cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Privacy-Preserving Social Media Data Outsourcing

User-generated social media data are exploding and of high demand in public and private sectors. The disclosure of intact social media data exacerbates the threats to user privacy. In this paper, we first identify a text-based user-linkage attack on current data outsourcing practices, in which the real users in an anonymized dataset can be pinpointed based on the users' unprotected text data. Then we propose a framework for differentially privacy-preserving social media data outsourcing for the first time in literature. Within our framework, social media data service providers can outsource perturbed datasets to provide users differential privacy while offering high data utility to social media data consumers. Our differential privacy mechanism is based on a novel notion of E - text indistinguishability, which we propose to thwart the text-based user-linkage attack. Extensive experiments on real-world and synthetic datasets confirm that our framework can enable high-level differential privacy protection and also high data utility.
Towards Differentially Private Aggregation of Heterogeneous Robots

We are interested in securing the operation of robot swarms composed of heterogeneous agents that collaborate by exploiting aggregation mechanisms. Since any given robot type plays a role that may be critical in guaranteeing continuous and failure-free operation of the system, it is beneficial to conceal individual robot types and, thus, their roles. In our work, we assume that an adversary gains access to a description of the dynamic state of the swarm in its non-transient, nominal regime. We propose a method that quantifies how easy it is for the adversary to identify the type of any of the robots, based on this observation. We draw from the theory of differential privacy to propose a closed-form expression of the leakage of the system at steady-state. Our results show how this model enables an analysis of the leakage as system parameters vary; they also indicate design rules for increasing privacy in aggregation mechanisms.
Desorption Induced by Femtosecond Laser Pulses: Surface Dynamics at High Electronic Temperatures

The desorption of NO/Pd(111) induced by femtosecond laser pulses has been investigated. The unique experimental signature of these studies indicates that the high degree of electronic excitation present in a metal under femtosecond illumination is responsible for desorption. A model for this process involving desorption induced by multiple electronic excitations (DIMET) is presented.
Improving DES coprocessor throughput for short operations

Over the last several years, our research team built a commercially-offered secure coprocessor that, besides other features, offers high-speed DES: over 20 megabytes/second. However, it obtains these speeds only on operations with large data lengths. For DES operations on short data (e.g., 8-80 bytes), our commercial offering was benchmarked at less than 2 kilobytes/second. The programmability of our device enabled us to investigate this issue, identify and address a series of bottlenecks that were not initially apparent, and ultimately bring our short-DES performance close to 3 megabytes/second. This paper reports the results of this real-world systems exercise in hardware cryptographic acceleration--and demonstrates the importance of, when designing specialty hardware, not overlooking the software aspects governing how a device can be used.
Applying molecular communication theory to estimate information loss in cell signal transduction: an approach based on cancer transcriptomics

Signal transduction pathways are chemical communication channels embedded in biological cells, and they propagate information from the environment to regulate cell growth and proliferation, among other cell's behaviors. Disruptions in the normal functionalities of these channels, mostly resulting from mutations in the underlying genetic code, can be leading causes of diseases, such as cancer. Motivated by the increasing availability of public data on genetic code expression in cell tissue samples, i.e., transcriptomics, and the emerging field of molecular communication, a novel data-driven approach based on experimental data mining and communication theory is proposed in this paper. This approach is an alternative to existing computational models of these pathways in the context of cancer, which often appear to oversimplify the complexity of the underlying mechanisms. In contrast, a computational methodology is here derived to estimate the difference in information propagation performance of signal transduction pathways in healthy and diseased cells, solely based on transcriptomic data. This methodology is built upon a molecular communication abstraction of information flow through the pathway and its correlation with the expression of the underlying DNA genes. Numerical results are presented for a case study based on the JAK-STAT pathway in kidney cancer, and correlated with the occurrence of pathway gene mutations in the available data.
SOVIET REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT POLICY AND THE 10th FIVE-YEAR PLAN

The Guidelines for the 10th Five-Year Plan (1976–80) are assessed in terms of their suggestions and probable implications for Soviet regional development policy. The new plan is examined both for e...
Bandgap and Electron Affinity Optimization of Zinc Oxide for n-ZnO/p-Si Single Heterojunction Solar Cell

Ahstract- This paper reports the influence of bandgap and/or electron affinity tuning of zinc oxide on the performance of n-ZnO/p-Si single heterojunction photovoltaic cell. The simulations using PC1D reveal that the open circuit voltage and fill factor can be improved significantly by optimizing valence-band and conduction-band off-sets by engineering bandgap and electron affinity of zinc oxide. The overall conversion efficiency of more than 20.3% can be achieved without additional cost or any change in device structure. It has been found out that the improvement in efficiency is mainly due to reduction in conduction band offset. Furthermore, increase in bandgap of ZnO by gallium alloying is demonstrated experimentally.
Benthic fluxes from hypoxia-influenced Gulf of Mexico sediments: Impact on bottom water acidification

