cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Pregnancy-Specific Protein B Induces Release of an Alpha Chemokine in Bovine Endometrium

Pregnancy-specific protein B (PSPB), is secreted from binucleate trophoblast of the bovine conceptus as early as day 15 of pregnancy. The objective of this experiment was to determine if PSPB induced uterine proteins. PSPB was purified from day 120 cotyledons using antibody-based affinity chromatography. Endometrium from day 14 nonpregnant cows (n = 3) was prepared for explant (3H-Leu added) culture. Radiolabeled proteins released into medium were dialyzed, separated using 1D-PAGE, and detected using fluorography and densitometry. PSPB (0, 0.5, 5, 25 & 50 nM) caused a concentration-dependent increase in the release of a radiolabeled 8-kDa uterine protein. Western blots revealed that the 8-kDa protein cross-reacted with antibody against granulocyte chemotactic protein-2 (GCP-2). PSPB also induced release of GCP-2 by bovine endometrial (BEND) cells in primary culture. The induction of GCP-2 by PSPB was blocked by addition of antiserum against PSPB (1:4 molar ratio). This is the first indication that PSPB has a hormonal role in inducing GCP-2, an alpha chemokine that also is induced by interferon-tau during early pregnancy. This chemotactic cytokine may be integral to mediating adhesion, inflammation and angiogenesis associated with early implantation.
Orthopaedic case of the month: arm pain and fistulous tract in a 45-year-old Liberian woman.

The institution of the author (HY) has received funding from the Larrk Foundation. The remaining authors (ST, AS, TJ) certify that he or she has no commercial associations that might pose a conflict of interest in connection with the submitted article. Each author certifies that his or her institution waived or does not require approval for the reporting of this case and that all investigations were conducted in conformity with ethical principles of research. The work was performed at Denver Health Medical Center.
The New Library

Cameron speaks with enthusiasm about the New Library (Alexander Library) that will be opened in September of 1956. Construction is almost complete and the plans for the operation of the Library are nearly complete.
The Gauss-Green theorem

Abstract In the m -dimensional Euclidean space, we establish the Gauss-Green theorem for any bounded set of bounded variation, and any bounded vector field continuous outside a set of ( m − 1)-dimensional Hausdorff measure zero and almost differentiable outside a set of σ-finite ( m − 1)-dimensional Hausdorff measure.
Extension of UNIFAC to high pressure VLE using Vidal mixing rules

Abstract The UNIFAC and ASOG group contribution methods are extensively used for predicting vapor—liquid equilibria at low pressures. At higher pressures, these models are not applicable—primarily because there is no consistent way of correcting for vapor phase non-idealities. In this work the UNIFAC model was incorporated in an equation of state framework using Vidal mixing rules. Excellent prediction results are obtained at high pressures for highly non-ideal systems. The method serves as a convenient way to extend the applicability of the group-contribution models to higher pressures.
On Laplace and Stokes potentials

Integral equations associated with the basic boundary value problems for the Laplace and Stokes equations are considered. The integral operators for these integral equations are interpreted as the pseudodifferential operators, and their principal symbols are calculated. The symbols are obtained in terms of the principal curvatures and the coefficients of the first quadratic form of the boundary. As a consequence, the initial approximation is suggested for the iterative methods solving the integral equations. © 1998 by B. G. Teubner Stuttgart–John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Aneurysmal Changes in an in Situ Saphenous Vein Bypass A Case Report

The development of an aneurysm in an in situ bypass has not been reported to date in the major series of in situ bypasses. A review of the English literature did reveal one other report of an aneurysm developing following an in situ bypass. In this report, we describe a sixty-seven-year-old woman with a true aneurysm that developed in an in situ greater saphenous vein bypass six years after implantation.
Impersonating “little women”: The radicalism of Alcott's behind a mask

(1983). Impersonating “little women”: The radicalism of Alcott's behind a mask. Women's Studies: Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 1-14.
Combined Therapeutic Approach to Malignant Lacrimal Gland Tumors

The medical records of 13 patients with primary malignant lesions of the lacrimal gland revealed adenoid cystic carcinoma as the most common malignant tumor. The histologic cell type, neural invasion, and bony destruction were correlated with localized control and ultimate survival. Surgical removal of the lacrimal gland was adequate treatment for low-grade mucoepidermoid carcinoma confined to the gland itself. Combining a radical surgical removal of the area in planned sequence with high voltage radiation therapy offered the only reasonable hope for localized control in the more aggressive cell types or in tumors with neural invasion or bony involvement. A 40%-localized control and survival rate was achieved in the adenoid cystic carcinoma group of patients. Radiation therapy administered for cancer that obviously recurs after surgical resection was generally unsuccessful.
The earnings of Mexican immigrants in the United States

