cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Radiotherapy for unilesional mycosis fungoides.

Abstract Purpose: To evaluate the treatment outcome and natural history of patients with the diagnosis of unilesional mycosis fungoides, treated according to a prospective radiotherapy protocol in our institution since July 1975. Methods and Materials: A total of 325 patients with the diagnosis of mycosis fungoides have been referred to the Department of Radiation Oncology at Allegheny University of Health Sciences from July 1975 through September 1996. Of these, 18 patients (5%) were classified as having unilesional mycosis fungoides and were irradiated with a curative intent using local electron fields. One patient received 22 Gy; 1 patient received 40 Gy, and the rest of the patients 30.6 Gy. Daily fractions ranged from 1.8 to 2.0 Gy. Treatments prior to radiation consisted of topical steroids and/or antifungal creams in the majority of patients, with temporary partial responses. One patient had received 2 years of topical mechlorethamine (HN2) and another patient had received topical carmustine solution (BCNU) without response prior to irradiation. Results: The responses were measured clinically; posttreatment skin biopsy was not performed routinely unless there was clinical evidence of disease persistence. Complete response rate was 100%; all treated lesions cleared completely within 4 to 8 weeks after the completion of radiation. With a median follow-up of 43 months (range 12 to 240 months), 2 relapses have occurred, 2 and 71 months after the completion of radiation. Both relapses were confined to the skin and were remote from the original site. Both relapses responded to topical application of HN2. There have been no recurrences in the irradiated field nor systemic dissemination. No long-term side effects were found related to treatment, and all the patients are currently alive and without evidence of disease. Actuarial relapse-free and overall survival at 10 years are, respectively, 86.2% and 100%. Conclusion: Unilesional mycosis fungoides has a long natural history, is possibly the earliest manifestation of a malignant process, and local treatments, including local radiotherapy, result in long-term disease-free intervals and, possibly, cure. Total skin electron beam radiotherapy is not indicated for this disease entity.
Intrinsically motivated hierarchical manipulation

We present a framework for the programming of manipulation behavior by means of an intrinsic reward function that encourages the building of deep control knowledge. We show how this framework can be used to teach new manipulation skills in a hierarchical and incremental fashion. We demonstrate the contributions of this paper on a humanoid robot through three incremental learning stages.
Modulation of microsome-mediated aflatoxin B1 binding to exogenous and endogenous DNA by cytosolic glutathione S-transferases in rat and hamster livers

Microsome mediated aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) binding to exogenous and endogenous DNA and its modulation by cytosolic glutathione (GSH) S-transferases have been examined in rat and hamster livers. Kinetic studies over a wide range of cytosol concentrations indicate that cytosol from the hamster is several-fold more effective than that from the rat in inhibiting AFB1 binding to exogenous calf thymus DNA mediated by microsomes from either species. Low concentrations of GSH (0.1-0.2 mM) are required for 50% inhibition of AFB1-DNA binding by cytosol. With exogenous DNA, combined microsome-cytosol fractions from the hamster give more AFB1-DNA binding than those from the rat. However, with nuclei as a source of endogenous DNA, AFB1-DNA binding is less with combined microsome-cytosol fractions from the hamster than those from the rat. Cytosolic inhibition of AFB1-DNA binding is almost completely reversed in the presence of 1 mM levels of either trichloropropene oxide or styrene oxide. Quantitation of AFB1-DNA binding and AFB1-GSH conjugation indicate an inverse relationship between these two processes. Cytosol from the rat has less capacity than that from the hamster to form an AFB1-GSH conjugate. Hepatic GSH levels are about equal (6-7 mM) in both species. I.p. administration of [14C]AFB1 2 h before sacrifice gives more AFB1 binding to hepatic nuclear DNA in rats than in hamsters. However, depletion of hepatic GSH levels by 80% by i.p. administration of diethylmaleate (600 mg/kg) increases AFB1-DNA binding 2- to 3-fold in both species. The role of cytosolic GSH S-transferases in modulating hepatic AFB1-DNA binding in rats and hamsters is discussed.
The Therapist at 60, The Patient at 60: Challenges for Psychotherapy

Women (and men) come to psychotherapy in their 50s and 60s with specific developmental issues confronting them at this stage of life. Facing the ultimate end of death is, of course, underlying all challenges at this age. There are also challenges to one's narcissistic equilibrium as each woman experiences losses and limitations. This time of life requires a reevaluation of her past and a transformation of her identity and intentions moving ahead. The author speaks of having faced these issues in her own life and her own psychotherapy, an essential process in preparation to be of use to her patients in psychotherapy. Insights are drawn from personal experience as well as from the writings of existentialist thinkers, Object Relations theorists, Jungians, and also from several poets. Two case examples illustrate these themes.
A Conceptual Model for Interoperable Command and Control Acquisition

