cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Social Responsibility and Final Thoughts

This final chapter concludes with the overarching critical reflections that fall under the ethical perspective of training and development such as who gets access to training and development, an employer’s duty to train and develop its employees, as well as such ruminations as: the consequences of training and development to society, organizations, and individuals; the moral base and ethical dilemmas raised by training practice; considering power differences and repressive practices; and the overall social responsibility of training and development practice.
Abstract WMP56: Physical Inactivity and Slower Gait Speed in an Elderly Multi-ethnic Population: The Northern Manhattan Study

Background: Slower gait speed is associated with adverse outcomes of aging, such as falls and mortality. We hypothesized that physical inactivity, which is prevalent in the elderly, is a major risk...
The TensorMol-0.1 model chemistry: a neural network augmented with long-range physics

Traditional force fields cannot model chemical reactivity, and suffer from low generality without re-fitting. Neural network potentials promise to address these problems, offering energies and forces with near ab initio accuracy at low cost. However a data-driven approach is naturally inefficient for long-range interatomic forces that have simple physical formulas. In this manuscript we construct a hybrid model chemistry consisting of a nearsighted neural network potential with screened long-range electrostatic and van der Waals physics. This trained potential, simply dubbed “TensorMol-0.1”, is offered in an open-source Python package capable of many of the simulation types commonly used to study chemistry: geometry optimizations, harmonic spectra, open or periodic molecular dynamics, Monte Carlo, and nudged elastic band calculations. We describe the robustness and speed of the package, demonstrating its millihartree accuracy and scalability to tens-of-thousands of atoms on ordinary laptops. We demonstrate the performance of the model by reproducing vibrational spectra, and simulating the molecular dynamics of a protein. Our comparisons with electronic structure theory and experimental data demonstrate that neural network molecular dynamics is poised to become an important tool for molecular simulation, lowering the resource barrier to simulating chemistry.
Code of Hammurabi

The Code of Hammurabi is a collection of at least 282 ancient Mesopotamian laws that King Hammurabi promulgated near the end of his reign (1792–1750 bce). Hammurabi's Code represents one of the first written attempts by an ancient civilization to systematically codify civil and criminal laws. The Code is important to penologists and criminologists because it demonstrates how one of the oldest known civilizations responded to criminal violations. Although the original text was lost around 1565 bce and not rediscovered until 1901, most of the principles inherent in the Code became points of reference for future legal and religious development. Keywords: history; law; legal history; punishment
A South African Experience: Cultural Determinants of Ukuthwasa:

The current study investigated ukuthwasa, a South African culture-specific syndrome associated with the calling to become a sangoma, a type of traditional healer. Ukuthwasa has previously been comp...
Analysis of the neu-Encoded Protein and Its Mechanism of Oncogenic Activation

The search for oncogenes and their encoded proteins has involved a variety of experimental procedures and reagents. In our own laboratory, the procedure of gene transfer, also known as transfection, has been used extensively in an attempt to deter oncogenes residing in a variety of tumor DNA’s. These DNA’s have been applied via the Graham-van der Eb calcium phosphate procedure to monolayers of NIH3T3 cells with the hope that some of the transfected cells would respond to donor transforming sequences by demonstrating an altered growth pattern in monolayer. Indeed in this fashion, we and others were able to demonstrate the presence of oncogenes in the DNA’s of a variety of tumor cell types (Varmus 1984).
The Modern Landscape of the Olympic Peninsula

The natural environment of the Olympic Peninsula is reviewed with an emphasis on climatic gradients and associated patterns in forest communities and natural disturbance regimes. The regional climate is described with respect to the broadscale circulation features and locally important topographic effects. Analyses of weather station data reveal important trends in temperature, while snow survey and glacier monitoring reveal decades-long decline in snowpack. The summer streamflow of unregulated rivers is shown to have a strong link to variation in snowpack. The seven major vegetation zones of the peninsula are described and controls of species abundance among vegetation zones are discussed with respect to species traits and climatic gradients. The natural disturbance regimes of the peninsula are summarized. Fire history data from tree-ring records and fire regime statistics from historical records reveal the pronounced gradient of fire across the peninsula and the episodic pattern of large fire events. Wind, insect, geomorphic, and intense herbivory are also briefly reviewed.
Androgens in Immunology and Autoimmune Diseases

Epidemiologic evidence, clinical observations, and experimental data in vitro and in animal models of autoimmune diseases all support a role for gonadal steroids in the modulation of immune responsiveness and autoimmunity. Most human autoimmune diseases exhibit a sexually dimorphic incidence, with females affected more frequently than males (Olsen and Kovacs, 1996). Clinical observations of the impact of gonadal steroids on these autoimmune processes are largely anecdotal, but are supported by experimentation in animal models of human systemic lupus erythematosus (the NZB/W mouse), type I diabetes (the NOD mouse), and multiple sclerosis (experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis). Taken as a whole, the evidence suggests that androgens down-regulate immune responsiveness and prevent autoimmune disease or attenuate its progression, while estrogenic hormones have opposite effects. This chapter will present an overview of androgen-mediated effects on host immune defense and autoimmune disorders.
Burnout and Exposure to Critical Incidents in a Cohort of Emergency Medical Services Workers from Minnesota.