Abstract This paper documents the trends in the earnings of Mexican immigrants during the 1970–1990 period. The empirical evidence indicates that there has been a decline in the relative wage of successive Mexican immigrant waves in the past three decades and that little wage convergence occurs between the typical Mexican immigrant and the typical native worker. The data also suggest that the increasing importance of Mexican immigration is partly responsible for the deterioration in relative skills observed in the aggregate immigrant population, but that there has also been a decline in relative skills even among non-Mexican immigrants.
Modulating μ-Opioid Receptor Phosphorylation Switches Agonist-dependent Signaling as Reflected in PKCϵ Activation and Dendritic Spine Stability *

A new role of G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) phosphorylation was demonstrated in the current studies by using the μ-opioid receptor (OPRM1) as a model. Morphine induces a low level of receptor phosphorylation and uses the PKCϵ pathway to induce ERK phosphorylation and receptor desensitization, whereas etorphine, fentanyl, and [d-Ala2,N-Me-Phe4,Gly5-ol]-enkephalin (DAMGO) induce extensive receptor phosphorylation and use the β-arrestin2 pathway. Blocking OPRM1 phosphorylation (by mutating Ser363, Thr370 and Ser375 to Ala) enabled etorphine, fentanyl, and DAMGO to use the PKCϵ pathway. This was not due to the decreased recruitment of β-arrestin2 to the receptor signaling complex, because these agonists were unable to use the PKCϵ pathway when β-arrestin2 was absent. In addition, overexpressing G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2) decreased the ability of morphine to activate PKCϵ, whereas overexpressing dominant-negative GRK2 enabled etorphine, fentanyl, and DAMGO to activate PKCϵ. Furthermore, by overexpressing wild-type OPRM1 and a phosphorylation-deficient mutant in primary cultures of hippocampal neurons, we demonstrated that receptor phosphorylation contributes to the differential effects of agonists on dendritic spine stability. Phosphorylation blockage made etorphine, fentanyl, and DAMGO function as morphine in the primary cultures. Therefore, agonist-dependent phosphorylation of GPCR regulates the activation of the PKC pathway and the subsequent responses.
Auto-processing of very fine-scale composite materials by chaotic mixing of melts

A processing technique is presented in which very fine fibres or lamellae emerge from single or multiple, molten, discrete phase precursors contained within a continuous molten phase as a result of three-dimensional chaotic mixing. Conditions for chaotic mixing in a previously uninvestigated cylindrical cavity were established experimentally and numerically with glycerin as a surrogate fluid. Chaotic mixing was then induced within a similar cavity to produce polymeric composites. Optical micrographs of the solidified emergent structures are provided and the association between the fine-scale microstructures and the chaotic mixing process is presented. The results suggest opportunities to produce a variety of very fine-scale composite structures by alternative means.
The simulation of plasma double-layer structures in two dimensions

Electrostatic plasma double layers are numerically simulated by means of a magnetized 2½-dimensional particle-in-cell method, periodic in one direction and bounded by reservoirs of Maxwellian plasma in the other. The investigation of planar double layers indicates that these one-dimensional potential structures are susceptible to periodic disruption by plasma instabilities. A slight increase in the double-layer thickness with an increase in its obliqueness to the magnetic field is observed. It is noted that weak magnetization results in the double-layer electric-field alignment of particles accelerated by these potential structures and that strong magnetization results in their magnetic-field alignment. Electron-beam-excited electrostatic electron cyclotron waves and ion-beam-driven electrostatic turbulence are present in the plasmas adjacent to the double layers. The numerical simulations of spatially periodic two-dimensional double layers also exhibit cyclical instability. A morphological invariance in two-dimensional double layers with respect to the degree of magnetization implies that the potential structures scale with Debye lengths rather than with gyroradii. Ion-beam-driven electrostatic turbulence and electron-beam-driven plasma waves are again detected. A simplified one-dimensional model of oblique plasma double layers, using water-bag velocity distribution functions, is presented in an appendix.
Stable isotope fingerprinting: a novel method for identifying plant, fungal, or bacterial origins of amino acids

Amino acids play an important role in ecology as essential nutrients for animals and as currencies in symbiotic associations. Here we present a new approach to tracing the origins of amino acids by identifying unique patterns of carbon isotope signatures generated by amino acid synthesis in plants, fungi, and bacteria (“13C fingerprints”). We measured amino acid δ13C from 10 C3 plants, 13 fungi, and 10 bacteria collected and isolated from a boreal forest in interior Alaska, USA, using gas chromatography-combustion-isotope ratio mass spectrometry (GC-C-IRMS). Microorganisms were cultured under amino-acid-free conditions and identified based on DNA sequences. Bacteria, fungi, and plants generated consistent, unique 13C fingerprints based on the more complex amino acids (five or more biosynthetic steps) that are classified as essential for animals. Linear discriminant analysis classified all samples correctly with >99% certainty and correctly classified nearly all insect samples from a previous study by diet...
Mouse Models of Frailty: an Emerging Field

