cssi/SciSciGPT-SciSciNet huggingface dataset:
Structure and Biosynthesis of Nerve Growth Factor

The first description of nerve growth factor (NGF) by Levi-Montalcini and Hamburger (1953) was of a factor from mouse sarcoma cells (S-180 and S-37) that elicited extensive growth of chick embryo neurons. Shortly thereafter, a serendipitous use of snake venom in the purification of this factor led Cohen to the discovery that NGF was present in moccasin snake venom as well (Cohen and Levi-Montalcini 1956). The finding that the mouse submaxillary gland — a homologue of snake venom glands — stores even larger quantities of NGF than does the snake venom gland (Cohen 1960) led to the extensive analyses of mouse salivary NGF that continue today.
Nuclear reactor safety

It has been remarked that all technology is a Faustian bargain. Man obtains conveniences and sometimes luxuries, but in exchange he sets an increased potential for catastrophe. The more successful a techology is, the more man depends on it, and the higher the stakes become. Nowhere does this cautious view of technology apply better than to nuclear energy. There is rapidly increasing national commitment to nuclear power. In a few years the existing investments in nuclear power installations will be so massive that major changes in design or siting policies will have become virtually impossible. This article stresses the problems that exist with the current nuclear power policy, the problems that exist with the AEC. The author states that now is the time to deal with the major public health and safety problems related to nuclear power. He states that responsibility for this nation's nuclear power policy should not be left entirely up to the federal executive branch or even Congress, but state governments, scientists, and even private citizens should educate themselves in this area and take an active part in the formulation of the national nuclear power policy.
Abstract 5092: Midkine as a potential target for combating drug resistance and invasion in melanoma

Melanoma is an aggressive disease. Although about 13% of melanoma cases are diagnosed at metastatic stage, the 5-year survival rate for these patients is 16%. We have previously shown that metastatic melanoma cells express high levels of Wnt5a. Wnt5a is a member of the Wnt family of proteins, which play an important role during development and tumorigenesis. In melanoma, Wnt5a signaling is mediated by an autocrine loop that also modulates the activity of midkine. Midkine is a 16kDa protein that is elevated in many different cancers. Overexpression of midkine promotes the growth, migration, survival and angiogenic capability of the tumors. However, the molecular mechanisms that regulate the activity of midkine are unknown, especially in metastatic melanoma. We asked whether Wnt5a can positively regulate the functions of midkine to promote the progression of metastatic melanoma. To address this, we analyzed melanoma cells for midkine expression and observed that Wnt5a high melanoma cells also express high levels of midkine. Further, an increase in Wnt5a signaling by treatment with recombinant Wnt5a led to an increased midkine signaling. By performing 3D spheroid assays, we observed that higher expression of midkine is correlated with an increased metastatic ability of the cells. The expression of midkine also correlated with an increased resistance to BRAF inhibitors in BRAF V600E mutated melanoma. This indicates that midkine may signal through MAPK pathway to affect invasion and drug resistance in metastatic melanoma. Developing adjuvant therapies targeting midkine can prolong the overall survival of patients with metastatic melanoma. Citation Format: Amanpreet Kaur, Michael O9Connell, Marie Webster, Reeti Behera, Vanessa Dang, Abibatou Ndoye, Ashani Weeraratna. Midkine as a potential target for combating drug resistance and invasion in melanoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 5092. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-5092
Growth of Moonshine Yarrow on a Limited Moisture Budget

Abstract Yarrow is an herbaceous perennial that is highly recommended for landscape gardens in many parts of the United States. However, performance data of yarrow produced under limited irrigation conditions is lacking. During 2004 and 2005, we studied the growth and physiology of yarrow (Achillea ‘Moonshine’) maintained as well irrigated controls or irrigated when there was a 30 or 60% depletion of moisture in the growing substrate. Plants irrigated at the 60% moisture level had the lowest predawn water potential, stomatal conductance and transpiration rate. Cell osmotic potential and relative water content data suggest that yarrow might be able to withstand prolonged exposure to drought. In 2005, net assimilation rate of well irrigated plants (0.317 mg/cm2/d) was almost twice as high (0.179 mg/cm2/d) as that of plants maintained at the 60% moisture level. This suggests that a 60% moisture depletion level had a very significant impact on carbon assimilation. In 2005, leaf area of plants irrigated at the...
The impact of information sharing on bullwhip effect reduction in a supply chain