Author(s): Boland, Lori L.; Kinzy, Tyler G.; Myers, Russell N.; Fernstrom, Karl M.; Kamrud, Jonathan W.; Mink, Pamela J.; Stevens, Andrew C. | Abstract: Introduction: Very little quantitative data on occupational burnout and exposure to critical incidents are available from contemporary United States emergency medical services (EMS) cohorts. Given that burnout has been associated positively with turnover intentions and absenteeism in EMS workers, studies that uncover correlates of burnout may be integral to combating growing concerns around retention in the profession. Methods: We administered a 167-item electronic survey that included the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and a modified version of the Critical Incident History Questionnaire (n=29 incident types) to paramedics, emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and dispatchers of a single ambulance service. We defined the presence of burnout as a high score on either the emotional exhaustion or depersonalization subscales of the MBI. Results: Survey respondents who provided regular 911 response at the time of the survey and completed the MBI portion of the survey were included in our analysis (190 paramedics/EMTs, 19 dispatchers; 54% response). The overall prevalence of burnout was 18%, with prevalence reaching 32% among dispatchers. The seven pediatric critical incident types presented in the survey accounted for seven of the top eight rated most difficult to cope with, and severity ratings for pediatric critical incidents did not differ by parental status (all pg0.30). A significant number of respondents reported that they had been threatened with a gun/weapon (43%) or assaulted by a patient (68%) at least once while on duty. Being over the age of 50, a parent, or in a committed relationship was associated with reduced odds of burnout in unadjusted models; however, these associations did not remain statistically significant in multivariate analysis. Increasing tertile of career exposure to critical incidents was not associated with burnout.Conclusion: Medical dispatchers may be an EMS subgroup particularly susceptible to burnout. These data also demonstrate quantitatively that in this EMS agency, responders find pediatric critical incidents especially distressing and that violence against responders is commonplace. In this study, a simple measure of career exposure to potentially critical incidents was not associated with burnout; however, individual reactions to incidents are heterogeneous, and assessment tools that more accurately enumerate encounters that result in distress are needed.
Efficient Reconstitution of Hepatic Microvasculature by Endothelin Receptor Antagonism in Liver Sinusoidal Endothelial Cells

Reconstitution of healthy endothelial cells in vascular beds offers opportunities for mechanisms in tissue homeostasis, organ regeneration, and correction of deficient functions. Liver sinusoidal endothelial cells express unique functions, and their transplantation is relevant for disease models and for cell therapy. As molecular targets for improving transplanted cell engraftment and proliferation will be highly significant, this study determined whether ETA/B receptor antagonism by the drug bosentan could overcome cell losses due to cell transplantation-induced cytotoxicity. Cell engraftment and proliferation assays were performed with healthy wild-type liver sinusoidal endothelial cells transplanted into the liver of dipeptidylpeptidase IV knockout mice. Transplanted cells were identified in tissues by enzyme histochemistry. Cells with prospective ETA/B antagonism engrafted significantly better in hepatic sinusoids. Moreover, these cells underwent multiple rounds of division under liver repopulation conditions. The gains of ETA/B antagonism resulted from benefits in cell viability and membrane integrity. Also, in bosentan-treated cells, mitochondrial homeostasis was better maintained with less oxidative stress and DNA damage after injuries. Intracellular effects of ETA/B antagonism were transduced by conservation of ataxia telangiectasia mutated protein, which directs DNA damage response. Therefore, ETA/B antagonism in donor cells will advance vascular reconstitution. Extensive experience with ETA/B antagonists will facilitate translation in people.
Efficacy of Biosimilars in Psoriasis

Biologic therapies have revolutionized the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis, and several biologic agents are currently available to patients. However, the high cost associated with these d...
Inaccurate secondary structure predictions often indicate protein fold switching

Although most proteins conform to the classical one-structure/one-function paradigm, an increasing number of proteins with dual structures and functions have been discovered. In response to cellular stimuli, such proteins undergo structural changes sufficiently dramatic to remodel even their secondary structures and domain organization. This "fold-switching" capability fosters protein multi-functionality, enabling cells to establish tight control over various biochemical processes. Accurate predictions of fold-switching proteins could both suggest underlying mechanisms for uncharacterized biological processes and reveal potential drug targets. Recently, we developed a prediction method for fold-switching proteins using structure-based thermodynamic calculations and discrepancies between predicted and experimentally determined protein secondary structure (Porter and Looger, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2018; 115:5968-5973). Here we seek to leverage the negative information found in these secondary structure prediction discrepancies. To do this, we quantified secondary structure prediction accuracies of 192 known fold-switching regions (FSRs) within solved protein structures found in the Protein Data Bank (PDB). We find that the secondary structure prediction accuracies for these FSRs vary widely. Inaccurate secondary structure predictions are strongly associated with fold-switching proteins compared to equally long segments of non-fold-switching proteins selected at random. These inaccurate predictions are enriched in helix-to-strand and strand-to-coil discrepancies. Finally, we find that most proteins with inaccurate secondary structure predictions are underrepresented in the PDB compared with their alternatively folded cognates, suggesting that unequal representation of fold-switching conformers within the PDB could be an important cause of inaccurate secondary structure predictions. These results demonstrate that inconsistent secondary structure predictions can serve as a useful preliminary marker of fold switching.
A Conversation with Dame Commander Barbara Monroe.