Frailty is highly prevalent in the elderly, increasing the risk of poor outcomes that include falls, incident disability, hospitalization, and mortality. Thus, a great need exists to characterize the underlying mechanisms and ultimately identify strategies that prevent, delay, and even reverse frailty. Mouse models can provide insight into molecular mechanisms of frailty by reducing variability in lifestyle and genetic factors that can complicate interpretation of human clinical data. Frailty, generally recognized as a syndrome involving reduced homeostatic reserve in response to physiologic challenges and increasing susceptibility to poor health outcomes, is predominantly assessed using two independent strategies, integrated phenotype and deficit accumulation. The integrated phenotype defines frailty by the presentation of factors affecting functional capacity such as weight loss, exhaustion, low activity levels, slow gait, and grip strength. The deficit accumulation paradigm draws parameters from a greater range of physiological systems, such as the ability to perform daily activities, coordination and gait, mental components, physiological problems, and history and presence of medical morbidities. This strategic division also applies within the emerging field of mouse frailty models, with both methodologies showing usefulness in providing insight into physiologic mechanisms and testing interventions. Our review will explore the strategies used, caveats in methodology, and future directions in the application of animal models for the study of the frailty syndrome.
Subcategorization and syntax-based theta-role assignment

Classic problems of how to generalize over predicate-argument relations (e.g., buy vs. sell; spray paint vs. spray a wall) have led to postulating semantic representations which are structured differently than deep syntax, such as (linked) theta grids and (lexical) conceptual structures. I argue that such autonomous semantics massively violates parsimony, and that theta-roles are better predicted by using only modestly enhanced, independently justified deep structures. In addition, I claim that several recent generalizations (of Rizzi, Levin and Rappaport, and Randall) are better formulated as deep syntactic properties than in terms of theta-roles. This syntactic approach to predicate-argument relations thus reinitiates a line of research implicit in Chomsky's Aspects but never developed. The first section argues that only this approach faithfully applies the syntactic revolution to lexical (head-complement) semantics. Principles invoked include Chomsky's Full Interpretation and Rule for Agents and Talmy's Figure/Ground separation, along with a new Ground Specification and syntactic counterparts to two formal devices from Jackendoff's Conceptual Structures. The thematic role constellations for many verb classes (mostly but not all from English) are shown to follow from these principles. The conclusion speculates that the theta-roles assigned to a sentence are not its properties at a linguistic level, but rather indicate how that sentence is to modify cognitive representations.
A characterisation of dark-field imaging of colloidal gold labels in a scanning transmission X-ray microscope

While X-ray microscopes provide images of biological specimens for which the contrast is mainly due to the difference in the absorption of carbon and oxygen when X-rays transmitted through the specimen are detected, signals other than absorption can also be used to form images. Using the Stony Brook scanning transmission X-ray microscope at the National Synchrotron Light Source, high-angle dark-field images have been formed of cells labelled with colloidal gold, with and without silver enhancement. The high density of the colloidal gold particles, or the silver particles seeded by the gold, leads to a large scattering signal, and the fact that the particle diameters are comparable to the width of the microscope point spread function results in good localisation of the label with high contrast. The dark-field images can have a greater signal to noise ratio than bright-field images acquired with the same incident X-ray dose. The theory of dark- and bright-field imaging is reviewed. Theoretical calculations of scattering from gold and silver particles are presented and good agreement is found between these and experimental dark-field images of 30 nm diameter gold particles. The signal to noise ratios of experimental bright- and dark-field images are measured and found to be in agreement with theory. Images are presented of cells labelled by immunolabelling and in situ hybridisation.
Effects of Utterance Length and Vocal Loudness on Speech Breathing in Older Adults

Age-related reductions in pulmonary elastic recoil and respiratory muscle strength can affect how older adults generate subglottal pressure required for speech production. The present study examined age-related changes in speech breathing by manipulating utterance length and loudness during a connected speech task (monologue). Twenty-three older adults and twenty-eight young adults produced a monologue at comfortable loudness and pitch and with multi-talker babble noise playing in the room to elicit louder speech. Dependent variables included sound pressure level, speech rate, and lung volume initiation, termination, and excursion. Older adults produced shorter utterances than young adults overall. Age-related effects were larger for longer utterances. Older adults demonstrated very different lung volume adjustments for loud speech than young adults. These results suggest that older adults have a more difficult time when the speech system is being taxed by both utterance length and loudness. The data were consistent with the hypothesis that both young and older adults use utterance length in premotor speech planning processes.
Frugal Routing on Wireless Ad-Hoc Networks

