cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Student Assessment of Self-Efficacy and Practice Readiness Following Simulated Instruction in an Undergraduate Social Work Program

The use of simulated instruction is a growing trend in social work education. This study examined the effectiveness of simulated instruction with undergraduate social work students. In this mixed m...
Pharmaceutical industry–physician interaction compliance guidelines: Analysis of contagion wealth effects on large generic firms:

BackgroundThis study examines the contagion effect on shareholders’ wealth of large generic firms to the issuance of guidelines by the Office of Inspector General “to efficiently monitor adherence ...
Educational infrastructure, professional learning, and changes in teachers’ instructional practices and beliefs

AbstractSchool systems around the world are adopting more intellectually ambitious academic content in the hopes of improving their educational productivity. In the United States, these efforts have required significant changes to teachers’ instructional practices, and increased attention to teachers’ formal and on-the-job professional learning opportunities. Focusing on the initial implementation of a reform-oriented approach to teaching mathematics in two local school systems in the United States, this paper examines whether – and under what circumstances – elementary teachers’ professional learning opportunities predict changes in their instructional practices and beliefs related to mathematics. Our findings reveal that teachers’ on-the-job interactions during the first year of reform predicted changes in their instructional practices; further, these changes were associated with the infrastructures that local school systems created to support teacher learning in mathematics. Teachers’ participation in ...
Expository & survey paper: A unified approach to smoothing formulas

Based on various approaches, several different solutions to the smoothing problem have been given. The relationships between these solutions are not immediate, although they solve the same problem. Making use of a certain framework from scattering theory, we derive two families of solutions, with equations evolving forwards and backwards in time, respectively. Within these families three major previous approaches are obtained as special cases, and their relationships are clarified. The set of solutions also contains as a fourth special case a (new) backwards analog of the innovations solution. The Mayne-Fraser two-filter formula belongs to the set of backwards solutions, and within this framework certain difficulties with its interpretation can be resolved.
Regulation of Glucocorticoid Receptor Function During the Cell Cycle

Glucocorticoid hormones are involved in numero us physiological processes such as endocrine homeostasis, stress responses, carbohydrate and lipid metabolism, inflammation, and apoptosis. The biological actions of glucocorticoids are mediated through the intracellular glucocorticoid receptor (GR), which belongs to the superfamily of steroid/thyroid/retinoic acid transcription factors (Evans et al., 1988). The glucocorticoid receptor acts by either binding to glucocorticoid response elements (GREs) in target genes to activate or repress gene transcription or by physical interacting with other transcription factors.
An Exploratory Study of Self-efficacy in Community College Students

This study explored self-efficacy in a sample of urban community college students. The main goal of the study was to determine levels of both general and academic self-efficacy in this population, ...
Understanding IC3

The recently introduced model checking algorithm, IC3, has proved to be among the best SAT-based safety model checkers. Many implementations now exist. This paper provides the context from which IC3 was developed and explains how the originator of the algorithm understands it. Then it draws parallels between IC3 and the subsequently developed algorithms, FAIR and IICTL, which extend IC3's ideas to the analysis of ω-regular and CTL properties, respectively. Finally, it draws attention to certain challenges that these algorithms pose for the SAT and SMT community.
Sensor Placement for Optimal Control of Infinite-Dimensional Systems

An important challenge in controlling distributed parameter systems is implementing feedback control laws over an infinite-dimensional space. One widely studied approach is to place sensors at a set of discrete locations and then approximate the state feedback using the sensor outputs. This approach naturally raises the question of where the sensors should be located. In this paper, we investigate the problem of placing a set of sensors on the unit interval in order to minimize the mean-square deviation between a desired infinite-dimensional control law, and an approximate finite-dimensional controller obtained by applying state feedback at the chosen sensor positions. We propose a greedy algorithm and derive optimality bounds on the selected set of sensors. We also present a simplified greedy algorithm in which the incremental improvements from adding each sensor are not updated at each step. We analyze the performance of the approaches under two scenarios. In the case where the sensor placements are constrained such that each of the detection radii of each pair of sensors do not overlap, we show that the two algorithms are equivalent and achieve a $1/2+\epsilon$ optimality guarantee, where $\epsilon$ can be made arbitrarily small at the cost of increased computational overhead. When overlaps exist between sensor detection areas, we derive an optimality bound for the simplified algorithm. The value of the optimality bound is determined by the sensor model, cardinality of sensor set, and the allowed minimum sensor distance. Our approach is illustrated through numerical study, in which we compare our proposed greedy algorithm, the current state-of-the-art approach, and the true optimum obtained from exhaustive search.
Trigger warnings and resilience in college students: A preregistered replication and extension.