Interoperability is a hard problem and there has been no shortage of searches for quick fixes. Comparatively easy problems are fixed as “proofs of concept,” which then wither when unable to scale up to the huge size of the DoD enterprise. In order to perform a meaningful analysis of individual interoperability tools, we developed a methodology (the Rosen - Parenti Model) and analyzed the domain against which the tools were to be evaluated. We next mapped the Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System against that domain. The results were and are instructive. The research team determined that in many cases, the tools themselves were driving processes. In our view, tools should be developed to support processes, not drive processes. First, we will describe the methodology developed and then move into the domain analysis. Although we will briefly report the results of our tool analysis, we stress that our findings indicate that the tools themselves are not terribly important. What is important is the domain model itself. The domain model provides an effective means of developing useful DoD Architecture Framework–compliant architectures. Most importantly, the domain model addresses the very real differences in perspective when implementing a DoDAF-compliant architecture.
Short segment Barrett's esophagus: relationship of age with extent of intestinal metaplasia

Short segment Barrett's esophagus: relationship of age with extent of intestinal metaplasia
Nycthemeral differences in response to restraint stress in CD-1 and C57BL/6 mice

Restraint represents psychological and physical stress. Methods used to model restraint stress in mice vary in duration, time of day during which restraint is applied, and the strain of mouse tested. The goals of this study were: (1) to identify the optimal daily time periods during which the stress response is maximized, and (2) to describe mouse strain differences, if any, in response to restraint. Groups of outbred CD-1 and inbred C57BL/6 mice were restrained for 3 h during three time points of the daily light–dark cycle: (1) the late light phase, (2) the transition between the light phase and the dark phase, and (3) the mid-dark phase. Additional mice served as control groups for food deprivation or were unhandled except for blood sampling. Mice of both strains lost significant body mass after 3 days of restraint. Unrestrained food-deprived mice lost body mass, particularly if food-deprived during transition periods. Corticosterone was elevated in restrained mice compared with control mice. Neither basal nor postrestraint corticosterone differed between strains. Corticosterone was elevated by food deprivation during transitional periods in CD-1 mice and during both transition and dark phases in C57 mice. Corticosterone response in restrained CD-1 mice was increased during the dark phase. These results suggest that the physiological response to restraint is similar in both strains. However, corticosterone responses to both restraint and food deprivation were highest during the transitional and dark phases.
Rapid, quantitative, reverse transcription PCR in a polymer microfluidicchip

Quantitative PCR (qPCR) techniques have become invaluable, high-throughput tools to study gene expression. However, the need to measure gene expression patterns quickly and affordably, useful for applications such as stem cell biomanufacturing requiring real-time observation and control, has not been adequately met by rapid qPCR instrumentation to date. We report a reverse transcription, microfluidic qPCR system and its application to DNA and RNA amplification measurement. In the system, an environmental control fixture provides mechanical and thermal repeatability for an infrared laser to achieve both accurate and precise open-loop temperature control of 1 μl reaction volumes in a low-cost polymer microfluidic chip with concurrent fluorescence imaging. We have used this system to amplify serial dilutions of λ-phage DNA (10(5)-10(7) starting copies) and RNA transcripts from the GAPDH housekeeping gene (5.45 ng total mouse embryonic stem cell RNA) and measured associated standard curves, efficiency (57%), repeatability (~1 cycle threshold), melting curves, and specificity. This microfluidic qRT-PCR system offers a practical approach to rapid analysis (~1 h), combining the cost benefits of small reagent volumes with the simplicity of disposable polymer microchips and easy setup.
Oligonucleotide-Gold Nanoparticle Networks for Detection of Cryptosporidium parvum Heat Shock Protein 70 mRNA

We report on a novel strategy for the detection of mRNA targets derived from Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts by the use of oligonucleotide-gold nanoparticles. Gold nanoparticles are functionalized with oligonucleotides which are complementary to unique sequences present on the heat shock protein 70 (HSP70) DNA/RNA target. The results indicate that the presence of HPS70 targets of increasing complexity causes the formation of oligonucleotide-gold nanoparticle networks which can be visually monitored via a simple colorimetric readout measured by a total internal reflection imaging setup. Furthermore, the induced expression of HSP70 mRNA in Cryptosporidium parvum oocysts via a simple heat shock process provides nonenzymatic amplification such that the HSP70 mRNA derived from as few as 5 x 10(3) purified C. parvum oocysts was successfully detected. Taken together, these results support the use of oligonucleotide-gold nanoparticles for the molecular diagnosis of cryptosporidiosis, offering new opportunities for the further development of point-of-care diagnostic assays with low-cost, robust reagents and simple colorimetric detection.
Rule chaining in fuzzy expert systems

A fuzzy expert system must do rule chaining differently than a nonfuzzy expert system. In particular, any rule that can fire with a particular linguistic variable in its consequent must fire before any rule whose antecedent conditions depend upon the resultant fuzzy set value of the consequent linguistic variable is allowed to fire. The dependent rules would be considered in a chain with the fuzzy rules which generate or assert the needed fuzzy linguistic variable. A recent paper by J. Pan et al. (1998) points out that a version of the FuzzyCLIPS expert system shell does not operate with chained fuzzy rules as one would expect. They introduce FuzzyShell which is described as the only known shell to have the expected fuzzy rule chaining performance. We show several approaches to obtaining the desired behavior in FuzzyCLIPS. Further, a potential pitfall with the FuzzyShell approach to dealing with chaining is pointed out.
The New American Social Work Gospel: Case Management of the Chronically Mentally III