We study game-theoretic mechanisms for routing in ad-hoc networks. Game-theoretic mechanisms capture the non-cooperative and selfish behavior of nodes in a resource-constrained environment. There have been some recent proposals to use incentive-based mechanisms (in particular, VCG) for routing in wireless ad-hoc networks, and some frugality bounds are known when the connectivity graph is essentially complete. We show frugality bounds for random geometric graphs, a well-known model for ad-hoc wireless connectivity. Our main result demonstrates that VCG-based routing in ad-hoc networks exhibits small frugality ratio (i.e., overpayment) with high probability. In addition, we study a more realistic generalization where sets of agents can form communitiesto maximize total profit. We also analyze the performance of VCG under such a community model and show similar bounds. While some recent truthful protocols for the traditional (individual) agent model have improved upon the frugality of VCG by selecting paths to minimize not only the cost but the overpayment, we show that extending such protocols to the community model requires solving NP-complete problems which are provably hard to approximate.
Deserving and Entitled: Social Constructions and Public Policy

Deserving and Entitled: Social Constructions and Public Policy. Edited by Anne L. Schneider and Helen M. Ingram. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2005. 416p. 29.95 paper.Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram have assembled 11 essays by scholars who examine how Americans' understandings of social groups shape both the process and substantive outcomes of policymaking. Explaining how such meanings are made and what they imply proves to be a challenge for the contributors to this edited volume. Because the central concepts here are rather amorphous—group entitlement and deservingness—much room remains for argument about how much of either quality the target groups enjoy. The stated purpose of the book, “to explain, examine, and criticize the social construction of deservedness and entitlement in public policy,” is useful and ambitious (p. 2). Though rich in descriptive content on topics such as Revolutionary War pensions, policies toward Japanese-Americans, housing discrimination law, welfare, and microenterprise development, most of the essays raise many more questions than they answer regarding how socially constructed meanings come to be, how they matter for policy development, and the conditions under which such understandings significantly matter. Examining how public policies enhance or hinder the development of full citizenship is the central question running through these thought-provoking chapters.
Strategic generation bidding using a learning algorithm through updates of supply offer selection propensities

This paper discusses a novel bidding strategy of a generation company (genco) in an hourly day-ahead market. In the proposed method, a genco learns the returns of supply offers and adapts its strategy accordingly, based on the Variant Roth-Erev (VRE) reinforcement learning algorithm. Every supply offer submitted to the market receives a profit at the end of each day, and is strategically updated for the next day based on this profit. The novelty of our proposed method is that every supply offer has a propensity (an inclination or a tendency) to be selected associated with it. The propensity is updated as a percentage relative to every other supply offer's propensity based on the profit received. The DC optimal power flow problem solved by the system operator is also improved by including the physical inter-temporal constraints such as the generator ramp rates, in addition to the supply offers. Simulations on a 5-bus test system show that a genco learns to strategically bid in the market using the relative percentage propensity update technique. As a result, without any market regulations, the locational marginal prices increased by 29% on average.
A parallel algorithm and architecture for the control of kinematically redundant manipulators

Kinematically redundant manipulators are inherently capable of more dextrous manipulation due to their additional degrees of freedom. To achieve this dexterity, however, one must be able to efficiently calculate the most desirable configuration from the infinite number of possible configurations that satisfy the end-effector constraint. It has been previously shown that the singular value decomposition (SVD) plays a crucial role in doing such calculations. In this work, a parallel algorithm for calculating the SVD is incorporated into a computational scheme for solving the equations of motion for kinematically redundant systems. This algorithm, which generalizes the damped least squares formulation to include solutions that utilize null-space projections and task prioritization as well as augmented or extended Jacobians, is then implemented on a simple linear array of processing elements. By taking advantage of the error bounds on the perturbation of the SVD, it is shown that an array of only four AT&T DSP chips can result in control cycle times of less than 3 ms for a seven degree-of-freedom manipulator. >
Crossing Mexico: Structural violence and the commodification of undocumented Central American migrants

The undocumented-migrant journey across Mexico has become a site of intense violence, exploitation, and profit making within the logics of capitalism. While transnational migration is often conceptualized from the perspective of sending and receiving communities and borderlands, I suggest the liminal spaces between these zones are crucial sites for understanding how structural forms of violence are reconfigured in local settings. Drawing on my ethnographic fieldwork in migrant shelters located along the journey, I trace how Central American migrants’ bodies, labor, and lives are transformed into commodities within economies of smuggling, extortion, and humanitarian aid. I argue that everyday violence along the journey is produced by historical trajectories of political and criminal violence and by local and global economies that profit from human mobility. As violence is rearticulated at the local level, new tensions and social dislocations emerge between and among social groups.
Personality dimensions in adult male rhesus macaques: prediction of behaviors across time and situation.

