cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
CELL-MEDIATED PLATELET RECOGNITION BY LEUKOCYTES FROM INDIVIDUALS WITH AUTOIMMUNE THROMBOCYTOPENIA AND ITS SUPPRESSION BY HUMAN AND ANIMAL TRANSFER FACTOR

Adults with autoimmune thrombocytopenia purpura (ATP) exhibit Leukocyte Migration Inhibition (LMI) when their buffy coat cells are incubated with either homologous intact platelets or their solubilized membranes, whereas leukocytes from normal individuals do not. Since Transfer Factor (TF) has been recently shown to exhibit antigen specific inhibition of cell-mediated immunity (CMI), as well as an antigen-specific induction of CMI, we tested TF in vitro in LMI assays involving leukocytes from individuals with ATP undergoing platelet stimulation. TF derived from former ATP patients in remission suppressed recognition of platelets by ATP leukocytes, whereas TF from normals or ATP patients not in remission did not. Since TF is not species restricted in activity we tested TF prepared from peripheral blood obtained from a rabbit and a calf immunized with human platelets. Rabbit TF treatment of immune cells resulted in a 16% increase in the Migration Index in the LMI assay, representing a significant abrogation of platelet recognition. Calf TF suppressor activity was not present in material obtained from preimmunization leukocytes. It appeared 1-2 months after immunization and persisted until the calf was reimmunized on day 110, whereupon suppressor activity was lost for a month and reappeared 1-2 months later.
Stochastic observability in network state estimation and control

A hidden Markov model for the traffic congestion control problem in transmission control protocol (TCP) networks is developed, and the question of observability of this system is posed. Of specific interest are the dependence of observability on the congestion control law and the interaction between observability ideas and the effectiveness of feedback control. Analysis proceeds with a survey of observability concepts and an extension of some available definitions for linear and nonlinear stochastic systems. The key idea is to link the improvement of state estimator performance to the conditioning on the output data sequence. The observability development proceeds from linear deterministic systems to linear Gaussian systems, nonlinear systems, etc., with backwards compatibility to deterministic ideas. The principal concepts relate to the entropy decrease of scalar functions of the state, which in the linear case are describable in terms of covariance matrices. A feature of nonlinear systems is that the estimator properties may affect the closed-loop control performance. Results are derived linking stochastic reconstructibility to strict improvement of the optimal closed-loop control performance over open-loop control for the hidden Markov model. The entropy provides a means to quantify and thus order simulation results for a simplified TCP network. Motivated by the link between feedback control and reconstructibility, the entropy formulation is also explored as a means to discriminate between different control strategies for improving estimator performance. This approach has connections to dual-adaptive control ideas, where the control has the simultaneous and opposing goals of regulating the system and of exciting the system to prevent estimator divergence.
Correcting measured line half-widths

Abstract A method is presented for correcting measured line half-widths for the error introduced by imprecise location of the 100% transmittance line. The method assumes a line shape—Lorentz or Voigt—and requires as input the measured central transmittance, the measured half-width, and the distance from line center to the assumed location of 100% transmittance.
Redistribution and affirmative action

Abstract The paper develops an integrated political economy model in which individuals are distinguished by earning ability and an ascriptive characteristic, race. The policy space is a transfer payment to low-income workers financed by a flat tax on wages and an affirmative action constraint on firms' hiring decisions. The distribution of income and the policy are endogenous, with the latter being the outcome of a legislative bargaining game between three legislative blocs. The model provides support for the common claim that racial divisions reduce support for welfare expenditures, even when voters have color-blind preferences. We show that relatively advantaged members of both the majority and minority group benefit from the introduction of a second dimension of redistribution, while the less advantaged members of the majority are the principal losers.
Student Ratings in a Consumerist Academy: Leveraging Pedagogical Control and Authority

This article is a qualitative examination of the impact of consumerism on pedagogical relationships and, in turn, its subsequent significance for standards of excellence in higher education. Based on seventy-five in-depth interviews, students' ratings of faculty are found to be normative assessments of a professor's conformity with students' pedagogical role expectations that have been derived from a market ideology and framed by a transmission model of education embedded in the rating form. When transformed into numbers, student ratings become misconstrued as quantified measures of teaching excellence that institutionally serve to provide an illusion of objectivity and penalize faculty who adhere to an alternative critical model of pedagogy. Through the use of rating forms, academic control and professional authority are transferred from faculty to students, who, as discriminating consumers, are granted the power to further their own interests and, consequently, shape the nature and form of higher educat...
Investigation of late Quaternary fault block uplift along the Motagua/Swan Islands fault system: Implications for seismic/tsunami hazard for the Bay of Honduras