Barbara Monroe is a trustee of Marie Curie, a registered charity in England and Wales. She is a Special Commissioner of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, an independent member of the Community, Voluntary...
Youth Willingness to Purchase Whole Grain Snack Packs from New York City Corner Stores Participating in a Healthy Retail Program

Corners stores in low-income communities are a promising setting to intervene in youth whole grain intake. One strategy that may encourage whole grain intake is if corner stores were to pair and sell whole grain snacks in combination with either a liked fruit or vegetable and an optional condiment (i.e., a whole grain snack pack). This study examined youth in terms of their (1) liking of fruits, vegetables, and whole grain snacks; (2) perceptions about which fruits and vegetables pair best with whole grain snacks; and (3) willingness to pay for a whole grain snack pack. One-time intercept surveys were conducted with 10-18-year-olds (n = 402) who visited a New York City (NYC) corner store (n = 34) participating in the City Harvest Healthy Retail Program. On average, youth were willing to spend $2.38 (SD $4.32) on a whole grain snack pack. Higher overall liking scores for vegetables and whole grain snacks were associated with willingness to spend 24.4% (95% confidence interval (CI): 11.5-38.7%) and 21.6% (95%CI: 5.2-40.6%) more on whole grain snack packs, respectively. In conclusion, youth are receptive to purchasing whole grain snack packs from NYC corner stores participating in a healthy retail program.
A ClpS-based N-terminal amino acid binding reagent with improved thermostability and selectivity

Abstract Realization of binding reagents that can perform high-fidelity, sequential recognition and detection of amino acids is important for the success of many proposed approaches for single-molecule protein sequencing. Towards this purpose, a variant of the Agrobacterium tumefaciens protein ClpS was previously engineered with improved binding affinity for phenylalanine at the N-terminus of a peptide. In this study, this variant was further engineered for attributes necessary for robust application as a biotechnology reagent such as increased thermostability and improved selectivity under different buffer conditions. The stabilized variant was further characterized in terms of selectivity for the N-terminal residue in the context of different peptides with varying residues at positions 2 (P2) and 3 (P3). The implication of the study for the use of ClpS based reagents in peptide sequencing technologies are described.
Rapid and Efficient Co-Transcriptional Splicing Enhances Mammalian Gene Expression

ABSTRACT Pre-mRNA splicing is tightly coordinated with transcription in yeasts, and introns can be removed soon after they emerge from RNA polymerase II (Pol II). To determine if splicing is similarly rapid and efficient in mammalian cells, we performed long read sequencing of nascent RNA during mouse erythropoiesis. Remarkably, 50% of splicing occurred while Pol II was within 150 nucleotides of 3′ splice sites. PRO-seq revealed that Pol II does not pause around splice sites, confirming that mammalian and yeast spliceosomes can act equally rapidly. Two exceptions were observed. First, several hundred introns displayed abundant splicing intermediates, suggesting that the spliceosome can stall after the first catalytic step. Second, some genes – notably globins – displayed poor splicing coupled to readthrough transcription. Remarkably, a patient-derived mutation in β-globin that causes thalassemia improves splicing efficiency and proper termination, revealing co-transcriptional splicing efficiency is a determinant of productive gene output.
Daughters of the New Revolutionary War: Representations of Confederate Women and Gun Culture in the Confederate Press, 1861–1864

Abstract This research examines how Southern editors at twenty newspapers across the length of the Confederacy represented news stories of women soldiers and militia members. Although some editors cast a wary eye at women who cross-dressed and went off to battle, this article argues that the promotion of these women soldiers provided a unique opportunity for editors who sought to use their publications to promote Confederate nationalist beliefs. Women soldiers were held up as exemplars of those beliefs. Stories of women soldiers also served two other important purposes: Editors used such stories to boost morale, showing that even women would fight to help their husbands, brothers, and fathers build a new nation. Such stories also were used to shame men not in service to don uniforms and undertake their civic duty for the good of the South.
The role of precipitation and woody cover deficit in juniper encroachment in Texas savanna

