cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Isotropy of the early universe from CMB anisotropies

The acoustic peak in the cosmic microwave background power spectrum is sensitive to causal processes and cosmological parameters in the early universe up to the time of last scattering. We provide limits on correlated spatial variations of the peak height and peak position and interpret these as constraints on the spatial variation of the cosmological parameters (baryon density, cold dark matter density, and cosmological constant as well as the amplitude and tilt of the original fluctuations). We utilize recent work of Hansen, Banday, and G\'orski who have studied the spatial isotropy of the power spectrum as measured by WMAP by performing the power spectrum analysis on smaller patches of the sky. We find that there is no statistically significant correlated asymmetry of the peak. Hansen, Banday, and G\'orski have also provided preliminary indications of a preferred direction in the lower angular momentum range ($\ensuremath{\ell}\ensuremath{\sim}2--40$) and we show how possible explanations of this asymmetry are severely constrained by the data on the acoustic peak. Finally we show a possible non-Gaussian feature in the data, associated with a difference in the northern and southern galactic hemispheres.
Dheas Enhances Germinal Center Responses in Old Mice

Antigen (Ag) transport leads to the formation of the Ag retaining FDC-reticulum.1 Studies have demonstrated that in old (23 month) mouse lymph nodes, Ag transport is defective and only a small fraction of the expected Ag transport sites develops.2 The Ag transport sites that develop, form atrophic discontinuous pathways of globular structures. The Ag transport deficit corresponds to a similar deficit in the number of FDC-retaining reticula by day 1–3 after antigenic challenge. Follicular dendritic cells that develop are ultrastructurally atrophic, retain little Ag, and produce no iccosomes. In recent studies, we examined the capacity for germinal center development in old mice with a deficit of FDC Ag-retaining reticula. Germinal center development was monitored by image analysis utilizing the peanut agglutinin (PNA) binding feature of germinal center B cells histochem-ically with PNA-horseradish peroxidase (HRP) conjugates.3 The results showed a marked age-related depression of germinal center development. Interestingly, the ratio of FDC-reticula to germinal center numbers remained 1:1, similarly to that shown for young immune mice.3 These ratios support the concept that germinal center development in immune mice requires Ag-retaining FDC, an observation in complete agreement with the more recent in vitro data.4 Thus the lack of capacity of old mice to produce germinal centers reflects age-related defects associated with antigen transport and FDC development.
Cultural Translation, Long-form Journalism, and Readers’ Responses to the Muslim Veil

This article examines, first, news translation as a form of cultural translation, and, second, readers’ responses to this mode of journalism. In particular, it examines the series Derriere le voile… des femmes, published in May 2010 by Radio-Canada.ca, through the lens of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s discussion of the I-Thou relationship, looking first at the stories in the series and then at readers’ comments. This series explained why some Muslim women chose to wear a niqab or veil, but the comments revealed that readers were largely unwilling to see the choice as one made freely. However, the comments also revealed that readers were willing to engage in conversation, pointing to one potential value of long-form interpretive journalism.
World View and Abortion Beliefs: A Replication of Luker's Implicit Hypothesis*

According to Kristin Luker, at the heart of an individual person's beliefs concerning abortion lies a cherished, tacit, and essentially coherent world view. While Luker used the in-depth interview as a way to explore this otherwise unexamined phenomenon, this study attempts to replicate and analyze her implied theory by using a statistical methodology. By drawing on several variables found in 1990 General Social Survey data, Luker's conception of world view is operationalized in the data through both a linear regression model and a factor analysis model and compared with respondents’views on abortion. Both models are found to support Luker's hypothesis, as a clear association between world view and abortion beliefs is established.
Nearest-Subspace Patch Matching for face recognition under varying pose and illumination

We consider the problem of recognizing human faces despite variations in both pose and illumination, using only frontal training images. We propose a very simple algorithm, called nearest-subspace patch matching, which combines a local translational model for deformation due to pose with a linear subspace model for lighting variations. This algorithm gives surprisingly competitive performance for moderate variations in both pose and illumination, a domain that encompasses most face recognition applications, such as access control. The results also provide a baseline for justifying the use of more complicated face models or more advanced learning methods to handle more extreme situations. Extensive experiments on publicly available databases verify the efficacy of the proposed method and clarify its operating range.
Applying new software technologies to solve key system integration issues

This paper introduces a new concept and model for building complex ATE systems. The underlying principles were discovered over several years but were driven home by the difficulty found in modernizing a legacy test system. The result of this effort produced a solution that provided answers to the following three questions: (1) How to achieve asset interchangeability in complex test and measurement systems, (2) How to place test system software in a modular component form that can be reused in different ATE or desk top environments, and (3) How to apply new software technologies in distributed computing to ATE systems.
Emotion Work, Commitment, and the Authentication of the Self The Case of Gay and Ex-Gay Christian Support Groups