In this study, the impact of information sharing on bullwhip effect (BWE) is investigated using a four-echelon supply chain simulation model where each echelon shares some of the customer demand forecast information with a retailer, the lowest echelon. The level of the demand forecast shared at each echelon is represented as information sharing rate (ISR). Four different levels of ISR are considered to evaluate its impact on BWE. A full factorial design with 64 cases is used, followed by statistical analysis. The results show that (1) overall, higher ISR more significantly reduce BWE than lower ISR at all echelons; (2) further, the impact of ISR is not same between echelons. The ISR at an echelon where BWE is measured has the highest impact. However, its impact decreases at downstream echelons; (3) BWE is affected by not only the magnitude but also the balance of ISR’s across echelons, while the former has three times more impact than the latter; (4) lastly, we demonstrate that a highly unbalanced ISR may cause reverse bullwhip effect (RBWE), particularly when the level of unblance at downstream echelons is high and the uppermost echelon where BWE is measured has the highest ISR. Based on this demonstration, we derive a functional relationship between ISR’s and RBWE using regression analysis. We believe that results from this study provide useful implications and insights for better coordination and collaboration in a supply chain.
Associations Between Genomic Variants in Alcohol Dehydrogenase Genes and Alcohol Symptomatology in American Indians and European Americans: Distinctions and Convergence.

Background Higher rates of alcohol use disorders (AUD) have been observed in some Native American populations than other ethnic groups such as European Americans (EAs) in the United States. Previous studies have shown that variation in the alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) genes may affect the risk for development of AUD and that the prevalence of these variants differs depending on the ancestral origins of a population. Methods In this study, we assessed sequencing variants in the ADH genomic region (ADH1-7) and tested for their associations with AUD phenotypes in 2 independent populations: an American Indian (AI) community sample and an EA cohort from the San Francisco Family Alcohol Study. Association tests were conducted for both common and rare variants using sequencing data for 2 phenotypes: the number of alcohol-related life events and the count of alcohol dependence drinking symptoms. A regularized regression method was used to select the best set of ADH variants associated with phenotypes. Variance component model was incorporated in all analyses to leverage the admixture and relatedness. Results Two variants near ADH4 and 2 near ADH1C exhibited significant associations with AUD in AIs; no variant was significant in EAs. Common risk variants in AIs were either absent from or much less frequent in EAs. The feature selection method selected mostly distinct yet often colocated subsets of ADH variants to be associated with AUD phenotypes between the 2 cohorts. In the rare-variant analyses, the only association was observed between the whole region and the alcohol-related life events in AIs. Conclusions Our results suggest that ADH variants, both common and rare, are more likely to impact risk for alcohol-related symptomatology in this AI population than in this EA sample, and ADH variants that might affect AUD are likely different but convergent on similar regions between the 2 populations.
CR-Honeynet: A Cognitive Radio Learning and Decoy-Based Sustenance Mechanism to Avoid Intelligent Jammer

Cognitive radio network (CRN) enables secondary users to borrow unused spectrum from the proprietary users in a dynamic and opportunistic manner. However, dynamic and open access nature of available spectrum brings a severe sustenance challenge amongst CRNs which makes them vulnerable to various spectrum etiquette attacks. Jamming-based denial-of-service attack poses serious threats to legitimate communications and packet delivery. A rational attacker targets specific transmission characteristics to find the highest impacting connection of CRN and causes maximum disruption. With the help of software-defined radios, we have shown that an attacker can intelligently target a particular communication. In this paper, inspired by the honeypot concept in cybercrime, we propose a honeynet-based defense mechanism, which aims to deter the attacker from jamming legitimate communications. The honeynet passively learns the attacker’s strategy from the history of attacks and actively adapts preemptive decoy mechanisms to prevent attacks on legitimate communications. Simulation results show that the with the help of honeynet mechanism, CRN successfully avoids jamming attacks and thereby improves system performance regarding packet delivery ratio. We further built a prototype using off-the-shelf software defined radio that proves the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism.
IQ-Stations: Advances in State-of-the-Art Low Cost Immersive Displays for Research and Development

This paper discusses recent advances in IQ-Stations, which are one wall inexpensive immersive displays. A number of these displays have been deployed in academia, industry, and national laboratories. This paper covers recent advances in technology, use cases, and new portable options. The use cases discussed cover various opportunities for IQ-Stations in STEM education outreach, development, and production use.
Kelo and the Local Political Process

Most of the commentary on the recent decision in Kelo v. City of New London, in which the Supreme Court upheld a municipality’s right to condemn private land for economic development, has focused on the substantive rights allocated by the case. The determination that the concept of “public use” sufficient to support the exercise of eminent domain was not limited to facilities accessible to the public as a whole seems, for some, a significant deviation from the original function of the Takings Clause. Originalism aside, much of the reaction to the decision evinced hostility to the notion that local governments should ever condemn privately owned property and convey it to private developers in the name of economic development. For others, however, the decision was simply the natural extension of prior decisions allocating to legislative bodies the capacity to determine the appropriate scope of the condemnation power. In this Idea, I want to consider a less-developed perspective on Kelo, one that treats eminent domain in general, and that case in particular, as issues of political process. My concern is less with what local governments can do than with how they can do it. That is not because I think that the issue of whether government can properly intervene in the local economy, or the effect of such intervention on private property owners is unimportant. To the contrary, I consider that relationship to be crucial to the role of cities as engines of regional economies. Indeed, one would have a difficult time rejecting the majority’s conclusion that economic development constitutes a “traditional and long accepted function of government,” including decentralized government. As a consequence, my comments on the case implicitly accept that the substantive result of Kelo is neither surprising nor novel. Localities have been intervening in local economies since the Founding, if not by
Multiple Encounters: Philology, Exile, and Hospitality, from Fāris al-Shidyāq to Auerbach and Edward Said