Abstract A lot of studies have been devoted to understanding the underlying mechanism of woody plant encroachment in savanna ecosystems for informed management strategy. However, many of them take their study area as a whole and do not consider the encompassed environmental gradient, which may modulate the role of different factors in the encroachment. This study aims to test the hypothesis that the role of different factors varies over environmental gradient. The test was conducted in the semiarid and mesic regions of the savanna in central Texas, USA. Tentatively, the role of mean annual precipitation (MAP) and woody cover deficit in juniper encroachment was investigated and compared in these two regions. Results suggest that MAP has a positive effect on the encroachment rate in the semiarid region, but not in the mesic region. The encroachment rate increases with woody cover deficit in the semiarid region. In the mesic region, however, the encroachment rate increases with woody cover deficit till a threshold level, then starts decreasing with it. This study demonstrates the varying role of precipitation and woody cover deficit in juniper encroachment across the rainfall gradient of Texas savanna. It furthers our understanding of the underlying mechanism of woody plant encroachment.
Thermodynamic Signatures of the Origin of Anti-Hofmeister Selectivity for Phosphate at Aqueous Interfaces.

The selectivities and driving forces governing phosphate recognition by charged receptors at prevalent aqueous interfaces is unexplored relative to the many studies in homogeneous solutions. Here w...
Signals for defocus arise from longitudinal chromatic aberration in chick.

Abstract Chicks respond to two signals from longitudinal chromatic aberration (LCA): a wavelength defocus signal and a chromatic signal. Wavelength defocus predicts reduced axial eye growth in monochromatic short-wavelength light, compared to monochromatic long-wavelength light. Wavelength defocus may also influence growth in broadband light. In contrast, a chromatic signal predicts increased growth when short-wavelength contrast > long-wavelength contrast, but only when light is broadband. We aimed to investigate the influence of blue light, temporal frequency and contrast on these signals under broadband conditions. Starting at 12 to 13 days-old, 587 chicks were exposed to the experimental illumination conditions for three days for 8h/day and spent the remainder of their day in the dark. The stimuli were flickering lights, with a temporal frequency of 0.2 or 10 Hz, low (30%) or high contrast (80%), and a variety of ratios of cone contrast simulating the effects of defocus with LCA. There were two color conditions, with blue contrast (bPlus) and without (bMinus). Stimuli in the “bPlus” condition varied the amounts of long- (L), middle- (M_) and double (D-) cone contrast, relative to short- (S-) and (UV-) cone contrast, to simulate defocus. Stimuli in the “bMinus” condition only varied the relative modulations of the L + D vs. M cones. In all cases, the average of the stimuli was white, with an illuminance of 777 lux, with cone contrast created through temporal modulation. A Lenstar LS 900 and a Hartinger refractometer were used to measure ocular components and refraction. Wavelength defocus signals with relatively high S-cone contrast resulted in reduced axial growth, and more hyperopic refractions, under low-frequency conditions (p = 0.002), in response to the myopic defocus of blue light. Chromatic signals with relatively high S-cone contrast resulted in increased axial growth and more myopic refractions, under high frequency, low contrast, conditions (p
Multi-Agent Trust Region Policy Optimization.

We extend trust region policy optimization (TRPO) to multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) problems. We show that the policy update of TRPO can be transformed into a distributed consensus optimization problem for multi-agent cases. By making a series of approximations to the consensus optimization model, we propose a decentralized MARL algorithm, which we call multi-agent TRPO (MATRPO). This algorithm can optimize distributed policies based on local observations and private rewards. The agents do not need to know observations, rewards, policies or value/action-value functions of other agents. The agents only share a likelihood ratio with their neighbors during the training process. The algorithm is fully decentralized and privacy-preserving. Our experiments on two cooperative games demonstrate its robust performance on complicated MARL tasks.
Predicting dairy cattle heat stress using machine learning techniques.

The objectives of the study were to use a heat stress scoring system to evaluate the severity of heat stress on dairy cows using different heat abatement techniques. The scoring system ranged from 1 to 4, where 1 = no heat stress; 2 = mild heat stress; 3 = severe heat stress; and 4 = moribund. The accuracy of the scoring system was then predicted using 3 machine learning techniques: logistic regression, Gaussian naive Bayes, and random forest. To predict the accuracy of the scoring system, these techniques used factors including temperature-humidity index, respiration rate, lying time, lying bouts, total steps, drooling, open-mouth breathing, panting, location in shade or sprinklers, somatic cell score, reticulorumen temperature, hygiene body condition score, milk yield, and milk fat and protein percent. Three different treatments, namely, portable shade structure, portable polyvinyl chloride pipe sprinkler system, or control with no heat abatement, were considered, where each treatment was replicated 3 times with 3 second-trimester lactating cows. Results indicate that random forest outperformed the other 2 methods, with respect to both accuracy and precision, in predicting the sprinkler group's score. Both logistic regression and random forest were consistent in predicting scores for control, shade, and combined groups. The mean probability of predicting non-heat-stressed cows was highest for cows in the sprinkler group. Finally, the logistic regression method worked best for predicting heat-stressed cows in control, shade, and combined. The insights gained from these results could aid dairy producers to detect heat stress before it becomes severe, which could decrease the negative effects of heat stress, such as milk loss.
Trans-Neptunian binaries (2018)