Trigger warnings notify people that content they are about to engage with may result in adverse emotional consequences. An experiment by Bellet, Jones, and McNally (2018) indicated that trigger warnings increased the extent to which trauma-naive crowd-sourced participants see themselves and others as emotionally vulnerable to potential future traumas but did not have a significant main effect on anxiety responses to distressing literature passages. However, they did increase anxiety responses for participants who strongly believed that words can harm. In this article, we present a preregistered replication of this study in a college student sample, using Bayesian statistics to estimate the success of each effect's replication. We found strong evidence that none of the previously significant effects replicated. However, we found substantial evidence that trigger warnings' previously nonsignificant main effect of increasing anxiety responses to distressing content was genuine, albeit small. Interpretation of the findings, implications, and future directions are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Brain Serotonin, Mood-Regulation and Aggression-Regulation

Rather consistently, the CSF post-probenecid concentration of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) — the main degradation product of 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin, 5-HT) — has been found to be lowered in a subgroup of patients suffering from the syndrome of vital (endogenous) depression (Review: van Praag,. The data on baseline 5-HIAA values in CSF are more controversial (Asberg et al., 1976; Koslow et al., 1983). Several groups have reported that the “subgroup” I referred to above was characterized by strong suicidal tendencies (Banki et al., 1981; Montgomery and Montgomery, 1982; van Praag, 1982; Banki and Arato, 1983). Low CSF 5-HIAA was in particular found in depressed patients who had attempted suicide with violent means (Asberg et al., 1976; Traskman et al., 1982). Subsequently low CSF 5-HIAA was likewise observed in what was called non-psychotic and non-depressed suicide attempters (Traskman et al., 1982). This prompted the hypothesis that disorders in central 5-HT are not so much related to depression as to suicidality irrespective of the nosological context in which this phenomenon occurred.
Steganographic universal adversarial perturbations

Abstract We propose a steganography based technique to generate adversarial perturbations to fool deep models on any image. The proposed perturbations are computed in a transform domain where a single secret image embedded in any target image makes any deep model misclassify the target image with high probability. The attack resulting from our perturbation is ideal for black-box setting, as it does not require any information about the target model. Moreover, being a non-iterative technique, our perturbation estimation remains computationally efficient. The computed perturbations are also imperceptible to humans while they achieve high fooling ratios for the models trained on large-scale ImageNet dataset. We demonstrate successful fooling of ResNet-50, VGG-16, Inception-V3 and MobileNet-V2, achieving up to 89% fooling of these popular classification models.
Impaired Scaling of Step Length in Parkinsonian Postural Instability

Background: Postural stepping is an important strategy for recovery of balance in response to postural perturbations. It is disrupted by Parkinson9s disease (PD) and other conditions. The nature of this disruption remains poorly understood. Understanding the motor control nature of this impairment can guide the development of novel interventions. Objectives: To identify the motor control abnormalities responsible for parkinsonian impairment of postural stepping. Methods: We studied four groups of participants: control, aged, PD, and normal-pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). We performed kinematic analysis of postural stepping by recording participants9 body motion during a modified version of the clinical pull test, which was performed multiple times with different amounts of pulling forcefulness. Results: Successful postural stepping in the control group was accompanied by linear scaling of their first step9s length and latency to the body9s initial motion: more forceful pulls caused larger initial body acceleration, which resulted in longer steps that began earlier. PD patients exhibited reduced scaling of step length: they maintained normal reaction time but took steps that were inadequately short. Reduced step length scaling was present, but less severe, in aged individuals, and was more severe in NPH patients. Aged individuals and PD patients exhibited partial compensation for reduced step length scaling: their step length included a component that was independent of initial body acceleration, which was absent in control and NPH groups. Conclusions: the impairment of postural stepping caused by PD and related conditions is due to inadequate scaling of movement amplitude and is thus a form of hypokinesia.
Staged repair of truncus arteriosus with double aortic arch, tracheoesophageal fistula, and choanal atresia via a multi-disciplinary approach: a case report

The previously unreported case of a child with an exceedingly rare amalgamation of complex defects, including truncus arteriosus (TA), double aortic arch (DAA), tracheoesophageal fistula, and choanal atresia is presented. First, on day-of-life (DOL) 2, with a joint effort involving Pediatric Cardiac Surgery, General Surgery, and Otolaryngology, division of tracheoesophageal fistula and repair of esophageal atresia, along with choanal atresia repair, was carried out. Via a right thoracotomy, the tracheoesophageal fistula, located medial to the azygous vein, was skeletonized and ligated. The proximal esophagus was then mobilized up to the thoracic inlet as it coursed through the vascular ring. This enabled esophageal anastomosis with preservation of both aortas. Next, on DOL 11, the child underwent TA repair. Following a standard midline sternotomy and cooling to moderate hypothermia, the left aortic arch was divided and oversewn. The aorta was then transected anteriorly, and the main pulmonary artery (MPA) exiting the posterior aorta was harvested as a single button. The aortic defect from the pulmonary artery button was repaired with autologous pericardium. Next, through a right ventriculotomy, the previously seen conoventricular septal defect was identified and closed. Finally, a 10-mm pulmonary homograft was anastomosed to the pulmonary artery bifurcation to complete the repair. The patient was discharged on DOL 78 and was noted to be doing well at 1-year follow-up. This case validates the feasibility of fistula repair complicated by DAA through a right thoracotomy, the durability of staged, complete repair of TA and DAA, and the advantages of a holistic, team-based approach that optimizes timing of all repairs based upon a careful consideration of the exponential, rather than additive, effects of multi-organ disease on post-cardiac surgery outcomes in neonates.
Residue Dynamics of Streptomycin in Citrus Delivered by Foliar Spray and Trunk Injection and Effect on 'Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus' Titer.