Abstract Benthic fluxes are reported from 8 sites on the shelf and slope of the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) in the region near the Mississippi River delta. Benthic landers, with the capability to incubate 3 chambers simultaneously, were deployed in August 2011 to establish the rate of phosphate, nitrate, ammonium, dissolved Si, Dissolved Inorganic Carbon (DIC) and alkalinity concentration change vs. incubation time (7–50 h) thereby providing flux estimates for these parameters. Stations located within 350 km of the Mississippi River mouth have nutrient and DIC fluxes that vary by a factor of 10 but show no longitudinal trends. Chambers deployed in low oxygen bottom water ( 2 = 0.91) between the fluxes of dissolved Si and DIC imply a linkage between the diagenesis of biogenic Si and organic C throughout this region. The efflux of DIC and alkalinity in a ratio > 1 drives GoM bottom waters to a lower calcite and aragonite saturation state. Carbon isotopes of the DIC were measured on chamber waters and the calculated δ 13C of the DIC source at 4 stations was similar, between −14 to −17‰ compared to typical δ13 C values of bulk organic carbon in the GoM of −22‰. At a fifth station, the DIC added was calculated to have an isotope value of −31‰. Dissolved inorganic carbon isotope compositions that are significantly heavier or lighter than particulate organic carbon are unexpected and may be explained by a combination of inputs: the oxidation of average marine organic carbon and calcium carbonate dissolution, methanogenesis , and/or from oxidation of terrestrial lignin fractions.
"Hegelian Buddhist Hypertextual Media Inhabitation, or, Criticism in the Age of Electronic Immersion"

Criticism of art and popular culture usually works from a stable theoretical platform removed from the work being criticized. But what happens when the work requires the critic to enter an immersive total experience. Distanced criticism "afterwards" is always possible, but are there ways to criticize immersive works, virtual worlds, and the like, from within? This essay suggests several modes of criticism and intervention that take advantage of dualities and spacings inherent even in the most immersive virtuality or entertainment. There is always a duality between being immersed and helping to stage the immersion, and there are ways to make limitations of a world appear from within its own movements.
Enlightening kidney pathophysiology

Understanding the mechanics of acute kidney injury from toxins, ischemia and sepsis remains challenging. Molecular probes with high renal clearance have now been developed for real-time optical detection of early-stage biomarkers of drug-induced acute kidney injury, and for the understanding of the mechanisms of injury.
Adipokines as key players in β cell function and failure

The growing prevalence of obesity and its related metabolic diseases, mainly Type 2 diabetes (T2D), has increased the interest in adipose tissue (AT) and its role as a principal metabolic orchestrator. Two decades of research have now shown that ATs act as an endocrine organ, secreting soluble factors termed adipocytokines or adipokines. These adipokines play crucial roles in whole-body metabolism with different mechanisms of action largely dependent on the tissue or cell type they are acting on. The pancreatic β cell, a key regulator of glucose metabolism due to its ability to produce and secrete insulin, has been identified as a target for several adipokines. This review will focus on how adipokines affect pancreatic β cell function and their impact on pancreatic β cell survival in disease contexts such as diabetes. Initially, the "classic" adipokines will be discussed, followed by novel secreted adipocyte-specific factors that show therapeutic promise in regulating the adipose-pancreatic β cell axis.
Enhancing anaerobic oxidation of methane in municipal solid waste landfill cover soil

Abstract Landfills are the third largest anthropogenic source of the greenhouse gas methane worldwide. In the upper portions of landfill covers, methane is oxidized aerobically by microorganisms to form the less-potent greenhouse gas carbon dioxide; however, because of the low permeability of oxygen, no aerobic oxidation occurs in deeper portions of the cover. Therefore, the goal of this study was to enhance anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) in the deeper parts of landfill covers, to increase overall methane removal, via addition of electron acceptors besides oxygen. In batch tests, landfill cover soil was amended using five alternate electron acceptors: iron(III), nitrate, nitrite, sulfate, and manganese. AOM was then measured via column tests, which included realistic conditions of gas flow, cover thickness, and compaction. In the batch tests, soils amended with nitrate, sulfate, and the combination of sulfate + hematite removed more methane compared to control soil. Methane generation inhibitor had no impact on net methane removal. Adding nutrients to the soil significantly enhanced methane removal only for the case of soil without electron acceptors. Greater methane removal was observed for reactors with higher initial methane concentration. Results of the column tests showed that soil amended with sulfate + iron had the highest (around 10%) removal of methane in the anoxic zone, followed by soil amended with sulfate. Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas was measured in the headspace of these two columns, which indicated that sulfate-reducing bacteria were likely responsible for methane removal.
Automated Optimal Online Civil Issue Classification using Multiple Feature Sets

