cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
The Psychology of Loneliness: Some Personality Issues in the Study of Social Support

With certain exceptions, the literature on social support has not emphasized personality issues, focusing instead on the availability of support networks, and the ways in which they contribute to health and well-being. Similarly, little attention has been paid to those factors that might influence the probability of either developing or accessing a supportive social network. Research on relationships and interpersonal behavior more broadly conceived, however, suggests that individuals vary considerably in their ability to achieve interpersonal goals as well as in the skill and confidence necessary to interact with others effectively. The purpose of the present paper then is to consider the role of personality and individual differences in the experience of loneliness and by implication in the process of social support.
Time-lapse imaging beyond the diffraction limit

Abstract The zebrafish, with its rapid external development, optical transparency, and the relative ease with which transgenic lines can be created, is rapidly becoming the model of choice for examining developmental processes via time-lapse microscopy. The recent proliferation of techniques for super-resolution imaging now allows for an unprecedented view of embryonic development at high spatial and temporal resolution in live tissues. This review examines both the theoretical basis and practical application of a number of established and emerging super-resolution microscopy techniques, focusing on their application in time-lapse imaging of live zebrafish embryos.
Convex Bidirectional Large Margin Classifiers

Classification problems are commonly seen in practice. In this paper, we aim to develop classifiers that can enjoy great interpretability as linear classifiers, and at the same time have model flexibility as nonlinear classifiers. We propose convex bidirectional large margin classifiers to fill the gap between linear and general nonlinear classifiers for high dimensional data. Our method provides a new data visualization tool for classification of high dimensional data. The obtained bilinear projection structure makes the proposed classifier very interpretable. Additional shrinkage to approximate variable selection is also considered. Through analysis of simulated and real data in high dimensional settings, our method is shown to have superior prediction performance and interpretability when there are potential subpopulations in the data. The computer code of the proposed method is available as supplemental materials.
Barriers to Electrification for

In Sub-Saharan Africa, 600 million people live without electricity. Despite ambitions of governments and donors to invest in rural electrification, decisions about how to extend electricity access are being made in the absence of rigorous evidence. Using a novel dataset of 20,000 geo-tagged structures in rural Western Kenya, we provide descriptive evidence that electrification rates remain very low despite significant investments in grid infrastructure. This pattern holds across time and for both poor and relatively well-off households and businesses. We argue that if governments wish to leverage existing infrastructure and economies of scale, subsidies and new approaches to financing connections are necessary.
Random Variables and Probability Distributions

A random variable is a mathematical tool for describing an event. It maps the possible outcomes of an event onto a number line as shown below. The Venn diagram shows the sample space with events A and B. These are mapped onto a number line to aid in mathematical calculations.
Modeling and Stability Assessment of Single-Phase Droop Controlled Solid State Transformer

This paper addresses the modeling aspects and small-signal stability considerations for a single-phase droop controlled Solid State Transformer (SST). A state-space based modeling approach is utilized to assess the stability of the SST. It is demonstrated that physical parameter (e.g. grid impedance) variations, the choice of control parameters (e.g. droop control parameters) and the steady state operating point play a crucial role in determining the stability of the SST system that needs to handle wide load variations. Simulation results from a 1kVA droop-controlled SST system are presented to validate the analytical models.
The Moderating Effect of Neighborhood Poverty on Preschool Effectiveness: Evidence From the Tennessee Voluntary Prekindergarten Experiment:

This study drew data from a randomized trial of a statewide prekindergarten program in Tennessee and presents new evidence on the impacts of preK on third-grade achievement using administrative dat...
High Frequency and Early Onset of Bone Mineral Density Loss Following Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation.