Abstract The discovery and characteristics of transneptunian binaries are reviewed. In the 20 years since their first discovery, a wealth of detail has emerged including the frequency of binaries in different populations, their relative sizes and separations, and colors. Taken globally, these properties give strong clues to the origin and evolution of the populations where these binaries are found. In the last 10 years, an increasing number of binary orbits have been determined which yields a new trove of information on their masses and densities as well as details of their orbits including inclination, eccentricity and the timing of mutual events. In 2018, the study of transneptunian binaries remains one of the most active areas of progress in understanding the solar system beyond Neptune.
Management Accounting Systems Adoption Decisions: Evidence and Performance Implications from Early‐Stage/Startup Companies

Adopting management accounting systems are important events in the life of young and growing companies. Using a sample of 78 startup companies, we document cross‐sectional differences in the adoption of operating budgets as well as seven other management accounting systems. We find that our proxies for agency costs, perceived benefits and costs, company scale, and top management style explain cross‐sectional differences in the time‐to‐adoption of budgets. In particular, the presence of venture capital, CEO experience, presence of a financial manager, number of employees, and the CEO beliefs about management planning systems are associated with this adoption decision. We further investigate the effect of hiring a financial manager as an endogenous variable. In the first stage of a two‐stage model, we find that CEO experience, the presence of venture capital funds, CEO beliefs about management accounting systems, and number of employees are associated with crosssectional variation in this hiring decision. W...
A fast, resource efficient, and reliable rule-based system for COVID-19 symptom identification.

Objective With COVID-19, there was a need for a rapidly scalable annotation system that facilitated real-time integration with clinical decision support systems (CDS). Current annotation systems suffer from a high-resource utilization and poor scalability limiting real-world integration with CDS. A potential solution to mitigate these issues is to use the rule-based gazetteer developed at our institution. Materials and methods Performance, resource utilization, and runtime of the rule-based gazetteer were compared with five annotation systems: BioMedICUS, cTAKES, MetaMap, CLAMP, and MedTagger. Results This rule-based gazetteer was the fastest, had a low resource footprint, and similar performance for weighted microaverage and macroaverage measures of precision, recall, and f1-score compared to other annotation systems. Discussion Opportunities to increase its performance include fine-tuning lexical rules for symptom identification. Additionally, it could run on multiple compute nodes for faster runtime. Conclusion This rule-based gazetteer overcame key technical limitations facilitating real-time symptomatology identification for COVID-19 and integration of unstructured data elements into our CDS. It is ideal for large-scale deployment across a wide variety of healthcare settings for surveillance of acute COVID-19 symptoms for integration into prognostic modeling. Such a system is currently being leveraged for monitoring of postacute sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) progression in COVID-19 survivors. This study conducted the first in-depth analysis and developed a rule-based gazetteer for COVID-19 symptom extraction with the following key features: low processor and memory utilization, faster runtime, and similar weighted microaverage and macroaverage measures for precision, recall, and f1-score compared to industry-standard annotation systems.
First Report of Downy Mildew Caused by Peronospora chenopodii-ambrosioidis on Epazote (Dysphania ambrosioides) in North Carolina

In this brief, we report the observation of downy mildew caused by Peronospora chenopodii-ambrosioidis on epazote (Dysphania ambrosioides) in North Carolina, U.S.A. We performed morphological chara...
Development of thalamocortical structural connectivity in typically developing and psychosis spectrum youth.

Abstract Background Thalamocortical white matter connectivity is disrupted in psychosis and is hypothesized to play a role in its etiology and associated cognitive impairment. Attenuated cognitive symptoms often begin in adolescence, during a critical phase of white matter and cognitive development. However, little is known about the development of thalamocortical white matter connectivity and its association with cognition. Methods The present study characterized effects of age, sex, psychosis symptomatology, and cognition in thalamocortical networks in a large sample of youth (n = 1144, aged 8-22 years, 46% male) from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort (PNC), which included 316 typically-developing youth, 330 psychosis-spectrum youth, and 498 youth with other psychopathology. Probabilistic tractography was used to quantify percent total connectivity between the thalamus and six cortical regions, and assess microstructural properties (i.e. fractional anisotropy-FA) of thalamocortical white matter tracts. Results Overall, percent total connectivity of the thalamus was weakly associated with age and was not associated with psychopathology or cognition. In contrast, FA of all thalamocortical tracts increased significantly with age, was generally higher in males than females, and was lowest in psychosis-spectrum youth. FA of tracts linking the thalamus to prefrontal and posterior parietal cortex was related to better cognitive function across subjects. Conclusions By characterizing the pattern of typical development and alterations in those at risk for psychotic disorders, this study provides a foundation for further conceptualization of thalamocortical white matter microstructure as a marker of neurodevelopment supporting cognition and an important risk marker for psychosis.
Gaussian estimates and analytic semigroups

