cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Training Deep Neural Networks

The procedure for training neural networks with backpropagation is briefly introduced in Chapter 1 This chapter will expand on the description on Chapter 1 in several ways
Quantum diffusion in spin chains with phase space methods

Connecting short-time microscopic dynamics with long-time hydrodynamics in strongly correlated quantum systems is one of the outstanding questions. In particular, it is hard to determine various hydrodynamic coefficients such as the diffusion constant or viscosity starting from a microscopic model: exact quantum simulations are limited to either small system sizes or to short times, which are insufficient to reach asymptotic behavior and so various approximations must be applied. We show that these difficulties, at least for particular models, can be circumvented by using the cluster truncated Wigner approximation (CTWA), which maps quantum Hamiltonian dynamics into classical Hamiltonian dynamics in auxiliary high-dimensional phase space. We apply CTWA to XXZ next-nearest-neighbor spin-1/2 chains and XY spin ladders, and find behavior consisting of short-time spin relaxation which gradually crosses over to emergent diffusive behavior at long times. For a random initial state, we show that CTWA correctly reproduces the whole spin spectral function. Necessary in this construction is sampling from properly fluctuating initial conditions: the Dirac mean-field (variational) ansatz, which neglects such fluctuations, leads to incorrect predictions.
Implementing the Communities That Care Prevention System: Challenges, Solutions, and Opportunities in an Urban Setting.

Introduction Communities That Care, refined and tested for more than 25years, offers a step-by-step coalition-based approach to promote well-being and prevent risk behaviors among youth. Communities That Care guides coalitions to identify and prioritize underlying risk and protective factors; set specific, measurable community goals; adopt tested, effective prevention programs to target selected factors; and implement chosen programs with fidelity. Communities That Care has been implemented in a variety of communities, but has only recently begun to be systematically evaluated in diverse, urban communities. Methods This paper presents a process evaluation of Communities That Care implementation within a Midwestern ethnically diverse, urban community. In-depth surveys of 25 black male youth aged 8–14years and their caregivers were conducted to determine the degree to which coalition-selected priorities aligned with the experience of black families. Implementation and survey data were collected in 2014–2017 and analyzed in 2017–2018. Results Roughly 30% of youth reported ever being bullied or bullying someone else on school property; this aligned with the coalition's decision to focus on positive social skills and bullying prevention. Additional data aligned with the coalition's intent to expand its community action plan to encompass other priorities, including family transitions and mobility. For example, roughly one third of caregivers went on welfare and one third of families moved to a new home or apartment in the past year. Conclusions In communities whose residents have experienced historical and current inequities, an effective community prevention plan may need to address structural as well as social determinants of well-being among youth and their families. Supplement information This article is part of a supplement entitled African American Men's Health: Research, Practice, and Policy Implications, which is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.
ysla: Reusable and Configurable SLAs for Large-Scale SLA Management

Despite the pressing need for effective and automated Service Level Agreement (SLA) management in the Cloud computing industry, typical SLA management systems today do not foster re-usability and standardization of SLAs. From a technical perspective, it is difficult to provide reusable building blocks for formal SLAs that are concise and straight-forward to use, yet flexible enough to be re-used in new business engagements without further customization. As a result, extensive manual work is needed for setting up SLAs between business partners, slowing down new business engagements. In this industry paper, we outline novel routes for extending the state of the art in SLA management with regard to cross-client and cross-engagement re-usability in large-scale Cloud environments. Specifically, we present novel formal constructs for cross-engagement SLA templates in combination with engagement-specific classifiers for SLA-related monitoring data. We show a prototypical implementation in an SLA management suite, the ysla language and Engine, and report on the resulting improvements in conciseness and efficiency of SLA modeling by means of a real use-case example from industry.
Outrageous fortune or destiny? Family influences on status achievement in the early life course

Psychologists using quantitative studies of the trait intelligence have established with much confidence that the impact of genes on intelligence increases with age, while the environmental effect of the family of origin declines. We examined the conjecture that a similar trend of increasing effect of genes/declining family environmental effect characterizes other status-related outcomes when arranged in typical age-graded sequence over adolescence and early adulthood. We used DeFries-Fulker (1985) (DF) analysis with longitudinal data on 1,576 pairs of variously-related young adult siblings (MZ twins; DZ twins; full siblings; half siblings; cousins; and nonrelated siblings; mean age 28) to estimate univariate quantitative genetic decompositions for fifteen status-related outcomes roughly ordered along the early life course: Verbal IQ, High school GPA, College plans, High school graduation, Some college, College graduation, Graduate school, Educational attainment, Occupational education, Occupational wages, Personal earnings, Household income, Household assets, Home ownership, and Subjective social status, with and without covariate controls for Age, Female gender, and Race/ethnicity (black, Hispanic, other; reference white). Results for successive outcomes did not support the conjecture of increasing heritability with maturity. Rather, the impacts of both the genes and the family environment tended to decline over the life course, resulting in a downward trend in family influences from all sources. There was some evidence of a recrudescence in relative influence of the family environment for outcomes related to the household that are often shared with a spouse, such as home ownership, suggesting a role of assortative mating in status reproduction. Other findings and limitations of the study are discussed.
The Empirical Status of Social Learning Theory of Crime and Deviance: The Past, Present, and Future