From the second half of 1820s and for almost three decades, the Lebanese-born writer and linguist Fāris al-Shidyāq (1804-87) continued to work for Protestant missionary societies, mainly in Malta and in England. He collaborated with various scholars in compiling, translating and editing religious and educational publications, including a translation of the Bible into Arabic. Al-Shidyāq records segments of his encounters with European scholars and Orientalists in his travel account Kashf al-Mukhabbāʾ , and in his autobiographical narrative al-Sāq ʿalā al-Sāq , where he offers an early critique of Orientalist scholarship. Opposing the prevailingly Eurocentric discourse of the Arab nahḍa , as represented by his contemporary, the renowned Egyptian intellectual Rifāʿa al-Ṭahṭāwī (1801-73), al-Shidyāq insists on linguistic difference and cultural particularity, and, at the same time, he promotes hospitality across both cultures and religions. Al-Shidyāq’s minority background, nomadic life, and secular outlook link him with exilic philology in Erich Auerbach and Edward Said.
Influences: The Cell Physiology Laboratory in Montemar, Chile

Looking back, I was really lucky. In 1967, Dr. Joaquin Luco arranged for me, a student from the Catholic University, to join the Laboratorio de Fisiologia Celular in Montemar to work on my doctoral thesis under the supervision of Dr. Eduardo (Guayo) Rojas from the University of Chile. I had
Interrupting Interruptions: A Digital Experiment on Social Media and Performance

Interruptions have complex effects on individual productivity. They can alleviate fatigue and distress, but also interfere with a person's focus and attention. In recent years, a number of strategies have been adopted by organizations and individuals to curtail the potential negative effects of encroaching digital interruptions. We investigate how the use of such strategies (specifically, a digital app that curtails certain digital interruptions) affects individuals' performance in a randomized field experiment. We leverage the economic incentives of online workers on a crowd-sourcing platform, capturing their performance across a variety of tasks. We measure the impact of two alternative treatments relative to a control group: i) an exogenous treatment, in which the app is instrumented to block access for fixed periods of time to selected online services (some popular social media sites); ii) an endogenous treatment, in which participants determine whether to and to what extent use the app to block access to online services. In the exogenous condition, curtailing access to certain online services significantly increased individuals' performance: participants completed about 35% more tasks (per hour), resulting in an increase in earnings per hour of about 26%. We find evidence of heterogeneous effects of the treatment: the performance improvement due to the app is lower for heavy social media users; those same participants were more likely to experience an increase in feelings of frustrations and technological anxiety during the study, associated with the imposed blockage of social media sites. In the endogenous condition, only about 36% of participants used the app for a meaningful amount of time. As such, while, on average, that group did not experience a significant change in performance, we find evidence of a positive effect on participants who did use the app, increasing in the number of minutes of app usage.
A Potential Expanded StratCom Outreach Vision for Afghanistan

As its purpose, this paper identifies a potential expanded communications outreach vision for Afghanistan, and highlights noteworthy strategic communication initiatives (StratCom and STRAT EFFECTS) to improve outreach efforts regarding the activities of either the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) or U.S. Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A).
Re-experiencing Violence Across the Life Course: Histories of Childhood Maltreatment and Elder Abuse Victimization

Objectives This study primarily examines the associations between histories of childhood maltreatment (i.e., neglect, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse) and elder abuse victimization and explores whether gender moderates the associations. Methods We conducted a secondary data analysis of 5,968 older adults (mean age = 71 years) based on data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (2010-2011). Using retrospective self-reports of childhood and current (past 12 months) victimization experiences, logistic regression analyses were conducted to estimate the effects of early-life adversities on the likelihood of elder abuse victimization. Results Results indicate that childhood emotional abuse and childhood sexual abuse (CSA) were associated with greater risk of being abused as older adults, after controlling for childhood and adult background factors. We also found that the effect of CSA on elder abuse victimization was weaker for women than men. Discussion Findings suggest that the phenomenon of revictimization may occur not only in early and middle adulthood, but also in late life. To advance our understanding of victimization across the life course, future research on root causes of elder abuse should include histories of child abuse.
Adaptive relay autotuning under static and non-static disturbances with application to friction stir welding.