Bone mineral density (BMD) loss has been recently associated with allogeneic stem cell transplantation (alloSCT). It is not certain whether BMD loss in alloSCT patients (pts) occurs primarily within the first six months, since some reports cite continuing BMD loss up to six years post-transplant. Furthermore, it has been suggested that alloSCT-BMD loss is more likely to manifest in the femoral neck (FN), as opposed to the lumbar spine (LS). There are no studies that have detailed the incidence of alloSCT-BMD loss. We retrospectively reviewed 90 alloSCT pts who underwent a single alloSCT between 7/1/2001 and 2/26/2005 to assess the frequency of DEXA scan use and alloSCT-BMD loss. 7/1/2001 was chosen as the start date since this was when DEXA scans were first available at RPCI. 50 patients did not have DEXA scans following BMT: 15/50 pts died before day 130, 21/50 pts died after day 130 post BMT, and 14/50 pts are alive post day 130 without DEXA scans (median 1.1 yrs, range 0.34–3.0 yrs). Clinical criteria for obtaining DEXA scans were a medically stable condition with a good KPS and alive at day 130. 37 pts met this criteria. The median survival of the non-DEXA scan pts was 180 (7–1296) days and 571 (110–1282) days for the DEXA scan pts. DEXA scan pt characteristics in this sample included: Median age 39 years (range 7–66); AML (n=12), Lymphoma (n=12), CML (n=5), MDS/MPD (n=5), ALL (n=2), or Aplastic Anemia (n=1); Flu+Mel (n=14), Bu+Cy (n=8), Cy+TBI (n=7), non-myeloablative regimen (n=6), or other regimens (n=2); FK+Mt (n=28), FK+/− other (n=4), Mt (n=2), Cs+Mt (n=2), or Cs+FK+Mt (n=1). Approximately half (n=18/37) of alloSCT pts were found to have BMD loss at day 130 post-transplant. Results were stratified by year, and no trends regarding the frequency of DEXA scans in the population or the frequency of abnormal results over time were noted. There were no differences in terms of conditioning regimens or GVHD prophylaxis between the normal and low BMD groups. Contrary to previously published reports, we did not find a marked difference between the LS and FN T scores of the 18 pts with BMD loss at baseline (LS median T score = −1.4, FN median T score = −1.55). Also, BMD improvement following oral bisphosphonates was seen in six pts with available follow-up scans (LS median T score improved from −1.15 to −0.55, FN median T score improved from −1.45 to −1.1). The day 130 incidence of BMD loss in our alloSCT population was higher than we expected. Therefore, we recommend that all future alloSCT pts undergo DEXA scans as part of the day 100 workup. Further study may elucidate risk factors for BDM loss post BMT. Bisphosphonate use may reverse alloSCT BDM loss.
Deep learning-based cross-domain adaptation for gearbox fault diagnosis under variable speed conditions

Existing intelligent gearbox fault diagnosis approaches have two shortcomings: (a) their performance is mostly confined to manual handcrafted features and (b) they follow a general assumption that the distribution of the data in source domain (labelled data on which the model is trained) is similar with target domain (unlabeled data on which model is tested); which might not be the case in real-world applications. Substantial human expertise and domain knowledge is required for manual feature extraction and moreover deploying the same model for a target domain whose distribution is different from the source domain would lead to poor generalization. Since deep learning methods can automatically learn high dimensional feature representations from raw measurement data, this paper proposes a novel deep learning based domain adaptation method for gearbox fault diagnosis under significant speed variations. A deep convolutional neural network is used as the main architecture. The paper proposes to minimize the summation of cross-entropy loss (between labelled source domain data) and Maximum Mean Discrepancy loss (between labelled source and unlabeled target datasets) simultaneously to adapt source domain model to be applied in the target domain. The proposed deep learning domain adaptation approach is evaluated using experimental data from a gearbox under variable speeds and multiple health conditions. An appropriate benchmarking with both traditional machine learning methods and other domain adaptation methods demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method.
The Brief Case: Recurrent Chromobacterium violaceum Bloodstream Infection in a Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase (G6PD)-Deficient Patient with a Severe Neutrophil Defect

1. What antibiotic would be ineffective in treating Chromobacterium violaceum infection? Answer: b. The organism is known to be resistant to colistin. One of the mechanisms is modification of the lipid A component in lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of the organism. Carbapenems, such as meropenem and
ACUTE POSTERIOR MULTIFOCAL PLACOID PIGMENT EPITHELIOPATHY AFTER IMMUNIZATION WITH MULTIPLE VACCINES.

PURPOSE To report a case of acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy occurring in temporal association with multiple immunizations in a previously healthy 25-year-old woman. METHODS Acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy was diagnosed based on ophthalmological findings of bilateral placoid subretinal lesions complicated by a serous retinal detachment in the left eye. RESULTS Through HLA typing, the patient was found to possess the HLA-B*40 and HLA-DB1*15 alleles. She was treated with topical prednisolone acetate 1% and monitored for several months. The serous retinal detachment resolved, and visual acuity returned to normal. CONCLUSION This case report adds to the body of knowledge regarding possible atypical interplay between vaccines and specific T-cell receptors of the host immune system and adds Polio and Tetanus to the growing list of vaccines potentially triggering acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy. Increased awareness of the presentation of acute posterior multifocal placoid pigment epitheliopathy and that it may arise after immunization may also improve evaluation of acute changes in visual acuity.
THE CONTEXTUALIZED SITUATIONS CONSTRUCTED FOR THE USE OF STATISTICS BY SCHOOL MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS

The consideration of context is crucial in the discipline of statistics. In this paper, I present a Foucauldian discourse analysis (FDA) of two popular high school mathematics textbook series in the United States investigating what contextual situations they construct for the (re)use of statistics. As FDA is a novel approach in statistics education,an extended discussion is provided to help show a rationale for its use and to provide a foundation for others. An important finding is that the contextualized situations presented in both textbook series are predominantly fictional, neutral, and providelimited raw data. The findings have implications for the teaching and learning of statistics in view ofrecent calls for more focus on data and statistical literacy in schools. First published November 2019 at Statistics Eduation Research Journal Archives
Stress-defect-life interactions of fatigued additively manufactured alloy 718

Abstract Defects in additively manufactured alloys commonly reduce fatigue life, and traditional S-N portrayals of the data provide little insight into failure mechanisms. Closer observation of failure-inducing defects show, however, that the debit is directly related to the defect size and location. In this work, scatter in both literature and experimental S-N data is reduced using Murakami’s stress intensity factor equation, and El-Haddad’s fatigue limit framework is leveraged to predict finite life of components. Scatter in S-N fatigue data becomes highly predictable, and relationships between pore size, applied stress, and fatigue life are clearly defined for defect tolerant design efforts.
Factors Associated With Pediatric Emergency Airway Management by the Difficult Airway Response Team.