Traditionally, the analyticity of semigroups generated by differential operators on L p(Ω, μ) is proven via a-priori estimates and duality ([2], [4], [10] Chap. 7)or by Stein’s interpolation theorem (see e.g. [5], theorem 1.4.2).
Vecuronium: A New Nondepolarizing Neuromuscular-Blocking Agent; Clinical Pharmacology, Pharmacokinetics, Cardiovascular Effects and Use in Special Clinical Situations

Vecuronium provides additional flexibility to the clinician using neuromuscular-blocking drugs. Its shorter duration of action, lack of significant cardiovascular effects and lack of dependence on the kidney for elimination provide clinical advantages over, or alternatives to, currently available, nondepolarizing neuromuscular-blocking drugs.
Drawing Large Graphs with H3Viewer and Site Manager

We demonstrate the H3Viewer graph drawing library, which can be run from a standalone program or in conjunction with other programs such as SGI's Site Manager application. Our layout and drawing algorithms support interactive navigation of large graphs up to 100,000 edges. We present an adaptive drawing algorithm with a guaranteed frame rate. Both layout and navigation occur in 3D hyperbolic space, which provides a view of a large neighborhood around an easily changeable point of interest. We find an appropriate spanning tree to use as the backbone for fast layout and uncluttered drawing, and non-tree links can be displayed on demand. Our methods are appropriate when node or link annotations can guide the choice of a good parent from among all of the incoming links. Such annotations can be constructed using only a small amount of domain-specific knowledge, thus rendering tractable many graphs which may seem rather densely connected at first glance.
Discriminative stimulus effects of acute morphine followed by naltrexone in the squirrel monkey.

Rationale The discriminative stimulus effects of a combination of acute morphine followed by naltrexone have been described in rats.
Exteroceptive and Interoceptive Stimuli in Dystonia

Some patients with torsion dystonia experience a dramatic increase or decrease in symptoms when performing specific activities. The activities that influence dystonic symptoms vary from person to person. An activity or sensory stimulus that reduces symptoms has been called a "sensory trick" or, in cervical dystonia, a "geste antagoniste." When a single activity induces symptoms of dystonia, the dystonia is called "task specific." We have discovered that in some patients, thinking about a sensory trick or task affects the dystonia in the same way as actually performing the activity. We present three representative patients, and discuss the relevance of this observation to the understanding of dystonia.
Transcriptional and Translational Regulation of Photosystem I and II Genes in Light-Dark- and Continuous-Light-Grown Cultures of the Unicellular Cyanobacterium Cyanothece sp. Strain ATCC 51142

Cyanothece sp. strain ATCC 51142, a unicellular, diazotrophic cyanobacterium, demonstrated extensive metabolic periodicities of photosynthesis, respiration, and nitrogen fixation when grown under N2-fixing conditions. This report describes the relationship of the biosynthesis of photosynthesis genes to changes in the oligomerization state of the photosystems. Transcripts of the psbA gene family, encoding the photosystem II (PSII) reaction center protein D1, accumulated primarily during the light period, and net transcription reached a peak between 2 to 6 h in the light in light-dark (LD) growth and between 4 to 10 h in the subjective light when grown under continuous light (LL). The relative amount of the D1 protein (form 1 versus form 2) appeared to change during this diurnal cycle, along with changes in the PSII monomer/dimer ratio. D1 form 1 accumulated at approximately equal levels throughout the 24-h cycle, whereas D1 form 2 accumulated at significantly higher levels at approximately 8 to 10 h in the light or subjective light. The psbD gene, encoding the reaction center protein D2, also demonstrated differences between the two copies of this gene, with one copy transcribed more heavily around 6 to 8 h in the light. Accumulation of the PSI reaction center proteins PsaA and PsaB was maximal in the dark or subjective-dark periods, a period during which PSI was primarily in the trimeric form. We conclude that photosystem organization changes during the diurnal cycle to favor either noncyclic electron flow, which leads to O2 evolution and CO2 fixation, or cyclic electron flow, which favors ATP synthesis.
Missed Shots at the Free-Throw Line Analyzing the Determinants of Choking Under Pressure

Choking under pressure represents a phenomenon in which individuals faced with a high-pressure situation do not perform as well as would be expected were they performing under normal conditions. In this article, I identify determinants that predict a basketball player’s susceptibility to choking under pressure. Identification of these determinants adds to our understanding of players’ psychology at pivotal points in the game. My analysis draws on play-by-play data from ESPN.com that feature over 2 million free-throw attempts in women’s and men’s college and professional basketball games from the 2002-2013 seasons. Using regression analysis, I explore the impact of both gender and level of professionalism on performance in high-pressure situations. I find that in the final 30 seconds of a tight game, Women’s National Basketball Association and National Basketball Association players are 5.81 and 3.11 percentage points, respectively, less likely to make a free throw, while female and male college players ar...
Whispering-gallery-mode resonators as frequency references. II. Stabilization