Abstract When a traditional relay feedback test is biased, asymmetry is induced, erroneous system identification occurs, and the test may stop oscillating. Adaptive methods which restore symmetry to the relay test are developed, and additional methods are presented to detect and recover from a non-oscillation condition. This is demonstrated both in simulation and in a process with significant transients and disturbances — friction stir welding (FSW). In testing, it is shown that the adaptive method is able to restore symmetry even in the presence of severe and changing disturbances, including after the weld plunge where temperature gradients change rapidly. These improvements enable system identification of systems such as FSW in a more robust and accurate manner.
Surface Modifications of Nano-Structured Cathodes to Enhance Durability of Intermediate Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

The bulk-to-surface Sr-segregation can seriously compromise the stability of oxygen electrocatalysis in Sr-doped perovskite oxides such as La1-xSrxCoO3-δ and La1-xSrxCo1-yFeyO3-δ and limit their practical applications as cathode materials in solid oxide fuel cells. This work aims to acquire fundamental knowledge of Sr-segregation process under practical conditions in solid oxide fuel cells and develop suppression method to ensure the long-term stability through surface modifications. In this work, the pristine and ZrO2 atomic layer deposition (ALD) modified La0.6Sr0.4CoO3- d (LSCo) epitaxial films were used as the model systems to investigate how the temperature, time and surface coating affect the surface concentration of Sr via in situ synchrotron-based ambient pressure XPS. This information was also correlated with their electrochemical performances characterized by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. We also report a Sr-segregation-free SrCo0.9Ta0.1O3-δ (SCT) multifunctional coating on a benchmark cathode LSCF as a means of enhancing ORR activity and durability against Cr-poison.
Monotonic Properties of Completed Aggregates in Recursive Queries

The use of aggregates in recursion enables efficient and scalable support for a wide range of BigData algorithms, including those used in graph applications, KDD applications, and ML applications, which have proven difficult to be expressed and supported efficiently in BigData systems supporting Datalog or SQL. The problem with these languages and systems is that, to avoid the semantic and computational issues created by non-monotonic constructs in recursion, they only allow programs that are stratified with respect to negation and aggregates. Now, while this crippling restriction is well-justified for negation, it is frequently unjustified for aggregates, since (i) aggregates are often monotonic in the standard lattice of set-containment, (ii) the PreM property guarantees that programs with extrema in recursion are equivalent to stratified programs where extrema are used as post-constraints, and (iii) any program computing any aggregates on sets of facts of predictable cardinality tantamounts to stratified programs where the precomputation of the cardinality of the set is followed by a stratum where recursive rules only use monotonic constructs. With (i) and (ii) covered in previous papers, this paper focuses on (iii) using examples of great practical interest. For such examples, we provide a formal semantics that is conducive to efficient and scalable implementations via well-known techniques such as semi-naive fixpoint currently supported by most Datalog and SQL3 systems.
Hoping for Metanormative Realism

Debates in metaethics about metanormative realism, quasi-realism, anti-realism, and nihilism mostly focus on epistemic reasons for beliefs about values. Very little has been said about our practical reasons for metaethical beliefs, and even less is said about practical reasons for other attitudes we might take toward metaethical views. This paper shows why a recent argument bucking that trend fails to show that we have practical reasons to believe realism over nihilism, but that for many of us, we do have practical reason to hope that what I call Optimistic Realism is true.
Imaging Informatics Fellowship Curriculum: a Survey to Identify Core Topics and Potential Inter-Program Areas of Collaboration.

New consumer technologies and interoperability standards have dated the first standardized curriculum for imaging informatics fellowships suggested by the Society for Computer Applications in Radiology (SCAR) in 2004 (Journal of digital imaging 17(4):244-248, 2004). Last year, analysis from this institution characterized current state fellowship graduation requirements and broad curriculum topics for the first time in over a decade (SIIM Strategic Plan 2017–2020). However, an updated “core” curriculum has not yet been developed. Using the recent current state analysis as a baseline, we aimed to perform a focused assessment and propose that this would work towards an updated consensus “core” curriculum as outlined by the Society for Imaging Informatics in Medicine (SIIM, previously SCAR) strategic plan. A secondary aim was to identify individual program strengths and weaknesses to foster inter-program collaboration. Using sub-topics from the National Imaging Informatics Curriculum (NIIC), a week-long introductory course for residents, we expanded the original 29 broad curriculum categories identified in last year’s current state analysis into 114 sub-topics. We surveyed imaging informatics fellowship directors to identify sub-topic prioritization on a 5-item Likert scale, teaching methods for each sub-topic, cross-departmental partnerships, and individual program strengths and weaknesses. Only 8% of sub-topics (10/114) received a “definitely” rating with 100% agreement while the majority of sub-topics 77% (88/114) had mixed grading defined by two or fewer “definitely” ratings. These sub-topics mapped to only 4 of the original 29 broad fellowship curriculum categories including Standards, Programming/Development/Software, Infrastructure, and PACS/RIS/Reporting. Our plan is to use consensus topics to build a “core” informatics fellowship curriculum and initiate discussion surrounding mixed grading topics. Knowledge of individual program strengths and weaknesses can be used to foster inter-program collaboration.
Multicultural and social justice counseling competencies: institutional interventions for professional school counselors

Embedded within the new Multicultural and Social Justice Counseling Competencies (MSJCC) are counseling and advocacy interventions at various socioecological levels. School counselors are uniquely ...
Comparison of adenoid assessment by flexible endoscopy and mirror exam.

