cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Trends in low birth weight infants and changes in Baltimore's childbearing population, 1972-77.

Abstract Linked birth and death records provided the population for a study of trends in low birth weight (LBW) rates in Baltimore between 1972 and 1977 and of the effect of changes in the characteristics of the childbearing population on these trends. The impact of shifts in the birth weight distribution on neonatal mortality rates was also investigated. Trends were analyzed for unstandardized LBW rates as well as for rates standardized on the distributions of maternal age, education, gravidity, prior pregnancy losses, and marital status. Between 1972 and 1977, the 1,500 and 2,000 gm rates rose significantly by approximately 1 infant per 1,000 live births per year among whites and 2 infants per 1,000 live births among nonwhites. Despite declines in rates for most weights, the effect of these increases was a rise in neonatal mortality rates for both races, but especially for nonwhites. The population of women delivering in Baltimore in 1977 became slightly older, slightly more educated, and of higher gravidity than in 1972, but these changes had little impact on yearly fluctuations in LBW rates. In contrast, increases in births to unmarried women and to women with at least one prior pregnancy loss were related to rising LBW rates. For both races, standardization on marital status and prior pregnancy losses diminishes the increase in the LBW rate over the study period, especially when standardization is performed simultaneously for both variables. These findings hold within maternal age, education, and gravidity groups. However, the LBW rates for nonwhite teenage mothers and for nonwhite women with 12 years of less education increased significantly over the study period, regardless of standardization.
Equipping undergraduate STEM majors with Geoscience and remote sensing tools: A pathway to replenishing the Geoscience workforce

Reversing the dramatic decrease in geoscience interest, awareness, participation, and preparation among students at all levels in the United States has become a paramount priority, particularly since recent studies ([1], [2], and [3]) project that this critical regression is expected to continue well into this young century. Investments by the U.S. National Science Foundation's Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences program ([4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9]) have yielded innovative insights, practical strategies, and replicable models that are designed to broaden student access, participation, and success at various stages of the geoscience pipeline. However, despite these transformative initiatives, more needs to be done to ensure that evidence-based practices are utilized to attract students and to increase their persistence and achievement in the geosciences. At the New York City College of Technology (City Tech) of the City University of New York, a new, pioneering, piloted pathway model in which undergraduates majoring in STEM disciplines are being equipped with vital geoscience and remote sensing skills for the geoscience workforce is successfully on-going. Components of this work are presented in this manuscript.
Visualizing mathematics with 3D printing

It is as important to understand what Visualizing Mathematics with 3D Printing is about, as it is to understand what it is not. It is not a ‘how to’ book, where the author details how to create thr...
Diet-driven microbiota dysbiosis is associated with vagal remodeling and obesity

Abstract Obesity is one of the major health issues in the United States. Consumption of diets rich in energy, notably from fats and sugars (high-fat/high-sugar diet: HF/HSD) is linked to the development of obesity and a popular dietary approach for weight loss is to reduce fat intake. Obesity research traditionally uses low and high fat diets and there has been limited investigation of the potential detrimental effects of a low-fat/high-sugar diet (LF/HSD) on body fat accumulation and health. Therefore, in the present study, we investigated the effects of HF/HSD and LF/HSD on microbiota composition, gut inflammation, gut-brain vagal communication and body fat accumulation. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that LF/HSD changes the gut microbiota, induces gut inflammation and alters vagal gut-brain communication, associated with increased body fat accumulation. Sprague-Dawley rats were fed an HF/HSD, LF/HSD or control low-fat/low-sugar diet (LF/LSD) for 4 weeks. Body weight, caloric intake, and body composition were monitored daily and fecal samples were collected at baseline, 1, 6 and 27 days after the dietary switch. After four weeks, blood and tissues (gut, brain, liver and nodose ganglia) were sampled. Both HF/HSD and LF/HSD-fed rats displayed significant increases in body weight and body fat compared to LF/LSD-fed rats. 16S rRNA sequencing showed that both HF/HSD and LF/HSD-fed animals exhibited gut microbiota dysbiosis characterized by an overall decrease in bacterial diversity and an increase in Firmicutes / Bacteriodetes ratio. Dysbiosis was typified by a bloom in Clostridia and Bacilli and a marked decrease in Lactobacillus spp. LF/HSD-fed animals showed a specific increase in Sutterella and Bilophila , both Proteobacteria , abundances of which have been associated with liver damage. Expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as IL-6, IL-1β and TNFα, was upregulated in the cecum while levels of tight junction protein occludin were downregulated in both HF/HSD and LF/HSD fed rats. HF/HSD and LF/HSD-fed rats also exhibited an increase in cecum and serum levels of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a pro-inflammatory bacterial product. Immunofluorescence revealed the withdrawal of vagal afferents from the gut and at their site of termination the nucleus of the solitary tract (NTS) in both the HF/HSD and LF/HSD rats. Moreover, there was significant microglia activation in the nodose ganglia, which contain the vagal afferent neuron cell bodies, of HF/HSD and LF/HSD rats. Taken together, these data indicate that, similar to HF/HSD, consumption of an LF/HSD induces dysbiosis of gut microbiota, increases gut inflammation and alters vagal gut-brain communication. These changes are associated with an increase in body fat accumulation.
Multi-functional Ultrasonic Micro-elastography Imaging System

