cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Receding Horizon Control of Spatially Distributed Systems over Arbitrary Graphs

In this paper, we study the problem of receding horizon control of spatially distributed systems with arbitrary interconnection topologies. The key idea is the introduction of spatially decaying operators (SD) which serve as the main ingredient in the cost function that couples the state and control of individual agents with those of others. It is shown that coupling between subsystems of many well-known spatially distributed systems such as some of the recently studied models of distributed motion coordination with nearest neighbor interactions as well as spatially invariant systems can be characterized using such operators. We prove that for spatially distributed systems with input and state constraints in which the coupling is through an SD operator in a finite horizon cost function, optimal receding horizon controllers are piece-wise affine (represented as a convolution sum plus an offset). More importantly, we prove that the kernel of each convolution sum decays exponentially in the spatial domain, thereby providing evidence that even centralized solutions to the receding horizon control problems for such systems has an inherent spatial locality. Our theoretical results are verified by numerical simulations.
Working with HTML and KML

GIS tasks often involve working with HTML and KML files. You may need to generate an HTML page showing the results of some GIS analysis or you may need to parse the data attributes in the description that pops up when you click on a KML element in Google Earth. HTML and KML files are simply text files that use tags to delineate elements within the data. Chapter 19 discussed how to read and write text files with Python; This chapter explains some additional techniques for working with HTML and KML formats.
Caught Between a Rock, Negligence, Racism, and a Hard Place: Exploring the Balance Between the EEOC’s Arrest and Conviction Investigation Guidelines and Society’s Best Interest

In many instances, employers have an obligation to conduct criminal background checks on their applicants to ensure that the public that comes into contact with these employees shall not be harmed. In other instances, these criminal background checks are unnecessary as they prove to be of little relevance, yet they have the effect of causing a disparate impact within certain Title VII-protected classes, including Black Americans and Hispanics. To resolve this disparate impact, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) has set forth non-biding guidance, proposing an assessment of “Green Factors” that employers should consider before denying an ex-convict employment. In following this guidance, the EEOC aims to create equal employment opportunities for all job applicants including those with criminal histories. While this guidance and these Green factors play a large role in furthering societal benefits, many employers have raised objections to the recent EEOC guidance. Employers argue that the guidance creates a “catch-22,” forcing the employer to choose between being liable for negligent hiring and being liable for violating Title VII. Because the EEOC guidance furthers fundamental societal interests, it should remain in effect. Nevertheless, the guidance must be amended in order to clarify its ambiguous language concerning “business necessity,” which will then resolve the catch-22 conflict that employers currently experience.
Predicting breakage of high aspect ratio particles in an agitated bed using the Discrete Element Method

Abstract Predicting particle breakage is critical for the control of particle size in some bulk solids handling processes, such as those found in the pharmaceutical, food, consumer product, and mineral processing industries. This article presents a computational study of the breakage of high aspect ratio particles subject to mechanical agitation using the Discrete Element Method (DEM), in which a particle, represented by a string of bonded spheres, breaks at the center of a bond where the tensile or shear stress exceeds the material strength. The numerical model is validated using experimental results from the breakage of blackboard chalk sticks subject to uniaxial compression in a cylindrical container. The validated model is used to investigate particle breakage when agitated by rotating blades, which is encountered in a range of pharmaceutical processes, such as agitated filter drying, rotary tablet press feeding, and powder blending. The simulation results show that the breakage rate, that is the rate of particle size reduction (or the rate of fragment mass increase), increases as the applied pressure, impeller rotational speed, particle-particle friction, or particle-equipment friction increases. However, the extent of breakage per impeller revolution is independent of impeller rotational speed. Most importantly, it is found that the extent of particle breakage is a function of the work performed on the material, and the parameters in this function depend on the particle-particle and particle-wall friction coefficients. Large friction coefficients enable the input energy to break the particles more efficiently.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CHEDDAR CHEESE COOLED AT DIFFERENT RATES DURING EARLY CURING STAGES

Sixteen lots of Cheddar cheese were made from manufacturing-grade and grade-A milk by using commercial starters and cultures reported to give fruity and bitter-flavored cheese. Curd blocks were pressed for 4 and 20 h, then cooled to 7.5 C in brine or in air. There were no statistically significant differences in total, enterococcus, and Violet red bile agar counts, or proteolysis and judging scores among different pressing or cooling treatments. Significantly greater amounts of lactose, glucose, and galactose were present in brine-cooled cheese. Lactose persisted beyond 3 months. Air-cooled cheese had a significantly higher lactic-acid content, more free fatty acids, and more color variation. Air-cooled cheese was more severely criticized for flavor defects. Brine cooling produced uniform flavor, body, and color, and six of the seven judges preferred brine-cooled cheese.
Artificial heart pumps: bridging the gap between science, technology and personalized medicine by relational medicine.