Abstract Objective Assessment of adenoid hypertrophy can be completed through various methods including flexible endoscopy and intraoperative mirror exam. The objective of this study was to compare the effect of adenoid size on the accuracy of these techniques. Methods Patients younger than 18 years old who underwent adenoidectomy at Boston Medical Center from October 2012 to December 2018 and had documented preoperative and intraoperative adenoid sizes were included. Cases were identified through Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes 42,830 and 42,831 with exclusion of CPT 42820 for tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy. Patients who had less obstruction (75% or less obstruction) and more obstruction (>75%) were compared using Chi-square analysis and t-tests. Results Of 276 patients who underwent adenoidectomy from October 2012 to December 2018, 84 patients had adenoid size determined both preoperatively by flexible endoscopy and intraoperatively. Thirty-eight (45.2%) patients had intraoperative adenoids that were characterized as less obstructive hypertrophy and 46 (54.8%) had intraoperative adenoids that were characterized as more obstructive hypertrophy. In patients with less obstruction, the mean preoperative adenoid obstruction size of 72% was significantly higher than the mean intraoperative adenoid obstruction size of 63% (p = 0.0212). However, in patients with more obstruction, the mean preoperative adenoid size of 86% was not significantly different from the mean intraoperative adenoid size of 90% (p = 0.1237). Conclusion Adenoid assessment by flexible endoscopy and intraoperative mirror exam may not correlate as closely in patients who have less obstructive hypertrophy.
How do the research and public communities view biofuel development

Abstract Understanding how public and research view biofuel development, especially the unsynchronized views, can explain the gaps between the actual biofuel production and consumption and the government mandates in the US. Applying a comparative text mining technique, these views are explored using 9924 news articles and 57,849 research abstracts. It is found both the public and research communities respond actively to major policy and incentive programs and market conditions and the public has been closely following important research advances. However, research and practice should be coordinated to achieve economies of scale for regular and alternative biofuels. Priority is particularly needed for policy research to support legislation and enforcement and remove technical barriers to commercialization; meanwhile, greater attention is needed to prompt the commercialization of mature technologies. In addition, sentiment analysis shows positive public perceptions in general and negative perceptions primarily stemming from fraud in biofuel tax-credit programs with minor concerns on unintended negative impacts of biofuel development and policy implementation issues. This study contributes to methodology by using cutting-edge text-mining techniques to the largest and most up-to-date datasets of public news articles and research publication abstracts so as to compare public and academic views on biofuel development. This study also contributes to knowledge discovery by providing new perspectives on biofuel development, which will support policy design and identify future research directions.
Mithramycin and Analogs for Overcoming Cisplatin Resistance in Ovarian Cancer

Ovarian cancer is a highly deadly malignancy in which recurrence is considered incurable. Resistance to platinum-based chemotherapy bodes a particularly abysmal prognosis, underscoring the need for novel therapeutic agents and strategies. The use of mithramycin, an antineoplastic antibiotic, has been previously limited by its narrow therapeutic window. Recent advances in semisynthetic methods have led to mithramycin analogs with improved pharmacological profiles. Mithramycin inhibits the activity of the transcription factor Sp1, which is closely linked with ovarian tumorigenesis and platinum-resistance. This article summarizes recent clinical developments related to mithramycin and postulates a role for the use of mithramycin, or its analog, in the treatment of platinum-resistant ovarian cancer.
Accounting Earnings and Executive Compensation: The Role of Earnings Persistence

This study investigates whether relations between accounting earnings and executive compensation depend on earnings persistence. The analysis is informed by prior studies that link executive compensation with accounting earnings and those that link security returns with earnings persistence. We expect that the sensitivity of executive compensation to accounting earnings varies directly with earnings persistence. We also expect that the weights assigned to earnings levels and earnings changes vary with earnings persistence in predictable ways. Results for a cross- sectional analysis of cash compensation paid to CEO s of 712 U.S. firms are consistent with these expectations.
Estimated proportion of an urban academic emergency department patient population eligible for HIV preexposure prophylaxis.