In clinical decision making, in addition to anatomical information, biomechanical properties of soft tissues may provide additional clues for disease diagnosis. Given the fact that most of diseases are originated from micron sized structures, an elastography imaging system of fine resolution (~100 µm) and deep penetration depth capable of providing both qualitative and quantitative measurements of biomechanical properties is desired. Here, we report a newly developed multi-functional ultrasonic micro-elastography imaging system in which acoustic radiation force impulse imaging (ARFI) and shear wave elasticity imaging (SWEI) are implemented. To accomplish this, the 4.5 MHz/40 MHz transducer were used as the excitation/detection source, respectively. The imaging system was tested with tissue-mimicking phantoms and an ex vivo chicken liver through 2D/3D imaging. The measured lateral/axial elastography resolution and field of view are 223.7 ± 20.1/109.8 ± 6.9 µm and 1.5 mm for ARFI, 543.6 ± 39.3/117.6 ± 8.7 µm and 2 mm for SWEI, respectively. These results demonstrate that the promising capability of this high resolution elastography imaging system for characterizing tissue biomechanical properties at microscale level and its translational potential into clinical practice.
The communication center at U.S. colleges and universities: a descriptive overview II

ABSTRACTThis study gathered data about communication centers and built on past investigations of how centers function across the United States. Communication center directors or individuals who oversee centers at two- and four-year institutions of higher education (N = 47) were surveyed. Participants responded to questions about center structure and configuration, logistics and operation, directorship, staff and training, and services. The findings highlight current and changing trends of centers. Overall, this study offers a summative discussion of how centers should be re-envisioned to provide broader impacts for institutions of higher education.
Behaviorism in the History of Psychology

Behaviorism is equated with science as the study of behavior. It is, therefore, distinguished from the specialized psychological movement called Watsonian behaviorism. In the history of psychology, 6 distinct periods of behaviorism are discerned and described.
Alarmins and immunity

More than a decade has passed since the conceptualization of the "alarmin" hypothesis. The alarmin family has been expanding in terms of both number and the concept. It has recently become clear that alarmins play important roles as initiators and participants in a diverse range of physiological and pathophysiological processes such as host defense, regulation of gene expression, cellular homeostasis, wound healing, inflammation, allergy, autoimmunity, and oncogenesis. Here, we provide a general view on the participation of alarmins in the induction of innate and adaptive immune responses, as well as their contribution to tumor immunity.
Constructing Convex Hulls

This chapter investigates the problem of constructing the convex hull of a finite set of points in E d , that is, of producing a meaningful representation of the convex hull. If P is a finite set of points in E d , then we write convP for the convex hull of P. By the definitions given in Appendix A, convP is the set of convex combinations of P. Equivalently, convP can be defined as the smallest convex set that contains P, or the intersection of all convex sets that contain P, or the intersection of all half-spaces that contain P.
Sharing good fortune: Effects of scarcity on small donation requests

Based on studies linking positive outcomes to subsequent helping, it was hypothesized that when individuals receive their choice of items when supply is constrained they will show heightened prosoc...
Differential Angular Expansion in Perceived Direction in Azimuth and Elevation Are Yoked to the Presence of a Perceived Ground Plane

It has been proposed that perceived angular direction relative to straight-ahead is exaggerated in perception, and that this exaggeration is greater in elevation (or declination) than in azimuth. Prior research has suggested that exaggerations in elevation may be tied to the presence of a visual ground plane, but there have been mixed results across studies using different methods of dissociation. In the present study, virtual environments were used to dissociate visual from gravitational upright while human participants (N = 128) made explicit angular direction judgments relative to straight ahead. Across these experimental manipulations, observers were positioned either upright (Experiments 1A and 1B) or sideways (Experiment 2), so as to additionally dissociate bodily orientation from gravitational orientation. In conditions in which a virtual environment was perceived as containing a level ground plane, large-scale exaggerations consistent with the visually-specified orientation of the ground plane were observed. In the absence of the perception of a level ground plane, angular exaggerations were relatively small. The ground plane serves as an important reference frame for angular expansion in the perceived visual direction.
The 46Ti(p, γ)47V, 50Cr(p, γ)51Mn, 58Ni(α, γ)62Zn and 58Ni(α, p)61Cu cross sections☆

Abstract The 46 Ti ( p , γ) 47 V , 50 Cr ( p , γ) 51 Mn , 58 Ni (α,γ) 62 Zn and 58 Ni (α, p) 61 Cu cross sections have been measured in the energy range of interest for stellar nucleosynthesis during oxygen and silicon burning. The results are compared with statistical theory calculations which attempt to treat excited state effects and the γ-ray channel more realistically than previous calculations.
Vesiculopustular eruption associated with transient myeloproliferative disorder.