Whereas previous research on support groups focuses on cognitive aspects of the self-redefinition process central to support group success, this ethnographic study of gay and ex-gay Christian men e...
Ankyrin repeat and SOCS box 3 (ASB3) mediates ubiquitination and degradation of tumor necrosis factor receptor II

Ankyrin repeat and SOCS box (ASB) family members have a C-terminal SOCS box and an N-terminal ankyrin-related sequence of variable repeats belonging to the SOCS superfamily. While SH2-domain-bearing SOCS proteins are mainly involved in the negative feedback regulation of the protein tyrosine kinase-STAT pathway in response to a variety of cytokines, the roles of ASB family members remain largely unknown. To investigate ASB functions, we screened for ASB3-interacting factors by using antibody array technology and identified tumor necrosis factor receptor II (TNF-R2) as an ASB3 binding target. ASB3 expression and activities are required for (i) TNF-R2 ubiquitination both in vivo and in vitro, (ii) TNF-R2 proteolysis via the proteasome pathway, and (iii) the inhibition of TNF-R2-mediated Jun N-terminal protein kinase (JNK) activation. While the ankyrin repeats of ASB3 interact with the C-terminal 37 amino acids of TNF-R2, the SOCS box of ASB3 is responsible for recruiting the E3 ubiquitin ligase adaptors Elongins-B/C, leading to TNF-R2 ubiquitination on multiple lysine residues within its C-terminal region. Downregulation of ASB3 expression by a small interfering RNA inhibited TNF-R2 degradation and potentiated TNF-R2-mediated cytotoxicity. The data presented here implicate ASB3 as a negative regulator of TNF-R2-mediated cellular responses to TNF-α by direct targeting of TNF-R2 for ubiquitination and proteasome-mediated degradation.
Transition to Group Care for Infants, Toddlers, and Families

Increasing numbers of infants and toddlers are entering out-of-home care and early education programs. Understanding the specific developmental needs of infants and toddlers as they experience the transition from familiar parental care to unfamiliar other care is central to a quality program. Focus is on typically developing infants and toddlers as well as those with special needs in early intervention . This chapter addresses the life-long nature of transitions , the importance of children’s attachment to parents and families, and their emotional reactions surrounding the resultant separation. There is emphasis on cultural and linguistic diversity as well as suggestions for providing a productive transition for both child and family. The chapter underlines the critical importance of relationship-based care in ensuring infant and toddler’s social–emotional and intellectual health. Anecdotal illustrations of good practice center the chapter on day-to-day life.
X-ray Absorption Analysis of Ge and Ga Environments in Ba-Gallogermante Glasses

X-ray absorption spectroscopy has been used to characterize the local structure surrounding Ga and Ge in BaO-Ga2O3-GeO2 glasses. Based on comparisons with results for crystalline standards of known structure, Ge and Ga in all of the glasses are primarily in tetrahedral coordination; no evidence for octahedral coordination is observed. Bond length and coordination values derived from fitting calculations are fairly uniform for all glasses, however disorder increases with increase in BaO and decrease in GeO2 content, especially in the second shell surrounding Ge and Ga. Ge absorption edges for all glasses resemble smoothed BGG-An or GeO2 [quartz] edges. Ga absorption edges of the glasses also resemble the BGG-An edge which has two edge maxima, but in the glasses the relative intensities of the two maxima vary with composition.
Automated Protein Localization of Blood Brain Barrier Vasculature in Brightfield IHC Images

In this paper, we present an objective method for localization of proteins in blood brain barrier (BBB) vasculature using standard immunohistochemistry (IHC) techniques and bright-field microscopy. Images from the hippocampal region at the BBB are acquired using bright-field microscopy and subjected to our segmentation pipeline which is designed to automatically identify and segment microvessels containing the protein glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1). Gabor filtering and k-means clustering are employed to isolate potential vascular structures within cryosectioned slabs of the hippocampus, which are subsequently subjected to feature extraction followed by classification via decision forest. The false positive rate (FPR) of microvessel classification is characterized using synthetic and non-synthetic IHC image data for image entropies ranging between 3 and 8 bits. The average FPR for synthetic and non-synthetic IHC image data was found to be 5.48% and 5.04%, respectively.
Drug-Maintained Performance and the Analysis of Stimulant Reinforcing Effects