Abstract Objective Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a highly effective but underutilized method of HIV prevention. Emergency departments (EDs) have access to at-risk populations meeting CDC eligibility criteria for PrEP. Characterizing this population could help motivate, develop, and implement ED interventions to promote PrEP uptake. Methods This cross-sectional study explored the proportion of patients from an urban, academic ED who met CDC 2017 PrEP eligibility criteria using three existing datasets that mimic patient selection strategies for HIV screening: 1) study of consecutively approached ED patients from 2008 to 2009 (analogous to non-targeted screening), 2) patients of the ED's HIV screening program in 2017 (analogous to risk-targeted screening), and 3) electronic health record (EHR) diagnostic codes in 2017 (analogous to EHR selected screening). The primary outcome was the proportion eligible for PrEP referral. Secondary outcomes included proportion by risk group: men who have sex with men (MSM), heterosexual men and women (HMW), and persons who inject drugs (PWID). Results The proportion eligible for PrEP was: 568/1970 (28.8%, 95% CI: 26.9–30.9) for consecutively approached patients, 552/3884 (14%, 95% CI: 13–15) for risk-targeted patients, and 605/66287 (0.9%, 95% CI: 0.8–1.0) for EHR diagnoses of all patients. For the two datasets with behavioral risk information, the proportion eligible was: MSM 1–2%, HMW 12–28%, and PWID 1–4%. Conclusions A large subgroup of this ED population was eligible for PrEP referral. EDs are a compelling setting for development and implementation of HIV prevention interventions to assist in national efforts to expand PrEP.
Neural Networks for Control

This paper starts by placing neural net techniques in a general nonlinear control framework. After that, several basic theoretical results on networks are surveyed.
Venezuela and the New Faces of Totalitarianism

Like the virus of a pernicious disease, totalitarianism keeps appearing in ever new masks, like a Proteus who slips eel-like out of our grasp, abusing all the means of the free world, distorting them in order to destroy, a sort of epidemic that overpowers its first carriers as well as its subsequent allies. These were phrases used by Karl Jaspers to warn that there is no “nation that is proof against giving birth to [this] evil, even though in other ways and in a different spirit.” All over the world, he feared, “I dread the self deception which [Germans] have experienced - that this could not happen here. It can happen anywhere.” Similar warnings were a constant argument in the substantive theories on totalitarianism that began to emerge in the 1930s, before the term was hijacked in the 1950s by “value-free” political scientists seeking to reduce the complex essence of this new political form to a quantifiable, objective category for the classification of political types, and subsequently abused by political leaders looking for a powerful image to demonize the adversary in the bipolar context of the cold war. Having lost reference to the causes and spirit of the totalitarian phenomenon - the identification of which was one of most significant contributions of political philosophy in the first half of the 20th century, - or having chosen to ignore them, in order to subscribe the notion that democracies can survive through mere procedures without any solid foundation in truth, the Western world has largely become oblivious to the re-emergence of the totalitarian virus under new faces in several Latin-American countries. Venezuela is the locus of the new totalitarian virus in the American continent, bringing new impetus to the Cuban regime, increasingly expanding its radius of influence to countries like Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina and Nicaragua, and threatening, in greater or lesser degree, the stability of Chile, Colombia, Peru, Honduras, and Mexico. This essay, however, will not reproduce the long catalogue of human rights violations, autocratic manipulations of democratic institutions and practices, or significant threats to regional peace and stability in order to support this assertion. Such effort could not be anything but redundant, since this information is profuse, detailed and well-documented. Despite the alarming abundance of facts pointing toward the radical and accelerated destruction of democratic values in these countries, most Western political leaders and intellectuals remain unaware, unconvinced, or disconcerted at best, about the meaning of the available evidence. Hence, rather, this paper will revisit the substantive theories on totalitarianism, developed mostly by political philosophers that experienced firsthand the rigors of totalitarian regimes, in order to recover those essential coordinates of the totalitarian phenomenon that are specifically applicable to the Venezuelan case and, therefore, indispensable for a proper diagnosis of the real nature and destructive potential of its current regime.
Long-Range Facial Image Acquisition and Quality

This chapter introduces issues in long-range facial image acquisition and measures for image quality and their usage. Section 7.1 on image acquisition for face recognition discusses issues in lighting, sensor, lens, blur issues, which impact shortrange biometrics but are more pronounced in long-range biometrics. Section 7.2 introduces the design of controlled experiments for long-range face and why they are needed. Section 7.3 introduces some of the weather and atmospheric effects that occur for long-range imaging, with numerous of examples. Section 7.4 addresses measurements of “system quality,” including image-quality measures and their use in prediction of face recognition algorithm. This section also introduces the concept of failure prediction and techniques for analyzing different “quality” measures. The section ends with a discussion of post-recognition “failure prediction” and its potential role as a feedback mechanism in acquisition. Each section includes a collection of open-ended questions to challenge the reader to think about the concepts more deeply. For some of the questions we answer them after they are introduced; others are left as an exercise for the reader.
SOLAR SOFT X RAYS AND SOLAR ACTIVITY. II. SOFT X RAY EMISSION DURING SOLAR FLARES.