SUMMARY Case management is currently the most popular mode of service delivery in the United States, especially in community programs for chronically mentally ill people. Proponents of case management claim that it is cost-effective and that it assures provision of necessary services to clients. In this paper I do not challenge its effectiveness but argue that case management neither empowers clients nor is it free of drawbacks. Given that many countries tend to model the United States, foreign social workers and other human service professionals should first examine the usefulness of case management vis-a-vis their own cultural and economic contexts, especially in the light of its many drawbacks.
Deconstructing Local Control: Ohio's Contribution

This paper provides such an analysis in the context of Ohio's most recent education funding challenge, where plaintiffs have successfully argued, at least at the trial court level, that local control does not exist.Part I begins with a brief description of the United States Supreme Court's decision in Rodriguez. It then examines the importance of local control to the Supreme Court's decision, even though there was a paucity of facts presented to the Court regarding the extent of local control in the State of Texas. Part I concludes by showing that, after Rodriguez, plaintiffs proceeded to challenge education funding laws under their respective state constitutions.Part II begins with the first unsuccessful challenge to Ohio's education funding laws. It explains how the Ohio Supreme Court's approach to local control was virtually identical to the United States Supreme Court's approach. Part II concludes by setting the stage for the most recent challenge to Ohio's education funding legislation.Part III analyzes the trial court's 478-page opinion which held that Ohio's current education funding legislation was unconstitutional. It then analyzes Ohio's rationale of local control as a means for justifying funding disparities between local school districts in Ohio. Part III's subsequent examination of numerous state requirements of all local school districts suggests that local control-to the extent it exists anywhere-does not exist in Ohio. Part III further describes the alternative grounds that the court found to declare the legislation unconstitutional under the state constitution. Part III concludes by briefly describing the appellate court decision which reversed the trial court decision. This article concludes by suggesting that future plaintiffs may be well served by examining the degree to which local control operates in those states, rather than assuming its existence.
Reactions of coordinated molecules

Abstract The 13 C NMR spectra of 12 complexes which contain a metalla-β-diketone moety and of 7 reference compounds are reported. The 12 metalla-β-diketone compounds consist of two enol tautomers, six metalla-β-diketonate complexes of boron and four tris(metalla-β-diketonate)aluminum complexes. These spectral data provide a diagnostic indication of the formation of metalla-β-diketone compounds, a convenient and direct comparison of these metalla molecules to the organic analogues and a sensitive probe for determining the solution-phase molecular structures of these complexes. The 19 F NMR spectra of two of these molecules are reported, also.
End-of-life care. How well do we serve our patients?

Share your experiences and opinions about the care of terminally ill patients by answering this survey.
Hospital Volume Outcomes After Septal Myectomy and Alcohol Septal Ablation for Treatment of Obstructive Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy: US Nationwide Inpatient Database, 2003-2011.

Importance Previous data on septal myectomy (SM) and alcohol septal ablation (ASA) in obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy have been limited to small, nonrandomized, single-center studies. Use of septal reduction therapy and the effect of institutional experience on procedural outcomes nationally are unknown. Objective To examine in-hospital outcomes after SM and ASA stratified by hospital volume within a large, national inpatient database. Design, Setting, and Participants This study analyzed all patients who were hospitalized for SM or ASA in a nationwide inpatient database from January 1, 2003, through December 31, 2011. Main Outcomes and Measures Rates of adverse in-hospital events (death, stroke, bleeding, acute renal failure, and need for permanent pacemaker) were examined. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to compare overall outcomes after each procedure based on tertiles of hospital volume of SM and ASA. Results Of 71 888 761 discharge records reviewed, a total of 11 248 patients underwent septal reduction procedures, of whom 6386 (56.8%) underwent SM and 4862 (43.2%) underwent ASA. A total of 59.9% of institutions performed 10 SM procedures or fewer, whereas 66.9% of institutions performed 10 ASA procedures or fewer during the study period. Incidence of in-hospital death (15.6%, 9.6%, and 3.8%; P P P P = .02) and acute renal failure (6.2%, 7.6%, and 2.4%; P Conclusions and Relevance In US hospitals from 2003 through 2011, most centers that provide septal reduction therapy performed few SM and ASA procedures, which is below the threshold recommended by the 2011 American College of Cardiology Foundation/American Heart Association Task Force Guideline for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy. Low SM volume was associated with worse outcomes, including higher mortality, longer length of stay, and higher costs. More efforts are needed to encourage referral of patients to centers of excellence for septal reduction therapy.
Research on Temperature Resistance of the Clay-free Control Fluid