In the US population of 300 million, 3 million have heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and 300,000 have advanced heart failure. Long-term mechanical circulatory support will, within the next decade, be recommended to 30,000 patients annually in the USA, 3000 undergo heart transplantation annually. What do these advances mean for persons suffering from advanced heart failure and their loved ones/caregivers? In this perspective article, we discuss – by exemplifying a case report of a 27-year-old man receiving a Total Artificial Heart – a practice concept of modern medicine that fully incorporates the patient's personhood perspective which we have termed Relational Medicine™. From this case study, it becomes apparent that the successful practice of modern cardiovascular medicine requires the person–person encounter as a core practice element.
News Company's Link Sharing on Twitter as Informative Advertising and Content Signaling

As social media becomes one of the major sources of news, news companies are using it to advertise their individual news articles. This increases news companies' need to consider social media users' limited attention when they compete with a variety of contents generated by the users as well as news stories shared by other news companies. This work explores the implications of media companies' competition for limited attention from users on social media for news diversity. Using an economic model, I suggest a hypothesis that news companies are likely to share news articles with non-controversial topics to signal for their unshared news. To examine this hypothesis, I am analyzing sentiments of news articles that are shared and unshared on Twitter.
Narcissist Executives and Coopetition Strategy Adoption

Since an organization’s strategy is a human construction (Chatterjee & Hambrick, 2007), executives’ cognitive styles and personalities are anticipated to influence the strategic decision-making pro...
Paleoecological Aspects of a Late Wisconsian Aquatic Mollusk Assemblage Associated With Mastodon Bone Recovered From the North Fork of Ward Creek, Baton Rouge, Louisiana

A well-preserved freshwater molluscan assemblage is documented and illustrated. The malocofauna was collected from sediment samples closely associated with mastodon ulna fragments recovered from the base of a stream-cut bank in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1991. Mollusks and mastodon bone were deposited in a clay sediment varying to silty clay loam, dated 21,220 .±. 360 yr B.P. The mollusk assemblage is indicative of a perennial, well-vegetated, quiet, shallow water environment. Mollusks differ markedly from typical Peoria Loess mollusks. It is suggested that the clay/silty clay loam containing fossil mollusk shell and mastodon bone correlates with properties of basal zone loess reported by Miller and others (1985) as forming a transition zone between the Prairie Terrace and initial late Wisconsinan loess. Shell dates, soil traits, mollusk species, and paleoecology suggest that the excavation unit yielding a fossil mastodon ulna is part of a late Pleistocene swamp subsurface where Prairie Terrace clay combined with silts derived from reworked eolian loess as well as from probable glacial silt depositions. The fossil mollusk assemblage may be indicative of basal mixed zones in other localities.
Decentralized obstacle avoidance in collective object manipulation

Collective object manipulation is one of the frequently observed behaviors in natural swarm systems which inspired many researchers to study and implement such methods via robotic systems. Adding obstacle avoidance capability to the agents involved in the manipulation task creates a ground for parallel object manipulation and collective construction in cluttered environments. In this paper, the obstacle avoidance problem is studied in a group of agents with limited vision range as they are manipulating an object with an arbitrary shape. In order to decrease the energy consumption of the system and reduce the problems associated with communication, the obstacle avoidance problem is formulated as an agent-level reaction which eliminates the need for inter-agent communications or information symmetry in the system. Building upon our previously developed decentralized force control algorithm, the presented methods combines two behaviors that are defined based on manipulation and avoidance forces to avoid possible obstacles in the region. Multiple simulated scenarios and detailed studies of the system are presented in the article which suggest the effectiveness of adding a simple agent-level behavior to create a successful decentralized object manipulation while avoiding obstacles.
Nonlinear Photorefractive Effects and Their Application in Dynamic Optical Interconnects and Image Processing

Future generations of computing machines may require an optical swiching arrangement which provides a high speed, large size reconfigurable interconnect. The fundamental component of such a switch is based on a dynamic medium which can route optical beams in accordance with some external programming stimulus. In particular, photorefractive crystals have been invetigated for their potential to solve the dynamic interconnect problem1,2. These crystals allow for real-time recording of holograms which diffract signal beams to the desired optical detectors. Although the benefits of an ideal holographic interconnect scheme are tantalizing, the realization of such an approach is no simple matter. Establishing a communication network between points on a plane requires a very specific set of multiplexed holograms. The fact that a large number of holograms (most likely more than 10) is required before this approach becomes competitive with current electronic techniques places an inherent constraint on the ultimate performance of the crystal, since the diffraction efficiency of each hologram decreases with increased multiplexing.
A model for simulating adaptive, dynamic flows on networks: Application to petroleum infrastructure