In this paper, the automatic classification of non-emergency civil issues in crowdsourcing systems is addressed in the case where multiple feature sets are available. We recognize that multiple feature sets can contain useful complementary information regarding the type of an issue leading to a more accurate decision. However, using all features in these sets may delay the decision. Since we are interested in reaching an accurate decision in a timely manner, an optimal way of selecting features from multiple feature sets is needed. To this end, we propose a novel approach that sequentially reviews available features and feature sets to decide whether the feature review process must continue in the current set or move to the next one. In the end, when all feature sets have been reviewed, the issue is classified using all available information. It is shown that the proposed approach is guaranteed to review the least number of features in all feature sets before reaching a decision, while the optimum decision rule is shown to minimize the average Bayes risk. Evaluation on real world SeeClickFix data demonstrates the ability to classify issues by reviewing 99.5% less features than state–of–the–art without sacrificing accuracy.
An additively manufactured AlCuMnZr alloy microstructure and tensile mechanical properties

Abstract Selective laser melting (SLM) was used to fabricate an AlCuMnZr alloy. The microstructural features that resulted from additive manufacturing (AM) were significantly refined compared to the corresponding cast alloy features. A combination of fine equiaxed and columnar grains along with in-situ formation of θ′ precipitates during AM leads to enhanced yield strength (up to 300 °C) in the as-fabricated AM alloy. The refinement of brittle intermetallics and a bimodal grain size distribution leads to improved tensile elongation in the AM alloy. The results illustrate the microstructural advantages that can result from additive processing over conventionally processed microstructures.
How host diversity and abundance affect parasite infections: Results from a whole-ecosystem manipulation of bird activity

Abstract As environmental change drives reductions in free-living species abundance and diversity, at least two alternative pathways are possible for parasitic species. On one hand, diversity losses could drive parasite population declines or extirpations, with potentially influential effects on ecosystem processes, given parasites' ecological importance. On the other hand, host species loss could reduce the abundance of non-competent hosts that interfere with pathogen transmission or facilitate increases in the abundance of “weedy”, highly competent host species, intensifying transmission. While many experimental studies have investigated how changes in free-living species affect the fate of individual parasite species, comparatively little is known about the consequences across multiple parasite taxa within an ecosystem, limiting opportunities to assess the proportion of species that are likely to take each of the alternative pathways. Here, we present results of a before-after-control-impact (BACI) experiment conducted in central California, USA, in which we manipulated bird activity at the scale of wetland ecosystems and tracked the resulting effects on the identity and abundance of protozoan and metazoan parasites of amphibians. Of the eight common parasite taxa that constituted ~97% of parasite observations, four responded negatively to bird-augmentation treatments, two responded positively, and two exhibited no significant response. We conclude that it is possible, within a single ecosystem, for free-living species change to produce declines in some parasite species, increases in others, and no change in yet other species. Disease ecology urgently needs tools for forecasting when and where each of these effects should occur, which will facilitate management efforts focused on mitigating outbreaks of disease on one hand and preventing extinction of parasite species on the other.
Respiratory Therapist Training and Preparedness for Patient Education

Background: Traditionally, the role of the respiratory therapist (RT) has been patient care delivery in the hospital setting. That has evolved over the last few decades to include patient education not only in the hospital but also outpatient clinics. However, formal training for patient education may not be part of the curriculum in all RT school programs. There are many RTs providing patient education that may not have received training regarding effective learning strategies in their RT school program. Methods: This study was not deemed human subject research by the local Institutional Review Board. RT staff at our institution were invited to complete an anonymous survey about their training and experiences with patient education. Data was collected electronically in the Research Electronic Data Capture application. Results: The response rate was 39% (64/164) with 81% (52/64) females, and 80% (51/64) white non-Hispanic. Most respondents (73%, 47/64) held a bachelors or higher degree. The RRT, CRT, and NPS credentials were reported by 98% (63/64), 2% (1/64), and 47% (30/64) of respondents respectively. The mean ± SD years of experience was 16.4 ± 10.8. The primary work area reported by most participants was inpatient (78%, 50/64). Sixty-six percent (42/64) graduated from RT school 10 or more years ago. Many respondents, 44% (28/64) felt that the RT school program they attended provided courses and training in patient education while 42% (27/64) did not and 14% (9/64) were neutral. The majority of respondents (58%, 37/64) would have liked more training for patient education while in RT school. RTs who graduated 10 or more years ago were less likely to have received training for patient education when compared with those who graduated less than 10 years ago (50% vs. 27%, P = 0.024). Respondents reported having been trained in the following strategies: teach back (61%, 39/64), teach to goal (40%, 25/64), and motivational interviewing (44%, 28/64). Most respondents (66%, 42/64) indicated they would like to receive additional training regarding effective learning strategies. Conclusions: This survey identified an educational need regarding proficiency in patient education teaching strategies. We plan to implement an educational intervention. Respiratory therapists who graduated RT school 10 or more years ago are less likely to have had patient education teaching strategies as part of their curriculum.
Impact formation of ultralow-binder-content composite “lunar cement”