Research over the past decade involving drug-maintained performance procedures has demonstrated a good correspondence between compounds self-administered by laboratory animals and those abused by man (Schuster and Thompson, 1969; Deneau, Yanagita, and Seevers, 1969; Woods and Tessel, 1974). More recently, experimental attention has been directed toward the rank ordering of such compounds with respect to their abuse liability relative to the range of drugs self-administered by animal preparations (Yanagita, 1974; Brady, Griffiths, and Winger, 1975). Behavioral procedures for the assessment of comparative dependency potential have been based upon research evaluating the performance-maintenance potential (e.g., reinforcing properties) of a variety of environmental stimuli (e.g., food, water, drugs, etc.). Observed variation in this performance-maintenance potency has been assumed to reflect the “strength” (Hodos, 1961) or “efficacy” (Johanson and Schuster, 1975) of stimuli as response-contingent reinforcers, though the hypothetical status of such intervening processes requires interpretative caution (and healthy skepticism) in comparative assessments of drug abuse liability. Behavioral procedures for measuring the differential reinforcing effects of stimuli may provide, nonetheless, useful information about the relative reinforcing efficacy of various doses of a single drug as well as the rank ordering of different drugs for their abuse potential. The application of these procedures to the analysis of drug self-administration in laboratory animals has generally involved four methodological approaches emphasizing: (1) progressive-ratio measures, (2) rates of drug maintained responding, (3) concurrent schedules of drug reinforcement, and (4) discrete-trial choice procedures.
Pneumocystis jirovecii Pneumonia in Human Immunodeficiency Virus Infection

The presentation of Pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP) in previously healthy men having sex with men (MSM) in San Francisco and New York City in 1981 heralded the beginning of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pandemic. Despite a decreasing incidence of PCP among patients with HIV/AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) since the advent of combination antiretroviral therapy in the mid-1990s, PCP remains one of the most common AIDS-defining opportunistic infections in the United States and Western Europe. Newer molecular diagnostic tests in conjunction with standard immunofluorescent or colorimetric tests have allowed for more rapid and accurate diagnosis. Although several effective oral and intravenous therapies exist to treat PCP, mortality rates in HIV-infected individuals remain unacceptably high, especially in those with advanced AIDS. The identification of specific mutations in Pneumocystis genes targeted by trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole has raised concerns about the development of resistance to the drug of choice and may ultimately lead to greater utilization of alternative therapies to treat PCP in the future.
Substrate Preference, Uptake Kinetics, and Bioenergetics in a Facultatively Autotrophic, Thermoacidophilic Crenarchaeote

Facultative autotrophs are abundant components of communities inhabiting geothermal springs. However, the influence of uptake kinetics and energetics on preference for substrates is not well understood in this group of organisms. Here, we report the isolation of a facultatively autotrophic crenarchaeote, strain CP80, from Cinder Pool (CP, 88.7°C, pH 4.0), Yellowstone National Park. The 16S rRNA gene sequence from CP80 is 98.8% identical to that from Thermoproteus uzonensis and is identical to the most abundant sequence identified in CP sediments. Strain CP80 reduces elemental sulfur (S8°) and demonstrates hydrogen (H2)-dependent autotrophic growth. H2-dependent autotrophic activity is suppressed by amendment with formate at a concentration in the range of 20-40 μM, similar to the affinity constant determined for formate utilization. Synthesis of a cell during growth with low concentrations of formate required 0.5 μJ compared to 2.5 μJ during autotrophic growth with H2 These results, coupled to data indicating greater C assimilation efficiency when grown with formate as compared to carbon dioxide, are consistent with preferential use of formate for energetic reasons. Collectively, these results provide new insights into the kinetic and energetic factors that influence the physiology and ecology of facultative autotrophs in high-temperature acidic environments.
A report of 10 individuals with weathering nodules and review of the literature

Weathering nodules are a benign skin condition that usually present as papules on the helices of patients with significant prior sun exposure. They are easily recognized clinically and blanch upon application of pressure to the adjacent helical rim: a positive blanch sign. We describe the clinical presentation of weathering nodules in 10 patients, nine men and one woman, aging from 38 to 70 (median 59), and their associated risk factors. Eight patients had a history of actinic keratosis, three had a history of nonmelanoma skin cancer, and all patients had increased Sun exposure through outdoor activities. Weathering nodules are rarely mentioned in the literature and may be confused with other cutaneous disorders. Therefore, it is paramount for clinicians to become familiar with weathering nodules and include them in the differential diagnosis of ear nodules. Appropriate diagnosis will help avoid unnecessary biopsies while reassuring the patient that the lesions are benign.
Fine needle aspiration diagnosis of benign metastasizing leiomyoma of the lung: a case report

Percutaneous fine needle aspiration biopsy was performed on a woman with multiple bilateral lung nodules. The cytology and histology showed a benign spindle cell tumor compatible with benign metastasizing leiomyoma. The patient had a history of hysterectomy 14 years earlier for a cellular leiomyoma with atypia. No significant mitosis was present in either the uterine tumor or lung metastasis.
Will the Human Cerebral Cortex Subdue the Oncogenome

