cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
USE OF AGE‐ AND STAGE‐STRUCTURED MATRIX MODELS TO PREDICT LIFE HISTORY SCHEDULES FOR SEMELPAROUS POPULATIONS

Many studies of semelparous salmon populations use Leslie matrices that classify individuals on the basis of age alone and do not explicitly impose death upon reproduction. Although these models may suffice for studying long-term population dynamics (like asymptotic growth rate), they do not accurately represent the diversity of individual life history outcomes in semelparous populations. Cohorts breeding at different ages have different life history traits (e.g., age at first reproduction and remaining life expectancy) that are obscured in Leslie models and this distorts our understanding of life history diversity and its importance for semelparous population dynamics. We present a simple transformation that uses age-specific breeding probabilities to reconfigure Leslie matrices as explicitly semelparous models. Explicitly semelparous models conserve asymptotic measures like population growth rate, vital rate elasticities, life expectancy at birth, and generation time but also better predict life history schedules and reproductive values. Strictly age-classified Leslie models underestimate ages at first reproduction and mean ages at death for older breeders but overestimate mean ages at death for early breeders. Leslie models also slightly overestimate variance in lifetime reproductive success, and underestimate entropy exhibited by life history outcomes.
Visualizing epithelial expression of EGFR in vivo with distal scanning side-viewing confocal endomicroscope

Confocal endomicroscopy is an emerging imaging technology that has recently been introduced into the clinic to instantaneously collect "optical biopsies" in vivo with histology-like quality. Here, we demonstrate a fast scanner located in the distal end of a side-viewing instrument using a compact lens assembly with numerical aperture of 0.5 to achieve a working distance of 100 μm and field-of-view of 300 × 400 μm2. The microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) mirror was designed based on the principle of parametric resonance and images at 5 frames per second. The instrument has a 4.2 mm outer diameter and 3 cm rigid length, and can pass through the biopsy channel of a medical endoscope. We achieved real time optical sections of NIR fluorescence with 0.87 μm lateral resolution, and were able to visualize in vivo binding of a Cy5.5-labeled peptide specific for EGFR to the cell surface of pre-cancerous colonocytes within the epithelium of dysplastic crypts in mouse colon. By performing targeted imaging with endomicroscopy, we can visualize molecular expression patterns in vivo that provide a biological basis for disease detection.
Transposition, Surgical, of Vertebral Artery

Vertebral artery transposition consists of performing an end-to-side anastomosis between the vertebral artery and common carotid artery. The indications for vertebral artery transposition include stenosis of the origin of the vertebral artery, vertebrobasilar insufficiency, and subclavian steal. The technical aspects and pitfalls of this procedure are discussed in this article.
Discrete, A Computer Program for Fitting Discrete Frequency Distributions

The computer program DISCRETE, which fits eight common discrete distributions, has been generalized to fit, in principle, any discrete distribution. The quid pro quo is that the user has to provide initial estimates of the parameters and expand two pre-existing subprograms in FORTRAN. These subprograms specify the likelihood function and calculate the expected probabilities for all cells using the final estimates. The analyses of five carefully selected entomological data sets show that the researcher has to be careful in defining the sampling unit to be neither too large nor too small and that sample size must be sufficiently large to permit discrimination between various distributions.
Black Girls Rock: The Impact of Integration and Involvement on the Success of Black College Women

Given that individual and institutional characteristics are suggested to work collectively in promoting optimal student success, the purpose of this quantitative study was to understand factors that contribute to the success of Black college women at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Of particular interest was the relationship between self-reported gains of Black women and the level of social integration and student involvement these women reported. The College Student Experiences Questionnaire (CSEQ) was used to analyze a purposeful sample of 736 Black undergraduate women who completed the survey between 2005 and 2010. Statistical analyses, including multiple regression tests and Pearson product moment correlations, were conducted to examine relationships between social integration, student involvement, and self-reported gains. Results of the analyses indicated that each of the variables was positively correlated, statistically significant, and that social integration had a stronger relationship t...
Abstract 10: Smooth Muscle Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor γ Plays a Critical Role in Formation and Rupture of Cerebral Aneurysms in Mice in vivo