Abstract Uplifted and warped coastal landforms (fossil coral reef and beachrock, wave-cut and beach terraces) on the western part of Roatan Island off the northern Honduran coast record at least two late Holocene earthquakes that we estimate to have had magnitudes of > M7. Uplift has been primarily related to a fault that follows the southern coast of western Roatan, herein termed the “Flowers Bay fault”, a subsidiary fault of the Motagua/Swan Islands Fault System which marks the boundary between the North American and Caribbean plates. Using electron spin resonance (ESR) and radiocarbon ages of calcium carbonate samples and a late Quaternary sea level elevation curve that is compatible with Caribbean sea level data, we constrain the ages and long-term uplift rates of the displaced landforms on Roatan caused by the vertical component of slip on the Flowers Bay fault. The fossil reef that is uplifted along the fault grew between 43 and 34 ka, and the beachrock horizon and lowest uplifted terrace along the southern and western coasts developed between 1000 and 1700 AD. We describe evidence of one earthquake that raised the south coast ~ 3 m (as much as 5 m locally) and that post-dates 1700 AD. We interpret this event to be the great earthquake of August 1856 that generated a tsunami which ran as much as 24 km onto the mainland. Another earthquake circa 900 AD produced a similar amount of uplift as the 1856 event and likely generated a similar tsunami. The age and elevation of the fossil reef suggest a long-term uplift rate of 3 mm/year, consistent with a recurrence interval of ~ 1000 years for these large earthquakes.
Complementarity of UV and IR differential absorption lidar for global measurements of atmospheric species

An analysis of the potential capabilities of a spectrally diversified DIAL technique for monitoring atmospheric species is presented assuming operation from an earth-orbiting platform. Emphasis is given to the measurement accuracies and spatial and temporal resolutions required to meet present atmospheric science objectives. The discussion points out advantages of spectral diversity to perform comprehensive studies of the atmosphere; in general it is shown that IR systems have an advantage in lower atmospheric measurements, while UV systems are superior for middle and upper atmospheric measurements.
A study of optimum allocation in multivariate stratified surveys

Abstract In [1] the author has described a method for determining optimum sample sizes in multivariate stratified surveys. In this paper we study some of the mathematical properties of the optimum solution.
“In the Belly of the Beast”: Rethinking Rights, Persons and Organizations

A Lord Chancellor of England once decried the fact that a corporation has "no pants to kick or soul to damn" and concluded, "by God, it ought to have both."' His frustration was due to the fact that even without life or limb a corporation could act and yet could not easily be acted upon. The judge's paradox is that organizations are capable of action and intelligence and, thus, are like natural persons. Yet, unlike natural persons, organizations have a complex structure consisting of formally defined positions; they typically antedate and survive the involvement of any particular individual member; they possess information, preferences, and goals that do not necessarily correspond to those of their individual members; they are functional structures, explicitly established to achieve specific goals; and, most important, they lack a moral character.
Assessing the predictive power of labour-market indicators of inflation

This article examines two different measures of wages as predicators of prices in a Vector Error-Correction (VEC) framework using quarterly data for the United States for the period from 1947Q1 to 2008Q1. Based on cointegration and a series of exogeneity tests, it is found that (i) there is a stable, long-run relationship between the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and the Personal Consumption Expenditures Deflator (PCED) on the one hand and Unit Labour Cost (ULC) and Average Hourly Earnings per Unit of Output (AHE) on the other; (ii) ULC is weakly exogenous for both price indices while the two price indices are weakly exogenous for AHE; (iii) ULC is strongly exogenous for CPI but not for AHE; and (iv) ULC is super exogenous for CPI. Taken together, these findings lead to the conclusion that ULC is a reliable indicator of price inflation but productivity-adjusted hourly earnings is not. Thus, monetary policymakers are justified in using information about the behaviour of ULC in formulating policy actions for a...
Dynamics of supercooled liquids and glasses: comparison of experiments with theoretical predictions