We show theoretically that the absolute frequency stability of a solid-state millimeter-scale whispering gallery mode resonator can reach one part per 10−14 per 1 s integration time if proper crystalline material as well as proper stabilization technique is selected. Both the fluctuations of the resonator temperature and the fluctuations of the temperature in the mode volume can be measured with the sensitivity better than the fundamental thermodynamic limit and actively compensated.
3-Substituted thiophenes. XII. Bromination of β-3-thienylacrylic acid

Bromination of β-3-thienylacrylic acid in glacial acetic acid gave β-(2-bromo-3-thienyl)-acrylic acid with an equivalent of bromine, and β-(2,5-dibromo-3-thienyl)-α,β-dibromo-propionic acid with excess bromine. In hot carbon tetrachloride, an excellent yield of the stable olefinic addition product, β-3-thienyl-α,β-dibromopropionic acid, was obtained, and its structure was confirmed by conversion to β-bromo-3-thienylethylene in base. 3-Thenaldehyde underwent a Darzen's Glycidic Ester condensation to produce ethyl β-3-thienyl-α,β-epoxypropionate, but treatment of this ester or the salt of its derived acid with hydrogen bromide led to the formation of unstable products. The structure of the bromo-acids and derivatives were confirmed by unequivocal syntheses and/or by nuclear magnetic resonance spectra.
Stress wave communication in concrete: II. Evaluation of low voltage concrete stress wave communications utilizing spectrally efficient modulation schemes with PZT transducers

Piezoelectric materials, traditionally used for structural health monitoring, have recently been used to implement stress wave communications. Within a protective encasing we fabricate a smart aggregate which enables transmission and reception of modulated stress waves for digital communication within concrete. Our research focuses on building a high efficiency stress wave communication system and comparing the performance of phase shift keying (PSK) with quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). Our experiments evaluate the performance of QPSK and 16QAM implemented with our stress wave communication system at a transmit voltage ranging from 32 dBV to 37 dBV. We also demonstrate the increase in spectral efficiency of 16QAM compared to QPSK.
Lost and found: The third molars of Callimico goeldii and the evolution of the callitrichine postcanine dentition

This study tests the hypothesis that the third molars of Callimico goeldii represent a reversal in evolutionary tooth loss within the Callitrichinae. Loss of third molars is part of a suite of unusual characters that has been used to unite marmosets and tamarins in a clade to the exclusion of Callimico. However, molecular phylogenetic studies provide consistent support for the hypothesis that marmosets are more closely related to Callimico than to tamarins, raising the possibility that some or all of the features shared by marmosets and tamarins are homoplastic. Here, I use the binary-state speciation and extinction (BiSSE) model and a sample of 249 extant primate species to demonstrate that, given the shape of the primate phylogenetic tree and the distribution of character states in extant taxa, models in which M3 loss is constrained to be irreversible are much less likely than models in which reversals are allowed to occur. This result provides support for the idea that the last common ancestor of Callimico and marmosets was characterized by the two-molared phenotype. The M3s of Callimico therefore appear to be secondarily derived rather than plesiomorphic. This conclusion may also apply to the other apparently plesiomorphic traits found in Callimico. Hypotheses regarding the re-evolution of M3 in the callitrichine clade and the origin and maintenance of the two-molared phenotype are discussed.
Natural religion, common notions, and the study of religions: Lord Herbert of Cherbury (1583–1648)

While the seminal role of Lord Herbert in the early modern study of religion has long been recognized, his legacy has most often been mistakenly identified with ‘natural religion’. This article provides evidence for Lord Herbert's repudiation of ‘natural religion’ and its inconsistency with his own theory of common notions. It also identifies those basic tools still used in the study of religions which emerged as unintended by‐products of his theory of common notions.
Mechanistic Study of Photomediated Triangular Silver Nanoprism Growth

This article presents a mechanistic study of the photomediated growth of silver nanoprisms. The data show that the photochemical process is driven by silver redox cycles involving reduction of silver cations by citrate on the silver particle surface and oxidative dissolution of small silver particles by O2. Bis(p-sulfonatophenyl)phenylphosphine increases the solubility of the Ag+ by complexing it and acts as a buffer to keep the concentration of Ag+ at 20 µM. The silver particles serve as photocatalysts and, under plasmon excitation, facilitate Ag+ reduction by citrate. Higher Ag+ concentrations favor a competitive thermal process, which results in increased prism thickness.
Characteristics of ligands for the Ah receptor and sex steroid receptors in hepatic tissues of fish exposed to bleached kraft mill effluent

Male white sucker (Catostomus commersoni) from a population exposed to effluent from a bleached kraft mill and from a reference site were held in effluent or clean water for 4 d. To investigate bio...
Mapping a layered vortex gas.