The idea that consistencies in behavior exist over time and across situations underlies human personality research. Although several studies have examined personality in nonhuman primates, there are very few data showing the predictive power of personality factors. The goal of the present study was to determine whether personality dimensions, identified in adult male rhesus monkeys living in half-acre cages, predicted behavior in situations different from the one from which the dimensions were originally derived and at time points of up to 4.5 years after the original assessments. Four personality dimensions (Sociability, Confidence, Excitability, and Equability) were identified using psychometric procedures and were correlated with behaviors recorded in several situations : the animals' natal groups, during tests of behavioral responsiveness while in individual cages, in small stable and unstable social groups, while viewing stimulus videotapes, and during stable social dyads. Results indicated substantial predictability. Sociability reflected a greater tendency to engage in affiliative interactions. Confidence correlated with more aggressive behaviors and with behaviors that suggest less attractiveness. Animals high in Excitability were somewhat inconsistent in their social behavior, perhaps reflecting hyper-responsiveness to novel circumstances and thwarted opportunities for escape. Equability appeared to be related to a less aggressive, more passive, style of interaction. Excitability and Equability appear to reflect more stylistic components of social behavior, whereas Sociability and Confidence may be more content-based dimensions. Sociability was strongly related to size of kin network in the animals' natal groups, suggesting an important role for ontogeny in this dimension. These data suggest that a limited number of personality dimensions exist in adult male rhesus macaques, and that these dimensions have predictive power that is both long-term and cross situational.
Physical Therapy for Spinal Accessory Nerve Injury Complicated by Adhesive Capsulitis

Background and Purpose. The authors found no literature describing adhesive capsulitis as a consequence of spinal accessory nerve injury and no exercise program or protocol for patients with spinal accessory nerve injury. The purpose of this case report is to describe the management of a patient with adhesive capsulitis and spinal accessory nerve injury following a carotid endarterectomy. Case Description. The patient was a 67-year-old woman referred for physical therapy following manipulation of the left shoulder and a diagnosis of adhesive capsulitis by her orthopedist. Spinal accessory nerve injury was identified during the initial physical therapy examination, and a program of neuromuscular electrical stimulation was initiated. Outcomes. The patient had almost full restoration of the involved muscle function after 5 months of physical therapy. Discussion. This case report illustrates the importance of accurate diagnosis and suggests physical therapy intervention to manage adhesive capsulitis as a consequence of spinal accessory nerve injury.
Erk/Src Phosphorylation of Cortactin Acts as a Switch On-Switch Off Mechanism That Controls Its Ability To Activate N-WASP

The Arp2/3 complex can be independently activated to initiate actin polymerization by the VCA domain of WASP family members and by the acidic N-terminal and F-actin-binding repeat region of cortactin, which possesses a C-terminal SH3 domain. Cortactin is a target for phosphorylation by Src tyrosine kinases and by serine/threonine kinases that include Erk. Here we demonstrate that cortactin binds N-WASP and WASP via its SH3 domain, induces in vitro N-WASP-mediated actin polymerization, and colocalizes with N-WASP and WASP at sites of active actin polymerization. Erk phosphorylation and a mimicking S405,418D double mutation enhanced cortactin binding and activation of N-WASP. In contrast, Src phosphorylation inhibited the ability of cortactin previously phosphorylated by Erk, and that of S405,418D double mutant cortactin, to bind and activate N-WASP. Furthermore, Y→D mutation of three tyrosine residues targeted by Src (Y421, Y466, and Y482) inhibited the ability of S405,418D cortactin to activate N-WASP. We propose that Erk phosphorylation liberates the SH3 domain of cortactin from intramolecular interactions with proline-rich regions, causing it to synergize with WASP and N-WASP in activating the Arp2/3 complex, and that Src phosphorylation terminates cortactin activation of N-WASP and WASP.
Calvarial bone graft harvest: A new technique

Abstract Objective: This study evaluates the use of a new calvarial bone graft-harvesting device (BHD). Study Design: A total of 18 calvarial bone grafts (CBGs) were harvested from 9 cadavers with the BHD. The recorded parameters included drilling time, graft harvest time, graft size, graft integrity, and violation of the calvarial inner table. Five CBGs were subsequently harvested in vivo and used for 2 nasal reconstructions and 3 orbital reconstructions. Results: The CBG dimensions ranged from 1.25 to 2.5 cm in width and 3.0 to 16.0 cm in length. Graft harvest time ranged from 5 minutes, 55 seconds to 25 minutes, 30 seconds (mean 13 minutes, 7 seconds). There were no fractured grafts. The cadaveric inner table was violated twice with a cutting burr, and 1 dural exposure occurred in the clinical study. Conclusion: Although caution must be used with all CBGs, the BHD appears to be safe and more efficient than osteotomes or oscillating saws. (Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 2000;123:547-52.)
An interferometric technique for synthetic aperture ground-penetrating radar

Many synthetic aperture radar (SAR) algorithms for ground-penetrating radar involve making measurements along a single path and using the collected data to form a two-dimensional image of the scattering object. In the calculation of these images, certain assumptions are made about the scattering objects; mainly, that the reflections are occurring directly below the antenna location, which is not always the case. By applying interferometric techniques to SAR-based images, it is possible to construct an image of the scattering object that contains all three dimensions rather than only two, eliminating the need for these assumptions. This paper proposes a method of combining radar interferometry with SAR-based ground-penetrating radar. The methodology used is to expand several two-dimensional images, each calculated from measurements collected along single paths, into a three-dimensional image of the scattering object through the use of radar interferometry. This process involves superimposing two complex two-dimensional images and using the information found in the phase differences of corresponding locations from each image to calculate the location of the object in the dimension not contained within the previous two-dimensional images. This method is tested using both computer-simulated data and also data collected from the measurements of objects buried in sand.
Protistan grazing analysis by flow cytometry using prey labeled by in vivo expression of fluorescent proteins.