Abstract Simulation models can improve decisions meant to control the consequences of disruptions to critical infrastructures. We describe a dynamic flow model on networks purposed to inform analyses by those concerned about consequences of disruptions to infrastructures and to help policy makers design robust mitigations. We conceptualize the adaptive responses of infrastructure networks to perturbations as market transactions and business decisions of operators. We approximate commodity flows in these networks by a diffusion equation, with nonlinearities introduced to model capacity limits. To illustrate the behavior and scalability of the model, we show its application first on two simple networks, then on petroleum infrastructure in the United States, where we analyze the effects of a hypothesized earthquake.
Multi-party environmental negotiations: perspectives from democratizing nations in latin america

This research examines environmental negotiations in two countries, Mexico and Ecuador, currently undergoing democratic transition. We examine the ability of democratizing political systems to respond to the pressures intrinsic to emerging pluralism. Using a comparative case study approach we examine environmental policy making for conservation. Mexico and Ecuador are at different stages in the democratization process with Mexico being more advanced than Ecuador. We conclude that Mexico’s approach to communicative forums and its management of environmental decision making in a pluralist context is more systematized and less prone to corruption given the stronger set of democratic institutions. In comparison we find that Ecuador’s political institutions remain weak and subject to informal pressures from emerging environmental groups as well as from established interests from the pre-democracy era.
Rationalizable partition-confirmed equilibrium with heterogeneous beliefs

Abstract Many models of learning in games implicitly or explicitly assume there are many agents in the role of each player. In principle this allows different agents in the same player role to have different beliefs and play differently, and this is known to occur in laboratory experiments. To explore the impact of this heterogeneity, along with the idea that subjects use their information about other players' payoffs, we define rationalizable partition-confirmed equilibrium (RPCE). We provide several examples to highlight the impact of heterogeneous beliefs, and show how mixed strategies can correspond to heterogeneous play in a large population. We also show that every heterogeneous-belief RPCE can be approximated by a RPCE in a model where every agent in a large pool is a separate player.
The Status of Doctoral Programs in Public Affairs and Administration

At least 72 doctoral programs in public affairs and administration, almost all Ph.D.s, now exist in the United States. The number of doctoral degrees awarded by NASPAA institutions grew from 169 in...
The development of the rod photoresponse from dark-adapted rats.

Purpose To study electroretinographic a- and b-wave responses of rats at the ages during which rod outer segment length (ROS) and rhodopsin content increase. Methods Electroretinographic responses to brief, full-field stimuli were recorded from dark-adapted young (ages 12 to 30 days) and adult rats. The amplitude of the a-wave and the amplitude and implicit time of the b-wave were examined as a function of stimulus intensity. Sensitivity (S), saturated amplitude (RmP3), and delay (td) of the rod cell responses were calculated from the a-waves. Results The developmental increase in saturated a-wave amplitude parallels, but lags behind, growth of outer segment length, whereas the saturated b-wave amplitude increases with about the same course as rhodopsin content of the retina. The sensitivity, S, depends on rhodopsin content, and the developmental decrease in the flash energy required to produce a half-maximum b-wave amplitude is inversely proportional to the developmental increase in rhodopsin content. No significant age-dependent variation in td can be detected. Conclusion During development, ROS length and rhodopsin content of the retina are significant determinants of a- and b-wave response parameters.
Chapter 3 – Structure and Properties of Water

This chapter presents the structure of the water molecule and shows its tetrahedral charge structure. Two forces that bind water molecules together are given: hydrogen bonding and the van der Waals–London force. Fifteen physical properties of water are discussed: specific heat; heat of vaporization; heat of fusion; heat (thermal) conduction; transparency to visible radiation; opaqueness to infrared radiation; surface tension; density; expansion upon freezing; ionization; dielectric constant; solvent for electrolytes; solvent for nonelectrolytes; adsorption; and viscosity. A table is presented that shows values for six different physical properties of water at different temperatures, and they are density, surface tension, viscosity, heat of vaporization, specific heat, and thermal conductivity. It is pointed out that life depends upon water, and, if life exists on other planets, water is probably present. A biography of van der Waals is given in the appendix.
Abstract A01: Stem cell signals in the initiation and progression of non-small cell lung cancer