We discuss a general procedure to map a quasi-two-dimensional vortex gas to a layered sine-Gordon (SG) Hamiltonian. The latter is amenable to renormalization-group (RG) treatment by standard methods. The formalism is discussed in the context of recent work on the critical behavior of high-temperature superconductors at zero field. The method is illustrated with reference to the applicability of a layered SG model for which a RG analysis has been performed.
Pulsational properties of extragalactic Cepheids – I. Differential light curves for field no. 1 in NGC 6822

La photometrie est presentee pour 6 Cepheides connues et 3 autres etoiles variables dans NGC 6822
Improvement in sensitivity with delayed imaging of pulmonary lesions with FDG-PET

Purpose This study was undertaken to determine the value of using dual-time point 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET) imaging to distinguish malignant from benign pulmonary lesions after lesion detection by conventional computed tomography chest imaging.
Phenotypic Plasticity of Climbing-Related Traits in the Ankle Joint of Great Apes and Rainforest Hunter-Gatherers

The “negrito” and African “pygmy” phenotypes are predominately exhibited by hunter-gatherers living in rainforest habitats. Foraging within such habitats is associated with a unique set of locomotor behaviors, most notably habitual vertical climbing during the pursuit of honey, fruit, and game. When performed frequently, this behavior is expected to correlate with developmentally plastic skeletal morphologies that respond to mechanical loading. Using six measurements in the distal tibia and talus that discriminate nonhuman primates by vertical climbing frequency, we tested the prediction that intraspecific variation in this behavior is reflected in the morphology of the ankle joint of habitually climbing human populations. First, to explore the plasticity of climbing-linked morphologies, we made comparisons between chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans from wild and captive settings. The analysis revealed significant differences in two climbing-linked traits (anterior expansion of the articular surface of the distal tibia and increased degree of talar wedging), indicating that these traits are sensitive to climbing behavior. However, our analyses did not reveal any signatures of climbing behavior in the ankles of habitually climbing hunter-gatherers. These results suggest that the detection of fine-grained differences in human locomotor behaviors at the ankle joint, particularly those associated with arboreality, may be obscured by the functional demands of terrestrial bipedalism. Accordingly, it may be difficult to use population-level characteristics of ankle morphology to make inferences about the climbing behavior of hominins in the fossil record, even when facultative arborealism is associated with key fitness benefits.
Robust ranks of true associations in genome-wide case-control association studies

In whole-genome association studies, at the first stage, all markers are tested for association and their test statistics or p-values are ranked. At the second stage, some most significant markers are further analyzed by more powerful statistical methods. This helps reduce the number of hypotheses to be corrected for in multiple testing. Ranks of true associations in genome-wide scans using a single test statistic have been studied. In a case-control design for association, the trend test has been proposed. However, three different trend tests, optimal for the recessive, additive, and dominant models, respectively, are available for each marker. Because the true genetic model is unknown, we rank markers based on multiple test statistics or test statistics robust to model mis-specification. We studied this problem with application to Problem 3 of Genetic Analysis Workshop 15. An independent simulation study was also conducted to further evaluate the proposed procedure.
An Experimental Investigation of Air-Water Flow Through the Serpentine Flow Field of a Bipolar Plate in Presence of Powdered Wax

Water management in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is an important issue that needs to be addressed appropriately at all loads. Water is formed as a product of reaction, which is removed by airflow at the cathode. However, at part load operations, when the required airflow is less, water can build up inside the cell resulting in reduction of fuel cell output. A bio-mimetic solution to this problem is proposed where a minute amount of powdered wax is introduced along with the incoming air into the gas distribution channel of a bipolar plate. The bi-polar plate is covered with a transparent plexi-glass and water is introduced using a syringe pump through a minute hole on the cover at a location downstream of the air inlet. The air and water flow rates are varied simulating the different load conditions observed in a typical PEMFC. The movement of water inside the serpentine channel is recorded using a high-speed camera. Presence of micronized wax resulted in significant increase in water movement inside the channels.Copyright © 2010 by ASME
Precision-based robot path planning for microassembly

Growing complexity and heterogeneity in modern microsystems warrants new manufacturing standards beyond monolithic surface micromachining. Microassembly methods are among the front-runners for such standards that extend the capability of conventional MEMS in terms of reliability and manufacturability. Automated microassembly, however, is challenging, due to high precision requirements, limited assembly tolerance budgets in micro domain, difficulty to integrating sensors, surface force effects and so on. Control and planning during automated microassembly tasks need to be carefully designed and executed in order to achieve high yields and throughputs. In this paper we argue that, unlike conventional macroscale applications, the selection of a precision robotic manipulator and microassembly path planning are highly correlated at the microscale. At the same time, trajectory tracking is more difficult due to a low heteroceptive sensor density. We propose a novel precision-adjusted path planning algorithm (PPSA), in which the path precision is used as the primary cost metric, instead of the path distance. Preliminary simulation and experimental results indicate a precision improvement of PPSA over traditional shortest path algorithms.