Laboratory-made small targeted molecules (copies of some natural substances newly synthesized) subdue the oncoproteins; synthesized siRNAs demolish oncoprotein inducer mRNAs, other miRs induce host-friendly tumor suppressor genes. These substances chemically imitate naturally occurring molecules, but their laboratory derivatives are the products of the master bioengineers DNA/RNA working in the human brain.
Education Finance Policy: Financing the Non-Market and Social Benefits

Human capital contributes to both labor market and non labor-market outcomes. In this paper, the non-market outcomes set the stage in a dynamic process for further earnings growth later. The scope of the non-market outcomes and the dynamic process are both poorly understood. Both become a source of market failure in human capital formation through education (and OJT). The research on private non-market and public social benefit outcomes of education is briefly summarized and compared to earnings outcomes. There is better awareness of the effect of education on earnings. But poor information about non-market outcomes is but one source of market failure. Another is the existence of social benefits that are externalities. Many of these are indirect (through intermediate variables) or benefit future generations. Both are benefits to others. Benefits from the education of prior generations tend to be taken for granted and do not affect investment decisions. It is concluded that the dynamic process reveals that education impacts are larger over 25-40 years than in shorter 5-10 year periods, a problem for myopic politicians and a possible source of under-investment. It is also concluded that inadequate information about the non-market outcomes (and not just capital market imperfections) is a source of market failure that, considering new estimates of narrow (market-only) and total (market-plus-non-market) social rates of return, also contributes to both private and public under-investment. The focus here is not about restructuring education but about the overall level of investment, and about the public/private shares in education financing, that are conducive to economic efficiency in serving both private needs and the public good.
The Wider Picture

A central theme of the book is that the skills and dispositions of democracy should be seen not only as measurable by instruments and tests, rather, the book argues that teachers can look for these attributes in the work of their students. There is an emphasis on student work, on making student assignments meaningful. In the widest sense, the book argues that student work can be seen as the actual stuff of democracy. The final chapter offers two frameworks to guide teachers in their evaluation and facilitation of student work. The chapter also provides possible ideas for open-ended survey questions for teachers to employ with their classes, as well as discusses a Facebook page where teachers can join a professional learning community.
Age-Related Changes in Tree Growth and Physiology

Trees pass through specific developmental phases as they age, including juvenile to adult, and vegetative to reproductive phases. The timing of these transitions is regulated genetically but is also highly influenced by the environment. Tree species have evolved different strategies and life histories that affect how they age – for example some pioneer species are fast growing and become sexually mature at younger ages but have shorter life spans. Trees do not have a strictly programmed senescence, and their life span is influenced by factors including challenges associated with increasing size, and ability to cope with environmental stress such as water availability, rot fungi, insects and disease pressure. Some long-lived tree species escape threats in exceptionally dry environments, while others use clonal reproduction through sprouts from stumps or roots to enable the same genotype to persist for thousands of years. On longer timescales, tree species migrate across landscapes to suitable environments. Key Concepts Forest tree species display a range of strategies and life histories that affect their life span and ageing and can be described in terms of forest succession concepts. Trees undergo juvenile to adult transitions that can be reflected in distinct differences in morphology of leaves, changes in physiology or changes in the anatomy and biochemical makeup of wood. Trees also undergo a period of vegetative growth before becoming sexually mature and competent to make reproductive structures (flowers in angiosperm trees or strobili in gymnosperm trees). Trees do not have a genetically programmed life span or senescence. Life span is affected by limitations imposed by size and abiotic and biotic factors. In some species, while the original tree stem may die, clonal sprouts can form, allowing the same genotype to live for thousands of years. Over long timescales, tree species migrate to accommodate changes in climate over time. Keywords: climate change; forests; forest mortality; tree physiology; tree development
Family with clots: antithrombin deficiency.

A 44-year-old African-American woman presented to the emergency department with chest pain and shortness of breath of 12 hours prior to presentation. Her medical history includes antithrombin deficiency, recurrent deep venous thrombosis (DVT), recurrent pulmonary emboli, poorly controlled hypertension, diabetes mellitus, asthma, inferior vena cava filter placement, pulmonary hypertension and bipolar disorder. Her surgical history includes bilateral pulmonary thromboendarterectomy 3 months prior to presentation. She reported non-compliance to Coumadin. She smokes half a pack per day for the last 25 …
Remote C-H Functionalization via Selective Hydrogen Atom Transfer.

The selective functionalization of remote C–H bonds via intramolecular hydrogen atom transfer (HAT) is transformative for organic synthesis. This radical-mediated strategy provides access to novel reactivity that is complementary to closed-shell pathways. As modern methods for mild generation of radicals are continually developed, inherent selectivity paradigms of HAT mechanisms offer unparalleled opportunities for developing new strategies for C–H functionalization. This review outlines the history, recent advances, and mechanistic underpinnings of intramolecular HAT as a guide to addressing ongoing challenges in this arena. 1 Introduction 2 Nitrogen-Centered Radicals 2.1 sp 3 N-Radical Initiation 2.2 sp 2 N-Radical Initiation 3 Oxygen-Centered Radicals 3.1 Carbonyl Diradical Initiation 3.2 Alkoxy Radical Initiation 3.3 Non-alkoxy Radical Initiation 4 Carbon-Centered Radicals 4.1 sp 2 C-Radical Initiation 4.2 sp 3 C-Radical Initiation 5 Conclusion
Social and Emotional Learning and Early Childhood Education: Redundant Terms?.