The study is carried out the temperature resistance shortage of the clay-free control fluid used in the middle and shallow layer of Jilin field. Polymeric viscosifier,fluid loss additive and the temperature resistance of the control fluid are researched. The formula of thermostable clay-free control fluid system is also determined: H2O+2.67%GWJ+1.67% ZN—1+2.0%KCl +0.7%A+0.05%BNP-10+0.1%KY—1+2.67% HS—1+a certain amount of NaCl and JZ—1. The temperature resistance is improved from 70℃ to 150℃. The density scope is 1.1 g/cm3—1.5 g/cm3. It shows great ability on low permeability and low reservoir damage.
The Investigation and Control Stretage on Important Disease Vectors Along the New Railway in North of Sinkiang

Objective To know the community structure and geography distribution and infestation rate of vectors along the new railway in north of Sinkiang.Methods Night trapping method was used in rodents investigation;mosquito-light trap was used in mosquito;baited cage trapping method for the flies and paste catching method for cockroaches.Results The primary vectors along the new railway in north of Sinkiang were(1) 6 families,16 genera and 20 species rodents with Marmota baibacina,Spermophilus undulatus,Rhombomys opimus,Rattus norvegicus etc.acted as dominant species;(2) 3 genera and 5 species mosquitoest,he main commonly found species were Anopheles messeae,Aedes caspius,Culex modestus,Culex pipiens,Aedes vexans;(3) 4 genera and 13 species flies,including Musca domestica,Lucilia sericata,Muscina angustifrous,Sarcophaginae,Fannia canicularis etc;(4) cockroach species,all were Blattella germanica.Conclusion We should strengthen the surveillance and control on vectors and vector borne disease along the new railway in north of Xinjiang,so as to improve the operation of the new railway and provide a healthy environment for railway workers.
Alcoholic pancreatitis: New insights into the pathogenesis and treatment

Acute pancreatitis is a necro-inflammatory disease of the exocrine pancreas that is characterized by inappropriate activation of zymogens, infiltration of the pancreas by inflammatory cells, and destruction of the pancreatic exocrine cells. Acute pancreatitis can progress to a severe life-threatening disease. Currently there is no pharmacotherapy to prevent or treat acute pancreatitis. One of the more common factors associated with acute pancreatitis is alcohol abuse. Although commonly associated with pancreatitis alcohol alone is unable to cause pancreatitis. Instead, it appears that alcohol and its metabolic by-products predispose the pancreas to damage from agents that normally do not cause pancreatitis, or to more severe disease from agents that normally cause mild pancreatic damage. Over the last 10 to 20 years, a tremendous amount of work has defined a number of alcohol-mediated biochemical changes in pancreatic cells. Among these changes are: Sustained levels of intracellular calcium, activation of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore, endoplasmic reticulum stress, impairment in autophagy, alteration in the activity of transcriptional activators, and colocalization of lysosomal and pancreatic digestive enzymes. Elucidation of these changes has led to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms by which ethanol predisposes acinar cells to damage. This greater understanding has revealed a number of promising targets for therapeutic intervention. It is hoped that further investigation of these targets will lead to the development of pharmacotherapy that is effective in treating and preventing the progression of acute pancreatitis.
Human parainfluenza virus infections in children with acute respiratory infections in Guangzhou area in 2007

人副流感病毒(HPIV)1～3型在婴幼儿中主要引起下呼吸道感染,是引起气管炎和肺炎的重要病原体[1].实时荧光PCR检测是公认的核酸分子定性和定量检测的标准方法[2],本研究建立了实时荧光PCR检测HPIV 1～3型的方法,并对2007年广州地区的4238例急性呼吸道感染患儿的临床标本进行检测。
Thermodynamic analysis of solar-assisted hybrid power generation systems integrated with thermochemical fuel conversion

Abstract Solar-assisted hybrid power generation systems integrated with thermochemical fuel conversion are of increasing interest because they offer efficient use of lower temperature solar heat, with the important associated advantages of lower emissions, reduction of use of depletable fuels, production of easily storable fuel to alleviate the variability of solar heat, and relatively low cost of the use of lower temperature solar components. This paper examines thermodynamic features and performance of thermochemical hybridization of power generation systems, and demonstrates it for two previously proposed and analyzed specific systems, SOLRGT that incorporates reforming of methane, and SOLRMCC that incorporates reforming of methanol, both of which using lower temperature solar heat (at ∼220 °C) to help reform the fuel input to syngas, which is then burned for power generation. This analysis resulted in an equation for the power system performance in terms of the energy level (exergy to enthalpy change ratio) of the syngas produced by the thermochemical process. It was found that the solar-to-electricity efficiency is higher by up to 42% in the investigated cases if lower temperature solar heat is used in the thermochemical hybrid systems, compared to using the solar-only power generation systems with the same turbine inlet temperature.
Classification of torbanite and cannel coal: II. Insights from pyrolysis-GC/MS and multivariate statistical analysis