Streptomycin (STR) has been used to control citrus huanglongbing (HLB) caused by ‘Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus’ (CLas) via foliar spray. Here, we studied the residue dynamics of STR and its ef...
Development of a Histopathology Informatics Pipeline for Classification and Prediction of Clinical Outcomes in Subtypes of Renal Cell Carcinoma

Purpose: Histopathology evaluation is the gold standard for diagnosing clear cell (ccRCC), papillary, and chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (RCC). However, interrater variability has been reported, and the whole-slide histopathology images likely contain underutilized biological signals predictive of genomic profiles. Experimental Design: To address this knowledge gap, we obtained whole-slide histopathology images and demographic, genomic, and clinical data from The Cancer Genome Atlas, the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium, and Brigham and Women9s Hospital (Boston, MA) to develop computational methods for integrating data analyses. Leveraging these large and diverse datasets, we developed fully automated convolutional neural networks to diagnose renal cancers and connect quantitative pathology patterns with patients9 genomic profiles and prognoses. Results: Our deep convolutional neural networks successfully detected malignancy (AUC in the independent validation cohort: 0.964–0.985), diagnosed RCC histologic subtypes (independent validation AUCs of the best models: 0.953–0.993), and predicted stage I ccRCC patients9 survival outcomes (log-rank test P = 0.02). Our machine learning approaches further identified histopathology image features indicative of copy-number alterations (AUC > 0.7 in multiple genes in patients with ccRCC) and tumor mutation burden. Conclusions: Our results suggest that convolutional neural networks can extract histologic signals predictive of patients9 diagnoses, prognoses, and genomic variations of clinical importance. Our approaches can systematically identify previously unknown relations among diverse data modalities.
The Continuing Vitality of Flawed Research on Guns and Violence: A Comment on Fridel (2020)

Fridel recently published a macro-level panel study of firearms homicide rates and counts of mass shootings, and concluded that higher gun ownership rates increase the number of mass shootings, and...
Physics-Coupled Spatio-Temporal Active Learning for Dynamical Systems.

Spatio-temporal forecasting is of great importance in a wide range of dynamical systems applications from atmospheric science, to recent COVID-19 spread modeling. These applications rely on accurate predictions of spatio-temporal structured data reflecting real-world phenomena. A stunning characteristic is that the dynamical system is not only driven by some physics laws but also impacted by the localized factor in spatial and temporal regions. One of the major challenges is to infer the underlying causes, which generate the perceived data stream and propagate the involved causal dynamics through the distributed observing units. Another challenge is that the success of machine learning based predictive models requires massive annotated data for model training. However, the acquisition of high-quality annotated data is objectively manual and tedious as it needs a considerable amount of human intervention, making it infeasible in fields that require high levels of expertise. To tackle these challenges, we advocate a spatio-temporal physics-coupled neural networks (ST-PCNN) model to learn the underlying physics of the dynamical system and further couple the learned physics to assist the learning of the recurring dynamics. To deal with data-acquisition constraints, an active learning mechanism with Kriging for actively acquiring the most informative data is proposed for ST-PCNN training in a partially observable environment. Our experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets exhibit that the proposed ST-PCNN with active learning converges to near optimal accuracy with substantially fewer instances.
Checkpoint blockade combined with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) in advanced-stage epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC): preliminary results from a phase II clinical trial