Five years ago, preliminary light scattering studies in our laboratory of the mixed-salt glassforming material CKN (calcium potassium nitrate) revealed spectral structure and scaling properties strikingly similar to the predictions of the mode coupling theory of the liquid glass transition developed by Wolfgang Gotze and his coworkers. Initial correspondence and discussions in 1991 began a collaboration which has grown steadily and has been immensely satisfying and productive. Wolfgang Gotze and his coworkers have constructed the first coherent dynamical theory of supercooled liquids and the glass transition, and he has been exceptionally helpful in working with experimentalists to make critical tests of the theory through detailed data analysis. I have learned much physics from our discussions and have come to deeply prize the friendship and warmth that has characterized our collaboration. Wolfgang and his students have given generously of their time and effort, and this generosity is deeply appreciated. Much work remains to be done. Wolfgang and his group have worked steadily to complete the theory and extend its range of validity; new experiments are needed to test their predictions in detail. I hope to continue to participate in this effort and look forward enthusiastically to our continued collaboration Anyone entering the field of glass transition research will be immediately confronted by a large and frequently contradictory literature spanning over 100 years. Many theoretical papers have appeared, each claiming to “explain” the liquid-glass transition. These theories often contain unstated approximations or imprecisely defined quantities (e.g., the free volume), and their assumptions are usually incompatible with those of other competing theories. Experimental papers (with some exceptions) usually present a limited set of data which is compared with a single favored theory, bypassing the effort required to carry out detailed comparisons with different theories. There is clearly a serious need to begin intercomparing the many competing current theories. We have recently begun to carry out a critical review of existing theories of the liquid-glass transition and the structure and dynamics of the glassy state. Our plan is to use a variety of experimental data, primarily dynamical data obtained from spectroscopic studies of various glasses and supercooled liquids, to carry out comparative fits to various theories. The goal of this program is to determine if one (or more) of the currently available theories, or some combination of these theories, can provide satisfactory descriptions of a range of different experimental data; concurrently, we will try to see if some theories can be definitely shown to be inapplicable on this basis. This is a large program which is still in its early stages. What follows, therefore, is a preliminary report that should be viewed as “work in progress” to be extended as the analysis proceeds.
Parathyroidectomy in dialysis patients.

Abstract Background The optimal surgical treatment for secondary hyperparathyroidism is not well defined. Subtotal parathyroidectomy and total parathyroidectomy (tPTX) with autotransplant are accepted options; treatment method is left to surgeon preference. We sought to describe different characteristics of patients with secondary hyperparathyroidism receiving surgical treatment and to compare outcomes between the two treatment strategies. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients aged >18 y and on dialysis who received a parathyroidectomy (Current Procedural Terminology code = 60500) using the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Participant Use File (2008–2011). Procedures were classified as subtotal if no autotransplant was performed and total if autotransplant was performed. Descriptive statistics were performed. The primary outcome variable of interest was 30-day morbidity. Secondary outcome variables studied were operative time, postoperative length of stay (LOS), 30-day mortality, and 30-day readmission. Univariate analyses were performed. Results A total of 898 patients studied; of which, 236 patients (26.4%) received a tPTX and 662 (73.7%) received a subtotal parathyroidectomy. The median age was 49 y (interquartile range [IQR]: 38, 59), and majority of patients were American Society of Anesthesiologists class III (629, 70%). Nearly half of the patients were black (447, 49.8%); blacks were more likely to receive a tPTX than whites (30.2% versus 19.9%, P = 0.01). Median operative time (133 min, IQR: 92, 160 versus 120 min, IQR: 103, 181; P Conclusions We used a national multi-institutional data set to show that despite the high-risk patient cohort and difference in operative duration, there is no difference in the more general postoperative complication rates.
ON PORTFOLIO CHOICE BY MAXIMIZING THE OUTPERFORMANCE PROBABILITY

We consider the problem of optimal portfolio selection for a multidimensional geometric Brownian motion model. We look for portfolios that maximize the probability of outperforming a stochastic benchmark. More specifically, we seek to maximize the decay rate of the shortfall probability and (or) to minimize the decay rate of the outperformance probability in the long run. A simple heuristic enables us to find an asymptotically optimal investment policy. The results provide interesting insights.
Enzymatic Ligation Reactions of DNA "Words" on Surfaces for DNA Computing

The enzymatic manipulation of sets of short, 16-base oligonucleotides, or DNA “words”, is demonstrated with applications toward DNA computing on surfaces. The enzyme T4 DNA ligase is used to ligate (join) DNA words on a chemically modified gold thin film. The efficiency of this surface ligation reaction is 80%, as determined by removal of the ligated molecules from the surface followed by gel electrophoresis. This surface ligation reaction is used in two new operations for DNA computing on surfaces. In a “Surface Word Append” operation, the complexity and information density of DNA word strands attached to gold surfaces are increased by appending additional words onto these word strands. The ligation reaction is also utilized as part of a “Two-Word Mark and Destroy” operation in which singly marked two-word DNA strands are selectively removed from the surface in the presence of doubly marked two-word strands. These new operations are essential for manipulation of the large combinatorial sets of linked DNA...
Gender and 30-day outcome in patients undergoing endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR): an analysis using the ACS NSQIP dataset.