Background The goal of this study was to determine if difficult airway risk factors were similar in children cared for by the difficult airway response team (DART) and those cared for by the rapid response team (RRT). Methods In this retrospective database analysis of prospectively collected data, we analyzed patient demographics, comorbidities, history of difficult intubation, and intubation event details, including time and place of the emergency and devices used to successfully secure the airway. Results Within the 110-patient cohort, median age (IQR) was higher among DART patients than among RRT patients [8.5 years (0.9-14.6) versus 0.3 years (0.04-3.6); P 5 years (aOR, 13.1; 95% CI: 1.85-93.4) than for those less than one-year-old. DART patients were more likely to have craniofacial abnormalities (aOR, 51.6; 95% CI: 2.50-1065.1), airway swelling (aOR, 240.1; 95% CI: 13.6-4237.2), or trauma (all DART managed). Among patients intubated by the DART, children with a history of difficult airway were more likely to have musculoskeletal (P = 0.04) and craniofacial abnormalities (P < 0.001), whereas children without a known history of difficult airway were more likely to have airway swelling (P = 0.04). Conclusion Specific clinical risk factors predict the need for emergency airway management by the DART in the pediatric hospital setting. The coordinated use of a DART to respond to difficult airway emergencies may limit attempts at endotracheal tube placement and mitigate morbidity.
Fast and Accurate PPA Modeling with Transfer Learning

The power, performance, and area (PPA) of a System-on-Chip (SoC) is known only after a months-long process. This process includes iterations over the architectural design, register transfer level implementation, RTL synthesis, and place and route. Knowing the PPA estimates for a system early in the design stages can help resolve tradeoffs that will affect the final design. This work presents a machine learning approach using gradient boost models and neural networks to fast and accurately predict the PPA. This work focuses on reducing the number of samples used to create the models. The models use transfer learning to predict the PPA for new design configurations and corner conditions based on previous models. The models predict the PPA as a function of parameters accessible during the RTL synthesis. The proposed models achieved PPA predictions up to 99% accurate and using as few as 10 data samples can achieve accuracies better than 96%.
Hypercane: toolkit for summarizing large collections of archived webpages

In the Dark and Stormy Archives (DSA) project, we focus on storytelling techniques to summarize collections of archived web pages. Since collections can have hundreds or even thousands of seeds (initial URLs) and each seed can be recrawled many times, with each version separately maintained, techniques that include information about all members of the collection can be overwhelming. The premise of storytelling is to focus on sampling exemplar pages from the collection, and present them in a social media interface familiar to users. We present Hypercane, the tool in the DSA suite responsible for selecting exemplar pages. Hypercane offers eight action statements that can be combined in various ways to customize the sample that is produced. Because of its modular design, Hypercane can also be used to analyze large web archive collections outside of the DSA suite.
Adaptive step size selection in distributed optimization with observation noise and unknown stochastic target variation

Abstract This paper introduces distributed adaptive algorithms for optimal step size selection in a distributed constrained optimization problem that involves stochastic target variations and noisy observations. The limit behavior of the step size sequences reflects fundamental impact that must be balanced between tracking the target changes and attenuating observation noises. Algorithms for simultaneously estimating target variation, tracking the global optimal solution, and finding the optimal step size are derived, which are shown to achieve convergence on all the sequences simultaneously to their respective optimal values.
Moving Toward a Theory of CSCL

In this paper we look across research projects and research perspectives to address the issue of theory-building in the context of CSCL. We propose that successful collaborative learning is a function of shared goals leading to a shared understanding. Shared understanding however, is mutually determined by factors such as the nature of the tool (e. g., CSILE), the context in which learning occurs and the role of the teacher/facilitator.
Depression and Cardiovascular Disease in Women: Behavioral and Biological Mechanisms Involved in this Association

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) and depression are conditions that frequently co-occur, particularly among women. It has been estimated that about one in every five patients with CVD meets criteria for major depressive disorder, and an even greater number endorse subclinical levels of depressive symptoms. Most importantly, prospective studies have demonstrated that depression is a strong predictor of CVD onset, cardiac adverse events, and mortality from CVD. This association appears to be more pronounced among women. As evidence accumulates, great interest has been given to putative mechanisms that may account for this association and both behavioral and biological pathways have been proposed. The leading behavioral hypotheses suggest depression is likely to increase the risk of CVD through its influence on medication adherence and/or poor health behaviors. Biological pathways posited to link these two conditions include the inflammatory response, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity, genetic influences, and the adipokine, leptin. Although further research is needed to better integrate the behavioral and biological pathways linking these two conditions, intervention efforts are already on their way. Various randomized clinical control trials targeting depressive symptoms among men and women with CVD have been conducted, increasing our knowledge on how to safely address depression in the context of CVD.
H ∞ fault estimation for a class of nonlinear sampled-data systems with time delay