Selective grazing by protists can profoundly influence bacterial community structure, and yet direct, quantitative observation of grazing selectivity has been difficult to achieve. In this investigation, flow cytometry was used to study grazing by the marine heterotrophic flagellate Paraphysomonas imperforata on live bacterial cells genetically modified to express the fluorescent protein markers green fluorescent protein (GFP) and red fluorescent protein (RFP). Broad-host-range plasmids were constructed that express fluorescent proteins in three bacterial prey species, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter aerogenes, and Pseudomonas putida. Micromonas pusilla, an alga with red autofluorescence, was also used as prey. Predator-prey interactions were quantified by using a FACScan flow cytometer and analyzed by using a Perl program described here. Grazing preference of P. imperforata was influenced by prey type, size, and condition. In competitive feeding trials, P. imperforata consumed algal prey at significantly lower rates than FP (fluorescent protein)-labeled bacteria of similar or different size. Within-species size selection was also observed, but only for P. putida, the largest prey species examined; smaller cells of P. putida were grazed preferentially. No significant difference in clearance rate was observed between GFP- and RFP-labeled strains of the same prey species or between wild-type and GFPlabeled strains. In contrast, the common chemical staining method, 5-(4,6-dichloro-triazin-2-yl)-amino fluorescein hydrochloride, depressed clearance rates for bacterial prey compared to unlabeled or RFP-labeled cells.
The Hand Surgery Fellowship Application Process: Expectations, Logistics, and Costs

Purpose To investigate expectations, logistics, and costs relevant to the hand surgery fellowship application process. We sought to discover (1) what both applicants and program directors are seeking, (2) what both parties have to offer, (3) how both parties collect information about each other, and (4) the costs incurred in arranging each match. Methods We conducted on-line surveys of hand surgery fellowship applicants for appointment in 2015 and of current fellowship program directors. Results Sixty-two applicants and 41 program directors completed the survey. Results revealed applicants' demographic characteristics, qualifications, method of ranking hand fellowship programs, costs incurred (both monetary and opportunity) during the application process, ultimate match status, and suggestions for change. Results also revealed program directors' program demographics, rationale for offering interviews and favorably ranking applicants, application-related logistical details, costs incurred (both monetary and opportunity) during the application process, and suggestions for change. Conclusions Applicants for hand surgery fellowship training are primarily interested in a potential program's academic reputation, emphasis on orthopedic surgery, and location. The typical, successfully matched applicant was a 30-year-old male orthopedic resident with 3 publications to his credit. Applicants rely on peers and Web sites for information about fellowships. Fellowship directors are primarily seeking applicants recommended by other experienced surgeons and with positive personality traits. The typical fellowship director offers a single year of orthopedic-based fellowship training to 2 fellows per year and relies on a common application and in-person interviews to collect information about applicants. Applicants appear to be more concerned than directors about the current state of the match process. Applicants and directors alike incur heavy costs, in both dollars and opportunity, to arrange each match. A nuanced understanding of the match process suggests specific changes and may help reduce these costs. Type of study/level of evidence Economic and decision analysis V.
Blowing the Whistle on Data Fudging: A Controlled Field Experiment1

This experiment examined determinants of “whistle blowing,” the disclosure of organizational wrongdoing. Previous research, limited largely to analyses of cross-sectional, self-reported data, has not established cause-effect relations, and dispositional variables generally have not been examined. In this study, 295 students witnessed apparent wrongdoing by a research assistant and were given an opportunity to report it to a university authority. Results indicated that men were more likely than women to report the wrongdoing. Whistle blowing also was a function of lower, rather than higher, levels of moral judgment development. More whistle blowing occurred when there were more, rather than fewer, observers of wrongdoing. Implications for research and practice are descried.
NASA's Aviation System Monitoring and Modeling Project

Within NASA’s Aviation Safety Program, the Aviation System Monitoring and Modeling (ASMM) Project addresses the need to provide decision makers with the tools to identify and evaluate predisposing conditions that could lead to accidents. This Project is developing a set of automated tools to facilitate efficient, comprehensive, and accurate analyses of data collected in large, heterogeneous databases throughout the National Aviation System. This report is a brief overview of the ASMM Project as an introduction to the rest of the presentations in this session on one of its key elements-the Performance Data Analysis and Reporting System (PDARS).
Evolution and error theory