Purpose Prior studies have demonstrated higher in-hospital mortality in women undergoing open abdominal aortic aneurysm repair. The current study evaluates the relationship between gender and 30-day outcomes for endovascular aneurysm repair (EVAR) in a multicenter, contemporary patient population. Methods Patients in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) participant use file that underwent EVAR of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) from 2005 to 2007 were identified by CPT codes. Outcomes analyzed were 30-day mortality, morbidity (one or more of 21 complications defined by the ACS NSQIP protocol), length of hospital stay, and six complication subgroups. Preoperative risk factors, intraoperative variables, and outcomes were compared across genders using χ 2 (binary and categorical variables) and t tests (continuous variables). The relationship of gender to outcomes was further evaluated using multivariate logistic regressions to adjust for pre- and intraoperative risk variables. Results In 3662 EVAR patients, 647 (17.7%) were women and 3015 (82.3%) men with mean ages of 75.1 ± 9.0 and 73.7 ± 8.5 years ( P P P = .011) and iliac or brachial exposures (2.8% vs 1.0%, P = .009). Overall morbidity and mortality were 11.9% and 2.1%, respectively. Mortality in women was significantly higher (3.4% vs 2.1%, P = .014), as was morbidity (17.8% vs 10.6%, P P = .157); OR for morbidity was 1.65 (95% CI 1.28-2.14, P P = .006), infectious complications (OR 1.49, 95% CI 1.10-2.03, P = .011), wound complications (OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.12-2.90, P = .015) and postoperative transfusion (OR 2.92, 95% CI 1.39-6.13, P = .002). Conclusions Mortality and morbidity were higher in women than men undergoing EVAR. Multivariate analysis showed that the increased risk of mortality was related to women presenting more emergently, more debilitated (recent weight loss and functional dependence), and requiring iliac or brachial exposure. After adjustment for multiple preoperative and operative factors, women remained at significantly higher risk for the development of a broad range of complications and increased length of stay.
Minimum Risk Annealing for Training Log-Linear Models

When training the parameters for a natural language system, one would prefer to minimize 1-best loss (error) on an evaluation set. Since the error surface for many natural language problems is piecewise constant and riddled with local minima, many systems instead optimize log-likelihood, which is conveniently differentiable and convex. We propose training instead to minimize the expected loss, or risk. We define this expectation using a probability distribution over hypotheses that we gradually sharpen (anneal) to focus on the 1-best hypothesis. Besides the linear loss functions used in previous work, we also describe techniques for optimizing nonlinear functions such as precision or the BLEU metric. We present experiments training log-linear combinations of models for dependency parsing and for machine translation. In machine translation, annealed minimum risk training achieves significant improvements in BLEU over standard minimum error training. We also show improvements in labeled dependency parsing.
Evidence for multiple functional copies of the male sex-determining locus, Sry, in African murine rodents.

Southern hybridization data suggest that the male sex-determining locus, Sry, is often duplicated in rodents. Here we explore DNA sequence evolution of orthologous and paralogous copies of Sry isolated from six species of African murines. PCR amplification followed by direct sequencing revealed from two to four copies of Sry per species. All copies include a long open reading frame, with a stop codon that coincides closely with the stop codon of the house mouse, Mus musculus, a species known to have a single copy of Sry. A phylogenetic analysis suggests that there are at least seven paralogous copies of Sry in this group of rodents. Putative orthologues are identical; sequence divergence among putative paralogues ranges from 1 to 8% (excluding the CAG repeat), with much lower levels of divergence in the high-mobility group (HMG-box) region than in the C-terminal region. A high proportion of nucleotide substitutions in both regions result in aminoacid replacement. The long open reading frame, conserved HMG-box, and pattern of evolution of the putative paralogues suggest that they are functional.
3-D shape modeling for hearing aid design [Applications Corner]

Advances in 3-D scanning and fabrication hardware as well as 3-D geometric design software have transformed a once laborintensive manual manufacturing into an efficient digital process for hearing aid design, resulting in higher quality, reduced cost, and better fitting devices. Future work in this field will continue to focus on increasing automation until the process is fully automatic.
HMW1 is required for cytadhesin P1 trafficking to the attachment organelle in Mycoplasma pneumoniae.

Mycoplasma pneumoniae proteins HMW1-HMW3 collectively are essential for cytadherence, but the function or requirement for each has not been defined. Cytadherence mutant M6 lacks HMW1 because of a frameshift in hmw1 and produces a truncated adherence-associated protein P30 because of a deletion at the 3′ end of p30. Genetic manipulation of this mutant was used to evaluate the role of HMW1 in cytadherence. Mutant M6 was transformed with a recombinant transposon containing a wild-type p30 allele. Transformants synthesized both truncated and full-length P30, from the resident and recombinant alleles, respectively. However, these transformants remained hemadsorption negative, suggesting that HMW1 is required for cytadherence. Wild-type M. pneumoniae cells are generally elongated, tapering to form the attachment organelle at one end of the cell. The cytadhesin protein P1 is normally densely clustered on the mycoplasma surface at this differentiated terminal structure. However, both mutant M6 and M6 transformed with recombinant p30 had a striking ovoid morphology with no tapering at the tip structure, making the attachment organelle indistinguishable. Furthermore, protein P1 was randomly distributed on the mycoplasma surface rather than clustered at a polar location. In contrast, mutant M6 transformed with a recombinant transposon expressing the wild-type hmw1 allele exhibited a near-normal morphology and localized P1 to the attachment organelle. Significantly, M6 transformed with an hmw1 gene truncated slightly at the 3′ end failed to restore proper morphology or P1 localization to the attachment organelle, suggesting a functional importance to the C-terminal domain of HMW1.
Community Seismic Network