This chapter reviews the empirical research evidence on the validity of social learning theory as an explanation of criminal and deviant behavior. It asserts that social learning theory can be elaborated to account for criminological and sociological regularities, making sense of events at the micro-levels of temporal and ecological aggregation, providing a better explanation than other theories. The chapter describes the volume of studies and the positive findings, with few negative findings, provides greater empirical support for social learning theory than for any other major social psychological theory of crime and deviance. Social Structure and Social Learning model is a cross-level elaboration or integration that proposes that social structure has an indirect effect on criminal and conforming behavior through the social learning variables of differential association, and imitation. Imitation and contagion in macro level analysis are treated as part of a statistical problem eliminated through statistical adjustments and filtering.
Discrete-time Stable Tracking Control of Underactuated Rigid Body Systems on SE(3)

This paper presents a discrete-time stable tracking control scheme for an underactuated vehicle modeled as a rigid body. This energy-based control scheme guarantees discrete-time stability of the feedback system. The underactuated vehicle is characterized by four control inputs for the six degrees of freedom of rigid body motion. These control inputs actuate the three degrees of freedom (DOF) of rotational motion and one degree of freedom of translational motion in a vehicle body-fixed coordinate frame. The actuated translational DOF corresponds to a body-fixed thrust direction. The stability analysis of translational and rotational motion of the vehicle are addressed separately, and it is shown that the total energy-like quantity of the system is decreasing in discrete time. This leads to discrete-time control laws that achieve asymptotically stable tracking of desired position and attitude trajectories.
Heterogeneous upper mantle structure beneath the Ross Sea Embayment and Marie Byrd Land, West Antarctica, revealed by P-wave tomography

Abstract We present an upper mantle P-wave velocity model for the Ross Sea Embayment (RSE) region of West Antarctica, constructed by inverting relative P-wave travel-times from 1881 teleseismic earthquakes recorded by two temporary broadband seismograph deployments on the Ross Ice Shelf, as well as by regional ice- and rock-sited seismic stations surrounding the RSE. Faster upper mantle P-wave velocities ( ∼ + 1 % ) characterize the eastern part of the RSE, indicating that the lithosphere in this part of the RSE may not have been reheated by mid-to-late Cenozoic rifting that affected other parts of the Late Cretaceous West Antarctic Rift System. Slower upper mantle velocities ( ∼ − 1 % ) characterize the western part of the RSE over a ∼500 km-wide region, extending from the central RSE to the Transantarctic Mountains (TAM). Within this region, the model shows two areas of even slower velocities ( ∼ − 1.5 % ) centered beneath Mt. Erebus and Mt. Melbourne along the TAM front. We attribute the broader region of slow velocities mainly to reheating of the lithospheric mantle by Paleogene rifting, while the slower velocities beneath the areas of recent volcanism may reflect a Neogene-present phase of rifting and/or plume activity associated with the formation of the Terror Rift. Beneath the Ford Ranges and King Edward VII Peninsula in western Marie Byrd Land, the P-wave model shows lateral variability in upper mantle velocities of ±0.5% over distances of a few hundred km. The heterogeneity in upper mantle velocities imaged beneath the RSE and western Marie Byrd Land, assuming no significant variation in mantle composition, indicates variations in upper mantle temperatures of at least 100 °C. These temperature variations could lead to differences in surface heat flow of ∼±10 mW/m2 and mantle viscosity of 102 Pa s regionally across the study area, possibly influencing the stability of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet by affecting basal ice conditions and glacial isostatic adjustment.
Induction, Coinduction, and Fixed Points: Intuitions and Tutorial

Recently we presented a concise survey of the formulation of the induction and coinduction principles, and some concepts related to them, in five different fields mathematical fields, hence shedding some light on the precise relation between these fields. In this article we present few tutorial examples---from set theory, number theory and real analysis---that illustrate these concepts, and the intuitions behind them, more concretely.
Activity-Based Intervention to Support Second Language Acquisition

Normal 0 false false false BS-LATN-BA JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language:EN-US;} Activity-based intervention (ABI) is a naturalistic teaching approach used with young children to facilitate learning and development. Several studies have been conducted on ABI to examine effects on children; however, there is a shortage of literature on how to use ABI to facilitate the acquisition of a second language. This paper describes ABI, showcases studies on ABI used to enhance children’s communication or language development, and demonstrates a model for using ABI for second language acquisition.
Effects of Inherent Tissue Anisotropy on Measurements Obtained with a Clinical Ultrasonic Imaging System