Background and Purpose: Vascular inflammation plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of cerebral aneurysms. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ (PPARγ) protects against vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis, whereas dominant-negative mutations in PPARγ promote atherosclerosis and vascular dysfunction. In this study, the role of PPARγ in aneurysm formation and rupture was tested. Methods: Aneurysms were induced with a combination of systemic infusion of angiotensin-II and local injection of elastase in (1) mice that received the PPARγ antagonist GW9662 or the PPARγ agonist pioglitazone, (2) mice carrying dominant-negative PPARγ mutations in endothelial or smooth muscle cells, and (3) mice that received the Cullin inhibitor MLN4924. Incidence of aneurysm formation, rupture, and mortality was quantified. Cerebral arteries were analyzed for expression of Cullin3, Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1, nuclear factor (erythroid-derived 2)-like 2, NAD(P)H dehydrogenase (quinone)1 (NQO1), and inflammatory marker mRNAs. Results: Neither pioglitazone nor GW9662 altered the incidence of aneurysm formation. GW9662 significantly increased the incidence of aneurysm rupture, whereas pioglitazone tended to decrease the incidence of rupture. Dominant-negative endothelial-specific PPARγ did not alter the incidence of aneurysm formation or rupture. In contrast, dominant-negative smooth muscle-specific PPARγ resulted in an increase in aneurysm formation (P Conclusions: Endogenous PPARγ, specifically smooth muscle PPARγ, plays an important role in protecting from formation and rupture of experimental cerebral aneurysms in mice.
Chen-to tai: His life and contributions to electromagnetics

As a tribute to Professor Chen-To Tai, this article describes his life, his career, and contributions to electromagnetic and antenna theories.
Air pollution's hidden impacts

Nearly every country in the world regulates air pollution. But how much pollution control is enough? Answering that question requires considerable information about the costs as well as the benefits of regulation. Historically, efforts to measure benefits have focused on averting major health insults, such as respiratory or cardiovascular events that result in hospitalizations or death, which typically only afflict the most vulnerable segments of the population. These health episodes are clearly consequential—e.g., the U.S. Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990 avert an estimated 160,000 deaths and 86,000 hospitalizations annually ( 1 )—but may only represent the tip of the proverbial iceberg, compared to the number of cases of respiratory impairment and other health insults that affect many healthy people every day but do not require hospitalizations or even formal health care encounters. The ubiquity of these less lethal impacts, revealed by emerging economic research on labor productivity and human capital accumulation, suggests that even modest impacts at the individual level can add up to considerable, society-wide impacts across the globe.
Sensitivity of tritan screening tests as evaluated in normals at reduced levels of illumination

Five clinical tritan screening tests were studied as a function of illumination level, which ranged from 0.1 to 63 lux. The tests included the AO Hardy-Rand-Rittler, the Standard Pseudoisochromatic Plates, Part 2, the Farns-worth F-2 plate, the Lanthony Tritan Album and the Sahlgren Saturation test. Fifteen observers with normal color vision served in the experiment; five older observers (median age 47) and ten younger observers (median age 20). All performed all tests correctly at 63 lux. As illumination was reduced, tritan errors were seen in all but one test (Farnsworth F-2). At very low illumination levels red-green errors were seen. The tests showed differing sensitivity to reduction in illumination. The most sensitive test was the Standard Pseudoisochromatic Plates, Part 2; the least sensitive were the AO Hardy-Rand-Rittler and the Lanthony Tritan Album. The older observers were more affected by reduction in illumination and required greater illumination to obtain a performance level similar to the younger observers.
Using the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) to define different domains of negative symptoms: Prediction of everyday functioning by impairments in emotional expression and emotional experience

Background: Reduced emotional experience and expression are two domains of negative symptoms. The authors assessed these two domains of negative symptoms using previously developed Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) factors. Using an existing dataset, the authors predicted three different elements of everyday functioning (social, vocational, and everyday activities) with these two factors, as well as with performance on measures of functional capacity. Methods: A large (n=630) sample of people with schizophrenia was used as the data source of this study. Using regression analyses, the authors predicted the three different aspects of everyday functioning, first with just the two Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale factors and then with a global negative symptom factor. Finally, we added neurocognitive performance and functional capacity as predictors. Results: The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale reduced emotional experience factor accounted for 21 percent of the variance in everyday social functioning, while reduced emotional expression accounted for no variance. The total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale negative symptom factor accounted for less variance (19%) than the reduced experience factor alone. The Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale expression factor accounted for, at most, one percent of the variance in any of the functional outcomes, with or without the addition of other predictors. Implications: Reduced emotional experience measured with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, often referred to as "avolition and anhedonia," specifically predicted impairments in social outcomes. Further, reduced experience predicted social impairments better than emotional expression or the total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale negative symptom factor. In this cross-sectional study, reduced emotional experience was specifically related with social outcomes, accounting for essentially no variance in work or everyday activities, and being the sole meaningful predictor of impairment in social outcomes.
Matrix metalloproteinases and educational attainment in refractive error: Evidence of gene-environment interactions in the age-related eye disease study