Lung cancer is most commonly diagnosed at a late stage when the disease is in its most aggressive state. To define the key regulators of lung cancer, we have focused on how stem cell signals are hijacked to drive progression to an undifferentiated state. Using a novel reporter mouse designed to reflect expression of the stem cell fate determinant Musashi-2 (Msi2), we found that Msi2 is highly expressed in tumors derived from the KrasG12D/+; p53fl/fl (KP) mouse model of lung adenocarcinoma. To test if Msi2-expressing cells preferentially act as the cell of origin in lung cancer, we isolated lung epithelial cells and tested their tumorigenic potential in vitro and in vivo following activation of Kras and loss of p53. Importantly, Msi2+ cells preferentially formed tumorspheres in vitro as well as tumors in vivo, indicating that Msi2+ tumor cells have increased tumor-initiating capacity. To determine whether Msi2 is required for lung cancer growth and progression, we crossed KP mice to Msi2 knockout mice and monitored tumor growth over time. Loss of Msi2 led to a reduction in both the number of tumors that formed and in overall tumor burden. Moreover, the mice exhibited a reduced frequency of high-grade tumors and an increase in overall survival, suggesting that loss of Msi2 impairs tumor development and disease progression. Finally, inhibition of Msi2 in a primary lung adenocarcinoma cell line led to reduced tumor volume in vivo, suggesting that Msi2 continues to be a dependency in established disease. Collectively, our data identify Msi2 as a stem cell signal that is critically required in lung cancer development and progression. Citation Format: Alison G. Barber, Hatim Husain, Mark A. Valasek, Miriam Scadeng, Tannishtha Reya. Stem cell signals in the initiation and progression of non-small cell lung cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Fifth AACR-IASLC International Joint Conference: Lung Cancer Translational Science from the Bench to the Clinic; Jan 8-11, 2018; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2018;24(17_Suppl):Abstract nr A01.
Assessment of the effect of location and financial variables on environmental management performance for industrial goods supply chains

Abstract The paper uses data on environmental (management) performance (EP) of industrial goods companies in 14 countries to assess the impact of 3 variables on EP: companies' headquarters location, global spread (GS) & financial performance (FP). No prior study has addressed these questions for the industrial goods sector, a crucial sector in most economies. Hierarchical regression and other methods are used to test pertinent hypotheses. Among other things, the paper finds that EP differ based on regional location of the companies' headquarters. Consistent with prior research for some industries, FP and GS show no impact on EP. An auxiliary finding is that manufacturing firms outperform service firms environmentally. These results have several practical implications. For example, industrial goods companies headquartered outside Europe can learn environmental best practices in Europe, and endeavor to implement them throughout their global operations. Also, firms need not excel financially to excel environmentally. Such firms may focus on environmental excellence, knowing that investments in environmental programs would ultimately pay off. This work bridges the International Management and Sustainability Literatures, provides some guidance to managers about EP improvement and adds to our understanding of EP. It will stimulate related research in the Production and Operations Management and Environmental Management fields.
Political Developments and Economic Progress

This chapter starts with a brief outline of Bangladesh’s political developments since independence. It is followed by an overview of the economic progress of the country in terms of growth and structural change. The final section of the chapter provides a brief comparison of the economic performances of Bangladesh and Vietnam to put the discussion in an international development perspective.
Anti-Freeze for Large and Complex Spreadsheets: Asynchronous Formula Computation

Spreadsheet systems enable users to store and analyze data in an intuitive and flexible interface. Yet the scale of data being analyzed often leads to spreadsheets hanging and freezing on small changes. We propose a new asynchronous formula computation framework: instead of freezing the interface we return control to users quickly to ensure interactivity, while computing the formulae in the background. To ensure consistency, we indicate formulae being computed in the background via visual cues on the spreadsheet. Our asynchronous computation framework introduces two novel challenges: (a) How do we identify dependencies for a given change in a bounded time? (b) How do we schedule computation to maximize the number of spreadsheet cells available to the user over time? We bound the dependency identification time by compressing the formula dependency graph lossily, a problem we show to be NP-Hard. A compressed dependency table enables us to quickly identify the spreadsheet cells that need recomputation and indicate them as such to users. Finding an optimal computation schedule to maximize cell availability is also NP-Hard, and even merely obtaining a schedule can be expensive-we propose an on-the-fly scheduling technique to address this. We have incorporated asynchronous computation in DataSpread, a scalable spreadsheet system targeted at operating on arbitrarily large datasets on a spreadsheet frontend.
Percepciones de mujeres mayores rurales respecto de su proceso de envejecimiento

