generation of corn tissue norms from a small, high-yield data base

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the practicality of generating plant tissue norms with analytical data from a few, extremely high‐yield observations. A set of ear leaf tissue norms for corn (Zea mays L.) were developed from a set of data consisting of 10 observations of field‐grown corn with yields greater than 18 Mg ha‐1. The norms thus generated were compared with norms generated from 8494 observations from a wide geographical area. Norms for several elements (P, K, Mg, S, Mn, and B) calculated from the two data bases were significantly different, while norms for the other nutrients (N, Ca, Fe, and Cu) were not. The norms generated from the limited data base were tested with data from an N3P3K3S3 factorial greenhouse experiment. Results of this test indicate that the norms developed from the limited, high‐yield data base were slightly better at predicting yield increases than those from the broader worldwide data base. The increase in accuracy seemed to be largely due to lower S norm...
Evidence for two distinct Mg2+ binding sites in Gsα and Giα1 proteins

Abstract The function of guanine nucleotide binding (G) proteins is Mg2+ dependent with guanine nucleotide exchange requiring higher metal ion concentration than guanosine 5′-triphosphate hydrolysis. It is unclear whether two Mg2+ binding sites are present or if one Mg2+ binding site exhibits different affinities for the inactive GDP-bound or the active GTP-bound conformations. We used furaptra, a Mg2+-specific fluorophore, to investigate Mg2+ binding to α subunits in both conformations of the stimulatory (Gsα) and inhibitory (Giα1) regulators of adenylyl cyclase. Regardless of the conformation or α protein studied, we found that two distinct Mg2+ sites were present with dissimilar affinities. With the exception of Gsα in the active conformation, cooperativity between the two Mg2+ sites was also observed. Whereas the high affinity Mg2+ site corresponds to that observed in published X-ray structures of G proteins, the low affinity Mg2+ site may involve coordination to the terminal phosphate of the nucleotide.
Monitoring of gastric acid suppression in patients with extraesophageal reflux disease.

Summary Objective Response to acid suppressive therapy varies in patients with extraesophageal esophageal reflux disease (EERD). Inadequate suppression of gastric acid may contribute to the observed differences in the response to the treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate suppression of gastric acid in EERD patients being treated with acid suppressive therapy. Methods Charts of patients with EERD who underwent dual channel 24 h esophageal pH monitoring while receiving acid suppressive therapy between January 2002 and June 2004 were reviewed. Suppression of gastric acid was determined based on the number of acid reflux episodes, esophageal acid exposure, and acid clearance time. Results Twenty patients (12 male, 8 female, age range: 2–19 years) were identified. Esophageal pH monitoring was within normal limits, documenting complete acid suppression in nine patients (45%). Increased numbers of acid reflux episodes were observed in seven patients. In four patients, the number of acid reflux episodes was normal in spite of incomplete acid suppression. However, other abnormal pH monitoring parameters included delayed acid clearance in three patients and increased acid exposure time in three. The majority of patients also showed alkaline reflux. Conclusion Esophageal pH monitoring documented incomplete acid suppression in this group of infants, children, adolescents and teen s with EERD. Monitoring of gastric acid suppression can be useful in guiding the follow-up of EERD patients who receive acid suppressive therapy.
Protein folding roller coaster, one molecule at a time.

Protein folding is a cooperative phenomenon where at the midtransition temperature of thermal denaturation only fully folded and fully unfolded species coexist in appreciable amounts, while the concentration of partially folded forms is negligible (1) (see Fig. 1). The implication of this finding from early calorimetric studies for kinetics was immediate and dramatic; it suggested that protein folding is a barrier-crossing process whereby folding proteins spend most of the time fluctuating idly in the unfolded state waiting for a rare fluctuation that rapidly carries it to the top of the barrier with a subsequent “downhill” run to the native state. (Fig. 1). Such a scenario was indeed discovered in folding simulations of simplified, yet nontrivial, sequence-based models in the 1990s (2). The trajectories carrying the protein over the barrier are called transition paths. It is the transition-path trajectories where all folding action occurs, and discerning them step by step holds a key to complete understanding of the mysteries of folding dynamics. Not surprisingly, many theoretical studies focused on detailed retracing of transition-path trajectories in search of mechanistic insights into protein folding dynamics (2–5). However, direct experimental observations of transition paths have been elusive because, in the ensemble, each molecule crosses the barrier at its own stochastic point in time so that an averaged picture of exponential kinetics emerges. Transition paths can be observed only in single-molecule experiments, and the work of Eaton and coworkers in this issue of PNAS (6) reports such observations for the first time. The very nature of transition paths, where folding and unfolding actually happen, makes their study a challenge for single-molecule studies. The experiments must have very high temporal resolution to resolve the very fast (and dramatic) events of reaching the top of the barrier with subsequent rapid descent to the native state. Although there have been interesting single-molecule optical studies of protein folding since the pioneering work of DeGrado, Hochstrasser, and coworkers (7) [reviewed by Schuler and Eaton (8)], the time resolution of single-molecule FRET experiments has been insufficient for observing transition paths. There are many technical difficulties related to photophysics in FRET experiments and the need to immobilize protein molecules without introducing artifacts. The fundamental issue is a peculiar “uncertainty principle” of single-molecule FRET experiments: to reach higher temporal resolution the laser intensity must be as high as possible (to increase photon count-making time bins as small as possible), but the higher laser intensity also results in faster photobleaching of the FRET chromophores that restricts the analysis to shorter trajectories that are less likely to contain transition paths, therefore providing a smaller number of interesting trajectories available for statistical analysis.
Efficacy of hysterosalpingography in evaluating endometriosis