For a class of nonlinear system with time delay, under the existence of disturbances and faults, we take the sample period to discrete the system using Eular approximation to obtain the discrete mode. Then, we design and structure an observer of fault estimation for the discrete system, making the error system asymptotic stability, meanwhile, getting the fault estimation laws and the gain matrix of the observer. At last, a numerical example is provided to prove the effectiveness of this method.
Solar flux variations and concepts for a stellar photometric satellite

The flux of radiation from an astronomical object contains most of the information we are likely to get from it. The wavelength dependence of the radiation (its spectrum) gives us a remarkably rich array of clues about the nature of an object. The time dependence also contains many clues, but the study of the time variations has had severe limitations in the past both because of the lack of precision of measurement and because of the limited completeness of the time series available for study. Recent solar observations have made breakthroughs in both of these directions. This paper simply points out the significance of these observations for stellar astronomy.
The role of molecular chaperones in clathrin mediated vesicular trafficking

The discovery that the 70 kD ‘uncoating ATPase’, which removes clathrin coats from vesicles after endocytosis, is the constitutively expressed Hsc70 chaperone was a surprise. Subsequent work, however, revealed that uncoating is an archetypal Hsp70 reaction: the cochaperone auxilin, which contains a clathrin binding domain and an Hsc70 binding J domain, recruits Hsc70*ATP to the coat and, concomitant with ATP hydrolysis, transfers it to a hydrophobic Hsc70-binding element found on a flexible tail at the C-terminus of the clathrin heavy-chain. Release of clathrin in association with Hsc70*ADP follows, and the subsequent, persistent association of clathrin with Hsc70 is important to prevent aberrant clathrin polymerization. Thus, the two canonical functions of Hsp70—dissociation of existing protein complexes or aggregates, and binding to a protein to inhibit its inappropriate aggregation—are recapitulated in uncoating. Association of clathrin with Hsc70 in vivo is regulated by Hsp110, an Hsp70 NEF that is itself a member of the Hsp70 family. How Hsp110 activity is itself regulated to make Hsc70-free clathrin available for endocytosis is unclear, though at synapses it’s possible that the influx of calcium that accompanies depolarization activates the Ca++/calmodulin dependent calcineurin phosphatase which then dephosphorylates and activates Hsp110 to stimulate ADP/ATP exchange and release clathrin from Hsc70*ADP:clathrin complexes.
The Dynamics of Chromosome Replication in Yeast

Publisher Summary This chapter deals with the dynamic aspects of chromosome replication in yeast and describes how the program of replication is laid down and carried out in Saccharomyces cerevisiae , with particular emphasis on the dynamic aspects of. It explains how the control of replication initiation is tied to phases of the cell cycle, how the activation of different origins within the genome are coordinated, and how checkpoint surveillance systems monitor and ensure the orderly progress and completion of S phase. The chapter provides a brief overview of the methods that are used most commonly in studying replication––namely, (1) the autonomously replicating sequence assay, (2) two-dimensional agarose gel electrophoresis, (3) alkaline gel electrophoresis assay for nascent DNA strands, (4) density transfer method to determine the time of replication, (5) single molecule analysis by molecular combing, and (6) assaying replication on a genomic scale. The intra-S and S/M checkpoints are discussed, with particular attention to the question of what the checkpoint signal is and what is regulated as a response. Checkpoints have been found to promote genome stability by enforcing the ordered execution of cell cycle events and by monitoring the integrity of intracellular structures. Genetic and biochemical analyses have revealed several checkpoint pathways––that is, signals that are recognized at different times in the cell cycle and are transduced in different ways to achieve different effects.
Prosecution Use of Estoppel and Related Doctrines in Criminal Cases: Promoting Consistency, Tolerating Inconsistency

Four consistency promoting doctrines play a role in criminal cases: stare decisis, res judicata, collateral estoppel, and law of the case. While these doctrines engender consistency, increase efficiency and conserve scarce resources, allowing the prosecution to employ them offensively against a criminal defendant may compromise the defendant’s rights and the interest in justice. As a result, offensive use should be permitted with caution and only after careful consideration. Although some matters, such as rulings on motions to suppress, are often appropriate for offensive use of these doctrines, courts should nevertheless assess concerns of fairness before applying the doctrines against the defendant. Other matters, such as evidentiary rulings, are almost never appropriate subjects for offensive use of these doctrines. Most importantly, courts should never apply consistency promoting doctrines to bar the defendant from litigating an element of the offense, even if that element was arguably resolved by an earlier conviction. Courts should also decline to apply these consistency promoting doctrines against third parties to foreclose them from litigating an issue resolved in a proceeding in which they did not participate. Currently, state and federal courts vary in their application of these doctrines: some courts apply them when they should not, and others fail to apply them when they should. By focusing on and weighing the government’s and the defendant’s interests, courts will more accurately define the appropriate offensive use of these doctrines.
Particle Acceleration at the Sun and in the Heliosphere