The article presents the results of an investigation that aims to analyze the perceptions of rural older women regarding their aging process. A qualitative descriptive design based on life stories focused on the experience of female aging in a rural setting was proposed. The information gathering technique corresponded to an individual biographical interview applied to 28 older women in the Aconcagua Valley. The data collected was organized from the biological, psychological and social dimensions, analyzing the perceptions expressed by the participating women through the allocation of illustrative fragments that supported the interpretation of the information. The results obtained confirm that perceptions regarding the aging process of rural older women fully correspond to the biological, psychological and social dimensions of the concept providing rural differentiating factors that enrich the process itself, associated with the multiple tasks of rural life, which amplify their performances from obligations in housing to peasant work in the orchard; and from the particular care of the family towards the concern for the welfare of the community. On the contrary, unfavorable perceptions are manifested from the frontier zone of previous perceptions, with physical deterioration due to age being the main reason for the progressive abandonment of one's own tasks; and the precariousness of the economic income the greater limit in the opportunities of full satisfaction of its daily necessities. The rural context brings conditions of tranquility and joy to the aging process and recognizes the assessment of the vital experience of women in their role as custodian of traditions and reproduction of local culture.
Detecting and Surviving Intrusions: Exploring New Host-Based Intrusion Detection, Recovery, and Response Approaches

Computing platforms, such as embedded systems or laptops, are built with layers of preventive security mechanisms to reduce the likelihood of attackers successfully compromising them. Nevertheless, given time and despite decades of improvements in preventive security, intrusions still happen. Therefore, systems should expect intrusions to occur, thus they should be built to detect and to survive them. Commodity Operating Systems (OSs) are deployed with intrusion detection solutions, but their ability to survive them is limited. State-of-the-art approaches from industry or academia either involve manual procedures, loss of availability, coarse-grained responses, or non-negligible performance overhead. Moreover, low-level components, such as the BIOS, are increasingly targeted by sophisticated attackers to implant stealthy and resilient malware. State- of-the-art solutions, however, mainly focus on boot time integrity, leaving the runtime part of the BIOS—known as the System Management Mode (SMM)—a prime target. This dissertation shows that we can build platforms that detect intrusions at the BIOS level and survive intrusions at the OS level. First, by demonstrating that intrusion survivability is a viable approach for commodity OSs. We develop a new approach that address various limitations from the literature, and we evaluate its security and performance. Second, by developing a hardware-based approach that detects attacks at the BIOS level where we demonstrate its feasibility with multiple detection methods.
“This is Still their Lives”: Photojournalists’ Ethical Approach to Capturing and Publishing Graphic or Shocking Images

ABSTRACTGraphic and gut-wrenching images of death, violence, and pain fill our news media, despite debate about their effect on audiences and their potential to harm their subjects. This research u...
Community capacity coach: Embedded support to implement evidenced-based prevention

Given the pervasive nature of child abuse and neglect, multilevel public health approaches are necessary. Implementation science can help in understanding the most effective ways to build infrastructure and support delivery of such approaches. In this theoretical paper, we describe the implementation of the Positive Parenting Program (Triple P), an evidence-based population-level parenting program in South Carolina. While implementation science has informed how to move population-level efforts to scale, we discuss challenges that persist in practice, such as when there is a need for multiple stakeholders to understand, support, and apply implementation best practices in a systematic and consistent way. To address this challenge, we introduce the role of a Community Capacity Coach, who lives in the local community and works towards the implementation of Triple P. The Coach is responsible for bridging gaps between the local community and statewide support systems. We detail the ways in which the Coach's role aligns with key intermediary functions, and how the Coach is embedded within the larger Triple P statewide support system. We then discuss the assessment of the Coach's impact; and conclude with future directions and next steps for this role within Triple P South Carolina.
Gastrin Staining in Inflamed Stomach Biopsies Labeled as “Antral” Rarely Detects Atrophic Gastritis

Objectives Autoimmune metaplastic atrophic gastritis (AMAG) is an underrecognized entity, especially in its early stage. This study assessed whether the use of gastrin immunohistochemistry would increase sensitivity for diagnosing early AMAG. Methods Three-hundred gastric biopsies were prospectively stained for gastrin by immunohistochemistry. Inclusion criteria included well-oriented gastric mucosa with mucus glands and minimal plasma cell infiltrate not suspected to represent pyloric metaplasia. Patient age, sex, designated location of biopsy, presence or absence of intestinal metaplasia, and clinical information were not criteria. Any case with absence of gastrin-positive endocrine cells reflexed to chromogranin immunohistochemistry. Maloriented biopsies or cases with current Helicobacter infection were excluded. Results The 298-patient study cohort comprised 222 females (mean age, 47 years; range, 16-80 years) and 76 males (mean age, 49 years; range, 7-80 years). Biopsies were designated as "antral/antral nodules" (61%), and the rest were labeled "gastric/random stomach" (39%). Nine cases (3%) exhibited absence of gastrin-positive endocrine cells; one of those showed endocrine cell hyperplasia by chromogranin staining. Conclusions Pathologists should be aware of the histologic features of early AMAG and meticulously analyze tissue regardless of specimen labeling. Gastrin immunostain is a supplemental diagnostic tool when encountering inflamed antral-appearing specimens.
How much can we trust electronic health record data