Abstract Petrographic and megascopic criteria have traditionally been used as the basis for the classification of torbanite and cannel coal. For this study, it was hypothesized that modern analytical organic geochemical and multivariate statistical techniques could provide an alternative approach. Towards this end, the demineralized residues of 14 torbanite (rich in Botryococcus-related alginite) and cannel (essentially, rich in organic groundmass and/or sporinite) coal samples were analyzed by pyrolysis-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (Py-GC/MS). Cluster analysis performed on the Py-GC/MS data clearly distinguished the torbanite from the cannel coal, demonstrating a consistency between the chemical properties and the petrographic composition. All the torbanite samples group into one cluster, their pyrolyzates having an overwhelming predominance of straight chain hydrocarbons, a characteristic typical of Botryococcus. The presence of the C9–C26 n-α,ω-alkadiene series is the key feature distinguishing the torbanites from the other samples. The cannel coals exhibit more chemical diversity, reflecting their greater variability in petrographic composition. The Breckinridge cannel, dominated by a highly aliphatic lamalginitic groundmass, chemically fits the torbanite category. The bituminitic groundmass-dominated cannel coals fall into a cannel sub-cluster, their pyrolyzates having a characteristic predominance of n-alk-1-enes and n-alkanes (particularly the long-chain homologues), with no detectable alkadienes. The vitrinitic groundmass-dominated Ohio Linton cannel and the sporinite-rich Canadian Melville Island cannel are readily distinguishable from the other cannels by the relatively abundant aromatic and phenolic compounds in their pyrolyzates. The internal distribution patterns of alkylaromatic and alkylphenolic isomers are shown to be less significant in the classification of this sample set. Multivariate statistical analysis of the pyrolysis data not only successfully discriminated torbanites from cannel coals, but recognized subtler differences between the examples of these two coal types, in substantial agreement with the petrographic characterization. As such, these methods can substitute for or supplement the traditional microscope-based approach.
Developing a Problem-Solving Treatment for Gulf War Illness: Cognitive Rehabilitation of Veterans with Complex Post-Deployment Health Concerns

Social workers play an essential role in facilitating veterans’ reintegration into their communities and daily lives. Many veterans, particularly those who have been deployed, experience comorbid physical, psychological, and neurocognitive problems that significantly impact their health function in multiple domains. Veterans deployed to Operation Desert Shield/Operation Desert Storm have reported a wide range of persistent, diverse, medically unexplained symptoms that have come to be known as Gulf War Illness (GWI). These symptoms make it difficult for veterans to participate in daily activities, thereby impacting health function. There are few effective treatments to improve the health function for those with GWI. The goals of this article are to provide social workers with information about GWI, and describe how we modified an evidence-based treatment, problem-solving therapy, for veterans with GWI. This tailoring of an existing treatment may serve as a model for adapting evidence-based treatments for veterans and civilians with multiple chronic symptoms and other complex health concerns. Furthermore, the detailed description provided may facilitate dissemination of problem-solving therapy among social workers and trainees.
Analysis of Biological Interactions by Affinity Chromatography: Clinical and Pharmaceutical Applications.

BACKGROUND: The interactions between biochemical and chemical agents in the body are important in many clinical processes. Affinity chromatography and high-performance affinity chromatography (HPAC), in which a column contains an immobilized biologically related binding agent, are 2 methods that can be used to study these interactions. CONTENT: This review presents various approaches that can be used in affinity chromatography and HPAC to characterize the strength or rate of a biological interaction, the number and types of sites that are involved in this process, and the interactions between multiple solutes for the same binding agent. A number of applications for these methods are examined, with an emphasis on recent developments and high-performance affinity methods. These applications include the use of these techniques for fundamental studies of biological interactions, high-throughput screening of drugs, work with modified proteins, tools for personalized medicine, and studies of drug–drug competition for a common binding agent. SUMMARY: The wide range of formats and detection methods that can be used with affinity chromatography and HPAC for examining biological interactions makes these tools attractive for various clinical and pharmaceutical applications. Future directions in the development of small-scale columns and the coupling of these methods with other techniques, such as mass spectrometry or other separation methods, should continue to increase the flexibility and ease with which these approaches can be used in work involving clinical or pharmaceutical samples.
Public Wrongs and Public Reason

The distinction between crimes that involve wrongs in themselves and crimes that are wrong because the law makes them so has long puzzled theorists. This essay argues that the distinction, while getting at something real, is based on a mistake. That mistake is made both by those who see moral wrongness as a necessary condition for criminality and by those who believe merely making something illegal is sufficient to make it criminal. Neither is correct. Rather, what makes something a criminal wrong is that it involves a violation of a law that has been justified in terms of “public reason.”
Light advances in optical biopsy (Conference Presentation)

This Conference Presentation was recorded at SPIE Photonics West 2017 held in San Francisco, California, United States.
Baseline capture rates and roosting habits of Myotis septentrionalis (Northern Long-Eared Bat) prior to white-nose syndrome detection in the southern Appalachians