Energetic particles are accelerated in rich profusion at sites throughout the heliosphere. They come from solar flares in the low corona, from shock waves driven outward by coronal mass ejections (CMEs), from planetary magnetospheres and bow shocks. They come from corotating interaction regions (CIRs) produced by high-speed streams in the solar wind, and from the heliospheric termination shock at the outer edge of the heliospheric cavity. We sample all these populations near Earth, but can distinguish them readily by their element and isotope abundances, ionization states, energy spectra, angular distributions and time behavior. Remote spacecraft have probed the spatial distributions of the particles and examined new sources in situ. Most acceleration sources can be "seen" only by direct observation of the particles; few photons are produced at these sites. Wave-particle interactions are an essential feature in acceleration sources and, for shock acceleration, new evidence of energetic-proton-generated waves has come from abundance variations and from local cross-field scattering. Element abundances often tell us the physics the source plasma itself, prior to acceleration. By comparing different populations, we learn more about the sources, and about the physics of acceleration and transport, than we can possibly learn from one source alone.
Laplacian spectrum learning

The eigenspectrum of a graph Laplacian encodes smoothness information over the graph. A natural approach to learning involves transforming the spectrum of a graph Laplacian to obtain a kernel. While manual exploration of the spectrum is conceivable, non-parametric learning methods that adjust the Laplacian's spectrum promise better performance. For instance, adjusting the graph Laplacian using kernel target alignment (KTA) yields better performance when an SVM is trained on the resulting kernel. KTA relies on a simple surrogate criterion to choose the kernel; the obtained kernel is then fed to a large margin classification algorithm. In this paper, we propose novel formulations that jointly optimize relative margin and the spectrum of a kernel defined via Laplacian eigenmaps. The large relative margin case is in fact a strict generalization of the large margin case. The proposed methods show significant empirical advantage over numerous other competing methods.
Prolonged prenatal hypernatremia alters neuroendocrine and electrolyte homeostasis in neonatal sheep.

Arginine vasopressin (AVP) is a neuroendocrine hormone synthesized in the hypothalamus, and is stored and secreted by the posterior pituitary gland in response to stimuli such as plasma hypertonicity and hypotension. The primary physiologic roles of AVP include plasma osmolality and blood pressure regulation. We have previously demonstrated that chronic prenatal plasma hypertonicity alters the AVP regulatory pathway in newborn lambs. The objectives of the present study were to evaluate prolonged effects of antenatal plasma hypertonicity on neonatal plasma osmoregulation. Pregnant ewes at 119 ± 3 days of gestation were water restricted to achieve and maintain hypertonicity until normal-term delivery. After delivery, ewes were provided food and water ad libitum and lambs were allowed maternal nursing. At the age of 28 days, blood samples were obtained for the analysis of plasma osmolality, electrolytes, and AVP levels from study (n = 5) and age-matched control (n = 6) lambs. Subsequently, lambs were euthani...
Tissue tropism and neuroinvasion of West Nile virus do not differ for two mouse strains with different survival rates

West Nile virus (WNV) is a mosquito-borne flavivirus that infects the central nervous system of humans and other animals. In this study, we found that C3H/HeN (C3H) mice exhibited a higher morbidity and mortality than C57BL/6 (B6) mice. We compared tissue tropism, viral replication and kinetics for C3H and B6 mice during acute viral infection. WNV was detected in multiple tissues, including novel sites such as the skin, duodenum and pancreas, but the tropism was identical for the two strains. Additionally, viral load and kinetics of spread did not differ substantially between strains. Neuroinvasion occurred in both strains by day 3 post-inoculation with early detection in the olfactory bulbs and spinal cord, suggesting that WNV neuroinvades at specific sites. Furthermore, neuroinvasion and viral load in the CNS did not predict disease outcome. Our data suggest that the disparities in morbidity and mortality between C3H and B6 mice are not due to differences in tropism, viral load or kinetics during acute WNV infection.
Constants of Lie algebra actions

Let R be an associative algebra over a field k and let L be a Lie algebra over k acting on R as derivations. We will be interested in studying the relationship between R and the ring of constants RL. Our situation is a special case of the study of rings of invariants of Hopf algebra actions and is also analogous to another special case of Hopf algebra actions, namely, the study of fixed rings of finite group actions. Many of the results in this paper are analogs of results on group actions and give rise to more general questions regarding Hopf algebra actions. In Section 1, we study actions on non-nilpotent algebras. We first show that any algebraic derivation has non-zero constants and then prove that any finite dimensional nilpotent Lie algebra of algebraic derivations must act with non-zero constants. It then follows, as a corollary, that any finite dimensional nilpotent restricted Lie algebra must act with non-zero constants. These are analogs of results on groups proved in [ 12, 5). In Section 2, we prove a necessary condition for the existence of nonzero invariants of certain Hopf algebra actions. We then use this result to prove the converse of our theorem on nilpotent restricted Lie algebras. We conclude the section with several questions on general Hopf algebra actions.
Convergence properties of modular eigenfunctions for the p(⋅)-Laplacian