Objectives: Standard of care treatment for advanced stage EOC is a combination of chemotherapy and surgery. Despite this approach, the majority of women remain incurable, underscoring the need for novel therapeutics. This study assessed the pathologic objective response rate (pORR), historically reported as 6-10% and tumor transcriptomic changes in women with advanced stage EOC treated with neoadjuvant pembrolizumab, paclitaxel, and carboplatin. Methods: This was an open-label, single-arm, phase II trial for women with newly diagnosed biopsy proven EOC dispositioned to receive carboplatin, paclitaxel and pembrolizumab 200mg/m2 every 21 days. Patients received 3-4 cycles prior to interval debulking surgery followed by another 3-4 cycles of adjuvant therapy. A planned interim analysis to assess futility (based on reported historic response with NACT, required 1 pORR) was completed after enrollment of 20 of planned 40 evaluable patients. Transcriptomic analyses of bulk RNA to identify functional genes and significant pathways from matched specimens from treatment naive tumor, and tumor after 3-4 cycles of NACT plus immune checkpoint inhibitor, (ICI) were completed. Strand-specific RNA libraries were sequenced using single-end reads (50 bp, average 40 million reads per sample) on the DNBSeq platform. Differentially expressed genes (DEG) with a false discovery rate q 1.5 were used. Results: Interim data for the first 20 patients evaluable for pORR are reported. Most women were White (95%) and had high grade serous histology (100%). In 11 cases (55%), R0 (complete) cytoreduction was achieved. There have been no surgical complications related to combination treatment. Treatment was generally well tolerated, with mostly grade 1/2 toxicity: 30% pruritic rash, 10% thyroid abnormalities. One patient had grade 3 nephritis that recovered with treatment. A total of 6 patients achieved a pathologic complete response (pCR, 30%) and another 4 (25%) pathologic partial response (pPR) for a 55% pORR. There were 4 pts with deleterious genetic mutation in the homologous recombination pathway (20%) and 2 patients with Fanconi anemia somatic mutations (10%). There were 863 DEGs between the chemonaive and ICI+NACT matched tumors. ICI+NACT induced activation of PI3K-Akt pathway, myeloid differentiation, AGE-RAGE signaling, and focal adhesion kinase pathways which included upregulation of FXR, NLRP11 and FOXL2 expression, known regulators of inflammation and immune responses. Conclusions: Interim analysis demonstrates an increase in pORR compared to previously reported in literature (6-10%) and is generally well tolerated. Transcriptomic analyses revealed specific ICI induced gene signatures when combined with NACT. Further characterization of complete and partial responders are needed to improve patient selection for ICI therapies.
Practical Seismic Data Analysis

Preface 1. Introduction to seismic data 2. Preliminary analysis of seismic data 3. Discrete spectral analysis 4. Seismic resolution and fidelity 5. Digital filters 6. Deconvolution 7. Practical seismic migration 8. Practical seismic velocity analysis 9. Suppression of multiple reflections 10. Data fitting and model inversion 11. Special topics Glossary References Index.
Some Computational Aspects in Projection Pursuit

This note discusses some computational aspects in Projection Pursuit (PP) and compares Friedman’s index (1987) with Hall’s (1989).
TRANSLATION BETWEEN LINGUISTIC WORLDS

This paper considers the role of poetic parallelism in the translation of various types of meaning between the linguistic worlds of gurbani, or Sikh scriptural language, and ordinary colloquial language. The first major section of the paper considers verbal art as an intensive form of language characterized by special attention to linguistic elements such as repetition and parallelism, and constituted in relation to a particular linguistic audience. The next section considers the relationship between ‘religious' language (as a form of verbal art) and ‘ordinary' language. Finally, the relationship between the formal properties of language and creativity is considered. The second major section begins with an overview of some major theories of parallelism and is then followed by a close analysis of some of the pervasive forms of parallelism present in gurbani. The paper then moves into an analysis of similar forms of parallelism in an excerpt of kathaa, or oral exegesis of Sikh scripture. Finally, the paper ...
A 10-Year Survey of US Deans: Trends, Challenges, and Mentoring in Prosthodontics. Part 2

Purpose: Part 2 of this survey reports on the 2009 survey findings distributed to the deans of US dental schools. A national, electronic survey of 58 dental school deans was distributed by e-mail to evaluate an interest in specialty training, an interest in specialty training in prosthodontics, faculty shortage issues, predoctoral curriculum in prosthodontics, ideology regarding dental specialties, and the administrative position of prosthodontics within the schools. Materials and Methods: The survey data were transferred to an online spreadsheet program for statistical analysis (Key Survey, Inc. http://www.keysurvey.com, Braintree, MA). The opinions of dental school deans were viewed as legitimate indicators of change within predoctoral and postdoctoral prosthodontic education. Statistical analysis was carried out using Statistica Version 9.1 (Statsoft, Tulsa, OK). Results: Of the 58 deans, 42 deans responded, for a 72.4% response rate. Twenty-three deans reported an increase in the number of students seeking specialty training after dental school. Only three deans reported a decrease in those seeking specialty training. In the 2009 survey, 45% the deans responded that there was an increased interest in prosthodontics. One or more open faculty positions in prosthodontics existed at 24 (59%) of the dental schools, and 30 (71%) offered at least one incentive or a variety of incentives to recruit faculty. The 2009 respondents to the deans’ survey revealed predoctoral student exposure to prosthodontists was high, and exposure to advanced education in prosthodontics students was low. A survey of internal school programs that might have an impact on an increased interest in prosthodontics revealed the presence of a predoctoral mentoring program for prosthodontics in 36 (88%) of the institutions. The clinical curriculum included treatment of a variety of cases including complex cases as defined by a diagnostic classification system. The 2009 survey respondents reported an increase in the number of schools where prosthodontics is a separate entity or department. Conclusion: Deans reported an increased interest in prosthodontics in the 2009 survey. Open faculty positions in prosthodontics existed in the majority of dental schools, and most schools offered incentives to recruit faculty. The survey of deans found a very high level of exposure of dental students to full-time prosthodontists and a very low exposure level to students enrolled in advanced education in prosthodontics. The establishment of mentoring programs in prosthodontics was reported by most deans, and the predoctoral curriculum included treating complex cases. Most deans stated that dual-specialty training in prosthodontics and periodontics would be beneficial. The 2009 survey reported an increase in the number of departments of prosthodontics in US schools.
The Western River Steamboat Heroine, 1832–1838, Oklahoma, USA: construction