Abstract Myotis septentrionalis (Northern Long-eared Bat) is a federally threatened insectivorous bat facing devastating population declines due to white-nose syndrome (WNS). Our study provides pre-WNS (2009) capture rates and roosting-behavior data for Northern Long-eared Bats in the southern Appalachians. We conducted mist-net surveys at 37 sites and radio-tracked female Northern Long-eared Bats to their day roosts in eastern Tennessee and western North Carolina. We compared tree and plot characteristics for roosts and corresponding random trees using Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. Our 43 survey nights yielded 302 bats of 11 species; Northern Long-eared Bats were the most commonly captured species (n = 97). We located 14 unique roosts for 7 radio-tracked bats; Pinus strobus (White Pine) snags (n = 8) were the most common roost sites. We observed a colony of 72 bats using a White Pine snag as a maternity roost. Roost trees were significantly larger in diameter and had more solar exposure above the roost and wi...
When the excrement hits the fan: Fecal surveys reveal species-specific bat activity at wind turbines

The reasons why bats are coming into contact with wind turbines are not yet well understood. One hypothesis is that bats are attracted to wind turbines and this attraction may be because bats perceive or misperceive the turbines to provide a resource, such as a foraging or roosting site. During post-construction fatality searches at a wind energy facility in the southern Great Plains, U.S., we discovered bat feces near the base of a wind turbine tower, which led us to hypothesize that bats were actively roosting and/or foraging at turbines. Thus over 2 consecutive years, we conducted systematic searches for bat feces on turbines at this site. We collected 72 bat fecal samples from turbines and successfully extracted DNA from 56 samples. All 6 bat species known to be in the area were confirmed and the majority (59%) were identified as Lasiurus borealis; a species that also comprised the majority of the fatalities (60%) recorded at the site. The presence of bat feces provides further evidence that bats were conducting activities in close proximity to wind turbines. Moreover, feces found in areas such as turbine door slats indicated that bats were using turbines as night or foraging roosts, and further provided evidence that bats were active near the turbines. Future research should therefore aim to identify those features of wind turbines that bats perceive or misperceive as a resource, which in turn may lead to new minimization strategies that effectively reduce bat fatalities at wind farms.
Large Coronary Artery Regulation by α- and β-Adrenergic Receptors in Conscious Calves

Regulation of coronary arteries by α- and β-adrenergic receptor subtype mechanisms was examined in chronically-instrumented, conscious calves. The physiological data on α- and β-adrenergic receptors were correlated with ligand binding studies from sarcolemmal membranes of calf large coronary arteries. In the conscious animal, selective α1- + α2- and β1 - + β2-adrenergic agonists were examined in the presence and absence of selective α1- + α2-, and β1- + β2-adrenergic receptor blockades. Both the α1-adrenergic agonist, phenylephrine, and the α2-adrenergic agonist, B-HT 920, induced similar vasoconstriction of the large coronary arteries in the conscious calf, whereas the β1-adrenergic agonist, prenalterol, and β2-adrenergic agonist, pirbuterol, induced vasodilation. These effects were abolished by their respective adrenergic subtype blocker, but were not significantly affected by the corresponding blocker for the other subtype. Ligand binding studies demonstrated the presence of both subtypes of α- and β-adrenergic receptors, with a predominance of the β1 and α2-adrenergic receptor subtypes. Thus, large coronary arteries of the calf contain both α1- + α2- and β1- + β2-adrenergic receptor subtypes, and agonists are capable of eliciting significant constriction with either of the α-adrenergic subtypes, and dilation with either of the β-adrenergic subtypes.
Opinion mining using an LVQ neural network

Due to the increased use of social media in the past few years, a large volume of data has been accumulated which contains human sentiments and opinions. The field that deals with the automated extraction of opinions is named opinion mining. In this paper, we evaluate the performance of an LVQ neural network on document level analysis using a benchmark movie review dataset. Document-level opinion mining aims at classifying a text, usually as positive or negative based on its overall sentiment. In order to reduce the dimensions of the reviews' vector representations, we use the feature selection method Information Gain. We use an exhaustive grid search for hyperparameter tuning and two methods for performance evaluation: a nested cross validation and a non-nested 10-fold cross validation. We study the performance of our model for different numbers of selected features by Information-Gain.
Development of a Coarse-Grained Model of Collagen-Like Peptide (CLP) for Studies of CLP Triple Helix Melting.