Transient myeloproliferative disorder (TMD) is a hematologic abnormality usually associated with Down syndrome that may present with a skin eruption in addition to typical systemic find-ings. We report a case of a patient with TMD and a vesiculopustular eruption without the phenotypic characteristics of Down syndrome who was found to have mosaic trisomy 21. Mutations of the globin transcription factor 1 gene, GATA1, are associated with both TMD and acute megakaryocytic leukemia. Transient myeloproliferative disorder typically presents with pancytopenia, hepatosplenomegaly, and immature circulating white blood cells, and affects approximately 10% of neonates with Down syndrome. These abnormalities rapidly regress within the first few months of life. However, 20% to 30% of neonates with Down syndrome and TMD later develop leukemia. The tumor antigen PRAME (preferentially expressed antigen in melanoma) may serve as a marker for leukemic transformation. We report an illustrative case to alert clinicians about this uncommon cause of vesiculopustular eruption in a neonate without the phenotypic characteristics of Down syndrome and review the clinical findings and laboratory studies that aid in accurate diagnosis.
Re-designing the web's access control system

The Web is playing a very important role in our lives, and is becoming an essential element of the computing infrastructure. With such a glory come the attacks-theWeb has become criminals' preferred targets.Web-based vulnerabilities now outnumber traditional computer security concerns. Although various security solutions have been proposed to address the problems on the Web, few have addressed the root causes of why web applications are so vulnerable to these many attacks. We believe that the Web's current access control models are fundamentally inadequate to satisfy the protection needs of today's web, and they need to be redesigned. In this extended abstract, we explain our position, and summarize our efforts in redesigning the Web's access control systems.
FINE STRUCTURE OF STINGRAY SPINE EPIDERMIS WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO A UNIQUE MICROTUBULAR COMPONENT OF VENOM SECRETING CELLS

ABSTRACT The fine structure of the spine integumentary sheath of adult stingrays is described, with preliminary observations on late embryonic tissue. The epidermis comprises mucocytes and terminally differentiated venom secreting cells. The latter membrane-limited vacuoles (up to 10 um in diam.) which include large concentrations (1000/μm2) of tubular structures. These resemble cytoplasmic microtubules in general appearance but have the following unusual characteristics. They are only 170–220 A in diameter, curved, resistent to vinblastine, and are contiguous in aggregates without intervening filaments or bridges. Markham rotation images suggest that they comprise from 8 to 14 protofilaments. It is proposed that these structures either represent a new category of tubulin polymers or another protein that polymerizes in a structurally analogous manner.
Telemental Health in Primary Care

Collaborative models of care are being examined in multiple settings as a means to improve care for chronic medical and psychiatric conditions and to strengthen the hand of primary care physicians in treating mental health and behavioral health problems. However, these new ventures are predominantly being examined for adults in urban settings served by large group practices. Telemental health (TMH) offers the opportunity to build collaborative models of care in primary care practices across diverse settings. This chapter will discuss evolving approaches to using TMH to bring mental and behavioral health treatments to medical settings, including models that serve youth and minority populations.
Explorations of Exploration

Initially let me rapidly dispense with some matters concerning human (more generally, mammalian) exploratory activity that would not be worth extensive discussion. First, it would be no feat at all to find long quotations from famous men in antiquity, such as Plato or Confucius, who bespoke the importance of exploratory activity (by the same or other names) in man and animals, illustrated the phenomena with their observations, and stated some straightforward principles which are still at the heart of “modern” theory on the topic.
A translational analysis of ABA and ABC renewal of operant behavior

Following reduction, behavior may recur when organisms are exposed to new or different environments. Such recurrences, called treatment relapse, are characterized by an increase of a previously reduced behavior. Renewal is a type of treatment relapse resulting from changes in stimulus contexts despite the ongoing maintenance of treatment. Renewal types include varying arrangements, such as ABA and ABC renewal, where each letter represents a different context. In the present series of translational analyses, we evaluated both ABA and ABC renewal and assessed whether these two renewal arrangements may be present in a single participant's behavior. Results produced evidence of both ABA and ABC renewal, and both types of renewal were detected in an individual participant's behavior.
Carnegie Mellon’s (First) CMU-DA System

This was the first of two Carnegie Mellon University Design Automation (CMU-DA) systems. This CMU-DA system included scheduling, data path synthesis, controller design, module binding, and linking between the algorithmic level input description and the Register Transfer level design. See also Carnegie-Mellon’s (Second) CMU-DA System and Carnegie-Mellon’s System Architect’s Workbench — — both are successors to this system.
Case 23: An Unusual Capnograph Tracing

You have anesthetized a healthy 24-year-old man (ASA 1E) for an emergency laparoscopic appendectomy. He has no history of previous anesthetic nor does he take medication regularly and has no history of allergy to medication. There is no family history of any problems with anesthesia. He is 75 kg and 6 feet. After rapid sequence induction, you secure the airway and see a CO2 waveform on the capnograph (which incorporates a sidestream CO2 monitor [Datex Capnomac Ultima, Datex, Helsinki, Finland]), confirming bilateral air entry. The endotracheal tube is taped at 23 cm. The vital signs are normal. However, on closer inspection of the capnograph waveform, you now notice that the capnograph is very different to what you normally see (Fig. 1). The tracing starts from a zero, and a normal plateau is reached, but just before the trace should normally go to zero, there is a marked peak in the tracing before rapidly returning to zero. Tidal volumes, respiratory rates, and minute volume are within normal limits. The peak pressure is 24 cm. The patient’s vital signs remain normal. You have not seen anything like this before, and since you have checked the Narcomed 2B, North America Drager anesthesia machine prior to the anesthetic, you are now wondering what this trace could mean.
A Theory of Heat as Prelude to Engineering Thermodynamics