Strong structural materials were produced by using JSC-1a lunar soil simulant, with only 4 wt% epoxy binder. The flexural strength reached 12–16 MPa, comparable with typical steel-reinforced concrete. The processing mainly involved dropping a hammer on the premixed simulant and binder. The flexural strength increased with the impact energy. With the same impact energy, using a heavier hammer was beneficial. The energy consumption was only on the order of 5 kJ/kg. This technique offers a fast and relatively simple in situ resource utilization approach to fabricate structural parts on the Moon, with a minimum requirement on the material components transported from Earth.
Therapeutic Jurisprudence in Swift and Certain Probation

While the manifestation of therapeutic jurisprudence in specialty courts such as mental health and drug courts has received attention in the literature, there is little scholarship on the manifesta...
The health effects of gendered and devalued work: health outcomes of incarcerated women engaging in sex work and care/service work

Women with a history of incarceration are often engaged in highly gendered work, either sex work or low-wage care/service work jobs. While employment is an important element of reentry plans, low-wage jobs may not necessarily help women leave illicit activities, including commercial sex work. Incarcerated women often move between care/service work and sex work to supplement income, putting them at greater risk for negative health outcomes. Using survey data from 400 women detained in a large urban jail, we examined how incarcerated women’s experience with sex work and low-wage care/service work affects four health-related outcomes: overall health concerns, clinical depression, regular drug use, and self-esteem. Of the survey participants, 24% engaged exclusively in sex work and 34% in care/service work. However, 41% of women held both sex work and care/service work jobs, prior to incarceration. Compared to women engaged in care/service work, a greater proportion of women engaged in sex work reported overall health concerns, clinical depression, and regular drug use. On the other hand, women in care/service work jobs exclusively reported lower levels of self-esteem than women engaging in sex work. Many reentry programs emphasize the importance of employment for former inmates, and yet, job options for women detained in jail are often limited to low-wage care/service jobs, which do not necessarily provide adequate security to lift women’s economic burdens. Consequently, many women with a history of incarceration may supplement their income with sex work to meet their basic economic needs. However, both of these highly gendered and devalued jobs may negatively affect health and wellbeing of women.
Cytotoxic, genotoxic, and toxicogenomic effects of dihydroxyacetone in human primary keratinocytes.

Purpose Dihydroxyacetone (DHA) is the only ingredient approved by the U.S. FDA as a color additive in sunless tanning (self-tanning) products. Consumer sunless tanning products available for retail purchase contain 1% to 15% DHA. Although originally thought to only interact with the stratum corneum, more recent research has shown that DHA penetrates beyond the stratum corneum to living keratinocytes indicating a possible route of exposure in the epidermis. Materials and methods Normal Human Epidermal Keratinocytes (NHEK) were used to determine any potential in vitro toxicological effects of DHA in the epidermis. NHEK cells exposed to DHA concentrations up to 0.90% (100 mM) in dosing media were evaluated for viability, genotoxicity (Comet Assay), and gene expression changes by microarray analysis. Results Cell viability significantly decreased ∼50% after 3-hour exposure to 50 and 100 mM DHA. DNA damage was only found to be significantly increased in cells exposed to cytotoxic DHA concentrations. A subtoxic dose of DHA induced significant gene expression changes. Particularly, expression of cyclin B1, CDK1, and six other genes associated with the G2/M cell cycle checkpoint were significantly decreased which correlates well with a G2/M block reported in existing literature. Advanced Glycation End Product (AGE) formation significantly increased after 24 hours of DHA exposure at and above 10 mM. In summary, these data show that DHA is cytotoxic above 25 mM in primary keratinocytes. Genotoxicity was detected only at cytotoxic concentrations, likely indicative of non-biologically relevant DNA damage, while subtoxic doses induce gene expression changes and glycation. Conclusion DHA treatment had a significant and negative effect on primary keratinocytes consistent with in vitro cultured cell outcomes; however, more information is needed to draw conclusions about the biological effect of DHA in human skin.
Past and Future Biologics for Otologic Disorders

Biologic therapies have the ability to fundamentally change the management of hearing loss; clinicians need to familiarize themselves with their prospective applications in practice. This article reviews the current application of 4 categories of biological therapeutics-growth factors, apoptosis inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies, and gene therapy-in otology and their potential future directions and applications.
Combination of miR‑143 and miR‑506 reduces lung and pancreatic cancer cell growth through the downregulation of cyclin‑dependent kinases