The article describes the design of the Community Seismic Network, which is a dense open seismic network based on low cost sensors. The inputs are from sensors hosted by volunteers from the community by direct connection to their personal computers, or through sensors built into mobile devices. The server is cloud-based for robustness and to dynamically handle the load of impulsive earthquake events. The main product of the network is a map of peak acceleration, delivered within seconds of the ground shaking. The lateral variations in the level of shaking will be valuable to first responders, and the waveform information from a dense network will allow detailed mapping of the rupture process. Sensors in buildings may be useful for monitoring the state-of-health of the structure after major shaking.
Functional Nanostructured Polymer–Metal Interfaces

The study of polymer–metal surfaces is important for basic scientific research as well as many practical applications in aircraft, automobile, biomedical, and electronics industries. The possibility of controlling particle size and particle surface chemistry of metals would help us to understand the fundamental mechanism of polymer–metal adhesion in general. We have recently demonstrated that nanostructured polymers can be fabricated by an oblique-angle polymerization method. These structures have a high aspect ratio and the production technique does not require any template or lithography method or a surfactant for deposition. We studied influences of the chemical functionality, morphology, and topology of the nanostructured films on the physical properties of metallic–polymer interfaces. Based on the nanostructured polymer mediated metal technology, we can develop novel polymer–metal interfaces with the following attributes: (1) high surface area materials with controlled roughness, (2) light weight and high adhesion strength of polymer to metal, and (3) industrial-scale deposition.
Building a high-performance collective communication library

In this paper, we report on a project to develop a unified approach for building a library of collective communication operations that performs well on a cross-section of problems encountered in real applications. The target architecture is a two-dimensional mesh with worm-hole routing, but the techniques are more general. The approach differs from traditional library implementations in that we address the need for implementations that perform well for various sized vectors and grid dimensions, including non-power-of-two grids. We show how a general approach to hybrid algorithms yields performance across the entire range of vector lengths. Moreover, many scalable implementations of application libraries require collective communication within groups of nodes. Our approach yields the same kind of performance for group collective communication. Results from the Intel Paragon system are included. To obtain this library for Intel systems contact intercom©cs.utexas.edu.
Distilling the Essence of Contract Terms: An Anti-Antiformalist Approach to Contract and Employment Law

Recently, a number of commentators have questioned the validity of the use of default rules in contract law, by challenging the assumptions that lead, in the first place, to the wide use of default rules. (See e.g., the University of Chicago Law Review Symposium on Formalism Revisited, 1999). Motivated in part by this debate, this article challenges one of the most basic assumptions in employment law: that employers and employees are silent about a number of important issues concerning the employment relationship, and thus, that courts are justified in developing default rules to apply to employment law disputes. This assumption has been used to develop default rules in a number of areas, but has been particularly relevant in the development of the law regarding privacy rights and employment security (the Employment-at-Will debate). In the article I argue that the parties to employment contracts have been telling us more than what conventionally we have recognized. In particular, I argue that by carefully analyzing aspects of the employment contract which the parties normally specify (such as the form and the basis of compensation), very specific, non trivial, understandings on other important issues are made apparent. I rely on recent developments in labor economics theory to explore the exchanges employers and employees make, and to analyze how these exchanges are reflected in the compensation provisions of their employment contracts. I argue that the information embedded in the compensation provisions of employment contracts provides valuable insights for the resolution of disputes regarding privacy rights and job security. The article advances an alternative approach to the use of default rules in the employment area, similar to the attempts to advance alternative approaches to the use of default rules in commercial law.
Multiparametric MRI for Localized Prostate Cancer: Lesion Detection and Staging

Multiparametric MRI of the prostate combines high-resolution anatomic imaging with functional imaging of alterations in normal tissue caused by neoplastic transformation for the identification and characterization of in situ prostate cancer. Lesion detection relies on a systematic approach to the analysis of both anatomic and functional imaging using established criteria for the delineation of suspicious areas. Staging includes visual and functional analysis of the prostate “capsule” to determine if in situ disease is, in fact, organ-confined, as well as the evaluation of pelvic structures including lymph nodes and bones for the detection of metastasis. Although intertwined, the protocol can be optimized depending on whether lesion detection or staging is of the highest priority.
Formal requirements specification analysis of attitude control of the International Space Station Alpha