Profitable handling of extracted energy in accordance with the energy conversion doctrine has served well expediency for industrialization. Despite that success, this disquisition refutes the energy conversion doctrine in favor of entropy-growth-potential-centric (EGP-centric) approach that is necessary for achieving efficiency rather than expediency. With the new theory of heat, this chapter outlines a philosophical prelude to engineering application of thermodynamics. Though decision is made to separate the project of a textbook on engineering thermodynamics from this disquisition so that details of the textbook project will be worked out after further deliberation, such an engineering thermodynamics text will articulate the distinctive characterization of engineering in terms of physical necessity and causal necessity. It is also anticipated that causal necessity addressed in the textbook project will incorporate solutions, in addition to conventional energy solutions, based on natural EGP, i.e., renewable energy sources (RESs).
Personal and Non-personal Divine Presence: The Name YHWH in the Thought of R. Abraham Ibn Ezra and R. Judah Halevi

This chapter delves into the positions of R. Abraham Ibn-Ezra and R. Judah Halevi on the name YHWH. These two most influential early Jewish thinkers in medieval times held almost diametrically opposed views of the divine name. R. Abraham Ibn Ezra offered a widespread interpretation which placed the name YHWH at the center of a hierarchical metaphysical and cosmological picture, in which human possibility of addressing God personally was all but rejected. In contrast, R. Judah Halevi located in the Name an indication to the exclusive personal relationship of the people of Israel with God, and even stressed that the meaning of every proper name as such derives from a personal acquaintance of the speaker with the named person or entity. Influenced by the thought of Halevi and Ibn Ezra, later medieval treatments of the name YHWH continued to develop views of the Name as referring to God’s presence, in either personal or non-personal terms.
MTEX-CNN: Multivariate Time Series EXplanations for Predictions with Convolutional Neural Networks

In this work we present MTEX-CNN, a novel explainable convolutional neural network architecture which can not only be used for making predictions based on multivariate time series data, but also for explaining these predictions. The network architecture consists of two stages and utilizes particular kernel sizes. This allows us to apply gradient based methods for generating saliency maps for both the time dimension and the features. The first stage of the architecture explains which features are most significant to the predictions, while the second stage explains which time segments are the most significant. We validate our approach on two use cases, namely to predict rare server outages in the wild, as well as the average energy production of photovoltaic power plants based on a benchmark data set. We show that our explanations shed light over what the model has learned. We validate this by retraining the network using the most significant features extracted from the explanations and retaining similar performance to training with the full set of features.
Disparities in receipt of molecular imaging in biochemical recurrent prostate cancer.

297Background: Molecular imaging with novel radiotracers is changing treatment landscape in prostate cancer (PCa). Currently, standard of care includes both conventional and molecular imaging, leav...
Justice Brandeis as Jeffersonian Jurist

This chapter explores Jeffrey Rosen’s depiction of Justice Brandeis as a “Jeffersonian prophet,” “the leader of a Jeffersonian tradition,” and “the Jewish Jefferson” to examine the meaning of the term “libertarian” in the context of American constitutional jurisprudence. It argues that Rosen unsettles the characterization of Brandeis as non-libertarian or anti-libertarian and, consequently, destabilizes the very meaning of “libertarianism” as that term is used by self-described libertarians in current scholarship about American constitutionalism. Whether Brandeis was a pure or true libertarian does not concern me. What interests me is the way in which scholars have invoked Brandeis to delimit the nature of libertarian jurisprudence in the American constitutional context. Brandeis simultaneously illuminates and problematizes the designation “libertarian.” His formative influence on American constitutional law elicits dogged attempts to categorize or classify him. He continues to attract admirers and provoke antagonists, both of whom express firm opinions about his association with libertarianism. At stake in the debate over Brandeis’s association with libertarianism is the meaning and import of “libertarian” jurisprudence in our constitutional tradition. Disturbing any consensus regarding the term “libertarian” in the context of American constitutional jurisprudence is significant because it necessitates two questions: what, exactly, is “libertarian” jurisprudence, and who decides? Answers to these questions may disrupt the momentum that self-identified libertarian legal scholars have enjoyed over the last decade and underscore claims to libertarianism that are at odds with that consensus. Brandeis represents a pragmatic pluralism in his commitment to individual liberty.
A framework of photovoltaics recycling facility location optimization

Abstract Economic performance is the primary factor that restricts the development of photovoltaics recycling industry. A generic framework was developed to optimize the economic performance of photovoltaics recycling. In the framework, the overall recycling cost was optimized from the perspective of the capital cost, the operation cost, and the transportation cost. In order to perform the optimization, a mathematical model was developed to identify the geographic locations of photovoltaics recycling facilities. A case study was included for demonstrating the effectiveness of the framework. As a result, the optimal number of the recycling facilities as well as their locations were determined. In addition, the cost of the optimal recycling scenario was identified.
Extreme events driving year-to-year differences in gross primary productivity across the US