Purpose A previous study of Old Order Amish families showed an association of ocular refraction with markers proximal to matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) genes MMP1 and MMP10 and intragenic to MMP2 . A candidate gene replication study of association between refraction and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within these genomic regions was conducted. Design Candidate gene genetic association study. Participants Two thousand participants drawn from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) were chosen for genotyping. After quality-control filtering, 1912 individuals were available for analysis. Methods Microarray genotyping was performed using the HumanOmni 2.5 bead array (Illumina, Inc., San Diego, CA). Single nucleotide polymorphisms originally typed in the previous Amish association study were extracted for analysis. In addition, haplotype tagging SNPs were genotyped using TaqMan assays. Quantitative trait association analyses of mean spherical equivalent refraction were performed on 30 markers using linear regression models and an additive genetic risk model while adjusting for age, sex, education, and population substructure. Post hoc analyses were performed after stratifying on a dichotomous education variable. Pointwise ( P emp ) and multiple-test study-wise ( P multi ) significance levels were calculated empirically through permutation. Main Outcome Measures Mean spherical equivalent refraction was used as a quantitative measure of ocular refraction. Results The mean age and ocular refraction were 68 years (standard deviation [SD], 4.7 years) and +0.55 diopters (D; SD, 2.14 D), respectively. Pointwise statistical significance was obtained for rs1939008 ( P emp = 0.0326). No SNP attained statistical significance after correcting for multiple testing. In stratified analyses, multiple SNPs reached pointwise significance in the lower-education group: 2 of these were statistically significant after multiple testing correction. The 2 highest-ranking SNPs in Amish families (rs1939008 and rs9928731) showed pointwise P emp Conclusions This study showed suggestive evidence of replication of an association signal for ocular refraction to a marker between MMP1 and MMP10 . Evidence of a gene–environment interaction between previously reported markers and education on refractive error also was shown. Variants in MMP1 through MMP10 and MMP2 regions seem to affect population variation in ocular refraction in environmental conditions less favorable for myopia development. Financial Disclosure(s) The author(s) have no proprietary or commercial interest in any materials discussed in this article.
Power Matching Point Tracking Method to Regulate Bus Voltage in DC Distribution Systems

This paper proposes a new method called Power Matching Point Tracking (PMPT) to regulate dc-bus voltage in dc distribution systems with no grid information, and without contributing the solar DC-DC converter. This task in a generic DC distribution system with photovoltaic (PV) as the distribution generation resource, is undertaken through MPPT control in the solar DC-DC converter. With eliminating this converter, and consequently improved reliability, and efficiency due to the removal of the power conversion unit, the proposed PMPT method can intelligently and efficiently operate in islanding mode when load shedding/surplus are employed to regulate the DC bus voltage with providing the demand response requirements. In addition, this method enables controllable loads to ride-through grid outages, and adjust the load required to meet the power balance in the islanded mode. The simulation and experimental results are presented to indicate that the proposed system can satisfactorily regulate the common bus voltage, and ride through the blackout.
Do Auditors Charge a Client Business Risk Premium? Evidence from Audit Fees and Derivative Hedging in the U.S. Oil and Gas Industry

Prior literature finds that auditors charge higher fees for riskier clients. One reason for this is that auditors expend greater audit effort on riskier clients. However, it is unclear whether they also charge an additional client business risk premium. We investigate this issue employing a detailed, hand-collected dataset of hedging derivative usage by U.S. oil and gas exploration and production firms. Even though the auditing of derivative instruments requires greater auditor effort, hedging significantly reduces client business risk. Consistent with the presence of a client business risk premium in audit fees that gets attenuated when clients reduce their risks by employing derivative hedging, we find a negative association between audit fees and the extent of derivative hedging by clients. Further underscoring the role of risk reduction in this relationship, we find the above negative association to be weaker when the risk management efficacy of derivative instruments is comparatively lower. This negative association is also weaker when effort expended in auditing derivatives is likely to be especially high. We contribute to the literature by providing strong evidence for the presence of a client business risk premium in audit fees.
High-Precision Electrochemical Measurements of the Guanine-, Mismatch-, and Length-Dependence of Electron Transfer from Electrode-Bound DNA Are Consistent with a Contact-Mediated Mechanism