This paper describes the design and construction of the side-wheel steamer Heroine, a representative of the ‘western river steamboat’ type and the earliest example of its kind to undergo archaeological study. Heroine was built at New Albany, Indiana, in 1832 and sunk on the Red River between Oklahoma and Texas in 1838. The extensive remains of the lower hull show assembly practices in use during the developmental era of Mississippi River steamboats. The wreck also reveals a heretofore-unknown technique for longitudinally strengthening these long, narrow, and very lightly built hulls.
Analysis of Selected Volatile Organic Compounds in Split and Nonsplit Swiss Cheese Samples Using Selected-Ion Flow Tube Mass Spectrometry (SIFT-MS)

Splits/cracks are recurring product defects that negatively affect the Swiss cheese industry. Investigations to understand the biophysicochemical aspects of these defects, and thus determine preventive measures against their occurrence, are underway. In this study, selected-ion, flow tube mass spectrometry was employed to determine the volatile organic compound (VOC) profiles present in the headspace of split compared with nonsplit cheeses. Two sampling methodologies were employed: split compared with nonsplit cheese vat pair blocks; and comparison of blind, eye, and split segments within cheese blocks. The variability in VOC profiles was examined to evaluate the potential biochemical pathway chemistry differences within and between cheese samples. VOC profile inhomogeneity was most evident in cheeses between factories. Evaluation of biochemical pathways leading to the formation of key VOCs differentiating the split from the blind and eye segments within factories indicated release of additional carbon dioxide by-product. These results suggest a factory-dependent cause of split formation that could develop from varied fermentation pathways in the blind, eye, and split areas within a cheese block. The variability of VOC profiles within and between factories exhibit varied biochemical fermentation pathways that could conceivably be traced back in the making process to identify parameters responsible for split defect.
Investigating dynamic pain sensitivity in the context of the fear-avoidance model

Background Although nearly everyone at some point in their lives experiences back pain; the amount of interference with routine activity varies significantly. The fear-avoidance (FA) model of chronic pain explains how psychological variables, such as fear, act as mediating factors influencing the relationship between clinical pain intensity and the amount of interference with daily activities. What remains less clear is how other mediating factors fit within this model. The primary objective of this report was to examine the extent to which a dynamic measure of pain sensitivity provides additional information within the context of the FA model. Method To address our primary objective, classic mediation and moderated mediation analyses were conducted on baseline clinical, psychological and quantitative sensory measures obtained on 67 subjects with back pain (mean age, 31.4 ± 12.1 years; 70% female). Results There was a moderately strong relationship (r = 0.52; p < 0.01) between clinical pain intensity and interference, explaining about 27% of the variance in the outcome. Mediation analyses confirmed fear partially mediated the total effect of clinical pain intensity on interference (Δβ = 0.27; p < 0.01), and accounted for an additional 16% of the variance. In our FA model, pain sensitivity did not demonstrate additional indirect effects; however, it did moderate the strength of indirect effects of fear. Conclusion This preliminary modelling suggests complex interactions exist between pain-related fear and pain sensitivity measures that further explain individual differences in behaviour.
Role of Group 1 CD1-Restricted T Cells in Infectious Disease.

The evolutionarily conserved CD1 family of antigen-presenting molecules presents lipid antigens rather than peptide antigens to T cells. CD1 molecules, unlike classical MHC molecules, display limited polymorphism, making CD1-restricted lipid antigens attractive vaccine targets that could be recognized in a genetically diverse human population. Group 1 CD1 (CD1a, CD1b, and CD1c)-restricted T cells have been implicated to play critical roles in a variety of autoimmune and infectious diseases. In this review, we summarize current knowledge and recent discoveries on the development of group 1 CD1-restricted T cells and their function in different infection models. In particular, we focus on (1) newly identified microbial and self–lipid antigens, (2) kinetics, phenotype, and unique properties of group 1 CD1-restricted T cells during infection, and (3) the similarities of group 1 CD1-restricted T cells to the closely related group 2 CD1-restricted T cells.
Philosophy as Fallible Science

One hundred years after the publication of Husserl’s essay “Philosophy as a Rigorous Science,” the relationship between his description about mental states, our access to them, and the relationship between his views about our access to our own mental stat
Gene conversion confined to a direct repeat of the acceptor splice site generates allelic diversity at human glycophorin (GYP) locus.