An operational formal method exists that is based on the externally visible behavior of a program. This formal method is modular, fully abstract, and has a form that is similar to the notations used in industrial requirements specifications. The specification model of the operational formal method is used to analyze the failure, detection, isolation and recovery process for the attitude control component of the command and control software subsystem of the International Space Station Alpha.
Craftworkers and Clerks: The Effect of Male Co-Worker Hostility on Women's Satisfaction with Non-Traditional Jobs

This paper assesses the impact of hostility from male co-workers on women working in non-traditional blue-collar jobs. We compare women in traditionally male craft jobs with women in traditionally female clerical jobs, using five dimensions of job satisfaction: pay, work content, promotion opportunities, supervisors, and coworkers. We find that women in traditionally male blue-collar jobs are satisfied with their jobs and, contrary to the mainstream view of women's work-related behavior, women in blue- and white-collar jobs attribute more importance to pay and work content than to congenial co-workers. Nevertheless, a sizable minority of blue-collar women are less satisfied with their work because of harassment from male coworkers. Our study challenges traditional assumptions about women's priorities in the workplace and supports the feminist argument that male workers play an important role in perpetuating job segregation. Employers, however, have clearly exaggerated the tensions between male and female workers, and management resources could be used more effectively to achieve equal employment opportunities. A promising historical approach to the division of labor by sex, introduced by Hartmann (1976), explains occupational segregation in the current economy as a facet of men's collective dominance over women in all spheres of public and private life. In this view, the actions of employers and male co-workers (pursued out of respective self-interests which may or may not coincide) perpetuate women's inferior position in the job hierarchy. For example, Hacker's (1979) analysis shows that corporate decisions on technological change disproportionately displaced women and minorities in the company's work force. Hartmann (1976) argues that there may be periodic shifts in the relative contributions of employers and male workers in sustaining sex segregation, but she stresses that tactics such as unionization and legal actions by male workers limit women's access to jobs. Another way male workers attempt to keep women out of certain jobs is through open hostility and aggression. Our study contributes to this discussion of job segregation by providing new evidence on the relationship between women's perceptions of male co-worker hostility and their satisfaction with non-traditional jobs.' The alleged resistance of incumbent male workers to women in non-traditional jobs is a central issue in job integration, especially in the blue-collar sector where progress is slow (Baker, 1978; Cahn, 1979; Shaeffer and Lynton, 1979; Smith, 1979). A survey of 265 major corporations shows blue-collar occupations account for only 14 percent of cases in which women were successfully integrated into non-traditional jobs (Shaeffer and Lynton, 1979). Employers assert that hostile male incumbents discourage women from entering and staying in non-traditional jobs, thus preventing managers from meeting affirmative action goals.2 An article in The New York Times stated the management view this way:
Paleoecological Differences Between Tertiary and Quaternary Crassostrea Oysters, as Revealed by Stable Isotope Sclerochronology

Abstract Tertiary Crassostrea oysters grew large and thick shells, whereas their descendants, living Crassostrea, grow comparatively smaller and thinner shells. To test for ecological differences between fossil and living Crassostrea that may account for differences in body size, the stable isotope sclerochronology was examined of two North American species, late Oligocene C. gigantissima (Belgrade Formation, North Carolina) and Quaternary C. virginica (Chesapeake Bay and Mississippi Delta), both purported to share an ancestor-descendent relationship. δ18O and δ13C profiles across skeletal growth increments in two well-preserved C. gigantissima shells show significant differences with profiles from Pleistocene and Recent C. virginica. Significantly higher δ18O and δ13C values and smaller seasonal isotopic ranges with less variability show that C. gigantissima lived in a more fully marine environment than C. virginica. Consequently, C. gigantissima probably was exposed to more predation, competition, and b...
Use of social and physical enrichment to improve cognitive abilities of laboratory rats, Rattus norvegicus (684.9)

Animal cognition studies capture the interest and imagination of undergraduate students and problem-solving studies by laboratory animals have a valid utility in research based science education. A group of 36 previously un-enriched, male, adult (1.5 yr old) laboratory rats, Rattus Norvegicus, were used in this study. 18 (one-half of the colony) non-enriched laboratory rats were exposed to each other (rats are housed in groups of 3 per cage) for 30 minutes a day, four days a week, over a three-month period in a ‘play pen’ arena. The ‘play pen’ consists of a running wheel, wooden chew toys, plastic tunnels and wood shavings. The laboratory rats were returned to their non-enriched housing after their time in the ‘play pen’. 36 laboratory rats were then placed, individually, in a Morris Water Maze. This study was different from previous enrichment and Morris Water Maze studies because it tested the effect of set, daily social enrichment on rat cognitive ability. This experiment asked if a limited amount of s...
Quelques remarques sur le rôle des femmes africaines en milieu urbain: Le cas du Cameroun