In this paper, we present the development of a phenomenological coarse-grained model that represents single strands of collagen-like peptides (CLPs) as well as CLP triple helices. The goal of this model development is to enable coarse-grained molecular simulations of solutions of CLPs and conjugates of CLPs with other macromolecules and to predict trends in the CLP melting temperature with varying CLP design, namely CLP length and composition. Since the CLP triple helix is stabilized primarily by hydrogen bonds between amino acids in adjacent strands, for modeling CLP melting we get inspiration from a recent coarse-grained (CG) model that was used to capture specific and directional hydrogen-bonding interactions in base-pair hybridization within oligonucleotides and reproduced known DNA melting trends with DNA sequence and composition in implicit water. In this paper, we systematically describe the changes we make to this original CG model and then show that these improvements reproduce the known melting ...
Incentive design for cross-functional teams: Putting the pieces together

Rarely can the output of a cross-functional team be accurately decomposed into specific functional contributions. Research in organizational theory has placed attention on the challenges associated...
Data-Intensive Alternatives for Human Adaptation to Coastal Change

Big data has the potential to enhance decision-making among individuals and communities. More specifically, combining human and physical big data into models can inform decisions during weather-related hazards and potentially reduce uncertainty resulting from climate change. This chapter provides some insights about the expansion of big data and its potential to enhance adaptation efforts given rapid environmental changes, specifically those occurring in coastal areas.
Theory of Singlet-Ground-State Ferromagnetism in Pr3Se4: A Cubic System with Low Local Symmetry

The magnetic properties of1–5 Pr3Se4 have two very interesting features related to crystal-field and structural effects. One of these comes from the fact that despite the overall cubic symmetry, the local Pr symmetry is quite low. On considering a crystal field interaction, this leads to some remarkable anisotropic effects in the theoretically expected magnetic ordering and magnetization in applied field. The second striking aspect of the magnetic behavior of Pr3Se4 is the marked reduction of the magnetization for low applied pressure.4,5 The spontaneous magnetization decreases by about 50% for a pressure of only 0.5 kbar. In this paper we shall concentrate on the first aspect, the peculiarities of behavior expected on the basis of low crystal-field symmetry within a context of overall cubic symmetry. We shall relate this to the experimental behavior,4,5 and also briefly remark on the fact that the extraordinary sensitivity may be related to the inability to obtain quantitative compatibility with the overall experimental magnetic behavior on the basis of a simple model for the crystal-field and exchange interactions.
Child maltreatment and its victims. A comparison of physical and sexual abuse

Although physical and sexual abuse are separate and distinct types of victimization, their impact on children is quite similar. Both of these forms of maltreatment involve the exploitation or misuse of a child by a parent or caretaker in the context of a pathologic family system. Physical and sexual abuse constitute an acute traumatic event for the child, generating phobic responses and anxiety-related symptoms including post-traumatic stress disorder. The long-term traumatic elements stemming from the chronic stigmatization and scapegoating contribute to problems of depression and low self-esteem and distortions in character formation. Betrayal by a primary caretaker leads to mistrust of others and difficulties with object relationships. Perhaps the most striking similarity between physical and sexual abuse of children is the tendency of the children to re-enact and recreate their victimization with others, leading to a transmission of violence in the next generation. Like their parents who were frequently victimized during childhood, they repeat and perpetuate an "aggressor-victim" interaction in their subsequent relationships. Both physical and sexual abuse are embedded in a deviant family structure, which adds to the psychopathology of the children. The contrast between physical and sexual abuse can be demonstrated by their specific impact on aggression and sexuality, respectively. The physically abused child has difficulty in experiencing and modulating aggressive impulses, whereas the victim of incest is often impaired in his ability to experience and integrate sexual feelings. The physically abused child is also at greater risk for cognitive and CNS impairment. Intervention with the abusing parents is the first step in protecting the children from further damage, but treatment of the child victims is necessary not only to diminish their psychopathology and emotional distress, but to prevent the cycle of violence in the next generation.
Membrane-Bound Microorganisms for Removing Organisms and Metals

Many contaminated aqueous industrial streams contain mixtures of organics as well as heavy metals. Bacteria offer the advantage of having the ability to oxidize organics as well as adsorb heavy metals. Membrane-immobilized bacteria have added advantages including improved mass transfer for faster reaction and adsorption rates, as well as the capability to be re-used. Performance characteristics of immobilized bacteria for oxidation and adsorption are herein presented. A hybrid process configuration is proposed for the treatment of heavy metals combined with high concentrations of organics.
An adenosine-independent index of stenosis severity from coronary wave-intensity analysis: a new paradigm in coronary physiology for the cath lab?

More than 15 years ago, Nico Pijls, from Eindhoven, the Netherlands, conceived, and, along with Bernard De Bruyne from Aalst, Belgium and others, developed and tested the fractional flow reserve (FFR) concept ([1–3][1]). They are to be credited for one of the most important advances in the
Noncontacting Ultrasonic Resonance Measurement of Transverse Anisotropy in Cylinders

Ultrasonic resonance techniques using electromagnetic-acoustic transduction have been used by other authors to measure the elastic anisotropy associated with microstructural texture in plates [1–3]. The relative shift in frequency of resonant modes that would be degenerate in isotropic material provides a measure of the anisotropy. This report presents a similar resonance technique applied to a cylindrical sample, with a particular focus on the spatial filtering provided by the electromagnetic-acoustic transducer (EMAT).
The Role of Costimulation in Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis

Experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a T cell-mediated, autoimmune disorder characterized by central nervous system (CNS) inflammation and demyelination, features reminiscent of the human disease, multiple sclerosis (MS). In addition to the signal the encephalitogenic T cell receives through the T cell receptor (TCR), a second signal, termed costimulation, is required for complete T cell activation. The B7 family of cell surface molecules expressed on antigen presenting cells (APC) is capable of providing this second signal to T cells via two receptors, CD28 and CTLA-4. Our studies and those of others have shown that costimulation provided by B7 molecules to its ligand CD28 is important in the initiation of the autoimmune response in EAE. Further, it appears the costimulation provided by B7-1 is important in disease development, while B7-2 may play an important regulatory role. We and others have shown that B7/ CTLA-4 interaction plays a critical role in down-regulating the immune response in EAE. Other costimulatory pathways, such as CD40/CD40L and ICOS and its ligand, also play significant roles in the EAE model.
Genotypic Selection in Spatially Heterogeneous Producer-Grazer Systems Subject to Stoichiometric Constraints

Various environmental conditions may exert selection pressures leading to adaptation of stoichiometrically important traits, such as organismal nutritional content or growth rate. We use theoretical approaches to explore the connections between genotypic selection and ecological stoichiometry in spatially heterogeneous environments. We present models of a producer and two grazing genotypes with different stoichiometric phosphorus/carbon ratios under spatially homogenous and heterogeneous conditions. Numerical experiments predict that selection of a single genotype, co-persistence of both genotypes, and extinction are possible outcomes depending on environmental conditions. Our results indicated that in spatially homogenous settings, co-persistence of both genotypes can occur when population dynamics oscillate on limit cycles near a key stoichiometric threshold on food quality. Under spatially heterogeneous settings, dynamics are more complex, where co-persistence is observed on limit cycles, as well as stable equilibria.
Support for Young Investigators.

“Whether, in principle, one should habilitate every scholar who is qualified or whether one should consider enrollments, and hence give the existing staff a monopoly to teach—that is an awkward dilemma.… In general, one decides in favor of the second alternative.”Max Weber
Toxicity of ZnO/TiO2‐conjugated carbon‐based nanohybrids on the coastal marine alga Thalassiosira pseudonana

Increasing consumption of metal-oxide nanoparticles (NPs) and carbon-based nanomaterials has caused significant concern about their potential hazards in aquatic environments. The release of NPs into aquatic environments could result in adsorption of NPs on microorganisms. While metal-oxide NP-conjugated carbon-based nanohybrids (NHs) may exhibit enhanced toxicity toward microorganisms due to their large surface area and the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), there is a lack of information regarding the ecotoxicological effects of NHs on marine diatom algae, which are an indicator of marine pollution. Moreover, there is scant information on toxicity mechanisms of NHs on aquatic organisms. In this study, four NHs (ie, ZnO-conjugated graphene oxide [GO], ZnO-conjugated carbon nanotubes [CNTs], TiO2 -conjugated GO, and TiO2 -conjugated CNT) that were synthesized by a hydrothermal method were investigated for their toxicity effects on a Thalassiosira pseudonana marine diatom. The in vitro cellular viability and ROS formation employed at the concentration ranges of 50 and 100 mg/L of NHs over 72 hours revealed that ZnO-GO had the most negative effect on T. pseudonana. The primary mechanism identified was the generation of ROS and GO-induced dispersion that caused electrostatic repulsion, preventing aggregation, and an increase in surface areas of NHs. In contrast to GO-induced dispersion, large aggregates were observed in ZnO/TiO2 -conjugated CNT-based NHs. The scanning electron microscopy images suggest that NHs covered algae cells and interacted with them (shading effects); this reduced light availability for photosynthesis. Detailed in vitro toxicity effects and mechanisms that cause high adverse acute toxicity on T. pseudonana were unveiled; this implied concerns about potential hazards of these mechanisms in aquatic ecosystems.
“Whose Liability Is It Anyway?” Cultivating an Inclusive College Climate for Autistic LGBTQ Students:

With one in 59 children diagnosed with autism, higher education institutions are experiencing increasing enrollments of autistic students. Furthermore, autistic students are disproportionately more...
Integration of membranes into bioelectrochemical systems for enhanced treatment performance

Abstract Bioelectrochemical systems (BESs) use microbial interactions with solid electron acceptors/donors to achieve simultaneous wastewater treatment and recovery of valuable resources. Most BESs include microbial fuel cells for bioelectricity generation, microbial electrolysis cells for hydrogen production, microbial desalination cells for separating salts from water, and microbial electrosynthesis cells for synthesizing organics from carbon dioxide. To improve treatment efficiency in terms of both contaminant removal and resource recovery, BESs have involved various types of membranes such as ion exchange membranes, micro/ultrafiltration membranes, forward osmosis membranes, and gas permeable membranes. This chapter aims to provide a concise overview of membrane integration into BESs for enhanced wastewater treatment and to discuss both the advantages and challenges of developing membrane-based BES technologies.