Abstract. Solar-Induced chlorophyll Fluorescence (SIF) has previously been shown to strongly correlate with gross primary productivity (GPP), however this relationship has not yet been quantified for the recently launched TROPOspheric Monitoring Instrument (TROPOMI). Here we use a Gaussian mixture model to develop a parsimonious relationship between SIF from TROPOMI and GPP from flux towers across the conterminous United States (CONUS). The mixture model indicates the SIF-GPP relationship can be characterized by a linear model with two terms. We then estimate GPP across CONUS at 500-m spatial resolution over a 16-day moving window. We find that CONUS GPP varies by less than 4 % between 2018 and 2019. However, we observe four extreme precipitation events that induce regional GPP anomalies: drought in west Texas, flooding in the midwestern US, drought in South Dakota, and drought in California. Taken together, these events account for 28 % of the year-to-year GPP differences across CONUS.
Children’s exposure to vehicular air pollution in the United States: environmental injustices at the intersection of race/ethnicity and language

Children’s exposure to hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) from vehicular sources negatively affects their development and health. Using an intersectional approach, we examined differences in exposure ...
Waitlist Weight Changes Impact Survival Following Heart Transplantation

Purpose The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of weight change in waitlisted candidates on posttransplant outcomes following orthotopic heart transplantation (OHT). Methods The UNOS database was queried to identify adult (≥18 years) patients undergoing isolated, primary OHT from 1/1/2010 to 3/20/2020. Percent weight change was calculated from time of waitlisting to OHT, and patients were stratified into 3 cohorts based on weight change. The primary outcome was one-year survival among cohorts, and multivariable Cox Proportional Hazards modeling was used for risk-adjustment, including adjustment for time spent on waitlist. A secondary analysis was conducted to compare outcomes of recipients waitlisted ≥90 days. Results 57,107 patients were included, 48,299 (84.6%) with stable weight, 2,927 (5.1%) with ≥5% weight loss, and 5,881 (10.3%) with ≥5% weight gain. Median age was similar across cohorts with predominantly white recipients with non-ischemic cardiomyopathy. Waitlist time was longest in patients with weight gain and shortest in those with stable weight (417 vs 74 days, P Conclusion OHT recipients with ≥5% weight loss while on the waitlist comprise a small, but higher risk population with increased rates of postoperative complications and decreased survival. Efforts focused on nutritional optimization and preventing weight loss while awaiting OHT appear warranted.
Molecular dynamics simulations demonstrate that non-ideal mixing dominates subsaturation organic aerosol hygroscopicity

The microscopic properties that determine hygroscopic behavior are complex. The importance of hygroscopicity to many areas, and particularly atmospheric chemistry, in terms of aerosol growth and cloud nucleation, mandate the need for robust models to understand this behavior. Toward this end, we have employed molecular dynamics simulations to calculate hygroscopicity from atomistic models using free energy perturbation. We find that currently available force fields may not be well-suited to modeling the extreme environments of aerosol particles. Nonetheless, the results illuminate some shortcomings in our current understanding of hygroscopic growth and cloud nucleation. The most widely used model of hygroscopicity, κ-Kohler Theory (κKT), breaks down in the case of deviations from ideal solution behavior and empirical adjustments within the simplified framework cannot account for non-ideal behavior. A revised model that incorporates non-ideal mixing rescues the general framework of κKT and allows us to understand our simulation results as well as the behavior of atmospheric aerosols over the full range of humidity. The revised model shows that non-ideal mixing dominates hygroscopic growth at subsaturation humidity. Thus, a model based on ideal mixing will fail to predict subsaturation growth from cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) activation or vice versa; a single parameter model for hygroscopicity will generally be insufficient to extrapolate across wide ranges of humidity. We argue that in many cases, when data are limited to subsaturation humidity, an empirical model for non-ideal mixing may be more successful than one for ideal mixing.
In-Vitro Effects of Active Vitamin-D3 and Vitamin-A on Human Melanoma (BLM and1205Lu) Cell Growth