Abstract Trust in EHR data is becoming increasingly important as a greater share of clinical and health services research use EHR data. We discuss reasons for distrust and acknowledge limitations. Researchers continue to use EHR data because of strengths including greater clinical detail than sources like administrative billing claims. Further, many limitations are addressable with existing methods including data quality checks and common data frameworks. We discuss how to build greater trust in the use of EHR data for research, including additional transparency and research priority areas that will both enhance existing strengths of the EHR and mitigate its limitations.
Bioterrorism and food safety.

Written by specialists in the fields of food bioterrorism and industry preparedness, Bioterrorism and Food Safety focuses on developing rational and implementable food security strategies. The book examines the risks associated with the intentional contamination of food. It provides implementation strategies to reduce food security risks and discusses the underlying legal issues tied to product liability and regulatory compliance. The text includes current hazards, provisions of the Bioterrorism Act, guidance documents from the FDA and USDA, and more. Risk management models are presented and workable strategies for addressing food safety risks are developed through case studies.
Visualization of biological sequence similarity search results

Biological sequence similarity analysis presents visualization challenges, primarily because of the massive amounts of discrete, multi-dimensional data. Genomic data generated by molecular biologists is analyzed by algorithms that search for similarity to known sequences in large genomic databases. The output from these algorithms can be several thousand pages of text, and is difficult to analyze because of its length and complexity. We developed and implemented a novel graphical representation for sequence similarity search results, which visually reveals features that are difficult to find in textual reports. The method opens new possibilities in the interpretation of this discrete, multi-dimensional data by enabling interactive investigation of the graphical representation.
Effects of marihuana inhalation on spermatogenesis of the rat.

The effect of marihuana smoking on spermatogenesis was studied in normal mature rats and in post-vitamin-A-treated, vitamin-A-deficient rats. A specific decrease in epididymal sperm was noted only after inhalation of marihuana smoke for a period of 75 days at 16 puffs/day. In the absence of tissue and urine cannabinoid levels, no direct comparison to human use can be made, although the amount of THC, as calculated by Rosenkrantz, is comparable to that used in humans. Spermatogenesis may be specifically affected by marihuana smoking as indicated by increased dissociation of sperm head and tail and by the histological changes observed in seminiferous tubule. Marihuana exposure had little effect on DNA-specific activity after H3-thymidine administration, although a modest decrease in DNA synthesis, accompanied by a total decrease in germ-cell number, cannot be excluded by this experimental design. Elevations in serum FSH levels following marihuana exposure may indicate a specific and sensitive effect upon Sertoli cell function.
Studies on the crystalline lens. XIX. Quantitative aspects of active and passive transport of sodium.

Abstract A theoretical model of a pump-leak system that assumes sodium enters the lens by passive diffusion and leaves primarily by active transport against both an electric and chemical gradient has been used to evaluate rate constants for parameters controlling movement of this cation into and out of cultured rabbit lenses. The system is regarded as consisting of three compartments, the medium, capsule and region behind an ion restricting barrier, the fibers. Because of transient changes in the rate of passive diffusion of 22 Na in cultured lenses it was not possible to fit data showing the rate of accumulation and net rate of efflux with a single pair of rate constants, unless lenses were precultured for a period of at least 3 hr prior to making the determinations. Under these circumstances, two sets of rate constants ( K p = 0·35 hr −1 , K d = 0·013 hr −1 and K p = 0·58 hr −1 , K d = 0·010 hr −1 ) were found that would produce fits to the experimental data showing fluxes in both directions. These were dependent upon the technique employed in cutting the zonules when removing lenses from the eye. The latter pair of values, which predicts the steady state ratio concentration of sodium lens/medium observed in vivo, is thought to correspond to those prevailing in the living eye. Ouabain (10 −5 m ) markedly inhibits active transport ( K p to 0·18 hr −1 ) and increases passive diffusion ( K d to 0·020 hr −1 ).
Isolation and characterization of parvalbumins from the skeletal muscle of higher vertebrates.