Abstract The variation of the first Dirichlet eigenfunction for the modular p ( ⋅ ) -Laplacian is studied as a generalization of the constant case. The stability of the eigenfunctions under perturbations of the norm of the underlying spaces (i.e., with respect to perturbations of the exponent p ( ⋅ ) ) is observed.
Hepatic steroid metabolizing enzyme activity during early, mid, and late bovine pregnancy

The objective was to examine hepatic steroid inactivating enzymes throughout gestation and determine the effect of early to mid-gestation maternal nutrient restriction followed by realimentation on the activity of these enzymes. On day 30 of gestation, cows were
Effects of the dipole interaction in superfluid 3He-B.

The effects of the dipole interaction on the equilibrium and nonequilibrium properties of /sup 3/He-B are calculated using the quasiclassical theory. In zero field, the dipole interaction distorts the l = 1 gap, generates an l = 3 gap, and induces a new rotated planar phase next to the normal-state transition. The field dependence of the Leggett angle theta/sub L/ is calculated to order (..gamma..H/..delta..)/sup 2/, including the effect of nonquasiparticle corrections. Using the equilibrium properties as input, we calculate the zero-field NMR frequencies in the collisionless regime. A calculation of the field dependence of the longitudinal NMR frequency reveals the existence of a Fermi-liquid oscillation term due to the out-of-phase motion of the normal and superfluid components. Finally, we compare the collisionless and hydrodynamic theories of NMR.
The cost of lead-time variability: The case of the exponential distribution

Abstract We present closed-form solutions for the reorder point, z, the order quantity with non-zero lead time, Q, and the total relevant cost, TRC(z, Q, K′), where the lead time is doubly truncated (at r = z / D and r + q = z / D + Q / D , D being a constant demand rate), using the concept of pseudo-setup cost, K′. We aim to provide a paradigm for quantifying the effect lead-time variability on cost, as such paradigms are lacking in the inventory literature. From our analysis, we conclude that to achieve zero inventory (ZI) in a stochastic lead-time setting, both the setup cost and the lead-time variability would have to be eliminated. Furthermore, it is the variance and not the mean that affects the total relevant cost in a stochastic lead-time model. Besides the statistical analysis, we examine the economic impact of the truncation and determine model accuracy by means of a heuristic that is robust to parameter changes and that allows the convenience of substituting in the analysis the doubly truncated Exp( λ ) by an untruncated Exp( λ + 1 ), with a loss of accuracy of no more than 5 percent for all numerical examples tested.
An assembly landscape for the 30S ribosomal subunit.

Self-assembling macromolecular machines drive fundamental cellular processes, including transcription, mRNA processing, translation, DNA replication, and cellular transport. The ribosome, which carries out protein synthesis, is one such machine, and the 30S subunit of the bacterial ribosome is the preeminent model system for biophysical analysis of large RNA-protein complexes. Our understanding of 30S assembly is incomplete, due to the challenges of monitoring the association of many components simultaneously. We have developed a new method involving pulse-chase monitored by quantitative mass spectrometry (PC/QMS) to follow the assembly of the 20 ribosomal proteins with 16S rRNA during formation of the functional particle. These data represent the first detailed and quantitative kinetic characterization of the assembly of a large multicomponent macromolecular complex. By measuring the protein binding rates at a range of temperatures, we have found that local transformations throughout the assembling subunit have similar but distinct activation energies. This observation shows that the prevailing view of 30S assembly as a pathway proceeding through a global rate-limiting conformational change must give way to a view in which the assembly of the complex traverses a landscape dotted with a variety of local conformational transitions.
Barb geometry of asymmetrical feathers reveals a transitional morphology in the evolution of avian flight

The geometry of feather barbs (barb length and barb angle) determines feather vane asymmetry and vane rigidity, which are both critical to a feather's aerodynamic performance. Here, we describe the relationship between barb geometry and aerodynamic function across the evolutionary history of asymmetrical flight feathers, from Mesozoic taxa outside of modern avian diversity (Microraptor, Archaeopteryx, Sapeornis, Confuciusornis and the enantiornithine Eopengornis) to an extensive sample of modern birds. Contrary to previous assumptions, we find that barb angle is not related to vane-width asymmetry; instead barb angle varies with vane function, whereas barb length variation determines vane asymmetry. We demonstrate that barb geometry significantly differs among functionally distinct portions of flight feather vanes, and that cutting-edge leading vanes occupy a distinct region of morphospace characterized by small barb angles. This cutting-edge vane morphology is ubiquitous across a phylogenetically and functionally diverse sample of modern birds and Mesozoic stem birds, revealing a fundamental aerodynamic adaptation that has persisted from the Late Jurassic. However, in Mesozoic taxa stemward of Ornithurae and Enantiornithes, trailing vane barb geometry is distinctly different from that of modern birds. In both modern birds and enantiornithines, trailing vanes have larger barb angles than in comparatively stemward taxa like Archaeopteryx, which exhibit small trailing vane barb angles. This discovery reveals a previously unrecognized evolutionary transition in flight feather morphology, which has important implications for the flight capacity of early feathered theropods such as Archaeopteryx and Microraptor. Our findings suggest that the fully modern avian flight feather, and possibly a modern capacity for powered flight, evolved crownward of Confuciusornis, long after the origin of asymmetrical flight feathers, and much later than previously recognized.
Syncope Recurrence in Children: Relation to Tilt-test Results