Despite 25 years’ effort, serious questions remain regarding the mechanism(s) underlying electron transfer through (or from) electrode-bound double-stranded DNA. In part this is because a control experiment regarding the putatively critical role of guanine bases in the most widely proposed transport mechanism (hopping from guanine to guanine through the π-stack) appears to be lacking from the prior literature. In response, we have employed chronoamperometry, which allows for high-precision determination of electron transfer rates, to characterize transfer to a redox reporter appended onto electrode-bound DNA duplexes. Specifically, we have measured the effects of guanines and base mismatches on the electron transfer rate associated with such constructs. Upon doing so, we find that, counter to prior reports, the transfer rate is, to within relatively tight experimental confidence intervals, unaffected by either. Parallel studies of the dependence of the electron transfer rate on the length of the DNA sugge...
Skew-Symmetric Linear Transformations and Electromagnetic Fields

A charged particle in M is a triple (α, m, e), where (α,m) is a material particle and e is a nonzero real number called the charge of the particle. A free charged particle is a charged particle (α, m, e), where (α,m) is a free material particle. Charged particles do two things of interest to us. By their very presence they create electromagnetic fields and they also respond to the fields created by other charges. Our objective in this chapter is to isolate the appropriate mathematical object with which to model an electromagnetic field inM, derive many of its basic properties and then investigate these two activities.
Approximation of the Chemical Master Equation using conditional moment closure and time-scale separation

To describe the stochastic behavior of biomolecular systems, the Chemical Master Equation (CME) is widely used. The CME gives a complete description of the evolution of a system's probability distribution. However, in general, the CME's dimension is very large or even infinite, so analytical solutions may be difficult to write and analyze. To handle this problem, based on the fact that biomolecular systems are time-scale separable, we approximate the CME with another CME that describes the dynamics of the slow species only. In particular, we assume that the number of each molecular species is bounded, although it may be very large. We thus write Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) of the slow-species counts' marginal probability distribution and of the fast-species counts' firstN conditional moments. Here, N is an arbitrary (possibly small) number, which can be chosen to compromise between approximation accuracy and the computational burden associated with simulating or analyzing a high dimensional system. Then we apply conditional moment closure and timescale separation to approximate the first N conditional moments of the fast-species counts as functions of the slow-species counts. By subsituting these functions on the right-hand side of the ODEs that describes the marginal probability distribution of the slow-species counts, we can approximate the original CME with a lower dimensional CME. We illustrate the application of this method on an enzymatic and a protein binding reaction.
Impact of discharge medication bedside delivery service on hospital reutilization.

Purpose To evaluate the impact of a medication to bedside delivery (meds-to-beds) service on hospital reutilization in an adult population. Methods A retrospective, single-center, observational cohort study was conducted within a regional academic medical center from January 2017 to July 2017. Adult patients discharged from an internal medicine unit with at least one maintenance medication were evaluated. The primary outcome was the incidence of 30-day hospital reutilization between two groups: discharged patients who received meds-to-beds versus those who did not. Additionally, the incidence of 30-day hospital reutilization between the two groups was compared within predefined subgroup patient populations: polypharmacy, high-risk medication use, and patients with a principal discharge diagnosis meeting the criteria set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 30-day risk standardized readmission measures. Results A total of 600 patients were included in the study (300 patients in the meds-to-beds group and 300 patients in the control group). The 30-day hospital reutilization (emergency department visits and/or hospital readmissions) related to the index visit was lower in the meds-to-beds group, but the difference was not statistically significant between the two groups (8.0% in the meds-to-beds group versus 10.0% in the control group; odds ratio, 0.78; 95% confidence interval, 0.45-1.37). There was no significant difference in the 30-day hospital reutilization related to the index visit between the control and meds-to-beds groups within the three subgroups analyzed. Conclusion There was no difference in 30-day hospital reutilization related to the index visit with the implementation of meds-to-beds service in the absence of other transitions-of-care interventions.
The Association Between ABO Blood Type and Mortality Among Severely Injured Trauma Patients.

Background Prior research has reported an association among trauma patients between blood type O and adverse events. More recently, another study reported that severely injured trauma patients of mostly O Rh positive blood type were more likely to die. Objective The objective of the current study is to examine whether the same increased association is observed for blood type O severely injured patients in a more generalizable population comprised of Rh positive and Rh negative individuals. Methods Patients admitted to a Level-I academic trauma center between 2015 and 2018 with severe injury (Injury Severity Score >15) were included in this retrospective cohort study. Logistic regression estimated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between blood type and mortality. Results Among 3,913 patients, a majority were either blood type O (47.5%) or A (34.7%) and 60% were Rh positive. There was no observed difference in complication rates by blood type, and there was no observed significant association with death overall or by cause of death. There were weak, increased associations for blood type B (OR 1.61, 95% CI 0.74-3.53) and type O (OR 1.57, 95% CI 0.90-2.76) compared with blood type A patients. Conclusion Contrary to prior research, the current results suggest no association between blood type and mortality among severely injured trauma patients.
Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood: Psychological Safety, Black Girls' Speech, and Black Feminist Perspectives on Directness.