Though UV ray in the Sun light is essential for vitamin-D3 formation, yet UV rays can lead to skin cancer. Lack of vitamin-D3 also can lead to cancer. Hence, we decided to study the effect of vitamin-D3 on human melanoma cell models. Our aims were to study the in-vitro effects of vitamin-D3 and vitamin-A on human melanoma (BLM, 1205Lu) cell growth, as vitamins D3 and A are important for a healthy skin. Initially dose-curve (100 nM to 100 μM concentration) study was carried out with vitamin-D3 and vitamin-A (retinoic acid) on BLM cells to determine the optimal concentrations of vitamins-D3 and A for co-incubation with progesterone (50 μM) and RU-486 (50 μM). Supernatants from the treated cells were subjected to Elisarray. Vitamin-D3 and vitamin-A showed a dose-dependent decrease in cell growth. Based on the dose-curve, it was decided to use 25 μM (at 57% cell growth) of vitamin-D3 and 50 μM (at 55% cell growth) of vitamin-A for co-incubation studies. Co-incubation of vitamin-D3 with vitamin-A showed an additive effect on the decrease of BLM cell growth (20%). Similarly co-incubation of vitamin-D3 with progesterone (33% cell growth) and with RU-486 (28% cell growth) as well as co-incubation of vitamin-A with progesterone (31% cell growth) and RU-486 (18% cell growth) showed an additive effect on the decrease of BLM cell growth. Based on the BLM co-incubation studies, we decided to repeat the studies on 1205Lu cells. So, 25 μM (at 34% cell growth) of vitamin-D3 and 50 μM (at 44% cell growth) of vitamin-A were used for co-incubation studies. Co-incubation of vitamin-D3 with vitamin-A showed an additive effect on the decrease of cell growth (22%). Though co-incubation of vitamin-D3 with progesterone did not show any difference in cell growth (51%), yet co-incubation with RU-486 showed a decrease in 1205Lu cell growth (21%). Similarly co-incubation of vitamin-A with progesterone (25% cell growth) and with RU-486 (23% cell growth) showed a synergistic effect on the decrease of 1205Lu cell growth. Conclusion: These studies suggested that combination of vitamins and steroids might be effective in decreasing melanoma cell growth. Hence, various combination of vitamins and steroids will be tested for their effect on melanoma cell growth in vitro in order to develop a combo drug treatment for melanoma.
Winter and spring atmospheric rivers in High Mountain Asia: climatology, dynamics, and variability

Atmospheric rivers (ARs) that reach the complex terrain of High Mountain Asia (HMA) cause significant hydrological impacts for millions of people. While ARs are often associated with precipitation extremes and can cause floods and debris flows affecting populated communities, little is known about ARs that reach as far inland as HMA. This paper characterizes AR types and investigates dynamical mechanisms associated with the development of ARs that typically affect HMA. Combined empirical orthogonal function (cEOF) analysis using integrated water vapor transport (IVT) is applied to days where an AR reaches HMA. K-means cluster analysis applied to the first two principal components uncovered three subtypes of AR events with distinct synoptic characteristics during winter and spring months. The first subtype increases precipitation and IVT in Western HMA and is associated with a zonally oriented wave train propagating within the westerly jet waveguide. The second subtype is associated with enhanced southwesterly IVT, anomalous upper-level cyclonic circulation centered on 45 $$^\circ $$ E, and precipitation in Northwestern HMA. The third subtype shows anomalous precipitation in Eastern HMA and southwesterly IVT across the Bay of Bengal. Interannual variations in the frequency of HMA ARs and relationships with various teleconnection patterns show that western HMA AR subtypes are sensitive to well-known remote large-scale climate factors, such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation, Arctic Oscillation, and the Siberian High. These results provide synoptic characterization of the three types of ARs that reach HMA and reveal the previously unexplored significance of their contribution to winter and spring precipitation.
Liability of foreignness or outsider’s advantage? MNCs, diversity signals, and local human capital

This research uses signaling theory as an overarching framework to contribute to the question of whether foreign multinational companies (MNCs) enjoy an advantage when pursuing recruiting in local ...
Meet the Classes of Directly Acting Antiviral Agents: Strengths and Weaknesses

This article discusses direct-acting antiviral agents that target hepatitis C virus replication, their mechanism of action, strengths, and weaknesses. In addition, varying strategies using combinations of these agents are discussed.
Commentary: Volatility, Price Resolution, and the Effectiveness of Price Limits

I must admit to having somewhat mixed feelings about the Ma-Rao-Sears article. As one of the very few academics to believe that coordinated circuit breakers might even be worth discussing, let alone enacting, I was pleased to note the message the three authors drew from their study of what happens in commodity futures markets before and after daily price limits are hit. They conclude that following such limit moves, prices tend to stabilize or reverse; and that volatility also tends to drop off substantially when trading resumes. They thus appear to find, as some of the more enthusiastic supporters of circuit breakers, like the Brady Commission, have argued, that commodity price limits act like the beryllium rods in nuclear reactors. They cool off an overheating market but without permanently damaging market liquidity, since the three authors find also that volume does not drop off substantially once trading resumes.
Object-oriented classic data structures for CS2 in C#

For many years there has been substantial agreement that the content of the CS2 course should be a study of the classic data structures including, but not limited to, stacks, queues, trees, and tables. In recent years we have observed a move to the object-oriented programming paradigm for the CS2 course. At this point there is significant divergence as to the "best" programming language to use -- C++, Eiffel, Java, Oberon, Python, or Scheme, to name a few. Although many agree that to be truly object-oriented, a programming language must support (1) encapsulation of attributes and behavior in a user-defined class specification, (2) instantiation of objects of predefined and user-defined classes, (3) polymorphism, and (4) inheritance. From a survey of recent texts for the CS2 course, it appears that there is heavy emphasis on encapsulation and instantiation with some treatment of inheritance and little treatment of polymorphism. There is also significant treatment of generic container classes supported by template classes if the supporting language is C++. If the supporting language is Java, then the container typically manages objects of the type Object. This paper makes a case that the new Microsoft C# ((c)2001 Microsoft Corporation) language could be considered a viable candidate for the CS2 course since it supports user-defined class specifications with the encapsulation of attributes and behavior, instantiation of objects of predefined and user-defined classes, polymorphism and inheritance. Additionally, there is full support for exception handling using the now, well-known, try/catch/finally semantics. Further, there is support for dynamic memory allocation and deallocation. The language also makes the distinction between pass by reference and pass by value function/method parameters by obvious keywords in both the formal declarations and in the call. The language also supports namespaces for the organization of software components. And finally, the student or developer has full support for visual, event-driven, net-centric programming paradigm.This paper presents an implementation of a stack container ADT that is fully generic, that is, it may manage a collection of arbitrary objects that demonstrate polymorphic behavior.
Empirical graph Laplacian approximation of Laplace–Beltrami operators: Large sample results