Objectives. To examine the intermediate-term outcome of children with syncope and its relationship to tilt test. Design. This was a retrospective study of 45 children. In 20, the tilt test was negative. Follow-up with respect to the recurrence of syncope was obtained via chart review, a mailed questionnaire, or telephone interview. Results. Follow-up data were available on 15 children whose tilt test was negative and on all 25 tilt-test positive children. Recurrent syncope was significantly greater in the positive-tilt children (13 of 25) than the negative-tilt children (2 of 15). There was no difference between the syncope-free group and the recurrent syncope group or between the tilt-positive and tilt-negative groups with respect to age at initial syncope, duration of symptoms, age at tilt test, and duration of follow-up. Children with a positive tilt test and those with recurrent syncope had more syncopal episodes before their evaluation than either the group with a negative tilt test or the group with no recurrent syncope, respectively. Conclusions. Syncope may recur after either a negative or a positive tilt test. The recurrence rate, however, is higher for the tilt-positive children.
Linkage of cation binding and folding in human telomeric quadruplex DNA.

Abstract Formation of DNA quadruplexes requires monovalent cation binding. To characterize the cation binding stoichiometry and linkage between binding and folding, we carried out KCl titrations of Tel22 (d[A(GGGTTA)3]), a model of the human telomere sequence, using a fluorescent indicator to determine [K+]free and circular dichroism to assess the extent of folding. At [K+]free = 5 mM (sufficient for > 95% folding), the apparent binding stoichiometry is 3K+/Tel22; at [K+]free = 20 mM, it increased to 8–10K+/Tel22. Thermodynamic analysis shows that at [K+]free = 5 mM, K+ binding contributes approximately − 4.9 kcal/mol for folding Tel22. The overall folding free energy is − 2.4 kcal/mol, indicating that there are energetically unfavorable contributions to folding. Thus, quadruplex folding is driven almost entirely by the energy of cation binding with little or no contribution from other weak molecular interactions.
A Method for Testing a Priori Regression Models

A method is developed for testing a priori multiple regression models. The method allows one to specify in advance as many unstandardized or standardized coefficients as one wants to and allows the remaining slopes to be free to vary. The comparative strength and predictive power of competing models is accessed by the absolute and proportional difference in R2 and by an accompanying F test. Computer techniques for the procedures are given in the Appendix.
Potential impact of selected agricultural chemical contaminants on a northern prairie wetland: A microcosm evaluation.

An aquatic, multicomponent microcosm simulating a northern prairie wetland was used to assess the potential effects of six extensively used agricultural pesticides on this important wildlife habitat. Using a nested experimental design, 16 4-liter aquatic microcosms were treated with three concentrations of each of the pesticides carbofuran, fonofos, phorate, atrazine, treflan and trial-late. The microcosm units were incubated for 30 d in an environmental chamber, with a 16-h light:8-h dark cycle, maintained at 20°C. Specific limnological, biological and toxicological parameters were monitored over time by observing the interactions of water, animals, sediment and plants with the pesticides. The laboratory protocol was designed as an initial, rapid, economical screening test to determine the effect, but not the fate, of chemical contaminants in terms of toxicity, impaired productivity and community biochemical functions. Static acute toxicity tests with Daphnia magna and Chironomus riparius suggested that carbofuran, fonofos, phorate and triallate were very toxic to aquatic invertebrates. For D. magna the 48-h EC50 values were 48, 15, 19 and 57 μg/L, respectively. Invertebrate viability tests indicated rapid changes in the toxicological persistence of these pesticides after microcosm interaction. Populations of D. magna were established in the 10 μg/L test concentration of carbofuran, phorate, triallate and fonofos at 1, 1, 14 and 28 d, respectively. Preexposure of the wetland sediments to either triallate or fonofos did not appear to change the relative toxicological persistence of each compound in the water column. Changes in pH, alkalinity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, total nitrogen and total phosphorus were also observed with different pesticide treatments. Atrazine significantly reduced gross primary productivity and inhibited algal and macrophytic growth. In general, there was no evidence of significant inhibition of microbial functions in the water or hydrosoil of the treated microcosms. The respiratory electron transfer system, phosphatase activity, oxygen consumption and mineralization of dissolved organic carbon were not significantly impacted by any of these pesticides in hydrosoils. However, the impact of atrazine, fonofos and triallate on invertebrates and plants in the microcosm—both key elements in wetland productivity—would suggest that caution be used in application of these pesticides in or near wetland habitats.
Surgical excision of radial scars diagnosed by core biopsy may help predict future risk of breast cancer.