Black feminist scholars have produced compelling frameworks for assessing direct speech behavior, both within and external to Black female speech communities. These frameworks are marginalized in mainstream organizational psychology and educational psychology research on psychological safety. Psychological safety is a concept that positions directness as a marker of contextual comfort. In this article, I center Black feminist theories to analyze how Black girls make sense of their own direct speech behaviors, particularly when they do not perceive the context as psychologically safe. My theoretical objective is to read a rubric of psychological safety popular in educational psychology with and against sociolinguistic, literary, and sociological findings on Black girls’ direct speech performances. My political objective is to call for more critical collaborations and transdisciplinary approaches that consider the cultural realities and societal conditions that might motivate Black girls’ participatory risk and reasons not wholly accounted for in conversations about psychological safety that might move Black girls and women from silence into action. This qualitative inquiry has provided important points of departure for conceptualizing psychological safety in conditions of intersecting oppression. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)
Remote sensing of the surface emissivity at 9 microns over the globe

The infrared spectral measurements made by the Nimbus 4 infrared interferometer spectrometer (Iris) for a period of about 10 months are used to study the surface emissivity properties over the globe. It is found that the surface emissivity at 9 microns, as measured by Iris with a circular field of view of about 100-km diameter, is significantly less than unity over arid and semiarid areas. The spectral features in the 8-12-micron window observed over these lands reveal emissivity characteristics essentially due to quartz (SiO2). It is found that these emissivity features are significantly weakened by the presence of clay, clay horizons, or pedogenic horizons in the soil. Low emissivity is observed over sandy or sandy loam areas (psamments) with no clay or pedogenic horizons.
Separating From the Mothership: A Coordinated Individual and Parent-Based Approach to Severe Agoraphobia in a Young Adult

Families are invested in an older adolescent gradually separating from the family to live independently as an adult, but for many families, adolescent psychopathology makes this transition difficult. Addressing such psychopathology is critical in preventing "failure to launch," a breakdown in gaining age-appropriate independence from parents. This case study illustrates a promising approach directed at helping an 18-year-old female with agoraphobia and panic disorder who, upon intake, was at risk for long-lasting, prohibitive dependence on her parents. The clinical approach entails the convergence of two psychological treatments conducted in the same treatment center. One provider, working directly with the patient, delivered traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for anxiety. A second provider, working with the parents, delivered Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE) a parent-based treatment focused on reducing family accommodation of the patient's anxiety. Behavioral indices and self-report scores indicated clinically significant improvement following the combined intervention. Attention is drawn to the convergence of those treatments and the utility and special considerations in taking this kind of approach. Overall, the combined treatment may have been more successful than the sum of its parts at preventing failure to launch. This case study, the first to describe the integration of CBT and SPACE, can provide useful guidance for clinicians helping families of adult children to transition to independence.
Average Lumbar Hounsfield Units Predicts Osteoporosis-Related Complications Following Lumbar Spine Fusion:

Study Design:Retrospective Study.Objective:To compare methods of assessing pre-operative bone density to predict risk for osteoporosis related complications (ORC), defined as proximal junctional ky...
Screen Printing to Create 3D Tissue Models

3D printing has revolutionized making tissue models, but the instruments are often quite expensive, and the approach can involve heat and/or shear forces that can damage cells. As a complement to m...
Synthetic foundations of cevian geometry, I: fixed points of affine maps

We give synthetic proofs of new results in triangle geometry, focusing especially on fixed points of certain affine maps which are defined in terms of the cevian triangles of a point P and its isotomic conjugate P′, with respect to a given triangle ABC. We give a synthetic proof of Grinberg’s formula for the cyclocevian map in terms of the isotomic and isogonal maps, and show that the complement Q of the isotomic conjugate P′ has many interesting properties. If T P is the affine map taking ABC to the cevian triangle DEF for P, it is shown that Q is the unique ordinary fixed point of T P when P does not lie on the sides of triangle ABC, its anticomplementary triangle, or the Steiner circumellipse of ABC. This paper forms the foundation for several more papers to follow, in which the conic on the 5 points A, B, C, P, Q is studied and its center is characterized as a fixed point of the map $${\lambda = T_{P'} \circ T_P^{-1}}$$ .
Genomic surveillance at scale is required to detect newly emerging strains at an early timepoint