Lung cancer (LC) and pancreatic cancer (PC) are the first and fourth leading causes of cancer‑related deaths in the US. Deregulated cell cycle progression is the cornerstone for rapid cell proliferation, tumor development, and progression. Here, we provide evidence that a novel combinatorial miR treatment inhibits cell cycle progression at two phase transitions, through their activity on the CDK4 and CDK1 genes. Following transfection with miR‑143 and miR‑506, we analyzed the differential gene expression of CDK4 and CDK1, using qPCR or western blot analysis, and evaluated cell cycle inhibition, apoptosis and cytotoxicity. The combinatorial miR‑143/506 treatment downregulated CDK4 and CDK1 levels, and induced apoptosis in LC cells, while sparing normal lung fibroblasts. Moreover, the combinatorial miR treatment demonstrated a comparable activity to clinically tested cell cycle inhibitors in inhibiting cell cycle progression, by presenting substantial inhibition at the G1/S and G2/M cell cycle transitions. More importantly, the miR‑143/506 treatment presented a broader application, effectively downregulating CDK1 and CDK4 levels, and reducing cell growth in PC cells. These findings suggest that the miR‑143/506 combination acts as a promising approach to inhibit cell cycle progression for cancer treatment with minimal toxicity to normal cells.
Sterol scarcity primes p38 immune defenses through a TIR-1/SARM1 phase transition

ABSTRACT Intracellular signaling regulators can be concentrated into membrane-free, higher-ordered protein assemblies to initiate protective responses during stress — a process known as phase transition. Here, we show that a phase transition of the C. elegans Toll/interleukin-1 receptor domain protein (TIR-1), a homolog of the mammalian sterile alpha and TIR motif-containing 1 (SARM1), primes host immune defenses when dietary sterols are limited to handle subsequent bacterial infection. TIR-1/SARM1 is an upstream component of the p38 PMK-1 pathway in intestinal cells, an innate immune defense and stress response pathway in metazoans. Under conditions of low cholesterol availability, multimerization and precipitation of TIR-1/SARM1 potentiates the intrinsic NAD+ glycohydrolase activity of this protein complex, increases p38 PMK-1 phosphorylation, and promotes pathogen clearance from the intestine. Dietary cholesterol is required for C. elegans to survive infection with pathogenic bacteria and to support development, fecundity, and lifespan. Thus, activation of the p38 PMK-1 pathway in sterol-deficient animals is an adaptive response that allows a metazoan host to anticipate environmental threats under conditions of essential metabolite scarcity. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The nematode C. elegans must consume dietary sterols to support growth and reproduction. However, access to dietary sterols in its natural habitat is not guaranteed and thus, nematodes have evolved mechanisms to promote survival in sterol-poor environments. Here, we demonstrate that activation of the p38 PMK-1 innate immune pathway in response to low sterol availability promotes clearance of a bacterial pathogen from the intestine. Pre-emptive activation of innate immune defenses occurs through a phase transition of TIR-1/SARM1, an upstream component of the p38 PMK-1 pathway, which activates its intrinsic NAD+ glycohydrolase activity. Thus, nematodes anticipate threats from infectious pathogens during a time when the animal is relatively susceptible to infection.
An Experimental Evaluation on Deepfake Detection using Deep Face Recognition.

Significant advances in deep learning have obtained hallmark accuracy rates for various computer vision applications. However, advances in deep generative models have also led to the generation of very realistic fake content, also known as deepfakes, causing a threat to privacy, democracy, and national security. Most of the current deepfake detection methods are deemed as a binary classification problem in distinguishing authentic images or videos from fake ones using two-class convolutional neural networks (CNNs). These methods are based on detecting visual artifacts, temporal or color inconsistencies produced by deep generative models. However, these methods require a large amount of real and fake data for model training and their performance drops significantly in cross dataset evaluation with samples generated using advanced deepfake generation techniques. In this paper, we thoroughly evaluate the efficacy of deep face recognition in identifying deepfakes, using different loss functions and deepfake generation techniques. Experimental investigations on challenging Celeb-DF and FaceForensics++ deepfake datasets suggest the efficacy of deep face recognition in identifying deepfakes over two-class CNNs and the ocular modality. Reported results suggest a maximum Area Under Curve (AUC) of 0.98 and an Equal Error Rate (EER) of 7.1% in detecting deepfakes using face recognition on the Celeb-DF dataset. This EER is lower by 16.6% compared to the EER obtained for the two-class CNN and the ocular modality on the Celeb-DF dataset. Further on the FaceForensics++ dataset, an AUC of 0.99 and EER of 2.04% were obtained. The use of biometric facial recognition technology has the advantage of bypassing the need for a large amount of fake data for model training and obtaining better generalizability to evolving deepfake creation techniques.
Membrane Fusion in Model Systems for Exocytosis: Characterization of Chromaffin Granule Fusion Mediated by Synexin and Calelectrin