Our overall goal is to develop clinically applicable tissue characterization methods, based on quantitative analyses of backscattered ultrasound, which can differentiate normal from diseased heart segments. In implementing these methods there is a need to compensate for the inherent anisotropic properties of the heart that are exhibited in echocardiographic images. [1–4] Furthermore, quantitative tissue characterization methods may be able to exploit the inherent anisotropy of the myocardium to achieve assessment of cardiac properties.[5–9] The specific aims of this investigation were to measure the spectral properties of backscattered ultrasound using a clinical imaging system and to determine effects of inherent tissue anisotropy on measured spectral properties of backscattered ultrasound.
A Role for the Orphan Human Cytochrome P450 2S1 in Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid ω-1 Hydroxylation Using an Untargeted Metabolomic Approach.

Cytochrome P450 (P450) 2S1 is one of the orphan P450s, known to be expressed but not having a defined function with an endogenous substrate or in drug oxidations. Although it has been clearly demonstrated to catalyze reductive reactions, its role in NADPH-dependent oxidations has been ambiguous. In our efforts to characterize orphan human P450 enzymes, we used an untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectromterymetabolomic approach with recombinant human P450 2S1 and extracts of rat stomach and intestine, sites of P450 2S1 localization in humans and animals. The search yielded several candidates, including the product 19-hydroxyarachidonic acid. Subsequent 18O analysis and in vitro studies with commercial arachidonic acid and 19-hydroxyarachidonic acid were used to validate ω-1 hydroxylation of the former molecule as a NADPH- and O2-dependent reaction. Steady-state kinetic assays were done for ω-1 hydroxylation reactions of P450 2S1 with several other long-chain fatty acids, including arachidonic, linoleic, α-linolenic, eicosapentaenoic, and docosapentaenoic acids. Rates of hydroxylation were slow, but no detectable activity was seen with either medium-chain length or saturated fatty acids. P450 2S1 is known to be expressed, at least at the mRNA level, to the extent of some other non-3A subfamily P450s in the human gastrointestinal tract, and the activity may be relevant. We conclude that P450 2S1 is a fatty acid ω-1 hydroxylase, although the physiologic relevance of these oxidations remains to be established. The metabolomic approaches we employed in this study are feasible for orphan P450s and other enzymes, in regard to annotation of function, in mammals and other organisms. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT An untargeted mass spectrometry approach was utilized to identify ω-1 hydroxylation of arachidonic acid as an oxidative reaction catalyzed by human cytochrome P450 2S1. The enzyme also catalyzes the relatively slow ω-1 hydroxylation of several other unsaturated long-chain fatty acids.
Internal validation of the prognostic index for spine metastasis (PRISM) for stratifying survival in patients treated with spinal stereotactic radiosurgery.

Purpose We sought to validate the Prognostic Index for Spinal Metastases (PRISM), a scoring system that stratifies patients into subgroups by overall survival.Methods and materials: The PRISM was previously created from multivariate Cox regression with patients enrolled in prospective single institution trials of stereotactic spine radiosurgery (SSRS) for spinal metastasis. We assess model calibration and discrimination within a validation cohort of patients treated off-trial with SSRS for metastatic disease at the same institution. Results The training and validation cohorts consisted of 205 and 249 patients respectively. Similar survival trends were shown in the 4 PRISM. Survival was significantly different between PRISM subgroups (P<0.0001). C-index for the validation cohort was 0.68 after stratification into subgroups. Conclusions We internally validated the PRISM with patients treated off-protocol, demonstrating that it can distinguish subgroups by survival, which will be useful for individualizing treatment of spinal metastases and stratifying patients for clinical trials.
Exploiting collateral sensitivity controls growth of mixed culture of sensitive and resistant cells and decreases selection for resistant cells

Background: CDK4/6 inhibitors such as ribociclib are becoming widely used targeted therapies in hormone-receptor-positive (HR+) human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HER2-) breast cancer. However, cancers can advance due to drug resistance, a problem in which tumor heterogeneity and evolution are key features. Methods: Ribociclib-resistant HR+/HER2- CAMA-1 breast cancer cells were generated through long-term ribociclib treatment. Characterization of sensitive and resistant cells were performed using RNA sequencing and whole exome sequencing. Lentiviral labeling with different fluorescent proteins enabled us to track the proliferation of sensitive and resistant cells under different treatments in a heterogeneous, 3D spheroid coculture system using imaging microscopy and flow cytometry. Results: Transcriptional profiling of sensitive and resistant cells revealed the downregulation of the G2/M checkpoint in the resistant cells. Exploiting this acquired vulnerability; resistant cells exhibited collateral sensitivity for the Wee-1 inhibitor, adavosertib (AZD1775). The combination of ribociclib and adavosertib achieved additional antiproliferative effect exclusively in the cocultures compared to monocultures, while decreasing the selection for resistant cells. Conclusions: Our results suggest that optimal antiproliferative effects in heterogeneous cancers can be achieved via an integrative therapeutic approach targeting sensitive and resistant cancer cell populations within a tumor, respectively.
Best Practices for Teaching Clinicians to Use a Serious Illness Conversation Guide