Abstract The glycophorin locus (GYP) on the long arm of chromosome 4 encodes antigens of the MNSs blood group system and displays considerable allelic variation among human populations. The genomic structure and organization of a variant glycophorin allele specifying a novel Miltenberger (Mi)-related phenotype, MiX, were examined. This variant probably arose from a gene conversion event involving a direct repeat of the acceptor splice site. Southern blot analysis indicated that MiX gene derived its 5' and 3' portions from glycophorin B or delta gene but its internal part from glycophorin A or alpha gene. Genomic sequences encompassing the rearranged regions of the MiX gene were amplified by single copy polymerase chain reaction. Direct DNA sequencing showed that during the formation of MiX gene, a short stretch of alpha exon III with a donor splice site has replaced a silent sequence in the delta gene containing a cryptic acceptor splice site. The upstream delta-alpha breakpoint is flanked by the direct repeats of the acceptor splice site, whereas the down-stream alpha-delta breakpoint is located in the adjacent intron. This segmental transfer produced a new composite exon whose expression not only transactivated a portion of silent sequence but also created intraexon and interexon hybrid junctions that characterize the antigenic specificities of MiX glycophorin. The identification of MiX as yet another delta-alpha-delta hybrid different from MiIII and MiVI in gene conversion sites suggests that shuffling of expressed and unexpressed sequences through particular genomic DNA motifs has been an important mechanism for shaping the antigenic diversity of MNSs blood group system during evolution.
SOCIAL CONTAGION OF MENTAL HEALTH: EVIDENCE FROM COLLEGE ROOMMATES

From a policy standpoint, the spread of health conditions in social networks is important to quantify, because it implies externalities and possible market failures in the consumption of health interventions. Recent studies conclude that happiness and depression may be highly contagious across social ties. The results may be biased, however, because of selection and common shocks. We provide unbiased estimates by using exogenous variation from college roommate assignments. Our findings are consistent with no significant overall contagion of mental health and no more than small contagion effects for specific mental health measures, with no evidence for happiness contagion and modest evidence for anxiety and depression contagion. The weakness of the contagion effects cannot be explained by avoidance of roommates with poor mental health or by generally low social contact among roommates. We also find that similarity of baseline mental health predicts the closeness of roommate relationships, which highlights the potential for selection biases in studies of peer effects that do not have a clearly exogenous source of variation. Overall, our results suggest that mental health contagion is lower, or at least more context specific, than implied by the recent studies in the medical literature.
The End of Reciprocity: Is Torture Uniquely Degrading? The Unpersuasive Answer of Liberal Jurisprudence

Among the many critiques of the Bush administration's counterterrorism policies, the most penetrating and philosophically sophisticated is that of political and legal theorist, Jeremy Waldron. He focuses on torture and concludes that the practice should never be rendered lawful even if it is, he admits, morally defensible in the most extreme circumstances. This stance is wholly uncontroversial as a description of existing law, international and domestic. Yet Waldron oddly insists on resting the theoretical foundation for this anodyne conclusion uniquely on the shoulders of Ronald Dworkin. Dworkin's theory of judging and the conclusions about specific cases that Dworkin has drawn from it over the years are, by contrast, enormously controversial. Dworkin's views have rightly excited great interest among American legal thinkers for more than thirty years. Their appeal lies in their promise to link practical judgment in real cases to our deepest moral commitments and to do so in a way that explains and justifies key judicial decisions that almost everyone believes were correct but that remain otherwise anomalous – that is, from the viewpoint of more standard theories of what judges, in applying the law, may rightly do. The influence of Dworkin's ideas on practicing bench and bar, to judge from judicial citations, has been almost literally nil, however. These ideas require a belief in some rather contentious propositions: that the law consists not only of explicit rules but also more diffuse principles, often never fully articulated, with a “gravitational force” of uncertain reach beyond the more routine rule formulations within which they are likely to be conventionally codified.
Load balancing in counter-rotated SONET rings

Load-balanced routing in SONET rings has attracted much attention recently. Most prior works model the SONET rings as undirected rings and the traffic as undirected chords. While this model fits well to the traditional telephony applications, it is inefficient for the explosive Internet traffic and multimedia data communications, which exhibit unidirectional and asymmetric nature. For these applications, it is proper to model the SONET rings as a pair of counter-rotated rings and the traffic as directed chords. In this paper we first explore general flow properties in counter-rotated rings, and then introduce flow rounding and unsplitting techniques. Afterwards an optimal integral routing algorithm is provided. Finally, we show the NP-completeness of optimal unsplit routing, and present several polynomial-time approximation algorithms.
Taylor, Alan The Internal Enemy: Slavery and War in Virginia, 1772–1832