Two sensitive fluorescence lipid-mixing assays were used to study the fusion of isolated chromaffin granules. Intermixing of membrane lipids was found to be the rate-limiting step in the fusion process. The threshold Ca2+ concentration for fusion was 1 mM in the absence of mediator protein, but 10 μM in the presence of synexin or 32K calelectrin. Cis-unsaturated free fatty acids increased both the magnitude of the fusion response and its sensitivity to Ca2+ to within the micromolar range. Fusion required an intact, native chromaffin granule and was inhibited by hypertonic medium. High concentrations of synexin or calelectrin also inhibited granule fusion, but not granule aggregation. The properties of these proteins suggest they may play a specific role in promoting membrane fusion in exocytosis.
Respiratory-related hypoglossal nerve activity: influence of anesthetics

In decerebrate, vagotomized, paralyzed, and ventilated cats, phrenic and respiratory-related hypoglossal discharges were evident at normocapnic normoxia or hyperoxia. Both increased progressively i...
Acetyl CoA carboxylase

Abstract A biotin carboxyl carrier protein (BCCP) from Escherichia coli has been purified and crystallized. The purified protein was found to be homogeneous by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and sedimentation in a synthetic boundary cell. BCCP has a sedimentation coefficient of 1.04 S, a diffusion coefficient ( D 20,w ) of 10.4 × 10 −7 cm 2 sec −1 , and a partial specific volume calculated from the amino acid composition of 0.743 ml/g. From sedimentation-velocity measurements the molecular weight was determined to be 9100. Amino acid analysis revealed 82 residues one of which is a half-cystine. This sulfhydryl group does not react with 5,5-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoate) (DTNB) in the absence of denaturing agents. In the presence of 0.2–1.0% sodium dodecyl sulfate or 8 m urea the protein is denatured and the sulfhydryl group can be oxidized by DTNB. The denaturation by urea is reversible. BCCP is carboxylated in a Mn-ATP-dependent reaction catalyzed by biotin carboxylase with an apparent K m of 2.5 × 10 −5 m . In the same reaction the apparent K m for (+)-biotin is 8.4 × 10 −2 m .
Automatically Analyzing Facial-Feature Movements to Identify Human Errors

Everyday countless human errors occur around the globe. Although many of these errors are harmless, disastrous errors-such as Bhopal, Chernobyl, and Three Mile Island-demonstrate that developing ways to improve human performance is not only desirable but crucial. Considerable research exists in human-error identification (HEI), a field devoted to developing systems to predict human errors. However, these systems typically predict only instantaneous errors, not overall human performance. Furthermore, they often rely on predefined hierarchies of errors and manual minute by-minute analyses of users by trained analysts, making them costly and time consuming to implement. Using facial feature points automatically extracted from short video segments of participants' faces during laboratory experiments, our work applies a bottom-up approach to predict human performance.
On the Inelastic Scattering of Neutrons by Crystal Lattices

Previous theoretical results on the inelastic scattering of neutrons in ideal crystals are reviewed. Restrictive conditions imposed by crystal interference on inelastic scattering are discussed. It is found that if the velocity of the incident neutrons is smaller than the sound velocity in the crystal, neutrons from a monochromatic, well-defined beam are scattered by inelastic processes into sharply limited areas. On the other hand, inelastic scattering of faster neutrons should give rise to diffuse spots similar to those observed in inelastic scattering of x-rays.
Natural killing activity in sjögren's syndrome

Natural killing (NK) by peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) against K562 cells was examined in 27 patients with Sjogren's syndrome and 17 normal controls. NK activity in the patients was significantly reduced compared with normal controls (34.6 +/- 3.4% versus 52.2 +/- 3.4%, P less than 0.001). Patients with secondary Sjogren's had lower cytotoxicity compared with those who had primary Sjogren's (28.5 +/- 5.5% versus 37.3 +/- 4.2%, P less than 0.01). The proportion of PBMC with characteristics of NK cells was not decreased in the patients. NK by normal PBMC was diminished both in the presence of sera from patients with reduced NK and when the effector cells were pretreated with the sera. Pretreatment of target K562 cells did not alter NK activity. Suppression of NK by sera from patients did not correlate with levels of immune complexes or with antilymphocyte antibodies. Some patients had adherent cells which inhibited NK function. Addition of either indomethacin or catalase partially restored NK activity in such patients, indicating that both prostaglandins and hydrogen peroxide play a role in suppression. These data suggest that multiple mechanisms are involved in the defective NK activity seen in patients with Sjogren's syndrome. The reduction of NK activity in Sjogren's syndrome may contribute to the increased incidence of lymphoid malignancy.
Dopamine Pathology in Schizophrenia: Analysis of Total and Phosphorylated Tyrosine Hydroxylase in the Substantia Nigra