With the palliative care workforce shortage and changes in advance care planning reimbursement, many institutions are requesting that palliative care specialists provide serious illness communication training across their institution's workforce. Based on our experience training clinicians to use the Partners Serious Illness Conversation Guide, a structured guide to teach basic palliative care communication skills, we propose a set of best practices to help others teach use of a communication guide at their institution, including fostering a safe learning environment, explicit teaching of structured communication, and preparing cofacilitators to adapt to differing skill levels of learners.
Taking context to heart: Momentary emotions, menstrual cycle phase, and cardiac autonomic regulation

Author(s): Simon, Shauna | Advisor(s): Jamner, Larry D | Abstract: Background. Emotions have long been discussed in conjunction with the autonomic nervous system. Most research on heart-mood linkages does not consider sex differences or an evident underlying mechanism for sex differences- sex hormone levels. Further, most research is limited to cross-sectional and laboratory studies. The degree to which affect-autonomic associations manifest in everyday life may be different and may vary by sex and, for women, by menstrual cycle phase. This study employs ambulatory monitoring of cardiovascular measures (e.g., heart rate and heart rate variability; HRV) and concurrent emotions (e.g., sadness, stress, anxiety, anger, and happiness) in everyday life to better characterize affect-autonomic associations as a function of sex and menstrual cycle phase. Methods. Participants (N = 174) were monitored over a 5-day observation period (one 2-day and one 3-day session), using an ambulatory 24-hour electrocardiogram to monitor heart rate and ecological momentary assessment to record emotions every approximately 30 minutes. Women were monitored in both the early to mid-follicular and -luteal phases of their menstrual cycles and men in two comparably distanced sessions. Results. Multilevel models indicated that for both sexes, negative emotions and happiness were associated with elevated heart rate. Relative to men, women exhibited elevated heart rate and reduced HRV during reports of anger. For women, during the luteal phase, momentary reports of sadness, stress, and anxiety were found to predict increased heart rate and reduced HRV. Conclusion. These findings demonstrate the importance of considering sex and menstrual cycle phase in research investigating heart-mood linkages.
Validity of the alcohol purchase task with United States military personnel.

Alcohol use is common among military personnel. However, alcohol use and problems are challenging to measure because military personnel do not have similar levels of confidentiality as civilians and can face sanctions for reporting illegal behavior (e.g., underage drinking) or for drinking during prohibited times (e.g., during basic training). The current study aimed to determine if the use of the alcohol purchase task (APT), which has previously been associated with alcohol use and alcohol-related problems in civilian populations, is a valid measure of alcohol-related risk in the military when asking about alcohol consumption is less feasible. Participants were 26,231 Air Force airmen who completed surveys including questions about sensation seeking, alcohol expectancies, perception of peer drinking, intent to drink, and family history of alcohol misuse, which are known predictors of alcohol use, and the APT, from which demand indices of intensity and Omax were derived. Individuals who were single, male, White, and had a high school diploma/GED had higher intensity and Omax scores, and non-Hispanic individuals had higher intensity scores. Age was negatively correlated with intensity and Omax. Regressions were used to determine if intensity and Omax were associated with known predictors of alcohol use and risk. Intensity and Omax showed significant but small associations with all included predictors of alcohol consumption and alcohol risk. Effect sizes were larger for individuals ages 21+ compared to individuals under 21. Thus, this study provides initial support for the validity of the APT as an index of alcohol-related risk among military personnel. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Cytokine changes during immune-related adverse events and corticosteroid treatment in melanoma patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) often cause immune-related adverse events (irAEs), most of which are treated with corticosteroids despite evidence suggesting that corticosteroids may blunt antitumor efficacy. We sought to identify cytokine changes that correlate with irAEs and study the impact of corticosteroid treatment on cytokine levels. We analyzed expression of 34 cytokines in 52 melanoma patients who developed irAEs during therapy with ICIs. Luminex serum assay was performed at baseline, 1, 2, and 3 months after starting ICI. Baseline cytokine levels and longitudinal log2 fold-change was compared with incidence and grade of irAEs. Cytokine patterns were compared between patients based on development of irAEs and steroid treatment. There were no differences in baseline cytokine levels between patients who developed grade 1–2 irAEs (N = 28) vs. grade 3–4 irAEs (N = 24). Dermatitis patients (N = 8) had significantly higher baseline Ang-1 (p = 0.006) and CD40L (p = 0.005). Pneumonitis patients (N = 4) had significantly higher baseline IL-17 (p = 0.009). Colitis patients (N = 8) had a trend toward decreased GCSF (p = 0.08). Through Spearman’s correlation analysis, patients who developed irAEs without receiving corticosteroids (N = 23) exhibited harmonization of cytokine fold-change, with 0/276 pairwise comparisons demonstrating significant divergence. In contrast, corticosteroid treatment in patients with irAEs (N = 15) altered fold-change to a discordant pattern (42/276 diverged, 15.2%). This discordant cytokine pattern in patients receiving corticosteroids is similar to the cytokine pattern in patients who did not develop irAEs (N = 8) during the longitudinal profiling period (41/276, 14.9%). Baseline levels of certain cytokines correlate with specific irAEs in melanoma patients receiving ICIs. irAEs drive a concordant pattern of cytokine fold-change, which is disrupted by corticosteroid treatment.
Corporate Entanglement with Religion and the Suppression of Expression