Social and emotional learning is a young field, but a very old concept. The idea that children require explicit instruction in social-emotional capacities is present in the writings of philosophers...
Socio-Cultural Effects of Virtual Counseling Interviewers as Mediated by Smartphone Video Conferencing

We explored how users perceive virtual characters that performed the role of a counseling interviewer, while presenting different levels of social class, as well as single or multi-tasking behavior. To investigate this subject, we designed a 2x2 experiment (tasking type and social class of the virtual counseling interviewer). In the experiment, participants experienced the counseling interview interactions over video conferencing on a smartphone. We measured user responses to and perceptions of the virtual human interviewer. The results demonstrate that the tasking types and social class of the virtual counselor affected user responses to and perceptions of the virtual counselor. The results offer insight into the design and development of effective, realistic, and believable virtual human counselors. Furthermore, the results also address current social questions about how smartphones might mediate social interactions, including human-agent interactions.
Using ecological momentary assessment to better understand dietary lapse types

Abstract Frequency of lapsing from a diet predicts weight loss failure, however previous studies have only utilized one definition of dietary lapse. No study has examined different types of lapse behaviors among individuals with overweight/obesity. The current study uses ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine predictors of three lapse types—eating a larger portion than intended, eating an unintended type of food, and eating at an unplanned time—in adults (N = 189; MBMI = 36.93 ± 5.83 kg/m2; 82.0% female; Mage = 51.81 ± 9.76 years) enrolled in a 12-month randomized controlled trial of two behavioral weight loss treatments. Participants completed 14 days of EMA at the start of treatment during which they indicated types of lapses that occurred with time and location of the lapse. Participants also responded to questions assessing current physical (e.g., hunger, tiredness), environmental (e.g., presence of “delicious” foods), and affective (e.g., loneliness, sadness) states at each prompt. Weight change was assessed at post-treatment. Separate generalized estimating equations were used to examine whether states prospectively predicted lapse occurrence at the next survey. Results indicated that lapse types differed significantly across time and location. Momentary increases in deprivation, hunger, and boredom increased likelihood of different lapse types. Lastly, we examined the prospective association between lapse type and weight loss. Eating at an unintended time was the only lapse type that predicted worse weight loss outcomes. Results support the theory that distinct lapse types exist, and that lapse types can be predicted by both momentary conditions and individual tendencies toward certain physical and affective states. However, not all lapse types may impact weight outcomes. Future research on behaviors that constitute dietary lapse is warranted and could inform personalized weight loss treatments.
Does overweight in childhood have an impact on adult health

The consequences of overweight in childhood, including persistence into adulthood and as a risk factor for adverse health consequences, are of substantial concern given the recent upward trend in prevalence. A recent report on an historic cohort--a British 1947 birth cohort--is largely consistent with previous estimates of persistence of overweight. Long-term health consequences of obesity were not demonstrable in this study, likely owing to the small numbers of subjects who were overweight during post-World War II Britain.
Introduction of New Natural Enemies: Principles

The intentional introduction of new natural enemies species to suppress populations of adventive pests has long been an important part of biological control. The process has also been applied to native species which are pests. The objective of the tactic is to introduce safe, effective natural enemies to suppress pest populations, and it has been applied in a wide variety of natural, agricultural, and urban settings. Introduced natural enemies have included invertebrates, vertebrates, and microbes, and these have been employed against pest plants, arthropods, and vertebrates. The potential for control of many pest organisms in diverse environments using introduced natural enemies is substantial. The approach has been applied to only a very small percentage of the world’s pest species, and broader application of the approach would certainly be beneficial.
Nutrition in the elderly: Diet pitfalls and nutrition advice

This final installment of a special series on nutrition in the elderly considers dietary pitfalls and their sequelae. Years of poor dietary habits contribute to biological risk and lifestyle changes in the elderly. Clinicians must properly evaluate the nutritional status of their older patients to restore nutritional adequacy and healthy aging.
Trends and Disparities of Proton Therapy Use among Patients with Head and Neck Cancer: Analysis from the National Cancer Database (2005-14).