Abstract Parvalbumins, i.e. the low molecular weight, calciumbinding muscle proteins isolated heretofore exclusively from fish and amphibians, have been obtained in sizable amounts from the skeletal muscle of turtle, chicken, rabbit, and man. The finding that these proteins are not confined to lower vertebrates but have been conserved throughout evolution strongly suggests that they must possess a definite physiological function possibly related to the contractile process.
Nature and Eros: an Educational Process for Engaging With a Living Universe

Nature and Eros is an integral educational process offered to graduate students at the California Institute of Integral Studies. This course was developed in response to the illusion, operative throughout Western industrialized culture, that we are separate selves living upon the earth. Across many disciplines we are awakening to the knowledge that we are living organisms intricately woven into the ever-evolving vibrant web of life. The central aim of Nature and Eros is to support a shift in our perception of this larger web and activate the lived recognition of our deepest identity as an inextricable part of cosmic evolution.
The effect of hardwood component on grapple skidder and stroke delimber idle time and productivity - An agent based model

We modeled the interaction between grapple skidder and stroke delimber.We developed an agent-based model using the NetLogo software.Hardwood component does not affect machine idle time under average conditions.Hardwood component has no effect on system productivity under average conditions.System productivity is most sensitive to bunch size and skidding distance. The forest industry is a capital intensive business and therefore high efficiency in management and forest operations is a must. Maine has millions of acres of forest stands with tree diameters smaller than 30cm. The harvest productivity in such stands is low compared to stands with larger diameter trees. A recent harvest productivity study in Maine identified operational constraints for whole tree harvest systems, but efforts to improve active operations would be expensive and time consuming. A common practice to reduce costs and time consumption is to develop simulation models and implement new ideas within them. We developed a production efficiency model that leverages an agent-based modeling approach. The model is based on the interaction of two common forest machines (grapple skidder and stroke delimber) and incorporates empirical cycle time estimates from research in Maine. Three scenarios have been developed to investigate baseline conditions, and two GPS and GIS aided communication improvements. The goal of this paper is to document a new agent based model and to investigate the effect of hardwood component on machine idle time and productivity. Results showed that system productivity was affected by skidding distance, bunch spacing, and removal intensity. An increase in hardwood component led to a decrease in stroke delimber idle time but did not affect grapple skidder idle time. Further, hardwood component did not affect system productivity, and none of the three single-skidder scenarios tested performed any better than another. We validated the model by conducting a sensitivity analysis to confirm previous research results. The modeled waiting times are well within the range of observed values and therefore suggest that this model is accurate and well calibrated. Our conclusions are that when operating under average harvesting conditions there is no loss in productivity due to a change in hardwood component and that a stroke delimber idle time of 40% or more is unavoidable unless the stroke delimber can work independently. Future applications of this model may target specific production forestry conditions.
Marital and family counseling in prisons

David Showalter, MSW, and Charlotte Williams Jones, MSW, are Social Workers, Kansas State Penitentiary, Lansing. Traditionally, the criminal justice finding employment that will provide system's main focus has been on proan adequate income. She is faced with tecting society from criminals and on making major decisions by herself. In punishing the individuals who violate many instances this may be a new ex the law. In the last few decades, the perience, since in the past she may rehabilitation movement has created either have shared this responsibility alternative methods of treating crimiwith her husband or let him make the nals instead of solely depending on decisions. Suddenly faced with making punishment. The alternatives that have these decisions, she may experience been developed include a number of great fear and anxiety. The fear and ideas and programs designed to treat anxiety can increase her lack of self individuals while they are incarcerated, confidence and lead to serious emo Among the more widely used of these tional problems such as depression or activities are individual counseling, withdrawal. If there are children, the group counseling, job training, educawife becomes totally responsible for tional programs, and work release them. The children, reacting to the pain plans. The tendency in these reof losing their father, may become dif habilitative programs has been to focus ficult to handle. entirely on the incarcerated individual. Also, Morris's study of social service The authors believe that contrary to the agencies showed that community agen current trend, the inclusion of the priscies did not have extensive contact oner's family in rehabilitative programs with families of prisoners, even though will increase the effectiveness of treatthe families needed the agencies' ser ment. vices.3 On top of these problems the While society is punishing the indiwife is faced with personal problems of vidual who violated the law, members loneliness, sexual frustration, and lack of the prisoner's family suffer serious of emotional support from her mate, consequences. Little attention is paid Faced with many opportunities for to the fact that "many legally innocent having these needs met from other men people, closely related to prisoners and only limited contact with her have experienced the suffering which spouse, the woman is forced to make a imprisonment brings."1 The family extough decision. Many marriages will periences many hardships when its not last if the husband undergoes a long main breadwinner, father, or husband period of incarceration. Holt and Miller is not present. Professional awareness report that "contacts from legally mar of these problems has been limited, as ried wives of first term inmates grew demonstrated by the relatively few fewer through the second year, studies that have been conducted on suggesting that the marital relationship the subject. Some studies that have deteriorates as the years in prison been completed, however, have found pass."4 that severe stress and strain was
Vulnerable Children: Global Challenges in Education, Health, Well-being and Child Rights, by Johnson, D. J., Agbényiga, D. L., & Hitchcock, R. K. (Eds.)