The power and ability of corporations to assert their First Amendment rights to the detriment of others remains both a controversial and unresolved question. Adverting to relevant strands of existing jurisprudence and certain constitutionally relevant factors, this article suggests a path forward. The path turns upon the recognition that whereas some corporations are appropriately categorized as rights-bearing entities (akin to associations), others are more appropriately categorized as entities against which the rights of individuals can be asserted. Legislation, in the form of the draft “CENSOR” Act, is provided as a means by which to implement this categorization. What hopefully emerges is a regime that best effectuates the ideals of the First Amendment by maximizing the meaningful exercise of First Amendment rights by those individuals and entities most entitled to those rights.
Can Young Drivers Learn to Anticipate Hidden Hazards: A Driving Simulator Study

Modern technology makes possible improvements in training programs designed to develop young drivers’ abilities to anticipate hazardous situations. These improvements come from increases in the range of scenarios to which young drivers are exposed and the number of times young drivers can practice the skills they are learning. In this study, a new Flash-based, PC training program that runs on the web, Road Aware® (RA), is evaluated using a driving simulator. The program was developed by State Farm. Twenty-four young trained drivers and twenty four young untrained drivers were asked to drive various simulated hazardous scenarios while their gaze was monitored by an eye tracking system. The results show that trained drivers were more likely to anticipate hazards than their untrained peers, a difference which was present for both near transfer (scenarios that appeared in training) and far transfer scenarios. The effectiveness of RA is compared with other hazard anticipation training programs that were evaluated on a driving simulator and in the field. It appears every bit as effective in general and more effective for some scenarios. Additionally, there is evidence suggesting that, for the first time, young drivers can be trained to anticipate hazards as well as drivers who are older and more experienced.
Agent Adaptation across Non-ideal Markets and Societies

We address the problem of creating agents that can succeed in environments where adapting to the norms of the market or society is a significant factor to performing well. We focus on the Social Ultimatum Game, a multi-agent multi-round extension of the Ultimatum Game, a classical game-theoretic problem which has been studied for decades due to the variability of human behavior it elicits. We create ten societies of agents based on five classes of agent behavior to create a diverse test environment. We used Amazon Mechanical Turk to evaluate how human participants adapt to these various societies, serving as a baseline for agent-based approaches. Current approaches primarily succeed in societies similar to their own and fail elsewhere. We construct a new type of adaptive agent, based on single-step marginal-value optimization, and show that it outperforms humans across these varying agent societies when playing the Social Ultimatum Game.
Cayley graphs of finitely generated groups

There does not exist a Borel choice of generators for each finitely generated group which has the property that isomorphic groups are assigned isomorphic Cayley graphs.
Great ape skeletal collections: Making the most of scarce and irreplaceable resources in the digital age

Information about primate genomes has re-emphasized the importance of the great apes (Pan, Gorilla, and Pongo) as, for most purposes, the appropriate comparators when generating hypotheses about the most recent common ancestor of the hominins and panins, or the most recent common ancestor of the hominin clade. Great ape skeletal collections are thus an important and irreplaceable resource for researchers conducting these types of comparative analyses, yet the integrity of these collections is threatened by unnecessary use and their availability is threatened by financial pressures on the institutions in which the collections reside. We discuss the general history of great ape skeletal collections, and in order to get a better sense of the utility and potential of these important sources of data we assemble the equivalent of a biography of the Powell-Cotton Collection. We explore the history of how this collection of chimpanzee and gorilla skeletons was accumulated, how it came to be recognized as a potentially important source of comparative information, who has made use of it, and what types of data have been collected. We present a protocol for collecting information about each individual animal (e.g., which bones are preserved, their condition, etc.) and have made that information about the Powell-Cotton Collection freely available in an online relational database (Human Origins Database, www.humanoriginsdatabase.org). As an illustration of the practical application of these data, we developed a tabular summary of ontogenetic information about each individual (see Appendices A and B). Collections like the Powell-Cotton are irreplaceable sources of material regarding the hard-tissue evidence and recent history of the closest living relatives of modern humans. We end this contribution by suggesting ways that curators and the researchers who use and rely on these reference collections could work together to help preserve and protect them so that future generations can use and benefit from these priceless resources. Am J Phys Anthropol 57:2–32, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Large Sample Evidence on the Relation Between Stock Option Compensation and Risk Taking