Abstract Purpose: The purpose of this study was to analyze national trends and disparities in proton therapy use among patients with head and neck cancer receiving radiotherapy to primary disease s...
Police Involvement in Incidents of Physical Assault: Analysis of the Redesigned National Crime Victimization Survey

Police involvement in incidents of physical assaults against women has been the subject of considerable research. There is still some debate, however, about the relationship between the social structure of the incident and the level of involvement of the criminal justice system. Using the Redesigned National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS; U.S. Department of Justice, 1997), this paper looks at several different dimensions of the criminal justice system's involvement in physical assaults against women including calling the police, police response, and arrest. Results suggest that police were more likely to become involved in first time incidents of physical assaults against women and incidents that involved injury. Differences between models, however, suggested that the involvement of the criminal justice system is a multidimensional process.
TCT-705 Thrombocytopenia and Outcomes After Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation

Thrombocytopenia before and after transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is frequently observed, but its clinical impact on later outcomes remains unclear. We retrospectively reviewed a total of 444 consecutive patients who underwent TAVR (transfemoral, n = 370; nontransfemoral, n = 74) at
Modified Coal Gasification Process for Hydrogen Production

A significant amount of work has been performed to modify the conventional coal gasification process. This chapter presents a brief review of the methods that are supposed to reduce the vast emission of carbon dioxide during the process. Most of these proposed methods include CaO as a CO2 sorbent. Moreover, efforts have also been made to integrate gasification of coal and biomass which can offer several advantages. Similar to Chap. 3, the present chapter briefs about the addition of sodium hydroxide (as a reactant) to the conventional coal gasification process. The sodium hydroxide-assisted reaction operates at a relatively mild condition and has potential to substitute the conventional method. However, there are several existing issues related to the proposed technique which needs to be resolved prior to its deployment.
Cholinergic-Monoaminergic Interactions in Selected Regions of the Brain: Histochemical and Pharmacologic Analyses

The elucidation of neuronal circuitry has been a major goal in the neurosciences. Anatomic studies with radioactive amino acids and other neuronally transported substances such as horseradish peroxidase have focussed on possible relationships among different cell body groups in the central nervous system. In most of these experiments, however, neurochemical features of the relevant neural regions are usually not considered. Yet immense interest in certain of these neurochemicals exists, especially transmitters and related substances involved in neuronal communication processes, because of their obvious or apparent significance for functional neurobiology. In the present report we attempt to address the problem of transmitter neuroanatomy in three regions of the brain thought to be involved in cholinergic-monoaminergic interactions: the substantia nigra, corpus striatum and locus ceruleus.
Improved Protein-Ligand Binding Affinity Prediction with Structure-Based Deep Fusion Inference

Predicting accurate protein-ligand binding affinities is an important task in drug discovery but remains a challenge even with computationally expensive biophysics-based energy scoring methods and state-of-the-art deep learning approaches. Despite the recent advances in the application of deep convolutional and graph neural network-based approaches, it remains unclear what the relative advantages of each approach are and how they compare with physics-based methodologies that have found more mainstream success in virtual screening pipelines. We present fusion models that combine features and inference from complementary representations to improve binding affinity prediction. This, to our knowledge, is the first comprehensive study that uses a common series of evaluations to directly compare the performance of three-dimensional (3D)-convolutional neural networks (3D-CNNs), spatial graph neural networks (SG-CNNs), and their fusion. We use temporal and structure-based splits to assess performance on novel protein targets. To test the practical applicability of our models, we examine their performance in cases that assume that the crystal structure is not available. In these cases, binding free energies are predicted using docking pose coordinates as the inputs to each model. In addition, we compare these deep learning approaches to predictions based on docking scores and molecular mechanic/generalized Born surface area (MM/GBSA) calculations. Our results show that the fusion models make more accurate predictions than their constituent neural network models as well as docking scoring and MM/GBSA rescoring, with the benefit of greater computational efficiency than the MM/GBSA method. Finally, we provide the code to reproduce our results and the parameter files of the trained models used in this work. The software is available as open source at https://github.com/llnl/fast. Model parameter files are available at ftp://gdo-bioinformatics.ucllnl.org/fast/pdbbind2016_model_checkpoints/.
Being a Leader and Doing Leadership: The Cross-domain Impact of Family and Friends on Leader Identity and Leader Behaviors at Work:

This research presents a cross-domain exploration of leader identity. Drawing from theory about multidomain leader development and leader identity social processes, we examine how endorsement as a ...
Translation frameworks and questionnaire design approaches as a component of health research and practice: A discussion and taxonomy of popular translation frameworks and questionnaire design approaches.