Meme les sciences sociales n'6chappent pas ais6ment au poids des pr6jug6s ethnocentriques et sociocentriques. Ainsi, les sociologues de la famille affirment-ils souvent qu'urbanisation et industrialisation ont pour corollaire la formation de groupes familiaux nucl6aires de type europ6en 1. Dans cette perspective, ces sociologues pr6disent l'avenement d'une famille monogame, d6tach6e socialement et affectivement de la famille 6tendue. En Afrique, cette proposition revient ' affirmer que les changements sociaux aboutissent toujours a un d6clin (a) des institutions polygamiques ; (b) de la famille 6tendue et plus particulibrement des groupements r6sidentiels comprenant plus d'une famille nucl6aire et (c) de la fertilit6. En outre, cette proposition revient aussi ' affirmer que le d6clin des structures familiales traditionnelles amine un nouveau type de relations conjugales. Le climat de telles relations serait plus 6galitaire et chacun des 6poux chercherait au sein de la famille ' satisfaire des besoins 6motionnels qui sont frustr6s ou r6prim6s au sein d'autres contextes sociaux.
Observations of [S IV] 10.5 μm and [Ne II] 12.8 μm in Two Halo Planetary Nebulae: Implications for Chemical Self-Enrichment

We have detected the [S IV] 10.5 μm and [Ne II] 12.8 μm fine-structure lines in the halo population planetary nebula (PN) DdDm 1 and set upper limits on their intensities in the halo PN H4-1. We also present new measurements of optical lines from various ions of S, Ne, O, and H for DdDm 1, based on a high-dispersion spectrum covering the spectral range 3800 A to 1 μm. These nebulae have similar O/H abundances, (O/H) ~ 1 × 10-4, but S/H and Ne/H are about half an order of magnitude lower in H4-1 than in DdDm 1; thus H4-1 appears to belong to a more metal-poor population. This supports previous suggestions that PNe arising from metal-poor progenitor stars can have elevated oxygen abundances due to internal nucleosynthesis and convective dredge-up. It is generally accepted that high abundances of carbon in many PNe result from self-enrichment. To the extent that oxygen can also be affected, the use of nebular O/H values to infer the overall metallicity of a parent stellar population (for example, in external galaxies) may be suspect, particularly for low metallicities.
Integrating an Agent-Based Model with a Multi-Objective Evolutionary Algorithm to Warn Consumers in a Water Contamination Event Using Emergency Vehicles

Many protective response actions are available to protect consumers affected by a water distribution contamination event. Routing a fleet of emergency vehicles to disseminate water warnings is considered in this study. Identifying optimal trips to effectively notice consumers is difficult as a water contamination event is a complex and dynamic system and vehicle routing problems are categorized as NP-hard domain. A novel framework is developed by coupling an agent-based model with an optimization algorithm to search for optimality in a warning dissemination. Solutions representing an optimal front are explored to demonstrate the relationship between the number of exposed consumers and the maximum travel time as conflicting objectives. NSGA-II is used with a tree-based representation. The developed framework is applied to a virtual case study, Mesopolis. INTRODUCTION Public health is threaten by toxins that are accidentally and intentionally introduced to a water network. Public trust in utility mangers can be eroded if actions to protect consumers are taken inappropriately. To avoid the loss of social trust in utility managers, decisions about protecting consumers should be made accordingly to mitigate the consequence of these events. The decision making process gives priority to a warning message dissemination process to inform consumers about the hazard associated with activities related to using tap water, such as drinking water. Utility managers have different choices to deliver a warning: broadcast a warning via media, route a fleet of emergency vehicles to use a siren as a warning sign, and deliver a leaflet at houses to warn and give instructions for short-term alternative water supply. To protect consumers effectively, the EPA (USEPA 2003) suggests locating the contaminant in the network before conducting response actions. When routing emergency vehicles, projecting a trip for each emergency vehicle is difficult because the characterization of a contaminant changes dynamically as more consumers become notified about the event. Notified consumers suspend the use of tap water for waterrelated activities that are perceived as a threat to their health. Also, utility managers may use containment strategies to remove the contaminant. The containment strategies directly change the hydraulics of a water network. Therefore, water distribution contamination events are defined as dynamic and complex systems. Using models with static demands to find the concentration of contamination at nodes may neglect important interactions. A sociotechnical model was proposed based on agent-based modeling (ABM) (Holland 1995) to evaluate the public health consequences of a water contamination event (Zechman 2011). The ABM approach models elements (agents) of a system and simulates interactions among the agents using a set of predefined rules to predict the emergent behavior of the system. The ABM model was extended 2550 World Environmental and Water Resources Congress 2013: Showcasing the Future © ASCE 2013
Dynamics of Simple Lie Groups on Lorentz Manifolds

We give an alternate proof of N. Kowalsky's theorem describing the collection of connected simple Lie groups with finite center which admit a nontrivial, nonproper action by isometries of a connected Lorentz manifold.
An Easy to Build Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI) System