Runaway slaves from the Chesapeake were indispensable to British Admiral Sir George Cockburn's triumphant raid on Washington, D.C., in 1814. The runaways served as guides and fought in battles alon...
Local Goal-Oriented Estimation of Modeling Error for Multi-Scale Modeling of Heterogeneous Elastic Materials

We consider the multi-scale analysis of the mechanics of multiphase composites with complex microstructure, based on the Goal-Oriented Adaptive Modeling method [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]. The underlying approach of this method is to perform an initial analysis using homogenized, or effective, properties and sequentially improve these by adding only enough of the actual microstructure to control the modeling error in a user-specified quantity of interest. The quantification of the modeling error is established by providing residual-based a posteriori error estimates [11]. However, this involves solving an additional global dual problem and computing global integrals of governing residual functionals. In the case of multiphase composite materials this estimation process can be computationally prohibitive. We therefore propose a technique for local, a posteriori estimation of the modeling error. It requires solving a local dual problem, of computationally small size, and computing local residual integra...
Why American business demands twenty‐first century learning: A company perspective

Microsoft is an innovative corporation demonstrating the kind and caliber of job skills needed in the twenty-first century. It demonstrates its commitment to twenty-first century skills by holding its employees accountable to a set of core competencies, enabling the company to run effectively. The author explores how Microsoft's core competencies parallel the Partnership for 21st Century Skills learning frameworks. Both require advanced problem-solving skills and a passion for technology, both expect individuals to be able to work in teams, both look for a love of learning, and both call for the self-confidence to honestly self-evaluate. Microsoft also works to cultivate twenty-first century skills among future workers, investing in education to help prepare young people for competitive futures. As the need for digital literacy has become imperative, technology companies have taken the lead in facilitating technology training by partnering with schools and communities. Microsoft is playing a direct role in preparing students for what lies ahead in their careers. To further twenty-first century skills, or core competencies, among the nation's youth, Microsoft has established Partners in Learning, a program that helps education organizations build partnerships that leverage technology to improve teaching and learning. One Partners in Learning grantee is Global Kids, a nonprofit organization that trains students to design online games focused on global social issues resonating with civic and global competencies. As Microsoft believes the challenges of competing in today's economy and teaching today's students are substantial but not insurmountable, such partnerships and investments demonstrate Microsoft's belief in and commitment to twenty-first century skills.
The Splicing Factor, Prp40, Binds the Phosphorylated Carboxyl-terminal Domain of RNA Polymerase II

We showed previously that the WW domain of the prolyl isomerase, Ess1, can bind the phosphorylated carboxyl-terminal domain (phospho-CTD) of the largest subunit of RNA Polymerase II. Analysis of phospho-CTD binding by four other WW domain-containing Saccharomyces cerevisiae proteins indicates the splicing factor, Prp40, and the RNA polymerase II ubiquitin ligase, Rsp5, can also bind the phospho-CTD. The identification of Prp40 as a phospho-CTD binding protein represents the first demonstration of direct interaction between a documented splicing factor and the phospho-CTD. Domain dissection studies reveal that phospho-CTD binding occurs at multiple locations in Prp40, including sites in both the WW and FF domain regions. Because the conserved repeats of the CTD make it an ideal ligand for multi-site binding events, the implications of multi-site binding are discussed. Our data suggest a mechanism by which the phospho-CTD of elongating RNA polymerase II facilitates commitment complex formation by juxtaposing the 5' and 3' splice sites.
Heritability and Repeatability of First, Second, Third, and Fourth Records of Varying Duration in Brown Swiss Cattle

Summary Heritability estimates of first, second, third, and fourth lactations, averages of two, three, and four records, and of 100- and 200-day partial first lactations, were made to study the reliability of using partial or complete first records as the basis for early selection in Brown Swiss cattle. The data consisted of 8,413 HIR records of not less than 200 or more than 305 days in length from 38 Brown Swiss herds in Wisconsin. Heritability estimates, obtained by doubling the intrasire regression of daughters on dams, were 0.42 for milk, 0.37 for butterfat, and 0.80 for percentage of butterfat for the first lactation. Estimates for milk and butterfat production, using partial first records, were of the order of 0.30 and 0.34 for 100- and 200-day yields, respectively. For percentage of butterfat, the values were 0.44 and 0.63, respectively. Repeatability values were 0.47 for milk, 0.45 for butterfat, and 0.68 for percentage of butterfat. Herds, sires, and cows in sire accounted for 25, 14, and 21%, respectively, of the total variance in milk yield. In selecting for production traits in Brown Swiss cattle, first records appear to be as valuable as any other single record or average of records. Partial first records of 100 or 200 days in length will be almost as effective in improving milk and fat yield as selection based on 305-day first records. The heritability estimates found in this study of Brown Swiss cattle are slightly higher than those previously reported for production traits in other breeds of dairy cattle in the United States. However, most of the previously reported estimates fall within the lower range of the fiducial limits reported here.
Anthralin stimulates keratinocyte-derived proinflammatory cytokines via generation of reactive oxygen species