Abstract Multilanguage surveys are a vital component of comparative public health science. And, with dozens of tools available to guide the translation and design process, an open dialogue about key translation frameworks and design approaches and their strengths and limitations is needed. Herein, we briefly summarize the application and use of several popular translation frameworks and questionnaire design approaches. Our purpose is to draw attention to the complexities of multilanguage surveys by noting how the most appropriate framework or approach is entirely dependent on the context of a specific study. We conclude with a call encouraging the adoption of frameworks and approaches that value high degrees of cultural input, ideally among a large team of culture, language, and subject matter experts. And, as the implemented translation framework or questionnaire design approach may hold implications for the quality and validity of data, we also call on editors to create recommendations that encourage disclosure of the translation framework(s) and/or questionnaire design approaches guiding multilanguage surveys.
Electron-Transfer Kinetics of Ferrocene in Phenyl Containing Monolayers

A Summary Report to The Electrochemical Society for the 1998 Joseph W. Richards Summer Research Fellowship.
Hierarchical drift diffusion modeling uncovers multisensory benefit in numerosity discrimination tasks

Studies of accuracy and reaction time in decision making often observe a speed-accuracy tradeoff, where either accuracy or reaction time is sacrificed for the other. While this effect may mask certain multisensory benefits in performance when accuracy and reaction time are separately measured, drift diffusion models (DDMs) are able to consider both simultaneously. However, drift diffusion models are often limited by large sample size requirements for reliable parameter estimation. One solution to this restriction is the use of hierarchical Bayesian estimation for DDM parameters. Here, we utilize hierarchical drift diffusion models (HDDMs) to reveal a multisensory advantage in auditory-visual numerosity discrimination tasks. By fitting this model with a modestly sized dataset, we also demonstrate that large sample sizes are not necessary for reliable parameter estimation.
Custom 3D-printed Titanium Implant for Reconstruction of a Composite Chest and Abdominal Wall Defect.

Background Three-dimensional (3D) printing of implantable materials is a recent technological advance that is available for clinical application. The most common medical application of 3D printing in plastic surgery is in the field of craniomaxillofacial surgery. There have been few applications of this technology in other areas. Methods Here, we discuss a case of a large, symptomatic composite thoracic and abdominal defect resulting from the resection of a chondrosarcoma of the costal marginand sections of the abdominal wall, diaphragm, and sternum. The initial and second attempts at reconstruction failed, resulting in a massive hernia. Given the size of the defect, the contiguity with a large abdominal wall defect, and the high risk of recurrence, a rigid thoracic reconstruction was essential to durably repair the thoracic hernia and serve as a scaffold to which both the diaphragm and the abdominal mesh could be secured. A custom-made plate offered the most durable and anatomically accurate reconstruction in this particular clinical scenario. This technology was used in concert with a single section of coated mesh for reconstruction of the diaphragm, chest wall, and abdominal wall. Results There were no post-operative complications. The patient has improvement of his symptoms and increased functional capacity. There is no evidence of hernia recurrence 1.5 years after repair. Conclusions 3D printing technology proved to be a useful and effective application for reconstruction of this large thoracic defect involving the costal margin. It is an available technology that should be considered for reconstruction of rigid structures with defect-specific precision.
Beyond Chemicals: The Lessons that Toxic Substance Regulatory Reform Can Learn from Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is a revolution in applied science. By manipulating molecules on the scale of billionths-of-a-meter, scientists have created materials that exhibit “almost magical feats of conductivity, reactivity, and optical sensitivity, among others.” Nanotechnology also has the potential to drive an economic revolution. Retailers already sell over 300 products that incorporate nanotechnology, and according to one estimate, nanotechnology will be a trillion-dollar-a-year industry by 2015. In congressional testimony, Ray Kurzweil, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kurzweil Techonologies, asserted that nanotechnology would result in the pervasive miniaturization of all human industry by the middle of the twenty-first century.
Journalism as a Profession: The Visionary Scholarship of Wolfgang Donsbach

Few scholars have been more devoted to advancing journalism as a profession than Wolfgang Donsbach. From Wolfgang’s 1975 master’s thesis (“The Role of Mass Communication Research for Professional Training in Journalism”) to his recent article in Journalism (“Journalism as the New Knowledge Profession and Consequences for Journalism Education”), the effort spans nearly four decades.
Chaotic Filter Banks

Chaotic filter bank schemes have been proposed in the research literature to allow for the efficient encryption of data for real-time embedded systems. Some security flaws have been found in the underlying approaches which makes such a scheme unsafe for application in real life scenarios. In this work, we first present an improved scheme to alleviate the weaknesses of the chaotic filter bank scheme, and add enhanced security features, to form a Modified Chaotic Filter Bank (MCFB) scheme. Next, we present a reconfigurable hardware implementation of the MCFB scheme. Implementation on reconfigurable hardware speeds up the performance of MCFB scheme by mapping some of the multipliers in design to reconfigurable Look-Up Tables, while removing many unnecessary multipliers. An optimized implementation on Xilinx Virtex-5 XC5VLX330 FPGA gave a speedup of 30 % over non-optimized direct implementation. A clock frequency of 88 MHz was obtained.
Networked loads in the distribution grid