Error theorists argue that there is a fundamental mistake, an error of some kind, at the heart of commonsense morality. They have drawn on evolutionary theory to support some of their claims. This article looks at four different models of evolution and assesses what implications can be drawn from them concerning commonsense morality and the claims of the error theorists Mackie, Ruse and Joyce. The author first spells out the main points of error theory, then discusses how recent proponents of error theory have attempted to join error theory about ethics with an evolutionary perspective. Finally, to assess their claims, the author examines what the models of evolution put forward by Darwin, Dawkins, Gould and Haught imply about error theory in ethics.
Influences of retail brand trust, off‐line patronage, clothing involvement and website quality on online apparel shopping intention

This study examines the influence of retail brand trust, off-line patronage, clothing involvement, and website quality on online apparel shopping intention for young female US consumers. Data for this study were collected from 200 young female consumers who completed an online survey. Participants were asked to select one of three pre-determined apparel retail brands that they have either had experience with or were familiar with. Respondents were then asked to keep their selected retailer in mind when completing the questionnaire and were also asked to briefly visit the retailer's website shopping for a shirt or blouse. Factor, correlation and multiple regression analyses were conducted to test our hypotheses. Retail brand trust, off-line patronage, clothing involvement and two factors of website quality (usability and information quality, visual appeal and image) were found to significantly influence online apparel shopping intention. Off-line patronage was the strongest predictor of online shopping intention. Implications for multi-channel apparel retailers were discussed based on these findings.
Reverse osmosis plants operation and maintenance experience in the Middle Eastern region

Abstract The success or failure of most medium and large plants in the region not only depends on efficient design, construction quality etc, but considerably depends on their operation and maintenance. Though most RO plants have state of art equipment and employ latest technology they lag behind substantially in specific areas of handson experience of their operation personnel due to which certain critical aspects get neglected and overlooked. This vital area inspite of being critically important, is probably the least appreciated. It is this most critical aspect which probably forms the weakest link in the chain and in most cases negatively impacts the RO plants in the Middle Eastern region. This paper attempts to outline several of such important O&M factors based on practical result oriented experience and underlines the benefits such experience contributes to the RO plants performance, availability and consequently to its total water cost.
In Vitro Model of Hypoxically Induced Nonreplicating Persistence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Great progress has been made in the latter half of the twentieth century in the understanding of the immunology of tuberculosis and of strategies for chemotherapeutic management of this disease. Indeed, given the evidence that the dominant, and perhaps sole, ecologic niche of Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the infected human host, it seemed reasonable to hope that the disease could not only be controlled, but eradicated by the end of this century (1). These hopes are dashed by the periodic resurgence of tuberculosis in various populations. Undoubtedly socioeconomic factors have played a major role in the failure to eradicate this disease, but another, neglected, factor is the apparent ability of the tubercle bacillus to remain in a relatively quiescent state in the host, neither replicating and causing progression of disease, nor dying off and disappearing from the host's tissues, in spite of apparently adequate immune responses and aggressive chemotherapy.
Identifying residues in antigenic determinants by chemical modification

Chemical modification of the side chains of amino acid residues was one of the first methods developed to investigate epitopes in protein antigens. The principle of the method is that alteration of the structure of a key residue of an epitope by a chemical modification will alter reactivity with antibody by affecting either specificity or avidity or both. Chemical modification has the advantage that it can be applied to discontinuous as well as continuous epitopes and may be of value in identifying cryptic epitopes. We consider here the several recent studies that have applied site-specific chemical modification to the identification of epitopes on antigens, including the use of formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, and acid anhydrides, to produce allergoids where determinants important to reaction with IgE are modified but the ability to elicit an IgG response is retained. It is noteworthy that modification of amino groups with charge reversal appears to be the most useful approach. The approach to the use of site-specific chemical modification as a tool for the study of protein function is discussed, and emphasis is placed on the necessity to (1) validate the specificity of modification and (2) assess potential conformational change that may occur secondary to modification. Finally, a list of chemical reagents used for protein modification is presented, together with properties and references to use.
Idiosyncratic Risk Matters to Large Stocks

Despite the debate on the pricing of idiosyncratic risk, it is generally believed that the pricing effect is likely to exist among small stocks due to lack of diversification and information asymmetry predicted by Merton (1987). However, given the size of Asset Under Management, most institutional investors focus on large stocks and hold portfolios different from that of the market portfolio in order to attract investors and to differentiate themselves. Moreover, large stocks will have a larger impact on the performance of a portfolio than small stocks, and institutional investors are more likely to be questioned when large stocks perform poorly. These unique features can forced institutional investors to care about idiosyncratic risk of larger stocks more than that of small stocks in their portfolio. Recognizing this important difference on the impact of idiosyncratic risk, we take an unorthodox approach by focusing on the effect of idiosyncratic risk within different groups of stocks. As a result, we find that large stocks’ idiosyncratic volatilities indeed are positively related to their future stock returns, while small stocks idiosyncratic volatilities are negatively related to their future returns as documented. This finding also allows us to reconcile the inconsistent findings on the pricing of idiosyncratic risk in the current literature.
A method for real-time visual stimulus selection in the study of cortical object perception