Let ${M}$ be a compact Riemannian submanifold of ${{\bf R}^m}$ of dimension $\scriptstyle{d}$ and let ${X_1,...,X_n}$ be a sample of i.i.d. points in ${M}$ with uniform distribution. We study the random operators $$ \Delta_{h_n,n}f(p):=\frac{1}{nh_n^{d+2}}\sum_{i=1}^n K(\frac{p-X_i}{h_n})(f(X_i)-f(p)), p\in M $$ where ${K(u):={\frac{1}{(4\pi)^{d/2}}}e^{-\|u\|^2/4}}$ is the Gaussian kernel and ${h_n\to 0}$ as ${n\to\infty.}$ Such operators can be viewed as graph laplacians (for a weighted graph with vertices at data points) and they have been used in the machine learning literature to approximate the Laplace-Beltrami operator of ${M,}$ ${\Delta_Mf}$ (divided by the Riemannian volume of the manifold). We prove several results on a.s. and distributional convergence of the deviations ${\Delta_{h_n,n}f(p)-{\frac{1}{|\mu|}}\Delta_Mf(p)}$ for smooth functions ${f}$ both pointwise and uniformly in ${f}$ and ${p}$ (here ${|\mu|=\mu(M)}$ and ${\mu}$ is the Riemannian volume measure). In particular, we show that for any class ${{\cal F}}$ of three times differentiable functions on ${M}$ with uniformly bounded derivatives $$ \sup_{p\in M}\sup_{f\in F}\Big|\Delta_{h_n,p}f(p)-\frac{1}{|\mu|}\Delta_Mf(p)\Big|= O\Big(\sqrt{\frac{\log(1/h_n)}{nh_n^{d+2}}}\Big) a.s. $$ as soon as $$ nh_n^{d+2}/\log h_n^{-1}\to \infty and nh^{d+4}_n/\log h_n^{-1}\to 0, $$ and also prove asymptotic normality of ${\Delta_{h_n,p}f(p)-{\frac{1}{|\mu|}}\Delta_Mf(p)}$ (functional CLT) for a fixed ${p\in M}$ and uniformly in ${f}.$
A new SVM-based decision fusion method using multiple granular windows for protein secondary structure prediction

Support vector machines (SVM) have shown strong generalization ability in a number of application areas, including protein structure prediction. Bioinformatics techniques to protein secondary structure prediction mostly depend on the information available in amino acid sequence. In this study, a new sliding window scheme is introduced with multiple granular windows to form the protein data for training and testing SVM. Orthogonal encoding scheme coupled with BLOSUM62 matrix is used to make the prediction. The prediction of binary classifiers using multiple windows is compared with single window scheme, the results shows single window not to be good in all cases. New classifier is introduced for effective tertiary classification. The accuracy level of the new architectures are determined and compared with other studies. The tertiary architecture is better than most available techniques.
The centrosymmetric dimer of di­chloro­(tri­methyl­siloxy)­aluminium

The title mol­ecule is dimeric, i.e. di-μ-tri­methyl­siloxy-bis­(di­chloro­aluminium), [Al2Cl4(C3H9Si)2], and possesses exact crystallographic inversion symmetry. The O atoms of the tri­methyl­siloxy groups bridge the two Al atoms to form a four-membered ring. The Si—O bond distance [1.711 (3) A], the Al—O mean bond distance [1.806 (4) A] and the mean Si—C bond distance [1.875 (6) A] appear to agree well with standard data. Mean values for C—Si—C, O—Si—C, and Si—O—Al angles are 112.9 (3), 105.8 (2), and 131.8 (2)° repectively. The two ring angles O—Al—O and Al—O—Al are 84.43 (16) and 95.57 (16)°, respectively.
Creating Partnerships for Capacity Building in Developing Countries : The Experience of the World Bank

The authors discuss a variety of experiences in a number of transition, and developing countries to build institutional capacity for economics education. A flexible approach met with some success. The approach uses partnerships that combine the often different needs of a number of private donors, with the World Bank on the supply side. Much of the success was due to adopting each effort to the individual country situation. The authors also provide a brief summary of five academic institutions, and four research networks in Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Statistical Validation of the Effect of Lateral Line Location on Pavement Marking Retroreflectivity Degradation