Abstract Genomic surveillance in the setting of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has the potential to identify emerging SARS-CoV-2 strains that may be more transmissible, virulent, evade detection by standard diagnostic tests, or vaccine escapes. The rapid spread of the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 strain from southern England to other parts of the country and globe is a clear example of the impact of such strains. Early discovery of the B.1.1.7 strain was enabled through the proactive COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) program and the UK’s commitment to genomic surveillance, sequencing about 10% of positive samples.1 In order to enact more aggressive public health measures to minimize the spread of such strains, genomic surveillance needs to be of sufficient scale to detect early emergence and expansion in the broader virus population. By modeling common performance characteristics of available diagnostic and sequencing tests, we developed a model that assesses the sampling required to detect emerging strains when they are less than 1% of all strains in a population. This model demonstrates that 5% sampling of all positive tests allows the detection of emerging strains when they are a prevalence of 0.1% to 1.0%. While each country will determine their risk tolerance for the emergence of novel strains, as vaccines are distributed and we work to end the pandemic and prevent future SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks, genomic surveillance will be an integral part of success.
Processing and reprocessing liquid crystal elastomer actuators

Liquid crystal elastomers (LCEs) have long been celebrated for their exceptional shape actuation and mechanical properties. For much of the last half century, a major focus for the field has been the development of LCE chemistries and how to process the so-called “monodomain” configurations. This foundation work has now led to a plethora of materials and processes that are enabling the demonstration of devices that are close to real-world applicability as responsive and reprocessable actuators. In this Perspective, we review and discuss the key recent developments in the processing of actuating LCE devices. We consider how processing has been used to increase the practicality of electrical, thermal, and photo stimulation of LCE shape actuation; how dynamic chemistries are enhancing the functionality and sustainability of LCE devices; and how new additive manufacturing technologies are overcoming the processing barriers that once confined LCE actuators to thin film devices. In our outlook, we consider all these factors together and discuss what developments over the coming years will finally lead to the realization of commercial shape actuating LCE technologies.
Oxygen Toxicity in Critically Ill Adults.

Oxygen supplementation is one of the most common interventions in critically ill patients. Despite over a century of data suggesting both beneficial and detrimental effects of supplemental oxygen, ...
Pathways to substance use: a qualitative study of individuals in short-term residential treatment

Despite recent research on the importance of ‘milestones’ in the development of substance use disorders (SUD) as well as a growing appreciation of individuals as embedded in environmental and socia...
Evolutionary and taphonomic implications of a new species of Amphoracrinus from the early Viséan of Kentucky

The youngest species of Amphoracrinus, A. tenax new species, is described from the Muldraugh Member of the Borden Formation (early Visean) of north-central Kentucky. With this new occurrence, both the oldest and youngest named species of Amphoracrinus are from North America. Numerous Tournaisian and Visean crinoid faunas are documented in the United States, but only four are known to contain Amphoracrinus. Morphological analysis indicates that A. tenax is more closely aligned with species from China than with species from Western Europe or other species from North America, where Amphoracrinus was most diverse and abundant, which has implications for understanding paleogeographic dispersal. The holotype of A. tenax was partially disarticulated on the seafloor before burial, and final burial occurred early during disarticulation. The relative state of disarticulation from pinnules to columnals suggests that plates bound only with ligaments disarticulated as a function of surface area of ligaments binding an articulation.
Strangers in the Night: Law and Medicine in the Managed Care Era

Part I Historical Perspectives on Law and Medicine: Law and Medicine: An Overview From Co-operation to Contenion From Liability to Business. Part II The Judicial Response to Managed Care: Historical Precursors The Courts and Managed Care - Establishing the Rules Immunity The Backlash Managed Care Litigation - Shaping Policy and Health Care Delivery. Part III Restoring the Primacy of the Physician-Patient Relationship: Mutual Distrust Between Physicians and Attorneys Fiduciary Duty Strangers in the Night or Conciliation and Co-operation?
Estrous Cyclicity in Mammals