Central utility services are increasingly networked systems that use an interconnection of sensors and programmable logic controllers, and feed data to servers and human-machine interfaces. These systems are connected to the Internet so that they can be accessed remotely, and the network in these plants is structured according to the SCADA model. Although the physical systems themselves are generally designed with high degrees of safety in mind, and designers of computer systems are well advised to incorporate computer security principles, a combined framework for supervisory control of the physical and cyber architectures in these systems is still lacking. Often absent are provisions to defend against external and internal attacks, and even operator errors that might bypass currently standalone security measures to cause undesirable consequences. In this paper we examine a prototypical instance of SCADA network in the distribution network that handles central cooling and heating for a set of buildings. The electrical loads are networked through programmable logic controllers (PLCs), electrical meters, and networks that deliver data to and from servers that are part of a SCADA system, which has grown in size and complexity over many years.
Quantum Field Theory Renormalization in Curved Space-Time

In these few lectures, I shall present a brief outline of a charged scalar field propagating in given background electromagnetic field and given space-time. The theory will be expressed in terms of functional integrals over the scalar field and the general problem of renormalization discussed. The amplitudes which arise as a result of doing the functional integrals may be evaluated in terms of the Green’s function, or propagator, of the scalar field, which, in turn, may be expressed in terms of the Schwinger-DeWitt proper time formalism. When the various amplitudes are calculated, the final proper time integral will diverge unless the Green’s function is modified or regulated in some way. I shall compare various algorithms for regularizing the theory - point splitting, Pauli-Villars and dimensional continuation - and show their essential equivalence. The renormalization process will be discussed in some detail along with the definition of the renormalized parameters, the ambiguities associated with the parameters and the uniqueness or lack thereof of the process. Finally, I shall discuss the trace anomaly using dimensional regularization and Pauli-Villars regularization and indicate the origin of the anomaly in the two methods as well as showing its uniqueness and independence of the regularization method.
Fuzzy logic supervised ANN feedforward control for a batch polymerization reactor

A polymerization process is a time-varying process. In this paper, the temperature control of a highly exothermic batch polymerization reactor is studied. A fuzzy logic model supervised artificial neural network feedforward PI feedback control (FL-ANN/PI) strategy is developed, in which the FL-ANN feedforward output is applied to compensate for the effect of the major disturbance, heat of reaction. The ANN part consists of two neural networks, a fully recurrent network, which is used to estimate the effect of the heat of reaction on the reaction temperature, and an inverse backpropagation network, which calculates the feedforward signal. The fuzzy logic model supervises the final feedforward output to enhance the reliability of the ANN feedforward control.
Diversity in tree species in Southeastern Ohio Betula nigra L. Communities

Quantitative data were obtained for arboreal species within 50 lowland forests in southeastern Ohio. Thirty-seven communities were dominated by Betula nigra L. and 13 were dominated by Acer saccharinum L. The acidic soils collected from B. nigra communities contained toxic concentrations of exchangeable Al and low concentrations of Ca and Mg. Tree species diversity (Shannon-Weaver index) and species equitability were inversely related to high concentrations of exchangeable Al and H and directly related to high concentrations of exchangeable Ca and Mg and an increase in soil pH.
Making Capitalism Safe: Work Safety and Health Regulation in America, 1880–1940

Review of: "Making Capitalism Safe: Work Safety and Health Regulation in America, 1880–1940," by Donald W. Rogers, a part of the "Working Class in American History Series."
10b5-1 Plans: Mortgaging a Defense Against Insider Trading

In 2006, David Zucker, chief executive officer of Midway Games, came under fire for selling a significant amount of Midway stock just weeks before a precipitous decline in the company’s share price. One year later, Angelo Mozilo, chairman and chief executive officer of Countrywide Financial, also increased the pace of his stock sales in the months before troubles in the U.S. mortgage lending market led to a similar drop off in Countrywide’s share price. Both executives placed their trades through prearranged programs known as 10b5-1 plans. 10b5-1 plans, named after the Securities and Exchange Commission rule which led to their creation, provided a systematic method for corporate executives who were routinely in the possession of material nonpublic information to engage in the sale of company stock. When implemented appropriately, 10b5-1 plans provided a safe haven that shielded these individuals from liability under insider trading laws by demonstrating that certain safeguard conditions were in place at the time the trades were executed. However, the circumstances under which both executives carried out their programs led to an outcry from shareholders that the programs were being abused. Regulators and shareholders were left to decide whether the two men executed their 10b5-1 plans in good faith as required or whether their actions amounted to a sophisticated form of illegal insider trading.
Preischemic glycogen reduction or glycolytic inhibition improves postischemic recovery of hypertrophied rat hearts

The purpose of this study was to determine whether metabolites produced by glycolysis during ischemia significantly contribute to myocardial injury of hypertrophied hearts. The accumulation of glyc...