A distinctive feature of stock options is that they create incentives for managers to take risks. For a sample of 6,439 CEO-year observations over 1992-1999, we find that risk-taking incentives offered by CEO's stock options (the sensitivity of ESO values to stock return volatility) are statistically associated with greater risk-taking behavior as proxied by one-year ahead stock return volatility. However, the economic magnitude of such option-induced risk taking on the CEO's wealth is relatively modest. Our tests of the performance consequences of option-induced risk taking incentives are specification-dependent and do not exhibit consistent results. Hence, we cannot unambiguously conclude that the increased risk taking results in improved future operating performance.
GEORGIA’S TRADE POLICY AND FREE TRADE AGREEMENT WITH THE EUROPEAN UNION, REALITY AND FUTURE

The track of Georgia’s integration with the West crosses several basic goals. First and foremost, of course, it is membership in NATO and the European Union. Europe supports those countries which are considered as its strategic partners politically. Today, when the EU really sees that less a developed country tries to follow democratic standards and does not give up important principles of the European civilization, as an encouragement, it creates opportunities to sign a free trade agreement with such country. Today, Georgia is considered in such an aspect. Signing of a free trade agreement with any particular country is definitely oriented to some positive result. However, cooperation of this scale with such conglomerate as the European Union can be viewed also as a kind of indirect guarantee of Georgia’s security. It is worth emphasizing that a free trade agreement is one of the components of the association agreement. Presumably, until the end of 2013, the dates when formal negotiations could start on this issue will be agreed upon. It looks like it will be the second half of 2014. The very fact that free trade with Europe may become real is very positive.
Solution NMR characterization of WT CXCL8 monomer and dimer binding to CXCR1 N-terminal domain

Chemokine CXCL8 and its receptor CXCR1 are key mediators in combating infection and have also been implicated in the pathophysiology of various diseases including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and cancer. CXCL8 exists as monomers and dimers but monomer alone binds CXCR1 with high affinity. CXCL8 function involves binding two distinct CXCR1 sites – the N-terminal domain (Site-I) and the extracellular/transmembrane domain (Site-II). Therefore, higher monomer affinity could be due to stronger binding at Site-I or Site-II or both. We have now characterized the binding of a human CXCR1 N-terminal domain peptide (hCXCR1Ndp) to WT CXCL8 under conditions where it exists as both monomers and dimers. We show that the WT monomer binds the CXCR1 N-domain with much higher affinity and that binding is coupled to dimer dissociation. We also characterized the binding of two CXCL8 monomer variants and a trapped dimer to two different hCXCR1Ndp constructs, and observe that the monomer binds with ∼10- to 100-fold higher affinity than the dimer. Our studies also show that the binding constants of monomer and dimer to the receptor peptides, and the dimer dissociation constant, can vary significantly as a function of pH and buffer, and so the ability to observe WT monomer peaks is critically dependent on NMR experimental conditions. We conclude that the monomer is the high affinity CXCR1 agonist, that Site-I interactions play a dominant role in determining monomer vs. dimer affinity, and that the dimer plays an indirect role in regulating monomer function.
Opportunities to Express Preferences and Make Choices among Students with Severe Disabilities in Classroom Settings

Classroom observations were made on staff and students with severe disabilities to record opportunities to express preferences and make choices. Included in the study were 48 staff members and 37 students located in public schools, institutions, and university demonstration sites. An observational code was used to record staff- and student-initiated expressions of preference and choice in structured and nonstructured classroom activities. Results indicated that, regardless of age level or setting, classroom staff responded at very low rates to student-initiated expressions of choice or preference and that staff-initiated opportunities for student expressions of choice or preference were significantly higher in the 0 to 5 age range. Additional findings indicated that staff and students used distinctly different response modalities to communicate. Results are discussed in relation to the development of communication and social skills, with implications for current educational practices, personnel training, ...
Ab initio calculations of the interaction between CO2 and the acetate ion.