Despite the importance of dopamine neurotransmission in schizophrenia, very few studies have addressed anomalies in the mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra/ventral tegmental area (SN/VTA). Tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) is the rate-limiting enzyme for the production of dopamine, and a possible contributor to the anomalies in the dopaminergic neurotransmission observed in schizophrenia. In this study, we had three objectives: 1) Compare TH expression (mRNA and protein) in the SN/VTA of schizophrenia and control postmortem samples. 2) Assess the effect of antipsychotic medications on the expression of TH in the SN/VTA. 3) Examine possible regional differences in TH expression anomalies within the SN/VTA. To achieve these objectives three independent studies were conducted: 1) A pilot study to compare TH mRNA and TH protein levels in the SN/VTA of postmortem samples from schizophrenia and controls. 2) A chronic treatment study was performed in rodents to assess the effect of antipsychotic medications in TH protein levels in the SN/VTA. 3) A second postmortem study was performed to assess TH and phosphorylated TH protein levels in two types of samples: schizophrenia and control samples containing the entire rostro-caudal extent of the SN/VTA, and schizophrenia and control samples containing only mid-caudal regions of the SN/VTA. Our studies showed impairment in the dopaminergic system in schizophrenia that could be mainly (or exclusively) located in the rostral region of the SN/VTA. Our studies also showed that TH protein levels were significantly abnormal in schizophrenia, while mRNA expression levels were not affected, indicating that TH pathology in this region may occur posttranscriptionally. Lastly, our antipsychotic animal treatment study showed that TH protein levels were not significantly affected by antipsychotic treatment, indicating that these anomalies are an intrinsic pathology rather than a treatment effect.
The Go-Between in a Developing Society: The Case of the Japanese Marriage Arranger

The most common conceptual model for analyzing acculturation or modernization posits a pre-existing social organization which is upset by new patterns, causing disruptions which continue until the new patterns are firmly implanted. While this model has obvious utility, it sometimes obscures the fact that special institutional forms may take on crucial importance during the transition stage and operate with relatively little disruption until replaced by other institutional forms at a later time.
Backbone and side chain 1H, 15N and 13C assignments of the KSR1 CA1 domain

The backbone and side chain resonance assignments of the murine KSR1 CA1 domain have been determined based on triple-resonance experiments using uniformly [13C, 15N]-labeled protein. This assignment is the first step towards the determination of the three-dimensional structure of the unique KSR1 CA1 domain.
Error bounds of variable conductivity temperature estimates in frictionally heated contacts

Abstract We analyze the effect of using a linear conductivity-temperature model to solve the nonlinear heat equation for two rubbing solids. We divide errors into two groups, sampling errors and linearization errors. We relate the first to the choice of a reference conductivity in the linear model. Whereas, we relate the second to the modeling of the conductivity values when the k-Θ curve of the material includes an inflation point (classC materials). The results suggest that the temperature estimates are sensitive to the choice of the reference conductivity, when the variation in the conductivity of the material with temperature is considerable (e.g., for Sapphire). We show that the errors for class c materials are proportional to the ratio of the inflation, to the melting temperatures of the sliding solid.
Assessment of the Carcinogenic Potential of Chlorinated Water: Experimental Studies of Chlorine, Chloramine, and Trihalomethanes

BACKGROUND Water chlorination has been one of the major disease prevention treatments of this century. While epidemiologic studies suggest an association between cancer in humans and consumption of chlorination byproducts in drinking water, these studies have not been adequate to draw definite conclusions about the carcinogenic potential of the individual byproducts. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the carcinogenic potential of chlorinated or chloraminated drinking water and of four organic trihalomethane byproducts of chlorination (chloroform, bromodichloromethane, chlorodibromomethane, and bromoform) in rats and mice. METHODS Bromodichloromethane, chlorodibromomethane, bromoform, chlorine, or chloramine was administered to both sexes of F344/N rats and (C57BL/6 x C3H)F1 mice (hereafter called B6C3F1 mice). Chloroform was given to both sexes of Osborne-Mendel rats and B6C3F1 mice. Chlorine or chloramine was administered daily in the drinking water for 2 years at doses ranging from 0.05 to 0.3 mmol/kg per day. The trihalomethanes were administered by gavage in corn oil at doses ranging from 0.15 to 4.0 mmol/kg per day for 2 years, with the exception of chloroform, which was given for 78 weeks. RESULTS The trihalomethanes were carcinogenic in the liver, kidney, and/or intestine of rodents. There was equivocal evidence for carcinogenicity in female rats that received chlorinated or chloraminated drinking water; this evidence was based on a marginal increase in the incidence of mononuclear cell leukemia. Rodents were generally exposed to lower doses of chlorine and chloramine than to the trihalomethanes, but the doses in these studies were the maximum that the animals would consume in the drinking water. The highest doses used in the chlorine and chloramine studies were equivalent to a daily gavage dose of bromodichloromethane that induced neoplasms of the large intestine in rats. In contrast to the results with the trihalomethanes, administration of chlorine or chloramine did not cause a clear carcinogenic response in rats or mice after long-term exposure. CONCLUSION These results suggest that organic byproducts of chlorination are the chemicals of greatest concern in assessment of the carcinogenic potential of chlorinated drinking water.
Using Homework in Psychodynamic Psychotherapy