Endometriosis is a common disease in young women being evaluated for infertility. Although endometriosis may cause tubal abnormalities on hysterosalpingography, efficacy of radiographic evaluation in this disease is not clear. We reviewed the radiographic and laparoscopic examinations in 50 women being studied for infertility. Laparoscopy was normal in 15 women and showed endometriosis in 35 patients. Endometriosis was staged at laparoscopy using the classification of the American Fertility Society. Radiographic examinations were reviewed blindly and tubal status noted in each patient. Criteria for tubal abnormality included incomplete or absent filling and ampullary dilatation or convolution. Radiographic efficacy was determined by correlating the tubal appearance to the severity and location of endometriosis. A total of 98 tubes were correlated but only 10 (10%) were felt to be involved by endometriosis based on laparoscopic findings. Radiologic sensitivity was 40% (4 of 10) and specificity was 83% (73 of 88). Positive predictive value was 21% (4 of 19) due to 15 false-positive diagnoses in tubes uninvolved by endometriosis. In conclusion, endometriosis, regardless of its severity, rarely causes radiographic abnormalities on hysterosalpingography because of the location of disease in the pelvis.
Perceiving the geometry of age in a human face.

The human head exhibits typical changes in shape from infancy through adulthood and into old age. Without overt knowledge of the geometry of such change, we, as observers, can still recognize the process. Perception of an aging head, as seen in sagittal profiles, closely follows the mathematical specifications of two factors (Pittenger & Shaw, 1975; Shaw & McIntyre, 1974): (1) a factor of constant change, called a cardioidal transformational invariant, and (2) a factor of constant morphology, or structural invariant, represented by a fixed, functional point in anatomical space. Concentrating on the latter, I have found that the best point for this geometric transformation to occur around is near the foramen magnum (the point where the skull meets the spinal column) and brainstem. As the place of attachment, this point provides a structural ground around which growth can occur: It is growth's frame of reference for the head (Enlow, 1975, p. 105). Therefore, viewers can judge the relative goodness of various transformations of growth and aging, and their best-judged stimuli match those that are anatomically most plausible. At the beginning of this century, D' Arcy Thompson (1917) suggested that one could compare the anatomies of different species through topological transformation. More recently, Enlow (1968, 1975) suggested that the process of aging in human faces followed a simple rule: The proportional enlargement of the cranium in the child is gradually overcome by midpuberty, after which the lower portion of the face becomes larger. Putting the views of Thompson and Enlow together, Shaw and Pittenger (1977) found that a cardioidal (or heart-like) transformation provided a good fit for describing age change in sagittal profiles of human heads. That is, if the outline of
Size-Space Tradeoffs for Oblivious Computations☆

Abstract A major area of interest in computation complexity is the development of lower bounds on the simultaneous resource requirements of algorithmic solutions to a particular problem. Significant relationships can exist between the various parameters influencing the cost of computing such as a radeoff, for which it is impossible to achieve two resource values simultaneously. A new type of tradeoff is introduced that relates the resources of circuit size and space for certain oblivious algorithms. It is demonstrated that for graphs associated with the problems of oblivious merging and pattern matching, restricting the minimal space necessary to compute outputs implies that the graphs have nonoptimal size. These results are direct consequences of a more general result relating the depth and path length of a binary tree to its space requirement.
Lamina cribrosa microarchitecture in normal monkey eyes part 1: methods and initial results.

Purpose. To introduce quantitative postmortem lamina cribrosa (LC) microarchitecture (LMA) assessment and characterize beam diameter (BD), pore diameter (PD), and connective tissue volume fraction (CTVF) in 21 normal monkey eyes.