This article examines the effect of lateral location on the degradation of retroreflectivity in thermoplastic pavement-marking systems. The authors examined data collected on North Carolina roads over a 5-year period and conducted a statistical analysis to determine if there was a significant difference in the rates of retroreflectivity degradation between edge lines and center lines. The study concluded that there was statistical evidence that lateral line location does have an effect on retroreflectivity degradation and that center lines degrade faster than edge lines. Understanding retroreflectivity performance over time facilitates the development and implementation of guidelines and tools that can be used for holistic asset management. Based on their findings, the authors recommend changes in pavement-marking maintenance strategies.
Determination of Urinary Constituents in Solutions by Least-Squares Resolution of Ultraviolet Spectrums

Least-squares resolution of ultraviolet (UV) spectrums has been tested as a method for determining the concentration of each UV-absorbing urinary component in a multicomponent solution. The tests reported here involved solutions containing 4-12 components chosen from 17 reference materials: p-aminobenzoic, anthranilic, ascorbic, ferulic, hippuric, p-hydroxybenzoic, uric, vanillic, and xanthurenic acids, and adenine, creatinine, cytosine, ergothioneine, hypoxanthine, indican, N-methylnicotinamide, and tryptophan. Spectrums of these reference and multicomponent solutions were measured from 1900 to 4000 Â, rather than over the more usual range of 2200 to 4000 Â; concentrations of individual components in unbuffered water solutions were in the range 0.4-100 mg./L. While the maximum number of solutes capable of being analyzed by this method cannot be given, this brief study shows that as many as 10 UV-absorbing urinary components could be determined quantitatively by least-squares resolution of the spectrum of the solution. All of the 17 species used in this study showed absorption in the region 1900-2200 Â; measurements in this region contributed greatly to the accuracy with which concentrations could be calculated.
Detection of Plutonium-244 in Nature

Mass spectrometric measurements of plutonium isolated from Precambrian bastnasite confirm the presence of 244Pu in nature. Although the existence of 244Pu as an extinct radioactivity has been postulated to explain the xenon isotope ratios observed in meteorites, this is the first indication of its present existence in nature.
The long-acting anticholinesterase drugs in the management of myasthenia gravis.

Abstract 1. 1. The published studies on the treatment of myasthenia gravis with long-acting anticholinesterase drugs—di-isopropylfluorophosphate (DFP), hexaethyltetraphosphate (HETP), tetraethylpyrophosphate (TEPP), and octamethyl pyrophosphoramide (OMPA)—have been reviewed and correlated with studies on 21 patients treated by us with OMPA. 2. 2. The data indicate that OMPA possesses most of the desirable qualities which could be expected of long-acting anticholinesterase compound for the use in the management of myasthenia gravis: it is stable in aqueous solution; it is well absorbed when administered orally; it is highly effective in producing “irreversible” inhibition of ChE; finally, it is essentially free of actions on the central nervous system. The data also suggest that it is improbable that any other compound whose effects are due to more or less “irreversible” inhibition of ChE will prove significantly superior to OMPA in the management of patients with myasthenia gravis. 3. 3. Long-acting anti-ChE agents should not be administered to patients with myasthenia gravis of progressively increasing severity and should be given only with great caution to patients with stable but severe disease. 4. 4. Octamethyl pyrophosphoramide (OMPA) is an excellent agent for the treatment of the patient with only moderately severe and stable myasthenia gravis. By its use some patients can be transformed from semi-invalidism to essentially normal activity. 5. 5. Experience with the long-acting anticholinesterase drugs demonstrates that even maximal inhibition of peripheral ChE may fail to control myasthenic weakness. Adequate management of severe or progressive instances of the disease must await a better understanding of its pathologic physiology.
Two-stage heating mechanism for plasma fusion at 10 MK

A two-stage heating mechanism for plasma fusion at 10 MK with extremely heated 3He ions is developed. To realize thermonuclear fusion in laboratory, plasmas must be heated to 100 MK and above. The ohmic heating process is the simplest, in which an electric current that is driven through a plasma can heat the plasma up to 10 MK. Beyond this limit the resistivity in the plasma is too low for the current to be significantly dissipated. Our previous studies on the theory of solar 3He-rich events have shown that current-driven electrostatic H-cyclotron waves can be very efficient at heating 3He through the second harmonic resonance. The 3He temperature can be increased by a factor of 10-100 within only hundreds of the H gyro-period. This preferential heating of 3He can be applied as the second stage heating of an ohmically preheated laboratory plasma for fusion with 3He. As an electric current is driven through, the plasma is gradually heated up to 10 MK due to the ohmic dissipation and saturates at this level of temperature. When the current continuously increases up to a critical point, the electrostatic H-cyclotron waves are excited, which can further heat 3He to 100 MK and above, at which the nuclear fusion between the extremely hot 3He and the other relative cold D ions can occur. In a tokamak (e.g., ITER), if the plasma is composed of e, H, D, and 3He with abundances nH > nD >> n3He, then, when 3He is preferentially heated to 100 MK and above by the current-driven electrostatic H-cyclotron waves, the plasma dominant species of ions (H and D) are still around 10 MK. This new mechanism for plasma fusion can also greatly reduce the difficulty in controlling the plasma as well as avoiding any explosion of the machine when the extremely hot 3He ions fuse with the relative cold D ions.