Flare-associated soft X-ray bursts (8–12 A) are examined for 283 events observed by OSO-III. These bursts are shown to be predominantly thermal in nature. Their time-profiles are roughly similar to those of the associated Hα flares, although the X-ray burst begins about two minutes earlier, on the average. The strength of the soft X-ray burst is directly related to the area and brilliance of the flare, the age and ‘flare-richness’ of the associated plage, and the general level of solar activity at the time of the burst. The peak enhancements in the soft X-ray and Hα emission rates during flares are of the same order of magnitude, as are the total flare energies radiated at these wavelengths. We estimate that soft X-radiation accounts for up to 10% of a flare's total electromagnetic emission.
Substitution of silicon within the rhombohedral boron carbide (B4C) crystal lattice through high-energy ball-milling

Boron carbide (B4C) is a ceramic with a structure composed of B12 or B11C icosahedra bonded to each other and to three (C and/or B)-atom chains. Despite its excellent hardness, B4C fails catastrophically under shock loading, but substituting other elements into lattice sites may change and possibly improve its mechanical properties. Density functional theory calculations of elemental inclusions in the most abundant polytypes of boron carbide, B12-CCC, B12-CBC, and B11Cp-CBC, predict that the preferential substitution site for metallic elements (Be, Mg and Al) is the chain center atom and that for non-metallic elements (N, P and S) it is generally the chain end atom of the three-atom chain in B4C's rhombohedral crystal lattice. However, Si, a semi-metal, seems to prefer the chain center in B12-CCC and icosahedral polar sites in both B12-CBC and B11Cp-CBC. As a first step to testing the feasibility of elemental substitutions experimentally, Si atoms were incorporated into B4C at low temperatures (∼200–400 °C) by high-energy ball-milling. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy showed that the Si atoms were uniformly dispersed in the product, and the magnitude of the lattice expansion and Rietveld analysis of the X-ray diffraction data were analyzed to determine the likely sites of Si substitution in B4C. Further corroborative evidence was obtained from electron spin resonance spectroscopy, magic-angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and Raman spectroscopy characterizations of the samples. Thus, a simple, top-down approach to manipulating the chemistry of B4C is presented with potential for generating materials with tailored properties for a broad range of applications.
The 36-Hour Day (4th ed.), by Nancy L. Mace and Peter V. Rabins

The first edition of The 36-Hour Day was written in 1981 to guide families and caregivers of people with dementia and chronic illnesses. The book actually seemed to understand the role a number of ...
A test for fear of pregnancy and its relation to oral contraceptives.

Abstract A Fear of Pregnancy Test (FOPT) was developed to ascertain the relationship between this fear and the use of oral contraceptives. Fifty-four female patients, taking a multiphasic health examination, indicated the degree to which they feared the various items composing the Fear Survey Schedule III. Mostly on the basis of the mean ratings, ten fears, including “becoming pregnant”, were selected for the FOPT. These fears formed a potency hierarchy with “becoming pregnant” at an intermediate potency. The FOPT was found to have adequate reliability, and was independent of age, education, frequency of church attendance, religious affiliation, and parity. The FOPT was given to 1,325 female multiphasic patients who said that they were currently exposed to sexual intercourse, and not pregnant. In addition, 24 pre-contraceptive pill patients were given the FOPT. Women using birth control pills were not significantly less afraid of pregnancy than any of the ten other contraceptive groups. However, four of these groups—rhythm users, IUD users, surgical users, and noncontraceptors—were less fearful of pregnancy than pill users. This result suggests that differences in fear of pregnancy cannot account for the fact that pill users report less premenstrual depression than nonusers. Thus, it seems that the pharmacological properties of the drug may relieve this symptom.
Experimental investigations on wake vortices and their alleviation

Abstract Recent wake vortex research in the laboratory has benefited considerably from concurrent analytical and numerical research on the instability of vortex systems. Tow tank, with dye flow visualization and particle image velocimetry is the most effective combination for laboratory research. Passive and active wake alleviation schemes have been successfully demonstrated in the laboratory. The passive alleviation systems exploit the natural evolution of vortex instabilities while the active systems rely on hastening selected instabilities by forcing the vortices individually or as a system. Their practical applicability, however, will have to meet further criteria beyond those dictated by fluid dynamics. To cite this article: O. Savas, C. R. Physique 6 (2005).
Über die kombinatorische und kontinuumsmässige Definition der Überschneidungszahl zweier geschlossener Kurven auf einer Fläche

The characteristic of two closed curves on an oriented surface is, roughly speaking, the algebraic sum of their intersections, counting a crossing from left to right as +1, a crossing in the opposite sense as −1. To make this definition precise, combinatorial topology replaces the surface by an aggregate of 0-, 1- and 2-cells and first assumes one curve to be a chain (joining the 0-cells), the other to be a co-chain (joining the 2-cells). The idea of homology (as defined by means of ‘integral functions’) and the law of antisymmetry then serve to pass from these specialized to arbitrary curves. This definition is here contrasted with another that arose from ‘topologizing’ the procedure by which the author in hisIdee der Riemannschen Flache (1913) constructed the Abelian integrals of the first kind: it makes no use of triangulation, but instead of the coverage of the surface by neighborhoods and their topological mapping onto circular disks. Finally the paper indicates the steps by which one proves the coincidence of both definitions.
Electromagnetic dissociation of /sup 197/Au by relativistic heavy ions