In the previous chapter, several experimental manipulations designed to demonstrate that the secretions of the hypothalamus, the anterior pituitary, and the ovary can have stimulatory and inhibitory effects on one another were discussed. These experimental approaches were basically analytic. They served to dissect the effects of a particular hormone on one tissue from its effects on another tissue. From this analytic approach, an appreciation was gained of the range of potential reactions to hormonal stimuli of individual components of the hypothalamo-hypophyseal-ovarian axis. However, the analytic approach does not indicate which of the potential reactions are actually utilized during the course of normal reproductive cycles. Nor does the analytic method deal with the question of how the various stimulatory and inhibitory actions of hormones become linked together to form a repeatable endocrine pattern with a consistent periodicity. To resolve these problems, one must adopt a more synthetic outlook.
Lifting the Level of Abstraction Dealt with in Programming of Networked Embedded Computing Systems

The scale and complexity of advanced networked embedded computing (NEC) application systems are steadily growing. The need has become increasingly acute for a programming method and style that imposes much less amounts of detail-handling on the real-time (RT) distributed computing (DC) programmer than the currently widely used method does. With this motivation a number of different attempts have been made toward establishing high-level RT DC objects. The TMO scheme developed over the past 18 years by the author and his collaborators is one of those attempts. In terms of lifting the level of abstractions of main program building-blocks, the TMO scheme has been about the most daring attempt. However, all the attempts have not yet reached the level of sufficient maturity in that the ease of guaranteeing the timeliness of critical output actions with a high degree of precision has not been much demonstrated. Some basic principles and techniques learned from past research on TMO are briefly reviewed. Then major remaining research issues are discussed.
Critical points in edge tunneling between generic fractional quantum Hall states

A general description of weak and strong tunneling fixed points is developed in the chiral-Luttinger-liquid model of quantum Hall edge states. Tunneling fixed points are a subset of ``termination'' fixed points, which describe boundary conditions on a multicomponent edge. The requirement of unitary time evolution for bounded edges gives a nontrivial consistency condition for possible low-energy boundary conditions. The effects of interactions and random hopping on fixed points are studied through a perturbative renormalization-group (RG) approach which generalizes the Giamarchi-Schulz RG for disordered Luttinger liquids to broken left-right symmetry and multiple modes. We apply our approach to a number of examples, such as tunneling between a quantum Hall edge and a superconductor and tunneling between two quantum Hall edges in the presence of interactions. Interactions are shown to induce a continuous renormalization of effective tunneling charge for the integrable case of tunneling between two Laughlin states.
The Overlooked Role of Faith-Based Organizations and Secular Nonprofits in the Modern American Welfare State

The last three presidents have enacted initiatives that would better integrate faith-based and community-based organizations into the safety net. Although the role and agenda of President Obama’s White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships is still emerging, it appears to build on Presidents Clinton and Bush’s efforts to better link faith-based and community-based social service organizations to public agencies that can provide funding and support. Yet, ongoing debate about the extent to which faith-based organizations should receive public funding or be provided public support to expand their social service missions often looks past the role that faith-based service organizations have played in the safety net for decades, as well as the much larger role that secular nonprofits play. Without an accurate sense of what faith-based and secular nonprofits actually do within their communities, it will be difficult to effectively and efficiently cultivate greater capacity among either type of organizations. This paper provides a more detailed impression of the service capacity, client characteristics, connectedness to public funding streams, and program stability of faith-based and secular nonprofit service providers in three urban and four rural communities in the United States.
X-ray scattering tomography for biological applications

The conventional attenuation contrast imaging does not yield satisfactory sensitivity and specificity for weakly absorbing media, such as biological soft tissues. The x-ray scattering offer an important contrast mechanism to reveal structural features and densityfluctuation within an object. This scattering signal carries information at the molecular and supra-molecular level, and has a tremendous implication for biomedical and other applications. In this paper, we develop a scattering imaging approach to reconstruct the electron density distribution of an object and demonstrate its feasibility in the numerical simulation.
The effects of parallel processing on update response time in distributed database design

Network latency and local update are the most significant components of update response time in a distributed database system. Effectively designed distributed database systems can take advantage of parallel processing to minimize this time. We present a design approach to response time minimization for update transactions in a distributed database. Response time is calculated as the sum of local processing and communication, including transmit time, queuing delays, and network latency. We demonstrate that parallelism has significant impacts on the efficiency of data allocation strategies in the design of high transaction-volume distributed databases.
Target-A dependence of the angular distribution of Sc fragments emitted in 400 GeV proton interactions

The angular distribution of Sc fragments emitted in the interaction of 400 GeV protons with Ag, La, Lu, and Au has been measured. The distribution for Ag is forward peaked, while that for Lu and Au is sideward peaked, with La being an intermediate case. The implications of this novel transition for the reaction mechanism are considered.
Dynamic and adaptive composition of e-services