This edited volume has pulled together work from a wide variety of scholars who are united by their focus on violations of children’s rights. As laid out in the United Nations Convention on the Rig...
Letter by Mosley Regarding Article, “Iron Homeostasis and Pulmonary Hypertension: Iron Deficiency Leads to Pulmonary Vascular Remodeling in the Rat”

We read with great interest the article by Cotroneo et al, and the accompanying editorial, which provides evidence that iron deficiency is associated with pulmonary vascular remodeling in an animal model.1,2 We provide additional support for their results in humans and suggest that the observed relationship between iron homeostasis and pulmonary vascular remodeling is driven in part by mechanisms shared between pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and disorders of iron metabolism. We analyzed data from BioVU, Vanderbilt’s integrated deidentified electronic medical record system and DNA biorepository, to identify clinical diagnoses associated with single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) variation in and around genes previously associated with PAH by a genome-wide association study.3 We used 29 349 unrelated BioVU subjects of European ancestry who were genotyped on the Illumina Human Exome BeadChip, which has ≈33 000 common SNPs with a minor allele frequency >1%. We used 1309 curated collections of diagnostically related International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision …
Direct conjugation of DNA to quantum dots for scalable assembly of photoactive thin films

For many thin film applications, it is critical to not only control the organization of the materials on surfaces but to also use scalable processes that are time and material efficient. This is especially the case when using nanomaterials, including metal or semiconductor nanocrystals, as building blocks from which to engineer devices. In this work, we demonstrate a method to directly conjugate DNA to cadmium based quantum dots (QD) to create thin film arrays on surfaces for potential optoelectronic devices. These DNA-conjugated QDs showed uniform coatings, were oxidation-stable, and remained stable in high ionic strength environments. In previously published work, we discovered that high salt, in particular magnesium, is critical for fabricating nanoparticle assemblies on substrates through DNA interactions. The QD thin films were produced by means of interparticle DNA hybridization in a few steps with no loss of material and with good control over film thickness and roughness. By directly conjugating the DNA to the QDs, it also became possible to study DNA's role in mediating charge transport in the QD films. For this, DNA-conjugated CdTe nanocrystals were assembled onto TiO2 films to fabricate photovoltaic prototypes. Current–Voltage measurements from the DNA–QD devices showed the promise of using DNA not only as an assembler but also as mediator of charge separation and transport.
Development of a New Optical Wavelength Rejection Filter: Demonstration of its Utility in Raman Spectroscopy

A new tunable optical filter has been developed which rejects a narrow wavelength interval ( 90%). This filter will be useful in optics, in spectroscopy, and for laser applications. The active element of the filter is a crystalline colloidal array of polystyrene spheres. The rejected wavelengths are Bragg diffracted from this ordered array. For a particular sphere concentration and scattering from a particular set of lattice planes, tunability can be achieved by the altering of the angle between the filter and incident light beam. Bragg diffraction and light rejection of these filters are monitored by transmission measurements. The utility of this filter for spectroscopic measurements is demonstrated for Raman spectroscopy. Raman measurements are shown for polypropylene, a highly scattering material with numerous low-frequency modes. The filter selectively attenuates the elastically scattered light and allows the low frequency peaks to be observed. Use of this wavelength rejection filter to reject the Rayleigh scattered light simplifies the instrumentation, decreases the cost, and increases the sensitivity of Raman spectral measurements. This filter also has the potential to replace dispersive elements such as gratings and prisms in a variety of spectroscopic and optical applications.
Transformations with highly nonhomogeneous spectrum of finite multiplicity

This paper studies a spectral invariant ℳ T for ergodic measure preserving transformationsT called theessential spectral multiplicities. It is defined as the essential range of the multiplicity function for the induced unitary operatorU T. Examples are constructed where ℳ T is subject only to the following conditions: (i) 1∈ℳ T , (ii) lcm(n, m)∈ℳ T wherevern, m ∈ ℳ T , and (iii) sup ℳ T <+∞. This shows thatD T, definedD T=card ℳ T , may be an arbitrary positive integer. The results are obtained by an algebraic construction together with approximation arguments.