The author describes how to construct a simple reflectance transformation imaging (RTI) setup using an Adurino microprocessor and a 3D printer. It can be sometimes difficult for a single photograph to adequately record and represent all of an object’s important detail. By using RTI photographic techniques, researchers are better able to enhance an object’s individual topography, texture, and color. Unlike one single photograph, an RTI photographic system may utilize numerous lighting angles to produce sequential images of the same object or artifact that may reveal obscured or hidden detail.
Challenges and opportunities with concolic testing

Although concolic testing is increasingly being explored as a viable software verification technique, its adoption in mainstream software development and testing in the industry is not yet extensive. In this paper, we discuss challenges to widespread adoption of concolic testing in an industrial setting and highlight further opportunities where concolic testing can find renewed applicability.
Does the Center Hold? Reflections on a Sociological Core.

Is there a distinct disciplinary core (or foundation of agreed on knowledge) in sociology? Should we define a core in our broad field to build consensus? If so, what should it look like? We address...
The Major Histocompatibility Complex and the T Cell Repertoire

We examined the ability of peptides corresponding to different regions of hen eggwhite lysozyme to stimulate proliferative T-cell responses in several mouse strains. The relationship of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) and other non-MHC genes to the T cell repertoire was studied. It was found that the MHC was the major influence on the specificity of the T cell repertoire. The T cell response following immunization with native hen eggwhite lysozyme was also investigated. Challenge with the whole protein preferentially induces responses to some determinants compared to others. Hence, some regions of the protein appear to be immunodominant while other determinants are sub-dominant.
Protein Kinase C Regulates Tyrosine Phosphorylation of pp125FAK in Platelets Adherent to Fibrinogen

Platelet adhesion to immobilized fibrinogen stimulates the induction of tyrosine phosphorylation of multiple proteins. However, platelet spreading and tyrosine phosphorylation of three proteins, the focal adhesion kinase pp125FAK and proteins of 101 and 105 kD (pp101 and pp105), require a second adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-dependent costimulatory event. In this study we show that protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitors prevented the induction of tyrosine phosphorylation of pp125FAK, pp101 and pp105, and abolished spreading. These inhibitory effects were not observed after treatment of the platelets with the intracellular Ca2+ chelator BAPTA-AM. This suggested that in platelets, PKC regulates spreading and related protein tyrosine phosphorylation. In addition, the inhibitory effects of apyrase, an ADP scavenger, on spreading and tyrosine phosphorylation of pp125FAK, pp101, and pp105, were not observed in the presence of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA). These data implied that in fibrinogen-adherent platelets integrin ligation and an agonist receptor occupancy are required for the functional association of PKC and the alpha IIb beta 3-mediated signaling pathways. Taken together these results show that PKC plays a central role in the transduction of intracellular signals downstream from alpha IIb beta 3 that regulate spreading and pp125FAK phosphorylation.
Decreased Nav1.9 channel expression in Hirschsprung's disease

Abstract Aim Voltage-gated sodium channel subtype 9 (Na v 1.9) are expressed in dorsal root ganglion neurons and are known to be involved in pain during inflammation. Animal studies have reported Na v 1.9 channel expression in myenteric intrinsic primary afferent neurons (IPANs). More recently, a study involving Na v 1.9 knockout mice showed clear evidence of colonic dysmotility. However, there are no data regarding the expression of these channels in the human intestine, thus, the aim of our study was to determine Na v 1.9 channel expression within the human colon and to elucidate if Na v 1.9 channel expression is altered in Hirschsprung's disease (HD). Methods HD tissue specimens ( n =10) were collected at the time of pull-through surgery, while normal controls were obtained at the time of colostomy closure in patients with imperforate anus ( n =10). Na v 1.9 immunofluorescence was visualized using confocal microscopy to assess the distribution of the protein. Western blot analysis was undertaken to determine Na v 1.9 protein quantification. Results Confocal microscopy revealed Na v 1.9-immunoreactive neurons within the submucosal and myenteric plexus in normal controls, with a reduction in the HD specimens. Calbindin double-labeling showed that Na v 1.9-immunoreactive neurons were IPANs. Na v 1.9 channels were also seen to be co-localized on smooth muscle cells in all tissues. Western blotting revealed high levels of Na v 1.9 protein expression in normal controls, while there was a marked decrease in Na v 1.9 protein expression in the HD tissue. Conclusion Our results show the expression of Na v 1.9 channels within the human colon for the first time. Furthermore, Na v 1.9 channel expression is decreased in HD versus normal controls.
Classification of Pancreatic Lesions

The new revised WHO classification of tumors of the pancreas includes both exocrine and endocrine neoplasms in one classification. This chapter will briefly review the major exocrine tumors, which are covered in more detail in the subsequent chapters. A more detailed discussion of the classification of precursor pancreatic ductal lesions and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas will also be provided in this chapter.