Abstract The Web is rapidly becoming the platform through which many companies deliver services to businesses and individual customers. The number and type of on-line services increase day by day, and this trend is likely to continue at an even faster pace in the immediate future. Examples of e-services currently available include bill payment, delivery of customized news, or archiving and sharing of digital documents. E-Services are typically delivered individually. However, the e-service market creates the opportunity for providing value-added , integrated services , which are delivered by composing existing e-services. To support organizations in pursuing this business opportunity we have developed eFlow , a system that supports the specification, enactment, and management of composite e-services, modeled as processes that are enacted by a service process engine. Composite e-services have to cope with a highly dynamic business environment in terms of services and of service providers. In addition, the increased competition forces companies to provide customized services to better satisfy the needs of every individual customer. Ideally, service process should be able to transparently adapt to changes in the environment and to the need of different customers with minimal or no user intervention. In addition, it should be possible to dynamically modify service process definitions in a simple and effective way to manage cases where user intervention is indeed required. In this paper we show how eFlow achieves these goals.
Evidence for learned skill during cocaine self-administration in rats

Rationale It has been proposed that cocaine abuse results in skilled or “automatic” drug-taking behaviors. Brain regions important for skill learning are implicated in cocaine selfadministration. However, the development of skill during self-administration has not been investigated. Objectives The present experiment investigated the development of skilled self-administration over extended drug use by employing a novel operant vertical head movement under discriminative stimulus (S D ) control. In addition, the capacity of the head movement to serve as an operant was tested by manipulating drug levels above or below satiety drug levels via frequent noncontingent microinfusions (0.2 s) of cocaine. Results Animals acquired the vertical head movement operant, which increased in number over days. Task learning was demonstrated by reduced reaction time in response to the S D , increased propensity to self-administer upon S D presentation, and escalated drug consumption over days. Skill learning was demonstrated by (1) an increase over days in the velocity of operant movements, as a function of shorter duration but not altered distance, and (2) an increase over days in the probability of initiating the operant at the optimal starting position. Evidence that responding was specific to self-administration was revealed during periods of experimenter-manipulated drug level: maintaining drug levels above satiety decreased responding while maintaining drug levels below satiety increased responding. Conclusions Under the specific set of circumstances tested herein, cocaine self-administration became skilled over extended drug use. The vertical head movement can be used as an operant comparable to lever pressing with the additional benefit of quantifying skill learning.
Shape Matching Using Relaxation Techniques

The problem of finding approximate matches of pieces of shapes to parts of larger shapes is investigated. The shapes are represented by polygonal approximations. Initially, figures of merit are assigned to the matches between pairs of angles on the two shapes. Relaxation methods are then used to find acceptable combinations of these matches. This approach was tested on a data base consisting of digitized coastlines in various map projections. In nearly all cases, all matches except the correct one were eliminated by the relaxation processes.
Comparison of electrical and optical characterization in Cu-gettered, semi-insulating GaAs

We have compared electrically and optically determined microscopic and macroscopic material parameters in Cu-doped, semi-insulating (SI) GaAs as a function of gettering. We find significant changes in the panchromatic scanning electron microscope room temperature cathodoluminescence (CL) images obtained before and after Cu contamination of undoped SI-GaAs. Electrical and optical measurements also indicate significant changes. These measurements include thermally stimulated current (TSC), Fourier infrared transform spectroscopy (FTIR), and photoconductive spectroscopy. After gettering by mechanical damage and subsequent heat treatment, the electrical characteristics revert to their pre-doping characteristics, indicating successful gettering.© (1990) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.
Parathyroid hormone has a positive inotropic action in the rat.

Parathyroid hormone (PTH : synthetic bovine, amino terminus 1–34 amino acids) demonstrates a positive inotropic action on the isolated papillary muscle of the rat heart. The effect was evident at PTH concentration of 10-12M, and the maximum inotropic effect occurred with PTH concentrations greater than 10-11M. Biologically inactive PTH (PTH treated with H202) was without effect. The inotropic effect of PTH was partially blocked by propranolol and also suppressed in the papillary muscle of the rat pretreated with reserpine. Methoxyverapamil completely blocked the inotropic action of PTH. PTH was without effects on adenylate cyclase activity of the myocardium. Results show the presence of an inotropic action of PTH in vitro and suggest that this action of PTH is partially mediated by releasing the endogenous myocardial norepinephrine which exerts a positive inotropic effect via β-adrenergic stimulation and by an increase in Ca++ influx across plasma membranes, but independent of adenylate cyclase activation...