Radial scars (RS’s) are benign breast lesions known to be associated with carcinomas and other high-risk lesions (HRL’s). The upgrade rate to carcinoma after core biopsy revealing RS is 0–40 %. We sought to determine the outcomes of RS with and without HRL diagnosed by core biopsy. Patients who underwent core biopsy revealing RS without carcinoma at our institution between 1/1996 and 11/2012 were identified from a surgical pathology database. Retrospective chart review was utilized to classify patients as RS-no HRL or RS-HRL. HRL was defined as ADH, LCIS, and/or ALH. We determined upgrade rate to carcinoma at surgical excision, and upgrade to HRL for RS-no HRL patients. Univariate analysis was performed to identify risk factors for upgrade in RS-no HRL patients. 156 patients underwent core biopsy revealing RS, 131 RS-no HRL (84 %), and 25 RS-HRL (16 %). The overall rate of upgrade to invasive carcinoma was 0.8 % (1/124). 1.0 % (1/102) of RS-no HRL and 13.6 % (3/22) of RS-HRL patients were upgraded to DCIS (P = 0.0023). The upgrade of RS-no HRL to HRL at excision was 21.6 % (22/102). By univariate analysis, RS-no HRL with radiologic appearance of a mass/architectural distortion had a significantly higher rate of upgrade to HRL or carcinoma compared with calcifications (P = 0.03). Excision of RS to rule out associated invasive carcinoma is not warranted, given a <1 % rate of upgrade at excision. However, excision to evaluate for non-invasive cancer or HRL may be considered to help guide clinical decision-making about use of chemoprevention.
Calculation of Reorientation Rates of OH - Defects in RbBr Using Accurate Phonon Spectra

In a recent experiment Kapphan and L\"uty measured the reorientation rate of O${\mathrm{H}}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ defects in RbBr in the temperature range 1-15\ifmmode^\circ\else\textdegree\fi{}K. In this paper we present a theoretical calculation of the reorientation rate in which we treat the defect-lattice coupling and the lattice frequency spectrum as accurately as possible. The coupling is assumed to contain a strain-dipole component and an electric-dipole component; the magnitudes of the two components and the "bare" tunneling matrix element provide three parameters which are adjusted to produce the best agreement with experiment. The lattice spectrum is calculated using shell-model parameters chosen to agree with recent neutron-diffraction data on phonons in RbBr. The relaxation rate is calculated to all orders in the number of phonons. The temperature dependence of the renormalized tunneling matrix element is included. Calculated reorientation rates are in excellent agreement with experiment, but there is no unique choice of the parameters that produces a best fit. The results indicate that at low temperatures the rate is controlled by strain-dipole single-phonon processes and that at high temperatures electric-dipole multiphonon processes are dominant. Plausibility arguments are used to choose a "most probable" set of parameters that is consistent with the reorientation data, and this choice is in satisfactory agreement with values of the parameters obtained from the measured external electric-dipole moment and stress-splitting factor.
Lactate oxidation in the upper-shore barnacle, Chthamalus depressus (Poli).

Abstract 1. 1. Three species of barnacles were collected from the rocky shore at Banyuls-sur-Mer, Pyrenees Orientales, France: Chthamalus depressus was taken from rock crevices of the splash zone, Chthamalus stellatus from the intertidal zone and Balanus perforatus from the shallow subtidal level; isolated shell-less whole bodies were placed in flasks of a Warburg respirometer for determination of oxygen consumption. 2. 2. In all three species, the mean individual oxygen uptake was proportional to the 2 3 power of the mean individual body weight; weight-specific oxygen uptake decreased with increasing size, and decreased with height of the species habitat on the shore. 3. 3. Respiration of the species most exposed to air, C. depressus, regularly diminished during the course of measurement, and sometimes ceased entirely. 4. 4. Added dl -lactate at a final concentration of 1·0 M had no effect on oxygen uptake. 5. 5. Extracts of C. depressus catalyzed the oxidation of l -lactate only, at rates greater than those of other crustaceans at high substrate concentrations, but the apparent Michaelis constant, estimated at 345 mM, indicated an extraordinary insensitivity to concentrations of the endogenous level.
Criteria for Diagnosing DSM-III Borderline Personality Disorder

AbstractOne hundred fifty-nine psychiatric outpatients were examined to determine which of the DSM-III Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) criteria were most valid in terms of sensitivity, specificity, predictive power positive, and predictive power negative. Combinations of two criteria predicted better than individual ones and combinations of three criteria predicted better still. It is possible that in many instances BPD can be efficiently diagnosed by three criteria. These results were compared to previous findings. The exact criteria that best discriminate depends to a large extent on the comparison groups used. In general it appears the current criteria for BPD are capable of discriminating diverse subject groups. The possibility of searching for “core criteria” that broadly discriminate between differing subject groups is discussed.