Objective and Design: Topical application of anthralin, used in the treatment of psoriasis, is often accompanied by severe skin inflammation, presumably due to free radical products of the drug. The role of inflammatory cytokines and their induction by anthralin-derived reactive oxygen species were studied in cultures of normal human keratinocytes (NHKs).¶Materials and Methods: Anthralin was added to cultures of NHKs in the presence or absence of various antioxidants, including superoxide dismutase, tetramethylthiourea, N-acetylcysteine and vitamin E and relative changes in cytokine secretion and in the number of mRNA transcripts were examined. In addition, NHKs were either treated with neutralizing antibodies to tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α or transfected with a CAT-linked IL-8 promoter to establish the direct effects of anthralin on chemokine synthesis.¶Results: Anthralin, at concentrations between 5 μM and 25μM, caused a marked increase in granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8 and TNFα synthesis that was selectively inhibited by specific antioxidants. Furthermore, anthralin induced chemokine secretion without the need of primary cytokines.¶Conclusions: Taken together, these studies suggest that oxygen radicals generated from anthralin are responsible for the induction of inflammatory cytokines which, in turn contributes to their dermal toxicity.
Upright Sailing Craft Performance and Optimum Speed to Windward

A convenient geometric fnlutinn to the wind Irinnglc rel.alinn\hip\ For a \ailing crafl is de+elr~pcrl whwh is directly related to the armdynamic and hydrodynamic chnrncteriatics of Ihc cralt. Manimitiny rhc \peed made good tu wiiideard is examined, and a relationship between the aerodynarnicr and hgdrodynamic\ nC the craft which bounds !he windward performance and is a necessav conditioir fur ~na~imum speed to windward is developed. A brief discussion of windward perfornunre tradeuffs is induded based vn thiv res~~lt.
Cost studies on terrestrial photovoltaic power systems with sunlight concentration

A systems simulation program for comparing the energy costs associated with various alternative concentrating photovoltaic solar systems to energy costs expected with flat arrays is described. The application to linear focus and point focus concentrators is presented in a parameterized way. The results show that concentration offers a distinct cost advantage at high cell costs. However, they also show that concentration has the potential for being a viable alternative to the flat unconcentrated arrays for cell costs as low as $50/m2. Also, for a given concentrator cost, cell cost and cell cooling effectiveness, there exists an optimum effective aperture area to cell area ratio. For reasonable projected cell costs, this optimum ratio is below 30 for passively cooled devices and below 60 for actively cooled systems.
Assets and Educational Achievement: Theory and Evidence.

Abstract This special issue of Economics of Education Review explores the role of savings and asset holding in post-secondary educational achievement. Most college success research has focused on income rather than assets as a predictor, and most college financing policy has focused on tuition support and educational debt, rather than asset accumulation. Nevertheless, there is compelling evidence that household asset holdings, especially savings for education, may have a pronounced positive influence, independent from income, in post-secondary educational success. Moreover, the fundamental reality is that savings plays a role, even though sometimes small, in college financing for most households. For these empirical and practical reasons, it may be important to pay greater attention to savings and asset holding for education in the future than we have in the past. The articles in this volume contribute empirical evidence, theoretical understanding, and potential policy directions regarding saving, asset holding, and educational achievement.
Two-level Picard and modified Picard methods for the Navier-Stokes equations

Abstract Iterative methods of Picard type for the Navier-Stokes equations are known to converge only for quite small Reynolds numbers. However, we study methods involving just one such iteration at general Reynolds numbers. For the initial approximation a coarse mesh of width h0 is used. The corrected approximation is computed by just one Picard or modified Picard step on a fine mesh of width h1. For example, h1 may be of order O (h 0 2 ) when linear velocity elements are used. The resulting method requires the solution of a (small) system of nonlinear equations on the coarse mesh and only one (larger) linear system on the fine mesh. This two-level Picard method is proven to converge for fixed Reynolds number as h → 0. Further, the fine mesh solution satisfies a quasi-optimal error bound. (The error constants grow as Re → ∞, as for the usual finite element method.) One very heuristic explanation why one step of the (divergent) Picard method might work when beginning with a coarse mesh approximation is that the terms neglected involve lower-order derivatives; thus they are approximated with higher accuracy on the coarse mesh. This is linked with a “smoothing property” of the fine mesh step.