A series of ab initio calculations designed to investigate the interaction of CO{sub 2} with acetate are presented. The lowest energy structure, AC–CO{sub 2}-η{sup 2}, is predicted by CCSD(T)/aVTZ to be bound by −10.6 kcal/mol. Six of the bound complexes have binding energies on the order of −8 kcal/mol, but analysis shows that the η{sup 1}-CT complex is fundamentally different from the others. The η{sup 1}-CT complex is characterized by geometric distortion, large polarization and induction effects and charge transfer whereas the other five complexes have little geometric distortion and negligible charge transfer. The amount of charge that is transferred from the anion to the CO{sub 2} in the η{sup 1}-CT complex is estimated to be about half an electron by NPA, DMA, CHELPG, and Mulliken analyses, whereas the EDA-ALMO-CTA (B3LYP) approach predicts a charge transfer of 75 me{sup –}. However, the transfer of this small amount of charge leads to an energy lowering of −56 kcal/mol, without which the complex would not be bound. The RI-MP2 geometries closely approximate those resulting from the CCSD optimizations, and the optimized second-order opposite spin (O2) method performs well for all the complexes except for the η{sup 1}-CT complex. DFT methods do notmore » reproduce all the ab initio geometries, binding energies and/or energy ordering of these complexes although the range-separated hybrid meta-GGA (M11) and nonlocal (VV10 and vdwDF10) functionals are shown to yield results significantly better than other functionals considered for this system. The fact that there is such variation among DFT methods has implications for DFT-based ab initio molecular dynamics simulations and for the parametrization of classical force fields based on DFT calculations.« less
Inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation and related reactions in insect mitochondria

Abstract 1. 1. The effects of the uncoupling agent 2,4-dinitrophenol and the insecticide DDT on respiration, phosphorylation, and the ATPase and ATP-Pi exchange activities of housefly mitochondria were investigated. 2. 2. DDT at 0.1 mM abolishes phosphorylation, the ATP-Pi exchange, and the DNP-stimulated ATPase activity in these mitochondria. DDT does not, however, affect the Mg2+-stimulated ATPase activity; in this respect it appears to be unique among known uncouplers or inhibitors of mitochondrial ATPase. 3. 3. DDT also inhibits that portion of the total respiration which is “tightly-coupled” to oxidative phosphorylation; “uncoupled” respiration is not depressed by DDT. 4. 4. Anomalously, DNP frequently strongly inhibits respiration in the presence of ADP and Pi and fails to stimulate pyruvate oxidation in the absence of ADP and Pi.
Nonsubstrate induction of a soluble bacterial cytochrome P-450 monooxygenase by phenobarbital and its analogs

A soluble, cytochrome P-450-dependent fatty acid hydroxylase-epoxidase complex from Bacillus megaterium ATCC 14581 can be induced more than 100-fold by the addition of phenobarbital or one of its analogs (hexobarbital) to the growth medium. These barbiturate inducers are apparently not substrates for the enzyme nor do they activate the monooxygenase in the cell-free system. The induction efficiency of both phenobarbital and hexobarbital can be significantly increased with respect to monooxygenase activity by autoclaving the inducer in the growth medium rather than by adding it to the medium after autoclaving. Turnover numbers of about 3 000 nmoles of substrate oxygenated per min per nmole of P-450 were obtained in crude cell-free preparations obtained from maximally induced cultures. Our data indicate that products formed by heating phenobarbital or hexobarbital in the growth medium are significantly better inducers of monooxygenase activity than are the unaltered drugs.
Supporting Concurrent Design in SCOPE

Concurrent design can be viewed as processes of collaboration, coordination and co-decision making within and between cross-functional teams. Based on this view we argue that an appropriate integration of information sharing and activity synchronization ap proaches is necessary and beneficial for a concurrent design support environment. This paper investigates support for defining a set of co ordinated and concurrent collaborative activities that constitute a design process in the form of a process model, and for executing, monitor ing and dynamically modifying process models at runtime. Information sharing and activity synchronization are two key approaches that have to be integrated into a concurrent design support environment. Based on the concept of "session-based collaborative processes," we developed a modeling methodology and tools that enable team members to model concurrent design processes, and we built the SCOPE prototypical cooperation environment to support modification, monitoring, and execu...
Effects of drilling fluids on Thalassia testudinum and its epiphytic algae

Abstract A flow-through microcosm system was developed to assess the potential influence of drilling fluids on Thalassia testudinum and its epiphytic algae. Two treatments (drilling fluid and a montmorillonite clay) and a control were used for seven tests: two 10-day, 200 μl/l exposures; two 10-day, 1000 μl/l; and three 6-week, 190 μl/l. Six-week exposure to drilling fluid reduced epiphyte biomass (measured as ash free dry weight/cm2), but surviving algae did not differ (measured as chlorophyll a/g epiphyte ash free dry weight) from controls. Thalassia productivity (carbon uptake and growth rate) was reduced by 10-day exposure to drilling fluid concentrations of 200 μl/l and 1000 μl/l. Thalassia productivity was reduced by drilling fluid exposure in summer and fall but not in spring. The variation in response is attributed to seasonal changes in Thalassia allotment and storage of carbohydrates. The effect of montmorillonite clay exposure varied inconsistently among all tests for both Thalassia and epiphytes.
Collective Efficacy Predicting Experience of Material Hardship in Low-Income Neighborhoods:

Research suggests that neighborhood processes, such as collective efficacy, have a meaningful impact on families and are potentially modifiable factors that can be targeted by interventions to impr...
Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase activities of the embryonic chick ovary

Abstract The phosphodiesterase activities of the 15-day-old embryonic chick ovary have been investigated. Kinetic analysis of the embryonic ovarian cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase activity by Lineweaver-Burk double-reciprocal plot demonstrated two enzymatic activities. The apparent K m value for the high-affinity enzyme was 4.0 μ M with a V max of 1.56 nmol/mg protein/min whereas the apparent K m of the low-affinity enzyme was 37 μ M with a V max of 10.0 nmol/mg protein/min. Kinetic analysis of cyclic GMP hydrolysis indicated a single enzyme activity with an apparent K m value of 8.3 μ M and a V max of 8 nmol/mg protein/min. The hydrolysis of cyclic GMP, but not cyclic AMP, was inhibited by EGTA. The inhibition of cyclic GMP hydrolysis caused by EGTA can be relieved by the addition of exogenous Ca 2+ . 3-Isobutyl-1-methylxanthine at 100 μ M concentration inhibited both cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP hydrolysis to 50% of their original activity. In the developing ovary, the cyclic GMP phosphodiesterase activity remained constant, while the cyclic AMP phosphodiesterase activity was higher in the earlier stages as compared to the later stages. The enzyme kinetic behaviors of ovarian cyclic AMP and cyclic GMP phosphodiesterase were unchanged in all embryonic stages investigated.
Atom site preference in S4N4

Abstract The question of atom site preference as it pertains to the observed and inverse (not observed) structures of S4N4 is investigated from the standpoint of electronic structure theory. An analysis is made through an understanding of geometric constraints in simplified systems and extrapolation to the larger question of factors controlling structure is discussed.
Sites of p-chloromercuribenzenesulfonate inhibition of red cell urea and water transport

Abstract The mercurial sulfhydryl reagent, p-chloromercribenzene sulfonate (pCMBS) inhibits water and urea fluxes across the human red blood cell membrane. The kinetics and affinities for pCMBS binding to separate water transport and urea transport inhibition sites were previously determined by Toon and Solomon ((1986) Biochim. Biophys. Acta 860, 361–375) in red cells that had been treated with N-ethylmaleimide (NEM) to block five of the six sulfhydryls on the red cell anion exchange protein, band 3. We have used autoradiographs of gels from NEM-treated cells, labeled with 203Hg-pCMBS, to localize these water and urea transport inhibition binding sites separately and find that both are on band 3. Each site is saturable and the time course of each uptake can be fitted to the equation for a bimolecular associations (with negligible dissociation) with time constants in agreement with those of Toon and Solomon. Determination of the binding stoichiometry shows one urea inhibition site and three water inhibition sites for every four band 3 molecules. These results indicate that band 3 plays a role in both urea and water transport and suggest that we functional unit may be a tetramer.
Nurses' Collective Responsibility and the Strike Weapon

Among the collective as well as individual responsibilities of nurses as professionals is that of maintaining and improving the quality of nursing care. In exchange for monopoly status and professional authority to control nursing practice, the profession is charged with the responsibility of meeting the nursing care needs of the community. If one claims, as I do, that one of the collective responsibilities of nurses is maintenance of high nursing standards, we must examine what action is required of nurses who find themselves in work contexts in which standards and practice are deficient. Specifically, is the strike weapon one that may or even ought to be used? In this essay, answers to the following two questions are advanced: (a) What conditions must obtain for it to be (morally) right for nurses in a particular health care facility to strike? (b) Does their collective responsibility with regard to nursing standards and practice ever entail that a group of nurses has a (moral) duty to strike? The essay concludes with a consideration of how one balances the collective responsibility to maintain and improve the quality of nursing care with an individual nurse's responsibility to her/his own patients.
Reverse weekend effect, trading volume, and illiquidity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the seasonal anomaly known as the reverse weekend effect detected at index level can also be observed at individual stock level.Design/methodology/approach – This paper's methodology is based on the model first developed by Connolly and then employed by Chang, Pinegar, and Ravichandran in which returns are regressed against the dummy variable for Monday. In addition, the conditional variance is also included into the mean equation following Engle, Lilien, and Robins. Given the increasing evidence that equity returns are conditionally heteroskedastic, the paper includes in the conditional variance the lag of the squared residual from the mean equation (i.e. autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity term introduced by Engle) and the previous period's forecast variance (i.e. the generalized autoregressive conditional heteroskedasticity term introduced by Bollerslev). Also, the paper controls for the different impact of good and bad news on the con...