Homework refers to an assignment given by the therapist to the patient that is to be fulfilled between sessions. It is a typical intervention in cognitive‐ behavioral therapy, but less common in psychodynamic therapy. This article describes an assimilative, integrative model of psychodynamic therapy that incorporates homework and describes its use in a series of clinical cases. Although the indications for and impact of homework vary from case to case, conclusions are drawn as to the most effective approaches to incorporating homework in a psychodynamic model. “Homework is an intervention that seems to have had its origin in the cognitive– behavioral literature (e.g., Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979).” It can best be described as an assignment given by the therapist to the patient that is to be fulfilled between sessions. The patient then reports back to the therapist about the experience and the results of the assignment, including whether or not it was completed, and that information is used in the process of the therapeutic encounter. Typical assignments can include reading (bibliotherapy), writing (journals), trying out new behaviors, and monitoring thoughts and activities. The key to the rationale behind homework is that the activity within the session can be facilitated by the activity between sessions. The more the patient attempts to extend the insights of the session into the world outside
Preparing nurse leaders for 2020.

Aim: This article highlights eight leadership competencies likely to be an essential part of the nurse leader’s repertoire in 2020. Background: Planning for the future is difficult, even when environments are relatively static. When environments are dynamic, the challenges multiply exponentially. Unfortunately, few environments have been more unpredictable in the 21st century than health care. The healthcare system is in chaos, as is much of the business world. It is critical then that contemporary nursing and healthcare leaders identify skill sets that will be needed by nurse leaders in 2020 and begin now to create the educational models and management development programs necessary to assure these skills are present. Results: Essential nurse leader competencies for 2020 include: (i) A global perspective or mindset regarding healthcare and professional nursing issues. (ii) Technology skills which facilitate mobility and portability of relationships, interactions, and operational processes. (iii) Expert decision-making skills rooted in empirical science. (iv) The ability to create organization cultures that permeate quality healthcare and patient/worker safety. (v) Understanding and appropriately intervening in political processes. (vi) Highly developed collaborative and team building skills. (vii) The ability to balance authenticity and performance expectations. (viii) Being able to envision and proactively adapt to a healthcare system characterized by rapid change and chaos. Conclusions: Nursing education programmes and healthcare organizations must be begin now to prepare nurses to be effective leaders in 2020. This will require the formal education and training that are a part of most management development programmes as well as a development of appropriate attitudes through social learning. Proactive succession planning will also be key to having nurse leaders who can respond effectively to the new challenges and opportunities that will be presented to them in 2020.
Personal Risk Factors Associated with Mucosal Symptom Prevalence in Office Workers

In 1989 the Madison Building of the Library of Congress was investigated to determine the source of occupant complaints about health symptoms and the indoor air quality. Questionnaires, distributed to all 3176 building occupants, assessed information on workstation characteristics, symptom occurrence, odors, thermal comfort, and demographic and health factors. Multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess personal risk factors associated with mucosal symptom reporting and reported sensitivity to irritants. Symptom prevalence was higher for women (odds ratio (OR) = 1.72, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.40-2.10), those who reported being especially sensitive to irritants (OR = 1.57, 95% CI1.27-1.93), those with self-reported allergies, flu, or chest illness, and those who took frequent fresh air breaks. It was found that females and non-smokers and those reporting other adverse health effects tended to report sensitivity to irritants more frequently.
Elastomeric thermal shield systems for lifting reentry vehicles.

The capability of elastomeric ablative thermal shield materials to meet the system requirements for lifting re-entry vehicles having lift-to-drag ratios of 0.5 to 1.5 when entering the earth's atmosphere from near earth orbits is investigated. Chemically blown phenyl-methyl silicone elastomeric foams are examined and compared with a representative elastomeric syntactic foam. The thermo-mechanical compatibility, high-temperature stability, environmental resistance of the chemically-blown elastomeric foam ablative, and its resistance to ablation and degradation at the relatively low-heat-flux, long-time heating conditions of lifting re-entry vehicles, are presented. Equilibrium glide trajectories, heating environments, and shear forces are shown for representative re-entry conditions. Ablation-insulation material weights are calculated from experimental data. A structural weight tradeoff is made for aluminum and titanium sheet-stringer construction. The extreme low temperature capability and compatibility of the chemically-blown phenyl methyl silicone elastomeric foam with metal structures are examined for temperatures of — 290°F. Fabrication and attachment methods are discussed.