The properties utilized by visual object perception in the mid- and high-level ventral visual pathway are poorly understood. To better establish and explore possible models of these properties, we adopt a data-driven approach in which we repeatedly interrogate neural units using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) to establish each unit's image selectivity. This approach to imaging necessitates a search through a broad space of stimulus properties using a limited number of samples. To more quickly identify the complex visual features underlying human cortical object perception, we implemented a new functional magnetic resonance imaging protocol in which visual stimuli are selected in real-time based on BOLD responses to recently shown images. Two variations of this protocol were developed, one relying on natural object stimuli and a second based on synthetic object stimuli, both embedded in feature spaces based on the complex visual properties of the objects. During fMRI scanning, we continuously controlled stimulus selection in the context of a real-time search through these image spaces in order to maximize neural responses across pre-determined 1cm(3) rain regions. Elsewhere we have reported the patterns of cortical selectivity revealed by this approach (Leeds et al., 2014). In contrast, here our objective is to present more detailed methods and explore the technical and biological factors influencing the behavior of our real-time stimulus search. We observe that: 1) Searches converged more reliably when exploring a more precisely parameterized space of synthetic objects; 2) real-time estimation of cortical responses to stimuli is reasonably consistent; 3) search behavior was acceptably robust to delays in stimulus displays and subject motion effects. Overall, our results indicate that real-time fMRI methods may provide a valuable platform for continuing study of localized neural selectivity, both for visual object representation and beyond.
The perioperative surgical home: how anesthesiology can collaboratively achieve and leverage the triple aim in health care.

ORIGINS AND PARTICIPANTS OF THE PERIOPERATIVE SURGICAL HOMEGuiding Principles of the Triple Aim and the Patient-Centered Medical HomeBy 2019, an estimated 19.3% of the United States gross domestic product will be devoted to health care.1 Health care delivery and payment systems in the United States
Geometric, Spatial Path Tracking Using Non-Redundant Manipulators via Speed-Ratio Control

Path tracking can be accomplished by separating the control of the desired trajectory geometry and the control of the path variable. Existing methods accomplish tracking of up to third-order geometric properties of planar paths and up to second-order properties of spatial paths using non-redundant manipulators, but only in special cases. This paper presents a novel methodology that enables the geometric tracking of a desired planar or spatial path to any order with any non-redundant regional manipulator. The governing first-order coordination equation for a spatial path-tracking problem is developed, the repeated differentiation of which generates the coordination equation of the desired order. In contrast to previous work, the equations are developed in a fixed global frame rather than a configuration-dependent canonical frame, providing a significant practical advantage. The equations are shown to be linear, and therefore, computationally efficient. As an example, the results are applied to a spatial 3-revolute mechanism that tracks a spatial path. Spatial, rigid-body guidance is achieved by applying the technique to three points on the end-effector of a six degree-of-freedom robot. A spatial 6-revolute robot is used as an illustration.© 2010 ASME
Long-Term Outcomes in Autoimmune Autonomic Ganglionopathy (P05.210)

Objective: To assess the long-term outcome in patients with autoimmune autonomic ganglionopathy (AAG). Background AAG causes severe autonomic failure and may respond to immunotherapy. However, the long-term outcome with immunosuppressive therapy and association with malignancy is not known. Design/Methods: We identified AAG patients at a single center from May 2007 to September 2010. We reviewed clinical manifestations of AAG, comprehensive autonomic evaluation, ganglionic acetylcholine receptor (gnAChR) antibody titers and immunosuppressive therapy. We contacted patients to investigate any incidence of malignancy before onset and since diagnosis of AAG, and had patients complete an Activities of Daily Living (ADL) questionnaire related to their autonomic dysfunction at onset and at present. Results: We identified five patients during the study period (four male; mean age of 56.8 years). Four were seropositive (gnAChR titer > 0.05). Three patients had acute onset ( Conclusions: In our series, AAG patients responded to immunosuppressive therapy, with dramatic improvement in their ADLs despite persistent objective evidence of severe autonomic failure. None developed malignancy during follow-up. Disclosure: Dr. Boydston has nothing to disclose. Dr. Muppidi has nothing to disclose. Dr. Vernino has received personal compensation for activities with Athena Diagostics. Dr. Vernino has received personal compensation in an editorial capacity for Archives in Neurology. Dr. Vernino has received research support from Chelsea Pharmaceuticals.