Electromagnetic dissociation of $^{197}\mathrm{Au}$ target nuclei by the Coulomb field of relativistic heavy ions (RHI) was inferred from measurements of $^{197}\mathrm{Au}(\mathrm{RHI},X)^{196}\mathrm{Au}$ cross sections. RHI represents 2.1-GeV/nucleon $p$, $^{12}\mathrm{C}$, or $^{20}\mathrm{Ne}$, 1.8-GeV/nucleon $^{40}\mathrm{Ar}$, or 1.7-GeV/nucleon $^{56}\mathrm{Fe}$ projectiles. The experimental cross sections in excess of the estimated nuclear contributions are well described by use of the Weizs\"acker-Williams method for calculating the electromagnetic dissociation contributions. Electromagnetic-dissociation calculations are given for $^{197}\mathrm{Au}$ projectiles at energies expected for the new generation of heavy-ion colliders.
The Design, Construction, and Use of an Ice Crystal Counter for Ice Crystal Cloud Studies by Aircraft

Abstract An aircraft instrument is described that gives a real-time measurement of the number of ice crystal particles per unit volume in cirriform clouds. Its method of detection is based on the mechanisms of contact electrification, as applied to the collision between a stainless steel wire and an ice crystal. The signal conditioner, which employs a series of integrated circuits, converts the frequency of crystal collisions into a voltage. Several examples of actual flights are shown.
Identification and Characterization of the Carbapenem MM 4550 and its Gene Cluster in Streptomyces argenteolus ATCC 11009

Nearly 50 naturally occurring carbapenem β-lactam antibiotics, most produced by Streptomyces, have been identified. The structural diversity of these compounds is limited to variance of the C-2 and C-6 side chains as well as the stereochemistry at C-5/C-6. These structural motifs are of interest both for their antibiotic effects and their biosynthesis. Although the thienamycin gene cluster is the only active gene cluster publically available in this group, more comparative information is needed to understand the genetic basis of these structural differences. We report here the identification of MM 4550, a member of the olivanic acids, as the major carbapenem produced by Streptomyces argenteolus ATCC 11009. Its gene cluster was also identified by degenerate PCR and targeted gene inactivation. Sequence analysis revealed that the genes encoding the biosynthesis of the bicyclic core and the C-6 and C-2 side chains are well conserved in the MM 4550 and thienamycin gene clusters. Three new genes, cmmSu, cmm17 and cmmPah were found in the new cluster, and their putative functions in the sulfonation and epimerization of MM 4550 are proposed. Gene inactivation showed that, in addition to cmmI, two new genes, cmm22 and -23, encode a two-component response system thought to regulate the production of MM 4550. Overexpression of cmmI, cmm22 and cmm23 promoted MM 4550 production in an engineered strain. Finally, the involvement and putative roles of all genes in the MM 4550 cluster are proposed based on the results of bioinformatics analysis, gene inactivation, and analysis of disruption mutants. Overall, the differences between the thienamycin and MM 4550 gene clusters are reflected in characteristic structural elements and provide new insights into the biosynthesis of the complex carbapenems.
Selective PPARγ modulator INT131 normalizes insulin signaling defects and improves bone mass in diet-induced obese mice

INT131 is a potent non-thiazolidinedione (TZD)-selective peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ modulator being developed for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. In preclinical studies and a phase II clinical trial, INT131 has been shown to lower glucose levels and ameliorate insulin resistance without typical TZD side effects. To determine whether the insulin-sensitizing action of INT131 is mediated by effects on insulin-mediated glucose homeostasis and insulin signaling, high-fat diet-induced obese (DIO) insulin-resistant mice treated with INT131 were studied. INT131's effects on bone density were also investigated. Treatment with INT131 enhanced systemic insulin sensitivity, as revealed by lower insulin levels in the fasted state and an increase in the area above the curve during an insulin tolerance test. These effects were independent of changes in adiposity. Insulin-stimulated PI3K activity in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue of DIO mice was significantly reduced ∼50–65%, but this was restored completely by INT131 therapy. The INT131 effects on PI3K activity are most likely due to increased IRS-1 tyrosine phosphorylation. Concurrently, insulin-mediated Akt phosphorylation also increased after INT131 treatment in DIO mice. Importantly, INT131 therapy caused a significant increase in bone mineral density without alteration in circulating osteocalcin in these mice. These data suggest that a newly developed insulin-sensitizing agent, INT131, normalizes obesity-related defects in insulin action on PI3K signaling in insulin target tissues by a mechanism involved in glycemic control. If these data are confirmed in humans, INT131 could be used for treating type 2 diabetes without loss in bone mass.